{"id":18662,"date":"2017-04-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/is-grace-worth-fighting-for-defending-grace-graciously\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T20:06:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T02:06:01","slug":"is-grace-worth-fighting-for-defending-grace-graciously","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/is-grace-worth-fighting-for-defending-grace-graciously\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Grace Worth Fighting For? Defending Grace Graciously"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[146],"series_event":[518],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[478],"class_list":["post-18662","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-none","series_event-guest-speaker","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-j-b-hixson","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Is Grace Worth Fighting For? Defending Grace Graciously","sermon_date":"20170430","sermon_month":"04","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":"","sermon_mp3":4616,"sermon_id":"43017104484","series_or_event":518,"service_type":[473],"speaker":478,"books_of_the_bible":146,"chapter_and_verse":"","sermon_transcript":"J. B. Hixson\r\n\r\nIs Grace Worth Fighting For?\u00a0 Defending Grace Graciously\r\n\r\nSLBC, 4-30-17\r\n\r\nI am really looking forward to spending the morning with you all.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019ll stick around for worship; I\u2019m going to be dealing with the subject One Minute After the Rapture<\/em> during our worship hour.\u00a0 But during out Bible study hour I want to invite you to turn with me to Galatians 1, as Dr. Woods, who\u2019s a very good friend of mine, we\u2019ve known each other for many years, I actually predated him at the College of Biblical Studies where I taught from 1999-2005, and then about the time I left to go to Grace Seminary and teach he came onboard at College of Biblical Studies and I know he has since moved over to Chafer.\u00a0 I\u2019m so excited to know that Chafer is having his very gifted hand.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve crossed paths quite often, spoken at various conferences together already this year, I think we\u2019ve spoken at a couple of conferences together and I always enjoy fellowshipping with him and Anne.\u00a0 And as I mentioned Wednesday night he\u2019s number one of my speed dial, I go to Dr. Woods frequently when I have theological questions I want to bounce off of him just to make sure I\u2019m not crazy when I come up with something.\r\n\r\nBut my wife Wendy and I are here, I hope you\u2019ll take the time to meet here, she\u2019s at our resource table, we have six children as Jim mentioned, and they normally travel with us, we do a lot of traveling, but not on this trip because we\u2019re in the midst of a two month trip so part of the time they\u2019re with us, part of the time they\u2019re not, we\u2019re kind of hopscotching around the country and looking forward to what the Lord is going to do through this trip.\r\n\r\nDr. Woods asked me to deal with soteriology during the Bible study hour, which is my passion, my greatest passion; that\u2019s what my PhD is in and our ministry is about the clarity, accuracy and urgency of the gospel message.\u00a0 And even though we do a lot of end times prophecy stuff and we\u2019ve written about that and\u00a0 I have a lot of DVD\u2019s about that, even in the midst of teaching on end times we try to make the gospel central to everything that we do.\u00a0 But for our time together this morning we want to explicitly focus on this idea of Defending Grace Graciously<\/em>.\r\n\r\nWhat I\u2019ve discovered through the years, being kind of at the tip of the spear in some of the grace movement, I was the founding board member and first executive director of an organization called Free Grace Alliance.\u00a0 I was also very intimately involved in another organization called Grace Evangelical Society and I\u2019ve been kind of our promoting the purity of the gospel for many years, over twenty, almost thirty years now.\u00a0 And what I\u2019ve noticed is that sometimes those of us that are passionate about the clarity and accuracy and purity of the gospel message and about grace and about protecting the gospel from any influence of good works or performance or anything like that, can sometimes be pretty ungracious in how we defend it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a lesson I\u2019ve had to learn the hard way because like so many in my younger days I was so passionate I would just get animated and just could come across ungracious in defending the gospel.\r\n\r\nSo I want to ask this question to begin with:\u00a0 is grace worth fighting for?\u00a0 That\u2019s why I wanted you to turn to Galatians 1.\u00a0 I love this passage, I\u2019m sure you\u2019re very familiar with it. I\u00a0 love it because it\u2019s the first book of the Bible that Paul ever wrote, the first letter that he wrote. So here\u2019s a guy who wrote prolifically in the New Testament, wrote more books of the New Testament than any other New Testament writer, though Luke actually wrote more of the New Testament than Paul did because Luke and Acts take up more space than all thirteen Pauline epistles.\u00a0 But here\u2019s a guy who\u2019s one of the greatest apostles.\u00a0 We all know the story, saved on the road to Damascus after having persecuted the church and being an enemy of grace, then he came to embrace grace.\r\n\r\nSo Galatians to me is intriguing because it answers the question, what was so important in the mind of God that with all of the incredible truths that God revealed through the pen of the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what did He chose to reveal first?\u00a0 What was the priority?\u00a0 And what we find out is that it was the defense of grace.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s pick it up in verse 6 where we read, \u201cI marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. [8] But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.\u201d\u00a0 [Galatians 1:6, American King James Version]\r\n\r\nThe Greek word there is anathema<\/em>, he\u2019s come under strict judgment, anathema does not in and of itself mean go to hell, although depending on who it is that\u2019s coming under anathema it could mean, if they are an unbeliever, they end up in hell.\u00a0 But it generally just means a very strict harsh form of judgment.\u00a0 And then he says, \u201cFor do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I would not a bond servant of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 [Galatians 1:10]\r\n\r\nSo let\u2019s put this in context.\u00a0 Paul and Barnabas are gone on their first missionary journey, Acts 13 and 14, around A.D. 48-49.\u00a0 Remember Paul got saved in 35 A.D., two years after the church started, on the road to Damascus.\u00a0 He spent 14 years or so studying the Word of God and being discipled and then he launches his first missionary journey from Antioch of Syria, and they visit the region of Southern Galatia, cities like Iconium and Lystra and Derbe and so forth.\r\n\r\nAnd there\u2019s an incredible harvest of souls, people embrace grace, they embrace the free gift of eternal life that comes only through the shed blood of Christ when you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s an amazing trip.\u00a0 They get back to Antioch and he\u2019s going to give a report to the sending church on how successful and wonderful this mission trip was.\u00a0 And no sooner does he get back to Antioch than he begins to hear reports; he gets an e-mail or something, or a text, and finds out that these false teachers, right after he left southern Galatia had crept into those cities and begun to disparage Paul, and begun to teach something other than the pure grace message.