Father, we're thankful for this place. We're thankful for Mr. Graham and for the vision that you gave Him and the board to create this place But father more than anything We're thankful for you and we praise you You've given us so much And we've deserved so little Father, you know everybody in this room tonight We seem so spiritual and so together and you know the truth You know the secrets that we dare share with nobody else except you You know the sin that causes us to blush and cry that father You know the times when we think we're just Not good enough to be yours And so come Father speak to our minds that we might not be superficial simplistic Christians And then Father speak to our hearts That we might not be cold narrow critical Christians and then Father draw to our feet That we might go out That others might hear our laughter We pray for the one who teaches that you would forgive him his sins For they are many we would see Jesus and him only and we pray in Jesus name. I'm in Guys if you've come here this weekend with Simone you came to the right place Now there's sometimes when you come to the gove when the Bible teacher is a prophet and He's gonna tell you some things y'all to do and some ways y'all to change and some places y'all to tell the line And and some ways y'all to stand up and be counted and vote Republican Now I want you to know I didn't mean to say that it slipped out I'm not gonna do any of that this week. This is gonna be a week end of really healing and Really good news what Luther said this he said we must preach the gospel to ourselves Let's we become discouraged One of the problems with most of us who are evangelicals that we think the gospel is for pagan We have the fourth spiritual law so his Alan will show you the Roman road or the EE plan of evangelism or whatever We have that and that's the gospel. We present that to our pagan friends So they will come to know Christ and then they will be able to present the gospel to their friends It's sort of a paramitting scheme, but let me tell you something one of the problems that happens is that we're so busy selling it We don't do it Look at this great product and we're showing everybody how to share it with everybody else But we forget that the product is to be used the gospel for us Everything that's mentioned in the basic for us of evangelism is that which needs to be applied to us in a day-by-day way That's why Martin Luther said we have to preach the gospel to ourselves Well, the last time you did that. I know you've been doing it with your pagan friends. I know you've been doing it with your husband Who is in a Christian? I don't know you've been trying to share it with your teenage kids who aren't buying any of it But when was the last time you preach the gospel to yourself? So that's what we're gonna do this weekend We're gonna preach the gospel to ourselves and the best way we can do that is to study the book of Galatians If I should pick a book that I love out of all the books of nah But it's certainly one of them I absolutely love this book and every time I work in this book I'm blessed again. This week I've been working in Galatians again. I've only taught this about 40 times and This week I've been working at it and this week I've been quite depressed to be honest with you You know, you get the 330 and more you got a cold and you can't sleep when you can't sleep you get depressed Then you start thinking I'm ugly and my mother dresses me funny And then you start thinking you know I How can I ever be used to God to do anything and then I'm thinking about coming up here? Walking on how a ground what in the world am I doing up here? Because these are where my family members are and they know how bad I really am They're gonna laugh if I try to say anything about goodness and I've been really depressed But you know the thing that brought me out of it was the book of Galatians I've been preaching the gospel to myself all week so that I could preach the gospel to you this weekend Martin Luther said of this book this Epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. I am wedded to it It is as it were my Katherine. Isn't that wonderful this book has been called the battle cry of the Reformation it's been titled the great Charter of Religious Freedom and the Christian Declaration of Independence But whatever you say about the book of Galatians, it's one of the basic Doctorinal books for living out the Christian faith Let me give you a little bit of background before we get into it and obviously we can't do this verse by verse line by line Preset by precept because we just only have a weekend and generally I take four or five months to teach this book So I'm gonna pick out some of the themes and I'm gonna list them up and they're the major themes And if you listen carefully and I am gonna test you on this material And if you listen carefully by the end of the weekend you really will know the book of Galatians The ninth chapter of Acts is one of the pivotal points of all of human history You know what happened in the ninth chapter of Acts? That's where a man by the name of Paul got wet by God with a two-by-four and Was not blind so that the world might see And at nine we read of a conversion experience that changed the entire world His name was the Apostle Paul and if hadn't been for him we wouldn't have had Galatians and if we hadn't had Galatians we wouldn't have had the Reformation of course God doesn't need Paul and God doesn't need anybody and he would have done it another way But he chose this way and it started in the ninth chapter of the book of Acts for 13 years the Apostle Paul Languished he was quiet before God he was listening to God's spirit He was listening to the whisper of the one that he had hated oh he'd been religious It'd been very