back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 11/28/2021
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As we sing this first song, I encourage everyone to continue to pray, continue to prepare our hearts as we come before our Lord in worship. 00:15:08.000 |
So this announcement is for the ACBC Biblical Counseling Certification training that we're doing. 00:15:15.000 |
Announced it during our members meeting, but this is kind of a final call. 00:15:19.000 |
For those of you who are interested in being certified through their training, please reach out to me. 00:15:26.000 |
We're gathering a group of people who are going to come together and do the first leg of the race together. 00:15:32.000 |
It is quite an extensive training with over 30 hours of video, of watching and training, and so we hope to do that together as a team and posse of people. 00:15:44.000 |
If you want more information and you're not decided on it, you can go to biblicalcounseling.com and just do your own research, but also feel free to reach out to me to find out more. 00:15:55.000 |
The training is in -- I'm not going to go over all the details, but the training is in three parts, and we're trying to get together to set a time starting in January to take care of the first part together. 00:16:07.000 |
So again, if you have any questions about that, please feel free to reach out to me. 00:16:23.000 |
>> Guys, this is an announcement from the outreach team. 00:16:26.000 |
So Christmas is fast approaching, and we're going to have a Christmas reception outside, and it's going to be -- we're working with the media team to create like an outline or like a flyer for you guys to invite your friends, your coworkers, or even your family members. 00:16:42.000 |
So we're going to be organizing a Christmas service reception. 00:16:45.000 |
It's going to be held outside, and it's going to be after first and second service, and Pastor Mark's going to be leading that. 00:16:50.000 |
He's going to have a gospel presentation as well as answering a few questions that you guys might have. 00:16:55.000 |
So we're going to be also be providing resources that will like present the gospel as well as refreshments and care packages. 00:17:05.000 |
So if there's somebody that you're interested in praying for or like thinking about to bring out, we highly recommend that you guys fill out the form on the Berean Facebook page. 00:17:14.000 |
We ask that you guys fill it out because not only we get a head count, but we can also pray with you guys as well for these people. 00:17:22.000 |
So if you guys have any questions, you guys can ask me or anybody on the outreach team. 00:17:34.000 |
First of all, next Sunday is communion service, and we want to give you a heads up so you can prepare your hearts. 00:17:40.000 |
And again, we want to -- this is a sacred time for the church where God has ordained and for us to take it seriously so that we do not participate in an unworthy manner, examining ourselves, examining the body of Christ, where do we stand with him. 00:17:53.000 |
And so next Sunday we are having communion, so please come appropriately and prepare. 00:17:58.000 |
Next Sunday also after the second service, we have a newcomer's lunch. 00:18:02.000 |
So this is not a new member's lunch, but a newcomer's lunch. 00:18:04.000 |
So this is a lunch where you can come and ask questions, meet some of the leaders, the welcome team. 00:18:09.000 |
If you have any questions about what the church stands for, how to get involved, how to get plugged in, so this is the event for that. 00:18:16.000 |
So after the second service, this room will be set up for lunch. 00:18:20.000 |
And so if you haven't signed up, please go see the welcome table and let them know that you're coming so that they can make sure that we have enough food for that. 00:18:29.000 |
And again, today is the last day to sign up for the family Christmas gathering. 00:18:37.000 |
Again, if you are visiting us for the first time, our physical offering box is in the back. 00:18:40.000 |
But for the rest of us, we'll give you time to give electronically. 00:18:47.000 |
Gracious Father, we thank you so much for today, for the grace that we know, the grace, Lord God, that sometimes we're not aware of what you are doing in our lives and through our lives. 00:18:58.000 |
We pray, Father, that you would bless this time. 00:19:01.000 |
Remind us again, Lord, if we've been entangled with the things of this world, to know, Father, that our hope is in eternity, Lord God. 00:19:09.000 |
And so we ask, Lord, that your word would have an effect on us and what we give to you this morning would truly be in spirit and in truth. 00:19:18.000 |
May the offering that we give be multiplied for your use and for your glory. 00:20:07.000 |
And for those seated outside, if you could remain seated so everyone can see the lyrics of the songs. 00:20:37.000 |
Early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee. 00:21:33.000 |
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. 00:21:46.000 |
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee. 00:22:29.000 |
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. 00:23:32.000 |
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. 00:27:34.000 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13. 00:27:44.000 |
We're going to finally finish the second part that we started a couple weeks ago. 00:27:49.000 |
We're focused on verse 9 obviously, but I want to read it in context. 00:28:06.000 |
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. 00:28:12.000 |
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:28:16.000 |
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, 00:28:22.000 |
not by foods through which those who are so occupied were not benefited. 00:28:29.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come before you in worship. 00:28:34.000 |
We ask, Lord God, that you would soften our hearts, open our ears, 00:28:38.000 |
