Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Unwrapping the Gift of Grace, Part 2

Transcript

Unwrapping the Gift of Grace, Part 2 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:07
Speaker 1: Imagine spending your whole life trying to measure up, accumulating
0:11
Speaker 1: righteousness by the inch, good deeds by the yard, and
0:15
Speaker 1: hoping you've done enough to earn a spot in heaven.
0:18
Speaker 1: Now picture God throwing away the tape measure. Today on
0:22
Speaker 1: Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll uses a simple measuring tape
0:26
Speaker 1: to shatter our performance-based view of salvation. Whether you've got
0:30
Speaker 1: one foot of righteousness or four feet of religious works,
0:33
Speaker 1: the shocking truth is God's grace doesn't measure your performance
0:37
Speaker 1: in inches and yards. Chuck titled today's message, Unwrapping the
0:42
Speaker 1: Gift of Grace. Unwrapping the Gift of Grace.
0:49
Speaker 2: Through God's eyes, through his lenses, if you will, as
0:53
Speaker 2: he looks at humanity, he evaluates that all are sinful.
1:01
Speaker 2: None deserve or can ever earn their way into the holy,
1:08
Speaker 2: absolutely pristine, pure presence of God. Verse 21. Verse 21.
1:16
Speaker 2: Now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has
1:19
Speaker 2: been displayed, rendered here manifested. The righteousness of God has
1:24
Speaker 2: been displayed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
1:30
Speaker 2: Even the righteousness of God through faith. Notice three things
1:35
Speaker 2: about this. It has nothing to do with the law,
1:40
Speaker 2: this righteousness. It says it's apart from the law. Second,
1:44
Speaker 2: it is not new. It was witnessed. It was declared.
1:50
Speaker 2: It was written by the law and the prophets. They
1:54
Speaker 2: knew of this righteousness, and it is all a part
1:57
Speaker 2: of God's redemptive plan that began all the way back
2:00
Speaker 2: at Adam. It's nothing new. Third, it's not from within ourselves.
2:07
Speaker 2: It is based on our faith in Jesus Christ. As
2:12
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, when we turn to ourselves, verse
2:15
Speaker 2: 23 tells it all. All have sinned and fall short
2:20
Speaker 2: of the glory of God. Have you ever worked hard
2:23
Speaker 2: enough to be as righteous as God is? You can't.
2:27
Speaker 2: Ever sacrificed enough to really earn your way into heaven
2:30
Speaker 2: like the sacrifice of Jesus? You can't. You talk to
2:34
Speaker 2: any religion and ask the crucial question, how much is enough?
2:37
Speaker 2: They can never answer the question. Why? Because works never
2:41
Speaker 2: get you there. You never know when you've done enough.
2:45
Speaker 2: So we have a transfer of righteousness. Look at how
2:49
Speaker 2: he puts it. It's so clear in verse 24. Being
2:52
Speaker 2: justified as a gift. The Greek has just one word.
2:57
Speaker 2: It's the term for freely. Being justified freely. Without one
3:03
Speaker 2: thing that we had in ourselves. Then it's by his grace.
3:10
Speaker 2: Look across the page at chapter 4. Verse 4. This
3:15
Speaker 2: is as clear as it can be. Romans 4, 4. Now,
3:19
Speaker 2: to the one who works, that refers to your employment.
3:26
Speaker 2: That talks about your job. To the one who works,
3:32
Speaker 2: his wage is not credited as a favor, but as
3:37
Speaker 2: what is due. Now, that's true, isn't it? Look at
3:42
Speaker 2: the next verse. But, there's another one of those great buts.
3:47
Speaker 2: But to the one who does not work, but believes
3:52
Speaker 2: in him who justifies the ungodly, why his faith is
3:59
Speaker 2: credited as righteousness. That is so good, I want to shout.
4:03
Speaker 2: Let me tell you why. Here I am, lost, absolutely sinful, depraved,
4:13
Speaker 2: Nothing in myself to please God. Nothing. And Christ comes
4:19
Speaker 2: in my place. Christ dies to pay the penalty of
4:24
Speaker 2: sin on my behalf. And as I believe in Jesus
4:30
Speaker 2: Christ and his death for me, where he paid the
4:33
Speaker 2: complete payment for sins, I am now in Christ alone.
