back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 11/14/2021
00:11:24.140 |
And we're gonna go ahead and start our service 00:15:47.980 |
Okay, we have an announcement from our college department, 00:15:58.980 |
We're going to be having a college fundraiser 00:16:14.980 |
The students are cutting a bunch of pico de gallo 00:16:23.980 |
So if you guys can, please feel free afterwards. 00:16:29.980 |
You can eat in the cafe and all those types of places. 00:16:35.980 |
that were left over from some of our retreats. 00:16:39.980 |
so if you want it, you gotta get in line early. 00:16:52.980 |
That's why he's our college pastor, all right? 00:16:58.980 |
our brother Dean gave an announcement last week, 00:17:00.980 |
but if you are interested or willing to serve that way, 00:17:03.980 |
to open up your home, please contact our brother Dean. 00:17:06.980 |
And again, his email address is on the website 00:17:15.980 |
but they have a few spots that are still open 00:17:40.980 |
and then they'll give you instructions on that. 00:17:59.980 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for continued love 00:18:05.980 |
things, Lord God, that we may not even be aware of. 00:18:12.980 |
to know, Father, where our true help comes from. 00:19:32.980 |
Church family, let's all rise together as we sing. 00:19:53.980 |
♪ We won't fear the battle, we won't fear the night ♪ 00:19:57.980 |
♪ We will walk the valley with you by our side ♪ 00:20:02.980 |
♪ You will go before us, you will lead the way ♪ 00:20:17.980 |
♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ 00:20:26.980 |
♪ Who can stand against the strength our God is for ♪ 00:20:44.980 |
♪ Even when I turn back, still your love is sure ♪ 00:20:48.980 |
♪ You will not abandon, you will not forsake ♪ 00:20:53.980 |
♪ You will cheer me on, never ending praise ♪ 00:21:02.980 |
♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ 00:21:11.980 |
♪ Who can stand against the strength our God is for ♪ 00:22:08.980 |
♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ 00:22:17.980 |
♪ Who can stand against the strength our God is for ♪ 00:22:26.980 |
♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ 00:22:35.980 |
♪ Who can stand against the strength our God is for ♪ 00:24:13.980 |
♪ Name above all names worthy of all praise ♪ 00:25:57.980 |
♪ Name above all names worthy of all praise ♪ 00:26:56.980 |
♪ Our knees will bow, our tongues will pray ♪ 00:27:09.980 |
♪ Our knees will bow, our tongues will pray ♪ 00:27:22.980 |
♪ Our knees will bow, our tongues will pray ♪ 00:27:40.980 |
♪ Name above all names worthy of all praise ♪ 00:28:35.980 |
All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me 00:28:49.980 |
you weren't here with us as we were going through 00:28:55.980 |
actually most of the chapter is really a summary 00:28:58.980 |
of what he's been trying to say through the whole book. 00:29:02.980 |
And now he's making his conclusion as to application, 00:29:07.980 |
and why Christ was exalted, that he is better than 00:29:17.980 |
So every part of what he says here has a direct linkage 00:29:20.980 |
to things that he's been saying through the other 12 chapters. 00:29:24.980 |
So that's why we want to make sure that we're thorough 00:29:33.980 |
Again, our emphasis here today is in verse 9. 00:29:36.980 |
"Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, 00:29:43.980 |
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:29:47.980 |
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, 00:29:50.980 |
for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, 00:29:53.980 |
not by foods, through which those who were so occupied 00:30:04.980 |
that we ourselves, Lord God, would be strengthened by grace, 00:30:09.980 |
that we would not be carried away, Father God, 00:30:17.980 |
Help us, Lord God, to be grounded in you, in your word, 00:30:21.980 |
that we would not turn from it to the left or to the right, 00:30:29.980 |
and that we would not simply be hearers of the word, 00:30:34.980 |
We lift these things to you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:30:43.980 |
but just to get you to think before we start. 00:31:04.980 |
What is the most common complaint that you've had? 00:31:06.980 |
Maybe you're trying to share the gospel with a non-Christian 00:31:09.980 |
and say, "Well, you Christians are like this. 00:31:11.980 |
I don't want to go to church because the church is like this." 00:31:15.980 |
What is the most common complaint that you've heard? 00:31:22.980 |
the majority of the complaints that you've heard 00:31:27.980 |
it probably falls into one or the other category. 00:31:30.980 |
One is that the church is filled with hypocrites. 00:31:37.980 |
You're no different than the people in the world, 00:31:48.980 |
or the other category is that you guys are all 00:32:02.980 |
Most likely, the complaints that you hear about the church 00:32:09.980 |
That complaint about the church is nothing new. 00:32:22.980 |
the two primary problems that they were wrestling with 00:32:26.980 |
in the early church falls into those two categories. 00:32:36.980 |
with the Judaizers because they couldn't let go of the law. 00:32:40.980 |
So on top of the gospel, they added that you had to be a Jew, 00:32:50.980 |
