Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Well, as we wrap up Galatians today on Abounding Grace, we do so with this challenge from Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: This is the word of the Lord, Jesus Christ to you: do not be unbelieving, but believing. Whatever you need, Jesus is ready to show him. He has given you enough evidence, and if you need more, he'll give you more. But don't be unbelieving, but be believing. Everybody believes in something. Everyone has a philosophy of life, but not everybody believes in Jesus.

Guest (Male): From Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado, comes Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Today, we put the finishing touches on our study of Galatians. You may recall when we started this series, grace came shining through. And the apostle Paul will end this letter just like he started it, on the high note of grace. Here is Pastor Ed in Galatians chapter 6.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Paul says if I'm going to glory in anything, I need to glory in the cross of what Jesus has done for my life. That's grace. I need to glory in what God has done, not what I have done. And then he says something very profound. Perhaps it's something that you will meditate and think about this week. But when he talks about the world and its system, he says, "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

There's such a great need for us to be in the world but not of the world. What I mean by the world? The culture. The culture. I like to think of the world as the atmosphere. When you're in a place, there's an atmosphere to it. And there's an atmosphere to the world. You know what it is? Anti-Christ. That's the atmosphere of the world.

The world system that we live in, as fun as it might be and some of the amusements we get to be a part of, the system itself wants to take you away from Christ. Anti-Christ. The Bible says we'll see in 1 John many anti-Christs have already entered. I know there's a lot of speculation, who's the Antichrist, capital A? Set that aside for a second. Why don't you pay attention to the anti-Christs that are already in your life and already in your home, perhaps in your heart?

Paul says I have died to the world. I don't have the ambitions of the world anymore. And the world, he says, also doesn't like me. You know that you're in a place where you're right where you need to be when you don't like the world and the world doesn't like you. Now, I understand that we may not like some of the things in the world. We're watching the news and we're upset with this and we're upset with that. But truly, do you adopt a world system on the things you don't like about the world, or are you like Paul and you go, "I've been crucified. The world's crucified to me." It has no eternal value.

In Jesus, he says at the end in verse 15, "I'm a new creation." We looked back, if you want to turn back to Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, back when we were studying chapter 2, we stopped just on this verse so that you would understand who you are as a new creation and how important it is for you to live that way. There's actually a chapter in my latest book as well where we look just at your identity in Christ because you need to know who you are. Because when you know who you are, you're going to live according to who you are.

If you believe a lie about yourself, you're going to live out that lie. But if you believe the truth, you're going to live the truth. And who you are in Christ, and this is who you are in Christ, verse 20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Now in chapter 6, Paul's saying the same thing a different way. He just says it very simply. Look, the world's been I'm crucified to the world, and the world's crucified to me. I don't like the world and the world doesn't like me.

With this attitude, it's so easy to sow to the spirit when you just understand that the world is not your home. You're just passing through. As my pastor will always say, only one life will soon be passed and only what's done for Christ will last. Can I just tell you right now? You're either going to believe that today, or you're going to believe that next week, or you're going to be 90 years old, but I'm telling you, you'll believe that truth soon enough. It's much better to believe it now. But it is a truth that you will assent to at some point in your life. Only what's done for Christ.

It's better to look ahead, to see how sowing to the spirit to invest our lives into those things that are spiritual. Really, into those things that are eternal. There's only two things that are eternal going from here to heaven: the word of God and the souls of men. That's it. Nothing else is going with you. You're taking nothing with you. It'll be left here. Our money is not going with us. Our possessions, our time, they all belong to him. They all come from him, they all belong to him. But unless you live the crucified life, unless I choose to live that, I'm not going to live as a new creation. I'm going to live as the old Ed that all he lived for was the world. All he lived for were those things that would rip off his time from anything that was good toward God.

Notice verse 16, he says, "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." There's a little play on words here. I think you noticed it. He says, "And as many as walk according to this rule." Now, what has this whole letter been written about? Rules, rituals, and regulations that were put in between a person and God.

