Love So Amazing (Valentine's Day Message)

You can watch this message on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/rZd99AG6sec

Today is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. As many of you know, Ash Wednesday begins the Christian season of Lent, the 40-day period which culminates on Resurrection Sunday – some call it, Easter.

 

Many Christians celebrate the season of Lent as a time to focus our thoughts on Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself as a substitutionary atonement for our sins. While we know intellectually why Jesus did what He did, when we look at the trouble in the world around us, and the troubles within our own lives, our hearts too often forget what our minds know.

 

But besides being the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, today is also Valentine’s Day. The day when lovers remind each other of how much they mean to each other.

 

And that is where I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to focus our attention this afternoon – on how much the glorious, eternal, and beautiful Lover of our soul loves us.

 

You and I know John 3:16 so well, we can almost say the verse backwards. Let me say it slowly from start to finish: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 

Here now is the next verse: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him [the Son] might be saved.” 

 

The Lord Jesus said to His disciples that in Him, we will have peace. “In the world,” He added, “you have trouble and distress and heartache. But take courage; I have overcome the world.” (my paraphrase of John 16:33)

 

So, on this Valentine’s Day, when the Lover of our soul tells us again that He loves us, let’s take time now to look at the proof of that Love – Jesus who is the Christ. Our Messiah. I will use each of the letters in the word Christ to make my points.

 

The first letter of Christ in C. What was it that Jesus said to those who heard His voice? “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  (Matthew 11:28-29) “Come to me all you who are tired, all who are weary, who are lonely, and depressed, and hurting in body and spirit. Come to Me.”

 

Please, won’t you come to Jesus, the Lover of your soul? And listen to this: God never told us to clean up our lives before we can be worthy of His love. You remember the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19?

 

Zacchaeus was a hated tax collector. His Jewish neighbors spat on him when they saw him in the streets. One day, as Jesus was passing along the street nearby, Zacchaeus scampered up a tree to get a better look at him. When Jesus saw him, he said to the man, “Hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

 

Luke then tells us he hurried down the tree and gladly brought Him home.

 

Now think for a moment how you might have felt, suddenly realizing Jesus is coming to your house NOW. I mean, the guy didn’t even have a chance to first run home and straighten things up. Maybe he had dirty underwear lying on the floor by his bed. Or dishes in the sink from last week. Or dust-bunnies hanging out in the corners of the living room.

 

And Jesus summarily invited Himself home with him. No time to clean the house. That scene reminds me of Revelation 3:20. Jesus says to you and me right now, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

 

You may think your house is not ready for such an important Guest. That’s okay. He loves you today as much as He did before you were even born. And He doesn’t care about the dirty clothes or the dirty dishes or the dirty corners of our lives. He’ll take care of those things when we let Him in.

 

All He asks of us, is that we come to Him and receive Him gladly. You might remember the lyrics to the old hymn, Just as I Am.  Here are the words I want us to focus on: Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me. And that Thou bidst me come to thee, O  Lamb of God, I come.

 

You’ve come to Jesus before. Many times, I am sure. Oh, come again on this Valentine’s day to your Lover and find rest.

 

H is the next letter in His title of Christ. This letter for me signifies HOPE. Look around you. Health and relationships and finances and dreams and plans and expectations may all now seem like ashes after a terrible house fire.

 

I cannot tell you all will be well with your health and relationships and so forth. I do not know what lies ahead in your future or in mine. I also struggle with my own ashes. But we know who holds that future. And we know who holds our hand.

 

Let me remind all of us of this promise from the prophet Jeremiah: “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

Neither you nor I know the full plan of God for our lives. From the underside, the tapestry of our life He is weaving always looks mangled and twisted. Only when we see the top of the tapestry will we know what the tangled threads all meant.

 

Again I am reminded of another song, this one by Bill Gaither. Its lyrics are rooted in Scripture. Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but he made something beautiful of my life.

 

R is the next letter in Christ. It reminds me of our Lover’s redemption of our soul from death and destruction. Bible dictionaries define Redemption as “the purchase or ransom of something that had been lost.” The Greek word translated as ‘redemption’ appears nine times in Scripture, and always with the idea of a ransom or price paid.

