Justification - What Is The Church To Teach?

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Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works
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Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them as I think of our speaker today
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Who is going to come and preach God's Word or as I told dr. White when he comes up here to pull the trigger He wanted to make sure he knew what that was.
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That just basically meant preach the word. I Think about how God has created People for his own good pleasure for their own specific tasks in life and God has created
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Dr. White for the gospel ministry for good works, and I am pleased that God had created this opportunity even beforehand that James might come
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Dr. White might come and walk in those steps and preach God's Word I always appreciate godliness in men and women and there's a special part of my heart that appreciates a tenacious godliness in men who want to stand up and preach the gospel and so I have a deep kinship with dr.
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White and Starting to get to know him as a as a preacher or as a mentor and as also a friend
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So, please dr. White come if you'll turn with me, please in your
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Bibles to Paul's epistle to the churches of Galatia This morning.
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I would like to allow the Word of God to speak to us in a forceful manner
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I Will warn you ahead of time some of the strongest language and all the
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New Testament is found in the book of Galatians That is why I am
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NOT overly surprised to have encountered people in my travels in fact only last
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Year to have encountered a man in a debate on Long Island who rejected the inspiration of this epistle
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For the very fact that Paul spoke with such force and such political incorrectness in our day that he described it as being over -the -top and Unworthy of acceptance as inspired scripture that man was an ordained
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United Church of Christ minister a a board member of the
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ACLU and director of Americans United for the separation of church and state you may know him as Reverend Barry Lynn He rejected the inspiration of this book
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Though he did claim to receive direct revelation from God himself. That would be of greater authority
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But he's not the only one because in this
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Epistle to a number of churches the true heart of the Apostle Paul and I believe the true heart of any redeemed person who has come to understand
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Their need of a perfect Savior comes to expression what
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I mean by that is unlike other books of Scripture such as the book of Romans where Paul is writing to a strategic church knowing that What he writes that church will be distributed because of its central location all across the known world
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Because the paths of commerce and military and banking went through Rome unlike that epistle which has a flow of argumentation
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Which stops to address certain issues is very full in its expression very logical
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This letter to the Galatians is a torrent of passion Unlike Romans and Ephesians where The language flows very evenly there is a cadence to it this book written to the churches in Galatia is
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Written with such passion and emotion that the writer will skip verbs
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Will change his normal way of speaking just as we would as we would for example be speaking with a child who has just done something that Absolutely shocks and amazes us
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We never expected that this child could could do this kind of thing and so as a parent
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We pour out our hearts with grief as well as with correction and that is what
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Paul is doing here and That is what sets this epistle in such a class by itself that it it speaks with a voice very seldomly heard in our day
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It speaks from a foundation that there is a truth. There is an absolute truth that has been delivered to these people and Paul expresses his amazement
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That they are so quickly abandoning what they had once said to profess We will be looking specifically at chapter 5 the first few verses this morning we will pick up a little bit of the context beforehand, but looking at chapter 5 as Paul begins to Wind down the epistle begins to make some
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Concluding thoughts and expressing them to the churches in Galatia He says it was for freedom that Christ set you free stand therefore and Do not again be subject to a yoke of slavery
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Behold listen to what I'm about to say. I Paul say to you
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That if you're circumcised if you go ahead and give in to the
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False teachers Who are seeking to bring you back under the yoke of slavery to the law if you receive circumcision?
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Christ will be of no benefit to you again.
