Eviction Notice Part 5

This week, we wrapped up the “Eviction Notice” series. In Galatians 4:30-31, Paul reminds the reader that the scripture says that Abraham had to “evict” the bondwoman and her son from his household.  As we delve into why that eviction was necessary and what it means for us, we need to understand a little about the “seed of Abraham.” This may sound odd to you, but the reality is that there are four different seeds of Abraham. When we read scripture about the seed of Abraham and promises attached to that seed, it is important to know which seed is relevant to that scripture

Here are the four seeds…

1.       Natural Seed –This includes all the physical children and descendants of Abraham. This includes Isaac, but it also includes Ishmael. It includes Jacob, but it also includes Esau. Even though Ishmael was cast out with his mother and Galatians tells us he did not inherit the promise of Abraham, he still did get A PROMISE. In fact, his promise is almost identical to Abraham’s, with one distinct difference we will see in a minute. The same is true of the blessing and promise given to Esau versus that given to Jacob. 

2.       Special Natural Seed – This excludes Ishmael and Esau. It is the branch of the family tree that starts with Isaac and then Jacob and establishes the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people. It is important to know that there is not a special spiritual blessing here. The Jews do not have a higher spiritual standing than the Gentiles. They were and continue to be a chosen nation. They are not spiritually favored, but they were favored in that they first had the law given to them that revealed the need for a messiah, and also had the messiah first revealed to them. Now, the spiritual promise was given FIRST to the Jew and then the Gentile, but the promise itself is the same. 

3.       Spiritual Seed – This includes all who believe. You are not required to be in the physical bloodline of Abraham to be a child of Abraham.  We join this bloodline because of righteousness – a righteousness obtained the same way Abraham received his, by simply believing. 

4.       Unique Seed – This is Christ Jesus. He is “the seed” that proceeded from Abraham and became a blessing to all the nations of the earth. It is this seed that enables us to become the spiritual seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.

There is also something we need to keep in mind regarding the promise. There is a physical aspect of each thing promised as well as a spiritual aspect. Let’s look at the things promised in Genesis 12:2-3 and define these…

 1.       Seed/Child – Physical: Isaac, Spiritual: Jesus

2.       Nation – Physical: Israel, Spiritual: the church

3.       Land – Physical: Palestine, Spiritual: Sabbath rest and Holy Spirit

 

In Hebrews 6:13-15, we are told that after Abraham waited patiently, he received the promise. Then in Hebrews 11:11-13 and 39-40 we read that Abraham (along with the rest of the great patriarchs of faith) did not obtain the promise.  So, is this a contradiction? Of course not! When you read carefully in Hebrews 6, you find that the context points to the physical aspect of the promise, or the child Isaac. Abraham unquestionably received that promise. The passage in Hebrews 11 is talking about the spiritual aspect of the promise, or the Sabbath rest by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

I taught in the last series that what Abraham believed that made him righteous was that he simply believed God, but as I was studying for this message the Lord further clarified that. There was a specific thing that he believed about God. That thing was that one part of the promise I mentioned earlier that was not given to the natural seed Ishmael or Esau. That was the last part of the promise in Genesis 12:3 – that all the nations would be blessed through his seed. In an indirect way, Abraham believed in Jesus. Abraham believed the promise God made that a redeemer would come through this miracle child birth – not by Isaac, but by one of his descendants. Even Abraham had to believe in the Messiah!  Both the beginning of the bloodline of Christ and His actually birth happened by miraculous conception that were not related to man’s works!

Even though Abraham believed in a coming Messiah and used his faith to put that plan in motion, Jesus had not yet come, and the Holy Spirit had not yet come.  That is the part of the promise that was to be available to the spiritual seed. You cannot get it by being only natural seed of Abraham. Natural seed CAN receive it now if it chooses to believe and become spiritual seed just like a Gentile does, though.

So, how does this relate to the “eviction notice?” When we receive Christ, we become spiritual seed in OUR spirit. Now, we are Abraham’s seed. We are adopted into the family. Now, as part of the family, we make a decision as to which branch of the family tree we are going to be connected to in our body and soul. Will we align ourselves with the Isaac branch of the family, which represents grace and righteousness apart from works, or will we align with the Ishmael branch of the family, which represents law and condemnation?

The choice we make does not change our eternity. Both are children of Abraham, but the life of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit are only working in the Isaac branch. When we choose to live by grace, we need to cut off our ties to law. You must evict the other branch from your household. Based on what Paul said in Galatians 4:29, the Ishmael branch is always going to persecute you and ridicule you for choosing to live by grace, but we’ll love and bless them anyway!

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

Easter 2014

On Easter Sunday, I shared about one of the things that the blood of Jesus provided for us – right standing before God. The work that He did for us at the cross and His victory over death are the greatest gifts given to mankind.  One of the most important things we need to take away from Easter is that what Jesus did is a GIFT to us. It is something we do not earn. We cannot earn it – never could and never will. It is, however, a gift that must be received. One must receive the gift that has been given. The gift must be acknowledged, and it needs to be appreciated.  There are many believers who have acknowledged Christ and have had their eternity changed but who have not truly appreciated all the gift entails. If we continue trying to be worthy of our standing before God by our works, we have not truly received that gift.

We earnestly seek to do good works and to not be ruled by sin, but we do so because we first know He loves us. When we begin to understand His love for us, we can’t help but reflect that love back to Him through our obedience.  We cannot allow ourselves to ever think that His love or blessing of us is conditional upon our obedience. Man’s love is generally conditional, but His is not!

He loved you so much he was willing to humble Himself and step down to earth in the form of a man to do what you could not – fully obey. Then, He went to the cross and suffered an excruciating death that we deserved. Finally, He rose again to utterly defeat death. There is nothing you can add to that equation. You cannot add to the work of Christ. You must humbly receive the gift and stop trying to earn it. Only then will you be empowered to defeat sin, sickness, disease, poverty and death – not because of YOUR works and righteousness, but because of HIS!

We must also know that, because of what Jesus did for us and not our own good works, we can boldly approach God’s throne. We are considered friends of God. You cannot boldly approach that throne if you think there is still a debt owed. Have you ever been in the room with a friend or relative that you knew you owed money to? It isn’t possible to feel comfortable in that situation. If you still feel you owe God for your sin and weakness, you will never “boldly” approach Him.

But pastor, who are we to boldly go before God? We are lowly sinners. EXACTLY! Guilty as charged. God knows that none of us is worthy, no matter how hard we try to not sin and be a good person. That situation was unacceptable to Him. He provided a way for us. It was HIS prerogative to do so. When we believe that we are not worthy, we are actually setting ourselves up as a higher authority that Him. We’re saying that He may think He made us worthy, but He didn’t and I will only be worthy by my own works. You may not have thought of it that way, but that’s the reality.  Let us take hold of the gift that has been given to us. Let us fully realize the power of that gift and appreciate that gift. God values His relationship with you so much and doesn’t want you to let your self-righteousness to get in the way.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Eviction Notice Part 4

This week, we continued in the “Eviction Notice” series. We spent time in Galatians 4, where the “eviction” of law is discussed. In Galatians 4:21 Paul asks the question of those who desire to be under the law, “do you know what the law says?” Of course they do, right? True, they know all of the rules and laws, but they don’t know the stories behind them and the symbolism of those stories. They don’t know all of it – only what they have seen through their law glasses.

Each of us can choose through which glasses we choose to view God’s Word– law glasses or grace glasses. The glasses you choose determine the view you have of God and His Word. Those experts in the law saw God’s Word through law glasses, and Paul’s point is that those law glasses cause them to miss the bigger picture. Many believers today have been conditioned to view the Bible through law glasses and seem to zero in and see everything as a thou shalt or thou shalt not. They are drawn to scriptures that appear to define how someone could be disqualified from a relationship with God.  In contrast, if we live in the New Covenant, the covenant of grace, we need to trade in our old law glasses and get fitted for some grace glasses. Paul gives them a lesson on grace as he proceeded in Galatians 4.

Throughout this series we have been making mention of the “Judaizers” who would come in after Paul and convinced the new believers that they needed to obey the law. To get more insight into who they were, we went back to Acts 13 and 14, which is Paul’s first trip through the Galatian region. What we find is that these Judaizers were not just people who simply disagreed with Paul. They actually tried to kill him for what he was teaching.

We live in a day and age where persecution against Christianity is increasing worldwide and even in our own nation, yet the overwhelming majority of persecution in the early church was not coming from “the world” or Rome, but from the law. It was the Jewish believers who thought Paul’s message of grace was heresy who actually attempted to stone him to death for preaching it – which is what the law required, by the way.   We read in Acts 14 that they thought they had stoned him to death. Some believe that he actually was dead and that the disciples raised him from the dead. They thought he was dead, and then he came walking back into town!

 The importance of knowing how these events played out is explained further in Galatians 4. In verses 21-29, Paul tells them what they “did not know” the law said. He lays out the difference between Abraham’s child born of the slave woman (Hagar) and the one born of the free woman (Sarah). He says that Hagar represents Mount Sinai – where the law was given – and Sarah represents the New Jerusalem.  An important observation he makes is that the one born in the “normal” way, or by law, will always persecute the one born the supernatural way. Trying to be justified by our own works is the natural or normal way. Justification by the blood of Jesus and righteousness apart from our works is the supernatural way.  Also, Ishmael will always persecute Isaac.

I don’t know if you have shared the revelation of grace you have been receiving with other believers, but I would not be surprised to find out that some other believers may not be so excited about your new insight. You may be told that you need to get away from that dangerous teaching that is telling you that sin is OK. Of course, you know that nothing of the sort is being taught in our church. In fact, I’ve never heard any of the prominent teachers in the “grace movement” teach that, but that doesn’t stop those who wear law glasses from asserting they are.

An important thing to remember is that people are not the enemy. THE enemy, Satan, is your enemy. People may persecute you when you choose to use grace to overcome your sin instead of law. Don’t get angry. Don’t argue. Pray. One of the things I find striking about Paul’s story is that when we know how much the Judaizers persecuted and sought to harm him, he showed tremendous restraint in attacking them back.  

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

Eviction Notice Part 3

This week, we continued in our Eviction Notice series.  We studied Galatians 3:1 and following.  The background is that the new church mostly Jews and some Gentiles converted.  After the church was established by Paul, the Judaizers would come in and tell them they needed to obey the law, including circumcision (yikes!).  He calls the Gentiles foolish for going back to the law after receiving grace.  Foolishness means you know the truth but don’t do it. 

 

We also took a look at Luke 24:13, the story of the people on the road to Emmaus after Jesus has risen.  Again, Jesus calls them foolish for not understanding who Jesus was  and what He was supposed to do.  Cleopas was the name of the only person of the two whose name was mentioned.  His name meant “of a renowned father,” which means he himself was a person of influence from a renowned family.

 

Back in Galatians 3:5, we see that we receive salvation by faith and grace.  For some reason, it’s very easy once we become born again to be led to believe that everything from then on is based on our works.  God is pleased with us because you are His child and have acknowledged it.  He may not be pleased with everything we do, but He is always pleased with us (just as most parents are with their children).  True, you can’t live in sin and be effectively used by God, but we receive the miracles and the Holy Spirit, which allow us to be effectively used by God, because of what Jesus did and not because of what we do or do not do.  We don’t need to be perfect to be used by God.  Then, when we understand that, we become more perfected as God’s grace teaches us and works within us.

 

In verse 6, it emphasizes that instead of the law written out to guide us, where then man has to interpret it, we have the Spirit in our hearts to guide us.  Man couldn’t do it all and was under a curse because of it.  Even now, if we rely on the law, we are under a curse.  Jesus did what we could not.  He fulfilled it, completed it, did the work we could not do, and extended to us what He inherited by doing so.

 

We then went to John 14:15 to explore the promise of the Spirit.  The contingency was what Jesus commanded (love God, love others, love yourself), not obeying the law fully (that is important).  He then promises the Spirit of truth.  We can then hear what God has to say to us directly.  The verses following flesh out the promise of the Spirit.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Eviction Notice Part 2

This week, we continued in the “Eviction Notice” series. We dug into Galatians 3. At the beginning of the chapter Paul calls the Galatian believers “foolish” because they had received the Gospel but then were convinced to still rely on law for righteousness.  Why call them foolish? Paul was not insulting their intellect or mental capacity. Foolishness is when you do something when you know better. In our parenting, classes we teach about the need for us to discern the differences between childishness and foolishness in our children’s behavior. Childishness is when they do the wrong things because they just don’t know any better. Foolishness is when they know what is right, but choose to do something different.

 

Paul was telling them that they HAD the truth of righteousness by grace, but allowed themselves to be talked into foolishly believing that observing the law was still required to be right before God.  When I looked up the word, “foolishness” I found that Jesus had used the same Greek word in Luke 24. It was right after the resurrection, and Jesus had appeared to two strangers walking to Emmaus. They do not recognize Him, and He uses the opportunity to ask some questions. He asks why they are so downcast. They tell Him of what had happened with the one they thought was going to be the Messiah. Their response shows that they had missed the big picture. They thought everything was over because Jesus hadn’t overthrown Rome and freed Israel.

 

He goes on to call them “foolish” for not seeing how the words of the prophets were fulfilled in the life of Jesus (to whom they did not know they were speaking). Then He proceeds to outline for them how Jesus (He) had fulfilled every prophecy. What an amazing message that should have been. Before the cross and His completed work, there were many things Jesus could not yet share, but now He could reveal everything. What an amazing message that would have been!

