Anchors of Truth

Love God and Do as You Please

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Ty Gibson

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000148


00:13 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth,
00:15 live from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:23 We welcome you to the 3ABN Worship Center
00:26 once again.
00:27 And we welcome you to the sacred hours of the Sabbath.
00:30 And we welcome you to night number three of our Anchors
00:34 series, The Law of Life, with the most intriguing title,
00:39 Love God and Do As You Please.
00:42 I really wonder what that is all about.
00:44 And I'm sure that Ty Gibson, our speaker, has much to say
00:47 on a very intriguing subject.
00:50 We have to apologize to brother Ty.
00:52 We have not treated him well, yea, these several days.
00:54 It has been cold and rainy each of the days
00:57 that he has been here.
00:58 But he has been here when times have been better,
01:01 so he knows that this is not the norm for this area.
01:04 But we have not treated him well.
01:06 Yet, the song says when Jesus shows His smiling face,
01:10 it is always sunshine in our souls.
01:13 So though the weather is cold and rainy, there is indeed
01:16 sunshine in our souls.
01:18 And the messages that we have heard have certainly
01:21 shined God's love and light in our souls.
01:23 They've been very, very interesting.
01:25 More than that, inspirational as well as informational.
01:28 And we really appreciate how God has used Ty
01:32 these last two nights.
01:33 And we expect no less from him this very night.
01:37 Again, an interesting topic, Love God and Do As You Please.
01:42 Very, very interesting topic.
01:44 I know the Lord has a word for us this very night.
01:48 Our song tonight comes from some counsel given to
01:51 Timothy in the Word of God.
01:53 Paul telling us to stand.
01:57 To stand for the right though things are going wrong,
02:00 though your courage seems to fail.
02:04 You just stand for Jesus.
02:05 Because God has not given us a spirit of fear.
02:10 But He's given us love and power.
02:13 And so as we stand for Him, we know that He will stand with us.
02:18 That is God's promise to His people.
02:20 We shall pray, sing our song, and then we will
02:22 turn the pulpit over to our friend, our brother in Christ,
02:27 Ty Gibson of Light Bearers Ministry.
02:29 Shall we pray.
02:31 Father God, we praise You and thank You so very much
02:34 for the privilege that is ours to come to the house of prayer.
02:40 We are thankful, Lord, that Jesus is our Friend.
02:45 We are thankful that He has a word for His children.
02:50 And we ask, Lord, that You would give us
02:52 open and attentive ears so that we may hear the Word,
02:58 but also do the Word.
03:00 Because it is in the doing that we are made like Christ Jesus.
03:04 So bless the speaker, bless those who sit in this house,
03:08 and those who hear from around the world.
03:10 May Christ be seen and glorified again this night.
03:15 And we thank You in Jesus' name, amen.
03:40 You just stand, when all your courage seems to fail;
03:49 stand, when it seems that evil will prevail;
03:57 stand, for He shows us in detail
04:03 that His love will never fail;
04:07 and He'll stand with us.
04:10 You just stand, when you've said all that you can say;
04:19 stand, and trust the Lord to make a way;
04:27 stand, and live your life from day to day,
04:33 trust God to make a way,
04:37 and then walk through it.
04:40 For God has not given us the spirit of fear;
04:44 He's given us love and power,
04:49 the courage to resist the tempter's snare.
04:55 Be ye not weary in doing well,
04:59 for only time will tell.
05:04 The works He's begun in you
05:08 will help to see you through.
05:11 You know God's word is true,
05:14 and everything He promised He will do.
05:18 So having done all to stand,
05:23 stand.
05:28 You just stand, when you feel no one's on your side;
05:38 stand, defy the urge to run and hide;
05:45 stand, though gloom and darkness override;
05:52 trust God to turn the tide
05:55 and pull you through it.
05:57 He'll do it in the name of Jesus.
06:00 Stand, for He is always there for you;
06:08 stand, and watch Him lead you safely through;
06:15 stand, and though you know not what to do,
06:22 know that He's looking out for you.
06:25 And He won't fail you.
06:28 For God has not given us the spirit of fear;
06:33 He's given us love and power,
06:38 and the courage to resist the tempter's snare.
06:44 Be ye not weary in doing well,
06:48 for only time will tell.
06:53 The works He's begun in you
06:57 will help to see you through.
07:00 You know God's word is true,
07:03 and everything He promised He will do.
07:07 So having done all to stand,
07:12 stand.
07:17 Plant your feet and stand.
07:30 Thank you, C.A.
07:33 Good evening, everybody.
07:35 One of my absolute favorite things to do is to listen in
07:40 to conversations that my two grandsons have.
07:45 They're brothers, and they are Mason and Austin.
07:50 This particular conversation occurred when they were
07:53 about 4 years old and 6 years old.
07:56 And sometimes I record the conversations
07:59 because they're so hilarious and insightful.
08:03 They didn't know I was listening in, and I was writing
08:06 as fast as I could.
08:08 And this is what occurred between them.
08:11 Mason had just said no to a demand
08:16 of the littler guy, Austin.
08:19 Austin then said, "Big people are suppose to do things
08:24 for little people, not the other way around."
