From Law to Gospel [Part 2]

Pastor author and Bible teacher Alan Wright you take a little bit legalism put into your gospel needs to get in there in order for your gospel to lose its power. Alan light come to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light by Daniel Britt excited for you to hear the teaching debate in the series life of Peter is presented at an older church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire broadcast how to make sure you know how to get our special resource. Right now he can be yours for your donation this month. Alan Wright industries so as you listen to today's message deeper as we send you this special offer available today. Contact us at pastoralan.org that's Pastor Alan.org or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program but now let's get started with today's teaching here is Alan Wright as recently as he is doing some conferences that help Christian leaders especially understand what has happened with the explosion of pornography that's everywhere, and as part of this he had hired the Barna group research group to do a study on views towards pornography and it was quite a shocking and revealing. As you might imagine not only the use of explicit materials even amongst our young people, but the attitude was the thing that got me and this is the statistic that just I didn't know whether to just cry or just laugh out loud but I couldn't even believe it, but this is a true statistic among today's teenagers and young adults in this millennial generation, having been asked the question is recycling a sin and then asked the question is viewing pornography of sand you need to be aware that more of today's young people believe that it's a sin not to recycle, and they do believe it's a sin to view pornography that it's worse to not recycle that it is to view pornography. Now I need to just take a moment and say without going into a rant.

Who in their right mind can think this way. I've been in ministry for three decades and I have spent dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of meetings and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of hours praying with people and helping men who have been addicted to pornography and try to help couples whose marriages have been besieged and have been hurt and all the problems. It is a call over and over and over for three decades, but I want to, you know, I have never ever had an appointment with somebody who is coming and said Pastor will you help us.

My husband just not recycling. I've never seen a family broken up. I've never seen a society go down the drain because of a lack of recycle. It just doesn't happen like that. It doesn't have equipment don't come home and and the husband in the house at an end in sight as she said" what you been doing today as well. First I gathered up all the recycling and I took it out to the curb and then I spent a couple hours surfing the Internet for explicit material and the wife does it say as long as you did the recycling that's fine with me honey this is ridiculous. How can we make something that is so big seem so small and in the same way we can make something that is so small seems okay and this is what Paul is just like with the Holy Spirit when he hears that Peter is no longer eating with the Gentiles and peters rationalizes thing like this is just a small matter.

This doesn't matter.

I still go to church with them. I still associate with him. I still understand the freedom of the gospel. I just want to be able to convince more Jewish people of the gospel. So I better remind them that I too am Jewish and I don't associate with the unclean people. And when Paul hears is this is not a small matter is huge matter. This is at the heart of the gospel and he is willing to go and confront the rock of the church. Peter the preacher of Pentecost man who was as anointed as any man in the first century and Paul and confront him.

What was at stake for Paul. Was it that was so so important to him about this will be mentioned briefly. Three. Three different matters that were of great importance.

I think in Paul's mind and the first is the issue of holiness. What Peter was doing was conveying a non-gospel view of holiness to the Jewish people. Life revolved in on old covenant.

Living life revolved around the idea of the clean and the unclean. That which was ceremonial cleats ceremonially clean. Go to the temple that which was not could not, and there were many ceremonial laws that actually when we look back on it now quite helpful for the health of the Jewish people. So, for example, they had these weird laws about handwashing the Jewish people were about the only people in the ancient world that wash their hands before eating. Have a lot to do. Why this people survived beyond others. Nobody understood the germs even existed. They also have laws that they were not to touch dead bodies and other ceremonial laws that if we look back had health purposes to them, but are also other ceremonial laws that you couldn't understand exactly why that was in place.

But here's what it was doing it was showing them God is a holy God. He is other, he is omnipotent and he is transcendent and he is not like the mundane world and is not like the unholy people full of sin. God's pure and holy and free in all of these laws about what is clean and what's unclean. There was a picture being painted on the landscape of history that was pointing to the importance of holiness. But these ceremonial laws didn't make you holy. They were simply pointing to the need for holiness and what holy means. It means set apart. That's what it means. So if the vessel were a holy vessel that vessel would be used only at the temple only in the service of God. That's what me to be a holy vessel set apart for God use for the temples use. That's what it means for us to be holy, set apart unto God, to be used exclusively by God, belonging exclusively to God is what it means to be holy, so all of this idea of clean and unclean lived in the heart of the Jewish people. And Peter grew up with this Peter grew up and he knew there were clean animals and unclean animals and you not to eat. The unclean animals right so it's okay to eat lamb it's not okay to eat pig will look there now, but in acts chapter 10 an amazing thing happened. Peter he had a vision and in this vision there was this big sheet and all these different animals clean and unclean, and he heard the voice of the Lord saying to eat to eat freely and Peter says the Lord.