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I Testify same root word for martyr I Give my testimony
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To every man who receives circumcision that you are a debtor You place yourself in the position of being a debtor to keep the whole law
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You have been severed from Christ. You are seeking to be justified by law you have
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Fallen from grace. I consider these words to be some of the most
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Frightening words in all of the text of Scripture. Oh Certainly some of the strongest words
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Come after this Paul expresses his deep disgust with false teachers in the verses that follow
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But these words Allow for no misunderstanding Paul begins by saying it was for freedom that Christ set you free
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That's not freedom to Do whatever you wish freedom to act how you would
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He goes on to make sure that they understand that and he already had earlier in the epistle when he
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Spoke of the fruit of the Spirit, but it was for freedom that Christ set you free
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This is an action of the Lord Jesus Christ He set these people free therefore stand and that is the same word that Paul uses elsewhere to stand for the faith to stand against opposition to stand as the
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Roman soldiers would stand as as armies would come against them and Savages would attack them and they would stand in orderly rank
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Paul says we must stand To stand against those forces that would seek to enslave us again to a yoke of slavery
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Paul saw the situation the churches of Galatia as touching upon the very heart of the gospel
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He recognized that those false teachers who had crept into the churches who he identifies in chapter 2 as pseudo
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Adelphi as false brethren We're not there simply to express a slightly different opinion on an unimportant doctrine
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These false brethren were there to destroy the Christian faith
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So strongly does Paul conclude this that in chapter 1 verses 6 through 9 He places under the anathema the curse of God not the curse of man
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He places under the anathema those who would preach any other gospel Than that which had been preached to them and he says that this message that these people are preaching and teaching is
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Not another gospel because there's only one there's only one power of God unto salvation
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There's only one true and saving gospel These men had twisted had perverted the gospel.
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So there was no longer the gospel of Jesus Christ Now what is amazing to many people in our land today and What is profoundly disturbing to many people in our land today is
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What these men were teaching? It's not how wildly strange that it was
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It's how very close it was from our perspective to the truth
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You see these men were were not denying That Jesus Christ rose from the dead
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There's nothing in the epistle to the Galatians that would lead us to believe that These individuals denied the authority of Scripture There are many in our land to do that There's nothing in this epistle that would lead us to believe that these men came
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Anywhere near what for example the Jesus seminar puts out on a regular basis
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They didn't deny the central aspects of redemptive history
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The person of Christ They weren't like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the
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Mormons No, these individuals would look
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Like all the other believers in Galatian They'd speak like them.
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They'd talk like them. They even claimed to be brethren That's why
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Paul can call them false brothers because they claim to be brothers Satan's emissaries that are the most effective are not the ones who
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Paint themselves and hideous colors and mutilate their bodies and things like that They're the ones who dress like us and talk like us and come in amongst us and lead people away
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These were people who when this epistle was read in the churches in Galatian, oh what that must have been like These are people who would have been sitting right out there
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They may have just gotten done teaching a study from the Old Testament prior to the reading of Paul's epistle
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They may have brought the refreshments that morning They look like you and I and they would still claim to be
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Christians These are people who said
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I believe in Jesus Christ That's what bothers many today
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Remember what Paul says in verse 2 I Paul say to you if you receive circumcision
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If you take that one step that these teachers are saying you must do
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Christ will be of no benefit to you. Why would that have any meaning unless these people were claiming to be
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Christians? They talked about Jesus Maybe they sang worship choruses and see that's where we start having a problem is
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That we become a little bit hesitant When we see someone who names the name of Christ Says I believe
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Jesus is Lord and I believe he rose from the dead. Isn't that enough? Shouldn't that just be it many today are saying?
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Yes. We're so tired of the battles. We're so tired of the fighting That's all we need all the rest of it is is irrelevant
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As long as you say Jesus is Lord. You're my brother or sister Every single one of those that Paul said in this passage
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Christ will be of no benefit to you said Jesus is Lord And that's what bothers us you see
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These false teachers from our perspective. We're just adding one little thing They were saying you must believe in Jesus They were professing the necessity of Christ But as with all false teachers as with all false systems of religion
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They may speak much of the necessity of Christ the necessity of God's grace But they could not confess the sufficiency of Christ and the sufficiency of grace from our perspective in our land today
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They were so very close They added only one thing and we all can sit here and start listing off all the groups and all the churches
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That add one thing two things Ten things twenty things and that makes us uncomfortable because if we're going to be consistent
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Then we're going to look at this scripture We're going to look at this passage and we're going to realize that if we're going to follow the apostolic example
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If we're going to hear the heart of the very Apostle that the
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Holy Spirit used To write a majority of the
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New Testament as far as the number of books and The whole section of the
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New Testament that describes to us for example, the the functioning of the church the role of elders and deacons and all sorts of important aspects the mystery of Christ If we want to know his heart and if we in fact want to imitate him
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Then we realize this is going to be uncomfortable Don't think for a moment that the
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Apostle Paul when he wrote these words Enjoyed doing so I would imagine that this letter which he says he wrote in his own hand as we know from other epistles
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Paul would normally use an amanuensis a scribe. He would dictate his letters
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Some theorize it was because he had difficulty seeing but Paul says
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He's written in his own hand He wouldn't even entrust it to someone else And I am certain he did so with many tears
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I'm certain he thought of those individuals He knew the pain that these words would bring to these fellowships, but he recognized that sometimes
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Sometimes there are sacrifices that have to be made Because of one's love of the truth and so he writes these words to people who
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Would profess the vast majority of his own belief
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And in chapter 1 he says they are anathema they are under the curse of God He explains he has always been consistent on these issues.
