Grace

 This is one of those sermons that when it is over, if you can say, thank you, LORD, I am not like the people he was talking about, then this message was not for you. It could be that this message is just for me and not you at all. So if it upsets you, angers you, or makes you feel uncomfortable, then it is for you.

Grace Greater Than All Our Sin Lyrics: FORGIVENESS

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!

Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,

Threaten the soul with infinite loss;

Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,

Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.

What can we do to wash it away?

Look! There is flowing a crimson tide,

Brighter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,

Freely bestowed on all who believe!

You that are longing to see His face,

Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that is greater than all our sin.

To understand God's grace is to understand outside our human understanding of grace.

1. Grace used as a noun (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in sinners' salvation and the bestowal of blessings.

2. Used as a verb, do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence.

I am not one to watch commercials, but I saw this commercial about a bleach pen. If you had a stain, pull out the pen and rub it on the stain, and it would be gone. Sometimes we treat grace like a holy bleach pen. Oops, I made a mistake. Let me grab my bleach pen of grace. A quick prayer to blot out the stains. And off we go as if nothing happened. Yet grace is so much more than a holy bleach pen. So much more than a moment where we seek Forgiveness for our sin. Grace isn't meant to be just a moment-by-moment "my bad" cleaning. Grace is intended to be a movement of God in and through our lives. Grace not only results in an internal change in our own lives; it also moves us toward actions that result in external changes in others' lives.

One of the best-known definitions of grace is only three words: God's unmerited favor. A. W. Tozer expanded on that: "Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving."

Grace is not merely unmerited favor; it is favor bestowed on sinners who deserve wrath. Showing kindness to a stranger is an "unmerited favor," but doing good to one's enemies is more the spirit of grace.

To help us understand grace today, I want to share with you a few scriptures that have been difficult for some to understand.

Luke 6:27-36 Read

Grace is not a dormant or abstract quality, but a dynamic, active, working principle: "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation…and instructing us" (Titus 2:11-12).

It is not some phantom-like blessing that lies idle until we deserve it. Grace is God's sovereign will for all sinners (Ephesians 1:5-6).

Grace is not a one-time event in the Christian experience. We stand in grace.

Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

The entire Christian life is driven and empowered by grace: Hebrews 13:9

It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by food.

Peter said we should "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

So, we could adequately define grace as the free and benevolent influence of a holy God operating sovereignly in the lives of undeserving believers.

We heard the two sons' story, where the younger son said to his father, 'Give me my inheritance I am supposed to receive someday. So the father divided his wealth between his two sons. A few days later, the younger son gathered up all that he had and left. He traveled far away to another country, and there he wasted his money living like a fool. After he spent everything he had, there was a terrible famine throughout the country. He was hungry and needed money. So, he went and got a job with one of the people who lived there. The man sent him into the fields to feed pigs. He was so hungry that he wanted to eat the food the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything. The son realized that he had been a fool.

He thought, 'All my father's hired workers have plenty of food. But here I am, almost dead because I have nothing to eat. I will leave and go to my father. I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. But let me be like one of your hired workers.' So he left and went to his father.

While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him coming and felt sorry for him. So, he ran to him and hugged and kissed him. The son said, 'Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. But the father said to his servants, 'Hurry! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Also, put a ring on his finger and good sandals on his feet. And bring our best calf and kill it so that we can celebrate with plenty to eat. My son was dead, but now he is alive again! He was lost, but now he is found!' So, they began to have a party. The older son had been out in the field. When he came near the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. So he called to one of the servant boys and asked, 'What does all this mean?' The boy said, 'Your brother has come back, and your father killed the best calf to eat. He is happy because he has his son back safe and sound.

The older son was happy and so excited his brother was home--- oh, you read the story. He was angry and would not go to the party. So, his father went out and begged him to come in. But he said to his father, 'Look, I have worked like a slave for you for all these years. I have always done what you told me to do, and you never gave me even a young goat for a party with my friends. But then this son of yours comes home (notice he did not say my brother) after wasting your money on prostitutes, and you kill the best calf for him! His father said to him, 'Oh, my son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But this was a day to be happy and celebrate. Your brother was dead, but now he is alive. He was lost, but now he is found. It is time to be gracious, not angry.

I hear Jesus saying, "Give him your cloak also. I'm reminded of Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of God. But not only Noah but also his three sons and their wives get in the ark too.

The thief on the cross. Forgiveness plus grace. "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." You see, grace goes beyond Forgiveness…

Some of us understand that God forgives, but I sometimes wonder if we know His grace.

If you understand it, "God bless you," because many have never truly understood what grace was. Some think Grace and Forgiveness were the same things. To some, they sound like the same thing. "I had grace, so I forgave them." Some think when you forgave someone, you had grace on them. But what I want to talk about is a church capable of the same kind of grace that God has shown to us.

· A grace that prefers the other person. In honor preferring one another

· A grace that is not a me-first attitude. It is not my way or the highway

· A grace that goes beyond Forgiveness. It forgets the past.

· A grace that supports and comes alongside people who do not deserve it. 

Is it possible that this church could be a church that is full of grace? It is one thing to be a friendly church, but it is more significant to be a gracious church. The real question is, are we capable of showing grace to other people as well as the household of faith?

· How will our church ever be a grace church if we are not a Grace people?

When Jesus was talking about our enemies and how we are to treat them, how much more gracious should we be to our Christian brothers and sisters?

Some of us haven't gotten Forgiveness down pat yet. How will we ever get to grace? There is this attitude that I forgive you, but I will never forget what you have done, is no forgiveness. If you keep bringing up the past, you have problems with Forgiveness. That is what the devil does. God has a sea of forgetfulness.

Micah 7:18-19 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot; yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

If we are to say to our enemies and those who have disrespected us more than I forgive you as taught by our LORD by adding grace to our actions, it will look like this: 

· I forgive you, and I want to bless you… Here's my cloak!

· You stole 50 dollars from me, but I forgive you, and by the way, here are another 20.

· It's the father putting a ring on the finger of the son who wasted his inheritance. You destroyed everything I ever worked for, but here's a ring and a fatted calf and a celebration because the son that was lost has come home!  Grace goes far beyond Forgiveness.

I am well aware there are people who hard to understand why they act the way they do. They are spiteful, petty, malicious, and downright hard to love, and we call them our brothers and sisters. They are not in the class of enemies. So, how much more gracious should we be towards them?  

My advice is to pray that the LORD opens their eyes to see that they are mean, spiteful, petty malicious, and downright hard people to love. It may be that the LORD has just been waiting for someone to pray for these people so He could send the Holy Spirit to open their eyes to their ungracious actions.

If we can ever become a church that extends grace to everyone, we will be a Church that others say, Behold, how they love one another.

Going to Hell By The Way of The Church

 In 1970, Rev. Daniel Stafford wrote a small book entitled Going to Hell By the Way of the Church. The text was Matt. 13:36,42. That was fifty-one years ago. Today, there are still thousands going to hell by way of the Church. Just because you attend church does not make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Please turn with me to Matt. 13

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

This may make some people uncomfortable talking about eternal punishment or going to hell. This is not to make you comfortable but to challenge you to live right and avoid eternal punishment.

The road of open depravity is the way that most people will face eternal punishment. However, the devil is wise enough to know that not everyone will travel that road. Knowing this, he is happy to take them to hell by way of a good moral life while being part of a church. He may succeed in bringing many more from churches that have closed their doors to the Holy Spirit, but he knows that people can go to hell from any church. The devil does not care that you are a faithful church-goer. He only cares that you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have surrendered your life to the will of the LORD. Satan is happy for you to be religious.

The ground for the growth of the wheat and tares to grow in is the world, but today I want to look at that ground as the Church. Every Church comprises different people, different jobs, different values, and other social classes. No church can survive or function without a unifying system of belief and doctrine. The unifying belief acts as a glue to make the various part of the church function as a part of the Body of Christ. In every Church, there is a competition between the spiritual and secular for dominance. One of these will eventually emerge as the principal view of Christianity for the Church.

Historically, the Church has struggled with these two opposing views. Paul was dealing with this same problem in the Church at Corinth, and Jesus addressed this problem in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares. Today, the struggle continues in every Church. The wheat and tares grow together, but only the wheat will escape the fires of judgment.

The True Church, those that make up the Body of Christ (not a denomination), is the institution that can bring about a transformation in the world. It is the Body of Christ that the True Church ordains. It contains only "wheat" and will have the ultimate victory over the "tares" sin. Only a right relationship with the LORD will give us this victory.