08:28 Mason responded and said, "Well, then why does mommy
08:31 always tell both of us to do things,
08:33 and she's bigger than both of us?
08:35 And we're both little compared to her."
08:37 Austin responded and said, "But you are the big brother.
08:41 So you should do everything I tell you do to,
08:44 because I'm little."
08:46 He was so emphatic.
08:48 Finally Mason responded and said, "Well, I don't think
08:52 you're that little.
08:53 So you should do things for yourself."
08:55 To which Austin responded, "But I'm littler than you are."
08:59 And Mason ended the conversation by saying,
09:02 "But there are lots of little people in the world.
09:04 And I can't do everything for all of them."
09:08 That's the essence of the kind of negotiating
09:14 we go through continually in our minds
09:17 in relationship to God.
09:21 And I want to share with you this evening
09:23 that the big thing, the big task,
09:27 that needs to be done for us has, in fact, been done
09:32 by God for you and me.
09:36 This is a series on the law of God.
09:39 Again, I'll just mention, as we launch into this
09:42 third part in our series, that the law of God is
09:46 not a subject that excites a lot of people.
09:49 It's not something that we're eager to explore and
09:52 study and look at.
09:53 Because we generally perceive the idea, the very idea,
09:58 of law as restrictive.
10:01 If somebody begins speaking about law or rules
10:06 or regulations, we tend to lean away from those conversations
10:11 because we feel like it's encroaching upon
10:13 our liberty.
10:15 But we discover in Scripture that God's law itself
10:20 is unlike any other kinds of laws.
10:23 Unlike civil laws, unlike human laws,
10:27 that are merely based on the necessities
10:31 of human societies in order to keep them operating
10:36 soundly on a judicial level.
10:39 God's law is different.
10:41 It's distinct.
10:42 And certain aspects of God's law do show up in civil law.
10:46 "Thou shalt not commit murder," obviously shows up
10:52 in civil judicial systems.
10:55 But God's law goes deeper than that, as we're going to
10:59 discover this evening.
11:00 We don't need to dicker with God as to
11:04 who ought to do what in the relationship.
11:07 Because as we're about to discover, God has done
11:10 everything necessary for our salvation.
11:14 And we're in the position of simply, by faith,
11:18 responding to what He has achieved on our behalf.
11:24 He's the big guy in the universe and He's done the big task
11:30 on our behalf.
11:31 Now you should be, I would imagine,
11:36 uncomfortable with the title this evening.
11:39 Did you feel a little bit of discomfort when C.A.
11:43 told the title?
11:45 Love God and Do As You Please.
11:46 I want you just to hold that in your mind.
11:48 We're going to come back to it.
11:50 It's a little bit of a riddle.
11:51 I meant for it to kind of, you know, rouse you
11:54 in your thinking.
11:55 To wonder, "Is that true or not?"
11:57 We're about to discover whether it's true or not.
11:59 We're going to spend our time in Galatians chapter 5,
12:03 for the most part.
12:04 We'll look at some other passages, but definitely
12:06 we're going to spend most of our time in Galatians chapter 5.
12:11 This is a powerful passage of Scripture in which
12:15 the apostle Paul is unpacking the glory of
12:19 the gospel of Christ.
12:21 And he's making it so astoundingly clear
12:24 that we need make no mistake regarding the part that
12:28 God plays and what it is that He's looking for from us.
12:32 Galatians chapter 5 starting with verse 1.
12:37 Paul begins by saying, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty
12:43 with which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled
12:49 again with a yoke of bondage."
12:52 Okay, let's just pause right there.
12:54 This is very unique language that we spent some time
12:58 exploring from other passages last night.
13:02 Notice, Paul says, "Stand fast in the liberty
13:07 where with Christ has made us free."
13:11 There is a past tense, accomplished, achieved liberty
13:17 that Jesus, as our Savior, has already worked out for us.
13:22 We're not called upon in the gospel to manufacture
13:27 our liberty.
13:29 We're not called upon to work out our liberty
13:33 from sin and guilt. No.
13:34 Jesus has accomplished salvation in Himself.
13:39 You'll remember the language from our previous message
13:42 where Paul, in Romans 3, spoke of the redemption
13:46 that is in Christ Jesus.
13:50 It's an accomplished fact.
13:52 And our faith, our obedience, our trust, even our belief,
13:57 doesn't manufacture any new facts.
14:02 Our faith is externally focused on things that are already true.
14:10 Notice that the good news of the gospel is, in fact,
14:15 good news.
14:16 It's not called good advice.
14:19 Good advice is what's offered by every other philosophical
14:24 and religious system in the world.
14:26 Good advice is telling you and me as sinners
14:29 what we ought to do, what we should do,
14:32 what we had better do in order to rectify our situation.
14:37 Good advice points me toward something I need to achieve.
14:43 But good news points back to something
14:47 that's already been achieved.
14:49 It's news.
14:50 It's something that's already happened.
14:52 And we, then, are called upon to acknowledge the good news,
14:58 to believe the good news, to exercise faith and trust
15:01 in what's already been accomplished.
15:04 So Paul begins here by simply telling us, you should
15:08 stand fast in the liberty with which Christ
15:14 has already liberated you.
