You are in God’s family. And under the New Covenant, God says that your sins and lawless deeds, He will remember no more. But there are three groups who have another message for you – one that reminds you of every shortcoming, weakness and failure — 1) Your own religious mind, 2) The Church, and 3) The devil. You have this chorus of voices telling you that you’re not what God wants, that you’re unacceptable to Him. And then we have the word of God that says that you’re completely and totally accepted, and welcome in His presence.

People have a tendency to react one of two ways –

• Try to live a good life in your own strength. Those who work and try really hard, with limited success, can be overcome with self-condemnation as they wallow in their failures and shortcomings. Or some actually do have real success and then feel smugly superior over everybody else – that’s self-righteousness.

• Or, you can come into the light of the Gospel: The truth that says “Your sins are forgiven. You’re accepted by God. He’s begun a good work in you, which He promises to complete if you’ll just trust Him.” Right living is important, but how you get there is more important than just the outward living itself.

Pastor Joe concludes with a three-step process of humility that helps us properly frame our minds.

If you missed them, tune into part 1 and part 2. This episode is pulled from the Pleasing God MP3 series.

Additional Resources

What To Do When the Heat’s On – Full Series MP3

Two Kinds of Righteousness by E.W. Kenyon

Full Transcript

Last week, those of you who are here, I began a new series which I’m calling Pleasing God. And the more I interact with the body of Christ, the more I hear what people say and how they verbalize their walk with the Lord, I’m convinced that there’s a lot of Christians who hardly know who the Lord is. What Ingrid was sharing a minute ago about our Father’s heart, how he’s a gracious, kind and loving father, and he’s not, you know, in Kenyon’s book, The Two Kinds of Righteousness, he talks about how many believers have a scary, austere, judgmental God who’s always looking to find fault with them. I know that was the God I grew up with. But what I’ve discovered is and I know you have as well as that’s not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, God was revealed in part, but in the New Covenant, Jesus came so we could really see what the Father was like. You remember, he said, If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.

And do you know, Jesus ministered in such a way that the worst of sinner were comfortable around him? In fact, they were drawn to him. I’m believing for a day when the body of Christ is so full of the love of God, that sinners aren’t afraid of us because of our self righteous judgementalism. But they’re actually drawn to us because there’s something that comes out of us that draws them. Don’t you think that would be good?

So if you have your Bibles tonight, let’s open them up to Hebrews chapter 11. This series is called Pleasing God, Bringing Delight to the Father’s heart. Bringing delight to the Father’s heart. And what you need to know, what I need to know, and what the church needs to know, is that you and I can bring delight to the Father’s heart. That that is not something for the super spiritual or for the perfect, perfectly holy, the ones who never do anything wrong, or just don’t have any weaknesses. It’s for the for the newest and weakest believer who’s made Jesus Christ the Lord of their life. Because under the Old Covenant, you couldn’t approach God. They had a whole priestly tribe. And then there was the high priest, and God dwelt in the tabernacle of Moses, and then the Temple of Solomon, and only the high priests could go into His presence.

But in the New Covenant, we have a new high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he has done is he has gone into the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood, and then invited us in. The privilege that you and I have in the New Covenant is vastly superior to anything that was possible under the Old Covenant. But the verse that we’re looking at is Hebrews 11:6, without faith it’s impossible to please God. He that draws near to God must believe that He is, and that he becomes the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Now, that’s the New King James Version. I’ve given you McIntyre’s Revised Version. Because the word translated comes to God there. When the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament were translated into Greek, and they talked about drawing nearer to God in the Holy of Holies, that was the word they used. And so what it’s really saying is that, without faith, it’s impossible to please God that because he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He becomes the rewarder of those who seek Him.

Now, I have been thinking about this actually, I’ve been thinking about this for 45 years. I might figure it out yet. No. Just kidding. But here’s the thing. God wanted a family and sin created a barrier. So God sent His Son to deal with sin, so he could have his family. Now for that to be meaningful, one of the things we tend to do is we look at everything from our point of view, which is kind of normal. But that’s why you have a Bible so you can see things from God’s point of view. And see from God’s point of view, the sin problem has been settled, and there is no condemnation in Christ. You are welcome into the presence of the Almighty one of the universe, as a son or daughter of God. You are in the family. And God says that your sins in the New Covenant, he says your sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more.

