Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef revealing how the world endeavors to weaken sin as he begins this episode of Leading the Way Audio.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Modern-day deception of Satan in the world today is to blur sin. To blur sin. See, once he blurs sin, there's no need for grace and the consequences of sin, and the danger of sin, and the enormity of sin, and the sinfulness of sin. Watch it. Watch it in the movies, watch it on television. It is there all the time blurring sin. If he can deceive people into believing that God is in all of us and therefore each one of us should be guided by his or her own feelings, then there’s no need for grace.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Leading The Way and a teaching series from Dr. Michael Youssef unpacking the truths of God's grace. It's called The Awesomeness of God's Grace. And keep in mind that Leading The Way is listener supported. That means that the powerful content that you hear each day is made possible through your faithful prayers and generosity. Become a part of spreading the teaching you enjoy around the world when you stand with Dr. Youssef by calling 866-626-4356 and online at LTW.org.

All right, right now, Dr. Youssef begins today's Leading The Way. He's called this message God's Grace Was In The Beginning.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Today more than any time probably in the Christian history, the word grace is no longer amazing. The word grace is no longer challenging for our Christian walk and Christian life. We have misinterpreted it, we have misused it. J.I. Packer said today in this kind of world we live in, grace is no longer amazing, it is boring. In this age of human rights and animal rights and every kind of rights, grace is neither needed nor appreciated.

In this time when people believe that they can be good without God, grace is no longer enthralling us. Now, whether you are a person who had grown to take grace for granted or whether you're a person who have never understood the incredible, exhilarating power of the grace of God, this series of messages I'm beginning today is designed to challenge you. It is designed to change you for good and forever.

This series of messages on grace is designed to heighten your appreciation for the incredible grace of God, the indescribable grace of God. This series of messages on grace is designed to challenge you to never, ever take grace for granted or use it as a license for sin. In fact, the series of messages on grace is designed that you will experience the grace of God every waking moment of every single day. It is my prayer.

The grace that I will be talking about is that grace that God exclusively gives to those who are the followers of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the kind of grace I'm going to talk about because theologians have another type of grace they call common grace. What do I mean by common grace or what do they mean by common grace? Common grace means that the sun shines, as scripture said, upon the righteous and the unrighteous.

The rain comes and blesses the righteous and the unrighteous. That's common grace. Common grace is that all people enjoy the beauty of God's creation whether they are believers or not. Common grace is so all people enjoy the blessings of creation, the blessings of life because of the common grace of God whether they are believers or not. But the grace of God of which I am speaking is that grace that is exclusively given to those who belong to His Son Jesus. That grace that is unmerited favor that you didn't have to do anything for, that was given to you freely and free of charge.

Undeserved kindness that God showed toward you and showed toward me. That is the irresistible grace, the inexhaustible grace that I want to talk about. Now, in introducing this subject, I want to tell you something about the God of grace and the grace of God. You say, what's the difference? There is a world of difference between the two. The God of grace, the grace of God. And I want you to keep that distinction in your mind as we go through this series of messages.

God is infinite, His grace is not. God has no end, but His grace does. God is eternal, but His grace is not. There is a time that is coming upon the world when God's grace will come to an end and judgment will be the order of the day. That day is coming and that is why we are exhorted in the scripture again and again and again and again and again and again, please receive the grace of God while it may be found.

Today is the day of salvation. Don't harden your heart. Don't get too busy with life and forget and neglect the grace that's available to you. And I want you to listen very carefully as we keep that distinction in mind: the grace of God and the God of grace. In order to understand the God of grace and the grace of God, it will help you live above life's mediocrity. To understand the grace of God and the God of grace, it will help you live above the humdrum of life.

I want to tell you something. The grace of God and the knowledge of that grace is the greatest thing that you can remember in the midst of your troubles. It is the greatest thing to remember in the midst of your difficulties. It is the greatest thing that you can remember in the midst of your disease and sickness. It is the greatest thing because it's going to lift you up so high. I know because I practice focusing on the grace of God on a daily basis.

And the first time we encounter the God of grace is in the book of Genesis chapter three. Please turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter three and there we're going to encounter the God of grace in the Garden of Eden. Here in the garden, Adam and Eve had the perfect job. I mean they had the perfect job environment. They had loving and caring coworkers. At least I'm assuming they loved each other. You know, Adam and Eve had to work together.

In fact, I remember a lady told me years ago when her husband was retiring, she said, "You know, I told my husband, I said I married you for better, for worse, but not for lunch." Well, Adam and Eve were having lunch every day and in one of those lunches, they got into trouble. Here's what they were told. They were told by the Lord, "Everything belongs to you. Everything is yours. Run the whole thing. You are in charge of everything. Only one thing, and that is the tree in the middle of the garden. The fruit of that you do not touch."

