Cheap Grace

Cheap Grace and the Battle

 

During the last few weeks – and perhaps especially as I peruse the newscasts about what is happening in our country and what is happening in the Mideast, I concluded I need to say more about the SPIRITUAL battle everyone on this planet faces day after day. And that idea brought back to my memory the series on spiritual warfare that I’ve preached a few times in the last several years. Some of you have even read the book I wrote which is based on those messages.

 

I make no apology for the repetition because reminders of Biblical truths are not only good things, but necessary things. As the apostle Peter tells his readers – including us: “I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder.” (2 Peter 1:12-13)

Every time I preach this series, even more evidence accumulates just outside our front door – evidence of the powerful and deadly spiritual warfare that threatens our immortal souls and the souls of our families and friends.

Here are only a few examples of this ongoing supernatural warfare, and none of this should surprise those who are even marginally aware of what is happening in our culture. We continue to tear babies apart in their mother’s womb to the tune of 2,500 babies every DAY in American abortion clinics. That means 2,500 baby boys and girls will be ruthlessly killed tomorrow, Monday. Another 2,500 babies will be slaughtered on Tuesday. And again on Wednesday, and every day this week and this month, around the calendar. Our culture is clearly more angry at those who abuse dogs than those who kill babies in the womb.

 

You also know of the now rampaging sexual immorality which continues to spew from hell itself. I spoke to that point a couple of weeks ago. It seems that much of our American society is falling into one of two categories: The first: Those who support same-sex unions and unmarried heterosexual fornication – and now transgender medical treatments even for minors; And the second category: Those who stand against such evils.

 

These are not insignificant hiccups in our nation’s life. They are titanic disasters waiting to happen. For such egregious sins, God has ALWAYS destroyed every nation in history dating back to the early chapters of Genesis. This is not my opinion. It is history easily verified by anyone with a computer and a desire to uncover the truth of what I just said.

 

Every nation. Destroyed. And America is well along that path to utter destruction – perhaps even to the point of no return.

 

Here is what God said of ancient Israel before the Babylonian catastrophe destroyed God's people: “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy. Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. (2 Chronicles 36:15-17)

 

My brothers and sisters, this is a very difficult sermon for me to preach. But it is an absolutely necessary sermon for me to preach – and for you to hear. Spiritually dark days are rapidly descending across our land and over the Church. As I said a few moments ago, I’ve spoken in recent weeks about remaining faithful to Christ to the end of our lives. And if we hope to remain faithful to Christ, we must – must – wage this war according to the specific guidance God Himself gives us. That’s why we will spend the next several weeks reexamining that guidance.

 

Several years ago, I read about a pastor who received a call from a funeral home director. The man asked the pastor if he would speak at the graveside of a young man who’d recently died. The director told the pastor, “You’re my last hope. All the other pastors I’ve called have declined."

 

When the minister asked why they’d declined, he was told that the deceased had died of HIV/AIDS.

 

When the pastor arrived at the funeral home, he noticed that all the attendees were men, and he suspected many, if not all of them, were gay.

When he finished his eulogy in the pouring rain at the gravesite, many of the men stayed and asked if he would read various Bible verses which they’d remembered from their childhood. Nearly two hours later, the men thanked him and said it was the first time they could hear Bible verses without a sermon of condemnation accompanying it.

 

I understood the story’s point about the pastor’s kindness in reading the men’s favorite childhood passages. But it appeared from the story that that is all the pastor did.

 

And THAT is the problem in a growing number of churches today, including those here in this city. Clergy quote the happy verses and ignore the judgment verses. They give people false and damning hope by focusing on what people want to hear and not what they need to hear.

 

To do that is NOT an expression of Christ's love, who calls all men and women to repentance, to turn from their sins and live holy lives. What we do – what pastors and priests and bishops and teachers and other church leaders – AND those in the pews – what they do when they do not tell the WHOLE story of the gospel is that they simply help the sinner go happily on his or her way to an eternal hell. That is certainly one reason the Holy Spirit impelled Paul to write these words to young and timid Timothy:

 

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4)

The Lord Jesus warns us that the path that leads to life is a very narrow one, and consequently, only a few find it. But the road that leads to an eternal hell is a broad one – and lots of people are on that road.

 

Part of the reason so many travel that broad road is that they hear from pulpits and read in so-called Christian books what is known as cheap grace. Cheap grace is based on a Christianity without the Cross, a Christianity focused on God’s love and rarely if ever on His multiple warnings and examples of His justice, wrath, and judgement.

At the end of the 19th century, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army warned of cheap grace this way: “The chief dangers which will confront the coming [twentieth] century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

Decades later, the Holy Spirit again warned the church – in this case the church in Europe – about cheap grace. This time He spoke through Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some of you might know the name of this great man of God, Bonhoeffer was a member of the Confessing Church of Nazi Germany. He and other pastors of the Confessing Church stood openly – for as long as they could – against the evil sweeping Nazi Europe under the guidance of Adolf Hitler and his satanic-driven followers and supporters. Bonhoeffer died on the gallows in the Flossenburg concentration camp – one month before the camp was liberated by the Allies.

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer referred to 'cheap grace this way: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

 

I will add, cheap grace is when people call Jesus their savior, but they do not follow Jesus as their Lord of life and lifestyle. Cheap grace is that grace which costs us little, or nothing. It allows us to go to church, to sing, to read, to kneel, to stand, to receive Holy Communion – but there is no change of heart, no inner conviction by the Holy Spirit, no demand of conscience toward full and undiluted obedience to the message of the Scriptures.

Cheap grace tells us that as long as we make a profession of faith, we are saved. Yet God directed Paul to write these words, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)

 

Salvation through the grace of God is so much more than simply mouthing the words “Jesus is Lord.” It is so much more than being baptized. It is so much more than praying the Sinner’s Prayer or signing a book or walking down an aisle. We are saved by a living and active faith that manifests itself in repentance, obedience, and love for God and our neighbor.

 

Living a life of holiness is a work to imitate Jesus Christ – and if anyone doesn’t think THAT is a work – to imitate Christ, then they’ve never tried it. Holiness means growing in obedience to the Father’s commandments.

 

That’s why the Lord Jesus told us: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” (John 14:23-24) 

 

And then there are these words in 1 John 2:3-4 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

 

I remember an incident I had years ago with a spider’s web. I didn’t see the web until I nearly ran into it. The thing was virtually invisible. If sunlight hadn’t suddenly glistened off its strands, I would have walked right into it. So, there I stood, inches from the biggest, ugliest, hairiest spider I’d ever seen. I was glad I wasn’t a hapless bug flitting through the air, totally clueless about the spider’s trap in front of me.

 

But like a spider’s web, in the world of the supernatural, Satan’s subtle web is often invisible to the natural eye – which is why it’s so incredibly easy to get caught in his deadly trap. And most of the time we don’t even realize we’re in his web until he has devoured our health, wealth, homes, and families.

 

Sometimes even our lives.

 

There is no better way, there is no surer way, to avoid Satan’s web than to see the light of God’s word glisten off its strands as a warning: Danger! Don’t go any further.

That’s why I believe the Lord Jesus said this during His Sermon on the Mount: (Matthew 7:24ff) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.  Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Whether or not we obey the prophets and the historic exhortation of the Church – all of which exhort us to become fluent with God’s word – Satan remains patiently waiting in his web. Problem is, we won’t see it unless God’s light glistens off the web.

So, what will we each do with this message? I hope at least four things:

 

1. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give to you a hunger to obey God in every nook and cranny and corner of your life. The grace of God that sent Jesus to pay the penalty our sins deserved was not cheap grace. That grace required of God an immeasurable cost. And our response to His grace must also cost US something – that being ever-growing obedience to His commandments, even and perhaps especially when we don’t want to obey.

 

2. Be quick to repent and turn from your sins when the Holy Spirit gets your attention about something you have done or not done.

 

3. Determine to faithfully and prayerfully read God’s word, to be single-minded in your pursuit of Christ and to seek godly and Christ-honoring teachers to answer your questions as you seek Him through His word.

 

4. Hide God’s word in your heart – even if it’s a verse here and there. Hide it in your heart so you will know when you are approaching that supernatural satanic web.

 

This powerful and deadly spiritual battle rages all around us. It is DEVOURING our families and friends – including those who sit in the dining room beyond these doors. And we MUST wage this war according to the guidance God alone give us. That’s why we will spend the next several weeks examining that guidance as we look at the spiritual armor spoken of in Ephesians chapter six.

 

I hope you all will join us – and also invite others to come along as well.