Simple Faith

Music [00:00:00]:

Bill Henry: Why should you go to heaven? "Oh, I'm a nice person. Oh, I go to church and I tithe." Nope. That won't get you in.

Bill Henry: A great way to know where somebody is at that professes Christ, if you die today, you ask them, "What would happen if you die and you go to the Pearly Gates, let's say, and Peter's there and he asks you, 'Why should I let you in today?'"

If they say, "Well, because I did this and I was a pretty good husband. I was a good wife. I went and served at the Salvation Army and I gave all my stuff to the poor." It's going to be, "Ehh, you're gone." Because you're pointing to all your own works.

"Why should I let you into heaven?" "Because Jesus died for me, man. I don't deserve heaven at all."

Music [00:00:41]:

Guest (Male): How did the Gospel come to the Apostle Paul? For that matter, how did it come to you? In our new study of 1 Thessalonians today, we're going to seek to answer those questions and more. You're listening to Simple Faith, a time of studying God's word with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel. Join us if you can in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. Here once again is Pastor Bill Henry to help us grow in the word.

Bill Henry: So you'll notice, if you have the Old King James or the New King James, it actually says something twice here. Or it seems to, I should say. "To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, if you have a different version than those two, you're not going to have this second, "From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Some manuscripts do not have that. This is one of those that I believe should be in your Bibles, and here's why. Because they're different.

Notice how it says in the first part, it says "in God the Father," and in the second one, it says "from God our Father." It is different in the Greek. So it wasn't simply a copyist copying something twice inadvertently. I think it was actually dropped.

So it should be there, but grace to you and peace are here and that's what we're going to be focusing on this morning. Grace and peace. Anybody want more of grace and peace in their lives? Raise your hand if you don't mind. Okay, those of you who don't, we'll be praying for you.

I'll tell you, I believe that the Christian, especially today, so many are desperately in need of more of God's grace and more of God's peace. The awesome part is our God never runs out of either. He never even runs low on either of these two things. Yet so many times we don't go in and partake of God's grace and God's peace.

That's my heart for this study this morning as we look biblically at what grace is, look biblically at what peace is, where it comes from, and how to get there. We'll go on that biblical road and find more peace in our lives, especially in the days that we're living in. Amen? I mean, these are crazy days.

Notice, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, grace to you and peace. With the Greeks and then the Romans, this was kind of a normal salutation, if you will, but it means so much more for the Christian and was used in a lot of the letters, most of the letters in the New Testament.

I love that Paul uses the word first: grace. He's gone beyond the address last week. We were looking at the address the last couple of weeks. Now he's gone to the first thing he says basically to give his actual writing, his letter to the church there: grace. Grace and peace.

I love this, the wondrous grace of God. So we're going to take a moment to look at grace. Again, we could spend weeks talking about the grace of God and studying the grace of God. In the 40 minutes or so that we have this morning, it could take weeks. We could do the same thing with peace.

Remember, I'm just taking that proverbial stone, skipping it across the water, and hoping that you go and really dig in in some of these areas. So, grace. "Charis" in the Greek. Most of us know this. It means the unearned favor or gift or pleasure, joy, that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, loving kindness, a gift of grace, a favor which one receives without any accomplishment of his own.

Zodhiates says it's a kindness granted, the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the giver. So it's grace. It's all about the giver. It's not earned at all. It's a free gift of grace.

Grace is one of the most powerful and wondrous parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Christianity. Grace. We're just going to look at three aspects of grace this morning briefly. Number one, that we are saved by the grace of God. Number two, that we are kept by the grace of God. And number three, that we are empowered by the grace of God.

First of all, we are saved by the grace of God. Can I have an amen on that? Praise God. We are saved by the grace of God. But again, what does that mean? Notice in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

I love this because God knows us so well. If it were of works, we would be boasting about it. "Hey, look at me, how good I am." Sadly, that's how some people think that's how they're to practice Christianity. No, no, no.

Think about it. Only Christianity is about being saved by grace, by God's divine favor, by God's divine gifting. We cannot earn salvation in any way, shape, or form. We cannot keep our salvation in any way, shape, or form. It is all by grace.

Yet, all of the other world religions, all of the cults of the day, they all teach, every single one down to a tee, it's about what you do to get to heaven. What do you do to reach Nirvana? What do you do to reach Godhood? Let's take a look just real quick at a few of these.

Buddhism. What do they require? The work they require is basically what they call the four noble truths. The four noble truths basically explain the nature of suffering and then it sets you on a path to its cessation of suffering, primarily through what they have: the eightfold path.

You're going to see this commonality through these all, right? Basically, this is all to improve your karma. To do that, you need to be more generous, moral discipline, patience, diligence, tranquility, and wisdom. What is karma?

Karma is an ancient concept that comes from India that refers to the principle of cause and effect. Literally, good actions lead to positive outcomes. Bad actions lead to negative outcomes.

The reward, if you improve your karma enough, basically after death, it again is determined by your karma and your past actions. You may be reborn into one of six realms according to Buddhism, such as heaven or as a human. Or they may actually achieve liberation from the cycle of rebirth altogether. You don't have to be reincarnated anymore. So that's basically, you do this and you get that.

Islam. What about Islam? The work is you have to believe in Allah and his messenger Muhammad, establish a prayer life in your life, have an established prayer life, fasting during Ramadan. Additionally, performing good deeds, fasting, patience, etc. being kind to your parents, seeking knowledge.

Their reward is paradise with bountiful blessings, vast rewards from Muhammad. Now, the cool part about Islam is you can actually keep working even when you're in heaven. If you keep on working, basically you get this. If you have beneficial knowledge shared with others, and if your righteous children continue to pray for them in paradise, they can actually get more things in paradise.

Again, these are very brief descriptions. How about Hinduism? Hinduism basically, you want to work, and again, this is kind of like Buddhism, but it's different. You want good karma again. So again, you have to have righteous actions, engage in good deeds, devotional service, follow the teachings of the Vedas.

Then your reward is reincarnation again. Hopefully you're working your way up. If you're a really good snail in your reincarnation, you get to be a butterfly. If you're a really good butterfly, you might come back as a bee. If you're a really good bee, you might come back as a bird. If you're a really good bird, you might come back as a dog. If you're a really good dog, you might work your way up to a human. But if you're a bad human, you go all the way back down.

That's how it is. Reincarnation or your reward could be, reincarnation going up to a higher level, or what they call Svarga, where souls experience pleasure and joy. The highest goal is what's called liberation or Moksha, and basically it's liberation from the cycle of reincarnation, merging with Brahman and the ultimate reality. So again, it's all about what you do.

Even Judaism. Basically the work: belief in the father and following the commandments of God and living a righteous life. The reward is you attain and earn a place in heaven.

How about Mormonism? Mormonism, if you work basically, follow the teachings of the Mormon Church and its apostles and all that fun stuff, obedience to the commandments of God by living a righteous life and participating in their sacred ordinances. Your reward, basically either paradise or you might go to spirit prison based on their worthiness.

Notice they too can continue to work towards exaltation. How about that? You're working hard all your life, you get to heaven, you get to keep on working because you want to work your way up the proverbial ladder. Now, to gain the celestial kingdom is the highest degree of glory where they can become gods and live with their eternal families, meaning men get to populate their own planet with their many wives. Sorry, wives.

You go on down the list. Every world religion, every cult, it's all about what you can do to get your salvation, to earn your salvation, to move up the karma ladder, to become a god. Where Christianity is all about what Jesus Christ has done and reached down to mankind.

It's the only religion where God did all the work and then gives it to us by grace. To be saved in Christianity is simply to receive the free gift of salvation from God in Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection by grace through faith. Isn't that awesome?

Oh, wow, wait a minute. I did all these works when I was younger. I used to do this and I said the Hail Mary 59 times a day and all this other stuff. I did this and I did that for God. A great way to know where somebody is at that professes Christ, if you die today, you ask them, "What would happen if you die and you go to the Pearly Gates, let's say, and Peter's there and he asks you, 'Why should I let you in today?'"

If they say, "Well, because I did this and I was a pretty good husband. I was a great wife. I went and served at the Salvation Army and I gave all my stuff to the poor." It's going to be, "Ehh, you're gone." Because you're pointing to all your own works.

"Why should I let you into heaven?" "Because Jesus died for me, man. I don't deserve heaven at all." I'm just a buzzard, man, saved by the grace of God. Woohoo! Enter into the kingdom, your father's kingdom.

You see, it's all about grace. That we are saved by the glorious grace of God, not by any works that we do. But so that's the first portion we're looking at. Secondly, we're not only saved by the grace of God, we are also kept by the grace of God. Hallelujah.

Love this, man. 1 Samuel 2:9, "He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength no man shall prevail." Look, if we could lose our salvation, we would all do it today. But it's all about God.

Psalm 37:23 and 24, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds his hand."

Proverbs 2:8, "He guards the path of justice and preserves the way of his saints." Saved by grace, kept by grace.

John 10:27, Jesus said this, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand."

How many people here are an "anyone"? Raise your hand if you're an anyone, please. That means even you can't snatch yourself from the hand of God. Verse 29, "My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one."

1 Peter 1:5, "Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." So first of all, we are saved by the grace of God. Secondly, we are kept by the grace of God. And thirdly, we are empowered by the grace of God.

I love this. 1 Corinthians 15:9 and 10, "For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and in his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me."

I love this. Remember, beloved in Christ, we don't work to be saved. And again, we don't work to stay saved. Praise God that our salvation is started, maintained, and completed by Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. But all we need do is receive it by faith.

But I also think it was Calvin who said something like this: "Yes, we are saved by grace alone, but saving grace will never be alone." And he said it will always be accompanied by works. So we don't work to gain our salvation, we don't work to keep our salvation, but that is the outgrowth of our faith in Jesus Christ.

As the father is working in and through us for his good pleasure, we're working out our salvation with fear and trembling. I love this. You see, saving grace will be at work. It gives us strength and it will help us to work, leading to the fruit of God's works in our lives. But again, not to get our salvation, not to keep our salvation, but to bring God glory because we love him.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." Notice how he doesn't say, "Hey, if you want to keep saved, you'll keep my commandments." No, he just said, "If you love me." It's the natural outpouring of being born again of the spirit of God. Because he loves God the father who's living within us. He is. And so there's going to be that love that we have.

So remember, if we are not saved by grace, we are not saved at all. If we are not saved by grace, then Jesus died for nothing. In other words, if we could work our way to heaven, if we earned it and we have to keep it, then Jesus didn't have to die.

But he did die and he made a way to heaven, for he is the way through himself, his death, his resurrection, all by the door of God's glorious grace. Look, we deserve nothing but death and torment, for that's the wages of our sinfulness.

But when we came to faith in Jesus Christ, entered that door by the grace of God, we are now into the kingdom of God and kept by his grace. Now that grace is at work in us and that grace empowers us as well the Christian to live the Christian life as we read in the word of God.

You know what I love about the grace of God? It enables us as well to take ventures of faith as Christians. To go out and take steps without fear. Many times, it's interesting thing with grace. A lot of people kind of go one of two sides, right?

Growing up, I never really knew what grace was because the Catholic Church that I was a part of, they didn't want you to know what grace was really was. That's why they didn't encourage you to read your Bible because they would even say that it's going to make people go crazy if they read about grace and they can go live out. They're just going to go off in sinfulness.

Right? And then there's the other side of the debate, if you will. We talked about this a little bit. Free grace: that you can once you're saved, it doesn't matter what you do. You can live in sin, you can practice it, get better. It doesn't matter because you said it doesn't matter because of God's grace.

