08-22 - The Grace Message with Dr. Andrew Farley

[Music] no additives andrew farley is celebrating your freedom in christ call in and ask your questions at 877-956-9566 that's toll-free at [Music] 877-956-9566 satellite from texas it's the grace message with dr andrew farley hello everyone welcome to the grace message this is andrew farley so glad you're joining us this sunday afternoon we've got wide open lines plenty of room for you to get in with your question today maybe you've got a question about a scripture passage perhaps you were in church this morning and well it's been a few hours and you're still scratching your head going what does that mean what is that about let's make it a conversation together right now 877-956-9566 wide open lines plenty of room for you right now maybe you have a personal problem going on in your life and your marriage with your kids and your church uh you're looking for that grace-based perspective we're here for you right now for the next hour plenty of open lines three open lines right now if you call in well if you're a 877-956-9566 listener maybe you've called in the past but it's been a while and you got something new on your mind by all means join us as well again three open lines lots of room right now very little weight eight seven seven five we're going to start out in missouri this afternoon and we'll talk with brad hey brad what do you got for us today sir pastor what i have for you in the audience i'm not going to uh surprise you but this morning's message about the prodigal son groveling before god and you know the other brother complaining yeah um i just want to encourage the audience uh most of the messages i i used to have before i came to this message was exactly what you said about uh accentuating people's sin and accentuating people's behavior and their they need to improve i don't have to do that at all anymore i am i'm learning this grace message the book the perfect jew is a complete manual to help you grow in grace your message helps you grow in grace and to know him and when you know god and you know the extent of his love and you know the extent of who you are and who you are it only goes one way it gets better yeah you have to come to know god and know how much he loves you and how much he wants to hear from you and so on and so on i can't encourage people more to just hang in there learn this message a true real grace message what i call the full gospel completely and i i can't thank you enough pastor for uh bringing me with your messages this far and i thank you very much oh well brad thank you my friend that's uh very encouraging of course brad's talking about our message this morning on the prodigal son but not really on the prodigal son it was mostly about the prodigal son's father and of course you know the story there were two sons and one of them goes out and asks for his inheritance early and then spends it all on prostitutes and ends up feeding pigs and he's miserable and he's destitute and he's looking for answers and then he is feeling horrible remorseful regretful guilty he starts thinking i'm gonna give a big speech and uh well you know what happens he gets his speech all rehearsed and he shows up at his father's property and his father sees him from hundreds of yards away and doesn't even let him give his speech i mean he runs up to him hugs him kisses him announces all kinds of things like put him in the finest robe and get some sandals on his feet and you know that calf that we've been fattening for the last year well let's use that calf tonight for a feast and let's celebrate my son and meanwhile the other brother is bitter and resentful and angry he's upset uh why are you celebrating this son who's left and come back what about me what about me i've been so obedient i've been so faithful i've been with you all the while i've obeyed your every command and you know this is a picture i mean first of all it's a picture of god going to the gentiles you say god going to the gentiles what do you mean well remember the jews always had the law the jews had the prophets the jews were like the the one brother who was saying i've always been here father i've always been here i've been obedient to your every command and now you're going to celebrate this other person that's reminiscent of what to paul did for the gentiles god was ministering to us gentiles through the apostle paul and the jews were going wait what peter was going hey hang on a minute there god uh what are you doing having a feast with gentiles what are you doing saving those dirty rotten greeks when we're over here as the jews with the lineage and the heritage and the history and the obedience and all that and peter struggled with it and james struggled with it and yet that was god's plan and there's another takeaway too of course and that is my goodness here we come to god with our lengthy speeches here we come with our guilt complexes here we come with our regret and sorrow which in proportion is perfectly healthy i mean who wouldn't who wouldn't in their right mind regret sin who wouldn't in their right mind feel sorrow over sin of course but we take it too far and we start feeling condemnation and we let the accuser get in there and we rehearse these long speeches about how i'm a dirty worm and god you know i don't deserve this i don't deserve that treat me like a slave all of those things that the prodigal son said and tried to say really and the father wouldn't have it the father wouldn't have it he was showing more than mercy he was showing grace i mean mercy is when you get pulled over on the side of the road for speeding and the police officer says i'm not going to charge you today that's mercy but when he hands you a thousand dollar bill that's grace that's crazy that's over the top you didn't deserve it and that's what throwing a party for someone who's been mired in sin that's what throwing a party is like it's more than mercy it's grace it's off the charts over the top grace and that's what we see in the gospel so i i don't know brad i had a great time sharing that this morning and i i left i left our congregation with one question this morning and that is are you willing for the father to celebrate you are you going to be obsessed with the size of your sins or will you be obsessed with the size of your savior and will you let the father celebrate you we have to be receivers you know we feel guilty even when somebody treats us to lunch we say i'll pay you back or i got you next time it's hard for us to be receivers and yet that's exactly what the gospel calls us to we have to be recipients of god's grace and that's what it's all about so thanks for your call today and your encouragement to reach out to us again anytime great to hear from you let's go to point comfort texas and we'll talk with anthony hey anthony hey how you doing andrew hey good michael that's good my question is i would listen to a preacher last weekend i couldn't get through because i think y'all went off the air but my question is he said he was preaching then he said that he was concerned about some of his church leaders in the church he said he didn't think they were saved because he said they hadn't died itself how does he know a person's heart and then what is this diet itself thing is this something that when we get saved that happens after oh yeah i hear you well anthony the short answer is no it's made up stuff you're not going to find the phrase die to self anywhere in the bible i want to say that twice because sure you can find it in the bible belt but it's not in the bible this idea of die to self is nowhere to be found from genesis to revelation the expression is non-existent we made it up and it is confusing because god didn't create it now the closest thing to that is the idea of our old self dying now that happened at salvation anthony when you were put in christ romans 6 says your old self died you were crucified with him galatians 2 20 i've been crucified with christ colossians 2 i died with jesus to the principles of this world so you already died that's what salvation is we we talk about salvation we call it being born again but that's the second half of the story the first half is you died in order to be born again you had to die in order to be resurrected you had to go to a cross first and that's why god takes you through a radical heart surgery you are crucified buried and raised to newness of life and that's that's what happens at salvation so if you're in christ it's already happened and for anybody who is in christ it's already happened so as a pastor can i look around and say oh that person oh that person's saved that person's not saved that person's died to self and that person has what do i think i am an x-ray machine a spiritual x-ray machine only god can see people's hearts and the truth is if you're in christ you're not waiting for some second experience you're not waiting to die but we've heard it all haven't we we've heard you gotta die to self oh i keep crawling off the altar crawling off the altar there is no altar the altar was replaced by a cross and everything about the cross says it's finished everything regarding the cross in the new testament says you died past tense you were crucified past tense your old self is dead buried and gone you're the new self so you're supposed to romans six this thing and say i count myself dead to sin and i count myself alive to god so don't be confused christians should not be dying trying to die to self that is impossible you've got eternal life your new self is never going to die and god's not trying to kill you so anybody that thinks god is trying to kill them off spiritually has a morbid view of christianity they need an overhaul of their belief system because they're not believing in a good god i mean they're believing that god causes children to be born again but then tries to kill them uh that makes no sense die to self is non-existent instead you should be counting yourself alive self is not a dirty word in church my goodness we've turned self into the enemy and it makes no sense because five minutes earlier we were bragging on being a new creation five minutes earlier we were saying we had a new identity in christ and then five minutes later we say our problem is the self well i thought you were the new self i thought you were a new creation i thought you were raised and seated with christ i thought you were a child of god i thought you were born of the spirit i thought you were born again why would a born again born born of the spirit person need to die why would god be trying to kill off that self no way you're the new self and you're not two selves you don't have two people living in there the old self died you're the new self somebody says all right all right i'm willing to believe that i'll take god at face value i see it now it's clear it's crystal clear i don't have to die to self but i've got a question if i don't have to die to self if my old self is already dead then why do i still sin and the answer is flesh not self but flesh we've got this thing backwards i think it's hilarious if you take the word self and spell it backwards you've almost got flesh minus the h but you get my