Grace For Life

The Heart Of The Christian Life Is Love

2012-02-14T07:32:00.001-06:00

By Michele Rayburn

Romantic love is so much different from 1 Corinthians 13 Biblical love, isn’t it?

About 2 years after I was saved, I recall sitting down to read my Bible and study and pray. I remember opening up to 1 Corinthians 13 and debating about whether I should just skip over those verses about love for now, because “after all, everyone knows what love is, right?” I wanted to learn about the “weightier things of God”. And then it came to me that love was the one thing that I actually knew so little about. And that if I didn’t begin learning what Biblical love was, I really wouldn’t be able to understand the “weightier things of God” with the proper perspective.

I must say that since I began making my focus understanding Biblical love and how it is supposed to be practiced by believers, the Word of God really did become more meaningful and more powerful in my life. I quickly came to see that learning to put into practice Biblical love, and knowing the God Who is Love, *were* the “weightier things of God”. And that was what I needed to know first and foremost.

Without love, we are nothing...a clanging cymbal. When the Preacher preaches, or the teacher teaches, or the Christian witnesses to the unbeliever, if it is not done in love, though the message itself may be powerful, the messenger is “nothing”, according to 1 Corinthians 13.

Romantic love is a wonderful thing, but without Biblical love it may eventually leave the heart empty. This Valentine's Day, think about God's love for you. Whatever state you are in, may you find contentment resting in His love.

The Devastation of Unforgiveness

2012-02-04T11:34:00.001-06:00

I love science. I'm not a scientist, but I love the
observation of "the way things are".

And one of the "way things are" is that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14).

And one of the ways we are fearfully and wonderfully made is in how our soul (mind, emotions and will) affects our body.

And one of the ways our soul affects our body is in the devasting effects of unforgiveness.

We might assume this from the Scriptures, and rightfully so, but science has actually demonstrated that the following is true:

"Resentment is like taking poison, and waiting for the other person to die."

Self-interest is not as high a motive as Spirit-filled obedience to our loving God, but it doesn't hurt to hear the words of scientists who have studied unforgiveness. They have universally found that unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, etc., cause increases in heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol (a fat-producing hormone), nervousness, adrenalin, restlessness, sadness, cardiovascular disease, relationship problems (duh..), and immune deficiency.

But true forgiveness (which is the other side of the coin of love) is only possible as we draw near to our Lord. As we commune with Him, as He expresses His Life through us, as we are filled with His Spirit, and as we walk by the Spirit, forgiveness is as natural as the fruit of the Spirit, which is love.

Fellowship with Him. Practice His Presence. Let go of the resentment.

May Grace and forgiveness govern our relationships. Healing balm for our souls and bodies.

"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." - Ephesians 4:32

True science agrees with the Word of God.

Stop Calling Christians Sinners

2012-01-28T10:34:00.002-06:00

I recently witnessed a good friend being put out of fellowship from his local church for unrepentant public sin against his wife. The process was handled in accordance with Matthew Chapter 18, which starts with approaching a sinning brother, confronting him lovingly about his sin.

If he doesn’t repent, one or two others are brought in to confront the person, and if he still won’t repent, then you tell it to the church, and if he still won’t repent, then you treat him as a heathen or tax collector (that’s not a reference to the Internal Revenue Service, but another way of saying you treat him as an unbeliever, as though he were never born again at all).

Although outwardly the process appears to have been handled Scripturally and with humility, as the final disfellowshiping was announced to the congregation I heard something repeatedly that not only bothered me, but I believe actually compounds the problem of sinning in the church.

What I heard repeatedly in that meeting, both in teaching and in prayers, was the referring to all Christians as “sinners”. It was in the context of intended humility, something like, “As we gather to talk about this unrepentant friend of ours, we need to remember that we are all ‘sinners’.”

But of course it wasn’t just a theme of this meeting, but a common one. This referring to all Christians as sinners is common in the typical Bible-believing church. And I want to address it Biblically.

Are Christians sinners?

A Popular Bumper Sticker

But before I answer that question from the Scriptures, I want to introduce the topic by talking about a common bumper sticker that has been around ever since I became a Christian in 1976.

I've never liked the bumper sticker that says, "Christians Are Not Perfect -- Just Forgiven". It's true we're not perfected yet in every way, but it's not true that we're "just forgiven".

A lot more has been accomplished with our regeneration, our "new birth". We are a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new.

Self-Abasement

But there is sometimes a real pride in self-abasement. How's that for an oxymoron? Colossians 2:18 says, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement...”

I have a couple friends who are so into self-abasement that they actually say that God didn't send Jesus to die for us because He loved us, but only for His own glory. Well, He certainly did it for His own glory, but how absurd to deny the very clear John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that...He gave his own begotten Son...".

One friend even claims his favorite Bible verse is in Job 42, when Job says, "I abhor myself". When it's pointed out that "abhor" is a questionable translation, translated “I retract”, for example in the NASB, he says it's still his favorite verse, but he likes “abhor”.

Of course we need to be Christ-centered. Indeed, the more Christ-centered we are, I believe the more we will be amazed at what He has done in us. And the more Christ-centered we are, the more we will walk by the Spirit.

Yet, I believe that, ironically, to deny what God has done in and to us, is a sort of unbelief that quenches the Spirit.

All Christians Are Saints

And that brings me to the main point of this message. The biblical truth is that Christians are NOT Sinners in their new identity. They are Saints.

Now someone may quickly say, “Well sure they’re Saints, whatever that means, but they’re also Sinners. And if you don’t keep calling Christians Sinners then they’ll get all high and mighty and think they’re something.”

So allow me to make two things clear.

1. First, Who should get the glory and credit for all this new creation? Well, the one who did it all, of course, and that’s the Lord. Whatever we are is by grace.

"What do you have, O man, that you did not receive?" -1 Cor. 4:7

"You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." -Rev. 4:11

2. The second thing I’d like to make clear is that I’m well aware that Christians sin. That’s not the issue.

Before we were born again, we inherited a sin nature, a sin spirit, from Adam.

It’s that sin nature that sends a person who does not believe in Jesus Christ to hell.

And if you’re not born again, you still have that sinful nature, or spirit.

But when you’re born again, the old spirit, the old nature, is put to death in Christ on the cross, and replaced by a new nature. The Bible calls the old spirit “the old man”, and the new spirit, “the new man” or “new creation”.

Do We Have Two Natures?

So then do we have two natures? Two spirits? No, the Bible says the “old man” is dead, was crucified with Christ on the Cross. So we don’t have two natures, we still have one.

But it’s new, and it loves Jesus Christ and it hates sin. It believes in Jesus. Or as we say, YOU believe in Jesus. Because that spirit is YOU, and YOU are that spirit.

Now this spirit has a soul. And for discussion purposes we might say that this soul is our mind, emotions and will. [listen to Mp3 re how our mind, emotions and will were not "born again", but our spirit was]

So this spirit has a soul, and we live in a body.

But the real you, the real me, we are spirits. We are spirit beings. And to top that off, the Bible says that we have been given the Holy Spirit of God to live in us, also. Now we aren’t the Holy Spirit and He is not us, but the Bible does teach that we became one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). That’s amazing.

O.K. So why is this even important? Who cares if we say we have one nature or two natures? Who cares if somebody says we are both a bad spirit and a good spirit? Who cares if somebody says that we are two natures, old and new, battling ourselves?

Well, aside from the value of Truth itself, it’s important because we will live out our lives based on what we think is real. We will tend to ACT like we think we ARE. If we think we are partly evil, we will think it’s “natural” to act evil.

Or to put it another way, if we think we are a Sinner in our nature, in our identity, then we will think it’s “natural” to sin. We will think that, “Hey, this is me. This is who I am. I’m just a Sinner. Of course it’s natural for me to sin.”

And the problem with that thinking is it’s not Biblical.

Is Sinning Against Our Nature As Christians?

The Biblical truth is, when we sin it goes AGAINST our nature. Our new nature. This New Man, this New Creation. Sin goes AGAINST our nature.

So when we sin, we aren’t doing what’s natural, as a believer, but we are violating our own new nature. I’m being redundant on purpose here.

Because when you know the truth that you are not a Sinner, but a Saint, a separated one, a holy one, a new creation, then that truth can help to set you free.

As a believer, you are a new creation, a new spirit, a new identity in Christ, and the more you understand this, and review it, and believe it, the more your life will reflect it.

Let’s just look a little bit at our new identity in Christ. First, we are:

Holy (Eph. 1:4, "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love"),

Righteous (2 Cor. 5:21, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him"),

Saint of God (Rom. 1:7, "To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints"),

Blameless (Eph. 1:4, "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love"),

Christ as Our very Life (Col. 3:4, "Christ who is our life"),

A Son of God (Jn. 1:12, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name"),

A Citizen of Heaven (Eph. 2:19, "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God"),

An Ambassador representing the Kingdom of God (2 Cor. 5:20, "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God"),

Son of the Second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit"),

Born from Him (Rom. 8:9, "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His"),

With all your Needs (not greeds) Supplied (Phil. 4:19, "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus"),

Blessed with every Spiritual Blessing in Heavenly Places (Eph. 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ"),

Unstopped by the obstacles of the world (Phil.4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"),

Navigating our Loving Father’s “obstacle course” designed to conform us to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:28-29, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren")

A New Identity

You have a new identity, not that of a Sinner, but of a Saint.

By grace the old you has died, and the new you has come. That’s why Rom. 6:6 says, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin."

But we have to "reckon" that. We have to "consider that true". We have to "choose to believe that". Rom. 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Don’t deny when you sin. Admit it. Confess it. But recognize that’s not your identity. That’s not who you are. That goes against who you are. You’re dead to sin and alive to God in your spirit, in your nature, through Jesus Christ.

Stop saying you’re a Sinner. “Such WERE some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” -1 Cor. 6:11

You WERE a Sinner. Now you are a Saint.

Now Rom. 6:12 makes sense. After Paul tells us to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, Rom. 6:12 says, “THEREFORE do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”

See how that makes sense? If we were still SINNERS it wouldn’t make sense. It would be saying, “since you’re SINNERS, don’t let sin reign in your body.” That doesn’t make sense and that’s why so many Christians are confused. But if you are no LONGER a Sinner, then it makes sense to say, “don’t let sin reign in your body”. It’s not you. It’s AGAINST the new you.

Friend, accept this by faith as your true identity!

Set your mind on it!

Dwell on it!

Meditate on the truth of it!

Then, moment by moment act like it is true! Praise the Lord in all things, whatever circumstances you may encounter, acting as if Christ is expressing His Life through you.

Because He is.

Stop Calling Christians Sinners - Audio

2012-01-28T10:33:00.000-06:00

This week's message on Grace Walk Radio:

Stop Calling Christians Sinners

Grace For Life radio archives are here.

It's Not About Us?

2012-01-27T11:52:00.001-06:00

How many times have you heard the statement, something like, "It's not about us, it's about Him!"?

The simple biblical truth is it's about both! Him and us! He died for us. He prays for us. He works in us. He loves us. We are His Body. He is in us---Christ in us, the hope of glory. Our bodies are His temple. We are one spirit with Him. We are in Him, and He is in us. He watches over us. He leads us. He has chosen us before the foundation of the world. He wants us to draw near to Him. He wants us to praise Him.

Of course it's about Him! But it's also about us! We are His children...and His Bride...and His beloved.

Friends, let's stop the pseudo-humility that says, "I'm just a lil ol' unworthy worm", and replace it with true biblical humility that says, "He who is in Christ is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new."

God's Grace has made us "Someone" in God's eyes. Now that's not a cause for pride. After all, "What do you have, O man, that you did not receive?" No, we boast only in the Lord. But...

...we boast in the Lord who works all things together for good to those who love Him. That's us!

...we boast in the Lord who so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, for us!

...we boast in the Lord who raised us with Him, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named!

It's not just about Him.

It's certainly not just about us.

It's about Him and us!

Who should get the glory for that? Well, the One who did it, of course! It's all of grace, from start to finish, from Alpha to Omega. The Lord will not share His glory with another. But He will share His Life!

Behold, He Makes All Things New

2012-01-01T08:30:00.000-06:00

The First Sunrise of the New Year 2009

compiled by Michele Rayburn

Behold, He makes all things new...a New Covenant, a new creation in Christ, a new identity in Christ, a new spirit...

Psalm 40:3 He has put a *new* song in my mouth. Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord.

Psalm 96:1 Oh, sing to the Lord a *new* song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And *new* things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Isaiah 62:2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a *new* name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name.

Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create *new* heavens and a *new* earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind."

Jeremiah 31:31 "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a *new* covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."

Ezekiel 11:19 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a *new* spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 18:31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a *new* heart and a *new* spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a *new* heart and put a *new* spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Matthew 26:28 For this is My blood of the *new* covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Mark 14:24 And He said to them, "This is My blood of the *new* covenant, which is shed for many."

Luke 22:20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the *new* covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."

John 13:34 A *new* commandment that I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in *newness* of life.

Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the *newness* of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the *renewing* of your mind...

2 Corinthians 3:6 God...who also made us sufficient as ministers of the *new* covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 4:16 Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being *renewed* day by day.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a *new* creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become *new*.

Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a *new* creation.

Ephesians 2:14-15 For He Himself is our peace...having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one *new* man from the two, thus making peace...

Ephesians 4:22-24 ...put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be *renewed* in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the *new* man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.

Colossians 3:9-10 ...you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the *new* man who is *renewed* in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

Titus 3:5 ...according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and *renewing* of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 8:8 "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a *new* covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah..." (Jer.31:31)

Hebrews 8:13 In that He says, "A *new* covenant," He has made the first obsolete.

Hebrews 9:15 He is the Mediator of the *new* covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 10:19-20 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a *new* and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh...

Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come...to Jesus the Mediator of the *new* covenant...

1 Peter 2:2 ...as *newborn* babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby...

2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for *new* heavens and a *new* earth in which righteousness dwells.

1 John 2:8 Again, a *new* commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

2 John 1:5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a *new* commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning; that we love one another.

Revelation 2:17 And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a *new* name written which no one knows except him who receives it.

Revelation 3:12 And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the *New* Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him My *new* name.

Revelation 14:3 And they sang as it were a *new* song before the throne...

Revelation 21:1 And I saw a *new* heaven and a *new* earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

Revelation 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, *New* Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things *new*."

Morning Has Broken - sung by Cat Stevens

Remembering The Jesus of Christmas - Audio

2011-12-24T15:14:00.001-06:00

This week's audio message:

Remembering The Jesus of Christmas

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Remembering The Jesus of Christmas

2011-12-24T15:13:00.001-06:00

It is Christmas Eve as I write.

And we all know the Christian warnings about remembering Jesus. Jesus is the reason for the season. Keep Christ in Christmas. And these cliches have become cliches because they are valid.

Still, the baby in a manger was just the beginning.

It's good to celebrate the birth of Christ. But the Son of God didn't come to earth for the purpose of being a baby. As He grew in years, He grew in wisdom and stature, as a man. He was and is God, but now God with us, Emmanuel.

And He came to us, dwelt with us, tabernacled with us, in a human body, on Earth, that He might die to pay for our sins, so that we might be saved, forgiven. And then He rose again from the dead, and lives today, in a body at the right hand of the Father, but by His Spirit in us, who believe in Him.

Have you ever done Bible memorization? I have.

If you have, one verse you probably haven't memorized is 2 Tim. 2:8.

It's something important that Paul the Apostle told his spiritual son and protege, Timothy. He tells Timothy to remember something. It's something that you wouldn't think Timothy would need to be reminded of. But he did need to be reminded of it, and so do you, and I.

2 Tim. 2:8:

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel.“

Why would Paul remind Timothy to remember Jesus?

1. To be strong in grace.

“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

Strong in the Grace? Sounds like a contradiction.

But life is tough, isn’t it? Timothy had things to do. And so do you.

These things require the grace of God. Remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh?

We can’t be strong in grace if we don’t remember Jesus, that He is alive (risen from the dead). He's not just a dead Savior, He is a living Savior, and may I say it like Jesus did?...He calls us his friends.

Can you imagine? We are FOJ's. Friends of Jesus. The Creator of the Universe, the Lord of all Creation, the almighty God, calls us His friends.

And the Lord wants us to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Do you ever hear preachers, or other Christian folks, all they talk about is sin? Now if you're preaching through the Bible and you come to something about sin, preach it. But do you notice how some think the most important subject in the world is sin? I'm talking about Christian brothers and sisters. They think the most important subject in the world is sin.

Now sin is important. As Christians we're against it, aren't we? But we don't need a huge amount of teaching about it, because we are very familiar with it, aren't we? It's not something we need to be constantly reminded of, or to be constantly dwelling on.

What we do need to be constantly reminded of, and to be dwelling on is Jesus Christ, and His astounding grace. That's what honors Christ, and that's what gives us the light to walk by, the light to walk in the Spirit. And the Bible says that when we walk by the Spirit we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

See how that works? If we dwell on sin, we end up trying to defeat it in the flesh, which just compounds the mess. It's like trying to clean honey off of your hand with your other hand, and both hands end up sticky with nowhere to go.

But if we dwell on Jesus, who gives us the water of life, He by grace fills us with His Spirit, and we walk with clean hands. It's grace we need to obsess over, not the Law and sin. And the grace will minimize the sin, as we realize freshly that we are not under Law but under grace, and we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ, Rom. 6:11.

"The Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." –John 1:17

2. Because of His past faithfulness.

Don’t you just love the Book of Psalms?

An entire Christian life could be spent meditating on the Psalms. Maybe no other book so exalts God as the powerful creator of the universe, and maybe no other book exalts God as the faithful provider of mercy for His children.

He is faithful.

And the Psalm-writers, mostly David, write over and over about remembering the Lord.

I want to mention some things the Psalmist says about the Lord, and just let them wash over you.

Take a few moments. Be still, and know He is God.

Remember Him for these things. His:

Loving-kindness
Mercy
Word
Salvation
Faithfulness
Deliverance
Justice
Compassion
Righteousness
Strength
Watchful eye
Blessing
Protection

We are so prone to forget these things, and partly because we are so prone to forget Him.

We live in a “now” world.

We have things to do, people to see, presents to buy, things to arrange, go go go!

And we've got problems, and we have them NOW.

And we know we will have more problems in the future.

And so we’re prone to worry.

But then we remember Jesus.
That He is born in Bethlehem.
That He died for us, for the forgiveness of our sins.
That He is risen.
That He is here.
And not just here, but in us (Christ in you, the hope of glory).

And we remember His faithfulness in the past.

How He rescued us from that storm of life (even a literal storm, maybe).
How He comforted us in that loss we had.
How we had this thorn in our flesh, but His grace was sufficient.
How we lost hope in a certain person and then God turned them around.
How we had that financial setback or lost that job, and He provided.
How we thought we just couldn’t get through that one thing, and He brought us through it.

And so we remember His past faithfulness to us.

We remember Him as we walk through the day, and we remember Him as we lie on our beds at night, like David did.

We remember Him as our Rock and our Fortress, and our Deliverer, and our Friend, and we long for Him like the deer who pants after the waterbrook.

And we love Him. We love Him.

And we remember that He loved us first. Even when we were unloveable. And maybe we don’t feel all that loveable even today. But He loves us anyway. And so we love Him.

I became a Christian in 1976.

Contemporary Christian Music was a brand new phenomenon.

Four years before I became a Christian, there was a man named John Fischer who wrote a song. And it’s a song I have never forgotten in 30 years. It’s simple, almost simplistic, but it sticks in your mind, and it blesses you, and then you realize how profound the simple little song is.

It’s called the “All Day Song”.

"Love Him in the morning when you see the sun arising,
Love Him in the evening ‘cause He took you through the day.
And in the in-between times when you feel the pressure coming,
Remember that He loves you and He promises to stay."

Have a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Merry Christmas.

Baby Jesus: 3 Reasons To Reject Him - Audio

2011-12-23T23:51:00.000-06:00

This week's audio message:

Baby Jesus: 3 Reasons To Reject Him

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Baby Jesus: 3 Reasons To Reject Him

2011-12-23T23:50:00.000-06:00

1. Virgins don’t have babies.

I mean, the whole idea is absurd. Remember the birds and the bees? Remember biology? Remember, the egg has to be fertilized by the seed, then grows until birth? How could a virgin have a baby without any seed to fertilize the egg?

2. Gods don’t humble themselves.

There has never been a humble God in history. From the beginnings of man in Mesopotamia, Gods aren’t humble. Gods can’t be humble. After all they’re gods. They are above men, they rule over men, they squash men at will, they fight with men, they dominate men.

To humble themselves would be to show weakness, to show that they’re really not gods. No god ever humbled himself and no god ever will.

3. Gods don’t make friends.

This goes along with number two. Gods don’t make friends because that would be to humble themselves. And they sure don’t make friends with man. What do they even have in common? Nothing. Gods are gods and men are men, and never the twain shall meet. The very idea of having a god as a friend is like a man having an amoeba for a friend. Not going to happen.

I didn’t actually see it, but I read about an episode of the TV show Thirtysomething. I never watched the show because by the time I even heard of it I was already Forty-something.

But this episode was about the character Hope, who was a Christian, arguing with her Jewish husband, Michael, about the holidays.

“Why do you even bother with Hanukkah?” she asks. “Do you really believe a handful of Jews held off a huge army by using a bunch of lamps that miraculously wouldn’t run out of oil?”

Michael shoots back, “Oh, and Christmas makes more sense? Do you really believe an angel appeared to some teenage girl who then got pregnant without ever having had sex and traveled on horseback to Bethlehem where she spent the night in a barn and had a baby who turned out to be the Savior of the world?”

Well, do you believe it, friend? I do.

Well, it wasn’t a horse that Mary rode to Bethlehem, it was a donkey. But the character Michael got it pretty accurate, otherwise, didn’t he?

And it’s got to be one of the most ridiculous-sounding stories ever to be written, that the writer actually expects you to believe. We’re not talking about some fiction writer telling of Hobbits or Jabba the Hutt, and hoping we’ll pretend to believe it just long enough to enjoy the story. We’re talking about serious theological guys who tell the story of the birth of Jesus without batting an eye, and expect us to believe it as true, down to the last bit.

Well, what about our three reasons to reject this baby Jesus?

Let’s take them one at a time.

1. Virgins don’t have babies.

It’s true they usually don’t. But think with me for a minute. Suppose God wanted to send a Savior to pay for the sins of men by sacrificing Himself on a cross, dying to take our sins on Him so that He could give us the free gift of His righteousness, so that we would be saved from Hell, and have eternal life, everlasting life eventually with God in heaven.

Well, there’s one little problem with that. After Adam sinned in the Garden, sin, or the sinful nature, was forever passed on to everyone who ever lived since, and that sin was passed on, the Bible says, through the seed of man.

But a Savior for man would have to be sinless. A sinner can’t pay the sacrifice for another sinner. To satisfy or appease God’s just wrath against sin, the sacrifice must be perfect, sinless, not only without having committed any sins, but without even a sinful nature. In other words, righteous.

And the sacrifice that God the Father sent, was God the Son. The perfect candidate for sacrifice. Pure, righteous, sinless, and with no sin nature.

But that brings up another problem. How does God the Son get to earth to get this done. After all, since it was by a man that we fell or inherited our sinful nature, it must be a man who sheds His blood in our place for our forgiveness and salvation.

But if Jesus were born as a man in the normal way, then sin would pass on from His earthly dad, through his earthly dad’s seed. Got that? The sinful nature always passes on through the seed of the man.

So God did a miracle, a small miracle for Him really, but one with a huge impact on history. He implanted, miraculously a seed into Mary, which the Bible then calls “the seed of the woman” (see, not the seed of a man). This miraculous seed joined with Mary’s egg, and you know the rest. A sinless baby boy was born. Not only sinless in not ever committing a sin, but sinless in not even having a sinful nature, like the rest of us.

So not only did this virgin have a baby, but it couldn’t have been any other way, or the baby could not have been sinless.

2. Gods don’t humble themselves.

It’s true in human history, that those called gods in verbal stories and written literature never humble themselves. But let me say a couple things about that.

First, they are not really gods, of course. The Bible clearly says there is only one God. There is only one true God who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and everything that is in the earth. The Bible says that this one God is in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s what theologians have named the Trinity. But there is only one God.

And so all those so-called gods who never humbled themselves, are just made-up stories and superstitions of fictional gods, or in some cases, may be actual beings which we call fallen angels or demons. And anybody knows, no demon is going to humble himself.

But the true God of the Bible did humble Himself.

George Herbert, the poet and Anglican priest of the 1600’s put it poetically like this:

"The God of power, as he did ride
In his majestick robes of glorie
Resolv’d to light; and so one day
He did descend, undressing all the way."

This “undressing all the way” is nothing more than the humbling of the mighty Creator of the universe. This Creator God who spread trillions of galaxies into space, and made the atoms and neutrons and electrons and quasars and army ants and the aardvarks who would eat them; this almighty, all-knowing, all-wise Jehovah God, because He so loved us, humbled Himself.

And came to earth, Emmanuel, God with us. Came to earth as the most helpless creature there is, a baby.

A real baby, by the way. Don’t believe the Christmas carol that says “no crying he makes”. I’m sure He cried alright. And he kicked and cooed, and drooled, and He couldn’t have lived more than a few hours if He wasn’t cared for.

But He grew, and because He was a real baby, He grew to be a real man. He was really God, too. But He set aside the glory and rights that He had as God. Could we dare say, "like a man becoming an amoeba"? Probably not. But it was the most astounding humbling that the world has ever seen.

And it had to be that way, but He didn’t have to do it. The Bible says He did it because He loves us. And He loves us because He chose to love us, before the creation of the world. How’s that for a mystery? He didn’t love us because we’re so lovable, He loved us because He is love, and He chose to love us.

The Bible says He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.

An explosion of glorious love as big as God, resulting in a baby away in a manger, no crib for his bed.

3. Gods don’t make friends.

Have you seen the bumper sticker, “The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog.”

It’s a sad point, really, but one that we can understand. People are fearfully and wonderfully made, the Bible says, but the same Bible says "Cursed is he who trusts in man.”

Or how about the cynical little verse, “To dwell above with saints we love, O that will be glory. But to dwell below with saints we know, well that’s a different story.”

What God in His right mind would want to be friends with us?

I would contend that the Bible teaches that God not only loved us when we weren’t lovable, but he chose to befriend us when we were his enemies.

Thankfully, Mary didn’t say to the angel, “Are you crazy?” O.K., she did say, “But I’ve never been with a man.” So she wasn’t gullible. But you know what she was? She was godly. And so she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

She wasn’t gullible and she wasn’t stupid. She had to have known instinctively what she was in for. The humiliation, the doubts even from loved ones, the shame for her betrothed, Joseph, the jeers and stares and tsk tsk’s. But she did what a godly girl should do. She said in effect, “Thy will be done.”

When we read what’s called the "Magnificat", Mary’s beautiful words in Luke Chapter 1 which begin with, “My soul magnifies the Lord”, we see that her language is filled with the Psalms. This tells us that she was probably raised in a Bible-believing home. And this too was part of God’s wonderful plan.

Malcolm Muggeridge, commenting on our modern Roe v. Wade society wrote,

“It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable, under existing conditions, that Jesus would have been permitted to be born at all. Mary’s pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion; and her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger. Thus our generation, needing a Savior more, perhaps, than any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born.”

But God worked it out, didn’t He?

With a baby in a manger, who was Himself God, yet man.

And the man grew in wisdom and stature, and He suffered beyond imagination as He shed His blood and died. And by shedding His blood and dying, and rising again from the dead, this man who is also God, became a friend to those who had been His enemies.

This is His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of friends of God.

Friends of God are those who have been born again. They are those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And they are those who have given up working and striving to earn God’s love and favor, but accepted the free gift of His love and forgiveness and salvation, by grace.

Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

As of this message, it’s close to Christmas. The day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. And once again, we are reminded of three wonderful things.

A virgin did have a baby.

And our God did humble Himself.

And the one true almighty God has made us His friends.

Happy Birthday Jesus...and thanks.

The Cradle, The Cross and The Tomb

2011-12-21T10:20:00.003-06:00

The Cradle is empty, because Jesus had to grow up a righteous man, fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah, and take our sins on Himself, that we might be made the righteousness of God.

The Cross is empty, because when He said, "It is finished", it was. And He died.

The Tomb is empty, because death could not hold Jesus, and He is risen, and in some mysterious way is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, making intercession for us, and yet amazingly dwells in His children, "Christ in you, the hope of glory".

The Cradle, the Cross and the Tomb are all empty, that we might be filled with His Life.

Have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year, remembering that nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Denying Self

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

by Michele Rayburn

By the time I came to know the Lord at the age of 23, I had already lived a life without the Lord that had left me in "a world of hurt".

As a new Christian and for many years to come, I had to learn what it meant to die to self.

I had to understand Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...", and Matthew 16:24 where Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

My husband would often remind me to "deny self" and to "die to self". And after many failed attempts to do so, I finally said, "I can't die to self myself. That is something that only the Lord can do. I can't do it in my own flesh, but only by His Spirit."

It was when I finally let go of trying to do the work that only the Holy Spirit could do, that I began to grow in His grace.

I learned that not only can I not change others, but I can't even change myself.

And so I learned to entrust the Lord with all the unreconciled hurts of the past. And I also learned to care only about what the Lord thought of me.

And what the Lord thought of me, as His child, was that I was totally loved and accepted by Him always. When a child of God can rest in knowing that, they can then begin to grow in His grace.

I think that if the true grace of God has been shown to us, it will cause us to show grace to others. And that's when we as Christians will begin to love others unconditionally, just as God loves us.

"...for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T21:53:00.006-06:00

A Few Things For Believers To Thank The Lord For
-Eternal life

-Peace with God

-The peace of God

-Forgiveness

-Love shed abroad in our hearts

-The promise of Heaven

-The indwelling Holy Spirit

-Ability to approach God in prayer

-The promise to be like Him someday

-Freedom from the power of sin

-The ability to understand the Scriptures by His Spirit

-The fruit of the Spirit

-Gifts of the Spirit

-Unity with other believers

-The promise to reign with Christ

-Adoption as sons of God

-The promise that God is working all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose

-The promise of eternal security in our salvation

Reservation Legalism - A Cultic Form Of Legalism

2011-11-16T15:35:00.006-06:00

There is a form of legalism which is so subtle that most people wouldn't even notice that it's legalism at all. And yet it is extremely powerful.

I mean “extremely powerful” in the sense that it causes Christians to be fake, phony and stifled.

Now when a Christian is fake, phony and stifled, something happens. They quench the Holy Spirit, and live as though they were of the world.

You may be asking at this point, “Terry, what in the world are you talking about?” Okay, let me jump into this subject.

Off The Reservation

You may be familiar with the phrase “off the reservation”. It is a sort of politically incorrect statement originally referring to a Native American, otherwise known as an Indian, who has left the reservation and has become rebellious to one degree or another.

The “reservation”, of course, is the piece of land that was reserved for the Native American to live on. Having usually been kicked off of his original land, but that's another story.

He was given a place to live, which was often not the best place, and which could even be considered a form of incarceration. For him to travel off of the “reservation” was considered an act of disobedience or rebellion against the Government, and he could be punished, or even engaged in battle.

Anyway, the term has come to refer to anyone who has a different view from some sort of group. He is an oddball. One who doesn't go along with the crowd. Theoretically, he may be right or wrong, but the point is that he doesn't go along with the majority, and so he is considered at least a rebel or maverick, if not an outright enemy.

A Cultic Form of Legalism

I say all that to say this. There is a form of legalism that is not just unfortunate, but cultic. It is a form of legalism that keeps a Christian from being able to dig into the Scriptures and think.

It keeps a Christian from exploring the meaning of Scripture to see if it really means what the group has always thought it meant, because if he questions whether it means what the group has always thought it meant, he will be thought of as “off the reservation”.

End of thought.
End of inquiry.
End of exploration.
End of being a Berean.

You remember the Bereans were applauded by Paul the Apostle, because they not only welcomed the preaching of the Word, but they also searched the Word to see if the preaching really was accurate. To see if the preaching matched up to the Word of God.

This Berean attitude is often applauded today by those who teach the Word. They exhort us to be Bereans. To not just accept anything we hear preached, but to examine the Scriptures to see if what is preached is really true. The term “Berean” is typically used as a compliment. “He is a Berean”, or “she is a Berean”, meaning that they are discerning, and not easily fooled by a false teacher, because they check it out against the Scriptures.

However, when that ugly spirit of Reservation Legalism rears its head, the Berean spirit is quenched. If you are a part of a certain group, and you even begin to question the way that something is usually taught, you are likely to be considered an oddball, if not an outright heretic. Not for teaching false teaching, but for even questioning the way it's always been taught.

An Example

I hesitate to give examples, but I feel like I must, in order to really get the point across. So here's one example:

Suppose you are a Covenant Theologian. And so you have been taught that the Ten Commandments are not only operative for today, but that they are the “rule of life” for the believer. And that the Fourth Commandment, to keep the Sabbath, is one of these rules that the believer is to follow even today.

And suppose that you are reading some Scripture that seems to indicate that the Sabbath is no longer binding on Christians under the New Covenant, but that the Sabbath in the Old Covenant was symbolic of our rest in Jesus. That is, our rest from our works as a means of earning God's salvation, or His love and favor.

And suppose that you want to discuss this question with someone from your group. Are you free to examine this Scripture? Are you free to question whether a Christian today is to follow the Sabbath, and cease from working on Sunday? Or are you free to question whether the Sabbath was ever changed from Saturday (the seventh day) to Sunday in the first place?

The answer is “no”, you are not free to question the group's belief.

Of course you may question it, but you are not really "free" to do so, because you will be thought of as “off the reservation”, and the group pressure to stay “on the reservation” is fierce. To even attempt to discuss it is to mark you.

You are not free, because you know in your heart that if you even bring the subject up, you will be thought of as “weak” in some way. You will be thought of as someone who is not strong on doctrine, someone who is not discerning. Someone who may even be a troublemaker, who is not “one of us”. Someone who is “off the reservation”.

I hope that gives you a feel for the concept I'm talking about. It's very subtle, yet I believe it is one of the most prevalent forms of legalism, and one of the most destructive.

If you are not free to go before the Lord and study His Word, and question whether your group is right or wrong, without your group thinking you are not “one of them”, then you may hurt your own spiritual growth by suppressing the truth in some way, or outright denying what you see as true, according to the Scriptures.

Many years ago, I heard Dallas Theological Seminary professor Howard Hendricks define “friendship”. He said a real friend is someone you can share your worst heresies with. Think about that. That's pretty good.

We all have questions or thoughts from time to time, that make us question whether our most cherished doctrines are true. And it's good that we ideally have others who can correct us when we're clearly wrong, or at least sharpen some iron with us by discussing it.

But when that same person subtly or not-so-subtly makes us feel like we would be somehow a traitor or an undiscerning fool if we brought up an opposing view for consideration – well, we just don't bring it up. And so we lose not only the chance to hash it out together and see if it might be true or false, but we lose the courage that it takes to question the way it's always been.

The loss of courage in these things is a very serious thing, because when we cower from examining the Scripture and questioning the group, because we want to fit in with the group, error often takes hold, a cultic attitude develops, and we think more of the group's opinion of us than we do of God's truth.

When we fear going “off the reservation”, even if we think the reservation is wrong, truth suffers, we suffer, and those whom we might have helped suffer. And the guardians of the reservation are puffed up and proud, having saved another soul from drifting off the reservation.

But hopefully you are different. You don't want to be obnoxious, but you want to be courageous. You don't want to be someone's thorn in the side, but you want to be truthful. You don't want to go off the reservation just to be a troublemaker, but you don't fear going off the reservation if you think it is right and true, either.

Which brings me to the subject of reservation legalism and grace.

Reservation Legalism & Grace

See, when you really begin to get a handle on grace; when you really begin to understand the Scriptural principle that we are no longer under law, but under grace; when you really begin to understand that your performance isn't the basis of God's love for you, then you are veering off the reservation of most churches, who desperately need to be set free from their bondage of performance-based Christianity.

And when you begin to realize that you are no longer a sinner as far as your biblical identity, but that you are a new creation who loves Jesus and hates sin;

when you begin to realize that you are righteous because God declared you to be righteous when you believed in Jesus Christ;

and that you are righteous apart from your performance or your obedience;

then you are wandering off the reservation of most churches, who are so focused on their sin that they can't really see their Savior.

And when you come to realize that, although doctrine is important, without love doctrine is empty;

without the life of Jesus living through us, doctrine is cold and dead;

without the fullness of the Spirit, doctrine is an academic graveyard;

without a warm fellowship with Christ, doctrine kills; and

without seeing Jesus in every part of the Word of God, even the Word of God is just a bunch of facts, and history, and rules;

when you come to realize that, [then] you are so far off the reservation that those cold sterile pushers of what they consider perfect doctrine, think there is no help for you.

Yet it is they who need help. It is they who need to understand Galatians 2:20 when it says that we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us.

At worst, you will be called a heretic, one way or another. At best, you might be looked at with suspicion, and you might not be understood. But what they will understand is that you're different. What they will understand is that you are not on the reservation. That you have wandered over the line to another land that doesn't fit with their group-think. That you don't line up with their Christian guru or their cultic Seminary culture.

Unlike Howard Hendricks, they don't think that a friend is someone you can share your worst heresies with. They think a friend is someone who will be so horrified if you even mention the possibility of another view, that he will pounce on you and do his best to herd you back onto the reservation.

That, friends, is reservation legalism.

How To Fight Reservation Legalism

Here are three things to do in order to combat Reservation Legalism:

1. First, walk in the Spirit.

You be in fellowship with Jesus. You be filled with the Spirit. You commune with the Lord and practice His presence day by day. Without Him you can do nothing. But with Him nothing is impossible, including shaking off reservation legalism. This close fellowship with Christ is the foundation for the next two points.

2. Be courageous.

Always strive to be true to Scripture, but always have the courage to put your honest understanding of Scripture above what any person or group has established as politically correct. Even if they shun you. Even if they look at you funny. Even if they wonder about your faith. Die to self, and follow Jesus. Now there's someone who was off the reservation.

3. Err on the side of love.

You won't do this thing perfectly. Love one another, in Christ. Be humble off the reservation. Don't flaunt your freedom. Don't be a rebel for rebellion's sake. Don't scoff at those who have not come to understand what you have.

Don't be a grace Pharisee, pouncing on everyone for every single statement that could be seen as legalistic. Even though they may be wrong, graciously give them line upon line, precept upon precept, gently leading them toward the truth, as best you can.

Perhaps the day may come when they join you "off the reservation".

Celebrating Halloween With Abraham, Martin and John

2011-10-31T07:49:00.001-05:00

This week's audio message:

Celebrating Halloween With Abraham, Martin and John

Celebrating Halloween With Abraham, Martin and John (Transcript)

2011-10-31T07:48:00.002-05:00

In America Halloween is celebrated on October 31st. I don’t particularly like Halloween, especially its occult aspects, but that’s a message for another time.

I want to tell you a brief story of God’s grace.

Reformation Day

You see, October 31st is also Reformation Day, when we celebrate the light that dawned when the so-called Reformers began to break out of the darkness of Roman Catholicism, and once again began to preach salvation by grace through faith.

It was more than 490 years ago [1517 A.D.] that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the big wooden door of the Wittenburg Church, denouncing the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church, in which the souls of dead people were supposedly purchased out of the mythical Purgatory, or their time in Purgatory was shortened.

It was an evil practice, which preyed on the fears and superstition of the people, and made them poorer as the so-called Church grew richer.

Abraham

But I want to begin our story much farther back in time, to a man called Abraham.

Abraham was called by God out of Ur of the Chaldees, a pagan land with a pagan superstitious culture. God called Abraham away from his people and his culture, to begin a whole new people and culture, which eventually culminated in the nation Israel, and eventually the promised Messiah of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the reason I want to begin with Abraham is because of a covenant that God made with Abraham. And this covenant became the forerunner to what we now call the New Covenant.

God promised Abraham that he would become a mighty nation, that he would have millions of descendants, through which the world would be blessed. Now the whole story is too long to tell here, but there was one little problem.

Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, childless. And the years had passed, and Abraham had assumed that his heir would be someone from his household staff. This was customary when there was no offspring.

Let’s read the promise of God from Genesis Chapter 15, verse 4 and following:

“Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.’ And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’”

Now Abraham could either believe that or not. Did he believe it?

Well, let’s fast-forward to the book of Romans and see what Paul wrote to the Romans about it, and at the same time we’ll learn a very important Bible truth about salvation.

In Romans 4:3,5 we read,

“For what does the Scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” “...but to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.”

Through the story of Abraham we learn something that has always been true:

Salvation is a free gift from God, through believing God. Or as the Bible says, by grace (that’s the free gift), through faith (that’s believing God).

And this salvation was paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross when he paid for our sins. The Bible says He became sin for us, so that we could become the righteousness of God.

In other words, He paid the price, so that we could be declared or reckoned righteous by God, Who gave us the gift of His own righteousness, when we believed in Jesus Christ.

