04-25-10 The Grace Extremist
Every preacher,
every Bible teacher,
whether they will admit it or not,
has a target audience in mind when they begin their preparation for teaching.
It is unavoidable.
And that mental target audience
has a tremendous influence over what happens in that preparation process.
I have a target audience - the Christian I most hope I can reach,
and help,
and equip.
I know, as the result of more than 40 years of being up front,
that God’s Spirit both can and does take what I say,
no matter who my target audience is,
and use it for growth in the lives of all who are willing to hear.
It’s what the Spirit does.
But still, I do have a certain type of Christian tucked away in the back of my mind
who exerts a tremendous influence over what I say and how I say it.
It is the Christian I most want to reach,
the Christian I most want to be of value to.
And it occurred to me that it might be of value
for me to describe this Christian for you.
It may help you to better understand why I approach my teaching the way I do.
My target audience,
the Christian I most want to reach is in pain.
He or she is in pain because there are forces at work in their life
that are trying to tear their life apart,
forces they didn’t want,
forces they certainly didn’t seek,
but forces that profoundly complicate their lives,
forces that powerfully challenge the reality of a kind, gracious, compassionate God
who loves them unconditionally.
My target Christian right now sees himself as falling short of what he believes His God is asking from him.
If he could change what troubles him about his life
he would in an instant.
But such choices are not within his power to make.
And yet, in the face of what seem to be overwhelming odds,
his spirit continues to reach out to his Creator
in the urgent hope that this God who created this world
can recreate him.
And in the face of what seem to be so many evidences to the contrary,
he still clings to the belief that this God he reaches out to
loves him, and will be good to him,
and can and will reshape his life into a creative work that only God could accomplish,
a work that will bring glory to his Creator.
Along with the author of Hebrews
my target audience has chosen to believe
his God is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Heb 11:6
I did not consciously choose that target audience
so much as I inherited it from my own past
because it is who I once was.
And if I could tell you my role model from Scripture for my life now
I would point you to the words of the Prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD ... To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. Isa 61:1-3
Let me offer what I’m trying to say here in a single sentence.
I have tremendous respect and gratitude and admiration
for those who have been deeply wounded by evil
and yet who still refuse to stop reaching out to their God,
believing He is in every way good and able to heal and deliver.
And what does all of this have to do with the our study of the book of Romans?
Well, nothing directly,
but everything indirectly.
We are half way through our study
of a section of the book of Romans
that is so easy for us to misunderstand,
a section in which, of necessity, our God confronts us with ourselves
apart from our Lord Jesus Christ.
I had intended to move right on in to our study of Romans chapter 2 today,
and even got the notes ready for that study.
But then decided to postpone it for a week
so that we could spend today
looking at where God is taking us in this book and why.
For me to do this
it may be necessary for me to share more of myself personally than some of you would like.
But even that, I think,
can be of value
because the more you understand
why I do what I do in my teaching
the easier it will be for you to relate to it.
I am by nature,
by temperament
a rather quiet, private non-talker
who would be well content
to live out my life
avoiding nearly all social contact
apart from an occasional trip to the grocery store.
I have frequently pointed out to the Lord
that taking a person like that
and placing him into the position of Pastor in a local church
seems to me to be a rather poor match.
He, on the other hand,
has responded by saying,
‟My son, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”
I know my response to Him
is then suppose to be,
‟Most gladly, therefore, I will ... boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”...
and I’m making some progress in that,
but I still have a ways to go.
The great complication of my life,
and the thing that keeps me were I am
is the fact that my Lord has chosen to give me some ability in teaching His Word,
and then filled me with a longing
to use that ability to help feed my fellow Christians
as effectively as possible.
I did not seek the teaching gift.
I certainly take no credit for it.
I simply know I am accountable to my God for my use of it.
I understand what Paul was saying when he told the church at Corinth
(1 Cor. 9:16) For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.
And by the way,
I am in no way unique in this accountability thing.
Every Christian who has ever lived
has been entrusted by God
with certain stewardships.
If you are married
you have been given the stewardship
of how you relate to your husband or your wife.
If you have been entrusted with children
the same principle applies.
It extends to whatever possessions He has loaned to us,
whatever gifts He has equipped us with,
wherever He has allowed us to see through His eyes...
All of these are stewardships
entrusted to us by our God.
But let me get back on track
with what I want us to see this morning.
Having accepted what I believe to be the calling my God has given me,
I am in no way casual
or passive in my conscious goals for us as a body of believers.
Those of you who know me well
know that I have very limited interest
in any kind of structural
or organizational success
for us as a church organization.
The truth is
I simply don’t care how big our budget is,
or how many people we have on staff,
or how many programs,
or committees,
or sub-groups are nestled under the banner of Peninsula Bible Fellowship.
If we are meeting the needs
we believe God has given us to meet
that’s all I care about.
But when it comes to us as individual Christians
I have very high
and very specific goals.
If I attempted to put those goals into a single statement
I would say that
the great longing of my life
is that each of us would know
the personal reality of Jesus Christ in our lives
in a way that transforms every aspect of our being.
I don’t hear and don’t care about
most of what other people say about my approach to teaching.
But I do know that, at least to some people,
I am probably viewed as a sort of GRACE extremist -
a teacher on the outer fringes
of what they would consider to be a ‟balanced” presentation of the ‟Christian” message.
In the time we have remaining this morning
I would like to share with you
both why I have ended up where I have in my understanding
of what our God is seeking to tell us about Himself through Christ,
and also to offer you my response
to those who may view me
as a Grace extremist.
This is certainly not intended to be a defense
because I do not believe any defense is needed,
but I do offer it as an explanation.
And I will begin first of all
by saying that there never has been
and never will be anything ‟balanced” about the true message of God’s grace.
It is the most extreme,
unbalanced truth ever to be offered to the mind of man.
That our God would choose
to clothe Himself in human flesh and blood,
then personally take all of our sins upon Himself,
and offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for those sins,
and then require from us
nothing more than our simple faith,
our trust in what He has done for us,
defies human logic.
If I would have written this stuff,
my sinner’s prayer
would have contained a clear requirement
of a solemn vow from the sinner
that he WILL now once and forever cease from all wickedness
and henceforth promise to live a life of moral purity.
The offer of God’s grace
extended to us by our Creator
when we never have
and never will be able to offer Him anything in return
is radical to the extreme.
Listen to this!
2 Cor. 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Does that make sense?
Does that seem balanced?
Does that seem reasonable and logical?
He gets all of our sin
and we get all of His righteousness.
I fully understand
the longing to mingle grace and legalism.
Such mingling makes perfect sense to me,
and it certainly would make
for much more comfortable preaching.
There is nothing more terrifying for me as a Bible teacher
than to find myself compelled to preach accurately
the message recorded in the Word of God.
There are times when I would love to be able to pick a verse here,
and a verse there,
and skillfully intertwine grace and legalism
so that we are more comfortable with the message given to us by our God.
Let me state it bluntly -
there have been more times than I would dare tell you
when I have found within me
this longing to stand up before you and say,
‟It is true that Christ died for your sins,
but I want you to know
that if you don’t get your act together and clean up your life
He’s kicking you out of the family!”
If I would have been in that crowd
surrounding the woman taken in adultery
and then dragged out in front of Jesus,
and I would have heard Him say to her,
‟Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more...”
there is something inside me
that would have longed to cry out,
‟THAT’S NOT FAIR!!! It says right here, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY!! You wrote the book Yourself,
why don’t You read it?
How can You say, ‟Neither do I condemn you?”
And from a church point of view
this whole thing
gets even more complicated
by something that may be a little unique to our particular church fellowship.
For as long as we have existed
we have always had a small number of people within our midst
who appear to have no hunger for God,
no Spirit-driven urgency to grow,
no overwhelming heart of gratitude for what He has done,
no changes taking place in their lives at all,
but who like coming here
simply because I don’t make them feel guilty
about the immorality dripping from their lives.
In the end I have come to the conclusion
that the presence of some such folks
is an unavoidable liability
of preaching the truth.
For, you see,
I also know that there are many of you
who are hearing with the ears of the Spirit of God.