So you had to be a Jew in order to be a Christian. 00:32:56.980 |
or another word for it in our modern vocabulary is legalists. 00:33:06.980 |
that they were holding onto, and it led to legalism. 00:33:09.980 |
And then the other part of it came from the Gentile world. 00:33:14.980 |
and the root teaching of the Gnostics was the flesh 00:33:20.980 |
And so one of the things that they taught was 00:33:22.980 |
Jesus could not have possibly come in the flesh 00:33:27.980 |
So when we are saved, we are only saved in spirit, 00:33:30.980 |
so what you do in the flesh doesn't really matter. 00:33:35.980 |
but the flesh will die and decay, so it doesn't matter. 00:33:37.980 |
So that came into the church through the Gnostic teaching 00:33:43.980 |
So the whole letter of 1 John is dealing with that false teaching. 00:33:47.980 |
But it didn't stop with that in the first century. 00:33:51.980 |
They didn't teach this and then all of a sudden 00:33:55.980 |
All throughout church history, you can examine 00:34:05.980 |
even in the short time that I've been a Christian, 00:34:12.980 |
and it was at the tail end of the Jesus movement. 00:34:15.980 |
I didn't understand at that time what was going on, 00:34:22.980 |
or may remember that, it was a movement away from 00:34:26.980 |
what they would consider legalism, this strict rule of 00:34:29.980 |
you've got to do this, you've got to dress a certain way, 00:34:38.980 |
in order to reach those people, get rid of all of these rules 00:34:41.980 |
and let the hippies just come in with their long hair, 00:34:44.980 |
with, you know, they're not dressed properly, 00:34:48.980 |
even without shoes, and Calvary Chapel was actually 00:34:52.980 |
And so I got saved at the tail end of that movement 00:34:55.980 |
and the primary teaching during that period is 00:34:59.980 |
Once saved, always saved. Christians are not perfect. 00:35:07.980 |
obviously the licentiousness began to come in 00:35:10.980 |
and people who kind of superficially professed their faith in Christ 00:35:13.980 |
started to live lives that didn't match what the Scripture was saying. 00:35:17.980 |
And then in somewhere between the mid-80s to late-80s, 00:35:20.980 |
there was the discipleship and holiness movement came in. 00:35:24.980 |
And so I remember at that time, early on in college, 00:35:27.980 |
like everybody was being discipled by somebody. 00:35:30.980 |
The navigators and all these different ministries 00:35:32.980 |
just began to pop up and you had to be disciplined, 00:35:35.980 |
you had to do quiet time, and you had to memorize Scripture, 00:35:39.980 |
And so you had these rules that you had to follow 00:35:42.980 |
in order to correct the mistake that some people fell into 00:35:52.980 |
there was a concern of legalism, spiritual abuse. 00:35:56.980 |
And so it became so rigid and people were coming to church 00:36:00.980 |
and it was like, "We're not really encountering God." 00:36:07.980 |
the late '80s and the '90s, and they had a huge impact. 00:36:15.980 |
came in during that period because prior to that, 00:36:18.980 |
it was considered contemporary if you used a guitar. 00:36:21.980 |
Some of you guys who are a little bit older may remember. 00:36:26.980 |
and if you did anything more than that, we kind of like, 00:36:32.980 |
because the emphasis was we have to encounter God, 00:36:35.980 |
we have to feel something, and so they went from-- 00:36:44.980 |
So the songs and sometimes the preaching, the services 00:36:47.980 |
were all to get you to feel God, to be touched by God. 00:36:50.980 |
So if you look at the songs that we were singing 00:36:57.980 |
because that was the emphasis during that period. 00:37:02.980 |
people were concerned that a lot of the younger generation 00:37:10.980 |
that came in called the Seeker-Friendly Movement, 00:37:14.980 |
Because the churches are dying, and if we don't do something 00:37:23.980 |
How can we get non-Christians to feel comfortable 00:37:25.980 |
in order to grab their attention and reverse this decay, 00:37:32.980 |
But at the end of the Seeker-Friendly Movement, 00:37:38.980 |
sin is not being addressed, and it's just kind of like, 00:37:44.980 |
And so at the tail end of that, and I remember, 00:37:46.980 |
I was doing ministry at that time, being so frustrated, 00:37:51.980 |
but then I started to see a new movement coming in 00:37:55.980 |
called the Young, Restless, and Reform Movement. 00:37:57.980 |
So some of you guys who are in your 30s and 40s 00:38:00.980 |
And all of a sudden, I started seeing 18-, 19-year-olds 00:38:04.980 |
coming into ministry asking, "Do you believe in predestination? 00:38:08.980 |
"Does your church practice church discipline?" 00:38:13.980 |
I couldn't get the 20-, 25-year-olds to be interested in church, 00:38:18.980 |
and that generation now is in their late 30s and early 40s. 00:38:22.980 |
So I said, "Clearly, there's some kind of a movement going on." 00:38:25.980 |
Because there was a heavy emphasis on Bible teaching 00:38:28.980 |
and church discipline, and it started swinging back that way. 00:38:32.980 |
Then after a while, that movement started being more young 00:38:37.980 |
And then there was a movement toward, "We need to be gospel-centered," 00:38:40.980 |
