Sunday School - Living In God's Kingdom Part 1

This identification that Jesus in his incarnation, Jesus in his redemptive work,

is ushering in God's kingdom.

And so that's the whole idea behind Luke's gospel.

And it's really the story of the Bible.

The Bible is a story of the ushering in of God's kingdom, the breaking in of God's kingdom into the world.

And so, yeah, these are things that we want to...

It's for your family.

So let's start with this basic question.

Do you desire to live in heaven?

I don't know about you.

I do.

I want to go to heaven.

Why do we want to go to heaven?

Why is that important?

Well, why do we desire that?

It's kind of a strange desire to want to be with someone we've never seen, to be with someone that we've never

touched, to...

Yeah, well, that sure is better than hell, right?

But why heaven?

Like, why do we want to go there?

Like, what makes Jesus so special that we want to hang out with him for the rest of eternity?

That's a good answer.

Yeah.

That's very good.

Other than the fact that he's God.

Yeah, amen.

And he saved me.

That's right.

Other than that, I think a good reason to be there.

That's right.

That's right.

You know, I almost asked the question tongue -in -cheek, but I don't at the same time, because I want us to really

understand why is it that we do all the things that we do with this anticipation that

we're going to go to heaven, that we're going to be with Christ.

Like, why is that so important?

Why is that so special?

And the reason is because, like Pastor said, Jesus is God.

He's our creator.

He's our maker.

He's our sustainer.

The Bible says he sustains all things by the word of his might.

Jesus is a big deal, right?

He's everything.

He's the alpha and the omega.

And really, one of the reasons why we ought to, one of the things I want us to develop in the way that we think about these things

is that heaven is so special, and we desire to live there

because it's where God rules, okay?

It's where God rules.

If you've ever moved in your life, I have moved probably well over

20 times in my short life, but typically

when people or families move, Pastor Conley's going to be in that room over there, okay?

In my office.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's in there.

It's in there today.

When you look at the, when you're going to move somewhere, you typically look to see if it's a

good neighborhood, right?

You see whether it's in a good community, there's good neighbors, there's good schools.

You look at all the things that you want to see good that will help improve your life,

right?

Is it, you know, are the property taxes too high?

You know, you look at all the little minute things because you want to have a good life.

Pastor Conley's going to be in that room in our office, yeah?

Thank you.

No worries.

And so we look at heaven in a similar fashion.

We want to go to heaven because it's better, right?

And that's what Paul says in Philippians chapter 1, verse 20 to 22.

He says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Why is dying gain?

Because he says, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

It's better, okay?

And what makes it better?

What makes heaven better than here?

It's because heaven is where God rules.

It's his domain.

It's his kingdom, right?

And so wherever God rules, that's his kingdom, okay?

Now there's a sense in which God rules over everything, right?

So Psalm 145, the Lord reigns over everything.

And so, you know, that's a pretty scriptural.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, Psalm 145.

And yet, we see from Psalm 110 that, yes, the Lord reigns,

but yet not all of his enemies have yet been put under his feet, right?

So he reigns.

He reigns over everything.

He's sovereign over everything, yet not everything is currently under his feet.

And that shall come to a climactic conclusion at the second coming.

But I want to look at some other titles or ways of thinking about the kingdom of God.

Do you know that heaven is just one of many names for the kingdom of God?

Heaven is just another synonym for God's kingdom.

But sometimes what we do is that we tend to look at heaven and think that that

is the totality of God's kingdom.

Would that be a correct way of viewing heaven?

Like that heaven is like the, it's the fulfillment, it's the place, that's where we're going to

be, that's it.

Like that's the kingdom of heaven, then over here it's just separate.

The world is separate, the kingdom of man is separate.

Is that the right way of looking at it?

I would say no.

I would say no.

Heaven is just one facet of God's kingdom.

So it's not the totality of God's kingdom, it's just one aspect of it.

The Lord reigns in the heavens, and when we talk about heaven, we talked about heaven a couple weeks ago in our Back to Basics series.

You know, what do we mean when we say heaven?

Heaven is what?

Heaven is God's abode or dwelling place,

right?

It's his throne, it's the center of his power.

But the Lord doesn't just reign in heaven, he reigns over everything.

Another aspect of heaven or the kingdom of God, some phrases used in the Bible that's

also used of heaven is the term paradise.

Paradise is often used, where do we see paradise used in the scriptures?

Or at least the idea, where do we get the first idea of paradise?

Genesis, in what way?

Garden of Eden.

Now the word paradise isn't there, but the idea certainly is.