When I have a chance to talk honestly with so many of you,
do you know what I hear?
I hear you sharing with me
the incredible longing you have discovered welling up within yourselves
to live lives that honor and glorify your Lord,
a longing that you had never known
until the hideous bondage of legalism
was removed from your backs
and you were finally able to hear
the voice of God’s love speaking to you.
Folks! That’s the real thing!!
The second statement I would offer
in explanation of my preaching of the message of the grace of God
is that I simply cannot deal honestly with Scripture as it is written
and mingle grace and legalism.
For the past 26 years
we as a church have been going verse by verse
through book after book in the Bible.
Not once have I ever consciously tried
to force a passage to say what I wanted it to say.
My responsibility as a Bible teacher is,
to the best of my ability,
to understand what the passage is saying in context,
and then to share that understanding with you.
And the truth is
I have ended up where I have ended up
in this whole GRACE thing
because I cannot handle Scripture with honesty,
and integrity,
in context,
and end up anywhere else.
Most of you know
that the last book of the Bible to be written,
the final written statement given to us by God,
the one that God clearly designed
to be at the very end of the Bible
is the book of Revelation.
I want to read the last few verses of the Bible for us this morning
because, when I read them
I find myself overwhelmed with God’s obvious determination
to make certain that the message He has given to us
throughout the several thousand pages that precede this final statement
is never misunderstood.
This is God saying to us,
“Are you still confused? Then let Me pull it all together
and give it to you one final time
in utter simplicity.”
And this is what He says:
Rev. 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes - take the water of life without cost.
That’s it!
That is what it’s all about.
And then, after including
a powerful warning
to anyone who would dare to tamper with this message,
and a final reaffirmation
of the soon return of Jesus Christ,
listen to the last 10 words
we will ever receive from our Creator in written form:
Rev. 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
I believe God chose those final words
as His way of telling us
that if we have touched this Book
without being overwhelmed with the message of Grace
then we have not understood it correctly.
And my final explanation
of my fervent commitment
to the undiluted preaching
of the radical message of Grace
is said best by Paul in Galatians 3:21.
... if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
There never has been
and never will be a list of rules written
that have the power to change a person’s life.
Gal. 2:21 "I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
And so, with all the risks that come with it,
and all the opportunities for misunderstanding,
and all the wilful abuse and distortion of the truth that accompanies it,
in the end there is no place else for us to go.
The only thing that can offer us hope
is the bold proclamation
of the pure message of the grace of God,
believing it alone has the power
to restore us to our God,
and break the power of sin in our lives,
and recreate us into people of great dignity and moral strength.
And then to wrap this whole thing up
just so that there is no misunderstanding,
I want to conclude
by taking the message of legalism
and the message of grace
and setting them side-by-side.
First of all, the Law.
1. God reveals His moral law.
2. God promises to bless us if we keep it.
3. God vows to curse us if we break it.
4. Our standing with God
and our security with Him at any given time
is directly based upon our performance
as measured by that moral law.
And the crucial thing I want us to see
about this whole law-based union with God
is that the entire thing is based upon our attempting to bring about changes in our lives
in response to external threats and promises.
You know my favorite statement in Scripture
concerning this:
Col. 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
Col. 2:21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"
Col. 2:22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
Col. 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
It looks great from the outside.
But it cannot change the human heart.
And the message of Grace?
1. God’s Spirit brings us to the point
where we recognize
there is nothing we can do in ourselves
to create a life pleasing to our God.
Rom. 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
That is where we have just been
in our study of the book of Romans.
2. Our God then offers us the Person of Jesus Christ
and through Him three things
that revolutionize our lives.
a. He gives us complete, total, eternal forgiveness for all our sins.
b. He creates within us a new heart,
a new inner spirit that loves our God
and longs to please and follow Him.
c. He frees us from a law-based relationship with Him
so that now, rather than living in continued fear of the wrath of God,
for the first time we begin hearing
His voice of love,
and find our spirits responding to that love.
Rom. 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
So, that’s a fast-paced overview of where we are, and where we’ll be going in this study of the book of Romans.