Participants: Oliver Archer
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000078
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00:32 Good day,
00:34 we enter into God's Word, 00:37 to discover just a little bit more about His wonderful, 00:42 incredible, amazing grace. 00:45 Our journey through God's Word, we're entitling 00:49 "Safe and secure 00:51 Living in the grace of God. " 00:55 Before we begin to study, let's bow our heads and pray. 01:00 Gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that we might 01:03 comprehend just were we are, so that we might understand 01:09 where you want us to be. 01:12 In Jesus' name. 01:15 Amen. 01:17 I'm reading from Romans 01:22 chapter 5 starting at verse 6 02:26 How bad is it? 02:29 You can tell a lot about a society by it's humor 02:32 the things that we find funny the things that tickle our 02:36 funny bone 02:37 resonate deep within. 02:40 In humor, there is always an element of truth. 02:43 Something has been exaggerated or minimized, or somehow 02:46 parodied 02:48 and in so doing, the tension between the truth of it and 02:53 the ridiculousness of it makes us smile. 02:58 And if that's true there seems to be something awry with 03:04 human society, because there is a dark side 03:09 to our humor. 03:11 From Tom and Jerry to Jerry Seinfeld 03:15 you take a look at the things that we laugh at, you'll find 03:19 that there is a hint of pain. 03:22 Even little children enjoy watching cartoons that are very 03:26 violent. 03:28 How bad is it? 03:32 The psalmist says 03:34 In Psalm 51 03:38 and verse 5 03:48 In Jeremiah 17: 9, Jeremiah says: 04:01 Is this true? 04:03 Are we desperately wicked? 04:07 How bad is it? 04:10 It reminds me of an old story. 04:14 This story is told of 04:15 two brothers that terrorize the community, 04:19 they were gangsters, horrible, cruel men, 04:23 and they were so good at their trade, that they were able to 04:29 illude the police and really do much damage in their 04:33 community. 04:34 Well, the story goes that one of these two brothers died. 04:38 Maybe in some altercation, as he was doing his deeds, 04:44 and the other brother came to the priest in the town, and sais 04:48 to the priest "Father, I'Id like you to do the funeral for 04:53 my brother, and I don't care really what you do, but some 04:57 time in that funeral I want you to call my brother a saint. 05:01 " So, the priest thinks about it for a little while and he sais: 05:07 "All right, I think I can do that" and so the day comes, 05:10 lo and behold there are many people there at the funeral 05:14 and the priest begins his message. 05:18 He says the man in the casket was a vicious and cruel man, 05:24 he was heartless and had no pity, in fact, this community 05:28 is better of without him, 05:31 but compared to his brother, 05:35 he is a saint. 05:37 Well, you know, the humor in that story 05:42 is that we all want to be saints, 05:48 but none of us are. 05:51 The Bible is clear, 05:54 in God' description, of who we are, it simply says: all have 05:59 sinned and and fallen short 06:02 of the glory of God. 06:03 We're all sinners, all of us, there's a seed of evil that 06:07 lurks within us, it is there from the time we have been born. 06:13 There's nothing we can do to remove it, in and of ourselves. 06:16 It is part of our genetic makeup, we inherited it from 06:20 our first parents and it remains with us. 06:24 We need someone else, to remove this from us. 06:30 Sometimes we think, 06:33 that the worst criminals, the child molesters, 06:37 the prostitutes, the alcoholics and the drug addicts, the serial 06:41 killers, the rapers, and all of those other hateless crimes, 06:46 those are really terrible, but, indeed we all have a hint 06:51 of that same evil. 06:53 Matter of fact, we don't have to look to such exotic crimes. 06:59 Lying, gossip, pride, 07:02 these will do. 07:05 If we are honest with ourselves, then we must admit 07:11 that the prophet Jeremiah is right. 07:13 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. 07:19 Even in the things that we laugh at, even in the things that we 07:22 find humor in. 07:24 It betrays the fact that there's something within, 07:28 something, something very dark within. 07:32 How bad is it? 07:36 How bad is sin and sinfulness? 07:40 For unless we understand the horror of sin, we can never 07:43 fully understand the beauty of God' grace. 07:48 And assurance that we have 07:51 in God, that He will not wait until we are good to save us. 07:58 But He will save us just as we are. 08:02 In order to understand God's grace, we must take a good look 08:06 at ourselves and our own sinfulness, so here's a first 08:10 question: 08:11 What is sin? 08:13 The Bible tells us in 08:16 1st John 08:20 1st John chapter 3 and verse 4 08:35 Sin is totally against the Law, 08:39 it's disregarding or braking the Law. 08:45 Yet, sometimes, when we think about sin, we think that sin is 08:50 only a set of rules. 08:53 Rules that are only sometimes strictly enforced. 08:59 I remember I was speaking at Camp Meeting and they sent a 09:03 letter to all the pastors reminding them that the speed 09:06 limit of 25 mph through town was strictly enforced. 09:11 And I think sometimes, we imagine that God's Law is like 09:15 the speed limit sign. 09:18 We can brake God's law, if only we can get away with it 09:23 if only no one's looking or no one's watching us. 09:28 However, God's law is not like a speed limit sign. 09:33 God's Laws are real, they cannot easily be broken. 09:39 I remember a story that a professor once told me when 09:42 I was in school. 09:45 About a group of missionaries that came to a particular 09:48 group of islands in the Pacific and it just so happened 09:51 that the people of this island, the women would walk around 09:55 without any tops. 09:58 And so, the missionary wives did not think this was such a 10:02 good thing. 10:03 And so they decided that they would buy some shirts 10:07 and give them to the entire community. 10:11 The native women wanted to enjoy these gifts. 10:17 But, they really weren't used to such restrictions as 10:21 these shirts. 10:22 And so, on the day appointed they all arrived in church 10:26 to hear the preacher preach. 10:27 But all the women of the community down their shirts 10:31 but they cut large holes in the front of the shirts. 10:37 So here it was that these women were trying to follow the rules, 10:44 but yet did not fit into exactly what the missionary wives had 10:48 taught. 10:50 It's interesting because in that particular culture the lower leg 10:56 was a very sensual part of the body 10:59 and they didn't care about the top part of the body, but the 11:03 lower legs, were very sensual part of the body, and that time 11:06 just happens to be a time that women were wearing miniskirts 11:10 and short skirts, and even the missionary wives were wearing 11:14 short skirts. 11:15 And these women couldn't understand how these missionary 11:19 wives could be talking about such a great God and yet, 11:23 dress so immorally. 11:25 And so here we have two different rules, about modesty. 11:32 Is God's law like that? 11:34 Laws that can be altered and changed or maybe different in 11:39 different cultures and settings? 11:42 Or is God's law quite different? 11:46 The Bible says in Romans 6 it says: 12:02 You see, the Bible says: "when we were without strength" 12:06 it means that we were without the power to keep God's law. 12:10 And sometimes we think we have the power to keep God's law, 12:13 if we can just figure it out. 12:14 But that's not the case, we are without strength 12:18 we can not keep God's Law, because God's Law is real and 12:21 not arbitrary. 12:24 It's real like the law of magnetism that allows 12:28 the needle to always point towards the pole. 12:32 Like the law of gravity, that causes objects to come to this 12:36 earth. 12:37 You cannot ignore the needle and still find your way home. 12:42 You cannot walk off the premices, and still remain 12:46 in the air. 12:47 Those laws are real, and so are God's laws. 12:52 Sometimes we are giving the impression that God's laws are 12:56 like men's rules. 12:59 And so, you can brake God's law. 13:02 And God says I don't like that and what are you guys doing 13:06 and so, I'm gonna get you. 13:08 I'm gonna destroy you. 13:09 Because I don't like you braking my rules. 13:14 But God's law is not like that at all. 13:18 Listen to what the Scripture says in Galatians chapter 6 13:25 Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7: 13:28 Listen to what the scripture says about sin and sinfulness: 13:51 The one who sows in his sinful nature, he's gonna reap 13:55 destruction. 13:56 And the one who sows in the spirit, he will reap everlasting 14:00 life. 14:02 Let us read on: 14:03 The Bible says more in James chapter 1, this is what it says 14:06 in verse 15: 14:22 And we also know what Romans says, take a look at Romans 14:25 Romans chapter 8: 13 14:30 This is what Romans says: 14:48 You see, sin kills. 14:52 Sin is like poison. 14:55 God is not being arbitrary, you will die if you commit sin. 15:01 Of course we're all familiar with that verse in Romans 6: 23 15:07 Let me read it to you in J. P. Philips translation, this is 15:10 what it says: 15:16 Sin, my friends, kills, and we are powerless to do anything 15:19 about it. 15:20 Why, because God's laws are real, they are not arbitrary. 15:27 And braking God's laws always has real consequences, 15:32 like being bitten by that poisoned serpent, 15:38 The poison will rush through your body, and there's nothing 15:42 that you can do to stop it from going through your body 15:46 and doing It's destructive work. 15:49 What makes sin so terrible 15:53 is that we have chosen it. 15:55 We have chosen our own demise. 15:59 Sin is not so much God's fault at all, 16:03 but, it is our choice, it is moral and spiritual suicide. 16:07 Look around you, all the pain, destruction, all the death, 16:12 this things that you see, we have caused them. 16:15 The world and all of those? stand from our own misdeeds. 16:22 This is the nature of sin, 16:25 and it works within the heart of man. 16:29 We must see grace in light of our own wickedness. 16:32 God did not come to this planet 16:35 to save us because He had done something wrong. 16:40 He came here because we had chosen death. 16:47 We are savage and cruel, 16:52 and left to our own, 16:55 we would destroy ourselves. 16:58 But the beauty and the wonder and the majesty of God's grace 17:02 is that while we were without strength, while we were His 17:06 enemies, Christ died for us. 17:10 Romans 5 doesn't only imply that we were damaging ourselves, 17:16 it also implies that we have done damage to God. 17:20 Let's take a look to Romans 5 one more time, Romans 5: 10 17:24 it says: 17:36 We were God's enemies, 17:39 not only is the law real, 17:41 but when we brake God's Law we brake a love relationship 17:47 with God. 17:48 We become His enemies. 17:50 We becomes the ones not only hurting ourselves. 17:54 We are hurting the one who loves us the most. 17:58 God's grace reaches down to us while we were His enemies. 18:03 Notice please, we are God's enemies and God is not ours. 18:09 God's love for us 18:11 is demonstrated, that while we were still sinners, 18:17 Christ died for us. 18:18 A very powerful illustration of God's grace 18:24 comes from a film called "The Mission". 18:29 In this story, 18:31 the protagonist is a mercenary. 18:35 His name is Mendosa. 18:37 It is in the time of the colonization of the New World. 18:41 It is in South America where this story takes place. 18:44 And this mercenary is going through the jungles 18:48 of South America capturing the native people and taking them 18:52 back to the colony to be sold as slaves. 18:55 This is the kind of man he is. 18:57 At the very beginning of the film he gets into an altercation 19:01 with his brother and he kills his own brother. 19:03 And it snaps something in him and he realizes just how 19:07 terrible a person he is. 19:10 Well, the priests come through the little colony and they 19:14 find out about this man. 19:16 And they go to him and they say that he can be forgiven 19:20 and restored. 19:22 But the man must choose his own penance, and so this is 19:25 what he decides that he will do. 19:28 He decides that he will follow these missionaries, 19:31 these priests, through the jungles of South America. 19:37 And become their servant 19:41 he would do this while he had a heavy burden 19:46 strapped to his back. 19:48 A burden of armor, that old Spanish, conquistadorian armor. 19:54 And so, the scene is 19:57 this man struggling through the jungles, 20:00 following these priests to go to a mission village 20:04 where they had built a church and these priests were 20:07 ministering to the native people. 20:10 To get to this mission, you had to climb the face of this 20:15 waterfall 20:17 that was the only way to get up and so in a very dramatic moment 20:21 this man is tethered to the other missionaries, but he's 20:25 climbing with this heavy burden on his back and he climbs 20:29 so high and then falls, and batters his body against 20:37 the rocks and bruises his body against the jagged edges of 20:40 the rocks, and he begins to climb again a little higher 20:43 he never falls all the way because he's tethered to this 20:46 other missionaries, but he falls again, just a little ways, 20:50 and he crushes his body against the rocks some more, and his 20:53 body is becoming bloody, 20:56 he is just exhausted as he climbs this face of this 21:02 waterfall. The water is just cascading down and the rocks are 21:05 very slippery, he climbs a little way and he falls, and he 21:10 falls, and this continues for a long time. 21:13 The missionaries actually get to the very-top and are welcomed 21:16 by the villagers and it's like a celebration, this man is still 21:20 making his way up, finally he gets to the very-top, 21:23 And he crawls over the edge, 21:26 and the water is cascading on one side of him, and he is 21:29 thoroughly exhausted. 