Identification Truths Plus 2012
Randy Peterman · Sep 2, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 34
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926326176031

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

We have six Bible verses that we need to read through before we discuss these questions. And then as we're going through, we'll actually still need to keep reading some other Bible verses. This is our second lesson on grace. Now, some of you weren't here last week when Mike went over the introduction.

But one of the things we're trying to do is develop a working definition of grace. One that isn't just when we don't get what we deserve. I'm sorry, when we get what we don't deserve. That's probably the most common definition for grace. Before we get too far into the class in answering some of these things, what would be a good working definition of grace so far from what we know.

Mike said it was the environment in which we live. Okay, that's really good. The environment in which we live. That is a quality of grace more than a definition of grace but it is still true and good. One person put it as an acronym, God's Riches at Christ's Expense. Okay, that's really good.

Anything else? One of the most important things we can draw out of all of those discussions is that it's not just a band-aid for when you sin. Growing up in, I'll just call it error, but I don't mean that to sound too harsh, I always understood grace to be a band-aid for when I sin. When I sin, grace is poured out and that's all grace is for. But grace is beyond the scope of that.

So let's take a look this morning. I'm just going to kind of, we'll just weave through it and read these six verses and then we'll get into the questions and discuss them. Courtney, will you go ahead and read Romans 6.14 for us? And we'll just go. Your sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Okay. Oliver, do you have a Bible? Nope? Okay, Nick, do you have a Bible? Kind of. Kind of?

Do you have Romans 3.9? I can in a second. You can in a second. Is it Nita? Do you mind if I call on you? I don't want to force anybody to read you that one.

Do you want me to read Romans 3.9?

No, I need you to look up Romans 5.6. But go ahead, Nick.

Alright, Romans 3.9.

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. OK. And then, Anita, if you could read Romans 5, 6. And Al, if you don't mind, John 1, 17. OK. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. All right. Thank you. You know, John 1 17? Yes. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Okay, thank you. And then, do you have Ephesians 2 5? Can you do that? Thank you.

Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Russ, do you have Roman 7-6? If you don't, I'll flip to it. But now we have been released from the law, having died, that by which we were bound, that we serve in the name of the Spirit and not the altars of the heart. Okay, thank you.

Alright, so the first question that we have in the handout this morning is why are we not under any law system now? Okay, because we're under grace. But technically, how did we reach the state of not being under a law system? Christ fulfilled the law, and then we by substitution have been made free from the requirements.

Okay. That's an important part of the answer. Courtney's smiling. I have the answers here written down. So, what else would we add to that? The law is for the flesh. We are a co-crucifixion. We've been separated from that. So, not just substitution, which is true, but also identification. Holly? Okay.

I was reading Acts. Okay. further into it, I don't remember where, but it said that Paul was still, when he went back to Jerusalem, that he was still living according to the law. I didn't understand that. There may have been certain things that he was doing to not offend the Jews around him. In fact, we get evidence of that in In his testimony, when he's doing evangelistic work, he says, to the Jews, I'm like a Jew.

To the Greeks, I'm like a Greek. And so there are times when he is looking at the people that he's surrounded by and says, if I roast a whole hog at the next church get-together, the Jews are going to be freaked out. They won't be able to eat anything, and they'll be overwhelmed. So I'm going to not have pork. despite loving BLT sandwiches, I'm gonna wait and I'm going to eat kosher so that I can minister to the Jews.

But he wasn't living by the law in a sense of a believer feeling compelled to live by the law. He is instead observing parts of the law so that he can have a witness and then preach Christ's crucifixion to the Jews that are there. But then also some of the Jews had been saved, and we're still living according to the law. So that, was that, is that kind of saying that some people may continue to do that?

Okay, where I would actually go would be Galatians, particularly chapter 2, and what we see, I'm sorry, not chapter 2, chapter 1, but what we see is starting in verse 11, Paul starts to defend his ministry, and as he's doing that... let's see here...