Understanding the Tares

One of the amazing acts of God's creation is the DNA of all life forms. "DNA is an amazing substance. It makes us who we are. But how does it work? It's a LONG molecule made up of 4 bases: A, T, C, and G. These are packed in various ways into chromosomes. DNA can be exchanged, reshuffled, and duplicated.

So, what does DNA do? It is essentially a recipe book. Copies can be made of the primary DNA strand to make a "working recipe." Every three base pairs together codes for an amino acid, and strings of amino acids make proteins. Proteins and the products of proteins make up our entire body. So, DNA is essential for life it is who we are.

The process is very accurate but not perfect. Sometimes mistakes are made – like a misspelled word. Sometimes parts are duplicated or twisted around. What can happen is it can be: deleted, copied, reversed, or changed. There is also a lot of "junk" in our DNA that gets cut out when it is used. We call these various things mutations. Most of the time, a mutation "ruins" what the DNA needs to do. Sometimes a mutation "makes sense." Other times it is destructive. 

In the parable of the wheat and tares, we have been given a warning about things that look alike but are not. What is on the inside is what will eventually show on the outside. You cannot hide your DNA.

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matt. 13:24-30

The more you understand tares and how they differ from wheat, the more you can see the warning in this parable. Since the time of Jesus, modern man has lost the common day recognition of how tares and wheat looked alike and why Roman law was enacted to make it a crime for people to "infect" others' crops with tare seeds.

Both plants look identical in their early growth, so you must wait for them to mature to see their differences and separate the poisonous useless weed seeds from the nutritious fruit-bearing wheat seeds.

The tares also grow faster than wheat and will rob nutrients from the soil and the sun by overshadowing the wheat crop. When secular ideas are brought into the Church, they will quickly overshadow the spiritual. When worship becomes more entertainment than worship, the tares have taken over.

As the two crops compete for their growth and sustenance, the farmer is faced with a dilemma preventing him from the luxury and ease of early removal of the tares without injuring the wheat. This has been the downfall of many good churches. Trying to remove the "tares" is impossible.

Early Quakers used church disciple to remove the "tares" from the Church. A member who had ideas that did not conform to church doctrine was "readout of the meeting." Many good Christian people left the Church because it may have been their mother, father, brother, sister, or a dear friend removed from the Church. The results were devastating to the "wheat."

This is because the tares have a growth habit of wrapping their roots around the wheat roots. To remove the tares means likely to uproot the wheat, which has a shallower root system than the tares.

Again, once the typical and rapid tare growth reveals tares' presence, they are protected due to their entwining roots. And so, once the tares are discovered to be present in a crop field, patience and observance will require waiting till harvest time to separate the weeds from the wheat safely.

The similarities of these two plants make sorting and discerning a problematic task. We are being alerted to subtle forgery dangers and how counterfeit information may not be initially apparent. So, from the beginning of our Christian experience, we need to be paying attention and mindfully discerning all that we see and hear and allow only the Scriptural truth to be the foundation of our beliefs.

This parable warns us to be diligent about what has been sown in our churches. These include the doctrinal teachings, the secular ideals, and the beliefs contrary to scripture because they may mature to become an attachment we will have a fondness for. Later, it may leave us without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Church.

We have been warned about "tares" taking root. The tares may look like wheat and seem to be spiritually stronger. Remember, all deception is costly to your spiritual health! And, just because someone is often quoted doesn't necessarily make it true wisdom.

Remember, DNA does not lie. The DNA for the tares is the recipe for sin. They are the counterfeit that looks like the real deal but is death. Just because something looks genuine, the visual may mislead you and reveal its true identity when it is too late. Weeding is always a dreary task, and best if we never had to deal with it!

In the parable of the tares, we see Satan's deceiving power, the longsuffering of God, and the final fate of all hypocrites, or tares. The deceiving power of Satan is beyond the full comprehension of the human mind.

The longsuffering of God is a source of amazement to angels and men alike. How He can be so longsuffering with transgressors is beyond the understanding of mortal man, who desires to remove those who oppose and bring punishment for those that have done him wrong. The final fate of hypocrites, or tares, is clearly stated by God Himself, Jesus Christ. Unless one deliberately tries to misunderstand the meaning of the statement of Christ, it would be mighty hard to be confused with it.

To go to hell at all is too horrible to try to conceive. However, to go to hell by way of the Church will be the most terrible thing that can ever happen to anyone. This is what Christ is warning about in this parable and trying to keep this from happening to you.

One "planted" tare, of Satan, on the inside of the Church will do more harm than a thousand, admitted, sinners on the outside because indifferent professors and the laziness of pastors, the righteous and the wicked are often mingled in the visible Church. However pure its principles may be, every Christian society has its false wheat -- those who bear a resemblance to the good but whose hearts are not right with God. He, who sows this false wheat among God's people, is here styled God's enemy; and he may be considered, also, as a sower of them who permits them to be sown and to spring up through his negligence. The multitude of critical, sinner voices, from without will not do near the harm as one deceptive voice of a tare from within. Many today call themselves Christian, but their experience is that of being a tare.

Few will make restitution, repentance, and surrender their all to God and plead the cleansing blood. Even less, the number will continually walk in the light after that grace has come into their hearts.

The question is there hope for the tares? Several years ago, I was in a diabetic research program that would change my DNA. I don't know how much it changed, but DNA can be changed. That is what the transforming power of the plan of salvation does. It changes who we are, making us a new creation in Jesus Christ.

So, yes, there is hope for "tares" in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. He has the power to transform who we are. If you have not received that transforming power of Jesus Christ, you too can have the gift of salvation.

Evangelicals Are "Missing the Mark"

 I posted this in 2017 and things have gotten worse among Evangelicals..

I am considered to be a pessimist by my wife and a few others.  I can easily see the worst in any situation.  I look for the worst-case scenario in every position.  One area that I see little hope for is the Evangelical cause of Christianity. I don't believe that American Evangelicals know what the Gospel is anymore. The Gospel is not feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing shelter to the homeless, and giving health care to the sick.  The Gospel is about transforming the life of a sinner to a follower of Jesus Christ.  The evangelical Christian has forgotten the mission of the Church. The results of changed lives will cause us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide shelter to the homeless, and health care for the sick, but that is not the primary mission of the Church.  The mission is to proclaim the message of repentance and follow in the footstep of Jesus Christ, who is our LORD and Redeemer.  Our message is the salvation of man from the bondage of sin through Jesus Christ.

The message of the Gospel is quite simple and is easy to understand. The problem is that many so-called evangelical leaders have become a bunch of hireling scheming swindlers. They preach a gospel of health and wealth because they know the "gospel" people want to hear.  They realize that if they were to preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, they would no longer have their fine houses, cars, and bank accounts.  They cannot preach the Gospel because it would require their hearers to come to grips with their spiritual needs.

Many "Christians" today are Constitutional Christians; they are in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.  They believe the American dream is the Christian life.  The concept of financial success is presented as an essential part of God's blessing to His followers.  The evangelical message has been lost to a social gospel that denies the need for a spiritual change in the life of people.  While the Gospel of Jesus Christ demands the self's death, the new message is the exaltation of self. 

If we were to live the Gospel, we say we believe every aspect of how we conduct our lives would be radically altered. There would be such a change in our lifestyle that those around us would not recognize us as modern Christian, causing the people around us to notice a new spiritual life that they have never seen.  The sad message given by the Church today is we Christians are indistinct from the world.  We live in the world and have become part of the world.  We cannot separate ourselves from the "one thing thou lackest." We are not willing to take the step that will give us power with God. As Paul wrote to Timothy, some will heap to themselves teachers who will say what we want to hear.

The problem with the American Evangelical Christian is they have come to love the world they live in.  They will not risk the loss of being able to keep up with the Jones, putting their children in private schools, enrolling their children in the top sports teams, and running in the accepted social circles. They are unwilling to sacrifice their friendship with the world to have the spiritual life in Jesus Christ.

Do I think the American Evangelical Christian will change? No. When people love the world more than they love the LORD, it is hard to see any change that will take place.  The bondage of the world has become so intense that making the sacrifice to throw off bondage chains is too much to accept. Until a revival of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is accepted and the real mission of the Church is acted upon, I fear the bondage of the world will continue to destroy the Evangelical branch of Christianity.