that we may remember and to give you praise for all the grace that you've given us that we do not deserve. 00:28:46.000 |
We pray, Father God, for your kindness, your presence with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:28:52.000 |
You know, I know most of you guys who celebrated Thanksgiving with your family 00:29:01.000 |
and all that entails with all the family members gathering together, the food that you eat. 00:29:07.000 |
And sometimes we celebrate and at the end of our celebration we're so tired 00:29:13.000 |
that we're ready to go back to whatever is normal. 00:29:18.000 |
But when you think about the purpose of these gatherings, the purpose of holidays, 00:29:23.000 |
is to kind of take a break for us to remember, to celebrate, rest, 00:29:27.000 |
maybe even recuperate so that we can get back to work. 00:29:31.000 |
But a lot of times the way that we practice these holidays, it does exactly the opposite. 00:29:36.000 |
We get so tired that we need to take a break from the break that we took. 00:29:41.000 |
And so this time of the season is typically we kind of get burnt out 00:29:45.000 |
because we have Thanksgiving, we have Christmas, and then after Christmas you have New Year's. 00:29:49.000 |
And so when New Year's come around you kind of have a big sigh of relief, 00:29:52.000 |
like, "Oh, we can get back to normal because all this stuff is behind us." 00:29:57.000 |
Obviously that was not the intent of that, but as human beings we have a tendency 00:30:02.000 |
to make what was intended for rest and recuperation into work. 00:30:06.000 |
And that's exactly what Jesus said to the Pharisees. 00:30:09.000 |
When they made the Sabbath work, and they were so meticulous about keeping the Sabbath, 00:30:15.000 |
and who's breaking it and who's not breaking it, and who's keeping it right, 00:30:19.000 |
and when Jesus showed up he said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. 00:30:23.000 |
The whole purpose of the Sabbath was to give you rest, and you made it into more work than even before." 00:30:30.000 |
So we have a tendency as Christians to do exactly that. 00:30:35.000 |
God gave us life and he said to give it abundantly. 00:30:38.000 |
But if you've been a Christian for a while, if we're not careful, 00:30:42.000 |
we can easily turn all of our service, all of our worship, giving sacrifice into labor and work. 00:30:48.000 |
And so if you're not careful, when you think of church as a place to work, 00:30:56.000 |
You go hiking and take trips for rest, but then we've got to get back to work when we come to church. 00:31:01.000 |
But when you look in the Scripture it says he came so that he can give us rest. 00:31:09.000 |
Have we come this morning because this is where we truly find life? 00:31:13.000 |
Or have we made it into a Sabbath of works where we just need to get going? 00:31:20.000 |
There's a tendency, especially in our generation, that we think that if we preach too much about grace, 00:31:26.000 |
it's going to lead to cheap grace, licentiousness. 00:31:29.000 |
Or, maybe some of you in here says, if we emphasize too much on holiness, 00:31:37.000 |
And so, because of fear of cheap grace and because of fear of legalism, 00:31:42.000 |
we kind of end up over-embracing one or the other, and then we kind of teeter-totter back and forth. 00:31:51.000 |
But the Scripture is absolutely crystal clear. 00:31:53.000 |
God never does anything where he compromises either. 00:31:58.000 |
So the text that we're looking at where he says, "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teaching," 00:32:02.000 |
the varied and strange teaching that predominantly was affecting the church was legalism or cheap grace. 00:32:08.000 |
And they were going back and forth, back and forth. 00:32:10.000 |
And he says here, "For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, 00:32:13.000 |
not foods which those who were so occupied would not benefit." 00:32:19.000 |
They worked so hard to be righteous by their own standards, but they didn't benefit from that. 00:32:27.000 |
In other words, to live righteously, pursue holiness. 00:32:33.000 |
God will never compromise his grace or his holiness. 00:32:38.000 |
And whenever we catch ourselves doing one or the other, we know that we've strayed. 00:32:43.000 |
Grace will never compromise righteousness, and righteousness never compromises grace. 00:32:48.000 |
Because to compromise either is to negate the necessity of the cross. 00:32:54.000 |
If you emphasize grace without righteousness, there's no need for the cross. 00:32:58.000 |
If you emphasize righteousness without grace, again, there's no need for the cross. 00:33:03.000 |
The cross is a perfect union where neither his grace or his righteousness is compromised. 00:33:13.000 |
Because people who are hearing this and saying either they emphasize grace, 00:33:19.000 |
Jude actually mentions that in verse Jude 4 when he says, 00:33:22.000 |
"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, 00:33:25.000 |
those who were long before marked out for this condemnation, 00:33:28.000 |
ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness 00:33:32.000 |
and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ." 00:33:37.000 |
Because salvation was by grace, well, if it's by grace, then it doesn't matter. 00:33:42.000 |
And we have people who think like that today. 00:33:44.000 |
Since it is by grace, we should be righteous, 00:33:47.000 |
and it would be good if we were taking the commandments of God seriously. 00:33:51.000 |
But even if we don't, one saved always saved. 00:33:54.000 |
And we kind of cling on to these cliches and turn the grace of God into licentiousness. 00:34:04.000 |
men who have been freed from the law, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, 00:34:12.000 |
I don't know how many people that I've talked to in our generation 00:34:14.000 |
where they're talking about the freedom in Christ, 00:34:17.000 |
and that their freedom means that they can do whatever they want because we're free. 00:34:21.000 |
