Opposition to the Gospel

Good morning, my name is Chris. If you don't know me, I'm on the pastoral staff here.

You're very, very welcome this morning.

And it's interesting, just even as we're thinking about election and thinking about the city,

because this book of Titus that we're going through as a series that Graham started us last week,

and I'm just going to raise this a little bit, is a story, a letter that is written in a city

which is going through turmoil in much the same way as in Hong Kong.

Our city is often feeling like it's in turmoil as well.

You see, this letter that we're looking at is a letter which is all about how to be a healthy church in an unhealthy world.

That's why we're looking at the letter.

We're looking, how do you be healthy? How do you be godly?

How do you live as Christ wants us to live in a world which is anything but?

And the context of this book is just, I don't know if you know where Crete is.

Crete is a beautiful island in the Mediterranean.

It's a Greek island, and there are no dangerous animals on this island.

It is a fantastic paradise of an island.

But Paul, in the letter, he quotes a Greek historian who says,

Cretans are always liars, beasts, and lazy gluttons.

Now, that's not very pleasant.

But he's not being racist here.

He's being ironic.

What he's saying is, the most dangerous animals on the island are people.

Because we know from history, and other historians tell us, that the people were obsessed with money.

Here's what one guy says.

He says,

Money is so highly valued among them that its possession is not only thought to be necessary,

but in the highest degree, creditable.

And in fact, greed and avarice are so native to the soil in Crete that they are the only people in the world

among whom no stigma attaches to any sort of gain whatever.

This is a guy who's writing near the time of Jesus.

And to get money, they'll lie.

They'll stab you in the back.

It's a dog-eat-dog world.

There's political division.

You can't trust anybody.

There's corruption.

And to capital, many of the towns, their leaders are filled with pirates.

Now, I don't know if you can imagine, but what about having your boss being Jack Sparrow?

Because that's the kind of place...

Now, maybe you feel that's what your boss is just like.

But that's the kind of place that Crete was.

And so Paul's chief aim in this book is to say,

How do you live in a godly way?

And he starts off in verse 1, which we looked at last week.

He says,

I'm here on a mission.

I'm writing this letter because there is a truth which leads to godliness in an ungodly world.

And, you know, how do you get to this godliness?

Well, if you look in the verses here and have your bulletin here,

there's a whole list of things which Paul says that elders should be godly about.

And, you know, the list is kind of, ooh, okay.

And not arrogant, quick-tampered, drunkard, violent, greedy for gain.

But you must be hospitable, lover of God, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

And you think, how on earth do I get the fruit of godliness like that in my life?

Because the elders were meant to model what everybody in the church was to be like.

And the thing is, Paul is saying, the fruit of godliness in your life always comes from the seed that you plant in your life.

You know, if you plant a tomato seed, you get a tomato plant.

If you plant a durian seed, you get trouble.

But if you plant the gospel and you water it in your life, you get godliness.

And you live a life that displays the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

And so, I want to look a little bit about how do you live in a godly way today?

How does your faith, is your faith, if I looked at it, does it produce that kind of fruit?

So, there are a couple of types of people.

And just recapping a little bit of what Graham said here, there's two kinds of people that are contrasted here.

Two kinds of teachers.

There are the elders who, in this city, they're to hold firm to a trustworthy word.

And there are some false teachers who are coming in and teaching something else.

That's in verse 10 to 16.

So, let's think about this in two ways.

One is, what is the seed, the transforming power to live in a godly way?

And secondly, it will be, what is the seed that can destroy godliness in your life?

Okay?

Seed which brings godliness, a seed which destroys godliness.

Okay?

So, let's dive in to the passage.

Have it open with you.

5 verse 9.

The elders are chosen to protect the church and their choice is not based primarily on how gifted they are,

but it's based primarily on two things, their character and their doctrine.

Okay?

Their character and their doctrine.

And it's both the public and private life of the elders is meant to be that of a lover.

Some of the characteristics.

Hospitable.

That means somebody who loves strangers.

They're to be a lover of good.

They're to be self-controlled, upright, wholly disciplined.

They're to have an integrity.

Not perfection, but an integrity that shows and displays a love for God.

And it comes from holding firm to the trustworthy word.