You know, the word Eden that's used in the Hebrew just means like a beautiful garden.

It means just a place that's very beautiful, and paradise, of course, Eden was paradise.

But what made Eden paradise?

What made Eden paradise?

God's presence.

Not only God's presence, but God's rule, okay?

God's rule is what made Eden paradise.

And we see this very clearly in Genesis chapter 2 and 3.

Because God makes certain promises, okay?

For instance,

in the Garden of Eden you have, let me, I'm going to, I'll probably go into this next

week as well, because I've got a couple weeks of teaching material here.

But very briefly, because this will make a strong point for when I'm trying to do an with regards to paradise and Eden.

There is a, there's something in the Bible called, well, it's not,

the law, the Torah, okay?

Torah means what?

What does the Torah mean?

You grew up Jewish, what does it mean?

Yeah, but even more deeply than that, it means teaching, instruction.

That's a commandment, laws, et cetera, right?

But what makes a law, a law?

What makes a law, a law?

What's that?

Authority, that's part of it.

What else?

That's what I was going to say.

What is it?

That's what I was going to say.

Authority behind it.

Okay.

There's something else.

So if Congress just passes a law saying we want you to, you know, walk on your

hands 20 minutes a day, but then there's no

enforcement, is it really a law or more of a

suggestion?

You can call it a law, but if there's no enforcement, it's not really a law, is it?

Because what makes something a law is a penalty applied for breaking it.

If there's a penalty associated with breaking a law, then it's a law.

If not, it's just a mere suggestion.

Now, there's a difference between, for instance, what's in the Hebrew, a mitzvah.

You know what a mitzvah is?

It's a word for commandment.

It's the Hebrew word for commandment, right?

As opposed to Torah, which is a word for instruction, okay?

So you have instruction, but then you have the mitzvah, which is a commandment, like you do this and it is

commanded.

So for instance, in the Garden of Eden, you see instruction Torah and you see commandment.

The instruction, the Torah that was given to Adam and Eve was to be fruitful, multiply till the soil,

care for the garden, care for the kingdom of God, care for the land.

But the commandment that was given was don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good or evil or

you will die, you see?

Punishment, see?

You do this, if not, these are the consequences.

That's what makes something a law.

And Eden was the place of God's rule, those laws in Eden.

And that's actually what made Eden paradise, was not only God's presence, but God's

reign and his commandments, his law, okay?

His Torah, his mitzvah, the instruction, which is good.

We see from the Psalms, the instruction, the Torah, the law of the Lord is good.

It's good.

It revives the soul and it brings forth life.

That's why it says in the Deuteronomy cursing and blessings, Deuteronomy chapter 30 and 31, it says do this and you will

what?

Live.

But if you don't, if you don't listen to the voice of the Lord your God, you shall surely die, right?

So it's the mitzvah, it's the commandments, it's the instruction

of doing what is good, but also the penalty of not obeying.

And so when we look at God's kingdom, we look at God's rule, because God's kingdom is essentially God's rule, his

rule over the nations, his rule over creation, his rule over the heavens.

This is the place in which God's laws, his rule is

upheld.

And so that's what makes paradise paradise, is God's rule, it's his law, which is good and

holy.

The same applies to the Holy Land.

So now moving past the Edenic paradise from Genesis chapter 2, we go to the next

promise of God in the Bible, which is God made a promise with someone named what?

Starts with an A.

Abraham.

The promise was what?

That Abraham would have many, like the nursery, let's go.

That Abraham would have many sons, right?

And many sons would have father Abraham, right?

So we have this promise that God made to Abraham, that he would have descendants as numerous

as the stars, that through him, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, all the families of the earth will be blessed

through Abraham.

And specifically that God promised them a land, an inheritance.

And what would make this land special isn't the real estate, isn't the

amount of acres, isn't the fact that, you know, there's going to be milk and

honey, but rather that this would be a place set apart where God's rule,

his reign, his kingdom, his laws would be upheld.

And that's what would make this land better than all the other lands is because it would be a land that is blessed, set

apart by the Lord.

You know, Israel in itself, if you look at Israel, I mean, Israel doesn't have a whole lot of resources and a lot of, there's not a lot, there's not

gold, there's no gold, there's no silver, there's no oil.

And, you know, there's been a lot of Israelis and venture capitalists

in Israel who, because of some obscure Bible verses, they swear up and down that there's oil in

Israel.

And so they've spent millions of dollars looking for oil in Israel with no avail because

there's likely no oil.

So this is not a land that is very useful in a lot of ways.

