The Gospel of Grace

0:00 Father, I thank you for these amazing people in this room. Lord, everybody under the sound of my voice, Lord, I pray that you would speak to their heart today. Holy Spirit, I just pray that these words that come out of my mouth would be directly from heaven, Lord. Lord, we just want to I just want to acknowledge my need for you. And I just want to say that I need you. And I my prayer is that I would disappear up here that people would see Jesus. Lord, we need a touch from your power and your presence today. I pray as I preach this word that every heart would be open, every mind would be receptive, every ear would be open to listen to what you are wanting to say today. So, Holy Spirit, have your way in this place in Jesus name. If you love him, would you shout amen at the top of your lungs? Amen. Amen. Ephesians chapter 2 from verse 1 to 10 is going to be our main text for this morning. I would love for you to follow along in your physical Bible. Uh, if not, I give you permission to get on your phone and open the Bible app only. Okay? Open it up, follow along. If not, there will be the Bible in the sky that you can follow along on the scriptures, too. But I'd love for you to follow with me. Ephesians chapter 2 from verse 1 to 10. I'm reading from the NIV specifically. It says this, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. And like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Verse four says, "But everyone say, but." Because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kingdom to us in

2:07 Christ Jesus. And I need you to catch this in your spirit today. Verse eight says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. that is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. That is the reading of the word this morning. I uh have spent the last two weeks in the beautiful nation of Poland and uh had a great time there. I was with pastors Richard and Helen. Uh, Echo Church flew me over to preach at their conference with my pastors. It was a special time. I also got to visit Life House Krakow and Life House Pausnan. And I just want to bring you a report from our locations in Poland. They are building phenomenal churches. And God is doing something great in the nation of Poland in Jesus name. Come on. There is a revival happening in that nation. [applause] And you have been a part of a church releasing your pastors, pouring into Life House Church. In turn, we've been able to bless the other side of the world uh with the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been awesome. But my two weeks there were very fullon. There was a lot of time preaching, spending time with leaders, consulting with people about church growth and leadership and spending time with pastors. It was amazing. But I'm exhausted. It was a very full-on two weeks. And uh Laura, who booked the trip for me, I said to her, I said, "Laura, I just want one day off so I can go and see Awitz." Has anyone been to Awitz before? Give me a wave. Some of you have experienced that. I felt being such a big part of history that I wanted to go there and I wanted to see it for myself. I wanted to remember and reminisce on on and just pay my respects to that very evil time in history with what happened in World War II. And I thought being on my own in Poland, I would be able to experience a kind of turn off my phone and just be present and just learn um about what happened in that time. And so I went and got an English uh I I hired an English uh tour guide and uh we

4:10 started at the beginning of the museum. We started to walk through and it's quite a the museum is quite a walk away from the very front entrance of the concentration camp. And we began to walk through and uh she starts telling me the context of what was happening in the time and what was going on uh yeah with the with the prisoners and with the Germans. We get to the front of the concentration camp where every single prisoner would have walked through this entrance and above the entrance gate there was a sign that said something in German. I got a photo of it on the screen. For those who have been, you know what it is. That's the photo I took on the left. That's what it looked like many years ago. And the words in German, I'm going to attempt it. It says fry. Any Germans in the room? Did I do okay? Okay. Did I do all right? Not really. It's shaking their head. No m I'm not speaking Arabic. I'm speaking German. Okay. But what it means in English is work sets you free. And I asked the tour guide. I said, "Why does that sign say that?" And she went on to explain to me why that sign was there. And I actually wrote it down after she finished talking because I felt like there was a message in it. And I I wrote down this. She said this to me. She said this was the deception that they entered believing that if they would just work for a little while that they would set themselves and their families up for life. That by working they could earn their freedom. And as I pondered on that statement and as I walked through the concentration camp, as I walked through the the streets of Awitz, I thought to myself, gee, doesn't that sound a lot like Christianity? Doesn't that sound like many believers that I know that have been deceived into thinking that somehow your works can earn your freedom? That somehow by doing specific things, not eating certain foods, not drinking that drink, by praying a certain amount of times a day, by fasting for a certain length of time, by reading a big passage of scripture that you could somehow earn a little bit more grace, a little bit more forgiveness, a little bit more of

6:14 God's favor on your life. But I need to encourage you this morning, friends, do not be deceived by the lie that somehow your works and your good deeds can earn your freedom. It is by grace alone that you have been set free and that you have been saved by the blood of Jesus. Come on. I don't know if there's greater news that I can tell you this morning that you have been set free by grace alone. It is grace alone. Come on. We know this as a church. How many of us have heard the message of the gospel of grace before? Come on. We know this. We know that we can cannot inherently save ourselves, that there's nothing we can do to do it. We know that we can't work toward earning our freedom. But and we always talk about grace and we sing songs about grace and it's all beautiful. But the reality is I still need to talk about it time and time again because this concept of grace I don't feel has fully sunk into people yet. It is a lifelong journey. we have to go on of understanding God's grace. And I need to talk about it because I watch a lot of you wrestle with shame. I watch a lot of Christians wrestle with guilt. I mean, I speak to a lot as you a lot of you as your pastor. I speak to the pastors who speak to you. And so many people get caught up in guilt and shame when you feel like you've fallen short of God's glory. When you feel like you have made mistakes, maybe fallen into old ways of living. But I but I need to tell you, I know it comes from a good place. It comes because you love God and you want to please him when you don't want to disappoint his heart. But what it actually proves is that for many people, grace is still a concept and it's not actually yet a belief. You see, so many have the concept of grace in their mind, but it hasn't yet taken root in your heart. And I know that because of the way that you react when you fall short of God's glory. And see, the thing is, you can have all the head knowledge of grace in your head, but if it doesn't sink 12 in into your heart, it's called cognitive dissonance. If it only ever stays in

8:14 your head and doesn't take root in your heart, you will struggle with shame and guilt your whole life. You will be trying to earn your salvation for the rest of your time on earth. And can I just tell you, it's exhausting. It's exhausting because the thing is about the law is when you try to add yourself up to it, when you try to live by all the regulations and the laws of the Bible, the thing is the law is like a mirror and it doesn't reveal anything other than that you are dirty and that you are in need of a savior. That's what the law does. And you know in this church we believe in the doctrine of solar gratia which in Latin means grace alone. It is the doctrine we believe you know but For many people, they wrestle with this idea because, and I understand why we wrestle is because sometimes we treat God like a human relationship. You see, with human relationships, love and trust needs to be built over time, but you do something for me, I trust you, you do something, I do something for you, whatever it is. And and love as humans, it grows. You have to understand something about God. When you receive grace alone, when you receive it, you receive the fullness of love. And the fullness of grace the day that you ask Jesus to come and be the Lord and Savior of your life, you receive the fullness of grace on that day. You see, human love, it grows, but God's love does not grow. You receive the full package on day. Amen. It's good news this morning. But this has messed up a lot of Christian denominations for a long for a lot of time. It has divided the church over hundreds and thousands of years. This idea that is grace alone that saves us. I need to tell someone this morning, it's got nothing to do with you. There's nothing you can do to etch any closer to salvation. It's all about what Jesus Christ did on the cross. You cannot add to the finished work of Christ when he went to Calvary and he took upon your sin and took upon your shame upon that cross. Amen. You can't add to the finished work of the cross. You know, I'm preaching about this this morning because I see a lot of

10:21 people come and step into a relationship with Jesus. And when I see them encounter God and encounter grace, it's like it is so rich. It's so dense. It changes their life from the inside out. They can't believe what God has done for them on the cross. They can't believe it when it happens. But then it's almost like I can start a stopwatch and it's only a matter of time before religious ideologies start to grip their mind. You see, you get on YouTube, you start watching videos, you get someone else's opinion and all of a sudden your theology starts to get twisted and you start to trying to earn God's grace in your life because the gospel is too good to be true. And at the beginning, you freely receive it. But what happens is we slip and we spiral into there's got to be strings attached here. There's got to be more to this. But I'm here to tell you that the reason it is called the gospel is because the gospel means good news. The reality is it is too good to be true. That none of us deserve it. But it is good news for every single one of us today. Amen. But you know this idea of of of the wrestle of understanding the concept of grace, it's not just for 2026. It's not just today's day and age. This wrestle has been going on for thousands of years. I mean, the Apostle Paul in a lot of his writings has to address this time and time again. An instance specifically is the Apostle Paul, he goes and he preaches the word to the Galatians. And he preaches them this message that it is grace alone that saves you. And they are it's rich and it's satisfying and they can't believe that Jesus would die on a cross and they don't have to go and work for their salvation. They receive it so freely. But then what happens is the Pharisees and religious leaders come along after Paul and they come along to the Galatians and they say, "Hey, yeah, what Paul's saying is true, but it's only half true." Like it is grace alone, but you actually have to do works as well. He comes along and he says, "Yes, it's grace, but it's but but grace plus. It's not just the cross that saves you. That's one part, but the other part is that you have to work toward your salvation." And Paul has to come and

