SBS Class March 62011

8/7/2019 SBS Class March 62011

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So whats the problem?


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Many people inside the church assume that the

gospel is only for people outside the church.

They think that the gospel is for non-Christians

only. This means that when God saves us, wemove beyond it to deeper spiritual growth and

development.

But the key for us to realize is this, when God

saves us He doesnt move us beyond the gospel

but rather He moves us further into the gospel.


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We will never see a gospel reformation happenoutside the church

UNTIL

We see a gospel reformation happen inside the

church.


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What is the Mission of God?

Missiology is the theology of the Mission of God (or missio Dei,

Latin forMission of God), which is the salvation activities of the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the world geared toward

bringing the Kingdom of God into existence and reconciling His

whole creation to Himself.

Learning and Living the God-centered Life

The Purpose of the Bible is the glory of God

The Plan of the Bible is the unfolding and progressive redemptionof mankind by God.


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1. The Mission of God Reveals to us the Missionary Nature of

God and His Church

The God of the Old Testament is a missionary God.

The Christ of the Gospels is a missionary Christ.

The Holy Spirit of Acts is a missionary Spirit.

The Church of the Epistles is a missionary Church.

The Climax of the Book of Revelation is a missionary Climax.


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2. The Mission of God is for All Believers

The work of the gospel (or the Mission of God) is not for the

few, but the many. The bible shows us that all who profess faith

in Christ have been called into gospel ministry.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The

old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, whoreconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry

of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to

himself in Christ, not counting peoples sins against them. And

he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are

therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making hisappeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be

reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin

for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.


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2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin

to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the

righteousness of God in Him.


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2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin

to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the

righteousness of God in Him.


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3.The Mission of God Clarifies Our Purpose in Life:

Simply stated, our purpose in life is to glorify God. If you have ever

wondered why you were created, thats it.W

e are to glorify God.He created us, we belong to Him and above all else we are to love

Him, obey Him, worship Him, and glorify Him with all that we

have. So the next obvious question would seem to be, how do we

do that? This is where Gods mission brings clarity to our lives. The

Mission of God brings glory to God. We see this in the gospelmessage itself, which is the ultimate expression of Gods mission on

earth and in turn the ultimate expression of His glory.

Ephesians 1:13-14:

13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of

truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were

marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a

deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those

who are God's possessionto the praise of his glory.


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4.The Mission of God Has One Ultimate Benefit and that is God

Himself

John 17:34

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom You have sent

Psalm 27:4One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I

may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To

behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.

Philippians 3:8More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the

surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have

suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I

may gain Christ,


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Be careful HOWyou think about benefits regarding the gospel.

Sometimes there is preaching and teaching that will emphasize;

Escape from hell

Forgiveness that relieves a guilty conscience.

In heaven we will be restored to loved ones who died in Christ

We will enjoy the justice and the beauty of the new earth.

None of the things listed above are saving affections


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Review

1. The Mission of God Reveals to us the Missionary Nature of God

and His Church

2. The Mission of God is for All Believers

3. The Mission of God Clarifies Our Purpose in Life

4. The Mission of God Has One Ultimate Benefit and that is God

Himself


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Building good gospel categories

Turn to Colossians 1:5-6

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you

previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to

you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and

increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day youheard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;


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The gospel is growing wider and he praises God for that but also this

same gospel and power from above is growing Christian people

deeper and deeper. This means that the gospel is not only justifyingsinners but is also sanctifying Christians.

When you talk to people in the church they think this idea of

preaching the gospel to yourself is something new but the reason it

seems really new is because it is so old.

The evangelical church is starting to recover her gospel centrality.

But understand when the gospel becomes central then grace

becomes central. Grace is unbelievably scary because it wrestles all

control out of our hands. Americans tend to be control fanatics.

So we work to manufacture a controllable world to protect us and to

secure us and to make us feel valuable so that our lives will matter.


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So we are afraid of grace.

The gospel is way more radicaland liberatingand shockingand

confrontationaland disruptive and counter intuitive than any of usrealize.

You may think you get it, which means you don't get it.

The gospel confronts the Pharisee the inside of us. All of us are

innately legalistic and it has been this way since the garden of Eden.

Example:

Role vs. Identity

How I do determines How I feel about myself

If I want to feel better then I need to do better

Because if I fail in my roles then I fail in my self


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The gospel is so radical because it confronts the legalism that is ours

by nature.

The gospel radically restructures our motivation (incentive) and our

message (instruction).

The gospel causes categories learned incorrectly to be blown up and

build back up. And the way they need to be rebuilt isthrough our gospel incentives and instruction.

The gospel is so powerful that it doesnt wait to transform you in the

next year, it transforms you in the next moment, right here and right

now!


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So, how does the gospel restructure our incentive?

A distinction that we really need to get. People today tend to talk

about the two equal dangers that we need to avoid:

1. Legalism on the one hand

2. Lawlessness on the other hand

These are likened to two ditches on the side of the road and we needto avoid them in order to stay on the main road.

They say if you focus to much on the law and rules then you will

fall into the dangerous trap of legalism.

And if you talk about grace too much then what happens is that

people tend to fall into a lawlessness mode or one of licentiousness.


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The prevailing thought in many evangelical churches then is to

balance the preaching and teaching between these two theological

ditches as it were.

If you frame out the gospel this way in your mind then all it does is

to perpetuate moralism even stronger and further.

It is better to say that there is one primary enemy to the gospel andthat is legalism.

It comes in two forms:

1. Some people try to be a legalists by keeping the rules, maintaining

the standards, if I keep the rules then I will be good enough to merit

the approval of God. (Front door legalism) those who are alwaystelling you how you are breaking the rules

2. Other people try to save themselves by breaking the rules and

developing their own autonomous selves. (Back door legalism)


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You spend the first 21 years trying to save yourself by breaking the

rules and then you spend the next 21 years trying to save yourself by

keeping the rules.

There are two types of laws we can try to keep outside of Christ.

1. I can find freedom and happiness if I just keep the rules

2. I can find freedom and happiness if I just break the rules

Both are legalistic because both represent self salvation projects.

The biggest lie that the devil wants to push on the church is that

grace is dangerous and needs to be kept in check, governed, and

controlled.


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If you spend time talking about GRACE too much, then the group of

people hearing this will end up just doing whatever they want to do.

The reason we need to see these 2 forms of legalism clearly is so that

we can spend our time, effort and energy fighting the real enemy of

the gospel.

A yes grace BUT is the kind of fearful posture that keeps legalismand moralism swirling around in the church.

God cares deeply about that which motivates our spiritual obedience!

We don't think about this much at all. We tend to think thatobedience is good and disobedience is bad. I want to do what is good

so I am going to obey.


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But wait a minute, let's talk about what distinguishes good obedience

and bad obedience.

Is there such a thing as bad obedience?

Example in the OT

Cain and Able both obeyed externally.

One was received and the other was rejected.

Cain sacrificed because he had to and Able sacrificed because he

wanted to.

Example in the NTThe Pharisee were the most particular people in all the Bible about

what they did and how they did it.

Matthew 15:8 - THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,

BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROMME.


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What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it becomes

a sacrifice of praise.

This is a very important principle to grasp

What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it becomes

a sacrifice of praise.

This is so important that when you read the letters of the apostle Paul

none of them start with this is what you need to do.

He always begins with what God has already done. Because he knew

to turn that around would be to miss the gospel. Paul marinates theimperatives of what we are to do in the indicatives of what God has

already done.


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Two examples

The letter to the Colossians is 4 chapters long

In the first two chapters Paul talks in remarkable ways all that Godhas done for us in Christ.

He talks about Jesus and His death and resurrection for sinners.

And then when he gets into Chapter 3 we have therefore in light of

everything that I have already told you,now live this way.

Ephesians 6 chapters

The first three chapters telling us all that we have in Christ and all that

has been accomplished by Christ.

Then starting in chapter 4 we have a therefore in order to encourage

us to live this way.


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Paul understood and we should too that the imperatives minus the

indicatives equal impossible for us.

Any obedience that is not grounded in and marinated in the gospel will

be long term unsustainable.

As a parent you can get children to obey with fear and guilt. This can

work effectively on a short term basis. But both fear and guilt is NOTbig enough nor powerful enough to get them to obey for 50 years.

The engine of the gospel and God's radical and outrageous grace is the

only thing that can fuel a long and joyful Christian life.

So we think that to get people to live a wonderful, happy and fulfilling

Christian life we then dump on them more things to do and rules.


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The only way legalists start to have obedience that is pleasing to

God is when they get a radical taste of the gospel.

Critical for us to understand about Gospel-Centered Living

The gospel focuses on the performance of Jesus for us and not

our performance for Him.

The gospel is the good news is that God does not relate to us on

the basis of our feats done for Christ but on Christ's feats done for

us.

My standing before God is not dependent on my obedience butrather my standing before God is dependent on Christ's obedience

for me.


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If you are a Christian it means that you have the Holy Spirit and you

have a longing to get better and a longing to please God and a

longing to desire and mature.

This is the sanctifying work of the Spirit that is rearranging and

reorganizing you in the affections and thoughts, so that you love the

things that God loves and you hate the things that God hates.

If you are a Christian then you want to grow, develop and get better.

The secret of gospel living is grounded in this very important

spiritual truth:

Our relationship with God is based on Christ's performance for us

rather than our performance for Him.


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Imagine the pastor encouraging you to...and now you fill in the blank

What if he concludes the sermon with and if you do none of what I

have encouraged you to do let me assure you this it doesn't change

one iota the degree to which God loves you.

When the heart of a Christian starts to absorb and saturate themselves

into that truth which is the indicative mood instead of the imperative

mood. Then what it does in real life is that it causes a person to wantto obey more not less.

The law of God is good and holy as we learn from the apostle Paul in

Romans 7 but it possesses no power to help us keep it.

The law has the ability to show us what godliness looks like but it is

only the gospel that can make me godly.


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And we get inside the church and before you know it we are adding

law upon law upon law. Now it may look different than law that is

outside the church but it is still law.

You see these new young excited converts to Christ and before long

we bring them in and CHURCH them. And we burden them with an

entire bevy of things that they need to do and think in order to receive

approval from God or so they think.

So what we do is to turn God's good news of freedom in Christ into a

new law that binds people up in their own performances.


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Jesus looks at the religious people inside the church and here is what

He says:

Matthew 23:15

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travelaround on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes

one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

We get better by focusing on and meditating on what Jesus has done

NOT what we must do. What is ironic about this principle is whenwe focus on Him then it drives us to do more and not less.

If you obsess over you sin then you become a neurotic narcissist and

miserable to hang out with.

For example you can have accountability groups that are very

introspective and talk about sin around 90% of the time and talk

about Jesus 10% of the time is not healthy.


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Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said "If your preaching of the gospel does

not provoke the charge from some of Antinomianism then your not

preaching the gospel."

Antinomianism is a word that means against the law. Martyn Luther

wrote against this because some in the church believed that once a

person was saved then we are no longer subject to the moral law of

God. And it no longer becomes a directive, relevant or helpful forChristian people.

Romans 5:20-21

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but

where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sinreigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to

eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.


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And when Paul goes into Chapter 6 he is in essence saying "I know

what you are thinking."

After Paul teaches this incredible amount of Scripture from Chapter

1- 5 then he starts with "shall we continue in sin that grace mayabound"

What you might think next is that Paul would in order to defeat the

notion that he is all about grace that now he would start toemphasize the law. Maybe Paul would say something like as

follows; hey don't take this grace thing too far there are rules that

you need to keep.

But no he does not go there.Instead he talks about union with Christ.


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Here are two things to notice about the text

1. Paul would never have addressed the issue of antinomianism if

the gospel didn't seem to already infer it.

2. Notice how Paul deals with those who fear that he has done away

with the law. Instead what he does is he responds with more gospel.

Paul doesn't scale back the discussion of God's grace he moreemphasizes the grace of God.

People who are lawless are not people who believe in God's grace

too much in fact they believe in it too little.

Be careful that we don't move in our preaching and teaching to the

degree that there is so much fear and guilt that we try to use that as

the motivator.


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Example: This poor lady has to walk to work each morning and you

have a third car in the garage, what is wrong with you.

Two things generally happen under that kind of preaching:1. The guy will sell his car

2. Then he will leave the church

Because fear and guilt can't grip your heart and motivate you for along time.

If you want to fuel fire for God then first focus on what Jesus has

done and then let it manifest itself in our doing in which there is

delight NOT duty.


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Example as to what happens when the gospel becomes radical in the

lives of those who hear.

This provides an illustration of financial giving but you could

substitute serving, praying, Bible reading and study along with anumber of other things.

2 Corinthians 8 Paul is encouraging those in Corinth to give

generously in lieu of those in Macedonia and their own giving.

The first thing that Paul emphasizes here is the grace of God.

In the next verse we see people who are abundant in joy and yet are

deeply poor. And that can only come about if there is gospel.

When our hearts are marinated in the gospel then we will want to

give.


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A Biblical Truth:

Disobedience happens NOT when we think too much about grace

but when we think too little about grace.

Disobedience happens in your life NOT because you need more law

and accountability and more slaps on the wrist but because you need

to go much further into GRACE.

Getting better is better than NOT getting better but there is a better

way to get better than to focus on getting better. And that is called

gospel sanctification.

Because Jesus was strong you are free to be weak.Because Jesus won you are free to lose

Because Jesus was someone you get to be no one


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Don't just do something sit there. In other words learn to sit and

soak in the finished work of Christ for you.

Your obedience doesn't gain God's favor and your disobediencedoesn't forfeit God's favor.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

simply to the cross I cling;naked, come to thee for dress;

helpless, look to thee for grace;

foul, I to the fountain fly;

wash me, Savior, or I die.

Steve Brown's book "Born Free"

The story of his daughter getting an A in the English course before

it began

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SBS Class March 62011