There is no other way, and there never has been.

Even the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, the Bible says in Hebrews 10:4. All the blood of the sacrifices of Israel did were to temporarily cover the sins of the people until the time that the Messiah could shed His blood to pay for and take away sins.

But salvation was always by grace (a free gift) through believing God.
Now let’s fast-forward a few hundred years beyond Paul and the other Apostles, who taught this beautiful Gospel, good news, that whoever believes in Jesus Christ would be saved by grace through faith.

The Roman Catholic Church

The organized Church became infected more and more with the world’s view of religion. What is the world’s view of religion? It’s simply this: we must DO something, some obedience, some ritual, some work to EARN the favor or love or salvation of God. Salvation couldn’t be a gift, so it must be earned in some way.

And every religion of the world, except true Christianity, has that in common. Some aspects of doing good works or rituals to attain heaven, or Nirvana, or eternal life, or whatever.

And although the Church has always had that evil Legalism influence knocking at its door, after around 400 A.D. it became more and more of an organized Legalism, built into the very documents and teachings of the Church.

And on into the rightly-called Dark Ages, and into the Middle Ages, it became the norm. The headquarters of the organized Church became Rome, with its Bishop known as the Pope, and the Roman Catholic Church held its grip on most of the then-known world.

And without going into great detail, the basic doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church was that of works plus "grace", or what they called "grace". It really wasn’t grace at all, because as the Scripture says,

“But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” (Romans 11:6)

In other words, if you add works to grace, as a requirement for salvation, then it’s not really grace at all. Because grace means “free gift”, and if you have to add works to get a free gift it’s not a free gift.

That was the problem with the Galatians, and Paul minced no words when he told them that by mixing grace and works, they not only were corrupting grace, but they were believing in another gospel, which is not really a gospel at all, and those who taught such a thing were accursed.

This is still, by the way, the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church today. You will hear their leaders talk about salvation by grace, or salvation by faith, or talk about justification, or the merits of Christ, or the mercy of God, even the Bible and the authority of the Bible.

But despite the twisted terminology, the final result is a teaching that it’s not grace by itself or faith by itself by which we are saved, but grace plus works, faith plus works.

Martin

Well, we come in our story to a Roman Catholic monk named Martin.

By his own admission, there was never a monk who strived any harder than Martin to gain God’s favor. There was never a monk who worked any harder, drove himself any farther, punished himself any more than Martin Luther.

But no matter how he worked and strived and prayed and worked and strived and prayed, he had no peace. And the reason was that he understood how righteous and holy God was, and that man’s works can never gain favor from such a perfect and righteous and holy God.

He was somewhat awakened to the corruption of the Church when he saw the practice of indulgences being stepped up drastically to pay for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The building program was financed by indulgences being sold to the people. And the chief salesman was a man named Tetzel.

Luther was appalled at the crass misuse of power and superstition, and nailed his complaint to the Church door as his 95 Theses.

But that was not Luther’s most important enlightenment. As a student of the Scriptures, he studied the books of Galatians and Romans intently. And he began to see something in the Scriptures, and finally the light dawned on him, as God opened his heart, just as he had opened the heart of Abraham, and millions of others since.

What Luther saw, what was revealed to Him by God through the Scriptures, was that salvation was not earned in any way, but was a free gift of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.

And it set Luther on fire.

In this modern day of gospel books and Bibles on every desk and shelf in America, we may take it for granted. But Luther was living in a day when the light of the gospel had almost been put out for hundreds of years. Darkness had settled in so deeply that when Luther began teaching salvation by grace alone through faith alone, HE was the one who was considered a heretic.

But by God’s grace, the Reformation had begun with gusto. Luther had meant to Reform the Roman Catholic Church, but they would have none of it. And thus the so-called Protestant Church became a whole new thing.

Through Martin Luther, and other Reformers, the Bible was widely spread in the language of the people. Formerly it had only been widely available in Latin, and many leaders had meant it to stay that way, so that doctrine could only be dispensed through them, twisted as they made it. But as people were able to read the clear teaching of Scripture, the good news spread.

John

One of the most influential of the Reformers was John Calvin, who headquartered in Geneva [Switzerland]. Another intense student of the Bible, by the time he was only 27 years old, he wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion, and became one of the key streams for the spread of the grace message throughout Europe in this exciting time.

There were many others who caught fire with this light of the gospel that God blasted onto the earth in a new setting. Names like Zwingli, and Melanchton, and Knox. It was Knox who prayed, “Lord give me Scotland or I die.” And Scotland was revolutionized by the gospel.

Not to be thoroughly run out of town, the Roman Catholic Church lashed back with Inquisitions and persecutions designed to maintain its power and the false gospel of faith plus works. Many were tortured, burned at the stake, or otherwise martyred for the simple gospel of salvation by grace through faith. But the blood of these martyrs became the seed of the church, which grew rapidly.

And out of this storm survived some basic truths that we celebrate alongside Halloween, some 500 years later. Despite Halloween winning the popularity contest in our culture, I invite you to join me in celebrating what has become known as the Five Solas.

Five Solas

The first is Sola Gratia, by grace alone. Our salvation has to be a free gift of grace, because our own righteousnesses are as filthy rags, useless in securing our salvation in any way.

Another is Sola Fide, by faith alone. Faith will always be followed by works, but the works are never the requirement or instrument of our salvation.

Another is Solus Christus, by Christ alone. Only by the work of Christ, in shedding his blood and dying on the cross, may we be saved by grace through faith in Him. There is no other way to the Father except by Him, Jesus Himself said.

Another is Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone. The Scriptures, the Bible, is the only authority we have from God for ultimate truth. Because it came by revelation from God, it is true, and He reveals to His children the truth of the Scriptures, and there is no other authority for doctrinal truth, including the Church itself.

And one more, Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God alone. That is the heart song of the redeemed, that He might be glorified in our lives. And He is.

One glimpse of the glory of the Lord makes the glory of the greatest Medieval Cathedral, or the glory of the splendor of the Vatican and its gold and fancy dress, fade by comparison.

Celebrate with me, and Abraham, and Martin and John, the Reformation, and the bright light of the gospel of grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are Christians Nothing?

2011-10-23T10:07:00.006-05:00

Some of you might be shocked to learn that Charles Spurgeon was human, and not inerrant :)

Someone posted the following on Facebook, quoting the beloved Spurgeon:

"I know I am nothing,” say you. Yes, but you would not even have had grace enough to know you were nothing if God had not given it to you. To be nothing is ours by nature: but to know that we are nothing and to confess that we are nothing is a gift of his grace.” --C.H. Spurgeon

Now before you shout, "Yeah! I'm nothing!", please read my response:

=============================================

This common pseudo-humility idea that we are "nothing" is quite unbiblical.

Jesus has made us believers saints, holy ones, sons of God, friends of Christ, His bride, and His beloved -- and has declared us righteous. The Father has even given us to the Son as a gift!

True, we never deserved it, but that's beside the point, which is that we have been made FAR from "nothing".

Even Spurgeon himself acknowledged as much, in other more biblical sermons. He was alas conflicted in some of these things, due to a sort of self-abasement infection he got from his immersion in the legalistic Puritans.

I believe this was the source of Spurgeon's depression, which I addressed here:

http://goo.gl/0rQ1G

Here are examples of Spurgeon preaching the real truth, when he was in his right mind: :)

"What a high relationship is that of a son to his father! What privileges a son has from his father! What liberties a son may take with his father! and oh! what obedience the son owes to his father, and what love the father feels towards the son! But all that, and more than that, we now have through Christ. 'Behold!' ye angels! stop, ye seraphs! here is a thing more wonderful than heaven with its walls of jasper. Behold, universe! open thine eyes, O world. 'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God;'" - C.H. Spurgeon

"...he made us kings and priests, virtually, when he signed the covenant of grace....'and hast made us unto our God kings and priests.' The most honorable of all monarchs have ever been esteemed to be those who had a right not only to royal, but to sacerdotal supremacy—those kings who could wear at one time the crown of loyalty, and at another the mitre of the priesthood, who could both use the censer and hold the sceptre—who could offer intercession for the people, and then govern the nations. Those who are kings and priests are great indeed; and here you behold the saint honored, not with one title, or one office, but with two. He is made not a king merely, but a king and a priest; not a priest merely, but a priest and a king. The saint has two offices conferred upon him at once, he is made a priestly monarch, and a regal priest." - C.H. Spurgeon

Should we brag and give ourselves glory for what He has made us? Of course not. "What do you have, O man, that you have not received?" All glory should go to Him who has done it.

Three Things That Revolutionized My Christian Life

2011-10-15T08:08:00.000-05:00

By Michele Rayburn

There are three things that have revolutionized my Christian life and walk: God’s unconditional love, God’s total forgiveness, and a Christ-centered life.

1. God’s Unconditional Love

“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

This one thing alone revolutionized my Christian walk…knowing that God loves me no matter what. I do not feel insecure in His love for me. I am not afraid that He will stop loving me. And because I believe that I am secure in His love for me, His love compels me to keep pressing on, and I am better able to experience the blessings that come with it, namely the fruit of the Spirit…the love, joy, peace.

2. God’s Total Forgiveness

When we understand God’s total forgiveness, then we will be set free to receive His love. I think it would be almost impossible to receive God’s love if we do not believe that we are totally forgiven of past, present and future sins.

The Lord said that He will “remember our sins no more”. He paid for our sins. He is not looking to condemn us over and over again when we sin for “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1). And “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

Our sins are not just temporarily covered, but we have been permanently redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. He will not hold our sins against us. So we should walk in the joy of His forgiveness.

3. A Christ-Centered Life

We need to realize our new standing in Christ, that we are new creations, righteous, holy, Saints, “no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:7; see also Romans 6:6-23).

2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new….For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

When we “fix our eyes on Jesus” rather than on our sin, when we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord, sin will not reign in our mortal bodies (Romans 6:11-12).

A Christ-centered life, rather than a sin-centered life has given me the spiritual strength that I need to live for Christ.

Lydia The Purple Seller And Wishful Thinking About Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T12:48:00.001-05:00

"A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and THE LORD OPENED HER HEART to respond to the things spoken by Paul." - Acts 16:14

Just as the Lord opened the heart of Lydia as she pondered the Word of the Lord regarding Jesus Christ, so He opened my heart in 1976 as I pondered the same Old Old Story, late at night in a real estate office.

Indeed we can conclude from many Scriptures that none are saved unless the Lord opens their heart through the preaching [speech, tract, book, etc.] of the good news that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ -- indeed God came to Earth as a man, in the flesh -- and that this Jesus died on a cross for our sins, and was buried and rose again from the dead.

And that whoever believes in Him has eternal life, is saved from the eternal punishment due those who reject their Creator, as a free gift, by grace through faith.

It is highly unlikely that Steve Jobs has not heard and considered this good news, this gospel.

And no one knows if perhaps at some last moment of consciousness, God opened his heart -- like He did mine -- like He did Lydia's.

I'm not talking "likelihood" here.

I'm not talking about Las Vegas odds.

I'm talking about the Sovereignty of the Almighty God, who does whatever HE pleases (Ps. 115:3).

Only legalists would be miffed at God if He did that.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:8,9

What Do We Have To DO To Be "In Christ"?

2011-09-26T11:17:00.003-05:00

(A beautiful print of this may be ordered here: http://goo.gl/yhYFK - not an affiliate link.)

I saw a comment on someone's social media that kind of surprised me.

Responding to a good posting about our new identity in Christ, the commenter objected to the idea that we can be "in Christ" without sorta earning it by our actions.

His main point went like this:

"To be IN Him though, we need to read the Word, go to church and discover more of Jesus through a truly intimate relationship."

Here's the response I made to Him:

=================================
Whoa, [name withheld to save embarrassment :)]- Go here: http://olivetree.com/cgi-bin/EnglishBible.htm?version=nasb&help=search - do an exact word search for "in christ" (without the quotation marks) and you will see that being "in Christ" is a once-for-all state that we enter immediately upon our salvation -- before we read the Word, go to church, or anything else.

Particularly, look at Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 1:30 ("by HIS doing you are in Christ"); 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 3:28; Eph 2:6,10; etc., just for starters.

You will not find ANY verse that indicates that we GET "in Christ" by doing any acts of any kind.
==================================

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised at all, considering how much "performance-based Christianity" (earning the love and favor of the Lord from our DOING) has infected the Church.

The point is, at the moment when we are saved by grace through faith, we are "in Christ"...forever. And of course, He is in us, as well :)

SIDENOTE to those who might be enquiring about Jesus Christ -- the Good News is this:

"God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting (eternal) life."

Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day.

The Bible says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved", and "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Will you believe in Him and call on Him today?

Jesus himself said, "If any man will come to me, I will in no way cast him out."

If you would like to look at Jesus further, I recommend beginning with the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible. God bless you.

What Do You See When You See People?

2011-09-05T10:51:00.004-05:00

If the Bible is true (and it is) we live in a world that is in many ways stranger than a Science Fiction movie.

For example, we know that there are spirit beings around us in the air. Normally they are invisible to our eyes, but there are times in history when they have visibly manifested themselves. They are called "angels" (messengers) of God.

Most are good. It was an angel that announced to Mary that she would bear a son, even though she had never known a man.

Some are evil. These are called "demons" by the Bible.

Another example of how we live in a world stranger than Science Fiction is this: there is no such thing as Luck.

"The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD." - Proverbs 16:33. In modern times we might say, "Man throws the dice, or deals the cards, or spins the roulette wheel, but the Sovereign Lord has decreed before time what the outcome will be.

"The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. - Proverbs 16:9.

This is called Providence. And obviously we can't fully understand it. But we know it's true.

Here is a beautiful and touching reminder that the Lord has sovereignly put into our paths people, and as the song says, "People need the Lord".

Take 4 minutes and see if it softens your heart as it did mine.

Do We Have A King?

2011-08-30T12:09:00.001-05:00

I was reading Psalm 47 this morning, and was reminded what a horrible statement was made by those Israelites who called for the crucifixion of Jesus.

What was the horrible statement?

After they shouted "Crucify him!", Pontius Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?"

And here was the awful statement they shouted:

"We have no King but Caesar."

They were schooled in the Scriptures and knew better. But they chose to have the King of Kings crucified.

So they entered the Spin Zone, and intimidated Pilate (who recognized Jesus was innocent) by reminding him that if he didn't do their murder for them, he would be in trouble with King Caesar.

"For the LORD Most High is to be feared,
A great KING over all the earth."

"Sing praises to our KING,
sing praises.
For God is the KING of all the earth;"
-- Psalm 47, selected passages

Reversing The Reformation - How Some So-Called Protestants Are Subtly Undermining Justification By Faith

2011-08-19T11:54:00.001-05:00

Note: This is re-posted from October 30, 2009. I want to add an important point: Much as I am reluctant to recommend studying the writings of neo-legalists...if you DO, you must remember one thing...they are false teachers, and false teachers almost always "blow smoke" (at best), confuse, and outright lie. This is important, because typically these neo-legalists will SAY that they believe in Justification By Faith, fooling the unstudied or gullible. By redefining "justification" and "faith", they can say it with a straight face, and defend themselves when confronted with their own writings DENYING biblical justification, and promoting works salvation. This re-definition and deceit is similar to the statement in the document of "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" which declares that Justification is "by grace through faith", yet is signed by Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church -- Cardinals who also subscribe to the canons declaring anathema on those who believe this.

October 31 is Reformation Day, celebrating the Protestant Reformation, when the biblical gospel of grace was re-introduced to the Church at large.

The Roman Catholic Church held an almost monopolistic grip on the hearts of millions of people for hundreds of years.

Through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, the awful legalistic system of "salvation by works" nearly choked out the light of the Gospel of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only small pockets of true believers in Christ escaped the dark heavy blanket of Romanism.

Then around 500 years ago came what we call the Reformation.

Men like Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and Knox, intense students of the Scriptures, rose up and shined the light of the Gospel into the darkness of European Catholicism.

These brave men brought an end to the monopoly of the Popes. They boldly proclaimed that salvation was

by grace alone, not by merit;

by faith alone, not by works;

by faith in Christ alone, not in sacraments;

under the final authority of the Word of God alone, not the unscriptural teachings of the Bishops of Rome.

The Central Point of the Reformation

The central point of the Reformation is what we call Justification by Faith. This is the sublime and simple truth that when we believe in Jesus Christ we are “justified” or “declared righteous” by God. This means that we are fully in right standing with God, our sins forgiven and no longer held against us.

This is accomplished because God judged our sins in Christ on the Cross, and gave us the “gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17) by imputing the righteousness of Christ to us, when we believe in Christ.

As 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Romans Chapter 5:1,2 gives us the result of this wonderful act of the Lord:

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

The Permanence of Justification

When we are justified, declared righteous by God, it is forever. It is permanent. And it occurs at the moment when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we believe the Gospel.

The "gift of righteousness" can never be taken away, because it is part of a package deal, to put it crudely. This righteousness is given to us by grace through faith, and that is “not of yourselves” and “not of works” (Ephesians 2:8,9). Even the very faith by which we believe in Jesus Christ is a gift given by God through the New Birth, regeneration.

This “imputed righteousness” contrasts starkly with the unbiblical Roman Catholic teaching that one is actually “made righteous” (“infused righteousness”) through the sacraments like Baptism, and the Eucharistic Mass, and through meritorious good works -- and that this so-called righteousness leaks out through sinning, and therefore can be lost, thereby damning the soul of the one who fails to maintain his “righteousness” by his works and attendance to the sacraments.

In Come the Neo-Legalists

The Reformation did not, of course, abolish Roman Catholicism. This cult of works salvation has continued these many years, and still thrives today.

But until recently one could more or less count on Protestant Bible teachers to uphold Justification by Faith Alone. One could more or less count on Protestant Bible teachers to oppose the so-called Justification of Rome, where grace and works are mixed, making it “no longer grace” (Romans 11:6).

But back in the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a professor at Westminster Seminary named Norman Shepherd. In 1975 some of his former students were being questioned for ordination, and when the question “How is a sinner justified?” was asked, they answered, “By faith and works.” Shocked questioners traced their answer back to their professor, Norman Shepherd.

Shepherd was allowed to teach for six more years, a disgrace in itself, but was finally released in 1981, the proverbial dung having hit the fan hard enough. Even then, several professors who then agreed with Shepherd were allowed to remain, teaching hundreds of students who spread the cancer yet today.

The big foot of undermining Justification by Faith had been stuck in the door, and the result has mushroomed into several full-blown ministries and movements, some directly from Westminster, and some relatively independent.

Allow me to name some names and then I will attempt to capsulize the kernel of the heresy.

Pioneering writers include E.P. Sanders, N.T. Wright, Steve Schlissel, Steve Wilkins, Douglas Wilson, and Peter Leithart.

They have been joined by a multitude of Pastors, bloggers and other writers, and teachers in Seminaries. Many in the Emerging/Emergent Church movement have gravitated toward these men, particularly N.T. Wright. And they have infiltrated otherwise orthodox places, including R.C. Sproul’s Tabletalk magazine, where R.C. Jr. as editor published a column by Douglas Wilson for three years, as well as articles by Steve Schlissel and Steve Wilkins.

[Important note -- I would like to correct a wrong impression given by the last above statement. Since the publication of this post, R.C. Sproul Jr. has made the following clear to me...1) He loudly and publicly disavows Federal Vision, and 2) He not only published those FV gentlemen before anyone even heard of Federal Vision, but before that time and since that time has published many gentlemen who despise Federal Vision. I'm grateful to RCJR for that clarification.]

They operate under names and ministries you may have heard: Shepherdism, Auburn Avenue Theology, Federal Vision, or the New Perspective on Paul. And they lead churches in virtually every Reformed denomination.

What They Have In Common

I won’t pretend the issues and sub-doctrines are not varied and even complicated, but they have one important thing in common – a rejection of the biblical Justification by Faith (even while sometimes saying they support it).

Like most false teachers, their terminology is often the same as orthodox terminology. But the expression of their error can mostly be bunched under an important term: Covenant Nomism (sometimes called Covenantal Nomism). “Nomism” refers to “Law”.

Though their implementation of the doctrine varies (for example, some teach that one enters the “covenant” through water baptism, others through so-called “faith alone”), the basics are as follows:

1.One enters into a “covenant” of the “people of God”, through “faith” and/or baptism. This is a real covenant which makes one a real Christian.

2.Once in the “covenant” of the family of God, it is now one’s responsibility to stay in the covenant, and follow Jesus as Lord all the days of one’s life…or else (more on the “or else” in a moment). This is blatant Legalism.

3.IF one remains in the “covenant”, by assembling together and obeying the Law sufficiently, THEN, at the end of one’s life, or the end of the age, one will be truly “Justified”, or “declared righteous” ON THE BASIS OF THEIR LIFE AND WORKS.

4.Here’s the “or else”: If one departs from sufficient obedience to the Law, or (in some cases) stops fellowshiping in the local assembly, they are deemed “out of the covenant”, will never be “justified”, even though they truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and were in His “covenant” and were a true Christian. Their works, or lack of them, have ultimately damned them.

What Can Be Done?

Admittedly, this is an extremely brief introduction to Neo-Legalism, or Covenant Nomism.

The men teaching these things are not ignorant, and they’re not stupid. They are biblically classic false teachers.

What would I recommend?

1.I don’t recommend studying these men, except by the most discerning and biblically knowledgeable.

2.I do recommend studying the biblical doctrine of Justification by Faith, just as the FBI reputedly studies real money, in order to quickly identify the counterfeit.

There are many good books on the subject. A thorough classic is by James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification. Another good one, perhaps easier to read, is James White’s The God Who Justifies.

An excellent sermon by Charles Spurgeon can be read at:
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3392.htm

Scriptural support for Justification by Faith can be found at:
http://www.carm.org/doctrine/justification_verses.htm

3.If you accept true biblical Justification by Faith, have courage to say so. And don’t be afraid to mention names.

Too many Protestant believers and teachers have been "returning" to Roman Catholicism. While for some there may be an inherent attraction to the ancient religious trappings of Romanism, in many cases it’s simply an abandonment of the great truth that God justifies us, declares us righteous, forever, when we believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be all the glory.

Going Beyond Admiring Worship (Audio)

2011-07-31T10:19:00.002-05:00

Going Beyond Admiring Worship

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Going Beyond Admiring Worship

2011-07-31T10:18:00.000-05:00

Admiring Jesus seems to be a great pastime of practically everyone.

Mahatma Ghandi, who through peacful protest and hunger strikes changed the face of India and the world, admired Jesus, and claimed to gear his methods after the Lord’s sacrificial life.

Then Martin Luther King, Jr. patterned his movement after Ghandi’s.

Mohammed admired Jesus, and considered Him a prophet. To this day, Muslims call Jesus a prophet.

In fact, I’ve never met a person who would not say that they admired Jesus, at least until His gospel rips open their heart and separates the real admirers from those who admire from ignorance.

But my real point in this message is not to cast stones at those who are outside the church of Jesus Christ, who are outside the body of Christ, yet claim to admire Jesus.

To The Unbeliever

If you are not a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have not believed in Him as Savior and Lord, I urge you to do so. I urge you to believe the truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be crucified to pay for our sins. And that He rose again from the dead. So that if you believe in Him, you will be saved from Hell, and given eternal life even now, and when you die, you will go to be with the Lord in heaven forever.

That’s the Good News, the Gospel, and if you will believe in Him now, He will indeed save you and make you His child.

To The Believer

But the admiration of the unbeliever is not my real subject here. My subject is the believer, the Christian whose Christian life is stifled by limiting it to admiration and even worship for the Lord.

Within the Body of Christ there is a normal and good thing that we call worship. Worship has been described as giving God His due, to ascribe worthiness to Him, to bow down and recognize and praise Him for all that He is.

And this is right and good and biblical. And at least to some extent, it is incorporated into most meetings of the Church, and rightly so. We sing worship songs, we pray things like, “We worship you, Lord. You are worthy of our worship and so we praise you.”

And this is as it should be.

But sometimes our worship is more of a calculated admiration for the Lord, than love for Him.

And so my real point is to encourage those IN the Body of Christ, to not only admire Him, and worship Him, but to go beyond admiring worship of Jesus, to a new level of loving Him.

There are those believers who have been born again, basically love the Lord, basically know their Bibles, and know for a fact that Jesus is God, that He is good, that He is righteous, that He sacrificially gave His life for our sins, that He rose again, that He is Lord over all, and that He deserves all the glory and honor that He could ever receive.

But with all that born-again admiration, with their cries of “we must glorify God in all we do”, with their exhortations of obedience, obedience, obedience…with all that, I often see a lack of loving intimacy with this admired Savior.

Why is that? I think it’s for two reasons.

1. Many travel in theological circles that are Law-oriented.

They see the Christian life, not primarily as a relationship or fellowship with our Friend and Brother and Savior Jesus, but as a life of rules and regulations. They know Jesus loves them, but somehow think that the degree of that love is dependent on our performance. You will find them emphasizing the verse, “If you love me you will obey my commandments.” But you won’t often see them quoting the verse, “...[nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God which Is in Jesus our Lord.”

So some lack this intimate loving relationship with Christ, just because it is considered sort of selfish and distasteful in their theological circles. Sort of mystical, sort of anti-good-doctrine. They use derogatory terms such as “touchy-feely” or “kum-ba-ya around the campfire emotionalism".

If you are one of these, please keep listening.

2. Many are scarred by a perceived lack of love in earlier times of their lives.

Now, don’t think I’m getting all "psychological" here.

And particularly, if you belong to Category 1, the Law-oriented type, I know the hairs are standing up on the back of your neck at the very mention of our past lives affecting our walk with Christ.

But here is the simple fact: We are fearfully and wonderfully made, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. And when we are born again, and come to Christ, and we become new creations in our spirits…we sometimes still have a lot of renewing of our minds that are needed.

Many times a perceived lack of love, or perceived rejection of some kind by parents, or peers, or a teacher, for example, can make us instinctively feel that we can’t really be loved. And that carries over into our feelings about whether God can really love us. And that can keep us from really having the intimate and loving fellowship with Jesus that we may want to have.

And then sometimes a mis-guided kind of cold-steel theology is piled on to make it even worse. Maybe well-intentioned folks say things like, “You don’t just feel unworthy, you are unworthy. Get over it. You’re a Sinner. You’re a worm and a jerk. Don’t let these Dr. Feelgood softies make you think you’re loveable. Just pull up your bootstraps and start obeying. Bring glory to God. It’s all about Him, it’s not about you, you selfish pig. Start performing, and see if you can bring your level of performance up to where it should be -– in the power of the Spirit, of course.”

And the implication is that if you perform well enough, THEN you might be loveable, at least a little.

But of course it’s all hogwash. If you feel unloved, you feel unloved.

Now please get this:

The only way you will ever feel loved by God, is through understanding from His Word, through the Spirit, that you were loved by Him long before you were “loveable”. And He loves you because He chooses to love you. And there is nothing you could ever do to make Him love you more, and there is nothing you could ever do to make Him love you less.

And it’s because of one thing...Grace.

There is a rest for the people of God, the Bible says, wherin they rest from their works! That doesn’t mean we don’t do works. We will, as God works them in us, and we walk by His Spirit. It means we rest from our works as means of gaining love and acceptance and fellowship with God, with Jesus.

Look at these verses from Romans Chapter 8:

Verse 10, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”

Verse 15-16, “...you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God...”

Verses 18-19, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

Verses 28-30, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

Here Paul adds a little logic: Verse 32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

Verses 35-39, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?.... For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Continue to admire Jesus for all this, of course. And worship Him for all that He has done and all that He is.

But I want to encourage you to go beyond admiring worship to a love for Him that grabs you by the heart and shakes you, and makes you see the whole world through love-colored glasses, because you love Him more.

And how do you love Him more? Simple. Not easy, necessarily, but simple.

To love Him more, you must see more and more how He loves you. See, it’s very personal. You don’t merely admire Him as One Who loves. You love Him because He first loved you. And He still loves you, with a love that never quits, that is never affected by circumstances, that is never diminished by your failures. A love that, when you really grasp it, makes your love for Him threaten to burst your heart. A love that when you really grasp it, makes you say, “How could I NOT overflow with love for this Jesus, and His Father...and my brethren...and even my enemies?”

To love Him more, bask in His love for you. Think on it, meditate on it, marvel at it, accept it.

500 years before Martin Luther’s great meeting known as the Diet of Worms, a poem was written in Worms, Germany, in 1050 A.D. Frederick Lehman was deeply moved by this poem, and it led him to write a hymn in 1917, in Pasadena, California, part of which goes like this:

Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,
Would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Friends, He wants to share that love with you today.

Don’t just admire Jesus.

Don’t even just worship Him.

He wants you to be in close, intimate loving fellowship and communion with Him. There is nothing standing in the way. Not even your sins. They are paid for. They are forgiven.

“It is finished.”

Three Things That Revolutionized My Christian Life

2011-07-23T10:01:00.000-05:00

The Pool of Bethesda - Salvation: What Will It Take? Part 2, Study 4

2011-07-17T00:13:00.000-05:00

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, July 17, 2011:

Defining Legalism - Part 2 of 2

2011-07-14T00:59:00.003-05:00

6. Legalism is rampant in the Churches.

The largest responsibility for this lies with the Pastors (and the Seminaries which crank them out) not understanding the very nature of the New Covenant, and not understanding the centrality of Jesus Christ in every passage.

But the congregation, too, has a responsibility. Too often the congregation actually welcomes moralistic, performance-based preaching, while they suffer severe malnutrition because they are missing the Bread of Life, Who is Grace, Who is Jesus.

In not "rightly dividing" or "cutting straight" the Scriptures, they mix Old and New Testaments, Old and New Covenants, Natural Israel and Spiritual Israel, Law and Grace, Blessings and Cursings, and a whole hodge-podge of Theological Chili results, where one can't tell when the tomatoes end and the beef or beans begins.

7. The answer at least partly lies in a vigilant watch for legalism, and slaying it's dragons with the clear Word of God at every opportunity.

We may start with really taking Galatians at face value. If teacher or student gets a handle on the radical nature of Galatians, three things will be clear:
a. there is no law or performance involved in initial salvation
b. there is no law or performance involved in retaining salvation
c. there is no law or performance involved in God's loving His children, and bestowing His favor on those who have already been given "all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus".

8. There are two useful personal tests for legalism, even when it's so slippery that it fights definition:

Test 1--
Do I think I'm "better" than some other guy or gal, or do I think I'm "worse" than some other guy or gal?

If I think I'm better, I am not understanding Grace. I am not understanding "that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh." (Rom. 7:18) True, I have a new spirit, a new nature, but "what do you have that you have not received?" Or as the common proverb puts it, "There but for the Grace of God go I".

If I think I'm worse, I am not understanding Grace, because I'm denying what God has done in making me a new creation, old things having passed away and all things becoming new.

Test 2 --
Do I think God will love me more if I perform in such-and-such a way? Then I don't understand
that by Grace, God loves me unconditionally. He set His love on me before I was even born. Nothing I do can make Him love me more, and nothing I do can make Him love me less. He loves me...period.

9. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." (Gal. 5:1)

"But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter." (Rom. 7:6)

"For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God." (Gal. 2:19)

Part 1 of 2

Defining Legalism - Part 1 of 2

2011-07-14T00:57:00.003-05:00

1. Theological Error tends to resist definition.

So you have to wrestle it to the ground like a strong dragon and force it to define itself, then stab it through with the sword of truth.

2. Legalism, as theological error, resists definition.

But we must wrestle some definitions out of it anyway, so we can spot it when it raises it's multiple destroying heads.

3. New Covenant Scriptures allude to legalism in three genres or forms:

a. legalism for INITIAL salvation, e.g., baptismal regeneration, or "you must be circumcised", or the most popular among pagans, "do more good than bad in your life".

b. legalism to RETAIN salvation, for example, the Seventh-Day Adventists, who officially teach salvation by grace, but then teach that we must follow certain laws and practices or we lose it.

c. legalism to earn God's love and favor after we're born again, too common even among Reformed believers, and may be the slipperyest dragon of all to wrestle a definition from.

4. All legalism can best be defined by what it is not, i.e., Grace.

If it's not Grace, it's legalism.

Grace is the element that most defines the New Covenant, a unilateral work of God which not only imputes His righteousness to us, but actually "reborns" our spirits, making us new creatures who love Jesus and hate sin in our new natures.

1 Cor. 4:7 says, "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" If it's not All of Grace, it's partly of legalism.

5. Legalism is more insidious, more destructive, and more evil than is commonly thought by believers.

It's not just a "difference of opinion" or a "different slant" on things.

Rom. 6:14 makes a profound statement that the Church in general has missed: "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

Legalism literally robs us of the very ability to keep sin from being master over us. When law is used in any way in regard to the above three genres of legalism (for intial salvation, to retain salvation, or to earn God's love and favor), then one has "fallen from Grace" (Gal. 5:4), gotten on the ground of law, and two things happen:
1. One quenches the Holy Spirit by spurning His Grace, and
2. One inflames sin, since the law is the "power of sin" (1 Cor. 15:56).

When one gets on the ground of law, off of the ground of Grace, there are two typical results:
1. One thinks they are performing pretty well as compared with others, and becomes prideful, or,
2. One thinks they are performing poorly as compared with others, and despairs or loses the joy of their salvation.

Part 2 of 2

Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Fourth of July

2011-07-03T08:18:00.001-05:00

O God, whose Name is excellent in all the earth, and Thy glory above the heavens; who on this day didst inspire and direct the hearts of our delegates in Congress to lay the foundations of our national peace, liberty, and safety; We bless and adore Thy glorious Majesty for all Thy loving kindness manifested towards this land and people; and we humbly beseech Thee to continue Thy goodness to us, that the heritage received from our fathers may be preserved in our time, and be transmitted unimpaired to the generations to come; that all nations of the earth may know that Thou, O Lord, art our Saviour and mighty Deliverer, and our King for ever. Grant this, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
- House of Bishops, A Book of Offices (Milwaukee: The Young Churchman Co., 1914), 82.

justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Offices1914/Offices-4.htm

HT: Mark Lamprecht

Lonely But Never Alone

2011-07-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

Loneliness is a universal problem. But there is hope...

By Michele Rayburn

I never feel lonely when I spend time alone with the Lord, and when I practice His presence the rest of the time. When I am not "filled with the Spirit" is when I am the most lonely.

What a blessing it would be (what revival might even come) if all of us Christians would make it a priority to develop our Spirit life through close communion with Christ. Then our lives would be more fulfilling. And when we come together again, our fellowship with one another will be more fulfilling.

What the Church seems to be lacking today is the Spirit of Christ moving in our own personal lives the way God meant for it to be. We lack spiritual teaching that will draw us back to Christ. The teachings we often hear tend to be man-centered rather than Christ-centered.

We should keep our focus on Christ and imitate Him, instead of looking at ourselves and beating ourselves up about how imperfect we are. He’s not surprised by our weaknesses. Even before we were born, He knew how we would stumble. But we are "accepted in the Beloved". So we should keep our focus on Him. We should think on things like God's everlasting love for us, His total acceptance of us, and our security in Him.

I think that if we don't fully comprehend and receive God's love for us, we may feel unacceptable to Him when we fail. And that kind of alienation can also make us feel lonely.

When our own lonely heart is comforted by our communion with Christ, then we can fellowship with others in a way that will ease their loneliness.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

It's so important to be sensitive to the fact that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we really need each other.

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Listen to "Grace For Life" Radio Program.

Do We Need To Preach The Law To Preach The Gospel?

2011-06-29T23:58:00.000-05:00

There is a common teaching that the Law of God must be preached in order for the Gospel to be preached. In other words, that before you evangelize someone, that is, give them the Good News of Jesus Christ, and His death on the Cross for sins, and His resurrection, you must first preach the specific Laws of God to show them that they have sinned. Usually these specific Laws of God are given as the Ten Commandments.

But is this true? Do we need to preach specific Laws of God in order to preach the Gospel?

I believe the biblical answer is a definite “No”.

But first, I believe this "Law before Gospel" teaching idea has become an unbiblical tradition among many Christian teachers. Often, instead of going to the Scriptures and seeing if this Law Preaching is really commanded or required, they merely read of another teacher who has said it, and they believe it.

“Why, good old Charles Spurgeon taught that the preaching of the Law must come before the Gospel.” Or in more modern times, “Ray Comfort, the Way of the Master guy, teaches that you must give the Ten Commandments (or at least a couple of them) to somebody before you tell them the Good News.”

It’s often taught like this, “You have to give them the bad news, before you give them the good news.” Or, “If you don’t get them groveling in misery over their breaking of God’s Laws, they won’t be receptive to the Gospel. They will be flippant, thinking they don’t need salvation from anything.”

There are even several Scriptures that are sometimes used to prove the point of Law Preaching, and we’ll examine some of those. But I believe those Scriptures have been pulled out of the Bible to support this “tradition of men”, rather than the tradition coming from a good study of the New Testament.

Three biblical reasons why we are NOT called to preach the Law before we preach the Gospel.

1. All men already know in their hearts the moral law of God, and they know that they are sinners against God, and they suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

We already know from Romans 1:18 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In other words, every man already knows that he is ungodly and unrighteous, and that he deserves God’s wrath.

How does he know this? Well, Romans 1:19,20 goes on to say two things. That the knowledge is within them, and that the creation makes obvious the attributes, eternal power, and divine nature of God.

But Romans 1:18 says another interesting thing. It says that men “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”.

They not only know they are wrath-deserving sinners, but they add to their sin by suppressing it, denying it. That’s why in verse 20 it says they are “without excuse”.

But that’s not all. The Jews, of course, in Bible times, would be very aware of the Laws of God, and the Ten Commandments. But we read in Romans 2:14-16:

“For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ.”

What does it mean? Simply this: God has placed in everyone his moral law, and given men a conscience to identify when they are doing wrong, which of course they do constantly. So again, they are without excuse.

They don’t need to hear, “Thou shalt not steal.” They know in their consciences. They know the beauty and just and wonderful truth of God’s character and what He requires. But, as Romans 3 tells us, “There is none righteous, not even one...there is none who seeks for God...there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

So again, all men already know in their hearts the moral law of God, and they know that they are sinners against God, and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

So if you’re witnessing or preaching the Good News of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins through the Cross, and somebody acts innocent and says they don’t need forgiveness because they live a pretty good life, you don’t need to prove anything to them. You can look them in the eye and say, “You know better than that. You know, just like I do, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And proceed to give them the Good News.

2. The Law has NO power for salvation. But the Gospel does.

In Romans 1:16, Paul says something that I believe we often forget. He says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for IT is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In other words, to those who know the Ten Commandments (the Jews), and to those who don’t know the Ten Commandments from a hole in the wall (but they know very well that they are in constant violation of the moral compass that God has placed in their consciences).

Why? Why is this Gospel the “power of God for salvation”?

Verse 17 tells us. Because in the Gospel is revealed the righteousness of God, the only righteousness that will save us. The righteousness that we must receive as a free gift because our own "righteousnesses are as filthy rags".

That’s why so many people have been led to Christ by the so-called Romans Road, without the preaching of the Law. Because men are reminded that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and that the wages of sin is death or the wrath of God, but that the free gift of God is eternal life through faith in Jesus who died on the cross (Rom. 5:6 and 6:23), and that he did it out of love, demonstrating His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8), and that whoever believes in Him (Jews who know the Ten Commandments, or Gentiles who don’t) will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16), whoever confesses Jesus as Lord, and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, shall be saved (Rom. 10:9).

That’s the Gospel, and that’s the power of God for salvation.

3. There are no New Testament commands, nor New Testament examples for preaching the Law before the Gospel.

Now let me take a little side road first and say this: I love the laws of God. Every law that God ever spoke or inspired is a reflection of His Holy, Just and loving heart. And I want to know His heart, because I love Him. He put that in my heart, to love Him. He is my Savior, and He is my Lord. I want to know what He wants. And when I’m walking in the Spirit, I want to follow and obey Him with every fiber of my being. I can say, "Not my will, but Thine be done."

And so I agree with the Apostle Paul that the Law is good.

But you will search in vain through the Book of Acts or the New Testament Epistles for any COMMAND to preach the Law before preaching the Gospel. And you will search in vain through the Book of Acts or the New Testament Epistles for any EXAMPLE of preaching the Law before preaching the Gospel.

What you will see is an assumption by the Apostles that everyone is a sinner, and that they know it. Without exegeting the whole Book of Acts, one example will serve, especially since it specifically deals with some Gentiles. When Peter is called to preach to Cornelius, the Bible records pretty much his whole message in Acts 10 beginning at verse 34. Not a word is mentioned of the Law. But Christ is preached and Him crucified, for the forgiveness of sins.

This pattern is followed throughout the Book of Acts.

Objections

Well, let me continue with some objections. I’m not interested in human reasoning objections, but biblical ones. Let me deal with a few verses that are often used to make the claim that the Law must first be preached, and then the Gospel.

Psalm 19:7

It's usually quoted, “The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” The word “converting” sounds like salvation, but you will see in the margin, or in most translations, that the best translation is “restoring the soul” or “reviving the soul”. It’s likely not even a reference to salvation at all, but in any case, the Old Testament Psalms is not the most reliable source for a New Covenant doctrine.

Also, when the Psalmist refers to the Law of the Lord, he is not referring to the Ten Commandments or any specific laws, but to the Word of God in general, as it was then known. You will see this over and over in the Psalms. That’s why the reading of the Psalms can be so rich for us New Covenant believers who are no longer under the Old Covenant Law.

Romans 3:20

“...for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Although it’s true that through a specific law can come the knowledge of a specific sin, that is not Paul’s point. He is contrasting the inability of the law to “justify” anyone in God’s sight. In other words, no one can be saved through the law, he points out.

The best the law could do is show how someone has specifically sinned. But as we have already pointed out, man already knows he is a sinner, a breaker of God’s law, and suppresses that truth in unrighteousness.

1 John 3:4

“...sin is lawlessness”. The argument is made that lawlessness is the breaking of laws, and that this must be preached to show that someone has sinned. This is not only a little silly in view of what we’ve already seen about the heart and conscience of man, but it's not what John was trying to get across at all.

John was contrasting the true born-again believer with the false believer and saying that the one who practices sin has an attitude of lawlessness. Not just that they break God’s laws, but that the source of that law-breaking is a heart of lawlessness, and thus an unregenerate or unsaved heart. This has nothing to do with preaching specific laws to “prepare” for the Gospel.

Romans 7:7

Paul says, “I would not have come to know sin, except through the Law, for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” But the context shows that Paul is talking about the power of the Law to pour gasoline on the fire of sin.

Certainly Paul knew sin, even before he heard the law. All men do. But he’s making the point that the command or the law itself caused the sin to rise up in him. When he heard “Do not covet”, it made him covet all the more. Such is the heart of a sinner. Nothing in this section has anything to do with evangelism, or the Gospel.

John 16:8

“And He [speaking of the Holy Spirit to come], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”

This is supposed to show that the Law must be preached, because the Holy Spirit will convict of sin and judgment. But look at the next verse John 16:9:

“...concerning sin, because they do no believe in Me.” Do you see that? It’s not the Law itself that brings conviction. It’s the very Gospel itself. It’s the Good News about Jesus Christ.

And look at John 16:11, “...and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” See that? The work of Christ on the Cross has crushed the head of the serpent, to hearken back to Genesis. Sin has been paid for on the Cross and God’s righteousness is given as a free gift to those who will believe the Gospel.

John isn’t talking about Law in this section, but about the Gospel.

And finally, let’s deal with the verse that is used most often to support preaching the Law before the Gospel:

Galatians 3:24

“Therefore the Law has become our tutor [or schoolmaster] to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.”

Here again, context is so important. Paul is not speaking here at all about individual laws which are broken and thus leading us to faith in Christ. He is speaking of a historical progression from the time of Abraham who is promised a Seed which will become the Messiah, through the time of the Old Covenant, which showed how man could not be justified by obedience to any laws, and led finally to the promised Christ, in Whom alone is salvation, through His death, to all who believe.

Speaking of Jews only, Paul says that the Old Covenant was a tutor, but not to show men they were sinful, but that they could not gain righteousness through the keeping of the Law! They already knew they were sinful, but they thought that their so-called good deeds could justify them. And since their good deeds could not justify them, they were led to the Messiah, whose righteousness was offered as a free gift, the only way any of us are saved.

Preach the Gospel, friends. Plant the Gospel, water with Gospel, and God will give the increase for His elect. That is our confidence, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do We Need To Preach The Law To Preach The Gospel?

2011-06-29T23:51:00.001-05:00

Audio:
Do We Need To Preach The Law To Preach The Gospel?

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Honor Thy Father

2011-06-19T23:29:00.003-05:00

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, June 19, 2011. Use this link: tinyurl.com/3dmp2r2
-- Embedded video below seems to not be working.

None Good But One

2011-06-19T00:35:00.002-05:00

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, May 29, 2011.

1 hr. 13 min.

The Pool of Bethesda

2011-06-12T00:05:00.001-05:00

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, June 12, 2011

Brokenness - Part 6 of 6

2011-06-09T22:31:00.007-05:00

Recognizing Brokenness

The following are some evidences of brokenness. They are worth thinking about, one by one, not for the purpose of being discouraged because we fall short, but for the purpose of humbling ourselves before the Lord, that He may lift us up.

Dealing with issues of brokenness should never distract us from our wonderful Savior, and should never cause us to try to earn His love and favor by our Performance. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us because He chose to love us, even while we were His enemies.

Nothing can separate us from His love, including our lack of brokenness!

And while that wonderful thought alone might help us desire brokenness and surrender to Him, I repeat that His love and favor for us are not dependent on that love and brokenness.

Having said that, here are some evidences of brokenness:

1. All rights surrendered

2. Willing to be rejected

3. Transparent - willing to share weakness

4. Vulnerable - willing to share failures

5. A sense of total inadequacy in self strength - 2 Cor. 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God..."

6. A sense of adequacy in Christ through His strength - Phil. 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 2 Cor. 3:6, "...who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

7. Trusting God whatever - resting even with external turmoil

8. Obedience out of a love motive because I want to, not because I have to

9. Recognizing the power in weakness

10. Willing to be weak

11. Willing to fail

12. A readiness to let others receive credit

13. Genuine humility

10. Placing value upon those who have little or no value to yourself

15. A readiness to affirm (build up) others

16. Teachable

17. Willing to be out of control

18. Willing to be misunderstood

Another phrase for "brokenness" is "dying to self". I wrote the following in my Bible in 1985. I regret I don't remember who to give credit to, but it has been a great blessing to me over these many years:

WHEN you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely provoked, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ – that's dying to self.

WHEN your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence – that's dying to self.

WHEN you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, any annoyance; when you stand face-to-face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility – and endure it as Jesus endured – that's dying to self.

WHEN you are content with any food, any offering, any climate, any people, any raiment, any interruption – that's dying to self.

WHEN you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good words, when you are uncomfortable with commendations, when you can truly love to be unknown – that's dying to self.

WHEN you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances – that's dying to self.

WHEN you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart – that's dying to self.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Brokenness - Part 5 of 6

2011-06-09T22:31:00.006-05:00

The Part of Prayer In Brokenness

Few things are as important to our brokenness as prayer. All kinds of prayer.
--Petition (asking for things),
--Intercession (praying for others),
--Adoration (speaking lovingly to God about His wonders, attributes, goodnesses, etc.),
--Confession (telling Him what He already knows about our sins),
--Thanksgiving (is there any end to the list of blessings, not the least of which is His forgiveness of those sins we just confessed?)
--Praying the Scriptures (using verse-by-verse passages to prompt our praying, reinforcing our understanding of the mind of our Lord)
--Meditation (technically not prayer, but great to do in the same time-frame context, meditating for example on His attributes, His love, His Word).

This kind of prayer takes time, but how rich and blessed it is. As the saying goes, Prayer Changes Things, but just as importantly Prayer Changes Us.

If we pray with our brokenness and surrender in mind, we will be a long way toward truly "loving God and enjoying Him forever".

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Brokenness - Part 4 of 6

2011-06-09T22:31:00.005-05:00

2. The second thing that hinders us from being broken is self-centeredness. We want our own will, not His. We want things to go the way we want them to go. We are angered when our will is crossed. We will seek to escape or dodge the trial in our life, instead of letting it shape us. We want what we want, and we will jolly well do whatever it takes to "make it happen".

When we see this in others, we are repulsed. It sickens us to see this, whether it's a child throwing a temper tantrum, or an adult thinking only of themselves. We see its evil so clearly in others, yet sometimes we despise it in others only because of our own self-centeredness. Sort of, "How DARE you think you are the center of the Universe! Don't you know that *I* am the center of the Universe? What about ME?!!?" Of course we don't say this, we only think it.

There is no direct remedy for this self-centered, self-indulgent, self-ish, self-aggrandizing attitude, except the work of brokenness itself.

And so we see a circle of brokenness. The more we are broken, the more we can be broken, so the more we're broken, and so the more we can be broken.

We may want to keep this in mind before we make foolish vows to the Lord. For example, I heard a song on the radio the other day that went like this:

"The Cross demands allegience. I'll give nothing less than all!"

Yeah, right. All!!?? Nothing less than "All!!??" Get real. We've got some breaking to do.

Unless you're Jesus Christ, you'd be wiser to stick with Keith Green's musical thought,

"Just keep doing your best, pray that it's blessed, and He'll take care of the rest...He's gonna do it...He'll take care of the rest."

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Brokenness - Part 3 of 6

2011-06-09T22:31:00.004-05:00

There are two things that hinder us from being broken:

1. Not recognizing the hand of God in our trials, as a means of breaking and shaping us. Joseph, in Genesis 50:20, recognized that God had meant Joseph's awful trials "for good", even though his brothers had meant it "for evil". We would be wise to recognize our own trials and life situations as God's means to break and shape us.

I still remember a sermon I heard over 25 years ago, at a little Baptist church in Dallas, Texas. I remember it was a blue church. The walls were blue, the pews were blue, I think even the choir robes were blue. Anyway the guest preacher for that day was a guy named Jack Taylor, and he said something I never forgot.

He is a Southern fella, and so he said God "fixes fixes to fix us" (Yankee translation: God brings things into our life to mold and shape and break us. I'm qualified to translate, because I've been in Tennessee now since 1986).

Anyway, he said this profound thing that I've never forgotten:

"If God fixes a fix to fix you, and you fix the fix instead of it fixing you, then God will have to fix another fix to fix you."

One ol' boy preacher I heard just last week understands that (or at least his wife does). He laughed because some trial happened to them, and his wife said, "I wish you'd have learned that from the Lord last time, honey, so we wouldn't have to go through it again."

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Brokenness - Part 2 of 6

2011-06-09T22:30:00.003-05:00

Brokenness is seemingly never total. It's an ongoing process. But to the degree we are broken before God, to the degree that we are dependent on Him, to the degree that we are surrendered to His will, it's to that degree that we are able to walk by the Spirit.

And sometimes brokenness is a three-steps-forward and two-steps-back deal, which can be frustrating.

But the Catch-22 is, that the more we can rest in, and cooperate with, and accept the *process*, the better the process goes along.

Conversely, the more we are frustrated and annoyed at the process, or even fight it, the bumpier the process goes along. This is called "kicking at the goads", a reference to stubborn oxen kicking against the sticks used to prod them along.

Jesus has promised that His yoke for us is easy, and His burden for us is light. We may not feel that way sometimes, but it helps to remember it, and it certainly doesn't make it easier and lighter if we fight it.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Brokenness - Part 1 of 6

2011-06-09T22:29:00.000-05:00

The word "brokenness" never appears in the Scriptures.

Yet we know by inference that it is one of the most important concepts to the Christian life.

It's expressed in such passages as 2 Corinthians 12:9...

..."My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

or Luke 22:42...

...not My will, but Yours, be done.

Brokenness is that state in which we recognize our own weakness and limitations before God, and rest in Him, rely on Him, lean on Him, and surrender to His will.

Don't miss this: "Surrender" is a big part of brokenness.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

What Nicodemus Didn't Know

2011-06-05T23:45:00.003-05:00

Sermon by Pastor Bill Sasser, Grace Church at Franklin, Tennessee, June 5, 2011:

Harold Camping's Most Recent False Prophecy for May 21, 2011

2011-05-15T10:36:00.007-05:00

If you haven't heard, you probably will.

False prophecy maker Harold Camping has made his latest prediction of the rapture of the Church.

He claims the Church will be raptured on May 21, 2011, and as his website says, "The Bible Guarantees It".

Of course "the Church" according to Camping is pretty much that tiny band of the Church that follows Harold Camping on his Family Radio, and mocks that world-wide Body of believers who don't follow Harold Camping, calling them false believers.

While there certainly are likely many false believers in the world, the standard for "false believer" surely can't be "not believing Harold Camping".

Anyway, I don't usually devote space to the odd false prophet, but I thought I'd just make two statements on the subject. One to born-again Christians, and one to non-Christians.

To Born-Again Christians:

Please don't sell all your stuff or liquidate your bank account or quit your job in preparation for May 21. There are those who will literally be destitute after May 21 because they listened to this false prophet (I want to say "nut job", but it's actually more spiritually insidious than that).

Some are listening to Harold even though they know he previously did the same thing. He will not be a false prophet because of May 21. He is ALREADY a false prophet!

Don't be one of those who believe him.

Hold fast to the awesome and wonderful truth that our awesome and wonderful Lord and Savior will indeed return at the right time. But don't listen to the pathetic false prophet Harold Camping.

To Non-Christians:

Please don't make stupid illogical decisions about Jesus Christ because some who claim to follow Him do stupid things.

Jesus Christ is Lord and God and Savior and worthy to be believed in and followed. And those who believe in Him really do have eternal life, and really do have their sins forgiven.

Jesus really was born of a virgin and is the Son of God, and died on the cross for our sins, and was buried and rose again on the third day.

And those who refuse His love and reject Him really will experience the wrath of God.

He really does offer salvation as a free gift, by grace through faith, to everyone who believes in Him.

And He really will return to Earth in judgment, and to take believers in Him to live with Him in Heaven forever.

It could happen today, or May 21, or many years from now.

The Bible does not specify "when". In fact, it says no one knows the day or the hour. But the day and hour will come.

You would be a fool to deny that because of Harold Camping.

Update: My online friend Dan Phillips has made a distinction worth noting. In this blog post he rightly points out that technically Camping is not a false prophet, since he doesn't claim direct revelation from God, but is indeed a false teacher, because he is destructively interpreting Scripture.

As Dan says in his article, "This, of course, is not a demotion. Being a false teacher is plenty bad enough. As Peter said, 'false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction' (2 Peter 2:1)."

Beware of the False Gospel of Discipleship

2011-04-27T21:54:00.002-05:00

The Seriousness of a False Gospel

There is a huge mistake being made today in many pulpits, books and other forms of Bible teaching.

It is not trivial.

And it is not being "picky" to point it out.

It's serious.

It's serious because it's a "different gospel" or "another gospel" (Galatians 1:6).

And the Apostle Paul wrote, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Galatians 1:8)

What The True Gospel Is

Before looking at the false gospel in question, it should be noted what the true Gospel is. This is not a simple task, although the Gospel itself is simple enough for a child to understand.

The reason it's not that simple to simply state the gospel is because it is somewhat expandable in it's content.

In other words, when we say the Gospel involves believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can expand greatly such things as "what does 'Lord' mean?", "who IS Jesus Christ?", "what does it mean to 'believe'?", etc.

Still, for our purposes here we need to state it with a certain amount of simplicity in order to contrast it with the "false gospel of discipleship", remembering that the Gospel is "Good News".

So let's plow ahead and arrive at a useful and simple definition.

Let's look at two Scripture passages for some guidance:

"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

This passage indicates the basic historical events of the gospel -- the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This passage, along with several others, indicates the substitutionary nature of the Gospel -- that we needed His righteousness, and He had to take our sins on Himself and pay for them on the cross.

Again, all of this is quite expandable, but we can capsulize the true "Good News" (Gospel) as follows:

The Gospel is the Good News that since we have all been born sinful and deserving of the wrath of God, but since God loves us, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to Earth as a Man, and that this Jesus died on a cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead -- and that whoever believes in Him as Lord and Savior will not perish, but have eternal life as a free gift.

There is a lot packed into that, yet it is very simple, and is based on faith so simple that a child can (as Scripture capsulizes it) "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).

Faith alone. Sola Fide, as the phrase was put in the Reformation. "Not of works, lest any man should boast", as Paul put it to the Ephesians.

What The False Teaching Of Discipleship Is

The false gospel of discipleship typically takes a form like this:

"It's not enough to just believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and believe that He died for your sins and rose again. The gospel also includes that you must DO what Jesus said in many places in the Gospels.

"Among other things, you must 'deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him', Matthew 16:24.

They in effect say that we must be WORTHY to be saved (a ridiculous thought) since Jesus said we're not worthy of Him unless we take up our cross and follow Him (Matthew 10:37,38), which they say is part of the gospel of salvation, and a requirement for salvation.

As one prominent Pastor put it (echoed in song by a prominent Christian musician, and repeated as though it were Scripture), "To give all that you are, for all that He is; this is the gospel according to Jesus."

Of course that's NOT the Gospel. That's legalism.

We don't need to become worthy before we become His, and we don't buy or earn "all that He is" by our own "giving" of ANYTHING.

His eternal life and salvation that He gives us are FREE (Romans 6:23, "...the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.")

The Confusion Of This False Teaching

The problem with this false teaching is that it demands the question, "How much must I deny myself to be saved?" Or, "How much must I take up my cross?" "What cross?" "How long?" "Have I really given ALL that I am for all that He is?" "How can I tell?" "And what if I think I've given all that I am, but I really haven't?" "Or what if I think I've given all that I am, but I take something back?"

And on and on go the demonic whispers to undermine the simple faith of a true believer who is confused by what it was that brought him salvation.

And think of the confusion of a lost person hearing such a message! "What indeed must I DO to be saved?", they are wondering!

And the teacher of this false "gospel of discipleship" cannot even answer this simple question, because they have grown up Kudzu-like vines of "works" that choke and confuse the truth of the gospel of faith alone.

The absurdity of this false gospel should be obvious just by comparing two verses on discipleship spoken by the Lord Himself (follow me closely here, please):

Matthew 16:24 reads, "...he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."

If that was a requirement for INITIAL salvation, then how would one explain the parallel verse in Luke 9:23?: "...he must deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY and follow Me."

See my point? If one has to take up his cross DAILY in order to be saved, how many DAYS must he take it up? Will he be saved if he takes it up for three days? One hundred days?

Preposterous!

Besides, Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel is THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE! There's no power in setting standards of behavior for the lost in order for them to attain salvation! That's not Good News!

Yet these teachers continue imposing standards of DISCIPLESHIP upon the lost who are not even disciples yet! In order for them to believe the simple gospel!

Sidenote: they will almost always say something like, "Now this isn't works salvation". But denying it doesn't make it so. They are blind to the fact that it really IS works salvation. Like the Roman Catholic teacher who imposes works and sacraments on the people and calls it "faith".

And believers in congregations all over the place buy into that false teaching, after they themselves have already been saved by simply believing the Gospel!

No wonder Paul wrote the Galatians with a rare emotional rant of shock and anger because they had so soon allowed themselves to be entangled in "works plus faith" teachings.

And yet his words for the sheep were not nearly as angry as his words for the teachers themselves.

May these teachers of the "false gospel of discipleship" repent, and begin preaching the true Gospel of faith apart from works.

A Word About Soteriology

Soteriology is the Doctrine of Salvation (Greek soter means savior). It's the study of HOW we are saved. It's an important and biblical and fascinating study.

But Soteriology is not the Gospel either.

The Gospel is basically a truth proclaimed, not a detailed explanation of the process of regeneration, believing the Gospel, justification, sanctification and glorification -- each with voluminous words of clarification and controversy.

I feel compelled, however, to point out one thing from our study of biblical Soteriology.

Faith in Jesus Christ is itself a gift from God. It's not something we manufacture. He must open our hearts and reveal Jesus Christ to us, or we will not believe.

Yet wonderfully, if He does open our hearts and reveal Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can't NOT believe. This is what theologians call "Irresistible Grace".

Not that God brings us kicking and screaming into His family, but that He opens our hearts and we see Him with new eyes and a new heart, and we believe in Him.

How does faith come? The Bible itself says that it comes from hearing the Word of God.

And so, if you don't consider yourself a believer in Jesus Christ, I recommend that you read the Book of John.

It was written by John the Apostle under the inspiration of God Himself, to bring folks to faith in Jesus Christ.

It was written specifically "...so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:31)

Interestingly, the Book of John says nothing about "denying yourself" or "taking up your cross". Nothing about YOUR works, but only the work that Jesus Christ Himself already did for us on the cross.

In fact, in John 6:28,29, when they asked Jesus, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?, He answered, ""This is the WORK of God, that you BELIEVE in Him whom He has sent."

The Beauty of Discipleship

Does that subtitle, "The Beauty of Discipleship", surprise you after what I've just been saying?

It shouldn't.

Although discipleship is not the Gospel -- although discipleship is not the cause of our salvation -- discipleship is a wonderful thing.

When one becomes a Christian, they become a disciple. A disciple is a "learner" and a "follower". Learning of Jesus and following Him is the greatest of privileges.

And the "surrender" involved in following Him is one of the highest things that we are called to do as already-saved believers. To grow in the attitude "not my will but yours be done, Lord" is not only sublimely precious, but the source of great joy.

But to teach this growing, learning, surrendering lifestyle as "the Gospel" -- to teach it as the requirement for being saved -- is to put the cart before the horse.