And so what does Paul do now? You want to live by rules? Let me give you the rule. And what is the rule? Well, we always have to define a word by its context. Don't forget that. You start with, when you're wanting to define a word in the Bible, you start by looking up the original word. In the New Testament it would be Greek. So you look up the Greek word, you get the definition of the Greek word, but that's not the end. Because you also need to learn how it was used. And the way that you learn how it was used is three words. You ready? Context, context. You want to guess the third one? Context.

And what is the context of this rule? He's saying you want to live by a rule, here's the rule: the cross. You want to live your life, live by the cross. The place of crucifixion, the place of the greatest sacrifice, the greatest picture of love to ever be shown can never be duplicated. No one came before Christ, no one's coming after Christ. You want to live by this rule, as many people as live by this rule, as many people, then you're going to enjoy peace and mercy be upon you, and upon the Israel of God.

This phrase "Israel of God," the word "Israel," you'll remember the name Israel was given to Jacob by God himself. Jacob was this conniver and heel-catcher was what Jacob means. But when he's wrestling with God and he finally surrenders, God changes his name to Israel. You know what Israel means? Governed by God. Ruled by God. So here, the Israel of God is not a different category of people like some extra like the church now has been replaced has replaced now Israel. No, what he's saying is that anyone that's governed by God, anyone that's living by this rule, anyone that is at the cross and that's their life, peace and mercy be upon you.

He says, "Don't let anyone trouble me. Don't let anyone trouble me anymore." Now, that's a strong phrase to use. He's not saying don't talk to him anymore, don't share anything with him anymore. He's like, would you guys just get back to grace and minimize my troubles? Would you just get back to what's important? I've felt this way as a pastor many times where there's just so many problems that don't need to be don't live that way. Would you just stop making bad decisions? Stop going back to that. And Paul's saying not that he doesn't want to be troubled, but he's like, go back to grace because I bear, he says in verse 17, in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. No doubt he has scars, physical scars from all the beatings, the stonings, the mistreatments. He says, look, I have evidence in my life of my faith in Jesus Christ. And don't you have a few scars along the way as a believer? They might not be physical, but don't you have a few points to your testimony of the price that's been paid? Maybe a job loss or friction or difficulty. I mean, maybe some great, great, great persecution and difficulty in your life because of the cross. But Paul says I'm living for eternity myself. And if you doubt me, look at my back. If you doubt me, look at my arms. If you doubt me, look at my face. Look what I have received in my life because of my choice to follow Jesus.

Jesus said the same thing. It's a very similar statement. Turn back to John with me in John chapter 20, and this is where we'll end as we wind down. We'll sort of end. I've got a few more things to share, but we'll sort of end on this. You've got to see this. Paul has so much of the Lord in him that it comes out in his writing. It makes sense because the Holy Spirit's inspiring him, but don't think about the Holy Spirit like telling Paul exactly what to write. What Paul is doing is the Holy Spirit's guiding him through his personality. So he's sharing things, but his personality's being influenced by receiving from Jesus. And Jesus says a very similar thing.

Notice with me John chapter 20 in verse 24. It says, "But Thomas, called Didymus, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he," speaking of Thomas, said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side," notice what he says, "I will not believe." And this is the place where poor Thomas gets a bad nickname. I bet you guys have used it before, some of you. And when you're in line in heaven and you're looking for this guy and you're using his nickname, it's not going to be a pretty picture up there. He's not known in heaven as doubting Thomas.

It's too bad, doubting Thomas. I don't think he's doubting at all, actually, here. I think he's the kind of guy like some of you that just wants evidence. You just want facts. You're the kind of person that moves on facts. That's how God made you. And I want you to know that whatever you need from God, he's ready to give it to you. Whatever you need. Like, you come to church and you may not want to be here, you're with family, they said they'll take you to lunch, you go, I'll take free lunch, but you gotta go to church. Oh, man. And so you're just doing your time, you go, how long does this guy have? I got 20 more minutes, bro. Don't worry about it.