I'm never enough unclean animal my whole life I never had pork under in this vision, says it's okay to eat all of it and then right after that, a Gentile named Cornelius came to Peter and Peter prayed for him and when this Gentile was prayed for. The Holy Spirit fell upon him, and fell upon the Gentile, and Peter realize the gospel is not just for the Jewish people. Even though this had been prophesied, all the way through the Old Testament Israel was to be a light to the nations it hadn't really registered with him that this is what this means is that God doesn't show preference that he loves the whole world for God always has love the whole world and that he sent his son to die for the whole world so that anyone who would accept them through simple childlike faith would be saved would be filled with the Holy Spirit and he sees all this and he knows all this and this is what Paul has said that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, there is no longer a distinction between Hebrew and Gentile, because God has done something to make a new humanity. So now we understand in the gospel what holiness really is and we realize that we cannot make ourselves holy. We cannot ever keep the law, we can't ever be righteous enough, there always be something that we mess up.

Always something wrong with our thought life. Even the best of seemingly righteous person. The world still fall short of the glory of God.

So here's what God did to make us holy. He came and came in the person of a sinless human being.

Make Jesus the Nazarene who lived a sinless life, and when Jesus died for us. He became our sin. And whoever believes in him becomes his righteousness and that righteousness imparted to you imputed to you is the thing that has made you holy so Ezekiel prophesied that the Lord would say I am the Lord who sanctifies you and the writer of Hebrews says to the Christians. You have been made holy. Holiness is not a matter for us of being eating with the right people or are keeping ourselves from certain things or acting in a holy tone or doings are that's not what defines our holiness are holiness is found because we been close with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And Paul is saying to Peter Peter if you pull back from eating with the Gentiles to be conveying the people that holiness is a matter of eating and drinking, you associate with the whole good news of the gospel is not what establishes our holiness anymore.

We are holy in Christ and anyone, Jew or Gentile present Christ has been made holy and set apart for God so much at stake right will have more teaching moment from today's important series pressures always on hard to say no way that shall disappoint someone one relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame in the world and became anxious and with a nine question 19. There is only one solution. Recent lifts are shown six week master class pastor how unexposed shame shows the individual or in a snobbery series is sure to bring healing and hope are in my digital master class is instead.

Thanks for your partnership in a world separate shame.

It's time to let God's grace to shame Misty Banks from Allen Wright ministries. We are in our final days of offering to special product, 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor hour and.org. Today's teaching now continues here once again is the second thing he is concerned with is that in the gospel. There is a spirit given unity in the body of Christ that does not come by ordinary means. And if Peter withdraws from the Gentiles. He is introducing division with her should be unity because the unity that we have as Christians does not come because of the customs that we keep the color of our skin or the rituals that we perform or even simply simply because of the truths that we have sent to as important as that is. But in the gospel. There is been a miracle that is taken place in the Holy Spirit. The spirit of Jesus has come into the life of every believer. No such thing as a believer doesn't have the spirit of Jesus and Jesus therefore is like the vine and we are the branches or in Paul's image. He's the head and where the body we are a new eschatological breed of humanity that did not exist before the cross and the resurrection is changed everything. But if you act like this Peter you are flying in the face of everything that is good about the unity that is come in the body of Christ. We get so confused about this thinking that it is because of our associations that we are one is not. I am still along with my Carolina brothers and sisters recovering. I'm in recovery mode. In the I've moved beyond the denial stage of grief and now I'm in the still in the anger phase, but in case you live on Mars.

I need to let you know that my alma mater University until I was in the national championship game and the other team shall remain nameless, made a last second buzzer beater to to steal the championship away from from us and so had some so my Carolina people over to the house we're watching it when you're watching a game like this. It's best not to do it alone or in the quiet blood vessels verse and things happen if you don't and so it's important. It's important to have people that agree with you that the refs stink. You need you need people to come in aware Carolina blue and talk Carolina blue which was very magnanimous of me. Therefore, to allow my own father-in-law to join in on the viewing he went to Duke and to let him come in and try to act like he's pulling for Carolina to let him infiltrate like that I thought was big on on my part in it. Funny, we think you could to be united because you like Carolina. I like Carolina okay where were together don't agree on anything else. Perhaps you know but we got together and escalate people try to find unity in the world and this is something wrong will. It can be something wrong with a big it. It's something far more extraordinary that is offered to us in Jesus and is not just to say, oh, will we we we get to have unity with people of different nationalities and races and ethnic cultures know it's far beyond that where one in the unity of the Holy Spirit and the psalmist said, oh, how good and pleasant thing.

It is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity. It is as if the dues of Mount Herman have come to the arid places of Mount Zion when there is unity.

It is as if there is oil that is been poured out upon the head and runs down upon the beard, yea, even Aaron's beard and touches every part of the fabric of the road that where there is unity there is the power of the Holy Spirit because St. Peter if you compromise our unity you're compromising the function of God that moves through the body of Christ so much at stake, and he say quickly. He is in the and essentially saying Peter what you're doing and what you're demonstrating to others is not just about teaching something about clean and unclean is not right is not just about our unity. It's about the freedom and the power of the gospel as soon as you introduce a little bit of legalism into this magnificent, beautiful, glorious gospel, you have not only weakened it. You have turned it into poison. This is essentially what Paul is saying to the Galatians and this is why he feels so strongly so adamantly about this is it.

If you take one drop of cyanide and put into a small cup of otherwise clear water. You still have poison if you take a little bit of legalism and put it into your gospel.

That's all the devil needs to get in there in order for your gospel to lose its power because if you have an idea of God that he came in Christ because he loved you and he died for you and you have been saved by grace through faith but you get 1%. One little drop of an idea, but there may be some part of it that still up to you to make yourself acceptable to God, I'll tell you what will happen. It will introduce an unlimited capacity for fear because we are saved by grace. We are not and if there's 1% that were not saved by grace that we have much to dread every day because how would we ever know. If you are under 1% of law you're still under the law. I said this years ago. I can think of a better way to describe it.

It if I want to tell my wife 99 days in a row. I love you when a covenant and I accept you and I'm with you forever and then on the hundredth day.

I told her you might not be good enough.

After all, and unless you become better.

I might just leave you and then I went back the next day to 99 days in a row saying I love you I'll never leave you.

Wouldn't that one day out of 100, cancel out all the previous 99 and cancel out the 99 movement for because once you introduce the doubt of my covenantal love then is long as there's a seed of doubt that it can grow exponentially and if any day.

I am thinking I am loved, and yet there's 1%.

I might not be love. I'll be forever paying attention to the 1% rather than the 99%. So what the devil wants to do is not simply to come in and cause you to disbelieve in Christ altogether.

But the common effect of the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with just a little bit of the pollution of the legalism of the spirit of religion and so Paul comes up you you can't do this in the gospel is at stake here. The power of the gospel is at stake and and and he just openly confronts him and were not told what Peter does, but you know we been walking with Peter for a long time now and I will give him the benefit of the doubt because one thing we learned about Peter's Peter is able to change and I think Peter probably received this word and Paul just simply using this to set up his whole argument with the Galatians to say the gospel is as good as what you originally heard how could you start out in the spirit and go back to the law.

It's not one of those fancy dinners where you think it can be a blessing and then when you get into it, you find out there's a whole bunch of other strings attached. It actually is a lavish feast of grace, that in the in you wind up sitting with Christ himself at the marriage supper of the Lamb that's the gospel and today's teaching is we kick off the conclusion of our program. The life of Peter from stranger to Royal priest Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life, and a final word pressures always on, you find it hard to say no worry, that shall disappoint someone one relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame entered the world they became anxious and driven nine question like painting. There is only one solution.

Grace of God that lifts our shame seeks me your master class on exposing shame shows the individual or in a small series is sure to bring healing and hope are in my digital master class. Thanks for your partnership in a world separate time to let God's grace to shame, we are happy to see Misty and Allen Wright ministries.

We are in our final days of offering the special product. Call us at 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website past Rowan.org ballot as we kick off the final message in this series the life of Peter. We have seen an amazing journey of one and in really, if you think about it.

This is one that I find very practical one that I can identify with in so many areas of my life.

Really, it's all of our story right. We started off as an enemy we started off as the stranger and invited him seated at the at the table with a beautiful feast here as a child of God been so many labels that are put on a lot of Daniel and some listeners.

I know you've been the recipient of some really terrible labels from people that should've been a blessing you helping identify who you really are and instead is left you with a battle to strip those old labels off take on the new identity in Christ. Will today's message is for you and we who once were far away from God have been brought near and to hear these words of Peter who is a man who's been through the transformation now telling us we really are and what it means to be chosen. What it means to be Royal priest boy there is good news today. Today's good news message is a listener supported production Allen Wright ministries