Evangelical Obedience - Part I

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-29

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Well this morning we Take a slight pause from working through the text of Exodus as we prepare to begin chapter 20 and with chapter 20 the
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Ten Commandments which will take us all the way to the very end of April So we're going to be in it for a while And we want to do diligence to prepare and be as prepared as we can be to get the most out of that time of Studying the law of God studying the
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Ten Commandments So as I mentioned last week we Want to have the next this week in the next three weeks to consider this matter of evangelical obedience
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Something I had mentioned even a few weeks prior to that Evangelical obedience, and I thought a working definition of evangelical obedience can be found in Hebrews 12 28
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But before we look at that let me give a reminder of some of the things that we've held out I mentioned what our confession the second
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London confession has to say about the law This is from chapter 19 on the law
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Paragraph 6 and I've mentioned this for a few weeks now very vital to understand what this is saying although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works
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To be thereby justified or condemned yet it is of great use to them as well as to others in that as a rule of life and Forming them of the will of God and their duty it directs them and binds them to walk accordingly so the great contrast we make is between being under the law as a covenant of works being bound to fulfill it or else perish as Opposed to having the law as a rule of life not being under it as a covenant of works
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But having it as a great use as a rule of life And we want to make great use of the next few months as a church body
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The Christian life is a walk the Christian life is because of the flesh a war and Our confession goes on to describe sanctification in terms of warfare in which war
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Although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail yet Through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ The regenerate in other words the reborn part does overcome and so the
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Saints grow in grace Perfecting holiness in the fear of God pressing in after a heavenly life in Evangelical obedience to all the commands which
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Christ as head and king in his word has Prescribed to them. So there you have that phrase
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Evangelical obedience And of course, this is in contrast, especially in the 1600s when this was being written to legal obedience a contrast
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We made about a month ago So we want to lay the foundation of evangelical obedience.
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What is evangelical obedience? How can we walk in? Evangelical obedience, what are the dangers of legal obedience?
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How can we avoid those dangers? How can we have these things as guiding lights in the weeks ahead as we study the commandments?
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And so we left off in Exodus 19 last week the The Assembly of Israel the congregation of Israel at the base of the mountain shook to the core remember we talked about the shell shock experience of this theophany breaking out upon Mount Sinai and how
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Even the consecration was not enough to cause them to go up the mount their hearts failed within them
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Moses alone was called to come forth But even he could only come close to the summit when he got there
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He'd have to be hid in the cleft of the rock. He could not behold the Lord of glory But that great mediator, of course was taken to the very height of God's presence and from that God gave him his law the law inscribes not on the heart as it needs to be but on stone and Broken as soon as it was written
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Which is why Moses breaks the tablets over Israel as we'll come to see in the narrative and the writer of Hebrews is
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Contrasting that experience of Exodus 19 the great terror of God's presence on the on the mount all that it means to approach him under this covenant of works
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And he contrasts that with the grace that comes through the mediator Who is
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Jesus Christ and he says to the believers in Hebrews 12 you have not come to the mountain
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That may be touched that burned with fire blackness darkness Tempest the sound of the trumpet the voice of words that those who heard beg that the word should not be spoken
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You have come to Mount Zion To Jesus the mediator of the new covenant
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And of course the conclusion of this mount that we've come to the fulfillment of Exodus 19 as the people of God in This covenant which is in Christ's blood the result of this is therefore
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Since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken Let us have grace
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By which we may serve God acceptably With reverence and godly fear for God is a consuming fire
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God has not changed His law has not changed But we are in a new covenant with a new mediator standing by his grace
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So let us have grace. That's the first thing we want to focus on this morning. Let us have grace Next week that we may serve
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The week after that acceptably and the last week with fear and reverence
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Now you'll notice there's sort of this pendulum swing when I say evangelical obedience you might feel this tension
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Evangelical is a fancy way of saying gospel. All right, the gospel is the evangel Evangelical is that which is of the gospel or accords with the gospel.
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So we have evangelical Obedience now evangelical is gospel Filled with grace then we have that word obedience and already that feels a little cold and you know
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It's sort of chafes and we don't really like it. Let's get back to evangelical. And so you'll notice this pendulum swing
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Maybe you'll feel it over the next four weeks We go from evangelical and highlighting all that we love about that word and then the pendulum swings to obedience and all the demand
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And well, you know, it's just gonna draw legality out of us and then we go back to acceptably Why is it that we can serve
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God acceptably then we go back to with fear and reverence And so there's this pendulum swing But of course as you keep going between the two eventually it will settle right in the middle where it ought to be
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Not cheap or shallow grace neither a legality or a way of looking at obedience as something negative
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But actually holding these things together, which is the task of the Christians life Law and grace as we've said now for several weeks is the heart of our faith
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Knowing the difference between the law and the gospel You'll make a shipwreck of your faith. If you don't know how to distinguish the two
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Perennial battles are fought over this very thing. It was so in Paul's day. It was so in Bernard's day
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It was so in Luther's day. It was so in Whitfield's day. It is so in our day This is a perennial battlefield for the gospel
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To rightly divide the law and the gospel and then to rightly understand how they complement one another
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According to the overarching purpose of redemption So you'll feel this pendulum swing.