Elsewhere, it calls that the doctrine of God as Savior.

The grace of God that brings salvation.

So, in other words, the elders' job, it says, verse 9, is to instruct or to encourage people in this sound gospel doctrine

so that the church also becomes lovers,

and they are also to bear the fruit of godliness in their lives so it overflows into the church and into the world.

That's God's mission strategy, by the way.

Your life is God's mission strategy for attracting people to see how good the gospel is.

Okay?

So, how does this happen?

How does the gospel produce godliness?

I want to tell you two things that the gospel does.

The gospel changes what you love,

and it changes what you hate.

Changes what you love, changes what you hate.

The elder is a lover, a lover of good,

who knows that the ultimate love of God is in the gospel.

So, 1 John 4 says,

We love, we love because He first loved us.

In other words, all love for God only ever comes out of a response to seeing His love for you first.

Do you get that?

You've got to see His love for you first before you can respond in love for Him.

And the gospel tells you that by saying,

You can only see His love if you realize two things.

One, you're far worse than you dare imagine you could be.

You're far worse than you are.

If you think you're okay, you haven't understood the gospel.

You are far worse than you think you are.

Your sin deserves this, but you're far more loved, secondly,

than you could possibly imagine you are.

You're worse than you think you could be.

You're more loved than you could imagine and ever dare you could be.

And in the cross, when you see the cross,

and as Christians we talk about the cross all the time,

but we see that there's a God who chases after us

even when we're running away from Him.

He loves us to the point that He would die the death you and I deserve.

And if you trust in Him,

you can be utterly secure,

knowing that nothing you've done,

no merit you've done,

no achievement can ever change the security that you find in His love.

You're a child of God.

Your past is wiped out.

The shame, the guilt is gone.

Your future is secure.

You're held in His arms.

There's no need to fear, no need to worry,

no need to live in guilt.

He holds you.

Like a mother with a newborn child,

whatever you're going through,

He holds you.

That's the gospel.

But if, I don't know, like you or me,

I've been in church a long time.

I've heard that.

I know that.

And every day, I forget that.

Every day, I forget,

because stuff happens.

Stuff happened this morning.

Stuff happened this week.

You know, I make poor choices.

I get frustrated.

The life kind of overtakes me.

And I forget that God loves me.

I forget that there is this amazing gospel.

And I just kind of get back into me.

That's where it goes.

And John says in his book, Following On,

he says, I want you to realize

that when you run back to God

and you see again,

in the midst of your craziness,

you get a glimpse and you see His love for you,

His preciousness of your life.

Do you know what happens?

It changes you to want to obey Him.

Because love always expresses itself in obedience.

And the reason I don't obey

is because I don't get His love.

And my heart hasn't been changed by His love.

And the thing is,

if you don't see the depth of your need of God,

if you don't see,

if you're kind of so wrapped up in the world

and what's going on in your life,

and you don't see regularly, day by day,

this gospel message of the love

and the grace and the mercy,

you're worse than you could believe,

but you're more loved than you could imagine,

if you don't see that day by day by day,

what happens is,

we begin to go astray.

And when you begin to see,

well, maybe I don't really need God that much.

Maybe you're going to be like the French philosopher Voltaire who said,

of course God forgives.

It's His job.

And you don't see how costly God's love for you is.

And if you don't see how costly His love for you is,

then you'll never get a lifestyle of radical love

that is called to be a shining light in the world around.

I don't know if you've,

have you ever seen somebody who was addicted to their job

and then they fall in love.

You ever seen that?

You see,

I think it's very funny

because you see this guy or this girl

and they're just hardworking,

they work late,

you can't get them to go out,

they've always got to finish work,

and then one day,

something happens.

Everything changes.

Suddenly,

they're trying to sneak out of work early.

Suddenly,

they are kind of sneaking out of the office

to take kind of private phone calls in hushed tones.

Suddenly,

you know,

before they were kind of miserable,

so and so,

but then there's this kind of little cheeky grin

which comes on their face

and they're kind of nice to everybody.

It's amazing.

Do you know what I mean?

And you're thinking,

what do they have for breakfast?

But you know,

you know what's going on,

right?

You know what's going on

because their love for their job

has been replaced by a greater love.