\r\n\r\nAnd so Paul, obviously, is greatly disturbed by this and if you know your early history of the apostolic age the Jerusalem Council took place between Paul\u2019s first and second missionary journey, in 50 A.D. in Jerusalem.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when many of the early church leaders got together and sort of discussed this whole notion of Jew and Gentile in one body, what does the church look like, how does it relate to the Jewish law and circumcision in particular.\u00a0 Now this was still during the apostolic age, the New Testament hadn\u2019t been completely written yet, God was still revealing His truth through the apostles and prophets.\r\n\r\nAnd so that counsel was to address a lot of these issues that Paul addresses in Galatians but it\u2019s my contention, I can\u2019t prove it but I think it makes the most sense in re-dating and reconnecting the dots of the timeline, that while Paul was on the journey from Antioch to Jerusalem to attend the Jerusalem Council he penned the words that we\u2019re reading in Galatians.\u00a0 In other words, he was so bothered by what he was hearing coming out of Galatia that he didn\u2019t wait for the Jerusalem Council to rule on the matter; he penned these words immediately and sent it back to Galatia.\r\n\r\nAnd so I think it\u2019s interesting that the very first issue that Paul addresses is one on the purity of the gospel.\u00a0 But is grace worth fighting for; it sure seems like it is from Paul\u2019s perspective and let\u2019s take a look at what he says.\u00a0 First of all, I think if you look at verses 6-7 that we read,\u00a0 the gospel of grace, it seems to me, is very unambiguous, it\u2019s very unambiguous.\u00a0 I was reading from the New King James and Paul uses a couple of words here in Greek that are translated differently in English.\u00a0 He says, for example, in verse 6,\u00a0 \u201cI marvel that you are turning away so soon from him that called you into the grace of Christ to a different gospel.\u201d\u00a0 The word translated \u201cdifferent\u201d there is the Greek word heteros<\/em>, and it means literally another of a different kind, entirely different in other words.\u00a0 So he says you\u2019re turning to an entirely different gospel.\r\n\r\nThen he says in verse 7, \u201cWhich is not another\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhich is not another;\u201d now the word \u201canother\u201d is the word allos<\/em> in Greek and it literally means another of similar kind.\u00a0 Now what\u2019s interesting is the King James, which is what I grew up with, actually uses the same word \u201canother\u201d to translate both Greek words.\u00a0 So it gets a little confusing because it sounds like Paul is saying you\u2019re turning to another gospel which is not another gospel.\u00a0 But of course, the Bible wasn\u2019t written in English, the Bible was written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, in this case Greek, and so we need to know that he was using two different words.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a little bit more clear, the New King James, because at least the translators used two different English words.\r\n\r\nBut what is he saying here?\u00a0 He\u2019s saying\u00a0 you\u2019re turning to a heteros<\/em> gospel which is not allos <\/em>gospel.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see what he\u2019s really trying to say here; I\u2019ll try to use an analogy.\u00a0 First of all, let\u2019s look at the word allos<\/em>, another of the same kind.\u00a0 Suppose Wendy asked me to run to the grocery store and pick up a bag of apples and she said now make sure you get red delicious apples, that\u2019s what I want.\u00a0 Now being a guy, of course all I heard was apples, and also being a guy I\u2019m a hunger\/gatherer so I get in my car and I run to the supermarket, which where we live in Colorado would take over an hour by the way, but here I could run to the nearest grocery store, let\u2019s say I lived in Houston, and I\u2019m timing myself because you know, being a competitive guy I always like to see, can I beat my last time that I had when I went to the grocery store, so I rush into the grocery store, fortunately for me the produce section is always near the front of the door and I find the first big bin that has red apple looking things in it and I throw a bunch of them in a bag and I go to the self-checkout because you never want to go the full checkout because it always takes a long time, I can go faster than the checkout person, that\u2019s my theory, right?\u00a0 I check out, get in the car, come home run in, hand her the apples, but what\u2019s she going to say when she sees that I got a bag of, say Braeburn apples.\u00a0 She\u2019s going to say those aren\u2019t red delicious apples, I asked for red delicious apples and I\u2019m going to say what?\u00a0 An apple is an apple, what\u2019s the big deal?\u00a0 Why does it matter?\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s kind of the idea behind allos<\/em>, it\u2019s different but it\u2019s not entirely different; it\u2019s similar, and Paul says this isn\u2019t the kind of gospel that you guys are turning to.\u00a0 He says this is a heteros<\/em> gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if I went seeking a bag of apples and came back, for example came with a bag of oranges which would be pretty noticeably different.\u00a0 But even that really isn\u2019t a strong enough analogy because heteros<\/em> means completely and utterly different; at least in this case you could argue they\u2019re both fruits.\u00a0 But it would be like my wife sent me to get a bag of apples and I came back with, say, a bag of poison.\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of the idea here, completely different, nothing similar at all.\r\n\r\nAnd Paul says that\u2019s the kind of gospel that you\u2019re going after, it is precise, it is clear, it is unambiguous.\u00a0 But he also says, if you read on, that the gospel of graces is unadulterated; it\u2019s unadulterated.\u00a0 It begins in verse 7 again \u201cWhich is not another;\u201d is not an allos<\/em> gospel, it\u2019s not similar, it\u2019s rather a heteros<\/em> gospel, but then he says, \u201cbut there be some\u201d here, \u201cthere are some \u00a0that want to trouble you, and pervert the gospel of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the New King James translation.\u00a0 The word \u201cpervert\u201d there in verse 7 is actually the Greek word metastrepo<\/em>, and it\u2019s used a couple of times, actually three times in the New Testament.\u00a0 It can mean distort or twist and because it\u2019s used so rarely I thought it was interesting to look at the other two occurrences of metastrepo<\/em> in its various form.\u00a0\u00a0 And this was very telling to me, kind of the force behind this idea of metastrepo<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThe first place besides here in Galatians 1:7 that we find the word metastrepo<\/em> is in Acts 2, Peter\u2019s famous Pentecost sermon, when he\u2019s quoting actually from Joel chapter 2 and he says, \u201cThe sun shall be turned into darkness\u2019\u201d that word \u201cturned\u201d is the Greek word metastrepo,<\/em> and the moon into blood \u00a0[before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh.\u201d\u00a0 Joel 2:31]\u00a0 The only other time it\u2019s used is by James, the Lord\u2019s brother, when in chapter 4 of his epistle he says, \u201cLet\u00a0 your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.\u201d\u00a0 [James 4:9] That word \u201cturned\u201d again is the word metastrepo<\/em> translated pervert in Galatians 1:7.