But I will save that for another post, for now... here are the notes from the sermon.
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Last week, we spoke about the grace of God...
There is grace for the disgraced. This is best illustrated in
John 8:2-11
"... Go and sin no more."
Jesus did not stop at "Go"
While "Go" is empowering and liberating, Jesus continued on to say "...sin no more"
That brings a good balance.
GRACE FOR THE DISGRACE, BUT DON'T BE A DISGRACE TO GRACE.
That brings a good balance.
GRACE FOR THE DISGRACE, BUT DON'T BE A DISGRACE TO GRACE.
Sometimes the grace of God can be misused and abused.
"No matter what I do, Jesus will forgive you" is technically true. BUT if our heart and attitude is that "there is a loophole that we can take advantage of to keep on sinning", then that is an abuse of grace.
Romans 6:1-2 (NLT)
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
Grace is not a license to sin.
In fact, Paul was careful to describe that though grace has its benefits we ahould be careful not to abuse it.
Titus 2:11-12
... Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly..
"Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is not just pardon. Grace is power."
- John Piper
Grace is not the lowering of standards or higher tolerance of sin.
When Jesus came, He didn't lower the bar; in fact, He raised the bar and standard of holiness.
Take adultery for example. In the OT, you had to actually do it, but according to Jesus, you just need to look at a woman lustfully and you have already committed adultery.
We may not be perfect but can try our best to bring glory to God.
We can be more loving, forgiving, responsible at home.
We can be more hardworking, excellent, responsible at work. .
John 8:6-9
Jesus wrote on the ground with His finger twice...
What did Jesus write?
While we can only speculate because the Bible doesn't say exactly...
One observation is that Jesus wrote with His finger...
Jesus' finger is the finger of God...
When was the last time the finger of God wrote
something for men?
What was it that the finger of God wrote?
Exodus 31:18 (NKJV)
And
when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two
tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. The Law.
When the Pharisees saw the other commandments and knew
they were just as guilty, they were convicted by their conscience and left.
While Jesus was demonstrating love, Jesus did not diminish the law.
Grace and law go together.
Jesus said, "I did not come to diminish the law but to fulfil the law."
To throw away the 10 commandments just doesn't make sense.
RULES VS CONDITIONS
A family has rules. (eg. don't steal from each other, don't scold your parents, etc.)
A church has rules. (eg. cannot sleep around with each other's wives, etc)
A society has rules - law.
Law is necessary to prevent chaos.
Rules are meant to protect
Without rules families become dysfunctional and society will disintegrate into anarchy.
Conditions are emotional blackmail, strings attached, terms.
Conditions say "If you are good, then I will love you."
God's love is unconditional.
We are accepted before we achieved.
We are approved before we accomplished.
There are rules in the house of God but no conditions.
Grace doesn't mean there are no rules,
but rules do not mean that God's love is conditional.
When we break rules, we will face the earthly consequences of our foolish decisions and actions. But God's love doesn't change. The problem is that when we are faced with the consequences of our sins, we think that God loves us less.
For example, if a Christian man has an affair and his wife and children are upset with him. If this man prays and asks God to make the situation normal again, but it doesn't happen - the problem is people think that means God is punishing him for his sin. Don't connect the two.
Don't mistake the consequences of yor sin as the punishment for your sins.
