This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Reverend Kevin Labby is our senior pastor. Today's message is by our founding pastor, Dr. Pete Alunson. The sermon is taken from selected verses in Philippians and is titled, Full Time Grace, How the Gospel Transforms Abba's Children. Now here's Pete with today's message. Good morning. It's so good to see you and to be with you, to bring to you God's Word. But a privilege just to stand in front of you and to see you, and to be a part of the Willow Creek family. I'm so glad God brought Kevin back safely, aren't you? Wow. Awesome. Great. Great. Great. Great time of seeing our missionaries encouraging them and building them up in the faith. We're going to look in God's Word today, but before we do that, let's bow our heads and hearts and prayer, and get our minds ready to hear what he has to say to us. Our great Father, it is so good to be in your presence today with your people, people we love, people I love, people our family loves, and Lord, how thankful for that I am today to be with them, and how thankful we are for your grace and your mercy and your peace you are the sovereign God of the universe. And today we have sung of your grace, we have sung of your mercy, we have sung of the reality of your pardon for us in Jesus, which is full and complete. And Lord, today, as we look into your Word, we pray that you would open our hearts. Lord, we've got a lot of our minds. We're already thinking about the week to come. We're already thinking about the week that was, we're thinking about our sins, and Lord, you know. You know, everything on our minds and hearts and our need and desire to just listen to the Father's voice. Thank you that as we come into your presence, we're of his children that were yours by faith that you gave us and that everything that we do and everything in the world in which we live is surrounded by your grace. So Lord, we bring you our thoughts, our struggles, our pain, our suffering, our problems, our bills that need to be paid, everything today. And we ask that you would take them off our hearts and minds and help us to see Jesus. So today, we pray for the one who teaches that you'd forgive him his sins. Use one Lord who's finite to be able to communicate your infinite truth. We pray these things in the strong name of our risen Savior Jesus. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, take them and turn to Philippians. I want to spend my time in the book of Philippians with you bouncing around looking at selected verses in that great book. And I've, I got to tell you while you're turning, I just returned from my Andrew Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Colorado. And you know, as many of you know, Karen and I and the kids have tried to get out there as much as possible this year, I was able to make that trip to the Holy Land with my daughter, Jesse, the warrior princess, where we hiked several mountains over 14,000 feet. And I know that it's, it's not appropriate to call your daughter a mountain goat. But as our former worship director, Mark Offereth used to say, there it is. She's a mountain goat. And I just try to keep up with her. But it's one of the great adventures that we'd like to go on as Owensonson as we, as I was on that great adventure, sucking wind, trying to find air to be able to climb. I still was thinking about the adventure that we're on as God's people. And the adventure that I thought about and was was praying about and studying about, even on that great adventure was this whole idea of what I see so often as I travel and speak to different groups of God's people. I think there's three major issues that God's people around our country are struggling with. I'm not going to talk to you about that. But one of them is simply the relationship of our transformation, how that takes place in Christ the whole issue of how Abba transforms us and how he develops us as his children. I see a struggling with that with all of the issues of law and grace and from the book of Philippians today. That's what I want to talk to you about. The title of this sermon is full-time grace, how the gospel transforms Abba's children. And we are Abba's children. It is such a privilege for the Christian to be able to say that we belong to the God of the universe. And as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, well how did he teach us to pray? Our Father, Peter is the Word. But then when we get to Galatians, Paul tells us that through faith in Christ we are Abba's children. We have such a personal and close relationship with the God of the universe that we can even use that title of Abba or daddy. And yet we struggle. How does God develop us? How does he transform us? How does he make us into his people? Well we know he uses grace. Does he use law? Yeah. What about when we become his children? Does he use grace? The answer is yes. Does he use law? The answer is yes. But we struggle to understand how this puts together by God's grace and our growth in Christ. And I don't know about you but when we start talking about spiritual growth, don't you tighten up a little bit inside? Don't you start saying, what's he going to start dinking with in my life now? Where is he going to, let me tell you the truth before, every one of these 14ers that I do, I try not to tell people I'm with the night before I don't sleep well. And the reason I don't sleep well is because I wonder, do I have what it takes to get up that mountain? Am I going to have a stroke on the way up? Are they going to have to pull me off of the search and