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I trust It's almost natural as we work through the scriptures that were drawn from one to the next
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Evangelical then to obedience evangelical then to obedience. We want to focus on this morning is
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Evangelical it is grace. Let us have grace and I want to focus on that in three parts
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First I want to say grace is something we must receive Secondly grace is something we must grow in and then lastly grace is something we must give
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So grace is something we must receive that is the grace of justification Being justified by faith in Christ grace is also something we must grow in That is grace at work in our lives the cleansing power of grace that is sanctification
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Something we grow in grace is also something we must give To one another and that is fellowship
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Now there's more that grace is and more that grace does but for the time we have this morning
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We'll focus on these three parts. Let's begin with justification. Let us have grace Grace that we must receive we see this in Exodus, right?
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Salvation is by grace God hasn't changed the way that he saves people We saw it all the way through the plague narrative and the miraculous deliverance at the
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Red Sea Salvation is by grace The Israelites at the wilderness could sing the same song the
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Ephesians could sing for by grace We have been saved through faith that not of ourselves if you went and asked an
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Israelite How is it that you've been freed from bondage and you're here now on your way to a land that God is showing you they would
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Only be able to say that well God did it we didn't do anything We we grabbed jewelry as we walked out that was about as much as we did then we complained a lot
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But the whole time God delivered us and saved us and rescued us. That's what grace is
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That's what grace does and that grace is his grace That grace is found in him
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That grace is from him It's an important point that we never abstract grace from the person and work of Christ We'll come back to that Romans 324 being justified freely by his grace
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Not grace is some abstract Phenomenon, but his grace his acts his work
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His decree being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus And so we enter into this realm of grace now
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It's not just a different hat we put on it's a whole new realm We enter into new air that we breathe new life that we've received.
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No wonder we have to be born into this realm It's a new birth It's not something you can paste or patch on to your current life you must be born again
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You must be made new as a new creation in Christ entering into a new realm as a new creation
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Therefore having been justified by faith We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand
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Paul says it's not just something I have it's not some compartment in my life. I'm standing in it
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I'm dwelling in it. I'm abiding in it. And here I rejoice in hope of the glory of God So our salvation from first to last and all we ever see of salvation is that it depends upon the grace of God When we open that up in the mysteries of redemptive history
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We see that even that has always been whether a foretaste or an accomplishment of the work of Christ Not by our own words
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But by his work When Paul describes grace, he can't help but contrast it with the law
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Christ has delivered us from being under the law And what we mean by that is under the condemnation of the law
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Paul goes so far as to say in Christ We are dead to the law He says in Romans 6 you're not under the law, but under grace
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Our whole new status our way of operating and what we operate from all of that has shifted We're now justified by faith in Christ because Christ has endured the curse of the law
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Christ has satisfied the laws demand and so to use the language of our confession
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We're not under the law as a covenant of work Because Christ fulfilled it as a covenant of work on our behalf
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By faith, we've been justified apart from works of the law Now, of course, this doesn't mean that we cast away the law
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There's a reason we're going where we're going in Exodus of course, we don't cast away the law as Paul himself says the law is holy just good and Certainly, there's a purpose of the law
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That accords with grace if law is a reflection or a manifestation of the perfections of God's character
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Then redemption will conform us to look like Christ who perfectly manifested that law
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He didn't just do it sort of chafingly and regrettingly He was as David one who delighted in the law of his
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God One who walked in it and saw its light and was led and held by it One that could turn it over in his heart by day and by night
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Meditating on all the richness of who God is far from moving us against the law grace enables us to fulfill the law
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But as we'll see in two weeks time We only fulfill the law in an acceptable way because of Christ and that's because in Christ there is grace and by grace we have faith in Christ and By that grace we have received the
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Spirit who causes us to walk in the law as a rule of life Anything less than that is not grace
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So grace is not against the law Grace is that which by Walking with the
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Spirit causes us to fulfill the law in an acceptable way and one day that will be fully realized fully consummated in our lives
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We will never break the law again. We will be as Christ is when we see them
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John says Anything less than that is not grace, but rather a travesty or a mutilation of grace
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I was reading Robert trail Over the past couple of weeks who had a book in the 17th century called the vindication of justification
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Robert trail who? was in the midst of many controversies again this perennial battlefield and as new forms of legalism were rising up and as Catholicism was returning to England Puritans like Robert trail took great pains to clarify the gospel according to justification
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Justification seemed to be Something that didn't have the rigor Didn't promote the kind of zeal and holiness that it needed to and so Robert trail wanted to vindicate justification
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Did they say no this is the Galatian error? This is what it means to try to turn the gospel into works of the law or try to make faith rather some act of Legal obedience and so he's he's sort of riffing from Romans 6 1 where of course
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Paul is answering the same charge Shall we sin that grace may abound? And so Robert trail says this do not some abuse the grace of the gospel and turn it into lawlessness
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He says yes some do ever did will do but It is only the misunderstood the unbelieved doctrine of grace that they abuse
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The grace itself no man can abuse You see what he's saying You can twist the doctrines of grace you can twist the preaching of grace
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But if you have that grace you cannot abuse that grace You can twist the doctrine of grace you can mutilate and malform the teaching of grace
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But the grace itself no man can abuse its power prevents abuse And so he goes on why else does
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Paul not seek to prevent this abuse When he addresses this in Romans 6 1
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Does he address it by mincing grace smaller so that men don't choke upon it? Oh, I got it.
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I got a reel it back. I'm saying too much grace people are gonna twist this into lawlessness I better chop it up really fine and make sure they know they really have to obey too
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Is that what Paul does does he mix law with it to make it more wholesome? No Only by plainly asserting the power and influence of this grace wherever it really is.
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Do you see what trail is saying? If you actually have this grace You will not be able to abuse it its power and influence will prevent you and that's why
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Paul doesn't try to Recreate or repackage grace. He simply says God forbid those who think and act that way their condemnation is just in other words.
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They've never had it They don't have it because if they had it they wouldn't think that way That's not the way that they would act and then he makes a very important point again getting back to how we must never
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Abstract grace from the person and work of Christ and this is what trail says This grace is all treasured up in Christ This grace is offered to all men in the gospel
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This grace is poured forth by our Lord and it works by faith and it's drunken as we act in faith
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And it becomes in us a living spring which must which must break out and spring up in all of our ways
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And so we're exhorted to drink more and more and more of this grace by faith
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That's how Paul deals with lawlessness We are justified by grace alone through faith alone apart from works of the law if we lose that we lose everything if We lose that we don't have a gospel
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If we lose that we lose our own souls We are justified by grace alone through faith alone.
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Let us have this grace of justification secondly Let us have this grace of sanctification
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In other words grace isn't just what we receive from God by faith But it's also something we're given to grow in grace is something that we grow in This growth is by grace toward grace away from sin
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Romans 6 as Paul continues this argument in Romans 6 present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead your members as instruments of righteousness to God for Sin shall have no dominion over you.
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Why is it that sin has no dominion over a believer? Is it because believers work so hard to memorize the commandments and they strive with every
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Fiber in their being that they're not gonna mess up again. They're gonna obey that commandment They're watchful over every commandment and they uphold that law before them.
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They live by that law They breathe by that law that law is life to them Is is that how they're able to have no dominion of sin?
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Paul says it's exactly the opposite for those who live that way you who would be justified by works of the law
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Paul says to the Galatians, how is it that you receive the
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Spirit? Was it by obeying the law? Or was it by hearing and believing?
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How is it that sin has no dominion over us? Is it because We live and stand on and dwell in and abide by the law
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Is it because we walk with these heavy stone tablets in front of us bearing us down dragging them toward glory
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No, Paul says in fact that aggravates the condition of sin When the commandment comes sin revives and we die
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Because of this Covenant of works this this Obligation this burden that neither we nor our fathers could bear when that commandment comes in this covenantal context
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It damns us. It ruins us. It bears us down. It's a yoke. We can't escape now
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We have this this dread this fear this almost Hatred toward God that was
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Luther's experience the more he tried to work from law toward law The more he began to despise
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God. How could God expect this of me? I can't do this Why would God demand this of me and yet and yet give me no grace no help along the way
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Why what is Paul's argument it was a great discovery to Luther, of course sin shall have no dominion over you why
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Because you're not under the law, but you're under grace Notice, what is corollary?
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It's because you are under grace that sin has no dominion over you It's confirmed by the very next verses.
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What then shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace certainly not The main point is clear.
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It's because you're under grace that sin has no dominion over you And what
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Luther had to discover is what Paul had to discover when he converted to Christ I do not set aside the grace of God if Righteousness could come by the law.
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He died for nothing for no reason And so Paul had to learn that he had set aside the grace of God It's nice to have grace
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But what really matters is us keeping this law Keeping these stones walking in the works of the law putting a hedge around the law
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This is what gives me my security my comfort my assurance my zeal This is what will motivate me and Paul recognized in his own life.
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All of that led to death frustration antagonism dread He had saw in himself that all he had done was set aside the grace of God Maybe that's how
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I enter in but now I've got to work to keep it. Grace was something that could be put to the side And Luther likewise, of course
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Being an Augustinian among he had much to say about grace But he didn't understand what Augustine had come to understand in the
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Pelagian controversies And so Luther like Paul learned I cannot set aside the grace of God And in my flesh
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I'm prone to always set aside the grace of God to assume it and So you and I were as easily bewitched
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Like the Galatians were bewitched Legality as we've said is the default of our flesh with little effort with little thought we creep back toward merit theology
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Salvation as though it must be earned Or at least we maintain it God meets us halfway
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And then we're no longer operating by grace we're no longer walking with the Spirit we're setting aside grace
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We think that grace is somehow a last resort or at best a pat on the back
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You know, it's it's all about your law keeping your effort this hedge this way But don't worry grace is there to encourage you a little pat on the back
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Grace is a safety net your last resort you try as hard as you can in the works of the law The law is going to motivate you
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When you fall grace is the safety net that will catch you and get you back to square one So you can keep trying in that way treating grace as something that is
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Initial or initiatory keep treating grace as a last resort as a safety net Treating grace as a pat on the back
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Something that can begin to motivate but the law has to take us the rest of the way all of these things
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Completely misunderstand what Paul means in Romans 6 14 sin has no dominion because we are not under law but under grace real growth in grace will be a result of loving the
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Lord God of Apprehending his mercy rather than dreading his condemnation beating the flesh
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Sweating and striving to cultivate and produce change in ourselves by ourselves
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And I I trust you know this by experience that when you've operated in that way
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You haven't gained fruit. In fact, you've lost fruit We think somehow
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Laying aside besetting sins comes from the demand of the law the weight of the law
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The fire of the law and if we fail there then grace will pick us back up and get us back to that place
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But as we know from experience, it is always grace that brings our surrender It is always grace that not only humbles us
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But then buds all the things we sought for by ourselves and could not find that produces transformation in our lives
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Only then do we surrender only then do we lay aside What are you tasting that's causing you to lay aside besetting sins in your life?
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What does Peter say? Peter says that to lay aside all malice all deceit all
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Hypocrisy envy evil speaking that laying aside that comes from something it comes from tasting something
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It's the same. It's a variation on Paul saying sin has no dominion because you're under grace
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Here's how Peter would put that in culinary terms Laying aside all malice all deceit hypocrisy envy evil speaking.
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Why why are you laying that aside? It's because you've tasted the wrath of the Lord his justice
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Which will hunt you down the things that you must stand and account for at the end You've tasted that therefore lay all this aside.
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Now. What does Peter say? If indeed you've tasted the Lord is gracious If you've tasted the
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Lord is gracious, you'll lay aside these things Not begrudgingly not not like it's some burden
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But willingly it'll be the burning desire of your heart get this Hypocrisy out of me get this envy away cut off my evil speech
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Lord I've tasted that you are gracious Therefore I lay all this aside
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Lord. I recognize I'm under grace Therefore sin will not rule me We we sang this last
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Sunday night at SLBC from Isaac Watts nor all thine heavenly charms nor thy revenging hand
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Could force me to lay down my arms and bow to thy command. Oh shall I never feel the meltings of thy love what snows?
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Love melts Am I of such hell -hardened steel that mercy cannot move
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Now for one powerful glance dear Savior from thy face this rebel no more withstands, but sinks beneath thy grace
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Grace It's the grace of God that melts the heart.
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It's the grace of God That sinks that rebel will it's the grace that after having done so builds that up again builds up the will in a new direction in new light a new strength and So now brethren acts 20
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I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up The law will tear down It has that schoolmaster
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Ability to put you down to size cut you down to where you need to be in humility
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It has no power to build you up And so we're commended to the word of grace which is able to build us up the grace which justifies is the grace which
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Sanctifies there is no other grace as we said all of grace is treasured up in Christ Jesus And so the grace that believers need for Justification this alien righteousness that's imputed to our account that grace of justification
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Also turns into the grace of sanctification we go from receiving it to now growing in it and more importantly growing by it
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It's a walking grace We walk from grace by grace toward more grace
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Because We're walking by Christ with Christ toward more of Christ and all of grace is treasured up in Christ And so if you're struggling in your walk if you're losing in your war could it be?
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That sin is having dominion over you Because you're standing on law you're operating under law
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You're not standing on grace. You're not operating under grace Grace being treasured up in Jesus This is another way of saying it could it be that you've gone astray and you've lost sight of the
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Lord And of his grace and of his word which builds you up. It's the grace that Peter mentions in 2nd
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Peter 3 18 grow in the grace and Knowledge of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So you see there it's grace that we grow in The Problem is we take that word grow and we lop off everything else
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Grow in grace and what does that do to our flesh? I've got a growing grace tomorrow I'm really gonna hit the deck
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Ryan. All right, this is gonna go. Here's my resolution here. I'm gonna grow grow grow Yes grow in grace and we make grace a way of operating under law
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But what does Peter say? He doesn't say you better grow you better grow in grace. You better grow What does he say?
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What are you growing in? Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ That's how you grow in grace.
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You grow in his grace. You grow in the knowledge of his grace you grow in him We emphasize growth and then we stop short.
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We have if you've ever been to our home in our downstairs bathroom We have a little framed wooden plaque that says grow in grace
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I'm tempted to pitch it now after preaching this but maybe I'll keep it Of course, they lop off the most important part to just say grow in grace is
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Missing what Peter's saying? He's not simply saying grow in grace And then we turn that into this legality this merit theology
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What he's saying is grow in the grace of Jesus grow in the knowledge of Jesus grow in Christ That is how we come
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To have dominion over the sins that so easily beset us Robert trail just going further in his book
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He raises the question of course because he was writing in the days of these controversies as we said
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What was known as the the antinomian controversy which caused all these works on justification to fly off the the presses?
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And Robert trail, of course is answering it basically in some ways responding to to people like Richard Baxter what we might call
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Neonamism a new way of understanding the law and the idea was that we have to combat ungodliness in moral decay
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And what does that always look like a preachers have a bad habit of basically turning
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Old Testament narrative into moralism Right, and it's essentially what was happening in the 17th century
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They were worried about addressing besetting sins in their congregations in their society And it's like let that law trumpet forth and then
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Christ Became something marginal or something to the side They were laying aside the grace of God in trying to address sin and trying to make the people
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Sanctified and Robert trail is getting at this point Is there not a great decay among professors meaning those who have a profession of faith?
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Is there not great decay in real godliness among professors? Are we like the old
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Protestants or the old Puritans? Now he means, you know the past 5100 years for us it's more 400 years
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And trail is saying we're not like the old pure. He's a Puritan and he's saying I wish I was like the old
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Puritans. Oh Robert if only Bobby if only you could see things now Are we like the old
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Protestants or the old Puritans I Answer the decay and degeneracy is great.
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But what's the cause and what will be its cure? Is it because the doctrine of morality and virtue and good work is not preached enough.
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Oh This cannot be There has been for many years now a ministry in this nation, which always has this as a constant theme
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Yet the land has become Sodom in its lewdness and this tree of profanity is so Overgrown the sword of the magistrate can't lop off its branches.
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Is it because men have too much faith in Christ or Too little or none at all
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Would not faith in Christ increase holiness Did it not always do so will it not still do it?
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Was not the holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining for this reason? The certain spring of this wickedness in the land is ignorance and unbelief in the gospel of Jesus Christ Now he is exactly right
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What is a default in a fleshly approach to sanctification in a congregation It's the same thing we do as individuals
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We have this legal pattern this merit theology that creeps into our walk Somehow we're trying to strive and sweat and earn and we've laid aside the grace of God.
