You In Christ and Christ In You
Mike Doyle · Jun 28, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 26
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926137277941

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are, in Lesson 19, we're studying the subject of grace, which we've been studying for several weeks and will continue to study for several weeks to come. And in the verses that I asked you to read this week, the following questions were taken out of those verses. Question 1. When the Word tells us that we are under grace and not under law, what does it mean to be under either principle? If you don't understand the question, you're free to tell me so. Maybe I put it another way.

Do you think as a human being that every human being is under some sort of principle? Everybody think that? How many think that now you're a free agent, nobody can tell you what to do? Nothing and nobody has control over it. The Word of God teaches specifically that we are always under the dominion of some principle or power. Isn't that right? I don't care what the Constitution tells you. You're either under sin or you're under grace. The Greek word for under here tells us that we are in an inferior position to the power that is over us.

Human beings are never over the power of behavior, they are only under the power of a ruling principle. Every single human being born on this planet is born an atom and they are under the power of the sin nature. Now the sin nature tells them that they are free, while it totally controls them.

It can, or you can be, like if you were a Jew or a religious person, you can be under the principle of law, under it. You're not over the principle of law, you're under it. You're under the principle of the sin nature, you're under the principle of death, or you're under the principle of grace and faith.

And the way that, the one argument that that takes away all discussion in terms of whether you're under a principle or not is the fact that every human being dies. How come they die? Just because they get old? Why do you die? Because you're under the principle of sin. The soul that sins it will surely die. You die because you're under the principle of sin.

So, Romans 5.21 says that as sin has reigned unto death, sin reigns in the world unto death. Nobody escapes it. Nobody.

Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Now, I think we Americans have a tough time understanding what reigning means, because we're a country of constitutional liberties. We have the right to pursue whatever, happiness, that kind of thing. So we think that we are the causers and the generators. But it's interesting, the Word of God says that sin reigns unto death. and it says that grace might reign through righteousness.

Now do you ever think of grace being a reigning principle? Most people think of grace as like a commodity. It's super unleaded. You need to pull into the religious gas station that you belong to and ask God to give you a fill up of whatever grace you need for today. We don't think of it as a reigning principle. That it is a principle that will totally control the behavior of a believer. Totally control it.

Grace is a principle, it's not a commodity. When I grew up in Catholicism it was always presented as a commodity and they had different kinds. Sanctifying grace, saving grace, they divided it up into categories in that you solicited God for whatever kind of grace you needed.

There's no teaching that teaches Romans 5.21 that grace is a reigning principle, a ruling principle. And oh, by the way, if grace rules over you, you're really free.

Any discussion there? Alright, question two. Does being under a grace system or a grace principle mean that we can do as we think is best in our own minds? cowards. Can we? No. We can't. Did you say we can? Is the answer yes or no? No. How many think well maybe you could? You couldn't do what's best in your own mind. Don't you know that Old Testament principle? I think it's in maybe Genesis 6, I'm not sure. But it's a little phrase that when you read it you think, what's the big deal? That every man did in his own heart what he thought was right. And God condemned a man for doing that. Isn't that something? So, I would say two things are here.

One is that when we come under grace, when we're born again, we don't know anything about it. There is nothing under the reigning principle of sin and death that would teach us about grace. When we're saved, we enter into this realm of grace, we are totally ignorant about what it is, so we must be taught. We have to learn it. Especially if we come from a heritage that's evil only, into Christ, we don't know what grace is, because we're always working on anger.

Genesis 6.5 says, talking about the evil of man, Genesis 6.5 says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. What an indictment. That every thought and imagination of man's heart was only evil on Wednesdays. No, continually. Continually.

Romans 2.11 And there is no respecter of persons with God.

For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law. And as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. So it's not the hearers of the law that are just before God, but the doers of the law that shall be justified. How many people in this room can keep the law? No? Nobody? Oh, darn.

