INEXHAUSTIBLE GRACE, IMMOVABLE TRUTH

Luke 27:47-49

In this Father’s Day message, we explored John 1:1-14. We can see Jesus coming from the Father to reveal the Father. John starts with the very beginning. He calls Jesus the Word, the Incarnate Word. Through Jesus, all things were made. In Him was life, the life of all mankind. He came ministering both in grace and truth; the essence of Fatherhood is grace and truth.

The same Jesus who said “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more” was the same Jesus who said “You brood of vipers. How will you escape the judgment of hell?” (Matthew 23:33). Same man, same message. One message contains grace. One message contains the truth. Both are motivated by love. The Lord is not willing that ANY should perish but that all should come to repentance. To the repentant sinner, Jesus shows inexhaustible grace. His mercies are new every morning. Though our sins are like scarlet, He makes them white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). It is impossible to over exaggerate the grace and mercy of God. It’s infinite.

To the repentant sinner, Jesus brings inexhaustible grace. To the unbeliever, He brings uncompromising, unwavering truth. We live in a generation and nation where, in the body of Christ, there has been a heavy emphasis on grace and little emphasis on truth. You cannot have the Gospel without grace. Without grace, you’re left with nothing more than dead religion and legalism. But, emphasizing grace without truth is not helpful. The Holy Spirit helps us to find the balance where we take the entirety of Scripture and apply it. Partial truth is misleading. Partial truth without the whole truth becomes an untruth.

Paul said “You have ten thousand teachers but very few fathers”. (1 Corinthians 4:15) We need fathers who love the next generation of believers enough to champion truth.

Our culture is in desperate need of truth. Deception is rampant in the land. Jesus prophesied this in Matthew 24. He continuously warned of deception, saying even the elect can be deceived in that hour. The culture is going to wage war on truth. The spirit of the world is aggressive, controlling, domineering; it refuses to cohabitate and it’s going to wage war on truth.

This spirit of the world won’t stop taking ground.

Free people have the right to live according to their core values. That’s not the issue. The issue here is we are fighting for the right to shape and mold the minds of our children & the next generation. It’s not enough to be tolerated. This spirit (of the world) demands worship, submission, control & seeks to silence anyone who disagrees or opposes it. Anyone who brings an opposing view to the next generation is silenced, canceled, labeled hate crimes, etc.

This is not time for cultural relevance. This is time for grace and truth. Make no peace treaty with them and their gods. Their gods don’t want peace with you; they want to dominate you. There won’t be cohabitation with this spirit.

The culture of the world isn’t shy or bashful. We are hesitant to bring truth to others and we are hesitant because we are scared of hurting them. People forego the truth because of fear: fear of being hated, of being misunderstood.

But 1 John 4:18 says “perfect love casts out fear.” People don’t forgo truth because of love. People forgo truth because of fear. Fear of being misunderstood, of being hated, of being rejected, etc. That’s what keeps us from speaking the truth. We should never partner with a lie. We partner with lies by not saying the truth.

There should be grace to all, no matter who they are and truth to all, no matter who they are. God will never add Himself to a lie. He will never partner with a lie. We don’t partner with a lie by saying a lie; we partner with a lie by not saying the truth. We need God to add Himself to make up the difference but He can’t do that if we crowd Him out with anything other than the truth.

It takes courage to stand for truth. The love of the Father is gentle and firm; uncompromising.

Luke 24:47-49 says we will receive power from on high: power and boldness. The fire of the Holy Spirit is needed to stand for the truth. We can’t do it in our own strength, in our own discernment. We’re going to need the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

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