Risen With Christ

2011-04-24T12:18:00.002-05:00

Praise the Lord for the resurrection of Christ!

Consider this also. When Jesus died on the Cross on that Good Friday, and took the wrath of God on Himself...in some mysterious way...we were in Him.

We were crucified with Him, and we died. By the grace of God, our old self died, in Christ.

Then we, in Christ, went to the tomb. We were “buried with Him through baptism”...the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

Then when He was raised from the dead, we too were raised from the dead. Made alive to God through Christ Jesus.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together...--Eph. 2:4-6

In raising us up with Him, He gave us a whole new identity.

Where we were Sinners by nature, He made us Saints.

He made us His children, friends of Christ, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, in union with Him, adopted by Him, complete in Christ, free from condemnation, the righteousness of God in Christ, a branch of the Vine, chosen and appointed to bear fruit, the temple of the Holy Spirit, seated with Him in the heavenlies, God's workmanship, inseparable from the love of God, fully accepted in the Beloved.

We can assume no glory for it. All glory goes to the Lamb, who is worthy, who was slain from the foundation of the world.

We can know by faith that we are risen with Christ. And Easter, Resurrection Day, can have greater and greater meaning for us, when we see what God has accomplished in us.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Raised With Christ

2011-04-24T11:40:00.015-05:00

Audio:
Raised With Christ

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Have A Blessed Easter!

2011-04-24T00:12:00.002-05:00

Picture a mean bunch of guys, big rocks in their hands, hate on their faces, kicking up dust in the ancient Judean sun.

"For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God!"

With these amazing words in John 10, the Jews gave their reason for trying once again to stone Jesus.

Not yet ready to die, and certainly not by stoning, Jesus escaped Judea and crossed the Jordan River to where John the Baptist had once baptized repentant Israelites, probably Perea. He stayed there for a while, and many believed in Him there.

When word came to Jesus that his beloved friend Lazarus was deathly sick, He didn't cross the Jordan back to Bethany near Jerusalem to visit his friend on his death bed. No one could blame Him for staying . After all, hadn't the Jews repeatedly tried to seize and stone Him? So the disciples didn't blame Him, and they weren't surprised that He stayed in Perea. It only made sense. Lazarus would have to rely on the comfort of His immediate family, Mary and Martha.

But the disciples were surprised a couple of days later, when Jesus said, "Let us go to Judea again." What?!

They said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are you going there again?"

And He told them He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Do you think they believed Him? I don't. I think Thomas spoke for all the disciples when he said, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." They thought this was it. The end. Crazy, but hey, He's the Lord. We will follow Him and we will die with Him if necessary.

But they didn't die that day. They went to Bethany, and Jesus spoke the words that thrill our hearts, as believers in Him:

"I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die..."

And he raised Lazarus from the dead.

And later He died on the Cross. They finally got Him. They finally put an end to the One whom they said blasphemed because He said He was God. And the brave disciples who went to Bethany with Him, willing to die, cowered behind a closed door, mourning the loss of their Rabbi, and their dreams.

We appreciate His death now. We know that it paid for our sins. We cringe at the horror of the Innocent One being beaten and scourged and crucified and separated from His Father as He took the fury of the Wrath of God on Himself. We appreciate it. But we don't exactly celebrate it.

What we celebrate is that on the third day, He rose from the dead. He authenticated that He is Who He said He was. He is the Anointed One, God the Son, the Christ, the Messiah! And He is alive! And we say Hallelujah! He is risen!

Even as a historical event, it's noteworthy. But He did it for a purpose. He was "raised for our justification". He was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead, that we might live. He said He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. And in some mysterious way, when He died on the Cross, we died with Him, and when He was raised, we were raised with Him, and seated with Him in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.

We were made alive spiritually, with the promise that we will be raised physically as well, on that Great Gettin' Up Morning! We became New Creations! Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new! There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

And all because He died for our sins. He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ!

He Is Risen!

It Is Finished

2011-04-23T14:23:00.001-05:00

by Michele Rayburn

We have died once to the penalty of sin, and so we have peace with God. (“I have been crucified with Christ...”)

We are able to die daily to the power of sin because we stand in grace. (“... it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...”)

And someday when we are present with the Lord, we will be free from the presence of sin. (“...and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Who died for me and gave Himself for me.” - Galatians 2:20)

Jesus died once for our sins, and shed His blood for us, so that we can rest completely in His finished work on the cross.

Sometimes we as Christians live as if it isn't "finished". We live as if our sins are not forgiven, past, present and future. And we find ourselves trying to earn God's favor each day.

But we stand in grace, in a permanent state of forgiveness, precisely because "It is finished."

Reflecting On Jesus' Death Under The Law

2011-04-20T14:04:00.000-05:00

The Law and the Good News

By Michele Rayburn

“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully”...(1 Timothy 1:8)

As I was reading some blog posts and comments on another blog, about the law and the gospel, the thought came to mind that Jesus died under the law which was composed of God’s law but also of man’s laws. And Jesus was subjected to man’s faulty interpretation of both God’s law and their own laws. As a result, Jesus was wrongly accused of breaking the law and was wrongfully put to death.

The Bible says “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.” (Galatians 2:19) In this case, we were righteously judged by God to be unable to keep His law, and would be condemned if it were not for our faith in the Lawgiver, Jesus Christ.

But Jesus died under the law which was implemented by sinful men, so that they could not be trusted to implement the law perfectly. Then as now, the law is often, accidentally or on purpose, used to either judge an innocent man to be guilty or to judge a guilty man to be innocent.

If even Jesus can be found guilty under the law by men, then who could ever expect to be judged righteously by men?

If we as believers should ever attempt to be perfect law-keepers on this earth, it would do great harm to us, mentally, spiritually and even physically, because we could never “measure up” to God’s law. But more than that, the law as interpreted by sinful man will always have us falling short, because so often our lawgivers and “spiritual leaders” are misguided as to what is lawful and what is not, and what is sinful and what is not. And so, if we trust in men, and look to them for acceptance and assurance, we will always find ourselves under a cloud of guilt and condemnation.

But thank the Lord, it says in Romans 7:6, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and *not* in the oldness of the letter.”

Paul the Apostle cries out in despair and asks, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

And then he answers his own question, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:24-25)

And Paul goes on to say, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)

There Is Therefore Now No Condemnation

2011-04-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

By Michele Rayburn

John Owen has wrongly stated:

"To keep our souls in a constant state of mourning and self-abasement is the most necessary part of our wisdom..." (Works, VII, p. 532)

Roman Catholics, as well as those in other religions that do not know the grace of God in salvation, in effect "flagellate" themselves in order to be made acceptable to God, through works righteousness (self-denial, creeds, liturgy, sacred vows). But why should we? We who know the Lord's grace toward us not only for our salvation but for each day of our lives?

If we have been saved by grace, why should we "flagellate" ourselves now? We have been made acceptable to God and received His righteousness. We’ve been forgiven. And He loves us with an unfailing, everlasting love.

His love is not conditioned upon us pining away over our once fallen nature. The work is already done. Jesus said as He was dying on the cross, having been "flagellated" for us, "It is finished."

It’s by grace alone, through faith alone, on the Word alone, because of Christ alone...now and always. It is by God’s grace that He has given us new life, and it is by His grace that we will continue to live this Christian life. Now let us walk in it!

This is the rest of the gospel...the rest of the good news. Now that we have been saved, we have been made new creations in Christ so that we can "walk in newness of life" by His Spirit that lives in us.

"His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him...by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Christ is now living His life through us. This is something to rejoice in, not to be downtrodden about. Otherwise, we’ve missed out on the best part of being a Christian..."Christ in us, the hope of glory"!

What joy, what peace we will have as we rest in Him. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

The important thing to realize is that we have already been crucified with Christ (Gal.2:20). That is why Romans 6:11 tells us, "Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God...".

To consider it a future event keeps us from walking in that glorious truth now, and it is the truth that sets us free.

It's true that the flesh wars with the spirit, but it is the spirit which is our new nature, not our flesh. The "old man" is dead. Sin still resides in the flesh, but Paul makes it clear that that sin is not part of his new nature or spirit (Romans 7:17,20).

So, our goal is to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. And to remember that "there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus". (Romans 8:1)

Resting In The New Covenant of His Grace,
Michele

Your Acceptance By God

2011-04-07T23:08:00.003-05:00

I have a theory. I'm not the originator of the theory, but I subscribe to it. It goes like this:

If a believer in Jesus Christ has not "appropriated" the love and acceptance of God for them, that is, if they have not grasped in their very heart the utter unconditional way that God loves them and accepts them, then they can't really grasp the love and acceptance of other people for them.

Let me say that in another way.

If a person feels unloveable, or...

If a person feels that others can't really love or accept them, or...

If a person feels that if someone really knew them, then they wouldn't love or accept them, or...

If a person feels like if they only could do such-and-such or be such-and-such, or accomplish such-and-such, or be good enough, THEN someone might be able to love and accept them...

Then I believe that person has not understood their acceptance in Christ by God.

They may be born again, saved from their sins, and biblically knowledgeable, but they haven't grasped the basic understanding of what their relationship is to the God Who loves them unconditionally. They may even know about God's acceptance of them intellectually, or logically. But they haven't "appropriated" it spiritually, in the heart.

Sometimes they just need to be taught it from the Scriptures and they blossom as the light dawns in their hearts. But other times it seems that a person must come to some crisis in their lives, some hopelessness in their own self-righteousness, some discouragement from imperfect people, some "whatever", before the Lord opens their heart to the glorious truth that He doesn't have a relationship with them based on performance. But it must be spiritually discerned, and so it must be taught over and over and over. Faith even for that, comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Meanwhile, if you have that gnawing feeling that you just don't measure up to the standard that would allow God to really love and accept you, if you are striving to please Him, and feel like you're failing to do so, listen: He loves you. Yes, you. Not just enough to die for your sins. Enough to dwell in you. Enough to "justify" you, to declare you righteous, just as if you'd never sinned. Enough to no longer have any condemnation for you. Enough to take you in His arms and comfort you with the truth that He fully, fully accepts you in the Beloved. Enough to call you His beloved, the apple of His eye.

And if you have that gnawing feeling that people can't really love you, or they sure wouldn't if they really knew you, understand that you feel that way because you have yet to really grasp God's love and acceptance for you.

Those who have the Spirit of God surely can love and accept you, even if you have a hard time accepting it, because love is a fruit of the Spirit. And you will be sky-walking when you come to the knowledge of God's love so strongly that you can say with all sincerity, "Even if no one else loved me, my Savior and my God loves me, and that's enough." And the irony is, that's when you may first be able to accept the love of other people like you never have before.

And then you can love like you never have before.

P.S. Critical: This is not psychology, this is theology. It falls under the heading "...Truth shall set you free." The application is "If you really appropriate the Truth of the love and acceptance of God for you, then you will be set free to receive the love and acceptance of others (and to love and accept others)."

Active Obedience Imputation Is Not Biblical - Part 5: "A Mini-Catechism Refuting Active Obedience Imputation"

2011-03-28T23:33:00.004-05:00

Perhaps a mini-catechism might clarify why Active Obedience Imputation is not biblical.

I offer this as a conclusion to this five-part series of posts.

Think through these questions with me:

Q. What is imputed to us?
A. Christ's righteousness.

Q. What is righteousness?
A. In this context we might say "rightness", or right standing with the Holy God, without guilt of sins.

Q. Is righteousness inherent in men?
A. No, they are born and live in wrong standing or wrong relationship with God, and stand guilty of sins, until they are justified, or declared righteous by God.

Q. Is righteousness inherent in Christ?
A. Yes, since He has always been in right standing and right relationship with God, and has always been sinless.

Q. When a man is regenerated and given faith in Christ, is he justified or declared righteous, once forever?
A. Yes.

Q. How is he declared righteous?
A. In the pattern of Abraham, his faith is credited to him as righteousness, Christ's righteousness is imputed to him, and he is thereby declared righteous (that is, in right standing and relationship with God, without guilt of sins, which are forgiven).

Q. By what act or series of acts is this justification obtained?
A. By ONE act, the shedding of the blood of Christ in his death on the Cross, which of course was followed by His burial and resurrection.

Q. Is there a CLEAR scripture to prove this?
A. Yes, here are two:
Romans 5:18, "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through ONE ACT of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men."...and,
Hebrews 10:14, "For by ONE OFFERING He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."

Q. What then of His life of obedience to the Father?
A. He did indeed live a life of "Active Obedience", which should never be discounted, but it did not make Him righteous.

Q. Was His obedience instrumental in His righteousness?
A. By no means. His righteous is inherent in Himself. His obedience did, however, authenticate His righteousness, and identify Him as the Messiah and Son of God, along with many other prophetic and miraculous authentications.

Q. And it is this righteousness inherent in Him that He imputes to us?
A. Yes, through the instrument of the ONE ACT on the Cross.

Q. Are you intimidated by the fact that so many godly Reformed men disagree with you?
A. Not in the least, though I am humbly willing to change my mind in a moment, if there might be an abandoning of red herrings, smoke and mirrors, Confessions and theologians...in favor of just a verse or two which might show that Christ's "active obedience" is imputed to us....AND if my analysis of the aforementioned Rom. 5:18 and Heb. 10:14 are dealt with exegetically, instead of merely evaded.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Active Obedience Imputation Is Not Biblical - Part 4: "Straw Man Neo-Legalists"

2011-03-28T23:18:00.003-05:00

Sometimes someone will say to me something like, "You're wrong, Terry, when you refute Active Obedience Imputation, because the 'New Perspective' and 'Federal Vision' people also refute it, and they are false teachers."

This argument is, of course, utterly illogical.

Those neo-legalists are false teachers on the very subject of Justification itself. In other words, they don't believe in biblical imputation of righteousness at all! Therefore, they of course couldn't believe in active obedience imputation.

In varying forms, they teach that if believers stay in the Church, and live a life that's good enough until they die, they will EVENTUALLY be declared righteous BASED ON THEIR WORKS!

I despise the doctrine of the New Perspective, Wright, Gundry, Shepherd, Federal Vision, and the rest of the neo-legalists. Their views of justification are based on OUR works, and is legalistic, and I despise legalism.

However, because THOSE GUYS deny the imputation of the Active Obedience of Christ, their names are used to smear others who fully believe in the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, but NOT the imputation of the Active Obedience of Christ.

I am as sola scriptura as anyone I know. In fact I am so sola scriptura that I have a visceral reaction to "proofs" given without Scripture, such as:

"The 1689 says..."
"The Westminster says..."
"McMahon teaches..."
"Calvin teaches..."
"Throughout the centuries Reformed theologians and confessions have embraced and taught this distinction..."
"The Belgic Confession...the Heidelburg Catechism...the Second Helvetic..."
"John Gill...John Owen...Charles Hodge...William Ames...Turretin...Witsius...Edwards...Shedd..."

Worst of all is the concept of defending so-called "Historic Christianity", because in 1500 A.D. that would have meant defending Roman Catholicism.

No doctrine should shrink from an examination from Scripture alone, and then a RE-examination from Scripture alone.

Having thoroughly studied this subject, but always open to Scriptural light, I looked for ONE verse of Scripture to support the imputation of the Active Obedience of Christ, and found not one.

The question was asked of me, after quoting the 1689 London Baptist Confession, "Could it be any more clear?"

No, the LBC couldn't be much clearer, but the Scriptures they referenced for "proofs" not only don't support their premise of imputation of Active Obedience, but they teach the opposite.

For example, Rom. 5:18 says, "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through ONE act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men."

Another example: Heb. 10:14, "For by ONE offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."

Third example: 1 Peter 1:18,19, "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ."

Now I'm certainly not saying that Christ did not obey the Law perfectly throughout His life. He sure did.

But here's the key question:

Did Christ obey perfectly because He was righteous, or was He righteous because He obeyed perfectly? Surely it's the former. He was ALREADY righteous! That's why He obeyed. His righteousness was not dependent on His obedience, but His obedience showed that His righteousness was already inherent in Him.

I have read virtually every treatise on this so-called imputation of Active Obedience, and have repeatedly seen two things:

1. A dizzying reference to creeds, confessions, catechisms, and theological gurus, and...

2. A total lack of clear scriptural evidence.

In a much longer post, I could deal with the UNclear verses which are used to support the doctrine, but the burden of proof lies with those who teach the doctrine while avoiding relatively clear Scriptures like the plague.

Finally, why is this question important? Because the teaching of the imputation of the Active Obedience of Christ is a very subtle denial of the Cross, the Blood, and the Death of Christ as sufficient for our justification.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 5

Active Obedience Imputation Is Not Biblical - Part 3: "Jesus ACHIEVED Righteousness?!!"

2011-03-28T22:51:00.003-05:00

Commonly called something like "imputed active obedience", the concept has been passed down from the Westminster Confession and spread widely. I've found that most accept it because their mentors teach it, without really thinking it through. Even the verses given in the Confession are flimsy and unrelated.

The basic idea is that somehow Jesus ATTAINED or ACHIEVED righteousness that He didn't previously have, and that's why I think the doctrine is dishonoring to Christ.

An example is "The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration" which is all over the Internet including here.

In article 13 of "Affirmations and Denials" they wrote. "We affirm that the righteousness of Christ by which we are justified is properly his own, which he ACHIEVED [emphasis Terry's] apart from us, in and by his perfect obedience."

Jesus ACHIEVED righteousness?!! Then when did He not have it?

I realize that I stand against 125 heavyweights here, but who cares? The Bible says that by "one act", singular, justification became ours (Rom. 5:18), not by 33 years of acts.

It's true that Jesus fulfilled the Law. It's true that He obeyed the 10 Commandments perfectly. No dispute there. But this DEMONSTRATED the righteousness He always had, and AUTHENTICATED Him as the Messiah. It didn't ACHIEVE His righteousness.

To say less is to dishonor the Always Righteous One.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5

Active Obedience Imputation Is Not Biblical - Part 2: "The Tradition"

2011-03-28T22:46:00.002-05:00

I have a radical theory, and I'm waiting for someone, *anyone* to prove me wrong. I *welcome* being proved wrong. But I have no confidence I will be proved wrong.

Here's my radical theory:

The Westminster Confession of Faith TRADITION of Active Obedience Imputation has made "the Word of God of none effect", and those who teach Active Obedience Imputation are not as Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone as the final authority) as they think they are.

Oh, they MEAN to be Sola Scriptura, but they will not go against the "Great Confessions" and will not bow the knee of Active Obedience Imputation to the Scriptures, which NOWHERE say that Christ's Active Obedience was imputed to us.

It's His RIGHTEOUSNESS that was imputed to us, and that Righteousness was ALWAYS His. One doesn't GROW in righteousness. You are either righteous or you're not. And Christ was ALWAYS righteous.

Three things the issue IS NOT:

1. It’s not a question of whether Christ obeyed the Law perfectly. Of course He did.

2. It’s not a question of whether Christ imputed His Righteousness to us. Of course He did. That’s Biblical Justification.

3. It’s not a question of “denying Active Obedience”. Of course Christ “actively obeyed”.

Three things the issue IS:

1. Was it Christ’s obedience that was imputed to us, or was it Christ’s Righteousness that was imputed to us? The Bible clearly teaches that it was His Righteousness.

2. Did Christ *achieve* or *gain* or *earn* or *eventually have*
this Righteousness to impute to us?

No! He was always Righteous. In eternity. In the womb. At birth. Throughout His life on earth. To say less, I believe, is to dishonor Him.

3. Then is His life of obedience, that is, His perfect Active Obedience, important?

Yes, of course, because it DEMONSTRATES His Righteousness -- this Righteousness that He ALWAYS had, and that He imputed to us.

Here’s another exegetical slant that may shed light:

The Old Covenant sacrifice lamb needed to be “without blemish”. Only such were worthy to be sacrificed for the sins of the people. They had to be examined to SHOW that they were without blemish, right?

Question: Was the little lamb without blemish *before* it was examined?

Answer: Yes! It’s examination only DEMONSTRATED it to be so. Likewise, Jesus DEMONSTRATED Himself to be a worthy sacrifice by His life of obedience. But was He worthy BEFORE He showed it? The Scriptures say yes. It was the SACRIFICE (through "one act" -- Rom. 5:18) of the Lamb of God that secured our Justification, and His obedience to the Law only DEMONSTRATED that He ALWAYS was Worthy.

Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Active Obedience Imputation Is Not Biblical - Part 1: "The Parrots"

2011-03-28T22:28:00.003-05:00

The Parrots Of Active Obedience Imputation

Not much amazes me any more in the thoughts and attitudes in the Church. I've seen too much for too many years to really be amazed.

But I am amazed at one thing.