 

You and I were lost to God because of our sins. We had only one destination after death, and that was eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire. The wages of sin is always death – physical and spiritual death.

 

But God – oh, how I love those two words when used as the Bible uses them in Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ…”

 

That’s why God again tells us in Colossians: “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)

 

And again, in Ephesians 1 – “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us . . ..” (Ephesians 1:7)

 

Our heavenly Lover does not want to lose anyone to an eternity away from His presence. Therefore, He did the only thing a holy God could do to both satisfy His pure justice which demands punishment for sin, and His pure love which calls for mercy. He gave His only begotten Son to be our ransom. Our redemption. And with Messiah’s death, God purchased you and me back to Himself from the power of sin and death and hell and the devil.

 

No wonder the Scripture tells us Jesus led captivity captive. Jesus led those held captive by the devil, Jesus led them captive to Himself by His death and resurrection. You and I now are Christ’s captives. Glory, glory to God.

 

The next letter in Christ is I. I take that to point to this next truth about our divine Lover. Because “I” am in Christ, because YOU are in Christ – when Christ is our savior through our baptismal faith in His atoning blood, the Holy Spirit then assures us we can boldly declare: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20, AKJV)

 

And when Galatians 2 is true for us, then so is 1 Corinthians 15: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58)

Listen, Christian. THAT is what the Lover of your soul has done for you and me when we are IN Christ. Not only did He redeem us, ransom us, He gave us this sure hope and firmly established future with Him forever and ever.

Next, on this Valentine’s Day, we come to the next letter in Christ: S.

 

Jesus is our great Shepherd. I love the imagery of this text in Isaiah 40:11 “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”

 

Can you see yourself here? I can. I am His young lamb – even if I’m 70 years old, I am to Him His young lamb. Can you see yourself as His young lamb, also?

 

Sometimes I get so tired and cold and weary and frightened – all I want to do is lay down and let the world just pass me by. But the Lover of my soul knows what I need far better than I know what I need. And so, He bends down to my level, and then with His own hand He feeds me as a loving parent spoons food into his child’s mouth.

 

He feeds me the milk of His word, as Peter tells us in his first epistle. He tells me through Isaiah: “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. (Isaiah 55:1-2)

 

Shepherd Jesus feeds me – and you – when we are tired and cold and lonely and frightened with food from His own hand, and then He gathers us in His arm and carries us next to His chest.

 

And if we listen closely enough in our imagination, we can hear His sacred heart beating as we lean our head over his heart. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Luv-you. Luv-you. Luv-you.

 

And finally, for the sake of time, let me close with the last letter of the Jesus’ title, Christ – T.

 

What can we glean about our Lover from the letter T?

 

I said at the beginning of this message Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, which culminates on Resurrection Sunday.

 

But between Ash Wednesday and Resurrection Sunday is Good Friday. Good Friday looked to be anything but good to Jesus’ family, and His disciples as He hung bloodied, bruised, and beaten, waiting to die on that cross.

 

The cross.

 

That is what I want the T in Christ to remind us of on this Valentine’s Day. I want the T to remind us of the Cross on which the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain. And so, I close this message of how much our divine Lover loves you and me with the words of this 300-year-old hymn by Isaac Watts:

 

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

 

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

 

I think if we could hear His voice in our ears, He is saying to us, “A blessed Valentine’s Day to you, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the ever-present Holy Spirit.” Amen.

  

Trust in the Lord (sermon text)

 February 7, 2021

Trust in the Lord

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5,6

 

I do not understand how anyone can live with hope, especially when we face terrible storms as other Christians in the world right now are facing.

 

“Trust in the Lord.” But for what can we trust the Lord? Well, there are lots of things for which we can trust God, such as our daily bread, the forgiveness of our sins, and to deliver us from the Evil one. But I will focus today on at least five things that fall into this broad category of what we can trust God for.

 

Number one. For what can we, trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding?

We can trust Him to always love us. We can trust that nothing will ever separate us from His love. This is quite important because so many Christians live without the confidence that God actually does very much love them.

 

Here is passage familiar to many. It is from the last verses in Romans 8: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

I don’t often address God in my prayers as ‘God.” To my mind – and likely because of my life-experience – the word, ‘God’ seems distant. Like he is ‘out there’ somewhere. That’s why I find ‘Father’ more comfortable. Because I never had a father who cared about me, calling God my ‘father’ helps me visualize him as the father I never had. I am able to visualize Him as someone who really cares about me. 