because that's too legalistic, and so we need to be gospel-centered. 00:38:43.980 |
And all of a sudden, everything had to be gospel. 00:38:49.980 |
gospel-centered parenting, gospel-centered singing, 00:38:51.980 |
gospel-centered preaching, gospel-centered missions, 00:38:57.980 |
You go to the book store, everything is gospel-centered. 00:39:00.980 |
At the tail end of that gospel-centered movement, 00:39:02.980 |
they're realizing that there's a big hole in this movement, 00:39:05.980 |
and so now we have the social justice movement, where it's like, 00:39:08.980 |
"No, it's not just the gospel. We have to do something. 00:39:12.980 |
"We have to care, and you can't just preach the gospel. 00:39:17.980 |
And so if you look at--even just during the short period 00:39:19.980 |
that I've been a Christian, this teeter-tottering back and forth 00:39:22.980 |
from legalism to materialism, from legalism to licentiousness, 00:39:28.980 |
And when we try to correct, maybe when we've gone too far, 00:39:34.980 |
we have a tendency, or our enemy has a tendency, 00:39:40.980 |
I remember when I was younger, I would wrestle with my friends, 00:39:42.980 |
and I was pretty decent at wrestling because I grew up wrestling 00:39:47.980 |
And this was before Nintendo TV turned off at 11 o'clock, 00:39:52.980 |
so either we threw rocks at each other, and then we wrestled. 00:39:59.980 |
So I would wrestle my friends, and I would usually overpower them 00:40:04.980 |
and he must have been no more than 120 pounds, 00:40:07.980 |
and he would grab me and just flip me to the ground. 00:40:10.980 |
And I said, "Okay, that must have been a mistake." 00:40:13.980 |
Every time I step in toward him, he would just grab me 00:40:17.980 |
and then put his hip underneath my hip, and the next thing I know, 00:40:20.980 |
I'm up in the air and I'm being slammed to the ground. 00:40:27.980 |
And then he was kind of telling me what he was doing. 00:40:29.980 |
He said every time he sees me moving toward him, 00:40:33.980 |
he would use my own motion, and then he would use that against me. 00:40:37.980 |
So if I'm coming this direction, he would just kind of throw me 00:40:42.980 |
Now, the reason why I share that is because every time 00:40:45.980 |
that we try to balance ourselves, our enemy has a tendency 00:40:53.980 |
Our desire not to be legalistic ends up pushing us 00:40:57.980 |
toward licentiousness, and then our desire to say, 00:41:00.980 |
"You know what? We need to correct this," and then we end up 00:41:02.980 |
going back to legalism, going back and forth, back and forth. 00:41:07.980 |
The reason why I mention this is because in this text, 00:41:09.980 |
in Hebrews chapter 39, it says, "Do not be carried away 00:41:15.980 |
The word "varied" here, it literally means to be multicolored, 00:41:22.980 |
And so these strange teachings that are coming in 00:41:25.980 |
are taking something that may have some truth to it, 00:41:30.980 |
and then it twists it, and then it kind of perverts it. 00:41:33.980 |
And that was the main problem in the early church, 00:41:36.980 |
even to this day, desiring to make things right, to balance, 00:41:43.980 |
and then our tendency is to kind of take it too far, 00:41:45.980 |
and then we end up erring on one side or the other. 00:41:50.980 |
Now, it's in this where he is trying to tell them, 00:41:58.980 |
And the word for "drift" here, again, as you guys know, 00:42:03.980 |
We're using that word all throughout the book of Hebrews 00:42:09.980 |
We don't anchor ourselves to other objects that are also going to move. 00:42:14.980 |
When we anchor ourselves, we have to anchor to something 00:42:17.980 |
that when the waves come in, shifting back and forth, 00:42:21.980 |
that whatever it is that we're anchored to isn't going to move. 00:42:24.980 |
That's why we're constantly told to anchor in Christ. 00:42:29.980 |
If you're anchored to friends, when they move, you will move. 00:42:35.980 |
If you're anchored to your family, when your family moves, you will move. 00:42:39.980 |
If you're anchored to your job, when your job disappears, 00:42:45.980 |
We don't anchor ourselves to things that are not stable. 00:42:48.980 |
A boat does not anchor itself to another boat. 00:42:51.980 |
A boat anchors itself to something that's not going to move. 00:42:56.980 |
And that's why he says we need to be anchored in Christ. 00:43:00.980 |
Anything else that you anchor yourself to is just a matter of time 00:43:09.980 |
"He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, 00:43:14.980 |
If you notice here, the positions of each one of these people, 00:43:20.980 |
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, 00:43:25.980 |
They're all people whose primary duty was to proclaim the Word of God. 00:43:28.980 |
The context may be different for each title, but every single one of them. 00:43:48.980 |
Unity doesn't come because we're surrounded by people our age. 00:43:52.980 |
Unity doesn't come because people around us have the similar color hair. 00:43:57.980 |
Unity doesn't come because we have people who like outdoors, 00:44:01.980 |
and so I like being around people who are outdoors, 00:44:06.980 |
