BACKGROUND:
Christ Jesus, through his death, destroyed the barriers that had separated Jews and Gentiles, making peace between both groups. Even more than making peace, Christ reconciled them both to God. Those who believed in him would be made into one people, Christians.
Paul described the peace that Christ had made between Jews and Gentiles as breaking down the wall of hostility that used to separate them. It was no secret that hostility existed between the two groups, a cultural and religious hostility that no one could bridge—no one but God.
The “dividing wall” was also pictured in the Jewish law itself, for the law was the means by which the Jews justified themselves before God and excluded the Gentiles (Deuteronomy 31:11-13; Isaiah 51:7-8). Christ himself said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Christ fulfilled the Old Testament law because that law (especially the ceremonial law with its regulations for sacrifices) foreshadowed his coming. In his life on earth, he obeyed and supported the intent of the law as God’s revelation and standard for people’s behavior.
Paul also supports the moral and ethical purpose of the law as valid to guide us (Romans 3:19-31; Galatians 3:24). But in his death and resurrection, Jesus annulled the law—that is, he made it ineffective. The law was annulled because of its ineffectiveness to make people right with God.
All have sinned; neither Gentiles nor Jews are capable of keeping God’s law. All need a Savior. That Savior came, died, and rose again, fulfilling and abolishing the law as the way of salvation. Jesus then opened to both Jews and Gentiles a way to God by faith in him (John 14:6). By offering salvation to all kinds of people, Christ could create one new person from the two groups. In Christ there are no longer Jews and Gentiles but a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, combined as Christians, who make up the body of which he is the Head.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
The Bible tells us that God always finishes what He starts. Always. "God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished..." It doesn't say, God might finish it, it doesn't say, God hopes to finish it. It says God will finish it. What does that mean?
It means if you have really given your life to Jesus Christ, if you've opened yourself up to God and said, "Christ, be number one in my life," you are going to make it to heaven. There's no doubt about it. Case closed. Done deal. Finished product. You are going to make it across the finish line. Because it doesn't depend upon your performance; it depends upon God's sustaining grace. The only question is how you finish the race. You know as well as I do that some people finish a race poorly while other people finish a race well.
As your pastor, I don't want to just get you into heaven. I don't want to just get to across the finish line. My goal is to help you finish the race of life well. I want you to enjoy life, the abundant life, to figure out what God made you for and put you here for and do it. God says, "I will help you finish the race."
How can we be sure we're going to finish? Because of God's Sustaining Grace.What is Sustaining Grace? Sustaining Grace is the power to keep on going when I feel like giving up. Do you ever need that? Sustaining Grace is the power to do the right thing when you don't feel like doing the right thing.
1 Peter 5:11 says, "My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that the grace of God is with you no matter what happens." No matter what happens, God's Sustaining Grace is going to be with you. It's going to be there.
God's Sustaining Grace says I will help you. You can count on God to come through for you. When and how?
#1. I can count on God's Sustaining Grace to help me keep on standing when I'm tempted.
Temptation is the first thing that causes us to stumble. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 "Watch out for attacks from the devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. [In other words, Satan wants to eat your lunch.] Take a firm stand against him. [Circle "firm stand"] and so be strong in the faith."
You may not realize this but the moment you become a believer a battle starts in your life. You're no longer Satan's property. He's taken his hand off you and now you're in God's hands. But he doesn't like that and there's a battle for your life every single day of your life. You are faced with moral choices. Am I going to do right or wrong? good or bad? Am I going to be selfish or am I going to be unselfish? Those moral choices are called temptations.
The Bible says we are all tempted. Everybody is tempted. You will never outgrow temptation. The Bible says even Jesus was tempted. It says He was tempted in all points like we are but he never sinned. The good news is this: If Jesus was tempted and He never sinned it means it's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to give in to temptation. Some Christians, when they're tempted, "Oh, no! How could I have ever thought that one!" Like I'm some evil, wicked, mean, bad and nasty person because a thought went through my mind. You cannot control all the thoughts that go through your mind. But you can control and you can chose to not dwell on them. You can't stop the birds from going over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.
Satan gives you all kinds of ides. You don't have to feel intimidated or embarrassed or ashamed of that. He just puts those ideas in your mind. It's when you dwell on them when they become wrong. They become sin.
Take one area of temptation -- sexual temptation. God made you to be a sexual person, a sexual being -- a man or a woman. He gave you sexual feelings. Those feelings are not wrong, they're not bad, they're not even sin unless you use them in a wrong way or apply them to a wrong person.
Lust is when you take a thought and begin to dwell on it in your mind, and you begin to mentally have an affair with that person, you begin to fantasize with that person and to imagine "What would it be like with that person?" That's when you've crossed the line. But it is not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to give in to temptation.
Several years ago, Larry King interviewed Billy Graham. They were talking about the Clinton scandals. Finally he says to Billy Graham, "You're 80 years old and you've been in the public limelight your entire light and you've never had a scandal. You have a history of integrity. How have you managed to never have a scandal in your life?" Billy Graham quoted the next verse, 1 Corinthians 10:13 "The temptations that you have are the same ones that all people have. But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can stand. When you are tempted, God will also give you a way to escape. Then you will be able to stand it." This is God's Sustaining Grace.
2. God's sustaining Grace helps me keep standing when I'm tired.
Sometimes I'm not tempted. Sometimes I'm just tired. Life is often exhausting. It requires a lot of strength, a lot of energy to live life especially when you're trying to do the right thing rather than the easiest thing. There are a lot of people in life that don't try to do the right thing; they just want to do whatever's the easiest thing. That's no problem at all. You can coast through life if you always do the easiest thing. But when you're coasting, you're always going downhill. You're always headed down when you coast.
On the other hand, when you try to do the right thing even though it's not the easiest thing, that requires energy. That requires effort, strength. Many of you are the only believer where you work. It's tough. Do you ever get tired of doing what's right? Sure. Because it's tough moving against the flow, swimming upstream. When all the culture is going one way and you're trying to do the right thing, it's tough. It's tough being the only person in the office when someone starts some dirty jokes and you don't want to be a part.
The more you try to do what's right, the more energy it's going to require. Yet God says, "Let us not grow weary in doing right for we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up." But where do you get the power to do the right thing and you don't feel like doing it and you're dead tired. Sometimes I don't want to be nice to my family, I want to be cranky. Sometimes I don't want to be nice to a clerk I want to be grouchy. Sometimes I want to be rude back to people who are rude to me. Where do you get the energy to do the right thing?
2 Corinthians 1 says, "It is God who gives us the ability to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us and He has identified us as His own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts." The key to the ability to not getting tired and giving up and doing the right thing when you know it's the right thing to do is having the Holy Spirit in your heart. It's He who energizes you, not you in your own power.
The reason why some of you are tired all the time is because you are trying to live the Christian life and that doesn't work. You're trying to be like Jesus. You're trying to do good. You're trying to keep the Ten Commandments. You're trying to be a person of integrity. You're trying, trying... And you get tired.
People say "It's so hard to be a Christian today!" It's not hard. It's impossible. The only perfect person who ever lived was Jesus Christ. He's the only one who ever lived the Christian life perfectly. What you need to do, rather than try to be like Jesus, let Jesus be Jesus in you. Let Jesus be Jesus through you. Stop trying and trying and just start trusting and trusting. The key to the Christian life is not trying, it's trusting. It's not psych yourself up, work real hard, try to do your best and perform so God will smile at you. It's relax, trust and let Christ live through you. And He will give you the power you need.
Practice these foundational truths today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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