I am amazed at the inability of otherwise sharp and biblical men and women to engage biblically on the subject of the "active obedience" of Christ being imputed to us believers.

I have discussed this at length, and read all the "top" books, and, I kid you not, I have never heard an exegetical biblical explanation for the doctrine. In fact, it is almost assured that a person of this persuasion will blow more smoke skirting the issue, than on almost any other subject I've seen.

Parrots parroting parrots, with a little [faulty] logic occasionally thrown in, based mostly on Jesus "fulfilling all righteousness" by being baptized (not only irrelevant, but wrongly defined as somehow "earning" righteousness, as if the Son of God was ever not righteous).

Not only are these parrots parroting other parrots, but they do so with what appears to be an almost idolatrous attitude toward both men and confessions (I say "appears", not wanting to judge anyone's heart). They say things like, "If you disagree with me, you are out of step with 500 years of great giants of the faith, not to mention the Westminster Confession, the 1689 London Baptist Confession, and [God forbid!] John Owen and R.C. Sproul."

Giants, shmiants. Give me the Scriptures.

The issue is not as complicated as the blown smoke would indicate. The Son of God is and always was righteous as both God and Man, eternally, internally, intrinsically, and inherently. It's that righteousness which was imputed to us through the "one act" of His death, followed by His burial and resurrection.

It's not some "earned" or "achieved" righteousness that was imputed.

One Parrot may whine, "Then was His life of obedience to the Law just a waste of time?" What this Parrot can't hear, for some reason, is this simple truth:

Of course a righteous God-Man will ACT righteously! He's righteous! His actions demonstrate His righteousness.

Having said all that, I'm still very open, and I mean that, to any exegetical biblical explanation for why our Savior would need to "achieve" righteousness.

But I have no confidence such an explanation will come.

The parrots are not just parroting. They are wrong.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

If I Were A Pastor - Words From Larry Crabb

2011-02-23T22:00:00.001-06:00

From Shattered Dreams, by Larry Crabb:

“If I were a pastor, I would want to preach in the spirit of the New Covenant, inviting everyone in the congregation to see the heart of God revealed in the cross of Christ.

"I would encourage them to interpret all of life’s hardships not as problems to fix or struggles to relieve or pain to deaden, but as important elements in a larger story that all God’s children long to tell.

"I would urge them to accept wherever they are on the journey, whether happy or miserable, as the place where God will meet them, where He loves them, where He will continue to work in them.

"And I would offer my own life as a growing, struggling, sometimes painfully unattractive example of what doing that might mean.

"I would beg God to deliver me from Calvary-denying sermons, which leave people feeling scolded and pressured...I would ask God to never let me again preach an Eden-denying message where psychological insights replace biblical wisdom in a misguided effort to repair emotional damage when the real problem is a serpent-inspired determination to experience life without God."

(HT Tom Woods, GracedAgain.com)

The Heart Of The Christian Life Is Love

2011-02-13T20:37:00.001-06:00

Starving Under Expository Preaching?

2011-02-01T10:38:00.002-06:00

I am a big fan of expository preaching and teaching.

To preach the Word of God verse by verse and "give the meaning" is one of the highest forms of honor to God's Word, and the most fulfilling food to the sheep...

UNLESS...

it is devoid of Christ and His Grace.

"The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17).

Jesus is the true Bread of Life.

Even the most accurate and well-delivered exposition will leave malnourished sheep hobbling along the path with their ribs sticking out, if that Bread is not a part of every meal.

Preachers and teachers, please don't let a sermon or lesson leave your lips, without our precious Savior and Lord, and His wonderful Grace, being an integral part of it.

Hear Mr. Spurgeon's little story:

A young man had been preaching in the presence of a venerable divine, and after he had done he went to the old minister, and said, “What do you think of my sermon?”

“A very poor sermon indeed,” said he.

“A poor sermon?” said the young man, “it took me a long time to study it.”

“Ay, no doubt of it.”

“Why, did you not think my explanation of the text a very good one?”

“Oh, yes,” said the old preacher, “very good indeed.”

“Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn’t you think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?”

“Yes, they were very good as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon.”

“Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?”

“Because,” said he, “there was no Christ in it.”

“Well,” said the young man, “Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text.”

So the old man said, “Don’t you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?”

“Yes,” said the young man.

“Ah!” said the old divine “and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis—Christ. And,” said he, “I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it.”

(From "Christ Precious To Believers", preached March 13th, 1859)

"The Cross" or "The Christ"?

2011-01-30T20:46:00.001-06:00

by Michele Rayburn

"Every horrible thing and every sinful thing is ultimately governed by God. And that's a problem. But the center of the solution to the problem is a choice you have to make about the cross...When you contemplate believing in a totally sovereign God, you will center it right on the cross, because you'll go crazy otherwise." -John Piper (from the video, "Has God predetermined every tiny detail in the universe, including sin?")

"The Cross" or "The Crucifixion"?

It has been said that "The cross is both God's greatest righteousness and man's greatest wickedness."

The Church often uses interchangeably the terms "the cross" and "Christ".

It has been said that the cross is the most sacred, holy, and righteous thing. Does Scripture ever refer to the cross as the most sacred, holy, and righteous thing?

By the same token, does the Scripture ever refer to the cross as the most wicked thing?

Of course, it is obvious that the cross is a method of punishment by crucifixion. But trying to cite Scripture to prove its wickedness is beside the point.

Likewise, trying to cite Scripture to prove that the cross is "sacred, holy and righteous" is also beside the point.

The reason is that there is a confusion in terms when we refer to "the cross", instead of "the crucifixion".

And there is further confusion when we refer to "the cross" instead of referring to Christ.

Yes, the *act* of the crucifixion was "the most wicked thing that ever happened; the crucifixion of our Saviour." (John Piper)

And we can agree that the *crucifixion*, not "the cross" per se, is both God's greatest [act of] righteousness and man's greatest [act of] wickedness.

The cross, which is a large piece of wood, an instrument designed for crucifixions, was not the most sacred, holy, righteous thing, and the cross was not the most wicked. But "the crucifixion" was.

The act of the crucifixion predetermined by God before the creation of the world, and in His perfect time fulfilled, was a sacred and holy event, and a righteous act of God.

And the act of the crucifixion of our Savior by sinful men was the most wicked.

The *act* of the crucifixion was, therefore, both "God's greatest righteousness and man's greatest wickedness".

The Scriptures may not refer to "the cross" as righteous or wicked, but the Scriptures, of course, do refer to "the crucifixion" as both a righteous act predetermined by God, and a wicked act by sinful men upon our Savior.

"The Cross" or "The Christ"?

The Church often gives undue reverence to a piece of wood, an instrument of punishment. The cross should not be the focus of our attention and our reverence, but Jesus Christ Himself should be.

How do we confuse the two? By the traditions of men, who have articulated their reverence by referencing the cross instead of the Christ.

I think it matters which one we focus on.

"Then," you may ask, "what do we do with these Scriptures?":

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest *the cross of Christ* should be made of no effect. 1 Cor.1:17

For *the message of the cross* is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor.1:18

But God forbid that I should *glory except in the cross* of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Gal.6:14

Gal.6:14 is followed by Gal.6:15 which says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation." Here, Paul makes evident his focus, "For in Christ Jesus..."

In Gal. 6:14, after saying, "God forbid that I should glory except in the cross...", Paul not only adds "...of our Lord Jesus Christ", but also makes clear that it is Christ Jesus "*by whom* the world has been crucified to me...", not "the cross".

1 Cor.1:18 speaks of "the message of the cross". And what is "the message of the cross"? It is Christ, and Him crucified for His people. And that He rose again for their justification and their salvation.

The phrase "the cross" is used figuratively, as a metaphor.

When 1 Cor. 1:17 says, "lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect", does Paul mean to say that the cross may lose it's power?

Or is he speaking metaphorically, using a figure of speech to make his point?

He is speaking metaphorically, figuratively. The point being that if he does not preach the gospel, all that Christ did will not be known, and then no one can be saved if they have not heard.

It always goes back to Christ.

It's important to get the foundation right and then everything else will fall into place.

It's important to use biblical terminology carefully. It's important that Jesus Christ be at the forefront of our thinking, and at the center of our message of salvation.

To center on "the cross" as the focus of our worship or reverence does indeed weaken and dilute the gospel message, and distract us from Christ Himself.

"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 3:11

The Law of Sin and The Law of God

2011-01-25T18:07:00.002-06:00

by Michele Rayburn

I've heard many Christians over the years say that they, not Paul, were really the chief of sinners, which is a direct contradiction to the inspired word of God.

It seems like everybody wants to be a Chief (of sinners), but nobody wants to be an Indian (a saint)!

There is Pauline theology, and then there is "Christine" theology, that is "Christine O'Donnell theology", which says "I am you!"

"I am you", "Christine theology" works when speaking on a worldly level: "I'm an average American, and so are you."

But "I am you", "Christine theology", doesn't work when speaking on a spiritual level about Christians, once they are born again, and are new creations in Christ. Now it's, "Praise God! I am no longer you!"

What I am in my new regenerate spirit is who I really am. When I sin, it is not me (that is, in my new spirit), it is "sin in me", as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 7:17:

"But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me."

And Romans 7:18 goes on to say, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells...".

Someone may ask,

But certainly you are not suggesting that these things are no longer sins if we do them just because we are Christians?

It doesn't mean that when I sin, it is not sin. It simply means that it is not me, but it is "sin in me", in my flesh doing the sinning, and it is my flesh warring against the new me, warring against my new regenerate spirit. (Romans 7:17)

You ask, "How are we different from a murderer?"

We are different in our spirit.

To the extent that we acknowledge, understand, reckon, and appropriate our new identity in Christ as born again new creations, alive to God and dead to sin (Romans 6), and now saints, we will have the strength in our new spirit to walk by the spirit, as the Apostle Paul so often instructs us to do.

That's the reason for making the distinction that "I am not a murderer".

But to the extent that we instead focus on "our old man" who "was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with" (Romans 6:6), and call ourselves something that we are not, "sinners" (defined as one who practices sin as an ongoing lifestyle), to that extent we will live somewhat defeated lives, struggling with sin more than we should have to, like the double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways.

I know that I am not what I used to be before I was radically saved 31 years ago.

And the murderer, if he comes to know the Lord five minutes before he dies, like the thief on the cross, will find himself with Christ in great glory in Heaven.

And at that point, the point at which the murderer should trust in the Lord, I can then say that the murderer is now just like me.

You may ask,"When I sin, it is not me"?

So, then, what do we do with this verse in Romans 7:17?:

"But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me."

Paul clarifies it, to answer your question, with this next verse in Romans 7:18:

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells...".

Paul is making a distinction between "I" ("the one who wills to do good" Rom.7:21) and "my flesh" ("in me, that is, in my flesh" Rom.7:18.)

You will say,

Paul later says: "So then, I *myself* serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Exactly. "I *myself* serve the law of God with my mind..."

but

"...with *my flesh* I serve the law of sin." (Rom.7:25)

Not only does Paul say, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Romans 7:17, "But now it is *no longer I who do it*, but *sin* that dwells in me."...

...but Paul goes on to say again in Romans 7:20:

"Now if I do what I will not to do, it is *no longer I who do it*, but *sin* that dwells in me."

Now, there are two "I"'s here:

1) "I do what I will not to do"

and

2) "it is no longer I who do it"

Go back to #1:

1) I (my flesh) do what I ("the one who wills to do good") will not to do.

and

Go back to #2:

2) ...it is no longer I ("the one who wills to do good") who do it.

Then who, or what, "in the flesh" is doing the things I will not to do? (Rom.7:20)

Paul gives us the answer twice:

Romans 7:17 and 7:20 "...it is no longer I who do it, but *sin* that dwells in me."

Paul then reveals to us some of the mystery behind this. He gives us the reason for this:

Romans 7:21, "I find then *a law*, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good."

And then Paul presents the conflict once again, of the "flesh warring against our mind":

Romans 7:22, "For I delight in the law of God according to *the inward man*..."

Romans 7:23, "...BUT, I see *another law in my members*, warring against *the law of my mind*, and bringing me into captivity to *the law of sin which is in my members*."

Paul then makes this conclusion in Romans 7:25:

"So then, *with the mind* I myself [my new regenerated self] serve the law of God, but *with the flesh* [still unchanged] the law of sin."

So, as we see in Romans 7:23, there is a war between "the law of my mind" and "the law of sin which is in my members [my flesh]".

There is a war between "I", "the one who wills to do good" [the one whose spirit is regenerated], and "my flesh" [which is still as yet unchanged].

In Conclusion: The Law of Sin vs. The Law of God

1) The Law of Sin

Paul says in Rom.7:17,20 "sin...dwells in me", and in Rom.7:18 "in my flesh, nothing good dwells", and in Rom.7:21 "evil is present *with* me".

Paul wraps it up by saying in Rom.7:25 "with the flesh [I serve] the law of sin." ("I" in this verse does not refer to "the one who wills to do good" but to that part of me which is unchanged, unrenewed, unregenerated, that is, "my flesh")

2) The Law of God

Paul says in Rom.7:12 "the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good".

And he says in Rom.7:14 "the law [of God] is spiritual".

In Rom.7:22, he says, "I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." ("the inward man", as opposed to "the [outward] flesh")

And in Rom.7:23, Paul refers to "the law of my mind".

Paul wraps it up in Rom.7:25 by saying, "with the mind I myself serve the law of God."

As opposed to the flesh, which cannot be "renewed", the Scriptures say that we can be "transformed by the renewing of our mind". And it is with our mind that we "serve the law of God".

It is with our flesh that we serve the law of sin. (Rom.7:25)

Spiritual Warfare - Truth and Lies

2011-01-20T16:58:00.001-06:00

The mind is the primary ground for spiritual warfare.

What does your mind actually do?

It THINKS and it VISUALIZES. The two are closely related.

When it thinks and visualizes, those thoughts and pictures may be divided into two classes -- truth and lies.

This is exactly why spiritual warfare is primarily in the mind. Because the mind thinks and pictures either TRUTH or LIES. That's why the Scripture speaks of "doctrines of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1), because doctrines (teachings) of demons are lies.

It's TRUTH that sets us free, and it's LIES that put us in bondage of some kind.

So where is authoritative truth?

It's in the Scriptures.

That's why we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:1,2).

And the Devil and demons are not our only enemies. There are also the World and the Flesh. Any one of the unholy three (the World, the Flesh, and the Devil) is able to de-rail us, if we are not filled with the Truth of the Word of God.

How are we filled with the Word of God? I would recommend five ways:

1. Reading the Word, especially the New Testament epistles.

2. Studying the Word, perhaps using good commentaries, word studies, Bible dictionaries, etc.

3. Meditating on the Word. Thinking over each passage, maybe asking questions like Who, What, When, Where, Why?

4. Praying the Word. Asking God to teach us, and equip us with His grace, to understand and be able able to live each passage, as it is applied to our lives.

5. Perhaps most important, always relating the Word to Jesus Christ, Who is the Living Word.

He who is our Life, Jesus Christ, Who is one in spirit with us believers, is the Object of the Scriptures. All Scriptures point to Him, and He is Truth personified.

Seek Him in every passage.

He is our Bread. Feed on Him.

Don't view the Scriptures as just some kind of rule book or map. It breathes Christ! Our Savior, our Lord, our Counselor, our Friend!

When you recognize a lie, renounce it. Put it away.

But be sure to replace it with the truth.

Practice the truth. Seek it out.

Don't let a lie rest. Root it out.

Pray for the Lord to lead you in truth, which does indeed set us free.

Stand on the TRUTH. That's what the warfare is about.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." -- Galatians 5:1

"Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with TRUTH, and having put on the breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of FAITH with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of evil one. And take the helmet of SALVATION, and the sword of the SPIRIT, which is the WORD OF GOD. With all prayer and petition PRAY at all times in the Spirit..." -- Ephesians 6:14-18

Behold, He Makes All Things New

2011-01-01T12:44:00.003-06:00

The First Sunrise of the New Year 2009

The New Year and The Future - Don't Worry :)

2010-12-31T17:10:00.000-06:00

It's New Year's Eve. 2011 starts tomorrow!

Christmas is over, the holiday hustle and bustle is over. People's thoughts are beginning to turn to New Year's Resolutions, weight loss after the seasonal delicacies, setting goals for the New Year, and exclaiming, “Where did the last year go?"

Or the last 5, or 20?

But wherever those years may have gone, the next year is upon us.

Here's my question: Are you worried about it? Are you worried about the next year, or the future in general?

Let me state it boldly up front.

There are two things that are infinitely foolish.

One is for a Christian to worry about the future. We all do it sometimes, but we at least need to recognize that it's foolish.

But the other thing that's foolish is for a non-Christian to NOT worry about the future. Someone who doesn't know Jesus as Lord and Savior should worry. In fact we should pray for those we know and love to worry, if they don't know Jesus.

There are lots of books written for unbelievers, which teach them not to worry. Psychology books, and self-help books, and positive thinking books, and success books. The book stores are filled with whole rows of shelves of books under the general heading of Self-Improvement. And almost all of these books contain some so-called wisdom in them which tell their readers not to worry.

Some will even quote the Scriptures, with hardly the slightest understanding of what they are really about. They will quote Phillipians 4:6, which says, “Be anxious for nothing.” But they might leave out the next part of the verse which says, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” They don't really know what that means, do they?

Some will quote Jesus who says, “Do not worry for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” - Matthew 6:34.

Of course, most unbelievers still worry. But many have learned to, as Romans 1 puts it, "suppress the truth in unrighteousness". In other words, they have more or less succeeded in “thinking positive thoughts”.

1800 years ago, a pagan philosopher who is still revered for his wisdom, spoke on this subject. His name was Marcus Aurelius. He was not only a Stoic Philosopher, but he had an interesting job. He was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 A.D. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus wrote, “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”

Nothing wrong with reason. Logic is a gift from God, but may I ask the same question Jesus asked? “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?”

See, Marcus Aurelius had something he should have been anxious about. He should have been anxious about his soul. And in the years he lived, he would have had ready access to the Gospel. The Good News that Jesus Christ, just a few years before Marcus Aurelius was born, died on a Roman cross, to pay for our sins, and rose again from the grave. So that whoever would believe in Him would not perish under the wrath of God, but have eternal life.

But the Emperor chose “the gods” of Rome, instead of The God of creation, and the God-Man of the Cross. And so he had plenty to worry about. But he apparently did not.

The great actor Anthony Hopkins, in a recent interview with James Lipton on Inside the Actor's Studio, said, “Today is the tomorrow I was so worried about yesterday.”

We see that same attitude echoed here by Hopkins, who is in effect saying, “See? I worried about today, and it's okay. So I shouldn't have worried.”

I can't help thinking about the Scripture in 2 Peter 3, where Peter writes, “...mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?” But as Peter says, it escapes their notice that God once destroyed the Earth with a flood, and “by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men....with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day....the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

Sir Anthony Hopkins has something to worry about, doesn't he? I pray the Lord might open his heart.

But how about you, Christian?

If you are a Christian, a born again believer in Jesus Christ, well that's a different story.

It is utterly foolish for you to worry.

You can use your reason, your logic, just as Marcus Aurelius did, but for you the logic is based on a good foundation.

Your logic goes like this: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Romans 8:31. See the logic there? That's what I call logic! If God the Father gave us God the Son, sacrificed on a cross for our sins, is it logical He will now desert us? Of course not.

“I will never leave you, nor forsake you,” He tells us. And that's reasonable, isn't it? With what He's already done, will He drop the ball, so to speak?

No. In fact, as the almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God, He can do whatever He wants, and He does.

And one of the things that He does is in that same 8th Chapter of Romans, verse 28. It goes like this, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

And did you ever stop to consider how logical that is? We don't deserve His love, but He chose to love us. And He paid for our sins, forgave our sins, and gave us the gift of His righteousness, declaring us righteous.

And we love Him because He first loved us. And now all things work together for good to those who love Him. That's us. Would it be logical that He would work things together for bad to us who love Him? Of course not.

And so it makes perfect sense when the Scripture says in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Now God knows that we are prone to worry, to be anxious. So He doesn't just say, “Don't.” He gives us a very practical alternative, in case we haven't fully absorbed the glory of His love for us yet. The better we know Him, and the wonder of His Grace, and the truth that He loves and accepts us fully in Christ, and that nothing we could do can diminish that love and Grace – the better we know that in our hearts and minds, the less we would be able to worry or be anxious.

But God knows we are learners. God knows we need our minds renewed. God knows that we are subject to the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil. And so He gives us some practical things to do, while we're learning the depths of His love.

He tells us not to be anxious for anything, but then He says to do something else instead.