\r\n\r\nSo three times it\u2019s used in the New Testament in its various forms; twice the New King James translates it turned, once pervert, but it\u2019s interesting, if you look at those other two occurrences there on the screen you\u2019ll notice that in both instances he\u2019s using the term metastrepo<\/em>, or the term metastrepo<\/em> is used to refer to something that\u2019s 180 degrees opposite; you\u2019ve got light and darkness,\u00a0 you\u2019ve got laughter and mourning.\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of the force behind metastrepo<\/em>; it\u2019s not just a minor messing up or slight alteration or twisting.\u00a0 It\u2019s a complete reversal, it\u2019s turning it on its head.\r\n\r\nAnd that\u2019s indeed what these Judaizers were doing, who had come in to southern Galatia.\u00a0 Their argument went something like this, if we sort of read between the lines.\u00a0 They had come into Galatia after Paul had taught that you simply believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died and rose again for your sins and because of your faith in the right object you can have the gift of eternal life.\u00a0\u00a0 You can be saved!\u00a0 And they have come in and said well, that\u2019s okay, that\u2019s good but that\u2019s not quite the whole story; if you really want to get to heaven you\u2019ve got to keep the Law, in particular you\u2019ve got to be circumcised.\u00a0 So they had begun to alter the gospel.\u00a0 And Paul says it was a metastrepo<\/em> alteration, it was a complete reversal, it was turning it on its head.\r\n\r\nAnd what we learn from that is that even the slightest addition or subtraction to grace turns it in its head; it\u2019s not a matter of degree.\u00a0 It can\u2019t be almost the right gospel; the gospel is either right or wrong.\u00a0 If you think of it in terms of a mathematical equation, if we were to say the gospel is X, then if we were to say is X plus one the gospel?\u00a0 The answer would have to be no.\u00a0 Is X minus one the gospel, or X plus Y?\u00a0 Part of the problem with the attack on the gospel, which by the way is nothing new because 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us the devil has been blinding men\u2019s hearts to the gospel for the last 2,000 years.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 4:4, \u201cIn whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.\u201d\u00a0 American King James Version]\r\n\r\nAnd in our book, Getting the Gospel Wrong, The Revised Edition, we deal with six now very prevalent false gospel models that are permeating the evangelical landscape, and all of them are equally wrong.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s not a matter of degree; any alteration completely turns it on its head.\u00a0 [Getting the Gospel Wrong: The Evangelical Crisis No One Is Talking AboutRevised Edition]\r\n\r\nSo the gospel of grace is unambiguous, unadulterated and then finally in verse 10 another reason we know grace is worth fighting for is because of what Paul says in verse 10, unashamed, and we too should be unashamed.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the bondservant of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0You have to understand the conflict here; this is way before Paul had established himself as a leading apostle of the day.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t have quite the standing, say Peter might have at that time.\u00a0 And yet he was willing to stand firm for the gospel. He knew the Lord, he met the Lord, he understood grace.\u00a0 If anybody understood grace it would be Paul.\u00a0 That\u2019s the amazing thing about grace, sometimes people who are opposed to the free grace gospel suggest that somehow it cheapens grace when we talk about how sin cannot impact your eternal destiny. \u00a0Some people say the more you sin the more it proves\u00a0 you\u2019re not really saved because of course, no believer would sin.\r\n\r\nNow I have plenty of exegetical evidence that we stress in a couple of our books that make that patently untrue but I always like to do a little antidotal proof as well whenever I\u2019m speaking in conferences.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done this, I don\u2019t know how many times, I\u2019ve spoken at over 600 churches, but let\u2019s do it here.\u00a0 How many of you are believers?\u00a0 Good, praise God.\u00a0 How many of you sin?\u00a0 There, I\u2019ve proven my point.\u00a0 So absolutely believers sin; sin cannot impact our eternal destiny because once we\u2019ve trusted Christ by grace through faith our name is written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life, we\u2019re sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, we pass from death to life and shall never come to judgment, we\u2019re justified, we\u2019re positionally sanctified, we\u2019re reconciled to a holy God, we become regenerated, born again, adopted into the family of God and many other things in that punctiliar moment in time when faith meets the right object.\r\n\r\nNow we still have that old nature, we still have that flesh that\u2019s going to do battle as Paul describes in Romans 7 and as he frequently contrasts in places like Galatians 5 where \u201cthe flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; the two are contrary to one another\u2026.\u201d [Galatians 5:17]\u00a0 Or the old man, new man dichotomy, or walking by faith not by sight, but nothing can change\u00a0 our position \u201cin Christ\u201d, who we are \u201cin Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Nothing can change that!\r\n\r\nPaul understood that; he understood the purity of grace and he understood the amazing nature of grace and how he could be\u2026 such a sinner as him could be made right with a holy God and become placed in Christ, in the body of Christ and so he didn\u2019t really care what people might think of him.\u00a0 In fact, in chapter 2 of Galatians, if you know the story, he actually confronts Peter, none other than Peter, the pastor of The First Baptist Church in Jerusalem [laughs], Acts chapter 1.\u00a0 He confronts Peter and so absolutely the gospel of grace is unashamed; it\u2019s unambiguous, unadulterated, unashamed.\u00a0 So all of that to say is grace worth fighting for?\u00a0 Absolutely, absolutely grace is worth fighting for.\u00a0 However, in defending grace we need to make sure that we are gracious in how we defend it.\r\n\r\nNow here\u2019s a little thing that I\u2019ve learned and you probably have learned this too, you probably learned it before I did, I\u2019m a little slow sometimes, but sometimes, usually when we\u2019re ungracious it\u2019s a sign of insecurity.\u00a0 Now here\u2019s the thing, if we\u2019re confident, as Paul was and as I just laid out there in Galatians 1, in our view and understanding of the free grace gospel we really have nothing to be insecure about.\u00a0 So we really don\u2019t need to be defensive; we don\u2019t need to react, we don\u2019t need to get animated or our blood pressure doesn\u2019t need to go up when we are confronted with someone who\u2019s impugning the gospel the way these Judaizers were.\r\n\r\nNow that\u2019s an easier said than done task, and I understand, but I want to give you ten principles to keep in mind when defending the grace message.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll just go through these pretty quickly as we look at the whole counsel of God.\r\n\r\nFirst of all, recognize which issues are worth fighting for and which ones are not; recognize which issues are worth fighting for and which ones are not.\u00a0 What matters most is the gospel of grace.\u00a0 And there are other non-negotiables but we must also recognize that not every issue is worth fighting for.\u00a0 Now in almost 30 years of formal church staff ministry I\u2019ve seen some pretty incredible fights and we could probably sit around and all tell stories, I\u2019ve had people leave the church because the communion bread was too crunchy; I\u2019ve had people leave the church because the refrigerator door opened on the wrong side of the refrigerator.