Sola Gratia - (Part 2) 06-08-10

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Truths I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me (Part 3)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. If I said that too quickly, welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.
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It's Tuesday, and you know what that means. It's two for Tuesday. That means you get two pastors for the price of one.
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Which is free, and we're well worth it. That's exactly right. I wonder if there's anything in the news that we can talk about before we get to sola scriptura.
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I did notice, Pastor Steve, that Ed Young Jr. was in the news. This show is being taped in late
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April, so this probably won't be played until May, but Ed Young Jr. is in the news. What's he in the news for?
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Does he play second base for the Milwaukee Brewers? He probably does, but I was thinking about the
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Southern Baptist pastor who was made famous a couple of years ago for encouraging all
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Christian married couples to have sex for seven days, and he talked about that very issue from the stage, which he sat on the bed with his wife on stage to talk about the very issue.
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That church. Well, that kind of advice, though, you know, leaving apart the bed thing, it sounds like it's worth a million bucks.
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Oh, funny. Well, that's probably why he got the millions to spend on the planes that he can't make account for, and Channel 8 in Dallas is all after him for that.
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I think Ed Young Jr. needs to step down, and sadly, he's going to have the watching world at his door, because when you spend too much money on yourself, and it happens to be
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God's money, God's people giving the money to you, and you have your lawyer as a chairman of the board, it just looks badly.
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I think pastors should make money. I don't care if pastors have a home someplace. I don't think
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I'd probably do very well to have some kind of $2 million home in Miami or $1 million. But it sure beats being homeless, you know, not having any home at all.
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I mean, yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you said you don't have a problem with pastors having a home, and I'm going, that's good. I meant another home down by the beach in Miami.
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And then the other bit of news that's shaken down lately is the Jennifer Knapp alleged
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Christian contemporary music artist, and she was on Larry King. And she, of course, like most people who are in sin, they rationalize things.
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And so here's Jennifer Knapp's rationalization. You know all those verses about homosexuality?
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They're not the best manuscripts. Well, she's got her Ph .D. in manuscriptology, you know, so.
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Or not. Yeah. I mean, why is that? If you don't like a verse, you just say, well, you know, that really isn't the best manuscript.
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And, I mean, it's not true. Just to be clear, on the record, what she's saying is not correct.
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It's 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9 and 10. They're in all the manuscripts. I don't even, I guess
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I could get out my Greek New Testament and find out if there are any manuscripts that they're not in. Galatians 5, vice list,
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Revelation 21, vice list. Probably all the vice lists that talk about sins that exclude people from heaven as they dominate people's lives, they're probably all not in the
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Bible. What do you think? Well, I mean, maybe they're not in the
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Metropolitan Tabernacle Church's Bible, whatever that's called. I appreciated the pastor who was talking to her because he was addressing sin, but he slipped into the air of not distinguishing between the love of God for his creation, created people, and the love of God for his bride.
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I love your wife, Steve, but I love my wife in a different way, in a much closer way.
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And gladly, so we don't come to fisticuffs. That's a very good thing for both of us.
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That's right. So there is a love of God. God loves the world, and he loves the world so much he sent his son.
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But he loves the bride of Christ in a special way, a saving way, a unique way.
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And I think if you go to unbelievers and tell them, you know, by the way, you're a drunkard and God loves you just the way you are, then why are you motivated to make any kind of change?
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You think you're a Christian and, you know, you've got a propensity for homosexuality, so you're good to go.
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Jennifer Knapp happens to be living with the girl for the last eight years. Larry King said, do you think you're acting like, you know, living kind of a double life hypocritically?
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Well, no. Well, and— Cashing in all the Christian records as she goes. Yeah, she had no problem cashing those checks.
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And again, you know, when we're talking about grace and grace alone, salvation being by grace alone,
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God's grace does not leave sinners where they are and just somehow just kind of approve of the sin.
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It's transforming grace, as many have said. It's changing grace. It takes the sinner and changes his or her life.
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It changes their desires so that they no longer desire the same things they wanted. If Jennifer Knapp was a
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Christian, her desires would be altered. And certainly, we are not asking for practical perfection.
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People can still struggle with sins, struggle with fornication, struggle with homosexuality, struggle with that either with their bodies and or with their minds.
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There's a struggle that's going on, a Romans chapter 6 and 7 kind of struggle.