For we Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law. These not having the law are the law unto themselves. What's interesting about these verses in Romans, you can say that, well, you know, I'm not a Jew and I'm not under the law system, how can God judge me? Right? I don't have any principles to break. So what do we do? We make up our own set of rules, right? And we have this little black box behind our ear here called a conscience, and that's our own set of rules. And so God says, OK, you've got your own rules, how about I judge you based on your rules? Guess what? Nobody makes it. You can't make them lax enough. You can't make them lax enough. So, the thought being that there are definite commands in the Word of God. that tell us as believers what to do in certain circumstances. So we don't have any doubts about some directions to go in.

Some do's and some don'ts. Some commands are positive, some are negative. Right? In the Bible. I'll mention one in a minute. There are specific commands that under grace we are to obey. Right? Specific commands. Here's one of them. Don't lie to one another. Okay? Specific command. As believers, don't lie to one another.

But here's a really fun one. Rejoice always. That's a command. How are you doing with that one? It's hard. Well, God says, okay, it's hard, then I'll let you go. No. It's a specific command to rejoice always. Now, how's that possible? God doesn't grade on a curve. How is that possible? It is impossible out of the flesh.

The other one that I really like is the command to husbands. Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. I look at God and say no way. Not happening. I can't do that out of myself. Wives submit yourself to your husband.

Who did that slug? Are you kidding me? You know? Children obey your parents. I mean you go down or to love one another as Christ loved the church Give me a break. How do you do that? But that's a specific commands in Paul's epistles in the New Testament to the believer right, so You give me five commands in the New Testament I want you to tell me give me five if you did your homework you'll have them I've given you some first John 5 21 and Okay?

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Little children, keep yourself from idols. Okay? Steal a lot. Steal a lot. Don't steal. Don't covet. Don't covet. Okay? How about Romans 12, 12? Rejoice in hope. Give me another one. Galatians 6, 10. Do good to all.

Ephesians 4.1, live in a manner worthy of the call you have received. How about that one? If you don't know the manner of the call that you have received, how do you live in it? You don't. How about this one? Put on the new self. Created according to God's way in righteousness, holiness and truth. That's a command. Put it on. Or here's a nice one, be filled with the Spirit. Those are commands.

Specific commands under grace. What's the definition of grace? God's a merited and unlimited blessing based on the totally adequate work of Christ. So he gives me a command under the heading of grace like be filled with the Spirit. What does he mean? How do I do that? Don't you have to go to God and say how does this work?

So, now, if you catalog all the commands in the New Testament, from Romans to Jude, and you sat down and you made a list, and there was a fellow that was here five or six years ago, and I should have brought a copy of it, called the Refrigerator List.

It's about 25, 26 pages of commands in the New Testament. Would they be enough instruction for living under a grace principle? In other words, if we went through the New Testament, starting with Romans 1-1, all the way through Jude, and we wrote down all the commands, or what Verne would call logical imperatives, and we wrote them down and put them on the refrigerator, would they cover every situation for the Christian to live in his life? Because if you were a Jew, living 3,000 years ago, the Mosaic Law covered every circumstance that you would come up against. Everyone, whether it be religious, whether it be moral, how you did your business, how you conducted your family, everything was covered. 625 laws, or however many there are. How about the commands under grace in the New Testament from Romans to Jude? Is there enough commands there for us to live as believers under grace?

How many think yes? How many think no? How many don't think? What do you think? Do you think there's enough there? We can't even keep one. What's that? We can't even keep one. I mean, it's difficult. Yeah, so why does God bother? He commands us, right? So, somebody said no, some of you mumbled, just to make sure you're right when I give you the right answer. If God wanted to live under grace, wouldn't he give us enough instruction? Does He give us enough instruction if He wants us to live under grace? Are instructions and commands the same thing? The answer is no, they are not. There are not enough commands in the New Testament for the believer to live under grace. Oh no, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? If I haven't got my rule book with me that tells me what to do, how am I going to function in a given circumstance?

How about, what if I'm trying to decide whether I'm going to go to the Bronco game or not? Is that covered? How about, boy, you know, my brother-in-law's got this terrific vineyard in California and he's got this $60 a bottle of wine, should I drink one of those glasses? He'd be real offended if I didn't.

But isn't the concept, it's not the commands, it's the principle. There you go. And he gives us enough in the New Testament to learn the principle of grace because You know, it's there. And if you learn the principle, then it applies to everything. I understand.

Principle. Can you define what a principle is? It's a fundamental rule or law which always works the same way. A fundamental rule or law that always works the same way. If I do this, now watch real careful. What principle is that? How come the keys never go up? because it functions and operates the same way every time. Do you think principle is a way to look at spiritual things? You think there are spiritual principles that function and operate the same way every time?

Yes, there are. So we live under grace principle that functions and operates every time the same way. So if you learn the principles, guess what? You'll live the life. Okay? Now, there are specific commands, but there are more principles. So let's talk a little bit about issues that come up. Are there any issues that come up in the experience of a believer that there are no specific commands?

Name one. I just named a couple. What else? Give me another one. Should I drink a glass of wine? What else? Come on, you guys have never faced with this kind of thing? I'm faced with it all the time. If your employer asks you to do something that you know is not correct, will you do it? Sure. Give me another one.

If you treat somebody like, let's say you work at a game, how do you treat them? What a great example in our society today. How do you deal with, if your boss says, now look, we're going to have, what do they call it? Everybody gets in a room and we're going to be educated about how we're supposed to deal with this.

Correctness or whatever. Yeah, how do you deal with political correctness? Especially if you don't agree with it. What if you find yourself in a job situation where you get slid into several people who are gay and the gay mentality dominates the environment you're in, what are you going to do? Maybe, maybe, I don't know. What determines what you do? Principles. See? So it's important that we learn the principles, right? If the Lord Jesus found himself in the middle of a bunch of gays, would he quit? But he might walk away from it. He walked away from some people.

How about if, gee, I became a Christian and I love chewing tobacco. I don't want to quit. Or I smoke. Or my Christian friend smokes. What about that? Should I tell him or I smoke? What do I do about that? Because all of my friends are telling me that if I was really a Christian, you wouldn't be smoking. And my answer is, what comes out of a man defiles him, not what goes into him. And they say, well, you inhale and then you exhale. How about, I'm not supposed to eat fish on Friday. I am supposed to eat fish on Friday.

Or, what's that? Man's rules. How about, I'm supposed to go 25 miles an hour down the street. What about that? Sure. How about reading contemporary novels? There's a nice one. Here we go, a couple, there they are. How about reading contemporary, how about Harry Potter? Isn't that saucery? Is it okay to read Harry Potter?

Might be okay for you, might not be okay for you. It's relative. Don't you find it interesting that a lot of these things I'm mentioning, it might be okay for one person to do them, and the believer sitting next to him, it's not okay. Here's the best example. It might be perfectly fine for me to drink a glass of wine, but the guy sitting next to me is an alcoholic. Do you think he can drink a glass of wine? No way. No way.

I think what the chat covers on this is the area of liberty. In a Christian life we have areas of liberty that may not function for the next believer. That's right. I think the principle is if you offend the other believer then you abstain. Yeah, we're going to talk about offending because offending is a very interesting issue. Do I have the right to offend somebody? Or do I have the right to cause them to stumble? No. No. Can I offend them? Yeah. How about this?

Let's say you're a Muslim. The Sunni Islamic law allows husbands to divorce their wives by just saying the word Allah, which means I divorce you. But he's got to say it three times. In 2003, a Malaysian court ruled that under Sharia law, a man may divorce his wife via text messaging as long as the message was clear and unequivocal. OK, so interesting law system that we live under.

You can or can't do things based on the system that you live under. Yeah, but he got to do it three times and it better be clear and equivocal. How clear does it get that I divorce you? Okay, if you answered question four, no, what was question four? If we catalog all the commands in the New Testament from Romans to Jude, would there be enough instruction for living under the grace principle? If we answered that question, no, and you answered question five, yes, Are there issues that come up in the experience of the believers that are not specific commands? Yes.

Then, what did God do to give us instructions on how we should live? He gave us principles instead of laws. He gave us principles. People say to me all the time, one of my favorite books, maybe my favorite book is Myles Stanford's Green Letters, well the subtitle of that is The Principles of Spiritual Growth. That book brings out the principles of spiritual growth, how it's done.

So, in 7 we already talked about what a principle is. Webster's Dictionary defines it as a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption. a rule or a code of conduct, the laws or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device, an underlying faculty or endowment, an ingredient as a chemical that exhibits or imparts a characteristic quality. So a principle is always the way a thing operates. If you put a mento into a Diet Coke can, what happens? It bubbles over. It does it every time. Every single time.

So how does a believer determine if a behavior is okay for him? I've already given you the first one. How do you determine? How do you determine if a behavior is okay for you? I think that 1 Corinthians 6.12 says it.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought into power. So if I'm to determine my behavior, I've got to base it on biblical principles, right? That's where I go. So I study the Word of God if I'm not sure about whether I ought to do something or not. I study the Word of God to find... I'm not looking for specific commands. I'm not looking for First Californians that tells me not to surfboard. I'm looking for a principle, and the principles are there.

So, don't you find it interesting that your behavior rests on your individual judgment? How about them apples? Boy, do you really get to make the decision? Yeah, you do. Your principles, your behavior rests on your individual judgment. And that's why I can say something may be okay for me to do that is not okay for you to do. And as we work into the principles, you'll see what I mean. Do you understand what I'm saying? We have incredible liberty under grace to make individual judgments about our own behavior. And I emphasize our own. I can do things that you can't do. You can do things that I can't do. I can't go there. Example. If we have freedom outside the specific commands in the word.

Let's say it's dark some night, and to use this as an example, you're in the second story, and you have to jump out of the window because there's a fire in the building. Would you just jump or would you sort of contemplate the circumstances? Would you think about it? Let's see, I'm in the second story. That's one of the circumstances. How high? How many feet? Should I go head first or feet first? In other words, I review my options and I make a decision based on my options. Should I, if I'm allowed to have a glass of wine and I'm free to do that, should I get in my car and drive it after that? Well, I ought to think about that. Or should I have somebody drive me home?

You know, some people can drink half a bottle of wine and it doesn't affect them. Some people have two sips and they're going to the emergency room, you know. Give me some circumstances where you have to sit down and you have to make a decision about whether you're going to go there or not. Or whether you're going to do that or not. Give me an example. Any example.

Well, I hate to bring up the gays, but I mean half of my workforce are gay people. And depending on how you treat them. I mean, you can treat them with love and compassion. and just show Christ's love through you without agreeing with their lifestyle. I think you can be more of a testimony that way instead of being very judgmental.

Sure, sure. In our society that's a really, really good example. A really good example. How about the discrimination in our society? What if you wake up one morning and say, you know, I just hate those Hungarians. You know, they're just not, they're second class people. What do you do about that? How do you find out how you're supposed to treat those Hungarians?

In the Bible, you know, the principles are there. So, and Steve sort of led into the very first principle, and the very first principle I think that's important for us to understand is 1 Corinthians 6.12.

Paul says, all things, the areas in where Paul doesn't have specific commands, are lawful for me. Wow, that's a lot of freedom, isn't it? But not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. So the very first principle we need to be aware of is does it control me or master me?

The example I've used a hundred times is this. When I was a young believer I was saved through young life and the guys that led me to Christ were involved in young life so I was going to young life Bible studies and every Christian I knew was somehow involved in young life. And I got to know the guys that were on the staff and ran the camps and that stuff. And every year they had a golf tournament to raise money.

So I went to my first golf tournament and I get there a little early. That's my phone, it shouldn't be doing that. I get there a little early and if anybody played golf, you go a little early and go hit some practice balls to kind of warm up, see how your game's going to be. So I go down to the practice range and the guy, I pull into a spot and I hit a few balls and the guy next to me is one of the leaders of Young Life.

And I notice when he hits the ball, boy, he is creaming it and he goes way out there straight. So I make a comment to this guy, I said, man, you really can hit the ball. He said, golf is my thing. And I said to him, I thought the Lord was your thing. And he looked at me, but you could tell, Goff controlled this guy. Goff controlled him. That was his thing. He was out there practicing every day.

We went down Wednesday to do some cooking at Camp Elon, which is, by the way, if you haven't done it yet, you ought to do it. It's really fun. And I know a guy that lives down there. I have never met him face to face until Wednesday, and he's a fireman. And he's probably, how old would you say he is? Fifty something? And this guy is in incredible physical shape.

He says to me, he said, yeah, I have this issue. He said, I have been in the national firefighters competition every year. I've won it three times. He said, the Lord has convicted me that I can't do it anymore because it controls me. Well, what's wrong with being in the firefighters competition? unless it controls you. He said, I give every waking minute to working and being in shape and doing all of that kind of thing. It controls me.

Why is mastering you such a big issue when it comes to living under grace? Well, you put your emphasis not on God, but on who's mastering you. Who's your master? the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only master that we have. So nothing else should master us.

It can be a thousand things. You can be really good at your job. Certain things that people like to do that sort of become compulsions with them. It masters them. Everything they do, they think about. They relate everything in their life to that issue. And everything takes a second place to whatever that issue is. Earning money. You know, I don't know. I hate to mention, I'll mention the guy's name and you'll know exactly what I mean. You ready for the name? Michael Jackson.

Did something other than Christ control that guy? Absolutely. So the first principle is, does it control me? Is it of such an issue that it masters me? Okay? Now I don't, you know, we're not going to, I'm not going to ask you to tell me if you have anything in your life that masters you, but I think all of us at one time or another had something that we had to sort of give up, that it controlled us. We didn't control it. And what's interesting is that when you go back and you think about, well, you know, I really have the freedom to do most anything outside of the commands of the New Testament, but does it control me? It sort of puts the brakes on some things that we're thinking about. No, I don't want to chase up that, sorry.

Do we need to have restrictions placed upon our believer's behavior? What do you think? You know what I mean by restrictions? Laws? Do I need those? How many Christians have said to you, boy we need the laws that are kind of like the Burma shave signs? They kind of give us mile markers of how we're doing in our Christian life and if we didn't have the law to tell us to do something or not to do something, we wouldn't know where we are.

Is that a legitimate argument? Under grace? Absolutely not. So, now when we start talking about specific behavior under grace, It sounds like I can do whatever I please or it is kind of a chaotic sort of self enterprise where I can just go and do whatever. How about the contemporary society bromide that says I can do anything I want as long as it doesn't affect you. I can sin any way I feel like it as long as it doesn't harm you. Isn't that the way society is today? I'm okay, it didn't affect, it didn't hurt anybody. Can I live like that? Because what I do may control me, and from a biblical standpoint, I already have a master.

So the point that I'm trying to make is outside the specific commands of the word, we only have principles. So how important is it to learn the principles? Right? What's the tendency though? to look for a law and not to study the principle. Right. I mean, I have people come to me and say, is it OK if I do? And I say, well, I don't know. What are the principles? What do you mean by that?

Well, Here we go in the education process in terms of you can make a decision about whether it's okay for you to go dancing on Saturday night based on the principle. You're not going to find a law anywhere in the New Testament that says don't dance on Saturday. Or you can't chew gum in church. Or you better iron your shirt before you come to church. So kind of thinks that same scripture was given a minute ago.

All things are free. All things are not expedient. The lack of expediency is a pretty good illustration of what that says. So what's interesting is that if Christ is our master, and that if means since he is our master, and we operate, and he operates on the principle of grace, we don't need anything outside of him to tell us or cause us to behave.

The law system that was placed on Israel was outside of them. Romans 5 says that the law came in alongside. It wasn't intrinsic in the system. It came in alongside of a man. And by the way, when the law came in alongside of a man, what did it cause the man to do?

Sin no more. I wonder if we get over that idea that law is going to keep me from sinning and really adopt the biblical principle that law is like trying to put a fire out with gasoline. It does not cause you to stop sinning, it causes you to sin more.

Where grace Romans 6.14 says that sin won't have dominion over me. Why? Because I'm not under law, I'm under grace. The whole reason for the grace principle is to get us to stop sinning. That's the whole reason for it. And law did the very opposite. It caused us to sin more.

