Participants:
Series Code: AVGC
Program Code: AVGC210009S
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00:04 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:05 And we welcome you to Guarding Grace. 00:09 This is the first of two seminars 00:12 that we will be taking a deep look 00:15 at the topic of grace and how we need 00:19 to be on guard. 00:21 I am so excited that you're joining us, 00:24 and I hope you have a pen and paper, 00:27 'cause we're gonna move rather quickly. 00:28 We won't have time to look up all the scripture references, 00:31 but jot them down 00:33 so you can verify what I'm telling you. 00:36 You know, many Christians live 00:39 with an understanding of grace that is fundamentally flawed. 00:44 Hosea 4:6, God says, "My people are destroyed 00:49 from lack of knowledge." 00:51 We don't want to suffer destruction 00:54 because we don't understand God's grace. 00:57 So today we are first, 01:00 before we get into what we must do to guard grace, 01:04 we're going to expand our understanding of grace. 01:09 Two of the greatest heresies in the Christian Church 01:13 is first salvation by works. 01:16 That's what all pagan religions teach. 01:20 That's what all cult religions teach 01:24 is salvation by works. 01:26 But the second great heresy is that grace 01:31 gives us license to sin. 01:34 You know, while it is true to say that grace 01:39 gives us liberty from Pharisaical legalism, 01:44 it is an absolute distortion. 01:47 The devil's distortion of truth 01:49 to say that grace gives us license to sin 01:53 or that anyone who mentions obedience 01:56 is unlearned in grace. 02:00 Sin kills, God regenerates, 02:04 and God empowers us to live by grace. 02:10 We're going to ask and answer three questions today. 02:14 One, who are you trusting for your salvation? 02:18 Secondly, how do you understand 02:22 the covenant term of grace 02:25 and the effects that it has on our life? 02:28 And third, what is the relationship 02:32 between grace and obedience to God's commandments? 02:36 Now, in part two of this, in our second seminar, 02:40 we will consider how God keeps covenant 02:45 with those who keep covenant with Him. 02:47 Let's pray. 02:49 Heavenly Father, oh Lord, 02:51 it is so wonderful to be with my brothers and sisters. 02:54 Thank you for this message. 02:55 Thank you for grace, Father. 02:57 We ask in Jesus' name 02:59 that You will send Your Holy Spirit now. 03:01 Give us ears to hear what He has to say. 03:05 Let Him be our teacher in Jesus' name. 03:08 Amen. 03:10 Who are you trusting for your salvation? 03:12 Did you know both the Old and the New Testament say 03:15 salvation belongs to the Lord? 03:19 Let's consider a familiar passage. 03:22 Ephesians 2:8-10. 03:25 You probably know this well. 03:27 In Ephesians 2:8 Paul says, 03:30 "For by grace, 03:31 you have been saved through faith 03:33 and that is not of yourselves. 03:36 It is a gift of God." 03:40 The salvation that God gives to us 03:43 is first an act of God. 03:45 That's justification when He declares us not guilty 03:50 when we receive Christ as our Savior. 03:53 But secondly, it is an act of God 03:57 when He works in us to sanctify us, 04:01 to separate us from sin. 04:03 That's when we've accepted Christ as our Lord. 04:09 Both acts, the act and the work of God 04:13 are compelled 04:15 by His nature of self-sacrificing love. 04:19 God saves us by grace. 04:22 It is unmerited favor through the channel of faith 04:27 and Jesus Christ 04:29 must be the object of our faith. 04:32 Our trust has to be in Him alone for salvation. 04:38 He's the one who reconciles us to God. 04:41 So let's look at this again. 04:43 Ephesians 2:8, 04:45 "By grace you have been saved through faith 04:47 that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." 04:50 But then Paul goes on and it's like, 04:53 boy, he's hammering this point home. 04:55 Verse 9, "Not of works, 04:58 lest anyone should boast." 05:01 Do you know what he's saying? 05:03 There is absolutely nothing that you and I can do 05:08 to save ourselves. 05:10 Nothing. 05:12 He gives, we receive through the channel of faith. 05:16 And what we're doing is just accepting 05:20 by grace His gift of salvation. 05:23 Nothing we can do. 05:26 Nothing can earn our salvation. 05:30 And it is prideful to think that we could. 05:33 In Isaiah 64:6, 05:37 Isaiah says, 05:40 "Your righteousness, the best acts that you can do 05:45 to be in right standing with God 05:47 are nothing but filthy rags in the glory of God slide." 05:53 We cannot count on anything we can do. 05:57 Our lifestyle choices won't save us. 06:01 Are they important? 06:02 We'll consider that, but they will not save us. 06:07 We can't trust ourselves for salvation. 06:12 Only God can give us salvation. 06:15 Someone asked me once 06:17 to believe in righteousness by faith. 06:19 And I said, "Are you kidding? 06:21 Righteousness by faith 06:23 is the only kind of righteousness 06:26 that there is." 06:28 So it's interesting however, 06:31 Paul goes on in the next verse. 06:34 In Ephesians 2:10, he says, 06:36 "We're saved by grace through faith, 06:38 not of works, lest any should boast." 06:40 But then he says "For we are His workmanship 06:44 created in Christ Jesus for good works, 06:48 which God prepared beforehand 06:52 that we should walk in Him." 06:54 Do you realize you and I, God has prearranged 06:58 a plan for our lives, a path for our lives 07:02 and good works were recreated in Christ 07:05 for good works. 07:07 They are an essential element of our walk with God, 07:12 but good works don't save us. 07:14 They're merely the evidence 07:16 or the fruit of our salvation that 07:20 this is something God prepared in advance beforehand, 07:24 how we should live. 07:25 So salvation is by grace alone 07:30 that there's no question. 07:32 The Bible clearly teaches this. 07:34 It was in the Old Testament. 07:36 We'll consider that in a moment 07:38 as well as in the New, so let us examine ourselves. 07:43 Who are we trusting for salvation? 07:47 Oh, may we be like Paul. 07:49 Paul said in Galatians 6:14, 07:52 "But God forbid that I should boast 07:55 except in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ 07:58 by whom the world has been crucified to me 08:02 and I to the world." 08:04 The cross of Christ represents Christ 08:08 sacrificial sufferings for us, not our sufferings for Him. 08:13 So let's be like Paul, let us glory and rejoice 08:17 in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 08:20 for our salvation. 08:22 So now our second question, 08:24 how do we understand the covenant term grace 08:30 and the effects that it has on our life. 08:32 In 2 Timothy 1:9, Paul says 08:35 grace was given to us in Christ 08:37 before time began. 08:42 Before time began, 08:44 grace was already part of the plan. 08:47 You know, God's everlasting covenant of redemption 08:52 was announced 08:54 before He laid the foundations of the world. 08:57 Revelation 13:8 says, 09:00 "The Lamb who was slain 09:03 from the foundations of the world." 09:05 Jesus has always been God's plan for us. 09:11 In Hebrews 13:20, it talks about His blood 09:15 is the blood of the everlasting covenant. 09:20 God humbled Himself. 09:23 He came down to earth and became a man 09:25 in the person of Jesus Christ. 09:28 He died to pay the penalty for our sins 09:31 that we could receive His gift of life. 09:36 Both the Old Testament and the New Testament say 09:38 salvation belongs to God. 09:42 I'm telling you, 09:44 salvation has always been by grace through faith. 09:48 Malachi 3:6, God says, 09:50 "I am the Lord, I do not change." 09:54 And Hebrews 13:8 says 09:56 "Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever." 10:01 Our problem in Christianity in general 10:06 is that some people see the New Testament 10:10 as a division, as a beginning, 10:13 like the Bible starts with the Gospel of Matthew. 10:16 No, it does not. 10:18 There is, the New Testament does not breach 10:22 the Old Testament. 10:24 God's Word 10:26 is both the Old and the New Testament. 10:30 We do not cast off or disown the Old Testament. 10:35 That was what the early church had to study by. 10:40 We should never look at 10:41 it as unauthorized or unworthy of acceptance. 10:46 Christianity says the Word of God 10:50 is both the Old and the New. 10:52 The New Testament is contained in the Old, 10:57 the Old Testament is explained in the New. 11:02 And Scripture is a progressive 11:07 unfolding of God's everlasting covenant. 11:13 This is something that the Lamb who was slain 11:16 from the foundation of the world. 11:19 He was introduced in Genesis 3:15, 11:22 and all of God's covenants, 11:24 both in the New Testament and the Old Testament 11:27 are described as DFAK. 11:29 You know what that means? 11:30 His covenants were not a contract 11:32 between parties. 11:33 His covenants are a will, a testament. 11:37 All of the promises are made by God. 11:41 And then He asks us 11:43 to come into covenant relationship with Him, 11:47 a relationship of covenant love. 11:50 And He asks that we agree to abide 11:54 by His government of love. 11:57 James 1:17 has always been one of my favorite scriptures. 12:00 It says, "Every good and perfect gift 12:02 comes from above, from the Father of lights." 