And the Scripture clearly says, "Do not use your freedom for licentiousness." 00:34:26.000 |
If you want to know what God thinks about this cheap grace, 00:34:33.000 |
"Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, 00:34:37.000 |
for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 00:34:42.000 |
For if after they have escaped the defilement of the world 00:34:44.000 |
by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 00:34:46.000 |
they are again entangled in them and are overcome, 00:34:49.000 |
the last state has become worse for them than the first. 00:34:52.000 |
For would it be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, 00:34:56.000 |
than having known it, turn away from the holy commandment, 00:35:01.000 |
It has happened to them according to the true proverb." 00:35:04.000 |
I mean, this is probably one of the harshest criticism in the New Testament. 00:35:08.000 |
"A dog returns to his own vomit, and so after washing, 00:35:15.000 |
I mean, that's a pretty vivid image of a dog going back to its vomit. 00:35:19.000 |
And that's how he describes somebody who turns the grace of God into licentiousness. 00:35:33.000 |
You can sign whatever doctrine that you want. 00:35:35.000 |
But if your life contradicts your faith, it says it's dead. 00:35:38.000 |
What it means by it's dead is it's not saving faith. 00:35:42.000 |
You have faith that's the same faith that the demons do, 00:35:46.000 |
and yet they shudder in fear because there's no fruit that comes from that. 00:35:57.000 |
that he probably preached the gospel to more people than any other human being alive. 00:36:06.000 |
he was able to at least preach the gospel through his crusades 00:36:11.000 |
But years ago, Billy Graham began to notice something in his ministry 00:36:20.000 |
that out of hundreds and thousands of people who made commitments of faith 00:36:34.000 |
94%. That means only 6% of the people who raised their hand, 00:36:42.000 |
So you have hundreds and thousands of people walking around, 00:36:45.000 |
"One saved, always saved," and hearing these cliches, 00:36:51.000 |
to live according to all that I have commanded you, 00:36:56.000 |
And the statistics are actually even more dire than that, 00:36:59.000 |
because they said that of the 6% who made it to church, 00:37:02.000 |
only a very small percentage of that made it after the first year. 00:37:10.000 |
like, "We're saved by grace, God loved us unconditionally." 00:37:13.000 |
And that's all they know. Again, it's not false, but it's not complete. 00:37:17.000 |
And as a result of that, we have what we have in our generation. 00:37:23.000 |
it's just the way that we've done evangelism today 00:37:31.000 |
that he was so frustrated with the way that our faith is being practiced, 00:37:35.000 |
that it was just cheap grace, licentiousness, 00:37:40.000 |
"You know, we need some more legalism in order to balance out the cheap grace." 00:37:45.000 |
I remember when he said that, I was in agreement. 00:37:50.000 |
Christianity that I know of, what I see in Scripture, 00:37:53.000 |
doesn't look like what we see in our generation. 00:37:56.000 |
But as the years passed by, I realized just how wrong that is, 00:37:59.000 |
because legalism is just as sinful as licentiousness. 00:38:04.000 |
Because in the early church, that was their primary battle. 00:38:07.000 |
The whole book of Galatians is to combat legalism. 00:38:11.000 |
So we don't combat false teaching with another false teaching 00:38:17.000 |
In fact, I think what we need in our generation 00:38:20.000 |
is to truly understand when the Bible says grace, 00:38:26.000 |
and how we are to be empowered by that grace. 00:38:32.000 |
"Because it's legalism, we're going to fall to licentiousness or cheap grace. 00:38:35.000 |
Because we're concerned about cheap grace, we're going to go to legalism." 00:38:42.000 |
make sure that we understand when we say grace, 00:38:45.000 |
that we are practicing what the Bible says grace is, 00:38:50.000 |
So a couple weeks ago, we started out with four points. 00:38:54.000 |
So let me review the first two, and then we'll get to the third point today. 00:39:00.000 |
First one, we talked about how does grace strengthen us. 00:39:10.000 |
So every single individual that comes to church, 00:39:15.000 |
Whether you are Nicodemus, or whether you are the Samaritan woman, 00:39:22.000 |
The haughty needs to be humbled, the humble needs to be brought up, 00:39:30.000 |
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. 00:39:33.000 |
It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." 00:39:37.000 |
So the first thing that it does, it gets rid of any human pride, 00:39:46.000 |
You know, years ago, many of you know that during a period of our church, 00:39:55.000 |
And again, I'm not going to go into the details of what happened there, 00:39:59.000 |
but for that year, I learned something that I'm very thankful 00:40:03.000 |
that I was able to be there for that period, even though it was difficult, 00:40:06.000 |
because one of the things that I observed while I was there 00:40:10.000 |
was the different groups of people that came into town. 00:40:13.000 |
What's unique about Vegas is they would have large conventions. 00:40:16.000 |
And so the conventions would, you know, sometimes would have 5,000, 4,000, 00:40:21.000 |
but sometimes they would have large conventions where somewhere around 30 to, 00:40:24.000 |
if it's a large convention, even 100,000 people would come into town, 00:40:30.000 |
And there's two groups of people that we all hated when they came into town. 00:40:45.000 |
So whenever they would come into town, they're just so obnoxious 00:40:53.000 |
I haven't met a single person who didn't do at least a million dollars 00:40:59.000 |
They wear $5 shoes, but then they did $10 million sales, 00:41:02.000 |
and so they're always trying to sell something. 00:41:05.000 |
And so they're not bad people, but just obnoxious. 00:41:08.000 |