 

We looked at the story where Peter tells Jesus He is the Christ.  Jesus changes Peter’s name from Simon to Peter.  Simon means reed (tossed about and always bending.  Peter was known for having a bit of a temper (volatile like the Sea of Galilee), but Peter meant rock.  When we follow the law, we are like a reed, but when we understand grace, we become a rock, not moved by the storms of life. Then just after that, Jesus rebukes Peter for telling Him He shouldn’t follow His purpose.  Just like us, Simon doesn’t become what he’s meant to be all at once. 

Back in Galatians 3, Paul reminds us that we are of the lineage of Abraham and heirs of His blessing if we receive righteousness by faith apart from our works. Finally, he tells us that the reason for all of this is that the “promise of the Spirit” would be available to us. What is that promise? John 14:15-21 tells us all about it. The promise of the Spirit is peace, counsel, wisdom and much more. We cannot access that promise by relying on law, but only by grace. Observing the law is good, but relying on it for righteousness leads to death and will keep us from obtaining the promise.

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Eviction Notice Part 1

Today, we began a new series called “Eviction Notice.” This is about weeding out the law and self-righteousness in our lives and living truly by faith in grace. In this first part, we went through a little bit of a history lesson regarding the message of grace in the early church. As I often teach, understanding scripture requires knowing context. So many restricting and condemning doctrines come from a very surface reading of scripture with no consideration of context. We must always seek to know WHO is talking, TO WHOM are they talking, WHERE they are talking and WHEN they are talking. It is also important to consider whether the word something GOD said or something MAN said.

We examined, in detail, Galatians 1:6-17. In verses 6-9, Paul admonishes the church in Galatia to not receive any Gospel other than what he had preached. What other Gospel was being preached? What was happening was, after he would preach the message of righteousness apart from works and establish a church, Judaizers would follow behind and preach that you had to still obey the Law to be saved – particularly the law of circumcision for Gentiles who wanted to become Christians.

Talk about how to motivate Gentile men NOT to become Christians! These religious leaders were teaching a different Gospel than Paul preached. They preached Christ, but that you still needed to obey law in order to be accepted. Paul goes on to say “let them be eternally cursed.” Now, Paul is not saying – as some have used this passage to imply – that if someone teaches something that is not correct, God is eternally condemning them. If you make your righteousness about your works, you are eternally condemned. There is no peace in righteousness by works. You will never be righteous by your works.  This is why Jesus came in the first place.  Why “let” them be eternally condemned? Shouldn’t Paul have encouraged them to try and preach the truth back at them? No. Remember, these are baby Christians. The entire message of grace was even younger than the church itself. Paul was one of the only ones who, at that time, had real revelation knowledge. These baby Christians were not equipped to argue with scholars on the law.

I think a great example would be with our children. I teach my kids that God created the earth in six days. I know that is truth and they know that is truth. Their teachers in school are going to teach a vastly different account of how we all got here. They will even imply that what my children believe is backwards and foolish. But I tell my children NOT to argue with teachers. They are very knowledgeable in their foolishness and can easily use intellect to crush the faith of a young believer. I watch kids in church who love God graduate high school and go to college. Within one semester, all the professors have “convinced” them there is no God and that to believe in God is idiotic. Thankfully, most have returned to the way they were brought up, but, without deep revelation knowledge of God’s Word, it is easy to be intellectualized out of your belief.  I think this is what these Judaizers were doing to the church in Galatia and elsewhere. It “made sense” to be required to follow the law to please God. That is all they had known, but Paul says to not let ANYONE (even himself) talk them into a different gospel than the gospel of grace. 

As part of the history lesson, we went to Acts 15 when Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to help clear up a similar matter. Jerusalem, in the heart of Israeli territory, was quickly falling back into law after receiving Christ. Specifically, they did not want the Gentiles to be able to claim “child of God” status without having to obey all the law they had obeyed (kind of) for generations.  Eventually the church leaders agreed that Gentiles don’t have to be circumcised, but that there were going to be four rules they must keep. Now, they felt they were okay with these four rules because they were given by God BEFORE the actual law was given. They were still missing the point. Jesus did not just come to fulfill the Mosaic law but any law that would separate God and man.