And when they begin to have this greater love,

their behavior changes,

right?

And that's the way the gospel is meant to work in your life

because we love ourselves,

we love our comfort,

we love our ambition,

we love all this stuff,

and that's where sin,

the selfishness is.

But when you experience the love of God in the cross,

through His care,

through His working in your life,

when you experience it,

not just know it here,

when it actually hits you down here,

you know what it does?

It changes you.

It cannot but change you.

And it changes what you love.

It changes how you spend your time.

It changes the people around you

you want to serve

and love.

And the gospel gets displayed

not just in the kind of cheeky grin,

but in the fruit of love,

joy, peace, patience,

all the other stuff.

That's what happens.

And the more that you see

the sin in your life,

the more you repent,

the more you realize

how amazing God's love for you is,

the more it begins to change you.

You don't become perfect,

but you begin to bear that fruit

because you have that seed in your life.

So let me ask you,

are you increasingly seeing

love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, gentleness,

self-control in your life?

Are you seeing evidence

of that regularly?

Not perfection?

Because if you're not,

then the chances are

that the gospel might be here,

but it's not here.

That you haven't understood

just how amazing

his love for you is.

Richard Sibbes,

who was an English pastor

500 years ago,

he says,

if Christ has once

possessed the affections,

that means the love,

what you're passionate about.

If Christ has possessed

your affections,

there's no dispossessing

of him again.

A fire in the heart

overcomes all fires without.

So do you have that fire

in your heart

which is kindled by his love?

Because if not,

then we need to pray

and repent and say,

God,

I want you

to rekindle my cold heart

and make me

that bearer of fruit

who loves you

from the heart.

That's the first thing

the gospel does.

The second thing

the gospel does,

it changes

what you hate.

There's some strong language

in this text.

It says things like

detestable,

disobedient,

and when God's people

see God's goodness,

their desires change

from loving what was wrong

to hating it.

You begin to hate it.

You see,

when you love your child,

you hate what causes them pain.

You hate what causes them sorrow.

And when you love God,

you hate what causes him pain.

And you increasingly hate sin.

You don't want to get close to it.

You're not kind of like

creeping up to it

just to see how far can I go

before it bites me.

You know,

if I was to put a cobra

in your bed

and ask you to lie down

next to it,

would you be saying,

oh,

I wonder how close I can get

before it bites me?

I don't think you would.

I think you'd be saying,

don't let that thing near me.

Get it out of here.

Even if you put it in the cage,

I don't want it in the room.

Defang it,

just throw it out.

I don't want it there.

Right?

Because you don't,

you hate something

which you know is dangerous

and something you know

is going to kill and destroy.

But that's often

how we deal with sin.

We say,

let me just,

you know,

I'll just get next to it,

but I won't touch it.

I'll smoke,

but I won't inhale.

Right?

You know?

But people who love God

have the same reaction

as you would have

to having a cobra

in your bed

towards sin.

The more God changes

what you love,

He changes what you hate,

sin becomes less appealing,

good becomes more lovely.

That's what the gospel does in you.

So that's

what God is wanting to happen

in these elders

as they're teaching

and living out this gospel

that's to flow into the church.

But there's a problem here.

And the problem in this church in Crete

is there's another seed

that's being sown.

There are insiders

in the church here

who are planting a seed

which if it's left unchecked

would be worse than a durian farm.

This is a seed

that destroys love,

destroys joy,

destroys peace

and kindness.

And it's a seed that

if it's sown in the church

becomes so unappealing

to the world around.

You know,

the reason why

many non-Christians

do not want to be Christians

is not just the gospel message.

It's because of the lives

of Christians

which are being planted

in a seed

which is not the gospel.

And here's that seed.

Do you know what it is?

Religion.

Self-righteous

is performance-based religion.

This is the seed

which destroys

the power for godliness.

We're going to look at

verses 10 to 16.

You see,

Paul is like a doctor here

who's diagnosing

a common condition.

You know,

I call it

the PBR virus,

the performance-based

religion virus.

And it's got to be,

it's like a cancer

that's got to be rooted out

in your life.

Otherwise,

it will suck you in

and destroy you.

Verse 10.