You never feel like you're talking to the real person. 00:41:12.000 |
The other group of people that would come to town was the TV executives, 00:41:18.000 |
Again, if you happen to be a TV executive, I'm not talking about you. 00:41:21.000 |
I'm talking about everybody else around you at work, okay, right? 00:41:25.000 |
When these guys would come to town, I think they're so used to bossing people around, 00:41:29.000 |
and they're making power decisions, and these are decisions that they make 00:41:35.000 |
And so they kind of had this paradigm that everybody was below them. 00:41:39.000 |
So again, if you see one or two of them, you kind of say, "Wow, they're jerks." 00:41:44.000 |
But when you see a convention come in and you see 30,000, 40,000 of them, 00:41:47.000 |
nobody wanted to be around because everybody was--you're getting ordered, 00:41:54.000 |
And so there was kind of like all our coworkers when we were working out there, 00:41:58.000 |
like we just hated when that week came around because we knew we were going to 00:42:04.000 |
But the main reason why that was was because they were just filled with pride. 00:42:09.000 |
And when you're around a lot of people who are filled with pride, 00:42:15.000 |
There was one group of people that would come into town we all looked forward to, 00:42:21.000 |
They would typically come to some sort of a NASCAR convention or something, 00:42:24.000 |
and it was a big--one of the biggest conventions that would come into town, 00:42:31.000 |
And when the cowboys came into town, it was party time because they weren't rich. 00:42:38.000 |
They knew that this convention was coming, and they saved all year. 00:42:43.000 |
And so when they came into town, they were just happy to be there. 00:42:47.000 |
So they were generous, and they knew that they only had a short period, 00:42:51.000 |
so they're going to live this up, and anybody that was around just partied with them. 00:42:56.000 |
Just humble guys who--blue-collar workers just knew that this was their special time, 00:43:06.000 |
And so we did the best sales during that time, got the best tips, 00:43:11.000 |
and the guys just wanted to hang out with you, and all of it because there's no ego. 00:43:16.000 |
They just came in, saved up all year, and they're just going to come in and have fun, 00:43:22.000 |
But I remember the primary difference between the people who came that we enjoyed 00:43:27.000 |
and people who came in that we didn't enjoy all had to do with their attitudes, 00:43:35.000 |
You see one or two of them, now you try to avoid them. 00:43:38.000 |
When a convention comes into town, you can't avoid that. 00:43:41.000 |
But when the cowboys were in, we all became cowboys for a period. 00:43:46.000 |
The church, if we're not careful, we can turn the church into a measurement of righteousness, 00:43:52.000 |
and everybody's looking at each other, who's doing what, who's not doing what, 00:43:55.000 |
and it becomes a miserable place when we are not strengthened and moved by the grace of God. 00:44:05.000 |
We weren't just justified by grace. We are also being sanctified by the grace of God. 00:44:09.000 |
When that becomes the primary motivation, primary thing that we sing about, 00:44:17.000 |
Sad thing to say that years ago I went to a pastor's convention out in Kentucky. 00:44:24.000 |
I think some of you guys know what convention I may be talking about. 00:44:28.000 |
And this was like 3,000, 4,000 pastors were in town, 00:44:31.000 |
and this was the second year, second time we were having this convention. 00:44:35.000 |
And the leader of the convention, as we were starting, had to address the pastors and say, 00:44:40.000 |
"After the first convention, there was a lot of complaint in town 00:44:44.000 |
that all these pastors were acting obnoxiously and that they were rude to the workers there." 00:44:51.000 |
And so they had to tell us that you guys left a pretty bad taste in the mouth of the workers here, 00:44:58.000 |
and so they were cautioning us to be a better witness. 00:45:02.000 |
And this wasn't just a gathering of a bunch of Christians. 00:45:07.000 |
And obviously we were all rebuked, and everybody acted extra nice 00:45:11.000 |
and left big fat tips to combat whatever was the negative thing that we've left behind the couple years before. 00:45:20.000 |
But the fact that they even had to remind us of that says a lot about where we're at. 00:45:26.000 |
That we can get so caught up in this business of Christianity 00:45:30.000 |
that the end result doesn't turn into praise and glory to God, 00:45:35.000 |
but it becomes a heavy burden, just like we celebrate Thanksgiving, 00:45:38.000 |
and at the end of it, it's like, "Oh, thank God it's over." 00:45:41.000 |
It didn't actually recuperate or strengthen or remind. 00:45:45.000 |
Rather, it's like, "Okay, we're done with it." 00:45:48.000 |
And sometimes we can approach our Christian faith that way. 00:45:51.000 |
We're done with Bible study. We're done with fellowship. We're done with that. 00:45:55.000 |
And where we find rest is we travel. We go things. 00:45:59.000 |
We have a bucket list, and that's where we find rest. 00:46:01.000 |
Church is where we come to get burned and then to work. 00:46:05.000 |
If we're not strengthened by grace, and our starting and continuing point isn't grace, 00:46:12.000 |
Secondly, to be strengthened by grace is to have absolute security in our salvation. 00:46:18.000 |
That we're not constantly wondering back and forth every time we struggle 00:46:21.000 |
and every time we're righteous, that we're filled with pride or filled with fear. 00:46:26.000 |
Isaiah 41.10 is, "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be anxious and look about you, 00:46:31.000 |
for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. 00:46:34.000 |
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." 00:46:38.000 |
You and I are in a covenant relationship with God. 00:46:41.000 |
That's why whenever two people get married, we remind them that this covenant 00:46:45.000 |