I don't mean to get you... No, no, it's okay. Yeah, no, no, it's good. Verse 17 of Galatians chapter 1, Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned and the Lord was teaching him. Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas or Peter. And then he continues on, oh wait it is chapter two. Okay, so chapter two of Galatians. Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up and I submitted to them the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles and did so in private to those who were of reputation.

And then in verse 3, but not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. So Paul wasn't trying to make Gentiles live the law. And then as he goes down, he begins in verse 11, but Cephas came to Antioch. I posed into his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by the hypocrisy.

And so Paul got in Peter's face saying, we're not as believers supposed to be mixing the law with what we do. That being said, Paul was very careful to identify the surrounding people. to preach the gospel in a way that they would be listening to it because he was culturally respectful.

Along the same line, many of the Jews when they were first converted still met in the Sabbath day to observe worship services with God. So they continued with what you might say the traditional and cultural part, but they weren't looking to that for their salvation. And so the difference was they were, as you said, trying not to antagonize those who would look at them and say, well, how can you just desert the traditions of your fathers and go the other way? So they were trying to build bridges by still observing perhaps dietary standards and other things, but they weren't doing it as a means of salvation.

And the other thing about Acts is that there is progressive revelation. Paul wanted to make it clear that he was doing it for that bridge building and not to say that he needed to add something to God's grace in order to be saved. It must have been really tough, because I could see the Gentiles going like, you know, he's saying you know don't there's no need for the law anymore but yeah he goes and you know practices it sort of with when he's with the Jews you know that must have been a really tough well his observation of those things were were contextual and and that's the thing is that as you look at other places in Acts for example when he goes to I'm in Romans, that would be why that didn't look right.

In Acts, when he goes to Mars Hill, he observes that looking at the culture there in Athens, that these people have an idol or a statue to the unknown God, just in case we missed one. Here's a statue to it. And he says, hey, you did miss one. I know who he is.

And he preaches the gospel to them in a vein that they understand that's non-offensive. And they're receptive because he's hit them in a chink in their armor. And so when he observes the law to be around the Jews, it is one of those things that he's doing to not offend them.

And then he says, OK, you observed the law, but now let's talk about the one that Moses said was coming after. And here's Christ. I'll try not to say too much more, but Jesus Christ, in his comments, said, I didn't come to set aside the law, but to fulfill the law. So even Jesus gave recognition too.

But that's why we had to die to the law and identification with Christ is so that we could get past that and that's actually that kind of is a lean into the topic of grace. It's pretty fundamental that we understand that separation came through identification and brings us to not being under the system of the law now because we're under a system of grace.

Which I guess I was raised Catholic so You know, I'm not sure how, I don't know if some people believe that they can still earn their way, you know, by participating in the, but I'm sure there are some Catholics that you know, realize that they're saved through grace but just continue to follow along with the stuff because that's kind of what they know. There are people that even I know today who feel it is their job to go in with proper theology into the Catholic Church and teach it there. they're believers and they go to Catholic Mass and then they have conversations and engage in what I would consider to be evangelistic activities in the Catholic Church today still. And I'm just picking on Catholics because that's what I know and a lot of them. A little bit is almost the same with the Jews as well as Catholics.

I think a lot of it is the insurance policy is that I believe this It's the insurance policy. I believe this, but I'm still going to have all these under the law and I'm going to mix these things. We're going to get into the mixing in a little bit. Paul is very specific about that, about mixing.

There are two different things and that's why I think it's so important that the first part is the identification that we are not under the law. There are so many verses that tell us that we are not under the law anymore. That's the whole thing about the old man wants to be under a law system. That's the old man. The flesh wants to be under a law system. What can I do? How can I do it? What's the measuring stick and all that?

When we get into grace, grace is totally not based on anything of ourselves or our work. And so it's real key that co-crucifixion, why we're not under law, we can't mix a little bit of law with a little bit of grace and get the insurance policy of law. It doesn't work. First of all, law isn't an insurance policy. It brings condemnation, but we still embrace it like, well, just in case. Just in case. I'll take care of these things and make me feel better.