12:26 address this when he sends a letter to the Galatians. Look at what he writes. Galatians 1 6 and 7. He says, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one called you to live in the grace of Christ. You are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and they are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ." He goes on to say in Galatians 3, he asked the question. He says, "Who has bewitched you? who has deceived you into thinking that any of this is about what you can bring to the table. It's got nothing to do with you. He continues on in Galatians and he says, "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ." He says, "You have fallen away from God's grace." And my aim this morning, church, I've come here with a plan, a game plan. My game plan is that none of us will fall away from God's grace. that we would be a people who never graduate from the grace of God. And and this is my favorite message to preach. And you might be sitting here saying, "Really? We're preaching about grace again." Yes, we will preach about grace until the day we go home because he's the only thing that qualifies us to stand before the father one day with a clean conscience and a clean heart. It's grace alone. Amen. So, I want to give you this morning three things. I want to give you three common deceptions regarding the gospel of grace. theologies we have to reject in order to receive the fullness of God's grace. Are you ready for them? Come on, turn to someone, slap them hard, say, "You ready?" Awesome. Well, the first deception regarding God's grace is this, is that you can earn it. Deception one is that you can earn grace. Listen, I'm going to go into a lot of scripture today. I hope that's okay because I need to prove to you this morning that this is not my opinion. I'm not bringing you something that I've made up or that I've thought about is a good concept. I'm bringing you the word of God this morning. I'm preaching the gospel in its in its

14:31 purest form this morning. And I'm just going to give you a whole bunch of scriptures and let the scriptures do the talking. Is that okay? Ephesians chapter 2:8, Paul says that grace is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. You see, the reason why Paul calls it a gift is because he understands that gifts do not require a payment. When people turn up to your birthday party and they give you a gift, you don't scrge for your wallet and try to pull out notes to give them money for the gift. No, a gift has to be freely given and freely received. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 4, he says, "When people work, their wages are not a gift but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous not because of their work but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners." You know, the reality is I see so many people treating grace like it's a wage from God. Whether you have to somehow earn grace, that you have to live certain way to or be on your best behavior to earn God's grace in your life. It's just not true. It cannot be earned. Listen, I I talk to a lot of people, especially young people, and they come up to me, they say, "Pastor Tim, I feel amazing." Because I'm always asking them as the pastor, you know, every good pastor should ask you, "How you how's your walk with God going? how you going with your some some of you are frightened of that question. But a good pastor would ask how you going and I'll speak it to some people and you know I talk to people and they say oh pastor Tim I feel so good. I feel really close to God because I I have opened my Bible and read my Bible five days in a row and I'm like you are amazing. I look at you like mate God's almost coming into your living room like this. Like it's amazing. It it's so good. I'm so proud of you. And then they come up and they say, "Oh, Pastor Tim, I feel so good because, you know, I haven't had a drop of alcohol for 4 weeks." And I'm like, "You're the man. So good. So proud of you." All of these are great things. Living a holy and a righteous life is a beautiful thing. I speak to other young people, "How you going with your walk with God?" "Oh, Tim, pass him. I feel so good. I feel amazing because I haven't watched the

16:36 naughty videos on the internet for three weeks now. I'm clean." And I'm like, "Amazing. Praise God. This is all amazing things." But the problem is is I I I can sense pride by the way that they're telling me about their achievements. There is a pride that rises up inside of them to to prove almost like they need to prove that they are worthy of God's grace. They tell me, "Oh, I'm living a good Christian life." Almost like God's listening and being like, "Yeah, yeah, you better keep living that way or else I'm I'm not going to pull my gra." Like, we treat God like he's a moody teenager in a relationship. Like we treat God like some days God is so proud of you and the other days he's so angry with you. Like you got to understand that's not the way God operates. On the plane to Poland I was watching a the movie The Little Rascals. Anyone seen The Little Rascals, you know, and there's this scene where Alalfa with his little hair, he's sitting on the dock at the river and he's picking apart the flowers. Come on, those who have seen it, you know this, you know it. He's picking over the off the flowers and he says, "She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not." And then the camera pans to the ground and he's gone through like a hundred flowers because he's like trying to convince himself that I think her name's Delilah, whatever her name is. Dala, he's trying to convince himself that Dala loves him. But the reality is is that sometimes that's how we treat God. We think like God is this moody teenager who one day he's angry with us and the next day he's happy with us. All based on your behavior. It has got nothing to do with you. It's the grace of God simply needs to be received. Amen. You know, Romans chapter 3:4 says this. It says, "All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans chapter 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Notice the language that Paul is using. It's a free gift. It's freely

18:38 given. A gift simply can't be earned. Can't be paid for and it can't be earned. In Acts chapter 20, there's this really there's a great story where the apostles are laying their hands on people and people are being filled with the spirit and receiving the gift of grace and receiving power and it's all amazing what's happening. And this guy Simon comes along and Simon tries to get his wallet out and he actually tries to pay for what the apostles had. And look what Peter says to him. Peter says, "May your money be destroyed with you for thinking that God's gift can be bought." He said, "You have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts." You know, the reality is even if you tried to pay for God's grace with money, with time, with effort, with works, with good deeds, the thing is it would be too expensive for you anyway. That's the truth of it. Because 1 Corinthians 6:20 says that God bought you with a high price. You see, grace is freely received and given to us, but it wasn't free for God. It cost God everything to send his one and only son down to die on the cross for you and I. It's free for us, but it cost God everything. The reality is, if you tried to buy it, it's too expensive for you anyway. You need to learn the art of receiving grace. Learn the art of receiving. You know, my my good friend uh Sam Alexi artist, I don't know, is he in the is he in the house today? Not sure. He might be watching online, but my good friend Sam uh you know, Sam always smells amazing. And you know, I have this thing. You you know me, I love my fragrances. I love my perfumes. I'm always preaching about it. And uh if anyone feels like you want to just give me a gift one day, you know, just know that I love Asop. I love perfumes. Anything that smells nice. No. Um, but I'm talking to Sam and Sam walks into church one day and if you know Sam, he always smells amazing. And he smells so good this one day. And I'm like, Sammy, what are you wearing? And he just he gave me this smirk and this smile and he's like he's like, no, I can't tell you. Oh, what for? Tell me. I want to go buy it for myself. He's like, I can't tell you, man. All right. The next week comes and then I say I go up to him. He

20:47 smells good again. I'm like, Sammy, come on, mate. Stop gatekeeping the smell. Like, tell me what is it? I'm going to go buy it. I want the perfume bad. And he says to me and he he does that smirk again and he's like, "Bro, I can't tell you what it is." I was like, "Mate, just tell me. It's not that not that hard." The next week comes and and I and I smelled him again. I'm like, "Sammy, mate, Sammy, you smell amazing. Tell me what it is. I want to go buy the perfume." And he goes, "Listen, I'm not telling you what it is, but I'm going to buy it for you." And I was like, "You going to buy it for me?" And I was like, "Nah, don't do." I said, "No, don't do that. I I'll go and buy it myself, mate. Like, it's all good." Anyway, the next week comes in church, the fourth week now, and Sam buys me the gift and he gives it to me. And I'm like, Sammy, you didn't have to do this, mate. I was going to buy it on my own. You just needed to tell me what it was. And he goes, "Be blessed." And he's got that smirk again. All right. So, I go home and I'm looking at it and like every wag does, you're thinking to yourself, "How much did this thing cost?" Come on. Don't judge me. You guys have done it. You receive a bottle of wine, right? Get all the ws in the room. I'm a wag. I'm allowed to say it. All right. You're like, "How cheap ass is this person, man? Let me see this thing right now." Like, I know you. Come on. I look up the perfume, see how expensive this thing is, and my jaw hit the floor. I had to have facial reconstruction surgery. I was dumbfounded with how expensive. It was like the perfume in John chapter 12, Pastor Ben. It was almost a we wages for me as a pastor. All right. I couldn't believe my eyes. And then I started to think about every conversation I had with Sam. And it wasn't that he was gatekeeping the perfume. He was the smirk was that, "Bro, you couldn't afford this." And everything made sense to me in that moment. And the reality is, it's true. I wouldn't have been able to afford the perfume even if I tried to buy it. And you know, the exact same principle happens with grace. Even if you could earn it with your money, by doing good deeds, by doing things for God, you couldn't earn his grace anyway, you were

22:54 bought at a high price in Jesus name. It's too expensive for you. [applause] Come on, turn to someone and say, "You're too broke anyway. You broke." Deception number one, you can earn his grace. Deception number two is this is that you deserve it. Deception one, you can earn it. Deception two is that you deserve his grace. You know, I was in I landed from Poland 30 hours in a plane. It's a very long way. And I landed at Melbourne airport 4:00 a.m. And uh it took me two hours to get through customs. Just a nightmare. I don't know if anyone's been through customs recently, but it's terrible. And uh I'm standing there and I'm like, man, all I want to do is get home and have a shower. You know that feeling, long flights, get me home. But you know, my job as a pastor when I speak to people, you know, I'm a representation of God. So, I always have to be on my best behavior. I have to have great conversations. I get in my Uber at 6:00 a.m. And uh and you know, I can't be the best Christian all the time. There's sometimes where I just like, you know, you know, you say to yourself like, "Bro, please don't talk to me." You know, come on. I'm not alone. Like, please, bro, don't talk to me. like I'm good most of the time, but after 30 hours of flying, I get in this Uber and the guy says, "Where are you coming from?" I said, "I'm coming from Poland." He's like, "Oh, Poland. Awesome." Yeah. Yeah. I'm like just trying to shut down the conversation. And he goes, "What were you doing in Poland?" I said, "I was working. What do you do for work?" I'm a pastor of a church. I'm a pastor in a church. You know, you're a pastor at a church. Oh my gosh. No, no word of a lie. He opens his glove box and he starts scrimmaging around. The car's swerving on the road. I'm holding on to the sides of the car and he pulls out a wooden cross out of his glove box and he wedges it in between his windshield and

24:56 his dashboard. And he goes, "Bro, I just want to let you know." He's turning around looking at me. He's swerving on the road. I'm like, "Watch the road, champ." He's like, "I just want to let you know, bro. I pray every day. I want to let you know that I read my Bible, that I do good things, that I give my money to the poor, I I I pray, I read the Bible every now and then, I go to church at Easter. He's like talking to me like I'm going to lean over and sell him like, "Your sins are forgiven, son." Like like Like what's he expecting from me, you know? But everything inside of him was trying to prove to me that he somehow deserves God's grace. He was talking about all of his good deeds, all the things that he's done in his life, all the things he actively done. I said, "You can't be that good of a Christian, mate. Your freaking cross was in the glove box." But at least keep it out there full time. You know what I mean? Crazy. Nearly crashed the car. My goodness. Just keep the cross up there. Maybe you wouldn't crash the car. My He was ready to meet Jesus. That's right. I don't know if I was ready. He was, you know, the reality is no matter no matter how bad or good we've been in our own efforts and our own behavior because of our fallen nature, not one of us deserves God's grace. Not a single one of us deserves his grace. The Bible says in Romans 3, for everyone has sinned and fall short of God's glory, his immaculate standard. None of us meet the mark. This is why we need a savior. Every one of us needs a savior. If you're drowning out in the ocean, you cannot save yourself. You need someone to come and rescue you. And this is exactly what Jesus did. I was talking to a friend a couple of years ago and we were talking about God. And we're talking about faith. And he was saying to me, Tim, why do I need God? Because he said, "I understand that other people need God. People who have made moral failures with their life, people who have cheated, who steal, who've stolen, who have lied. I understand that they need the gospel,

26:58 that they need God. But I don't like I'm a good person. Like I don't lie. I don't cheat. I don't steal. I I I I I actively try to do the right thing by everyone. I love people like like I want to be loved myself. Why do I need to be saved? I'm a good person. And we went on to have a conversation. I said to him, "Brother, have you ever been angry at anyone? Have you ever been angry at a brother?" And he said, "Well, yeah, I've been angry at someone." I said, "Well, the Bible would say that you've actually committed murder in your heart." I went on to say, "Have you ever lusted after someone that's not your partner?" And he said, "Well, well, yeah, like I have." Okay. Well, well, the Bible says that you've committed adultery in your heart. I went on to say to I said, "Have you have you ever looked at someone's home or their shoes or their car and been a little bit jealous? Maybe you'd want that for yourself." Well, yeah. Well, the Bible says that that's envy, that that's jealousy, that you're coveting a brother. That's that's a sin. I said, "Have you ever lied?" He said, "Yeah, I've lied before." I said, "Okay, so by all by all accounts, you have fallen short of God's glory. And no matter if you miss the mark by only a little bit or by a long way, the reality is we all fall short of his glory. And I want to show you a diagram. This is a picture that I spoke to him about and I often use this as a tool and maybe some of you have seen it. It's a basic concept, but I wrestled whether to actually put it put it on the screen today because I thought it's basic, but you know what? I want you to actually be able to use this as a tool when you're talking to people about why they would need a savior because people do feel like they deserve grace based on the way that they live. And I and I say, "Okay, so this is us. This is humanity. This is us in our sinful nature. And every single one of us has to make this leap over into eternal life, into salvation. That's the aim is to get from this life to the next and be with God forever." But the reality is, no matter in this person's effort, no matter how hard they try, if they were the greatest person on planet Earth, they did the right thing by everybody. They were like Mother Theresa. The reality is if they try to jump this on their own, they might get 95% of the way there, but they are not going to be able to do it on their own. They're going to fall short and fall into the ditch. On the contrary, if you have someone who

29:04 has been terrible their whole life, been called caught up with stealing, murder, drug addiction, with uh with different things, been in prison, whatever, whatever, someone who's actively, this person could be like Adolf Hitler, right? The reality is if they try to jump the gap, they might have only been 5% good, but the reality is they're falling down the same gap. See, both people, no matter how good you've been or how bad you have been, cannot get to the other side on your own. Why? Because even if you have 1% of a fallen nature, you can't make it. Because you fall short of God's immaculate standard. Therefore, none of you and none and not me, none of us could ever jump this gap on our own. And the reality is we needed a savior to come and die on the cross and set us free. And you're about to see the next image. I apologize. It's so corny. It's so AI slop. But look at this thing. That's the reality of the gospel. That you and I couldn't jump the gap on our own. That we needed a savior to come and die to bridge the gap so that we could stand righteous before God one day. Come on. Isn't that good news, church? Isn't it good that your sins have been saved and forgiven forever? I'm slagging everywhere here. You're getting a shower in the front row. Hope that's okay. As you can tell, I'm passionate about preaching the gospel. You know, some of you might be thinking like, I've heard the gospel message before. I don't care. I'm going to preach this to the day I meet Jesus because nothing else gets us to be face to face with Jesus other than grace alone. Come on, somebody. It is by the blood of Jesus. May we never be a people who graduate from grace. God forbid we become a church who graduate and move on to grace and start taking our works into our own hands. I reject that theology. I reject that doctrine in this church. We will forever be a solar gratia church. By grace alone, we've been saved. You know, so this friend is telling me, I'm starting, he says, I'm starting to understand where you're coming from. But he can't really he's still saying he's holding on to the fact that he is a good person. that that why would God

31:09 judge him? He's still a good person. And I said to him, "Hey, there there is this scripture in Isaiah 64:6 where the Bible says that all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags before God." Think about that for a second. What you deem is your greatest efforts, what you deem is being a good Christian, I want you to think about being the best Christian in your head. What does that look like? Close your eyes for a second. Does it look like reading your Bible every morning? spending time in prayer, evangelizing, fasting. What does it look like to be the best Christian possible in your life? Isaiah 64 is telling us that that those efforts are like filthy rags to God. It's pretty crazy because you and I, we feel so good about ourselves when we're living right, when we're living holy. But God sees it as filthy rags. What he's talking about in this original language in the Bible is that it's actually talking about a period rag, right? And If you look at the very one of the first instructions from God to mankind is he tells Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. He he goes and says be fruitful and multiply. Now a little bit of a chemistry lesson for those who don't know. What happens is a period happens because when an an egg is released from the ovaries if it is not fertilized with sperm what happens is at the period is how the body gets rid of that egg that has been waiting to in other words the pregnancy has the egg has been unfruitful and what you and I deem as fruitful living what we deem as fruitful Christianity in our lives it's almost like the Bible is saying it's nothing but unfruitfulness to God like you think that your efforts you think that your fruit, God's impressed by it. It's filthy rags to God. Come on. Doesn't that doesn't I don't know about you, but that actually sets me free because it stops me from focusing my attention on myself and my own good doings and focusing on God. God, I'll never be good enough for you and that's okay because I'm saved by grace alone in Jesus name. Look what Jesus says in Luke chapter 18 verse 9 9-14. I love this. Jesus puts it

33:13 so perfectly. He he addresses a situation of a the parable of a Pharisee and a tax collector. And the Bible says this. He says, "To some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable." He said, "Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector." The Pharisees stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I'm not like these other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over here." That's how some of you pray. Oh, thank you, God. I'm so good. But not like that person. Come on. Let's be honest. Come on. Come on. Love you. Love you heaps. But this is how some of us act. We judge other people's actions. We judge the other way that people Oh, they they got drunk. Oh, they're raising their kids like that. Oh, come on. This is the way some of us This is the way some of us act. The Bible says that the the Pharisees says, "Thank God I'm not like anyone else. I'm not like these evildoers and robbers and like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all that I get." In other words, I give I'm such a good Christian in all my good deeds. Verse 13 says, "But the tax collector stood at a distance and he would not even look up to heaven. But he beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me a sinner. I tell you, this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled. But those who humble themselves will be exalted. Come on. None of us deserve God's grace. It is by grace alone that we have been saved. I don't feel like there's nothing more to add to that. Jesus put it so perfectly in that passage of scripture. And as the team comes and joins me, I want to finish on the last deception. Deception number three is that grace makes works irrelevant. Grace makes works irrelevant. It's a deception. And that might sound contrary to what I'm preaching about in my first two points. But you have to understand the order. The order is is that we are

35:18 not saved by our good works, but we are saved for doing good works. That when we receive the grace of Jesus Christ, it's not meant to stop there. that we ought to be people who live beyond the cross, who don't just live with grace and thank you God and now I'm going to live however I want. No, no, no. You're you're saved by grace so that you can go and do good works. You know, this has been a big contention within Christian denominations for a long time. It comes from James chapter 2 where we know the scripture that faith without works is dead. Anybody heard that scripture? It's it's it's a lot of people have interpreted that as as if you're you have to do good works to be saved. They they've preached the gospel that Paul's preaching against in Galatians 1 where he says, "Hey, it's not it's not grace plus. It's not grace and it's grace alone." And and if you actually keep reading in James 2 past that scripture that says faith without works is dead, it gives a better context for us. It says this. Jesus says in verse 18, "Now some may argue some have faith and others have good deeds. But I say, how can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds?" In other words, it's saying that if you have faith, if you have been saved, [music] then it should be shown in your good works. That faith produces good works and good works is the evidence of faith. Just like fruit on a tree is evidence that the tree is alive, that the tree is not dead. You see a dead tree can't produce fruit. If something is dead, it cannot produce anything good. So in the same way, grace makes us alive. Grace, when we receive it, we receive the fullness. Nothing more to add. But then we can go and produce good fruit off the back of that. You see, a dead tree is not expected to grow fruit before it becomes alive. The order has to be correct. the fullness of grace first and then good works. I love in Ephesians 2 at the original in the original text that we we read, Paul Paul

37:21 opens by saying, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions. You were dead in your sin." See, you need to be made alive before you produce good works. Oh, I know, Pastor Tim, but the Bible's pretty clear. On face value, faith without works is dead. How can you argue with that? Okay, if we're going to start reading the Bible on face value alone, I mean, let's let me take you to John chapter 6 28-29. Look at look what it says. These people are amazed at what Jesus is doing. And they and they replied, they said, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?" In the NIV version, it says, "We we want to we want to do the works that God requires." At verse 29, Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you to believe in the one he has sent." Isn't that good news that there is only one work for you required? It is to believe that the son of God came to set you free. It is by grace alone [applause and music] in Jesus name. I'll finish with this story of Zakius. Maybe some of you are familiar with the story, but Zakchius is this tax collector and he is the scum of the earth. People despise him. He lies. He cheats. He steals off everybody. He was a short man. The Bible said kind of like Maramea. Tight. Nice and short. You know what I mean? Shh. He's not taller than me. He's going to hate that. Zakius is this short man and he see he hears Jesus walking through the town and he climbs a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus. and he's up there and Jesus comes along to Zakius and says, "Zakius, I'm coming to your house tonight. We're going to have dinner together. Fire up the coal barbecue. We're having lamb shish kebabs tonight." Jesus walks into Zakius's house and he has dinner with him. Nowhere do you read that Jesus starts holding Zakius accountable to the law. Nowhere do you read Jesus confront Zakius like a weird intervention. Nowhere do you read Jesus Bible bashes Zakius asking where have

39:33 your good works been. He doesn't. In fact, Jesus says nothing because Jesus is actually the fullness of grace. Grace is actually not a concept. Grace is a person and his name is Jesus. But that's a whole another message that I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. Pastor Sil, he encounters grace in that moment in that day and he receives the fullness of grace. Zakius, he stands up after Jesus had not said one word, had not required one thing from him. Zakius stands up and he says, "I'm going to give back everything I've stolen." Not just I mean, that would have been enough for Zakius just to have been like, "I I'm I'm going to just give back what I've stolen." But Zakius says, "I'm going to give back four times what I've stolen from people." [music] In other words, I'm going to start producing some good works. And I love the order that it happens. He receives the fullness of grace. He stands up and says, "Now, I'm going to go live and do good works with my life." Listen, you have been saved and set free so that you can go and produce good works. You are not expected to earn your salvation by the works that you do. Notice the order. In the very beginning, Ephesians chapter 2, it says, "By grace you have been saved." in verse 8 and verse 10. It then says, "For you are God's handywork created in Christ Jesus to do good works." Verse 10 doesn't come before verse 8. The order has to be right for us. That's the doctrine we believe in this church that we are working. We are not working for salvation. We are working from salvation in Jesus name. So many people get one letter mixed up for to from. They get one letter and it messes with their they wrestle with shame their whole life because of one letter. You're not working for salvation. You're working from salvation in Jesus name. You know just like I saw that sign that day said works set you free. You know when Jesus goes to the cross it was a sign to all of humanity that it is not works that set you free

41:38 but the work has been finished on the cross. It was a sign for every single one of us that we don't have to add anything to the complete and finished work of God. You see, a worksbased theology says be better, but grace says come as you are. A worksbased theology says the burden's on you, but grace says Jesus took the burden upon himself. A worksbased theology produces fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty, but grace produces gratitude, security, and good works. works. Bas theology says do, but grace says it's already been done. All you simply have to do is receive it in Jesus name. Come on. Could I have every eye closed in this place, every head bowed? Let me give you an opportunity this morning to be able to receive the free gift of grace. And the Bible says, "For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. There's no hoops to jump through. There is no requirement that you have to live up to. Jesus lived and fulfilled the law. He fulfilled the requirements. And upon that cross, he took all of your shame, all of your wrongdoings, all of your shortfalls, and [music] he made a way for us to be reconciled with the father. And the Bible makes it so clear in Romans chapter 10, if you would just believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, that you will be saved, that one [music] day you will stand before God. And it will not be based on what you did, but it will be based on what Jesus did for you and freely gives to you right now. All you have to do is say a prayer from the bottom of your heart and direct it heavenward to God and [music] he will hear our prayers. Come on. God is leaning over the balcony of heaven waiting for his children to pray this prayer. And I want to give you an opportunity to pray it. I don't want to embarrass you, but I want to see your hand on the count of three. Nice and high. I'm going to acknowledge your hand. You can put it back down. And you just need to pray this prayer to God. On the count of three, boldly and bravely all across this place from the front to the back. One, two, three. Awesome. I

43:49 see hands going up everywhere. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Yeah. Nice and high so I can see it. Thank you, God. Amazing. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Thank you. 16 17 Thank you, Jesus. Come on. You can put your hand back down. Come on, Life House. We're going to pray this prayer all together. If you put your hand up, I want you to pray this prayer [music] to God. Say, "Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart and forgive me of all my sin. Lord, thank [music] you for dying on the cross and setting me free. I want to walk with you for all of my days. Thank you that it is by [music] your grace that you have set me free. I want to be with you for all of eternity. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Come on Life House, let's give a round of applause to those who made that decision for the first time. Amazing. Hey, how our hosts will jump up in a moment. We would love to give you a free Bible and help you on that journey. But come on, can we stand to our feet in these next few moments? [music] We're going to spend some time singing and praying. And we're going to sing and pray because I believe that every single one of us, no matter where you are on the spectrum of faith and on your journey with Christ, you may have been walking with Christ for 50 years. This could be your first day today. [music] Every one of us needs a deeper revelation of grace. Every single one of us needs to know the person of grace more and more every single day. So come on, our team are going to come and sing. And I'm praying and believing in these next few moments that you would receive the fullness of God's grace. Come on. Could we sing? Come on. Could we worship in this place? Hands [music] lifted to heaven would. Thank you, Lord God. Come on, let's sing. [music]

45:56 Come on, open up your heart today. Receive the free gift of grace. [music and singing] Come on, ask him for a deeper understanding this morning. [music and singing] Come on. Gone are the days where you keep beating yourself up. Come on, deal with shame. Deal with your guilt today. Receive the grace. Receive it. Open up your heart. Come on. [music] Come on and open it up today. [singing] [music] Jesus, have your way down. [music] Come on, receive it today. [music] [singing] Come on, receive his grace. Come on. My desire [music and singing] is to know you. Thank you, Lord. I love [music] you. My feet. I [music] touch [singing] our just want to pray for one last group of people with every eye closed. You know, maybe if you were honest with yourself, every time you feel like you fall short of God's glory, you beat yourself up. You think God is so far away [music] from you. I I remember just a young man growing up trying to understand the concept of grace. I used to think that when I would turn my back on God, when I would walk the other way and feed my flesh and the desires of my human nature, I feel like I would take steps towards the world and I felt like God pulled up the handbreak and stopped all the way back from the moment where I decided to follow my flesh. But I it was in those times where I didn't understand the grace of God. But as I've gone on this journey of understanding and and maturing in my understanding of grace,

48:03 I've realized that the moment where you feel furthest away from God, when you turn around, God is not kilometers away. But God is right behind you. The Bible says that he will never leave you. He will never forsake you. That he will be with you always. And come on, I feel like some of us in this room, you've been so messed up from the shame of your past. You're so messed up from the guilt of those mistakes that maybe you even made five, six, seven hours ago. You might have made mistakes and feeling, "How [music] could God ever love a sinner like me? How could God ever forgive a wayward heart like mine?" I'm here to tell you, this is not about you. This is about the grace of God that is freely given to every single one of us. If you would just learn to receive it, learn to receive the grace of God. Father, I pray for everybody struggling to receive grace. Lord, I pray that you would open up our understanding as we open up our heart to you. As we sing this song one more time, I pray that you would just unlavish your grace. May we feel your grace like we've never felt it before in Jesus' name. In Jesus name.