is not dependent upon one person's faithfulness or the other. 00:46:48.000 |
God's calling to the husband and the wife is unilateral. 00:46:54.000 |
As He loved us, we love our husband. It's unconditional. 00:46:58.000 |
And so that's not broken because of unfaithfulness of one or the other. 00:47:05.000 |
I think the best way to describe that, where we find strength and security, 00:47:10.000 |
is, you know, when you're dating and you get in a fight, 00:47:12.000 |
and some of you guys may be in a dating situation now, 00:47:17.000 |
but when you're dating and you get in a fight, 00:47:22.000 |
because there's always this nervousness that, 00:47:28.000 |
And so you have to make sure, and you're putting out the best foot, 00:47:31.000 |
and every fight becomes something much more serious. 00:47:36.000 |
And I'm not saying that if you get married, you know, fighting is okay, 00:47:43.000 |
that when you have disagreements with your wife in a covenant relationship, 00:47:48.000 |
you're going to end up going back to the same house, 00:47:53.000 |
And so you know that that bond is not easily broken 00:47:56.000 |
because of this covenant relationship that God places on us in our marriage. 00:48:02.000 |
And in the same way, our marriage is a reflection of the covenant that God made with us. 00:48:07.000 |
And that's why in Isaiah, he says, "I will uphold you. I will strengthen you. 00:48:13.000 |
And so our relationship does not teeter back and forth 00:48:16.000 |
between being saved and unsaved, being saved and unsaved, 00:48:22.000 |
God made a unilateral commitment to us, and so we have that security. 00:48:27.000 |
And so that's how we are strengthened, number two. 00:48:32.000 |
To be strengthened by grace means we are being equipped for good works. 00:48:50.000 |
So again, we have a tendency, if we're not careful, 00:48:55.000 |
but when it comes to sanctification, we really have to be committed 00:48:58.000 |
and to be discipled and disciplined and shamed and taught and equipped. 00:49:04.000 |
And so we have a tendency to start with the grace of God, 00:49:07.000 |
and the rest of it, I'm going to have to work hard. 00:49:09.000 |
Paul addresses that in Galatians 3, 1-3, when he says, 00:49:12.000 |
"You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? 00:49:16.000 |
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified, 00:49:20.000 |
this is the only thing I want to find out from you. 00:49:22.000 |
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?" 00:49:33.000 |
"Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, 00:49:39.000 |
If you started by faith, you continue by faith, 00:49:45.000 |
What he means by this is people who tend to be focused on their will, 00:49:52.000 |
their discipline for righteousness in their sanctification 00:49:58.000 |
usually ends up becoming either self-righteous or self-condemning. 00:50:08.000 |
you will eventually--it may not happen immediately, 00:50:10.000 |
but eventually it leads to self-righteousness, 00:50:13.000 |
where you measure everybody based upon your righteous standard. 00:50:19.000 |
you're frustrated that other people aren't as good as you. 00:50:22.000 |
And then when you don't live up to even your own standard, 00:50:26.000 |
And you teeter back, back and forth, back and forth. 00:50:34.000 |
Some of the most bitterest and angriest people 00:50:37.000 |
are the people who used to serve in the church faithfully for a long time, 00:50:46.000 |
I gave so much, but they didn't give back to me. 00:50:52.000 |
And eventually their frustration--either self-righteousness, 00:51:04.000 |
So he says, "We started by faith, and we will continue by faith." 00:51:10.000 |
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you." 00:51:17.000 |
"so that always having all sufficiency in everything, 00:51:21.000 |
you may have an abundance for every good deed." 00:51:28.000 |
"So that you may have all sufficiency to do what? 00:51:36.000 |
So he says the purpose of grace is not simply to free you from the penalty of sin. 00:51:43.000 |
The purpose of grace is to free you from the penalty of sin 00:51:47.000 |
and to equip you so that you can do good works. 00:51:54.000 |
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain." 00:52:01.000 |
What would it mean? What does Paul mean here, that grace be in vain? 00:52:07.000 |
"On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, 00:52:10.000 |
though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." 00:52:15.000 |
So in other words, he says, grace would be in vain 00:52:25.000 |
Because we have a tendency to think grace is applied when we are not working, 00:52:29.000 |
when we are not laboring, when we are not pursuing righteousness. 00:52:32.000 |
And then when we are pursuing righteousness, it's our discipline, it's our work. 00:52:36.000 |
But Paul says, grace of God was not in vain because the evidence of God's grace 00:52:41.000 |
is what caused me to work harder than anybody else. 00:52:48.000 |
This is a passage that we sing about grace of God. 00:52:51.000 |
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. 00:52:54.000 |
It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." 00:52:59.000 |
But then he says in verse 10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for what? 00:53:04.000 |
Good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." 00:53:11.000 |
He says He humbles us, He saves us for what purpose? 00:53:17.000 |
So our salvation isn't simply being saved from hell. 00:53:21.000 |
That is a byproduct of what He's doing, but His ultimate goal is to restore us back to good works. 00:53:32.000 |
So good works and righteousness and holiness is not a byproduct, it's not something extra. 00:53:39.000 |
He said from the very get-go, He says righteousness and good works 00:53:49.000 |
You see why when you either fall on legalism or cheap grace, that's not the gospel? 00:54:03.000 |
You know, in the early church, the Judaizers who embraced Christ's forgiveness, 00:54:10.000 |