very religious are you religious? I a religion I've had it up to my ears with religion I've seen the abuse the religion causes people I've seen the way religion puts people on a track and kicks them and pushes them Paul was religious in fact he went better Then all of his fathers in the faith he said as he gives his testimony you can read that in this book He was doing really good and the thing he hated most were people who weren't religious But we're in a relationship and those were the Christians and so he persecuted and he went after him until the ninth chapter of Acts When God on the road to Damascus changed Paul and through Paul changed the entire world and in the 12 13 years Paul didn't do anything this side around listening to God because God was showing Paul he didn't need him and Then at that time Barnabas the son of encouragement and that's what the word means who was serving a pastoral role in And Andy Yacht went down and got Paul and brought into Andy Yacht to help with some of the wonderful things God was doing in the church of Andy Yacht and you know what happened from Andy Yacht The Christians in Andy Yacht decided they were going to send Paul and Barnabas out as missionaries To share what they had been teaching the Christians in Andy Yacht the grace the wonderful grace of Christ And so they went to South Galatia and they planted some churches in the southern part of Galatia And in the city in Antioch in Iconian and in Lister and in Durb and then they came back To Andy Yacht their Andy Yacht they came back and they that was Syrian And they told the Christians there what God had done. They said wow you can believe this This is so good all we have to do is speak the word and these people were so drawn by God's spirit It was exciting. They're walking in freedom They understand the gospel the world is beginning to be won for Jesus Christ And then the stories started coming in if you're a pastor, you know what it's like when you hear that your people may not be walking it You leave and you start getting the stories. They say they say they're not free anymore They say they're into the law again They say they're walking like Pharisees again The Judaizers have come in and told them that this gospel stuff was nice But they needed to add some things to it They've leased ought to try to please the God who had saved them and so they could do that by being good and pure and righteous and kind and loving and sweet Paul died Then he sat down and he wrote the letter. They were going to be studying this weekend Now the letter is sometimes pretty harsh Sometimes it's so gentle. It's like a breeze This is the letter of a mother Who sees her children going in the wrong direction And the mother very strong But with great love and great gentleness tries to lead her children back home So the impossible wrote this letter by way of introduction and I know a no better way to introduce this letter Then to go back to the Reformation and read Martin Luther's or at least Portrait Henry go thing Read Martin Luther's introduction to his commentary on Galatians So listen and listen to your heart and with your mind to these words of Martin Luther I have taken in hand in the name of the Lord yet once again to expound this epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians Not because I desire to teach new things or such as we have not known before since that by the grace of Christ Paul is now thoroughly known among you But for that we have to fear less Satan take from us this doctrine of faith and bring it to the church again The doctrine of works and men's traditions Therefore it is very necessary that this doctrine be kept in continual practice and public exercise both by hearing and by teaching and by reading And although it be never so well known yet the devil who rageeth continually seeking to devour us is not dead Likewise our flesh and old man is yet alive besides this all kinds of temptations do vex and oppress us on every side So that this doctrine can never be taught or urged or repeated enough If this doctrine be lost then is also the doctrine of truth And the doctrine of life and salvation also lost and gone if this doctrine flourish then all good things flourish Religion the true service of God the glory of God the right knowledge of all things which are necessary for a Christian to know And then and then Luther gives some main themes about grace and freedom and relations and then he continues Why do we then do not do why do we then do nothing? Do we work nothing for obtaining this righteousness? I answer nothing at all For this is perfect righteousness to do nothing To hear nothing to know nothing of the law or of works But to know and believe this only that Christ is gone to the Father and is not now seen that he siteth in heaven at the right hand of the Father Not as judge but made unto us of God wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption Briefly that he is our high priest in treating for us and raiding over us and in us by grace In this heavenly righteousness sin can have no place For there is no law and when no law is there can be no transgression Saying then that sin at here no place There can be no anguish of conscience no fear no depression no heaviness Isn't that great? It's that kind of stuff that calls to the Reformation We're close to selling our heritage for a mess of potage We take some this stuff is good stuff and we've made the good news bad news And I know you guys because I've been a pastor for 30 years and I know what you think And every one of you have a secret that if you told everybody else you'd good jump off a bridge someplace I know you you don't fool me I know you're sin and all the times you've tried and tried and tried and you can't get it together And they told you that a Christian