Grace Thoughts

Narrator: Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he perfected for all time Andre Peneau. Altemus, in the first service I picked on him.

Perfected for all time. Now, I want to balance this because I've talked to his family and there's probably some things they may say, "Really, Pastor Kelley? I got videotape I want to show you." No, he's perfected for all time, but then it says this, "those who are being sanctified."

He stands before God perfected because Jesus sat down. If Jesus was still redeeming, there might be a problem here. If Jesus is still redeeming, we still could be lost. But he is sitting down and he finished the work when he sat down. Now that same work of grace of salvation takes on the work of transformation.

That's what it means by those who are being sanctified. He's still making us like himself. So the work of eternal life and salvation is all a work of God, and the work of becoming more like Christ in life is all a work of God. There's nothing left for us to do but come boldly before the throne of grace, Hebrews 4:16, to obtain help.

There's nothing left to secure for man, nothing more Christ needs to do. Our standing with God is now non-negotiable and untouchable. "Sat down" is a perfect participle. It was a once-for-all act. He isn't standing up again, and when he does, it's going to be to take us home.

This is what we do. It's like we double pay. You go to the mall and you buy something at Best Buy. I bought this brand new memory stick for $19.99, 64 gig. I'm walking out with my little Best Buy bag and I think, that was too good of a deal. I think I want to go pay more.

I go back to the register. "Can I double pay for this again? Because I feel as though I haven't really paid enough for this. Can I double pay again?" We do that all the time spiritually speaking. We look at where we have fallen short and we double pay with guilt, with man-made work, with religion, with vain obedience.

Christ says you don't have to do anything to impress me. You don't have anything to appease me. I'm appeased. I'm not appeased by what you've done, I'm appeased by what I did. I sat down. There's nothing left for me to do, and there's certainly nothing left for you to do but know me and let me be your father and draw near to me.

Maybe this has been said to you, maybe it's been said to me many times in 30 years of pastoring. "I know I need to get to church more." That's great, I appreciate that, but God feels the same about you whether you're in church or not. He loves you whether you're here or not. He's for you whether you're here or not.

He's sitting down whether you're here or not. That doesn't apply to me. I'm going to judge you if you're not here. I'm taking attendance. I know who's not here today. "Oh, a little rain kept you away, huh? Okay, wait till I see you next week." I'm not like that at all, but I'm just saying that doesn't add to my spiritual resume.

It doesn't add if I tithe or I don't tithe. God doesn't add to our standing with God what we do for God. Hebrews 7:25, I love this verse. "Consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession."

There is his high priest ministry again. He always lives to make intercession for them. So he's able to save us to the uttermost. What do you think uttermost means? Uttermost. There's nothing that comes between us and him. There's nothing that his redemption hasn't overcome.

There is no sin he hasn't paid for. There is no human weakness that's too tough for redemption to take on. He saves us to the uttermost. Verse one of chapter eight, same continuing thought here. "Now the point in which we're saying is this: we have such a great high priest who is sitting down, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven."

That's our priest who is ever living to make intercession for us. He's sitting at the right hand of the throne in heaven. He is my priest. We have a priest who has done it all and never has to do it again. This looks back to Hebrews 1:3. William Newell, one of my favorite commentators, said this: "When he bore man's sins and put them away, then the mighty river of grace, pure grace from the heart of God who delights in mercy, could pour forth."

I'm going to cover point four like I did the first service, but I'm just going to go through it really quick right now because of time. Spiritual warfare is in a settled state. I'm going to read you Ephesians chapter one. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called, his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

So his holy people, that would be you and I, Andre, Alton, me, you. We are his rich and glorious inheritance. I am. I'm a mess. I'm a wreck. I'm inconsistent. I fail a lot. I do things I shouldn't do. I think things I shouldn't think. I act the way I shouldn't act. I speak how I shouldn't act.

I'm not the best husband, I'm not the best financial person, I'm not the best employee. But he says he calls us his rich and glorious inheritance. Isn't that conditional? Isn't that dependent upon my performance? No, it's dependent upon what he did. Died on the cross, resurrected, ascended, sat down on the right hand of the Father.

This is Paul's famous prayer at the church of Ephesus. This is his prayer for the people and I'm going to continue that prayer in verse 19. "And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great might. He worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places."

Here we see it again. He raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. So the war of the heavens has been settled. It settled when he sat down.

When he died, he resurrected, he ascended, and he sat down. With all that said, I'm going to give you some crazy, outrageous news. You're going to have to maybe stay in your seat for this. I have ushers in case you start running down the aisle; you're going to be tackled.

We have some fairly strong ushers. Someone with a walker is going to trip you, that's what's going to happen. Ephesians 2:4 says this: "But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, that even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved."

Look at this, "and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." What did he just say there? He said we know that Jesus is sitting down at the right hand of the Father. Now he looks down at earth and says, "That's my church, that's my children. Positionally speaking, I'm taking my children and putting them right next to me."

I'm seated together with Christ before the Father with him. I'm not still down here positionally speaking. I am experientially in the reality of living, but God sees me as plopped down right next to him. In other words, he's saying just as the work was finished for me, the work is finished for you.

Just as I finished the work of redemption, there's nothing left you have to do to gain my pleasure. There's nothing left you have to do to gain my approval, to be more accepted, more loved, more appreciated, or more embraced by me. You are perfect just the way you are because of my redemption for you apart from whatever you have done.

I sat you down with me. You've been declared victorious over spiritual warfare, and when God looks at me sitting there, he sees my people sitting there too. That's called good news. That's called really good news. Now what that means is I can rest in my walk with God.

I can relax and just enjoy the grace of God. It means I can love people without judging people. I can look at people's behavior and say, "How come they do that?" and think, God, they're sitting together with Christ just as I'm sitting together with Christ. And that might be a legitimate question, by the way.

But they're sitting together with Christ. Christ sees them as perfect. It has to be that way. Let me just digress for a little bit. Pastor Kelley, that sounds a little bit too good to be true. That sounds not fair because I do it right. I'm the honest person. I cross my i's, I dot my t's.

I do it right. I've lived my life right the best that I can. Very few little hunkers or bumpers in there. I've done it right. And these people, they do this and they do that, and they lie and they steal and they cheat, and you're saying that they are seated together with Christ in the heavenlies?

Sweetheart, if they're born again, if they know God, he's plopped them right next to you. They're probably sitting right there. Yeah, they're there too. You know why? Because it's not about them and it's not about you. It's about Christ. He's sitting. He did the redemption work.

He ascended, he resurrected, he sat down. I've done nothing but receive it. My righteousness is filthy rags. The best I can do is horrible in the sight of God. That's why there needed to be a cross because I was incapable of ever redeeming myself, ever gaining approval by God, ever having enough righteousness.

It was impossible for me to ever stand before God without the intervention of God on my behalf. And that intervention was the cross of Jesus Christ, sending his son. Last thing I want to bring up and then we'll close. Zephaniah 3:17, literal interpretation of the scriptures. "Jehovah your God is mighty in your midst."

I love this verse. So many point this to this age. You can point it wherever you want, but the principle is the character of God that comes out of here. He will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He is silent in his love. What does that mean? That's an interesting translation. "He rejoices over you with a joyful shout."

They go to the word "silent" here, and I chose this translation because they did use that word. They use "rest" in Charash, which is the Hebrew word in your different translations. You really have very different ways of describing that word. But this word "silent" means to be deaf, dumb, and silent.

So he's silent in his love. In other words, he doesn't hear a thing against you and doesn't speak a thing against you. He doesn't hear anything. We have an accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12:9, Zechariah chapter 1. He accuses us day and night. He's always bringing our accusations against the Father.

He's always accusing Job to the Father, accused Zechariah to the Father. He's an accuser of the brethren day and night. So we know that he accuses us, takes our weaknesses, our frailties, our sinfulness, our inconsistencies, all our disobediences, and tries to accuse us before the Father. "Ah, that Tim Kelley guy, God, look at him. Look at what he did. Look at how he's acting. He overslept this morning."

That was yesterday morning, actually, not this morning. And God says, "Listen, I don't hear it. I don't hear anything you're saying about my people, Satan." You know why? Because I sat down and they're sitting with me. And if I don't hear any accusations against them, guess what? I'm not going to speak anything against them either.

Because I sat down and this work of redemption is done and they're sitting with me. So my people can go on vacation. Just sort of do what I did: sit, listen, and rest. Don't get me wrong, I didn't just sit. I read the scriptures. I read other books I wanted to read.

I prayed and meditated, thought things, but I did it without the scurry of life around me and the pressure of having to be someplace or do something or perform somehow. It was just restful. It's how it's intended to be, my friends, that we can just rest. And the more that we learn how to rest, the easier it is to draw near.

It's like mowing my dad's lawn. It could get hard sometimes in the heat, but it's Dad. I love Dad. I love spending time with Dad. One of the things we do is always go out to breakfast. Love spending time with my dad. Love spending time with my heavenly Father.

It's not a burden. It's not a criteria. It's not a command. There are no points to take out of it, no points lost if I don't do it. God just loves us and wants relationship with us. He says, "You're not going to attack my people. I don't hear a thing against them. I don't speak a thing against them."

When I sat down, I finished the work and I took my people and placed them right next to me in that finished work. So that war is ended.