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We agree with that. But you don't want to ever use the Bible to rationalize your sins, and I think
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Pastor Steve gave us a good segue to our topic today, and that is grace alone. In our multiple series on Tuesdays, talking about the solas of the
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Reformation. Steve, give me a little context for solas. It's been a 27 -part series, and we've talked about, well, not quite that long, sola scriptura, or scripture alone.
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We've talked about sola fide, which is, what, a reminder?
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It is by faith alone. Faith alone, okay. Solus Christus, Christ alone, and sola gratia, and we haven't done soli deo gloria.
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No, no, that'll be next one. Oh, okay, good. So today is part two on sola gratia, by grace alone.
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When I was a kid, Steve, and I would think of grace, you know what first came to my mind when someone would say grace, is when
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I would trip at home and my father would say, way to go, grace. That's what he would say.
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I guess people say grace before their meals. See, and that's what I was thinking of.
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When I was a kid, that would have been my first thought, you know, say grace. Grace was a synonym for hello in ancient times.
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It's a word that we use for the name of a girl. Grace Kelly.
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Sure. Grace Abendroth. Yeah, Gracie. Gracie. I call her
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Gracie Pacey. And her middle name is alone? You know, it was alone, but I gave her two middle names and I thought it might as well be
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Grace Especially Alone Abendroth, and that would be G -E -A -A, moving right along.
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So when I hear the song, What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love, it's a fine song, but I think what the church needs now is an understanding of what grace is so that they might not fall into a lethargic lack of praise, and that they might not fall into a work sanctification, and that they might not fall into some legalistic or licentious lifestyle.
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How about all those L's? That was just off the top of my head. That was not in my notes. That's nice alliteration. Oh, with another
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L right there. Here's an interesting quote. I don't ascribe to everything Ryrie said, but you'll like this,
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Pastor Steve. Christianity is distinct from all other religions because it is a message of grace.
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I do like that. Tell me why you like that, and why should the listeners on WVNE 760 like that?
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Well, I do like that because every other religion on the face of this planet says that there are things that you have to do, you have to earn, you have to work your way into favor with one
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God or another, whether it's the alleged God of the Bible, whether it's Allah, whomever that God may be, it says you have to do this or God won't like you.
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You have to do this or God won't like you. And you know, if you build up enough of those things that you can eventually earn merit in God's eyes.
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And Christianity says there is nothing you can do to earn merit in God's eyes.
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Jesus Christ did it all for you. You have to believe. Well, when it comes to grace alone for salvation, that grace is called in the
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Bible, you'll like these adjectives, Steve, great, rich, manifold, sufficient, abundant, glorious, sovereign, and exceeding.
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God's grace is great in the Bible. When I study, I love to look at the epistles.
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And almost every epistle, it's got grace at the beginning and grace at the end. Grace to you in peace.
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And at the end, grace to you in peace. Book ends of the epistles, grace. I just love that.
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So many of those terms there, but I just think the manifold grace of God, because it comes at us in so many different ways.
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You know, grace impacts our own lives, it impacts everything, our finances, our families, our friends, everything that we hold dear is a gracious gift from God.
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And when we really contemplate that, it does become manifold, it becomes somewhat overwhelming even at times.
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Well, you know, Steve, in our society, we know this is true because this is what you preach to your Sunday school, God helps those who help themselves.
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That's a wonderful definition of grace. I have never taught that in Sunday school. But that's how the society teaches it.
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You know, we've all gone to work before and you punch the clock and you work for 40 hours and they give you money.
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And that is a wage. I've been on a basketball team before, a football team. You win the championship and they give you a prize.
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I was in the Nebraska State Fair and did some kind of medal test with the Young's Modulus of Steel.
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They gave me an award. But when it comes to grace, awards, merits, wages and prizes, achievements, all that kind of thinking needs to be jettisoned or else you destroy grace.
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In fact, I'd like to just read a little passage here. In fact, I'd like to just continue to destroy that topic.
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Romans 5, I'm going to read beginning in verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, talking about Adam and his fall, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was the type of the one who was to come, speaking of Christ.
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But listen to verse 15 here. But the free gift is not like the trespass.
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For if many died through one man's trespass, Adam's sin, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man,
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Jesus Christ, abounded for many. That is an awesome promise from God, an awesome statement that the free gift of grace, again, what is a free gift?
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Is that something you can earn, you can merit, you can say that somehow you deserved it? Absolutely not.