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had some crazy issues that have come up that have become BIG issues because people didn\u2019t understand what issues are worth fighting for.\r\n\r\nAnd the same thing is true when defending grace.\u00a0 I\u2019ve known people who every misstatement\u2026 in fact, I get e-mails all the time through our ministry, we have a national radio show, we speak all over, so we get e-mails from people and I love to talk about theology, it\u2019s what makes me tick so I try to respond to every e-mail.\u00a0 We get e-mails all the time, people talking about something their pastor said or something they heard on the radio and I have to do my best to try to walk them through how to handle that or give my two cents worth on how to handle that.\u00a0 But sometimes people give me a quote that their pastor says (and this just happened this past week) and what I had to say well, have you sat down and met with the pastor because let\u2019s face it, all of us at times are guilty of making a sloppy statement.\r\n\r\nI go back and listen to some of my early messages, when I was first starting the ministry at age 19, and I wonder how in the world anybody ever got saved listening to me because it was so bad; it was so sloppy and it was so unclear\u2026 but my heart was in the right spot, I cared about people, I wanted to see people come to faith in Christ but I was just a little sloppy.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the chapters in our book, Getting the Gospel Wrong<\/em>, is The Puzzling Gospel<\/em>.\u00a0 And in those cases I think it\u2019s sometimes just a matter of sitting down and saying did you really mean this and what did you mean by it.\r\n\r\nAnd that\u2019s far different than someone who is passionately preaching a works based gospel and demanding that people surrender their lives and promise and make a pledge of allegiance to the Lord as if it\u2019s some kind of a contract, because that\u2019s the way most gospel presentations are presented.\u00a0 The question is, is that something they\u2019re really passionate about or are they just using common 21st<\/sup> century western American colloquialism?\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 For example, \u201ccommit your life to Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Right, how many times have you heard that?\r\n\r\nI taught for twelve years fulltime at the college and seminary levels and one place that I taught, many of my students were pastors.\u00a0 So Monday morning classes were always awesome because the students would come in and pastors would come in and they would tell stories about how things went at their service the day before.\u00a0 And sometimes they would say something like, prof, we had a great service yesterday, we had ten people commit their lives to Christ.\u00a0 And I\u2019d always say the same thing: Man, that\u2019s fantastic!\u00a0 Did any of them get saved?\u00a0 Because you don\u2019t get saved by committing your life to Christ; you never find that language anywhere in Scripture.\u00a0 As a matter of face, my mentor, Charles Ryrie, pointed out before he went home to be with the Lord, that the gospel is not about what we give to the Lord.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 The gospel is one directional; one giver one receiver.\u00a0 We\u2019re the receiver, He\u2019s the giver, John 1:12.\u00a0 [\u201cBut as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:\u201d American King James Version]\r\n\r\nSo many people are trying to give their life to Christ, give their heart to Christ, give their all to Christ, give up everything, give over everything, trying to give something to the Lord and He\u2019s just sitting there saying look, if you\u2019ll put all that down and come to me, nothing in your hands you bring, simply to the cross you cling, I\u2019ve got a great gift for you; it\u2019s called forgiveness of sins and eternal life.\u00a0 Would you like to have it?\u00a0 But see, we\u2019re so busy trying to give things to the Lord.\r\n\r\nBut sometimes pastors, well-meaning evangelists, even evangelistically minded brothers and sisters in Christ will say \u201ccommit your life to Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s not always an occasion to call out the grace police and whip them with fifty lashes with a wet noodle you know; sometimes you can just say causally, graciously, you know, did you really mean commit your life to Christ, because really commitment is more a discipleship issue and that\u2019s how we live the Christian life.\u00a0 We wake up every day and say I\u2019m going to be committed to Him and walk by faith and trust His Word and not my own ways, but it\u2019s not how you get saved.\u00a0 You need to kind of think through the issue each time in terms of what\u2019s worth fighting for and what\u2019s not.\r\n\r\nWe see this in Scripture and passages like Hebrews 13:9, \u201cBe not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace;\u201d\u00a0 with grace.\u00a0 \u00a0Paul puts this into practice in Romans 14:20 when he says, \u201cpursue the things which make for peace\u201d and he goes on to say, do not \u201cdestroy the work of God\u201d for the sake of food; \u201cAll things are indeed pure; but it is evil for that man who eats with offense.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, all things are lawful to me but not all things are beneficial.\u00a0 If eating meat sacrificed to idols makes my brother stumble I\u2019ll never again eat meat.\u00a0 So recognize which issues are worth fighting for.\u00a0 Don\u2019t destroy the work of God for the sake of crunchy communion bread, for example.\r\n\r\nNumber two, reject any teaching that undermines or contradicts God\u2019s grace; being gracious does not mean compromise, or equivocate, or waffle.\u00a0 You can reject false teaching and be gracious, they are not mutually exclusive.\u00a0 Now I know that\u2019s becoming very difficult in this postmodern culture where any time you draw a line of distinction rather than a circle of inclusion you are automatically labeled as hateful, mean,\u00a0 ugly, whatever.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t give up that fight,\u00a0 you can\u2019t concede that point.\u00a0 You still need to fight hard to be gracious and be direct and be honest.\r\n\r\nSo what I\u2019ve taken to saying in recent\u00a0 years whenever I disagree with someone, and usually it\u2019s in the context of someone coming up to me and saying have you read this book or have you heard this person, someone they\u2019ve become enamored with and found benefit out of but it\u2019s someone who I believe is teaching something false, so I\u2019ll usually say look, you know I\u2019m sure they\u2019re a great person, I\u2019m sure they love the Lord, (depending on who it is because sometimes they\u2019re charlatans, and there are those out there, but usually most of the false teaching is coming from people that are just a product of their culture, they think they love the Lord, they think they love His Word, they think they\u2019re handling His Word correctly even though they\u2019re not, so if I\u2019m sure so and so, or that person is a good person, I\u2019m sure they love the Lord, probably very encouraging, probably a good writer, a good speaker but I just have an honest disagreement with them on such and such an issue\u2026 I mean, it\u2019s harder for people to accuse you of being mean and hateful when you say it that way, even though they sometimes still will.\r\n\r\nBut as we\u2019ve seen in Galatians 1 we have a duty, a mandate, to reject any teaching that under\u00admines the gospel of grace.\u00a0 And Paul makes it pretty strong, if you\u2019re preaching any gospel other than what he preached to\u00a0 you\u2026 and by the way, we have a record of what Paul preached to the Galatians, we don\u2019t have to wonder what that was, we have a direct record in Acts 13 and 14.\u00a0 He says let them be anathema, \u201clet him be anathema.\u201d \u00a0[Galatians 1:8, \u201cBut though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.\u201d ASV]\r\n\r\nAnd one of the things that I find really difficult, that really bothers me is the way people lump the gospel in with other issues, as if it\u2019s also one that you can sort of agree to disagree on. Right?\u00a0 And so they\u2019ll say things like, now here\u2019s a great book on how to manage your money and the guy is terrible on the gospel; he\u2019s dead wrong on the gospel but he\u2019s really good on this stuff. And I\u2019m like well, okay, can\u2019t we find an author who\u2019s not been anathematized by Scripture, who also speaks some good things about how to handle your money?\u00a0 I mean, the gospel is what matters most.\u00a0 I understand that there are people that are very knowledgeable in other subjects but unless we\u2019ve exhausted every other possibility why do we need to\u2026.\r\n\r\nI run into this all the time which I was Dean of Faculty at the college, in choosing textbooks.\u00a0 Some of the best textbooks on certain subjects, that are really quite good, are written by people that have a false gospel.\u00a0 And so we want to try to find someone that has a clear gospel because especially with impressionable college students, if you give them a book that might, even though the content of that particular book is accurate that\u2019s going to be seen as an implicit endorsement of that author. They\u2019re going to then go out and buy other books by that author that are troubling when it comes to the gospel.\u00a0 So definitely reject any teaching that undermines or contradicts God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 Paull makes this clear when he says avoid those who teach contrary doctrine.\r\n\r\nNumber three, remember theology is a process, not a product.\u00a0 Remember theology is a process, not a product.\u00a0 As a systematic theologian sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that if I could just complete my eight volume set, where I published a book on every subject of the classic ten categories of theology I would be done and then I could just sort of sit back and rest on my laurels and those kind of things.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not what theology is.\u00a0 Now we call it a theology\u2026 have you ready Ryrie\u2019s theology, have you read Chafer\u2019s theology, have you read whoever\u2019s theology?\u00a0 But really, theology is a process, not a product.\r\n\r\nYou never stop learning; you never stop connecting the dots.\u00a0 \u00a0We spend our lives studying the Word of God and every time I study for a new message, almost every time I\u2019ll find some passage that brings to mind another passage that I hadn\u2019t correlated before, hadn\u2019t connected the dots before and it strengthens my theology.\u00a0 Or, quite often I\u2019ll read a passage and as I\u2019m continuing to study it I\u2019ll begin to see that maybe I misunderstood a particular contextual marker and I maybe I was mishandling that passage.\u00a0 We have to study the Word of God and preach and teach the Word of God with great confidence yet with a degree of humility, understanding that it\u2019s a process.\r\n\r\nSo this is the five steps of the process of theology that I teach in my theology classes, and this is one of the 70+ color charts in our chart book out there, but it starts with the development phase; it starts with step 1, start with the Bible.\u00a0 There\u2019s a novel idea, theology starts with the Bible.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So you read it in its literal, grammatical, historical context; what does the text say?\r\n\r\nStep two is then you begin to expand your focus and compare Scripture with Scripture.\u00a0 Remember Scripture best interprets itself.\u00a0 I think it was Augustine that famously remarked never forget the Bible will shed a lot of light on commentaries.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So we tend to pull for that commentary rather than just letting the text speak.\r\n\r\nAnd then step three is formulating a clear belief statement.\u00a0 What does the Bible teach about\u2026 fill in the blank.\u00a0 We start with the Bible, you compare Scripture with Scripture and you arrive at a conclusion at that time.\u00a0 So you might say what does Hebrews teach about angels?\u00a0 Well then what does the rest of the New Testament teach about angels?\u00a0 What does the entire Bible teach about angels.\u00a0 And no doctrine can be considered complete until it has addressed everything the Bible has to say on the subject.\u00a0 But that\u2019s the development phase, but there are five steps in the theology process.\u00a0 And by the way, that\u2019s a cyclical thing, you consistently do it throughout your life.\r\n\r\nBut then you move into the implementation phase\u2026 the implementation phase.\u00a0 Step four is evaluate what you have discovered from the Word of God, evaluate other truth things from outside the Word of God based on what you\u2019ve discovered from within the Word of God.\u00a0 In other words, the Bible is like a grid, a filter for all truth finding.\u00a0 And so when you hear something else you\u2019ve got to run it through the grid.\r\n\r\nAnd then step five, and\u00a0 you\u2019ve not completed the Bible study process until you\u2019ve gotten all the way to step five, is to apply what you\u2019ve learned to your own life.\u00a0 The goal of Bible study\u2026 and we study with this particularly in the Bible churches, when I pastored a couple of Bible churches, I grew up in the Bible church movement, and sometimes we tend to think Bible study is about getting smarter or figuring it all out, or winning Bible trivia games, or being able to name the twelve sons of Jacob and the judges in order, and the kings of Israel in order, both in the united and divided kingdom.\u00a0 We think that\u2019s Bible study.\u00a0 But I\u2019m here to tell you the world is filled with biblically brilliant morally bankrupt people because knowing the Word of God is meaningless; it\u2019s just puffed up if\u00a0 you don\u2019t translate it into a changed life.\r\n\r\nSo that\u2019s the development phase and the implementation phase.\u00a0 And it\u2019s helpful to remember this process and that theology is a process when it comes to defending grace.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because some people might not be where you are; some people might just be getting exposed to the whole clarity of the gospel thing.\u00a0 Remember, we\u2019re fighting a formidable foe\u2014Satan wants to blind men\u2019s hearts to the gospel and it\u2019s even more a problem today, the deception is getting worse and worse and worse.\u00a0 And one of my great joys and great thrills, and I\u2019m sure Dr. Woods would say the same thing, is seeing people, particularly young men and women, who have been exposed to grace through the ministry of not by works and embraced grace and are now championing in grace.\u00a0 And if I had not taken the time and God had not allowed by His grace the opportunity for our lives to intersect and given me the opportunity to influence in their lives, if I\u2019d just have, the first time I met them and saw how sloppy they were on the gospel if I\u2019d written them off as a heretic instead of defending grace graciously, maybe they wouldn\u2019t have gone through that process and come out on the other side.\r\n\r\nNumber 4, and I kind of touched on this already, but reflect humility when defending\u00a0 your views\u2026 reflect humility when defending your views.\u00a0 Notice I said \u201creflect humility\u201d not project humility because in this postmodern age people will see right through fake humility.\u00a0 You have to really examine your heart and just recognize, hey, I love this person, I think they\u2019re wrong and I think they\u2019re wrong about a pretty important issue, but I love them in the Lord and I really want to help them come to the incredible, amazing understanding of grace that God has allowed me to come to.\u00a0 So I want to be humble in defending my view with them.\u00a0 Paul talks about this in Colossians when he says, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering.\u00a0 He says above all put on love, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts.\u00a0 [Colossians 3:12, \u201cPut on therefore, as God\u2019s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; [13] forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: [14] and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. [15] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body; and be ye thankful.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd he goes on to say in verse 16, \u201cLet the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about, defending grace with grace, grace with grace!\r\n\r\nNumber 5, resist the temptation to compromise for friendships, money or other practicalities.\u00a0 Resist the temptation to compromise for friendships, money or other practicalities!\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve seen this time and again; the first edition of getting the gospel wrong created quite a stir in the free grace movement because I took to task some leaders within the free grace movement who were preaching a false gospel and even though we agreed with them on some things we fundamentally disagreed on some things, namely that you have to believe Jesus died and rose again for your sins to be saved and they were teaching that you don\u2019t even have to know Jesus died and rose again to be saved.\u00a0 And so I took them to task, I feel like graciously, and\u00a0 you get longtime friends of these people who had known them for thirty years\u2026\r\n\r\nI remember going to lunch with one gentleman and he had heard of my book, he had actually like 30 different scholars in front of the book that had read it blurbed it but it just goes to show you a lot of times they don\u2019t read the whole book when they blurb it (that was a lesson learned for me too) because in these footnotes where I had addressed some of this false teaching apparently they missed that or they didn\u2019t notice it but this one particular gentleman said that some of his books were being pulled from the shelves of this one ministry that I had critiqued and he said boy, if I had known they weren\u2019t going to sell my book any more I wouldn\u2019t have endorsed your book.\u00a0 To which I said well, that\u2019s interesting, do you agree with me or not?\u00a0 Well, I agree with you but you know\u2026. So again, that\u2019s just an antidotal example of compromising for friendship, money or other practicalities.\r\n\r\nOne of the gentlemen that I critiqued was a very close friend of mine, I have known him since 1989 and you know, love him, we used to be contract bridge partners together, we played in competitive bridge tournaments, and I had him in my church to speak when I pastored.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve lost that friendship because, as much as I love him I love the gospel more and I had to make a tough choice.\u00a0 So sometimes we find ourselves in really difficult positions but remember the gospel is what matters most.\u00a0 Do I seek to please men or God?\r\n\r\nNumber 6, resolve to hold firm even in the face of persecution. Again, grace is about confidence and self-confidence; if you\u2019re insecure about your view than you might begin to waver, you might begin to waver, you might begin to get defensive but when you\u2019re secure you can be kind of like Shadrach, Meshach and Aged-nego, you can say you know what, we trust the Lord and if He\u2019s willing to save us from this fire great, but even if he does not He\u2019s still God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we need to be sometimes when we\u2019re facing difficult persecution when it comes to the gospel.\r\n\r\nNumber 7, and this is important; respond graciously in your tone, demeanor, and attitude.\u00a0 Now I use a lot of humor in my messages and in talking, and sometimes sarcasm can come back to bite you.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been in different contexts all across the country; I\u2019ve learned that some jokes that will work well say in the Bible belt won\u2019t well on the west coast, and they won\u2019t work well in the northeast either.\u00a0 I remember the first time I spoke out on the west coast, this was years ago, I used some joke about a gun and people came up to me and said you\u2019ve actually seen a gun?\u00a0 You\u2019ve actually touched one?\u00a0 I said, listen, I\u2019m from Texas, you know, and you fly into California they confiscate your gun, when you land at the airport in Texas they hand them out, you know, here\u2019s your gun, welcome to the state.\u00a0 So you\u2019ve got to recognize that your attitude matters, people are looking at your tone, they\u2019re looking at your demeanor and sometimes what you perceive as an innocent joke can create a stumbling block.\r\n\r\nBut more than that, what is your actual attitude; you know, if you\u2019re angry, if you\u2019re defensive, as I\u2019ve said, and again it\u2019s hard not to be because this is the gospel we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 It\u2019s the reason that I don\u2019t have to spend eternity in a literal place of torment called hell because of my sin, because my Savior paid for my sins.\u00a0 He paid a debt I didn\u2019t owe because I owed a debt I could never pay.\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s pretty important to me, and we saw that\u2019s pretty important to Paul in Galatians 1.\r\n\r\nSo I understand \u00a0how our natural tendencies can come through when we feel like something\u2019s being attacked that\u2019s so valuable\u2026 and it IS valuable, we\u2019re not talking about compromise here; we\u2019re talking about the way in which you defend it.\u00a0 And take a breath, realize that\u00a0 you want to win a friend here, you want to win an advocate for grace, and begin to work them through\u2026 and be patient\u2026 be patient because there are some people that take a long time.\u00a0 Especially pastors that I\u2019ve come across, they\u2019ve been embracing this other terminology and this verbiage without really stopping to think what it communicates, for a long time and to change is really an implicit admission that they were wrong.\u00a0 And nobody like to admit that they were wrong.\u00a0 And nobody likes to change; change is difficult.\u00a0 Mark Twain said the only one who likes to change is a wet baby, and as the father of six I concur.\r\n\r\nSo again, respond with grace in your tone and\u00a0 your attitude, we see this in Solomon\u2019s words\u2014the words of a wise man are gracious.\u00a0 [Ecclesiastes 10:12, \u201cThe words of a wise man\u2019s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.\u201d]\u00a0 Have you ever thought about that?\u00a0 So when we are being ungracious, no matter how smart we are we\u2019re not being wise.\u00a0 And no matter how right we are we\u2019re not being wise.\u00a0 \u201cThe words of a wise man\u2019s mouth are gracious.\u201d\r\n\r\nGoing back to Paul\u2019s words in Colossians, \u201cLet your speech always be with grace.\u201d\u00a0 [Colossians 4:6, \u201cLet your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.\u201d]\u00a0 Even before the church age, as the Lord sent out the disciples, He said, \u201cBehold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBe wise as serpents and harmless as doves.