First, He says, to let our requests be made known to God. Now obviously God isn't lacking in knowing anything. But He gives us the simple suggestion that we pray (that means talk to Him) with supplication (that means asking for something). Sometimes you'll hear pious preachers say, “Stop asking God for things. Just say, 'Thy will be done' and leave it to Him, you greedy little beggar.”

Well, the problem with that thinking is that it's just not Biblical.

God wants us to ask Him for things. Why? Many reasons, actually, but a big one is that He wants us to be dependent on Him. Not independent. Dependent. God loves being our Father, our provider. Even people like to be needed. Sometimes I neglect to ask for the help of my wife, and she says, “I'm here. Stop acting like a bachelor.”

And God is saying, “Stop acting like a god.” He wants us to pray to Him and ask for things. Of course, He doesn't want us to ask with bad motives, just for pleasure's sake, James 4:3.

But we can now come boldly before His throne of grace, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” - Hebrews 4:16.

So first He says in Philippians to let our requests be made known to God.

But secondly, He says that it should be “with thanksgiving”. What's the logic here? What's the process? Should I pray for something, and then when I get it, be thankful and give God thanks?

Well, there's nothing wrong with that kind of thanksgiving, but that's not what God is getting at here. He's talking about an attitude, as much as an action. Of course we should give thanks for specific things, and specific answers to prayer. But even higher than that, is a heart of gratitude. It's first the recognition for all the good that God has brought into our lives.

Now life is filled with bad things, isn't it? I mean, we live in a fallen world, and the bad stuff, like the poor, you will always have with you.

But most of the things in your life are good, in one way or another. Some of you will have trouble believing that, and I don't have the time right now to prove it. But if you actually, honestly believe that you have more bad things than good in your life, then you have a lot of meditation on the Scriptures to do. You are starting from scratch, you are starting from square one. That's okay. Start.

Absorb yourself in the Word of God and learn of Him until you understand that the blessings He has showered you with are abundant. In a very practical way, maybe write down, or list in your mind, all the blessings you can think of, one at a time. And thank Him for them. And do this over and over, until you have the simple basic truth down, that the blessings in your life far outweigh the bad things. Start with Jesus Christ Himself. Many of us can testify to the truth that if we have Christ, we truly lack nothing. The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not lack for anything. Everything else is gravy, or frosting, if you prefer.

So first is the recognition for all the good that God has brought into our lives. Then comes our heart attitude about that. It starts with the knowledge that is expressed in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”

In other words, every good in your life is a gift from God. So after you recognize the good, be thankful to Him for it, and express that thankful heart with thanksgiving.

Now this process, like all of the Christian life, requires walking in the Spirit. That's why a pagan can't really live a life of thanksgiving. They may say in their psychology books, “Have an attitude of gratitude,” but what is sadder than having an attitude of thanksgiving and having no one to thank?

But we know who to thank, don't we?

And He is the one who has promised to meet all our needs, Philippians 4:9. We may not even know what our needs really are at a given time, but He does. And He will supply them as surely as He supplies the garment of the Lily of the Field.

And so we don't need to worry. We don't need to be anxious. We have a God, a Lord, a Friend who is closer than a brother. And with Him all things are possible. There is nothing He can't do.

And so I leave you with a final piece of logic. Not cold calculating logic, but the warm joyful logic of the Lord who loves you. Here it is:

“If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” The wonderfully logical answer is...Nothing.

So don't worry. And have a Blessed New Year!

Remembering The Jesus Of Christmas

2010-12-24T08:26:00.002-06:00

Remembering The Jesus Of Christmas

2010-12-24T08:25:00.000-06:00

This week's audio message:

Remembering The Jesus of Christmas

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Baby Jesus - 3 Reasons To Reject Him (Transcript)

2010-12-18T12:54:00.003-06:00

1. Virgins don’t have babies.

I mean, the whole idea is absurd. Remember the birds and the bees? Remember biology? Remember, the egg has to be fertilized by the seed, then grows until birth? How could a virgin have a baby without any seed to fertilize the egg?

2. Gods don’t humble themselves.

There has never been a humble God in history. From the beginnings of man in Mesopotamia, Gods aren’t humble. Gods can’t be humble. After all they’re gods. They are above men, they rule over men, they squash men at will, they fight with men, they dominate men.

To humble themselves would be to show weakness, to show that they’re really not gods. No god ever humbled himself and no god ever will.

3. Gods don’t make friends.

This goes along with number two. Gods don’t make friends because that would be to humble themselves. And they sure don’t make friends with man. What do they even have in common? Nothing. Gods are gods and men are men, and never the twain shall meet. The very idea of having a god as a friend is like a man having an amoeba for a friend. Not going to happen.

I didn’t actually see it, but I read about an episode of the TV show Thirtysomething. I never watched the show because by the time I even heard of it I was already Forty-something.

But this episode was about the character Hope, who was a Christian, arguing with her Jewish husband, Michael, about the holidays.

“Why do you even bother with Hanukkah?” she asks. “Do you really believe a handful of Jews held off a huge army by using a bunch of lamps that miraculously wouldn’t run out of oil?”

Michael shoots back, “Oh, and Christmas makes more sense? Do you really believe an angel appeared to some teenage girl who then got pregnant without ever having had sex and traveled on horseback to Bethlehem where she spent the night in a barn and had a baby who turned out to be the Savior of the world?”

Well, do you believe it, friend? I do.

Well, it wasn’t a horse that Mary rode to Bethlehem, it was a donkey. But the character Michael got it pretty accurate, otherwise, didn’t he?

And it’s got to be one of the most ridiculous-sounding stories ever to be written, that the writer actually expects you to believe. We’re not talking about some fiction writer telling of Hobbits or Jabba the Hutt, and hoping we’ll pretend to believe it just long enough to enjoy the story. We’re talking about serious theological guys who tell the story of the birth of Jesus without batting an eye, and expect us to believe it as true, down to the last bit.

Well, what about our three reasons to reject this baby Jesus?

Let’s take them one at a time.

1. Virgins don’t have babies.

It’s true they usually don’t. But think with me for a minute. Suppose God wanted to send a Savior to pay for the sins of men by sacrificing Himself on a cross, dying to take our sins on Him so that He could give us the free gift of His righteousness, so that we would be saved from Hell, and have eternal life, everlasting life eventually with God in heaven.

Well, there’s one little problem with that. After Adam sinned in the Garden, sin, or the sinful nature, was forever passed on to everyone who ever lived since, and that sin was passed on, the Bible says, through the seed of man.

But a Savior for man would have to be sinless. A sinner can’t pay the sacrifice for another sinner. To satisfy or appease God’s just wrath against sin, the sacrifice must be perfect, sinless, not only without having committed any sins, but without even a sinful nature. In other words, righteous.

And the sacrifice that God the Father sent, was God the Son. The perfect candidate for sacrifice. Pure, righteous, sinless, and with no sin nature.

But that brings up another problem. How does God the Son get to earth to get this done. After all, since it was by a man that we fell or inherited our sinful nature, it must be a man who sheds His blood in our place for our forgiveness and salvation.

But if Jesus were born as a man in the normal way, then sin would pass on from His earthly dad, through his earthly dad’s seed. Got that? The sinful nature always passes on through the seed of the man.

So God did a miracle, a small miracle for Him really, but one with a huge impact on history. He implanted, miraculously a seed into Mary, which the Bible then calls “the seed of the woman” (see, not the seed of a man). This miraculous seed joined with Mary’s egg, and you know the rest. A sinless baby boy was born. Not only sinless in not ever committing a sin, but sinless in not even having a sinful nature, like the rest of us.

So not only did this virgin have a baby, but it couldn’t have been any other way, or the baby could not have been sinless.

2. Gods don’t humble themselves.

It’s true in human history, that those called gods in verbal stories and written literature never humble themselves. But let me say a couple things about that.

First, they are not really gods, of course. The Bible clearly says there is only one God. There is only one true God who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and everything that is in the earth. The Bible says that this one God is in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s what theologians have named the Trinity. But there is only one God.

And so all those so-called gods who never humbled themselves, are just made-up stories and superstitions of fictional gods, or in some cases, may be actual beings which we call fallen angels or demons. And anybody knows, no demon is going to humble himself.

But the true God of the Bible did humble Himself.

George Herbert, the poet and Anglican priest of the 1600’s put it poetically like this:

"The God of power, as he did ride
In his majestick robes of glorie
Resolv’d to light; and so one day
He did descend, undressing all the way."

This “undressing all the way” is nothing more than the humbling of the mighty Creator of the universe. This Creator God who spread trillions of galaxies into space, and made the atoms and neutrons and electrons and quasars and army ants and the aardvarks who would eat them; this almighty, all-knowing, all-wise Jehovah God, because He so loved us, humbled Himself.

And came to earth, Emmanuel, God with us. Came to earth as the most helpless creature there is, a baby.

A real baby, by the way. Don’t believe the Christmas carol that says “no crying he makes”. I’m sure He cried alright. And he kicked and cooed, and drooled, and He couldn’t have lived more than a few hours if He wasn’t cared for.

But He grew, and because He was a real baby, He grew to be a real man. He was really God, too. But He set aside the glory and rights that He had as God. Could we dare say, "like a man becoming an amoeba"? Probably not. But it was the most astounding humbling that the world has ever seen.

And it had to be that way, but He didn’t have to do it. The Bible says He did it because He loves us. And He loves us because He chose to love us, before the creation of the world. How’s that for a mystery? He didn’t love us because we’re so lovable, He loved us because He is love, and He chose to love us.

The Bible says He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.

An explosion of glorious love as big as God, resulting in a baby away in a manger, no crib for his bed.

3. Gods don’t make friends.

Have you seen the bumper sticker, “The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog.”

It’s a sad point, really, but one that we can understand. People are fearfully and wonderfully made, the Bible says, but the same Bible says "Cursed is he who trusts in man.”

Or how about the cynical little verse, “To dwell above with saints we love, O that will be glory. But to dwell below with saints we know, well that’s a different story.”

What God in His right mind would want to be friends with us?

I would contend that the Bible teaches that God not only loved us when we weren’t lovable, but he chose to befriend us when we were his enemies.

Thankfully, Mary didn’t say to the angel, “Are you crazy?” O.K., she did say, “But I’ve never been with a man.” So she wasn’t gullible. But you know what she was? She was godly. And so she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

She wasn’t gullible and she wasn’t stupid. She had to have known instinctively what she was in for. The humiliation, the doubts even from loved ones, the shame for her betrothed, Joseph, the jeers and stares and tsk tsk’s. But she did what a godly girl should do. She said in effect, “Thy will be done.”

When we read what’s called the "Magnificat", Mary’s beautiful words in Luke Chapter 1 which begin with, “My soul magnifies the Lord”, we see that her language is filled with the Psalms. This tells us that she was probably raised in a Bible-believing home. And this too was part of God’s wonderful plan.

Malcolm Muggeridge, commenting on our modern Roe v. Wade society wrote,

“It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable, under existing conditions, that Jesus would have been permitted to be born at all. Mary’s pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion; and her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger. Thus our generation, needing a Savior more, perhaps, than any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born.”

But God worked it out, didn’t He?

With a baby in a manger, who was Himself God, yet man.

And the man grew in wisdom and stature, and He suffered beyond imagination as He shed His blood and died. And by shedding His blood and dying, and rising again from the dead, this man who is also God, became a friend to those who had been His enemies.

This is His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of friends of God.

Friends of God are those who have been born again. They are those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And they are those who have given up working and striving to earn God’s love and favor, but accepted the free gift of His love and forgiveness and salvation, by grace.

Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

As of this message, it’s close to Christmas. The day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. And once again, we are reminded of three wonderful things.

A virgin did have a baby.

And our God did humble Himself.

And the one true almighty God has made us His friends.

Happy Birthday Jesus...and thanks.

Baby Jesus - 3 Reasons To Reject Him

2010-12-18T12:53:00.002-06:00

This week's audio message:

Baby Jesus: 3 Reasons To Reject Him

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Celebrating Halloween With Abraham, Martin and John (Transcript)

2010-10-31T00:59:00.001-05:00

Celebrating Halloween With Abraham, Martin and John

2010-10-31T00:55:00.001-05:00

This week's audio message:

Celebrating Halloween With Abraham, Martin and John

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Reversing The Reformation - How Some So-Called Protestants Are Subtly Undermining Justification By Faith

2010-10-28T10:46:00.002-05:00

Note: October 31 is Reformation Day, celebrating the Protestant Reformation, when the biblical gospel of grace was re-introduced to the Church at large.

The Roman Catholic Church held an almost monopolistic grip on the hearts of millions of people for hundreds of years.

Through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, the awful legalistic system of "salvation by works" nearly choked out the light of the Gospel of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only small pockets of true believers in Christ escaped the dark heavy blanket of Romanism.

Then around 500 years ago came what we call the Reformation.

Men like Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and Knox, intense students of the Scriptures, rose up and shined the light of the Gospel into the darkness of European Catholicism.

These brave men brought an end to the monopoly of the Popes. They boldly proclaimed that salvation was

by grace alone, not by merit;

by faith alone, not by works;

by faith in Christ alone, not in sacraments;

under the final authority of the Word of God alone, not the unscriptural teachings of the Bishops of Rome.

The Central Point of the Reformation

The central point of the Reformation is what we call Justification by Faith. This is the sublime and simple truth that when we believe in Jesus Christ we are “justified” or “declared righteous” by God. This means that we are fully in right standing with God, our sins forgiven and no longer held against us.

This is accomplished because God judged our sins in Christ on the Cross, and gave us the “gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17) by imputing the righteousness of Christ to us, when we believe in Christ.

As 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Romans Chapter 5:1,2 gives us the result of this wonderful act of the Lord:

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

The Permanence of Justification

When we are justified, declared righteous by God, it is forever. It is permanent. And it occurs at the moment when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we believe the Gospel.

The "gift of righteousness" can never be taken away, because it is part of a package deal, to put it crudely. This righteousness is given to us by grace through faith, and that is “not of yourselves” and “not of works” (Ephesians 2:8,9). Even the very faith by which we believe in Jesus Christ is a gift given by God through the New Birth, regeneration.

This “imputed righteousness” contrasts starkly with the unbiblical Roman Catholic teaching that one is actually “made righteous” (“infused righteousness”) through the sacraments like Baptism, and the Eucharistic Mass, and through meritorious good works -- and that this so-called righteousness leaks out through sinning, and therefore can be lost, thereby damning the soul of the one who fails to maintain his “righteousness” by his works and attendance to the sacraments.

In Come the Neo-Legalists

The Reformation did not, of course, abolish Roman Catholicism. This cult of works salvation has continued these many years, and still thrives today.

But until recently one could more or less count on Protestant Bible teachers to uphold Justification by Faith Alone. One could more or less count on Protestant Bible teachers to oppose the so-called Justification of Rome, where grace and works are mixed, making it “no longer grace” (Romans 11:6).

But back in the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a professor at Westminster Seminary named Norman Shepherd. In 1975 some of his former students were being questioned for ordination, and when the question “How is a sinner justified?” was asked, they answered, “By faith and works.” Shocked questioners traced their answer back to their professor, Norman Shepherd.

Shepherd was allowed to teach for six more years, a disgrace in itself, but was finally released in 1981, the proverbial dung having hit the fan hard enough. Even then, several professors who then agreed with Shepherd were allowed to remain, teaching hundreds of students who spread the cancer yet today.

The big foot of undermining Justification by Faith had been stuck in the door, and the result has mushroomed into several full-blown ministries and movements, some directly from Westminster, and some relatively independent.

Allow me to name some names and then I will attempt to capsulize the kernel of the heresy.

Pioneering writers include E.P. Sanders, N.T. Wright, Steve Schlissel, Steve Wilkins, Douglas Wilson, and Peter Leithart.

They have been joined by a multitude of Pastors, bloggers and other writers, and teachers in Seminaries. Many in the Emerging/Emergent Church movement have gravitated toward these men, particularly N.T. Wright. And they have infiltrated otherwise orthodox places, including well-known mainstream Evangelical and Reformed magazines.

They operate under names and ministries you may have heard: Shepherdism, Auburn Avenue Theology, Federal Vision, or the New Perspective on Paul. And they lead churches in virtually every Reformed denomination.

What They Have In Common

I won’t pretend the issues and sub-doctrines are not varied and even complicated, but they have one important thing in common – a rejection of the biblical Justification by Faith (even while sometimes saying they support it).

Like most false teachers, their terminology is often the same as orthodox terminology. But the expression of their error can mostly be bunched under an important term: Covenant Nomism (sometimes called Covenantal Nomism). “Nomism” refers to “Law”.

Though their implementation of the doctrine varies (for example, some teach that one enters the “covenant” through water baptism, others through so-called “faith alone”), the basics are as follows:

1.One enters into a “covenant” of the “people of God”, through “faith” and/or baptism. This is a real covenant which makes one a real Christian.

2.Once in the “covenant” of the family of God, it is now one’s responsibility to stay in the covenant, and follow Jesus as Lord all the days of one’s life…or else (more on the “or else” in a moment). This is blatant Legalism.

3.IF one remains in the “covenant”, by assembling together and obeying the Law sufficiently, THEN, at the end of one’s life, or the end of the age, one will be truly “Justified”, or “declared righteous” ON THE BASIS OF THEIR LIFE AND WORKS.

4.Here’s the “or else”: If one departs from sufficient obedience to the Law, or (in some cases) stops fellowshiping in the local assembly, they are deemed “out of the covenant”, will never be “justified”, even though they truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and were in His “covenant” and were a true Christian. Their works, or lack of them, have ultimately damned them.

What Can Be Done?

Admittedly, this is an extremely brief introduction to Neo-Legalism, or Covenant Nomism.

The men teaching these things are not ignorant, and they’re not stupid. They are biblically classic false teachers.

What would I recommend?

1.I don’t recommend studying these men, except by the most discerning and biblically knowledgeable.

2.I do recommend studying the biblical doctrine of Justification by Faith, just as the FBI reputedly studies real money, in order to quickly identify the counterfeit.

There are many good books on the subject. A thorough classic is by James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification. Another good one, perhaps easier to read, is James White’s The God Who Justifies.

An excellent sermon by Charles Spurgeon can be read at:
www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3392.htm

Scriptural support for Justification by Faith can be found at:
www.carm.org/doctrine/justification_verses.htm

3.If you accept true biblical Justification by Faith, have courage to say so. And don’t be afraid to mention names.

Too many Protestant believers and teachers have been "returning" to Roman Catholicism. While for some there may be an inherent attraction to the ancient religious trappings of Romanism, in many cases it’s simply an abandonment of the great truth that God justifies us, declares us righteous, forever, when we believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be all the glory.

My Late Mother's 80th Birthday

2010-10-26T10:43:00.005-05:00

Today would be my dear Mother's 80th birthday. The following is a post from October 2004, the month we began the Grace For Life blog.

At the end, in her honor, I've added a video, picked by Michele, that my Mom would have really enjoyed when she was on this Earth (she probably now considers it rather mild, being face-to-face in the presence of Jesus Himself!). Hope you enjoy it too.

From October 26, 2004:
==========================================
Her name is Mary Ann [B. 26 Oct 1930, D. 16 Sep 1994].

Today, October 26, 2004, my mom would have been 74 years old. She went to be with her Lord about 10 years ago Complications from leukemia.

She was an amazing testimony to God's grace. Full of love for the Lord. Full of love for His people. And always praying for the lost to come to Jesus Christ. She was a selfless person, who readily would sacrifice to help someone in need. Her thousands of pages of journals are a passionate work of art.

This isn't the place to go into great detail, but I'm reminded of two lessons from her life.

1. The power of God to change a heart, even in the midst of a mostly pagan upbringing. He shall save His people from their sins.

2. The importance of a newborn sheep being fed with the truth of Jesus Christ. I say this because although my mom came to Christ in 1950, the year I was born, my dad did not. And so we seldom ever darkened the door of a church. My mom was left to rely on bits and pieces of good teaching here and there, mixed with quasi-Christian bad literature influences.

Without a strong biblical foundation, she was tossed by winds of doctrine (as we all can be at times) for 26 years. But she always loved the Lord, as best she knew Him, and she always prayed for me and my sister Jan to be saved.

In 1976, I was saved, as was my sister shortly thereafter. When I told my mom, she wept with joy. I began picking her up for church every Sunday. We attended a precious bible-teaching church, and she, and I, and my sister grew like weeds.

Regrets are a waste of time, but I sometimes think, "If only she had been grounded in a good knowledge of biblical truth and life in Christ from the beginning . . ."

Yet God "restored the years the locusts had eaten", and there is no Christian lady I admired more than my new mom. If you knew her, you would agree, and you would glorify the Lord for what He did.