and yet they were saying, "No, you need to be a Jew, you need to still keep the Sabbath, 00:54:13.000 |
you need to still keep circumcision and all of this." 00:54:16.000 |
They were saying, "Well, if true salvation is by grace alone, 00:54:23.000 |
are you saying that we should sin so that grace may abound?" 00:54:27.000 |
He says in Romans 6, 1-7, "What shall we say then? 00:54:29.000 |
Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 00:54:35.000 |
I think some of you translated it, it says, "By no means!" 00:54:47.000 |
How shall we who die to sin still live in it? 00:54:52.000 |
If you've really been crucified with Christ, how can you continue to live like you've never been crucified? 00:54:56.000 |
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus 00:55:03.000 |
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, 00:55:06.000 |
so that Christ, who raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, 00:55:09.000 |
so we too might walk in the newness of life." 00:55:12.000 |
The whole reason why we baptize in the way that we do 00:55:15.000 |
is because the symbolism of that is death and resurrection. 00:55:19.000 |
That's why we don't sprinkle at our church, because that's what it says. 00:55:22.000 |
It signifies that we are dead in Christ, we are buried in Christ, 00:55:27.000 |
and then we are resurrected as Christ was resurrected. 00:55:30.000 |
In verse 4, verse 5, "For if we have become united with Him in His likeness of His death, 00:55:34.000 |
certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 00:55:37.000 |
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, 00:55:40.000 |
in order that our body of sin might be done away with, 00:55:55.000 |
and we had a brief discussion about this in our home group leaders meeting, 00:56:00.000 |
but oftentimes people think of justification in an incomplete manner, 00:56:06.000 |
and it doesn't make any sense if you don't really understand the whole context of justification. 00:56:14.000 |
we probably have heard that maybe you committed murder or something, right? 00:56:20.000 |
And you deserve the death penalty, and that was a sentence that was given to you. 00:56:24.000 |
And the judge, who happened to be compassionate, steps in and says, 00:56:28.000 |
"I will take that punishment so that you can go." 00:56:32.000 |
So the judge takes the punishment upon himself, 00:56:35.000 |
and the murderer ends up leaving to live his life. 00:56:39.000 |
A lot of people think that that's the totality of what justification is. 00:56:43.000 |
Now, if that was all of what justification is, 00:56:51.000 |
Because that murderer had no penalty, went out to do whatever he wants, 00:57:00.000 |
Who would look at that situation in life and say, "That was good"? 00:57:06.000 |
Would you look at that and say, "That murderer who deserved to be punished, 00:57:12.000 |
and all these people would just walk out, never committing or being in jail at all, 00:57:19.000 |
no punishment whatsoever, and we celebrate that and say, 00:57:22.000 |
'Wow, that's so loving, that's so gracious.'" 00:57:24.000 |
Who would think that he's a good judge by just letting them go? 00:57:30.000 |
There's a crucial part of that that a lot of people don't understand, 00:57:40.000 |
The Bible says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:57:47.000 |
He said, "The old self has been crucified with Christ. 00:57:50.000 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." 00:57:55.000 |
So when we get baptized, it's symbolic of our old self dying, 00:58:02.000 |
So it wasn't that same sinner, it wasn't that same person 00:58:09.000 |
Our whole destiny changed because our whole identity and who we are has changed. 00:58:14.000 |
And only then we can say the righteous thing happened because that old self died 00:58:23.000 |
But if it's the old self and all that happened was that the penalty of sin was paid for, 00:58:31.000 |
So now you're covered by the blood of Christ, so do whatever you want. 00:58:37.000 |
That is not the complete picture of justification. 00:58:41.000 |
Justification tells us that we are crucified with Christ. 00:58:50.000 |
He explains it a little bit further in Romans 6, 15 to 18, 00:58:53.000 |
"What then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? 00:59:00.000 |
Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves or obedient, 00:59:06.000 |
either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 00:59:11.000 |
But thanks be to God that through you, though you were slaves to sin, 00:59:15.000 |
you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. 00:59:19.000 |
And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." 00:59:26.000 |
Not only were we freed from the slavery of sin and condemnation, 00:59:31.000 |
he says, now we become slaves to righteousness. 00:59:34.000 |
Now that sounds good in theology, but in practice, what does that look like? 00:59:42.000 |
I think the best way to illustrate this is from my own life. 00:59:48.000 |
I remember, and again I've shared this before, 00:59:51.000 |
but I remember when I first became a Christian, I was so excited about my faith. 00:59:56.000 |
But after months have gone by, I started struggling with the same things over and again. 01:00:02.000 |
My temper, you know, like I was getting into fights, purity issues, 01:00:07.000 |
and every Friday I'm going praying and praying. 01:00:09.000 |
And after about seven, eight, nine months of this, and getting into fights, 01:00:12.000 |
and disappointing my mom again, and I just couldn't do it anymore. 01:00:17.000 |
Not because I was tempted by the world, but I was just frustrated with myself. 01:00:22.000 |
I was so determined to prove specifically to my mom that I was a different person, 01:00:28.000 |
and I kept on falling into the same sin, and I just kind of let it go. 01:00:32.000 |
So I just walked out, and I just started to backslide and do whatever I wanted. 01:00:37.000 |