Everything in the world is theirs except for that tree and its fruit. Let me just stop here for a minute and warn those of us, all of us, those of us who say that if I only have this or that, I'll be fulfilled. You won't. You can have the whole world and the one thing you could not have, you want. I mean that's what was happening here in the garden. I mean, you know, just twitchy. They want the one that they were told not to have. So they ate from the tree.

But you know what the bottom line is? The bottom line is that Adam and Eve were offended that God told them what to do. They did not like to be told what to do. And if that sounds familiar, write your name down. Here's what Adam and Eve were saying. Adam and Eve were saying, "What do you mean we can't eat from this tree? This is my garden and God said so. I'm in charge here and God said so." Yes, that's half-truth. That's what God said, but that's not all what God said.

You see, deception always starts with half-truth. God said you're in charge, but not this tree. You don't touch it. Just as millions of Christians are offended by the fact that God says, "I am going to bless you and give you everything, but the tithe belongs to the Lord." Oh, they don't like that one. Beloved friends, I want to tell you, here's really the crux of the problem. God said you eat from this tree and you die. Satan said you eat from the tree and you're going to live.

And you take your pick. I really don't think Eve immediately says, "Well, I'm going to side with Satan." I really don't think that happened because of the continuous tense there. I won't bore you with the detail. I think he kept coming, he kept coming, kept telling her, kept telling her. But I really think Eve came to a point in her life of saying, "I'm going to decide for myself. I really am going to decide. I'm going to test this and I'm going to see how it's going to work."

Eve decided to put the fruit under a pragmatic test. "I just want to check its nutritional value." We big on that, aren't we? And then she decided to put it under aesthetic value. "Would it look nice in the living room? Look nice in the house, you know." Then she decided to put it under an intellectual test. "Will I gain experience? Will I gain new insight? Will I become wiser and more careful?" Needless to say, of course, that the fruit as far as Eve was concerned passed all those tests.

Not only that, but she shared the good news with her husband. From that time on, these facets of the one temptation are being repeated on a daily basis with precision, with precision millions of times, millions of times on a daily basis. The facets, what are they? Number one: God is not good. If He's good, He would not tell me to do something that I don't want to do. He would not tell me not to do something that I want to do. God must not want me to be happy.

Facet number two: God may have given us the Bible, but the Bible is at odds with modern science, the Bible is at odds with modern psychology. Therefore, the Bible must be wrong. Facet number three: unless I can be free to do whatever I want, I cannot be truly fulfilled in life. Mingle those in your mind, mull over them, mix them together and you're going to find that these are the essence of temptation. Adam and Eve’s temptation is precisely the temptation of today. It's not changed, it's the same devil.

Their disobedience and fall is the true picture of the state of all of humanity without Jesus Christ. Their rebellion is against the Almighty God, their rebellion against the Word of God, the rebellion against the authority of God. Their rebellion is against the word and the command of God. But that's not the whole story. I want to tell you something. Whether these intellectual elites who place themselves above God like it or not, whether they acknowledge it or not, God owns the universe and He's going to run His universe any which way He wants.

And most times they ain't going to like it. But that's okay with God. You see, God's justice requires that sin must be judged. That's the justice of God. God's justice required that sin must be punished. That is the justice of God. God said to Adam and Eve the refusal to do what God said to do leads to death and no amounts of excuses are going to help. They just not going to help. That's the justice of God. See, you have to understand the justice of God before you can understand the grace of God.

You really do. Because without understanding the justice of God, grace will be of no consequence to you. Do you know what Adam and Eve's excuse really was? I know, I know what they said. But do you know who really they were blaming for their rebellion and disobedience? Yeah, they were blaming God. "God, you gave me this woman. You gave her to me. It's your problem, it's your fault." He goes to Eve and Eve says, "Well, it's your fault. You created this creature."

Adam said, "It's your fault, God." Eve said, "It's your fault, God." And you know what? We've been making those same excuses ever since. Well, I'm sure probably some of you by now are saying, "Now wait a minute, where is that grace he's going to talk about? He said he's going to talk about grace." Well, that's a good question. See, what I'm doing is I am putting up the screen of sin before I can project grace on it. I am painting the picture of sin before you can see the light of grace.

For it is only in the context of sin will you appreciate, understand, be exhilarated by the grace of God. Listen to me carefully, please. Modern-day deception of Satan in the world today is to blur sin. To blur sin. See, once he blurs sin, there's no need for grace. Am I right? So if he can get people, if he can get everybody saying, "Well, there's no such thing as sin. Really sin is not a sin, it's just a mistake. And who doesn't make a mistake? Everybody makes a mistake, you know."

Everybody makes a mistake. I mean, we don't need grace. We just keep making mistakes. That's why he likes to blur sin and the consequences of sin, and the danger of sin, and the enormity of sin, and the sinfulness of sin. Watch it. Watch it in the movies, watch it on television. It is there all the time blurring sin. If he can deceive people into believing that God is in all of us and therefore each one of us should be guided by his or her own feelings, then there's no need for grace.