would do this and this and this and you couldn't do it And if you did do it you were faking it because it wasn't going on in your heart And what we got to do is we got to go back So the central teaching that is the good news of the gospel Jack Miller used to say cheer up You lot worse than you think you are And then he would say cheer up God's grace is a lot bigger than you think it is And I'm going to tell you the direction we're going to go I have four sessions and then there's a question and an answer session that we're going to do too But four teaching sessions and the first thing we're going to look at is the radical nature of grace We're going to look at that tonight and I'm not going to say anything new But I'm going to remind you of some things you need to be reminded about quite often And then tomorrow we're going to talk about the critical offense of grace I do this morning show Steve Brown etc I've had more fun it may not make it guys Do you know the radio stations it's on in Tampa and Atlanta and it's going to be in Savannah Starting Monday and then it's going to be syndicated in other places and it's not Christian radio How about that sportsman it's radio done by Christians and there's a big difference I do Bible teaching on the key life program on this program. I have fun Do you want to have the first day The owner of Genesis communication got 300 calls of complaint
Now I generally offend a lot of people but not 300 at once I mean generally they give me a day or two, but I mean these people were on the horn quick I get wait you ought to see the male we get a key life We get about 7,000 letters a month And we get more critical letters than any other ministry in America on a per capita basis They did a study in Lancaster, Pennsylvania Where they they they had people send in their surveys And if you got a one that means that means you're ugly and you're probably you're probably not even a Christian And if you got a five that meant you're just waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity and And we got more ones than any other ministry in America and we got more five than any other ministry in America too So the question we're going to talk about tomorrow is when is it that makes people so angry about grace You know what I do. I tell God's people. He's not mad at them They'll be happy about that and they get mad at me I say he loves you and then they get obscene gesture. I say look I'm just telling you about God. He's not angry at you and they get upset Well, we're going to find out why it's really interesting when you start looking at it and Paul tells us in this letter But the first session I'm going to I'm going to answer the question from Galatians that everybody here is going to ask Steve you can't You can't teach this stuff Because you're going to be called from permission to say Frank and I Frank's been going through Jack Miller's sons yet Of course, and we were to read it for prayer before we come out here And Frank was saying something that I think every day of my life. This can't be true He's been going through and learning about grace and he's saying some inside me said this is too good Can't be true. If it's religious, I'll be sad On to make you holy the hard way and I'm going to tell you how to be holy But something way you fought so we're going to talk in the third section about the sanctifying nature of grace Let me taste that. I'm not good, but I'm better than I was and the only way I got better was by not having to be any better You say say what? I'm not good, but I'm better I'm better than I was and the only way I got better was not having to get any better And I'm going to show you the wonderful sanctifying nature of God's grace from the book of Galatians And then the final time on Sunday morning. We're going to talk about the exciting fellowship of grace Let me taste them when you meet somebody who hates religion as much as you do But has found the relationship with Christ and lives out the gospel of grace in their lives when you need him to lie that You just lied up and there'll be funny ones. I mean there'll be ones that hold our hands up and talking tons They'll be uptight reforms theologians Who think everybody's lost except them and they're not sure about them, but they find grace And you'll see he's won. She's won. They got it. You run into them all over the place And we're going to talk about the wonderful fellowship of grace. It's ordained of God and it happens all over the place We're going to talk about that. So that's the direction we're going to go in But tonight for the next few minutes. I want to talk to you about the radical nature of grace We have a we have a cartoon in the lobby of the international headquarters of key life network incorporated We would put that sign on the building, but the sign would be bigger than the building and we have this we have this lobby and somebody Somebody do a cartoon picture of me after one of my seminars and I was teaching and and the people that are sitting like you are In the congregation their hair is standing up and they had this shop look on their face and the pastor standing up to the side and saying I know what Steve said But there are other interpretations
Let me take something guys whenever you think I don't think Steve meant that yeah, I did
