The Rick & Bubba Bible Study - LIVE - May 26, 2021

two one welcome into the wednesday bible study uh today we're here again at the rick and bubba broadcast plaza and teleport thank you for joining us if you're new to the program uh watching us on the youtube channel uh thank you i'm rick burgess i'm the co-host of the ricky bubba show and director of the man church.com this bible study started seven years ago uh as a men's bible study that still is the foundation of this bible study i know that there are men and women uh who who watch this or listen to this every week and that's perfectly okay there'll be times when we're dealing with things that are specific to to men but most of the time it's really just a bible study of followers of jesus uh who are interested and and growing from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity uh and and we've been going through a series if you're joining us for the first time we are in session 23 of a series out of the book by j.i packer called knowing god and the concept of this is that it is possible for us to know a lot of concepts about god know about god but really still not know god and that's been the journey that we've been on so if you have not uh been with us before it's okay i think today will stand alone uh it'll speak to us but if you'd like to go back you can look at the archives one of two ways you can go to the youtube channel at rickonbubba.com hit playlist you you will see there that the bible study archives are there it's called men's bible study and you can look at that and go back and find all the sessions before this option two you can go to burgessministries.com and you can click on the listen button these are audio only and you can walk back through the audio archives of past bible studies including the one that that we are in now uh here's here's some news we need to update everybody who's listening to this that lives in the birmingham area and uh in the past maybe you've attended this bible study actually in the room here at the studio because of the pandemic it has been over a year since we've had men regularly attend this or anybody who wants to attend uh and we will do that now for being in the room it is men only and we will open that back up one week from today on the first wednesday in june uh that would be june the 2nd is that right june 2nd that is next wednesday you can come you can be here at the rick and bubba studio we start at noon on the dot and the seats are first come first served and so any of you that have been coming regularly in the past or you'd like to try that you're more than welcome to do so we do open the studio back up uh next wednesday and i'm looking forward to that because i missed having all the men here in person love this technology and i'm glad there's many of you that this is the only way you can get the bible study but there's just something special about having a room full of men walking through the word of god and we can get back to that next week praise god and we're excited about that uh the man church.com this this is a one of the last two sessions it will be interesting that next week we'll actually end this bible study uh with the men in the room and then the the following week uh when we get to uh june uh the ninth uh we'll actually start back uh on on uh on a brand new one uh and that actually we'll go through at the manchurians.com we have a 40 day devotionals for men we have 40 week curriculum for churches and groups uh that want a curriculum all the uh curriculum all that's available at themanchurch.com uh but uh the last 40-day devotional that we put out is in our how to be a man series and this subtitle is discovering what it means to be a disciple you know jesus said to make disciples uh there's nobody in the new testament that's called a christian that wasn't already a disciple so what we'll do and we'll roll through this one this will not be as long i think we can do this in eight weeks but but we'll see uh this uh this asks the question uh are you truly a disciple of jesus uh and it tells us eight things that that we should be able to answer about ourselves that would prove that we are actually a disciple what is a disciple of jesus what does it look like how do you know if you're a disciple of jesus uh and we'll walk through those eight concepts that you can find here uh in this 40-day devotional which is available at the man church.com and this is the last in the trilogy of the how to be a man series the first one is the pursuit of christ-centered masculinity the second one is real men of the bible and now the third one is discovering what it means to be a disciple so you can find all that all that at the manchurch.com speaking of man churches i'll be getting back out on the road uh uh and and kicking off our curriculum and our strategy in winfield alabama on june the third uh we'll be there we'll have a service the men will gather and they will kick off that 40-week curriculum then on the 4th of june another man church will be going on this will be the third man church for westview baptist church in off alabama as they're rolling through the curriculum mark garnett from the man church.com will be there addressing those men you can attend either one of these uh if you're in the area uh you are welcome to join us so uh then make some notes here the gridiron men's conference is coming up father's day weekend in huntsville alabama i'll be there looking forward to being part of that the manchuris.com all of our resources will be there uh you can find details there at gridironmen.com herschel walker will be giving his testimony uh we'll have jor uh we'll have um from jonathan evans tony evans son will be there he'll be speaking he's great if you've never heard him ike reichard of course gary chapman will be there who's written so many books about marriage he'll be there charles billingsley is doing worship phil waldrop will be speaking there gridironmen.com if you want to join us and then sherry and i will be doing a one-day marriage conference with shane and shane coming up on august the 14th in beautiful pensacola florida at olive baptist if you'd like to be there with us and we're giving you a heads up to join sherry and me for a day of us diving into the biblical concepts of marriage and then a concert from shane and shane those tickets are available now august 14th olive in pensacola florida won't you come join us for the weekend uh it's only a one night gathering the rest of the weekend you can spend investing in in your marriage and and applying all the things we've talked about get those tickets uh while they last by going to burgessministries.com and clicking on events so let's open up in a word of prayer and let's dive in uh to uh the topic today the inward trials of being a follower of jesus lord thank you for today thank you for the message thank you for all that's going on and how you are moving in so many ways i pray lord today that we hear everything that we don't have you know a delusional view of what it looks like to actually be a follower of jesus may we be able to discern when somebody's telling us something about redemption that isn't true when someone's telling us something about the christian life that isn't