12:06 That's an ancient Jewish expression for God is creator 12:11 of the sun and the light, and the moon and the stars. 12:14 But it says, "With whom," 12:17 speaking of this Father of lights, 12:20 "there is no variation or shadow of turning." 12:23 God never changed His mind. 12:25 He knows the end from the beginning. 12:28 And, you know, God is gracious to all. 12:31 He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, 12:35 and God sends His Holy Spirit 12:38 to work on the hearts of all trying to convict them 12:42 of His, their need for salvation. 12:47 But in this particular seminar, 12:51 when we speak of grace, 12:53 we're talking about the covenant term, grace. 12:59 In the New Testament Greek, 13:02 grace is the term for God's commitment 13:06 to our redemption and salvation. 13:09 And in the Old Testament, sometimes people say, 13:11 well, grace wasn't mentioned 13:13 very much in the Old Testament. 13:14 Let me tell you, there's no word 13:16 that is so far 13:18 above what we think of as grace. 13:21 It surpasses grace, and it is the Hebrew word 13:25 for the Old Testament equivalent of grace. 13:29 And that word is hescd. 13:31 I've seen it spelled H-E-S-E-D or C-H-E-S-E-D. 13:36 It's used 250 times in the Old Testament. 13:39 And you know what's interesting about that word? 13:42 The word hesed, it's a covenant term, 13:45 but we cannot translate that Hebrew word 13:49 into a single English word. 13:52 You know what it means? 13:54 It means love, 13:57 covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, 14:01 kindness and loyalty. 14:03 Let me give you an example. 14:05 In Exodus 34:6, 14:07 God passed before Moses, and He's getting ready 14:11 to proclaim His character to Moses. 14:13 And he says, "the Lord, the Lord, 14:15 a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, 14:19 abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." 14:22 Steadfast love is His hesed. 14:25 This, it describes God's acts 14:30 of devotion to us, His loving-kindness 14:34 as a covenant keeping God. 14:36 Now to understand the effects of grace, 14:39 you have to understand the gifts of grace, 14:43 and the three greatest gifts of grace 14:46 are Jesus Christ and His merits, 14:49 which grace imparts the life source of our Savior to us 14:53 who became our righteousness, 14:55 our redemption, and reconciled us to God. 14:59 The second greatest gift is the Holy Spirit 15:03 and his empowering assistance. 15:06 Grace imparts life source of the Holy Spirit to us. 15:10 He works in us to will and to do God's pleasure. 15:16 That means obedience is by grace. 15:20 And then the third greatest gift 15:22 is the Holy Scriptures that yield knowledge of the Lord 15:26 and the power of His promises. 15:28 Grace gives us the life source of the Word, 15:33 which implanted in our hearts 15:34 has the power to save our souls and to have us 15:38 become partakers of His divine nature. 15:41 And if you understand the gifts of grace, 15:45 you'll understand the effects of grace. 15:48 Grace is God's divine power of salvation 15:52 to rescue us from sin and death, 15:56 to renew a right spirit in us 15:59 and to restore moral purity. 16:04 I want to share with you a definition 16:07 that God gave me for grace. 16:10 Divine grace is the unearned, underserved 16:15 gifts bestowed by a God of infinite love, 16:20 which provide His divine 16:23 assistance and supernatural power 16:27 unto salvation. 16:28 Hallelujah. 16:30 No wonder Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15:10, 16:33 "By the grace of God I am what I am, 16:38 and His grace to me was not in vain, 16:41 but I labored more abundantly than they all, 16:44 yet not I, but the grace of God 16:48 which was in me." 16:50 So our third question, what is the relationship 16:53 between grace 16:56 and obedience to God's commandments? 17:01 Moses said in Deuteronomy 4:13, 17:05 "God declared to you His covenant, 17:09 His will, His promise, 17:12 which He commanded you to perform 17:14 the Ten Commandments, 17:17 and He wrote them on tablets of stone." 17:19 So the Ten Commandments are God's covenant 17:23 and all of God's covenant 17:25 are like a will and a testament. 17:27 Did you know literal 17:30 translation in the Hebrew 17:32 is 10 words, 10 statements? 17:35 And in the Greek, it is also Decalogue, 17:39 which is 10 words. 17:41 They are written the commandments 17:43 in the future tense in a double negative, 17:46 which means they are promises, 17:50 but they convey an expectation of obedience. 17:55 So it was translated into English 17:58 as the Ten Commandments. 18:00 When God came down on Mount Sinai 18:03 to give these 10 promises to His people, 18:07 what was He saying? 