When Grace Exposes Legalism #1

What is it that might expose legalism in your heart that you previously didn't recognize? And this might be painful for some of us, but if it's painful, it's only because the boil of our soul is being lanced so that it can be removed from our heart. We are saved by God's grace, and we exalt in that.

But grace does something else, too. It can expose legalism. You'll see what we mean today on the Truth Pulpit.

Hi, I'm Bill Wright. Pastor Don Green is presenting more of our series, Breaking the Bonds of Legalism. We've learned what true obedience should look like. We've also been reminded that no good work of ours adds or subtracts from salvation through Christ alone.

Thus, legalism is something we want gone from our hearts. Don will help us in that effort over the next couple of days. So have your Bible handy as we join our teacher now in the Truth Pulpit.

We've done a pair of messages called, Good But Not That Good. And what we mean by that is this. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, it goes on to say that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Part of the reason that God saves you is that you would walk in a life of obedience to Him.

That you would bring forth a life of good works as a result. God saves you to change you so that you would live a life that glorifies Him by your obedience. It's amazing that some people think that they glorify God as so-called Christians by their disobedience and therefore they can sin freely and still have the grace of God.

That's not true. That's the error of antinomianism, an idea that obedience does not matter. We dealt with that in this series as well. But what we said is that while we do good works, while we seek to do good works, we recognize that our good works still aren't good enough to accomplish a relationship with God apart from Christ. Our good works, we said, are not good enough to pay for one single sin. It's not that you can sin and then offset it by doing something good. It doesn't work that way. And we said other things about that topic as well.

You can go back and listen to the messages. Trying to get us to the point where we realize that there's nothing good that we could do that deserves anything from God. There is nothing that we could do in time that would merit eternal blessing from God.

That's foolishness. The reward that God gives to His people is utterly disproportionate, far beyond in its measure of goodness to anything that we do on earth. Our good works don't pay for sin. Our good works also, we need to think about it this way, is that as we perform works, as we do good works as finite creatures, there is nothing that we do that adds anything to God and gives Him something that He didn't already have. He is perfect in His essence.

There is nothing that we could do to make Him better or to give Him something that He doesn't already have. And it is so important for us to understand these things so that we have our good works in perspective. We realize that even as we are doing our best to live as obedient Christians and we are obeying God's Word in response to our salvation, even in that we're not adding any kind of merit to our account. We're not putting God under obligation to us.

We cannot make God our debtor. And that's kind of what brings us here today to our final message. I think we've dealt with this so that if you've been with us sufficiently, you have a grasp of that, though there are many other things that others could say better about legalism than I have. But here's the thing for today. Here's the thing for today. Lurking in our imperfect hearts, lurking in our imperfect worldview is often something that can be devastating to Christian life, can be devastating to a man in ministry, can be devastating to a church body and the life of a church if these things are not understood. Often lurking in our worldview is an unrecognized assumption that we make, an unrecognized presupposition that we might deny in theory but hold in our hearts as an expectation out of life and an expectation from God, an expectation that God still owes us favor based on our behavior, that God owes me as a result of the way that I'm living. And sometimes it takes something to expose that to us. And we're going to look at God's word to let a couple of things expose it to us here.

Think about it this way. A man could look outwardly healthy. He could feel healthy within himself and yet be carrying around an undiagnosed disease.

X-rays and other kinds of tests expose health issues that are previously undiagnosed because they show something that the man did not see with his own eyes or feel in his own body, but added technology shows something and exposes something that was actually a threat to his health that he previously didn't know. In a like manner, beloved, in a like manner, we can be walking through our Christian lives not realizing that there are subtle expectations and wrong presuppositions in our lives that are governing our thinking and only when something happens externally does it get exposed. And so what we want to do today is answer this question. What is it that might expose legalism in your heart that you previously didn't recognize? How could it be that we might recognize that we have these legalistic tendencies in our thinking and in our expectations even though we acknowledge and affirm everything that I said earlier here? What might expose legalism in your life? And this might be painful for some of us, but if it's painful it's only because the boil of our soul is being lanced so that it can be removed from our heart. And I'm afraid that there are going to be things that we can all relate to to one degree or another.

First of all, what might expose legalism in your life? It's when you have a heart response like this, first of all. It's when you have resentment when God shows grace to someone else. When you show resentment, when you feel resentment when God shows grace to someone else. Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke chapter 15.

Luke chapter 15. You'll see an example of this in the parable of the prodigal son, and we'll try to both explain the text and apply it. When you see good things happen to somebody who does not deserve them, how do you respond? How do you feel about that in your heart? Especially if you're going through a bit of a hard time yourself, you're going through a struggle, you're trying to live this godly life, you're trying to bring forth good fruit as a result of being a Christian and yet you are struggling. You are having a hard time in business, in life, in family relationships, in your marriage, and you say, I'm doing everything I can here and I'm struggling but I'm still trusting the Lord here. And then along comes somebody who hasn't been trying to do that, who has not been living for Christ, and all of a sudden you find God pouring out His grace upon them. What's your inner response? How do you feel about that in response? Well, let's take a look at Luke chapter 15 and let God's Word help us here. Understanding as we dive into the text here that the whole purpose here is to help us all grow in our spiritual lives, to help us be more grace-filled Christians, and with that goal being the goal of the Holy Spirit and our sanctification that we would better reflect the image of Christ in our lives, with the goal that we would be purged of evil tendencies in our heart, then we should all have a sense that I want to receive this even if it stings. That's the idea. Luke chapter 15 verse 11.

You know the story very well. Jesus said, A man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of the country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. And so the son here, this prodigal, had squandered his inheritance in sinful living. No one could be a greater picture of deserving nothing than this son, who basically told his father, I wish you were dead, because if you were dead I could get the money, give me the money now, give me my inheritance now, I want it for myself. And shows this alienation and this hostility and this disregard to his father, and in utter selfishness goes out on his own.

And he squanders it all. And then he hits bottom, and he decides that he'll return to his father, verse 17. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger. I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, father I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired men. And so he goes back to his father, going back with this attitude that he's going to humble himself and just lay himself at his father's feet and become a servant to his father, at least in that condition he would be better off than being a hungry slave wanting to eat pig slop in order to satisfy the needs of his body.

Well you know the story. This is one of the great pictures of the grace of God in all of Scripture. The father runs to embrace him. Verse 20, so he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf.

Kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found and they began to celebrate. Listen, from a human perspective, from a works-based legalistic mindset, no one was less deserving of this kindness from his father than this prodigal son. He had wished his father dead. He had taken his father's estate and gone and squandered it. And now after he had lost everything and blown through it all and all of that wealth had been squandered and wasted and could not be recovered, now he comes back to his father and says, I'm not worthy, please receive me. A picture of a sinner recognizing, convicted of sin and coming to God for grace and acknowledging that he has no merit of his own. This is everything that we have been saying.

This is everything that has been at stake in what we have been talking about over this series over the past weeks. Now, from a human perspective and from the mind of the legalist, the father should have said no, or put him on a period of probation with his arms folded across his chest saying, well, let's give this a trial run and we'll see how it works out. And what do you have to say for yourself now?

That wasn't the attitude of the father at all. He receives him as a son. He lavishes him with privilege. That, by his own admission, the prodigal son absolutely did not deserve. Beloved, this is a picture of that moment that God saves a sinner, guilty, vile, wretched, rebellious, and God justifying him not because he deserved it, not because he had improved his behavior. At the very bottom of the pit, the father's compassion reaches down and saves him and says, I will adopt, I will bring you back.

I will receive you. All that is mine I restore to you. This is what God does for sinners who come to him through the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He adopts them into his family. He bestows riches upon riches upon them that they absolutely do not deserve. Scripture says in Romans chapter 4 verse 5, God justifies the ungodly. He justifies those who come as beggars, spiritually bankrupt, in spirit having nothing to offer to them.

That is the only grounds upon which you come to Christ as one who disclaims any merit and who fully acknowledges a lack of worth. Well that's what this son did and we see the festive way in which God receives him. We see a declaration of the full, glad, unreserved grace and kindness of God on sinners displayed in the way that he receives his son.

He brought out the best robe, killed the fattened calf, and there was a feast. You know, scripture says elsewhere that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance. God delights in saving sinners. God delights in showing undeserved mercy on those who come to him in Christ. This is the Spirit of God, this is a picture of grace, undeserved favor, welcoming the sinner back not because he deserves it but because it is the character of God to receive in such a way.

And I'm glad, aren't you, that he's like that? When I came to Christ and called out for mercy, never was it clear in my life that I had no claim on mercy. I had no claim on the goodness of God. God, my sin is right in my face. I feel the righteous weight of eternal judgment being deserved by my guilty soul. God, have mercy on me, the sinner. God, Christ, come save me.

Christ, come and receive me. And that unreserved confession of sin is the mark of conversion. That unqualified request, God, receive me by mercy alone in Christ alone is the mark of true conversion.

And what we see is that God delights in that. You know, it's when you really feel your weight of sin that you are most qualified to go to God for forgiveness. Forgiveness is not offered to those who have somehow stepped up and improved themselves. Forgiveness is offered on the basis of a sheer confession of sin that asks for mercy. A repentant reaching out to God in faith, not from any life deserving, not because of any goodness in us does God receive us. He hears simply that cry for mercy from the one who knows he doesn't deserve it. And so you can see where self-righteousness locks the door of heaven to people. As long as someone wants to claim to the idea, I'm a pretty good person, they are casting away from them the only key that can unlock the door to heaven. Because Christ said, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.

If you're healthy, you don't need a doctor. If you say you're righteous, you don't need a savior. Wow. This goes, this slices to the very core of what a man thinks about himself and what he thinks about God, doesn't it? Well, we see the Father showing this grace on this prodigal, recognizing that even on a human level, maybe the story offends some of our sensibilities about right and wrong. Why would he do that?

Shouldn't the son have to pay a debt first? Shouldn't he have to grovel at his feet? Shouldn't he have to sleep with, at least sleep with the slaves overnight after all that he's done? Well, to the extent that we have that reaction to the parable, we're missing the point. We don't understand grace.

We don't understand the free way that God bestows grace on sinners. If we object, and you can see this in the text, there was someone lurking in the background as these festivities were developing, who happened to agree with what the prodigal son said. When the prodigal said, I've sinned against heaven, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, there's someone in the story who agrees with him on that very point, and it's his older brother.

Verse 25, look at it with me. It says, now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house he heard music and dancing, and he summoned one of the servants. You can see him beckoning him with his finger almost. Hey, come here. I want to talk to you privately, quietly.

He summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. What's going on here, man? Why the party?

No one told me there was a party going on. I've been out in the field. I've been working.

What's this all about? Verse 27, the servant said to him, your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. Now, beloved, listen to me. The one who is wired by grace, and the one who is wired into what pleases his father would rejoice. You mean my father is happy? Thank God. I love my father. I'm so glad that he's rejoicing, and my brother has come back after abandoning his life for this destitution of sin and prostitution that he pursued?

My brother's back? Oh, let me join the party. That would be the response of grace. Legalism, however, responds differently.

And make no mistake, this second brother was a legalist. Look in verse 28. He became angry and was not willing to go in, and his father came out and began pleading with him. And this legalistic brother in verse 29 answered and said to his father, look, there's contempt in his voice for his father. Look, for so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours, and yet you've never given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. I've been here, I've been obedient, I've been faithful.

And I didn't get anything like this. Verse 30, but when this son of yours, just dripping with contempt, when this son of yours came, not my brother, this son of yours came who's devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. He's angry. His brother received favors that he believed he deserved. He thought his behavior entitled him to something that was now being denied to him and given to his sinful brother.

Beloved, there's something we need to understand right here, right now. This is where it all gets laid out on the table and exposes our legalistic sinful hearts. Nothing that this father did for the prodigal son took anything away from the second son. Everything that he had, all of the privileges that were his as a son, were still his. What he objected to was the fact that his father was showing grace, undeserved favor to the one that he thought didn't deserve anything. Nothing about the father's grace to the prodigal took anything away from the second son. His position was in no way diminished whatsoever by this act of extraordinary kindness from a rejoicing father to his son.

And that's the point that the father gently tries to make to him. He says in verse 31, he said to him, son, you've always been with me and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live. He was lost and has been found. The account of the prodigal son is a perfect example of harboring legalism in the face of God's grace toward another. And Pastor Don Green will show us a second way legalism can be drawn out next time here on The Truth Pulpit as he brings to a close our series Breaking the Bonds of Legalism.

Be sure to join us then. Right now, though, Don's back in studio with news of a great resource. Well, my friend, as we bring today's broadcast to a close, I want to offer you a very special gift, a special resource as a gift from our ministry. It's my series called Trusting God in Trying Times. And this series over the years has proven to be the most popular set of messages that I've ever done. It helps you know how to trust God as you're going through the deep sorrows that sometimes come to us in life. It comes from the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament, and it comes from some very deep sorrows of my own that were present early in my Christian life. It's very personal. It's very helpful. It's very biblical. And I would love to see you have it in your hands. It's available in CD album or by download.

Scanscripts are available if you prefer that. My friend Bill is going to give you information on how to find it. Just visit our website at thetruthpulpit.com to get the resource Don just mentioned. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit.