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Tough Grace Msg 711 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: We are sort of working our way through the little
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Speaker 1: Letter to Titus over in the New Testament. Just following
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Speaker 1: the Great Letters to Timothy, Paul also wrote another letter
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Speaker 1: to another pastor who was serving on an island, actually
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Speaker 1: the island of Crete right in the middle of the Mediterranean.
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Speaker 1: Must have been a lonely and difficult assignment is calling
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Speaker 1: to that place, and so Paul wrote a letter not
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Speaker 1: only to inform him, but to encourage him in the
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Speaker 1: midst of dealing with all different categories of people. You
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Speaker 1: may recall from our last time in this one leaders
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Speaker 1: verse one, to older men verse two, older women Verse three,
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Speaker 1: young women verse four, chapter two, and young men verse six,
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Speaker 1: and even slaves down in verse nine. He now turns
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Speaker 1: to the subject of grace, how it applies in the
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Speaker 1: areas of the Christian life to all of us, us
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Speaker 1: in all these categories. So I'm reading for you from
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Speaker 1: Titus two, verse eleven through fifteen, for the grace of
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Speaker 1: God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us
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Speaker 1: to deny on godliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly,
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Speaker 1: righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the
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Speaker 1: blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our
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Speaker 1: great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave them for
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Speaker 1: himself for us, to redeem us from every lawless deed,
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Speaker 1: and to purify for himself a people for his own possession,
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Speaker 1: zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and
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Speaker 1: reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Sounds
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Speaker 1: almost like a father writing to a son who's younger
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Speaker 1: and saying to him, these things are so important. Don't
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Speaker 1: let anyone silence you or disregard what you have to
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Speaker 1: share with him. There's an outline that's in your worship folder.
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Speaker 1: You may want to place it in the sixth chapter
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Speaker 1: of Romans, where we will start in a few moments
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Speaker 1: as we turn to the subject of God's grace and
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Speaker 1: how easy it is for some to abuse it, and
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Speaker 1: we'll talk about tough grace. It's another side of it
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Speaker 1: not that often mentioned. When you find that and you
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Speaker 1: have placed your Bible aside, will you join me in
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Speaker 1: a few moments of prayer. Please thank you Father in
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Speaker 1: this week for a quiet interlude to worship you and
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Speaker 1: to meet with you in this corporate hour of worship.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. We're not in this room alone. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for the things that have been mentioned, for the teaching
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Speaker 1: in the third grade class today, for the way your
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Speaker 1: word is going forth. For the happiness and gratitude of
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Speaker 1: a husband for his wife, a man grateful sixty six
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Speaker 1: years ago he gave his heart to Christ. And one
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Speaker 1: thousand and one other things we could name, all of
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Speaker 1: which revealed to each of us that it's well with
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Speaker 1: our souls. In the world that's lost its way, that
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Speaker 1: only reads a peace on stone monuments and only hears
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Speaker 1: about it and thinks of it as a distant dream,
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Speaker 1: we know a peace that passes understanding. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: touching us where no surgeons scalpel can ever reach deep
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Speaker 1: within our souls. Thank you that today, this very day,
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Speaker 1: you're touching hearts of soldiers and airmen and women and marines, Coastguard,
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Speaker 1: uniformed courageous people who keep the peace, who are doing
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Speaker 1: their best to introduce another world to these who have
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Speaker 1: lived under the domination of a dictator for so long.
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Speaker 1: For them, their souls have never been well. So help
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Speaker 1: these who do the hard thing. Help those in the
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Speaker 1: Pentagon who make tough decisions in rooms without windows, while
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Speaker 1: no one is looking or even awake. They're guarding the stuff.
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Speaker 1: For those on the hill who represent their states, who
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Speaker 1: claim the name of Christ. Thank you for the Ministry
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Speaker 1: of Christian Embassy for its service there, and others who
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Speaker 1: reached those on the hill and at the Pentagon. Thank
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Speaker 1: you today for our city, for our Church. Thank You
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Speaker 1: for these who come welling up with gratitude for the
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Speaker 1: experience in India. Their lives will never be quite the same.
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Speaker 1: How grateful we are that there are some in that
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Speaker 1: great land who could save. It's well with my soul,
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Speaker 1: this grace that we will be understanding even better today.
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Speaker 1: We asked that it might shape the way we live,
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Speaker 1: might make a difference and decisions we make, choices we select,
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Speaker 1: help those engaged in your work in various phases of it,
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Speaker 1: those who faithfully serve you in hard places, Encourage them,
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Speaker 1: strengthen them, use them. Our gifts given to day go
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Speaker 1: to assist ministry in so many places. May the use
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Speaker 1: of these funds be carefully, carefully watched, and may these
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Speaker 1: moneies serve the cause of Christ. Well. This is our worship,
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Speaker 1: our Father, and this is one way we express it
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Speaker 1: in a tangible way, because deep within us things are well.
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Speaker 1: We praise your name, we worship your name, we exalt
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Speaker 1: your son, We lean on your spirit as you minister
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Speaker 1: deeply today even now in the name of Christ or Savior.