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He tells the story of what happened when Peter when he was in Antioch certain men came from James and Jerusalem and Peter became hypocritical
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You know that in those days Jews would not eat with Gentiles And so when certain men came from James and Jerusalem though Peter had been eating with the
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Gentiles Peter had been given the vision that he was not to call anything that God had cleansed unclean and yet Traditions die hard even when
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God gives you supernatural visions showing that they're wrong And when these men came from James and Jerusalem Well, they wouldn't eat with Gentiles and so Peter withdraws and soon you have the
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Jewish table and then the Gentile table when they have their potlucks the first Baptist Church of Antioch and Paul comes in and he sees this and he recognizes what is happening
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And as he explains the churches in Galatia, he was no man -pleaser We all know the politically correct way of handling this even if Paul had been so narrow -minded is to think that his
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Understanding was the only understanding How could he have handled this? Well He could have gone to Peter privately
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Waited till dinner was over and then gone to Peter quietly and said isn't there was some way we could compromise here
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Isn't there some way we could see our way clear to you know Try a little different way of doing could you move the tables a little closer?
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Could you do something to be of assistance here? That's not What Paul did?
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Instead as you know the story he in a very public manner opposed
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Peter to his face Called him to repentance and before everyone pointed out that Peter Used to eat with the
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Gentiles. Oh how Peter must have enjoyed that in front of those men from Jerusalem Peter Are you gonna try to make the
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Gentiles become Jews? Peter don't you realize that we're all justified in the same way
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Peter. Don't you realize that your hypocrisy is Compromising the very gospel itself now.
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Here's here's Peter Here's Mount of Transfiguration Peter here is walking on the water with Jesus Peter and Who is
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Paul? Paul is a persecutor of the church When Paul is first converted that the disciples will not even meet with him because they were afraid of him
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How dare he stand in front of Peter Publicly and cause this kind of ruckus well
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We know why he did it and if we recognize the gravity
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That he saw in what was going on We will have an idea of what we must do in our day because you see
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Paul recognized what Peter was doing would inevitably lead to two different churches a Jewish Christian Church and a
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Gentile Christian Church, and it inevitably led to a compromise of the gospel itself in fact the two times the word the truth the phrase the truth of the gospel appears in the
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Bible is in that second chapter of Galatians and He says they were not walking straight in accordance with the truth of the gospel
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He recognized that their actions Compromised the very faith itself you see
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Paul had the right priorities his own personal advancement his own personal comfort
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Was not at the top of his priority list The purity of the gospel was and so as a result
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He rebukes Peter as a result. He takes pen in hand and he writes these churches
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He says you need to know something those who try to add to the gospel any type of works
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Are false teachers they're false brethren And he says to the
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Christians, they're trying to put you under a yoke of slavery and he closes the door on any idea
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That another gospel Can be just as good as the true gospel.
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Do you think he rejoiced to pen those words? Christ will be to you of no benefit surely not
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But he had to say them because they were true When I worked as a hospital chaplain, there were times
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I would have to bring some bad news to people there was this little teeny tiny room off of the emergency room where you'd
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I was supposed to take the families and then I act as the liaison between the doctors working on the patient and the family and I would frequently either have to bring the news myself or bring the doctor in who was going to deliver bad news and There was almost anything in the world that I would rather do than that But it was my duty to do so That's why
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I was there Paul as an apostle had a duty We as believers have a duty.