 

But then – and here is where I probably sound weird, I have trouble addressing God simply as ‘Father’ because then I feel as if I am neglecting the other two Persons of the Holy Trinity – Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit – I feel as if I am neglecting the other two Persons when I focus my prayers to the Father.

 

Yes, I know that is silly. Jesus Himself taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father.’  But, as I say, this is just me. So what I have done in the past during my prayers is to speak to the Father, and then I speak to Jesus, and then I speak to the Holy Spirit. But that was getting too complicated for me.

 

So I changed it all up. I now address God as simply “Lover of my soul.” And so, in the morning, I simply say, “Good morning, Lover of my soul” as I start my prayers.  

 

Yes, we can trust God to love us with an unfailing and undiluted love. I always go back to Calvary as God’s demonstration of His matchless love for me. For ME. And for YOU.

 

God doesn’t love us any LESS when we sin, nor does he love us any more when we obey him. And even on a human level that makes sense.

 

Did we as parents – and this analogy is not perfect because human parents are imperfect – but did we as parents love our children any less when they disobeyed us than we did when they obeyed us?  Did our love for our children come and go like the weather?  Of course not. Every loving parent would very willingly die for their wayward son or daughter as much as they would willingly die for their obedient son or daughter.

 

And oh, by the way, isn't that exactly what our Parent in heaven did? Again the Holy Spirit reminds us through the apostle Paul: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

 

For what else can we trust our Lover in heaven with all our heart and not trust on our own understanding?

 

Number two. We can trust Him when He tells us He forgives us when we repent. He forgives us for everything and for anything.

 

Last week I shared this following incident, but because many of you did not see it, let me share it again because it makes my point well.

 

As part of my memory work I reviewed this portion of Psalm 103: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always contend with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.”(vv. 8-11).

 

And the Lord reminded me of something He’d told me some time ago. I’ve shared it with others before, but I think I should now share it again. Someone might need this reminder of the Lord’s love for them, too. 

 

Several months ago I had sinned the same sin for the hundredth time. I felt guilty, ashamed, dirty, unworthy, helpless, and hopeless. I couldn’t even look to heaven when I said, “Father, I’m so tired of having to apologize for the same thing again and again. I’m so tired . . . . 

 

Before I could finish my confession, the Lord stopped me in mid-sentence. And He said to me, “But I never get tired of hearing you say it. Nor do I tire of forgiving you and loving you.” 

 

Listen. He forgave David his adultery and murder. He forgave King Manasseh for his horrific idolatrous evil, for promoting the nation’s child sacrifice. He forgave Paul for his bloody persecution of Christians. He forgave Peter for denying Him not once, but three times. AND He forgave those who crucified Him, who stood at the foot of the cross jeering and mocking and sneering at him while he suffered and died.

 

Knowing all this, what does ANYONE think they could have done that our merciful God would not also forgive of those who ask for forgiveness? Why does anyone who has repented of sin – whether murder or sexual sins or blasphemies or whatever evil people can do --- why do some insist that the lover of their soul would not extend to them His forgiveness?  I’ve met people like that. And I suspect you have met people like that, too.

 

And that point brings us to the third thing for which we can trust God with all our heart – and not trust our understanding.

 

Number three. The Lover of our soul will never leave us. Many of us have heard the counsel: When we feel distant from God, who do you think moved?

 

How often does the Lord Jesus promise us in the Scriptures, “I will never leave you or forsake you”? But I suspect many of us have difficulty believing His promise because we have experienced deeply personal and soul-wrenching rejection in our lives.

 

Some of you know the heartache of rejection by a parent, even though you tried time and again to reconcile together. But your efforts always proved fruitless and futile. And some of you have been rejected by a child. For years you have tried to reconcile, but all your efforts have proven useless.

 

But probably the worst rejection of any relationship is the rejection of a spouse. One day you both stood at an altar before God and others, promising each other to have and to hold, in riches and in poverty, in sickness and in health, to keep yourselves only for each other until death alone parted the two of you. And then, after all those vows and promises, you wake up to the horrible reality that the one you love no longer loves you.