The beauty of the church is that though we are varied in all different walks of life, 00:44:17.980 |
And so because we are called to anchor in Christ, 00:44:22.980 |
Church is a gathering of people who are anchored in Christ. 00:44:26.980 |
And that's why he says, "They teach the Word of God, 00:44:29.980 |
to the unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, 00:44:31.980 |
to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 00:44:35.980 |
As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there 00:44:38.980 |
by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, 00:44:41.980 |
by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming." 00:44:46.980 |
I mean, the devil is constantly using maybe our good intentions 00:44:52.980 |
and judoing us to the ground, you know, from different movement. 00:44:56.980 |
There's a reason why these movements were popular, 00:44:58.980 |
because in and of itself, there's some truth to that. 00:45:02.980 |
They're trying to correct something that went wrong. 00:45:04.980 |
But in correcting, our natural tendency is to fall into the scheme. 00:45:11.980 |
So how do we do this if the devil, who is smarter than us, stronger than us, 00:45:18.980 |
How do we make sure that we do not get tossed back and forth? 00:45:22.980 |
There's a reason why he says in Hebrews 13, 8, it says, 00:45:24.980 |
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." 00:45:33.980 |
If you anchor yourself to anything else, it's just a matter of time. 00:45:38.980 |
Again, in 1 Peter 1, 24-25, "For all flesh is like grass, 00:45:49.980 |
And this is the word which was preached to you." 00:45:53.980 |
So the question is, what are you anchored to? 00:46:00.980 |
He says, "Do not be tossed back and forth by various strange doctrines that come in." 00:46:06.980 |
And he says, "It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace." 00:46:10.980 |
It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. 00:46:12.980 |
So in order for us to be anchored, he says, "You need to be strengthened by grace." 00:46:19.980 |
But that term, "strengthened by grace," sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? 00:46:24.980 |
Because typically when we think of grace, we think of someone who is soft, gentle, malleable, flexible. 00:46:32.980 |
Strength means power, righteousness, holiness. 00:46:36.980 |
But he says, "It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace." 00:46:42.980 |
2 Timothy 2.1, "You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ you." 00:46:50.980 |
Typically if we tell somebody to be strong, we'll say, "Suck it up. 00:47:05.980 |
Instead, he tells this timid pastor, young pastor, he said, "No, be strong in the grace. 00:47:14.980 |
You know, on the surface, that sounds like an oxymoron. 00:47:17.980 |
But in fact, the Bible is filled with oxymorons, right? 00:47:22.980 |
Paradoxes that seem like a contradiction, but when you dig into it, it makes perfect sense. 00:47:28.980 |
We see another one in Hebrews 4.11, it says, "Let us strive to enter the rest." 00:47:37.980 |
So when we hear the word strive, it means stop being lazy, right? 00:48:04.980 |
On the surface, it seems like a contradiction. 00:48:11.980 |
Hebrews 4.16, remember, he says, "Have confidence to enter the throne." 00:48:35.980 |
You equate the throne with power, with authority, and might. 00:48:43.980 |
In fact, our Lord's very title in the book of Zechariah, he says, 00:48:49.980 |
"Our king is coming riding on a donkey, humbled." 00:48:57.980 |
In fact, if we want to accuse somebody of being arrogant, what do we normally say? 00:49:06.980 |
Because that's what we mean when we say, "Oh, you're a king? 00:49:12.980 |
You think when LeBron James tattooed the king that it was a humble statement? 00:49:19.980 |
That he was trying to be humble and serve the world? 00:49:34.980 |
And that's why the Jews could not understand because they thought their Messiah, the king, 00:49:38.980 |
was going to come and he was going to dominate. 00:49:54.980 |
So they could not comprehend that their Messiah was going to humble themselves. 00:50:00.980 |
In fact, remember when Jesus was coming, in order to glorify the Father, remember what he did? 00:50:12.980 |
And as he goes to the cross, what does he say? 00:50:14.980 |
"I go to glorify the Father, and the Father to glorify me." 00:50:21.980 |
The cross was deliberately created to humiliate and humble people. 00:50:27.980 |
As an example, that if you don't submit to us, this is what's going to happen to you. 00:50:35.980 |
And yet, Jesus says, "I'm going to that to glorify the Father." 00:50:42.980 |
He said, "Lord, it's time for you to glorify me." 00:50:47.980 |
How can the most humiliating way to end life be the avenue in which God says he's going to glorify himself? 00:51:01.980 |
It seems like an oxymoron, but our whole faith rests upon this idea of the humble king, 00:51:09.980 |
of the throne of grace, of glory and humiliation, of strength by grace. 00:51:17.980 |
We talked about this about a month ago, that our holy God never compromises his holiness or his grace. 00:51:26.980 |
That the cross was the perfect union of his mercy and his righteousness without a single compromise. 00:51:34.980 |
