Brother Chancellor Sunday Morning 6/7/15

Brother Chancellor Sunday Morning 6/7/15

We can listen as well as preach.  We need to be able to take in more than we put out.  We are always in need of God.  We have been focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit in our studies recently.  That is the need of the hour. 

We can look back in our life time and see many things that were disappointing and look like failure.  As we reflect upon those things, the thing that seems most apparent is that people got their eye off of how important it is that the Holy Spirit the lead the church, the Holy Spirit build the church.

We live in a time where there is much focus on the grace of God.  Yet as I look in the world around me there is an absence of the grace of God.  The grace is reduced to much less than God had in mind for His grace.

As I look back, about the time that we got married some things took a turn for the worse.  Someone decided the message of sanctification was not the message that it had been.  It took the cleansing of the Holy Spirit’s work out.  The devil knew what he was doing.

 Many things have been reaped from that.  Some took their stand, “That is the wrong teaching.”  I don’t know that they understood what the problem was.  The problem was addressed to try to put more law to it and discipline to it.  When what was needed was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

This is why the message of sanctification was so important.  Jesus told His disciples before He went to the cross, “Without me you can do nothing.” 

When He said, “Go and preach the gospel.” he followed with, “Wait.”  While it was important that they go and tell the world about Jesus, it was important that they have the Spirit.  “Wait until you receive power from God.  That will make your going effective.”

Endued with power, means to be clothed with power from on high.  Clothed upon with the power of God.  This power comes upon us through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Joh 1:18  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  The Law in itself had nothing wrong with it.  It taught us a very important thing, “We need a savior.”  That is what the Law came to tell us.  It was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. 

If you endeavor to live out the things in the law the thing that will become most obvious to you is that you need a savior.  Paul described it as the ministration of condemnation.  By the Law we came to know that we were sinners and had within us something that was contrary to God.

Many times we focus on sins.  We preach against sin and we focus on those sins.  The Law focused on sins.  “Thou shalt not steal, kill, covet…”  If you just focus on sin, it is like looking at a tree and saying, “That fruit has bad fruit,” and you pick all the bad fruit off.  The next year you do the same.  The tree is still there growing.

John the Baptist said, “The axe is laid to the root of the tree.”  Grace and truth lays the axe to the foot of the tree.  It does not just go around and pick the fruit off.  Grace and truth addresses the problem of the bad tree and the fruit. 

One reason we feel this is important, we can spend our time focusing on the sin when we need to do something about the sin.  Paul said, “I was alive without the law once, but the law came and sin revived and I died.”  That happens in every life.

We come into this world and sin is there.  Mom and dad don’t teach us and put the sin nature in later.  We are all born with a problem.  That tree that produces the sin is present in the heart of man.  Jesus came to bring grace and truth to address that problem in man.

Jesus addressed God Himself through the grace and truth that He brought.  Jesus spent three years teaching the disciples.  He taught them many things that are recorded in the Gospel.  As Jesus began to prepare to go to the cross, He endeavored to instruct His disciples that He would go to the cross, die, and rise again.

It seemed that they were not able to take in all that would take place.  Maybe we would have trouble too if we knew someone as great as Jesus thinking that He could go to the cross, be condemned, and crucified.

Joh 16:7  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Joh 16:8  And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Joh 16:9  Of sin, because they believe not on me;

Joh 16:10  Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;

Joh 16:11  Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Jesus let them know that it was important that He go to the cross, because if He went not away the Comforter wouldn’t come to them.  We need the comforter. 

We need the Holy Spirit to do that work of reproving today.  We could take the Law, and by the Law we could bring you to the place of condemnation.  There is something better than the Law.  The Holy Spirit will reprove or convict the world of sin.

That is needed today, the world to experience the reproof or conviction of sin.  In the world around us much is said about sin but it doesn’t seem that there is much conviction of sin.  Our nation may have one time considered itself to be a Christian nation.  Christianity was so predominate that just about anything else was not considered. 

Still 70% say that they are Christians.  They are saying, “I am a Christian culturally but not a follower of Christ.”  Some would like to retain their culture as a Christian but have no belief in Christ.  “I grew up in this religious culture and I would like to retain this culture but I have no knowledge of Christ.”  They know Christianity only in a cultural way. 

They need to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit and experience His doings and feel the conviction of sin that will cause them to seek after forgiveness of sin.

We need to preach the Law and grace, but what we really need is the Holy Spirit working on the hearts of man to convict them of sin. 

Faith means a conviction that comes by hearing.  How is the hearing?  It is by the Spirit moving upon the heart.  The Word certainly needs to be presented to men and women’s minds, but it needs to be presented under the influence of the Spirit.  By the Holy Spirit working through those that have experienced the Working of the Holy Spirit in themselves.

The message of grace today focuses almost completely on the forgiveness of sin.  Grace is more than that.  It is the outpouring of God in the heart of man so that they not only experience the forgiveness of sin but the new life of Christ and the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit.

People of Christian culture may be so because they have not experienced His life.  They haven’t been cleansed from the problem of the indwelling nature of sin.  That must be addressed.

The comforter will reprove the world of sin, convict the sinner, grip the heart to experience what God has provided through Jesus Christ.  He will convict the world of righteousness.

The righteousness today is only an imputed righteousness.  “The blood of Christ covers you so that God is blinded to the sin in your life by that blood.”  People with a Christian culture say, “I have this culture, why do I need Christ.”

The world looks on and sees a people claiming this wonderful conviction that have no change in their life and are just like them. He convicts the world of righteousness because God wants something different.  We are following Christ because God wants something different.

If we saw Christ walking among men we would have a very good picture and understanding of what righteousness is.  The world around us still needs an understanding of what righteousness is.  If we are filled with the Spirit of God, we will be living so that Christ shines out through our life.

“I will send you a teacher that will help you to understand things that I have already told you and you were not able to hear.” 

Before the day of Pentecost Peter said, “God forbid that you go to the cross.”  Peter understood on the day of Pentecost enough to stand and say, “This is it.”  He knew what Christ was trying to convey to them before He went to the cross.

Peter was well aware of his need of the Holy Spirit when the day of Pentecost came.  He had boasted so strong, “If every one of these fail you, I will still be there.”  He had Christ look at him on the third denial and it hit home.  He had said, “I am not going to fail.” but he did. 

He had time to think about it when Christ was in the tomb.  He may have thought, “I will never be able to say, “I am sorry.””  Christ forgave him and said, “Feed my sheep.”  Go out and preach the gospel.

He may have thought, “I could not stand before man; how can I go out and preach the gospel?”  He said, “I found out how I can face man.”

The Holy Spirit reveals to us what grace and truth can do in us.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

We think about this scripture that we have heard many times.  We want to focus on the thought that the grace of God has appeared to all men.  What that verse is saying: “Salvation is for everyone.” 

This was written by Paul, if he believed that everyone knew about it then why would he have been a missionary.  “It is for everyone but not everyone knows that it is there for them.”  When Christ said, “Go to all the world and preach the gospel, our responsibility is to let people know that “This is for you.”

This exists in our society today.  Our daughter had a foreign exchange student and we had an opportunity to preach to someone that had never heard.  She had no background in the bible.  She had not heard of Daniel, or anyone else in the Bible. 

When we went to preach, we thought, “How can we get this across.”  Maybe she didn’t have Christian culture but Jesus died for her.  Salvation is for her even if she was not form Christian America.

Many children in America today may as well be from China.  They haven’t had someone sit down with them and tell them about the bible.  Even in suburban America, not everyone knows about salvation and that it is for them.

Dressing nice, looking nice, and talking nice doesn’t mean that they know about the bible.  Not everyone that is of great need is in the inner city or ghetto. 

The grace of God is for all men, but we need to make sure that all men hear that it is for them.  The grace that comes teaches us something.  The Law taught us something, but grace teaches something too.  It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world. 

Some say, “We will do that in heaven.”  I need it now.  If I have it now I can take it there with me. 

It teaches that we deny impiety and disregard for God.  A lot of people in the world have no respect for the person of God and don’t even want to know about His existence.  That is the real essence of ungodliness:  god shut out. 

If I deny ungodliness, I focus on God.  That is how you address ungodliness in people’s life, you focus on God.

Worldly lust is desires pertaining to this world and the sinful flesh.  We live in a society that has the idea, “I am going to have it all.”  People that want to keep Christian culture think, “I am going to hold onto this Christian culture and hang onto the world and have all it will give me.” 

You may be able to have Christian culture with that thought, but you will not have what Christ brought.  We find through Him that the worldly lust is not something that we want to hang onto.  It drags people down and gets them into all sorts of things that are destructive to their life.

There is something wrong when people think, “I don’t have to deny this.”  It has reached the point that grace in the world’s view takes in everything.  One person’s writing was, “I wouldn’t have Christianity; they are not creative.”  His thought of creative is being tattooed all over. 

That is the world that we are in.  “Grace takes in everything.  I can still drink and be a Christian.  I can follow all my fleshly desires.” 

Grace teaches us, “I had that once, I am not going there.”  We look it over and realize, “Christ brought something better than that.”  We deny ungodliness and instead of being focused on what the world can give us, we live for God.

We should live soberly, exercise that self-restraint that governs all passions and desires enabling one to be conformed to Christ.  To be living in the mind of Christ.

This writer pointed out the thought in this way, “I have lived my life and have been as busy as I could be in Christ yet I have never lead anyone to Christ.”  When they finally came to the point of instead of living for Christ he would get out of the way and let Christ live in him.  When he came to that point, he saw 30 people led to Christ.  The difference was he was not doing something for Christ, he was letting Christ work in Him. 

It is not, “I am going to exercise that self-restraint.”  I cannot in myself.  The restraint is, “I am going to let the mind of Christ be my mind, look from His point of view rather than the fleshly point of view.  Most people are looking at things from the point of view of the sin nature.

In Sunday school we read, “We have great promises whereby we can be partakers of the divine nature.”  There is something that is able to focus on life from a different perspective and different world view.  We live soberly.  We look at things as Christ would.

Live righteously.  That is in a straight way.  Straight and narrow is the way.  Observant of custom, rule, and right.  “I am going to look at things the right way, the way it should be.”  Grace teaches us that I should live that way.  I should look at things as, “What is the right way?”

Righteous was in the original English, was rightwise.  We are going to do things rightwise.  A state of doing things right, right conduct as judged by divine standards.  We should live that way; grace teaches me this.

If I am looking at it from the mind of Christ then I want to do what is right as God sees it. 

We should live godly in this present world.  It means devout, that piety characterized by a Godward attitude and does that which is well pleasing to Him.

Ungodly is to lack focus on God.  To be godly is to be totally focused on God.  Our attitude is to be focused on God and with that focus do that which is pleasing to Him, “If God doesn’t want this, then I don’t either.”

When we tell people, “We need to walk like God wants us to.”  They say, “You are being legalistic.”  They say “What do I have to do to get by?”  That is legalistic.

Paul said on the road to Damascus, “What do you want me to do?”  That should be our attitude if we are living for God.  “I don’t think this is pleasing to you God; those things will have to go.”

The grace of God teaches me to live soberly, with the mind of Christ; righteously, doing what is right with an attitude to pleasing God; right here.

The world presents the thought that we have to leave this world to be sanctified.  They say, “How are they going to get the message of grace?”  You believe that way in this present world but only get the grace to do it in the next world. 

Christ brought grace and truth that we could in fact live out the message of grace.  That is what the world needs today.  If we live out that grace then we will be looking for that glorious hope and blessed appearing of Jesus Christ. 

We want to be with Him.  He gave himself for us that we might be redeemed from all iniquity.  That word iniquity, just as being ungodly, is to not focus and respect the person of God.  The Word iniquity means no respect for God’s law and no interest for the consequence of lawlessness.

He came to redeem us from lawlessness and not give us a cloak for it. 

Paul pointed out, when we walk in the Spirit that Law is taken care of.  It is not, “I can do anything anytime and any way.”  No, He redeemed us from our lawlessness, and from our attitude toward God.

He redeemed us from lawlessness to become a peculiar people.  The peculiar people:  he will cleanse us in this life, God’s own possession.  He kept telling them through the Law, “You will come to the place where I will be your God and you will be my people, a peculiar people:  God’s own possession.” 

A sad condition of the world today is that people are still in possession of themselves.  They have never given themselves a living sacrifice to be filled by Him. 

Jesus came and had a body but the Holy Spirit needs one and it is yours.  We are to present our body a living sacrifice so that the Holy Spirit has a body to live in and to work through right here in this present world. 

He came to purify us and cleanse us right here in this present world.  He needs a people zealous of good works, a heart burning to do God’s will right here.  That is what grace teaches us.  I look in the world about me where grace is just reduced to the forgiveness of sins.  They have taken grace out of grace.

The grace of God is the working of God in the hearts and lives of individuals and the work of God.  It is that experience of sanctification that will make the church shine.  It is that which sets the church apart from the world. 

The only way the world will see the difference is in the heart of the individual given fully to God.  It is what the world needs.  If we find in our life that the Holy Spirit is not having the way that God would have it to be that we would get before God and cry out to God that the Spirit be poured on us and so that the world can see what the grace of God does in the life.  So that we can tell the lost world, “It is for you today.”