Well, and we want to look at, in answering question one, we want to look back to Romans 6.14, where he says, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. So, trying to go back and tinker with law doesn't actually accomplish anything, and it's forgetting what is true of you in Christ. You're not under law, you're under grace.

And Paul says that in numerous places, but Romans 6.14 is definitely a banner verse for such a thing because it's so blunt. But that leads to other questions, so we will continue on with some of these questions, but then we'll ask some more also along this vein.

So the second question is, under what operating system does God function only today? Grace. What about the Jews that are practicing in Israel right now? Does God hate them? No. Is the law effective for them? No. Why do we know that grace is the only system that God is using?

Where can we point to in the Bible, if we're having a discussion with somebody who disagrees with us, where can we point to that? Okay, absolutely. So if you've got your Bibles, let's turn to Ephesians 2 and make sure that everybody has read that and is confident in what is said there. Make sure I'm not twisting anything out of context. We'll start in verse 4 and go all the way to 9.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Does that give us any other opportunities for salvation outside of grace through faith? Or salvation by faith? It doesn't. There's no other opportunity there for it to be grace plus this 12-step program to righteousness. grace plus some other thing. There is no plus. You can't add to grace if the sufficiency is there. There's so much in four through nine. It's not our job this morning to exposit it, but my recommendation would be just to take some time and read through that this week because it's a very rich passage.

All right, third question. What does it mean that we are under a controlling system? That sounds dangerous to use the word controlling. Where did you get that question? I have question 3 on my handout. What does it mean that we're under a controlling system? Where did controlling system come from? Mike put that question together so he would have to answer where it came from.

It came from Mike, but before that I don't know. The word controlling raised the hairs on the back of my neck at first, because I was like, wait a minute, I don't like controlling. It sounds a little invasive. But actually, once we're done looking at some Bible verses, I think, because I relaxed after I looked at some of the Bible verses, and I felt a little better about that vocabulary.

So what are the two systems that we could be under in today's age? Law or grace? Is the law controlling or not controlling? Law is very controlling. Okay. Now, but here's the thing. I could tell that you're upset, Holly. I'm not upset. I'm just confused. It stirred something in you. How about that?

Let's take a look at Romans 3.9 and we'll... We'll go through this and see if we can't figure out why that vocabulary word was used, controlling. So Romans 3, 9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Okay?

Sin was controlling. The flesh was controlling. And what was it controlling? It was your motive, right? It was what pushed you, the flesh pushed you to sin. And what did the law do to the sin nature? Did it make it go away? It gave us something to shoot for. It incited it, it got it all excited and it worked it out. So, one controlling system would be the flesh or the law and that leading us to sinful acts.

So then we have to look at, if we're not under the law, we're under grace, which is Romans 6.14 again. But it's the controlling system.

Now the word controlling can be used in a sense of, I'm a robot, which is always something that I have a problem with. Because if I'm a robot, that means that I didn't sin of my own volition, which means I deserve consequences. It means instead, But the scripture instead says I'm responsible for the consequences of my actions, which means I need to own up for sin. Which is why I had to die with Christ.

So the controlling nature of law is that it is the system under which we are under. And it's not that it's controlling in the sense of you're a robot. It's just the system that we operate in. And it controls what the biblical lifestyle looks like. Controlling is maybe a bad word in how I would word it. I look at grace as being an operating system. It's less threatening of a word than controlling.

So what's the answer though? The controlling system is law? But we're not under law. No, no, the controlling system... So it's either law or grace. It's law or grace. They're only two. It's law or grace. And like I said, the controlling is, you know, when you look at the 614, for sin shall not be master over you. If you're not under law, you're under grace. So you're not under sin as a master.