And so when he says, not to stray back and forth to legalism, to licentiousness, 00:51:40.980 |
but it's good for our heart to be strengthened by grace. 00:51:43.980 |
So this morning, I want to talk about four areas in which grace strengthens us. 00:51:48.980 |
First service, I did not get past number two. 00:51:51.980 |
So most likely I would just get to number two. 00:51:54.980 |
But I want you to know what the other three and four is, because I don't want you to leave with incomplete doctrine. 00:52:01.980 |
So number one is, it first strengthens us by emptying us of our pride. 00:52:11.980 |
Number two, grace strengthens us because it gives us absolute security of our salvation. 00:52:19.980 |
Number three, grace strengthens us because it equips us for every good work. 00:52:26.980 |
And number four, grace strengthens us because it gives us boldness to proclaim the gospel. 00:52:38.980 |
If this is at the core of God's glory, if this is what the cross teaches us, 00:52:47.980 |
Ephesians chapter 289 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, 00:52:52.980 |
it is a gift of God, not as a result of work. 00:53:03.980 |
Everything that we do is so that we can have something to boast about. 00:53:14.980 |
So the winners can take a picture and put it up and say, "We beat you." 00:53:20.980 |
But rest of what we do outside, like why do you go to school? 00:53:34.980 |
But here it says, "This was given to you by grace so that nobody can stand and boast." 00:53:45.980 |
And if you think about it, the whole rebellion of mankind is summarized in this statement. 00:54:01.980 |
Adam and Eve was tempted and disobeyed God because they wanted the same knowledge that he had. 00:54:07.980 |
Tower of Babel was built so that they can touch God's glory. 00:54:15.980 |
I mean, it doesn't take much for us to be filled with pride. 00:54:19.980 |
You walk into a room and you can survey the room and say, "I'm taller than him. 00:54:29.980 |
You may never say it because they're going to think you're vain. 00:54:39.980 |
And somewhere in the back of your mind you're calculating, "I make more money than you." 00:54:56.980 |
We're constantly measuring in the back of our mind, even though we're too smart to vocalize it with our words. 00:55:04.980 |
But it doesn't take much for us to become proud. 00:55:13.980 |
Even in the church, it doesn't take much for us to become proud. 00:55:22.980 |
I've seen people come to morning prayer every day and then get in a fight afterwards. 00:55:28.980 |
It was like as a young Christian, it just blew my mind. 00:55:31.980 |
It's like, "Man, we spent an hour and a half praying together, and they're arguing outside in the parking lot." 00:55:45.980 |
He says, "We're saved by grace so that no one will boast." 00:55:51.980 |
In 1 Corinthians 1, 26 through 29, "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. 00:55:58.980 |
God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. 00:56:02.980 |
And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, 00:56:08.980 |
so that he may nullify the things that are for what purpose? 00:56:17.980 |
The reason why he's saying this in Corinthians is because the church was infighting for who is more righteous. 00:56:27.980 |
He's the first apostle, so clearly if you follow Peter, you must be more righteous than the others." 00:56:33.980 |
No, I follow Paul because Paul, look what he did. 00:56:44.980 |
And some were saying, "Apollos is clearly the most gifted." 00:56:49.980 |
I mean, he understood the Messiah that was going to come through the Old Testament even before it was explained to him. 00:56:55.980 |
So he clearly understands the Old Testament better than the other apostles. 00:57:03.980 |
Since they can't compete with those three, it's like, "I follow Jesus." 00:57:09.980 |
They were saying this to outdo the other people. 00:57:20.980 |
And because of this infighting and one-upping each other, who's more righteous than the other, 00:57:24.980 |
it was causing all kind of chaos in the church. 00:57:26.980 |
And Paul writes to them and saying, "You foolish dummies," in the modern English. 00:57:34.980 |
"Don't you know that he chose you because you were foolish? 00:57:40.980 |
So that when people looked at you and they said, 'What is it about these fools that give them such power? 00:57:48.980 |
What is it about these uneducated people, these mere fishermen, these poor people who had nothing to give? 00:57:57.980 |
What is it about them that they're flipping the world upside down so that when people see this, 00:58:05.980 |
That God chose the foolish things, the dumb found the wise, so that man will not boast." 00:58:21.980 |
Boasting and Christianity does not go together. 00:58:25.980 |
He says from the get-go, "God saved us so that no one may boast." 00:58:31.980 |
Because boasting is at the core of our rebellion. 00:58:39.980 |
Because we're constantly measuring each other, measuring ourselves to see who's ahead. 00:58:45.980 |
And so he said, "You guys are all nullified." 00:58:50.980 |
In order for us to be able to see the light of Christ brighter, our lights have to be turned dim or off. 00:58:58.980 |
So when we want to see the star, you don't go to the city. 00:59:02.980 |
If you want to see a brighter picture of the stars, you don't go to the city. 00:59:06.980 |
You go to the desert or you go to the mountain where there's less light. 00:59:09.980 |
And then even when you get there, what do you have to do? 00:59:14.980 |
Whatever light is on, you've got to turn off. 00:59:15.980 |
Turn off your flashlight, turn off your car, turn off your lamp. 00:59:20.980 |
And then because all the other lights are dimmed, you're able to see the glory. 00:59:25.980 |
What prevents sinners from seeing the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ? 00:59:33.980 |
Their own lights that they're trying so hard to make it brighter is blinding them to see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:59:41.980 |
So the first thing that he does, he says, "So that no one can boast, so that you can turn it off." 00:59:47.980 |
When we recognize our own sins, we empty ourselves. 00:59:52.980 |
And I have nothing, so our lights are turned off. 00:59:55.980 |
Whatever it is that we had to boast, all gets emptied out so that we can be filled with Christ. 01:00:10.980 |
He comes in tired, beaten, in jail, discouraged. 01:00:16.980 |
It doesn't say he wanted to quit, but I mean, you could tell he's a human being too. 01:00:21.980 |
He's being beaten, stoned, jailed, whipped, shipwrecked. 01:00:26.980 |
And Jesus has to actually talk to him and say, "Hey, I have more of my people here, so you persevere." 01:00:32.980 |
So he risked his life, his well-being, fatigue, all of that to bring the gospel to the Corinth. 01:00:42.980 |
But because they didn't like what he had to say, they started to question his authority. 01:00:55.980 |
They said, "That guy's like any other false prophet coming into town. 01:01:00.980 |
And then they started questioning his ability. 01:01:03.980 |
He speaks well, but his appearance is not impressive. 01:01:14.980 |
I mean, he literally gave everything so that they may have the gospel, 01:01:20.980 |
and they were questioning everything about him. 01:01:22.980 |
And so, Apostle Paul says he pleaded with the Lord to take this thorn on his side out. 01:01:28.980 |
Most commentators believe that the thorn he's referring to were his detractors, 01:01:36.980 |
Remember, when he was in Philippi sitting in prison, he said some preached Christ out of envy 01:01:43.980 |
Inside the church, people are preaching the gospel just to make it harder for him. 01:01:47.980 |
He says, "Praise God, whether they do it out of poor motive or good motive, 01:01:54.980 |
But this was so agonizing to him, he pleaded with the Lord, he says, three times. 01:01:59.980 |
And you know when the Bible says three times, it's not necessarily referring to one, two, three. 01:02:04.980 |
You know, the number three represents confirmation. 01:02:08.980 |
You know, like it says, you know, for an elder, if there's two or three have something against him, 01:02:16.980 |
A church our size, there's got to be more than two or three people who have something against me. 01:02:22.980 |
So, even though the number three is mentioned, basically the spirit behind that is, 01:02:29.980 |
it bothers him so much, he agonized before God, and my guess is he prayed every day, 01:02:35.980 |
Like Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, "I prayed three times and God said no." 01:02:41.980 |
"Lord, take this away. I'm doing so much for you, so much revelation is coming through him." 01:02:47.980 |
In fact, when he asked, the way Jesus answered him was, 01:02:51.980 |
"So much revelation is coming through this man, that there was concern that he may become proud." 01:02:59.980 |
And so the way he answers him in 2 Corinthians 12, 9-10, and he said to me, 01:03:03.980 |
"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." 01:03:11.980 |
He doesn't say, "I'm going to change your circumstance." 01:03:14.980 |
And he's not saying that you don't have grace. 01:03:17.980 |
"I'm going to give you some more grace so that you can overcome this." 01:03:30.980 |
Everything that you need for life of godliness has been given to you in the knowledge of his son Jesus Christ. 01:03:41.980 |
I listen to that and it's another way of saying, "Suck it up." 01:03:46.980 |
Not suck it up as in like, just bare-grin and just use your strength. 01:03:56.980 |
He says, "Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." 01:04:02.980 |
He said his primary concern with Apostle Paul is that because God is doing such great work, 01:04:08.980 |
that there was concern that his pride was going to get in the way. 01:04:13.980 |
That his experience, that he himself as a man is going to get in the way. 01:04:18.980 |
So he was deliberately weakening Apostle Paul. 01:04:25.980 |
"Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distress, with persecution, with difficulty. 01:04:31.980 |
For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." 01:04:35.980 |
In order for grace to be powerful, Paul needed to get out of the way. 01:04:48.980 |
Basically the first and the most prominent thing that we need to remember is to kill our pride. 01:05:03.980 |
To measure our righteousness against someone else's righteousness. 01:05:13.980 |
We are going to be talking about sanctification next week. 01:05:15.980 |
I meant to talk about it today, but we ran out of time. 01:05:22.980 |
Our sanctification is also so that you and I do not boast. 01:05:29.980 |
He reminds us who we are and to be strengthened by grace. 01:05:34.980 |
And in order for us to be strengthened by grace, we need to first recognize whatever strength that you think you have must be humbled. 01:05:42.980 |
It is in the areas where you and I think are strong are the areas where we stumble the most. 01:05:51.980 |
If you are good with numbers and you are accounting, you know, or if you have gotten promotion at a job somewhere and you happen to be a manager, 01:06:08.980 |
That is where you think you can do the most for the kingdom of God. 01:06:13.980 |
And so remember when Peter, you know, and the apostles, like they were fishing and they came back after fishing all night and they didn't catch anything. 01:06:24.980 |
And here is this carpenter, Jesus, and he said, hey, throw out your net. 01:06:30.980 |
And you could tell the frustration of these fishermen. 01:06:37.980 |
I know you are the Lord, but I am a fisherman. 01:06:42.980 |
And these professional fishermen fished all night and we couldn't catch anything. 01:06:49.980 |
But they have learned a lesson by then, right? 01:06:52.980 |
Jesus was resurrected and he said, hey, man, I screwed up before. 01:07:01.980 |
So they humbled themselves because they learned their lesson and threw their net in and they brought so much that they couldn't even count. 01:07:08.980 |
And simply because they obeyed the carpenter. 01:07:14.980 |
It is in the areas that we think we are strong. 01:07:23.980 |
And that is why to be strengthened by grace, we need to first and foremost be humbled. 01:07:30.980 |
Because we don't need to pray if we are good. 01:07:34.980 |
We are not desperate when we can take care of ourselves. 01:07:41.980 |
We want, I want Jesus, but I don't need Jesus because I am capable. 01:07:46.980 |
For wherever where we have pride is the area that you are most likely the weakest. 01:07:53.980 |
So we are saved by grace and grace so that we cannot boast. 01:08:00.980 |
Secondly, we are strengthened by grace because we have absolute security in our salvation. 01:08:06.980 |
Hebrews 13, 5, I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you. 01:08:11.980 |
Remember, we talked about how there is five negatives here. 01:08:25.980 |
Just in case you didn't understand the first time, I will never forsake you. 01:08:33.980 |
Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never. 01:09:01.980 |
He knows our tendency to be proud when we think we are doing good. 01:09:06.980 |
And he knows how destructive we get when we are struggling, that I am not worthy. 01:09:13.980 |
Even though we don't say that, that we become easily proud when we feel like we are more disciplined. 01:09:21.980 |
And then we are like, we are unworthy of his grace when we are not doing well. 01:09:29.980 |
It means you got something you didn't deserve. 01:09:40.980 |
And so to be strengthened by grace means that our salvation is secure in him. 01:09:48.980 |
Isaiah 41, 10 says, "Do not fear, for I am with you. 01:09:51.980 |
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. 01:09:56.980 |
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." 01:09:58.980 |
You notice here how many times he says, "I am with you. 01:10:01.980 |
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. 01:10:06.980 |
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." 01:10:10.980 |
Our salvation, our relationship with God is dependent upon his covenant, his promise, his faithfulness, his immutability. 01:10:19.980 |
And so when Jesus told his disciples, "How many times should I forgive my brother?" 01:10:28.980 |
Peter said seven times because he was waiting for the eighth time. 01:10:33.980 |
He said, "Well, three times, okay, that's what we're told to do. 01:10:38.980 |
But since we're disciples of Jesus, seven times." 01:10:42.980 |
In the back of his mind, he's probably thinking like on the eighth time he's going to get it. 01:10:46.980 |
With Jesus' approval, but Jesus says seven times seventy. 01:10:52.980 |
I could imagine the disciples calculating with their fingers and toes. 01:11:13.980 |
I mean, what he's telling his disciples to do is not human, is not natural. 01:11:57.980 |
If they do that to you again, that's your fault for being fools and putting yourself in that situation. 01:12:04.980 |
You should have learned, right, and put them in their place the second time. 01:12:12.980 |
So seven times, even seven times doesn't seem natural, right? 01:12:19.980 |
Fool me once, then fool me two, three, four, five, six, seven times? 01:12:28.980 |
As long as their repentance is genuine, forgive them. 01:12:39.980 |
And the only way that he can do that is because our God is immutable. 01:12:44.980 |
The same God who forgave us the first time we repented is the same God that we will meet 400th time 01:12:53.980 |
because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 01:12:56.980 |
His immutability is based upon all knowledge. 01:13:00.980 |
So when we come to him the 400th time, as long as our repentance is genuine, he says he will forgive us. 01:13:21.980 |
You know, I used to think when I was a younger Christian because this illustration was given to me 01:13:26.980 |
that God's grace means that he bridged the gap for us and he threw down a rope. 01:13:33.980 |
And so sanctification is me climbing this rope. 01:13:37.980 |
Because that's what I was told and that's what I believe. 01:13:40.980 |
This is again at the tail end of the Jesus movement and people were starting to correct it back into holiness. 01:13:48.980 |
And that made so much sense to me because I was seeing so much licentiousness in the church. 01:13:54.980 |
That's why people are living the way that they are because they're not climbing. 01:14:04.980 |
But the problem with that analogy, one, it's not biblical. 01:14:13.980 |
I would go up, you know, 10 feet and slide down 11, determined to go up another 10 feet and slide down 12. 01:14:23.980 |
And after a year, year and a half of this, not making any progress. 01:14:31.980 |
And I just got so sick and tired of failing and sliding and going up and sliding. 01:14:39.980 |
It took years for me to realize how unbiblical that analogy was. 01:14:45.980 |
Christ didn't just throw down a rope from heaven. 01:14:55.980 |
He wrapped us up, held us in his righteous right hand, and he will make sure that we will be glorified. 01:15:05.980 |
And so having this assurance of salvation frees me to live my life. 01:15:10.980 |
That's what Paul means when he says, I know how to be content in every and all situations, whether you have a lot or a little, 01:15:27.980 |
I know we have BBA finals, right, highlight of some of our year, right, some of us. 01:15:33.980 |
I'm praying for the BBA legends because some of the older members of our church are still in it. 01:15:40.980 |
And so I'm praying that they don't get hurt, that they will, somebody's going to win, right. 01:15:46.980 |
And then some of you guys who are playing BBA, I mean, it's fun. 01:15:48.980 |
We're going to come and watch you guys to see, right. 01:15:52.980 |
But imagine this game, this gift that we've been given because we're young. 01:15:56.980 |
We have friends that we can play with, and we have a nice court to play and fellowship with other Christians. 01:16:01.980 |
Imagine if I said, if you don't win, you can't come to church anymore. 01:16:13.980 |
It's something that's going to cause fear and anxiety. 01:16:18.980 |
And this very gift that we're enjoying turns into a burden that will crush us. 01:16:26.980 |
It's being strengthened by grace to humble ourselves and recognize that our salvation is secure in Christ. 01:16:33.980 |
That whether we win or lose, whether we have a lot or little, whether we are successful in the eyes of the world or not, 01:16:42.980 |
it doesn't change anything because my eternity in Christ is secure. 01:16:49.980 |
When Christ come in his glory, we will be glorified with him. 01:16:53.980 |
We will know what real life is like when he comes. 01:16:57.980 |
So whether I win or lose, I can enjoy what I have here as a blessing of God, little or a lot. 01:17:09.980 |
And either self-righteousness or licentiousness will crush us. 01:17:16.980 |
So again, I'll get to the number three and four next week, but three is just as important because I don't want anybody here ending saying, 01:17:33.980 |
Grace does not mean that therefore what we do in life doesn't matter. 01:17:40.980 |
I just don't want you to have heresy in your head before we get into our break. 01:17:51.980 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for loving us and saving us, adopting us, Lord God, that we may call you our Abba Father. 01:18:03.980 |
Help us, Lord, that we would not drift from every wind of doctrine that comes in from generation to generation. 01:18:12.980 |
Help us to be anchored in Christ and the Christ of the Word, that we would not be driven back and forth. 01:18:23.980 |
But I pray, Lord God, that your Word that you've implanted in our hearts, that we would be strengthened by this grace, 01:18:29.980 |
that we may live lives worthy of the gospel that you've given. 01:18:32.980 |
May Christ be exalted, your name honored, and the world know, Father God, that there is hope in the name of Jesus. 01:22:33.980 |
1 Corinthians 1, 18 and 19 says, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 01:22:40.980 |
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 01:22:43.980 |
For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.'" 01:22:50.980 |
Lord, we pray that your word will be the foundation upon everything that we pursue. 01:22:59.980 |
Help us, Lord God, not to be short-sighted, knowing that our life is temporary here. 01:23:05.980 |
Help us, Lord God, to live a life truly worthy of the calling that you've been given to us. 01:23:10.980 |
I pray that you would help us not to stray from your word to the left or to the right, 01:23:15.980 |
but that your grace would strengthen us, empower us, 01:23:19.980 |
empty us of our own pride, empty us, Lord God, of our self-sufficiency, 01:23:26.980 |
that we would remain in you, knowing, Father God, that you are the only anchor that is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 01:23:34.980 |
May Christ's name and his glory be glorified wherever you send us this week. 01:24:51.980 |
And life is worth the living just because He lives.