Pastor Joe Sugrue - Grace and Truth Podcast

Tuesday October 13, 2020

We should not be so fascinated by the individual gifts that we forget the main reason why Paul listed them: to remind us that they unite us in our ministries to the one body.

In 1Co 12 and Rom 12, Paul is eager to apply the family-likeness which reflects Christ's Lordship over all Christians to the diversity of ways in which this likeness can find creative expression. Whenever we see the different members of the Trinity acting in different capacities, we never imagine anything other than Their oneness. Even the virgin-birth of Jesus does not give any notion in our minds of anything other than a Trinity, coequal and coeternal, one.

The Trinity is the foundation of unity-in-diversity and diversity-in-unity.

1Co...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2316

Sunday October 11,2020

Giving ("with liberality") and showing mercy ("with cheerfulness") relate to sharing material aid with those in need, as well as supporting God's servants in ministry.

Giving of any material with cheerfulness is a manner that God loves. He is the greatest giver and so loves it. When we manifest Him in any way, it pleases Him. Only with God is such a thing not conceited.

Although he did not request personal support, Paul spent close to ten years soliciting funds for what is commonly referred to as the Jerusalem collection. This was a collection he took up among the Gentile churches to help Judean believers who were facing harder than usual economic times as a result of a famine during the mid to late 40s. Paul and Barnabas made an initial...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2315

Thursday October 8, 2020

Title: Ephesians 4:4-6, The one body and the variety of gifts, part 4.

Wanted to share with you a passage from Fields Without Dreams by Victor Hanson.

"Office man can get allergies from plaster, carpet, and perfume. Put that same invalid in the middle of a blooming apricot orchard, his arms in constant motion with the shovel, his brain full of calibrations of water and fertilizer, his eyes following pollen-carrying, life-giving bees, and he revives. A great weight has been lifted. His sinuses will inhale dust and pollen - and then clear as the throbbing over the eye disappears. For he will be growing food by himself, not devising an ad campaign for Korean tennis shoes...

Corporate man has brought himself riches and leisure but not happiness. No wonder Virgil spoke of the always complaining but continually blessed...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2314

Wednesday October 7, 2020

1Co 12:1-3

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

There is one Lord, and all believers confess Him. Paul contrasted their experience as unconverted idolaters with their present experience as Christians. They had worshiped dead idols that never spoke to them, but now they belonged to the living God who spoke to them as the divine Holy Spirit within and through the spiritual gifts of apostle and prophet.

In their demonic, pagan worship, some would claim to be the voice of the...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2313

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

1Co 12:4-11

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. [one Trinity as in Eph 4:4-6] 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

Some gifts...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2312

Sunday October 4, 2020

Verses 4-6, the second sentence, set forth the foundation upon which the temperament of unity rests.

Eph 4:4-6

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

The groundwork of every building in God's holy temple is the unity of God; the Trinity, the purpose, and plan.

The church is built on this foundation, and where it has not been, schism and division have risen. Paul instructed his following teachers and pastors to be careful how they build in 1Co 3. They are to build upon Paul's blueprints as the wise...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2311

Thursday October 1, 2020

God has said much to us lately about humility.

[from Barnhouse on Romans] A beautiful illustration comes from the life of the late Chief Justice, Charles Evans Hughes. When Mr. Hughes was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he moved to Washington and transferred his letter to a Baptist church there. His father had been a Baptist minister, and Hughes had been a lifelong witness to his own faith in Christ. It was the custom in that Baptist church to have all new members come forward during the morning service and be introduced to the congregation. On this particular day, first to be called was a Chinese laundryman, Ah Sing, who had moved to Washington from San Francisco and kept a laundry near the church. He stood at the far side of the pulpit. As others were called, they took positions at the extreme opposite...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2310

Wednesday September 30, 2020

Eph 4:1-3

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We were called, and knowing this, we are pulled towards a lifestyle worthy of that calling. That lifestyle pleases God, Col 1:10.

As Paul puts it in Colossians, God qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints. That inheritance is nothing material, as if the kingdom of God has any basis in the material things that men of the world love to...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2309

Tuesday September 29, 2020

Eph 4:1-3

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

You were called - aorist passive indicative of kaleo = at salvation God called you. You couldn't call yourself.

Aorist points to the moment of your salvation, passive means that God called you and that no one elects themselves, and the indicative means that your calling is not in doubt.

It is of extreme importance...

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2308

Sunday September 27,2020

No reward from God can possibly be used selfishly for self. God's rewards or blessings (unconditional and conditional) are all linked to Himself.

I have been deemphasizing conditional rewards out of my desire to get us to see that we walk in a manner worthy because of the fact that we are called. Perhaps that has been in error. The plain teaching of the scripture is that God rewards those who follow Him, but the rewards essentially are receiving more of God Himself.

There are unconditional and conditional blessings. Believers can easily get distracted with rewards when they view them incorrectly.

We must be careful not to become competitive with one another. Rewards are more of God, which we share with one another....

for full notes: https://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2307