If you reject anyone based on illegitimate criteria, you have rejected God. Dr. Tony Evans explains that passionate believers are peacemakers. And what greater test is there for how hungry you are for God? then your willingness to receive grace and then at the same time to give it.
For somebody else. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Like electricity flows through a power line, God's grace is intended to flow through us to others. Today, Dr.
Evans explains what needs to happen if something's blocking that flow. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2 as he begins. Jesus prayed a prayer. Prior to his crucifixion. In light of the fact that he would be crucified.
In John 17, he says these words. In the midst of his prayer in verse 21. He says to his father, and I pray that they all may be one. Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in them, that they also may be in us. That the world may believe.
But thou didst send me. Jesus prays this prayer. Prior to his death, That his children The church. would no longer be divided by the evil one. But what be one?
Another word for unity. Unity is not uniformity. Unity is uniqueness. moving to a common goal. For the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit.
They just all have the same essence. The essence of deity. He says that they might be like us. When Jesus Christ said on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He wasn't talking to himself.
It was the son talking to the father. For the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father, but all three make up the one Godhead. He says that they may be in us. That is One in purpose and nature, distinct in personhood. That's the Trinity.
And his prayer was that When he left, God would bring about unity. In history, Through the church. For a purpose. And that is that the world may know. But I'm the real deal.
So dynamic was this prayer. That God has made the content of this prayer, Jesus' prayer for oneness. A criteria for an individual's relationship with him. God has made our fellowship and intimacy with him. contingent on our relationship with other believers.
Therefore, any believer who uses a false criterion. for measuring another Christian. And the false criteria is face, race, or place. Whatever illegitimate criteria. It's you.
To judge another brother or another sister or another group of brothers or another group of sisters, no matter which way it goes. What God wants you to know is that there will be no intimacy with him.
Now that explains a lot. This issue, the prayer of Jesus, is so serious to God. That he says he will relate to you based on what part you're playing in answering this prayer. Ephesians chapter 2. One of Paul's great Passages on this subject.
was right on target because The first ten verses of chapter two talks about grace. He says in verse five, by grace have you been saved. Verse 7: that in the ages to come, he may show forth his grace. He says in verse 8, you've been saved by grace through faith. He comes in verses 11 through 22 to discuss race.
Because Paul had a social problem on his hand. And that is That Jews and Gentiles were getting saved and were now coming to the same church. They have the church at Ephesus.
So if you were a Christian and you went to church, you went to Ephesus Bible Fellowship because that was the only game in town. Everything else was paganism galore. This is where you had to go to church. The problem was the Jews came. With their history, background, culture, and traditions.
The Gentiles came with their history, background, culture, and traditions. And they were totally opposite. Not only did they come with that background, they came with name calling. Verse 11. Therefore, remember that formerly the Gentiles in the flesh who were called.
Uncircumcision.
So they came from a world that called folk names.
So this name calling thing not new. They had it in the New Testament. Because that was the criteria.
So the Bible is not written in a vacuum. This is not theory. Paul had a problem on his hands. But in addressing the problem, he starts off with grace. We want to spend all our time starting off with race.
He said, No, let me spend the first 10 verses telling you where you were when you found grace.
Now we can start talking about race. And then he introduces the word. In this section, and you know it's the theme of the section because of the repetition, and it's the word peace. Verse 14, he is our peace. The end of verse 15, thus establishing peace.
Verse 17. That he came and preached peace to you who were near, and peace to those far away, and peace to those who were near. What he says in this passage. is that the issue of unity. has already, follow this now, been solved.
It has already been addressed.
Now, why do I know that? Because the father never says no to the son. That is except on the cross. But apart from the cross, because that was him bearing our sin, the father always does what the son requests. And the son requested in John 17 that God might.
Make them one.
So, the death of Jesus Christ, according to verse 13. But now in Christ, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace. Mortal enemies. have been reconciled, Jew, Gentile. Black white, whatever color you want to choose.
Once a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, They come into a realm known as Pete's. If you're trying to create unity. You wasting your time because if the cross can't do it. Talking about for Christians there. If the cross can't do it.
Then what makes you think you or me and our feeble humanity? can do what Calvary can't accomplish. We spend too much time apart from Calvary trying to solve a problem that Calvary has already addressed. This means That nobody based on race or color or class Or denomination, or any of the artificial barriers we bring up, has any spiritual advantage over anybody else. That when you come through the door of the family of God, your significance is at the cross.
It's because you run into that same grace. It means there's no difference before God between a PhD and somebody working on their GED. It means as James 2 says. How do you discriminate against the poor man? Because he can't dress like you.
And you feel like you've got to go to a church where everybody, everybody makes what you make, lives where you live, drives what you drive, as though that's a representation of the family of God. Paul didn't tell the Jews to start a Jewish church. And a Gentile, let's start, a Gentile church. He said, let me tell you what Christ has done for the one church.
Now, people can go to whatever church they want. That's not the point. The point is, everybody who comes to any church must feel equally welcomed by the family of God because of what the cross has done. Because they've seen how amazing grace is. He calls this new entity called the church.
In verse 15, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity. It's not abolished because you have a unity meeting. It's not abolished because you come up with this plan. It's abolished in his flesh. Ave Domit Cross.
That the death of Christ, what the death of Christ accomplished was spiritual unity that must be fleshed out, worked out in functional unity. But the foundation, he says, it was in the cross, it was in his flesh, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances that in himself, watch this, he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. Dr. Evans will explain why embracing our identity as God's one new man is essential for living above the world's fractured agenda. Right after this.
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and let one of our resource team members help you. that number again one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two.
Well, let's return now to doctor Evans for the second part of today's lesson. You see, if you do not see yourself as belonging to this new race, This one man. this new definition. All and water, then what?
Well, that's not quite right. Oil and water don't normally mix. There is an exception. You put oil and water together. And you shake it up, it looks like it mixes for a while.
But then the oil will separate from the water. Because The conventionary Thesis is oil and water don't mix. Blacks and whites don't mix. Rich and poor don't mix. That's the lie of the homogeneous church unit.
Which is Basically, a code word for maintaining racial segregation in ecclesiastical terms. or class segregation. They don't mix. They are two distinct. Every time you shake them together, you push them together, they won't come together, and if they come together, they won't stay together.
Well, there is an exception. The exception is when you use an emulsifier. You see, the job of an emulsifier is to take the unmixable. And so work at their fundamental definition that that which could not be mixed is now mixed. You see, mayonnaise has water.
And mayonnaise has oil, but you don't have a problem with oil and water mixing because the emulsifier in mayonnaise is egg. What egg does is it grabs hold of oil and it grabs hold of water and it so tightens them together that you and I can now have a ham sandwich that tastes good. Because eggs serve as an emulsifier. Yes. In the world, blacks and whites don't mix.
In the world, rich and poor don't mix. In the world, that is how it is. But the death of Jesus Christ and his blood is God's emult. And his job is to make that which does not mix mix. And be beneficial when it does mix.
There is a magnificent portrait. Payment for us. When people are hungry for God. on a cross-cultural, cross-racial, cross-class, cross-educational line. Revelation 5.
This is the wheel of heaven. The same author who wrote John. And 1 John wrote Revelation. John the Revelator. God took him up and gave him a preview of heaven.
Okay. He said, John. Take a look up in heaven. Let me let you see what you're in for.
Now watch this now. And they sang a new song. Saying, worthy art thou to take the book and break its seals, for thou wast slain and did purchase for God with thy blood. From every tribe, tongue. People.
and nation. If you don't read that closely, you're going to miss it. In heaven, this is in heaven, folks. John looks up and guess what he sees? People From every nation Every tribe Every kindred.
and every language group. Total. I see some of you not with me. We talk about in heaven. The future.
He says, when I looked up and I saw what the future was going to be like. I saw folk up there. from every people group. Every national group. They even got broke down into tribes, dialects, even the subgroups I saw.
Now, what does this say to us? It says there will be diversity in heaven. Yeah. If you're black now, you're going to be black in heaven. If you are white now, you are going to be white in heaven.
If you're Hispanic, you're going to be Hispanic in heaven. Because he says, the distinctions of earth I saw in heaven. I saw them in heaven. He says, I saw them from every tongue. You say, well, how are we going to get along in heaven if folks speak in different languages?
When you know every language, it doesn't matter. What did this group have in common? what brought this group together how could such a diverse group all get along up in heaven because they were purchased by the same owner. He says they were purchased by the blood. That's like me going to farmers market And I go to farmers market and I buy something from every stand.
I just say, okay, you have this kind of vegetable. I'll take one of this, and I'll take one of this, and I'll take one of that, and I'll take one of this. And so I make a purchase using all I have from every stand in farmers' market.
So, what I have. is a representative group. Of vegetables or whatever fruit or whatever it is from every stand in farmers market.
So I have a full ounce of fruit. I don't have all that was in the stand, but I have a representation. And let me explain something. When God came to this culture, and chose you. And you.
And you and you and me to be representatives from our people group. You don't understand. It didn't have to be you. That's why it's amazing, grace. It didn't have to be you, it could have been somebody else.
But when you lose sight of grace and think that you are more than you ought to think. That somehow God looked in you, and you look worthy to be saved. You do not understand grace. He says that was a common purchaser. and a common purchase price, but not only that.
He comes in verse 10 and he says, And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priest. to our God and they will reign on the earth. You talk about wall of separation. You got politics, king. And you got religion, priest.
The kings ruled the political order, the priests ruled the Sacred order, he says they are a kingdom of priest. The wall of separation, so-called, has been removed. And now these groups are unified in their purpose. They adjust to this new kingdom. That's how it is in heaven.
But why? It says they did it for God. Why?
Well, verse 11 tells you. And I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them were myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. Saying with a loud voice, worthy of the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing in every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them. I heard them say to him who sits on the throne to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion. For Emma and Emma.
What's this all about? Let me tell you what it's all about. The reason God is going to have folk from this group and this group and this language and that language and this race and that race is because he likes to hear worship in every imaginable form. Heaven will be filled with diverse cultures. expressing themselves in diverse ways.
With a singular focus on the one purchaser. There will be those who worship liturgically, those who worship celebratively, those who worship quietly, those who worship loudly, all singing the same song at the same time to the same God who put up the same price for all to be there. That is what heaven will be like. When you tune 100 pianos to the same tuning fork, they're automatically going to be tuned to each other because the same standard govern the tuning. You get 100 worshipers all tuned to the same God.
They will automatically be tuned to one another because they're all focused in the same direction. What he is saying is heaven will be filled with the worship of God. You say, well, that's heaven. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.
And on earth. As it is in heaven. It means if you remember grace, you'll be able to deal with folk that you're not like a lot easier. If grace means anything. It means God no longer keeps score.
It means that every time you show up, God is not throwing in your face what you did. Grace does not keep score. But on the other side, Grace always recognizes that I am not better than somebody else because of my position or because of my stuff or because of my clout or because of my history, because I am where I am by the grace of God. That's why it is so appropriate that Amazing Grace was written by a slave trader. Amazing Grace was written by a putrid man.
Amazing Grace was written by a person that went over to West Africa and blazed that trail of what was called a railroad track underneath the Atlantic Ocean where slaves were thrown over and where the shocks could anticipate their meals. He was part of that. It is appropriate that the greatest song in the history of Christianity, Amazing Grace, was written by the worst man because that means if God can save him. That he can save us all. It means if heaven is going to be filled with the diverse cultures expressing themselves in diverse ways, there's plenty of good room.
For you and me. It means if you reject anyone. based on illegitimate criteria, you have rejected God. And what greater test is there for how hungry you are for God? than your willingness to receive grace.
and then at the same time to get it. For somebody else. Dr. Tony Evans, helping us understand the intended flow of God's love through us to others.
Now, if you're ready to move beyond religion into real relationship, Dr. Evans' book, God Himself, will show you how. In its pages, you'll discover that true fulfillment comes not from chasing blessings, but from seeking the blesser. It's a call to experience God's presence in a way that transforms your daily life. We'd love to send you a copy as our thank you when you give to support the alternative.
Just visit TonyEvans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 to find out how. And when you do, we'll say thanks by not only sending you this powerful book. But also by including all 12 full-length messages from Tony's current series called Soul Starved: Journey to the Source. including four complete messages we won't have time to present on the air. Once again, to take advantage of this special offer, visit tonyevans.org.
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Well, coming up tomorrow, many of us say we want to follow hard after God. But is it God we're pursuing or just some quick deliverance when times get tough? Dr. Evans will talk about the difference and why it matters. Be sure to join us.