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Speaker 1: Everyone said, Amen. If you ever go to the Holy
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Speaker 1: Land and you have a chance to visit Saint Anne's
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Speaker 1: church when you're in Jerusalem, remember this hymn. Remember this song,
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Speaker 1: because that's the place you want to sing it. You'll
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Speaker 1: sit on a little hard bench and you'll find the
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Speaker 1: stone walls that reach up high back into cavernous areas,
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Speaker 1: and that'll make your voice sound like you've always wanted
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Speaker 1: to sound all your life as you sing it as
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Speaker 1: well with my soul, and the song will just echo
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Speaker 1: through the chambers. You'll just never be the same. It's great.
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Speaker 1: Wherever there is a truth, there will always be those
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Speaker 1: who abuse it. The truth of freedom is one of
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Speaker 1: those we revel in here in these United States. How
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Speaker 1: marvelous it is to be free, land of the free.
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Speaker 1: But does that mean that I'm free to do whatever
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Speaker 1: I please at any time I wish? Hardly. As a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, there are restrictions that are to be
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Speaker 1: applied for that freedom to be enjoyed by everyone. I'm
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Speaker 1: not free to stand up and shout fire in the
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Speaker 1: midst of a packed out theater. I'm not free to
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Speaker 1: choose my own speed limit and zoom here and there
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Speaker 1: because I'm in a hurry, regardless of what the sign
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Speaker 1: says on the side of the road. I'm not free
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Speaker 1: to change the color of the lights at the corner.
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Speaker 1: If I don't want it red, it's still red. I'm
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Speaker 1: not free to make my own rules, and in order
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Speaker 1: for me to participate in a free land, I have
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Speaker 1: to be careful not to abuse the freedom as I
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Speaker 1: enjoy the benefits. What's true of freedom is true of love.
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Speaker 1: Love is a wonderful, marvelous perhaps the greatest of all virtues.
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Speaker 1: One Corinthians thirteen certainly says so faith, hope, and love.
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Speaker 1: But the greatest of these is love, the love of
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Speaker 1: man and wife. It's marvelous to see every wedding is
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Speaker 1: full of the word. The vows include the word, and
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Speaker 1: the marriage works because of the truth of love. But
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Speaker 1: you and I know of situations where the love has
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Speaker 1: been abused. Take the case of the faithful and godly
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Speaker 1: wife who not only cares for, but cares of her
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Speaker 1: husband and the children, and faithfully does her work, perhaps
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Speaker 1: not only at home, but in a career as well,
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Speaker 1: and she finds delight in her husband's presence. He does
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Speaker 1: not sustain the same, and he takes advantage of her.
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Speaker 1: He in a period of years, becomes unfaithful and runs
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Speaker 1: with other women, has a secret life, lives as though
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Speaker 1: he isn't married, and abuses the privilege and joys of
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Speaker 1: a love relationship. When she confronts him, he may even
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Speaker 1: twist love and say I thought you were a person
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Speaker 1: who loves another. I thought love forgives. And if love forgives,
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Speaker 1: why can't you forgive me? And then she has to
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Speaker 1: wrestle with how much is too much? Just as there
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Speaker 1: has to be tough freedom, there must be tough love.
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Speaker 1: Since then, I know a couple where life was rolling
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Speaker 1: along pretty well. They were married, they began their family.
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Speaker 1: He just after a while got a little sloppy in
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Speaker 1: the relationship, and before long he was staying out. Later
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Speaker 1: then he said he would and wasn't connecting back by
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Speaker 1: phone and letting her know where he was. And finally
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Speaker 1: she decided it's time for tough love. So he came
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Speaker 1: home that early morning hour and found all of his
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Speaker 1: clothes in the front yard. The keys locks, and the
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Speaker 1: door had been changed, and there was a little tough
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Speaker 1: love note on the door. And I'm not going to
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Speaker 1: read it to you because it is just between the
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Speaker 1: two of them. But he got the message. She realized,
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Speaker 1: if I keep allowing this, I'll enable the abuse, and
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Speaker 1: I can't do that. Enough is enough. What's true of freedom,
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Speaker 1: and what's true of love is certainly true of grace.
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Speaker 1: There have always been, down through the years, people who
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Speaker 1: abuse grace. They would sing the hymn another way, free
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Speaker 1: from the law, happy conditions, Sin all you please, for
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Speaker 1: there is remission. That's not what it says. They wanted
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Speaker 1: to say that because that's the lifestyle they want to live.
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Speaker 1: It's nothing new. Paul writes of it in Romans chapter six.
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Speaker 1: There certainly must have been some who said, are we
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Speaker 1: to continue in sin so that grace may increase? I mean,
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Speaker 1: if we have an enormity of grace, what's the matter
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Speaker 1: with an enormity of sin? God forgives this? Gives God
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Speaker 1: a chance to forgive me a lot of times and
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Speaker 1: just display his grace. A different question, but similar is
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Speaker 1: asking verse fifteen of Romans six, What then shall we
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Speaker 1: sin because we're not under law, but under Grace. I mean,
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Speaker 1: we're free from the law. The restrictions, the demands, the
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Speaker 1: observance of Holy days, or particular rituals or requirements are
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Speaker 1: sacrifices where Christ has become the end of the law
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Speaker 1: for us. So why not push grace to the extreme?
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Speaker 1: Notice both questions are answered with the identical response, may
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Speaker 1: it never be. Do not think that the Apostle of
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Speaker 1: Grace promoted cheap grace. Do not think for a moment
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Speaker 1: that Paul taught grace so that people could push it
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Speaker 1: to the limits and live as they please. May you
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Speaker 1: remember this forever. Grace does not free me to sin.
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Speaker 1: It frees me to obey. In order for that to happen,
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Speaker 1: I must know Christ. Because in knowing Christ, I have
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Speaker 1: now a power I never had before the Cross, before
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Speaker 1: that relationship with Jesus, before I had no power to
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Speaker 1: say no. Oh. Now I can say yes or no,
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Speaker 1: And I'm given power to say yes. So say yes
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Speaker 1: to the things that please God. Grace frees me to obey.
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Speaker 1: How marvelous is that? And Paul doesn't mince many words
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Speaker 1: when he gets to the eleventh verse of Titus Chapter two.
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Speaker 1: He's talked to all these different categories of people, he's
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Speaker 1: talked to Titus about them, or he's written about them,
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Speaker 1: and now he comes to the sort of the foundational
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Speaker 1: points along the way. I want to observe with you
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Speaker 1: four of the great Christian doctrines in the first verses
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Speaker 1: that we're studying, and then wrap it up in verse fifteen.
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Speaker 1: In verse eleven, it's grace and salvation. We'll see why
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Speaker 1: in a moment in verse twelve, it's grace and sanctification.
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Speaker 1: Explain that also in a moment in verse thirteen, it's
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Speaker 1: grace and glorification. And then in fourteen it's grace and redemption.
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Speaker 1: And how that wraps its way around all of the
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Speaker 1: first three Salvation, sanctification, and glorification. And he says at
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Speaker 1: the end, so Titus, proclaim it, teach it. Don't let
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Speaker 1: anyone silence you or disregard you. Do this with authority,
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Speaker 1: grace and salvation, for the grace of God has appeared,
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Speaker 1: bringing salvation to all men. That word grace is again
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Speaker 1: that marvelous truth. God's giving us what we don't deserve,
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Speaker 1: can never repay, cannot earn. It isn't my searching out
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Speaker 1: and pleading for and finally finding God. It's God reaching
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Speaker 1: down in time and sending his son for me. Salvation is,
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Speaker 1: in a few words, God's rescuing humanity from our sinful condition.
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Speaker 1: Think of it like this. Let the pulpit represent the cross.
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Speaker 1: Let it represent the place where Christ died before the
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus comes into my life. I'm on the left
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Speaker 1: side of the cross. I'm looking at the cross and
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Speaker 1: what it represents the death of Christ on my behalf,
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Speaker 1: and on behalf of all who have ever lived. He
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Speaker 1: died for the world, including me. If I'm without Christ,
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Speaker 1: I'm looking at the cross in front of me. By
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Speaker 1: coming through the cross, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: I become a Christian. Grace brought Christ to me. He
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Speaker 1: is the personification of grace. John writes of him and says,
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Speaker 1: we beheld him in all his glory, full of grace
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Speaker 1: and truth. Jesus Christ personified grace. So the grace of
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Speaker 1: God has appeared. Interestingly, we get our word epiphany from
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Speaker 1: the Greek term translated appeared manifested. The grace of God
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Speaker 1: has appeared, been manifested, been personified in the person of
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus, and with him came this rescue for
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Speaker 1: all men. Before we move on, let me warn you
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Speaker 1: against universalism. Universalism is the teaching that all people will
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Speaker 1: come to Christ. Those who haven't heard will still come
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Speaker 1: to Christ. Those who've never believed will still come to Christ. God,
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Speaker 1: being a God of love, would never allow anything else.
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Speaker 1: And after all, he says he has brought salvation to
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Speaker 1: all men. What he has brought is the opportunity to
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Speaker 1: be rescued. If you are in a storm and the
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Speaker 1: hurricane is increasing in its velocity and the tide is rising,
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Speaker 1: and you are at the shoreline and I come over
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Speaker 1: in a helicopter to rescue you, I drop the ladder
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Speaker 1: and I announce loudly there it is reach out. We
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Speaker 1: can get you out of this. You have an opportunity
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Speaker 1: to be delivered from the storm. But you don't have
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Speaker 1: to take the ladder. You can say I'm going to
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Speaker 1: ride it out, and you may or you may not.
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Speaker 1: You may live to tell the story, or you may
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Speaker 1: die trying. But the latter is there. And in the
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Speaker 1: same way, the Cross is available the opportunity for all
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Speaker 1: to believe. But there will be many who will not.
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Speaker 1: Most will not to them who believed, he announces that
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Speaker 1: they are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Jesus himself said, I am the Way, the Truth, and
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Speaker 1: the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.
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Speaker 1: I'm the ladder at the cross where he paid the
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Speaker 1: complete payment for our sins. He made provision for our deliverance,
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Speaker 1: our rescue. Grace makes that possible. How thankful we are
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Speaker 1: for it. Now, when you get to verse twelve, we
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Speaker 1: moved to another phase, the beginning phases of the Christian life.
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Speaker 1: At this present time, we've moved through the Cross, and
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Speaker 1: we're now coming to sanctification. Definition for sanctification would be
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Speaker 1: being set apart for God's purpose. Let's use that when
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Speaker 1: I am sanctified, I am being set apart for God's
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Speaker 1: purpose and God's glory. There is a sense in which
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Speaker 1: I am, at the moment of salvation in my positions,
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Speaker 1: sanctified and declared righteous, and will never be less than that.
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Speaker 1: And there is a census we'll see in the next
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Speaker 1: verse when I am with the Lord Jesus, that sanctification
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Speaker 1: is complete and there will never be the yo yo
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Speaker 1: of failing and winning and obedience and disobedience once I'm
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Speaker 1: with Christ, I am in a perfect state. But in
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Speaker 1: the meantime, in this present hour, Grace gets tough. Please
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Speaker 1: observe the change in wording. Grace appears in verse eleven,
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Speaker 1: but Grace instructs in verse twelve. See the same Grace
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Speaker 1: mentioned in eleven instructing us to deny on godliness and
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Speaker 1: worldly desiurs, that's the negative. Instructing us to live sensibly,
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Speaker 1: righteously and godly in the present age, that's the positive.
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Speaker 1: Please note the change in role. Grace appears at the cross,
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Speaker 1: giving us the opportunity to believe. Following the Cross, Grace
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Speaker 1: begins to instruct the people of God to live as
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Speaker 1: Christ would have us live. The word instructing gives us
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Speaker 1: our word today, pedagogue. It's the teacher, the teacher, Grace says,
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Speaker 1: straighten up. I remember my fourth grade teacher. Her favorite
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Speaker 1: line was Charles, straighten up. She said that number of
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Speaker 1: times straighten up, Charles, straighten up. Sometime you had to
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Speaker 1: bend over for her to get the point across before
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Speaker 1: you straightened up. That was back in the days when
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Speaker 1: you could truly instruct. But God has a way of
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Speaker 1: doing that also, and we won't get into it. But
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Speaker 1: Grace here is instructing us negatively to say no to
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Speaker 1: the things we wants couldn't help but do. We had
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Speaker 1: no power not to do them. We were forever on
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Speaker 1: the left side of the cross. We were forever disobeying.
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Speaker 1: We had formed habits that were not good habits. We
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Speaker 1: said words that were not good words, we thought thoughts
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Speaker 1: that were not good thoughts, and we couldn't stop. But
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Speaker 1: when we've come to Christ, we are given a power
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Speaker 1: over those things that once empowered us. Now with that power,
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Speaker 1: the instruction is effective. Grace and Sanctifications is now you're
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Speaker 1: to be set apart to live a life that's different
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Speaker 1: from what you've ever lived before. Grace, our teacher, says,
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Speaker 1: renounce an old way of life and live a new one.
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Speaker 1: Turned from the things you once loved to do that
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Speaker 1: we're wrong, and start doing the things that I love
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Speaker 1: for you to do that are right. You become from
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Speaker 1: me a model of the message on the earth. And
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Speaker 1: notice it's in the present age. This is very helpful.
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Speaker 1: Salvation looks back to when we came to Christ, we
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Speaker 1: who were believers. Sanctification looks at where we are in
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Speaker 1: this present time. Now glorification looks to the future. It
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Speaker 1: will be in heaven with the Lord changed glorified. But
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Speaker 1: we're looking now. Look at the verse thirteen, looking for
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Speaker 1: the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of
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Speaker 1: our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. We living today
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Speaker 1: live on tiptoe. Every day could be our last day
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Speaker 1: on earth. The great thought brought from earth to heaven
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Speaker 1: as the Lord returns for his own I often pray
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Speaker 1: for that on the fourteenth of April. Lord, now's the
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Speaker 1: time to come, perfect moment. So far, he hasn't done
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Speaker 1: it this April fourteen. I'll pray it again. He may
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Speaker 1: come before then. I agreet would that be? And let
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Speaker 1: me say a word. And I'll try to be delicate
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Speaker 1: with this, because I know some of you were still
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Speaker 1: grieving seriously over the loss of some believing friend or
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Speaker 1: family member, mate, loved one. They would not come back
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Speaker 1: if they could. There is nothing on this earth to compare,
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Speaker 1: even in a shadow fashion, to what they have in glory.