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Oh I know it's it's easy to say. Well, it's the duty of the elders of the church
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To Safeguard the purity of the gospel and by the way it is one of the
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Requirements of the eldership is the ability to refute the gainsayers and to exhort and sound doctrine and no man deserves to stand in the office of Bishop elder overseer who is not very clear on the
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Content and fundamentals of the gospel and is able to not only present those but to defend those that is a necessary aspect of the requirements of the elder
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But you see many people think well that's enough as long as the pastor can do it Why do
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I have to worry about it? Paul does not simply address the elders of the churches in Galatia in this letter
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In fact, he says I say to any one of you I Say to any one of you all of us are called to agonize for the gospel
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That truth which was once for all been delivered to the Saints We are called to stand firm
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Because you see the Apostle knew That what was happening even during his apostolic ministry to the churches in Galatia was going to happen everywhere else
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It is the absolute tendency of the heart of man to resist pure grace
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Because you see that destroys all grounds of boasting People often say to me when we look at the history of the church and we see how quickly works salvation systems became
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Established within what called itself Christendom. How could it happen so fast? I look at him and go do you remember
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Galatians? It happened During the
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New Testament period When inspired apostles walked this earth people who were writing the very scriptures
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You still had false teachers who resisted them and who tried to teach people a
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Gospel that was focused upon man's accomplishments rather than Christ Paul says
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There are only two paths There is the path of grace and There is the path of works they are going opposite directions and You cannot for long travel down two paths that are going opposite directions
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The instant you choose to take the first step down that path of works and merit
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Paul's words to you are Stop Talking about Christ you say how where did you say that?
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Christ will be of no benefit to you. So why in the world should you talk about it? Christ doesn't go down that path of works
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Christ will not function as a co -savior Christ will not share his glory with anyone
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Once you start down that path once you start down that road Don't think
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Christ is going with you. Oh Paul those are those are harsh words
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How can you tell someone Christ will be of no benefit to you Christ will always be of benefit to anyone right no
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He is not of benefit to those who refuse To bow the knee before him and to accept him for who he truly is
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Christ is not a self -help methodology. He's not someone who will come along and just help you to do it your own way
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He is Lord and We have heard it said many times the key question in life, what will you do with Jesus Christ?
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There is truth to that but may I suggest something to you Far more insightful as a recognition that a better way to put it is
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What will Christ do with you You see the one presents
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Christ as something with That we somehow do something with But in reality, we are speaking of the very
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Lord of glory here The question is what will he do with you if you decide to abandon his gospel?
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Do not think for a moment that your substitute is going to be blessed by Christ Once you start down that road it is you walk it alone
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You will not be accompanied by Christ. He will not help you to fulfill those commands
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So as to gain justification That's what
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Paul emphasizes in verse 3 and he says don't you understand once you take that step?
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Once you enter into that road Once you accept circumcision you have become a debtor to keep the whole law
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You can't just add one thing You can't just cut that part out of God's law and say well, okay, that's the one thing you have to do.
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No Then these very hard words of verse 4 come to our hearing
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Words that have been greatly misused I even Recall an incident when
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I was a senior in high school My Bible study teacher and we were in a very large church and a couple taught in the
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Bible study classes We'd we'd have a large group meeting and then you'd break up and you'd go into small groups
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And there would be an adult who would teach. I don't know as many as 20 young people and One day
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I'm sitting there and the teacher goes this passage and he focuses on that last phrase you've fallen from grace and he starts teaching us that Christ's salvation is dependent upon our remaining faithful and are doing certain things and I Said what what?
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Are you what are you teaching? and I Once I finally figured out he was not just role -playing with us
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He was not Pulling my leg. I Got up and walked out. I Had never done that.
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That's not something that I was taught you did But actually I was taught that when someone started teaching things like that you did get up and walk out and so I did went straight to the staff and We found out later on that this man and his wife had come to the conclusion that Christ salvation is not perfect and you can lose it and therefore they decide one day
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They're gonna introduce their teenagers and their classes to that before they left the church. Wasn't that nice? I Think we need to have a class sometime on how to leave a church
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No one seems to know how to do that quite right It has been misused that way many times and certainly many people would say well it did
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How can you fall away from something you never once possessed but listen to what Paul is really saying Who is he addressing?
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You who are seeking to be justified by means of law
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He's addressing those who seek righteousness
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By means of accomplishment is there anyone here today
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That as you look into your own heart That's what you're doing. You've heard the question asked many times before if you were to die today
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And stand before God and he were to say why should I let you into my presence? What would you say? Well, it's a good question
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But I would address it to the religious person the religious person.
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How can you stand before God? What will you plead?
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Well, if you're listening to any of the words the songs we just sang, you know the answer to all that don't you?
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Something tells me those were selected specifically due to the topic today What would you plead?
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Would you point to anything you've done Or do you realize that the only plea that you have is because Jesus Christ died in my place
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It's not because of church membership as vital and important as that is
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It's not because of my giving It's not because of what I've done in service
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Do you recognize that you have already received? The righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and That you're not seeking to add to what you're seeking to live in such a way as to honor and glorify the
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God Who has saved you in perfection? I don't know most of you
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I've started to get to know the staff a little bit They've started to get to know me a little bit.
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It's probably I'll never be back again But I know a few of you from my past But most of you
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I don't know I can't see into your heart You look like a bunch of Christians to me.
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Why else would you be sitting here on Sunday morning, right? but there may be some here today who believe simply because of tradition
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That because say you were baptized as a child That you were set right with God my friend.
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That's an empty deception What someone else does for you as an infant?
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Does not grant to you saving faith and repentance you may be trusting in some religious
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Sacrament you went through at some time in your life my friend if you have started down that road
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I can only tell you in love what the Apostle said
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It's a lonely road That no one has ever been able to complete Because the purpose of the law has never ever ever been
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To make you right before God the purpose of the law has been to show you your sin and your need of a
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Savior and if you haven't seen the depth of your sin and The propriety of God's wrath against that then
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I hope you see it in these words today Seeking to be justified by law
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Not seeking to be justified by God's grace through faith in Christ These words are spoken to people who while in the
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Christian congregation and while saying the words Christ and saying the words grace
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By their seeking to be justified in the wrong way
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Have been cut off from Christ. They've fallen from grace that people say we'll see they were in Christ and Now they're not in Christ they were in grace, but now they're not in grace.
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I like to illustrate it like this Let's say that's back and many years ago well, it's actually not that many years ago, but we all know of a
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Tremendous basketball player by the name of Michael Jordan and MJ MJ did it right
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I mean no one can argue that He's not one of the greatest of all time many would argue that he is the greatest of all time
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In fact, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm his age believe it or not. He looks a lot better than I do
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And I take I have to admit last year it was sort of fun to see him school in some of those young guys
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Then of course he'd get injured and that's the downside of being the same age but if I were to in Some way
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Offend Michael Jordan So as to never receive season tickets to the
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Bulls or whatever it be now I don't know if they would want to go to the Bulls for a whole season but if I were to somehow offend him so as to No longer be in his good graces or actually never to have the opportunity of entering into his good graces
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It would not fall that I had ever been his friend It would not fall that I had ever actually been his buddy or ever had the tickets
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But I have severed myself from any opportunity of ever doing so And when we keep in mind the fact that the
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Apostle is addressing not those who believe in Christ and Have clung to Christ alone
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But to those who are seeking to be justified in a way that is outside of Christ Then we understand what he's saying when he talks about being cut off from him and falling away from grace
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I don't know why it is, but it is my experience that everyone who walks down that road of works
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They still keep talking about Christ and they still keep talking about grace
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Why? Everybody who wants to try to wed works with grace
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Recognizes the importance of still talking about grace But you see it was the
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Apostle who said you try to join something to that grace and Grace is no longer grace you see
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You won't find Christ down that road you won't find grace down that road
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God's grace is not just simply some assisting power that helps you to accomplish things so you can justify yourself
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If you're seeking to be justified by law Stop talking about Christ start talking about the law
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Stop talking about grace start talking about the law This trying to mix and match
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God's truths together to fit our own desires only leads us
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To a false gospel harsh words
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Because they were addressed to people who call themselves Christians, what are we going to do in light of these words you live in an area that is very heavily
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Influenced by ungodly beliefs you're not far from Boston and You know
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I come from a conservative part of the country called, Arizona a little different there
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In fact it's a lot different there And I'll have to admit we look at you folks as being just a little bit weird.
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I hope you don't mind that We've heard the term, Texas I commented to the elders as we were driving along your roads here
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That it's so strange that you allow people to put These things up in the middle of the road where you have to stop and give people money
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That is so weird You know there's not a single toll road in all of Arizona not a one
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And I can guarantee anyone tried to put those things up in Arizona. We'd shoot him That's why they don't do it
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We got a bunch of good old boys with the pickup trucks and the rifles in the back and SUVs with nine millimeters under the front seat and work
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We don't let people do things like that And not only that but it's the cultural thing
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I mean we've got La six hours to our our right sort of and We think
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California is weird New York's weird and the third on the list is Boston In fact we're really not sure about people like Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy They're associated with you folks aren't they we're not sure you're you're on the wrong side of the
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Mississippi so it's just sort of all gets all thrown together into this mishmash as far as we're concerned, but You got some weird we hear weird things about your schools out here, too
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Stuff you do at your colleges and things like that. Did you know you got a bunch of secular humanists out here?
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Did you are you aware of that? We don't have a lot of them in Arizona. We just don't let them live there, but They seem to be all over around here, it's very strange
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You know that you know the worldly attitude you know what's going on these colleges and universities around here and the things they come up with and It's so much easier to get along If you don't have this kind of attitude oh
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Cuz see our society tells you That man Paul. That's that's the very attitude of religious
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Dogmatism that leads to wars That man here's here's what you'll hear that man belonged in the
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Taliban, and there's not a one person sitting in this group
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That wants to be standing in front of 20 co -workers at work and have to explain
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Because you know the attitude of people and you there's gonna be that hesitation there's gonna be that little twinge of And so often isn't that what causes us to keep our mouths closed
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To hesitate many in this room have relatives who are a part of the
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Roman Catholic Church and I mentioned it yesterday to the men and let me briefly mention it to you now it is because of this book this epistle to the churches of Galatia that I have engaged in The work that I have done in seeking to share the gospel
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With members of the Roman Catholic Church because I am convinced having stud studied their theology as Fairly and as honestly as I can
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That what Rome teaches Goes so far beyond anything that the
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Judaizers could ever dream of doing But if I'm going to be consistent, and if I'm going to honor this as God's Word Then I must come to the conclusion that I must evangelize
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Any person who holds the gospel of Rome? For it can no more save than the gospel the
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Judaizers can say Some of you are going yeah
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But you don't know what that means in my family. Yes, actually I do Yes, actually
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I do It's painful. Yep sure is
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I might be rejected Yep, I know
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I have been but you see it all comes down to one question
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Do I really? Really believe that my whole standing before God my whole ability to approach
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God my future eternal life Is really tied up in this matter of It's either
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Christ alone Or it's not Christ at all How important you see
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What the Apostle saw will determine whether you will?
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Put up with the slings and arrows of relatives who hold to a false gospel and Yet seeked you seek to honor
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God by faithfully Speaking the truth in love In Else, but for the grace of God there goes you or whether you will close your mouth and not give testimony to that truth.
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I Know it's easier to do the one than the other it would have been easier for the
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Apostle Paul to have Never taken out that those pieces of papyri
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And taken that quill Begun the difficult task of writing this letter
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But he did so first and foremost because of his love For the Savior who had redeemed him
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What do we love who do we love? I don't know about you, but I I Don't want to hear you have been severed from Christ.
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You have fallen from grace I don't want to hear Christ will be of no benefit to you
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Therefore it's vitally important Not just once but on a regular basis
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To think through the old old story Because you see it's the tendency of our hearts to always drift away
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We want a little glory for ourselves We don't want to be constantly reminded of God's absolute freedom and our absolute dependence
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Everything in the world will constantly be causing us to pull away From these truths we need to be reminded.
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It's vitally important pray For the elders of your church pray for them pray that They would never be moved from these truths because The evil one seeks to attack them first and foremost because he knows
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That if he can get leaders to compromise get leaders
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Off -balance and get them to start listening to some new thing that promises some new perspective that He can drag so many more sheep with that leader than he can just getting one lamb over here and one sheep over there
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Remember the Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders the false teachers will arise from among you
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So pray for them Support them Realize you have a ministry to them.
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I Don't know if you've ever thought about it, but the very fact that you show up The very fact that you're here that you're here and you listen and you're attentive and you do so Regularly is a ministry to them
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Did you ever realize that your faithfulness and attendance can be part of your standing for the purity of the gospel?
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It is Because you see when you're here to support them that they don't have to be looking for something new
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They can be preaching the old old story They don't have to be tempted by those other things pray for your elders
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Pray for yourselves pray for your flock pray for this congregation first It's easy to pray for all the churches out there though that nebulous fuzzy
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Universal Church a little bit more difficult to pray specifically for this congregation Pray that God would grant you peace and unity in the confession of the centrality of the gospel
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Pray that he would protect you from those who would come in amongst you to try to Drag you away
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Distract you pray that the proclamation of this gospel will always be clear from this pulpit
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That is a great blessing that you're praying for and then once you've prayed for your elders and you've prayed for your own congregation then pray for Christ Church for this is the very message that the world hates and persecutes and seeks to silence
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In Western culture through post -modernism and a denial of truth but we also have brothers and sisters in Christ who seek to proclaim this message in nations where Islam rules and Islam kills
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The very message of Shalom peace is antithetical to the message of submission which is
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Islam and We have brothers and sisters persecuted this very day for this message
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Pray for our brothers and sisters in communist China Because again this message is what is offensive because it says there's only one way
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There can be no compromise There can be no adoption of anything else.
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But finally If you recognize you're not one of those Seeking to be justified by law
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These words are not descriptive of you It's for freedom that Christ set you free and you have remained free then rejoice in it
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Think about what Christ has done for you the perfection of his sacrifice in your place
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You know in your heart of hearts that if it was a matter of you cooperating and providing this this or this you'd never be saved and yet you can leave this place today confident why
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Because of a perfect Savior From whom you cannot be cut off because he says he will lose none of those who are given to him by the
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Father You stand in a grace that you can never lose because the scriptures say we are saved by grace rejoice
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Because if you this day Profess this gospel
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That a miracle has taken place in your life The natural man hates this message
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But if you cling to it That means God has taken out that heart of stone
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And he's given you a heart of flesh And the world may run around seeking all sorts of external miracles
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Let me tell you something There is no greater miracle Than when
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God takes a heart that is hardened and it's hatred of him changes that heart
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So you go from being a God hater to a God lover I Pray that miracle has taken place in the heart of every man and woman
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Boy and girl in this place today but if it has not
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I pray that God will show himself to be powerful even this morning in Drawing his people unto himself.
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Let us pray together our Heavenly Father.
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We thank you for The miraculous work you did in the heart of one
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Saul of Tarsus and all the trials and the tribulations you took him through and You have given us the record of his words in Holy Scripture the record of his heart
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That we ourselves might be encouraged To be godly in the way that we think about your truth
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Lord, we live in a land that would seek to silence us They would seek to cause us to be embarrassed about your truth
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We pray that you would strengthen us That you would help us to love your gospel and love your truth
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That you would ignite a passionate fire within us for these truths Because we know that they touch upon the very basis of our standing before you
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And father we know that we have many around us family members friends neighbors co -workers
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Who need to hear this gospel of grace? May we be instruments in your hands
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May we speak the words of life Use us father we pray in Christ's name