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We're not doing it from grace toward grace We're doing it by the flesh by our effort by our zeal as though it was legal, but holiness only comes
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From faith in Christ because faith in Christ gives you access to this grace in which you're standing
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It gives you more of Christ himself Do you see grace considers the redemption which
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Christ purchased on the cross? It prods and stirs and convicts and carries closer and closer
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Which is to say apart from the grace of Christ with me. I'm unable to walk
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I'm unable to obey. I'm unable to be sanctified. I can't grow in holiness I must have
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Christ And I must have his grace So this is the distinction that is made
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And this isn't just of course part of sanctification but it gets to even where sanctification brings us which is
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Repentance and even here men like Robert trail or the merrow men that I mentioned a few weeks ago they made a distinction between legal repentance and Evangelical repentance for this very reason legality will go everywhere with you
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There's no refuge from it other than Christ as soon as you step away from that shadow of the cross
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Legality is there to convince you here's what you must do Here's the only way until you spent all your strength and all your hope
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And you have the certain dread and distance from the Lord your God That's legal repentance
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The conviction the right conviction that you've broken the law of God that can only produce fear fear of judgment
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Separation from him. It's that Adamic instinct to run cover and hide
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You don't want his presence. His presence is the worst thing. It's worse than your sin. His presence is worse than hell
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That's legal repentance And it leads to legal sanctification but evangelical repentance
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Repentance that recognizes Lord you have convicted me and you are right and you are holy and you are just and I am lost
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And I am ruined apart from your grace Save me Cleanse me
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Hide me in my Savior draw me close to him. Let me taste that he is gracious Let me draw near to him that I willingly put off all these things that have encumbered me and tripped me up Let me be led by his glory and his beauty and his goodness and his mercy.
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I'm an adopted son. I'm an adopted daughter This this nearness that's not a dread it's not a legal fear it's evangelical that leads to real repentance real
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Sanctification real holiness. That's what the shorter catechism gets to in 87 repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and Apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, you see that's the key that's real repentance
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That's repentance unto life. That's godly sorrow rather than worldly sorrow. You're apprehending the mercy of God in Christ And that causes you to turn to run to cast off to cling to taste to breathe to stand
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That's the gospel and of course That doesn't mean somehow you're passive.
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There's no room for let go and let God it just means as you're seeking to do these Very things you must always be sure
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That you're going from grace toward grace rather than this legal repentance or legal sanctification
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Paul could say by the grace of God. I am what I am his grace Toward me was not in vain
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We're ambassadors for Christ in this very way Second Corinthians 6 Paul said as as workers together with him also we plead with you
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Not to receive the grace of God in vain. What does he mean by that? What would it look like to receive the grace of God in vain?
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It would look like what the Galatians were doing as far as Paul was concerned. They They were so foolish.
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They had been bewitched. They had started out so well, and now they were making a shipwreck of their profession
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They somehow twisted the grace of God into merit into legality That's what it looks like to receive the grace of God in vain
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And it's easy just in conversations Especially when someone's being convicted you can almost sense there's an embarrassment about Mentioning grace or describing grace it almost feels like if I say grace,
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I'm not taking my sin seriously or yeah Yeah, yeah, I know that there's grace and forgiveness, but it's really on me to kind of And I think
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Paul would say don't receive grace in vain Another important work that came out of these controversies in the 17th centuries was
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Walter Marshall The gospel mystery of sanctification a very important work not not all the
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Puritans liked it the Merriman loved it Because again, there's this concern we have to be careful
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It's like what Martin Lloyd -Jones said about about preaching the true gospel of grace But unless you can be accused of being lawless or antinomian you haven't preached the gospel of free grace
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Because Paul preaches the gospel of grace and he's accused of being antinomian And so Lloyd -Jones in his own preaching ministry said
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I'm comfortable with being accused It's what Robert Traylor's saying men can abuse the doctrine of it. They can't abuse the real thing when they have it
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You can you can unchain and let that grace fly when that grace is at work
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There's no need to be concerned about people twisting it into licentiousness Only those that twist it will do so to their own ruin
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Well Walter Marshall in writing this book, of course what we see as the heartbeat of justification
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He saw as the heartbeat also of sanctification And so we're talking about sanctification
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We're especially talking about our assurance our assurance of salvation The easy believism on the one hand says well, oh, yeah,
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I'm trusting. Yeah. Yeah, you know 33 years ago I gave my life to Christ at a rally. Yeah. Yeah, you know, so, you know,
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I'm good and we're like well Where are you today? Oh Are you worshiping?
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You know, what's your life look like, you know, where's the fruit? It's just sort of like this initiatory thing
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I must have been good because of something I did three decades ago. We recognize as believers. No If you received grace and if your life is now hidden in Christ, there's there's going to be evidence of that There's going to be an outflow if grace is operating within you if you've received it, you're growing in it.
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It cannot be otherwise And Walter Marshall says but here we must you must always remember how assurance comes about Because here's where the merit theology and the legality often does its worst work in our lives
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We look back at our lives and we see all of our shortcomings all of our stumbling those easily besetting sins
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Maybe those sins that are very repetitive. We keep falling into them we don't feel that we've lost control, but if we're being honest and we look back and it's like Do I have any control could it be said that this sin is dominating me?
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So then we lose assurance We recognize I'm not as sanctified as I should be
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I'm not being sanctified not here Not here not here And so I'm losing my assurance
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I need that assurance I must have assurance I must know if I belong to him if I'm saved and how do we try to get that assurance?
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I Got a work gonna earn it got to put off I got a try you got a All right, we go right back into the legality right back.
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We set aside the grace of God That's this the umbrella status. It doesn't mean anything to us.
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It's all now me working it out by myself for myself We receive the grace of God in vain and this is
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Walter Marshall's concern Sanctification he recognized is the product of assurance
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You see you see that insight we reverse it. We do it the other way around we say
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Assurance What will somehow? Be the end or the sort of you know cherry on the top of all of our efforts to sanctify to be sanctified
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I work really hard to be sanctified I I constrain I beat myself the things that Paul says the good things and at the end maybe
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I'll have assurance I'll have assurance after I've worked really hard and I care that's under control and yeah, you know,
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I'm better than I was I think I think yeah, I think I'm in control now. Okay now I can have some assurance
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You see what Marshall's saying? No You'll never have assurance that way not assurance worth having not assurance that gives life and gives power and gives strength
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He says it's the other way around your assurance actually produces your sanctification It's the other way around He was living in days of lawlessness and he saw some of his good colleagues well -intentioned colleagues
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As a way of combating this lawlessness, it's licentiousness as antinomian ism That was a plague in England in the 1660s and and Marshall saw his his compatriots as it were his colleagues in the ministry
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Going about sanctification as though it were some some way to have assurance and he said brothers
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Are we are we falling into the Galatian error? If you are gripped by a fear that you may not be saved if you are filled with doubts
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Could it be that that is going to make you spiritually alive and active What Marshall pointed out was sanctification what it looks like practically is love
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To be holy truly holy as Jesus summarized the law is to love the
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Lord your God With all your hearts with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength
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That's what the perfection of the law looks like. What does it look like looks like love? And what does
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Paul say that that now the law is what to us now it's faith working by love
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So sanctification looks like love in other words sanctification Isn't something that's a little bit separate from the grace of God justification is all of grace
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Sanctification is half grace half work. No, it's not. We're justified freely by his grace work really hard to be sanctified
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Maybe then you'll have assurance. No Justification and sanctification are the gospel.
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It's a result of what Christ has done So sanctification from this assurance of who
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Christ is what he's done my faith being all that's necessary Not even something that's required
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But the means by which I lay hold of what Christ has done and when I have that faith in him I know that I'm forgiven.
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I'm justified. I can be assured in that that assurance Leads to my sanctification and what does that sanctification look like?
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a response of love gratitude thankfulness Bewilderment at the mercy of God.
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That's what sanctification is in your life Listen, if you're a Christian, you know that to be true the most holy times in your walk have been when you've had this budding love for Christ in your heart and all of a sudden
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Sin paled you had no desire to keep Messing around with the things that had been
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Besetting you the things that you've been wrestling with in that moment of clarity You saw
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God's rich rich and free grace and you loved him so much that sin lost its power and more light
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Didn't fill you with dread or fear or covering but just a child like running to your father, you know that to be the case
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It is a response to mercy. That's what sanctification is a response of love
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To what God has done for us in Christ something the law could never do This is what the law obligated
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To love the Lord fully wholly Comprehensively That's what the law is about.
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This is what that love will look like. This is what that love will manifest as But ultimately the law is loving the
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Lord your God and Paul says what the law could not do And that it was weak because of our flesh
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Christ did Christ did nothing humbles us so much as The mercy of God, you know that prodigal thought he was pretty humble
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He was humbled enough by his sin That he was willing to leave the swine pods, right?
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And we might look at that and say that's wonderful He was humbled for his sin and then everything else kind of built on top of that.
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No, there was more humbling to come He was humbled in a way.
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He also had some Faint echo of the hope of mercy a sort of daydream.
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Maybe my father will show me mercy All right, but that was unsure as we know from his speech.
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I'll be your slave. I'll serve I'll serve notice that legality notice that fleshly instinct. All right, father
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You've allowed me to kind of come near and so I'm gonna work really hard and maintain at this time father And how humbled would he be what would that mercy mean to him would it mean much
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Brothers and sisters in your sanctification. You're like that prodigal You see swine pods all around you and you say
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I'm distant from my father And I'll go to him and I'll work really hard. I'll serve
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Yeah, I'll be his best servant if he'll just give me a little bit more But you know that that humbling only lasts for a little while and that apprehension of mercy doesn't have any transformative power
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But you know what does It's when you draw near to the father and All that legality that you were clinging to and bringing with you as some bartering tool some merit you could have in a standing with God when all of that is just put away and The righteousness of Christ is put over you
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And he says come sit by my side and feast Now you're humbled in a way you weren't expecting to be humble
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Now you've received mercy you weren't expecting to find now your life is transformed
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It has been said this is a wonderful book by Donald MacLeod called a faith to live by and he says it has been said
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In Christianity theology is grace Ethics is gratitude In other words all that we believe and understand is essentially grace and all that we do is gratitude
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To be a disciple is to respond with thankfulness to all that God has done a slave doesn't think that way a
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Slave doesn't serve that way Thank God that our sanctification.
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Thank God that that our potential for obedience is not measured by the force of law
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But it's actually Cultivated by the gift of love It is not law in other words
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That keeps us holy But grace Grace is what keeps you holy
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Do not walk through these commandments thinking like the prodigal as I do these things
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I'll be more holy and then I'll have assurance Run to the cross of Christ be seated at his right hand be clothed in his righteousness
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From that assurance recognize that grace that you've received that grace that you're standing in that is what makes you holy
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That is what will keep you in a holy way This is why we can say where sin abounds grace abounds much more
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That's why when James says don't you know the spirit who dwells in you yearns jealously
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We're beginning to feel that dread. Okay, James, I'm gonna work really hard to keep the law and then James says well, hold on.
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Hold on but He gives more grace He gives more grace all sufficient grace
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I Was listening to Martin Lloyd -jones just a lot of sermons lately so good on this and of course his exposition of Romans is classic
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One of the things that he said in a sermon from John 1 12 and 13 that really struck out to me
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He says as Christians it is our duty to have assurance It is our duty to have assurance
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It is the duty of Christians to have assurance of salvation he says and rejoice in Christ and This comes from rightly
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Understanding our relationship to the law Now you would think if I left you there before the sermon you would think you're right
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I need to recognize that the law is wholly just and good I do need to walk and fulfill it and my assurance will come when
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I do that and then Walter Marshall says no and then Martin Lloyd -jones says no When he says this comes from understanding your relationship to the law what he goes on to say is it comes
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When you recognize you're not under the law But you're under grace it comes when you recognize that if you walk by the
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Spirit you fulfill the law So if you are in Christ and yet you think of yourself as under the law and all of these subtle prodigal ways
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Rather than being under the rich and free grace of Christ To one extent or another at one time or another you are going to lose your assurance
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And with your assurance, you'll lose your sanctification Let's make sure we always get that order, right?
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maybe I'll Maybe I'll give this illustration as sort of a closing point on this.
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I Mentioned it a while ago. It's one of my favorite illustrations William William Gurnall Christian in complete armor his exposition of Ephesians 6
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And he says when Satan comes to disquiet the Christians peace for lack of a right understanding here he's soon beaten by his enemy
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Like the silly hare which might escape the dogs in some burrow that is at hand you see the picture he's describing
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It's hunting dogs going after a hare or a rabbit. I've seen videos of this what he's going to describe the dogs don't operate by Sight or sound so much as by scent and so they catch this trail of The rabbit and they just are beelining it and I've I've seen a video of this big
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European rabbit And it was launching down this woodland path And then it came straight back toward the dogs that were pursuing it
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Straight across its trace and then went off to the side of the dogs blew right past it Like it was right in front of them and they just like didn't it's like oh, yeah, whatever that thing is let's keep going with the scent and So Grinnell is describing
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Satan like this when Satan comes to disquiet the Christians peace for lack of a right understanding here
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He's soon beaten by his enemy Like the silly hare which would escape the dogs and something burrow at hand but trusting in her heels
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By the print of her own feet and scent which she leaves behind is followed In other words, she's looking for a place to hide and she might be able to hide there for a little while But that trail always betrays her that that scent is always leading to her
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And so there's no safe place for her to hide she can only catch her breath and the dogs are right at her again and So at last weary and spent she falls into their mouths
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And this is what Grinnell says in all that a Christian does listen and all that you do there is a print a trace a scent of sin a
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Scent by which Satan is enabled to trace and pursue you over hedge and ditch Whether this effort
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Or that duty in other words all the good things all the noble things, right? You know, at least
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I've got this going for me. I'm working really hard You know, we weren't doing this last year and this is really good and all of that service is wonderful It has its right place
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But within that is this sinful scent and Satan knows it and he knows how to use it against you
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And so he hounds you down And he says till the soul right whether this effort whether that duty till the soul not able to stand before that accusation
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Yeah, you've got that. But what about this? You're kidding me. You're a Christian and you're able to do this
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And you fall down at the last and despair at his feet and this is what Grinnell says here here is
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A hiding place. What is that hiding place? Being justified by grace
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Through faith here is a hiding place Where the enemy dare not come a cleft in the rock which truth leads us to when
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Satan charges you as a sinner Perhaps your response is oh, well, I'm gonna repent and work really hard All right,
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I can hide for a little bit there or I'm gonna reform. I'm confessing. I'm really working hard at reforming it
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That's not enough to keep you from his jaws Soon you're beaten out by these works Soon that sinful mixture is accusing you
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But if you would have him choke on his fangs if you would believe on the one who said not to him that works
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But to him that believes He is the one that justifies the ungodly Get therefore into this gospel tower.
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You see what he's saying If you don't understand the gospel in this way
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You're probably Living out of legality not walking with the spirit operating under grace, but rather having these temporary hiding places that you're patching together a
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Covering to ease your conscience and try to work on the things that are standing out to you Brothers and sisters if you would have those rooted out if you would have those sins put to death
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Get into this gospel tower get into this refuge of the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ And then lastly
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I'm just gonna breeze by this We do because these things are so hard Because the
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Christian life is a walk and a war We must show each other grace
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Grace isn't just something we receive. It's not just something we grow and it's also something we give something we exhibit something
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We show to one another God forbid. I don't know if you know someday
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Lord willing. We'll have our own place and maybe with it a new name But God forbid right now.
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We have this name of grace Reformation Bible Church, and we lack grace toward one another
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God forbid our name as a church is a paradox It's funny their name grace the most ingracious people
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I've ever met Very curt abrupt, you know demanding chafing. It's kind of hard to be with them
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You know you show up and you want to leave God forbid that if you know how hard this war is if you know the mercy of Christ your
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Savior If you know what it's like to find that refuge in that safe place And of course you'll exhibit grace
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Of course, you'll have grace on your lips You'll be able to rejoice with those who are rejoicing weep with those who are weeping
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You'll have a full heart a full emotive life all affections at your disposal all operating by grace
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You'll not just be a receptor for grace, but a purveyor of grace a steward of grace
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And that's what Peter says we are we're to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God There's many different ways many opportunities for us to steward that grace toward one another but we aren't to be stewards of grace
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That means we have a certain way of thinking about one another that is gracious charitable it always looks for what is something the
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Lord is doing in a way that we can support to reinforce and help build that and Even where there seems to be the absence of God's work, you know some glaring issue some glaring sin
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We approach as ones who have received grace with grace We operate by grace.
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We're standing in grace. The church is a realm of grace everything we should do Everything we are
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Saturated with this grace that comes from God Ephesians Paul uses this picture of imparting grace to the hearers, right?
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Let no corrupt speech come forth from your mouth, but only that which will impart grace That's a beautiful way of thinking about how we should be to one another.
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Have you thought have you strategized today? You know, who are you gonna eat beans and hot dogs with in a couple an hour or so?
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Have you strategized how can I impart grace to them? Is there something I've thought about something
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I've noticed about them something I've been praying for Something I see something that might be helpful something that was helpful to me.
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I don't know if it'll mean anything to them I'm gonna impart it to them. Why? Because I'm to be a steward of grace.
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I've received it. I'm growing in it. I can't contain it It's always shooting out of me. And so I'm stewarding it.
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I'm directing it. I'm imparting it To have a church that's operating in this way
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Will be a church that's growing in grace a church that's increasingly sanctified And what will the end result of that be?
01:00:09
What is the end result of all of this? What's the end result of the Christian life, the Christians walk, the Christians war, the history of unfolding redemption?
01:00:17
What's the end of all of that? Paul says it in 2nd Corinthians 4. So that grace
01:00:24
Having spread through many You imparting, you magnifying, you praising, you testifying, you're you're imparting, you're stewarding
01:00:33
You're sharing, you're praying, you're seeking, you're giving all of that having spread through the many what?
01:00:39
May cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God That's the end of your life as a
01:00:45
Christian. That's the end of our fellowship as Christians. That's the end of the church That's the purpose of eternity that the grace of Jesus Christ would be magnified and glorified
01:00:56
To the praise and glory of God by the Spirit Savior if of Zion's city
01:01:03
I through grace a member and what the world derider pity I Will glory in thy name.
01:01:09
It's the same thing. This is the end result and So where grace is not being magnified in our midst as a fellowship
01:01:18
There should be some big red flags Where we're seeing a lack of graciousness
01:01:24
Toward one another where we're seeing a lack of just delighting in grace Of just drinking and wanting more to drink of God's grace in Christ where we're not freely stewarding and imparting
01:01:35
We should have some major red flags May the God of all grace
01:01:43
Who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you've suffered a little while perfect Establish strengthen settle you that's what we need as a church, isn't it as a fellowship.
01:01:54
We need to be perfected We need to be established. We need to be strengthened We need to be settled settled into that perfect rest
01:02:05
And it's not for nothing that Peter connects this to grace It's not just God who perfects and establish and strengthens and settles and sort of some abstract way it's the
01:02:15
God of all grace and It's grace that perfects. It's his grace that establishes.
01:02:22
It's his grace that strengthens. It's his grace that settles And so I close here
01:02:30
You know what the final word of the scriptures is It's interesting, isn't it?
01:02:37
The final word the final sentence the final thoughts of God's inspired word is this the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
01:02:53
Amen Let's pray Father who are we?
01:03:05
to magnify The grace that we've received from you Lord. We feel so holy unworthy
01:03:13
For Lord, we don't even understand its heights or its depths and Even if we had sinless minds with no shades of ignorance
01:03:24
Lord we could never climb the summits of That grace nor could we plumb the depths of it
01:03:31
Lord For your grace is the outflow of your love and your love
01:03:40
Is who you are you are love And you have loved us in Christ and you have justified us in Christ and By faith we have access into this grace in which we're standing.
01:03:57
We praise you Lord. We magnify you What pitiful words we could express
01:04:02
Lord none do justice and yet? Because we're standing in this grace you receive them and you delight in them
01:04:08
Lord you delight in paltry worship You delight in inconsistent praise you delight in in the worship of of ignorance
01:04:15
Lord an Inconsistency all because by grace we're standing. It's the grace that we've received from you
01:04:22
Lord It's the father loving the prodigal not because of what the prodigal had done or had not done had put off Or had put on but simply your love
01:04:33
Put upon him Thank you Lord that you've loved us in this way.
01:04:38
Thank you for your grace. May we not be like the Galatians? May we not be those who would lay aside the grace of God to somehow receive it in vain
01:04:47
May that never be may this fellowship made this church made this pulpit always be that which magnifies the grace of God in Christ Knowing that the only hope the only power
01:04:59
Rests in that grace Lord. Thank you. You freed us from the curse of the law The yoke the demand
01:05:07
Lord that we could never meet you fulfilled that for us And now it's our rule of life
01:05:12
Let us not take that gracious rule of life and turn it into a new covenant of works Into a new way of legality or merit
01:05:19
God forbid Lord keep that fleshly instinct that day May Satan not well it up within us
01:05:25
May we not with shaky trembling hands and consciences try to try to sanctify ourselves and then find assurance at the end
01:05:32
No, Lord May all of our assurance be at the foot of the cross Which your blood?
01:05:39
saturated May in the shadow of your sacrifice Lord We have all of the assurance of our salvation and in responding to that act of sacrificial love may that Sanctification flow willingly
01:05:52
Lord you said in the day of your power you'd make our hearts willing so do it Lord Give us that greater glimpse of our
01:05:59
Savior draws close to him that we would cleanse our hands Purify our hearts draw near to him that he would draw near to us.
01:06:08
Thank you Lord That you resist the proud but you give grace to the humble that's humble people.