But one of the things that God's grace does is it provides, if you will, a safety net for us. Not to be taken advantage of, but so that we can take steps of faith in our lives. Should I take this job? Should I take that job? Should I move or not move? When we're trying to make decisions in our life.

I believe that there's always the perfect will of God and then the permissive will of God. So the perfect will of God, let's say he gives us four choices. There's A, B, C, and D. And let's just say his perfect will was A. But if we take C and we go down Road C, I used to think that if I take C and I go down Road C, that God stays back here at Road A. "Well, Bill, you're on your own now, buddy. You chose the wrong way."

But you know what? God corrected that view. Because even if we make not his perfect will, but a permissive will choice, God still goes with us and he's going to work all things together for good to those who love him and those who are called according to his purpose.

I'm not talking about sinful things. I'm just talking about everyday normal decisions that we make. We have God's grace there. Remember this. Walk in faith and grace.

This is a true story. One of the commentators told this true story about when the Golden Gate Bridge was being built. Most of us here know about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Well, when it was being built, the construction fell badly behind because it really slowed down because several of the workers had accidentally fallen off the bridge and died.

So all of a sudden, all your workers are being a lot more careful. They're working a lot slower. The engineers and the administrators couldn't find a solution. Then somebody suggested, "Well, what about gigantic nets underneath where the guys are specifically working?"

Finally, in spite of the enormous cost, they built these nets under where the guys were working and guess what? Even though a couple of guys did fall off, they fell onto the net and they were fine. So what happened with the rest of the work?

All of a sudden, everybody's going to work faster and they had more peace because there was this safety net underneath. Look, guys and gals, we need to understand that's what God's grace is like. Again, not for the sin, not if somebody just jumps off the bridge and goes, "I'm going to check out this safety net." No.

It's there for us to take ventures of faith. It's there for when we do sin and we want repentance, God's grace is there to meet us. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing when we do fall into sin. God's grace catches us and then leads us to repentance and restores us to that place where we come and we ask forgiveness from our father. He forgives us and he cleanses us from all unrighteousness and gives restoration in our lives, even as Christians.

Look, we dare not use the grace of God to sin, which again, sadly and terribly, many who profess Christ do today. They say, "Oh well, grace is free and after all, so I can go and get high. I can go and get drunk. I can go have sex outside of marriage. I can have outbursts of wrath, or I can gossip or lie, and I'm still good with God because of his grace."

No, no. Yes, grace is free to us as Christians, but it cost Jesus everything. Grace cost Jesus everything. For the one who's been born again and you love Jesus, I don't want to do these sins anymore. I want to walk in loving obedience the best I can. I'm still going to fall. We're all going to fall every day, but remember, there's God's grace to catch us.

Oh, I love God's grace. Jude warns, though, of taking advantage of the grace. Jude 4, it says this, "For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."

Now, there are still others, though, even within the church today, even within the evangelical church, where they become, it's easy to become legalistic. And you think that the preaching of grace should not be preached so much and it might lead to people doing what you just read about there in Jude. Well, you know, we need to be careful of not trying to become God or the Holy Spirit in that.

Music [02:29:56]:

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill from his series in the book of 1 Thessalonians. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today.

If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can even download an audio MP3 version. We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org.

Click the media tab and if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact tab on our website, and there's a tab at the top of our homepage where you can also send us a prayer request. You can also call us at the church at 833-BY-GRACE. That's 833-294-7223.

If you'd like to write to us, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, 98604. Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services on Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of studying God's word Wednesday night at 7:00 PM.

We'd love to have you come visit us and make sure you say hello to Pastor Bill and let him know you listen to Simple Faith. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today and be sure to join us next time as our series in 1 Thessalonians continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, and be sure to join us for the Sunday edition of Simple Faith and a series in the book of Job. This program is brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.

Music [02:33:04]: