Faith And Works And Perilous Pitfalls

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program again today. We are delighted to have your company. And as we start our Bible study, we just invite you to join us in a word of prayer. Gracious Father in Heaven, we are grateful that we can have this time together to study Your Word. We're so grateful we can look at these beautiful subjects regarding faith and what faith is and what it means to us, Father, and how we can connect ourselves to you through Your Word and receive Jesus Christ. And Father, today we just pray for a fresh anointing of your Holy Spirit on us, Father, and also unto the person who's listening that we'll be able to understand these beautiful truths that Jesus will be lifted up and father will be able to see the beauty of your character and be drawn even more to you and love you even more because of what you mean to us, what you have done for us and because of your great mercy and unmerited favor towards each one of us. Bless us now. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C So today we're looking at something very interesting. I mean, our subject has to do with the topic of faith and works and perilous pitfalls. So that's quite an interesting subject matter, that. And what I want to do is look at a text that comes from Galatians, chapter five and verse six where it talks about this faith and work principle and also what is acceptable to God and what isn't, what actually avails or what is actually meritorious and what isn't meritorious. But I remember years ago I was looking for a nice Bible and I went to this bookstore and I found within their special section this book that was really, really cheap. It was a beautiful parallel Bible, had four different translations in the same Bible. It was nice, beautiful, burgundy bonded leather, and it was a fraction of the price of what you would normally pay for that kind of Bible. Matter of fact, I think it was like 95% off. And I couldn't believe my eyes that this Bible was there. No one else had scooped up this gem, this value for money offer. SPEAKER D It's already four for the price of one, really, isn't it? SPEAKER C Four Bibles four Bibles in one, and it's 95% off. So this is in a little special pile that they have there. So I grabbed this Bible, and I was living in New Zealand at the time, but I bought this in Melbourne, at a bookstore in Melbourne where I saw this. So I always treasured this Bible, and I was reading through it one day, and this may have been about a year or two down the track. And as I'm reading this Bible, all of a sudden I realize that there's some pages missing. And I go, what's wrong with this Bible? There's something wrong. I've bought something at a discount, but I didn't think it was defective. I just didn't think about it at the time. Anyway, so I keep on reading. And then shortly after that, I realize that there's one page with a big hole right in the middle of it, right in the center of the Bible, and there's words missing. So I become quite disillusioned with this Bible, thinking, okay, I paid a price for it, but I expected to get the full article of the Bible, not realizing it was defective. There was nothing actually in this little pulse saying, what was wrong with these Bibles? I just thought they were just maybe clearance items. So then I realized if I had to take this Bible, and particularly if I was reading a passage and it's towards the end of the chapter and say, it's a revelation, for example, and the last two chapters are missing, I wouldn't know the conclusion of the Book of Revelation. So what I thought would put me on a nice trajectory to see the beginning of the story, the middle of the story, and the end of the story. I would not know how the story ended. SPEAKER D You thought you were getting a good deal? SPEAKER C I thought I was getting a good deal, but I was actually not getting a good deal at all. I was getting what I was paid for, what I was prepared to pay for it. But really my expectations were high. SPEAKER D Your expectations were high? SPEAKER C My expectations were very high, but the delivery actually came in well below par. SPEAKER D This is so interesting, you're highlighting the pitfalls of making purchases, because it's so interesting when we are going to buy something, when we're buying a car or something like that, we're wanting to get what is it, the most bang for our buck. SPEAKER C That's right, yes. SPEAKER D And so we're wanting to get the very best thing that we can get for the least amount possible, for the cheapest possible. And that's why it's almost irresistible for us when we find that car or that something that's just a few thousand dollars more than the rest of the pack, and our minds gravitate to it, and we're just like we're expecting to be able to get more. But what we forget often is that on the flip side, the people who are selling are trying to get more buck for their bang. SPEAKER C That's right. Well look, that Bible probably shouldn't have been on sale because it was defective and there was no sign saying it was defective. So they were trying to say instead of us just getting rid of this Bible for nothing, let's see how much money we can get out of it and just salvage a little bit of our losses. And I'm looking at this going wow, bargain. Not realizing that I'm actually buying something that's defective. It didn't deliver on my expectations, although I paid a very low price for it. But those are some of the pitfalls we got to be very careful with as well in Christianity because there are discount gospels out there where someone is offering something really cheap, referred to as cheap grace, quite often. And that doesn't quite meet expectations either because sooner or later people find that it doesn't quite satisfy. But then on the other side, of course, there are some people who go the opposite direction and what they are seeing in the Lord is the Lord has done plenty for us. I can't do it without the Lord, but I need to put in a little bit of effort myself and I'll make up whatever shortfall there is. And between those two I'll meet the standard. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C So that's the two pitfalls on both sides. So those people basically, who believe they can be saved in their sins and they can keep on sinning, it doesn't matter what they do, they can just say Lord, Lord and it's all kosher, it's all good. And then we have those people who believe that the merit of God is determined on their performance, correct? SPEAKER D Yeah. SPEAKER C And if the performance is right, therefore they are under the favor of God. But when the performance is not there, like they fall, they stumble or whatever it may be, they may feel that God's favor towards them is withdrawn or he looks at them not from the perspective of mercy and grace and pity and tender care and love. They feel that they're under condemnation of God. So we're not undermining what sin is. Sin is a transgression of the law. But they feel that their performance determines the merit. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C So when the performance is not there, the merit, not the merit, the unmerited favor is not there. SPEAKER D It's almost when we change, God changes. SPEAKER C That's dead, right? Yes. SPEAKER D And so I'm just looking at a proverb here, proverbs, chapter four and verse 27. And this just has a timeless truth that we can apply to almost every area of our life. It says do not turn to the right or to the left, remove your foot from evil. Right here in the Proverbs we have this beautiful thing revealed here that there's only one safe path and there's danger, there's evil, I guess in turning to the right hand and to the left. It's interesting in every we always have extremes there's always the extremes on the left and the right and God is calling us to remove our foot from evil. I remember my mum telling me about one of the most traumatic experiences that she's ever had in her life. I was reminded of it when I just recently went to New Zealand. She went with my dad to New Zealand several years ago to commemorate one of their anniversaries, I think. And they did this drive through one of these snowy passes over a mountain and they're in their car, they put snow chains on. And it was the most traumatic experience. It was so icy up on the mountain that even the snow plows, whose job it was to clear the road, were sliding off the roads and crashing off over the embankments. SPEAKER C Really? SPEAKER D And as my parents were driving along one after another, the car in front would just start to slide and drop off the edge of the embankment. They wouldn't fall down to their death or anything, but their car would just slide off and kind of bog into snow. Bog into the snow and you've got nowhere else to go. Some places you could have fallen off and done some damage, sure. But cars sliding off to the left and to the right and it was extraordinarily difficult for my dad to keep it dead center. A few people had made rookie errors by putting their snow chains on the wrong wheels. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D Rather than putting it if it's a front wheel drive and it's got the engine in the front, putting the chains on the front where the weight is they're putting them on and also where. SPEAKER C The steering and the power comes through. SPEAKER D That's right. So they were making some rookie errors and they were slipping off one after another. And my parents were just praying the whole time. And it was a miracle that they actually got through. Even the snow plows were falling off. And again, just illustrating this very easy tendency we have in multiple areas of our life to slip off to the right or to the left. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D It's very, very hard to stay center and to stay on the road. And as you've pointed out already, and what we're going to look at in our presentation is how easy it is to do that when it comes to salvation. To slip off to the right or to slip off to the left rather than staying on the path, the path of salvation that God has laid for us, the path that actually leads to peace. SPEAKER C That's right. So obviously we need the counsel of the word of God that there's a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. So you got to follow the light that's right. Where it leads. And the word of God is to light our path. So turn neither to the left or the right. So there could be snow on the left and snow and ice on the right. We want to stay center of the path. But that also reminds me just the complements, that text in Proverbs chapter four, verse 27, it even says that we'll hear a voice behind us. Sorry. Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 21, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it. So what happens is we want the word of God to light our path, to make sure we don't have those pitfalls to the left or the right. And then ultimately the Holy Spirit has also given to us the spirit of truth that will lead us into all truth. So it doesn't coerce us, it doesn't force us, but it leads us. So it's full cooperation with us. So we're looking at these principles of faith and works. On one side we have one that says, look, I am not saved by the works of the law. So therefore it doesn't matter what I do, I can be saved. All I have to do is say, Lord, Lord, and then I'm fine. And then on the other side we feel that, yes, there's a high standard, the Ten Commandments, the law of God. That's the standard. That's the one we've transgressed from. That's what we've done against God. So we've sinned against him and our fellow man. Now I've come to the Lord, he's going to give me the strength to overcome, and now I will walk in this path. Now, that can be a very subtle deception as well, can't it? SPEAKER D With lots of sincerity. SPEAKER C With lots of sincerity. That's right. I mean, we look at some of the Pharisees, and one of the most famous Pharisees was actually Saul, saul, the persecutor Saul of Tarsus, where he, as far as the law was concerned, he called himself Blameless. He was a Pharisee of Know of the tribe of Benjamin, and he's talking about his own stock and how he was a successful person as far as the Pharisees were concerned. But when the law came, sin revived and he realized that he was condemned to death. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C Yeah. So through the Holy Spirit, he was understood that his works were insufficient to actually answer the demands of the law. And we've got to be very careful ourselves sometimes when we walk in that way and we think that God operates in the same way we think and operate where our own experiences and our own behavior determines the merit of God and the favor of God. SPEAKER D And it's no wonder we do this is because don't we see it all the time around us? If we, through whatever reason, mistreat someone, what do we typically expect in return? Is mistreatment mistreatment as well? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D So it's basically if I do something wrong, if I'm unkind, we expect that it will come flying back to us again. SPEAKER C That's typically how it works. Or if we're nice to someone, it typically will come back in some nice gesture to us as well. SPEAKER D And so, yeah, we project that onto God and expect that when we are kind of walking, all right, that we've got his smile, and if we happen to stuff up, we've got his frown. And this is a very interesting psychological battle. And Paul, it's very interesting, he's writing to the church in Galatia. So the Galatian Church, and he's actually addressing this issue that church had embraced the Gospel and had received the Holy Spirit, were living and experiencing the power of God to change their life. And then a certain group inside of them were trying to convince them that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved. And we're basically presenting a whole new or basically an old approach, trying to get them in bondage again. And Paul is just like, no. SPEAKER A We. SPEAKER D Could actually go to Galatians, chapter two, which is basically, I think, the keynote of Paul's anthem. Here to them. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D Galatians, chapter two. And verse 21. Paul says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D And I find this so interesting. We've been looking through our presentations of what God's grace is. God's grace is his kindness, the favor that he extends to us. It's like in the story of Esther, that golden scepter that's extended, he extends that to us. The Bible says, even while we're still sinners, christ died for us. And so his love for us is not based upon it's not fickle. It's not like when you do this and I'll love you, and if you don't, then I won't. His love is constant and unchanging. And Paul says, I cannot lay it aside. So if we just imagine putting an object on the table with a bunch of other things and we label it grace, that knowledge of God's unchanging favor and love toward us, paul says, I cannot take that out the road. He says, if I take that off the table, what replaces it is the idea that my behaviors change god's behavior. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER D My faithlessness makes God unfaithful. So basically Paul is saying to the church, you guys have to realize, no matter what happens, you cannot change God's character. He remains faithful even when we're faithful faithless. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D I think that's in Timothy somewhere. SPEAKER C Yeah, two timothy two, I think, verse 13. SPEAKER D So he says, I do not lay aside the grace of God, and the temptation that certain Christians have is to lay aside the grace of God and put it back on the table when they're doing well or just to take it off completely. And they believe that when they fail, god happens to fail in some way. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D Which is interesting. SPEAKER C Yeah. So, I mean, God says very clear to us, I think it is an Isaiah 55, verse seven. You think that I'm altogether such a one as yourself, but I'm not. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C So God's way of looking at things is very different to us. So we can't project our thinking and the way we interact as human beings upon God and think, well, God interacts the same way as we do. Now in Luke chapter six. And that's really a repeat of what we see in Matthew chapter five, six and seven, which is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is talking about loving your enemies and he's talking about this almost this law of reciprocity that we know. For example, if I invite you, say for Christmas, you come over to our house, you and your lady come over to our house for Christmas and you end up bringing me a gift, but I haven't got you a gift. Now, I might feel a little bit bad because you've given me a gift. I feel now that I have to reciprocate and give you a gift. Now you may bought a gift without any expectation of receiving anything in return. But in our social environment, there's the law of reciprocity. If someone does something to you, we got to do it back. Now, Jesus actually addresses this human issue, this human thinking in regards to what we do. And he says God's people, if they are the sons of God, they don't think about it that way. When they give something, they don't expect something in return. And we can read this from let me read from verse 30. So in Luke chapter six and verse 30, so give to everyone who asks of you and from him who takes away from you, do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you should also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And then it says there verse 35 but I say to you, love your enemies, do good and lend hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. So it's saying if we want to be like God, we've got to do good. In spite of what we think we're going to receive, we shouldn't expect anything in return. So it's the same with us. When we behave or misbehave, God doesn't think, okay, he's done good, I will be good to Him. He's done bad, I'm going to be bad to him. God doesn't work the way because God. SPEAKER D Makes it so clear. Like in Jesus'sermon on the Mount, he's saying, god puts his son on the just. He shines his son on the just and the unjust. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D He rains down rain upon the land of the houses of the imagine looking out and seeing like these shadows over certain houses god puts a little cloud over them so they don't get sunshine. That's not God. God, his son, his warming, life giving sun extends to every person irrespective of what they've done. And then also rain. It rains down. It doesn't like pick and choose what houses to go on. Everyone just receives the blessing from God. SPEAKER C That's right. In that verse I just quoted there, Luke, chapter six, the one I finished on, verse 35, I left out the very last sentence. It says, for he that is God is kind to the unthankful and evil. SPEAKER D Isn't that interesting? SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D And I think once we get this just firmly cemented and plastered in our brains, it'll impact every part of our Christian experience. God is kind even to the unthankful. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D God is kind even to the sinners. His kindness, you can't stop his kindness. SPEAKER C He can't. That's it. Right. SPEAKER D You can try to crucify Him and you can't take away his kindness. SPEAKER C So we've got to be careful we don't put a construct on the gospel and on who God is in regards to the way we interact with one another. Jesus has just clearly explained that whole mindset and said, away with that mindset. If you want to be sons of God, then act like God. And God is good to us regardless of whether we deserve it or not. SPEAKER D Because it's interesting. When that analogy of me coming over to your house with a gift, what makes you feel anxious to return it is because you feel worried that I will look down on you or be condemning of you because you do not reciprocate. SPEAKER C That's right. Yeah. I don't think of it as grace. I think of it as I now have to reciprocate because I'm indebted to you. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's right. SPEAKER D And so we struggle with grace. We struggle to receive a gift like we want to pay back. So if someone gives me a lift to the airport the next time it comes an opportunity, I want to drive them to the airport to kind of just cancel that out. We struggle just to receive kindness and not pay it back. And that influences our relationship with God as well, with this anxiety to try to because we're worried this is our mindset a lot, a lot of the time that God's attitude will change toward us. SPEAKER C Yeah. That is fascinating. So we can look at this from the perspective of something that can be quite common in the church. I mean, we are told that the message of justification by faith, which is being justified by the word of God, what we read and believing and trusting God and trusting his character is an antidote for Lukewarmness in the Laodicean church condition. So the last church mentioned out of the seven in the Book of Revelation, revelation, chapter two and three, god says to them, I know your works. Now, obviously we're talking about works today and we're talking about the pitfalls. He says that your works are neither hot nor cold. They are lukewarm. So what are lukewarm works? Well, if we look at works that God does not approve of, we'll have to say that these are works of the Law. Now, in Galatians chapter five, we get a little bit of an understanding. You've already touched that in Galatians chapter two and verse 21. But in Galatians chapter five, I just want to read there what Paul actually says in verse six. Galatians, chapter five and verse six, it says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. So why was circumcision such a big issue to the Jews? And why were they now? Matter of fact, they were bamboozling the Galatians a little bit here saying that you needed to be circumcised, otherwise you won't be saved. So these people had come to God. They had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit because it actually told them in chapter three there that you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by the works of the Law, by what you did. Was it by circumcision or was it by the hearing of faith? Well, they had to say, I wasn't circumcised when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was by the hearing of faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. They heard the Gospel preached to them. They believed it and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, these people saying, listen, if you really want to have a relationship with the Lord, you need to be circumcised. Otherwise there's no relationship. Now, the Jews, and I want to read this from a little book, the Jews and the Importance of Circumcision to Them. This is from a book, Pharaoh's Life of Paul. And that's in chapter 22. And it says there, it says, So great is circumcision. So this is what the Jews are saying about it. So great is circumcision that but for it the Holy One, blessed be he would not have created the world. So they're saying that if it wasn't for circumcision, there would have been no creation. So they're actually making creation greater than circumcision. This is how much merit they thought there was in this act. And then another one that says it is as great as all the other commandments. So they equal circumcision as great as all the other commandments. SPEAKER D The most important thing is the be all and end all. SPEAKER C It is the be all and end all. And it says the equivalent to all, the commandments of the law is circumcision. So you can see for them, circumcision was the be all and end all, as you said. But to them, basically is you were either saved by doing this act or you were lost by not doing this act. Now, Paul is saying that those works in themselves mean nothing. So whether you work or whether you don't work, it means absolutely nothing. So let's read that again instead of saying Circumcision because that was the mindset. This is the audience Paul was writing to. But if we take our mindset and understand that what circumcision meant to know, it was like the fulfillment of the whole law. So it was the works of the law. Right. It says, for in Christ Jesus, neither works nor a lack of works avails anything but faith, working through love. SPEAKER D Those other two categories are useless. SPEAKER C They are useless, yes. So basically those are the two pitfalls. So that's when you were guys as a family were driving along that icy slope and you could slip off to the left or the right well, the slip off to the left is the works and the slip off to the right is the no works. But the one that actually avails something is faith that works. So there's something that is what we call cheap grace. No works. Don't worry about your works. That's got nothing to do with it. You just save, do whatever you want and just say Lord, Lord. And on the other side is you think, well, look, I need to put in an effort because the fact that I'm obedient demonstrates God's merit and favor towards me. But if I lose that performance, I'll lose his merit and his mercy and his favor. That's right. SPEAKER D And I think once we realize this, all human beings can fall into those three categories. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And it's crazy that Christians can fall into a negative one as well. Like we can fall into a pitfall as well. There's those basically, it comes down to this. When you stumble and fall, if you were to picture the face of God, what would that expression be? So for someone who is in that category, they want to be saved in their sins or they think it's all good. Yes, they just think I reckon they would picture in their mind god's just like thumbs up, no worries, just grinning from ear to ear. Nothing's wrong. Nothing's wrong at all. And there's this doesn't matter what I do, everything's fine. On the flip side, you've got those who would be typically called legalists and it's this perspective when they fail, they're afraid that they'll lose the favor of God. So the frown of God comes upon them, his mercy and his favor is retracted and pulled back. And in anxiety they try to do some behavior modification to once again get the God's love on tap. SPEAKER C Yeah. They may even delay coming back to the Lord to ask for forgiveness or to repent before the Lord until they've done something that sort of balances out the scales a little bit. They've done something good that has merited. SPEAKER D The favor of God. SPEAKER C That has merited the favor of God. So now they feel a little bit better about themselves because they've been able to sort of balance the negative. The bad thing they've done with. Something good so at least it gives them some merit with the Lord, so they can return to the Lord and then restart the relationship again. SPEAKER D And now God's love's on tap again. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's right. SPEAKER D And then there's that final group, Faith working by love. Faith, as we've looked at, comes from the word of God. As we see the goodness of God and moves us forward, the love of God compels us. Just a story very quickly to illustrate. When Peter the apostle, when he denied his Lord three times, he said with cursing and swearing, he said, I don't know Jesus. Jesus had already said he would. Peter, in that moment when that rooster crowed, it was ringing in his ears. And he just heard the curses ringing in his ears as well. He turned around. This is we find this in the book of Luke, chapter 22, verse 61. He turns around and he connects with Jesus. The eyes meet and this is what he saw. He didn't see this frown of anger and condemnation. He didn't see a face of carelessness either. He saw a face with tears running down the eyes on the face of Jesus. And just unspeakable love just shining from his face. Jesus had been looking into the faces of frowning judges. The expression that he gave to Peter was a gentle countenance of deep pity and sorrow. There was no anger there, full of compassion and forgiveness. Peter's failure that night could not make Jesus fail. Yes, Peter's faithlessness could not make Jesus unfaithful. His love and his mercy was communicated in that glance to Peter. Peter's heart was melted by the love of Christ. He knew that it hurt Jesus and he knew what he had done. But he saw in Jesus'face love and acceptance and favor and that's what enabled him to walk the life of faith before him, to give his life as a martyr in the end. SPEAKER C Beautiful. With those words, we're going to close our program today. Dear listener, thank you for joining us. We pray that God's favor would continue to shine on you and that you would not doubt it regardless of your own behavior, knowing that there's a God that loves you, that cares for you, and because of his grace, he's able to keep you from falling. Until we meet next time, God be with you. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.