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Speaker 1: I mean, think of what they have. Struggles have ended. Finally,
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Speaker 1: evil is abolished completely, Satan is gone, literally removed. They're
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Speaker 1: totally changed, transformed into a condition like unto Christ himself,
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Speaker 1: without the scars, permanently, and he says, we look for
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Speaker 1: that blessed hope as we live our lives under the
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Speaker 1: grace of God. Thomas Kelly put it beautifully in the
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Speaker 1: early part of the eighteen hundreds, if his words found
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Speaker 1: their way into an old German melody and then ultimately
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Speaker 1: into the hymnity of the Church that we have sung
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Speaker 1: for years. We don't sing this hymn these days, but
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Speaker 1: it's one of the great song. I love it not
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Speaker 1: only because it's brief and pithy and it just kind
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Speaker 1: of punches out the doctrines. I love it that it
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Speaker 1: has a sound to it, or words in it that
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Speaker 1: are almost like a tongue twisters. Praise the Savior, Ye
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Speaker 1: who know him, who can tell how much we owe him? Gladly?
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Speaker 1: Let us render to him all we are and have.
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Speaker 1: That's salvation. Jesus is the name that charms us. He
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Speaker 1: for conflict fits and arms us. Nothing moves and nothing
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Speaker 1: harms us. While we trust in him. That's security. Trust
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Speaker 1: in him, you saints forever. He is faithful changing. Never
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Speaker 1: neither force nor guile can sever those he loves from him.
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Speaker 1: That's his protection. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us cleaving
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Speaker 1: to thyself and still believing till the hour of our
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Speaker 1: receiving promised joys with thee that's glorification. Then he said
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Speaker 1: the last stanza. Then we shall be where we would be.
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Speaker 1: Then we shall be what we should be. Things that
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Speaker 1: are not now nor could be soon shall be our own.
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Speaker 1: You go, what what then? When when we're with it,
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Speaker 1: then we shall be where we would be. That's heaven.
26:08
Speaker 1: Then we shall be what we should be. That's perfect.
26:11
Speaker 1: Things that are not now nor could be, deliverance from
26:15
Speaker 1: this bag of bones, free, free at last in Christ,
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Speaker 1: face to face in a relationship, soon shall be our own.
26:24
Speaker 1: Thomas Kelly was right, that's what this is all about.
26:28
Speaker 1: We live today in the struggles and battles and disappointments
26:32
Speaker 1: and failures and wrongs and heartaches and grief and death
26:37
Speaker 1: of the present. But he says, we look for a
26:40
Speaker 1: hope that's beyond you. Imagine living this life without that hope.
26:45
Speaker 1: I sometimes walk in amazement down a hallway at a hospital,
26:49
Speaker 1: looking into those rooms and the hollow eyes of people
26:52
Speaker 1: facing a very bleak prognosis. I wonder how they make
26:58
Speaker 1: it without Christ, How do you make it without him?
27:03
Speaker 1: That glorious hope is coming again. We shall see him
27:10
Speaker 1: as he is. He will accept us faultless before the
27:17
Speaker 1: presence of his glory, with exceeding joy great faultless. How
27:25
Speaker 1: can that be? I mean, riches like you and me,
27:29
Speaker 1: people who really hardly worth a plug nickel in you know,
27:36
Speaker 1: the economy of our day. How could it be that
27:39
Speaker 1: he could take slaves like us, who lived our lives
27:45
Speaker 1: in bondage to wrong things? How could he make us
27:49
Speaker 1: ready for that kind of future redemption? Verse fourteen. This
27:58
Speaker 1: is probably the best part of all. By his grace,
28:01
Speaker 1: he gave himself. Please notice we didn't earn him, We
28:05
Speaker 1: didn't seek him out. He gave himself for us to redeemons.
28:15
Speaker 1: Every time you see the word redemption, think of paying
28:18
Speaker 1: a ransom. When someone pays a ransom to free another
28:24
Speaker 1: from bondage, the process is called redemption. In first century days,
28:28
Speaker 1: as well as even eighteenth nineteenth century days, there was slavery.
28:35
Speaker 1: Slaves were purchased on a slave block. They were tools,
28:42
Speaker 1: human tools. Masters would come with money and they would
28:47
Speaker 1: buy them and use them till they dropped, and then
28:51
Speaker 1: their families unless they sold them to another slave owner.
28:56
Speaker 1: But when Christ came finding us on our slave block sin,
29:02
Speaker 1: he paid the ransom for us, set us free from
29:06
Speaker 1: the bondage, and then released us, never to return again
29:10
Speaker 1: to slavery. How good is that? That's redemption. He bought us,
29:20
Speaker 1: redeemed us from every lawless deed, all of those things
29:25
Speaker 1: back there in our past. He freed us because he
29:30
Speaker 1: paid the complete price for our sins. Never forget that
29:36
Speaker 1: the Cross is all about payment in full for sins.
29:42
Speaker 1: So having been redeemed, what does he want us to do?
