 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor David, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for joining us as always, right? Every Tuesday and Thursday. There you go. Pastor, last night in your message in Romans, I feel it was a very rich message. And you were talking about God's grace. And I began to think about, as you were sharing last night, how people would use God's grace as a permission to sin and even reference it as a quote, unquote, cheap grace. But I started thinking about the purpose of God's grace. Is the purpose of God's grace for those who are, is it a permission for people to continue to sin? Or how does it play in with somebody who constantly may struggle with sin? Where is God's grace play into this? God's grace never gives us permission to sin. We know that. But just to be clear at the onset, God's grace was not given to us to sin. In Romans chapters one through five, as we've been going through Romans recently, Paul has been establishing the case of being saved by faith through the grace of God. And so he speaks concerning the things that relate to our salvation and the righteousness that is imputed to us through faith in Christ and the justification and all of those things that relate to our salvation and how sins are forgiven. He begins by sharing concerning the fact that the world is in sin, that gentiles are sin, that Jewish people have sinned, all have sinned, fall short of the glory of God. He makes this case. And then he begins to teach us how that, in spite of all of that, that God sent his son Jesus. And so we see that. So what happens, it seems in Romans, it appears this way. And the commentators who have taught and influenced me over the years point out that there are actually portions in Scripture that in Romans where Paul is obviously speaking of an accusation or something that has been lodged against him just by the way he formulates the words. So he says, what shall we sin so that grace may abound? That is obviously a response either to an actual question or a question that could be asked that he's answering in advance. And so are we to sin so that grace may abound? Why does he say that in chapter 6? Because he's been making the case for grace. And so with that somebody could say, well, wait a minute. You know, if somebody is sinning deeply, then that would only magnify the grace of God because the deep sin and the deep grace. And so Paul says, am I saying that? And he says, God forbid, you know, no, of course not. How can we who have died to sin live any longer therein? He says later on, sin shall not have dominion over you. And so I believe, and I mentioned this last night, that in the different periods in the history of the church, there have been rediscoveries and a re-emphasis on certain cardinal doctrines, one of them the most obvious being the doctrine of grace and salvation through faith in Christ. And so when I got saved back in the Jesus movement and what they're today referring to as a revolution, what happened, I came out of a denominational background where grace was something you obtained through behaviors. You did something to get something, right? And so I was speaking about how that was an illuminating kind of exciting time for me as a person who had committed myself to Christ to realize that salvation is something that God does on my behalf and that by the faith that is even supplied, I can receive the salvation and so that is offered by Jesus. And so no, grace is never given to me as permission to continue in sin. And there are those today who seem to have either not realized that, John, or perhaps at one time understood it and have failed to pursue it to its deeper levels because there are some who say, well, wait a minute, seeing that I'm saved and I'm in the Lamb's Book of Life and my sins are covered and all of that, you know, it isn't that big a deal if I should do these particular actions and activities and all that. So that's called cheap grace. It's a grace without discipline, you know. It's a grace without an awareness that Jesus said, pick up your cross daily and follow me. It's a cheapening of the blood of Christ and the activity of Christ and the cross to die for us and all that went along with that. And so there are some who profess to know Christ when their behaviors deny him. And so that's what we spoke about. You can't say that Jesus saved you so you could continue fornicating with your boyfriend and your girlfriend. You can't say that. You can't say, oh, Jesus understands I'm an alcoholic. Now, wait a minute. If any man is in Christ, it's a new creation. At what point are you no longer identifying as somebody who's addicted and when are you going to understand the power of the Holy Spirit that can set you free? You sit here as one who understands that. That happened to you. It happened to me. I had another God. It was Bacchus. It was the God of alcohol. I had another God, another spirit. But when the spirit of God entered into my life, he set me free from the spirit of the age, the spirit of the enemy. And I came to know that by the word of God and through the grace of God and by faith that you put into trusting God in these things. And so, you know, there are people today saying, well, you know, you need to don't be harsh. And you shouldn't say those things. But these are normally people, John, who are if they're going to church at all, don't go to a church that teaches the word of God normally. They're going to a feel good place where God accepts you all exactly as you are. Come as you are and stay as you are. No, you don't stay as you are. You may come as you are in the sense of I come to you as a sinner in need of grace and forgiveness. You can't polish your own act up. You need God to. But you don't stay in that. So if somebody comes forward and says, you know, that they're homosexual or they're having problems with their identification of who they are, et cetera. You know, but I can stay this way and still go to heaven. No, Paul would argue against that. And he does argue against that in Romans. He does it very clearly. And he would say, no, God's grace was not supplied to you so that you could continue in sin and go to heaven. God's grace was supplied to you so you could be set free from the bondage of that sin and its repercussions in judgment. So people will have a misunderstanding then. Some do. As it's a permission just to go ahead and walk that fine line between the world and. They're not even walking fine line. They're walking in the world and they're claiming to be Christians. No, I was at a, I was in a restaurant a few years ago now. And I was with a friend of mine who was going to be the master of ceremonies, if you will. He's going to be the one who was speaking in between an outreach, a Christian outreach, John. And it was going to include Christian music and then it was going to be an evangelistic message. And he and I were together with our wives prior to him going off for this particular event. And he turns to me and he says, do you see that those people there sitting at the table? I said, yeah. He said, that's the Christian band that's playing tonight at the event that I'll be the master of ceremonies in. I said, really? As they're being served their beers and alcoholic beverages and they didn't notice us. They didn't know us because they're not from this area. And so he told me later on, he said, Dave, I walked up to him and I said to him just before he went on. He goes, oh, by the way, guys, I was in the restaurant today and I saw you there. And I just wanted to introduce myself to you. He said, you should have seen their faces because they knew they were wrong. So here they are. They have no concern for even having the right attitude and spirit. You know, it's the same kind of thing, John, that sometimes worship teams are kind of laughing, carrying on, giggling, and then they go out and leave people in the presence of God. I honestly think that it's not a legalism, but it's an awareness of what you are doing, who you are representing. So me, before I go out and teach, you know me, you see what I do. I go over my notes. I prepare. My mind is being set. I'm praying, worshiping. Our worship team should be doing something similar. Why? Because we're about to enter into a special time of worshiping God. And so there are those who think, well, by the grace of God, I can continue in sin so that grace may abound. And the answer to that Paul said, no, no. If you have come to faith in Christ, live as if you know what that means. Is that simple? Well, thank you, Pastor, because even looking over some of the things I jot down is, how does that play into sin when somebody is struggling, if there's a legitimate struggle, which there is, versus, well, you know, God's going to forgive me anyway, so I'm just going to go out and do it. Well, there is a great difference, and maybe next time we'll talk about that. Yes, that would be great. Pastor, thank you so much for sharing on this. And I hope you guys were able to get something out of it. It's always cool to understand God's grace. What I want to get into next time, too, is interesting in Romans where he talks about God's grace, and he goes into baptism. And that would be something that would be cool to go to. Yes. Thank you guys for tuning in. We have a couple of reminders that we have our Sunday morning services at 8.30 and 10.45. This Sunday, invite your friends and family. We'll have a time in worship and in God's Word. And then, men, Sunday is the last day to purchase your men's conference tickets for breakfast. You can still get tickets for the conference up until the day of. So, look forward for you men to come on out. Pastor David, thank you again for sharing with us. You guys, thank you for tuning in. We love you and God bless you.