rescue? Do I have what it takes? What's it going to take to get up that mountain? And a lot of times I think when it comes to spiritual growth, we think those same things. We think, God, what are you going to do in my life? Do I have what it takes? How hard is it going to be when you start wrenching things out of my life and try to put new things in? How's that going to work? And so I think we sometimes have a great deal of fear. And yet when it comes to spiritual growth, it's the greatest adventure a Christian can have, allowing the Father to develop us and how he does it, and that's what we want to talk about. Now, before we do, I want to tell you that what we're talking about here is an intramural discussion. When I was in school a couple of years ago, we used that phrase, intermurals for, did you use that expression, intermurals? Intermurals were sports within the school and not against other schools. And what we're talking about today is an intramural discussion within the body of Christ. I've never had one of my pagan friends come up to me and say, Alton said, we got to figure out this law-grace thing. I mean, we got to sit down and talk about how we grow. No, the pagans aren't interested in that. But we are. And even though this is an inner family discussion about how we grow as Christians, I want you to know has profound implications for every aspect of the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ. And so let's dig in. We're going to talk about three things, as you would suppose. I don't think I've ever done a sermon here with more than three, well, I have. I remember the five-point sermons and they haven't, Kevin, so I'm giving three points. First of all, I want you to note the ever-present role of grace as Abba develops. Secondly, the monarchy of salvation and thirdly, the synergy of growth. And so that's where we're going today. First of all, when understanding how Abba transforms his kids, I want you to understand the ever-present role of grace. And that's illustrated for us in the book of Philippians, as it starts out in Philippians 1, 1 and 2. Here's how it starts out. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, verse 2. What's the first word? Talk to me. Grace. Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago, when people would say, oh, I hear Steve's going to be at Willough Creek preaching. What's he going to talk about? What I say. Grace, I don't know, pick any text to the Bible and Steve was going to talk about grace. Ask Billy Graham to come to your church and speak and what's he going to talk about? Evangelism, right? We talk about grace a lot around here, but the reality is that these two verses, as we look at the beginning of Philippians, start with grace. Now how does Philippians end? I love this. Philippians 4.23, the last verse in the book, what does it say? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And so what I want us to catch from this point is the all-encompassing nature of grace in the Christians' life. This book illustrates that what we do is Christians is live and swim in the ocean of grace. Grace is everything. Grace is God's favorite. We got to remember what it is. Grace is God's favorite, his love, his focus on us because he wants to. That's what it is. That's and it's unmerited in every way and God's grace is primary in every aspect of life. For instance, God created all things, not because he had to, because there was some external compulsion on him, but because he wanted to. He created because he wanted to create, because he wanted to be a father of the children. And so he brought all things out of nothing, next needle, for you and for me. He gives us life and breath and food and all that stuff, everything. And it's all out of grace. And Philippians 1, 2 and 4.23 illustrate this reality that all of our life is unmerited, that what God gives us is gracious from start to finish. And that is an absolute principle that we have to keep in mind in this adventure of understanding how Abba transforms us as his children and brings us into the body of Christ. Before you were born, he favored you. When you came to faith in Christ, he favored you. As you walk with Christ, he gives his grace to you every day of your life. And every second of eternity, I know eternity is timeless. I got to keep looking to the theological expert over here. Every second of eternity, God's grace will be with us. You got that? Because the reality is this grace is all encompassing. I have a new personal illustration of grace, not a definition, but a personal illustration. And I want to share it with you this morning. And some of you who know my problems with driving know that it is in that area with driving. And so here it is. I was driving to a speaking engagement down in South Florida. And I was late because I'd gone by my daughter and son's house to see my granddaughter Maggie. She's wonderful. She's addictive. I love her to death. I had to see her. And so I was on the way. And I was late getting to where I was going to say, man, I shouldn't have stopped. That's getting longer and longer. And I got to start speaking at 630. I got to be checked in ready to go. I'm starting to speak at 630. I'm late. So I am your my church family. Can I tell the truth here? I was screaming down 995. And my black F-150. I was going so fast. I didn't even care. I came over a rise. And there was a deputy sheriff there. And I can almost read his lips. Black F-150. Get him. I pull over to the middle lane. I came over that rising down. And there was like Christmas. There were more deputy sheriff's. And