After my last post, a Christian brother shared with me his struggle to faithfully teach grace to the folks he disciples. I certainly share in that struggle. I have often said that faithful discipleship is a narrow path between the two ditches of legalism and licentiousness.
Of course, I didn’t come up with that. The Apostle Paul had to deal with the same issues. On the one hand he had to warn the Galatians about the ditch of legalism espoused by the Judaizers. On the other hand he had to give an emphatic “NO” to those whose philosophy was… “let’s sin up a storm so that we can experience more of God’s grace.” The narrow path between the two ditches is narrow indeed and Christian history is littered with examples of how individuals (as well as groups of people) have fallen into one ditch or the other. Regardless of which ditch you fall into… you still end up dirty and smelly.
To my struggling brother, and as a reminder to myself, I offer some counsel I once heard. I take comfort in the struggle because the Apostle Paul experienced the same. Grace is a dangerous thing. I think if we faithfully and accurately teach the biblical doctrine of grace, there will always be the risk that someone might distort it in a libertine direction… just as a faithful and accurate teaching of obedience might lead some into the legalistic ditch. I guess, like evangelism, we are called to be faithful… even though we can’t control the results.
I think that those of us who take the ministry of discipleship seriously will always struggle. However, perhaps we can use this struggle between the two ditches… the struggle of the narrow path… to motivate us to be careful, loving, grace-filled, and faithful in our teaching, discipling, counseling, correcting, etc.
I know that walking the narrow path is hard enough for me… and I’ve been at it for some time. I can still remember the early days of my walk with Christ; I often found myself walking a little too closely to one side or the other… and sometimes found myself climbing out of one ditch or the other, cleaning myself off (actually, repenting… and begging for more of God’s Spirit and grace) and then getting back on the narrow path.
This reminder of my own history will hopefully encourage me to be patient with those whom I disciple… especially those who are just beginning their own way down the narrow path. Thank God for his ever-present grace!
The following was preached on Sunday, July 1, 2012 at Southside UMC.
Well, this Wednesday is July 4th – or what we know as Independence Day. It’s the day that we remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It’s that time of year when we make more of an effort to remember our country asserting’s its freedom from the kingdom of Great Britain.
Suzanne and I used to have four small prints by Norman Rockwell that captured the very essence of what our founders had in mind by such a Declaration of Independence. They’re perhaps Rockwell’s most famous paintings and are called The FourFreedoms.
1.) The First is called Freedom of Speech. It’s a scene of one ordinary man standing up in a great assembly hall with all sorts of folks present. The idea is that in our country, that man has just as much a right to be heard – to speak his mind – as anyone else in the room.
2.) The Second is called, Freedom of Worship. This is a painting of folks praying reverently and freely before God… without fearing for their safety. In much the same way that we have no worries or fears that at any moment, the secret police are going to break into our worship service and cart us off to prison for assembling together.
3.) The Third is called, Freedom from Want. This scene shows what looks like a beautifully prepared Thanksgiving Dinner Table… with all the family present. Ideally, in our country, you can pursue your dreams and calling and sufficiently provide for your family without the fear of having it taken from you unjustly.
4.) The Fourth and Last painting is called, Freedom from Fear. This is a touching picture of a mother and father tucking their children into bed. It brings to mind that the children are being put to bed in the security and love of their home without either the children or the parents riddled with fear.
These four paintings by Rockwell made such an impact that President Roosevelt spoke of them in his State of the Union Address in 1941. In that speech he referred to them as four essential human rights that should be universally protected. He said they should also serve as a reminder of the American motivation of fighting in World War 2. Roosevelt later said, “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.” (from Wikipedia)
And so, let this be a reminder to us that July 4th is more than a day of hotdogs and pool parties and fireworks. (Don’t get me wrong… I love each of these parts of our celebration!) Instead, as we gather for these things, let us do so in remembrance of what our precious American freedoms really mean… and let’s express gratitude to God for them. Because they are really are gifts… and not everyone around the world has them.
I think the desire for human freedom is deep within every person. No one wants to be enslaved and in bondage to other people, governments, ideologies, personal problems, or anything else for that matter. I think that’s one of the reasons a movie like Braveheart spoke to so many people. It was a story primarily about a desire… and consequently a fight… for freedom.
I think one of the reasons we want freedom is because very few folks feel like they really have it. And the Bible confirms that feeling by reminding us that we’re all born into slavery. We’re born into the bondage of a cruel taskmaster called SIN.
And it was in response to that taskmaster… that human condition, that God sent our Lord Jesus Christ… to deliver us from this slavery… just as he delivered Israel from her Egyptian oppressors. This is one of the primary reasons why the Apostle Paul wrote his Letter to the Galatians. It’s often been called the Charter of Christian Freedom. It’s called this because in the pages of this letter, the Apostle reminds us of the freedom that was won for us by Christ.
The Apostle reminds us of the freedom that is ours as children of God. And you could say that our Scripture this morning is the theme not only for the whole book of Galatians, but for the whole of the Christian life…
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
Paul packs an extraordinary amount into this one verse. He shares with us a statement of freedom as well as the implications of that freedom.
We’ll take at what Paul understood that freedom to mean… and what it did not mean… next time.
Beginning Wednesday, July 11, our Wednesday Morning Men’s Study will start a NEW Study… featuring a NEW Teacher… and a NEW Format… just for the Summer(and a smidge of the Fall).
NEW STUDY
Our new study is entitled, Galatians: The Charter of Christian Freedom. It’s called this because in it, Paul proclaims the reality of believers’ liberty in Christ – freedom from the law and the power of sin, and freedom to serve the living Lord. Galatians is also one of the greatest and clearest presentations of the Gospel in all of God’s Word. Lastly, it gives us a glimpse of what living according to the power and direction of God’s Spirit can and does do in the life of those who follow Christ.
This will be a 13-week study.
NEW TEACHER
Our small group leaders have been faithfully leading their men for many, many years now, with very few breaks. Therefore, I thought I would give them this next study off to just be a student and have a chance to relax a little bit. Our ministry is profoundly indebted to these faithful and godly brothers for their leadership and this is the very least I can do to express my appreciation to them.
NEW FORMAT
During the summer months we have historically taken a bit of a dip in our attendance as our kids are home from school, families are taking vacations… (basically the old routine isn’t very routine during these months). Therefore, this summer, on Wednesday mornings, instead of breaking into our small groups for our study-time, we’re going to remain in one big group. I hope at the end of each lesson we’ll have plenty of time for our regular small groups to be able to break off and have some prayer time and care time together.
*** Our Monday Evening Men’s Study will continue to meet, sticking with our regular game-plan.
Here’s the schedule for both:
Lesson
Monday
Evening(7:00 – 8:30pm)
Wednesday
Morning(6:30 – 7:30am)
Lesson
Title
Scripture
1
July 9
July 11
Introduction & Overview
2
July 16
July 18
The True Gospel
1:1-9
3
July 23
July 25
The Source of Truth
1:10-24
4
July 30
August 1
Confirmation of the Truth
2:1-10
5
August 6
August 8
Contending for the Truth
2:11-21
6
August 13
August 15
Living by Faith
3:1-14
7
August 20
August 22
The Priority of the Promise
3:15-25
8
August 27
August 29
The Rights of a Son
3:26-4:11
9
September 10
September 12
A Choice of Allegiance
4:12-31
10
September 17
September 19
Christian Freedom
5:1-15
11
September 24
September 26
Living by the Spirit
5:16-26
12
October 1
October 3
Keeping on Track
6:1-10
13
October 8
October 10
Focusing on the Eternal
6:11-18
Whether you have continued to faithfully attend throughout the year… or whether it’s been quite some time since you were last with us (or somewhere in between), I truly hope you will reconnect with your brothers in Christ at Southside for this exciting new study.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. [2] I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? [3] Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? [4] Have you suffered so much for nothing–if it really was for nothing? [5] Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
If we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, why do we always seem to revert back to trying to earn God’s acceptance?
This sort of question perplexed Paul. It perplexes me. The Church at Galatia – home of those “foolish Galatians” – was clearly taught that Christ had been crucified for sinners (v. 1). They had heard the gospel rightly exposited by the Apostle. And yet, they seemed to be setting aside the grace of God. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing (Gal. 2:21)!
So, Paul asks them point blank: How did you receive the Spirit: By observing the law or by believing the gospel (v. 2)? I’ll let Paul speak for himself in verse 3…
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
The answer to his questions was YES. They were indeed guilty as charged. But all too often…so are we.
How often do we try to earn God’s favor and become enslaved to performance-based living, thus rendering Christ’s sacrifice for sin as worthless? While we know – or ought to know – that we are justified (or saved) by faith, we somehow think that everything else is up to us.
The biblical truth is, however, that although we must certainly pursue godliness for all we are worth, it is only by the power of the Spirit that we will achieve our goal of Christlikeness. And we access that power only by faith. Trying to live by your own power is like trying to cut down a mighty redwood tree with a chain saw that you never turn on. You will fail miserably and look stupid doing so.
Instead, we are not only called to begin with the Spirit in our justification, but also to finish with him…and to walk every step with him between those two points as well. Only as the Spirit pulls us along the track of life will our efforts amount to anything for the Kingdom.