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Steve, do you think it would be fair to say, when we talk about the grace of God, you could almost put everything that God has ever done for a
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Christian, everything that He has done, is doing, and will do, underneath the broad umbrella of the word grace?
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Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, this is Mike Abendroth with Steve Cooley on No Compromise Radio.
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We're glad you're listening, and if you've got a question for us about grace or any other topic, write us at stevecooley .com,
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no, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Let's talk about grace from this perspective.
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Sometimes people like acronyms and just as if I've never sinned as justification, but it's kind of, it's not really a great definition, it's only half true.
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How about grace, G -R -A -C -E? When people say grace is
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God's riches at Christ's expense, you think that's good?
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I think that's great, because everything, even as you said, everything that we get being grace from God, and we only get it because of Christ's work, because of His suffering, because of His death on a cross and His resurrection on the third day.
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That's the only reason we get anything. So I like that. I do like that one. Some of these little acronyms help.
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How about this, Pastor Steve? Grace defined by a theologian named
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Mitton, M -I -T -T -O -N. I guess if we're knowing on that beat, Mitton. Mitton. Mitton.
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If the mitton doesn't fitten. That's a shout out to Peter and Maynard.
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Here's a good definition of grace. Grace, God's utter generosity, unselfish, spontaneous, listen to this, recklessly prodigal generosity, which acts wholly,
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W -H, out of loving concern for the Ephesians' need in every
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Christian's, even if they are completely unworthy of His love and help which
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He offers to them. Now that is beautiful. Well, and the only kind of problem
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I have with that was, even if they're completely undeserving. Hey, you are right. I'm like, well.
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Even if. They're certainly unworthy of it. Awesome, though.
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I think you said last time, what a great refrain we have in Ephesians 1, 6, 12, and 14, where after the
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Father chooses, what should be the response of all creation? To the praise of the glory of His grace.
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What's the response to the Son redeeming those who the Father had given Him? To the praise of His glory.
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What is the response after the Holy Spirit takes those that the Father has chosen the Son has died for, and He seals to the day of redemption?
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To the praise of the grace of His glory. So it's all praise for the grace of God. And I think when we are in heaven,
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Steve, joining the throng, singing, worthy is the Lamb, and people said, why are you praising
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God? You would look over them, and if you wanted to give them a one -word definition, you could just say grace.
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Grace. Why wouldn't we be praising God? I mean, again, just the concept that God, the
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Creator, the Infinite, the Self -sustaining, would condescend in such a way as to be concerned about us, to set
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His affection upon us, to send His Son for us. That is amazing grace.
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Are you a good singer, Steve, at all? Can you think of some songs that have grace? Grace that is greater than all our sin?
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What's another one with grace? Wonderful Grace of Jesus? Wonderful Grace of Jesus, yeah.
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It's like the theme song around here, and I almost forgot it. Amazing Grace? Wonderful Grace of Jesus.
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You could probably just type in hymns, grace, and find a whole slew of those that have grace as its theme.
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Now, we've talked a little bit about salvation. Now let's segue in at No Compromise Radio, now that we're 16 minutes into the show.
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Grace for the Christian. Grace is not just for the unbeliever that makes him, that turns him into, that regenerates him into the
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Christian, God being the one giving the grace. But what about Christians and their need of grace?
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Do Christians need grace, and why do they? Well, you mean in terms of daily living, sanctification?
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Absolutely. And that's why we get our infusion of grace through various means.
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Okay. Well, how about this one? Ephesians 4. That was a joke. Ephesians 4. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
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Ephesians 4 .32. Now the interesting thing is, that word forgiveness can either be, in the
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Bible, just let something go. You know, just lose, you have your hand clenched, you've got someone else's sin in your hand, as it were, and you don't want to let it go, and you just let it go.
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Open your hand up and let the dove fly away. But this particular word in Ephesians 4, forgiving each other, is gracing one another.
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Literally, the Greek word is, gracing each other, just as God in Christ has graced you.
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And so do Christians need grace today? They not only need grace today, they need to give grace to other people.
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Colossians 3, a similar passage, gracing each other. And so if you have been a recipient of grace, how much more should you grace other people?
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Well, I mean, the body of Christ simply cannot even, I don't know, cohere, can't hang together.
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We can't worship, we can't serve one another, we can't evangelize effectively, we can't do much of anything.
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You know, what did Jesus say? They will know you are my disciples by this, that you have love for one another.
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Well, we show love in extending grace to one another, in overlooking trespasses, in helping one another, in lifting one another up.
