Rod Parsley - Grace: Are you a slave or a son?

0:04 if you have a Bible I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give you the book first cuz then you'll be reading ahead and you'll mess up my sermon so you get the book on your way out today pushers will have little tickets for you because we have one size t shirts fits everybody except you I was preaching in Singapore have you ever been to Singapore well there are very slight people there like if you're 5 foot 2 you're like in that you're like in their NBA as a center they're just they're not very vertically enhanced and and so my mother of course

0:52 was 5 foot 8 and beautiful lady she was went to be with the Lord January 20th of last year and I miss her terribly she was a business administrator of this great ministry from inception to when she went to heaven and she wouldn't let you spend a paper money for a paperclip she didn't know about and I promise you that's true 375 employees and she knew what every one of them made in how many hours they work by promising and so we're in Singapore and she loved to shop and so she's going from store to store she's just frantic because she has found nothing to buy she finally walked in a store

1:38 totally exacerbated and worn out and tired the service was in about an hour and a half and she had to get back to the hotel and get change so she walked into this beautiful little boutique and she said to the gentleman there do you have anything just anything that would fit me he said no problem we have one size fit everybody so he went to the shelf and he pulled off the biggest one and he held it up and it came to about here on her and he said a cept you that's funny I don't care who you are alright let's talk about grace

2:26 just a little bit you want to reach over to neighbors say hold on he's from Kentucky but it talks fast Romans chapter 6 verse 16 if you don't have it right there on your lap or your iPhone or your iPad or in your Bible it's right here for you don't you realize that grace frees you everybody's shout I'm free I'm free but that's not the end of the sentence that's where modern Christianity gets into all kinds of Quagmire's because they take that sentence and they ended at the word free and therefore they lose all of the theological meaning of what God's overwhelming grace is all about so

3:12 join me and let's read the rest of it don't you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master God so values your own personal freedom that he gives you the ability to choose now what a god what a revelation what an understanding that you are not an automated that God is not directing you like a pawn on life's chessboard that what Christ actually did when he was bleeding by which the very veins of God himself were emptied on Calvary's rugged cruel angry mean biding beam he suffered those

3:59 Agony's he was tempted through that torture because he was purchasing back something for you and immediately you will say eternal life not so immediately you will say freedom from my sins not so immediately you will say my best life now not so that is not the reason that Jesus Christ became the supreme sacrifice and propitiation for your sins and my no the reason he became that great unspeakable gift of God the Father was singular in nature and it was this He gave His life to give you and me the

4:45 ability to choose is quiet in this church I said he gave you and I the ability to choose God requires no one to go to heaven requires no one to serve him on this earth God requires no one to go to hell people say well I would never serve a God who would send people to a place like that the eternal incarceration of the hopeless and helpless doomed and Damned souls of lost humanity where they would perish forever and forever and forever I would never serve a God who would do that well I'm glad to offer you Jesus today because Jesus sins no one to help and if anyone ever goes there it's

5:31 because they made the conscious decision to reject the free gift of salvation for the God's Word says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord however God says I set before you this day life death blessing cursing you choose aren't you glad he gave you back your right to free moral agency okay three people aren't you thankful that God let you choose yeah I want to go somewhere there but I

6:17 I'll resist the temptation dr. Murphy I will say to you only that the rest of the verse declares choose carefully we live in the generation that wants to assume no personal responsibility for anything we live in the blame somebody else generation it's never my fault I was born on the wrong side of the tracks I've always wondered what the right side was because I know people that are extremely wealthy that have no peace and I know folks that are extremely poor

7:04 that have no peace I know folks that are extremely wealthy that have great peace and I know folks are extremely poor that have no peace I can tell you I've had none and some some is better Oh always take some and enough is never enough because you can always find somebody who doesn't have enough are you in this building with me right now so you choose it hadn't always been like this I mean look around this place hadn't always been like this what's the right side of the tracks my family's

7:49 from Eastern Kentucky don't think bluegrass pasture Deegan I didn't know what bluegrass was if our grass was blues because we painted the dirt with blue we didn't have a lawn we swept the yard you're not listening to me you don't believe that I was reading so far back in the woods who Dalles didn't show up to we use who Dalles for roosters and idiot junebugs didn't show up till office that's a long way back yonder where the Sun showed up about 10:00 in the morning and the Sun went down about 3:00 in the afternoon because of those rocky craggy hillsides that were all around us as much

8:35 [Music] with rats as biggest cats but my mom and

9:22 dad said wait a minute God gave me the ability to choose so they said I choose not to be bound by my past I choose not to be bound by my circumstances I choose always either be up or get enough I choose to never be down I choose to cut out cardboard and put in the bottom of my shoes and walk to my second job so we believed we trusted God we found out if you give 10% of your income according to Malachi and Hebrews God would bless you so we chose you choose right now to be happy okay that went over big I'm gonna

10:11 try the awake folks right back there I said God gives you the ability to choose because you got way more to reach out for them to hold on to I'm talking to somebody right now I'm talking to somebody that feels like you're only down and today guards lifting down a hand over the Sapphire silver Heaven's Gate and saying come on up here shout I'm moving on up I'm gonna finish my text choose carefully for you surrender yourself to become a servant bound to

10:57 the one you choose to obey today I choose life today I choose victory today I choose Hope today I choose joy today I choose grace today I choose mercy today I choose victory today I choose health today I choose that I can change my tomorrow by the words from his word I declare and decree today met somebody and say though guys preaching pretty good today here we go

11:44 so the question becomes are you a son or are you a slave touch your neighbors say you a son or a slave because there's no in between there's no gray area you're either in or you're out you're either whole or you're not my god are you a son or are you a slave the clamors controversy between supposing diametrically opposed extremes of law and grace circulating throughout the modern church are easily illustrated by the simple distinction between slavery and sonship a slave you see is

12:29 required to follow a set of written ordinances which are often harshly enforced and observed involuntarily due to a culture imposed upon them of fear and punishment that's a slave Roman crucifixion itself let's go way way back 2,000 years ago on that craggy hill called the place of the skull Roman crucifixion actually began not as a form of execution but rather as a form of public punishment for the public torture of slaves it was designed to terrify the rest of the enslaved populace into absolute compliant

13:16 servitude God recorded his law in the Ten Commandments any of you know any of them they're very interesting you should read them sometime things like you shall not kill now things like you steal things like you shall not covet but what often happens is that God's ten laws morph and multiply into thousands of manmade requirements this is the essence of religious bondage we've all heard and experienced this pastor low we we understand what it's

14:01 like for folk just to talk about things like the length of your sleeves how you wear your hair going to the movie or not going to the movie or going to the ballgame or not going to the ballgame or going to the dance or not going to dance now told you you get to choose and if you get the choice my suggestion is dance my suggestion is obey the Bible clap my suggestion is obey the Bible shout my suggestion is obey the Bible ways my suggestion is to obey the Bible shout unto God with the voice of triumph if you get the chance to dance baby dance

14:50 often a loving God therefore becomes depicted I said he is loved why the totality of the law can be summed up in this thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart with all your mind with all your soul and with all your strength that spirit soul and body but religion has you believe in an angry tyrant God willing to disavow anyone and everyone who attempts to enjoy any measure of freedom true freedom god forbid that his people purchased by his blood by his cross should fail and fall

15:37 into the error of thinking that pleasing God is about some form of external appearances holiness has been and will forever be first and foremost a matter of the human heart you understand that the problem of the human heart is the heart of the human problem tweed that are you with me it's an inside problem it's an inside job it's not an external problem it's a matter of our hearts being submitted to God's law through the power of the Holy Spirit somebody just say I believe what he's saying right now let me talk to you

16:22 about a son on the other hand a son on the other hand serves willingly from a heart not on the basis of obligation enforced by fear that's religion God does not force you to attend church God does not force you to be a good moral person God does not force you to do anything in fact God forever surrendered his right huh shove your neighbor's he's about to get deep now some of you said deep you're stuck what God never forget this God forever surrendered he is right

17:11 to act independently in your life well why won't God do this well why won't God do that well it looks like God would do the since God has already done what God intends to do his will is established one thousand one hundred six to six pages of his will you're the heir read it cuz in there he said I'll give you eternal life in there he said beloved I wish above all things that you prosper and that you be in health even as your soul prospers

17:56 in there he said you are the head and not potato in there he said you are above and you are not beneath in there he said I'll cause you to ride on the wild wings of the morning there he said I'll cause you to build Jordan s among the snow-capped peaks of mighty mountains there he said I will renew your strength like that of the Eagle there he said he was wounded for your transgressions bruised for your iniquities the chastisement of your peace was laid upon him and with him by His stripes you were and therefore are healed hold I dare you to say that's a good good God unfortunately the issue in

18:42 religious circles seems to become those who would maintain that a son has responsibility to serve only himself the prodigal son had that kind of an attitude in Luke 15 he demanded his inheritance he took it he wasted on riotous living your Bible says his sonship therefore became his own personal slavery he used God's provision for himself hmm here's a paradox here's a seeming

19:32 contradiction I maintain that that prodigal son became a slave a long time before he left the father's house before he found himself in a hog pen and would have died were it not for the husks that the swine did he thus our text says Romans 6:16 don't you realize grace frees you I double dare you to help I free free to choose your own master but choose carefully if you surrender yourself to become a servant bound to the one you choose to obey the prodigal

20:20 did what those that advocate a false and contemptible and worthless form of grace do today I am weary with the cheapening the wholesale marketing of a false truth regarding the grace of God they take the manifold blessing of God all that God wants to do and they squander it upon themselves upon their own desires the desires of their flesh the pride of life these are they who do not love their own

21:09 lives even unto death look this thing isn't just about this temporal existence oh that we would be eternally mindful only for a moment that we would think in terms beyond the immediate temper the prodigal lost everything even lost his self-respect he became indistinguishable watch this preacher from the culture of his day he lived with the Hogs he was worse off

21:56 than the Hogs they were fulfilling their purpose are you he was not achieving his purpose he finally recognized that even his father servants were better off than he was and you and I must avoid either of these two extremes be bound by legalism or being bound by a false cheap version of God's unparalleled grace shall fake God for grace Dietrich Bonhoeffer the great German theologian and anti-nazi dissident said when Christ calls a man

22:43 he bits him calm watch and die we bid come and dine god bids come and die for self-sacrifice my dear brother and sister is entry-level Christianity here is the great command love the Lord your God with your whole heart mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself yeah please don't think that God is some sort of eternal vending machine and you use his word as a calling to slip it in

23:30 the slot and get from God whatever it is you want remember that Israel asked for a king and God granted the desire of their heart and your Bible said their request and his answer sent leanness into their souls good God I came to say a thing today Bonhoeffer said God calls a man he calls him come and die in the cross here we go the cross is the issue the cross it's

24:15 the issue it's the very heart of the matter regarding law and grace you can have all the Airy theological debates you desire and as many good old-fashioned knock-down drag-out religious fights has seemed appropriate none of which will change the truth that once the human soul glimpses the meaning of Calvary's cross once a man or a woman has seen the Lamb of God scourge dand bolted to that angry mean biting beam once will have the reason he endured it all to capture and take hostage our hearts God's law His grace cease to be issues they are no longer

25:01 controversies they are no longer mysteries to ponder who or problems to debate but solid gospel truth shouted by our expiring Savior from that angry rail his abounding grace becomes his glorious gift to be received an absolute on transcendence wanted his law then becomes a guardrail to give us a boundary of safety and protection drawn by loving father's powerful hand instead of struggling with the law instead of kicking against the pricks we sing all hail the power of Jesus name let angels prostrate fall bring forth the royal

25:49 diadem and crown him Lord of all Lord of her thoughts Lords of every desire Lord of our possessions Lord of a Time Lord of our talent Lord of our things the very thought of his unspeakable gift and supreme sacrifice must provoke a humble response of sheer gratitude and strict obedience again the cross is the issue it ends all the debate for no one no one who truly understands the power of that tormented tree walks away to explain away the requirements of

26:39 a holy God no one captivated by Calvary desires to be free from the restraints of a God who sent his son off to war in the service of his furious love the cross that's the issue the cross is the issue earlier generations do it there's much to be gained by returning to the discarded values of the past our founding fathers routinely signed their letters and said goodbye to their friends with the Latin words memento mori memento mori memento mori memento mori signed their letters not

27:28 sincerely but memento mori said goodbye not adios but memento mori remember death was a God that in the busyness of our day assumed we would memento mori' they reminded one another of the death of Jesus Christ a method of provoking one another to holy living saying remember this you

28:14 will die remember what a legacy you will leave on that final day when you exhale your last breath remember death and live differently because you do I preached a message the week after my father went to his eternal reward I called it death hmm I took my text from Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 29 oh that they were wise all that they understood this oh that they would consider their latter end death

29:04 it's like sin isn't it so one thing we all have in common but you can't find a preacher in America with the bravery to ever talk about it until the funeral service yeah okay let me slip this in parenthetically it's a bit too late then we don't look for death no one got up this morning and said I hope this is the day I go to heaven I'm going to heaven I prefer not to go today but death searches for us death is

29:51 certain sealing sudden for every one of us there's only one with option the great rapture of the church but I have no time to discuss that with you today and we've been looking for that promise for over 2,000 years but know this the death rate among human persons remains stubbornly at 100% the truths of law the truths of

30:39 grace will remain blurred and foggy until they are illuminated by Calvary and brought into focus by Calvary's lamb there can be no meaningful discussion of how law and grace must work in harmony in our lives unless we have a powerful confrontation with that cross our righteous Redeemer left the glories of heaven and condescended to the cemetery planet subjecting himself to the limitations of human flesh here he came to die and in a final indignity far below his station he subjected himself to sinful men allowed them to violate him to humiliate him and to crucify him

31:29 then came that agonizing final week in Jerusalem hmm the religious leaders had already had decided to put him to death but the time Jesus finished his final meal with his disciples the plot was irrevocably set in motion guided by the traitor the officials who sought his life found him in a secluded garden under the full light of a Passover moon as all alone he was more along that any human being had ever been he was apprehended he was taken away the cowards who swore they would never leave him scoot it away into darkness

32:16 what followed so ghastly we want to look away but we dare not if we hope to understand if we pray for the mystery of law and grace to be unraveled enabling us to live lives worthy of everything he endured he was blindfolded he was Mac Monte was scorned and he was ridiculed he was beaten his beard yanked from his face he was spat upon and relegated to solitary confinement in a cold damp dungeon overnight the next morning he was sentenced to death and scourge now we want to pass quickly over this matter of scourging but since its presented in Scripture as

33:04 the final requirement of divine justice we must consider it in all of its implications scourging different than whipping and we're familiar with that in whipping hmm the purpose is to cut not so encouraging scourging rather the goal is not simply to cut but to tear to tear in bleeding shredded ribbons flesh from bone the scourge was devised so that the long leather straps would wrap around the man's torso and then the licker

33:49 skilled in his art knew exactly when the hard metal pieces of bone and and iron tied into the ends of those straps had wrapped fully enough around his torso he would then flick his wrists so they would dig in and fling away pieces of his body our suffering Savior was required to carry his own cross beam bleeding through the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem they are to the place of execution he's barely alive Jesus arrived at Golgotha the place of the skull iron spikes were driven

34:35 through tortured skin and implanted into splintered wood he was bolted to that beam and then the cross was lowered with a horrible thud into the post hole prepared before for him now the true agony of crucifixion ensued the Romans wanted a slow ghastly public death they proposed to torture their victim in order to pacify demented men and warn their slaves they wanted the suffering to be so shocking that it would never be forgotten so a method of slow strangle e-string strangling was employed the only way for

35:25 him to get a breath since he could take in air but he could not exhale was to lift himself up on those iron spikes through each ankle for six agonizing hours Jesus hung there beaten battered bruised swung up between heaven and earth gasping for air raking his torn flesh against the biting beam beyond his physical suffering was the torment he endured from taking upon himself the sins of the entire world can you imagine the horror of unregenerate humanity every rape every child molestation every murder every theft every evil deed of every person throughout all the ages was

36:12 placed upon our sinless savior finally mercifully it ended jesus said as much it is finished now there it is there's the truth that moved me to describe the horrors of his sufferings in such detail friend until we truly can front the cross until we identify ourselves with it we are not fully finished with sin until the meaning of the cross is embedded in our souls and upon our minds the full meaning of a liberated Christian life cannot be ours here Paul I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me of the life I now live in the flesh I live

36:59 by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me to take on the Christ life is to be dead to sin it is to abhor sin to see it for what it really is and to turn entirely from it not to ignore its reality not to ignore its penalty for the wages of sin is still death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord not of works lest any man should boast but by grace through faith how are you saved to be a Christian to be a Christian is to let go of this

37:48 world to take on the nature of the one who died for us listen a culture that emphasizes entitlement has no interest in heaven and don't fear of Hell it has no interest of life that suggests anything other than how much they deserve and success by how much they possess any message from any pulpit involving facing opposition or doing hard work any mention of self-sacrifice

38:35 or servanthood has very little appeal to people who believe after all they deserve everything and they are entitled to it at no cost perhaps you can see why I've taken a few moments why I'm so insistent that no Christian who understands the price of his salvation would spend one single moment attempting to figure out how he can offer as little as possible to the Living Christ and still be a Christian instead of saying

39:22 how close to the dominant culture can I get and still make it to heaven he should be shouting how close to heaven can I get and still remain profitable to Christ what time I'm on this planet no one no one please stand with me no one who has received life-changing mercy and abounding love rises from that experience and tries to figure out how much of this destitute world the practices of this dying generation or his connection to this decaying culture he can still hang on to and maintain his

40:11 relationship with God no friend if you've been touched by this kind of life transforming grace your search for the meaning of life has found its fulfillment and the sacrifice of a crucified Savior on a tormented tree you were the ultimate dead man walking sentenced to eternity separated from God and a flaming prison called hell and after your last vestige of hope had taken wings and flown away no human governor to commute your eternal sentence the living Savior

40:56 Christ Lord set you free from an eternal sentence of indescribable suffering and unendurable torment this pearl of great price the end of the quest the true secret the ultimate gift and unplumbed depths of his powerful grace let us have no discussion of the claims of Christ upon our lives unless we are first a people fully given to him every head bowed every eye closed Heavenly Father I

41:46 thank you today for your grace I thank you that mercy is our cry and grace is your answer today Lord we reach for you we reach for the Christ life in the shadow of Calvary's cross and the sacrifice of our Savior may we who were dead and alive now in Christ live that life that exclaims to everyone around us

42:37 Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found I was blind and now I see with every head bowed and every eye closed no one looking around a choice I began my discourse with you today by saying God gives you the ability to choose his words says he sets before everyone of us life and death blessing and cursing choose who you will serve and then he

43:24 helps us he says choose life today you're unsure of your eternal destiny your responses but pastor I go to church well you probably got your car out of your garage this morning so you probably spent some time in your garage but it doesn't make you a Christian being in church doesn't make you a Christian any more than being in your garage makes you a car but I'm a good person but God's response is you must be born again how can I be born again you ask by believing on the Lord

44:13 Jesus Christ accepting him as your personal Savior declaring that he was the price paid for your sins and receiving him in light of Calvary to cleanse your sins and give you eternal life it's a conscious choice I'm gonna give you an opportunity today to make the best choice you've ever made in your life to say this day I choose with my own will I choose to receive

44:58 Jesus Christ as my personal Savior you can know you're on your way to heaven before you leave this building without any doubt you can know it how good it is to pillow your head every night but the full assurance your insure for heaven is if you were already there not because of works that you have done but rather because of the love of Jesus Christ and your acceptance of him as Savior I'm gonna count to three and when I say three with every head bowed and every eye closed you want to make that choice today that you'll be glad you made when you stand before God in eternity and he'll say to you endure in my good and

45:44 faithful servant to the joy prepared for you from the foundation of the world owed to know him Oh to know him not about him but to know him personally when I say three you want that relationship with God through the Living Christ raise your hand and we're gonna pray at the end of that prayer as a result of your choice you'll be is sure for heaven as if you're already there and have a whole lot of heaven to go to heaven in um three raise that hand do it right now one two three raise that hand leave it up thank you 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

46:34 22 23 24 25 26 for His heaven I'm weary counting can we just lift our hands and say thank you Lord Jesus let's all put our hands right here why that's where your spirit man lives huh you know this body is gonna pass away I know we try to pluck it out and paint it and puff it up pull it up snip it off so it but I know that but someday we'll pass from this life and that's what this life is really all about Lettie as many people know that they can be ready for eternity as we possibly can so just put

47:21 your hands right here and let's repeat this let's do it out loud so everybody and everybody join us as we are reaffirm our faith in Christ Heavenly Father I come to you this day I was born in sin according to your word and I've committed sins but I've heard the gospel today then I've heard that you shed your blood to give me eternal life I don't deserve it but your love compelled you to give it to me and so today of my own free will I

48:08 invite you into my father I ask you to forgive my sins and give me eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ I believe it and I receive it and it is so thank you I'm on my way to heaven and I'm heaven to go to heaven II amen and that makes me so happy I just feel like telling everybody so everybody turn around and tell somebody else I'm on my way to heaven come on come on do it do it now turn around and tell somebody else price to

48:53 lives in me praise God all that makes me feel good I'm no longer slave just seeing one time goes to me no longer slave defeat [Music] thus today on the CERN seeing Chris [Music] [Applause] they'll put your hands together thank him thank you get used to talking

49:40 through him right out loud all right so that was about a third of a chapter of grace uncovered unfiltered undeserved