You'll say I know I know that Steve is going to clarify that he couldn't possibly have been teaching what I thought he heard yes, I am That's exactly why I'm saying because I'm very simple Now I'm not simplistic and and we might talk about the graph bellhausen documentary hypothesis later on I'm not simplistic, but I'm simple and I say what I mean I mean what I say and when you say I don't think you meant that I mean it So we're going to be talking about some radical radical stuff tonight as we talked about grace You know sometimes sometimes we forget about the radical nature of what we're about My friend Lee flower over at chattanooga is just wonderful And I love that brother more than I can tell you when my lifestyle apart He told me to wake up the sleeping dogs and they didn't have any teeth And Lee and Jesus and I Work up those dogs and I found out some stuff about me that absolutely just blew me away And I'll lovely leaves a drunk. He's recovering. He's a preacher He's a drunk and he loves Jesus with all of his heart former Air Force fighter pilots and and that and Lee Lee says this and I just love he said religion is for people who don't want to go to hell and christianities for people who've been there Is that a great statement? Religion is for people who don't want to go to hell and christianity is for people who Have already been there when they asked johnny cash Barbara wall wall waters
As johnny cash If he believes in hell and say yes, ma'am Said you really did said yeah been there
I know you guys and I know where it hurts and And I know you've been there I sometimes say to my students when and reformed seminary students Or seminary students buying logs. I wish I knew as much as they did They have a tendency to get very black and white and judgmental and critical And sometimes I say to them boys You haven't lived long enough and you haven't sinned big enough to even have an opinion on that
I look you know you guys have you have you've been there You know what it's like not to sleep at night The blush and private and the wonder if god's really there And even more important to wonder if god could possibly love you because he knows what nobody else knows I know you I know when you lost the kid and you thought you're gonna die I know when your mom died in you And you thought uh, it's over and you couldn't believe in god anymore I know when you went through that divorce and I know the pain and the judgment you've got from other Christians I know that you guys have sinned big enough you've lived long enough To look at the radical nature of grace. So that's what we're gonna talk about tonight Let me read you some verses and if you have your Bible you might want to follow them Listen to Galatians 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law But by faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ And not by the works of the law For by the works of the law no flesh can be justified and some of you guys are trying to do that
Galatians 2 and then I'm gonna read starting at the 21st person I'm gonna read through the 14th verse of the 3rd chapter I do not set aside the grace of god for if righteousness comes through the law then Christ died in vain Oh foolish Galatians who is bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? Therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you Does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness Therefore know only those who are faith or sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify The Gentiles by faith Preach the gospel to Abraham before and saying to you all the nations shall be blessed So then those who were of faith are blessed with believing Abraham for as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse For it is written cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident for the just shall live by faith Yet the law is not a faith But the man who does them shall live by them Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us For it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree That the blessing of Abraham might come up on the Gentiles in Christ Jesus That we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith
First thing I want you to see in those verses. I just read to you. I want you to note a horrible curse Relations 3 10 and 11 we just read it for as many as are the works of the law or under a curse For it is written cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident
You know You know what God is like is scary That's why it's a curse because we know that the commandments are not suggestions That the law reflects the will of a holy and lightest God God is God and you're not for my thoughts are not your thoughts meter of my ways your way says the law For as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts I kid about everything and people hate that. I get letters saying you even laugh at your own jokes Well, of course, I did their funny Would tell them I didn't think they were funny I'm not very serious about myself the great thing about grace. You don't have to be right anymore So I'll take myself very seriously. I'm gonna die Don't get over this code. It's gonna be sooner than later The good news is you're going to heaven the bad news is you're going on first and I don't take myself very seriously. I don't take you guys very seriously. You used to scare me today if you did If you don't anymore because I know you So I'll take you very seriously. I don't take the church very seriously. Most of the time we play games Um, you know, but I take God very seriously We ought to take what we ought to take seriously seriously and that's gone The God of the universe. I love and you probably heard me tell the story a hundred times CS Lewis. I love and in the Chronicles of Narnie remember there's a lion the lion's name is Anselin And Anselin is the lion of Judah and Lucy I think it's Lucy has gone into Narnie for the first time. This is in the one about the chair and and and and she sees this lion and she's very thirsty and there's a scream of cold water And she looks at the lion and she looks at the water and she says to the lion You move Well, I'm gonna then get a drink of water and the lion says no She said you little girls Blinds says yes and little boys and men and women and worlds and universes