And I had some friends who was doing whatever they wanted and happened to have some money. 01:00:43.000 |
So I remember during that period, about a year, and a year and a half, 01:00:47.000 |
I was backsliding and going to parties and getting drunk, 01:00:49.000 |
and I was starting to do things that I didn't do before because I was a bit older. 01:00:54.000 |
And I remember the whole time being at parties, getting drunk with my friends, 01:01:03.000 |
And every opportunity I had, I would start to tell them about God at parties while I'm getting drunk. 01:01:16.000 |
So you're getting drunk, you're doing everything that they're doing, 01:01:18.000 |
and they say, "Yeah, but you know, I got saved. 01:01:22.000 |
You know, I know what I'm doing is stupid, but one day I'm going to have to go back, 01:01:27.000 |
I'm telling them this is not who I am, even though I was acting like it. 01:01:34.000 |
And the funny thing was, the only people that I really connected with 01:01:39.000 |
were the other Christians who were also backsliding. 01:01:43.000 |
And we would sit there while we're doing stupid things and talking about how, 01:01:47.000 |
"How did you get saved?" and "How did I get saved?" 01:01:52.000 |
And then we would connect with each other and always tell us that one of these days 01:01:56.000 |
we're going to have to go back, one of these days we're going to have to go back, 01:02:03.000 |
You know, I went and tried to go back and embrace that life, 01:02:14.000 |
We had a crazy night, you know, we almost got arrested. 01:02:18.000 |
I won't get into all the stories, but by the time I got home, 3 in the morning, 01:02:21.000 |
I was sitting there, slowly starting to sober up, talking to myself, 01:02:33.000 |
"This is so stupid. This is not who you are." 01:02:44.000 |
I'd rather at least face the right direction than to continue to do what I'm doing now, 01:02:55.000 |
And I remember at that time, if God didn't make me a new creature, 01:02:59.000 |
if I was able to walk away from God, I would have. 01:03:06.000 |
I remember even in ministry, there were times when I just wanted to quit, 01:03:09.000 |
and I remember I was ready to just pack it up. 01:03:14.000 |
And something simple that my mom and my wife Esther said the exact same thing, 01:03:21.000 |
and I know they wanted me to quit more than anybody else. 01:03:25.000 |
And I remember saying this to Esther, "If you want"--I've reached my end. 01:03:30.000 |
And then I remember specifically Esther's telling me, "I know you." 01:03:35.000 |
As much as I don't want to do it anymore either, "I know you. 01:03:39.000 |
If you quit, you're not going to be able to be okay and live another life." 01:03:49.000 |
As much as I may be tempted and frustrated sometimes, God gave me a new--He made me a new creature. 01:04:03.000 |
I don't find peace, even though there might be periods when I'm tempted and frustrated. 01:04:07.000 |
But who I am, He's God made me to function in the light. 01:04:12.000 |
So my life doesn't feel comfortable in the darkness anymore. 01:04:17.000 |
Even though at times I may be tempted, I may be frustrated to run to it, 01:04:20.000 |
if you are a new creation, you're no longer a slave to sin, 01:04:25.000 |
but He made you a slave to righteousness where you can do no other than to follow Christ. 01:04:32.000 |
Even though at times you may be kicking and screaming, 01:04:36.000 |
but if you are a new creation in Christ, you only find peace when you are near Christ. 01:04:42.000 |
Because your eyes no longer function well in darkness, because He made it new. 01:04:48.000 |
And so when you make decisions, when you try to live in darkness, 01:04:53.000 |
you're fumbling through the night, banging your knees against walls, 01:05:00.000 |
and you're second-guessing every decision that you make 01:05:03.000 |
because you weren't meant to function in darkness. 01:05:10.000 |
That's what that means, to be strengthened by grace. 01:05:14.000 |
It is the grace of God that caused me to persevere. 01:05:18.000 |
It's the grace of God that caused me to love. 01:05:21.000 |
It's the grace of God that caused me to sacrifice. 01:05:23.000 |
It's the grace of God that caused me to worship. 01:05:26.000 |
And fourthly, it's the grace of God that caused me to proclaim His word with boldness. 01:05:34.000 |
To be strengthened by grace gives us boldness to proclaim the gospel. 01:05:40.000 |
You know, when the apostles stood, risked their lives to preach the gospel, 01:05:48.000 |
people didn't observe their education or their great training or discipleship. 01:05:55.000 |
It says in Acts 4:13, "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John 01:05:59.000 |
and understood that they were uneducated and untrained." 01:06:08.000 |
You know, a lot of the secular scholars will say that the apostles manipulated the New Testament 01:06:17.000 |
So they made up the resurrection to venerate Jesus for their own benefit. 01:06:23.000 |
If that's what they did, the New Testament is--they're the dumbest people in the world. 01:06:32.000 |
The text that they manipulated for their own glory says that they were rebuked by Paul publicly, 01:06:39.000 |
that the women came to the grave before they did, 01:06:44.000 |
and when Jesus was standing before them, they had a hard time believing. 01:06:47.000 |
I mean, if they did this for their own glory, they sure did a bad job. 01:06:52.000 |
Here it says, "They were uneducated and untrained men. 01:06:57.000 |
They were amazed and began to recognize them as having been," what? 01:07:03.000 |
Their boldness didn't come because of training. 01:07:05.000 |
Their boldness didn't come because of the education or the experience. 01:07:08.000 |
All it says was their boldness came because they saw that boldness in Jesus. 01:07:14.000 |
And they were remaining with Christ, just as Jesus told them in John 15. 01:07:19.000 |
"When I go, if you want to bear fruit, you remain in me." 01:07:22.000 |
They recognized these uneducated, untrained men. 01:07:27.000 |
It was the grace of God that gave them the boldness to proclaim the truth. 01:07:32.000 |
And that's why it says in 1 Corinthians 1, 18-19, 01:07:35.000 |
"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 01:07:38.000 |
but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 01:07:41.000 |
For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever. 01:07:48.000 |
Our boldness does not come because we're very well-educated 01:07:53.000 |
And all of these things are the grace of God. 01:07:58.000 |
But that's not where our effectiveness comes from. 01:08:02.000 |
Our effectiveness comes from being affected by the grace of God. 01:08:08.000 |
The reason why sometimes we feel so inadequate is because we have drifted from His grace. 01:08:15.000 |
Being strengthened by the grace of God are people who have been enamored with Christ. 01:08:22.000 |
Remember when you first came to Christ, you know who are the most bold for their faith? 01:08:31.000 |
Not the people who are the most well-equipped. 01:08:34.000 |
You know who are the most bold for the kingdom of God? 01:08:41.000 |
They don't know about dispensation of covenant theology. 01:08:45.000 |
But they're the boldest for the kingdom of God. 01:08:48.000 |
Because they have been deeply affected by God's grace. 01:08:53.000 |
And they're eager to tell other people about it. 01:08:57.000 |
You know the best salesmen are not the people who have the best personalities or best techniques. 01:09:03.000 |
The best salesmen are the people who believe in that product. 01:09:11.000 |
I'm going to say, "Oh, I'm an introvert, so I don't tell people." 01:09:17.000 |
When you watch a movie and you like it, people find out about it. 01:09:23.000 |
I remember a couple years ago after the retreat, 01:09:25.000 |
some people said that we have to go to this place in LA to eat some tacos. 01:09:34.000 |
Literally, it was like an abandoned area of an industrial area in LA somewhere, 01:09:40.000 |
and then some people said that they ate it, and it was the best tacos that they had in LA. 01:09:45.000 |
So we drove out there and said, "We must be lost because everything is shut down." 01:09:49.000 |
You know, this is the kind of place where you get jumped. 01:09:52.000 |
And so we made that, and we turned this corner, 01:09:54.000 |
and all of a sudden this taco stands there, and all these people are coming. 01:09:59.000 |
I said, "Where are these people coming from?" 01:10:01.000 |
I've never heard of them, never seen an advertisement. 01:10:05.000 |
But we're willing to risk our lives to eat these tacos. 01:10:11.000 |
Because some people ate it, and they told us it was good, it was worth the drive. 01:10:19.000 |
The best witnesses for Christ are not the most educated, are not the best trained, 01:10:25.000 |
are people who have been deeply affected by the grace of God. 01:10:29.000 |
And you can't help tell other people because it's just overflowing in you. 01:10:36.000 |
Boldness does not come from years of training or education. 01:10:39.000 |
Boldness comes from you believing with all your heart. 01:10:43.000 |
And that's why Jesus says, "The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." 01:10:49.000 |
Because that's where love of your neighbors comes from. 01:11:00.000 |
When you and I have been deeply affected by the love of Christ, it is his grace that strengthens us. 01:11:08.000 |
That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 through 5, 01:11:11.000 |
"And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom or proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 01:11:18.000 |
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 01:11:23.000 |
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 01:11:26.000 |
And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 01:11:33.000 |
so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." 01:11:38.000 |
You know, sometimes people would look at that and say, "Oh, demonstration of Spirit and power, like he was performing miracles." 01:11:52.000 |
He's not talking about supernatural power where he raised people from the dead. 01:11:55.000 |
He's talking about his own witness of how God saved a sinner like him. 01:12:02.000 |
And that was the power of God that downfounded the wisdom of mankind. 01:12:07.000 |
That the weakness of man, weakness of man, the weakness of God is much more powerful than the greatest power of man. 01:12:15.000 |
And that's why he said, "I resolved to know nothing but Christ crucified." 01:12:22.000 |
If we've drifted away, if we've frustrated, or if the work of God or church has become burdensome, 01:12:29.000 |
maybe it's because we have drifted away from the grace of God. 01:12:33.000 |
That we've forgotten what we have been saved from, and what it is that we have been saved to. 01:12:40.000 |
That if there's anything that we need to prioritize in our life, it's to get back and to refocus and recommit to the grace of God. 01:12:49.000 |
So that the grace of God would empower us, strengthen us, humble us, revive us, renew us, secure us, 01:12:55.000 |
so that we may find strength in Him, in Him alone. 01:13:00.000 |
So as we enter into this busy season of Christmas, 01:13:05.000 |
you're probably already decorating your homes and already burdened by the gifts that you need to buy. 01:13:10.000 |
Maybe you already feel behind because you missed the Black Friday sale. 01:13:14.000 |
You know, and you have all these things that you need to get done before Christmas comes. 01:13:18.000 |
That in the midst of our busyness, to really consider, 01:13:26.000 |
That we don't celebrate it like the rest of the world. 01:13:29.000 |
That it truly would function to recalibrate our hearts, to know that the Son of God came, 01:13:35.000 |
took on human form, humbled Himself to save us. 01:13:41.000 |
How should believers who believe that, respond to that? 01:13:48.000 |
Let's take some time to pray again as we ask our worship team to come. 01:14:04.000 |
Focus on the grace of God that has been given to us.