Galatians 3:1-11
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. [2] I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? [3] Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? [4] Have you suffered so much for nothing–if it really was for nothing? [5] Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
[6] Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” [7] Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. [8] The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” [9] So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
[10] All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” [11] Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 39
The Ten Commandments
110. Question: What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?
Answer: God forbids not only outright theft and robbery[1] but also such wicked schemes and devices as false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit money, and usury;[2] we must not defraud our neighbor in any way, whether by force or by show of right.[3] In addition God forbids all greed[4] and all abuse or squandering of His gifts.[5]
[1] Ex. 22:1; I Cor. 5:9, 10; 6:9, 10. [2] Deut. 25:13-16; Ps. 15:5; Prov. 11:1; 12:22; Ezek. 45:9-12; Luke 6:35. [3] Mic. 6:9-11; Luke 3:14; James 5:1-6. [4] Luke 12:15; Eph. 5:5. [5] Prov. 21:20; 23:20, 21; Luke 16:10-13.
111. Question: What does God require of you in this commandment?
Answer: I must promote my neighbor’s good wherever I can and may, deal with him as I would like others to deal with me, and work faithfully so that I may be able to give to those in need.[1]
[1] Is. 58:5-10; Matt. 7:12; Gal. 6:9, 10; Eph. 4:28.
“If . . thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. . . .” Matthew 5:23
If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not – If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but – “If thou rememberest,” that is, if it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: “first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple.
“First be reconciled to thy brother . . .” Our Lord’s direction is simple, “first be reconciled.” Go back the way you came, go the way indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, He says – you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
“And then come and offer thy gift.” The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction, then the way of obedience to the word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong; then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.
The Gospel of John: Part 19
Prayer for this Lord’s Day
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the way of peace.
Come into the brokenness of our lives and our land
with your healing love.
Help us to be willing to bow before you in true repentance,
and to bow to one another in real forgiveness.
By the fire of your Holy Spirit, melt our hard hearts
and consume the pride and prejudice which separate us.
Fill us, O Lord, with your perfect love, which casts out our fear,
and bind us together in that unity
which you share with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Galatians 2:11-21
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. [12] Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. [13] The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
[14] When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
[15] “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ [16] know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
[17] “If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! [18] If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. [19] For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. [20] I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 36
The Ten Commandments
99. Question: What is required in the third commandment?
Answer: We are not to blaspheme or to abuse the Name of God by cursing,[1] perjury,[2] or unnecessary oaths,[3] nor to share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders.[4] In short, we must use the holy Name of God only with fear and reverence,[5] so that we may rightly confess Him,[6] call upon Him,[7] and praise Him in all our words and works.[8]
[1] Lev. 24:10-17. [2] Lev. 19:12 [3] Matt. 5:37; James 5:12. [4] Lev. 5:1; Prov. 29:24. [5] Ps. 99:1-5; Is. 45:23; Jer. 4:2. [6] Matt. 10:32, 33; Rom. 10:9, 10. [7] Ps. 50:14, 15; I Tim. 2:8. [8] Rom. 2:24; Col. 3:17; I Tim. 6:1.
100. Question: Is the blaspheming of God’s Name by swearing and cursing such a grievous sin that God is angry also with those who do not prevent and forbid it as much as they can?
Answer: Certainly,[1] for no sin is greater or provokes God’s wrath more than the blaspheming of His Name. That is why He commanded it to be punished with death.[2]
“Watch with Me” – with no private point of view of your own at all, but watch entirely with Me. In the early stages we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revelation of the Bible; in the circumstances of our lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself in a particular Gethsemane, and we will not go; we say – “No, Lord, I cannot see the meaning of this, it is bitter.” How can we possibly watch with Someone Who is inscrutable? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we do not know even what His suffering is for? We do not know how to watch with Him; we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not understand what He was after. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept for their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest intimacy they “all forsook Him and fled.”
“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost” – the same “they,” but something wonderful has happened in between – Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection and Ascension; and the disciples have been invaded by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord had said – “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” and this meant that they learned to watch with Him all the rest of their lives.
Dear Father, I rejoice in the revelation that You want to be with me and me with You. The depths of Your grace are unfathomable—I cannot see how You could wish to have such intimacy with me. Yet daily I seem to forget this glorious truth and turn my heart instead to lesser goods that compete with the one thing most needful. Why do I clamor after other affections above Yours? How did I get betrothed to your enemy? I ask that you would untie me and break that knot, and take me to Yourself. Only when I am enthralled by You will I ever be free. Knowing this, I ask for the grace of holy aspiration, so that I will treasure what You declare to be important and stop giving myself to lesser things that cannot satisfy, but only entrap. By Your grace, I would break free from the bondage of the flesh, the world and the devil.
Galatians 2:1-10
Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. [2] I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. [3] Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. [4] This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. [5] We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
[6] As for those who seemed to be important–whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance–those men added nothing to my message. [7] On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. [8] For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. [9] James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. [10] All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
After my last post, a Christian brother shared with me his struggle to faithfully teach grace to the folks he disciples. I certainly share in that struggle. I have often said that faithful discipleship is a narrow path between the two ditches of legalism and licentiousness.