drift we've got this thing backwards we've got thousands millions of christians thinking that they struggle with their self when really they struggle with the flesh we think it's a good me versus a bad me it's a black dog versus a white dog it's a civil war my good self versus my bad self and that's no way to live that is no way to live the christian life jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand and you're not a house divided you're a new creation so the problem is our stinking thinking not our hearts not our spirit not our self our problem is our stinking thinking and we are getting that thinking reprogrammed it's like the renewing of the mind it's like software updates i've got a computer that i bought recently it's shiny new hardware it's silver and it's awesome a new processor a new motherboard the whole thing is awesome and shiny and new but when you're on it five minutes it says you need a software update you're scratching your head going software update i just bought this thing but that shows you the difference between hardware and software and spiritually that's the difference between hardware and software updates i mean you've got a new heart you've got a new spirit you've got christ living in you but your mind is still being renewed that's software updates so why do we still struggle with sin is it because we're dirty and sinful and awful no we're new we're new creations but we're learning and growing and our minds are being renewed that's those software updates so go ahead and celebrate that you've got new hardware that you have brand new shiny heavenly hardware that you're good at the core you're a good tree bearing good fruit but yes we struggle with old attitudes and so be it so what we're forgiven we're learning we're growing god's on our team there's no condemnation but christians stop trying to kill yourself stop trying to die to self tr stop trying to scrape off some evil self that you believe is still there recognize hey i've got old attitudes that need renovation i've got old perspectives old belief systems that are lingering but that's not who i am that's not my heart that's not my spiritual self that doesn't define me i'm in process i'm learning and growing but i'm i'm not dirty or distant i'm not the old self i'm clean and i'm close and i'm raised and i'm seated and i'm one spirit with the lord so that's the truth anthony i want to put you back on there and point comfort and see if that's a comfort does that help my friend yeah it sure does he explained it so well i thought it was something else that we had to do after you get saved so you explain perfectly thank you so much and god bless you for your wisdom knowledge and understanding thank you so much andrew all right well thank you anthony glad you called us there in point comfort hope that was a point of comfort and it sounds like it was uh and you know what the truth always sets you free my friend anytime you hear something weird that makes you start quaking in your boots going am i okay with god still or did i ruin this or do i need to fix me or did i fall out of his will did i fall out of fellowship do i need to die spiritually again do i need to somehow become somebody different and fix me run for the hills throw that red flag of concern up and dig in deeper to the truth it will always always set you free all right let's go to arizona we'll talk with carissa hi carissa hi hey what's up what's on your mind thank you for saying thank you for taking my call um so i hear a lot now um since we hear about a lot of especially young people committing suicide and so there's often a question concerning if a person commits suicide do they go to heaven so i would like for you to talk a little bit about that okay all right sounds good yeah it's an important question and it really leads to bigger questions too carissa it leads to questions like did jesus die for some of my sins or did he die for all of my sins is suicide somehow an exception did the cross work except for suicide and you can see that when we start framing it that way it really becomes a question about jesus christ it becomes a question about the power of the cross it becomes a question about whether the finished work of christ is really finished and if jesus died for some sins or all sins and i think you know the intuitive answer there we would say amen he died for all sins but you know who's really muddied the waters here is the catholic doctrine the catholic church they have held for some time that suicide is not forgivable and the logic really speaks to a greater issue the logic of of their rationale goes like this well if you commit suicide then you can't have a last confession if you commit suicide then that's a sin that's killing and so then you can't have your last rights your last ritual your last cleansing your last partaking of the lord's supper you can't have a last confession so there you are meeting your maker at the gates of heaven and you have leftover sins you have leftover unconfessed unforgiven uncleansed sins because you took your own life and didn't have a chance for a cleansing ritual so what's the flaw in that logic well the flaw in that logic is it's not your ritual that gets you forgiven that's nonsense you were forgiven by the cross you were forgiven by the blood of jesus hebrews tells us this half a dozen times in chapters six and seven and eight and nine and ten hebrews tells us that we as believers have been forgiven once for all time i'll quote one of my favorites hebrews 10 verse 14 it says by one offering he has perfected you for all time now that would mean that by one offering he's perfected you for 2021 he's perfected you for next year he's perfected you for five years from now a decade from now and when you're on your deathbed by one offering he has made you perfectly forgiven and perfectly cleansed for all time so what does that tell you i'm either going to have to go with jesus or with the catholic doctrine on this one i'm at a crossroads am i going to say that jesus is still hanging on a cross because that's what they say they say that as you partake of the communion that it is uh becomes in a process known as a transubstantiation that it changes its substance that it goes from welch's grape juice and a piece of wonder bread it goes from that to being the blood and body of jesus christ in your stomach that it is transubstantiated that the substance is changed and therefore they see it as a way of jesus hanging on a cross continually dying continually sharing his blush shedding his blood and therefore continually forgiving your sins and if you've ever set foot in a catholic church and wondered why jesus is still on the cross there's a statue and it's jesus on a cross it's not an empty cross it's jesus on the cross well that depicts the ongoing sacrifice the ongoing death of jesus on behalf of your sins because you need ongoing forgiveness that's their logic that's their doctrine and let me tell you my opinion for what it's worth it is not true it's just not true jesus is not up in heaven dying again and again hebrews tells us that he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again but instead he died once for all we read this in the book of hebrews because the author wants us to know a very simple truth jesus ain't up there dying and you ain't down here getting forgiven did you hear that jesus ain't up there shedding his blood progressively and you aren't down here being forgiven progressively this is hebrews chapter 9 verse 25 nor did jesus enter heaven to offer himself again and again the way that the high priest enters the most holy place every year instead what did jesus do well he gave himself once for all here's the next verse otherwise otherwise christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world in other words every time you sinned he'd have to crawl back up on that cross again is that what he's doing no he said it's finished it's over he'll never die again so hebrews is saying otherwise christ would have to suffer many times since the creation of the world but he has appeared once it says he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself notice he's not covering sin it's not a temporary covering your sins are not under the blood for 20 minutes no it's not a covering it is a takeaway a total take away of your sins once for all now you know what i'm not trying to pick on any particular denomination or group or movement it doesn't matter if you grew up baptist if you grew up lutheran if you grew up catholic if you grew up protestant if you grew up agnostic it doesn't matter your movement or your tradition or the sign on the church door the denomination it doesn't matter the question is has jesus done it or has jesus done it has he taken away your sins or not does he need to die again is there any more work that needs to be done how many times did jesus die for your sins did it work the first time does he need to repeat it and if you say no he doesn't need to repeat it then that means you're as forgiven today as you will ever be somebody says we need to confess i say okay go ahead and confess agree with god about everything but what if you forget one what if you leave one out see agreeing with god every day every minute every second every sin that doesn't make you more forgiven then you would be in charge of how forgiven you are it would be about your memory and your legal pad and your confession booth and your first john 1 9 and your great memory and process your cleansing ritual but the whole point of the finished work of the cross is look we can be very sorry for our sins and we should be sorry but being sorry doesn't make us more forgiven we can agree with god about our sins how often every single time but it doesn't make us more forgiven the cross made us forgiven once for all so when it comes to the issue of suicide it's no different if someone is in christ and they die of any cause they are a forgiven person past present and future the idea that god says oh i'll forgive you of all your sins unless you get depressed and take your life then forget it i'll forgive you of all your sins unless you get really down on yourself then i'm kicking you when you're down and you've lost your salvation i mean do you see what it ultimately says about the father that our forgiveness is conditioned on our mental stability that our forgiveness and salvation is conditioned on the idea that we never get depressed or down my goodness that is an absurdity he says he'll never leave us he'll never forsake us nobody can snatch us out of his hand even when we are faithless and somebody who's contemplating suicide let me tell you at that moment they're faithless and god says even when you're faithless i remain faithful nothing separates you from the love of christ neither life nor death nothing so that's the good news that'll set you free my friend if you've lost some friends to suicide i'm so sorry to hear that i've lost some as well even a family member so i know what you're talking about but here's the love of the father he has promised unconditionally we call it agape love all the time we love to pull out our greek words and say agape agape and then 20 minutes later we're talking about suicide somehow being unforgivable well that would be conditional love not agape so we got to get back to the agape love of jesus christ it is perfect love that casts out fear so that we can have confidence in the day of judgment that's what john tells us we are as safe as jesus that's real salvation thanks carissa call us back anytime great to hear from you all right let's go to maryland we'll talk with viola hi viola oh hello how you doing andrew hey great to hear from you it's been a while what's on your mind yeah yeah i listen all the time though all the time i thank god for you thank you i thank god for you what he's given you you know to give us thank you i just thank him all the time for you but anyway um i was i was reading second peter chapter one this morning and uh it's about uh all the qualities that that we need to add to our faith yeah uh all the promises god i'm not gonna read the whole thing maybe you will i don't know but uh some of the stuff i don't understand uh for this very reason you make every effort to supplement your favorite virtue explain that for me when you uh yeah you know search your knowledge all of that but the most thing i want to get down to is verse 10. verse 10 says therefore brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election confirm what does that mean confirm your calling up you know we have to confirm it with that so if you practice these qualities you will never fall now you know and james you always repeating this james say everybody falls right some some of them say you would never stumble or fall right but james say we stumble in everything right okay so yeah let's work backwards here i mean first obviously peter is not disagreeing with james i mean peter and james are going to see eye to eye as to apostles of jesus they're going to see things the same way the same gospel the same message so james says here's reality hey viola we all stumble in many ways that's reality and then peter is saying hey do you want to know how to not stumble do you want to know the answer to your stumbling do you want to know the solution you want to know the direction you should go in well uh here's how to never stumble now does anybody implement that perfectly no of course not james says we all stumble so they don't disagree with each other uh don't let this confuse you but peter is just showing hey if you are stumbling if you are struggling are you looking for some answers do you want to know how to move forward well here's how to move forward so that's what's going on with james versus peter and then as you look at this i would say don't forget verse nine i mean we started with your concern about verse five and then you said you know let's look at verse ten but smack dab in the middle there i think we're gonna get some help i think we're gonna get some help from verse nine let me read it the one who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted having forgotten his purification from his former sins so what's the solution remember your purification what's the solution remember your forgiveness remember your cleansing why why would that be the solution uh because i've been believing that i'm dirty and distant and now i'm supposed to act clean and close well how am i supposed to do that i can't act clean and close if i believe i'm dirty and distant so the answer is to remember the cross the answer is to remember my purification the answer is to remember all that jesus has done for me and when i get in that perspective i get in that place of remembering wait a minute i am holy and righteous and blameless and i am clean and close and i'm seated next to god and i'm family and i'm born of the spirit and i'm the righteousness of god well then i'll start to act like it but what if i forget that what if i forget my identity if i forget my identity then i'm going to act like a dirty rotten sinner that i believe i am and so yes there are qualities here viola and i hear you you're wondering you know is this legalism or could this accidentally be taken as legalism and i would say absolutely viola this could be taken as legalism if it's taken wrongly so i wake up and i just in a vacuum i go okay let me create a list i'm going to use my type a personality i'm an achiever i'm a producer i'm a type a and i'm going to get out here with my type a flesh and i'm going to say all right today i'm working on moral excellence and tomorrow i'm working on knowledge and the next day i'm working on self-control and the next day godliness and the next day i'm going to really work on kindness and then finally i'm going to cap it off with love i mean i could approach that uh like an effort-based system of the flesh or i could do what this is saying really hey you've escaped the world now apply all diligence that's a great translation of this phrase it's not fleshly effort it's godly diligence apply all diligence and who is these things to you i mean you know who is self-control uh who is godliness if not god uh who is love if not god god is love so i would just encourage you to see this through jesus glasses to look at this through your identity in christ and through your union with christ because that's the only way these things are supplied and that's why he says if you're lacking these qualities you have forgotten your identity so is jesus excellent yes is jesus knowledgeable yes you have the mind of christ is jesus your self-control yes that's a fruit of the spirit is jesus godly yes jesus is god is jesus kind absolutely that's a fruit of the spirit so again this is about the spirit of christ living in you when we look at this diligence and supply it's got to be a supply from christ not from human effort now uh what he's talking about here and peter when he in verse 10 he says be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choice of you for as long as you practice these things you'll never stumble in other words make sure he's in you are you a person with a new heavenly calling are you a child of god predestined to be conformed to his image that doesn't mean that you were chosen and other people can't get saved this doesn't mean anything concerning calvinism the idea that certain people are pre-chosen and others have no chance no this is saying make sure that christ lives in you it's very much like paul giving the test to the corinthians he says unless of course you fail the test does christ live in you so be certain that christ is in you how can you know christ is in you well if you call him lord if you believe that he died on the cross and rose from the dead that's a real good indication that he lives in you is he at work in you uh do you are you still the same person you used to be or has he began a good work in you and what he's saying is if christ has begun a good work in you then my goodness it's going to be a beautiful thing yes we all stumble in many ways but here's how to not stumble set your mind on things above fix your eyes on christ trust him depend on him no it's not going to be perfect performance but you're going to see jesus christ at work in you and that's further evidence that you are a person with a new heavenly calling so viola i hope this helps i would encourage you to check out verse 9 again about that remembering your purification because that's ultimately the most important thing in this passage to know what jesus did for you first thanks call us back anytime there in maryland great to hear from you all right let's go to kansas we'll talk with pat hey pat hey dr andrew it's me pat again the pastor from the philippines oh yes hi so so i i created this um ministry in the philippines called chain breakers grace ministry and i'm using your material well in fact i got your your book just a scripture just yesterday thank you so much good good um now i have a question with regards to babies yeah so there's a notion in the bible belt in the philippines that that all babies when they die they all go to heaven now while i was studying grace i bumped into this study of grace that says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness so christ died two 000 years ago then we are all forgiven but not all forgiven go to heaven unless they are reconciled with god now the main question is that how can babies go to heaven when they can't decide to be reconciled yet okay i hear you well i mean we have to we have to look at the scriptures and we are limited in what we see there i mean we do have for what it's worth we have a second samuel and we learn about david and having a child and then that child passes away and david utters these famous words in second samuel chapter 12 but now he is dead why should i fast can i bring him back again i shall go to him but he will not return to me so that's a baby that has passed away and he's saying i can't bring him back i will go to him someday but he's not going to return here to me so you know that's that's an interesting passage isn't it because it gives us a glimpse of the mercy and compassion and heart of god that an infant who is passed away in this inspired scripture by david david fully believes that he's going to be reunited with his infant son that has passed away so we have a little window into the love and grace and mercy of god the heart of god we're concerned about these babies we are this question comes up with regularity and for right reason we're concerned but i would just say how much more is our heavenly father concerned how much more does he care about these children so he's got this figured out we're not going to find chapter and verse talking about all of the rationale or all of the procedure or process or what god is thinking or anything like that we're not going to find that but we do find this little glimpse in ii samuel 12 into an infant that has passed away and david a man after god's own heart david believes that he's going to see his infant son again they're going to be reunited so uh you know david says in psalm 23 surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever david knows where he's going and david believes he's going to see his child there in the house of the lord so i got to think then that we just fall at the feet of god and we say thank you thank you that you're more merciful you're more loving you're more kind than we could ever pretend to be and so you've got this covered you've got this figured out now uh i want to answer your second question just briefly because i think it's a misconception especially in circles that say well they teach grace or they teach identity in christ or whatever they they can sometimes be distracted by this idea that the whole world is forgiven now it's not universalism universalism would say the whole world is saved now that's not true the whole world is not saved uh there is a need to call upon the lord there's a need to repent and come to jesus by faith and that's how we're saved the whole world is not saved but still there's this idea that lingers and it goes something like this the whole world is not saved but the whole world is forgiven and they just need life now well that sounds really good for five minutes until you read first john 1 9. i mean some of these same teachers would tell you that first john 1 9 is addressing an unbeliever and i think they're right about that first john 1 9 is addressing an unbeliever and it's talking about the sin denier and it's saying hey sin denier here's a condition for you if you will confess your sins then god is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you in other words you've got to admit you're a sinner you can't deny your sinfulness you can't sit there with arms folded saying i've never sinned a day in my life and expect to be forgiven and cleansed so when somebody tells you that's addressing an unbeliever they're right but then if five minutes later they say the whole world is forgiven well that makes no sense you just told me that first john 1 9 is a condition to be forgiven for the unbeliever hello they've got to admit their sinfulness hello they've got to confess they have a problem they have to admit their need for a savior and then they'll be forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness so the whole world is not forgiven forgiveness is found in christ colossians says in him we have redemption the forgiveness of sins ephesians says in him we have redemption the forgiveness of sins so redemption is found in him and forgiveness is found in him it's not outside of him nobody in adam is forgiven forgiveness is only found in christ and that's why in acts chapter 26 god is speaking to the apostle paul and he says i'm sending you to the gentiles to turn them from darkness to light so that they may receive forgiveness notice that it has to be received so that they may receive forgiveness and a place among those who were sanctified in me so notice there's a condition they have to turn from darkness to light turn from satan to god and they have to receive forgiveness and a new place in jesus it's all received at the same time so when you look at acts 26 this receiving and when you look at first john 1 9 this need to admit our sinfulness as an unbeliever then clearly there is a condition laid out not everyone is forgiven only those in christ then you pop over to revelation and everything just makes sense oh no wonder in revelation 20 they're being judged according to their deeds did everybody hear the word deeds well if they were totally forgiven then they wouldn't be judged for their deeds but they are judged for their deeds because their deeds aren't forgiven because they're not in christ and forgiveness is only found in christ not in adam so the idea that the whole world is forgiven just falls to pieces forgiveness is found in jesus not in adam it's a package deal when you come to christ you get forgiveness and reconciliation and life you get the spirit you get a new identity it's all in the new covenant it's all in jesus christ and nothing is outside of him if anyone is in christ he is a new creation that's what it's all about so pat i hope that help helps i'll put you back on and see did that clarify my friend does that make sense yes uh the second question is too clear it really changed the full the full perspective about forgiveness and reconciliation yes so yeah paul says god was in christ reconciling the world to himself and somebody stops there they grab a sharpie and they underline that part and they say see see god was reconciling the world so the whole world's reconciled well you got to finish the verse keep reading read the next verse it says so we beg you we beg you be reconciled to god in other words it takes two to tango god did his part through christ through the cross it doesn't need to be done again it's done it's finished god did his part but now he is begging unbelievers everywhere please be reconciled to me so it takes two to tango god stands at the door and knocks but he will not knock down the door he knocks at the door not knocks down the door big big difference pat thanks for your call love that you're reaching out to us and i hope your ministry there in the philippines continues strong uh glad our resources are helpful let us know how we can help you even more all right let's go now to maryland and we'll talk with royal hey royal what's on your mind hey how you doing hey i'm doing good what's what's on your mind today good okay i used to be a gangster uh-huh and i asked a heavenly father give me something i can overcome gangsters with so later he gave me i want you to i was going to a family reunion he said i want you to ride down to danville virginia without your seatbelt praying for brandon pray for brandon so i wrote down there he said that will help you overcome gangsters and i wrote down that praying for brandon bless brandon prosper brandon sabrin from continents save brandon soul save brandon family your brandon what do you need let me meet brandon i said i went down to the family union came out the family union was standing outside my hotel i heard a boom noise so i walked down to see what it was it was a car totally on the right side of the road and a young white male was standing on the left side of the sidewalk i walked up to him and said were you in that client and he said yes i was i said what's your name he said brandon wow wow all right well god works in mysterious ways and all i can say there is uh you know sometimes you you're shocked and surprised the way that god works and i'm glad you were there for him and i'm glad you prayed for him and i mean most of all i'm glad that he was okay and that's an amazing story my friend reach out to us again anytime great to hear from you all right let's go to dayton ohio we'll talk with andrew we've still got time on the clock go for it hey andrew hi good afternoon how are you today hey i'm good good what do you got for us andrew before i start i just want to say thank you for your sacrifice on sunday afternoon when you could be doing other things with your family and your ministry is fairly new to me in the last uh four months or four weeks or so as i listen to sirius while i'm riding my bicycle and and i've been been hearing hearing your messages lately and it compelled me to to want to give you a call so thank you well i'm glad you did i know you i know you want to talk a little bit about your marriage uh what's what's going on yes you know i'll try to consolidate this because i know you have a limited time and i could probably talk to you for three hours but uh long long and short of it you know it's interesting as i'm hearing these other callers about about what christ did for us and he really gave us the ministry of reconciliation not just with him but with other people and um you know i've been married for 25 years and about 22 years ago before i really turned my life over the lord i was unfaithful to my wife and i kept it from her for a very long time until about three years ago i didn't think it was something that could be revealed and i was wrong all of that time and i know now the impact and the things that secrets can have and and the damage it can do we have three children that are being impacted by this most of all i see the incredible hurt and her and upon her and um you know i'm struck by by even the sermon i didn't hear your sermon but the prodigal son and i've really been both in my life but in this case i feel like i'm the younger younger brother and she's the older one who says i did nothing wrong i was always here i never sinned you're the center there has to be consequences and so my question to you is i know that jesus says that the exception of adultery is is justification for divorce and i'm trying to juxtapose that with the message of grace and and what that looks like for marriage for my marriage and then how i can continue to show unconditional love to a person who is driven for towards division right now and not reconciliation so how long ago did did she find out about the unfaithfulness uh three years ago okay and uh is she asking for divorce or she kind of leaning that way or what yeah i know we're in the middle of the divorce process okay so she's filed the paperwork yes and i'm not living in my home and all of the all of the you know collateral damage that's occurring with all that's in play right now so it's a quite a difficult time for for everybody and how long ago did the unfaithfulness stop 18 years ago i was it was about a year and a half that i had this yeah okay this this situation i don't ever want to justify right anything that i ever did i know i know the the consequences of sin and that's something else you know is this is this just something that i just have to accept as a consequence of well i hear you yeah i hear you andrew i mean the trouble is we can't obviously we can't control another person uh we can communicate the best we can and yet she still has a choice um you know as far as whether she's free or not to divorce you well of course i mean she's a free person on this planet with a choice and uh i mean telling her that god would uh not like it or god permits it or god doesn't permit it or god would be disappointed you know it sounds like she's already made her choice she's filling out paperwork she's filing papers and proceeding in that direction so is it a consequence i mean it sounds like it may be the consequence for you an earthly consequence simply because you can't control her i mean this isn't god god's not divorcing you and you need to know that god is not divorcing you this is a person a human being who's fragile and has feelings and has thoughts and and you know what would i advise if i had the two of you in the room i would definitely be saying well this was 18 years ago you all have lived together since that time it was a year and a half that is now horribly regretted by you you told her about it a couple of years back there's been some time since then time to process time to forgive time to evaluate whether the relationship can be healthy going forward it's a shame that this is coming up so late and you know my encouragement would be to seek out counsel if you haven't already i think as a last ditch effort you know the the healthy thing for her if she wants to stay in this but doesn't know how and that may be the case she may be going i love andrew but i don't know how to stay in the marriage because of the bitterness and the resentment i don't know how to stay in it i can't get rid of the thoughts well the answer to that is to process things with god and maybe with the help of a good christian counselor say this is how it made me feel i felt abandoned i felt betrayed i felt deceived i felt tricked but i've got a new heart and i've got a forgiving heart i've got a new forgiving heart and i choose to forgive him and release him from anything he owes me and that's what forgiveness is divorce or not that's going to be healthy for more information on the broadcast ministry of dr andrew farley please visit andrewfarley.org that's andrewfarley.org join us next time as we invite you to celebrate the grace message with dr andrew farley this

Channel: The Grace Message with Dr. Andrew Farley

Views: 1,757

Rating: 4.9529409 out of 5

Keywords: forgiveness, freedom, identity in Christ, Christ, Jesus, Grace, Bible teacher, Bible ministry, Andrew Farley, Andrew Farley Ministries, new life in Christ

Id: sDoJQ8OEqMc

Length: 53min 53sec (3233 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 23 2021