Pastor Joe Sugrue - Grace and Truth Podcast

Tuesday February 25,2020

Christ uncovered many mysteries of the past, while He also gave us more that remain uncovered. In trying to unravel the further ones some have distorted them.

Eph 3:1-13

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles - 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2190

Sunday Febuary 23, 2020

Christ uncovered many mysteries of the past, while He also gave us more that remain uncovered. In trying to unravel the further ones some have distorted them.

If you can't untie the knot you shouldn't cut it. Leave it tied and accept that which is revealed on both sides, and without detriment or deprecation to the other.

Just one to two generations after the apostles we see several false doctrines that are created from the further mysteries encountered by the revelation of Christ. Gnosticism, the belief in created agents by God, demiurges and angels of which Jesus was one, offering the path to God through some ultimate knowledge or mystery. Arianism, the belief that Jesus was the Savior, but was created and had always been less than God. Marcionism (around 150...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2189

Thursday February 20, 2020

Last time we looked at the mystery revealed of the suffering Savior and that all believers in this age are called to suffer; not of their own doing, but for the sake of Christ. We will suffer in an undeserved way when we live the life of Christ.

Now we, in understanding the mystery revealed, have eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand the purposes of God.

God's purpose is everywhere, every day, and in everything. We just have to have eyes to see it. There is not one place, event, or person or persons that God is not in and has plans for.

Psa 105:7

He is the Lord our God;

His judgments are in all the earth....

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2188

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Victor David Hanson's father flew in a B-29 that firebombed Tokyo in WWII. When his teenage son, now a famous military historian, found out about this, he confronted his father suggesting that he was a war criminal. His father replied that at the time the Japanese imperial army were killing 20,000 Chinese and Korean people per day. What else were we going to do, tell them to stop? Then he asked his son what he would do in the face of that evil, and this questioned changed him. VDH summarizes what his father went on to say: We were better than the alternative. The US never claims to be perfect. It's just better than the alternative. If you don't believe that it is, then there is no reason for it to continue. Humans are not perfect. We make mistakes. VDH goes on: That idea, that agricultural, military idea that humans are not perfect, they make mistakes but the idea...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2187

Tuesday February 18, 2020

As we have completed our overview of Eph 3:2-13, we are going to look into a bit more of the wonderful mystery revealed in the church age - the person, work, and life of Jesus Christ.

The OT saints, the remnant who put their faith in the promises of God, looked ahead at an outline of the coming Messiah, a silhouette in the distance, and responded with a courageous faith.

Almost constantly, Israel did not look at all like the kingdom God promised it would be.

Lev 26:3-13

'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, 4 then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 5 'Indeed, your threshing will last for...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2186

Sunday, February 16, 2020

In our outline of Ephesians we completed the parenthetical 3:2-13.

Before we move on ...

A few words on the mystery: the person, work, and life of Jesus Christ.

(by "life of Christ" we mean the type of life and not only His incarnation. He is eternal life.)

1Co 10:1-6

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2185

Thursday February 13, 2020

We talked last night about the best motivation for being the man or woman God has purposed us to be, which is to be in thought and conduct like Christ in all things. Avoiding pain from the results of sin, wanting a better life, seeking heavenly rewards are all motivating to a point, but they are not going to get us to the maturity level that our hearts require in order to live the Christ-life as a rule of life.

The Christ must be at home in our hearts, which as we shall see, is another way of saying that we know Him fully and love Him, of which both things are the same thing. The great motivation in the Christian way of life is to know the way and love the way.

Psa 37:4-5

Delight yourself in the Lord;

And He will give you the desires of your heart.

5...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2184

Wednesday February 12, 2020

Yesterday's reading included Psa 36. I marveled at the words of this stanza written by David.

Psa 36:5-9

Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.

6 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God;

Thy judgments are like a great deep.

O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.

7 How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God!

And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings.

8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house;

And Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights.

9 For with Thee is the fountain of life;

In Thy light we see light....

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2183

Tuesday February 11, 2020

Eph 3:8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,

Eph 3:9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things;

Eph 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

Verse 10 reveals that what God has hidden from creation until the church is to be openly revealed in the widest sphere; all earth and even heaven.

Eph 3:11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

This name is the mystery of the hypostatic...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2182

Sunday February 9,2020

Eph 3:8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,

Eph 3:9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things;

Eph 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

The people of the empire, especially in the East, had a tendency to worship angelic beings. Paul is sure to guard against that, but while not making them some kind of ornamental creatures of God's universe. They are complex creatures that long to learn, but they are not to be worshipped, in fact, in looking to us to learn of God's...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2181