And she she said will you promise not to eat me if I go over there and get a drink of water and the lion says no And she stamps her foot and said then I'll go to another stream And the lion says there is no other stream And she stamps her foot then she says then I'll be thirsty And the lion says then be thirsty That's God God is God and we're not And God is scary and he's holy and he's righteous and that's why you are created There are people who are searching for him And people who are running from him and that's all I spent a considerable portion of my time talking to unbelievers The agnostics and atheists and people who called them intellectuals Let me taste them. They don't have intellectual problems. That's a smokescreen They know that there's God and that God is holy and righteous and if there's a God they're not God If he's in control, they're not in control and the Bible tells us in Romans that they're at enmity with him We're in their curse and the curse is this is what he wants and desires and commands from His people. Can we talk? Is that bother you? Does me? That's why it's a curse
Would would you be willing to stand up and get a testimony? No, no, I don't mean that testimony. I mean the real one Like the stuff you thought What you really thought The way you really would live if If you knew you wouldn't get caught What you really think about Would you be willing to give that testimony? He's sometimes at night. Thank oh my Oh my What trouble are you? I don't even know if I'm saved a Christian wouldn't be this way a Christian wouldn't be this afraid A Christian wouldn't be this depressed a Christian wouldn't be wouldn't be this lonely That's the curse That's the curse of the law and when we're like that we're just like pagans we're like orphans When we're like that guys we missed the whole thing we started playing the game that Jesus came to stop us from playing The curse is an awful curse and it eats us alive. I got I got a letter from a lady in a church Charlie Corbyl Morgan are here dear friends of mine in a church that I served And they would notice lady if I buttered me up she wrote me a letter and she said Steve I'm leaving So it's can't be good enough anymore She said she's got me want you to hear from somebody else but I can't do it anymore. I'm out of here I didn't say her for three years and I tried Because I wanted to tell you didn't listen you didn't understand you're still under the curse
You know the name Robert Robinson he lived in the 18th century And even if you're not familiar with and then you know I am that he's that he wrote Come down to every blessing prone to wander lord I feel it prone to leave the one I love your son got a thousand times Let me pay the rest of the story Robert Robinson left the faith Charlie after he wrote that hand he walked away from Jesus and had nothing more to do with him And many years later he was with a date a woman and they were going through the streets of London And it was Sunday evening and there was an evangelical church in London And they were singing his name and the windows were open And they heard the sound in the carriage and he began to cry And the woman who was working said what's what's wrong Robert And he said I will tell And I would give everything that I own to know what I knew then Wish I could have been there I said Robert they lied to you He never let you go You're playing a game again you've reverted that's what the fall is about you're under curse You got it you got to stop it Robert it'll be as if you never left His bloody sufficient It's covered all these years Come on home Robert Come on home So you need to know that when Paul talks about a horrible curse it's a horrible curse And the problem is most Christians are living under it too And it's a pity because Jesus went through so much trouble to fix it And that brings me to the second point Secondly I want you to know not only a horrible curse I want you to note a startling solution You knew it already Galatians 3.13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law Having become a curse for us
Now we can spend some time this week talking about theological surmise on the theories of the atonement The original God is basically a God of love and Augustine said this Augustine said the love of God secured the cross of Christ The cross of Christ did not secure the love of God Say it again remember it the love of God secured the cross of Christ The cross of Christ did not secure the love of God And so we've got a God who is loving but is holy and he's righteous And Paul tells us in durations that the curse the stuff that keeps you awake at night The stuff that makes me think every time I teach the Bible What am I doing? How could somebody like me teach the Bible? That's the stuff that's the curse and God took that curse and he put it on On his son and now God's love God's mercy came running You know you know the story about the young man who was in his 20s gave his first concert at Carnegie Hall Wonderful standing ovation the crowds stood after he played the piano and and when he walked off the stage The the stage Manager noticed the young man was crying. He said son. What's wrong with you? They're giving you a standing ovation Said go back out there he went back out he had to do it four times and every time he came back he was weeping And the the stage manager said son They love you. What are you crying for? And he said sir come here minute and they look through the curtains and he said Do you see him the third balcony? You see that man there? He's my teacher and he's not applauding
Let me tell you something maybe you didn't know I could use that illustration to make you feel guilty I could say how much Bible did you read today? It was the last time you shared your faith. You died