true may we continue to mature in our faith so we can discern what is and isn't from you in the name of jesus we pray amen and that's what we talk about in this session uh j.i packer says there's a very dangerous gospel he calls this gospel cruel uh he said this out there he calls this the inward trials the things that christians actually go through and he says be careful of this gospel because it looks good on the surface he said but he calls it cruel he said it's twofold first it depicts the work of grace as less than it really is and then secondly it leaves people with a gospel that is not big enough to cover the whole area of their need isaiah once pictured the misery of the inadequate resources in terms of short beds and narrow blankets in isaiah 28 20. now at first he says when you see this he used a word that even had me push back a little bit he said what kind of ministry am i talking about he said the first thing which is sad is it may seem when you look at it on the surface that you see a true evangelical ministry he said because it has all the concepts right uh it's a it's acceptance of bible the bible is god's word you check that list that looks good it it promises as as all the promises of god and assurances are agreed upon the regular themes or justification by faith through the cross of new birth through the spirit new life in the power of christ's resurrection its aim is to bring people to a new birth and from there to lead them into the fullest possible experience of of resurrection life so when i first saw that i'm like well packer what is your problem uh with this he goes well no they get the concepts right just like many times we get the concepts of god right we may know about god but that doesn't mean we actually know god and he says so their concepts are absolutely biblically true but here's where the problem is and this is where we have to be watching and that's an inaccurate application of these truths they're applied incorrectly he said and the reason why is scripture is full of truth that will heal souls just as a pharmacy is stocked with remedies for bodily disorders he said but in both cases if you go to the pharmacy and say i've got a problem and the pharmacy says well we have things that do address the problem but what if you take what they have and you apply it incorrectly uh and that's what he uses iodine he said you know say that you have you know um you you you've been given iodine for the problem of something that you have you remember we were growing up my goodness they put mercure chrome on anything if you got scratched up you were going to be painted orange and and and what if you said well i'm going to bring this home and you tell your kid well i think you should drink it he said well now if your kid drinks that as opposed to applied it to the wound that's the misapplication of the right medicine and so he says this is the problem why you have to look deep into some of the false gospels that are out there in false theology he said the doctrines of new birth and new life can be misapplied and get the same unhappy and incorrect results this seems to be what happens in the case he said that i'm going to discuss today so he says okay let's talk about the misapplied doctrines he said the type of ministry that is here in mind starts by stressing only the evangelistic context meaning all you really need to worry about is you need to fight you need to get saved and he said and and so ministry that is wholly concerned about the gospel truths can still go wrong by giving these truths as i said in an inaccurate application and he says so certainly we know that this is going to bring forgiveness our redemption but what you have to watch out for as i say not only will it bring us forgiveness of sins and peace of conscious and fellowship with god as our father it will also mean that through the power of the indwelling spirit we'll be able to completely overcome sin that previous previously mastered us and the light of and leading that god will give us will enable us to find our way through and around problems and we will in the result will be self-fulfillment personal relationships our hearts desires and so this is very similar to what we talked about on the the rick and bubba university podcast when we interviewed the pastor dean and sarah who's written the book which we may do at another time we did unsaved christian a lot of you seem to really have been benefited from that but he's got a new book called get over yourself and what he's saying is this this false doctrine now j.i packer because this was written in the 70s he's probably looking at the cable guys that we saw the the name it and claim it health and prosperity gospel people and he's probably talking more about that but but that still exists today and it's kind of easy to see but there's a more subtle presentation to this out here in some of the gigantic churches in our in our not just our country but our world and you almost believe if you look at redemption through what they're presenting all these concepts are right but they're almost telling you you can have your best life now i mean jesus is going to give you your heart's desire but see the bible says remember we talked about last week that we should never follow our heart that our our heart is deceitful above all things and it leads us in an emotional disastrous way and it should be about self-fulfillment i become the best version of me that's not that's not true that's not biblical truth my life will now even on earth will suddenly get even better i mean i i'm you know what i'm i'm under selling my my earthly potential and jesus is going to help me reach my earthly potential no no that that's not the gospel and and so this is the concern uh that that we have hey maybe you hear the concepts of redemption right but the application of what your life's gonna look like is incorrect he said now you put that in general terms these great assurances you know are scriptural and true praise god that they are that that god is going to redeem us and give us a new birth and he's gonna give us a new life praise the lord for that that's true he says but it's it it is it's possible that you can stress these assurances and the promises of a new life so much that a lot of these churches and i talked to a friend today that has already walked out of one these churches do not want to tell you about the stresses of a christian life they don't want to tell you about the problems of being a follower of jesus now the bible's not silent on that either they just choose not to preach that i don't want to talk about the hard stuff i don't want to talk about the difficulty that your faith will also bring you and so that's where we have a problem and that's what we want to talk about today is to be sure that we understand the balance because you know what else scripture talks about the daily chastening god chastises us he chastens us i should say he chastens us to to continue to refine us into to something different there's an endless war that goes on between the flesh and the spirit it's endless it never ends until we're standing uh in in the presence of the lord and our flesh is finally completely dead c.s lewis warned us about this he