I've seen my entire. It was the biggest dragnet I've ever seen in my entire life. And I've been around. And so I just pulled over, waited until he flipped the lights off. I flipped the lights on. Pulled me over to the side. He comes up. And he goes, sir, can I see your identification? So I said, it's in that box right next to me, along with a gun, with a bullet in the chamber. He calls for backup. It gets all the information. I say, I'm really going to be late. Now I step out. He comes back to me a few minutes later. And he says, sir, I want you to know we've been ticketing everybody. Did I tell you it was a construction zone? Thank you for that groan. I've been watching the signs for miles. So we've been ticketing people who were going 90 miles an hour. You were going 89. And he gave me a warning. Thank you. Have you ever heard of anybody? Get a warning for going 89 miles an hour in a 50 mile an hour zone and a construction zone? Have you? No. That's great. It's an illustration of grace. But in the spiritual realm, it's even worse when you think about it because our sin is so extensive and God is so holy. That God would ever let any of us off the hook, that He would ever love us, that He would ever send his son in our play. It's absolutely outrageous and difficult to understand because God is holy, holy, holy, but grace is that He favors us. When we deserve way more than we even know what we deserve. I teach a Tuesday morning study. And after this study one day, a guy came up to me and said, you know, you are blessed of God. I said, I know. I know. And he was thinking about my wife and my kids and my granddaughter and all this stuff. I blessed you. She lives. And it's not like I don't remember it. It's just it's so pervasive. It's like a fish, women in the ocean, describe the water. You can't do it. Grace is so pervasive. Sometimes we don't even understand it. Sometimes we don't even see it, but it shapes everything about us and all of our life from start to finish. It's the ocean in which we swim. Now that's the view from 10,000 feet about how God transforms us. He transforms us by His grace. Secondly, let's take a look up close and personal. How He brings us into the family. Secondly, I want you to note the monarchy of salvation. This is what happens to us. How His grace gets to us. Up close and personal. Philippians 1.6. I am sure of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. At the day of Christ, who started your salvation? Talk to me. God did. He began it. And why did He begin it? Because you couldn't. And neither could I. We couldn't begin. That's why I say the word. I use the word monergistics. Some theologians use that term. The word monergy. Trust me on this. It's sort of a word. Not in common parlance. But it's a word monos comes from the Greek adjective which means only an air gone means work. God's work in our salvation is so totally of God that we can call it monergistic. He's the single player. He began it because this is exactly the same thing, really, that Jesus said in John 6.37. Unless you think I'm making things up or Paul is, Jesus said all that the Father gives me will come to me. John 6.44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. It's what Paul said in Ephesians 2 when he said you're dead and you're trespasses and sin. Spiritually dead but God made us alive. But it comes to our salvation. Dead people can't get up and walk on their own. And so we can speak of the work of Christ in our transformation. The work of God in our life is a monergistic, what Paul says in Romans 3.24 when he says that we have been justified. As a gift of his, what's our word today? Grace. The Iron Man here at Willa Creek are studying through Wayne Gruden's systematic theology. Trust me on this. It's a book if dropped on your head would cause a concussion. But here's his definition of justification. Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he thinks of our sins as forgiven. And Christ's righteousness is belonging to us and declares us to be righteous in his sight. When we accept Christ by God's grace we're justified declared not guilty. Does that make you perfect? No, it means God thinks of you and me as forgiven as declared not guilty for our sins. And so all is of grace or salvation is all of great. We can speak of this is the monergy of salvation. God does it and isn't that humbling? We definitely want to bring something to our salvation. I have faith. And so it's very difficult for people to say, don't I bring anything to my salvation? Don't I bring one thing? Yeah, you bring a lot. You bring tons to your salvation. You bring all of your sins. And you bring all of your inability to do good. You bring so much. You don't even know. And then God does the rest. It's like this. It's like being invited to the party of a billionaire. I've never been invited to the party of a billionaire. It's like you invited to the party of a billionaire and you have to bring a gift, right? And the gift is your admission ticket. And the billionaire stands at the door and he's got to determine if your gift is good enough. But here's the reality. We all live in poverty. So what can you buy? I mean, you can go to 7-Eleven and buy something. That's all you got. The salvation is coming to the party with something from 7-Eleven. And the billionaire says, come on in. If you have Jesus, we can come in to the party. It's the work of God. Now in our salvation, let me ask you this. Is God used law to save us? It's a question here. Does God use law? Yes. Does the law to show us we can't get there? And so it's