But you just want more facts, that's it. And usually it comes out with your questions. I mean, you're at such a place right now where your questions are always framed in such a way where you think nobody can answer them. And that keeps God at a distance, doesn't it? "Well, you know, if God would just tell me, if I could just touch the print of his nail, you know, I'll be like Thomas. Okay, pastor boy, I'll be like Thomas. I want to touch the nail prints and I want to put my hand in his side." Well, that ain't going to happen. That's unreasonable. I just want you to understand your thinking is unreasonable. And God doesn't bow to being unreasonable people.

The Bible actually describes God as a reasonable God in a couple of occasions. He says in Isaiah, "Come and let us reason together." And God will reason with you. Or in Romans chapter 12, he tells us as believers to lay our lives down as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service because God is very reasonable. So you have your questions. I want you to know your questions will be answered by God. They will. They can be. "Well no, pastor, I've crafted my question that no one has ever been able to answer it." Well, that's a pretty hard heart, isn't it? You have so arranged a question that your whole goal is just to stump people.

Well, what does that leave you? Have you ever thought about that? You're just going around stumping people. What have you proven? You've proven that you really don't want to believe. It's on you, not the answer. I believe that every good question has a good answer to it. I really do believe that. It may not be satisfying to you, but there are good questions and there are good answers. There's even good answers to bad questions. Now, I know that you can't put your hand in the print and you can't put your hand in the side of Jesus. But I think of the question of why. Why God? Why does God? That's a big one, and you can anything after that. Why does God allow pain? Why does God allow suffering? Why is it good God?

And all the why questions, I actually can answer those questions for you. I think the Bible answers them. The problem with that is that you won't be satisfied with the answer. Because it's a hard one to receive. It's hard to think about the pain of sin. A sister right after service yesterday, last night, came up with a why question, and she was in tears about the why question in her life. And I gave her an answer, and the Holy Spirit calmed her spirit, but I know it didn't satisfy her. I could see it didn't solve the problem. The problem won't be solved until you know God personally. When you know God personally, then you can trust him with your life.

But as long as you're trusting yourself with your life, you're always going to be uneasy. So I don't want you to get down on Thomas here. Thomas is just like, I just want just I wasn't there. I don't know what you guys are talking about. But I'll tell you this: if I could see him and I could see and I could even put my hand in his side, then I'll believe. Okay, verse 26. After eight days, you got to love the sense of humor of God here. Thomas has got to wait eight days. But eight is pretty significant in the Bible. Eight is the number of new beginnings.

So something new is going on in Thomas's life. He's going to take that factual, "I gotta know the facts," and God says I'm going to do something new. So notice what happened. Eight days his disciples were again inside, Thomas this time was with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, stood in the middle and said, "Peace to you." And then the very first person he talks to, it wasn't John, it wasn't James, it wasn't Peter, he goes, "Hey Thomas, I heard about you. I heard that you wouldn't believe in me. Well, I'm going to send you to hell." Is that what your Bible says?

But a lot of people believe that. A lot of people believe that Jesus is going to act harshly to your questions. He's not. He's going to show up in eight days, he's going to seek you out and he's going to say, "Hey Thomas, reach your finger right here. Here's my hands. And reach your hand and put it in my side." Can you imagine that with your whole imagination what it would be like to put your hand in the side of the crucified Christ? That's a pretty big deal. In all that that means in his glorified body and what that's like his scars whatever that is Thomas was invited to do that.

And I love this, and this is to anyone today that I might have spoken to. This is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ to you: do not be unbelieving, but believing. Whatever you need, Jesus is ready to show him. He has given you enough evidence, and if you need more, he'll give you more. But don't be unbelieving, but be believing. Everybody believes in something. Everyone has a philosophy of life, but not everybody believes in Jesus. Notice what Jesus says now in verse 29, "Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen," which would be all of us, "and yet have believed."