Now, how should I deal with a fellow believer or non-believer who doesn't have any principles. Here's my buddy, here's my workmate, here's somebody in my office or somebody on the job with me or somebody I deal with on a daily basis and they don't have any principles. What am I going to do? How do I deal with that? I got principles, they don't. I'm going to impose my principles on them, right? Well, be an example. You can be an example. You can be a silent example. Well, I suppose you could talk to them. Let's say that here I am.

I'm one of those people that thinks, you know, the Lord has not made it free for me to smoke. I can't smoke. It just doesn't make any sense. Or I can't drink any kind of alcohol. But, you know, I've become friends with with Gary here, and I know that Gary every once in a while is just sneaking a Budweiser. Or he's just openly drinking a Budweiser. And I don't think he should, because I don't.

How do I deal with him? It's not a question of him, it's a question of you. That's right. It's not a question of him, it's a question of me. Can I say anything to him about that Budweiser? No, I can't. What if he asks you? Huh? What if he asks you? If he asks me, that's different. And then when he asks me, what can I say? Can I give him a set of rules to live by?

No. We got to dump the bug? No. You can only point him to the word and to the principle. That's exactly right. I can say, well, you know, I don't drink. And here's the reason why I don't. That's as far as I can go. What he does in his his life and his decision and what he does. I can't give him a set of rules so that he can act as carnally as he wants. I have no business to tell him how to act or how not to act.

See that? You sure I'm right about that? Yeah, I think I am. We must recognize that if we try and apply our principles to another believer, what do we do? If I try to apply my principles to Gary, what have I done? I've sinned. What gives me the right, under grace, to impose my principles on Gary?

Nothing. Not a thing. Oh, but I'm an elder, I can get by with it. No, I can't. If I try to impose my principles on any other believer, I sin. Why? Because I'm trying to make my principles his master. But how about like Steele? That's a great example. What if Gary is I can certainly go to him and say, Gary, in the Word of God it says you're not supposed to steal. Can I do that? Sure I can.

The Word of God says, Gary, don't steal. Is it okay for me to walk up to him and say, Gary, in the Bible it says you're to love your wife as Christ loved the church, and you're not doing a very good job. But what if that's abusive? I mean, what if it's known that that is abusive?

Okay, yeah. Oh, that's a great example. Do you know that under the laws of the state of Colorado and the federal laws, let's say, as an elder of Holly Hills Bible Church, I suspect that someone in our congregation is abusing their children. And I can confirm that they are.

What am I supposed to do? under the law, I'm supposed to turn them in? Oh no. Can I circumvent that law because we're a Christian organization and you know what that guy really needs is counseling and that woman needs counseling and da da da da? No, I've got to follow the law. Because if I don't, they could shut the whole place down. Am I violating the principle of grace by going and reporting that person? Absolutely not. Here's the issue.

If I impose a law on somebody, which could be my principle, then what have I done? If I say to Gary, boy, you know, you can't drink that blood anymore, and I better not catch you doing it. What have I done? I put a law on him. What does law do? It's the impetus to sin. What have I just done? I've caused him to sin. Pretty subtle, isn't it? So I can't say a word. And shouldn't say a word.

Because the Lord is his master. You do that with your children. What's that? You do that with your children. Okay, let's talk about children. What authority do I have over my children? Well, you're the parent, you have. I have authority. Given by God to raise them up in a certain way.

Can I tell my children not to drink? Yes. Can I say to him, you know, Gary, if you're going to come into my house, I don't want you to drink as long as you're in my house. Can I say that to him? Sure he can. You know, now he can go out in the back porch and...

No. That was the second buzzer, right? So what we're going to do is we're going to keep working on these principles because I think it's important that we spend as much time learning what the principles are in terms of my own behavior and then how I conduct myself with my fellow brethren in Christ and how the principles of loving one another and those kinds of things are the issues, not the specific, what looks to be an ordinate behavior from my subjective perspective. Do you see that? Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace, Father, and we thank you for the liberty we have in Christ, which, and the grace that we live under, which absolutely controls us and allows us to be at freedom to worship you and to serve you, Father. We thank you, we pray in your son's name. Amen.