by His grace that He welcomes us in and He shows us. Well, we say, I just don't have enough to get in. He says, of course, you don't, my child. It's through faith and Christ. And so we come in by His grace and we accept what He has put in our heart. I was talking to Eric Gosman, he's our producer at Key Life one day. He said, you know, you should tick me off that Christians never told me this. And then one day somebody said to me, God loves you, Eric. And he said, I've never heard that before. And then he said, wait a minute, I've hung around a lot of Christians. Of course, that's what Christians say. Haven't you ever told me, you said that to somebody, right? God loves you. Yeah. We say it and we hear it until finally the Holy Spirit enables us what? To hear it, to believe it and act on it and Abba changes us. That's why we worship because He did it. So I want you to note now that we enter into the most challenging part. We couldn't do any of that. Notice grace from start to finish. Secondly, the monarchy of salvation. Thirdly, I want you to note the synergy of growth. What happens after grace and God's power bring us into the family? How does transformation take place? We'll look at Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, what? Read those with me. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both the will and the work for His good pleasure. This is so encouraging. Once we've become Abba's children, how do we change? How do we grow? How does grace and law work in us? God is, notice He says, work out your salvation. Notice He doesn't say work what? For your salvation. He says, work out what God has worked in. What God has worked in monurgistically is this total transformation of your life and my life. He's worked it in. He pressed it in. He put it in and you believe now work it out with Him. It's a command, truly. He who began a good work and you will what? Finish it, work until the day of Christy. Jesus says, work on your own salvation. Steve Brown used to always say to me, I'm not your mother. It took me a couple of years to figure out what he meant because I wanted a mother. Well, not really, but I wanted somebody to show me how to do everything. Somebody to help me do everything. I wanted a brother in Christ, a mentor that would show me how to do everything. So I'm not your mother, you've got the Holy Spirit, you've got Jesus in you, you've got Abba. I'm not the one to walk around telling everybody what to do, even though I'd sure like to. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And notice that means we take our growth seriously. Does the Christian care about spiritual growth? And everybody ought to say, Amen, we do. We care about that. But notice the synergy. Synergy simply means we're working with the God of the universe who is in us. How do we grow? We work with the God of the universe in us. Here's Wayne Gruden's definition of sanctification, a progressive work of God. And you and me, that makes us more and more free from sin and more like Christ in our actual life. How do we grow? We work with the one who is in us. But like this, guys, catch this. Like a father and son, a four-year-old son are mowing along. When the father is pushing the mower and the four-year-old son is pushing on the lower rung, who's doing most of the work, can we talk? Yeah. Bad. Abba. Is he helping his dad? Yeah. There's a synergy. Grace is still primary in spiritual growth. It's the ocean in which we swim. And yet now because God is in us, we get to be a part of that spiritual growth process. God is working in us. This is a great joy. And that's why the New Testament, the commands always follow the truths. Or the indicatives are always followed by the imperatives in Philippians 2, 14. He says this, do all things without grumbling or disputing. That's a command. And then he says, finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord. And then in Philippians 4, he says, therefore, my brothers, who my long, for my joy, my crown, stand firm in the Lord. Then he says something really scary. He says to the pastor of the church, I urge Yodia and Sintiki to live in harmony, help them out. Now, that's not a command I would want to have to do. But the reality is, we get to be a part of growth because of who is in us. Now, let me ask you this. Once we've become Christians, since God used the law or has the law done, of course He uses the law. The law or his truths that show us how to live. Of course, he uses the law. Does he use grace? Of course, he uses grace. How do we work with God in our salvation? I've only got a short time left. Let me just tell you how I do this. Sometimes in reading the word, I see an area where I need to grow. Have you ever had that experience? You're reading the Bible. You want to encouragement and the Father says you need to work on this. Or you have a good friend and they or your married. That'll do it to you. And your spouse says you need to work on that. Or you're with your kids as they get older and more mature and wiser. And they've listened to Jesus too and they say, Dad, you've got to work on that. Yeah? What I do is I just take that to Jesus. And I say, Really? Lord, is this really an area that I have to work on? And a lot of times you'll say sit down, son, and let's talk. And you'll say, Yeah, it is. And I'll say, Father, how do they get this way? And I want to go back into my family and dig out the reasons for it. And so sometimes I will. And then sometimes you'll just say, Son, it's too complicated for you. Just accept this is where you need to grow. Let's talk about