Paul, what does he tell the Galatians? I have wounds too. Oh, they're not Jesus wounds, of course, but they follow in his footsteps. I have wounds too and they bear witness to the testimony of the truth that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. Do you doubt today? Do you wonder? Are you concerned about this or that going on? Are you troubled? Jesus says, "Look at my scars. They're for you. I died for you, I gave for you, I'm here for you." And for Jesus, the scars are not temporary. They're eternal. A reminder, a perpetual pointer to his supreme love for us.

And our friend Paul ends here in Galatians on the same high note. As high as he could get. He begins his letter and ends his letter very much the same way. Look at Galatians chapter 1, since it's been a few months since we were there. But you'll see in verse 3, in Galatians 1, he says, "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this evil age." And what does he say in chapter 6? I've been crucified to the world, the world's been crucified to me, and as anybody walk according to this rule, the cross, peace and mercy be upon him. Don't let anyone trouble me anymore. I've got marks just like my Savior has marks. Verse 18, "Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

And I love that last word we say it every time we finish reading the psalm together. Amen. We agree with what the Bible says. That's what the word amen the amen just means so be it. We agree. And we do agree. It's true that grace flowing in and through your life will change you. The grace of God changes you. A list of rules and regulation only can take you so far because you can change your behavior. You can. You can adopt this thing over here and you can stop doing this over there and you can become a very moral person.

And the Lord knows we need more morality in our culture today. But morality isn't going to get you to heaven. Only the blood of Jesus Christ. Morality today is kind of another vehicle that gets around the cross. I do a lot of good deeds, a lot of philanthropy, I'm going to give all these billionaires I'm going to give all my money away. Yeah, but not for the Lord and not for the things of the Lord. Only believers get to give all their stuff away in the name of the Lord for the glory of God. And as Paul says, if I'm going to glory in anything, I'm going to glory in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): And with that, we'll not only wrap up today's edition of Abounding Grace, but also Pastor Ed Taylor's study in Galatians. We've given this final message in the series the title "It's All About Grace," and we were challenged to get back to grace. It's what's important. To hear this again or really any message in the series, go to aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have an app that makes listening to Pastor Ed easy to do on your mobile devices. Search for Calvary Church.

And we'd really like to hear from you this summer. It's helpful to know how these studies are impacting your life and that would be a real encouragement to Pastor Ed and the team. And if you're in need of prayer, please leave your prayer requests as well. There's a place to contact us at aboundinggraceradio.com. Well Pastor Ed, let's talk for a little bit about our pick of the month here in July, "The Jesus Person Promise Book" by David Wilkerson. What can you tell us about it?

Pastor Ed Taylor: This is a classic. They reprinted it, redid the cover, but it's a classic book of scriptures put into categories given to you as promises. So there are hundreds of scriptures in this little book that when you're having a any kind of day, you could look it up and go, oh here's a promise for hope. Here's a promise for strength. And it's just taking the word of God, putting it into the categories that will help you greatly and I don't know why we haven't made this a pick of the month earlier. It's better than looking scriptures up online, better than using AI where you have just little book of a collected series of scriptures that then become scriptures when you need them and then you can hold on to them for the promises that they are. So pick it up, whether you support our ministry or not, this is important. Everybody should have a promise book. Everybody should have this resource. It's small, it's compact, but it's full full of truths that will saturate your soul. Unbelievable that we haven't picked this before, but we did now. So enjoy.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is supported by listeners just like you. And we're grateful for those that come alongside us with either a one-time gift or ongoing support. We'd like to say thanks today for a gift of $25 or more by sending you "The Jesus Person Promise Book" by David Wilkerson. When you're dealing with a personal or spiritual problem, where do you turn? If you're wise, you'll open the word, and "The Jesus Person Promise Book" highlights over 800 promises in the word arranged topically. That makes it super easy to find the specific promise that relates to the problem you're experiencing.

It's available to our Abounding Grace listeners when you support the ministry with a gift of $25 or more. So call us at 877-30-GRACE or visit our e-store at calvaryco.church/store. Come back next week for the start of 1 Samuel here on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. It is going to be good. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado, here in Aurora.