29:46
Speaker 1: Live as we please? Of course not. We are not
29:51
Speaker 1: to live as he pleases, and we're able to because
29:53
Speaker 1: of grace. Tough grace says, as it instructs us, say
29:58
Speaker 1: no to this, say yes to that, and as it
30:02
Speaker 1: lives its way out. He has for himself a cleansed
30:06
Speaker 1: people for his own possession, who are now zealous for
30:09
Speaker 1: good deeds That would never have been true on the
30:13
Speaker 1: left side of the cross. But now that we've come
30:16
Speaker 1: through Christ, it's now possible because we have His spirit
30:20
Speaker 1: living within us. I like the Way, can't hughes rights
30:24
Speaker 1: on this. We must be very clear about all the
30:28
Speaker 1: requirements of grace. If anyone says that what we do
30:33
Speaker 1: earns God's love earns God's love, that's legalistic trash. If
30:39
Speaker 1: anyone devises standards for us to follow that cannot be
30:43
Speaker 1: proven from scripture, that's the rubbish of Phariseeism. But if
30:48
Speaker 1: anyone says that it does not matter to God or
30:51
Speaker 1: his people what we do, that is selfish, unbiblical, and
30:55
Speaker 1: damaging to the Gospel of our Lord. This is tough grace.
31:00
Speaker 1: All about us are those who are enslaved to the
31:02
Speaker 1: evil of this world. If we pursue our liberties primarily
31:06
Speaker 1: for our own sake, then we may profess the maturity
31:10
Speaker 1: that gives us rights, but it will not support the
31:13
Speaker 1: proclamation of God's grace towards those lost in the miseries
31:17
Speaker 1: of sin. The goal of the godly is to adorn
31:21
Speaker 1: the Gospel with credibility and evidence of its power in
31:25
Speaker 1: their lives. Not good, we adorn the Gospel as we
31:30
Speaker 1: live out these good deeds. I found it interesting in
31:34
Speaker 1: my study that the Puritans refer to this changed life
31:39
Speaker 1: as the power of new affections, new affections. Interestingly, they
31:47
Speaker 1: built that thought around a species of the live oak
31:50
Speaker 1: tree that does something very interesting with its leaves. It
31:57
Speaker 1: clings to them even after they die. I've been shaking
32:01
Speaker 1: this all yesterday and all today, and the leaves won't
32:06
Speaker 1: come off. This came out of a tree in our
32:08
Speaker 1: front yard. The leaves are dead, just dead as they
32:13
Speaker 1: can be. The twig is brittle, there's there's nothing green,
32:19
Speaker 1: and they're just dead. No sap, the sap is holding
32:22
Speaker 1: this branch. It's not in the branch and and just
32:28
Speaker 1: making sure you're awake there and then. But these these
32:31
Speaker 1: leaves won't come off. They just won't come off. That
32:34
Speaker 1: ice won't break them off, snow won't break them off,
32:37
Speaker 1: the gale force winds won't blow them off. Well, how
32:42
Speaker 1: come they come off? Well, that's a great question. It's
32:46
Speaker 1: when new life surges up through this branch that they
32:51
Speaker 1: fall off. They're forced off. It's that good. I love
32:57
Speaker 1: this kind of thing, and they before. It doesn't take
32:59
Speaker 1: a lot to make me excited. Okay. So, so up
33:02
Speaker 1: comes this new life, and when that new life comes up,
33:05
Speaker 1: that ultimately that that leaf will just drop off because
33:10
Speaker 1: there's a what is it? There is a new affection
33:17
Speaker 1: that comes and removes the old. That's part of the
33:22
Speaker 1: Christian life as grace overwhelms us with respect for God
33:28
Speaker 1: and overwhelmed by His love and grace. We don't want
33:34
Speaker 1: to do them. We want to do good deeds, and
33:39
Speaker 1: we begin to do them, and the old drops off
33:44
Speaker 1: and the new begins to emerge with life, color, beauty.
33:55
Speaker 1: What's the big deal in all of this? Let me
33:58
Speaker 1: give you the big deal. When you truly embrace grace,
34:05
Speaker 1: you don't casually abuse it. When you truly embrace grace,
34:11
Speaker 1: you don't casually abuse it. As a matter of fact,
34:14
Speaker 1: you live your life so grateful and so thrilled with
34:18
Speaker 1: a new life that's come, the new urges and the
34:21
Speaker 1: new surges of life, that a lot of the old
34:24
Speaker 1: stuff that enraptured us at one time doesn't interest us
34:29
Speaker 1: nearly as much. Uh. Donald Barnhouse, an expositor of yesteryear,
34:38
Speaker 1: get rid of my old leaves here put it in
34:41
Speaker 1: a wonderful way. He said, when I was a little boy,
34:45
Speaker 1: I played marbles, and all the boys here will remember it.
34:49
Speaker 1: You put a big circle down there, and everybody has
34:51
Speaker 1: a little pile of their own marbles, okay, And we
34:54
Speaker 1: would get down and we would we'd we'd thump those
34:58
Speaker 1: marbles across the and if you knocked a marble out
35:01
Speaker 1: of the circle and you're playing for keeps, you got
35:04
Speaker 1: to keep that marble. And if Mama wasn't watching, you
35:09
Speaker 1: bet a penny a marble, so put mine. You owe me.
35:15
Speaker 1: So you got a pocket full of pennies and you
35:17
Speaker 1: got marbles. And boy, this is exciting when you're a
35:20
Speaker 1: little kid. And he said, you know, it's a funny thing.
35:22
Speaker 1: As I grew up and I walked by kids later
35:25
Speaker 1: on who were playing marbles, I never thought I gave
35:28
Speaker 1: that up for God. I've been delivered of marbles. You
35:34
Speaker 1: kids ought to be ashamed of yourself for playing Martin.
35:37
Speaker 1: He said, you know what, I realized, I just outgrew it.
35:44
Speaker 1: The old leaves just began to fall off as I
35:50
Speaker 1: began to mature and grow. Well, get that new life,
35:56
Speaker 1: no wonder, he says in verse fifteen. These things speak
36:01
Speaker 1: and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let me tell
36:04
Speaker 1: you there are very few places today where this kind
36:07
Speaker 1: of truth is being taught. And I'm sorry to say that.
36:10
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say that people are told in churches
36:13
Speaker 1: all around the world. Here's the list, Here's what you
36:16
Speaker 1: live by. This is what I consider godly, and you
36:19
Speaker 1: go with it. And the only reason they do is
36:22
Speaker 1: out of fear that the leader is going to find
36:24
Speaker 1: out they're not going with it. That's legalism. But when
36:27
Speaker 1: grace comes and we speak it and exhort others and
36:31
Speaker 1: reprove them with authority, we say, don't disregard this. This
36:35
Speaker 1: is truth to live by. And you know what happens.
36:40
Speaker 1: Growth occurs, a maturity develops, and the sheer love you
36:44
Speaker 1: have for your savior pushes out the stuff that has
36:49
Speaker 1: no business being there and makes room for the growth
36:53
Speaker 1: that could never have been there without Christ. I remember
36:58
Speaker 1: years ago when I first earned my driver's license, from
37:05
Speaker 1: fourteen to sixteen, I had to drive with an adult
37:09
Speaker 1: in the front seat. You remember those days. In this case,
37:12
Speaker 1: it was my dad, never my mother, because she would
37:14
Speaker 1: have wanted to jump or scream if she had taught me.
37:17
Speaker 1: So she never taught me to drive. Furthermore, she broke
37:22
Speaker 1: most of the rules herself. So my dad is there,
37:24
Speaker 1: and my dad very patient, very loving man, and very calm,
37:28
Speaker 1: and I'd go over a kirby. He says, now, next time, son,
37:31
Speaker 1: you might want to go a little further around. And
37:34
Speaker 1: so I learned to drive from my dad. And during
37:37
Speaker 1: those two years, my respect for him just grew more
37:41
Speaker 1: and more. And one day I came home and I said,
37:47
Speaker 1: I got it my license. You know what he did.
37:53
Speaker 1: Good for you, son. There's the keys. You're on your own.
38:01
Speaker 1: Oh man, you know what they'll do about mine. I thought,
38:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn that forty seven four door Hivy
38:07
Speaker 1: Sedan into a Ferrari Jesus keys. So he didn't follow
38:17
Speaker 1: me out the car, saying, and I want to tell you, son,
38:19
Speaker 1: there's people out there watching there. You could you could
38:21
Speaker 1: be in a tough plate. There are lots of cops
38:23
Speaker 1: for the war. I got insurance on this, and the
38:24
Speaker 1: insurance on you is expensive, and don't you dare do
38:27
Speaker 1: He didn't do that. He just said have fun. So
38:32
Speaker 1: I said, thanks, Ded. I mean nobody was with me.
38:37
Speaker 1: So I walked out the car port. I got in
38:40
Speaker 1: Shivy in a back knowing he was watching. I backed
38:42
Speaker 1: out very turned down Woodridge and then aught up the
38:48
Speaker 1: Golf Freeway. And I thought, if I average eighty five
38:51
Speaker 1: miles an hour, I can beat the Galveston and back
38:54
Speaker 1: in plenty of time. I thought that, But you know
38:59
Speaker 1: the truth, this let me tell you the truth, honest
39:01
Speaker 1: to goodness. I never went over the speed limit. I
39:07
Speaker 1: never did. He wasn't even there. Why didn't I Why
39:12
Speaker 1: didn't I go pick up Eugene Kurtz and Freddie Myers
39:14
Speaker 1: and all this stuff we'd gotten into. It's kids and say,
39:17
Speaker 1: come on, you guys, let's blow it. But I didn't
39:20
Speaker 1: do that. You know why. My respect for my father,
39:28
Speaker 1: my love for my dad. It made a difference, just
39:38
Speaker 1: uh pushed out the old leaves and made room for
39:44
Speaker 1: new ones. Now. I know you hear the story and
39:50
Speaker 1: you think, well you still do that. Well, my dad's
39:53
Speaker 1: dead now, so I'm a little more like my mother.
40:02
Speaker 1: For example, I didn't think I was going to tell
40:07
Speaker 1: you this, but I'm going to tell you. I got
40:09
Speaker 1: a nice letter this week from the Plaino Police Department.
40:13
Speaker 1: I thought, how great they want me to speak at
40:16
Speaker 1: the police banquet. I bet how nice personally addressed, nice envelope.
40:24
Speaker 1: Opened it up, and I said, man, they really care.