didn't he he talked about this in great detail he said when you become redeemed before we become redeemed our flesh is is it a homecoming game our flesh wins every single day because our spirit is dead we're unredeemed so our spirit is dead when you become redeemed and now god's spirit his seed as john talks about in his first epistle is when that when god's seed comes into our spirit and then makes that dead spirit alive what does c.s lewis say we talk about a lot then the flesh begins to fight for its life remember what c.s lewis remember the analogy we've talked about here several times c.s lewis used the nazis as the analogy of the flesh because he was writing during world war ii and he said you really don't know the strength of the nazis if you just go along with them when you find out the strength of the nazis is when you oppose them same with the flesh so to tell you that if that you become redeemed and because you you you submitted to the authority of christ and you repented of your sin now your struggle with sin is over that's not true and you're almost led to believe that it's not but why is that problematic that if you don't tell me that my problems don't really go away they i just now have the answer to my problems if you don't sell it right what i mean correctly or you don't teach it correctly that's a better word why is that problematic he talks about this in this chapter i tell you why it's problematic because you have a bunch of people who get redeemed and when they still have a struggle with sin even though they now have the answer and they still have a difficult life they become disillusioned and think well i must not have been redeemed maybe god's not even real so we we have to we have to take just like this bob this study has told us the whole time we must take god as he is completely and he's not silent on all of his characteristics remember that's been the theme of this study you've got to understand god fully or first of all you don't really understand redemption you don't understand why the cross was so important you don't understand resurrection why what do we say if you want to understand god's love and god's grace you also have to understand his judgment and his wrath you have to know both then you get the full vision of how wonderful redemption really is well he's talking about the same thing there's no guarantee in scripture that because you become redeemed that problems in your life are over it's not there at all as a matter of fact if you have your bible or something with your bible on it i'll roll through some of these verses for you so if you're in a church that isn't reading you these verses too i'd leave if you don't if you don't hear them talking about the cost of discipleship i'd leave if you don't hear them talking about that your life that god will continue to refine you if you if you go to a a church that says we're going to talk about the gospel of john but we're going to skip john 15 and or we're going to go to john 15 we're going to skip the line where jesus says those that bear much fruit he will prune so they'll bear even more fruit if that kind of stuff is getting skipped or stuff like this you need to leave no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man this is first corinthians 10 13 so no temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man god is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to and this is the part that's missed endure it endure it wait a minute so temptation doesn't go away now god doesn't tempt you but but but but what he's saying is god will never allow us to be tempted to the level that we can justify sin meaning god's too powerful for us to give in to sin but it doesn't mean we won't be in that situation see a lot of people take this verse and say well god will never put more on you than you can bear that's not what this scripture says that's that's a myth that's a misuse of this verse that that's apostasy not what it says as a matter of fact i promise you when the things that i've been through in my life and there's been a number of them but but there's difficulty in my life and i can promise you that it's been more than i can bear i can promise you that but it's not more than god can bear but you know if i if god's never gonna allow me to be in a situation that's beyond my own strength then why do i need god i can just do it on my own so that's not what this this scripture is talking about this scripture is saying there's no excuse for giving into sin you better be leaning on christ and you better be leaving on god because the temptation of sin from the adversary in your flesh will remain in your life but it'll never be more than god can overcome and he will allow you to endure it endure it that means that means you have to actually deal with it it doesn't just magically go away you ever seen the football teams put the i can do all things through christ who strengthens me on the run-through sign as if somehow if their relationship's right with god he's going to let them win the game versus the other team i guess he has a problem with that's not what that verse means paul is in jail and what he's saying he just told us he lost everything for the sake of christ he lost his wealth he lost his standing he keeps being put in jail he keeps being stoned he keeps being beaten and you know what he's saying is but the fact that i have been redeemed is enough for me and because i have been redeemed because i have a relationship with god how about this no matter what i'm going through because of jesus i can endure it it's not about it's not about a health wealth victory verse i hope i do good on the test because through christ all things strengthens me that's not what that's about i hope i get the job i hope i can do this no that you know what that is a verse in that's a verse saying i suffer as a disciple of jesus but it's worth it because he never leaves me without the strength to endure it see that's the real gospel and if you're not hearing that i would find another church look at acts 14. let's go over to acts 14. acts 14 verse 22 acts 14 verse 22 this is actually in the bible remember always be leery of any bible study that doesn't feature the bible this is after paul has been stoned at lystra where would god not protect him from that why is he getting stoned so he glorified god so so listen to this strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and say that through uh oh are you ready uh oh see if you hear this from the pulpit where you go to church saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom anybody know what the word tribulation is it it's difficulty so here's paul saying yeah i got stoned at leicester i sure did i i got stoned there you know why because i wouldn't back down because i was standing up for god they stoned me they drug me out they brought me back in i also also took some heat at antioch and he said you know what though the lord god almighty is strengthening the souls of us his disciples he's encouraging us to continue in the faith and he said to us that it will be through many tribulations that we will enter the kingdom of god are you hearing that or is it all are you going in there and and god's gonna make you your best you john macarthur could not have said it any clearer the only people that are living their best life now are the people that are going to hell that's it now you compare this life to hell then you probably are living your best life now because hell's worse but this is not your best life now and it and and i hate to break it to you it never will be because it's fallen i mean when i think about the suffering in my life so my shot at best life now is over because i'm sitting here talking to you right now and my youngest son who who would would have been 16 tomorrow he's dead he died an earthly death okay so i don't have him here on this life that my relationship with him on this earth is over currently you know i have family members who oppose me i hope those relationships work out my parents are aging i mean i'm i'm getting to where i have to take care of them and you're going yeah rick that's kind of things we go through too yeah so this can't be it i hope this isn't it and jesus didn't promise that as a matter of fact he said this place is going to be refined by fire i'm this this earth is going away you're here to advance my kingdom and i have redeemed you not to give you the best life now but to give you eternal life with me in the future you're headed to it but you ain't there now all right so i mean so now let's go to first peter let's just continue on let's go to first peter y'all heard me quote this verse over and over again well who's peter writing first peter 2. we studied that we did a whole bible study on first peter he's writing to a persecuted church that nero is murdering by the day did they not have enough faith why why are their bodies hanging up and down the street here burning i thought they were redeemed i thought they were followers of jesus now they are well why are they being killed because because the earth opposes jesus that's why it's because they weren't trying that what they weren't trying to say well the life with jesus means that that nero won't get us or that we won't be persecuted they said no we've been redeemed so we stand with him so if they do kill us what did paul say i've learned to live as christ to die as gain so nero i'm going to stand up and i'm going to oppose you right now because you want me to blaspheme jesus i won't do that i'm a good citizen as long as you don't ask me to do that but if you ask me to do that i will not reject jesus we're going to kill you okay then i'll just be with jesus that's the life i'm going to and and this this this idea of trying to create heaven on earth trust me from someone who tried who's tried it give it up i mean think about what's coming be heaven focused that's the follower of jesus you don't believe that listen to peter first peter uh chapter one verse six and seven in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials so that the testing genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes when it's tested by fire might be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of jesus christ what did he say did peter say in this we rejoice though now for a little while if necessary we're going to be what am i not going to get that job am i not going to become beautiful am i not going to am is there am i is there not more money coming from me is there not am i not going to travel to these wonderful places and go stay at some resort are my children not gonna be these important people in the world applaud them is my big house my cars is what are you talking about no he said you're gonna be grieved by various trials if necessary that god allows yes why to test the genuineness of your face see see if you're the real deal do you think i mean it literally has been said people have said before have you ever heard rick speak before and somebody might say yeah you know what they all say who know me before after 2008. uh oh it was 2005. well you hadn't heard him then you might want to go see him after after after he went through the thing with his son why is that because that was used to grow me spiritually or if i had folded like a paper cup and rejected god and said well i'm not gonna serve a goddess and let my kid die and that was the test but i found him to be sweeter than anything here on this earth and i wasn't shocked when something like that would happen in the fall and creation because i actually was learning the bible and and i and i said there's a lot of talking here about trials and tribulations and difficulty of devout followers of jesus so i guess that bad things according to earth do happen to the followers of jesus stephen stephen acts chapter 7 he's doing everything perfectly right so much so that jesus is standing at the right hand of god while he's being stoned jesus is standing and he says he sees the lord standing there and says receive my spirit jesus is standing because stephen is doing everything exactly right he said he was full of faith full of grace full of power that this was all said about stephen well then why didn't jesus step in and stop the stoning because his stoning glorified him and who was standing there watching stephen get stoned and when stephen says don't hold this against him when stephen is looking to jesus as he's being stoned acts chapter 8 says what and saul had everybody's coats at his feet so they could throw harder and he approved of stephen's execution so your suffering may impact somebody else that will be huge for the kingdom while jesus brings you in you think paul ever forgot that well we know he didn't because in first corinthians 15 9-10 what did he say i shouldn't be an apostle why he says why because i persecuted the church i mean he could also add right there i i i made sure stephen was killed i murdered stephen so i shouldn't even be an apostle and the only thing that's good about me is the grace that i have been shown by god but what do you say about that grace but it will never be in vain god will never look at me and say he didn't get a return i work harder than the others because of the sin i know i committed so stephen's suffering helped was part of getting paul ready for the ministry that he'd be given and where's steven's reward in heaven with jesus what did god tell ananias when he said i want you to go get saul i've got him blind and i'm going to use him to reach the gentiles and i said um this guy's dangerous he's killing us god said i got him ready and what does he say just tell him go tell him all that he must suffer for me so why are we not telling people that god didn't withhold it from anyone jesus didn't withhold it he's always telling them that they should expect problems and that life will could be very difficult following him in john 16 33 i say this so that you have peace in this world you will face tribulation not you might you will but always have joy peace in your heart because why ultimately because of redemption i've overcome the world the world's not going to be the that's not going to be the end all for you so you rejoice in that you always have peace in your heart hey i'm sitting here on my deathbed that's right i i this is difficult i'm sure it is i don't make light of that i know it's difficult but you know what if you're redeemed you know what you're hearing from jesus this is about to be over but what's next is eternal life and this sickness you're dealing with this problem you're dealing with i don't know why you cling into that world let it go come to me ultimate healing don't we don't ever have anybody in our family all the disciples of jesus that are in our family extended to what we never say our prayer wasn't answered if a loved one dies never because they ultimately were healed the ultimate healing is this is over the suffering ended well i just don't know why god just kept letting my my mama who loved him so much let him let her suffer well apparently he didn't because he's not suffering now he didn't let her keep suffering he ended it you see how that this this is the this is what the bible has to say and what does james have to say james chapter 1 verse 2 count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know here comes the why well why do we go through these trials well we could just look at the bible because it's there we just we just heard peter say one of the reasons why we suffer is to prove that we are followers of jesus that our faith our faith is not fake it's not based on whether good or bad things happen to us on earth it's based on the fact that we love a god who redeemed us guys you do realize we didn't deserve the cross i didn't i deserve to go to hell if god says to me today i just got news for you and he's going he's been done far above what he's done on the cross but let's say that god would redeem me in 1996 and he said i got news for you this is it for me i've redeemed you when you weren't worthy of redemption and the rest of your life is going to be completely miserable you know what i would say you've done enough because i didn't deserve the cross anything that that god has done above the cross i didn't deserve i didn't deserve the cross i deserve to go to hell he's redeemed me so i just can't find any fault in him and i and i've got come to the conclusion that god knows what he's doing and so i so we we we've shifted these trials to say instead of where is god in all this you know sherry spent five years on that uh producing from the word of god an incredible resource from where god is and all this and her book brought her a journey to understand i tell you where god is he's right in the middle of it so i know that now so when difficulty comes instead of whining or having a pity party i focus on god and say what are you teaching me boy don't let me miss what you're teaching me don't let me miss this because i know you're teaching because it wouldn't be happening if you weren't teaching so here's what paul said i mean james says when you meet trials of various kinds for you know see he's assuming because he's talking to a church you're supposed to know this for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing it's teaching it's refinement it's growth that's what it's for why am i going through trials well according to james to produce steadfastness meaning you'll be immovable you'll be solidified in your faith because god loves us enough to do whatever it takes to put us totally dependent on him and i'm so arrogant and i'm so prideful that god had to go and actually take my two and a half year old son and allow him to die so that because that's apparently the only thing that was going to humble me to the point that i needed to be humble broke now you're broke now finally you're totally dependent on me now you need now you depended on me to tie your shoes rick now you depended on me to breathe your problem wasn't that you weren't strong enough my goodness you've touted your strength your whole life and that was your problem your problem wasn't that you weren't strong enough try to handle this without me your problem is you weren't weak enough and i've done what i needed to do to get you so weak that you're so dependent on me now i can finally use you i understand that i don't like it but i understand it and you know what it worked it worked my wife said it best i don't always like the way god does things but i cannot argue with his results so why are we not teaching this well because it's not very popular it doesn't really fill the seats up at the church i'll tell you that it it it doesn't draw a big crowd but it's gos it's but it's scripture that's why it's important you know if you're thinking to yourself man if i give my life to jesus he's gonna solve all my problems here on earth now the problem he's gonna solve is your big problem and that is that you were going to hell that's the big one now the rest of this stuff in a fallen creation there's no guarantee of that being overcome or taken it's overcome but not being taken out of your life and that's the problem so if we're not told this then and we don't know that we'll continue to be tempted by the devil we won't know that we still have difficulty it leads to a problem now it's certainly an attempt like i said to to draw in more people and i don't have a problem with us i don't even have a problem with numbers i don't i don't care if a church has thousands of thousands of people in multiple multiple campuses as long as they're preaching this but i think some people think you can't do both i have found in men's ministry and i can only speak to that but i can i found in men's ministry when we started actually preaching this to men they actually came alive because i think most men won't follow jesus because they've been preached this other gospel and you think jesus is some life coach some some self-help guru some hippie and most men aren't interested in that but when you realize that in luke 9 23 that that that jesus looks at these men and says deny yourself pick up your cross and follow me oh matthew 7. oh by the way the road that's wide and easy that's the road that's leading to destruction that's where most people are you if you're going to follow me you're going through a narrow gate and this way is going to be hard and most of you can't do it remember we said the marines say the few the proud the marines jesus said the few the humble my disciples this few concept came from jesus they didn't come from the marines jesus said that most of you aren't man enough to follow me see if you tell me in that which is scripture the the jesus of the bible they actually have a desire to follow it they're like well i i thought this was just a hyper grace uh everything just no matter what i do it's all gonna be all right and you know nothing ever really changes about me i've just i've just been saved now and then i can you know go out to the lake i go down the beach and we can go off play golf and you know now now god's going to give me all these wonderful things here on earth no you know what one of the reasons why that that's not really god's plan most of the things on this in this world rick burgess included i'm pointing at me most of the things that we call blessings they're distractions they're not blessings we call them blessings because we like it i like this must be a blessing not necessarily i'm not saying it's not but you need to discern and understand that everything you love and everything you like or everything you want to do and if you get to do it assuming that's a blessing ask ask yourself this question because i've had to do this in your own life all these things you call a blessing all these things i call a blessing are the thing you're calling a blessing is it bringing you closer to christ if it's not it's not a blessing it's a distraction you might have got that from the other side that might be from your flesh that may not be from your spirit now if what you have been given is something that you have balanced properly if what you've been given you're using to advance the kingdom of god if what you've been given is refining you and growing you in christ if what you've been given even allows you rest and time with your family which is a good thing that's that's that's great but if these things have become your obsession like your pursuit is to be happy and have fun that's all you want not to be holy not to mature in your faith not to be effective for the kingdom and these things are making you happy and they're giving you fun but they're not making you holy and they're not maturing you and you're not and they're not advancing the gospel that's a good indicator on whether it's a blessing or distraction just cause you labeled a blessing doesn't mean it is better make sure scripture labels it a blessing and that's the point of this dangerous gospel that has the concepts of redemption right but it has the actual life of following jesus wrong so when you think about god building the character and god helping us then when you start looking at what scripture actually says that then you realize okay it is there but but rick we are saved by grace you better believe we are but we don't need to lose the sight of grace which j.i packer talks about he said that with this false gospel it fails to grasp new testament teaching on what sanctification i mean most people that i know not not all but most people that that you see in life out in society not in my inner circle just acquaintances or people i interact with because i used to be this way there's no commitment to sanctification now there's there's a commitment to justification i want to be redeemed because i don't want to go to hell and you go okay so you've been justified now you're ready for sanctification that passed well now i just go back to the life i was doing i just know i'm not going to hell now dangerous theology dangerous theology because the scripture doesn't teach that the scripture says that sanctification becomes a desire and and a lot of these churches that that that teach this dangerous gospel they don't talk a lot about sanctification they're willing to leave you in perpetual continual spiritual infancy if you allow it you want to get into a small group or you don't that's fine come into this beautifully designed look at the perfection of our worship service man look at our look at what's going on in here and i'm not saying that you can't use today's technology my son works in that field and still get up and have a bible preaching uh truth-sharing challenging word of god and small groups i don't care if a church has a nice building i don't think i mean i saw what god called the temple to be built it was it was really nice i don't i don't have a problem with you know because what you find is is it this is when you know you get it wrong that you think somehow the way you're building look is an indicator of your devotion to christ what do you mean by that can people be arrogant about all the different resources they have on their campus they can be but there's also people out there that are arrogant about what they don't have well because we meet and attend building or we meet in a basketball gym somehow we're closer to christ that's not there's that's not an indicator of whether the place is solid or not what's an indicator is what's being preached what's being taught and so there's nothing wrong with that but if you're sitting like i said i had a young man say this to me if you're in a church right now that you you're starting to have a hard time discerning the message between someone expository teaching the word of god or a ted talk you can't really tell the difference it feels a little more ted talk self-help life coach than it does scripture then i would get out of that place because that's not that's not going to grow you so this this false gospel does not understand the meaning of growth in grace it it abuses grace which we're warned about in romans chapter six in our study of romans i mean paul hammers down he said hey you're saved by grace from sin you've not been saved by grace to continue in sin he said what at first you know before you redeem you were due lost you were a bond servant to sin because like i said the spirit was dead so you were a bond servant you were a slave to your flesh so you you lived in sin but once you have been redeemed by what grace through faith see we always leave at that faith part hey i'm saved by grace you are through faith what's faith what's the faith of action it's you take everything off of you i no longer have faith in myself and my strength i now place my faith fully in god fully in christ i belong to him it's all shifted to him i'm dead he lives and paul says in romans 6 are you trying to show how wonderful grace is by living this life certainly not he said you've now left being dulos been a bond servant to sin and through redemption and this grace through faith you now become dulos a bond servant to obedience which leads to life and see if you don't ever hear that and all you hear about is grace and justification but you never hear about sanctification it says j.i packer said it does not understand the operation of indwelling sin it confuses the christian life on earth with the christian life that will be in heaven amen the christian life on earth is not the same thing as the christian life in heaven because you're in a fallen creation you still have flesh we won't have flesh in heaven we'll be given the new body and we'll be spirit we'll be recognizable to each other but this sinful flesh is over here it's still on us okay it says it misconceives the psychology of christian obedience this is spirit prompted activity not spirit prompted passivity the spirit of god his presence i remember one of the things when i was a cultural christian that i couldn't get around if i claimed to have been be redeemed why was i walking in these clubs and why was i watching this smut and why was i hanging out with these smutty people doing smutty things and it didn't bother me where was the spirit prompted obedience it wasn't there there was a there was a there was a my spirit was dead which is why i had a passivity with sin because the spirit wasn't alive so the the basic criticism about this false gospel is that it loses sight of the method and purpose of grace so what is grace in the new testament grace means god's love in action toward people who merited the opposite of love grace is god's love came to us and we didn't merit it all right you got that that's a simple definition of grace grace means god moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themself grace means god sending his only son to the cross to descend into hell so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to god and be received into heaven second corinthians 5 21 god made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of