It's bumpy, the terrain is inhospitable.

There's a lot of desert.

The land itself is not that special.

Like if you were to pick somewhere where, you know, it would be paradise on earth, Israel probably wouldn't be the

place.

But that wasn't the point.

That was never the point with the land of Israel.

What was special about it is that God placed his name there, that God placed his presence there,

that this is the place where his rule, his reign, his law, his Torah, his mitzvah would go forward into the world.

That's what made the land special.

And that's what made it the holy land.

That's why we call it the holy land, right?

It's because it was holy because it was the place where God made promises and where his reign and rule would be.

And the holy land is also synonymous with the promised land, the promised land being the place that God promised

to Abraham.

And then obviously the promise extends generations after the

exodus and the conquest of the land when they had to expel the Canaanites and

others from the land.

And of course we have the Garden of Eden, another synonym for, of course, the rule of God, the

kingdom of God as we've gone over that with regard to paradise.

But one more note on paradise.

Paradise doesn't just mean Eden.

We also know from our study a couple of weeks ago about heaven that paradise also can mean two

other places, really three other places.

So you have the Garden of Eden.

Then you have the, the promised land was to be a paradise of

sorts.

And if you look at the, as we go through Isaiah with Pastor Conley, you're going to see a lot of the Isaac

prophecies relate to the land and God beautifying the land again to make it like Eden.

And so those are, that's a major theme in especially the later chapters of Isaiah is God

restoring the land to, to become Eden essentially.

And so it's, it's the garden, it's Israel, it's the promised land that is referred

to as paradise.

And then you have another place which we went over last week.

There's a, Sheol, Hades is also referred to as paradise in

Luke 16.

In Luke 16 where you have the story of Lazarus and, you know, and, and

the beggar and the rich man, they go into Hades.

One is in torment, one is in Abraham's bosom, paradise, okay?

And then another would be heaven is referred to as paradise in Revelation

chapter 3.

Christ refers to heaven as paradise.

But then I would even put a fifth one in the, the final paradise is going to be the new heavens and new earth.

That's going to be the final paradise.

And so these are all places where God rules.

You see the theme, you see the, the continuity here, all these places have this in common.

This is the place where God rules and His law is, is going forward

and it's, you know, it's obeyed.

Any questions so far?

I think of Jesus when He told the thief on the cross next to Him, you should be with me in paradise.

Now that's a good point.

He didn't go to heaven.

He didn't go to heaven because He could have gone to heaven because He didn't yet ascend to the Father,

okay?

And He had not yet ascended to the Father.

You know, this is before the ascension and where He, before He goes to the right hand and, and

Hebrews chapter 7, 8, and 9 talk heavily about that, the priestly work of

Christ in His ascension, right?

And so, so Christ, when He died, He didn't go to heaven.

He went to Sheol, Hades, which is in accordance with the creeds that the Lord died.

He died, descended into Hades and on the third day He was raised.

He went into Abraham's bosom and it's very likely that in that state He also preached condemnation to those who

were on the other side of Hades, which would make sense to what 1 Peter chapter 3 says, that He spoke or that He preached to

the spirits that were in prison, meaning the spirits that were condemned in Hades,

but also spoke a word of, you know,

jubilant proclamation to those who were in Abraham's bosom who were now going to be taken up with Christ

to heaven.

That's the way I look at that.

And so, so Christ, when He says to the thief, you will be with me in paradise, He's not talking about heaven because Jesus did

not ascend to heaven yet.

He went, but He went to Hades.

He went to Sheol.

Does that make sense?

That's the way I look at it.

Garden of God is another phrase that's used in scripture.

And do you know where that's used in scripture, garden of God?

It's used about, I want to say 11 times in the book of Ezekiel.

The book of Ezekiel talks about the garden of God and it's, it's hearkening back to Eden, but it's

also pointing to heaven.

And also I think even to the future state of the new heavens and new earth.

And so you have this back and forth in Ezekiel, of Ezekiel talking about the garden of God.

It's the place of, it's the true Eden.

Now one of the things that makes Eden interesting is that in the Bible, in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 28 I believe,

it refers to Eden, the earthly Eden as being a mountain.

Now that's strange because if you look at the geological or geographical description in

the book of Genesis of where Eden would be, it's

not mountainous there.

In between the Tigris River, the Euphrates, you know, kind of somewhere between Kuwait and Iraq is where

the Bible seems to put Eden.

And yet Ezekiel talks about Eden as being a mountaintop.

And so very interesting.