Now there’s two, no, there’s actually three groups who have another message for you. Your own religious mind. It’ll remind you of every shortcoming, every failure, everything you do, that’s not perfect. The Church, which will also help remind you of every shortcoming and weakness and failure, and then there’s the devil. So you have this chorus of voices telling you you’re not what God wants, you’re inacceptable to him. And then we have the word of God that says, You’re accepted in the Beloved Son of God. You’re completely and totally accepted, and welcome in his presence.

Now, here’s the thing. Without faith, it’s impossible to please Him, so if God hasn’t made available the way for you to come to Him, and hasn’t made faith possible for you, then how can he be pleased with you? If though, on the other hand, he has made the way, he has opened up a new and living way, so that you can come with boldness to the throne of grace. Interestingly enough, in the Letter to the Hebrews, seven different times it uses the words draw near. It’s a major theme of the book, and the theme of the new book is the superiority of the New Covenant over the old. the superiority of our new high priest over the old one, you see.

And so Jesus has done what he’s done, so that you can lay down all guilt, all shame, all fear, and learn to fellowship with the Father just like son number one. You see. The thing that’s striking and it takes renewing our minds, it takes rethinking things. You see. The Bible says that you are as welcome in the presence of God as son number one. Now, you’re aware of all of your frailties, shortcomings, weaknesses, and all of the things about you that the enemy wants you to believe disqualify you. But you see, there’s, an answer to every disqualifying thought. It’s called the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ.

In chapter 10, it tells us that we can draw near to God with a true heart. Now, let me just talk about a true heart. Sometimes people say, “Well, my heart can’t be a true heart because I still struggle with my flesh.” A true heart is a sincere heart. An honest heart. It’s not a flawless, sinless heart of an individual that never struggles or never fails. It’s the heart of somebody who genuinely wants to walk with God. And he says, Let us draw near, there’s that word again, with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

I one of the great truths that the church and all of us need to grasp is that the blood of Christ cleanses your conscience from dead works, so you can serve the living God. Now, let me tell you something about dead works. In Hebrews chapter 6, foundational doctrine of the Church, repentance from dead works and faith towards God, these two are coupled together. But now, a lot of times people think, “Yes, I need to repent of my sin.” Well, you do. You need to ask forgiveness, and get cleansing, but dead works are not your sins. Dead works are the works you do trying to earn God’s acceptance and favor. You need to repent of those. Because if you could be acceptable by your good works, then Jesus died in vain. But he didn’t die in vain, and you can’t be accepted by your good works.
So how about giving up on your good works, and just starting to come to the Father based on what Jesus did.

Now, I know for some of you, this is not new. But you know what, there’s a constant battle to try to talk us out of the truth. And, particularly, if you struggle with a besetting weakness, there’s this nagging voice, “Well, you’re not what you should be. You don’t measure up. You’re not this. You’re not that. Blah, blah, blah.” That’s why he’s called the accuser of the brethren. It’s his job to accuse you. Now, he used to be able to accuse mankind before heaven. But you know, he can’t anymore, because he was thrown out. When the blood went in, the enemy went out. So the only place he can accuse you is to your mind. To your unrenewed mind, he gives you these messages that say, “You’re not what you should be, you’re unworthy, you don’t measure up, you know. So and so’s more holy than you are. So and so’s better than you are. You’re not what you should be. Blah, blah, blah.” You have to fight the good fight of faith, to pull down those strongholds, and say, I am completely accepted by the Father God, creator of the universe, He redeemed me and I belong to him now. And there’s no condemnation coming from heaven, because I’m forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness.

It’s called good news. But it takes time. And actually, we have to realize it. I love the church, and I’m not a rock thrower. I’m not a critic of the church. But I realize we’re coming out of much religious tradition that mixes law and grace. And to get into the New Covenant, you have to lay down law. You see. “Well, Brother, we gotta live, right.” Well, we do. But if you try to do it in your own strength, you’ll only have limited success. Or worse than that you might have real success and then just feel smugly superior over everybody else. You see, in the flesh, you’ve got option A, work really hard and try really hard, live a fairly good life and feel superior to everybody else. And that’s religious self righteousness. Or you can just wallow in your failures and shortcomings. And then you can have religious self condemnation. Or you can come into the light of the gospel, know your sins are forgiven, know you’re accepted by God, and know that he’s begun a good work in you which he promises to complete if you’ll just trust him.

Living right is important, but how you get there is more important than just outward living. You know, many of the Jews in the Old Covenant, they lived the outward standard, they lived up to it. But when the Messiah the Son of God, manifest in the flesh, stood in their midst, they did not receive Him because their hearts were far from God. They had a good dose of religion. They had a good dose of religious self righteousness, and they condemned all the ones that were drawn to Jesus because they weren’t good synagogue attenders. But you see, religion can put us off from God, but Christ will draw us to God.