40:26
Speaker 1: They got a picture of my pickup in here, guys,
40:31
Speaker 1: you got you know. I read it and I read
40:35
Speaker 1: it again, and I realized that department's run by a
40:38
Speaker 1: bunch of legalists. They are, I mean there were harsh words,
40:46
Speaker 1: and there's a deadline. And I looked at the pictures
40:53
Speaker 1: and I saw I approached, and I turned and zoom.
40:58
Speaker 1: It's kind of a blur, that last one is I
41:00
Speaker 1: ran that light? And of course who should find the envelope?
41:05
Speaker 1: But mother superior Cynthia. Oh huh huh. I thought, you know,
41:20
Speaker 1: my mother would just say, I'm proud of you, son.
41:22
Speaker 1: But my dad, my mother used to burn rubber out
41:26
Speaker 1: of the driveway taking off. Why don't they move? Don't they?
41:33
Speaker 1: Lights are too long? So in honor of my father,
41:40
Speaker 1: I sent seventy five dollars to the plain Old Police Department.
41:46
Speaker 1: And I remember that I am not there yet. Then
41:51
Speaker 1: we shall be where we would be. Then we shall
41:54
Speaker 1: be what we should be. Things that are not now
41:58
Speaker 1: nor could be soon will be our own, not now then.
42:09
Speaker 1: And if you don't know Christ you're then is nothing
42:12
Speaker 1: like that. It's nothing like that. You can't imagine how
42:18
Speaker 1: horrible it would be. So let's take care of that.
42:24
Speaker 1: I'd like you to bow your heads. The grace of
42:31
Speaker 1: God has appeared, The epiphany has happened. The latter has
42:37
Speaker 1: been dropped. How great is that? There's no age requirement?
42:46
Speaker 1: There's no gender, there's there's no church required. There just
42:54
Speaker 1: nothing in your hands. You bring simply to the cross.
42:57
Speaker 1: You cling you a knowledge that Jesus paid the complete
43:02
Speaker 1: penalty for your sins, and now you can be rescued.
43:06
Speaker 1: You can be rescued. Now your sinful drive won't go away,
43:13
Speaker 1: I need to tell you, but you'll now at last
43:15
Speaker 1: have a have an ability to deal with it. You'll
43:18
Speaker 1: have power you didn't have otherwise. What a difference it makes.
43:24
Speaker 1: We exist to help you, and that's why we're That's
43:28
Speaker 1: why we're on the map. That's why we do what
43:30
Speaker 1: we do. Nothing thrills us like helping people come to
43:35
Speaker 1: an understanding of Christ and then growing up in Him.
43:39
Speaker 1: If some of this doesn't make sense or you need
43:41
Speaker 1: help doing it, just coming to Christ. Maybe we could
43:45
Speaker 1: meet you in the prayer room up here. Just slide
43:48
Speaker 1: right on in and you will be there with friends.
43:52
Speaker 1: They know how to talk to you, and they know
43:54
Speaker 1: how to listen. They care. But let's say you don't
44:00
Speaker 1: want to do that. Let's say you just need to
44:01
Speaker 1: take care of it right now, just a simple prayer. Lord.
44:05
Speaker 1: I know I'm a sinner and I know Christ died
44:09
Speaker 1: for me and he rose from the dead for me.
44:13
Speaker 1: I trust him, now I need him. I take him.
44:19
Speaker 1: Thank you for your grace, love, and mercy and forgiveness.
44:25
Speaker 1: And you're in the family and you can almost feel it.
44:32
Speaker 1: The father tosses you the keys. He says, Okay, let's
44:36
Speaker 1: go together. Thank you, dear Father, for the beautiful way
44:43
Speaker 1: you teach us. Thank you for your patience when we fail.
44:47
Speaker 1: Thank you for your understanding in the midst of all
44:50
Speaker 1: our own confusion. Thank you for reaching down when we
44:55
Speaker 1: would never have reached up. Thank you for reaching us
45:00
Speaker 1: when we were running in the other direction, for setting
45:04
Speaker 1: the hounds of heaven after us. Thank you for your grace,
45:12
Speaker 1: for our grace, we have been saved through faith, not
45:17
Speaker 1: of ourselves. It is the gift that comes from you,
45:22
Speaker 1: not works from us. Lest any of us boast, we
45:28
Speaker 1: rejoice in it. We revel in it, and we bow
45:31
Speaker 1: in awesome gratitude for your grace. Thank you, Lord, for
45:39
Speaker 1: being tough with us at times when we needed it,
45:42
Speaker 1: for disciplining us so that we would walk worthy of
45:46
Speaker 1: the calling, and for promising us a home free of
45:52
Speaker 1: guilt and shame and sin and sorrow and death. We
45:56
Speaker 1: look forward to it. With you and with our Savior, whom,
46:00
Speaker 1: having not seen, we love, in whom though now we
46:03
Speaker 1: see him not yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable,
46:07
Speaker 1: full of glory. In his great name. We pray everyone
46:13
Speaker 1: said Amen.
46:19
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Tough Grace, was copyrighted in two thousand
46:24
Speaker 2: and six, two thousand and seven, and twenty twenty four,
46:27
Speaker 2: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four
46:31
Speaker 2: by Charles Arswindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication
46:36
Speaker 2: of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited