Precious SeedPreaching the word, in season and out of season; reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, with complete patience and teaching.

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

You have a choice. You can strive to make it to heaven by your own efforts and try to be as good as Christ, or you can place your faith in Jesus and receive your right standing with God as a gift of His grace.

For me, this is no choice at all. I know there is no way that I, in my good works, would ever make it to heaven. I stand hopelessly condemned on the basis of my past sin. I have no chance of being received by God apart from His mercy.

The good news is, God has provided a way of acceptance before Him. God, who is absolutely holy and pure and so righteous that no sin can dwell in His presence, has made a way for people like us to have fellowship with Him. When we believe in this sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us – even though we didn’t deserve it – the Father grants us perfect forgiveness.

That’s the gospel of grace. Each one of us can relate to God, even though we are far from perfect. We can still have a beautiful relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.

When we relate to the Father by faith through His Son, we have a solid relationship. We are now sons of God. Because He is our Father, we don’t have to wonder if we are worthy to come to Him. We do not come on the basis of our worthiness, but on the basis of our relationship with Him.

That is what the gospel of grace is all about. God looks at us as though we never committed a single trespass against Him. Now, I have trouble looking at myself like that. I look at myself in the mirror and say, “Chuck, you are a sinner. You can’t control your appetite; you have so many flaws.” And yet God looks at me and says, “Forgiven.” He loves me and accepts me as I am because I am in Jesus Christ. Even as He has accepted His own Son, so now He accepts me. Paul tells us that we have been accepted “in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). The Beloved one is Christ; and you, being in Christ, are accepted by God just as Christ is accepted.

That is why the gospel of grace is the best news I have ever heard. God forgives us because we believe in His Son, whom He sent to die for our sins. All our sins have been blotted out. There is no accounting of guilt. As Paul tells us, “Oh, how happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Oh, how happy is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin” (see Romans 4:7,8).

As sons of God, we have every right to come to our Father to ask Him for anything that we might need. We have every right to trust the wisdom of our Father to either grant or deny the request, according to His knowledge of what is best for us. We can commit ourselves to our heavenly Father, who loves us so very much. He will give us only what is best.

What a joy it is to know that God desires to bestow upon us the richness and the fullness of His love – not because we deserve it, but because He loves us. This is the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ!

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

When God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all, Christ received the judgment due us for our sins. He received our deserved punishment, which the Bible declares is death (see Romans 6:23). God has declared that if we will believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will be forgiven of every wrong thing we have ever done. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” says I John 1:7. This cleansing is something the law could never do; it is a provision of grace.

We can strive to make it to heaven on our own efforts or we can place our faith in Jesus.

The fact is, faith is our only hope. Our good deeds or efforts or works can never earn us forgiveness from God. Paul declared in strong words, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5). To him who is not working, but simply believing, God imputes righteousness. God gives us this forgiveness because of our faith in the finished work that Jesus Christ has done for us.

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

Let’s change the illustration. Suppose that I robbed a bank willfully and deliberately. The law condemns me because I can’t say I didn’t do it or prove that I didn’t do it. The video camera caught me. I can’t say I had a right to do it because robbery is not included in the First Amendment. Therefore, there is no way I can be forgiven within the law.

During the trial, I might try to say, “I promise I won’t rob any more banks as long as I live. I will live a good, clean life from now on. I will never take anything from anybody wrongfully again.” That still doesn’t justify me from what I have already done. I might try to say that I should be forgiven because I did so much good with the money. I gave some to the church and I fed my family. But my “righteous” deeds cannot counterbalance or absolve my guilt.

The judge may order that I pay back to the bank all the money that I took. As part of my sentence, he may order me to pick up tin cans along the freeway to help keep America beautiful. I may spend the rest of my life doing good things, but still I will not be absolved of what I have done. All the works of the law cannot erase my guilt. My past wrongdoings still exist. I am a robber and the verdict is clear.

Why is it, then, that in spiritual matters so many people seek to plead innocent before God by virtue of all their good works?

There are many of us who respond to our sin, guilt, and unrighteousness with regret and new resolutions. We want to make amends and turn over a new leaf. But those efforts can’t win our forgiveness. Even our best efforts cannot take away the guilt of what we have already done. We can never be justified by good works. Even a whole life of good works cannot atone for a single sin.

God’s basis of forgiveness is the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. All of our guilt – all of our past and future wrongdoings – have been laid to the charge of Jesus Christ, the innocent Lamb, the perfect one who knew no sin. He died for us. He bore our guilt; He suffered and died for our sins. Paul wrote, “For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). Jesus became sin for us that we might be pardoned through Him. In other words, He switched places with us. “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (II Corinthians 8:9). He has taken our sin and forgiven us through our simple faith and trust in Him.

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

The root meaning of the word grace is “beauty.” In the New Testament, grace means “God’s unmerited favor.” Grace is God giving to me something that I cannot obtain on my own. Grace is being accepted by God even though I do not deserve it, even though I am not worthy of it.

The Bible teaches that I receive grace on the basis of my belief and trust in God. Hebrews 11:6 declares that without faith it is impossible to please God. We are forgiven by a holy God simply by believing in Jesus Christ and in His death on our behalf. When we place our trust in Him, our slate is wiped clean.

It is not possible for us to be forgiven by complying with any law or religious system. It was necessary that Christ go to the cross in order that He might establish the basis whereby I can approach God.

When Jesus was praying in the garden, He said, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). He was saying, “If it is possible that men can be saved by any other means than My death – if they can be saved by being religious, by somehow gaining their own righteousness – then I do not want to go to the cross. Please don’t put Me through this horrible ordeal.” But it was not possible, and so He went to the cross, died, was buried, and rose again. His death made it possible for God to extend His grace to you and me.

Perhaps an illustration will help to make this clear. Imagine that you were charged with a crime. You are accused of trespassing on a neighbor’s property. As any defense attorney knows, there are two possible ways for you to be cleared of the charge. You may seek to prove that you didn’t trespass on his property, or you may seek to prove that you had every right to be there.

Now apply this logic to our spiritual situation. God has charged us with being sinners – for rebelling against His law and His will. He has charged us with unrighteousness.

How can we be justified from those charges? We can’t say that we are innocent, for we are guilty. All of us have sinned. Nor can we say that we had a right to do what we did because we had no such right. Our actions were clearly wrong. How, then, can the law be of value to us in our desire to be forgiven? The answer is, it can’t. The case is open and shut. We didn’t have a right to do it, we did it anyway, and thus we stand guilty.

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.

Every Wednesday we invite a different “guest” to contribute to our blog. This week’s guest blogger is Caleb Albright.

Somewhere around the end of your sophomore year and beginning of your junior year of high school you start to think about what you want to do after graduating. When your senior year starts it seems almost mandatory to know what you want to do. While talking with people the question always comes up, “What are you doing after high school?” All your friends are talking about their plans and very few seem unsure.

I was one of the ones who was unsure. To be honest, I still am. When you answer that question with, “I don’t know” it is almost as if that was the end of the conversation and you’re just a troubled youth who will probably work at McDonalds the rest of your life and have no dreams or aspirations. (By the way, I have many dreams and goals in life I intend to accomplish.) It is also discouraging to see everyone around you going on with life and tackling their dreams full on. Now granted, most times this scenario is more “accepted” in the church, but even there you tend to feel looked down upon. People can unintentionally make it seem like maybe you’re not saved and you’re definitely not living right.

Ever since my junior year (2005) I have been praying and seeking the Lord on what His plan for my life is and what He wants me to do with all my passions and talents. Up until today (2009) I am still praying for that. To most of you reading this, four years probably doesn’t really seem like that long, but to me, a 21 year old kid ready to travel the world and do a bunch of crazy stuff, it feels like an eternity. I’ve always struggled with the fact that I never seem to hear from God on this particular matter, while in other scenarios it doesn’t seem to be quite so difficult. People have told me that there’s probably sin in my life and that is why the Lord isn’t speaking. I can guarantee according to Romans 3:23 (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.) that I have and do sin, but I’ve never thought that to be the cause of God not speaking. I’ve always wondered what is really going on and at times to some degree even questioned God a bit. It’s so hard when kids you’ve grown up in church with say things like, “God has called me into missions” or, “God has called me to be a pastor” and you sit there and think, “What am I missing?”

Now, why do I say all this? Not too long ago in our Wednesday night Bible study as we started into the book of 1 Samuel my eyes were opened to something that has crossed my mind before, but seemed like too simple of an answer at the time. In the first chapter it talks about how Hannah wasn’t able to have children and the way she felt because of things people said to her. In those days if you were weren’t able to have kids many people thought you had done something wrong and you weren’t right physically or spiritually. So as you can see there are some similarities between the two. It says in verse 7 that, year after year she went up to the house of the Lord… Now I think we can assume that this isn’t the only time she talked to God about this, with what she was going through I’m sure she was before the Lord several times a day and at times probably flat out begging for Him to answer her prayers. Year after year people looked down on her and she prayed to the Lord for an answer. Hannah says in verse 11 that if the Lord would answer her prayer and giver her a son that she would turn right around and give him back to God to serve Him the boy’s entire life…wow. Have you ever wanted something so bad and when you finally got it you turned right around and gave back to the person who gave it to you. This is no small task. When Hannah was finished praying I believe she heard from God, because it says in verse 18 that her face was no longer sad. The Lord spoke to her and Eli just confirmed what the Lord had told her.

The life decisions might vary slightly in the fact that you might already be dedicated and committed to doing and going wherever it is God wants you, whether it is third world Haiti or the neighborhood you grew up in. This isn’t what I take from this passage other than to make sure I am dedicated to doing what God wants and that I am committed to following Him where He leads me. What really spoke to me was the idea of perseverance in our prayer life no matter the time frame. There are several reasons why the Lord might simply be saying, “Caleb just wait a little bit.” or whatever it is. This doesn’t mean I sit in my closet till the Lord tells me it’s time. I need to be doing what we all as Christians are called to do in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and that is be an ambassador for the King of kings. I need to be living Jesus and representing the Kingdom of Heaven to everyone who comes in contact with me. We are all given the responsibility in the Great Commission to preach the gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19), this wasn’t just a command for the eleven disciples standing there, it was for anyone who calls themselves a Christian and desires to follow Christ, I mean after all what did Jesus do while He was here on earth?

In conclusion, maybe you’ve been asking for an answer or praying that the Lord heal someone close to you, whatever the situation is, I would just encourage you to continue seeking God and have faith that you’re really NOT talking to the ceiling. John 9:31 says that God hears those who worship Him.

Caleb Albright

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

Those who believe that they can be made acceptable to God without Jesus need to deal with some crucial questions. If they believe they can make it to heaven by achieving a certain level of goodness, what standard do they have to live up to? What will God require of them? So many say, “I feel that I am basically a kind and good person and am willing to stand before God on my own merit.”

But these people fail to take into account that God’s standards are different than ours. Jesus showed us God’s requirement for those who would strive for heaven on their own power when He said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The standard for the person who wants to be right with God is nothing short of absolute perfection – not just trying hard, or being sincere, but a flawless keeping of all God ever intended for man. Clearly, those who believe they can earn eternal life by their good works have a distorted understanding of the holiness of God and what it means to be right with God.

If we are going to set up a standard of righteous conduct, we need to use the one established by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only person whose life prompted God to say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). To enjoy fellowship with God, we must be as righteous as Jesus. In John 16:8,10 Jesus said, ‘And when he [that is, the Holy Spirit] is come, he will reprove the world of… righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.” Jesus’ ascension into heaven was God’s witness to the world about His Son. It is as if He were saying, “This is the righteousness that I will accept in heaven.” Jesus’ life is the only standard of righteousness. If I want to be accepted by God, I must be as righteous as Jesus Christ. The Scriptures show that there is only one kind of righteousness that God will accept: the very righteousness of Christ Himself. So, if we want to stand before God on the basis of our own good works, we must live a life that measures up to the goodness we see in Jesus.

But I realize that is impossible. I can’t achieve that kind of righteousness. Jesus Himself said, “I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). He said, “I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22). He further said, “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again” (Luke 6:27-30). And He commanded us to “love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again!’ (Luke 6:35).

How can anybody be that righteous? I know I can’t. I’ve failed miserably. Does that mean, then, that I must forever be alienated from God? Is there no way I can ever enjoy fellowship with God? Do I have to go on in this emptiness, in this frustration, seeking after and reaching out for something I can never obtain?

If there is any hope for us to be forgiven by God, there must be another basis for it other than our works. As Paul declares, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20).

If we are ever to enjoy fellowship with God, it will have to be on some basis other than our own righteousness. The rules that God has established for righteousness are far too stringent for us to abide by. We can’t do it. Our only hope is that another form of righteousness has been provided for us, a righteousness based on a totally different principle than our own works.

Thank God, there is such a principle! It’s called grace.

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.

Next week: What Is Grace?

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

One very common way of trying to become righteous is to define what righteousness is and isn’t, to set up a code, and then live according to this code. There’s only one problem: No one ever lives up to their own code, so we conjure up a great number of excuses to explain why we fail. The most common is that our failure isn’t really our fault.

If I drop a glass and break it, it isn’t that I am uncoordinated; it’s because someone called me when he shouldn’t have. Others were making too much noise in the other room, so my mistake is really their fault. “Look what you caused me to do!” I say. “You made me do it, so it isn’t my fault.” None of us like to accept blame.

This attitude goes all the way back to Adam. He blamed his failure on Eve. “The woman that you gave to be my wife,” he told God, “it’s her fault that I am the way I am” (see Genesis 3:12). Proverbs declares, “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12).

If you think you are a very pure person and yet are not washed from your filthiness, righteousness has evaded you. The Bible says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us… If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (I John 1:8,10). Scripture states our problem clearly: “All the world [stands] guilty before God… all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:19,23).

Whenever we try to establish our righteousness by keeping rules, eventually we are forced to admit we operate on a sliding scale. I will always look morally better to myself than I do to you, and you will always look morally worse to me than you do to yourself. I can look at your life and see all kinds of flaws; but when I look at myself, the few flaws I notice don’t seem so bad.

Even the righteousness I can achieve by what I do is only a sham righteousness. The Bible declares, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

If our relationship with God depended upon being righteous and good, we would never make it.

It’s almost comical to see some people parade around in their rags. They saunter around with their “holier than thou,” gaudy kind of religiosity, with a hyperspiritual air about them. They talk in whispered tones because they think it sounds holy and righteous. They use King James English because, as we all know, “Thees” and “Thous” are far more righteous than “yous” and “yours.” We see them puffed out in their righteousness, strutting around, showing off… and God shakes His head and says, “Filthy rags.”

If my relationship with God depended upon my being righteous and good, I would never make it. I have failed. I have come short of the glory of God. The best that I can manage is when I am having a good day, my biorhythms are right, and everything is going well – really flowing. I’m cool. Man, I am really something. But even on my best days God looks down and says, “Filthy rags.” My best efforts simply aren’t enough.

Trying to keep the law condemns me, for the true law deals with inward attitudes. Back when I labored under this standard of self-righteousness, I found I resented certain things other people were doing. I became bitter. I realized that I hated certain people and that I was jealous and covetous of the things they owned. I noticed I had violated my own code and had wiped out my relationship with God. Nothing was left to do but to start all over again.

Unfortunately, just about the time I would feel as though I were restoring a right relationship with God, something happened. I blew up and down I went again. I would be forced to start climbing the ladder of good works once more until I got to the rung where I finally felt I could relate to God. No sooner would I reach that rung, however, than somebody would pull a stupid move on the freeway and I would yell, “Where did you get your driver’s license, you idiot?” And the whole process would start all over again.

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.

Next week: What’s The Standard?