god so the new testament knows both a will of grace but also a work of grace the former is god's eternal plan meaning the the will of grace to save the latter is god's work in you how many times in scriptures do you see he's done this for you so that you can produce good works those if you love me you obey my commands god has done this to produce great work in you uh he what did jesus say in john 15 again even after the pruning he says if you abide in me and i abide in you and you abide in my words and my words abide in you then then i will produce much fruit in you much fruit flows out of you there's the work of grace proving that you're my disciple so if if if these things aren't flowing out of you the bible says you're not a disciple philippians 1 6 by the way talks about the good work in you whereby he calls you into living fellowship with christ that's first corinthians 1 9 raising you from death to life remember we said before i know my meemaw and all them said hey you got to get saved and there's nothing wrong with that but that's really what scripture says not that we were saved it says that we were dead and now we're alive we went from death to life and and you can find that by by looking at ephesians 2 and reading verses one through six it seals you in his as his own by the gift of the spirit that's the conviction that drew us to redemption ephesians 1 13-14 and then it transforms us the spirit then transforms us into christ's image second corinthians 3 18. and then finally here's the whole complete gospel finally it raises our body into glory that's romans 8 30 and first corinthians 15 47-54 i read these verses at funerals all the time and he talks about that so so that's what the the gospel is because if you think about this transformation that's supposed to take place we see this throughout the scripture so the will of grace yes i think we understand that's justification but the work of grace i think many times we're never taught it we don't understand it and we don't expect it and we don't pursue it it's fashionable among a lot of scholars some years ago to say that grace means god's loving attitude as this is distinct from his loving work but he says j.i packer that that that is not scriptural he said look at first corinthians 15 10. i just told you this one by by it says this he says by the grace of god i am what i am this is the one i told you about him after you know i said i think he's thinking about stephen here and the church that he persecuted and his grace to me was not without effect i said it was not in vain that's what the esv says no i worked harder than all of them yet not i but the grace of god that was in me so the word grace clearly denotes god's loving work in paul whereby he made him first a christian then he made him a minister but i see paul here saying he's working at it i'm working i'm growing i'm being sanctified so what's the purpose of grace well primarily to restore our relationship with god when god lays the foundation of this restored relationship by forgiving our sins as we trust his son he does so in order that henceforth we then may live in that fellowship there's a change that takes place we talked about this we're we're being and see what happens so many times we're doing a sherry and i just started teaching uh uh um i still call it sunday school some people call the church i'm at calls it life group whatever you want to call it but this is a bible study of people that read meet regularly on a sunday morning either before or after the worship service okay so sherry and i are teaching the class together we just started last sunday and we're doing we're doing first john well you start reading some of these you start getting some people say well when john's talking about that we've been brought into fellowship and he says you know we were there we saw him we touched him we we are eyewitnesses to jesus and we want you to have the proper fellowship with us and god we always do this oh fellowship that means we all do life together no what the bible's talking about first and foremost yes we should have fellowship with the fellow with our fellow believers that's not what john's talking about and that's not what paul's talking about he's saying you better get the proper fellowship with god right are you in fellowship with god do you walk in the presence of god have you been remember our chapter that we did this on adoption have you been justified have you been adopted as children of god you i if you hey you don't want to have fellowship with me if i don't first have fellowship with god i'm no good to you i'm a detrimental friend to you and what we do is we just place human fellowship ahead of everything let's do life together hashtag blessed but that's not what scripture is talking about it says if you're not in the proper fellowship with god if you have not been brought into the presence of god if he's not doing now he's done the will of grace which brings you into that fellowship and then the proper fellowship is the work of grace if we john says i want you to be in the right fellowship with the right theology with the right god and with the right jesus and the right holy spirit and until you get that right let's not all go out to eat let's work on that first and then we have the proper fellowship that flows from a group of people that are first in fellowship with god it's time about the fellowship with god and then you can have fellowship with each other properly and what do we do we want to skip over fellowship with god and get right to hanging out together and i've dealt with this in men's ministry too there's a lot of churches hey we got a men's ministry and when you look into it you know what it really is it's fellowship it's not discipleship they're just hanging out and bringing a coach every now and then to try to take sports stories and uncomfortably time to scripture that's not discipleship that that's why we have a 40-week curriculum and we're we have these worship services and we're going to dive in and we're going to grow as men of god and we're going to get our fellowship with god right then we can have fellowship with each other most men's ministries i see out there they're based on fellowship not with god but with each other and that's important but it ain't no good unless you have fellowship with god it's just a bunch of guys hanging out yo what you what's your men's ministry well we you know we have group plays golf together okay uh we got a wild game supper nothing wrong about that who joe how come to speak uh some some coach okay what do you talk about well mainly football stories guys i got news for you we're just hanging out this is not discipleship and and so this is what uh j.i packer's talking about to be sure that we're preaching the right gospel so it's yes it's going to bring us in the proper fellowship of god grace does that it says as he does in renewing our nature it's intended to make us capable of and actually lead into the exercise of love trust delight hope and obedience god work those acts which from our side make up the reality of fellowship with god who is constantly making himself known to us this is what all the work of grace aims at a deeper knowledge not about god but a deeper knowledge of god and an ever closer fellowship with him grace is god drawing sinners closer and closer to himself i know you go into some of these churches now and they may have the basic concepts of justification right but you sit around and start listening to some of these modern praise songs start listening to some of the stuff that's going on at the ted talk churches and you'll almost start thinking to yourself that god worships you that god would just be thrilled with us i was talking to a person about this and they were i was disagreeing on on on the theology of a modern worship song and i said i gotta that's bad theology and the guy says well i mean um i do think that god does love us that's all 100 he loves us that he shows us that on the on the cross well you know back before you know uh you know you have to remember that back at the very concept though that you know god was you know god our us is his creation it was a very special creation to him and it was his prized creation and and all this i said well yeah up until you know genesis 6 when he killed everybody but eight people he didn't seem enamored with all the people that he wiped off the face of the earth i i don't think he thought they made him better since he killed every one of them except eight i think the key is to find out what was so great about the eight i think that's the key is to find out why god they had the proper fellowship with god and everybody else didn't see what we have to understand the entire deal this is about us being drawn to god and god being the center of our life we are not the center of god's life we didn't make god any better make him any more wonderful any more holy and the fact that he's gracious to us and allows us to fellowship that's what we celebrate that he says you know what and that's the next point this is the beautiful thing he's the god who restores isn't that wonderful that's much to celebrate he's the god who restores why is he allowing me to go through difficulty rick i'll tell you why so that you'll be more dependent on him you can't have the proper fellowship with god if you're still dependent on yourself for most things and god for some things he he's trying to use the suffering and and and the the refining and the and the in the destroying of the flesh so that we shall learn to hold to him he is my rock he is my foundation not my stuff not my job not my money not my children not my spouse him not my standing him i am living my life for an audience of one not for the applause of the world i think some of us if we're honest and i've been this way this is my flaw too i think some of us as we're honest we get more excited about being the proper standing with people than we do getting the proper standing of god the people hated me today but god didn't is that a better day for you are you going to bog down on the fact that people were mean to you or don't like you can i tell you something what i've learned and i've had to deal with it with flesh and blood which is difficult but not hard it's not some things that i know what to do they may be difficult to do but it's not that i don't know what to do and you know what i found i'd rather be at odds with human beings family included than to be at odds with god i'm going to be right with him and if you want to be right with god with me you're welcome but if you oppose god then i oppose you not because i hate you but because i love him because i found him to be better than anything that's worth this world has he is my strong rock he is my firm defense he is my refuge he is my help when i'm weak god spends so much of his time bringing home to us that we are weak both mentally and morally and dare not trust ourselves we should only trust him so no you should not follow your heart no you should not follow yourself no you're not the center of the universe no i'm not the center of the universe he is he is look at all the people that made the mistakes before us look look at abraham he was promised a son but but and was made to wait for he lost his patience he made a mistake he acted like an amateur he goes and gets his wife talks to men saying god's never gonna give us his son he sleeps with another woman moses makes the mistake of trying to save his people by acts of self-assertion by throwing his weight around killing an egyptian insisting on sorting out the israelites private problems for them finds himself banished for many decades on the backside of the of the desert uh to bring him to uh you know to think less of himself david makes a run a mistake seducing bathsheba getting uriah killed neglecting his family numbering the people for his prestige when he was told not to take that and in each case god did chasing all of these people but you know what else he did he restored him he said don't miss that part it is difficult it is hard but you're you're on the way to being restored because nobody teaches like god nobody teaches like the lord so the the question is this are you hearing this where you go to church is this the gospel that you've heard if it's not you need to be on your face before the lord because it could be that you're somewhere where false theology may be subtle but it's still wrong be sure that you're hearing the gospel preached correctly and that the gospel is not being made more palatable so you're more likely to eat it because that's going to lead to you being disillusioned when you weren't taught what to expect even after you've been justified even when you choose to follow jesus let's pray lord thank you for today thank you for this lesson thank you for uh making sure that we hear what we need to hear and may we now apply this to our lives not thinking anything other than i have tasted of the lord and i and i have found that you are good and you are better and even though you slay me i still find my hope only in you just like our brother job taught us help us lord to understand and seek your truth to not obey uh not not abuse grace to to to look at sanctification and desire it as much as we desire justification just as you've instructed us to do and may we make much of you and make little of ourselves and may we stop the opposite of making much of people and making so little of you may we correct that today in your holy name we pray amen if i can help you in any way rick rick and bubba dot com we'll do one more session and wrap up uh uh knowing god uh one week from today men you are welcome to come back and join us in the studio and then two weeks from today we'll start a brand new series thank you for being with us you

Channel: Rick & Bubba

Views: 3,286

Rating: 4.8400002 out of 5

Keywords: rick, bubba, rick and bubba, rick & bubba, rick bubba live, rick and bubba live, rick & bubba live, rick and bubba show, rick & bubba show, rick bubba show, burgess, bussey, radio, alabama, bible study, bible study for men, men's bible study, biden, we be big, mens bible study, kamala, harris, joe biden, bible, jesus, rick burgess bible study, the man church, man church, saban, conservative, rush, shapiro, rogan, aliens, bigfoot, aoc, auburn, roll tide, football

Id: Gl8DAo9aFXI

Length: 61min 56sec (3716 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021