So, faith is primarily how we respond to something called grace. I like to put it this way, grace is poured from the heart of God out on humanity. And when humanity sees it, and receives it, that’s called faith. So, faith is the hand that receives what the grace of God freely gives. Whether it’s salvation, or receiving the Holy Spirit, or healing, or deliverance, or answered prayer, it’s all on the same basis. God’s grace given freely, and you receive it by faith. See. we start with the new birth. We realize that Christ died for our sins, and that he rose again, and we receive Him as our Lord. That’s the first step of the faith life. You behold the grace of God in Christ dying for your sin. But then, the vast majority of you went on to receive the Holy Spirit. Took a while maybe for some of you to actually see that was part of the gospel. And, once you saw it, you received the baptism or the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Well, then some of you went on to receive healing. Some of you went on to receive deliverance from bondages. The rest of God’s provision in Christ.

It’s all available on the principle of faith, but faith can only operate where it sees the grace of God. But you see, once you see the grace of God, you’re unstoppable. You see. Because if you receive grace, if you learn how in faith to receive grace, there is no limit on your life. You throw off limitation. But here’s the thing. The battle exists around your intimacy with the Lord in prayer. You see the enemy fears, saints who know the presence of God, who know they’re welcome there, because Philippians 2:13 says it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Now, his good pleasure is you conformed to the image of His Son. Now, you can think of all the reasons why that’s a challenge for God. God thinks of all the reasons why that’s not a challenge for him. You have to decide who to agree with. “Well Lord, You know who I am.” And he looks down. He says, “Let’s see You made Jesus you Lord. Yeah, you’re a righteous new creation. You’re my workmanship. You’re born of my spirit. You’re born of my will. You are born of my word, and my spirit now lives in you. And Greater is he that’s in you than he that’s in the world. Yeah, that’s Yeah, I know about you.” But do you? Or are you telling him another story?

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of good religious stories. “Well, Brother, we just need to be humble.” Well, we do need to be humble, but humility is not self reproach. Humility is recognizing your need and dependence upon God. You see. I have a little booklet that I’m about to do something with that was a message the Lord gave me many years ago. It was called What To Do When the Heat’s On. Because I needed to know what to do. And the Lord opened up 1 Peter 5 to me, and brought me a teaching that’s really helped me and I’ve written it out and want to give it to people. But, here’s the thing: it said to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. And I said, Alright, Lord, but how do I do that? And the Lord gave me a three step process of humility. Number one, apart from God, I can do nothing. See, I acknowledged my dependence upon the Lord for any change. Number two, I’m not apart from the Lord. I’m in union with the Lord. I’m one spirit with The Lord. Now we’re still talking about humility. Humility, I think it was Charles Spurgeon said, humility is the ability to make the right estimate of yourself before God. Now, it’s certainly true that I can’t do anything of spiritual value apart from God. But it’s also true that I’m not apart from God. I’ve been brought by the new birth into union with Christ. And now Christ is in me, working his life in me. And then the third thing was, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So humility, I am dependent. You know, Jesus said that he couldn’t do anything apart from his father. So as the Son of God manifest in the flesh, he modeled humility. Now, how many know that he was able to do quite a bit? But he readily acknowledged his dependence on the father, but also the father working in him, the Father doing exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or think, through Jesus. And now he wants to bring many sons and daughters into the same kind of glory. But he can’t do that as long as you’re trying to be spiritual enough. You can only do that when you just trust Him. When you just invite him to work in you, and you believe that he is hearing you and answering you.

So without confidence in God and His work in you, it’s impossible to please Him. Pretty simple, really. But the simplicity of it escapes us. And we do have a lot of help to forget these things. So let us draw near, he says, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Now, if I were basing my assurance of faith on my performance, how many know I really couldn’t have full assurance. Because there would always be that nagging sense. “Well, I, you know, I didn’t do everything right. I got really ticked off at that person the other day. And I was irritated at this, and I was bothered by that,and I said, something I shouldn’t have said.” And you can go down the whole catalogue of things you might have done wrong. But what you have to say is, “No. In Christ Jesus, God has dealt with that issue, and I am accepted. I’m free, I’m forgiven, and I am deeply loved.

