Living Under Grace: Understanding Our Freedom

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Bob and Yart Live. Today, we’re getting into a fun sermon, which an elder of Denver Bible Church, my father, Bob Ben Yart, pastor Denver Bible Church, but Bob was out sick. And so one of the elders filled in and gave a incredible message titled Under Grace. We are under grace. We’re not under law, but we are under grace and what that means. Such a important topic. to overcoming sin, especially to overcoming sin, right? Paul says that if you are under grace, sin will not have dominion over you. But if you are under law, sin will have dominion over you. Paul says that the strength of sin is the law. Wow. And that the law arouses our sinful passions, right? You think of the do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is a law. That is a command. And had that command not been given, maybe Adam and Eve, maybe they wouldn’t have even wanted to eat of that tree. Maybe they would have seen all the other trees and wanted to eat of them, but that command, do not eat of the tree, that arouses our sinful passions. People get a kick out of doing the things they know that they’re not supposed to do simply because they’re not supposed to do them, right? You take a group of kids, a group of Say it’s a group of 10-year-old kids, and all the parents are going to go out to lunch, and the kids are going to stay home. And you tell them, hey, kids, on this Styrofoam cup, I wrote something on the bottom of it. Whatever you do, don’t look at it. And then I’m going to set it down. I set down my cup. Don’t look at it. And then you leave. Those kids, they are so badly going to want to know what is on the bottom of that cup, right? Otherwise, they wouldn’t even care. But because you told them they’re not allowed to do it, they want to do it. And so you see that the law that commands that thou shalt not, right, that arouses sinful passions. And so if we want to overcome our sin, we must realize that we are under grace and not be motivated to by the law, but be motivated by love, right? Love is the fulfillment of the law. And if we’re motivated by law, then we won’t have much love in us. But if we’re motivated by love, then we fulfill the law. With that said, let’s jump right into the sermon under grace.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:41

All right. Well, good morning, everyone. So Bob is out sick today and he asked if I would fill in and I begrudgingly said yes after I couldn’t think of any other excuses. So everybody else beat me to the punch with better excuses so you’re stuck with me. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about today, I thought, well, let’s just stay with some core, basic truths of Denver Bible Church. So, one of the core truths here at Denver Bible Church is that we are under… I was going to say funded, underfunded, but… I think I heard Joe say, under arrest. Anyway, grace is probably a better sermon, so we’ll go with that. Just so you know, for those on the video, we have a… Run down an old hotel ice bucket for our offering box today because Connie and Al aren’t here. So that might be one reason why we’re underfunded is that we don’t focus on that. Now, in an ordinary church, the pastor would remember the offering box and forget his Bible. But that would be the first thing. But in our church, things work a little differently. But we’re going to talk about grace today. So let’s turn to Titus 3, verse 5. So that says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So that’s grace, not by works of righteousness, not what we have done. But when you read other Pauline epistles, he says some other things that can confuse people if they don’t understand where Paul is coming from. So let’s look at 1 Corinthians. Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians and see if Paul may have a different take and see if we can… We’ll take a look at grace. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 11. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetous or an adulterer or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eat with such a person. Now that seems rude. That doesn’t seem like a lot of grace, right? And if you do that, that can cause tension. I know I’ve done that. And I’ve done that with my boss’s son, who was a drunkard. And back when I was in Indiana, I was working for a video production company. We went to shoot a promotional video for a college. And so the boss’s son, who was an on-again, off-again employee because of his drunkenness, who claimed to be a Christian… uh we went to this college to to videotape and we were there for a few days and i would not eat meals with him so we would go to the cafeteria whatever and i would sit at the next table and i let him know this is why i’m doing this boy that caused tension and when i got back to work that caused tension with my boss because my that was my boss’s son and it certainly brought that issue to light but it was it was a bit of a rough time and this was the person who was was paying my uh my paycheck so it was it was definitely risky but we don’t want to cover up sin we want to expose it So, but Paul goes even further. If you go back to verse four, so first Corinthians five, verse four, in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together along with my spirit. So we’re at church, right? When we’re gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ delivers such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Again, it doesn’t sound like grace, right? I mean, deliver him up to Satan? Is that why we came here today? So, Zachary, we have something to tell you? No, that’s not a typical church thing, right? So, how do we rectify those two passages? Well, let’s continue to read more of Paul’s writings. So, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23 says, So all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. And of course, we know that, right? So Galatians 6, 7 says, whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Grace, law, whatever the dispensation you’re in, whatever you sow, that you will reap, right? Now, can we get around that? Is there a way to avoid those consequences? Well, what if nobody sees you? What if every morning for breakfast you eat a dozen donuts, but nobody sees you? Do those calories count? Yeah, of course, they count, sure. So, what if you look at something inappropriate online or on TV and nobody sees you? Is there still an effect? Yeah, of course. Now, the donut question, people answer very easily, oh yeah, of course, that’s silly, it’s a joke. But online or TV, when you’re taking something into your body, there’s a lot of debate. And boy, I don’t, you know, Is that going to hurt me? Well, it’s not really going to hurt me. And of course we know that it does. So one of my favorite movie quotes is from Gladiator and Russell Crowe is about to lead his army into battle at the beginning of the movie. And he’s trying to inspire his troops. And he says, what we do in life echoes in eternity. And that just stuck with me because I think that’s so true. And I think that goes along with the same sentiment of what a person sows that he will also reap. So liberals, they want to live in a vacuum where their destructive behavior has no consequences. And I would imagine you can think of scenarios, but I’ll share a few with you. So if you tell a liberal to abstain before marriage, he’ll laugh at you because they’ve done everything they can to mitigate the consequences of their behavior. But the problem is that their solutions just cause other problems. So if you’ve ever seen the prescription drug commercials and it lists all the side effects, you can’t get rid of the consequences. When you start messing with stuff, if you’re not following the right path, then you’re going to get sidetracked. So when it comes to… premarital relations people say well we’ll just take the pill but the pill tells a woman’s body that it’s unhealthy to give birth and it fills the woman with carcinogens with uh hormones and with steroids to the point that even cancer.gov now is cancer.gov is that a right-wing organization is that uh No, it’s just a government website. Even cancer.gov says the risk of breast, cervical, and liver cancer appear to be increased due to the use of oral contraceptives. They don’t want to admit that at all, but it’s a natural consequence of messing with your body. And of course, if the pill fails, then moms and dads are sometimes willing to kill their own child to try to avoid those consequences. You cannot escape the consequences of sin and your actions. And when the AIDS crisis started killing people in the 80s, did liberal leaders say, we are reaping the whirlwind of our actions. We should repent before almighty God and live according to his word. No, of course not. They don’t want to take responsibility for their actions and say, the Bible says this behavior is inappropriate and we need to change that. We are reaping what we’ve sown. Do they want to admit that? Of course not. No, they demanded that the government spend millions of taxpayers’ dollars to try to mitigate the consequences of their actions and right now even to this day we spend about 20 million dollars a year on hiv aids uh research and it’s almost 100 percent preventable if you live according to the bible you are virtually assured that you will not get hiv or aids Because the innocent people that did get that disease at the beginning is because blood banks weren’t screened. And so people who had that disease would donate and it would infect innocent people. And it’s one of the great tragedies of that. I grew up in Indiana and Ryan White was a young child in Indiana who went to a blood bank, got a transfusion and was infected. And they used him as the poster child for the HIV AIDS research movement and said, hey, this person is innocent. We need to fund this research to save people like him. And no one said that it was evil for these people to give blood even though they knew they were infected and they lived this risky lifestyle. And so it was a tragedy. So do atheists, do they like the consequences of telling people that they’re just animals and that the strong can dominate the weak? Well, they like saying that, but they don’t like the consequences. Because what are the consequences? Well, the consequences are Columbine. The consequences are Stalin. The consequences are Mao Zedong. They killed 45 million people in four years. Those are the consequences of their… of what they espouse. Again, they like to espouse it. They want to live in a world without God because they don’t want to be told what to do, but the consequences, they don’t want the consequences. And I think one of the greatest consequences that we’re dealing with now is the breakup of the family unit. One third of the kids in America will at some point in their lives live with only one parent. One third. That’s amazing. And black kids will at some point live with one parent 70% of the time. 70% of African American children that are growing up today will at some point live in a single family home. and we know that we know single parents and we know it’s a lot of times it’s not their fault the parent that left that’s the person that is is dealing with something and has sinned and the person that is staying behind and trying to hold together the family they’re doing the best they can in a horrible situation but it’s hard to escape those consequences. So the riots in Ferguson and in New York and around the country, is there a respect for authority prevalent in those demonstrations? No, not at all. The protesters don’t respect authority because they never had a godly authority modeled to them as they grew up. And now those consequences are coming home to roost more and more. And it’s not just African Americans in the inner city, because when you look at those protests, you see white people intermixed in there as well. And if you don’t have respect, if you don’t have a good upbringing and authority to How are you going to respect the police? How are you going to respect the ultimate authority, God? Have you ever seen the bumper sticker question authority? Have you ever seen the driver of that car? Are they ever smiling? Are they ever happy? No, I’ve seen it a half a dozen times in my life, and they’re miserable. They don’t They don’t love God. They don’t love authority. They think that authority is evil. They have this skewed view of authority, and it affects them. So how do we fix the family? Well, that’s a sermon all into itself, and we’re just going to skim the surface. So I’m going to read from Colossians 3. If you’re quick, you can get to Colossians 3.18. first so colossians 3 18 says wives submit to your own husband in all things right does your version say something different all right my version it says as is fitting in the lord all right so Verse 19 says, Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter towards them. Now, I have a lovely wife who is so sweet, so it’s easy for me to love her, and I’m sure it’s easy for her to love me as well. That wasn’t a joke. I didn’t put joke to hold for laughter. I didn’t have that in the notes. But… my wife is sweet when we got married even before we got married she got me my engagement ring and inside is an inscription and it says let me see if i can read it here put me back on so that was it was it’s different but it’s it’s very sweet she’s trying to help me so um it doesn’t really say that But we deal with the consequences of our marriage. And if I speak quickly and I speak without thought towards my wife, that’s going to hurt her feelings. And if she had a rough day with the kids, I know that’s unimaginable that she would have a rough day with the kids. She did call me at work yesterday and told me that our month-old Mariah projectile vomited twice. So… You know, so there’s some rough days in there. But if she speaks quickly and speaks ill of me, it can affect our marriage. And so we have to constantly be on guard for that because there’s consequences to a quick word. So husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter towards them. Verse 20 says, children, obey your parents in all things. Okay, that’s my all things. That’s where I got that from. All right. For this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” And I think this goes back to the authority thing again, that it’s the father’s responsibility to be there for their child, but to not provoke them. Now we certainly need to discipline our kids. We need to love our kids, but we need to have a balance and we need to bring them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. So just by a show of hands, how many of you have ever heard of the marshmallow test for kids? A couple, I think two, three. Okay, Mike, okay, I know he would know. All right, so in the early 70s, they did what was called the marshmallow test. So they would bring a group of kids into a room, just one at a time, and they would put before them a plate, And they would put a treat on the plate, a marshmallow, a cookie, a pretzel, whatever the kid wanted as a treat. And then they would talk to the kid for a little bit and say, okay, I’m going to leave the room for about 15 minutes. And if you wait and don’t eat your treat, then in 15 minutes, I’ll come back and give you two. But if you want to eat your treat right now, you certainly can. And when you eat your treat, I’ll come back in the room. And it was a test of delayed gratification. And so, of course, they had video cameras or film cameras back then rolling. And they watched and the kids were sitting in a room with no distractions, just looking at the marshmallow or the cookie and fidgeting. And I don’t, you know, can I wait 15 minutes? And these are, you know, four and five-year-olds. So, these are my kids’ age. And they would look at it and they would poke it and maybe pick it up and look at it, but they wouldn’t eat it. And of course, some kids, as soon as the researcher left the room, boom, right in their mouth. And they didn’t want the delayed gratification. Give me my marshmallow or my cookie, whatever. And that was fine. That wasn’t, that was okay. And they told the kid that that was acceptable. But if you waited and if you were patient, then you would be given twice as much. And so they did that research and they took statistics as to who indulged earlier or who waited. And what they found, they interviewed the parents and as the kids got older, that the kids who delayed gratification, who waited, who were patient, they were more competent as adults. That was the word in the scale that they used, that they were more competent. The other thing is that they measured SAT scores, and the kids who had the ability to wait, they had higher SAT scores on average than the kids who indulged quickly. So I thought it was very interesting. Well, in 2012, they did a follow-up study. And what they did is they introduced a lie into the study. So they told the kid, they brought them in the same way and said 15 minutes and you’ll get double your treat if you wait patiently. So the kids who waited patiently They came back and kids, of course, some kids ate right away, but the kids who waited patiently for 15 minutes, the researcher came back in and said, you know, there’s, and made up some excuse why they couldn’t have that second treat. And so they lied to the child. They said, but this time, this time we’ll try it again. And we’ll, this time after 15 minutes, we’ll let you have your second treat. We’ll double your treat. Well, the kids didn’t believe them. So only 25% of the kids who successfully made it the first 15 minutes waited that additional 15 minutes for their additional treat. So the kids didn’t trust the authority figure, and so why wait anymore? So… If the kids can’t trust the authority figure, the parents in this case, in our case, it makes them increasingly difficult to trust God. And so, to the best of our ability, we need to be truthful to our kids and not put that stumbling block in front of them. Because if mom says just five minutes and it’s 45 minutes, and has any mom ever done that before? I don’t know. You know, exaggerated and, you know, and of course time gets away from you or But to the best of our ability, we need to be upfront and honest with our kids. They need to trust us. And as we are adults, even if you don’t have kids, those, if you’re interacting with kids, they need to trust you. And so often in our society, that trust is broken with the parents as they split up or as one parent struggles to raise a child. We’ve seen so many instances of inappropriate behavior between adults and children. And so that trust is again broken. And so there are consequences for our actions and we need to understand that. So if we have positive, if we have positive actions, those will most likely bring forth positive consequences. positive consequences. So is James Craddock, is he concerned about the consequences of his eating behavior? Is that a consequence? Is he worried about that? Anybody who knows James? No, of course not. He looks forward to those consequences. He eats healthy. We were looking for a church a few weeks back and James, we were waiting for the realtor and James and Bob and I were standing outside the church and And James said, well, let’s get in the car and drive around the neighborhood. So I said, okay. So I open up the back seat and there’s a couple apples in the back because James, working in real estate, he’s driving around town throughout the day. And I said, I’ll just move these Doritos out of the way. And he laughs because there hasn’t been a Dorito in his car probably ever. So he’s not worried about the consequences. But things… You know, the influences on our lives, they affect us. So Brian, you run a successful home improvement company. Are you concerned about the consequences of your former clients talking to their friends and family about your workmanship? No, no, of course not. You’re not, because Brian does a fantastic job at a reasonable price. And so he’s not worried about the consequences. But when we do things that maybe we shouldn’t, there are consequences for that too. I knew this was maybe 10 years ago. I don’t know. There was a young guy who’s in this room right now. He liked to play video games and he would play first person shooters. So you’re in the game and you’re the guy with the gun. and he was he played a lot of that game and he really enjoyed it and you know he had a lot of time because he was a teenager and he just we were talking one day he goes i gotta quit playing that game i’m walking through a hallway in a library or just wherever and i’m thinking where is the best sniper position It just affected him. And so he knew he’s, I got to stop doing this. So he grew up to be a fine young man and he fixed my garage door the other week. So not saying what his name is, but I’ll keep that secret. But, you know, our influences affect us. So as we read this next passage, I want you to think about the consequences of these actions. And should we as Christians be worried about the consequences or should we look forward to them? So Titus chapter two talks about what a church should be. So let’s turn there, Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two, verse one. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine, showing integrity.” reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. I don’t see any ill consequences from acting like that. Let’s skip down to verse 11, Titus 2.11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness… worldly lusts that we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present age looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great god and savior jesus christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify himself his own special people zealous for good works speak these things exhort and rebuke with all authority

SPEAKER 01 : 28:50

Stop the tape, stop the tape. Hey, we are out of time. If you want the rest of this sermon, check out kgov.com. That’s K-G-O-V, kgov.com.