Or 6.6, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away with. So we'd no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. When you're under sin, you're under the flesh or non-believer, you're under the law system. And all laws, principles, once we're co-crucified, we're freed from that.

So now what are we under? We're under grace. Grace is the operating system now. What does it mean that we are under controlling system? So it means that we're under the controlling system of grace. Yes. We're in the operating, God operates under grace now. or the controlling system, if you use controlling. Yeah, controlling is kind of that red flag word that kind of makes us bristle. But it's the system that we operate now is grace, which is what's our only response to grace. Thank you. Yeah. I got two people that had questions. I'm going to order. Go ahead. Yeah.

I thought what he was getting at was what according to this said, is we're a slave to sin. In other words, what's controlling us is sin. It's not that we're... I mean, it's a little different tact than saying, in the reigning principle, this is what controls me as a non-believer.

I remember Mike saying, he couldn't help himself. He was controlled. He was actually controlled by that nature. And then in this verse it says, when you're slaves of sin, but now they've been set free to become slaves of God. So it seems like then, and Paul said that one time, he said, I don't have a choice, I've got to preach this gospel. It's like he was a slave to God. And Paul actually uses that vocabulary in a few other places.

It has to do with the fact that Our current, especially in the United States, attitude is that we should feel like we have free will. But the problem is that free will as a concept is actually a false concept. God doesn't have a free will. He can only do what is righteous. We can only do that which is of the nature of our type.

Al, you had something you were going to say. Instead of using the words controlling system, perhaps the word law could fit under. But we're still under a controlling system in grace, which isn't law. Well, that's where I'm going. Controlling system, if you think of it as a law of operation, then Romans 8, 2, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. if I think of a controlling system as the rules by which I operate, the laws under which I operate.

In past vocabulary, from past lessons, is the principles. But yeah, the idea is that instead of it being a law for merit, these are the principles of grace that should control the believer, if you will, in this context. I like that because You know, people who weren't Jewish, I mean, we kind of throw law in there and then it's kind of understood that it means the Jewish law, but for the people who were never Jewish, that law can kind of become confusing because we don't know what the law was. Yeah, and that's a critical part of the principle of conscience that comes from being created in God's image. How God put a sense of ought in humanity.

We just can circumvent it really easily by telling us that it's worth cheating right now because I'll get this reward Let's keep moving moving forward with the questions You know, I turned to Ben Person in 617 and Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin past tense you became obedient from the heart of and have been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And then it goes on, and I'm speaking human terms, because the weakness of your flesh, for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. We're now, all that requires is, thank you. So we were slaves and under that controlling system of sin and law, we're now slaves to righteousness under grace.

And who's your master? Exactly. What's interesting is that in the Greek, and I don't have my inner linear on this one, Most often, when Paul uses the word slavey, he actually uses the word doulos, which is bond-servant. And I think bond-servant is kind of an interesting concept, because it's a willing slave. I willingly chose to be a slave to sin. I liked it. It made me feel good. And so he says, instead, be a bond-servant or a slave to righteousness, to Christ, and walk in that fellowship, willingly. participating in it.

Alright, let's keep going because we're now in this controlling system of grace and so we need to talk about what does that mean. Question four is why must we be educated about grace? And this is a really important question. Why do we have to learn about grace? It seems like because our natural propensity is to There's merit. How about if we ask it this way, could we come up with a system of grace as humans? Is that the way that we're wired? Do we come up with that kind of system?

No way. It's just not the way that humans come up with things. If you look at human law, whether you look at socialism or capitalism or various other economic systems, we don't come up with that kind, because socialism isn't grace. It sounds like it is on the surface for some people. They're like, look at the generosity. No, that's not grace. Capitalism isn't grace. You earn it. You're still told what you're going to do in socialism.

It was one of the things that convinced me about Christianity, being a newer believer, is that I thought, you know, human beings, when they come up with this, it was like a great reassurance about Christianity is because no way would people come up with this. Somebody would have to get money somehow. Somebody would have to get something, power for themselves. It's like no person would come up with this. It's really important. I've got four bullet points here as part of my answer and I just want to make sure that we go over them because they're really important as we move forward that we have a grasp of these principles. If we don't get taught grace, we never get it. We never understand it. It doesn't become familiar to us.

Especially since most people's definition of grace is when we get what we don't deserve or it's a band-aid for when I sin. If your concept is it's a band-aid for when I sin, that's a terrible definition of grace because that means you only worry about grace when you screw up. If grace is just there for when I screw up, there's no intimacy in that.

So that's the first bullet point, because if we're not taught it, we'll never get it. The second one is grace isn't a natural way of thinking for us. And that's because mankind doesn't come up with it. Third bullet point, nothing in the world's system operates by a grace system, so therefore we are totally ignorant about grace until we're taught about it out of God's Word. And the fourth point is we will never understand grace until we get into the word and study it.

And what's funny to me is that I thought I understood what grace was, and then the first time we went through this study, I was pretty shocked that I really didn't know what grace was. I did think of it as a band-aid. And then as I studied it, it became richer and richer, and the passages where grace was used as a word became richer and richer to me as well, because suddenly I had an awareness of what that word meant. It was much deeper. Any other thoughts on that one, about being educated on grace? Or do I keep moving here? I think it's just so contrary in this thing.

I always go back to it's almost impossible to understand grace, because if you're still trying to fix up the old man, and he's screaming loud, and if you're always trying to do it, the old man doesn't function in grace, and he always wants to do this, and you know, having taught the grace, it's almost, you know, I remember when I first did it, I didn't understand it either, and when I was studying it, The best way to say it is I opened the window just a little bit and started to look out. And to me it's just, I can't explain it, it's like you start understanding grace. It's like drinking from a fire hose. You just try to understand it. crucify that daily crucifixion and you understand who you are in Christ, then you can operate in that grace system and start to understand that it's nothing of you. You know, our position is in Christ. And as you understand, you know, I was reading some of this One Hungry Heart stuff, and it was exactly that. It's like, do you feel worthy?

Well, in Adam, no. But in Christ, yes. And then you can operate in that function of grace where you understand how God can just pour out unlimited blessings and unmerited because it's nothing of us because we're in Christ. It's a gift. If you understand that intimacy between Christ and God, you understand that yeah, he pours out everything to Christ. Well, we're in Christ.

And then you start It starts to understand, but you need to understand that severance, that co-crucifixion. Because I tell you, there's more times that you just feel you've got to do something. And that leads into the next question, which actually asks about that very thing. So, I'm going to cut you off simply because I think you're actually going right into it.

So, is it possible to operate under grace and be ignorant of grace? I think God can use poor daughter's grace however he wants it. So I would say yes because, you know, if that's what he wants to do, he can. But as far as like operating in it regularly. Anybody have any other thoughts on that?

I think the question is saying, it's implying you are operating under, God may be pounding it's you're not seeing it. Yeah that that is exactly the point of the question is that if you don't and let me just my own testimony being you know what it is.

I didn't understand grace, so I couldn't walk in grace. I constantly found myself feeling separated from God, feeling out of fellowship from God, because I was sinning, and I didn't understand that grace was the entire operating system that I was in, and I could not be under legalism, and I could not operate in the sin nature and have any effect, but God never ceased seeing me in a gracious way. And that's the point of this, is that we may fail to grasp what God is doing, but that doesn't mean God doesn't operate in that way. And that leads to a question that's not on your sheet, but I think needs to be asked, and that is, does this principle negate God's operation in grace? Even if we don't operate in grace, does it negate God operating in grace? And the answer is no. God still operates in grace. And so that's why The collection of both of your answers is actually probably a good summary of it, and that is just that even if we don't understand what it is, God still operates in grace.