And then when we get into trouble, of course, we try to make excuses like just like Adam and Eve did. But no amount of excuses are going to help in the day of judgment. I want to tell you three very quick things about the God of grace and see how He dealt with sin and rebellion. First, Adam and Eve did not immediately die. That's the first act of grace. Justice said they must die. God's grace came and says, "Yes, spiritually they will die, but physically I'm going to spare them."

That's what the grace of God does. God said, "The day you eat from the tree, that day you die." That's justice. But grace comes in and says, "I will give you time to repent. Let grace work one more time." And God is going to give them time. Time to do what? Time to believe on the Savior that is coming to the world. You say, "How can you get that from Genesis chapter three, that Jesus is coming into the world?" Well, it's actually in verse 15.

I want to tell you something today. If you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and you're still alive—and I'm assuming you are because you're listening to me—you only have one reason why you're still alive and that is so God may give you another opportunity to hear of the message of the grace of God and believe in Him and turn to Him. That's why you're still alive today. Secondly, the God of grace promised them a Redeemer. Why? To undo Satan's deception. Look at verse 15 of Genesis 3.

Here is the first announcement of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark that in your Bible, verse 15 of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve at the time did not comprehend all that God is saying about the coming Redeemer, about the coming Savior, who's going to be the descendant of Eve. They did not comprehend all that. But they knew enough, they understood enough, and we have several evidence for that. The reason they named their first son Cain because Cain means "here he is."

"He must be the Savior that he told us is coming." It took thousands of years before you hear the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 in the words of Gabriel to Mary, "And you shall call His name Jesus because He shall save His people from their sins." God always fulfills His promises no matter how long it takes. Not only that the God of grace did not let them die as they should have, not only that the God of grace gave them the promise of the Redeemer, but thirdly, the God of grace saved our first parents.

How? Verse 21 of Genesis 3. We are told that after Adam and Eve believed in God—watch the sequence here—after they believed in God, the Lord made garments of skin and He clothed them with those garments. And to do that, Adam and Eve had to witness the first slaying of an innocent animal and the first shedding of blood in history of creation. Beloved friends, listen. The very first lesson in grace was that the innocent dies for the guilty.

And it was thousands of years later that we can comprehend and understand that it was the perfect, sinless, holy, righteous, innocent Son of God that would have His blood shed on Calvary so that whosoever comes to Him in repentance and faith, believing in Him, will be saved. You and I are the guilty sinners and the innocent was slain. And when He was slain on the cross of Calvary, He gave all those who believed in Him, all those who follow Him, a garment of righteousness.

And it is that garment of righteousness that makes us acceptable to God the Father. It is that garment of righteousness that makes us justified before God the Father. Not all the good works in the world will ever get you there. Only the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed on you and on me. Adam and Eve expected to die, Adam and Eve deserved to die, Adam and Eve should have died. But the God of grace instead, they found life.

And God is offering eternal life through His Son even now. Being surprised by the grace of God should be the story of everyone who have experienced the grace of God. Being continuously and constantly awed by the grace of God should be the lifestyle of every disciple of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Thank you for making Leading The Way part of your day. And if what you heard from Dr. Michael Youssef has stirred some questions about your own relationship with Jesus, then consider a conversation with a Leading The Way pastor or counselor. You can connect at LTW.org/Jesus.

The following are reports from Leading The Way's field team.

Guest (Male): Life in Israel has changed. Fear fills the air. Pray that the Lord would open hearts to see the Messiah. The people of Iran want freedom. May God grant them mercy. There is no hope in the country, the regime, or the economy. People in the Middle East are seeking Islam offers no hope. When I talk about the Middle East, I know you understand and I know you trust me that we are seeing things that we have never dreamt of in the last 1400 years of missions going into that part of the world.

I was a fanatic Muslim who used to attack Christianity. After watching your channel, my eyes were opened to see the beauty of Christ. Though I feared the consequences of leaving Islam, I prayed to accept Christ, and I'm a new person. They're searching for hope in the shadows, behind closed doors, in regimes that silence truth. But God is opening a door. Less than 3% of missionary work takes place among unreached people. 68% of those unreached people live in the Middle East and North Africa.

Through the Open Door campaign, that's exactly where Leading The Way is seeing unprecedented impact. 24/7 gospel broadcast through our Kingdom Sat channel, unparalleled access to restricted areas, 30 years of proven frontline ministry in the Middle East. And now, a new door could unlock massive expansion. We have been able to place Navigator devices into Muslim-dominated countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and others where access to the gospel is unprecedented. The door is open, and only God in heaven knows when will it be closed. Will you commit to joining me to boldly walk through these open doors together? Learn more at LTW.org.

Be a part of passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth in your neighborhood and in neighborhoods just like yours all around the world when you stand with Dr. Youssef in prayer and generosity. The number to call to reach a ministry representative is 866-626-4356, or you can visit LTW.org. That's LTW.org.

This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.