Now, one of the verses of scripture that’s really powerful along this line, is it says in Romans chapter 8, if God did not spare his only Son, but gave him up freely for us all, how shall he not also with Him, freely give us all things? Now all things, that might be exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think. And how do we move into the flow of that? We put aside all our concerns about our humanity. And we learn to come as Hebrews 4:12 says, we draw here with boldness to the throne of grace. And it says obtain mercy and find grace to help.

Think for a moment about what you think about God’s throne. Is it the throne where God decides whether you’re acceptable or not? Is it the throne where he scrutinizes you to see if you measure up? Or if perhaps there’s something in your life that’s not quite right. Or is it a throne of grace? See, Grace is God doing for you what you could never do for yourself, and then it’s God doing in you what you could never do. See. The new covenant is about grace, not law. Grace will enable you.

I was teaching on these things many years ago, before Pam and I were married. So it was quite a quite a few years ago, because we’ve been married for 32 years. But I was single at the time, and I used to drive out into the countryside to prepare my messages because I wanted to just clear my head and stuff. So I was out in Carnation. And I went, I drove into a park there, because I wanted to park somewhere and kind of think about what I was going to teach. And I was sitting there and I was asking the Lord to show me kind of the difference between the Old covenant and the new. And there was a statue of a Native American leader in the park. And I looked up at the statue, and I felt like the Lord said, “You see him?” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Well, he never commits adultery. He doesn’t steal. He doesn’t bear false witness. He doesn’t violate any of the commandments. And I said, “Well, yeah.” He said, “Well, you could do all of the outward stuff or,” what he said was, “It’s not about what you don’t do.You see, because the Pharisees kept all those laws, but they were far from God.

So what he was saying was, it’s about relationship. It’s about knowing the Father through Jesus, by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and coming into fellowship with Him, whereby day by day, God downloads His grace into your heart at the throne of grace, and you go out and share life with people because you’re not worried about your spiritual condition. Because you know you’re accepted. You know you’re forgiven. You know, here’s the deal. I know that God likes you. He just likes me better. Do you know that a good parent makes each child of the family feel like they’re the most special one. My father knows how to do that. He can make me feel like I am the apple of his eye. But I had to come to grips with the fact that he likes you just as much as me. He loves you just as much as he loves me. So no matter how special I might feel in his love, I want you to know you’re special.

You know, we have a kind of a thing in the church, like people who are in ministry, you know, they’re just really spiritual. Well ask my wife. But you see, it doesn’t matter who you are, we’re all human. We all have flesh, and we’re all in process. But the good news is, the process goes on from day one, by being accepted in Christ. The minute the devil can get you to see yourself apart from Christ, he can succeed in bringing you under some kind of condemnation. But if you see yourself in Christ, say, “No, that’s not me. That doesn’t belong to me.” In fact, as your mind is renewed, when those thoughts come, you begin to find yourself saying, “No, you’re talking to somebody that died. That’s not me.” You began to resist those thoughts and allow, you know, as Paul said, transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So faith is in humility, just receiving what God wants you to have, whether it’s the new birth, receiving the Holy Spirit, or healing, or any other answered prayer. It’s all on the basis of faith, and faith is primarily a relational word. I know I’m being redundant, and I’m saying this kind of over and over, but it’s amazing how many people just struggle with these things. And really we make something that simple, very complex. Does God want me to overcome my besetting sins? Yes, he does. But he knows if you are left to your own resources to do so you won’t accomplish it. But if you have more grace, in fact, I’ll close with this.

James chapter 4. You don’t have to turn there, but James says, he rebukes the saints at Jerusalem. He says, You adulterers and adultresses. You, you just, you know, he really gives them the rundown. And I don’t know what was going on. But it was a very harsh rebuke. But then he says the most interesting thing. He says the Spirit of God yearns jealously for you, but he gives more grace. Now, here, they are apparently wrestling with some very strong sins and he’s rebuking them but he says, the answer is the grace.

If you come to God, he’ll give you more grace. Wherever you have a need, that’s what you need to think. “Father. I’m here at the throne of grace. Please give me more grace.” Grace, divine enablement, supernatural, divine enablement. Whatever you’re facing, he wants you to to draw near to Him, receive His grace and get the answer.

Accept it when you pray. “What if I don’t feel any better?” Doesn’t matter. Accept it. We’ve had so many people and you know this because we’ve shared it before, but we’ve had so many people who got prayer, didn’t feel any better, but a day or two later they were completely well. Because the spiritual reaches your spirit before it reaches your body. So what we want to do is posture ourselves to receive from God who is the spirit into our spirit, and then let it work its way out into the body. Amen.