But if we don't understand what it is, it means we can't operate in the fullness of the life that God has intended for us, because we're trying to please God rather than recognize that He's already pleased with His work in us, His life in us. Absolutely. No peace and no joy because you're trying to perform. And we do a bad job of that in the flesh. If you don't know what grace is, how can you accept it? Exactly. And that's a major part of it. You spend so much time looking at yourself because you're not walking in grace. And it turns out that's not useful. Question six, should be relatively short but also a good one to ask.

Who is the person that we can see in grace? Jesus. Okay. Seven. There we go. You're right. Let's take a quick look at Ephesians 4-7. All right, we got that one. Ephesians 4-7, if you've got your Bible turned there, I'm going to look those up too. Ephesians 4.7 it says, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So that if you look at grace you must come to see Christ because it's a gift of his work. It's a gift of what he's doing and the work that he already did on the cross and then what he's doing in our lives actively today. We see the grace is given and it's poured out in a measure of Christ's work on the cross.

Now we can rabbit trail on that a little bit, but I do want to ask, when it uses the word measure there, is it talking about a finite amount? No. An environment. It's not. It is not about the measurement of like, oh, you got four grams of grace and somebody else needs the six. Because the Lord measures in metric apparently.

It's kind of measured to what we can our own capacity though, kind of what we can, like the gifts that we can handle. Well the principle of grace is that because it's our operating system and it is from God, it is an infinite quality. But the measure of grace is given to us so that we, I mean he uses that term so that we'll understand that that it was a gift, and he knew exactly what we needed, and he was gracious to us. The passage continues on and goes into the gift quality of grace due to Christ leading us as captives of his work and pouring out grace and giving gifts.

And going to, like we say, Firehose or Niagara Falls or whatever, and it's so much, but God knows we can still only handle sip by sip, you know, because if he knocks us over with it... That's the principle of sanctification, is that we grow and are being conformed into the image of the Son. Alright, so yeah, six was quick. Everybody's good with six. We see Christ in grace.

What does man bring to salvation? Nothing. Are you sure? I have a checkbook. I don't have a big checking account, but I've got a checkbook. I could write something. Theologians have wrestled with that for a long time as to whether it's 100% God or 99 and 99 hundredths.

Well, man can't bring anything Well, to salvation, we bring sin. That's our contribution. Sin, flesh, and that's what we bring to salvation. We bring sin and weakness. We're so generous. We're very good at that. We bring a lot of sin, a lot of weakness, a lot of, yeah. That's our contribution. As they say in the world, a lot of baggage. Yeah. That's the only thing we bring. Or Paul says, whoso deliver me from this body of death. Yes.

Romans 5.6, Paul writes, for while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. We brought nothing to the table in our ungodliness.

Romans 5.8, but God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Repetition there.

Romans 5.10, For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Man doesn't bring anything. So can we merit salvation? No. Can we merit grace?

So why do we keep wanting to merit things? That's the part that gets me over and over again. Why do I keep wanting to merit... That's the only one who is making you feel like you need the merit. And that's the thing, when you start understanding that, that's our understanding who and how bad we are in Adam. The minute we start feeling, you know, I have to do something, and I know I can do it myself.

This is Romans 7, it's a perfect example with Paul. You look at Paul and all the greatness, but the struggle he has, but then the last verse, Thanks be to God. No one can. No man can, only God can. Sorry, be careful if I say that the wrong way. Have some heresy.

Alright, question eight. In the context of salvation, is God's grace apparent? In the context of salvation, is God's grace apparent? Well, there can't be salvation without God's grace. You can't do it yourself. Grace is manifest in the Gospel, or in our reception of the Gospel.

If we were to go to John 1.29, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here's John and he's proclaiming the Messiah. My favorite part of that is that he says it here and then later on his interaction with Christ. shows still some confusion and a misunderstanding of the fullness of who Christ was.

But the fact that Christ as substitute has already borne the undiminished righteous judgments of God against sin is the sole ground upon which divine forgiveness is now exercised. I'm going to read that again because it's full of five dollar words. The fact that Christ as substitute has already borne the undiminished righteous judgments of God against sin is the sole ground upon which divine forgiveness is now exercised. Was God's wrath completely satisfied by Christ's work on the cross?

No. That's got to be grace. We can't contribute anything to that. That's a really big deal. The forgiveness of God towards sinners, therefore, is not an immediate act of grace, it is rather a judicial pardon of a debtor in view of the fact that his debt has been fully paid by another. We could not know how much he paid, yet, though unable to measure redemption, we may rejoice in the fact that all even to the measure of the righteous reckoning of God is absolutely and eternally paid by Christ. So Christ paid for how much, what percentage of your sin? All.

That's a really important statement, because that means when you talk to people who feel like they need to be good Christians, you ever heard the term, someone used the term, I'm not a good Christian, or the phrase, I'm not a good Christian. That word good is a stumbling block that is as big as the Rockies. Because they think that there's a good Christian and a bad Christian. And if I'm a good Christian, I'm living righteously. And if I'm a bad Christian, I'm not.

And they think that they're bringing something to the table. That word good implies that I've got some currency here outside of grace. Darn it, I thought I was going to possibly be able to race through all the questions. We can. But we don't bring anything. It's all paid for by Christ.

It is not a question of the relative benefits which might possibly accrue to the center under one form of forgiveness or another. Were he forgiven graciously or in strict justice? It is a question of the basis upon which any divine forgiveness can be extended righteously. Forgiveness is extended through grace. It's done as a gift.

So God saves sinners by grace. God keeps through grace those who are saved and God teaches in grace those who are saved and kept how they should live and how they may live to his eternal glory. So if you live a righteous life as a believer, where the works that are performed through you are the manifestation of God, do you get credit for that? No. No, because it's in grace. Because you're living out grace. That's really cool.

And then in Ephesians he tells us that we'll be rewarded, we get eternal rewards for living out these righteous works that he's got planned for us. So in grace we are rewarded and gifted for the gift of the life of Christ or the grace of the life of Christ being lived out. So that we can glorify him.

Grace just doesn't make sense in an earthly merit sense. I think the thing that always strikes me in this when we talk about salvation and grace I think people understand that, that there's no way I could pay for all my sins, that there's nothing I could do, that I needed Christ to die for my sins. I think that everybody kind of understands that part of it. The part that I don't understand, or that it's not logical to me, is that then everybody thinks, okay, once I've done that, now I've got to work and do everything else to create a Christian life. He did every salvationist through grace. But now he decides to operate and throw us into a works or a law, or we have to do it. Like I said, people understand this first part of salvation, but we're still under grace, and it's not anything of us, it's him. And I think we totally don't understand that... walk down the road and keep all these laws.

Now I'll be more righteous. I'll be more right. And it's still all of him. Do you have a question? No, not a question. As a newer believer again, the thing that I'm hearing most is that I'm saved now, so now it's my duty or whatever it is to help other people come to Christ. Okay. To evangelize, I guess. Everywhere. Everywhere.

On my ride here, I heard on the radio, someone said that by kind of doing what we're doing, focusing on growth, that we're being sort of Pharisees and not worrying about or not helping other people who haven't heard of Christ yet. I would counter that by saying this, and this is a really important principle, what we've talked about in this class and what you will hear I think in every class at this church at some point in time is that you are to be walking in the Spirit.

Would you agree with that? Which is what God does through us, right? We're not trying to do it, we're just doing it. You are to walk in the Spirit, right? So that's the first proposition in my logical building here, is that we walk by the Spirit. The second thing is that if you're walking by the Spirit and He wants to use you, are you going to preach the Gospel? If you're abiding, and the Holy Spirit wants to use you, you will preach the gospel, because that's what the Holy Spirit is doing through you right now. And if we're not saved of our own accord, but the Holy Spirit woos us, then he's going to draw the other person through the Holy Spirit. And supernaturally, you will be used to preach the gospel.

I used to beat myself up all the time. I've got to be preaching the gospel more, because if I don't preach the gospel more, then people will go to hell. It'll be my fault. Exactly. And I started looking at myself. And if you were a good Christian, you'd be getting other people to be Christian. But here's the thing.

If I'm abiding, and the Holy Spirit is using me, and I'm an agent of God, and I'm an ambassador in that case, then I will preach the gospel. And I will do it all the times that God has intended for me to preach the gospel. And I will not feel guilt about anything because I'm a body.

I always loved Philippians 2.13, for it's God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. And just piggybacking on exactly what you said. I've heard it expressed by one preacher in a way that I really like.

Preach the gospel always. Use words as necessary. But that's considered works though, right? I mean, you could be saved by grace, but then that would be one of your works, would be to say, I'm going to go... There are people who keep track of the number of people they preach the gospel to so that they can tell people, I preach the gospel every day and here's my calendar to prove it. if you're not being motivated by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. I preach the gospel to my co-workers as often as the Lord moves in me and creates the opportunity to do so. And I sit humbly waiting for Him to do that in me. Because if I do it of my own accord, listen, I've learned all the arguments and how to woo people into Christianity with human reasoning.

That's not the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit calls somebody to Him, you're the vessel Here's an anecdotal personal story. There are people that have come to me later on and said, did you know that I came to know the Lord because of you? And I don't say that arrogantly. Please don't take that aim. And I said, no. I had no idea. And they said, well, I watched something that was different in their life and I became hungry and later on the Lord used your testimony to draw me to Him. I had no idea. I never said anything to them other than being honestly a believer maybe, but it was not that I did something, but it was the Holy Spirit doing something.

And that, to me, is a testimony of God being the one that does that. And so I don't have to sit there and feel guilt, because that's the thing. People say, well, you should be sharing the gospel, and if you're not, you feel guilty. That's not the work of the Spirit. Poor man. I got everybody wanting to raise their hands.

One that always comes to mind is and Paul. I think this puts it in perspective. What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? Servants are whom you believe, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. A friend of ours, Sam Dalton, he was the one that just had the tube. That's all we are. We're just a conduit. for what God is doing.

And you know, if we beat ourselves up for missing an opportunity, did God know that? And as I always point out, you're beating yourself up because, well, who's he working on? You or the person who is. And you know, like I said, when you point, you've got three fingers pointing back at yourself. If I'm worried about that, You know, so God may have used that opportunity not for the other person, but for you. And so it's God the one is doing it.

We're just conduits. It's not our responsibility. We're just to be examples and to live the life. The fact that the Lord has given some to be evangelists means that I have been in awe watching people. They just share the gospel and it just happens and you don't have to...

What's going on? There's one looking at me right now actually. I mean it, he's out there in the hallway. The Lord uses Gene all the time for those kinds of things. But it's one of those things where that's just the life of Christ being lived out through him and he's gifted that way.

Some people are helpers. When people ask me, will you help me move? I get excited. I know it's weird. Other people are like, oh, moving. I'm like, yeah, cool, let's do this. But I'm wired that way. But the body needs the multiple giftedness for that purpose. It turns out I'm really bad with words. Why I get to teach is beyond me. I'm not so good with English language.

But it's the Holy Spirit working through us. He can preach the gospel through us and do those things. But it's in grace, and it's the Holy Spirit working through us. We should close in prayer just for the sake of it, but we can keep discussing afterwards and then those who are listening to the recording will be like, oh, they cut us off. But let's pray and then we can see what else there is to discuss. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would just continue to impress these truths about grace and the sufficiency of your Son's work into our minds and our lives as we grow and are being informed into the image of your Son. We just pray that as we do go around us, that as we are abiding, we would be excited vessels for the manifestation of your truth. And we just thank you for the opportunities we've been given and that we will begin to share these truths. In Jesus' name, Amen.