Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: If I love Christ, I will love what and whom He loves. Whom does He love? The outcast, the poor, the widow, the orphan in distress, the prisoner. Those that are unlovely, He says, are the object of His particular affection.

And for that reason, because I have a personal relationship with the Savior, I want Him to be personally known and loved by all that He loves. It becomes my own heart's call and initiative.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares the second half of a lesson from Revelation 19.

Dr. Chapell highlights the purpose of the church. While it is made up of flawed people, it has a glorious calling as the bride of Christ. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, check out the new daily devotional podcast called Daily Grace.

Pastor Bryan will guide you through a devotion each day to help focus your attention on God's grace as you study His word. Watch and listen to each episode when you visit unlimitedgrace.com today. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the second half of the lesson, Here Comes the Bride.

Bryan Chapell: Let's honor God's word by standing and reading together Revelation 19, verses one through nine, as the heavenly host celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb to His bride.

The Apostle John writes, "After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just; for He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of His servants.'

Once more they cried out, 'Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.' And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, 'Amen. Hallelujah!' And from the throne came a voice saying, 'Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great.'

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure'—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are the true words of God.'"

Let's pray together. Because they are the true words of God, Father, write them on our hearts and radiate them through our lives, that we who believe that what You have shown us from Your word is the destiny of the church of Jesus Christ, which will be made whole in Him at the end of the ages, and that the deeds of the saints in this age are contributing to that great victory. We are such saints by Your calling, so we pray that You would inform us this day by Your word how we might serve the Lamb as the bride that He has called to Himself for the purposes of glory. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you begin to think of the immediate features of our church, not just the historic and background ones, so much of what this church and churches like us are is clothed in the wedding gown of the word evangelical. That we believe we are not just Catholic and apostolic and Presbyterian, but in a more immediate way that we are evangelical in our current context.

Now, just plain talk. Evangelical is a word that takes a lot of negative baggage with it in our current political and cultural climate. In secular media and popular culture, the term evangelical is most often associated with political conservatism, homophobia, and hate speech. And none of you, I hope, define it that way.

If we are trying to define what the church is, what does it mean to be evangelical? It means to be in a church whose faith is defined as being biblical and personal and missional. What does it mean to be in a church that considers itself to be defined by being biblical? That may seem obvious to you; it would not be obvious to the forefathers of this generation at all.

This church and virtually every evangelical church is a product of a great controversy in this country in the early part of the 20th century, which was known as the Battle for the Bible. In the Battle for the Bible, there were churches who were simply saying, "You know, as we have now modern psychology and science at our disposal, we're not really bound to the worldview and perspective of the primitive ancient naive people of the Bible."

We have better ways of thinking. We have more modern ways of considering than the need to think of the Bible as true. And as a consequence of the Bible being thought of as kind of a primitive, ancient, naive book, there were those who began to teach and preach that the Bible did not have to be considered authoritative in every dimension of our lives.

Churches ruptured across this country. By the way, not just Presbyterians, but Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians—virtually every major denomination ruptured over this one thought: is the Bible still true and authoritative? Now, maybe you just think it's obvious, but let me just take you to our Presbyterian history, where I can talk a little more humbly, I hope, about what affected us.

No aspect of what the Bible meant or did no longer mean is more evident than in the 1924 Auburn Affirmation, which by the way had absolutely nothing to do with football. The Auburn Affirmation was signed by over 1,000 Presbyterian ministers. And it affirmed five things that no longer needed to be believed by those who would identify themselves as ministers in the Presbyterian Church.

Are you ready? Here are five things that the Auburn Affirmation, signed by over 1,000 ministers, said no longer had to be believed. First thing, you no longer had to believe the Bible was true. You did not need to believe that any longer. Modern science and psychology simply made it plain.

Now, let's be clear. We all understand the church has made errors in translation, in transmission, in interpretation. That really wasn't the argument. The argument was whether the basic and obvious things that the scriptures teach need to be received, believed, and honored anymore. So once you say, well, the Bible's not necessarily true anymore, what other dominoes begin to fall?

The next of the five things that the Auburn Affirmation said you did not have to believe anymore—now again, these are not people in the church, these are ministers—was the virgin birth of Christ. No longer needed to believe that. Now, there's a reason the Bible teaches the virgin birth of Christ.