15:17 You're free in Christ if you will choose by faith
15:22 to acknowledge the liberty He's worked out on your behalf.
15:26 There is no additional work to be done by you and me
15:30 to create additional liberty.
15:34 It is a matter of, by faith, acknowledging
15:38 the achievements of Christ.
15:41 And then Paul goes on to build upon this foundation
15:46 by telling us that we're not to be entangled again with
15:49 the yoke of bondage.
15:51 Did you catch that in verse 1?
15:52 "Stand in the liberty with which Christ has made us free,
15:57 and don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."
16:01 What is this bondage that Paul is urging us
16:05 not to be entangled with again?
16:08 Well, he's speaking in his own context.
16:11 Back in chapter 4, he talked about bondage in verse 25.
16:17 He had been talking about the old covenant
16:22 verses the new covenant.
16:24 He had been using the story of Abraham and his two sons,
16:29 Isaac and Ishmael.
16:30 One by the bondwoman and the other by the free woman.
16:34 One by Sarah, and one by one of Sarah's servants.
16:39 And notice, the apostle Paul, trying to contrast between
16:42 old and new covenant, basically says the difference
16:46 between these two is that the new covenant
16:49 is based on the promise of God to do what God
16:53 in His power alone can achieve.
16:56 The old covenant, by contrast, is based on what Abraham
17:01 and Sarah put their heads together as human beings
17:04 to apply their effort, to apply their power,
17:07 to the task of helping God fulfill His promise.
17:11 God had said to Abraham, "You will have a son.
17:16 I, God Almighty, promise you, even though you're old, Abraham,
17:21 even though your body is past the age of child birth,
17:25 and even though your wife Sarah's body is beyond
17:28 the age of natural child birth, I promise you, Abraham,
17:32 you will have a son.
17:35 You will have a son.
17:36 And in that son, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
17:42 All the people of the world will be blessed in that
17:44 promised lineage, through which Messiah will come."
17:50 But Abraham and Sarah, getting impatient,
17:56 decided to apply themselves to the task in their own way.
18:02 "We're not going to be able to produce the child God has
18:06 promised, so let's help God produce or achieve
18:12 what God apparently can't get done Himself on our behalf."
18:17 And so they came up with the idea of Abraham
18:22 having relations with Sarah's handmaid in order to
18:27 produce an heir.
18:29 God refused to acknowledge Ishmael as the proper
18:37 promised heir.
18:39 He refused because there was something fundamentally wrong
18:44 with the theological outlook of Abraham and Sarah.
18:50 God simply renewed the promise, repeated the promise.
18:53 He said, "No, that child is not what I promised.
18:56 I promised to produce a child out of Sarah's body
19:02 based on My power to get the job done."
19:06 It's very interesting in the story that Paul
19:08 is referring to here.
19:10 It's very interesting that when he tells the story,
19:15 he's referring back to something that everyone of the people
19:19 he's talking to would be familiar with.
19:21 He's telling the story of Abraham, and there is
19:25 a part of the story that is very, shall we say,
19:29 uncomfortable for everybody, because after Abraham and Sarah
19:37 attempted to fulfill God's promise by the potence,
19:42 the biological potence, of Abraham with the bondwoman,
19:48 God said, "Abraham, now everybody in your line
19:53 needs to be circumcised."
19:57 Circumcised.
19:58 Why circumcised?
20:00 It's such an odd thing for God to require.
20:03 But God required it as a constant reminder
20:07 that Abraham had employed his own power
20:11 to produce the heir.
20:13 And God, in that symbolism, was saying to Abraham,
20:17 and to Sarah by extension, "Not by your power,
20:21 not by your ability.
20:22 The promise is going to be fulfilled by My power,
20:26 by My promise."
20:28 And so Paul, drawing upon that story in chapter 4 of Galatians,
20:33 draws a contrast between the child of promise,
20:37 that's Isaac, and the child of works, which was Ishmael.
20:44 And he says, "This is symbolic of the two covenants."
20:50 Now think this through very carefully.
20:52 Essentially, what we have before us in the old covenant
20:56 and the new covenant is this:
20:59 The old covenant isn't so much something that applies
21:03 to a certain time in history as it is something
21:06 that applies to a certain kind of experience
21:09 at any time in history.
21:11 It's not the dispensationalism idea that people use to,
21:17 in the Old Testament, they were saved by works,
21:19 and now in the New Testament times they're saved by grace.
21:22 No.
21:24 Grace has always been the only means of salvation.
21:27 And down through history, Old Testament and New Testament,
21:31 and our very day as well, each one of us at any given time
21:37 in our spiritual experience, we are living old covenant
21:43 ideas or we're living new covenant ideas.
21:48 To live within the old covenant is to live within
21:52 a paradigm of salvation that is dependent on self to fulfill
21:59 personal salvation to some degree or another.
22:02 Whereas the new covenant is a person, an experience,
22:08 in which the dependence is utterly and completely
22:12 on God to make good on the promise that He has made.
22:17 So when we come to chapter 5 with that background,
22:21 the apostle Paul says, "Stand fast in the liberty
22:25 with which Christ has made us free."
22:28 You're already free by the promise of God.
22:31 You can't manufacture your freedom, your salvation.
22:35 What you need is to acknowledge Christ as your Savior
22:40 and rest your entire dependence upon Him.
22:44 "Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made us free,
22:50 and don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."
22:53 Now we understand what he means by the yoke of bondage.
22:56 In the context of chapter 4, what is the bondage
23:01 that he's urging us not to be entangled with again?
23:04 It's the bondage of an old covenant manner of relating
23:09 to salvation and to God.
23:11 Don't be entangled, theologically or experientially,
23:18 with a way of thinking and living that is focused on
23:23 depending upon yourself.
23:28 Allow yourself to live within the liberty of the salvation
23:33 that has already been achieved for you in Christ.
23:36 Well then he unpacks the idea further.
23:39 And we come now down to verses 5 and 6.
23:42 We can't look at every verse for the sake of time,
23:44 so we're going to look at the high points
23:46 of his reasoning here.
23:47 Going down to verses 5 and 6, we have a marvelous and powerful
23:52 declaration of the truth of righteousness by faith.
23:56 Now if you have spent any time in Christian circles,
24:01 you have heard the terminology, "righteousness by faith."
24:05 Here is the single, the only time that the phrase itself
24:10 occurs in the Bible.
24:13 In chapter 5 of Galatians, 5 and 6.
24:16 That doesn't mean the idea isn't present
24:19 in Scripture other places.
24:20 It is.
24:21 Genesis to Revelation, righteousness by faith
24:23 is the subject.
24:25 But the exact wording, "righteousness by faith,"
24:28 occurs one time in the Bible.
24:30 And it's right here.
24:31 Notice, verses 5 and 6.
24:34 "For we," Paul says, "For we through the Spirit,"
24:38 that is the Holy Spirit, "eagerly wait for the hope
24:43 of righteousness by..." What?
24:46 "...righteousness by faith."
24:48 There's our term.
24:49 Now he's going to break it down for us.
24:51 Verse 6, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
24:57 nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith
25:02 that works by love."
25:05 This is amazing what Paul is telling us here.
25:08 First of all, we just need to clarify
25:11 that he's only referring to circumcision
25:15 as one of the hot button issues, one of the
25:17 controversial issues of his time.
25:20 If we were to modernize it to our particular setting,
25:24 we wouldn't speak about circumcision or uncircumcision
25:28 in this context, because that's not a controversial point
25:31 that people are pressing in upon and arguing over whether or not
25:36 it has saving virtue.
25:38 We would put in there other things that are hot button
25:42 issues of controversy today, and issues that we, quite frankly,
25:45 find to be important, but Paul is telling us
25:48 don't have saving value.
25:52 So we might say, "For in Christ Jesus, neither..."
25:58 What? And what would you put there?
25:59 Sabbath keeping or not Sabbath keeping?
26:04 Practicing health principles or not practicing principles?
26:10 Would you even go so far as to say, keeping the law of God
26:14 or not keeping the law of God?
26:18 It's a very uncomfortable question for those who
26:20 believe the Sabbath, and for those who believe in
26:23 the immutability of God's law, the eternality of God's law.
26:27 I'm one of those.
26:29 I'm a Sabbath keeper.
26:30 I believe in the seventh day Sabbath.
26:34 I'm one who believes that God's law is immutable
26:37 and eternal.
26:40 But Paul is simply saying to you and me
26:43 with regards to salvation,
26:47 with regards to salvation, this nor that avails anything.
26:53 There's only one thing that avails for salvation.
26:57 Allow Paul to unpack his own thinking here.
27:00 He says there's one thing that avails for salvation.
27:05 Faith that works by love.
27:09 That's all. That's all.
27:12 Are we uncomfortable with that?
27:15 Do we find ourselves struggling to understand whether or not
27:21 Paul is doing away with any kind of behavioral compliance,
27:26 any kind of obedience?
27:28 Is he attempting to sideline, to marginalize,
27:31 or to do away with the law of God?
27:34 Absolutely not.
27:35 He's simply putting the law of God in its proper place
27:40 in the scheme of things for salvation and for the gospel.
27:45 Think about it this way.
27:47 If I make the statement to you right now
27:50 and ask you to respond true or false,
27:52 I wonder what your answer would be.
27:55 Obedience to the law of God is necessary for salvation.
28:00 True or false?
28:05 I head whispers of true and false.
28:09 I mean, true and false as two different answers.
28:13 Okay, just wrap your minds around this little nuance,
28:16 this little change, okay.
28:18 Just exercise your mind with me biblically.
28:21 Let's think biblically tonight, okay?
28:24 The first statement, "Obedience to the law of God is necessary
28:29 for salvation;" true or false?
28:30 Just let the answer register, whatever your answer is.
28:32 I'm just going to change it slightly now, okay?
28:34 Here we go.
28:36 Obedience to the law of God is inevitable
28:40 within salvation.
28:43 Do you hear the difference between the two?
28:46 Obedience to the law of God is necessary for salvation.
28:51 In that scheme of things, what comes first,
28:53 obedience or salvation?
28:56 Obedience comes first as the means of obtaining salvation.
29:03 Now what's the difference in the second wording?
29:06 Obedience to the law of God is inevitable
29:10 within salvation.
29:12 What's the difference now?
29:14 Salvation is a free gift that is in place.
29:18 And within the experience of salvation, what occurs?
29:24 Obedience to the law of God.
29:26 Obedience begins to occur as the natural by-product
29:32 of salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ.
29:36 Now don't turn there, for the sake of time,
29:38 but this is a familiar text.
29:40 And I'll just take us there and come back to Galatians, okay?
29:44 And you'll see the difference here very, very clearly.
29:47 In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10,
29:52 listen to the words here.
29:54 "For by grace you have been saved through faith,
29:59 and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,"
30:03 notice the language now,
30:04 "not of works, lest anyone should boast.
30:10 For we are His workmanship," I'm in verse 10 now,
30:14 "created in Christ Jesus for good works,
30:18 which God has before ordained that we should walk in them."
30:23 Did you hear the text?
30:25 Works are mentioned twice.
30:29 Did you catch it? Twice.
30:32 Notice the difference.
30:33 "For by grace you have been saved through faith,
30:36 and that not of yourselves... lest any man should boast."
30:41 So we're not saved by works.
30:45 But then he goes on and says, "For we are His workmanship
30:49 created in Christ Jesus unto good works..."
30:52 What's the difference between, "of," and, "unto"?
30:56 Do you hear the logical connection between
31:00 the two aspects?
31:02 Do you see the direction that Paul's thinking is going?
31:04 If I say to you, "I am not saved of good works,"
31:11 have I negated good works all together?
31:15 No, because now I'm going to turn around and I'm going to
31:17 say something else.
31:18 "But I am saved unto good works."
31:22 Do you hear the difference?
31:24 This is Paul's thinking.
31:25 I'm not saved by my works.
31:28 But if I'm saved, will there be works?
31:31 Yes or no.
31:32 Yes, there will be good works.
31:33 The good works are inherent in the salvation itself.
31:41 I don't procure, I don't achieve, I don't gain
31:45 salvation by my obedience.
31:47 But if I am genuinely experiencing salvation
31:52 by faith through grace alone in Christ,
31:54 will there be obedience, will there good works?
31:57 Yes, that's going to be the natural outgrowth of
32:02 my saving relationship with Christ.
32:04 Now come back to Galatians chapter 5.
32:05 You're going to love this.
32:07 This is amazing.
32:09 So he's told us in verse 1 that Jesus has already set us free
32:14 in Himself as our Savior.
32:15 He accomplished salvation for us.
32:18 Stand in that liberty.
32:20 And then he says, verses 5 and 6 again,
32:23 "We eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."
32:26 And then Paul explains exactly how righteousness by faith
32:31 works, how it operates.
32:34 He says, because in Christ Jesus, it's not circumcision
32:39 or uncircumcision that avails anything for my salvation.
32:43 It's not Sabbath keeping or not keeping the Sabbath.
32:47 It's not keeping the law or not keeping the law for salvation.
32:52 Notice the qualification.
32:53 Paul is not doing away with the law.
32:55 He's simply putting it in its right place.
32:57 And then he says this, watch this:
33:00 What does avail?
33:02 Faith that works by love.
33:07 That's what avails.
33:09 That's what really makes the experience
33:14 everything its suppose to be.
33:16 And he's done something interesting here.
33:19 The word here that is translated in the English, "works,"
33:23 "faith works by love," is a Greek word...
33:28 Which when I say it, you'll immediately know
33:32 what the word means.
33:33 Because it's very close to an English...
33:35 You know that the English language, don't you,
33:37 is not a pure language.
33:39 It's an amalgamation, it's a hi-jack operation.
33:42 The English language is a hodgepodge of Greek and Latin
33:47 and Spanish and various other languages all brought together
33:52 in some kind of weird mix.
33:54 And that's why we have so many strange grammatical rules
33:56 that even those of us who know English grammar well
34:00 can't figure out sometimes.
34:01 It's a mess, the English language.
34:04 And there are a lot of Greek words that we use.
34:07 Here's one; I'm going to say the Greek word,
34:10 and you'll immediately know what the English equivalent is.
34:13 The word, "works," here is in the Greek, "energeo."
34:19 What's the word?
34:20 Energy or energize.
34:23 So literally what Paul is saying here, follow his reasoning,
34:27 he says, "We eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness
34:33 by faith..."
34:34 So righteousness is by faith.
34:37 And it's not this or that or the other, outward compliance.
34:40 No obedience to any requirement that produces salvation,
34:45 that purchases it, that merits it.
34:47 No.
34:49 But faith which is energized by love.
34:55 Or we might say it this way; faith that is empowered by love.
35:01 There is an electrical system in this building,
35:06 there is a wiring system, there are switches on walls.
35:11 If the switches are turned off, there is no power
35:16 moving through the conduit of the wiring system
35:20 to bring illumination and warmeth into the building.
35:25 What needs to happen is to walk over to the wall
35:27 and flip the appropriate switch.
35:30 And immediately what happens?
35:32 Power begins to flow through the system.
35:37 Similarly, the human being is a system that needs to be
35:43 electrified, if you all.
35:45 Energized, empowered.
35:48 And according to the apostle Paul, what is the energizing,
35:52 empowering factor in the plan of salvation?
35:57 It is the love of God.