18:09 He was saying, 18:10 "You'll have no other gods before Me. 18:14 You will not make idols and bow down to them. 18:18 You won't take My name in vain. 18:20 You will just cherish the Sabbath. 18:25 You'll be excited 18:26 to celebrate the Sabbath with Me. 18:28 You will honor your father and your mother. 18:31 You won't murder, you won't commit adultery, 18:33 you won't steal. 18:34 You won't bear false testimony, and you won't covet." 18:38 Why? 18:39 Because that's what living 18:42 in covenantal relationship with Me is like. 18:48 God defines in His Ten Commandments, 18:51 covenant love for our Creator 18:54 and covenant love for our neighbor. 18:58 And you know, I look at the Ten Commandments 19:01 as the Bill of Rights of God's government. 19:05 They are the... 19:08 How can I say it? 19:09 It's the Bill of Rights for a covenantal relationship. 19:14 God wrote them with His own finger on stone 19:18 both times after Moses 19:20 broke them in the second time. 19:22 And then He had Moses place those commandments where? 19:27 In the inside of the ark, in the Most Holy Place. 19:32 Do you know what that signifies? 19:34 The ark was God's throne. 19:37 The commandments were placed inside the ark 19:40 and the mercy seat was above it. 19:43 The commandments are the foundation of God's 19:47 sovereign government of love. 19:51 It is a law of liberty, but let me tell you something. 19:55 The commandments are not the Old Covenant. 20:00 The commandments are not the Old Covenant. 20:03 And I can prove that to you from the Word. 20:07 In the Word of God, the book of the law, 20:10 which is Deuteronomy, and that means second law 20:14 is the Old Covenant. 20:15 It started as the Book of the Covenant. 20:18 After God gave the Ten Commandments 20:20 to Moses, 20:22 then Moses goes back up the mountain. 20:25 God gives Moses civil laws, moral laws 20:29 and ceremonial laws. 20:31 And He tells Moses, now you go write this down. 20:34 Moses comes down the mountain. 20:36 He speaks in to the people, then he writes them out 20:39 and he writes them in something that is called 20:43 the Book of the Covenant. 20:45 This is not the Ten Commandments 20:47 that God wrote on stone, but the Book of the Covenant 20:50 which were based on the commandments. 20:52 And then he builds this altar in Exodus 24:7-8 says this. 20:57 "Then he took the Book of the Covenant, 21:01 read it in the hearing of the people. 21:03 And they said, 'All that the Lord has said 21:06 we will do and be obedient." 21:07 Which by the way was a good response. 21:10 And Moses took the blood sprinkled. 21:13 He takes the blood from the sacrifice 21:16 that he's just made on this altar. 21:18 He sprinkles the people with the blood, 21:20 and the Book of Hebrew said, 21:22 he even sprinkled the Book of the Covenant. 21:25 And he said, "This is the blood of the covenant, 21:29 which the Lord has made with you 21:32 according to all these words." 21:34 All these words are found after the Ten Commandments. 21:38 Exodus 20:22 through Exodus 23:19. 21:44 Then 39 years later, 21:46 when they had reached the edge of the Promised Land, 21:50 Moses repeats and reinforces the Book of the Covenant. 21:55 And he records it now in what is called 21:57 the book of the law. 22:00 And listen, what Moses says in Deuteronomy 31:26, 22:04 "Take this book of the law 22:07 and put it beside 22:10 the Ark of the Covenant 22:13 of the Lord your God, that it may be there 22:17 as a witness against you." 22:20 Now, you know, this is really an important point. 22:24 Where were the Ten Commandments? 22:26 Inside the ark, under the mercy seat, 22:28 the throne of God. 22:30 It was the foundation for God's government 22:33 that suggests permanence. 22:35 They're written on stone by God's own finger. 22:38 But this book of the law that is written on parchment 22:42 is put on the side of the ark 22:45 as a witness against the people. 22:47 This suggests a temporariness about it. 22:51 And Colossians 2:14, it says, 22:54 "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements 22:57 that was against us." 22:59 Same words that are used in Deuteronomy 32:26, 23:03 which was contrary to us, 23:06 Christ has taken it out of the way, 23:09 having nailed it to the cross. 23:11 You see, 23:12 Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law. 23:16 And He abrogated the book of the law 23:20 as the constitution for His people. 23:23 He delivered a new constitution 23:26 when He was on the Mount giving the Sermon on the Mount. 23:31 And let me tell you something, He did not repeal 23:35 the Ten Commandments, He magnified them. 23:38 What did he say? 23:40 He said, "You have heard it said 23:41 that you shall not commit adultery." 23:43 But you know what Jesus said? 23:45 "I tell you, if you lust in your heart, 23:46 you're already guilty of adultery." 23:51 And then He said, 23:53 "You have heard it said that you shall not murder, 23:56 but I tell you 23:58 that if you hold hatred in your heart, 24:01 you are guilty of murder." 24:03 So Jesus 24:05 expanded the explanation of God's commandments 24:08 showing us the spirit of the law. 24:12 And then he ratified the New Covenant 24:15 with His own blood 24:17 when He died on Calvary's cross. 24:20 So the Old Covenant 24:22 was contained in the Book of the Covenant, 24:25 which was then called the book of the law 24:27 after it was expanded. 24:29 But the Ten Commandments were the heart of the Old Covenant. 24:34 And you know what? 24:35 They are the heart of the New Covenant. 24:38 Let me read to you from Hebrews 8:7-10. 24:43 Hebrews 8:7 says, 24:46 "For if the first covenant had been faultless, 24:48 then no place would have been sought 24:49 for a second because finding fault with them," 24:52 not with the covenant itself, but with the people, God says, 24:56 "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, 24:59 when I will make a New Covenant 25:02 with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 25:04 Not according to the covenant 25:06 that I made with their fathers, 25:07 in the day when I took them by the hand 25:10 to lead them out of the land of Egypt, 25:11 because they did not continue in my covenant 25:16 and I disregarded them, says the Lord." 25:19 Now Hebrews 8, continuing in verse 10, 25:23 says this, "For this is the covenant 25:27 that I will make with the house of Israel 25:29 after those days said the Lord. 25:31 I will put my laws in their mind 25:35 and write them on their hearts. 25:37 And I will be their God and they will be My people." 25:41 Are the Ten Commandments 25:43 binding on Christians? 25:44 Absolutely. 25:45 Listen to what James says, in James 2:10-11. 25:51 He says, "For whoever shall keep the whole law 25:54 and yet stumble in one point, 25:56 he is guilty of all." 25:58 What laws is he talking about? 25:59 He's getting ready to tell us. 26:01 Verse 11, "For he who said, 26:04 'Do not commit adultery," what law is this? 26:07 Also said, "do not murder." 26:09 He's talking about the Ten Commandments. 26:11 And he says, "Now, if you do not commit adultery, 26:16 but you do murder, 26:18 you have become a transgressor 26:22 of the law." 26:25 Ten Commandments are a part and parcel 26:30 of the New Covenant. 26:32 In Mark 12:30-31, someone had asked Jesus, 26:36 a scribe came to him and said, 26:38 what's the most important commandment? 26:40 And Jesus answered and said, 26:42 here it is, 26:43 "You shall love the Lord your God, 26:45 with all of your heart, with all of your mind, 26:48 with all of your soul, 26:51 with all of your strength. 26:53 And then he says the second like it is this. 26:59 You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 27:04 There is no commandment greater than this. 27:08 Then Jesus said in John 14:15, 27:11 "If you love Me, keep My commandments." 27:16 Love and obedience are inseparable. 27:17 Love fulfills the law of God. 27:20 If we love God, and if we love others, 27:24 we won't violate 27:25 any of God's Ten Commandments. 27:28 Jesus said, then He keeps going. 27:30 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. 27:32 And I will pray the Father, 27:34 as a result of you keeping My commandments. 27:36 He will give you another helper, 27:38 allos parakletos that he may be with you forever." 27:41 The spirit of truth with whom 27:44 the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him 27:49 nor knows Him, but you know Him, 27:51 for He dwells in you. 27:53 He will be with you, allos parakletos. 27:56 A parakletos is an advocate, a counselor, 28:00 a comforter, a helper, 28:02 and the word allos in the Greek 28:04 is important for another, two Greek words for another. 28:09 There is heteros, which means yeah another, 28:11 but not exactly the same. 28:13 Or allos one who is exactly like me. 28:16 And so what Jesus is saying 28:19 is that the Holy Spirit is the same quality, 28:22 the same character. 28:23 He is another person. 28:25 He is sending to live in our hearts. 28:28 The greatest gifts of God's grace 28:32 are Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit 28:35 and the Word of God. 28:40 1 Corinthians 10:12, Paul says, "Therefore, 28:43 let him who thinks he stands take heed, 28:46 lest he fall." 28:47 Join us for part two of Guarding Grace, 28:50 where we will look at that situation. |
Revised 2021-07-01