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 10:16, \u201cBehold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd then number eight, realize we will all give an account for our thoughts, attitude and actions someday.\u00a0 Did you realize you can win the battle but lose the reward?\u00a0 Have you ever thought about that?\u00a0 Sometimes we win the battle, we win the argument but we lose the reward because again, it\u2019s not about being right, it\u2019s not about winning the argument, it\u2019s about defending grace.\u00a0 Some people might say grace doesn\u2019t need any defense.\u00a0 Well, it certainly does, Paul defended it and we\u2019re called to defend it, but it doesn\u2019t need any help, it stands on its own. There\u2019s nothing we can say or do that\u2019s going to add to the already impressive resume of grace, but when it comes under attack we need to be willing to defend it but we need to do so graciously.\r\n\r\nPaul said in Romans 14 we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. [Romans 14:10, \u201cBut thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God.\u201d] \u00a0\u00a0And by the way, we have a chapter on that in our eschatology textbook, What Lies Ahead<\/em>: A Biblical <\/em>Overview<\/em><\/em> of the <\/em>End Times<\/em><\/em> [J.B. Hixson, Mark Fontecchio]\r\n\r\nAnd I have another book out there that I didn\u2019t write but I endorsed and I think Dr. Woods endorsed it as well, by some mutual colleagues of ours, that\u2019s about the whole notice of punitive damages at the Bema Judgment because there\u2019s a growing trend right now among free grace people that suggests that the Bema Judgment is not just about reward or lack of reward but it\u2019s about punishment, that some will people appear before the judgment seat and be spanked or worse yet be cast into outer darkness where there\u2019s weeping and gnashing of teeth for a thousand\u00a0 years, where they\u2019re going to miss out on the kingdom, kind of like a Christian purgatory, and it\u2019s not a pleasant place.\u00a0 And then after the thousand years you get let out and you get to go on into heaven.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not a new teaching, it\u2019s actually been around for a long, long time but it\u2019s really gaining new traction because of some popular authors today that are promoting it.\u00a0 So there\u2019s a very detailed exegetical critique of that view called Should Christians Fear Outer Darkness<\/em> that\u2019s out there if you\u2019re interested in that.\u00a0 [Should Christians Fear Outer Darkness<\/em>? Paperback \u2013 September 18, 2015 by Dennis M. Rokser<\/a> (Author), Thomas L. Stegall<\/a>]\r\n\r\nBut having said that, even though we know we never need to fear punishment because we passed from death into life and shall never come into judgment, [John 5:24, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.\u201d NASB]\u00a0 We will appear before the judgment Seat of Christ and there will be that moment, I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to work out, I don\u2019t know how it can happen in a timeless eternity but somehow God\u2019s figured it out and there will be that moment when we all wish we had done more.\u00a0 That\u2019s why 1 John 2:28 says, \u201clittle children, abide in Him,\u201d stay in close fellowship with Him so that when He appears you will be confident \u201cand not ashamed.\u201d\u00a0 Right.\u00a0\u00a0 [1 John 2:28, \u201cAnd now, my little children, abide in him; that, if he shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd so we want to make sure that in defending grace\u2026 see, we don\u2019t get any extra bonus points, we don\u2019t get any extra crowns because we were on the side of grace.\u00a0 We get extra crowns for being gracious, that\u2019s what we\u2019re rewarded for, the counsels of the heart, 1 Corinthians 4.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 4:5, \u201cWherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God. ASV]\r\n\r\nSo number nine, rest in God\u2019s grace and trust Him to resolve any conflict.\u00a0 I threw this in there just because I know the heartache that many feel because they have loved ones, relatives, friends, son, daughter, who are wrapped up in the Reformed gospel that\u2019s so prevalent today, I call it The Gathering Storm, and it really pains them to know that someone they love so dearly is embracing a false gospel.\u00a0 And all I can say there is there comes a point where you\u00a0 can\u2019t necessarily convince them, it\u2019s going to have to be the Lord, so you know, the time may have come and gone for you to just continue to sit down and beat them over the head with all the Scripture passages and stuff.\u00a0 You may just have to rest in God\u2019s grace, and certainly as you have interaction at family gatherings and other occasions when something overt comes up that is attacking the gospel you can graciously give a counter point just in passing conversation.\u00a0 But you may not be able to win the day just by continuing to lecture them.\u00a0 So you just trust Him to resolve the conflict.\r\n\r\nPaul, you know, had similar a attitude when he was dealing with his thorn in the flesh, and he says, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness.\u201d\u00a0 We can\u2019t solve all the problems, we can\u2019t fix everybody, we can\u2019t stand up and rebuke people publicly any time they make a misstatement in the pulpit.\u00a0 I\u2019m not condoning it but I\u2019m saying you know, let\u2019s be gracious and if they\u2019re saying something that\u2019s not consistent with the free, pure, clear, accurate gospel message talk to them about it.\u00a0 Maybe it was a mistake, maybe they really believe that.\u00a0 If so then you\u2019ve got to go to the next step, say how do I handle this and so forth.\r\n\r\nAnd then finally, number ten, and this is what I\u2019ll leave you with, reinforce the grace message at every opportunity.\u00a0 Being gracious does not mean being silent.\u00a0 Being gracious does not mean being silent!\u00a0 Look for opportunities to advance the grace message clearly, correctly and confidently.\u00a0 We call it, in Not By Works<\/em> we\u2019ve taken to calling it instinctive evangelism rather than intentional evangelism.\u00a0 To me intentional evangelism, it\u2019s not a big deal, I know there\u2019s a lot of people that use that term, but to me it\u2019s always sort of smacked of\u2026 like, you know, you\u2019ve got to be intentional about it.\u00a0 Like today you\u2019ve got to\u2026 it\u2019s almost like working out or dieting or something, I\u2019m going to be intentional about something that\u2019s hard to do.\r\n\r\nAnd I just think of evangelism as just talking about the Lord and talking about it clearly, distinctively so when the opportunity presents itself reinforce the grace gospel.\u00a0 Can you believe\u2026\u00a0 you know, and you hear this all the time, you run into people wherever you may be going, grocery store, the doctor\u2019s office, and you might be wearing a Christian T-shirt or a pen or somehow, maybe you\u2019ve got your Bible, they think\u2026 they notice you\u2019re a Christian so they strike up a conversation.\u00a0 And they may be way off the reservation theologically but they feel like there\u2019s this common bond because you both have something to do with Jesus so they\u2019ll start up a conversation.\u00a0 And that\u2019s an opportunity; that\u2019s divine appointment where you can begin to tell your story and you can talk about how you\u2019re a sinner and you were hopelessly and helplessly lost and there was no hope whatsoever but because of the grace of God you have new life because Jesus Christ paid your debt on the cross, rose again the third day, defeating death out of the grave and He offers not only to you but to everyone the free gift of salvation.\u00a0\u00a0 Tell me how you got saved.\u00a0 And then you just let them talk.\u00a0 But never make\u2026 you know, Rahm Emanuel back there in the Obama administration said never let a good crisis go to waste.\r\n\r\nWell, never let a good opportunity go to waste either, right.\u00a0 When you have the opportunity reinforce it\u2014that doesn\u2019t mean preach a sermon, it can mean just a sentence\u2026 it can mean just a sentence but reinforce the grace message.\u00a0 1 Peter 3:15 says, \u201cbut sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give a defense,\u201d an apologia<\/em>, \u201cto everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and in fear:\u201d\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 in meekness and in fear!\u201d He says redeem the time\u2026 redeem time. \u00a0Walk circumspectly, the Greek word circumspectly means carefully, cautiously, lively, defend grace at all costs.\u00a0 But let\u2019s be gracious in doing so\u2026 let\u2019s be gracious in doing so.\r\n\r\nSo I hope that I gave you some food for thought, I know we\u2019re passionate here at Sugar Land Bible Church about the grace message and I certainly know Dr. Woods is, that\u2019s one of the things I love most about him.\r\n\r\nLet me close by just mentioning a few things about our ministry.\u00a0 Our ministry is based on Titus 3:5, \u201cNot by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us.\u201d\u00a0 I started this in 1999 when I was in my first year of teaching, fulltime, when I was an adjunct at first, and it just sort of grew and grew, it was mainly just a website where students could go get supplemental information but it just grew and grew and then we incorporated, it became a non-profit and it was an auxiliary ministry of our teaching ministry when I was pastoring and teaching, but it is now fulltime.\u00a0 It\u2019s now something we do full time and we\u2019d love to tell you more about it.\r\n\r\nOne of the big things we\u2019re excited about this summer is our first ever Grand Canyon Rim and Raft Tour, I mentioned this Wednesday night, but a good friend and colleague of mine, a creation expert who is world renowned with Creation Ministires.org Russ Miller, he and I worked together many times, for several years now at different conferences, and he runs these rim and raft tours where he actually shows you where creation meets judgment at the Grand Canyon.\u00a0 And the Grand Canyon, by the way, is the death nail for Darwinian evolution; it completely dismantles the entire argument.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s been trying to get me to hose one of these and so we finally took him up on it and we\u2019re so excited.\u00a0 There\u2019s been a huge response and we still have a few spots open and if you are interested we\u2019d love to talk to you about it.\r\n\r\nHow many of you have been to the Grand Canyon, by the way?\u00a0 Fantastic.\u00a0 How did you like it when that tour guide from the National Parks Service pointed out where the creation [can't understand words] was, wasn\u2019t that awesome.\u00a0 [someone says something]\u00a0 Oh, he didn\u2019t tell you that?\u00a0 Well, we\u2019re going to show you that; we\u2019re going to show you where creation meets judgment.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to explain how the Grand Canyon formed in three days as a result of a global flood and when you see it and witness it firsthand it\u2019s like how did I miss this before, it\u2019s so obvious.\u00a0 And it will really embolden your faith.\u00a0 And this is not one of those sort of rough and tumble outdoorsman type trips.\u00a0 It says \u201crim and raft,\u201d this is not a white water raft; this is for ages 4 to 400, I mean, anybody can go, still water, you\u2019re just kind of floating down and he\u2019ll stop and show you some things.\u00a0 And it\u2019s an air conditioned chartered buses, we\u2019re eating in restaurants, staying in hotels, it\u2019s an all-inclusive trip, everything is covered so don\u2019t think\u00a0 you can\u2019t handle it.\u00a0 We\u2019d love to have you come if you\u2019re interested.\r\n\r\nAnd a couple of more things I just want to mentioned.\u00a0 This is our brand new Not By Works Theological Book of Charts, Diagrams & Illustrations<\/em>, we get a lot of requests for different charts that I\u2019ve shown in classes and lectures and seminars and conferences and churches so we finally put over 70 of our most requested ones, they are eight and a half by eleven, full color, and it\u2019s got different sections with an index and it may be something that you may be interested in.\u00a0 This is the book I\u2019ve referenced a lot today, Getting the Gospel Wrong: The Evangelical Crisis No One Is Talking About,<\/em> Revised Edition<\/em>.\r\n\r\nAnd the genesis for this book is I was speaking at conferences, I would have a repeated experience that was very discouraging to me.\u00a0 What happened is I would be backstage or in the green room waiting with other speakers and I would hear kind of what\u2019s going on on stage or lots of times they\u2019d have a TV screen up in the green room so you can kind of watch what\u2019s going on on state and I\u2019d hear somebody get up and speak, good speakers, very gifted, but they would obliterate the gospel.\u00a0 And you know, the crowd would all clap at the end of the message and show no discernment.\u00a0 Then another speaker would get up right after them, preach an entirely different gospel, also usually incorrect, but completely different, and I would wait to watch the reaction of the crowd, hoping and expecting that surely, with hundreds of people there, will notice this is completely opposite to what the last guy just said.\u00a0 But no, they just sort of clapped, you know, and so the subtitle of this book is \u201cThe Evangelical Crisis No One is Talking About<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 And the idea here is that the gospel matters and people don\u2019t think it matters and they\u2019re not even paying attention, any old gospel will do.\u00a0 So that\u2019s kind of what that\u2019s about.\r\n\r\nThen we have The Gospel Unplugged<\/em> which is a much shorter, kind of a nice little easy to read, you can sit and read it in one sitting, it\u2019s under a hundred pages, with study questions and just kind of the clear gospel, no footnotes, no [can't understand word].\u00a0 And we have a couple of audio series, The Gospel Unplugged<\/em> audio here and then The Amazing Grace<\/em> audio is here.\u00a0 These are 20, 30 minute radio shows, each one on a different area of grace.\u00a0 We picked 20 messages from the radio program on grace, then we picked on the radio program on the gospel, so those are available.\r\n\r\nAnd then just one more I want to mention, what we\u2019re going to be looking at in the second hour today is the One Minute After the Rapture<\/em> and we do have that on DVD so after we study that if it\u2019s something that you found helpful or you want to pass it on to someone else, particularly as an evangelistic tool, that is out there.\u00a0 And then my books, What Lies Ahead is out there as well as The Great Last Days Deception<\/em>.\u00a0 So thank you guys very much and I think we are about out of time for the first hour.\r\n\r\nLet me close in prayer and then we\u2019ll take a break before worship.\u00a0 Father, we thank\u00a0 You so much for the opportunity to study Your Word and for the reminder of how important the gospel is and yet how important it is to be gracious when we present the gospel and defend the gospel.\u00a0 Father, than, You for this church and for Dr. Woods and for his passion for grace.\u00a0 I pray that You continue to bless the ministry here as they take a stand and make a difference in this community. We ask\u00a0 Your blessings now on the worship service to follow; use it for Your honor and glory, we pray in Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t