The virgin birth of Christ is taught so that Christ would be born of a virgin and not touched by the original sin of Adam, and therefore because He would be not only perfect in origin but in life, He would be a perfect sacrifice for your sin and mine. The perfect for the imperfect. He would substitute His life upon the cross, paying the penalty for your sin and mine because He was sinless.

Well, if you don't accept the virgin birth, what I just described to you as the substitutionary atonement also is not necessary to believe. And that was the third thing that ministers no longer had to believe in, the substitutionary atonement, that Christ died on the cross for sin. Instead, the substitution was He died as a good moral example for us of somebody living for His cause sacrificially.

But substituting for our sin? No longer have to believe. The fourth thing, no longer had to believe the miracles of the Bible as they are described. These were primitive, unscientific people describing things they did not understand. But listen, if you do not believe that Jesus died for our sin and you do not believe the miracles of the Bible are true, guess what great miracle you're also probably not going to believe in.

What's the last one going to be? You did not have to believe in the physical resurrection. The resurrection was just idealistic. It was just in concept. But the idea that somebody would die and rise again? What did the Apostle Paul say? If Jesus did not rise from the dead, we are of all men to be most pitied because we have given our lives to saying He rose from the dead to conquer your sin. And yet here were ministers saying, "You don't have to believe that anymore."

Chris Sobak: This is Chris Sobak, Executive Director of Unlimited Grace Media. I hope you have been enjoying this encouraging message from Pastor Bryan. If this program has been a blessing to you, I want to share with you a new way in which you can receive daily encouragement from Dr. Chapell.

We've recently launched a daily devotional podcast entitled Daily Grace. If you've already signed up to receive daily devotions by email, this podcast is a great companion. You can watch and listen to Pastor Bryan share these devotions daily when you visit unlimitedgrace.com.

You can also find this podcast on all major podcast platforms or watch it on YouTube. This is just another way that we want to serve you with Christ-centered content and help focus your attention on the grace of God that pervades all of scripture. Let us know what you think of this new podcast. We're always encouraged to hear from you. And now, more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: We say we are biblical. Now, there have been some good consequences of the controversy. It's not all negative. One of the consequences is, if you're part of a church like this now, you come because you believe it's supposed to be biblical. That the old days of just attending a church for churchiosity, that it's part of my social resume, that I just need to identify—I mean, those are—your peers don't care.

Your families don't care. If you are a part of a church, it's because you believe it's important to be at a place where we learn what the scriptures say, and learn to defend them, and learn how we say science is not our enemy. If we understand science and scripture, we actually have wonderful explanations to affirm what God has said is true and right in the world.

It's not just true for the church that has been established; we actually are developing new regard and respect for the young people of our congregations. As we recognize there is no peer pressure to be in a church today if you're a young person. Just as soon as your parents give you leave, you're gone.

Unless—unless you're saying, "I have a zeal, a commitment for Jesus Christ." And one of the things that has happened with the great rupturing of the church is those young people who remain in the church have an unparalleled zeal and commitment to Christ as virtually never a generation before them.

Because they—they are here for the purposes that are genuine and true. And we have great privilege of supporting them. It's not a mystery to you; I've mentioned it in previous services that one of the things that we recognize is happening is the great exodus of teens from the church just as soon as they can.

But the Fuller Youth Institute, one of those institutes that studies what happens when young people begin to leave, recognize that those that stay in the church—one of the most demonstrative and definitive reasons they can be shown to stay is at least five adults, at least five adults, have invested in their lives between the ages of 15 and 18.

Which is saying, we all got a job here. That everybody is saying, "If I'm part of establishing this bride of Christ, then that's not just for one generation. It's glorifying Jesus through His church for all generations." Part of being evangelical is being profoundly personal.

That I don't believe a relationship with Jesus Christ is just about some methodology or creed or document somewhere. I believe that Jesus is called the Lamb of God for a reason. He died as a sacrifice for my sin in loving compassion while I was yet His enemy. He gave Himself for me.

And the consequence of that is I feel profound love for Him. And if I love Him, I want the nations to know about Him. I want others to hear about Him. I want my own life to reflect His goodness. And for that reason, being evangelical is not just about being biblical and believing in the importance of a personal relationship and love with Christ.

It is ultimately about being profoundly missional. That I want a multitude in heaven to cry out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God." And because I want that multitude, I will love what and whom Jesus loves. Yes, I love that we have people going to Guadalajara who believe that there's a way to take the message and the goodness of Christ to what KK called that dark university.