Is Ezekiel just kind of giving us a true depiction of the geographical

location of Eden or is he giving us a spiritual picture of Eden that mountains

represent the place of God's dwelling and that mountains are also the place in which, you know, in ancient times you would meet the gods

in the pagan pantheons.

But then it's also the place where, you know, like Isaiah says in his prophecy that the mountain

of the Lord shall be firmly established above all the nations and all the nations shall stream to it.

And then you see this picture at the end times in Revelation 22 where you have this mountaintop and water is

streaming from the throne of God and it's bringing healing to the nations.

I think these are all connected.

But I would say it's very possible that Eden was a sort of mountain

and that it's not there anymore.

I think that's very possible.

So people who are trying to find Eden and stuff and we can't find it, we can't locate it because it's not there anymore.

I think God took it or raptured Eden if you want to use that term.

Do you mean a mountain like Mount Shasta, Mount Whitney, something very dramatic coming up?

Or do you mean like a mountain that's simply higher than what's around it?

That's a great question.

I don't know.

It doesn't tell us.

I mean it just says.

Ezekiel 28 refers to Eden as a mountain place.

I can see it, as you were saying before, you said spiritual, I don't think spiritual, I think more metaphor.

In other words, if he's using a metaphor, we don't have to see a mountain for it to be revealing truth to us.

That's right.

The other thing, just real quick, when you bring up Ezekiel it's where we have that Jerusalem coming down, that

monster big city.

That would then be a picture of God's rule coming.

That's right.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And I do think there would be a literal city.

I think it will be a literal city that will come down.

It's going to be emblematic of what you were saying before, God's rule.

Absolutely.

And of course we see the place of God's dwelling place as all synonyms for the kingdom of God.

Any questions on these words and these places?

Yes.

Zion.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

That's right.

Zion is a great, it's great.

And it's usually a reference to, you know, for instance, obviously Jerusalem, right?

So Jerusalem is where the temple mount is, is Zion.

And it's the place of God's dwelling.

There's a heavenly Zion in Hebrews 12 that we look forward to as well.

So really clearly the kingdom of God is where God is king.

So if you ask the question, what is God's kingdom?

Where is it?

And what does it look like?

Very simply put, it's the kingdom of God is where God is king.

Where his rule, remember a king has rules.

He's got laws.

He's got edicts.

He's got commandments that he gives forward to his people.

And so God's kingdom is where God is king.

Very simple.

And what makes the promised land, the promised land, like I kind of went over already, is not the land, nor the place, nor

even the people.

Rather, it's the laws of God that make the promised land.

It's his law.

So I'm going to, it's going to sound like I'm going to be talking about, well, I am, going to be talking a lot about

law over this teaching and over the next teaching.

And it's going to almost sound like, okay, what is he going with this?

Is he a legalist now?

Or is he, you know, a Judaizer where he's just talking about the law all the time?

As evangelicals and as, you know, Christians, we tend to de -emphasize the law

to our detriment.

To our detriment.

And the reason we tend to not focus on the law too much is because who likes the law?

No one likes the law.

We don't like rules.

We don't like following, you know, all these, these tough rules.

And then there's the debate whether, well, Old Testament laws are no longer and we got other, you know, new laws.

And it's all this debate about law.

But here's the, here's a very clear way of understanding it.

God's law is what God has said is good.

And where there is repercussion, reproof, rebuke, condemnation

for not obeying it.

Okay?

And so whenever God, through his prophets or through Christ, has said, do this.

And if not, here are the consequences.

These are God's law.

And these are all good.

Is there one law of God that's bad?

No.

None.

Every word, every law is good.

It's good because God has said it's good.

And it usually does have some major application for the Christian life.

Now, it is true that as Christians, there are certain aspects of the law that are no longer binding

on Christians.

Can you give me an example of one of them or what that would look like?

Food laws?

Oh, because you like eating a shrimp, huh?

Yeah, that's right.

What do you say, Dale?

I would say bacon.

Bacon?

Yeah.

That's one of the blessings of the new covenant.

Amen.

Pork roast.

Anything else?

The question was laws that are no longer binding?

Sure.

The whole sacrificial system.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So, I had this discussion with someone this week.

We were talking about the law.

And I want to help you understand the law a little better.

So, why are there certain laws that seem like they're just not that great?

We just established every law of God is good.

Every law of God is correct and right.

But let's be honest.

Not every law of God feels good.

Not every law of God, you know, is ideal for us.

Like the prohibition against certain foods, right?

Or not weaving two different fabrics together.