 

Yes, most everyone knows rejection, broken promises, the turning of the back on our pleas for reconciliation.

 

And so many of us very much need the reminder that God’s faithfulness is NOTHING like human faithfulness. What saith God Himself about His faithfulness: Psalm 100:5, For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations . Ps 119:75 I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Ps 119:90 Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations.

God’s faithfulness to us is NOTHING like human faithfulness. Do we think the Father would have offered His only Son to that torturous and merciless death if there was another way to demonstrate His unfailing faithfulness to you for the forgiveness of sins?

 

Oh, thanks be to God for His undiluted faithfulness to you and to me.

 

And now, for what else can we trust in the lord with all our heart, and not lean on our own understanding?

 

Number four: We can trust that He always, always hears us when we pray.

 

Thirty years ago, when my son, Nathan, was eight years old, he and I were walking across the mall parking lot when, at the top of his little lungs, he screamed, "Daddy, Daddy, can you hold this box?" An elderly couple several yards ahead of us turned to see what all the commotion was about. Probably half the shoppers in the mall stared in our direction.

 

Red-faced with embarrassment, I growled in my best ‘can’t-you-see-I’m-standing‑right‑next‑to‑you’ voice, "What are you shouting for?"

 

Undaunted by it all, Nathan's eyes sparkled with childlike composure. "I wanted to make sure you could hear me," he said.

 

In my walk with God across life’s parking lots, how often have I – have often have YOU – acted like an eight-year-old child, worrying: Does my Father in heaven hear me? No wonder we grow anxious when nothing happens, and we wring our hands, convinced He’s not listening.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child?" The Lord chides through Isaiah. "Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:15‑16, NASB). And again, Scripture reminds, "The Lord's mercies indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22,23).

Yes, of course He hears. Yes, of course He knows. As a compassionate and loving Father, He listens. Before our words even cross our lips, He knows our very thoughts (Psalm 139:4).

Because of our relationship with God through our faith in His Son, we don't need to shout as if God is on vacation in some distant part of the Universe. We don't need to pray with an anxious heart, as if He is too caught up with the affairs of our world to give heed to my needs. Delays do not necessarily mean denials.

We can trust that the Lover of our soul ALWAYS hears us. He hears our deepest cry whispered in the furthest recesses of our hearts. That is why we can wait in confident hope for His response – whenever it comes, and whatever His answer may be: “Yes.” “No.” Or, “Not now.”

 

And whatever is His response – yes, no, or not now, we can trust that His response emanates from His love for us. Yes, Father DOES know best.

 

Finally – finally only for the sake of time – for what else can we trust the Lord with all our heart, and not our own understanding.

 

Number five. The true Christian – not the fake ones who are tares and not wheat – the true Christian has eternal life. Our eternal salvation is not rooted in our good works, or our heritage, or in keeping a set of rules. We have eternal life because of God’s choice to forgive the penitent who by faith has come to Him for eternal life.

 

Here is what Jesus said to the grieving Martha: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” John 11:25-26

 

Here is Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope [the confident expectation] of eternal life.” 

 

Christian, please hear this: God our Father, Savior, and Friend loves us. He forgives us. He never leaves us. He hears us. He has given us eternal life.

 

So please, Lord, help us all to “Trust in the Lord with all [our] heart, and lean not to [our] own understanding, in all [our] ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct [our] path.”

He Will Embrace You

As part of my memory work (and it is work!) I reviewed this portion of Psalm 103:“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always contend with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.”(vv. 8-11) 

And the Lord reminded me of something He’d told me some time ago. I’ve shared it with others before, but I think I should now share it again. Someone might need this reminder of the Lord’s love for them, too. 

 

It happened several months ago. I had sinned the same sin for the hundredth time. I felt guilty, ashamed, dirty, unworthy, helpless, and hopeless. I couldn’t even look to heaven when I said, “Father, I’m so tired of having to apologize for the same thing again and again. I’m so tired . . . . 

 

Before I could finish my confession, the Lord stopped me in mid-sentence. And He said to me, “But I never get tired of hearing you say it. Nor do I tire of forgiving you and loving you.” 

 

Listen please, whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, and however often you have done it: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always contend with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.”

Won’t you come to Him again in repentance? Even if it is for the hundredth time. He will embrace you – because He loves you. Very, very much. 

Cheap Grace

Cheap Grace

By Richard Maffeo

 

https://youtu.be/NbuM8ReO3d8

 

We embark today on a series of messages I preached 18 months ago, during the summer of 2019. I feel it important to revisit those messages, especially now. Those who were here last week will remember I spoke of the soon return of Jesus, and how Christians must prepare ourselves for persecution.

 

The subject of preparation is far too vast to adequately cover in just one message, and so I will spend the next several weeks focusing on God’s provision for us in the darkening days in which we now live.

 

Some time ago I read a story about a pastor who received a call from a funeral home director. The man asked the pastor if he would please 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 this 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 discovered that the attendees were all men, and he realized many, if not all of them, were gay.

When he finished his words in the pouring rain at the gravesite, 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 his point about 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. Clergy quote the happy verses and ignore the judgment verses. They give people false and damning hope by focusing exclusively 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 priests and bishops and teachers and other church leaders who do what this pastor did – what they do is 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 cross-less Christianity, a Christianity exclusively focused on God’s love and rarely if ever on His multiple warnings and examples of His justice and His 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 [20^th] century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

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 remains no change of heart, no inner conviction by the Holy Spirit, a 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. But salvation 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 an aisle.

We are saved by a living and active faith that manifests itself in repentance, obedience, and love for God and our neighbor. As the Lord Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” And there is good reason the apostle Paul, in his letter to Titus, refers to good works no less than six times in those three short chapters.

 

Remember too, holiness itself is a manifestation of our faith and obedience to God. 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 putting on Christ, living as Christ – in growing obedience to the Father’s commandments.

 

Hear what the apostle John wrote: “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.” (1 John 2:3-4)

 

In fact, this is one of the verses I often quote to people who excuse themselves from being a Christian because of hypocritical church-goers. Yes, I tell them, such hypocrites are liars who may fool themselves, but they do not fool the Great Judge. Furthermore, such hypocrites in the pew and in the pulpit are nothing less than Satan’s Fifth Column in the ranks of the Church.

 

For those of you who do not know about fifth columns, a fifth column is a group of people within a larger group and who undermine the larger group from within. The activities of a fifth column are often secretive, clandestine, and involve in sabotage and disinformation with the ultimate goal of destroying the larger group.

 

Satan’s Fifth Column dates back easily to the first century. St. Paul talked about them in his second letter to the church at Corinth: 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

 

God help us to not fall prey to the fifth columns in our political and educational structures – and even in some of our churches!  Like pastors and priests and other church leaders who tell people what they want to hear and not what they NEED to hear. Who walk arm in arm with those who persist in living in sin and calling it normal, who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and bitter for sweet.

 

Do you think that is not happening in many of our churches across America today?  Then you are not paying attention.

 

And oh, Lord! Keep us all here from becoming ourselves fifth columns, spreading that scandalous heresy of cheap grace, teaching others and being content ourselves with a one-time confession of faith, but never praying and agonizing to make Jesus not only our savior, but our full-time, and all the time Lord, King, Ruler, Master over every nook and cranny and corner of our life. Oh God!  Please help us! Please shake us up. Please remove the chaff from our hearts that we may live fruitfully for you, bringing honor and glory always to you.

 

Salvation is not a transaction; it’s a transformation. Here is what the Holy Spirit tells us through St. Paul:

 

“I beseech you, therefore brethren, but the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living and HOLY sacrifice to God which is your reasonable service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . . (Romans 12:1-2)

 

As I prepared this message, I thought of 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 subtleties are often invisible to the natural eye – which is why it’s so incredibly easy to get caught in his web. 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 the Lord Jesus, I am sure, 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 Christian Church, each of which exhort us to know 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 five 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 again to faithfully 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 is a verse here and there. Hide it in your heart so you will know when the fifth columns all around us whisper their subtle lies in an attempt to sabotage your eternal soul.

 

5. And do not neglect the spiritual armor of God provides for our protection.

 

Spiritually dark days have fallen across our land and over the Church. That is why we will spend the next several weeks looking at that spiritual armor spoken of in Ephesians chapter six.