The more I study Paul’s writings, the more I see that God used him to save the early church. I believe that, without Paul, we would not be here as Christians today. The early church – even by the leadership of the disciples who walked with Christ, was quickly falling back into law living. The belief in Jesus as Messiah was layered on top of their belief, but they were still legalist Jews by nature.  Paul spent 14 years (Galatians 2:1) studying and receiving this message. He points out that he did not get this message from the disciples or any man, but from God himself. I often wondered why (and even Paul wondered at times) Paul, who was a Pharisee, was chosen to bring the Gospel to Gentiles and not the Jews. I believe what we saw in Acts 15 shows that he had more impact on the Jews than we realize.

I think God needed someone who was not there for the physical ministry of Christ and who understood all of the Old Testament to be able to connect all the dots. You know, sometimes when we physically experience something we can miss some of the deeper, spiritual meaning. Paul didn’t see it all happen, but he knew what happened and he knew well all of the things that were being fulfilled by Jesus. He had to have 14 years of “a-ha” moments as he gained that revelation and then passed it on to us in the New Testament.  We must also get that deep understanding of grace or we too can fall into the trap of turning our Christianity into a list of rules and rituals that have no power to grant us fellowship with God or to actually overcome sin.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Oil and Water Part 5

This week we finished the “Oil & Water” series. In it, we examined major contrasts between Old Covenant and New Covenant and how we cannot mix the two together.

In this final part we discussed the following contrast:

7) OLD COVENANT: Law could not provide an intimate relationship with God.

NEW COVENANT: We enjoy a close, intimate relationship with God through faith in righteousness through Jesus.

Hebrews 4:12-16 illustrates this point. The key verse is verse 16, but going back to verse 12 gives us a clearer context. Verse 12 is what I call one of the “mission statements” of the Word. It says that the Word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword and that it divides soul and spirit and judges the thoughts and intents of the heart (my paraphrase). The Word shows you the truth about who you are and what God wants you to be. In essence the Word is your judge.

Then in verse 13, we are told that everything is revealed to God’s sight. Nothing is hidden, and we must all give account. Often, this verse is quoted without the 3 verses that follow it that give it context. We are left in fear that every single thing about us will be called into question by God, and we will have to give account. But, Pastor, that’s what it said!  Read on! The next verse (14) begins with “therefore.” Whenever you see a therefore, you always back up a few verses to see what it is there for. So the statement in verse 13 is a lead-in to verses 14-16. In other words, understand that all are required to give account and based on that, you might want to know what comes in these next verses.

 Verses 14 and 15 tells us that we have a high priest (Jesus) who understands our weaknesses, because He was a man tempted in every way that we are tempted. He was without sin, and He offers Himself as the sin sacrifice for us. Then verse 16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  You could actually look at this passage this way… you must give account, therefore approach the throne of grace…

There is an account with a debt on it for your sins. If you approach the throne of grace, that debt has been paid by Jesus, so you may approach confidently, in faith, knowing you have no debt with God. If you choose instead to approach the throne of law and works, you will still be condemned for every failing. You then must account for every thought and action.  Understand that God does not have multiple thrones. He is on the throne of grace, but the world has other thrones. If you attempt to approach God through works, you will not find Him. He is not there. All you will find is guilt and condemnation, and, ultimately, destruction.

Revelation 20:11-12 talks about the dead being brought before the throne of God for judgment; however, it talks about there being many books AND the book of life. Your judgment depends on which book your name is in. If it is in the book of life, there is no judgment because your sin account was paid in full by Jesus, but if your name is in the book of “I was a good person” or the book of “I did it my way” or the book of “it’s all good,” you are in trouble. Anything but the book of life is a book based on your works. If you are not in Christ, you are left to justification by your works. Your works will NEVER be good enough.

But let’s get back to the close, personal relationship and the confidence with which we approach God. In 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, Paul is discussing the higher standard that those who influence the Body are held to. In this passage he states that no one can judge him, and he makes a very profound statement in verse 4. He says, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.”  In order to stand before God confidently and to be truly used by Him, we must get this same revelation. We will never be innocent. We are human and, even with the best of intentions, we will still sin, but because of the blood of Jesus, we can have a clear conscience. We should not walk in guilt and condemnation for our sin.

 As I have stated before, guilt should only drive you to God to ask forgiveness. Once you ask, receive it by faith and then do not stay guilty. We may think it is honorable to walk around acknowledging your pitiful state. No…You are forgiven. Walk like one forgiven. Paul understood that he needed to walk with a clear conscience – not calling himself innocent (like one who thinks they have obeyed all of the law), but forgiven.   Going back to Hebrews 4:16, we must understand that it is precisely because of our sin and failings that we need that mercy and grace “in our time of need.” Those things should not be stopping you from boldly approaching that throne of grace!

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.