The Jouney Continues

SERMON: 2014-02-09--ac14120--the-jouney-continues-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:44:11.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire provided material consists of continuous theological exposition and pastoral application (discussing the Law vs. Grace), which constitutes the main body of the sermon. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We've been looking together at the question, why the Jewish religious leaders were so adamantly opposed to the Apostle Paul and to his message of grace. We've already seen that he was kicked out of Antioch. He was kicked out of Iconium, and pretty soon as the chapter goes on, we'll see that he was kicked out of the next place, Lystra, where he was actually stoned and left for death, for dead. So the question is, why this antipathy, why this hatred towards the Apostle Paul? And last week we identified the primary reason as being that they misunderstood, these religious leaders did, and they misapplied the law of Moses. They believed that if they just did their best to be good before God, then God would consider that good enough and would consider them righteous. And the Apostle Paul comes along, of course, and he makes the observation that by the keeping, by observing the law, no man is justified but only by faith in Christ Jesus. By observing the law, he says, no one will be justified. And so that attacked the very core of their issues and their heart. And so in anger, they did what almost all rejected people do. They give way to Satan's power, and they become highly destructive. And so throughout the rest of the book of Acts, you have these religious leaders pursuing the Apostle Paul from place to place to place, always trying in every which way they can to bring an end to his life and to his ministry. That's where we pick up the story this morning, because as I pointed out last week, while grace and law are actually miles apart in that they operate on an entirely different basis, superficially they look to be this close together. And here's one of the ironies of this whole process. As I pointed out last week, there are three ways, really, in which human beings try to regain paradise lost or to get back to a place of joy and happiness. One way is the way of the irreligious. The irreligious say, there is no God. We can do it on our own. We can swim the distance no matter how far the distance is. The second way is the way of grace. That is the way through faith in Christ that we've talked about. And the third way is the way of the law, or as we'll talk about a little bit later on, the way of religious people. And religious people are those who think that by virtue of trying harder, they can make themselves acceptable before God. Let's put that slide back up again for a moment, because here is the irony that I want us to understand. And I touched on this just briefly last week, but I want to review it. The way of the irreligious and the way of the religious look initially like their mouths apart. The irreligious have nothing to do with God. The religious or the law keepers are highly intent on trying to please God. So superficially, it looks like they have nothing in common. But in actual fact, they both operate out of the same underlying principle, which is that we can do it in our own strength, and so they're actually this close together. But here's the other irony. The way of grace and the way of the law keeper or the religious looks like they're this close together, doesn't it? Because they're both interested in serving God. They're both interested in doing what's right. And if you place one beside the other and superficially look at how they conduct their lives, they would not look to be much different. But in actual fact, they're miles apart because the foundation out of which they operate is entirely different because the one operates out of law keeping, I can do it myself. The other operates out of faith, I can only do it through union with Jesus. And so because they are this close together, when Christians backslide, when they lose the way of grace, as I pointed out in passing last week, they don't necessarily slide back into a whole life of sin, though that of course may also happen. But more likely than not, particularly if they have been brought up in a religious way, they slide back into keeping the law. That's Paul's argument to the Galatians. And remember, Icodium, if you looked at the map, is located in the province of Galatia. So years later when he is writing to them, this is what he says to them, Galatians 3, the verses 1, 2, and 3, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" That is to say, who's pulled a magic trick on you? "Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive this spirit," now notice the difference here, "by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish, after beginning with the spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Let me say it again, why law and grace look like superficially so close together that you would be hard to distinguish between two people living on the one or the other, in actual practice, they're miles and miles apart. And it's for that purpose that I asked Nancy to repeat in your bulletin again the insert that was there last week. I want to ask you to take that out, I want to spend some time with you on it to try to nail down, as we prepare for the celebration of Communion this morning, in a very practical way. Am I living out of grace, am I living out of the gospel, or am I in subtle ways sliding back to living under the law? This insert comes from a book by Timothy Keller, Center Church, which is really a textbook that he uses for church planters. Timothy Keller is the senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. It's a church that has had a phenomenal and unusual success in reaching the liberal, educated elite of New York City. That's no small accomplishment, because they're able to do it without watering down the gospel. And as we look at this particular insert, which is part of the process that he describes, you will notice that the heading is a quick comparison of religion and the gospel. And then you see the two columns, gospel on the one side and religion on the other. Now let me talk about the term religion for a moment, I've already alluded to it, but it's used very differently in today's church world from the way that it is used in Scripture. Religion in Scripture is used to describe the whole process whereby we serve God, the routines, the disciplines, the practices, and those practices can be good or those practices can be bad. Listen, for example, to how James describes it. He says, "If anyone considers himself religious," there you have that word, "yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." But then he goes on to say, "Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." So the word religion is used in Scripture, it's used to describe this whole process of how we relate to God, how we serve to God, how we try to do His will. Religion can be good, it can be acceptable in the sight of God, it can also be worthless. The term itself is neutral. That's not how it's being used here and that is not how it's being used in much of the evangelical world when they talk about religion. They almost always talk about religion in negative terms, in terms of keeping the law as opposed to living by grace. Does that make sense? For example, Bruxy Cavey, you know, pastor at the Meeting House, wrote a book a number of years ago called The End of Religion, and what it means by that is not the end of relationship with God, not the end of serving God, but the end of serving God the way these religious leaders did, where you do it all outwardly but inwardly, your heart is far removed from God. You with me? That's an important distinction, it will become clearer as we touch on a number of the elements in this sheet. Clearly, we won't have time to deal with all of them this morning, but let me touch on a couple of them, and you look in your own heart to see where in those two columns you find yourself, and I think most of us will find ourselves bridging them, a little bit of the one, maybe a little bit of the other, and God's purpose for us is to live by grace through faith, because that's how we receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit then changes us from the inside out, as opposed to us working so hard to be good. So the first one reads like this, I obey, therefore I'm accepted, that's religion. Under gospel, I'm accepted, therefore I obey. Now notice right away the similarities between those two, but also the dissimilarity. The similarity is this, obedience counts in both fields. Under religion, obedience to the law is incredibly important. Under the gospel of grace, obedience is not any less important, and that's important to understand, because the charge against the gospel of grace is that it leads to loose living. If Jesus died for me, and I can go to him and have my sins forgiven, why not sin so that grace may abound? Isn't that true? Don't we all find ourselves by times and places where that's how we live, I can afford to do what's wrong, know what's wrong, because, well, God loves me and God will forgive me. There's an element of truth in that, but it's a far cry from what scripture teaches, because if we are joined by faith to Jesus, we're not only forgiven, but we have died with him, and we have been raised with him. His Holy Spirit lives within us, and his Holy Spirit within us wants to change us from the inside out. Here's how Paul puts it, Romans 6, 1 and 2, "To that question shall we sin so that grace may abound? What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" And then his favorite expression, "By no means," that's "meganoito" in Greek, he uses it a lot when he wants to make the point, "By no means we die to sin. How can we who live in it, how can we live in it any longer?" So there's obedience in both, but the reason for that obedience and the ground for that obedience is radically different, because under religion, I obey in order to be accepted. If I'm good enough, God will love me. Under the gospel, I am already accepted, and therefore my desire is to please God, not because it is a way for me to belong, I already belong, and therefore whether I obey or don't obey doesn't change the status of my relationship with God. There is new life inside me that wants to live God's way. Think of it this way. How does a child become part of your family or my family? There's only one of two ways. You either adopt a child and he becomes part of your family, or you have a naturally born child. In either case, they're part of your family, not because they're handsome, not because they're well-behaved, not because you like them, but because they are born into your family, you're stuck with them for good or for ill. That's what it is to be born into the family of God. Your children do not become your children because they're living up to all your expectation, in which case most of us would have very childless families, wouldn't we? Because how often aren't we disappointed in our offspring? They don't become our children more by being better, they don't become our children less by being worse, even though we might sometimes want to give them away. They belong to us because they're born into our family. When we come to Christ, put our faith in him, we're born into the family of God and I am accepted by God by virtue of my faith in Jesus, who is perfectly holy and perfectly righteous. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to stay the way that I am, that's a whole other subject, but I obey because I've been accepted and because I've been accepted, I can afford to be who God is calling me to be. All right, closely tied into that is the next one then, motivation is based on fear and insecurity in religion, but in the gospel, it is based on grateful joy. Now think this through with me for a moment if you will, because if my place is established under religion by doing it right, then what happens to my security? I'm always insecure, why? Because there is always the question, am I doing it right? Am I doing it well enough? Am I failing in some way? Am I good enough to call myself a Christian? You show me anybody who asks the question, am I a Christian because I have doubts about the way that I'm living, then I will show you a person who has not yet learned to understand the nature of grace, that person is still living under the law. On the other hand, if I know that I'm accepted, then even when I mess up, I know that I can repent, I know that I can be forgiven, God still loves me and I'm still one of his children. In the Bible, this is called the difference between a spirit of slavery or a spirit of sonship. The Apostle Paul writing again to the Galatians puts it this way, 4, 6, and 7, because you are sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, "Abba father, you are no longer a slave but a son, and since you are a son, God has also made you an heir." In Christ, God gives me a spirit of sonship and his spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God, so there is security that comes out of that relationship. A slave is only worth something to his master as long as he can deliver. When he gets old or decrepit or sick and can no longer pull his weight, he's no better than a farm animal who goes to the auction block because he has served his usefulness in the master. So he always lives in this insecurity of, "Am I good enough? Am I doing enough in order to belong? When I'm in Christ, I know that I belong and that nothing but nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, my Lord." Do you understand the difference? It's huge in terms of practical living, and again, show me a person who has questions or who lacks assurance of salvation, and I'll show you a person who either doesn't understand the gospel or hasn't truly come to faith in Christ and is therefore still in very subtle ways leaning on his or her own performance. Let me say it again. By works of the law, no man, no woman will be justified before God. In fact, the harder you try, the further you get behind because God himself fights you. All right. Let's see one or two more that we deal with. We'll skip over a couple here, maybe, if I can find out where we are, because that's a little tricky. Let's go back to this one. Let's put it up. Moving down to what's number four on your list there, "Religion, when circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or myself since I believe, like Job's friends, that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life. The gospel, when circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle, but I know that while God may allow this for my training, he will exercise his fatherly love within my triumph." I knew a man, quite a number of years ago now, and some of you know this story, who for 25 years steadfastly refused to participate in communion. The reason he steadfastly refused to participate in communion was because he was disappointed and angry with God. The reason he was disappointed and angry with God was because in the prime of his life, he experienced a number of debilitating strokes that not only cost him his health, but that eventually cost him his career. Because he was a man who had been on the forefront of serving God as an elder and in other leadership positions in his church, he felt extremely disappointed in God and very put off by the way that he felt God was treating him. Now, I ask you the question, what does that show? Well, as his reaction was, what it shows is that in a fundamental fashion, he is living under law and not under grace, because he is still thinking that God rewards those who do it right, even while he punishes those who do not do it right. And while that is very understandable, and while many of us will feel that way when we're disappointed in God, it illustrates that underneath there is a failure to appreciate the nature of grace. Because the nature of grace means that God can bless you in whichever way that he wants to. And though trouble was not a desirable thing in his life, it was still part of God's fatherly hand in bringing him into conformity with the image of Christ. And in Christ, God gives us the grace to understand that, to embrace it, and eventually that man came to a point where sitting in a service one Sunday morning, communion plates came around and he partook of communion for the first time in 25 years. And when later he told me this story, he had tears running down his face, saying that he couldn't believe how stubborn that he had been for so long in standing against the goodness of God. See, that's grace, being able to embrace the hand of God. Not only when things are going right, but even when things are difficult and painful. But it takes an understanding of grace to appreciate the reality of this, because grace is offensive to those who try the hardest. We understand that, do we not? If you're working so hard at being good, and God blesses somebody who is not being good as much or more than you, that doesn't seem very fair, does it? And to drive that point home, you might recall there's a parable that Jesus told his disciples. And that parable was about a man who needed workers in his vineyard or on his farm, and he goes to the local unemployment office and he hires people at different times of the day and he offers them a denarius, which would be a day's wage. And so he hires people at nine o'clock in the morning or at six o'clock in the morning, and at noon, and all the way through the day, the last group that he hires, he hires at the eleventh hour. So some people work all day in the hot sun. Some people only work an hour when the sun has already gone down. And so at the end of the day, they all come to, you know, his accountant in order to receive the wage, and the master says, "Pay everybody the same," beginning with the last one. You know the story, right? Well, do you recall the reaction? How would you feel if you'd been there at six o'clock in the morning? I mean, really now. How would you feel if you were there six o'clock in the morning and you sweat your whatever all day long, right? And you get paid no more than the guy who showed up for the last hour? Would you be a little bent out of shape? I think I would be a tad bent out of shape. To the degree to which you and I would be bent out of shape, to that degree, we do not understand the nature of grace. Because what did Jesus say to the folks when they came to him and they complained? Well, here's what he said, "I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" God can do whatever he wants to do. He will always treat us fairly, but that is his decision and not ours. All right, we'll do one more and then we'll wind this up and get ready for communion. The next one down, number five on that list, reads as follows. What I'm criticized, I am furious or devastated because it is essential for me to think of myself as a good person. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs. In the other column, what I'm criticized, I struggle, but it is not essential for me to think of myself as a good person, my identity is not built on my performance, but on God's love for me in Christ. I don't know how many of you have had a chance ever to read my book, Olive Shoots Around Your Table, but if you have, you'll notice that I have a chapter in there that deals with the subject of self-esteem. And self-esteem is how people feel about themselves and how people feel about themselves has a lot to do with how well they can exercise criticism. And I introduced the chapter with the observation that how people view themselves has very little to do with what, in fact, they bring to the table. The tendency for us to think is for us to think that if you're smart, if you're good, if you're intelligent, if you are, you know, well-to-do or whatever else, then you feel good about yourself. And if you lack those attributes, if you're not good-looking, if you're not fashionable, if you're not successful, if you're not rich, if you're not talented, then you feel not so good about yourself. The reality is that how people feel about themselves has practically nothing to do with what they bring to the table. Did you know that? Some of the most successful, beautiful, famous people are the most neurotically insecure people that you will ever find, and some very ordinary, very plain, just run-of-the-mill kind of people are comfortable in their own skin, and they have a measure of self-esteem that is lacking by those who are, in fact, most successful. Do you know why that is? Because your self-esteem isn't conditioned by those kind of factors in the way that we think. And, you know, we don't have a lot of time, but let me talk about this for just a moment. Self-esteem is the result of three overlapping factors that look like this. The black in the middle is the measure of a person's self-esteem. This is how you feel about yourself. Notice, there are three factors that go into that. The first factor is belonging or a sense of security. That means I'm going to be looked after, provided for, I matter to someone. The second one is worth or a sense of value. I am valued for who I am, not just for what I do. And the third one is competence or a sense of achievement. I have a contribution to make, therefore, there are some things I am good at. When all three of those are operative in my life, I have a good sense of identity. I know who I am, and I'm comfortable in my skin. Now, typically, the foundations for this are laid in my growing up years. And if I have parents who love me unconditionally, if I have parents who see worth in me, who don't shame me, but affirm me for who I am, and if I have parents who can bring out my gifting, set me free on the road towards my gifting, then the chances are that I'll actually grow up fairly well adjusted. But we live in a fallen world. Not all parenting is perfect, and not all children respond perfectly, even to the kind of parenting that they receive. And so, to the degree to which I don't feel loved, to the degree to which I don't feel accepted, and to the degree that I feel like I have nothing to bring to the table, to that degree I am set adrift. And now my life is determined by everybody else around me. See, poverty is no issue until my neighbor is richer than I am. Education is no issue until you have a better education than I do. The house that I live in doesn't matter. It can be a hovel as long as everybody around me lives in a hovel. But the minute your house is better than my house, it begins to uncover my insecurity. And so this is where being in Christ makes such a huge difference. Because if I'm in Christ, if we can put that chart back up, if I'm in Christ, then I have a sense of security because God is my Father. This is the God of the universe. This is the God who made heaven and earth. And He has said, "You're in the palm of my hand. Nobody can pluck you out of my hand." Talk about security. He's bigger than everything that could ever come at me. Not only that, but if I'm in Christ, then I have worth. I have a sense of value because He loved me enough to die on the cross. Even if I had been the only sinner in all of the universe, He would have died for me because I matter. I'm not just junk. I'm not just born on the wrong side of the tracks. I matter because I'm a child of the King. And in Christ, I have a sense of competence, I have a sense of achievement because He lives in me by His Holy Spirit. He has a destiny for me, He has a purpose for me, and He has promised to guide me into that destiny and into that purpose. And for that reason, people who are truly born again, who are truly growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, are some of your most well-adjusted people in the world. Did you know that? Because they are rooted and grounded in God's love. They know who they are, they know what their gifts are, they know what their abilities are, they can afford to invest themselves in the lives of other people. In other words, they can not only love God, but they can love their neighbor. And they are people whose lives bear fruit because they're grafted into Jesus, who as the Son of God gave Himself to enable us to be the children of God. There's lots more that I want to say about that, but let's just move on in the slides to this slide, if we can find it here. Three ways, just to bring this full circle now. Three ways, three ways that we've talked about toward paradise regained. Three ways to get back to God. The way of the irreligious. The irreligious is the swimmer in the middle of the ocean who says, "I know the shore is a long ways away, but if I work at it real hard, I can get there. I don't need God, I don't need anybody else, I can do it on my own." If that describes you this morning, and maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. You need to know that no matter how strong you are, or how good a swimmer you are, you're going to drown before you get to shore. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. A second way is the way of grace. And the way of grace says the distance is too big, it doesn't matter if I can swim ten feet or fifty feet or a hundred feet or ten miles. It's a thousand miles to shore, I need to get in the boat. And if that describes you this morning, then God's invitation is for you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What does following God look like in response to his incredible gift of grace? He's given you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit inside you wants to know God better, wants to serve God better, wants to obey God better. And then there is the way of religion, the way of the law, and the religious person says I know the shore is a long ways away. But you know I'm a pretty good swimmer, and not only that, my coach has taught me how to swim. I know how to do the stroke just perfectly. I know how to pace myself just perfectly. And if I work at it hard enough, I'll get to the shore. And God says no you won't. God says by works of the law, nobody will be justified. And the invitation of Jesus is this, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The yoke there, and let me end with this, is the yoke representing the teaching of your Rabbi. And when two disciples of different rabbis would meet each other on the road, the conversation would go like this. What is your Rabbi's yoke? And by that they would mean what particular practices has your Rabbi placed on your shoulders so that you can live a good and a godly life. And so one Rabbi's yoke might be, well, you get up every morning at six o'clock and spend three hours in prayer, and that will help you on your journey. Another Rabbi's yoke might be, well, you know, sell everything that you have and give it to your poor neighbor. It could be any number of things. And Jesus at one point says to his disciples concerning the religious leaders, "They put a yoke on your shoulder which is too heavy to bear. They don't even carry it themselves." That's the nature of religious disciplines outside of grace. But he says, "Come to me because my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Why? Because he took our place. And then he gives us his Holy Spirit. And his Holy Spirit living in us changes us from the inside out so that from the inside out we have an increased desire to know God, to worship him, to obey him, and to honor him. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:44:06.560; remove through 00:44:11.000] And that's what makes a Christian a Christian. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:44:11.000; resume after this marked segment]