Are you walking it? I mean the people really see Jesus in you. He's not applauding But you see that's been done in the church and that's the line. It's from the pit of hell and it smells like smoke. Listen to me I don't stress it doesn't work there. Listen to me. God is applauding Yeah, you You said not me man. I need my preacher. God is applauding God's in the balcony and as you do it He sees you through his son who bore the curse for you and he's a cheerleader the god of the universe for his people Don't ever forget that that's the information. That's what this is about that God is applauding his people. How about that? That's worth losing your voice over. I'm not a shouting preacher But I can I can sound like a bad distraping a gospel sometimes When starts happening god is applauding his people. He bore the curse For us That's how the reformation started Luther's my hero Luther was a doer with dirt under his fingernails and Calvin was a thinker In those two hand and hand man made a difference in the world But you know you know the story that Luther who was Was was with his confessor a young man a young priest in his cell in the monastery And Luther was weeping over his sins and the young priest is confessor didn't even know what to do So he started repeating the apostles three over and over and again When he got to I believe in the forgiveness of sins Luther tacked him on the knee and said say that again I believe in the forgiveness of sins and Luther said there is forgiveness man There is forgiveness man and he got up and walked out of the cell and that was the beginning of the search that led That what we're talking about tonight. Man thirdly. I want you to know not only the horrible curse The startling solution. I want you to see a frightening danger Look at the first three verses of the third chapter of the legends. I know this I know this because he could say oh foolish Steve Oh foolish Richard Oh foolish new Oh foolish folks at the cull Who is for which you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as true survived This only I want to learn from you did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Are you so foolish Having begun in the spirit are you now being made perfect And the flesh I've got to call our morning program
And you know something I love legalist I used to hate him or play they die
You know what did that to me is is I read Henry now and The return of the protocol and he talks about the sunny state home who was the nice sweet religious one didn't do anything bad But he was worse than the one who went out and lived with the pigs But now and said that the father loved the legalist and he loved the rebel too And do we have to identify with the young son and the old son and the father and the one who told the story And I read that and then I went back to read the story the protocol again And I read I read about that young son and God gave me this overwhelming compassion for Pharisees I'm not nice to him I mean God hasn't called me to do that, but I love him God has given me a passion A really and Marion called us the other morning more well yesterday on the morning program So I like the program. That's been very why not we have done you think bad She said it means it's not Christmas. Oh, yeah, it is just christian rock But it's christian we don't play it's not a music program But we use bumpers they come into the different segments and I said we're doing that because the guy sitting in the control room Has a as a sweatshirt and he says Jesus says Satan sucks I didn't got a earring in both ears You know I'm strife with all his heart and if I only played organ music he'd leave
And Marion left And I thought thank God Thank God She's she's you know you know what Marion had done same thing Frank and me do We're talking about that you know what the sign of the fall is and not you're seeing God can take God takes care You sin that's what the process is all about you're clean Unless you blasted nicely do not accept what the word says about your sin Cory ten boom and I saw her shortly before she died. I have lunch with her in a hotel room and nobody talked I mean I didn't have to worry about stories I mean it just been me a bit of problem, but she's Wonderful and she and she had to rest up because she was eighty something then and she said step on And she said God takes our sin and drops it in the ocean you heard a thousand times says no fishing You're playing it's not this the sign of the fall is not your sin folks Just stiffness The sign of the fall Isn't your sin It's your sickness and when she last she began she she began to understand you know a sign of the fall is reversion to the law it is You know when when Jim Baker and I'm gonna tell you something about him later And Jimmy Swig and I will tell you about him too When they when they did bad stuff, you know, we all didn't want to tell people that we're Christians because they say you're one of those and And then I used to think and then I was a pastor at that time and I thought man I got to preach holiness now You stay with me till I get to the sanctifying part of this I believe very much in holiness and righteousness and sanctification We're gonna talk about that. We've just been doing it wrong And so so when they did that stuff I thought gosh I gotta I gotta do the war a little bit more I gotta preach a little bit more guy. I gotta make sure people understand they gotta walk the line And then I realized because God told me in Galatians they didn't get into trouble because they made the gospel too good They got into trouble because they didn't make it good enough