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Good, and one other thing we do with grace is that is use our spiritual gifts to serve the body.
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Romans 12, and since we have grace gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each of us exercise them accordingly.
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So Paul says, you've got grace given to you because God has made you a Christian, but you've got more grace given to you, and he calls spiritual gifts grace gifts.
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You've been given grace when God saved you by his grace, he also graced you with spiritual gifts, and so to me,
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Steve, a practical magnification, what is it, to chew, mastication?
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Practical manifestation of grace is service in the local body. Show me a person who's been graced and have all their sins accredited to Christ's account,
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I'll show you a person who is a maniac who wants to serve other people in a local church. Who is eager to serve, and I'm so encouraged by so many here who want to do that, and how much more should everybody want to do that?
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I mean, this is how we reflect the goodness of God in our lives toward others, by serving them, by thinking, boy, in light of all that God has done for me, in light of all that Christ has worked himself that I might be forgiven for, ought
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I not to serve others, especially within the body, but also other people as well.
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Mike and Steve here talking about grace, grace alone, we're looking at different aspects of grace for the Christian, and Steve, you're going to like this one a lot because you've preached through this book.
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How about future grace? Not according to Piper necessarily, although that's a good topic as well, but how about 1
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Peter 1 .13, Therefore gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the stock market, on Obamacare, on the skill of your pastor, on your portfolio.
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What do Christians fix their hope upon? Actually, the gird your minds, that's a participle, it's not the main verb, keep sober in spirit, it's a participle, not the main verb, but the main verb is, fix your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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If you think you've been graced and you couldn't possibly handle any more grace, God saved you.
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He graced you. He then gave you spiritual gifts and graced you more. There's more grace coming, and that grace is later.
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There's a future grace. How about that? Grace is going to be brought to you as He, Christ Himself, glorifies you.
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How about that for grace? Starting grace and finishing grace, He glorifies
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Christians and gives them the final, as MacArthur says, culmination of grace that He started back in eternity past.
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And it's so amazing because Peter is writing this epistle, 1 Peter, to encourage the saints who are going to be tested, they're going to be put under great persecution by, basically by their friends and neighbors, the
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Roman Empire, but, and he says, he starts out with doctrine and different things and telling them that they're going to be tested.
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And then he says, this is what you do, this is how you respond. You fix your hope completely upon the grace of Christ, the future grace of Christ.
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You have grace to get you through this lifetime, but your greatest grace is coming.
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Well, today, if you are a Christian, you ought to be very, very thankful that God has graced you.
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You should respond with joy, with thanks, with praise.
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And you want to go to church this coming Sunday. By the way, let me strike that. You should say to yourself,
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I can't wait to get to church on Sunday. I don't know about you, Steve, but I really, I think to myself,
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I can't wait to get back with the saints and sing. And I remember what Sinclair Ferguson said, and he said, you need to sing those hymns and those songs like you're holding the hymnal with Jesus himself to sing about the grace of God.
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But pastor, you don't know what my life is like. Well, I don't know what your life is like, but I do know that if you're a
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Christian, 1 Corinthians 15, 10, which was true of Paul is true of you. But by the grace of God, I am what
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I am. And his grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of them, yet I, not
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I, but the grace of God within me. You can still have the fruit of the Spirit in your life and have joy and longsuffering and love and peace, even though you might be getting crucified on a tree next to Jesus himself.
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Well, and, you know, Romans 8, 28, frequently referred to, says that God uses all things together for our good.
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He brings all things to pass for our good. And, you know, do we really believe that?
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Do we believe that his grace is sufficient? Do we believe that he will give us exactly what we need at any given moment?
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Do we believe that he is constantly conforming us into the image of his son? Do we believe that these trials are brought into our life for a reason?
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And do we believe that no matter what is going on in our life, we still have enough grace to serve the local body, to attend, not just attend, but to go, as you were saying, joyfully, to go sing, may
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I say the word, lustfully, I mean, to sing as if there is nothing we would rather do on this earth, because there ought not be anything we would rather do than sing the glories of our
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God who has saved us, who has kept us, and who has promised us greater things than we can ever imagine.
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And he said, fix your hope completely on the grace that is yet to be revealed. We need to be a forward -looking people, not so much that we don't get anything done in this world, but our hope needs to not be in the things of this world.
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Amen. God, I'm struggling. Grace me. We want you to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.
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Mike and Steve here, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.