Or, you know, very simplistic stuff that's like, okay, well, why?

Like, what's the point of that?

Like, why is there a prohibition?

Why is this an abomination?

And to help you understand why certain things are prohibited in the law, it comes down to a

very basic thing.

And it's this.

God's law is meant to produce life.

Okay?

Very simply put, God's law is meant to produce life.

And the prohibitions are almost always against things that produce death.

Okay?

So, if you have, for instance, a certain unclean animal that is very likely to get you sick,

very likely to give you diseases, we should stay away from that.

Because that produces death.

Right?

Versus God's law produces life.

That explains some of the dietary restrictions.

Another aspect of this goes into the sacrificial system.

So, in the book of Leviticus, you have a lot of very detailed and sometimes perplexing

prohibitions.

For instance, a woman could not enter into the temple square if she was in the time of her menstrual period.

And the reason behind this was because blood was a symbol of death and impurity.

And so, if you were bleeding, then you could not approach the holy temple, the holy

city.

And the reason being is because, again, it's a symbol of death.

And so, you had to wait until you were ceremonially clean and pure so that you could enter into that holy space.

Because God and death, they don't go together because God is the God of the living.

He's the God of life.

And so, anytime there's this clash between the culture of life and death, that's where you see the clear

boundaries of God's law.

Where God says, this is good, this is bad.

Because this produces death, this produces uncleanliness, and this produces life and cleanliness.

And so, that's a very simple way of understanding some of the aspects of God's law in the

Old Testament.

Does that make sense?

Any questions on that?

I would add to what you said about women, but also as men with a lesion, anybody with a lesion or

eczema, or men who've been emasculated, because they were not also allowed in, I think, would be

consistent with what you're saying.

For instance, the laws that refer to

homosexuality.

Perfect example.

Why is homosexuality condemned in Scripture?

Because homosexual unions don't produce life.

They can't.

It's impossible.

Now, you can do weird science stuff, but it's not

natural.

And so, that's why the Bible condemns homosexuality as an abomination, because it does not produce life.

So, if the whole culture went towards homosexuality, you have no more procreation.

Head coverings?

Well, there was an aspect of head coverings in the Levitical law, but that's different than what you see

Paul talk about in Corinthians.

So, again, the clear distinction and boundaries is God's law produces life.

Everything that does not produce life is to be condemned, shunned, stayed away from.

It's very similar to the type of law that God gave in the Garden.

Here's the proactive law that God gave, or the Torah, the instruction.

Go, be fruitful, multiply, life.

But, you have to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because in that day you shall surely die deaf.

So, you see that clear distinction.

So, God really is a God of life, and the culture of Christianity is a culture of

life.

That's really important.

That's why we're pro -life people.

That's why we stand outside abortion clinics and we preach the gospel, because we believe that life is precious, life is

valuable, and we have to stand up against a culture of death.

So, when I did the news interview a couple months ago for NBC, I think it was, or one of those

local TV programs, what I said to them is, you know,

when Roe v. Wade was overturned, was, this is just the beginning of

overturning the culture of death in California.

And so, that's our work.

We have to push back.

And God's law pushes back against a culture of death.

Unfortunately, the state of California voted, the people here voted, to

enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in the state.

So, we've got some work to do.

We've got a lot of work to do.

I think, if I want to say correctly, I think that that proposition, Prop 1 or something

I think it was called, was,

it was passed by 60, almost 67%.

67 of the people here voted to add abortion rights to

the Constitution.

Okay?

It's a terrible number.

33 % voted against it.

To give you a perspective of the numbers, 3 .5 million people voted against it.

So, we're not alone.

It's a pretty good amount of people.

3 .5 million people is a lot of people.

7 .1 million people voted for Prop 1 to enshrine abortion as a

constitutional right in the state.

So, we have a lot of work to do.

And the reason this is important is because the topic is living in God's kingdom.

Part of living in God's kingdom is that we, the church, we are members of God's kingdom.

And we are to bring God's rule wherever we go.

And so, think of the Old Testament, for instance, in the temple.

The temple was a place that you went to.

This is the place where God's presence was.

And this is the place why you have to have Levitical laws and purity laws of

washing and cleanliness in order to approach God's holiness.

But now, every single one of us, in a sense, we are small walking temples

of the Holy Spirit.

We are individually members, living stones, that make up this corporate body, this corporate

temple, where the Holy Spirit dwells.

And so, we don't have to have certain rituals for washing now because we've been washed

by the renewal of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.

So, we become that living temple.

We become living stones of God's kingdom.