it. Own it. And then usually I'll just kind of say, Well, okay, you know, Lord Jesus, I don't really want to be this way. Somebody sent me a cartoon the other day that said, I love Jesus, but I cuss sometimes. I do other things too. Let me ask you this. Do you want as a follower of Christ? Do you want to be good? You want to be holy? Of course you do. I have never met anybody who was truly born again who didn't. Of course. And so repentance is simply saying, Lord, now I see it. I don't want to be that way. I want to be your way. And so what do you do? Keep guilt on yourself. No, you admit it. You're a pen of it. And you say, Lord, drench me in your gospel. Jesse, now we're hiking. She's not in this service. I can tell this story. We came off the trail. And she said, Well, let's go start in a rain. She says, go this way. I said, we go that way. It'll take us longer to get to the car. She said, I want to go this way. So, okay, we'll go. By the time we got to the car, we were drenched. She got to the car. She said, sorry. The good illustration. We were soaked to the bone. And that's what we need when it comes to grace after we've said, we need to get it soaked to the bone. And focus on the efficiency of Christ's work completely. Let it roll down us. Let it sink into us. And by the time you get done with that process, they will follow. What do I need to do now? Because sometimes you'll say, go talk to Bill or talk to Karen about that. Or sometimes you'll say, just get into the word a little bit more. Sometimes by the time I get through that process, something is different inside. Because grace has a way of working to transform us through his law and grace as we enter into it. Because he's in us. I met a new guy out in Colorado. He's older than me. His name is Dick Savage. Guys, don't you just like that name? Which that was my name, Pete Savage. Pete said, Pete, we have so many disassembled pieces in our lives. It's absolutely phenomenal. And I thought, yeah, those years I bought Legos for my kids at Christmas. What was I thinking? A box full of disassembled parts. And I'm going to have to help him put it together. I can't do that. I have so many disassembled parts in me. And Jesus is the one who works in us. All right, let's put this together and then we'll wrap this up. Are we to be proactive in spiritual growth? Answer me? Yeah, of course we are. I spoke at a place recently and the worship director came up after me and said, we've focused on grace here. But a lot of times people just walk away and go home and yell at their kids. I'm forgiven. I can do whatever I want. Is that grace? No. We didn't be concerned with our growth. I take my spiritual growth very seriously. But as Steve Brown often says, sanctification doesn't happen by hustle. I love that. Growth and grace happens as we work with God. Don't get obsessed. This is the problem. It's so often when we talk about sanctification and the process of growth, we as God's people get obsessed with growth. You're part of my family so I can tell you this illustration too. I was at the airport, walked into the bathroom and there was a guy washing his hands. I kid you not. Subsides all over the place, all over the counter. He was washing his hands like this for about five minutes. And I thought, all right, he's either a first-year medical student. He just learned about germs. He's neurotic and needs to go to counseling. And as I was leaving that place, I realized this guy's neurotic. Soapsides everywhere. I've never seen anything like it in my life. But I've seen obsessed Christians. I've seen obsessed. When you fail and you will, you got to remember God's not mad at you and can't be mad at you. Somebody said, well, wait a minute. God was mad at Israel in the Old Testament. All right, go back. Read the Old Testament. Take every verse where it says that God was angry at Israel in the Old Testament. And just this, not one of them applies to you. Because Jesus took God's wrath for you and for what about the judgment seat of Christ? I know. It's coming. But all it is is it's going to be a time where he rewards you for your faith and where he shows how your faith made real inroads in your life by his grace. You're not going to be judged as my friend discovered the other day driving around listening to Christian music. He said, I'm never going to be judged. It hit like that. And set him free in the process of our own spiritual growth. There are consequences for our sins, right? Did you admit that? Listen, do not drive down I-95 going 89 miles an hour. You will get the ticket. Jesus may love you, but I'm his favorite. Rob a bank. You'll get caught. Drive drunk. You'll get a DUI. But you're still obvious child. When it comes to growth, stick with the gospel. Abide with Christ. Stay with him. Work with him. But don't obsess. Abba redeems you and grows you because he loves you. And he loves you because he's here. You're his. God's not dead. He's surely alive. He's roaring like an alien on the inside. I know because I saw the movie last night. Because of my own experience. I know it's true. And you know it's true. Rest in the gospel. And you will be transformed more than you ever imagined. You take it to heart. Let's pray. Father. We rest in you. Jesus, we rest in your finished work. And we add nothing to it. Thank you for what you've done, what you're doing, what you will do. Thank you that we can swim every day in the ocean of your grace. And we give you praise and honor that we can be your children. You're holy.
Willow Creek Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.