36:00 Righteousness, he says, is by faith.
36:03 And faith is energized by love.
36:06 These are the basic three components in Paul's thinking.
36:11 Righteousness is not something that you and I
36:14 can focus on productively.
36:18 We can't manufacture righteousness.
36:22 In fact, the Bible goes so far as to present to you and me
36:26 how absolutely unrighteous we are and how impossible it is
36:32 for us as human beings to achieve or to manufacture
36:36 righteousness on our own.
36:38 For example, Jesus says, "Which one of you
36:42 by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?"
36:48 It's a really great illustration that Jesus is using.
36:52 He's simply saying that you can't, by mere mental
36:57 determination, get taller.
37:01 It doesn't matter how long you apply your mind
37:05 to the positive thinking toward getting taller,
37:08 "Which one of you," Jesus says, "by taking thought
37:11 can add one cubit to his..."
37:13 You can't get taller by thinking about it hard enough
37:17 or trying hard enough.
37:19 And Old Testament Scripture says that all of our righteousnesses
37:23 are as filthy rags, and then reasons with us
37:27 that a leopard can't change its spots
37:31 and a human being can't his or her skin color.
37:35 What's the point that the prophet is making?
37:38 There are things that are beyond human capacity.
37:43 There are things that are beyond our ability to pull off,
37:46 to achieve.
37:47 You can't get taller by thinking hard enough about it,
37:50 and you can't change the color of your skin
37:53 by trying hard enough.
37:55 So righteousness is not something that you and I
37:59 can productively focus on and try to achieve
38:02 in and of ourselves.
38:04 That's the point.
38:05 If I had a billion dollars...
38:06 That's pretty motivating, by the way.
38:08 If I had a billion dollars here before you this evening
38:12 and I asked all of you, "Do you want this one billion dollars?"
38:17 Everyone of you in your right mind would say, "Of course.
38:19 Give it to me. Hand it over.
38:21 I'll take it."
38:23 You want it, but if I said to you in the next breath,
38:26 "There's just one condition. Just one.
38:30 Not three or four or five, just one condition.
38:33 All you have to do is jump and touch the moon once.
38:39 One time.
38:40 That's all you've got to do."
38:41 How many of you would actually stand up and start jumping?
38:46 You wouldn't.
38:47 Because you know that the task that has been assigned
38:52 is beyond the realm of possibility.
38:57 Similarly, righteousness, in the equation that Paul is
39:02 building for us here, righteousness is not
39:04 something that human beings are capable of achieving
39:09 or manufacturing by thinking about it, by trying hard enough.
39:15 Paul says that righteousness is only by faith.
39:23 But what about faith?
39:24 Is faith something that you and I, by merely trying hard enough
39:30 or thinking hard enough, can manufacture and produce
39:33 in ourselves?
39:34 Here's the biblical picture of faith.
39:37 First of all, we're told in Romans that God has
39:41 given or dealt to every person a measure of faith.
39:45 So from the get go, faith itself is a gift of God.
39:50 It's not something that is commonly represented as
39:53 positive thinking.
39:54 Often times, faith is represented in our world
39:58 as simply thinking positive thoughts and visualizing
40:03 things so that they'll come to pass.
40:05 Sometimes you'll hear preachers talk about faith
40:08 in the sense of believing hard enough that God will
40:12 give you the best parking space, for example,
40:15 in a shopping center, as if that were of significance.
40:19 Faith is not a trivial matter of positive thinking.
40:24 First of all, biblically speaking,
40:26 faith is a gift of God.
40:28 It's like a sleeping giant of possibility lying dormant
40:32 in every one of our hearts.
40:34 It's there.
40:35 To make this clear, I could use my own experience.
40:38 I had faith, as a gift from God, deposited in my human soul
40:47 from the beginning of my life.
40:50 It was there.
40:51 But I did not begin to experience the exercise
40:56 of my faith until I was 17 years old.
40:59 It was there, it just wasn't active.
41:02 Are you following me?
41:04 It was present.
41:05 Like for example, the faculty of reason is present.
41:10 It's there as a potential that can be exercised.
41:14 But not everybody exercises their cause and effect
41:17 reasoning capacity.
41:19 Some people jump off buildings thinking they can fly.
41:22 And gravity has its way with them.
41:25 The fact is, that just because you have the capacity to reason
41:30 doesn't mean you're reasonable.
41:33 Do you hear the difference?
41:34 So faith was there in my heart, but it was inactive.
41:38 It was lying dormant until I came in contact
41:42 with the love of God.
41:45 And that's Paul's point.
41:48 We, according to Scripture, only achieve righteousness
41:53 by faith...
41:55 And then Paul adds the third component.
41:58 What does he say in verse 6?
41:59 ...and faith is energized by love.
42:04 I can't achieve righteousness in and of myself.
42:08 Nor is faith something that I can stimulate and bring into
42:11 action if left to myself.
42:13 The vital need is far more fundamental than that.
42:18 I need to have a living clear vivid encounter with the love
42:25 of God in Christ.
42:27 That's what Calvary is all about.
42:31 Jesus dies on the cross in order to demonstrate,
42:36 to use Paul's language in Romans chapter 5,
42:39 to demonstrate the love that God has for you and me.
42:45 God demonstrated the love that He has for you and me
42:50 in the death of Christ at the cross.
42:51 A demonstration is something that is put on display
42:55 to behold, to see it, to grasp it, to comprehend it.
43:00 And so when Jesus anticipates that He's going to the cross
43:04 to die, He says things like this, He says,
43:06 "I, when I am lifted up, will draw all to Me."
43:12 Notice the word, "draw."
43:13 It's the idea of being attracted to Jesus.
43:18 He is simply saying that, "When I die on the cross,
43:22 something beautiful is going to be revealed."
43:27 The self-giving, self-sacrificing,
43:31 love of God will be revealed at the cross.
43:34 And anyone who looks upon that display of divine love
43:40 will find their heart strangely warmed and drawn back to God
43:46 in repentance.
43:48 That love is what one author calls a, "matchless attraction."
43:56 It's without rival.
43:59 What we see happening in Jesus is a display of love
44:04 that moves our hearts at the deepest possible level.
44:09 As we mentioned in an earlier message, you and I
44:14 are engineered for love.
44:16 Psychologically, emotionally, and even biologically,
44:20 we are made to operate by the energizing, empowering,
44:25 force of God's love.
44:28 Just like the light system in this building
44:31 is energized by electricity, the human being is energized
44:37 by living, vital, encounter with the love of God.
44:41 This is why over and over again we find in the New Testament
44:45 this idea that we are called upon to, to quote John
44:50 in 1 John chapter 3, "Behold, what manner of love the
44:55 Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
44:59 the children of God."
45:00 What are we to do with this love?
45:03 Behold it.
45:05 Not just with the eyes, but with the mind and with the heart.
45:09 To look upon this love and to allow it access
45:15 to our hearts.
45:17 To embrace it, to accept it, to allow ourselves to be
45:21 loved by God in the way that Jesus revealed His love for us.
45:29 When that happens, the apostle Paul says something radical
45:33 and amazing, and utterly non-human in the sense of
45:40 our own power begins to take place.
45:42 Something that's supernatural, not natural, begins to happen.
45:46 Righteousness is by faith, and faith is energized by love.
45:54 You and I need then to focus our attention
45:58 upon the cross of Christ.
46:01 And as we do, notice what's happening.
46:04 To focus on the cross of Calvary means we have turned our
46:08 attention away from whom?
46:10 From ourselves, that's right.
46:12 We have turned away from ourself.
46:16 Which is to say, we have turned away from self-dependence.
46:20 We have turned away from our own resources and abilities.
46:24 We've turned away from our own power
46:27 to manufacture righteousness.
46:30 We've turned away from ourselves,
46:32 we're looking upon Christ.
46:34 And as we look to Him, we begin to be empowered
46:38 on a level we never imagined.
46:42 Because we begin to love like God loves again.
46:48 And there's no greater power in all the universe
46:52 than the power of God's love.
46:55 So Paul is reasoning with you and me.
46:58 He is pleading with you and me.
47:00 He's saying, "Don't be entangled with the yoke of bondage
47:04 to an old covenant orientation in your relationship with God."
47:09 Don't allow your mind to be caught in the snare
47:13 of old covenant theological views where the focus
47:19 is on me and what I ought to do and what I had better do,
47:22 or else, in order to be saved, in order to make it.
47:26 No.
47:28 Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face;
47:33 and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim
47:37 in the light of His glory and grace.
47:40 You will find yourself irresistibly attracted to God
47:46 if you focus your attention off of yourself onto Christ.
47:52 The promise of the gospel that Paul is unpacking for us here
47:57 is a salvation that is by grace alone through faith alone
48:02 in Christ alone.
48:04 He's the Savior and His love is the energizing force
48:10 of that salvation.
48:11 Well then Paul goes on.
48:14 And he reasons further and says some things
48:18 that we tend to find uncomfortable,
48:21 but are vitally necessary for us to understand and internalize.
48:25 Go down to verses 13 and 14 of Galatians 5.
48:30 He says, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty..."
48:35 Alright, he's made that clear in the previous verses.
48:38 You've been called to liberty.
48:40 Stand in the liberty by which Christ has made you free.
48:44 But then he says this, he says, "...only do not use
48:48 liberty as an opportunity for the flesh,
48:52 but through love serve one another."
48:57 Do you hear what he's saying here?
48:59 We're liberated in Christ.
49:02 Our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone
49:05 in Christ alone.
49:07 And listen, Paul is saying, there are one of two ways
49:10 you can relate to that liberty.
49:12 You can either, within that liberty, love one another
49:18 and love God supremely...
49:20 Right?
49:21 ...or you can misinterpret your liberty as an excuse,
49:26 as an occasion, as an opportunity,
49:30 to continue in sin.
49:32 Do you hear what he's saying?
49:33 You can say to yourself, you can reason to yourself
49:35 like this, you can say, "Wow, if God's that good,
49:40 and He's forgiven me by His grace alone through faith
49:44 alone in Christ, if salvation isn't something I can
49:48 contribute to, if I can't be saved by my works,
49:52 well then I'll just sin with gusto.
49:56 I'll just do whatever I jolly well please.
49:58 I'll live for myself."
50:01 That's one way you can reason through grace.
50:04 But what would Paul say to you and me on that account?
50:07 He would say, "You don't get it.
50:09 You don't get it.
50:10 People who are in love don't violate
50:14 the one they're in love with."
50:16 That's how Paul would reason with you.
50:18 Don't use your liberty as an occasion for sin.
50:23 Don't capitalize on the freedom that God has given you in Christ
50:27 by continuing in a life of sin.
50:31 No, liberty, the liberty that has been purchased for us
50:34 in Christ is intended to bring us back to God,
50:37 not to send us off into sin with a presumptuous hope
50:42 that we'll be saved in our sins.
50:45 Jesus by His grace doesn't save us in sin.
50:50 He saves us from sin.
50:54 And according to Paul's reasoning now,
50:57 he says, "...do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh,
51:04 but through love serve one another."
51:06 Do you hear what he's saying?
51:08 You've been saved by grace, so stop violating one another
51:12 in the body of Christ.
51:14 He goes so far in verse 14 to say, "For all the law,
51:22 all the law is fulfilled in one word," in one statement.
51:26 And what is it?
51:28 Wow.
51:29 "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
51:34 And then he gives this rebuke, "But if you bite and devour
51:42 one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another."
51:45 This is kind of a, I guess we could call it a kind of
51:48 Christian cannibalism.
51:51 He says you bite and devour one another.
51:53 What's this that he's describing?
51:56 Gossip and backbiting in the church.
51:58 People living in violation of one another.
52:03 Paul says, "No, don't sin against one another
52:06 because you have the liberty of salvation by grace.
52:08 Salvation by grace ought to heighten your desire
52:12 to live in love toward one another."
52:15 Grace doesn't condone sin.
52:18 Grace is the mechanism by which God gives us the power
52:22 to overcome it.
52:24 That's Paul's understanding, that's his thinking.
52:27 He goes on and he says something very fascinating
52:30 down in verses 22 and 23.
52:33 He talks about what the Christian life will look like.
52:37 He says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
52:42 longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
52:45 gentleness, and self-control."
52:48 Those are the kind of things that will be taking place
52:51 in the life that is saved by grace through faith
52:54 and has liberty in Christ.
52:55 And then he says something very, very interesting.
52:58 The latter part of verse 23, he says,
53:01 "Against such there is no..." What?
53:05 There's no law.
53:06 There's no law against love.
53:10 There's no law that forbids joy.
53:12 There's no law that stands against self-control.
53:15 Paul is saying that when we live within the parameters
53:20 of grace where the love of God begins to become
53:24 the impetus and the motive and the constant inclination
53:30 of our hearts, when that begins to take place within us,
53:33 Paul is informing us something so remarkable takes place
53:38 that within the power of God's love, we begin to
53:40 love like God loves.
53:43 Loving Him and loving one another.
53:46 So now we come back to our title.
53:49 Love God and Do As You Please.
53:51 What do you think, true or false?
53:55 True or false?
53:57 Love God and Do As You Please.
53:59 Well it could be true, it could be false.
54:01 It all depends on whether or not you really love God.
54:06 I mean, think about it.
54:07 If I am truly, by virtue of the love of Christ
54:12 displayed toward me, drawn back to Him,
54:15 and I love God because He first loved me,
54:18 watch this, I'm going to please to do what He pleases.
54:23 My heart will be changed.
54:24 There's this powerful statement in, Desire Of Ages, page 668,
54:30 commentary on the life of Christ that you're going to find
54:32 very interesting in this regard.
54:34 It says this...
54:40 Notice, it comes from the heart.
54:44 That means, Jesus came to this world to reach people's hearts.
54:52 Notice our role, "...if we consent..."
55:13 What do you think of that?
55:16 That is a longer version of the title of this message.
55:22 Love God and Do As You Please.
55:24 Jesus, when He was in this world, said, "I do always
55:31 those things that please God."
55:34 Notice, Jesus found in His relationship with God
55:39 that He pleased to do what God pleased.
55:43 Isn't that how love works?
55:46 Notice what the Bible says in regards to this
55:51 in Psalm 40 and verse 8,
55:53 where David really gets the new covenant.
55:55 He understands it when he says, "I delight to do Your will,
56:02 O my God, for Your law is within my heart."
56:07 You hear that?
56:08 The language of delight, the language of pleasure,
56:12 the language of pleasing to do what God pleases.
56:16 Why?
56:18 Because God, in His great mercy, has so beautifully loved us
56:24 first in Christ.
56:27 When we look to Calvary, we see such a marvelous
56:32 beautiful display of self-sacrificing love
56:37 that it radically changes our heart toward God.
56:42 Something happens deep on the inside
56:46 of our humanity.
56:48 And the apostle Paul says that you begin to experience
56:51 a righteousness which is by faith, and a faith
56:58 that works by love.
57:01 That is my prayer for you and for myself,
57:04 that we would be partakers of the love of Christ
57:08 by which faith is energized to lay hold upon
57:13 the righteousness of Christ.
57:15 Would you pray with me.
57:16 Father in heaven, thank You for loving us the way You do.
57:22 Thank You, Father, for the beautiful truth of righteousness
57:26 by faith that works by love.


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Revised 2015-09-16