From His Heart

Larry Nobles: Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, we'll discover that balance is everything.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Question. Do you have a proper balance in your understanding of Jesus? You and I have to have the proper theological balance between grace and truth so that we don't fall off the theological wire into theological heresy. So we don't believe in another Jesus who's not a real Jesus because the real Jesus of the Bible is full of grace and truth, full of loving kindness and truth. So we want to talk today about that important issue.

Larry Nobles: In today's society, Jesus is often regarded in one of two ways, the one who forgives all sins or the one who is an inflexible judge regarding life and eternity. But if we're being completely honest, really, can God truly be categorized in this way? This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today for a revealing message entitled a one-sided Jesus. Pastor Jeff helps us to understand that Jesus Christ, while loving beyond measure, is also honest without error. He completely is full of grace while simultaneously full of truth. Are you ready to experience Jesus as he really is?

This lesson is from Pastor Jeff's seven message series, Encountering the Real Jesus, that we're airing the rest of this month. Right now though, open your Bible to the Gospel of John chapter 1 as Pastor Jeff begins the lesson a one-sided Jesus.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We're in a series entitled Encountering the Real Jesus. And today we want to look at the character and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ and see the tremendous balance within his person. Now we have titled this series Encountering the Real Jesus. And some can see that and say, well, I don't understand. Isn't there just one Jesus? I mean, isn't isn't just it's the real Jesus? There's just one Jesus. Yes, but the devil has counterfeit Jesuses that he puts out there. The Bible even talks about those. In 2 Corinthians, Paul told the Corinthians, you believed in another Jesus whom we have not preached.

You're you're falling for this the devil's deceit and the devil's lies. And see, the devil is not so interested in turning everybody into an atheist. Now he's he's fine with that if people go that route, but what he really does because the the vast majority of the world are not atheists. But what he wants to do is if I can't get you to disbelieve God completely, let me get you to believe in a false God. Let me I'll call him Jesus, but I'll he's not going to be the real Jesus and you're going to trust in this fake Jesus, this other Jesus and have false teachers preach this other Jesus and let you believe on that Jesus and because that Jesus is not real, that Jesus cannot save.

There are people, good-hearted people, well-meaning people, and they struggle when it comes to this concept of God, especially in the Old Testament, and then Jesus in the New Testament. I've heard people tell me before they said, well, Jeff, you know, I don't like the God of the Old Testament. I mean, that God is mean. That God is scary. That God destroyed the whole world with a flood in Genesis chapter 7. That God wiped out cities in the plains in Genesis chapter 19. He rains down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, the cities of the plains.

Man, that God, you get out of line with that God and it's whap whap. The Jews in Moses' day when God came down to Mount Sinai to give Moses the Ten Commandments, man, he scared the people to death because Mount Sinai began to shake and there was smoke all over the mountain and there was thunder and man, the people said to Moses, speak to us yourself, but don't let God speak to us lest we die. We're scared of God. And some people say, well, I don't like the God of the Old Testament, not Jesus in the New Testament.

That he's I like him. I mean, he 's got long hair and he's got a beard and he wears a robe and sandals. He's just kind of the chill Jesus. He's the John Lennon Jesus. He all we need is love. You know, he's that kind of guy and he doesn't seem to be harsh on anybody and he's just he's just so wonderful and we just sing those songs, sweet little Jesus boy. I mean, I just I just like that Jesus. He's kind of like a bendable buddy. You can just turn him into whatever you want him to be and and boy, he doesn't ever seem to get angry at anything and well, that Old Testament God, I don't I don't know about him.

Listen, Jesus is the Old Testament God. There's only one God, one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And Jesus, his name means Yahweh saves. And the God of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. And there is but one God. Now the God of the Old Testament, he did act in wrath when sin reached a fever pitch and people could wouldn't turn around, then judgment comes just like judgment will come in the New Testament and Jesus will enact judgment when he comes back at the battle of Armageddon.

It's the same God. And Moses, when he encountered God and wanted to see God's glory in Exodus 33, he said, please, Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, show me your glory. And God said, I'll let you see the backside of my glory. And God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and he covered him with his hand and he passed by Moses and he said these words to Moses, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Mark that down in your brain, abounding in loving kindness and truth.

Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. That is the God of the Old Testament. He's abounding in loving kindness and truth. He's compassionate and gracious. He's a good God. Now in the New Testament, when John in his Gospel tells us about Jesus, he lets us know that the God of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. And in John chapter 1, he opens his Gospel this way.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And the word is obviously Jesus Christ because he says in verse 14, in case you wonder, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. Lord, show me your glory, Moses prayed. And God passed by and he said he was full of loving kindness and truth. And John lets us know that Jesus, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. And what was his glory? It was full of grace and truth.

How is the glory of God revealed to you and to me through the two attributes of God that encompass salvation, grace and truth? And grace and truth are key components and the bedrock of salvation and that's how God reveals his glory. And you and I have to have the proper theological balance between grace and truth so that we don't fall off the theological wire into theological heresy. So we don't believe in another Jesus who's not a real Jesus because the real Jesus of the Bible is full of grace and truth, full of loving kindness and truth.

So we want to talk today about that important important issue. Question. Do you have a proper balance in your understanding of Jesus? Let me share with you three important insights associated with that. First of all, very simple, Jesus is full of grace. That's what the Bible says. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. He is full of grace. The Greek word for grace it's used 122 times I think in the New Testament is the word charis, charis.

And it's it's a wonderful word, charis. It's been translated in in or defined in different ways, but it basically means unmerited, undeserved. It's the favor of God that's unmerited and undeserved. Somebody came up with an acronym years ago and they said, what is grace? Grace is g r a c e. It's God's riches at Christ's expense. That is grace. I I found a definition I liked a little better because it combines the Old Testament word loving kindness with the New Testament word grace. It kind of puts those together and those are synonyms. The word that's used in the Old Testament over and over and over and over to describe God is the Hebrew word hesed, h e s e d, hesed.

That's been defined as loving kindness. Great word, God's love and God 's kindness mixed together. It's God's loyal love. It's God's covenant love with his people, God's promise keeping love. Martin Luther said loving kindness in the Old Testament, grace in the New Testament, that's the same. It's the same. It's just a word in Hebrew and a word in Greek. I like to think of grace this way. Grace is God's undeserved love and kindness in action. That's grace. It's undeserved, unmerited love from God and kindness from God mixed together, loving kindness and it's in action. It's doing something for you and for me and to you and to me, God's grace.

You think about why verse 14, why did the word become flesh? I mean, we read about the word in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. He's eternally God. He's essentially God. He's equally God. He's creator God. Nothing came into the being that has come into being apart from him. The word who is the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we read verse 14 of the incarnation. The word becomes flesh. Why in the world would the word become flesh? Why would God the Son leave the glories of heaven to be placed in a virgin's womb, to be born in Bethlehem in a cave, to be placed in a feeding trough with horses and donkeys and hay?

That place stunk. Why would he do that and just to grow up in this family and be a carpenter after his father Joseph, his earthly father, his stepfather. His real father was obviously the father. And then to give up his life and to be stretched out on a cruel Roman cross, why in the world would the word become flesh to do that? Because of grace. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 says this, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich.

It's because of grace. That's what caused him to do what he did. God's love and his kindness in action to undeserving people. From the best of us to the worst of us, from the Billy Grahams to the Billy Bobs and everybody in between, he came for us to give his life on the cross. That is grace. Now grace is what saves us and it's what sustains us. That's how you come to know the Lord is by grace for Ephesians 2 makes that clear for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works lest any man should boast.

It's by God's grace that you're saved. And it's by God's grace that you continue in your Christian life. If there was only grace at the beginning of the Christian life, but not grace anywhere else, none of us could do this. It's all by grace. And I love it in Paul's letters. If you read in Paul's letters in his salutation, he always writes about grace. He will always say something along the lines of this, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Why grace to me? Because you need grace because we fall and we fail and we find ourselves in the ditch so often and there's grace extended to you and to me.

Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. There's grace for the prostitute in Luke 7 who came and fell at Jesus' feet and began to weep and began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. She found grace and Jesus said, your sins are forgiven. Your faith is saved. You go in peace, not go in shame, not go in guilt, but go in peace. How did he do that? By his grace. It's grace to forgive sins. It's grace that said to the thief on the cross, truly I say to you today you shall be with me in paradise.

Wow. Grace. And it's grace that came to Peter. Peter who denied the Lord three times, grace came to Peter in John chapter 21 when the Lord Jesus restored him to his place of leadership with the disciples. All because of grace. Jesus is full, overflowing. That's what that word means, replete, overflowing with grace just as it says in the Old Testament, the Lord the Lord compassionate and gracious, abounding in loving kindness. Second insight, not only is Jesus full of grace, but Jesus is full of truth, abounding in loving kindness and truth. He is full of grace and truth.

Now truth is kind of interesting. Truth is one of those things that it's the definition of truth. If I looked it up in Webster's dictionary and the definition of truth in Webster's dictionary says this, being in accordance with the real facts. What is truth? It's the quality of being true. And it's one of those definitions that kind of goes back to the to the word. What is truth? The quality of being true. And so you're like, hmm, I don't know about that. You know, Pilot asked the famous question when he was trying Jesus. He asked the question probably scoffingly and mockingly when Jesus said, everyone who is of the truth listens to me.

And Pilot said, what is truth? What is truth? Jesus defined truth. Jesus said that he himself was truth. Jesus said that the word of God was truth. John chapter 14 and verse 6 at the last supper, Jesus told his disciples, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Now he didn't say I am a way and a truth and a life. No, I am the way and the truth and the life. I'm the embodiment of truth. And then he said in John chapter 17 in his great high priestly prayer as he was praying to his father, he said, sanctify them, praying for his disciples, praying for those who would believe in his disciples' message after he was gone.

He's praying for you and me, folks. And he says, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So what is truth? The Lord Jesus Christ is the embodiment of truth. It's the word of God, the word of God that speaks to us about Jesus and tells us about Jesus. That is truth. Now the devil is a liar, Jesus said, and he's the father of lies and he wants to get you and me to believe lies. And the devil is a master liar and the greatest liars know that if they're going to tell you a lie, they can't make it so outlandish that you just say, well, that that can't be right.

That that's a lie. You know, if I want to lie to you and tell you how great I was as an athlete when I was in high school, I said, you know, I once ran a a 3-minute mile. You say, really? That is great because like no one in the world has ever done that. And you did Yeah, I was in 8th grade. Yeah, but I quit. I didn't really like track. I mean, you just say, well, that's stupid. Nobody believes that. Well, my mom does, but You know, I tell you something outlandish. Now if I told you that you know I was in track and I once ran a a mile under 5 minutes, you might say, well, still have a hard time with that one, but okay.

I mean, that can be done. That's possible to run a mile in under 5 minutes or so I'm told. I've never done it, but anyway, you so the devil comes at us and he doesn't hit us with something that's totally outlandish. It'd be like looking down at your watch and and your watch says it's 8:30. You say, well, I know it's not 8:30. This thing must have stopped because I know it's not 8:30. So what does the devil do? He doesn't make the watch you know 4 5 6 hours wrong. He makes it 5 or 10 minutes wrong.

And so you look at your watch and you you could miss an appointment. You can miss something very very important if you're just 5 minutes later, 10 minutes late, miss an airplane, miss a bus, what it might whatever it might be. And the devil does that. He just wants to put things just off a little bit and you believe the lie. That 's why it's so important to spend time in this book. Why? Because your word God is truth. And if I am going to know the truth, then I have to spend time in this book.

Now you mark it down about truth. Truth is not moldable or situational, but it's absolute. We live in a world today where people say, well, truth is it's situational truth. I mean, it's truth the way I want to I want it to be. I mean, we're going to just explain our own narrative here. I watch the the people versus O. J. Simpson that series was on and I watched it and I saw how the defense team for O. J. Simpson, they don't care about the facts. They're trying to tell a story and they'll do anything that they can do to tell this story so that people will believe a certain way.

And so they take truth and they try and mold it and make it into what they want it to be. Truth is not moldable. Truth is not situational. I a lie that was told in at the time of Jesus was a lie back then and a lie that's told today is a lie today because it is truth that says you shall not lie. In the Ten Commandments, that hasn't changed, the morality of the Ten Commandments. You don't lie, you don't steal, you don't murder, you don't commit adultery, you honor your father and mother. Those things don't change.

Just because it's the 21st century, who's like, oh, we throw all that out. I mean, we're allowed now to lie and we're allowed to cheat, we're allowed to steal and we're allowed to commit adultery because everybody's doing it, doing it, doing it. Listen, right is right if nobody's doing it and wrong is wrong if everybody's doing it because it is what God says. And truth is truth.

Larry Nobles: Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, we've heard part one of the lesson called a one-sided Jesus. It exposes the theological imbalance that occurs when we lean too much on God's grace or too much on God's judgment and we distort who he really is. Now in line with what we've been talking about today, here's a note we received from a listener in Florida. His name is Kent. Pastor Jeff, sometimes I get so discouraged when I look at the people in my church and really the entire Christian world. So many have one toe in the church and all the other toes and fingers and their heart in the world.

They say, oh, God is love and he'll forgive me. But Pastor, you continue to remind me that God provides grace, but that gift we receive, if we have received it, should naturally lead to us seeking obedience and that he is a just God. Thanks for your courage to speak about that so boldly. Your ministry is a great encouragement to me. Well, thank you, Kent. We appreciate that. It's encouragement to hear from you and that's why Pastor Jeff is in this series this month called Encountering the Real Jesus. It's a seven message series pointing us to the hard truth that what the church desperately needs is an encounter with the real Jesus.

You can get a copy of this series when you go to fromhishart.org and click the listen link. It'll be a great encouragement to you. Now when you're at our website, we hope that you'll be inspired to support From His Heart this month as it's been a blessing to you with a gift to help us sustain and grow this ministry around the world. The From His Heart program with Pastor Jeff Schreve is heard each day on over 850 radio stations across the nation and also around the world. Your gifts make that happen. And for your support this month, we'll say thank you by sending you the series Soldiers of the Cross and the companion booklet The Lord's Army.

This seven message series is available on USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs or MP3 download, your choice. Make that gift today when you call 86640 Bible, 86640 Bible or go online to fromhishart.org Again, that's for a gift of any amount today. Thank you for being with us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles inviting you to join us on Wednesday for part two of this powerful and poignant lesson called The One-Sided Jesus. When you do join us, you can be sure that Pastor Jeff will open up God's word and share real truth, real love and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: From His Heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more, go to fromhishart.org