And I love the fact that we say we will go across the nations. But that is not our only calling. If I love Christ, I will love what and whom He loves. Whom does He love? The outcast, the poor, the widow, the orphan in distress, the prisoner. Those that are unlovely, He says, are the object of His particular affection.

And for that reason, because I have a personal relationship with the Savior, I want Him to be personally known and loved by all that He loves. It becomes my own heart's call and initiative. The reason I am saying these things is I recognize if we are going through this month and my saying, "Why church?"

The easiest inclination in my own heart and the expected answer to say, "Well, we come to church so that we will be spiritually fed and comforted and inspired and encouraged." All of those are good and true answers and entirely insufficient.

Because ultimately if you are here for you, I will tell you what is happening. You will grow spiritually dry or disappointed or be hurt, and at some point you will feel there is no reason to be here. I just want to be honest with you.

I mean, if I talk about loving the bride of Christ, I know as well as anybody how hard that is. For three decades of my life I was in at least 50 churches a year. I think of what that means. You know, a thousand, fifteen hundred churches I have been in. If I have experienced the privilege and the pain of being in the church, I will tell you it is extensive.

I have never been more inspired than when I have been in the church, and I have never been more ashamed than when I have been in the church. I have never experienced greater courage when I've been in the church or seen greater despicable hypocrisy. I have never been more joyous or more deeply hurt than when in the church.

And I say that to you because I recognize that when I'm calling people to be members of a part of the body of Christ, I'm ultimately saying, if you're just saying, "What will this do for me?" You'll find you want to leave. I have wanted to leave a thousand times.

And been called back a thousand times, not because of the beautiful features of the church, because of the beautiful purpose of the church. What is the purpose of the church? It is to bring glory to the Savior. It is that the nations may know Him. It is that the children may know Him. It is not so that we will get our own.

It is not so that we will have what we most want. If we are doing the work of Jesus Christ, we begin to identify the hurting people and the miserable churches that actually need godly people to help them. Because God is calling His church to glorify Him. If you're not a member of any church, if you are a lapsed member of this church, if you are on the sidelines of the mission of God, I want you to think that through again.

Don't buy the consumerism that says you need to find a perfect church to satisfy your needs. I urge you to find a church that is so messed up and miserable, it needs you! A church like this. Because when we begin to recognize God is calling us to a purpose, not just a preference, then we begin to glorify Him in the wonders of what He is doing all around us.

Our kids were here just this last weekend, and we reminisced about things. And one moment that caught us is a moment that we remembered when my second son was sitting at the computer one day. I was on the road, called back. Cathy said, "I want to tell you something, this will make your day," she said.

And she said that as she was walking by the computer in the public area of our house, where we keep it, that her son, our Jordan, popped up out of his chair. He thought, "Uh-oh, what's on the computer that he's getting up so—" He said, "Mom, look at the computer!"

And in the days of chat rooms—do you remember chat rooms?—there was this thread of a conversation where Jordan was with his friends trying to convince a young woman who had come into the chat room of what it meant to have faith in Jesus Christ.

And he said, "Mom, she's trying to join a church and she doesn't even understand the grace of God that Jesus provided. I'm going to my room, keep her on the line!" And he begins to get his Bible and tell her verses out of Romans and Galatians that are explaining the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

I think, I'm not even there. His mom is suspicious of what's happening on the computer. But what's he doing? He's taking the ministry of adults and mentors and Sunday school teachers and parents and spiritual grandparents, and he's pouring them into his own heart and life and now through the computer into the world.

And—and that's what the bride of Christ is supposed to be doing as we are nurturing the family of God for the glory of Christ, so that all nations will glorify Him. It's what we're about. And I invite you to be a part of it. If you're not a member of this church, be a member of some miserable church! That God may show Himself great through you.

What does he say? "Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, for the Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him glory."

Friends, I'm so glad you decided to tune in today and listen, and I would consider it a privilege to pray for you right now. Let's go together before the throne of heaven and pray for the Lord's blessing.

Father, thank You for being merciful to us. Help our hearts to grasp the greatness of that mercy that You provide, so that we can offer our lives to Jesus as a sacrifice of praise that You have made holy and acceptable, despite our many weaknesses and flaws. We thank You for this great grace and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you would like to hear more from Dr. Chapell, you can find a collection of valuable resources at unlimitedgrace.com. When you visit, you will find today's message and many others from Pastor Bryan. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by His unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.

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