21:30 His hair is mudded with blood and sweat and water, 21:36 and his whole body is shaking from exhaustion. 21:42 And at that moment everything stops. 21:47 The son of the chief of this village, 21:51 grabs a knife, that's laying on a rock and runs out to this man. 21:58 He grabs him by the hair and holds the knife under his 22:05 throat. And then he begins to speak on his own native 22:07 language. You don't know what he's saying, but you can imagine 22:11 what he's saying. 22:12 He is saying this is the man who has made us afraid to walk 22:15 in our country. 22:16 This is the man who is coming to our country and stole away 22:20 our fathers and our sons. 22:22 This is the man who has made us afraid to walk around and live 22:27 as we once have. 22:28 This is the man who has ruined our lives. 22:32 And so you can see him there with the knife underneath 22:35 Mendoza's throat. 22:36 And, in a very dramatic moment in the scene 22:43 he reaches behind, 22:47 and cuts the straps that hold this man's burden and this 22:51 big, heavy satchel of armor rolls off this man's back 22:55 and falls over the waterfall, and then the entire village 22:59 comes in, and they begin to laugh, and they begin to welcome 23:02 this man, and this man begins to cry. 23:06 And his life from that moment has been changed. 23:12 It is an incredible picture of grace. 23:19 For grace is when the weapon that should've been used 23:23 to take your life, 23:25 is used to set you free. 23:30 Oh, my friend, 23:33 we need to understand just how bad it is. 23:38 The Bible says that while we were God's enemies, while we 23:43 were sinful, that's when he came 23:46 to rescue us. 23:48 To die for us. 23:50 And the beauty of grace is that if God would come to rescue us 23:55 while we were His enemies 23:58 certainly we can be assured that He will take us to the kingdom 24:03 to live with him forever. 24:06 We can be safe and secure. 24:12 One more thing. 24:15 The Bible says in Romans 10-11: 24:34 We have been reconciled while we were enemies. 24:38 The word there, in the Greek, that's translated reconciled 24:43 is "catalaso". 24:45 And it means to exchange one thing for another. 24:50 The Bible is saying we can rejoice because the exchange 24:55 has already been made. 24:58 We don't have to wait to shout. 25:01 We can shout right now because the exchange has already 25:06 been made. 25:07 Christ's righteousness for our sinfulness. 25:11 Christ's life, for our death. 25:14 Christ's glory for our ignomy. 25:17 the exchange has already been made. 25:21 And because we have been reconciled, while we were 25:25 enemies, 25:27 We need not fear, 25:30 to think that maybe, possibly, God wouldn't love us enough, 25:35 to keep us in that saving relationship with Him. 25:41 We can be safe and secure. 25:46 How bad is it? 25:50 It is never bad enough. 25:54 But that God's grace, can reach us where we are. 25:59 There is no need to fear, 26:03 there is no need to worry whether we're in the kingdom 26:07 or not, whether I'm good enough or not, the exchange has already 26:12 been made, Halleluiah. 26:14 While we were helpless, while we were powerless, fully sold 26:19 out to sin, 26:21 that's when Christ came. 26:25 That's when He died. 26:27 That's when He gave His life for us. 26:32 Grace is ours while we are God's enemies. 26:40 And if He accepts us, while we're His enemies, 26:44 Certainly, when we have entered into a love relationship 26:48 with Him, 26:49 He will keep us, his promise never to leave us nor to forsake 26:54 us. 26:55 We can be sure, 26:58 we can be confident, 27:02 that we are safe and secure. 27:05 The love of God, the grace of God, 27:10 abounds far beyond our sinfulness, 27:15 Thrust God, thrust Him today, 27:20 and live a life at peace, with Him. 27:24 Because, you have been reconciled by the blood 27:27 of Christ. 27:30 Let's pray. 27:32 Gracious heavenly Father, 27:34 we recognize our own sinfulness. 27:37 We are born in sin, shapen in iniquity, but now you have come 27:41 to free us from sin, 27:43 even when we're stained and bloodied in sin. 27:46 We thank you for this, Lord we thank you. 27:49 We pray this in Jesus' name. 27:51 Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17