The All Powerful Reign of Grace pt 3

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, welcome to the program. We're glad that you have joined us again today as we look at part three of this wonderful program. It says the all powerful reign of Grace. Now, Braedan, we've had some wonderful conversations leading up to this and looked at what the Scriptures talks about when it talks about the grace of God and the power of God's grace and how it is more powerful. It superabounds exceedingly abundantly above what sin is able to do, and also the yoke and burden of sin. Now, if it was not for the superabounding grace of God, if it wasn't more powerful, no one could be saved and everyone would agree that God is able to save to the uttermost. So dear listener, as we start this journey, just to conclude this series of programs, we just invite you for a word of prayer. Gracious Father in heaven, we thank you that we can spend time again together to look at your super abounding grace. That where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And Father, we're just grateful for your love, for your mercy and your favor, that as we look at Jesus and we see your incredible love for us and the incredible power of victory, even when the cross suggested defeat. But there was that resurrection morning when you came out of the grave, Father, as the conqueror that we can claim the victory of Jesus as our victory. And Father, we want to do this by faith. Bless us now as we study together, bless our listener as well. Help us to understand and appreciate more fully what Jesus means to us that we can walk in his victory is our prayer. In Jesus name. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER C So we closed our last program. They're just looking at the first four verses of Hebrews chapter twelve. And we'll just start there where we left off. And we'll unpack this a little bit. It says they're in verse one. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Now, the witnesses we're referring to is all the witnesses mentioned in Hebrews chapter eleven. And Hebrews chapter eleven is that great chapter on faith. It talks about Abel, it talks about Enoch, it talks about Noah and how they all overcame by faith, Abraham and so on. And there's so many people mentioned Jacob and Isaac and Joseph, even Sarah's mentioned and Moses. Well, this is the great group of witnesses we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Then it tells us to lay aside every weight. Now, in the previous program we spoke about those who are heavy ladent burdened and heavy ladent those who labor. Now it's telling us that this weight, because it's talking about the same thing, I believe let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, that is the burden we've got to get rid of, right? SPEAKER E That's right. SPEAKER C And let us run with endurance the race. Now that's action again, just like the yoke of Jesus, which is yoke is easy, his burden is light. We are to be active running this race with endurance which has been set before us. Now, how we to do that? We are instructed to look to Jesus. SPEAKER E That's right. SPEAKER C Now, the whole principle in human psychology is the psychologists tell us that we move to our most constant dominant thought. Now what does that mean? It just simply means that what you think about the most is what you become like. So if you think of good things, you become better in your thoughts. SPEAKER E You are what you think. That's right. SPEAKER C If you think happy thoughts, you typically tend to be a happy person. If you think negative thoughts, you tend to be a negative person. Matter of fact, if you hang around mates and friends who are typically negative, that will have an effect on you. You will tend to become more negative as well. If you hang around friends who are more positive, you'll tend to become more positive as well. So whatever you fooled your mind with, whatever your most constant dominant thought is, that is what you become. And here we are told to look to Jesus. In other words, we are told here to fill our mind with concepts and visions of Christ. SPEAKER E That's right. SPEAKER C Now where would we find those visions? I think in the closing remarks Braedan, you mentioned to us where we find the best revelation of Jesus to look. SPEAKER E To the best revelation that we have of God and of Christ and the plan of salvation is the Bible. It's so easy to just have that book. It's a book that most people haven't read and yet have the greatest opinion about. And this is one of the greatest tragedies of human history. SPEAKER C That's true. SPEAKER E Everyone has an opinion on the Bible and you ask them have you read the you know, people haven't read the Bible. The Bible is where we see God's glory revealed. No wonder, as we've read in Romans chapter one, paul says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. This is the message that God has given. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER E And in essence, though it's clearly revealed in the New Testament, the Gospel, the good news is promised right from the beginning of Genesis. The whole Bible is the gospel. It tells the good news about God's faithfulness in the midst of human unfaithfulness and his commitment to save the world at any cost to himself. And so the greatest revelation of the glory of God is seen in Scripture. And as we behold Scripture, we see Jesus. Because Jesus actually was telling his disciples on multiple occasions, he says he actually is speaking to the Pharisees. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER E He says, you search the Scriptures because you think you're going to get eternal life by doing that. He says, but they are they which testify or talk about or bear witness to me. He also gives a Bible study to his disciples and say in Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, all of them are speaking about me and predicting my coming. So from beginning to end, we get to see the glory of God revealed here. And as the Apostle Paul says in Corinthians, two Corinthians, he says, by beholding, we become changed. SPEAKER C Two corinthians 318. That's right. SPEAKER E By beholding, we become changed into the. SPEAKER C Same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. SPEAKER E That's right. One of the things that has really stood out to me by what you read about that great cloud of witnesses, it's interesting. There's so many, it just describes them as a cloud. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER E The devil tempts us to believe that we are alone. When Elijah had that big great, just huge, big day up on Mount Carmel, when he stood up for God and all of Israel, he said, who's on the Lord's side? And no one said anything. There was a great showdown between God and the false gods and the false gods, because there's no such thing as the false gods. Nothing happened. But the true God of heaven rained down fire upon the sacrifice and showed that he is God. And the people said, the Lord, he is God. Elijah, after praying for rain, rain came miraculously. He then takes the king's chariot and horse and leads the king down the mountain in the rain. And then they're exhausted. At the end of the day, he's fatigued and he's tired, he's hungry. He gets a message, a death threat from the Queen. And just out of character, he just flips out and starts running and fleeing in fear. One of the things he says to God later on, he says, I'm the only one. I'm the only one. All these people are so unfaithful. I'm the only one who's faithful to you. And God said to him, I still have 7000 people who haven't bowed down the knee to bail. SPEAKER D Yeah. SPEAKER E He said, Elijah, stop having a pity party. Stop thinking that it's only you and you alone. I've got 7000 people who haven't bowed the knee yet. It's so easy. The devil tells us that we're alone when we're struggling. When we've got, it seems like there's no way out. It seems like God has abandoned us and we're just trapped in sin and we almost just give it all up. This chapter says here we've got a cloud. There's so many of them you can't even in chapter eleven we're told that there's so many that could be listed but can't be told because of the time, a great cloud of witnesses. And what do witnesses do? They testify? Yes, they testify. And what can they testify? That God is faithful and that he is able to deliver them from the lions. He's able to bring them through even through the most challenging circumstances. God has a promise that will not be broken and that is a promise of a new heavens and a new earth and an inheritance in this place. And so we're not alone. We've got people right through beginning to end of scripture who'll say don't give up. And to our listener they say to you, don't give up. Yes, we tested the Lord, not as in like the, in the bad sense, but we tried Him, we had a go and we reached out after God and he did not fail us. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER E And that's just a great encouragement for us. SPEAKER C We told even that these people, they were looking for a heavenly city and for those who were called by God, if they actually brought to mind the things that are left behind, they could have returned if they wanted to, but they didn't. They remained faithful. And it says there in verse 40 of Hebrews chapter eleven, it says that God had provided something better for them and for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. So then we're talking about their glorious resurrection when Christ comes and everything is then finally made new. But this imagery I just love because it says so forth since we are surrounded. Now, if you surrounded it means you're in the thick of it. You're right in the middle of it. And the encouragement to us is that we are to surround ourselves by these witnesses, the testimony of the prophets, the testimony of those faithful followers of Christ who in their own sense represented attributes of God during difficult times, sometimes perverse and unfaithful people who are around them. Some of them were given to die a martyr's death, but they still even with their blood, witnessed to God and his faithfulness. And they conquered by faith. So that the weapon was faith that they used. And maybe if we have time a little bit later we can unpack some of the weaponry we use in spiritual matters, right? But they were surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. They were in the thick of it. And they were in the thick of it how? Because they also looked to God and as we are encouraged to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, he actually endured the cross and that is a terrible death. Endured the cross despising the shame and then sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So he went through a difficult time. But Jesus also conquered through faith. But he, in that conquering, actually authored faith. It tells us that he is the author and finisher of faith. SPEAKER E That's right. I love what you said that surrounded. Surrounded. If someone is let's just say we take all the information that we have from the Bible and put it back in the Bible and then close the Bible. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER E We are no longer surrounded by that cloud of witnesses because we're unaware of the testimony that they give it's. Once we open up the Scriptures and become familiar with the lives of these men and women of faith who had their struggles. Let's be honest, they had their struggles, they had their ups and their downs, but they learned that God is faithful and they could trust Him. It's once we're in the Scriptures that we actually surround ourselves with these witnesses. We get to hear that we immerse. SPEAKER C Ourselves in the Word. That's how you can surround yourself. SPEAKER E That's right. So we surround ourselves with them and we become one of the fellas, as it were. We get to see their example. We get to emulate these personages of faith who, in spite of their failures, learned that God is faithful. And this is a really good principle. We want to do what's right. We want to serve God. We don't want to be getting tangled up in the devil's web. Yet we forget just how easily the devil gets us when we're no longer surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. God does not want us just to be surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, just the Bible witnesses. He wants us to be surrounded with a group of people who will continually help lift us up and encourage us to do what is right. No wonder I believe it's in is. It in chapter twelve where Paul tells us that don't forsake the gathering of yourselves together. Here it is actually in Hebrews ten and verse 25. SPEAKER D Right? SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER E So it says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. He says, don't neglect spending time together in Christian fellowship and support, because the apostle Paul knew that when the people of God get isolated, that's when they're the most vulnerable. So it's important that we surround ourselves with a cloud of witnesses, not just the scriptural witnesses, but also people who will be able to say, lift your head up, don't be discouraged, don't be downcast, don't be downhearted. Because there's a God who is faithful and helping lift us up. There was a Ted Talk that was done recently. The guy's name was Johan Hari. And the title of the Ted Talk was everything you know about addiction is wrong. SPEAKER C Okay, I've not looked at it, but. SPEAKER E I've seen the title and so the whole idea is looking at the nature of addiction. And everyone has opinion on addiction and whatever, and most people have experienced addiction, but tests were done way back and the idea was asking whether there was something inherent in drugs themselves, like chemical hooks that make us addictive. And so they got a rat, put it in a cage, and there's two alternatives for water. One was a pure water, one was laced with heroin or some kind of drug. SPEAKER D Right. Okay. SPEAKER E And in that cage, which did the rat go for? It went for the one with heroin and it got so stuck into it that it died. SPEAKER D Wow. SPEAKER E And so the conclusion was from that experiment that there's something in the water, there's something about the drug itself. It is like a chemical hook that makes something addicted. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER E And that actually influenced a lot of the medical practice and a whole bunch of ideas regarding addiction is you basically got to force them not to have the substance because that's how you're going to solve it, because there's no other way, because they're going to do it anyhow. But then in more recent history, some scientists took up the mantle, as it were, to go a bit deeper, and they decided to change some variables. You see that rat, that first rat that was tested, it was put in a bare cage. Nothing in there ran just this boring cage and had two alternatives. SPEAKER C Basically like a prison cell. SPEAKER E Basically like a prison cell. And it was going for the laced water. So what these guys did in their experiment is made a place called Rat Park. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER E And in this park there's wheels for running on. There's food everywhere. There's males and females, so there's a lot of male female interaction. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER E There's a whole bunch of wonderful things to do. There's tunnels and all that cool stuff. And they put the same two water sources there and they were astounded to find that the rats didn't go for the heroin water. SPEAKER D Wow. SPEAKER E They went for the pure water. And basically his conclusion was this. He said, you thought that the opposite of addiction is sobriety. He said, but it's actually connection and community. SPEAKER D Wow. SPEAKER E When with these rats, they were surrounded by a community, they got to experience life holistically. They had good food, they had good relational interactions. They had adventure. They provided for holistically and they didn't want the drug water. They chose the right thing. It just illustrates something very important about addiction. We find ourselves chained up. And what happens when there's more and more addiction. People are really addicted to video games today. And it has a tendency to isolate isolate children from their parents. It has a tendency to isolate an individual so much that they forget to eat. Some people have died because they forgot to drink water. It isolates them. We need to remember that God is calling us to surround ourselves with a cloud of witnesses. First and foremost, the scripture. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER E Secondly, good people who are able to help us and to be part of a community in that community where we have healthy human interaction, where we're eating good food, where we're just living life to the full, that's the prime place to survive and to avoid the snare of Satan. SPEAKER D Wow. SPEAKER E The Prime Place show you even though. SPEAKER C Those places where they have longevity, they talk about the green belts around the world where you have centennials people who live 100 years plus obviously diet and exercise and all that is part of it. And also the fact that they either have very little animal protein or none whatsoever. But one of the elements that actually has that longevity component to it is actually that social interaction and having a support base, a community base where people interact with one another. And of course, for spiritual people, you come to the Lord god has made us social creatures. He made Adam see his need of a companion, of a mate before he actually gave Eve so he could appreciate Eve even the more so God has made us social. And that text you just read there that we should not forsake the assembling together. The previous text in verse 24, Hebrews Ten, says let us consider one another. Now, if you're by yourself, you've got no one to consider, right? Let us consider one another in order to stir up love. Now, the word love, there's agape. To have that self sacrificing love, we got to practice that love interacting with one another. And also good works because obviously love is demonstrated by the good things we do for one another, the good things we say for one another and so on. But you'll notice when people are isolated and by themselves, quite often the product is unhealthy thoughts and unhealthy thinking. Now in America, I think they've had a record number of people where there's been deaths because of gun violence and that and some of these mass murders. And that has taken place quite often by people who have isolated themselves. So not only just we think, oh, these are just terrorists, you'll quite often hear people say that he was a loner. Why do loners suffer that? Because they have weaned themselves off from other people. Now, there may be a number of reasons for it, but being by yourself is not a healthy place to find yourself in, whether it be on a secular, just a social basis or whether it be in a spiritual basis as well. Now we see a great king. Now he's actually mentioned amongst those great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews chapter eleven, and this Hebrews chapter eleven, verse 32, where I believe it's Paul that wrote Hebrews, where he says he talks about this great cloud of witnesses. He talks about Gideon. He talks about Barak and Samson and Jephthah and also David and Samuel. Now, David was a great man, a great warrior for the Lord and won many battles, starting with Goliath. But there was a time when David actually withdrew himself from his other generals and battles and he found himself by himself in his palace, so to speak. Obviously he had servants there and he got distracted at that time. Maybe we can unpack that story just. SPEAKER E A little, because this is the story found in Two Samuel eleven. And I think just before we look at that, the previous two chapters illustrate some very beautiful things about David. It's so easy to be sometimes we have a tendency to magnify the good and forget that these people were real people. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER E And on the other flip side, we have the tendency to magnify the bad things and forget just the beautiful moments in their life. David, in chapter nine of Second Samuel, this is the kind of person that God made him to be. He was sitting there one day in the palace, and I'm summarizing here, he said to one of his servants, is there anyone left from Saul's house, the family of Saul that I can show the kindness of God to? SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER E Is there anyone that I can show God's kindness to from Saul's house? Let's remember that Saul was the one who tried to kill him on multiple occasions. Saul was the enemy of God. And David, david is thinking one day, is there someone from Saul's family that I can show kindness? SPEAKER C Because they were all pretty much wiped out, weren't they? SPEAKER E They're pretty much all wiped out and. SPEAKER C He didn't even want to have that to happen. SPEAKER E No, he didn't want them to die. There happened to be one son of son of Jonathan, of Jonathan, his best friend, who, upon hearing the death of Saul, the nurse of Mephibosheth, this is the young boy. She picked him up because she didn't want David to kill him. See, she assumed that David was going to be cruel. But she picks up Mephibosheth and runs away to hide Mephibosheth and she drops him on the way. He becomes a quadriplegic, or a paraplegic at least. And for the rest of his life he grows up just resenting and hating David anyway. So he gets a summons to the palace and he comes and what's in his mind, you can only imagine, he's just going to kill me. He just wants to stamp out Saul's family so he can be the king. He brings him in and says. SPEAKER A I. SPEAKER E Want to extend my love to you. I want to show God's kindness to you. And for the rest of your life you get to sit at my table and eat my food. He can't wash up dishes. He's a cripple. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER E He can't sweep the floor. He's a cripple. A perfect example of grace, a kindness that is not deserved. He's just sitting there every single day being benefited and blessed by the king. This is David, and he does it in the next chapter as well. He wants to go and help out the Ammonite king who just lost his dad. He says, I want to go show God's kindness to him. The kindness is misinterpreted. The king thinks he's just trying to spy the place and ends up trying to attack David and fight against him, but he ends up losing the battle. In this context, you have David being someone who is the source of the kindness of God, just being a beautiful human being, winning battle after battle, being faithful in everything that the Lord's calling him to do. And then we have chapter eleven. It says it happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they besieged sorry, they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabba. But David remained at Jerusalem. It seems that he's come to a place where he's almost comfortable. SPEAKER C He's content with what he's done. SPEAKER D Yeah. SPEAKER E He's just not on guard. He's not necessarily for the devil, but he's not necessarily for God. He's not on the battlefront when he should be out there with his people. SPEAKER C He should be with his people. SPEAKER E Yeah, he should be with his people. But he's isolated himself and he's just going to enjoy some R and R. And the narrative goes on. He takes another man's wife in a moment of weakness and then arranges for the assassination, as it were, of her husband. Where did that come from? SPEAKER C Yeah, well, he wasn't planning on killing the husband till he realized that the wife had become pregnant with his child. SPEAKER E That's right. And so all the COVID up happened. So he's guilty of adultery, he was eventually guilty of lying and murder and all of that just happened so quickly. And how quickly the devil can ensnare us. Yes, it easily ensnared. He should have been surrounding himself with scripture at that time. He should have been surrounding himself with his people and being held accountable to them and having a group of accountability. He thought himself above that and beyond it. All the battles are being won, everything's going great, and when you have that mountaintop experience, it's easy to not be ready for some serious attacks by the devil. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER C And that story beautifully demonstrates the importance of surrounding yourselves with people and surrounding yourselves with a great cloud of witnesses. Now, obviously, that's talking about two different aspects of a relationship that we are to have with God and with one another. But isolation is bad. That's why Paul tells us to surround ourselves with this great cloud of witnesses. These cloud of witnesses are the faithful that have gone before us and of course then also not assembling or forsaking coming together as fellow believers because we are to encourage one another. So what are the practical things that we can do to be intentional about surrounding ourselves and looking to Jesus? SPEAKER E Well, the first one, as we've been looking at is Scripture. That first cloud of witnesses can be summarized as the Bible itself, the story of Scripture, because in these pages we come face to face with their stories and how through all the difficulties, they learn to trust in God. And so the Scripture number one, that's where we surround ourselves with this great cloud of witnesses. There's more than you can poke a stick at. The Bible's full of people who can testify that God is good. And secondly, the living witnesses, the people who are walking the Christian life today. I wish there were more of them. But surrounding yourself with as many people as possible who are walking the walk. Yes, and talking the talk and living the Christian life completely. And who are able to provide mentorship, accountability and support so that they're scriptural witnesses, the living witnesses, who are alive today. SPEAKER D Beautiful. SPEAKER C I like that. SPEAKER E And then also prayer. That's obviously got to be part of this, because Jesus says if you abide in me and my words abide in you, then he talks about the life and power that comes from that connection, having God's word in us, and then actually talking to him as well, abiding in him. But there's also another thing god has saved us to serve. God has a plan. And I speak to myself and also to our listener. God has called you to be one of those witnesses, to encourage someone on their journey. As God steadies and stabilizes you and matures you as a Christian, you will be able to be one of those witnesses. Just like David. You've had your ups and your downs. You're stumbling and you're falling and you're rising again. You'll become one of those people that are able to say god is good, God is faithful, never give up on Him. And the verse that I read here in Hebrews chapter twelve and verse twelve, it says therefore in conclusion to all of this, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. This is a beautiful, beautiful encouragement for us to not just be looking to our situation, we work, oh, it's so hard, it's so challenging. If we look out for other people that have wobly knees, their hands are hanging down, they're discouraged. And what they're needing is to be surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who can say, hang in there, God is faithful. We are called to be part of that cloud of witnesses for someone today. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C And I like what you brought out there because it's actually as. You are helping those strengthening the hands which hang down in the feeble needs. That is how you actually make a straight path for your own feet as well. So you strengthen to the. Whole process. Dear listener, thank you for joining us today. We pray that God will continue to bless you and inspire you by the power of his grace and his love. Until we meet again next time. 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. 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