They got into trouble because they didn't make it good enough I teach homiletics or communications. They call it a reform seminary trying to teach a reform people how to talk Reformed people have wonderful reasons to say just don't have to say it First time I was in a class. I said I want you to know. I don't like you I don't want to be here. My schedule doesn't allow it I'm not your mother. I don't want to be your friend But you don't know how to talk and I want to teach you how to talk And if you'll listen you'll be able to talk better and then after about two months I fell in love with these students And if you want your soul to watch that you gotta be with seminary students. They're so wonderful God is going to do so many good things in the church I just wish you could come to our seminary and so many seminaries around the country And make the young people that God is anointed and cut out of the flock and he's going to use But they're seminary students and sometimes that kid will get up and he'll preach a sermon And I'll stay tuned son use it for each that sermon with a change of a couple of words in any synagogue in America Now I love Jews. I really do. I think anti-Semitism is an abomination to God And I love and I've spoken in center. I love going to center gods. But God went through a lot of trouble So that our sermons would be different And when you see us reverting to this beating each other over the head Denonizing other Christians making people think that they're not Christians because they're not exactly like us Or believe exactly like us or do exactly like us They don't drink smoke or chew or associate with people or do or you're going to hell and I'm glad That stuff is the sign of the fall We're moving from the New Testament back into the Old Testament and Paul would say to us, oh foolish folks What are you doing? Where did you begin? Where did you start? I've got one more point and my voice is about gone guys. I'm going to end this Stay with me just a little bit Fourthly, I want you to note as we talk about the radical nature of grace Not only a horrible curse a startling solution a frightening danger. I want you to note an incredible power Look at Galatians 3.5 therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you Does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Galatians 3.14 The blessing of Abraham might come up on the Gentiles in Christ Jesus That we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith I believe that Satan more than anything in the world wants God's people To get so focused on unbiblical holiness notice I didn't say holiness Unbiblical holiness He wants us so focused on judging other Christians so focused on judging the world So uptight about our own purity and our own goodness I believe that Satan's primary goal in the world because when we do that we become wings We do People say to me, I don't believe you're saying things you're saying I've got well, I don't do it much anymore now because I don't my schedule I don't know why he's still wise to preaching churches all over America Now go do Bible conferences at churches and the pastors used to bring me and say I can't say things you say I bring them like you say and then you've got on a plane man. I tell them you didn't read me that
And then they say how can you say things like that? Let me tell you God's folks There's power and freedom and release when you know he loves you Period When he knows when you know When you know it doesn't matter whether you're right I have to be right. I probably make a lot of mistakes this weekend Can we talk? I'm not a very good person But God's applauding That's the gospel. That's what it's about And you're thinking no, no, Christ think of that right now. I know you're fine I think you do how believe I'm saying it can be true. This can't be true But it is that's why it exploded into the world The world heard in the good news and said that can be true and God said it is true rich choice Lift up your hand Huh And it changed the world now we're going back to the other way And Paul was saying you're so foolish It should begin right and then revert to that kind of stuff My friend waiting forward has a wonderful story about a In France a man had just bought a rose Royce And uh he uh and he had a bad say That's a some broke on the engine and uh and so he called the headquarters rose Royce And they put a man on a plane Fluent to France the first class mechanic came out and fixed the rose Royce got back on the plane and left And when the man finally finished his vacation got back to his office. He waited for the bill And he can do as going to be something else and no bill came And finally had his secretary write the people at rose Royce and say where is the bill Uh for the repair work that was done on my rose Royce in France And they got it letterback saying we have no record whatsoever of any problem with any rose Royce any place In France You know i got cheers you Because he has no record any place Of anything wrong With any of the blood bought children of the game
Don't you ever forget that because you forget You lose the power You think about that All right, this is Steve Brown back again to say a word about key life tapes You know we send out hundreds of thousands of tape each year And we do it without charge or obligation to those who receive the tapes and i really do mean that But listen if you could help us financially with his ministry with a gift or by making key life tapes A part of your regular monthly giving i sure would appreciate it I realize that many of you can't do that But if you could help you would not only help key life But you could make a difference in the lives of thousands who receive the tapes You can send tax deductible contributions to key life Post office box 5,000 MATELAND M-A-I-T-L-A-N-D Florida 32794 Or in Canada to key life Canada Post office box 321 5,000 Cambridge Ontario M3H 5 M3 God bless you As you walk with Christ in joy freedom and crazleness