So, wherever we go, we bring God's rule with us.

That's why the Bible calls us, in Acts chapter 15, that God has called out

from among the Gentiles a peculiar people.

It means a strange people.

An odd people.

What makes us odd, what makes us strange, is because we bring God's rule wherever we go.

We're not heading towards Jerusalem.

We are, in a sense, the new Jerusalem.

We're not going to a temple.

We are the temple.

And this changes everything.

And so, wherever we go, we bring God's rule.

Which is why, even in the way that we live, the way that we vote, the way that we act behind closed doors,

should be a reflection of God's rule.

Does that make sense?

Any thoughts or questions on that?

Help define some words that's going to help us.

And these are words that you've used before.

Words that you're probably pretty familiar with if you're a Christian.

This is all part of the Christianese vocabulary.

And the first one being faith.

Can someone actually define what faith is?

What is faith?

What is faith?

Okay, that's a good definition.

Anyone else?

What is faith?

The pastor's going to Hebrews 11.

Faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

That's right.

Now, faith is often misunderstood.

Especially today.

If you ask the average person, what does faith mean?

They'll likely say to you, well, faith is believing in something you have no evidence for.

You ever heard that definition before for faith?

Almost everyone gives you that definition.

They say, oh, it's just believing in something you can't prove or you have no evidence for.

That's not what the Bible says, right?

What does it say?

It's the assurance of what?

Things not seen.

It's an assurance.

Another translation for the word assurance is the conviction of the things unseen.

A conviction meaning that there's a certainty to it.

There's a certainty to it.

And the Old and New Testament words that are used for faith, the Hebrew word being imun, amun,

basically meaning it's an established trust.

An established trust.

Or trustworthiness, faithfulness.

These are all ways of understanding faith.

It's trustworthiness.

It's to have something established that you trust.

And the New Testament word that's used for faith is pistis, which is

a conviction of the truth of anything.

It's a conviction of a truth.

So it's not hopefully, maybe, this is true.

It's there's a certainty, there's a conviction that these things are true, specifically the things pertaining to faith in

Christ and to God's word.

And so faith is a conviction.

And it's not like a mental checkbox where yeah, I believe that.

So if you ask the average person on the street, do you believe in Jesus?

Say yeah, I believe in Jesus.

To them that just means, do I mentally acknowledge Jesus as being maybe a real person?

Yeah, I check that box.

I believe in Jesus.

That's not what the Bible talks about when it talks about saving faith.

It's not just an acknowledgement.

Rather, it's a conviction.

Living in God's kingdom means that you have to have a conviction, faith,

in the things of God, in the promises of God.

This is what led the Israelites to the Promised Land.

This is actually why also some were not permitted to the Promised Land.

Because they lacked faith.

They lacked conviction.

They did not acknowledge the promises that God had made.

And because of that, God allowed an entire generation not to go in.

That's sad.

Because of the unfaithfulness of that generation.

And yet, here we are today.

Amongst an unbelieving people.

Amongst a people of unclean lips like the prophet Isaiah.

And we have to have truth, conviction, faith, in the promises of God.

This is what it means to live in God's kingdom.

Is to have this trustworthy faith, conviction, in His promises.

Now, we want to look at law and grace as well.

And these are things that we're going to go more in depth next week.

In terms of law and grace.

Because these are things that are often very misunderstood.

And the law...

There are different ways of looking at the law.

Some people will look at the law in its entirety as one law.

Others will break it up in two.

And others will break it up into three.

And so we're going to look at a little bit of that next week.

And determine which would be the more appropriate way of viewing the law.

And how the law should be understood in that way.

And also of grace.

There's servants and slaves that we're going to be looking to as well.

In the future.

And then specifically the topic about God and worship.

So this will be a couple of things that we'll be looking at in the weeks to come.

So in the back of your page, let's examine some verses.

On the topic of faith.

Really all stemming from the book of James.

Because James is often misunderstood as well.

Very misunderstood.

So much so that even Martin Luther didn't think that it was scripture.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He didn't particularly like it.

I think even Calvin didn't particularly like the book of James either.

For some reasons that I think are just clearly misunderstood.

And part of it is a misunderstanding of the word faith.

As we've already established what the word faith is.

But another way of understanding faith is believing what God has said.

That's faith in its simplicity.

It's believing what God has said.

God said it, so it's true.

And not only is it true, but now I have to act upon that truth.

Right?

Is something Again, if faith is a conviction.

Conviction often leads us and moves us to action.

So, true faith is not an actionless faith.

There's no such thing as an actionless faith.

If not, as we're going to read in some scriptures, then it's dead faith, which is no faith at all.

Right?

And so there's a faith that is true and saving.

And that's what we're going to look at today.

And so believing, acting on and obeying the word of God.

So if you don't act on or obey God's word, then you don't have faith.

That's very simple.

Okay?

Because again, it's not just mental acknowledgment.

Faith is not just a mental acknowledgment.

Everyone confuses that.

It's not, you know, ticking a box in your brain.

Yeah, I believe that.

But rather it's the conviction.

Hebrews 11 .1 It's the conviction of the things unseen.

The assurance of the things unseen.

So James 1 .22 says,.

But be you doers of the word and not only hearers only, deceiving your own

selves.

So if you are listening to the word, but you're not doing the word, are you

deceived?

Or are you walking in faith?

You're deceived.

You're deceived.

If you're not obeying the word, if you're not doing as the word says, you are deceiving your own selves.

Okay?

So you're in deception.

Pretty clear.

James 1 .25 says,.

But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein.

So here's a law verse.

Here's the law of liberty.

Therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be

blessed in his deed.

So blessed, will be blessed by obeying the law of liberty.

Okay?

So obedience, that's why I always tell you guys, this is one of my

famous sayings, is on the other side of obedience is blessing.

On the other side of obedience is always blessing.

Because God never says, if you obey me, I'll curse you.

He never says that.

You won't find that in the Bible.

But what you will find is if you obey, if you trust, if you have faith, you'll be blessed.

And so on the other side of blessing, on the other side of obedience is always blessing.

Any questions on those two verses so far?

Yeah.

That's what a lot of evangelicals would love that to be the case.

So if you look at a popular evangelical teaching today, and they look at the phrase, the law of liberty, that's like, oh,

that's the law of liberty which lets me do whatever I want to do.

That's not what that means.

The law of liberty is hearkening back to, for instance, 2nd Corinthians chapter 3.

And in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, you have two laws.

You have the letter which kills, and you have the spirit which brings life.

Okay?

And what is this, what is it that the spirit does?

Ezekiel 36 says, the spirit will be putting, will put his law into our hearts

so that we can love to obey his commands.

And so the law of liberty is the law of God that has been planted in us through the spirit.

And it is what scripture teaches, of course, as the, you know, the commandments.

These are all still very much binding on us today as we've been going through our catechism, for instance.

These are, and these are all towards not our salvation but our sanctification and glorification.

Right?

So obedience is not required for salvation.

Okay?

In the sense that you have to do something to earn it.

Like, so I did X, Y, and Z, so now God owes me salvation.

That's not, that's not how it works.

It's a free gift of God.

But we have to obey in order to be sanctified and

to be glorified in the future.

Okay?

So the law of liberty is the law of Christ.

It's the law that God has placed in our hearts through the spirit.

Which never, that also might sound kind of like you know, the

seeker -sensitive folks might still try to make that sound very

individualistic.

Like, oh, it's true for me and it could be different for you.

That's not the case.

Obviously, God's law, the law that he places in our hearts is universal.

Right?

Similar in pattern to the law that he's placed in every single human heart.

Murder is bad.

Adultery is bad.

All these things are bad.

We know intuitively, innately, these are bad things.

And so the same is true for the perfect law of liberty that he places in our hearts through faith in Jesus Christ.

But, and more deeply into that for a second, the law of liberty, the reason why it's called liberty

is because it is the law of freedom.

Okay?

So typically you think of laws as intrusive and as

overbearing and as something that is to keep us down, but instead the law of God

brings the opposite.

It actually makes us free.

So, it's another way of understanding the law of liberty.

It's the law of freedom.

It's the law that makes us free.

Okay?

Does that make sense?

Yes.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

Good.

Yes, Pastor?

So, would that be analogous, you might think of smaller laws that men have,

if we obey traffic laws, that gives us liberty to drive safely.

So, if I trust Miguel to stop the forward stop and not run through it, we both have liberty to proceed safely.

Is it analogous that way?

Yeah, I think so.

Even more perfectly, the analogy would be the Constitution of the United States, right?

The Constitution acknowledges our certain and unalienable rights

as image bearers of God.

And so, it's not that the Constitution grants us these rights, rather it recognizes these rights in the same way that I think God's

law of liberty is the law of freedom in our identification in Christ as image bearers of

God acknowledges the inner

working of the spirit in the life of the believer so that we are now free from the penalty and the condemnation

of the Old Testament law, and now we're under a law of liberty which makes us free and brings us to Christ.

So, the scripture goes on to say in James chapter 2

verse 14, 17 -20, 24 -26 What is a prophet, my brethren, though a man says he has

faith and has not works?

Can faith save him?

So, here's the classic debate between, is it faith that saves, or works, or a combination

of the two?

And here's a discussion that James leads us in.

He says, even so, faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.

So, again, James is just, he's not pitting faith and works against each other.

He's actually getting to the point of what faith actually is and saying, faith is not

a convictionless act.

Okay?

Faith is, innately, is a work of conviction.

Is a, you know, it's not just a mental acknowledgement of something being true, but

rather an acting upon it.

And so, he goes on to say, Yea, a man may say you have faith and I have works.

Can you show me your faith without any works?

Yet I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that there is one God.

You do well.

The devils also believe and tremble.

But you, but will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Okay?

You see, then, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Oh, that sounds scary right there.

This is why Calvin and Luther didn't like this, was because it seems, on the surface, to

negate faith alone, of Sola Fide.

And so, is it negating Sola Fide?

It goes on to say, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead

also.

Okay?

So, what is James trying to get at here?

Is he making a case for, really similar to the Roman Catholic dogma, that

associates justification with works, whereas the Protestant Reformed tradition

says no, justification is by faith alone.

Okay?

So, where is James falling in this tension?

What's, how can we harmonize this with the Reformed tradition?

A conviction.

Yeah.

We say the gospel.

He's not saying it's saved by it, obviously.

You read James just on the surface, there's no way he's saying that you gain justification, or that you

gain salvation regardless of faith.

He's saying, if you believe these things, it means something.

It does something.

Or you do something.

Yeah.

Anyone else?

Want to take

a stab

at it?

That's

right.

Amen.

You know, just to give you some context here, James chapter two begins with

James really rebuking the church for showing favoritism.

So, one of the things that were happening in the church was he had kind of the rich people and the poor people, and the rich people

would you know, basically see their brothers who were in need, and

they'd basically be like you know, that's so sad.

You know, I wish you well.

And wouldn't do anything to help their needs.

Right?

And so he begins to rebuke them.

He takes this line, the line that you see here, that he says even so, if

ye men should say, you have faith and I have works.

Can you show me your faith without any works?

Yeah, I will show you my faith by my works.

So what he's saying, he's rebuking the Christians who were saying, who were showing favoritism, the Christians who were also

not the rich Christians who were not helping their brothers who were naked,

who did not have food, and who did not have money.

And he's rebuking them.

He's saying, you can't say you're a Christian, basically, if you're

not helping your brothers.

You know, if your brother is struggling and you know it, and you have it within your power to do something about it, you don't have

faith.

You don't have faith.

And so he's calling out the sinful actions of these rich Christians and saying, you know, you

have a responsibility if you're a Christian, to care for people.

This is part of what it means to have faith, is that your faith works out.

So another way of thinking of it very easily, is a dog naturally barks, a duck

naturally quacks, a Christian naturally does good works.

It overflows from the Christian character.

It's an overflow of your faith in Jesus.

So Ephesians, so Paul doesn't actually, so Paul and James are not in contradiction to each other.

When Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 8 through 10, it is by faith you've been saved

by grace through faith.

This is not of your own doing.

It is the work of God, so that no man may boast.

For God has prepared, but now that you have to walk in the good works that God has prepared for you to

walk in beforehand.

Okay?

So he says, God has prepared you for good works.

It's an overflow of true and saving faith.

So true and saving faith produces works, and that's how we know you're a Christian.

We know you're a Christian by your fruit.

Fruit being works.

And so that doesn't contradict Paul and James are not in contradiction against each other.

You know, James is very much saying the same thing that Paul is saying, but he's just trying to get to the point of the

word that faith is, again, it's not actionless.

That it is a conviction, and conviction brings forth fruit and action.

Okay?

And so that's why he says very clearly, for as the body of the Spirit is dead, so faith about works is dead also.

So it's essentially saying, if you have no works, you have no faith.

You're dead.

You don't actually have what you think you do.

Right?

And so any questions on this?

Pretty good stuff, right?

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you thanking you for the truth that we are living in your

kingdom rule.

That as Christians, we have come under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

We have come to the conviction of the things unseen, that Christ our invisible Lord

has been raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he now sits and

reigns, and we pray God that you would help us to come under the authority of your reign, the authority of your rule.

Pray God that you would help us to submit to every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ, so we may

obey your law, the law of liberty that sets us free.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.