4:41
Speaker 2: And I am seen as righteous as God's own son
4:45
Speaker 2: is righteous. Is that good or what? I couldn't have
4:51
Speaker 2: a relationship more connected or secure than that. Now back
4:59
Speaker 2: to the verse. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
5:03
Speaker 2: verse 25, whom, that's referring back to Christ Jesus, whom
5:10
Speaker 2: God promised publicly displayed as a satisfaction in his blood
5:16
Speaker 2: through faith. What does that mean? Now listen carefully. Listen carefully.
5:22
Speaker 2: When Adam sinned, exactly as God told him, Adam died.
5:29
Speaker 2: He instantly died spiritually. He began to die physically. In fact,
5:35
Speaker 2: the Lord said the soul that sins will surely die.
5:40
Speaker 2: In order for sin to be taken care of, there
5:43
Speaker 2: must be death. So when it comes to the sins
5:47
Speaker 2: of the whole world, which we have inherited from Adam,
5:51
Speaker 2: how can we possibly pay that kind of payment? We
5:54
Speaker 2: can't because sinful sacrifices don't work in God's eyes. It
5:59
Speaker 2: takes a sinless sacrifice. That's why the Lamb of God
6:05
Speaker 2: is the sinless Lamb of God in the Scriptures. And
6:10
Speaker 2: the sinless lamb of God was sacrificed. And the sacrifice
6:15
Speaker 2: of his death satisfied the demands of the father on sin.
6:21
Speaker 2: How great is that? So by blood death, by Jesus'
6:26
Speaker 2: death on the cross, his blood washes away our sins
6:30
Speaker 2: and satisfies the father. So two things happen in this
6:34
Speaker 2: display of love. First of all, It satisfies the Father's
6:39
Speaker 2: demand on sin. That sin must be paid for with death,
6:44
Speaker 2: so Jesus' death satisfies the Father. And second, it silences
6:49
Speaker 2: the scandal against God. In the Old Testament, God was
6:55
Speaker 2: seen as one who suspended judgment and his holiness was
7:00
Speaker 2: called into question. In fact, that's why it reads like
7:02
Speaker 2: it does. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in
7:06
Speaker 2: the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.
7:11
Speaker 2: And some said in those days, he doesn't care. God
7:14
Speaker 2: must not be holy. And therefore, in the cross, God
7:19
Speaker 2: publicly displayed his judgment on all sin, past, present, and future,
7:24
Speaker 2: thus clearing his name in the minds of those who
7:27
Speaker 2: said he was not holy and was not just. Now
7:30
Speaker 2: there's a declaration of faith in the middle of all
7:33
Speaker 2: of this. Verse 26. The demonstration, I say, of his
7:36
Speaker 2: righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just,
7:41
Speaker 2: that he took care of the sin issue in his son,
7:44
Speaker 2: and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus.
7:48
Speaker 2: In other words, in order for you and me to
7:51
Speaker 2: benefit from this offer of eternal life, we must act
7:56
Speaker 2: in faith and accept it. I can hand you the
8:00
Speaker 2: gift all day, but if you don't take it by faith,
8:04
Speaker 2: it does you no good. It's yours to take as
8:08
Speaker 2: if I were giving you a gift. And when you
8:10
Speaker 2: take the gift, grace happens. You, the unworthy and undeserving one,
8:18
Speaker 2: are now declared righteous in God's eyes. That's grace. D.
8:25
Speaker 2: Martin Lloyd-Jones has left us 13 volumes on the letter
8:29
Speaker 2: to the Romans. It is not bedside reading, let me
8:32
Speaker 2: assure you. But on occasion, he puts his finger on
8:36
Speaker 2: a particular truth and just articulates it like you'll read
8:40
Speaker 2: it nowhere else. Listen to what he says on grace.
8:43
Speaker 2: There is no more wonderful word than grace. It means
8:48
Speaker 2: unmerited favor or kindness shown to one who is utterly undeserving.
8:55
Speaker 2: It is not merely a free gift, but a free
8:58
Speaker 2: gift to those who deserve the exact opposite. And it
9:04
Speaker 2: is given to us while we are without hope and
9:08
Speaker 2: without God in the world. I love that. Not only
9:14
Speaker 2: is it a free gift, it is a free gift
9:17
Speaker 2: to those who deserve just the opposite. We deserve in
9:21
Speaker 2: ourselves the opposite. And the Lord God in grace gives
9:26
Speaker 2: us His, His righteousness. Three questions emerge in the text
9:36
Speaker 2: and in the mind of any thinking person. Verse 27,
9:41
Speaker 2: where then is boasting? I illustrated earlier what it would
9:46
Speaker 2: be like if we had heaven full of people that
9:49
Speaker 2: were full of themselves. walking around with their thumbs under
9:52
Speaker 2: their suspenders talking about how they had earned their way
9:55
Speaker 2: here or they had gained this favor with God. No,
9:58
Speaker 2: he says boasting is excluded. You see, when you take
10:02
Speaker 2: this gift of eternal life by faith, you give all
10:05
Speaker 2: the credit and glory to the one who gets the credit,
10:08
Speaker 2: and that's God himself. You didn't earn your way in.
10:12
Speaker 2: You came in by the grace of God. Years ago,
10:16
Speaker 2: as I was finishing my years in the Marine Corps,
10:18
Speaker 2: I mustered out at Treasure Island, which is an area
10:23
Speaker 2: near the Golden Gate Bridge, just off the coast of
10:26
Speaker 2: San Francisco. I'll never forget our ship sailing under the
10:30
Speaker 2: Golden Gate Bridge, and we, men who had been away
10:33
Speaker 2: about 16, 17 months in Southeast Asia, were now coming
10:37
Speaker 2: to the States to be discharged. And my mind was
10:41
Speaker 2: filled with the memory of my time on the islands.
10:45
Speaker 2: I had spent my months there on a Quonset hut
10:49
Speaker 2: that each one of the Marine Corps Quonset huts had
10:51
Speaker 2: 50 men in them. And it had been my joy
10:54
Speaker 2: to lead about seven of them to Christ. It doesn't
10:57
Speaker 2: sound very impressive, but seven out of 50 Marines is
11:00
Speaker 2: a revival, folks. It's a revival. And by the grace
11:05
Speaker 2: of God, I had the privilege of building into the
11:07
Speaker 2: lives in some of them. Back then we called it discipleship.
11:10
Speaker 2: Today we call it mentoring. One of them was an
11:12
Speaker 2: outstanding trumpet player. who today is the master trumpeter of
11:16
Speaker 2: the San Francisco Symphony, a marvelous musician who played in
11:21
Speaker 2: the Marine Corps band, as I did over there. And
11:24
Speaker 2: he said to me, when you get to the States,
11:26
Speaker 2: I want you to look up my folks. Now, I
11:28
Speaker 2: knew that his folks were going to a liberal church
11:31
Speaker 2: because I knew from his background, as he told me
11:34
Speaker 2: of his religious life, I knew that he had never
11:38
Speaker 2: heard the truth of the gospel. So I said, I'd
11:40
Speaker 2: love to meet them. He said, I want you to
11:42
Speaker 2: tell them what you've been telling me. And I said, well,
11:45
Speaker 2: I'll see if the door opens. He said, you open it.
11:47
Speaker 2: You tell them what you've done. I said, wait, okay,
11:50
Speaker 2: let me see how it unfolds. So Sunday comes and
11:52
Speaker 2: they invite me to their church. And just lovely people.
11:57
Speaker 2: Liberals are all lovely people. And we were just, we
12:00
Speaker 2: had just a great time together and we're driving to church.
12:03
Speaker 2: They said, we really want to show you something at
12:06
Speaker 2: our church. And I said, great. I won't name the denomination.
12:08
Speaker 2: It's immaterial right now. The point is the gospel had
12:11
Speaker 2: probably never been preached there. And you walk in and
12:14
Speaker 2: there's a lobby full of beautiful paintings. And I mean magnificent,
12:21
Speaker 2: large paintings, all of them framed, original oils. And here
12:26
Speaker 2: was a picture of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
12:33
Speaker 2: And Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Jesus of Nazareth. It's nice.
12:41
Speaker 2: He's there too. And three or four others. I mean,
12:45
Speaker 2: the whole, it was kind of a concave as you
12:49
Speaker 2: walk into the worship area. But right here, all these pictures.
12:52
Speaker 2: What caught my eye was the bronze lettering at the
12:56
Speaker 2: bottom of all the pictures. You know what it said?
13:00
Speaker 2: It read, you are all the children of God. Dot, dot, dot.
13:10
Speaker 2: Don't forget the dot, dot, dot. Okay, don't forget the ellipses.
13:13
Speaker 2: Because it's what wasn't there that revealed what was missing.
13:20
Speaker 2: It's a half verse out of Galatians. So my friends,
13:25
Speaker 2: newfound friends are standing there saying, we just love to
13:29
Speaker 2: look at these pictures and just think of ourselves as
13:32
Speaker 2: a part of the children of God. Literally, they saw
13:39
Speaker 2: themselves as someday maybe attaining a frame where they'll be there.
13:46
Speaker 2: So that churned around in me. You know, evangelicals can
13:50
Speaker 2: ruin great art quicker than anybody. And so I'm thinking
13:54
Speaker 2: during the service as I listen to this guy say
13:57
Speaker 2: nothing beautifully. And when he finishes, when he finishes, I'm
14:03
Speaker 2: walking out heart sick because it was almost packed and
14:07
Speaker 2: Nobody heard of Jesus Christ's death. Nobody heard of the
14:11
Speaker 2: plan of salvation. Nobody heard the gospel. And we stopped
14:15
Speaker 2: again at the pictures, and I said, by the way, Mr. So-and-so,
14:18
Speaker 2: I said, you see this ellipses here? He said, yeah.
14:25
Speaker 2: I said, you know what the rest of the verse says?
14:27
Speaker 2: He says, do you know? And I said, I do.
14:33
Speaker 2: The rest of the verse says, you are all the
14:35
Speaker 2: children of God, by faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14:41
Speaker 2: Have you ever placed your faith in Christ Jesus? And
14:46
Speaker 2: he said, would you like to go to lunch? That
14:52
Speaker 2: was kind of the end of it. He didn't want
14:54
Speaker 2: to go there. You know why? Because the cross is
14:59
Speaker 2: offensive to your pride. If you're working to get there,
15:06
Speaker 2: And you're one of these numbered, one of these admired
15:10
Speaker 2: great souls. And there's nothing wrong with being admired and
15:14
Speaker 2: nothing wrong with the works they've done. It just won't
15:17
Speaker 2: get them to heaven. But if you're working on that
15:20
Speaker 2: and someone has the audacity to say, you know what
15:22
Speaker 2: it takes, it takes humbling yourself like a child, admitting
15:26
Speaker 2: you're just as lost as you can be and you
15:28
Speaker 2: trust Jesus to be a child of God. It's insulting
15:34
Speaker 2: to my pride. That's good for us. That's where faith
15:39
Speaker 2: comes in. Nearer I cannot be in the person of
15:43
Speaker 2: his son. I am as near as he. I need grace.
15:48
Speaker 2: I don't need another building block because I can't step
15:51
Speaker 2: long enough, high enough, far enough to get good enough.
15:57
Speaker 2: Will you let that sink in? It's based on grace,
16:02
Speaker 2: not works. There's no place for boasting. In fact, God
16:07
Speaker 2: isn't partial. Verse 29. Is God the God of the
16:11
Speaker 2: Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes,
16:14
Speaker 2: Gentiles also. It doesn't matter what your color is. Doesn't
16:17
Speaker 2: matter what your background is. Doesn't matter what your gender is.
16:20
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter what your age is. Doesn't matter what your
16:23
Speaker 2: religion is. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. What matters is that
16:26
Speaker 2: you see yourself as a lost sinner and you take
16:29
Speaker 2: the gift. And when you do, he gets the credit. Well, then,
16:35
Speaker 2: verse 31, does that mean we just tear the Old
16:37
Speaker 2: Testament out of our Bibles and get rid of the law? No, no, no, no.
16:41
Speaker 2: God forbid. It doesn't nullify the law. On the contrary,
16:46
Speaker 2: it establishes the law. What's the law's role? It tells
16:49
Speaker 2: me I'm a sinner. The law has that long, bony
16:52
Speaker 2: finger bumping up against my sternum, telling me, you can't
16:58
Speaker 2: keep this law. You can't keep this standard. You aren't
17:03
Speaker 2: able even to keep the Ten Commandments to say nothing
17:06
Speaker 2: of living a life of purity like God expects of
17:10
Speaker 2: His Son. The law brings me to the place of
17:14
Speaker 2: absolute awareness that I'm lost. And when it does that,
17:19
Speaker 2: it has done its job. How great is that? You see,
17:25
Speaker 2: the main emphasis of salvation is that it is a gift,
17:29
Speaker 2: not a wage, not a reward. It is a gift.
17:35
Speaker 2: And second, the major subject of salvation is God the Father,
17:41
Speaker 2: God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God's plan of salvation.
17:46
Speaker 2: Jesus implemented the plan and the Spirit of God empowered
17:51
Speaker 2: the plan so that it's complete. No questions asked, no
17:56
Speaker 2: help needed. You just take it by faith. Listen to
18:02
Speaker 2: a story you may have heard, but maybe haven't heard recently.
18:07
Speaker 2: John Newton was raised in a Christian home in which
18:10
Speaker 2: he was taught many great verses of the Bible, but
18:13
Speaker 2: his mother died when he was only six, and he
18:17
Speaker 2: was sent to live with a relative who mocked Christianity.
18:22
Speaker 2: One day at an early age, Newton left home and
18:25
Speaker 2: joined the British Navy as an apprentice seaman. He was
18:30
Speaker 2: wild in those years, and he became exceedingly immoral. He
18:35
Speaker 2: acquired a reputation in the Navy of being able to
18:39
Speaker 2: swear for two hours without repeating himself. Eventually, Newton deserted
18:46
Speaker 2: the Navy off the coast of Africa. Why Africa? Well,
18:51
Speaker 2: in his memoirs, he wrote that he went to Africa
18:54
Speaker 2: for one reason only, that he might sin to the full.
19:00
Speaker 2: In Africa, he fell in with a Portuguese slave trader
19:04
Speaker 2: in whose home he was cruelly treated. The man often
19:08
Speaker 2: went away on slaving expeditions, and when he was gone,
19:11
Speaker 2: the power in the home passed to the trader's African wife,
19:16
Speaker 2: the chief woman of the harem, the woman who hated
19:19
Speaker 2: all white men. She took out her hatred on John Newton.
19:26
Speaker 2: He tells us that for months he was forced to
19:28
Speaker 2: grovel in the dirt, eating his food from the ground
19:31
Speaker 2: like a dog and being beaten unmercifully if he touched
19:36
Speaker 2: his food with his hands. For a time he was
19:39
Speaker 2: actually placed in chains. At last, thin and emaciated, Newton
19:46
Speaker 2: escaped through the jungle and reached the sea and there
19:50
Speaker 2: attracted a British merchant ship making its way up the
19:54
Speaker 2: coast to England. The captain of the ship took Newton
19:58
Speaker 2: on board thinking he had ivory to sell. When he
20:01
Speaker 2: learned the young man knew something about navigation, he placed
20:05
Speaker 2: him in charge of the ship and made him a
20:08
Speaker 2: ship's mate. Even then, Newton fell into trouble. One day,
20:13
Speaker 2: when the captain was ashore, Newton broke out the ship's
20:16
Speaker 2: supply of rum and got the entire crew drunk. He
20:20
Speaker 2: was so drunk himself that when the captain returned, he
20:23
Speaker 2: struck him in the head and Newton fell overboard and
20:26
Speaker 2: would have drowned if one of the sailors had not
20:29
Speaker 2: grabbed him and hauled him back on the deck in
20:32
Speaker 2: the nick of time. One account says that the harpoon
20:36
Speaker 2: saved him and he was brought back. Not sure of that.
20:39
Speaker 2: but it could have happened. Near the end of the
20:41
Speaker 2: voyage as they were approaching Scotland, the ship ran into
20:44
Speaker 2: bad weather and was blown off course. Water poured in
20:48
Speaker 2: and she began to sink. The young profligate was sent
20:51
Speaker 2: down to the hole to pump water. The storm lasted
20:54
Speaker 2: for days. Newton was terrified. Sure, the ship would sink
20:59
Speaker 2: and he would drown. But there in the hold of
21:02
Speaker 2: the ship as he pumped water, desperately attempting to save
21:07
Speaker 2: his life, The God of grace, whom he had tried
21:11
Speaker 2: to forget, but who had never forgotten him, brought to
21:15
Speaker 2: his mind Bible verses he had learned in his home
21:18
Speaker 2: as a child. Newton was convicted of his sins and
21:24
Speaker 2: of God's righteousness. The way of salvation opened to him
21:28
Speaker 2: there in the hold of the ship, and he was
21:31
Speaker 2: born again and transformed. Later, when the storm had passed,
21:37
Speaker 2: he was again in England and he began to study theology.
21:41
Speaker 2: Eventually became a distinguished evangelist, preaching even before the queen.
21:47
Speaker 2: Newton became a poet as well as a preacher, writing
21:51
Speaker 2: some of the best known hymns. And his best one,
21:56
Speaker 2: Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound That Saved a Wretch
22:00
Speaker 2: Like Me. I once was lost, but now I'm found.
22:05
Speaker 2: was blind, but now I see. I love that hymn,
22:10
Speaker 2: mainly because it calls us a wretch. And that's a compliment.
22:16
Speaker 2: We're worse than wretches. In ourselves, we're no better than
22:21
Speaker 2: the profligate drunken in the hold of that ship. We're
22:25
Speaker 2: no better than the worst person you know. But by
22:28
Speaker 2: God's grace, He declares us righteous in His Son. who
22:35
Speaker 2: paid the penalty for our sin in full, leaving us
22:41
Speaker 2: with the gift to accept by faith. I cannot make
22:45
Speaker 2: it clearer than that. It's yours to believe. Bow your
22:51
Speaker 2: head with me, please. Let's close our eyes. If there's
22:56
Speaker 2: never been a time in your life when you trusted
22:59
Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior, my friend,
23:04
Speaker 2: There's no time to waste. Do so now. Believe on
23:09
Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. There
23:15
Speaker 2: is one God and one mediator between God and men,
23:19
Speaker 2: the man Christ Jesus. He paid the ransom for you.
23:27
Speaker 2: And he waits for you to take the gift by faith.
23:31
Speaker 2: Do that now. Do it right now. right this moment. Father,
23:37
Speaker 2: thank you for the gift of eternal life. Thank you
23:40
Speaker 2: for Jesus. Thank you for his life, his death, his resurrection,
23:48
Speaker 2: and today his prayer for us from one day to
23:52
Speaker 2: the next. Thank you, Father, for your love for us,
23:57
Speaker 2: how great it is. And you proved it in that
23:59
Speaker 2: while we were still sinning, your son died for us.
24:05
Speaker 2: We accept that. We believe in him and we trust
24:09
Speaker 2: him for eternal life. In the name of Jesus, we
24:13
Speaker 2: pray with great praise. And everyone said.
24:32
Speaker 1: It's so exciting to realize that at this very moment,
24:35
Speaker 1: so many people are making a choice to follow Jesus
24:38
Speaker 1: Christ as their Savior and Lord. You're listening to Insight
24:42
Speaker 1: for Living. Our Bible teacher, Chuck Swindoll, titled today's study
24:45
Speaker 1: in Romans chapter 3, Unwrapping the Gift of Grace. You know,
24:50
Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
24:53
Speaker 1: wrote nearly half the books in the New Testament. But
24:56
Speaker 1: many believe that Romans was his finest contribution— the because it
24:59
Speaker 1: describes God's character and the gospel of Jesus Christ with
25:03
Speaker 1: depth and clarity. This is an essential book for believers
25:07
Speaker 1: to understand, both seasoned Christ followers and new Christians. To
25:11
Speaker 1: help you in this process, Insight for Living offers an
25:14
Speaker 1: interactive spiral-bound Bible study. It's in our popular Searching the
25:18
Speaker 1: Scriptures format. And because of the scope of Paul's letter,
25:21
Speaker 1: our Bible study comes in two workbooks. You'll find all
25:25
Speaker 1: the details for purchasing Volume 1, at insight.org slash offer
25:30
Speaker 1: or call us at 800-772-8888. I also want to draw
25:36
Speaker 1: your attention to a brand new hardback book from Chuck.
25:40
Speaker 1: It's called Looking in All the Right Directions. Drawing from
25:43
Speaker 1: Paul's wise counsel to his protege Timothy, this book features
25:47
Speaker 1: the final five sermons Chuck delivered to the congregation that
25:50
Speaker 1: he shepherded for more than 25 years. From his heart,
25:54
Speaker 1: Chuck spoke about mentoring, Enduring Hardship, and Using Your God-Given Gifts.
25:59
Speaker 1: You will love the biblical wisdom that's captured in this book,
26:03
Speaker 1: and it would make a thoughtful gift for your pastor.
26:06
Speaker 1: It's called Looking in All the Right Directions, and you
26:09
Speaker 1: can purchase a copy by calling us at 800-772-8888 or
26:15
Speaker 1: go to insight.org slash offer. Insight for Living is made
26:20
Speaker 1: possible not through the sale of books and Bible study resources,
26:24
Speaker 1: but by the generous gifts from grateful friends just like you.
26:27
Speaker 1: And during the back-to-school months, when support sometimes declines, it's
26:31
Speaker 1: especially helpful to receive your gift. To send a donation
26:35
Speaker 1: in the mail, write to us at Insight for Living,
26:38
Speaker 1: Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034. I'm Bill Meyer,
26:52
Speaker 1: inviting you to listen when Chuck Swindoll presents a message titled,
26:56
Speaker 1: Righteousness is a Five-Letter Word, Friday on Insight for Living.
27:03
Speaker 1: The preceding message, Unwrapping the Gift of Grace, was copyrighted
27:07
Speaker 1: in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was
27:09
Speaker 1: copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R.
27:10
Speaker 2: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
27:19
Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.