Here's how Paul describes

people sowing

this seed of religion.

There are many

who are insubordinate,

empty talkers,

deceivers,

especially of the circumcision party.

Now,

that sounds like

the rest of Cretan society.

Verse 16.

They profess to know God

but deny Him

by their works.

They're detestable,

disobedient,

unfit

for any good work.

Now,

I'm thinking as I read that,

Paul,

that's not very nice.

Can't you be a little bit more

peacey,

a little bit more tolerant?

But this challenges me

because actually,

the Bible is never tolerant

of what will destroy

love,

joy,

peace,

patience,

and all the rest of it.

And, you know,

Jesus,

as well,

uses His strongest language

to describe

the Pharisees,

the religious leaders,

who are also infected

with this virus.

Now,

let me give you

a little bit

of information

about who

these people

are in the church.

Verse 10 says,

they're of the circumcision party.

Now,

I don't know about you,

but putting the word

circumcision

and party

in the same sentence

doesn't sound

like a good idea to me.

But the Cretan church

here were Jewish Christians.

And some of them,

they came in some teachers

who were also

Jewish Christians

who claimed,

okay,

you can be saved

by faith in Jesus.

That's good.

But to be a good Christian,

you've got to keep

this list of rules.

You've got to be circumcised.

Don't eat this.

Don't eat that.

Okay?

Keep yourselves

ritually pure.

Okay?

People who break

those rules,

they're the bad Christians.

People who keep the rules,

they're the good Christians

and they can look down

on the bad Christians

and kind of condemn them occasionally

because that's what good Christians do.

And these teachers

were bringing division,

not peace,

division,

upsetting whole households,

it says in verse 11.

And Paul says,

it's the job of the elders

and Titus

to silence them,

to stop them

sowing these seeds

because these are toxic.

They will rip the love

and the joy

and the peace

out of this church.

It sounds strong,

but actually,

it's what a doctor would do

if there is a disease

where he's riddling a patient.

So I want to share with you

four results

of this performance-based religion

because we might look at this

and think,

well, that's,

okay,

I'm not tempted

about circumcision personally.

Okay?

That's not things

which we struggle with.

Well, let's have a look

at some of these things.

The first result of PBR,

performance-based religion virus,

is it makes you proud

or despairing

because PBR appeals

to every one of us

just like the circumcision party

appealed to the Jewish people there

because every one of us

has performance tendencies.

Right?

We live,

whoops,

okay,

I'm not performing.

We live in a culture

which basically

from the time when you're born

to the time when you die,

you kind of judged

on your performance,

right?

You judged on your grades,

you judged on your job appraisal,

your pay,

your marriage,

your kids,

you're judged on performance

and if you're successful,

you're elevated

and if you're failure,

you're demoted

and that's the way it works,

right?

Okay?

That's the culture

we live in.

But what we subtly mistake

is the need to perform

in society

with our ultimate identity

and worth

and value

and we kind of,

that's where we get in trouble

because we define ourselves

by our achievements.

We compare ourselves

to everyone else

just to check

that we're okay

or not

and we never compare

with God

but just with each other

and you know,

if we've achieved

our targets,

we kind of think that,

you know,

my spiritual condition

is pretty good.

You know,

if I've read my Bible today,

I feel like

I'm good,

right?

and we can become

self-sufficient,

proud.

I kind of,

my sense of need of God

becomes like my need

for ice cream.

It's kind of cool

and refreshing

but I don't really,

I can kind of live without it

because when you're operating

like this,

if you think you're doing okay,

you've chicked

the Christian boxes,

you've come to church,

you've given the offering,

you think you're okay

but then,

if you're operating like this,

you talk to a friend

and they say,

do you know what time

I get up every morning

to read my Bible

and then you're like,

man,

I'm a lazy bum

or like,

that guy is like,

he heard from God

three times last week

and then he went to,

he quit his job,

went to help in a soup kitchen

and 150 little babies

got saved

and I just stayed in last night

and all week

and I just watched Netflix.

Right?

And you compare yourself.

Right?

And we either get to the point

of saying,

okay,

so I've got to be

a better Christian,

okay,

let me go and feed

some more babies somewhere

or we get to the point of,

oh,

I know I'm going to be

a second class Christian.

You feel that kind of despair

and whenever you see

you're kind of,

you're not quite meeting up

to the mark,

then what happens is

it heaps this ton of guilt

and condemnation on you

and you either try

and work harder

or you give up

and you know what?

I've never met

one person

in my entire life

who feels trapped

under guilt

and condemnation

who's filled with love,

joy and peace.

Never met one.

They don't exist.

Do you know why?

Because that's not

the seed of the gospel.

because performance-based

religion never leads

to godliness.

It leads to just

keeping rules

but it doesn't

change your heart

and some of us here,

I know,

live under this guilt

and you wonder

why you haven't

got any joy

and it's because

you've listened

and you're believing

and you're infected

by this virus

and the gospel's

coming to you

and saying

it's not on your performance

that Christ has died

for you

and you're accepted.

It's only his performance

and you need to be

free from that

but some of us

have settled

for being mediocre Christians.

God's standards

are too high

so I'll just kind of

live down here.

You know,

it's too,

you look at these lists

and you feel,

wow,

I can't get there.

You feel burdened

and so you choose

to perform

in other areas

where you think

you can be successful

like work

or family

or those other things

but you're missing out

on joy

and purpose

and peace

and love

because you're not running

back to the gospel seed.

It makes you proud

or despairing.

The PBR virus

is powerless

to change the heart.

That's the second thing.

You see,

the circumcision party,

they had their rules

to keep everyone pure

from the culture

around them

but the crazy thing is

that Paul in verse 15,

he says,

to the pure,

all things are pure.

To those who've been washed

by Jesus' blood,

they're pure

but to those who are defiled

and unbelieving,

nothing is pure

and then he goes on

to call them detestable,

disobedient,

unfit

for any good work.

What's he saying?

He's saying,

these people

are advocating

keeping all these rules

to stay pure

but inside

they're just as dirty

as defiled

as anyone else

out in the culture.

And you know,

Jesus says something

very similar.

He says,

woe to you teachers

of the law

and you Pharisees,

you hypocrites

because that is what it is.

It makes you a hypocrite.

You clean the outside

of the cup and dish

but inside you're full

of greed

and self-indulgence.

And I think

all of us

in some way or other

have,

including myself,

I see this hypocrisy

in my own heart.

I say what I believe here

but in my life

there's this gap.

You see,

if I come to you

and I give you

a nice watermark

and I,

as you look at it

I've kind of cleaned

the outside

and I come to you

and I say,

hey,

would you like

a drink of water?

Maybe you're not thirsty.

And you say,

okay,

yeah,

yeah,

I'll take it

and then I say,

oh,

yeah,

just one thing.

I produced a urine sample

before,

just before

and I haven't cleaned

out the inside.

Would you like a drink?

Now,

the outside of the cup

looks great

but would you want

to drink anything

from the inside

of the cup

if the inside

is dirty

and defiled?

The thing is,

much of our Christian lives

we spend polishing

the outside so well

and we forget

about the inside

because the thing is,

if you clean the inside,

the water's going to splash out

and it's going to

transform the outside anyway.

But we can be so busy

in church

doing activity

after activity,

reading our Bibles,

serving,

doing all these

different things

and you think

you're okay

because you think

I'm doing all this

for God.

But if your heart

is not being propelled

by God's love for you,

God looks at that

in the same way

that you would react

towards a urine sample

being in the drink of water.

It's detestable.

And I know this for myself

because it's so often

I come to the point

of saying,

have I done enough for God?

What must I do for God?

Have I reached the standard

so that I'm okay?

But if God's love

is not propelling you,

you'll be like a husband

who dutifully serves

one wife

but secretly wishes

he was with another.

Because what happens is,

you know,

have you seen

a dutiful son?

I've seen this.

I've seen a dutiful son

go and visit his mother

in hospital

but there's no love.

And you know,

there's a coldness.

There's just a clinicalness

to the way they go

about their duty.

They've done it.

They visited their mother.

But there's,

the warmth is missing.

The joy is missing.

And as a church,

a church which is going to live

must be a church

which is filled with joy.

And joy,

not because I've got

a whole load of duties

that I've got to get through

to be a good Christian,

to read my Bible,

to do all these things

because I have to.

But because God's love

compels me,

draws me

in a relationship with me.

And I wonder

if you are like that with God.

I wonder if you are.

And don't mishear

what I'm saying

because it doesn't mean

that you have to always feel

this overwhelming passion

to serve or to give

or to do all the things

that as Christians

we should do.

You know,

a mother who has to,

who loves their child

will change their nappy,

the diaper,

and they're not thinking,

wow, this is amazing.

But there is a love

and a duty

which go together.

It is not just

we obey out of love for Christ

and not out of duty.

Duty without love

is deadly.

But love always

involves duty.

And if you clean

the inside of the cup,

you will see

that even though it's,

sometimes you just don't feel

like you want to read your Bible.

Sometimes you just don't feel

like you want to serve

or you want to give.

Or before you do it,

you,

before you do it,

ask God to change it.

Do it anyway.

But ask God to change your heart

in doing it.

Don't just stop doing it.

Ask Him to change your heart.

Ask Him to refuel

and refire your love for Him

as you do it.

Okay?

It makes you proud.

The PBR virus makes you proud.

It makes you,

it's powerless to change your heart.

Only the gospel

can change your heart.

Third thing is,

performance-based religion

blinds you to your own condition.

It says in verse 16,

they profess to know God

but deny Him by their works.

That's a strong statement.

They profess to know God.

They profess to know God

but they deny Him by their works.

You see,

performance-based religion

stops you seeing your need

for God and His grace.

And you can see

everyone else's need for grace.

You can see everyone else's need

for change

but not your own.

You know,

you listen to a sermon

and you think,

I wish my husband or wife

could hear this.

Right?

And you don't see

how it should apply to you.

I was sitting in a,

I was sitting in a restaurant

the other day

and I was listening to two,

two women

kind of gossiping

about their colleagues.

And they were saying,

oh,

they're so judgmental,

they're so this,

they're so that.

And I was listening to them

and thinking,

you're so judgmental

and you're like this.

And then I stopped

and thought to myself,

do you see,

all the time,

performance-based religion

is one of the things

that just gets me every time.

And we're just infected by it.

And we need the gospel

to keep reminding us,

to keep reminding us

you are more,

you're worse

than you can imagine you are,

but you're more loved

than you could dare believe you are.

Let me speak to some of you.

It's worse,

performance-based religion

is worse

than if you think

you are not a Christian,

if you're not a Christian.

If you're not a Christian,

you know you're not a Christian.

Right?

Okay?

You know where you stand.

But if you're in church,

week in,

week out,

listening to sermons,

giving money in the offering,

going to community group,

and you think you know God

because you've done

all those things,

you're in trouble.

You're in trouble.

Because just as

sitting in a garage

doesn't make you a car,

sitting in church

doesn't make you a Christian.

Because why do you think

God would accept you

if you say,

because I'm not a bad person?

Look at all the things

I've done for God.

I've got a loving heart.

If you say any of those things,

you're not a Christian.

You're not a Christian.

Because God looks on the inside

of the cup

and He says,

that is disgusting.

Whoa, that's strong.

But Christianity says,

though you're worse

than you think you are,

God,

through no merit of your own,

through the blood of Christ,

has come

and He has washed you

through His death

on the cross.

It is only

through His blood.

It is only

through His grace.

It is only

through His death

for you,

not because of how great

your performance was,

that you can now stand

to the pure,

all things are pure.

You can stand before God

pure in His eyes,

beautiful in His sight,

valued,

loved,

holy.

And He says,

I am pleased with you,

not because of your performance.

Your performance sucks,

but because of His performance.

That's the gospel.

That's the gospel.

So if you're living

on your parents' faith,

you're living

on any other thing,

you need to come

and talk with me

or talk with a community group leader

or otherwise

because you need to get right

with God today.

So where do we go with this?

Where do we go with this?

A couple of things.

You see there are these two seeds.

And the thing is,

we need to always,

in Hong Kong,

it's so easy,

I see it all the time,

that we go to churches

and choose churches

because we like the music

or we like the programs

or we like all kinds

of other things.

But this passage is telling us

you need to evaluate

a church,

a community,

all those other things.

You need to evaluate

your own life

on not just whether

something works for you

but is the gospel

being taught

in that church?

Or is,

you need to,

we're pragmatic here.

We want to work out

what works for us.

But there is,

doctrine is important.

What you believe

is important

because it always flows

into your life.

And so you've got to,

you've got to know

how do we evaluate

what different people say?

Because if you don't,

your joy is at stake.

Your joy is at stake.

The godliness,

that fruit,

that mission

to the world

is at stake.

But here's the difference.

When you hear this kind of,

you see this list of things

that we should be

as Christians.

You see it for elders.

You can see it

in all kinds of,

how do you stop

just kind of falling back in

as I do regularly

into PBR virus,

into this performance-based religion?

One of my mentors,

a guy called Tim Chester,

he wrote this.

And he calls

performance-based religion

legalism.

He says,

legalism says,

you should not do this.

The gospel says,

you need not do this.

Legalism says,

you should not sleep

with your boyfriend.

You should read your Bible

every day.

You should not get drunk.

You should witness

to your friends.

You should not lose your temper.

None of these

are good news

to someone struggling

with these issues.

To them,

it is condemnation

and sounds oppressive.

What the gospel says is,

you need not get drunk

because Jesus offers

a better refuge.

You need not lose

your temper

because God is in control

of the situation.

Sin is always making promises

and the gospel exposes

those promises

and false promises

and points to God

who is bigger

and better

than anything

sin offers.

That's the gospel.

I don't know what

you're struggling with

this week.

I don't know what area

of godliness

you wrestle with

but what I know

is this.

You don't stop worrying

by simply telling yourself

to stop worrying.

Right?

Try it.

You don't stop

porn addiction

by simply surrounding

yourself with

accountability partners

or security measures

on your computer.

Those things are good

but they're still

outside of the cup.

We need a clean outside

but they're still

outside the cup.

because if you hear

the Bible's command

which says

don't do those things

and then suddenly

you realize

you are doing those things

you know what happens?

You just feel worse.

You feel condemned.

You feel like

oh, done it again.

And that doesn't

bring you to joy

because the command

then becomes

like the judge's hammer

that condemns you

but there's one old writer

who wrote this.

His name was John.

He said,

run John

run the law commands

but gives us

neither feet

nor hands.

Far better news

the gospel brings

it bids us fly

and gives us wings.

It's not Red Bull

that gives you wings.

It's the gospel

that gives you wings.

The way to stop worrying.

The way to deal

with porn.

Yes, have other stuff

around you

but you need to

massage the truth

of the gospel

every single day

into your heart.

You need a community

around you

who are also

telling you the gospel

day in, day out

because you're going

to forget.

And when you come

and run to God

and say,

God, I need you

to change me.

I need you to show me

your love.

Do you know what happens?

Something beautiful occurs.

You begin to see

that fruit

that you're always wanting

that you would produce.

Spurgeon,

the preacher,

said this,

When I thought

God was hard,

I found it easy

to sin.

But when I found

God was so kind,

so good,

so overflowing

with compassion,

I smote upon

my breast

to think that

I could ever

have rebelled

against one

who loved me so

and sought

my good.

My prayer for us

as a church

is that we

would not be

a joyless

burdened,

condemned,

guilty,

shame-filled church,

but one

which knows

the joy

of being forgiven,

of being cleansed

by the blood of Jesus

and we're living it out

in radical love

for others

and for Him.

Let's pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Lord I pray for us

I pray for our hearts

I pray for those here

who are actually laboring

under that sense of guilt

and condemnation

I pray Lord

that you would speak

to their hearts now

you would help them

to see you

to see the one

whose blood was poured out

for them

for the sins

that are held in them back

you died for those very sins

I pray for those of us

who kind of don't really care

we've given up trying

we're just content

we think we're okay

Lord I pray

would your word

would it shatter

those false pretenses Lord

show us what we're really like

pray for us

who

just are feeling burdened in life

Lord I pray that you would

give us that joy again

that we would see

afresh

not that the gospel

is just some news

what I heard

a long time ago

but every time

every day

it's producing joy

make us a joyful people Lord

show us

again and again

the depths

of your grace

in your name

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Yeah

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen