Dealing with Guilt

Jerry Bridges in The Discipline of Grace offers this helpful counsel on dealing with our guilt.

Justification is a completed work as far as God is concerned.  The penalty has been paid and His justice has been satisfied.  But it must be received through faith and must be continually renewed in our souls and applied to our consciences every day through faith.  There are two "courts" we must deal with: the court of God in Heaven and the court of conscience in our souls.  When we trust in Christ for salvation, God's court is forever satisfied.  Never again will a charge of guilt be brought against us in Heaven.  Our consciences, however, are continually pronouncing us guilty.  That is the function of conscience.  Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience into line with the verdict of Heaven.  We do this by agreeing with our conscience about our guilt, but then reminding it that our guilt has already been borne by Christ. (The Discipline of Grace, 54)

A Stirred Up Spirit

This morning while reading through Ezra 1 I was struck by this phrase:

"...the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia..."

Then a few verses later it reads,

"...everyone whose spirit God has stirred to go up..." 

In the context the work that God was stirring Cyrus and Israel to do was to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. But, I like that phrase, "the LORD stirred."  Do you like it?  You see this is what I need; this is what you need; this is what Meadowview Baptist needs - we need the LORD to stir our spirits.

We need the Lord to stir us to continue growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18); But another big area is in our disciple-making.  We need the Lord to stir us to preach the gospel and make disciples (Matthew 28-18-20).  Would you pray with me that God would stir us (like He stirred Cyrus and Israel) to be about our duty of making disciples?

Reminder: we are having a prayer meeting this Friday night from 7-8 in the auditorium.  Here we will pray this prayer and I hope to see you there!

The Gospel

In his book The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges outlines seven truths that we need to clearly understand if we want to understand the gospel.  Bridges derives these truths from Romans 3:19-26.

1. No one is declared righteous before God by observing the law (19-21)
2. There is a righteousness from God that is apart from law (21)
3. This righteousness from God is received through faith in Jesus Christ (22)
4. This righteousness is available to everyone on the same basis, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (22-23)
5. All who put their faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God's grace (24)
6. This justification is "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (24)
7. God presented Jesus as a Sacrifice of Atonement, through faith in His blood (25)

What a message! And what a Savior!

Grace Is Sufficient

This morning in my reading I read these powerful words from 2 Corinthians 12,

...A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 
Therefore (Paul speaking) I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

As I read through these words it brought to mind a song by Shane & Shane titled "Grace Is Sufficient." So I thought I would share the lyrics with you.  As you read through this passage and these lyrics remember that whatever you face today: health struggles; relationship struggles; grief; another typical Monday at the office; another bill; difficult decisions - whatever it is remember that HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT! 

What are you gonna do
When the doctor comes
Into the waiting room
Puts his hand on you
And says I'm sorry?

What are you gonna say to God
When all you do is pray to God
To take the thorn away?
And all you hear Him say is:

My grace, My grace
My grace is sufficient
My grace is sufficient

What are you gonna do
When your neighbor walks
Into your living room
And you to tell him
Who could deliver them
Like He delivered you?

What are you gonna say to God
When all you do is pray to God
For them to know His name
And all you hear Him say is:

My grace, My grace
My grace is sufficient
My grace is sufficient

It's all you need

What are you gonna say to God
When everything you prayed to God
Came your way but you forgot to thank Him?
And all you hear Him say is
My grace

What Does Love Look Like?

Jerry Bridges in his book The Discipline of Grace takes 1 Corinthians 13 (The great love chapter) and writes out verses 4 and 5 as action statements, encouraging the reader to "Ask yourself how your doing in your day to day practice of love."

• I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you. 
• I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you. 
• I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best. 
• I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours. 
• I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself. 
• I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings. 
• I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs. 
• I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses. 
• I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and "love covers a multitude of sins."  

So how is your love?

Laughing At the Mercy of God

This morning in my Bible reading I was struck by a particular line I found in 2 Chronicles 30:10.  Before I get to that line let me set up the context a bit. Hezekiah is king in Judah and is calling on not only Judah to repent and turn back the Lord, but all of Israel.  So Hezekiah sends out letters inviting all of Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh included) to come to Jerusalem for Passover.  In verse 7-8 he exhorts them to avoid being faithless and stiff-necked like their fathers and grandfathers so that they may avoid the judgment and wrath of God.  Then in verse 9 he writes,

For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land.  For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away His face from you, if you return to Him.

So in verse 10 we read of the couriers traveling from city to city delivering this message of repentance and mercy, and here is where the text becomes troubling.  In verse 10 it says that they traveled to Ephraim and Manasseh, and even as far as Zebulun, but when they delivered the message the people "laughed them to scorn and mocked them."  Did you get that?

 ...they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

Hearing about the grace and mercy of God they laughed and mocked. It is important to point out according to verse 11 that some of the people did humble themselves, but the greater populous laughed at the mercy of God.  How wicked! How rebellious! How evil it is to laugh at God's merciful call to repentance!

BUT (you probably knew that was coming) aren't we all guilty of taking lightly God's merciful's calls to repentance in our lives?  Sure we may not openly mock during the response time on a Sunday and we may not scornfully laugh after personal or family time in Scripture - but doesn't our indifference really communicate the same thing? Doesn't our lack of repentance make us just like them? Doesn't our lack of "doing" the word reveal that we don't really take God or His words seriously? 

Just something to consider. 

The Discipline of Grace

This morning I picked up a book that I haven't looked at in a couple of years - The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.  One of the bloggers that I follow, Tim Challies chose this book to read through, inviting his readers to join him (he does this a couple times each year).  So I decided to join in on this read and wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

In chapter one (titled How Good is Good Enough?) I was reminded once again of this truth that I so often forget - THIS LIFE IS NOT ABOUT ME; SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT ME.  Meaning it's not about my sins and failures, or the guilt that I experience when I sin and fail.  Rather it's about God's grace in forgiving my sins and failures.  Nor is it about my good works, rather it's about God's grace working through me to accomplish good.   Here is how Bridges summarized this point: 

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace (19)

Bridges goes on unpacking what he means throughout the chapter, and I thought these lines offered a helpful explanation.

Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God's blessing through their behavior.  Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God's blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience.  Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God. (22)

In other words Bridges is saying it's not about what WE did or do...it's about what CHRIST did through His death and resurrection - the Gospel!  But then the question comes if I cannot use "duty" or "guilt" to motivate myself and others to follow Christ, what should I use?  Bridges addresses this too:

We believers do need to be challenged to a life of committed discipleship, but that challenge needs to be based on the gospel, not on duty or guilt.  Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ's love for us will motivate us for a lifetime.  (25)

So Christ's love for us should motivate us to lives of Radical discipleship...that's good stuff!  It's not to late to join in on the read.  If you are interested click here to see how it all works.