Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of over 100 books, booklets & Bible studies. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 1,300 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries.
as we’re celebrating the 500 years the
Protestant Reformation and as each night
another emphasis of that Reformation is
given I was asked to speak a word about
sola gracia by grace alone in Europe
some years ago in a asylum sanitarium
a test was set forth to determine
whether someone was sane enough to be
set free from the sanitarium whether
they had gotten the love enough
intellectual stability to be let go
and one of the crude ways that they
would determine this was to place the
inmate in a janitor’s closet they would
turn the water on and put a stopper in
the sink let the water fill up the sink
and run over they would give the inmate
a mop they would tell the inmate to
clean up the mess as the water ran over
from the sink that had the stopper in it
they would then leave the room for a
couple of minutes and leave the inmate
alone whose task it was to mop up the
mess when they came back a couple of
minutes later if the water was still
running with the stop in the sink and
they were still mopping they knew that
person was not ready to go anywhere
because they did not have the capacity
to understand the root of the problem
for hundreds of years the church in
darkness was trying to get people to mop
up their sins through effort and merit
through indulgences
the then-known Catholic Church the
universal Church had descended into a
darkness that was engulfing Christianity
so to speak Martin Luther rose up in
1517 and he came to Wittenberg door and
he pulled the stopper out of the sink he
told people you don’t have to keep
swinging your mop you don’t have to keep
self effort to make yourself acceptable
to God because acceptance with God is by
grace alone and that one of the five
SOLAS led to the Protestant Reformation
of which we are beneficiaries when a
person is in a contest and they win they
get a trophy when a person is being
recognized for an achievement they get a
reward and when a person goes to work
every day they get a wage but when you
get a wage and you haven’t worked when
you get a trophy and you haven’t played
when you get an award and you haven’t
achieved
that’s called unmerited favor and at the
heart of grace is unmerited favor grace
can be defined as the goodness of God to
people who do not deserve it could never
earn it and could never pay back for it
for it is the god of grace that offers
His goodness to undeserving mankind
and it was the rediscovery of grace that
led to this Reformation so that people
could understand the biblical way to
salvation grace is all that God is free
to do for us independent of us
according to Romans 11:6 grace is apart
from works for if it is of works paul
says it cannot be any longer of grace
and so what was reignited in the
protestant reformation was an
understanding that salvation cannot be
earned bought paid for or meredith to
appreciate grace and to understand it we
have to understand the backdrop of our
need for it which will lead to the
implications of it a man came to a
doctor one day to get the results of his
tests the doctor said I have some bad
news for you and then I’ve got some
really bad news for you which do you
want first
he said well what’s the bad news the bad
news is I’ve examined your tests and you
only have 24 hours to live he said well
that’s the bad news that’s the bad news
he said then what’s the really bad news
he said I forgot to tell you yesterday
the need for grace comes up again some
bad news and some really bad news
Paul says in Galatians Ephesians chapter
2 that you were dead in your trespasses
and in your sins that the human race was
spiritually separated from God
and that was really bad news he goes on
to say in those opening verses that the
world of flesh and the devil had teamed
up to condemn the human race to a virus
called sin for which it could not heal
itself that no amount of human effort no
matter how well intentioned could solve
the problem of sin in the human race the
Bible declares that all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God and he
calls that spiritual death now granted
we do that at different levels of
decomposition in the coroner’s report
some are really dead
some are sophisticated and dead some are
rich in dead some are poor and dance
some are black and dead some are white
and dead but all are equally dead
separated from the life of God you know
in days gone by funerals were very crude
people would die and then they would be
put in wooden boxes and after put in
wooden boxes they would be put in
horse-drawn carriages they would be
taken to the cemetery and then this
wooden box would be laid in a grave dug
by hands and shovel with with ropes
wrapped around the top and wrapped
around the bottom to lower them in but
when you die today you die in style
there is no wooden box as a bronze
casket there’s now a horse-drawn
carriage there is not only ugly machine
but a fleet of a limousine led by two
motorcyclists out in front you’ve always
wanted to stop traffic you get to stop
traffic that day and go through red
lights you find yourself at the
internment not with ropes around the
casket but being lowered down by a
nickel-plated machine but I’m here to
tell you whether it’s a horse-drawn
carriage or limousine whether it’s a
wooden coffin or bronze one the Dead is
still the
and so while people have different
levels of decomposition and different
atmospheres around their grave
experience the Bible is declared that
all men are equally dead and separated
from the life of God but then Paul goes
on in the chapter and introduces two
words that can change any situation but
God he introduces two words that can
reverse any scenario but God he
introduces two words that can open up
graves and unhook caskets and dig out
dirt and they get things live again he
says but God and then he introduces us
to how we got grace and he throws
together some theological terms that is
easy to read but equally easy to miss
listen to what he says he says but God
being rich in mercy because of his great
love with which he loved us even when we
were dead in our transgressions has made
us alive together in Christ he says that
God had to have a discussion among his
attributes that he had to get together
with himself by himself about himself he
says on one side there was the wrath of
God because he says in verse 3 we were
children of Wrath because God’s
perfection and his justice demands his
wrath because he cannot negotiate what
sense gets in flips in ignore sin he
must react to sin cuz that’s just the
way he is his just perfect righteousness
must react to that which is contrary to
his nature he cannot act like wrath
is not part of his nature but on the
other side of this character according
to verse 4 was because of the great love
with which he loved us and the mercy he
wanted to extend to us so on one side is
justice and wrath and on the other side
is love and mercy the biblical
definition of love is the compassionate
and responsible look care for the
well-being of somebody else the biblical
definition of mercy is not giving what a
person deserves so now we have a
conflict of attributes we’ve got wrath
and justice which must be mediated out
and we’ve got love and mercy which is
desired to be expressed how can the
desire to express love and mercy deal
with the reality that justice and wrath
must be executed therefore God had to
come up with a plan for his attributes
to get along he had to come up with a
plan for justice and mercy to be okay
while simultaneously it being okay for
love and mercy to be expressed since he
could not look to his creation in order
to resolve the problem because the
creation was the problem he had to come
up with an answer to address the
conflict within the attributes given the
sinfulness of man combined with the
desire of God expressing his love and so
he came up with a plan to resolve the
problem in himself by himself for
himself to benefit mankind who could not
help themselves because they were stuck
in a graveyard so when the four
attributes got together and began to
have a meeting the God of the Bible came
up with a plan and that plan ignited
another attribute
grace when wrath and justice met love
and mercy creating a plan of redemption
expressing itself in the unmerited favor
of God God came up with the plan that
plan is no more greatly Illustrated then
when a young lady was driving down the
highway and she was going 75 miles an
hour in a 55 mile an hour speed zone she
was going 75 miles an hour many years
ago in a southern town and the policeman
pulled her over when the policeman
pulled her over he said young lady you
going 75 miles an hour in a 55 mile an
hour speed zone and I’ve got to give you
a ticket but in this small town it’s the
weekend you’re passing through so I’ve
got to take you to the court right now
because you’ve got to pay the price he
took her to the courtroom and when he
took her to this single courtroom the
judge came in and he said young lady
you’ve been found guilty of going 75
miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour speed
zone so we’re going to have to fine you
$100 she protested but Your Honor I
don’t have a hundred dollars he says
well I can’t change the law you owe $100
or you can spend the weekend in jail she
broke out in tears and said but I don’t
have $100 and I don’t want to spend the
weekend in jail have mercy on me as the
judge looked down at her cry for mercy
he did something that astounded the
bailiff and the policeman who brought
her in he pushed back his share from
behind the podium he zipped down his
robe he left the bench
walked and picked up his jacket walked
beside the young lady reached in his
pocket took out a hundred-dollar bill
and put it on the bench unhooked his
jacket went back up and picked up his
robe zipped up his robe went back to the
bench picked up the gavel young lady
you’ve been found guilty of going 75
miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour speed
zone the law says you must pay the
penalty of a hundred dollars or spend
the weekend in jail ah but I see
somebody else has paid the price
God too satisfies the dynamics of his
nature came up with a plan where he left
heavens independent use of deity put on
a jacket of humanity entered into time
and space died on the cross as a
propitiation for the sins of mankind
rose from the dead demonstrating that
the payment for sin tetelestai
had been received and there was a
receipt given an empty grave
demonstrating that salvation was
provided to everybody in court who comes
to the judge and says I want mercy from
the bench based on the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ but God came up with a plan
to provide in grace salvation for all it
reminds me of the two preachers who were
going south and they went to this small
southern town one was from the north and
he didn’t know how the south work and he
sat down and they ordered breakfast the
the lady came the waitress came out and
she had on the plate eggs bacon but then
she had this white gooey stuff he said
what’s that white gooey stuff he said
that’s called grits
he said well wait a minute I didn’t ask
for grits I didn’t and I’m not gonna pay
for grits she said I don’t think you
understand you’re in the south you don’t
have to ask for grits you don’t have to
pay for grit
you just get grits it’s just the nature
of what we do the beautiful thing about
God’s grace is the Bible says it is made
available to all men because he just
gives it away
and gives it away and offers it at no
charge in fact if you are if you offer
to pay for it your payment will be
rejected because once it’s of grace it
can no longer be of works and so he says
but God being rich in mercy was willing
to make salvation available to all who
come to Christ for it now we’re all here
evangelicals we all agree with salvation
by grace but when Paul wrote Ephesians 2
he was talking to people already saved
he was talking to people already on
their way to heaven why is he talking to
them about a grace that they had already
received because Paul understood that
what often happens in the life of
believers is they sought out with grace
but then revert back to law they start
out with God’s unmerited favor but then
they revert back to meriting something
that cannot be married the Bible is
clear that not only are we saved by
grace but we are sanctified by grace
that it is the grace of God that changes
us after the grace of God has redeemed
us many of our grandparents used a
washing board to wash their clothes they
would scrub their clothes and they would
give all the human effort they had to
get things clean they would be tired and
worn out and the body would ache not
because they didn’t want to be clean but
because there was so much work to make
themselves clean and then it could only
be so clean because it was tied to their
own
human effort but then through technology
there came a washing machine and a
washing machine forever changed how
grandmother and her grandchildren got
things cleaned we no longer use a
scrubbing board because we have
something that has built in it a
cleansing mechanism without all the
human effort to make it work what would
you say to a grandmother for whom you
purchase at no charge to her a washing
machine who still insisted on using a
scrubbing board you would tell her she
doesn’t understand what she has that
what I have given you is much better
than what you can pull off on your own
often what happens in the Christian
Church is we tell people
let’s get saved by grace but let’s get
changed by law when the Bible is clear
through the Apostle Paul that once you
have grace you are no longer under law
because what law does is it tells you
what’s wrong but it can’t make it right
the law is like a mirror you go to in
the morning to show you how jacked-up
you got last night you go to the mirror
and to show you your hairs out of place
booboo is in your eye you go to the
mirror and it lets you know that you
know you you a hot mess but you don’t
then take the mirror off the wall and
wash your face with it you don’t take
the mirror off the wall and comb your
hair with it because you know the mirror
is only designed to reveal it it’s not
designed to fix it what God has so given
us in grace even after salvation is a
means to fix the very thing that the law
condemns but because we either do not
understand grace do not trust grace or
do not utilize grace we do not
experience the flow of grace and Paul
says in Galatians 5 verses 1 through 4
when you lose sight of what grace is you
fall from grace and when you fall from
grace you are severed from Christ
so there are evangelical Christians who
are cut off from Jesus Christ while they
go to church cut off from Jesus Christ
while they have devotions cut off from
Jesus Christ while they sing praises
because they are living lives
independently of a relationship with
Christ by grace and not by merit now
when we understand this he says in
Galatians 2 that this grace that God has
provided creates a relocation listen to
what he says Paul says he says that when
we were dead he made us alive together
with Christ he raised us up together
with Christ he seated us together with
him in a whole nother location called
heavenly places now that’s a favorite
Pauline theological term heavenly places
heavenly places is a euphemism for the
spiritual realm in chapter 1 verse 3 he
says your blessings are in heavenly
places in chapter 1 verse 20 he says
Jesus is seated in heavenly places in
chapter 2 verse 6 he says we are seated
with him in heavenly places in chapter 3
verse 10 he says the church operates
with the angels in heavenly places and
in chapter 6 verse 12 he says the demons
operates out of heavenly places because
heavenly places is where the action is
let me put it another way everything
visible and physical is preceded by
something invisible and spiritual
everything visible and physical is
preceded by something invisible and
spiritual so if you want to fix the
visible and physical you’ve got to
address the invisible and spiritual if
you do not address the invisible and
spiritual you will not be able to
address the visible and physical because
a visible and physical which affects
thee which is the result of the
invisible and spiritual emanates from a
whole nother realm called heavenly
places the job of grey
is to cause us to operate from a whole
different atmosphere than the atmosphere
we live in we live down here but we
operate from the atmosphere up there if
we are to partake of the grace of their
that has been disseminated for our
responsibilities down here and it is
only when we grab grace at that level in
fact he goes on to say in verse seven
grace is so spectacular this thing that
the Protestant Reformation got going and
that we’re still having to learn about
it is so awesome that in the ages to
come
that is quadrillion years from now when
I meet you at the corner of Gould Street
and silver Boulevard he says in the ages
to come God will be manifesting his
grace translation you ain’t seen nothing
yet
because God is infinite he is going to
expose himself since there will be no
competing sin so that every day in fact
there is going to be so much grace in
eternity God is wiping out night so that
you don’t miss anything he’s going to
give you a glorified body that can’t get
tired he’s going to keep it daylight
forever so that forever all you gonna
see is God showing up showing off you
gonna go did you see diamond it’s going
to be non-stop exposure of infinitude by
an infinite God in the ages to come this
is why he wants you to know by grace the
famous verse 8 and 9 you have been saved
he says the Greek word for saved means
to be delivered or rescued he says all
this is by grace and it is by grace and
you are connected with him you know I’ve
been a chaplain for the Cowboys chaplain
for the Mavericks and when I do the
Mavericks they give me four tickets
they give me four tickets I do the
Maverick Chapel I tell some of the guys
in church I said oh don’t don’t don’t go
on your own you come with me
because if you come with me they charge
you $15 a car to park you don’t have to
pay to park as you with me and I get a
free parking pass so you come with me
that saves each one of you $15 for
parking when you come with me we’re not
going through the general public
entrance we have a private entrance and
we have a private entrance because I can
go through that entrance but if you’re
with me you go through that entrance too
not because of who you are but because
of who I am when we go downstairs
there’s a four-course meal you don’t
have to go by food like everybody else
because I eat for free but you with me
and since you with me you eat what I eat
at no cost to you because you are with
me we can go in and we watch the game
when the game is over and everybody else
is in a hurry to leave we not Russian
because we’re not going the same way
they go on we go on up a private ramp to
a private elevator out a private door to
a private parking lot and we will be
halfway home before most people have
gotten to that cause and that whole
evening will occur because you would
need so if you just hang with me the
rights and privileges of benefits that
accrue to me I can share with you not
because of who you are but because of
who I am
Jesus says by grace you’re with me and
the rights and privileges of grace gets
transferred to you now because of who
you are but because of who I am and if
we would ever learn this thing of grace
that he says it is with him so the point
is to experience war of grace you must
experience more of him if you’re in
trouble with the law you need more than
a law book you need a lawyer if you’re
in trouble with a doctor you need more
if you are unhealthy and need a doctor
you need more than a medical book you
need a doctor if you are being attacked
by criminals you don’t just need a penal
code you need a policeman in other words
you need the visible manifestation of
the book whatever is in that book you
need a living person to make that
material in
book come alive to you that is why Titus
chapter 2 verse 11 is so critical for
the grace of God has appeared to all
bringing salvation to all men and then
he goes into we look to Jesus Christ
because he is the dispenser of grace
that is why what Nick is talking about
is so critical because the more Jesus
you have the more grace you get the less
Jesus you have the less grace you
experience so it is the relationship
with a person that allows him to
dispense the grace that he offers which
is his sufficiency for the life that
he’s called us to live grace is like
Niagara Falls it just keeps on rolling
fish don’t run out of water animals on
run out of foliage and we don’t run out
of oxygen because of the abundant supply
and since God has got enough grace for
you your life your ministry your program
and he doesn’t run out of it that
relationship allows him to dispense not
only what the reformation called for
salvation by grace but sanctification by
grace sustaining by grace transformation
by grace it’s all about the grace of God
when we operate from heavenly places
now that the introduction is over here
he throws the zinger in here he’s been
talking for nine verses about grace
he shows grace three times in Ephesians
chapter 2 you’re saved by grace
you’re sanctified by grace by grace are
you saved
not of works it cannot be merited it’s
what God does for us independent of us
that’s the only definition of grace
there is the moment you add merit it is
no longer of grace to wait a minute and
if that’s true what about my
responsibility to work he knew you
ask that question so he comes in verse
10 and he keeps grace alive he says in
verse 10 for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus for good works
which God prepared beforehand so that we
would walk in them
you don’t work to get grace because
grace cannot be earned grace cannot be
much there is nothing you can do to make
God give you grace
for then you would merit it and no one
should boast but what you can do is
respond to grace your work my work our
ministry your ministry your service what
you do should be a response to grace it
is not an effort to merit grace it is
our appreciation for the greatness of
grace that has been freely given to us
and the more of that grace you
experience because of the work that you
do notice the phrase we are his
workmanship because it’s about him and
he created us safe us for good works in
other words I was out of our salvation
this should be a response and you don’t
even get to choose the word because
which he has created beforehand so he
was already ahead of you before you got
the work that you were responsible to do
that we should do for him it’s all about
him because it’s all about grace you
know I almost drowned when I was about
12 years old I almost drowned in a
swimming pool but a friend named Donald
reached in and pulled me out just in the
nick of time I got so shook up by that
experience I went on to become a
lifeguard I became a good lifeguard 50
years ago and 50 pounds ago I became an
excellent life God and then I graduated
to be a water safety instructor because
a water safety instructor trains like
God’s out of life God you see when I got
delivered from drowning I developed a
passion to deliver other folk from
so having been delivered myself I became
a lifeguard and a water safety
instructor so I could give to others the
very deliverance that I had experienced
myself you see when you never forget
where God brought you from when you
never forget where you were drowning in
the graveyard of sin and death you can’t
help but show appreciation by becoming a
spiritual life God and delivering others
through good works not to earn grace
because grace cannot be earned but to
respond to grace because grace is great
when it is given he says that this grace
is God you know there’s a movie –
hanging tree the hanging tree Wood Gary
Cooper this is an old movie Gary Cooper
is a is a doctor and he’s in an old
western town and this young man gets
shot and Gary Cooper goes and Gary
Cooper works with him and takes out the
bullet and saves the man’s life the
young man said doc you saved my life
what can I do for you the doctor looked
at him and said well I’ll tell you what
you can be my assistant and you can be
my assistant for the rest of your life
because that’s how long you would have
been dead if I hadn’t saved you when you
understand that God has saved you for
eternity it’s okay to give him a few
years of your life in history giving him
an appreciation for the magnificent
grace of God when you understand grace
and you respond to grace as grace you
get more grace for God to do more in you
through you for you but when you leave
grace even when you’re doing ministry
you get cut off from grace and then you
are severed from Christ and so you do
not experience the availability of the
grace that God has given while you can
never earn grace you can always access
it Romans chapter five verse two we
access this grace by faith so you access
it but you never earn it and then in the
last section of the book I want to throw
you an uncomfortable comment for some of
you
because he doesn’t leave the subject of
grace he throws in an adverb after
talking about what grace is after
discussing how grace works the union we
have with Jesus Christ and the flow and
the flow you know when I was when I was
a boy the way we took baths in the inner
city of Baltimore was the I mean the way
we went swimming in the inner city of
Baltimore was the fire hydrant
every Saturday the fire marshal would
come and flush out the fire hydrant we
put on our bathing suits and we go
swimming we just let the water run on us
as we were playing in the fire hydrant
but I something always bothered me I
went to my dad I said daddy
that’s three foot fire and how does that
have all that water he said boy that
fire hydrant doesn’t have any water it’s
underneath it’s hooked up to the dam and
the dam provides through a pipe under
the ground the water you’re getting out
of the hydrant when he explained that to
me I understood that there flow from the
dam which was much bigger than what I
needed for my swimming lesson
that’s how grace is there’s more grace
than you can ever flush through your
life but when you open up that flood and
God is able to flow to you and through
you because you are now being a benefit
to others you are now seeing what God
can do that only God can do for which
only God deserves the glory you’re
merely a hydrant through whom he can
flow and then he says therefore but
somebody say therefore because see
whenever you see therefore you need to
ask what is there for there for always
means in light of what I just said in
light of what I’ve just talked about in
light of what I just explained that is
in light of my discussion about grace
and then it gets sensitive because he
says in light of what I said
he goes from verse 11 to
first twenty two and he says there
should be racial healing in the church
he says first thirteen but now in Christ
Jesus you were formerly were off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ
for he himself is our peace who has made
both groups into one and broke down the
barrier of the dividing Hall wall by
abolishing in the fist flesh the enmity
which the law of Commandments contained
in ordinances that he himself might make
two into one new man thus establishing
peace that they might be reconciled both
into one body to God through the cross
and having killed the enmity let me put
it this way when grace hasn’t gotten big
enough and floda strong enough to bring
racial healing Paul says in Chapter two
you don’t understand grace because one
of the things that the good works of
grace will do verse ten is in verse 11
to verse 24 it makes the two into one no
longer is there legitimate illegitimate
division between Jew and Gentile when
grace has been understood because in the
grave you’re just dead in the grave it
doesn’t matter history background
culture color class in the grave you are
equally separated from God in hell you
are equally separated from God but he
made us alive and understanding of grace
so what this says is that the American
Church in the divisions that we’ve had
in history and in the divisions we still
have today don’t understand grace
because Paul says if you understood
grace and you were doing good works then
you wouldn’t have this division because
the cross brings peace whenever my wife
makes me a sandwich it will always be
with mayonnaise
I don’t eat mustard sandwiches I am NOT
a mustard guy
I am a mayonnaise guy now mayonnaise has
some ingredients that don’t get along
two ingredients in mayonnaise that don’t
get along is oil and water mayonnaise
has oil and water no matter how much you
stir together push it together force it
together all the water don’t go back to
there they’re gonna go back to their
different different endzones because
they understand that component parts are
not meant to get along but the reason I
can eat mayonnaise is because of a
process of emulsification emulsification
is a process of taking two things that
can get along and bringing them together
in harmony to create something new
special and in my case with mayonnaise
tasty so the reason why I can eat
mayonnaise is because introduced to oil
and water is egg and what it does is egg
reaches out to oil then egg reaches out
to water and I say no I know y’all don’t
like each other I know y’all weren’t
raised together
I know y’all come from different
backgrounds but Evans want some
mayonnaise so what I’m gonna do is I
don’t reach over here and I’ma reach
over there and even though you don’t
relate to each other both of you relate
to me
and if I can get your water to relate to
me and you all to relate to me I’m going
in and mix with both of you so that Tony
Evans can have a man a sandwich when
it’s time to eat
guess what grace does through the cross
of Jesus Christ it reaches out to the
black guy it reaches out to the white
guy it reaches out to the poor guy it
reaches out to the rich guy I know y’all
come from different backgrounds
different histories but my cross and the
grace dispensed from it can take focu
divided and bring them back together
again that’s what grace does and when
grace is missing paul says there’s
division in the body that’s why I love
the story and I know I’m out of time
Jerry I’m winding down but this is
getting good to me that’s why I like the
story and Galatians chapter 2
cuz of pita is eating ham sandwiches
with the Gentiles pitas him because see
he got that thing on the roof in Acts
chapter 10 where God told him don’t call
unclean when I call clean and now you
know he had heard about pork chops
chitlins and pig feet but he had never
tasted it because that was an unclean
animal but now that he had to go to
canoes his house he found out those
folks on the other side of the track
knew how to cook and so now in Acts
chapter 2 verse 11 he’s hidden some ham
sandwiches with the Gentile some pork
chops with the Gentiles some pig feet
with the Gentiles some hog laws with the
Gentiles and some chitlins with the
Gentile he just having a pork eating
good time but then while he’s eating
with some of his homeboys some of his
boys from the hood showed up some of the
Jews sent from James showed up and saw
their Jewish pastor eaten with them
people on the other side of the tracks
when he saw that he said I can’t be with
y’all anymore
because I might offend my own race so he
got up and went back to the Jews in
order not to get up let them be upset
with him because he was fellowship with
these people over here we got to live
with him in heaven but that’ll mean we
got to eat with him on earth so Peter
got up and the mist and the pulpit is a
frog in the Pew
it says when Peter got up the rest of
the Jews were with him got up so they
got up to it goes one step further it
says even Barnabas was carried away by
their hypocrisy not my boy Barney
anybody but Barney Barney was or was
born in Cypress Cypress is a Gentile
colony so he was born in Gentiles with
the school with Gentiles raised with
Gentiles play ball with Gentiles but
that’s how bad racism classism is it’ll
make a good man bad so Barnabas got up
and he left too and they would have
gotten away with it except for one thing
Paul wanted some pixie too
so Paul shows up and Paul says when I
saw what Peter did I condemned Peter
before them all but guess why not
because of racial reconciliation not
because can’t we all get along not
because of our seminar on race not
because of a unity guy holding unity
candles no I condemned him because he
was embarrassed
seeing the gospel he was shaming the
cross and he was abusing grace and the
greatest verse on your identity in
Christ I’m crucified with Christ
nevertheless I live yet not i his Christ
who lives in me the life which I now
live I live by faith in the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me
that famous verse comes at the end of
this story
see everybody quotes diverse but they
leave out the story then let Paul to say
the verse that verse is Paul talking to
Peter and saying you don’t know who you
are you forgot who you are because
you’ve missed the cross and when you
miss the cross
you’ve killed grace and so in graces at
work the unity of a church is in focus
raises a big deal it’s a saving deal a
justifying deal it is a sanctifying deal
it will be a glorifying deal it is also
a unifying deal and if we ever get grace
right and Jesus was free to flow just
free to flow he you don’t have the whole
back grace cuz cuz cuz he’s we’re gonna
abuse it we gonna fall from it we gonna
be severed from him I can’t I can’t deal
with that that’s why that’s why that’s
why we have all these prayer meetings
and these prayers aren’t getting
answered for unity and revival because
we asking God to revive a divided church
he can’t do that because that’s against
his nature you see God is one God
composed of three co-equal persons the
father is not the son the son is not the
spirit these three are distinct yet they
are one it’s like a pretzel with three
holes the first hole is not the second
hole a second holes another third hole
but they all tie together by the same
dough see it’s all it’s all just one
thing but three distinct persons and
when he has a divided body he cannot be
the unified God that he is so we can
pray to be blue in the face but there
will be no revival there will be no
transformation
there will be no breakthrough of the
grace of God in the culture if he has to
do it to a church he can’t identify with
so he says when you understand grace it
shows up cross culturally cross racially
includes in conclusion
for real this time a lady young had a
major skull on her face may just got
ugly
her daughter would never invite her to
any things at her school she wouldn’t
bring any friends over to the house she
wouldn’t do any of that cuz she uh she
was ashamed of how ugly her mother
looked with this horrific scar in her
face
one day her mother came to her and said
darlin why won’t you ever invite me to
your school functions you never bring
your friends over here but I asked to
meet him you never let me meet him why
the daughter said mama I hate to say
this but it’s your scar it’s your scar
and uglies god I’m so ashamed I’m sorry
I feel that way but I can’t get over the
sky she said son a daughter have a seat
sit down have a seat
let me tell you about my scar you were a
baby in the crib
I was out hanging up clothes on the
clothesline I saw smoke coming up
through the roof of the house I screamed
my baby my baby and I rushed inside and
the smoke was engulfing my baby’s crib I
picked up picked you up I picked up my
baby
to run out of the house as I was getting
ready to run out of the house a beam
collapsed and struck me on the side of
my face as I throw you through the door
and it burned me so you have to
understand every time you see the scar
it’s a reminder of the price I paid to
deliver you every time you see the star
and don’t want to talk about me to your
friends you just need to remember this
scar saved you every time you see the
scar you don’t invite me to be where you
are I just want you to remember is this
God that’s the reason why you can go to
those events and have these benefits and
have your friends just don’t forget when
you see this stuff it’s because I was
delivering you my brothers and sisters
when you get to glory and you’re walking
on those streets of gold and going in
and out of your your mansion with your
brand-new glorified body
you’ll all be the age approximately of
Adam and Eve which was the perfect age
of adulthood when you enter into glory
and all of the flaws will be removed in
the glorified body
there will be no tiredness there will be
no no diseases there will be no sickness
you and I will have perfect glow
five humanity forever but there will be
one sky person in heaven there will be
one person who forever his skies will
never leave whenever you run into him
you will see the nail prints in his
hands and the nail prints in his feet
and the scar in his side because when he
rose from the dead he told Thomas you
can touch the nail prints in my hands
you can touch the nail prints in my feet
God have kept Jesus Christ scarred so
that one hundred quadrillion years from
now when you run into him through the
passages of glory you will be reminded
that the only reason you are here the
only reason you are enjoying what you’re
enjoying as he displays his grace
throughout the ages is because he got
scarred on the cross for you praise God
for the scars because the scars are the
basis of His grace god bless you