Grace Immanuel Bible Church: Men of Grace and Granite

By Grace Immanuel Bible ChurchReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Grace Immanuel Bible Church: Men of Grace and Granite episodes

April 03, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 3): Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power
1 hr 23 min
March 27, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 2): The Danger of Pragmatism
1 hr 19 min
March 20, 2018 Foundations of Biblical Philosophy of Ministry (Part 1): God's Sovereign Work in Conversion
1 hr 20 min
March 13, 2018Assessing Genuine Repentance
Today in the Men of Grace & Granite, we continue to study our battle for moral purity as part of the Man of God series. We want to lay out a framework to assess our repentance from sin, so we can be sure it is Biblically genuine.
Let’s ask ourselves, “Am I successful in my battle with sin?” God’s word promises power over sin, so am I winning in the battle? Our objective today is to learn:
If I am truly victorious and how would I know for sure.

The framework for Biblical victory over sin.

And, how to spot fakery or unbiblical repentance.
Before we examine real repentance is, let’s look at what genuine repentance is not:
A recognition of sinful actions (Numbers 14)

Sorrow over sin (Hebrews 12:17)

Seeking forgiveness for your sin (1 Samuel 24; 1 Samuel 26)

Feeling a weight of guilt on your conscience (Matthew 27)

Commitments or vows not to sin again (Matthew 26:35)

A short season of victory over sin (2 Peter 2:20-21)
Note: Each of these do not prove repentance in themselves, but genuine repentance does include some form of these principles. The mere presence of any one of these or all of them does not prove you are repentant.

In our subject passage today (2 Corinthians 7:9-11), the Apostle Paul gives us the truth and describes precisely what genuine repentance is.
The abandonment of all….
Self-righteousness – Owning the full responsibility of the sin with no defense or blame-shifting.

Self-deception – No rationalization or claiming power to overcome the sin; or self-pity that you cannot gain victory.

Self-reliance – Giving up all one’s own means, such as will-power and self-help techniques, while neglecting the means that God provides for victory.

Humbling yourself to accept the biblical…
Indictment – Agree with God’s assessment from His Word about your sin.

Responsibility – Accept fault and every contribution that led you toward that sin.

Pathway to Victory – Use God’s resources and God’s way for victory.

Enemies of True Repentance:
Our pride

Unwillingness to give up our comforts

The love of sin.

Refusing to learn from God’s Word how to hate the sin.

Allowing other areas of weakness to drive us back toward old haunts and habits.
Genuine repentance always results in fruit. Paul tells us in verses 10 and 11 that there are eight recognizable fruits and all eight must be evident in a believer’s life, so that we know our repentance is genuine.
Without regret – We do not regret doing what was necessary to repent.
Perhaps, you endured public embarrassment, or loss of trust from loved ones, or severed relationships, or disappointing family, or you were exposed as a hypocrite.

In each of these examples and others, God providentially used events in your life to bring about true repentance and you do not regret His providences.

You grow thankful for all the means that God used for your repentance.

You refuse to:
Rail in your heart against people who exposed your sin.

Be discontent with sins consequences.

Grumble at the punishment for sin.

Self-pity under the weight of sin’s consequences.

Instead you grow in contentment and develop a pattern of softness to God’s commands as you learn to put away stubbornness.

Earnestness – Severe mental or emotional distress over your sin.
Your earnest pursuits now turn to a desire and striving for righteousness, instead in the pursuit of sin. You earnestly seek personal holiness.

Sin is no longer attractive; holiness is your insatiable desire.

Vindication – Passion to clear your name.
Not as a hypocrite, but instead you work to vindicate and disassociate yourself from that sin. Your reputation is now associated with Christ and holiness.

To the glory of Christ’s work in you, you now have victory over a previous bondage and you/others recognize increasingly holiness.

There is a true change of heart. You separate yourself from sin habits, practices, and portals to former enslavement with vigor.

Indignation – Hatred/animosity toward the sin.
It is true that you will not turn from a sin that you don’t hate.

You must learn to hate what the sin causes or could cause.

You must see sin and its wickedness as God sees it.

We must accept what God’s Word says about the offense in faith. If we do not believe His Word, we have a faith problem.

Fear – We are terrified over sin continuing in our lives.
We see the enslaving nature of sin and what you are willing to risk if you continued sinning.

You must recognize the greediness of sin and the increasingly greater consequences of continuing in it.

Practical suggestions:
Make a list of what God could do in His discipline for your sin. We reap what we sow, and God has infinite disciplining resources.

Make a list of all the people your sin could hurt.

Don’t become calloused to the gracious warnings from other people who confront you about sin.

Grow in the fear of the Lord:
In awe as a holy God who deserves our total allegiance.

And, in fear as Judge who will cause every knee to bow to His Lordship.

Longing – A cultivation of yearning and desiring to be free from sin’s enslavements.
We must be willing to proactively do whatever it takes to mortify that sin and gain victory that is promised in God’s word.

Ask yourself if there is anything that you know would help in the battle, but you are not willing to do.
Including asking for help, even if it results in exposure and humiliation.

Including cutting off all portals to sin.

Including eliminating good things that bring you to the vicinity of sin.

Including cutting out friends.

Including changing patterns of living.

Including thoroughly studying every passage of scripture that is relevant to that sin and the pursuit of personal holiness.

Zeal – Intense devotion and passion for killing sin.
This kind of zeal invites the wisdom from others to gain input and clarity for the battle.

You devote great amounts of time to addressing the weakness.

When you are not caught in the sin, are you willing and regularly confessing the sin to someone who can help?

You are cultivating a zealous desire to endure and persevere in the fight.

Avenging the wrong – You have a desire to see justice done (to you).
This is not going out in the world to minister justice.

It is an owning of the consequences of sin as a grace from God leading to your ultimate and genuine repentance.

You thankfully accept the full consequences that your sin caused.

You bear up and endure through the consequences and you use them as reminders to be steadfast and resist returning to that sin.

Your sanctified attitude is vital:
Don’t be discontent in your heart with circumstances from the consequences.

Don’t be embittered at those who bring the consequences.

Don’t be angry or jealous at others who don’t have the same consequences for similar sin.

Don’t seek the easy way out of the consequences or try to run from them.

Verse 11 provides a fitting conclusion and overview the genuine Biblical repentance:
Your life pattern demonstrates innocence and freedom from sins enslavements.

Particular sins no longer have sway or control in your life.

You desire the things of the Lord and you flee every crumb of that old sin pattern.

In conclusion, genuine repentance requires evidence of fruit in all eight areas.
1 hr 21 min
March 06, 2018 A Biblical Guide to Battling Sin
Click the “Download Outline” button to receive a copy of the Biblical Guide to Battling Sin shared in today’s session.
1 hr 31 min
February 27, 2018 A Man of Moral Purity (Part 5) - The Danger of Stubbornness
1 hr 15 min
February 20, 2018A Man of Moral Purity (Part 4)
Today, we continue our series on the Man of God and we are in part four of our tight focus on what it means to be a man of moral purity. Last time in this section, we began to examine portals or excesses that cause us to lack discipline. The lack of discipline in one area leads to weakness in other areas. Satan exploits areas of weaknesses and it should be no surprise to us how quickly it can lead to sexual immorality, impurity, and lust.
We must embrace the weariness of the battle and not lose heart. By embracing it, we become more and more dependent and reliant on God. To a large extent, the man of God must maintain a healthy dissatisfaction with how well you are doing in your pursuit of moral purity. Doing so, keeps you humble and dependent on spiritual resources and God’s Word.
A portal or a gateway is the metaphor that we use to refer to leakiness in our lives. These are areas that Satan exploits. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us that we must lay aside every encumbrance that may lead to a dangerous liaison, friendship, worldly association, temptation, or weakness. These encumbrances may not be sinful, but they open us up to the flow of temptations into our lives. We must be discerning and wise to close off those portals/gateways to restrict every opportunity that Satan to roar in our lives aiming to destroy us.
Note: The first three portals were examined on January 30th and can be accessed here: http://www.gibcjupiter.org/pages/sermons/detail/sermon/3700. Portals four through six were examined in detail in today’s session.
The Portal of Friendships
Build relationships with people that are very godly and will challenge you by asking tough questions.

However, if you build relationships with superficial people, they will lead to superficial results.
The Portal of Defiling Environments & Media
This is getting comfortable and involved with things that Christ died for. These erode moral purity.
The Portal of Idleness
Satan will exploit our “chill time” by introducing temptations when we are vulnerable to them.
The Portal of Resentment in the Heart as a Channel to Sin
James 3:16 – resentment and bitterness results in jealousy. Resentment can boil over in our lives and start us thinking that life, people, circumstances, and even God is unfair.

The result of this jealousy, according to Scripture, is every evil thing!

Bitterness leaves Satan a foothold for selfish ambition.

Ephesians 4:26-27
Be angry, but don’t sin. That’s interesting! Don’t give Satan an opportunity to exploit, because you are resentful.

Don’t get involved with a pattern where you are not listening to the Spirit of God. We want a conscience that is sensitive and that willingly comes under His word.

Where do you have resentment in your heart as a habit of life?
Are you unhappy with your work or your wages? How about your house? How about that brother who seems to have everything? Do you resent him?

Men are vulnerable to become embittered against their wives.

Listen: The Lord loves you so much that He will not give a desire, if that desire will distance you from Him.
Those prayers, which may seem like good desires, are not aligned with His will.

When He prevents something we desire, we must learn to be content with what He provides.

Selfish ambition in James usually starts with a good desire run rampant. Good desires become idols (see Ezekiel 14:1ff).
Notice the “blinding” language. An idol is a stumbling block.

You can’t see God, because the idol is too close to your field of vision.

The language here is not carved objects, but desires that run rampant.

When we have idols, Satan can exploit us easily. Idols are an open door.
The Portal of Intellectual Pride
We should be trained to flee the world’s reasoning, but our curiosity follows a path outside of the Bible for truth. This path or method of learning mixes the world’s wisdom with biblical truth.

Notice James 3:13
The wise and understanding person of this world is measured by his good deeds and gentleness of wisdom. He demonstrates his wisdom by what he practices.

The source of unchecked resentment could be that you love how you are perceived by others. You may be proud of your savviness, education or years of experience.

Sometimes just because we are old and have lived life, we exalt our wisdom over others. Just because we experienced something, we are not necessarily wise.

Let’s let God’s word define what is wise.

Applied knowledge is wisdom. Knowing something without a pattern of good use of that knowledge is empty and vain.

Learning life’s lessons and passing them through the grid of God’s word produces a humble dependency on Christ.

Look at James 3:15 – thinking on the natural level is not wisdom; it is earthly and sometimes we mix it with our Bible. Look what James says, it is “natural, demonic”.
You must love how natural and demonic are side by side in this passage.

We don’t say that enough. We don’t strongly indict the world’s wisdom as demonic, evil, and against God’s truth.

Anything considered wise in the world, which is without the wisdom of the Spirit of God, is demonic.

James tells us in James 3:17 what wisdom looks like:
Pure: An unwise life leads to impurity; thus, wise-living stays away from impurities.

Peaceable: It is not argumentative; it is not easily provoked.

Gentle: This is not weakness. This kind of person is reasonable, he is mindful of the context of the moment. He uses wisdom to settle situations down. He is calm in pressure-filled situations.

Reasonable: He is not argumentative, even with truth.

Full of mercy & good fruits: He is not judgmental or condescending. He is not filled with pride or arrogance. The term “full of” means that he is known as being a fruitful man of God. There is consistency here.

Unwavering: Regularly taking a stand for convictions, especially when it costs something, such as reputation. His convictions are tight. He lives a trimmed down life. Convictions (things we are willing to die for) closes the gateway to impurity.

Without hypocrisy: This is the perfect bookend to this list. Truthfulness and integrity amount to the sash that holds everything together. There are no loose ends and no legitimate accusation of reproach can be made.
The Portal of Spiritual Naiveté
Solomon wrote Proverbs to give us prudence and caution.

Our weapons against naivete are spiritual (2 Corinthians 10:5) to take down the fortresses of deceit.
This passage says to test everything. Are we testing everything that Scripture addresses?

When we examine everything, conflict with our family and friends is bound to arise. Are we shying away from testing things, so that we keep the peace?

Satan can use our naivete as a foothold, so he can tempt us to soften or delay our examination. His purpose is to lie, so we walk in self-deception.

Do we examine the ideology behind things? On the surface, they may look okay, but we are all theologians and we need to look at the underlying beliefs.

We go to the Word of God to examine these things.

We take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

There is a firmness of godly character that should not allow us to soften our view on the world’s ideologies. We need to use our Biblical grid to sniff out danger.

If we have weakness in our purity, it may be because we don’t examine things closely.

We need a gospel-driven life.
It will cause us to say hard things to ourselves and others.

It may cause others to see us as stubborn or terribly inflexible.

Of course, the world will see us as “too conservative” but we are not here to please the world. We have a goal to be pleasing the Lord in everything (Ephesians 5:10).

Our stance may cause pain and cause us to experience loss. But, that’s why they are called convictions. We must not soften our convictions just because we will suffer loss in the world.

We may get accused of being too narrow. If so, repent of belligerence. Repent of arrogance. But, if we are just sharp, then absorb the criticism of being too narrow and stay sharp.
Each one of us must bear his own load in sanctification (Galatians 6:5). When we work on the things that the Lord calls us to, including our sanctification, we work heartily and with all our might (Colossians 3:23).
Question – How is the best way to remove resentment and bitterness in our hearts?
Answer – Pray for God to be patient and merciful on those who treat us poorly. Pray that God is as patient and merciful to them as He has been to us.
1 hr 19 min
February 13, 2018 A Divine Documentary on Adultery
Due to technical difficulties, we failed to record this week’s session of Grace & Granite. However, Pastor Daron Roberts taught the same passage in 2017 to the College & Career group. The 2017 recording has been placed here, so that the Men of Grace & Granite can also benefit from this important lesson. We sorry for our recording error.
58 min
January 30, 2018A Man of Moral Purity (Part 3)
We continue to look at the Man of God and specifically we are diving into what it means to be a man of moral purity. Today, we will begin to examine portals or excesses that cause us to lack discipline. The lack of discipline in one area leads to weakness in other areas. Satan exploits areas of weaknesses and it should be no surprise to us how quickly it can lead to sexual immorality and lust.
The portal metaphor refers to leakiness in our life. These are areas that Satan exploits. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us that we must lay aside every encumbrance that may lead to a dangerous liaison, friendship, worldly association, temptation or weakness. We must be discerning and wise to close off those portals and reduce/eliminate Satan’s opportunity to exploit them.
The Portal of Friendships
It is difficult to manage/keep friendships with pagans; they have different ethics.

It is our role to help unbelievers learn the path to be saved, not to give them a better life here and now.

Friendships with unbelievers must move toward the gospel.

There is no harmony with darkness and light. The relationship is always on edge, because:
They suppress truth in unrighteousness.

You live for Christ.

We want friendships that challenge us to eliminate encumbrances. We must jettison friendships that encourage us to relax convictions.

Build relationships with people that are very godly and will challenge you by asking tough questions.

However, if you build relationships with superficial people, they will lead to superficial results.
The Portal of Defiling Environments & Media
This is getting comfortable and involved with things that Christ died for. These erode moral purity.

Undignified and salacious speech should not be just endured. It should torture our conscience as we are sensitized to flee blasphemous words and situations.

Are we involved in situations where perversions are celebrated? When a salacious joke is spoken, do we celebrate it with a smile or a laugh?

Ephesians 5:1-6 tells us to be imitators of God.
We cannot walk in love, if we are consuming others for our enjoyment.

Verse 4 addresses speech. Morals and convictions are eroded and then our speech quickly changes, too.

What comes out of our mouth reveals our heart (Matthew 12).

Do we celebrate crime in a movie? Think about those plots where the criminal life is exalted, and they get away with it. That cannot be what entertains us. Truth, justice, and righteousness are to be celebrated, not the opposite.

Violence in media desensitizes the conscience.

Sports designed to crush and dominate others is a celebration of brutality. Sports are to be athletic endeavors where competition and points are the deciding factor.

Voyeurism or watching steamy scenes does not promote a life toward the highest pursuits of Christ.

These open wide portals toward immorality and lust.
The Portal of Idleness
We need time to rest and think. In God’s common grace, He may give us hobbies and leisure, which we may enjoy.

The portal of idleness encroaches because we love our leisure, or we begin to idolize times when we can simply check-out.

Be careful, a portal of idleness causes laxed convictions. Satan will exploit our “chill time” by introducing temptations when we are vulnerable to them.

1 Cor. 6:12 – Don’t be mastered by anything. This is a statement that should authoritatively rule your life.

Idols are those things which we:
Sin to get.

Sin to keep.
1 hr 29 min
January 23, 2018 A Man of Moral Purity (Part 2)
1 hr 21 min