announcement: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace podcast, where we celebrate and explore the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tune in to the Waking Up to Grace podcast on every major platform. You can also listen to our episodes and read our full transcripts at wakinguptogracecom. And now here's Lenny.

Lenny: 0:23

My wife Melissa and I have always been busy people. After we met and shared lengthy discussions together, we didn't waste any time getting married In the beginning. We spent as much time together as we possibly could. We were encouraged to really get to know each other in that first year and that's exactly what we set out to do.

Lenny: 0:40

As life goes on, it can be easy to become distracted by responsibilities, at least for periods of time. I remember the first time Melissa told me I feel far away from you, although I knew she meant something more. My immediate response was I'm sitting right here. What do you need? For some reason, this could be one of the most difficult things for me to figure out. I think we were both challenged on how to handle the situation. We're both very busy with things.

Lenny: 1:11

Most newlyweds were busy with trying to make a living, trying to survive and establish ourselves in the world, so we wouldn't have to lean on others for our basic needs. Anyone who has had this experience could tell you it's not an easy task. As time went on, we began to understand that this feeling of being far away was all based on a lack of focus, even in dire moments when there simply isn't a lot of quality time to spend together. A little focus goes a long way. Having someone we love on our minds throughout the day and acknowledging them in meaningful ways changes the way we feel about each other. Do you ever find yourself feeling far away from God? What do you think Christ Yeshua would say if we told him we were feeling far away from him? Based on the truth we have in our scripture, I think his response would actually be similar to the one I had toward Melissa. I'm right here. What do you need? When we first receive Christ, we're hungry. We want to learn all about him. Many spend the first year as Christians getting to know the Lord. We've become bonded by our trust in him and who he is, but there's no shortage of ways to make ourselves feel far away from God.

Lenny: 2:16

For those of you that are married, do you think that you ever stop learning things about your partner? Is it ever healthy to stop desiring to know your husband or wife on a deeper level? How would you project a marriage would prosper if we decided we learned more than enough that first year and just went on with life assuming that we knew all we needed to know? If someone who had wisdom asked you how is your marriage going and you responded well, I learned everything I needed to know that first year, so I'm doing the best I can Do. You think the person with wisdom might be a little concerned.

Lenny: 2:51

I've seen from my own experience that there's no way to know the depths of who our Lord and Savior really is simply by committing ourselves to a period of intensive studies, just like in a marriage. It's a lifelong journey and the journey goes a while when we stay hungry to learn about our partner. With steady focus, we can have all we need for the moment, but we don't just stop at any time. If we stop learning and growing, we'll feel far away. This feeling is not real if we are physically close. We are not actually far away physically, but we might as well be because we have lost connection. Sadly, we see this pattern in marriages all the time. Two people can live under the same roof and be completely divided in their minds. When it comes to our union with Christ, we have the easiest partner ever. He has all the traits that we desire our spouses to have.

Lenny: 3:37

In his letter to the Corinthians, paul describes the love of our Lord 1 Corinthians 13.4. Love is patient and kind Lord, 1 Corinthians 13.4. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast, it's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. We'll never need to sit in a counselor's office with Christ to work out the details of our relationship with him. In Christ, the problem is always with us.

Lenny: 4:12

The ability that man has to turn away from God and turn to himself was first revealed in the Garden of Eden. Satan convinced Eve that God was lying to them and they would surely not die if they ate from the forbidden tree. Like God told them, you'll be able to know what God knows. Satan convinced Eve. Her and Adam turned to their own ways that day, and the rest is history. But did God solve this problem at the cross? Yes and no. Adam and Eve lost access to the tree of life that day and became spiritually dead. All born after them share in this spiritual death. We are not born alive. Spiritually. As a result, and by taking away the tree of life, immortality was no longer possible for Adam and Eve. They were mortal beings. The tree of life would be their only way to avoid physical death and they were removed from the garden that contained it. But God had a plan from the beginning. He was not caught off guard by any of this. Christ Yeshua essentially became the new tree of life. We receive eternal life in him. It's ours when we receive Christ and are born of his spirit.

Lenny: 5:16

But just as Adam and Eve were spiritually alive in the beginning and turned away from God in unbelief, the born-again Christian can also turn away from God in unbelief. This is aagain Christian can also turn away from God in unbelief. This is a problem we see in all of the writings of the apostles. Christians were hardly any different than nation Israel in this way, with so many turning to their own ways and not believing God even after receiving his spirit.

Lenny: 5:39

Many will read the first epistle of John and think that it's all about Christians' sinful behavior. In some ways it is, but the primary sin was unbelief. That's why he so abruptly ends his letter saying little children, keep yourselves from idols. They were making up gods that suited their fleshy desires. When we follow lies about God or turn to ungodly ways, we essentially turn to idols. Idols don't have to be statues of false gods. When we call God a liar, the way Adam and Eve did, we turn from his ways.

Lenny: 6:10

If Yahweh left it up to our intellect to continue in belief in order to receive eternal life, we would all be dead. We'd be in and out of eternal life multiple times a day, not to mention if we became mentally ill or lost cognitive function. What would that mean for us? When we receive Christ, we are united with him. We become one with him, as Paul describes in Ephesians 5.31. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Lenny: 6:43

Paul quotes a passage from Genesis that was written when Eve was made from Adam. In another place, christ Yeshua is referred to as the second Adam by Paul, 1 Corinthians 15.45. Thus it is written the first man, adam, became a living being. The last, adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven, as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. We have our identity in Adam from birth, and we become one with Christ when we're born of spirit. At salvation we now bear the image of God once again. That was lost at the fall. Our identity is now in Christ.

Lenny: 7:39

Now that we see clearly how united we are with Christ, we can better understand what Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2.13. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. This contrast of unbelief among the regenerate and non-regenerate is found all throughout the letters of the apostles. By regenerate I mean born of the Spirit of God, those who trusted Christ Yeshua and are saved. This passage first describes the non-regenerate denial of Christ. Those who reject Christ will also be rejected by Christ, but when we become his, he remains faithful. Even when we are faithless, he cannot deny himself. Why does Paul say Christ cannot deny himself? What does that have to do with us? This passage, among many others, is actually very important in understanding our eternal security, as we learned previously in Ephesians 5.31,. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. We are one with Christ, and him denying us is no longer on the table. Without knowing this, we can't grow and live by grace. We need to wake up to this understanding or we'll remain asleep in our spiritual journey with Christ.

Lenny: 8:59

Sometimes it's more accurate to describe a Christian as born again or regenerate than to call them a believer. Believing was something that many in the church struggled with, even after receiving the Holy Spirit. I see a lot of the same struggles going on in the early churches of the apostles that we see today in our institutions. The difference is that the leaders are promoting the error instead of correcting it. Without any real leadership, you can hardly compare today's church gatherings with the ones of the apostles. When the author of Hebrews said not to neglect gathering, he wasn't telling us to go to an institutional church and place ourselves under their system of hierarchy.

Lenny: 9:35

In scripture we see a steady and constant teaching from all the apostles, encouraging the regenerate to continue in their belief, to endure in what they first heard In letters to the saints or God's holy people, which is clearly synonymous with born-again believers. We see all kinds of teaching on unbelief and within these teachings on unbelief, we have two ways that we need to interpret the passages the passages about the non-regenerate the eternal consequences only apply to those who did not experience spiritual birth and the passages for the non-regenerate the eternal consequences only apply to those who did not experience spiritual birth. In the passages for the born-again Christian, it's to remind the Christian of how to walk in belief and the temporal consequences that occur if we don't. Let's take a quick look at a few passages in our New Testament that prove the fact that unbelief was probably the biggest problem plaguing God's holy people. 1 John 2.24.

Lenny: 10:36

Galatians 3.1. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Christ Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Hebrews 2. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. 2 Thessalonians 2.15. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. And Philippians 2.12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more, in John 6, 28. Then they said to him Jesus answered them. This is the work of God that you believe in him, who he has sent. When the Lord opens our eyes and we believe in him, we are saved. This is God's work, but it's also God's work that we continue in this belief when we doubt and rely on our own ways, not seeking the guidance of our Lord. This is the work of the flesh In scriptures.

Lenny: 11:58

We need to discern the context of how the flesh is being used. When we read the flesh in our Bibles, the word will take on different meanings based on the context of the writing. The flesh comes from the Greek word sarx and, according to Thayer's, can be defined as flesh the soft substance of the living body which covers the bones and is permeated with blood of both man and beasts. 2. The body. 3. A living creature, whether man or beast. The flesh denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man, apart from divine influence and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God. When it comes to walking in the spirit versus walking in the flesh or being of the flesh, the fourth definition is most applicable. The flesh denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man, apart from divine influence and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.

Lenny: 12:59

It's important to note that our body is not the flesh in these passages and our bodies are not unholy. We may be prone to sin and turning away from God, but Yahweh teaches us to treat our bodies as holy and that we are his temple. This is the truth. When we offer our bodies to the ways of the flesh, we don't please our Lord, but when we offer our bodies to him for holy purposes, we please the Father. We ourselves are not the flesh. We're a new creation, but we can still live like the old self that was dealt with at the cross.

Lenny: 13:31

The law of Moses, on the other hand, actually caused many to walk by the flesh, as Paul writes in Romans 5.20,. Now the law came in to increase the trespass. In Romans 5.20,. Now the law came in to increase the trespass. And then Paul writes in Romans 9.31,.

Lenny: 13:49

Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. So we see that even God's chosen people could walk in belief or unbelief. They could follow the commandments. Even God's chosen people could walk in belief or unbelief. They could follow the commandments unfaithfully.

Lenny: 14:03

And, as we see over and over, this attitude of following the commandments as a means of pride in their works always led them to turning away from God. They were not justified in those days through Christ. So justice needed to be served by Yahweh, but he always had mercy when they cried out to him and brought them back to remembrance of true faith. They would then go back to honoring his laws humbly and thankfully for a little while. The law was truly a constant reminder of sin. If it became a reminder of their righteousness, something was probably wrong.

Lenny: 14:35

Obedience could only come through faith. Obedience to the law itself did nothing to create faith. Faith was the vehicle God used to give them a heart to serve him. It opened their eyes to the humble truth that they needed him. In order to endure, they needed mercy. Mercy was another element of the gift we received in Christ at salvation, along with justification, forgiveness, reconciliation. We have all those things to keep and our Lord is not taking them back. They are yours forever.

Lenny: 15:05

Despite the great gift we've been given, there's probably nothing more clear in scripture than the reality that living a spiritual life in Christ is not going to happen automatically. Living by grace is a conscious effort. Our Lord is fully sovereign over all events and his will is always done, but this does not mean that he is a direct cause of every happening. He will work out all things for his good purpose. But if we believe every single small thing that takes place was him pulling the strings and we make him the author of all kinds of evil and punishing events that occur in our Christian lives, do you believe that every time you stub your toe, god's sending you a message? This type of view would drive someone crazy. It wouldn't be based on truth either.

Lenny: 15:44

To Timothy, paul writes in Timothy 5.23, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Paul isn't sitting around with Timothy trying to figure out why God gave him a stomach ailment. He tells him to take some wine. That was a remedy for such a thing in those times. We can quickly become superstitious if we start seeing too many things as a message from God. Paul didn't turn Timothy's ailment into a spiritual issue, because things like this are a part of life on earth. God can use them if he wants, but you becoming ill doesn't mean God is up there zapping you for your behavior. You can bet he'll use trials like illness for his good purpose, though. Another time we hear of an ailment it's Paul, galatians 4.13. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. How cool is that? It was because of an ailment that Paul first preached to the Galatians.

Lenny: 16:46

Yahweh allows us to have a will inside of his. He gives us freedom while maintaining his will as he sees fit. Yahweh does whatever he wants. If he wants to change our mind, he will, but it is not his way to automate everything for us. He loves having relationship with us and letting us live out the lives he created us for. We participate in this awesome adventure.

Lenny: 17:09

There are two errors we can make in this regard. One is we can believe in a free will making us fully in charge of our own destiny. With a free will, god would have no control over our will. When we follow this reasoning, we turn away from God and go right into the flesh. Our Lord is rendered powerless when we place our will outside of his in total freedom.

Lenny: 17:31

Make no mistake under this doctrine there is truly no chance of salvation either. We cannot raise ourselves from the dead and we cannot rely on ourselves to endure and remain faithful. As we read in Timothy earlier, when we are faithless, he remains faithful. That doesn't give you much of an option to lose faith, does it? Eternal security is not your choice. God doesn't ask you what your opinion is once you're born again. We have to deal with that. The other error is to believe that God is not waiting for you to respond or react in faith to life's challenges.

Lenny: 18:04

Inside the will of Yahweh resides the freedom of the Christian. Nothing makes it outside of his will. Although not all things are a direct result of his will, his good purpose will always prevail. He doesn't miss a beat in that way. Nothing slips his radar. We don't have to live with regret, thinking we messed up God's plan, and we don't have to think that God is torturing us every time something bad happens. These thoughts are not true. We need to live by truth, not emotion.

Lenny: 18:32

The reality is that prior to salvation, you were in bondage to sin. You were in chains and shackles, blinded by the darkness. You didn't have the Spirit of God to guide you. You couldn't turn to God. For you, life was all about me myself and I, walking in the light, wasn't on the table for you and you wouldn't have done so. Even if you could. You were content in your darkness.

Lenny: 18:54

Paul describes the non-regenerate as slaves to sin Romans 6.16. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey Romans 6.16 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness? Yahweh broke your shackles and gave you light. Your eyes are open and you can now begin to see life from God's holy view. His truth set you free in Christ. You're now a slave to righteousness. This is a change in identity and is forever. But, as Paul further teaches, we must live by this truth or we willingly go back to our old master, the flesh, even though we are no longer bound to it in any way. Under grace, we are being trained and instructed by our heavenly Father, but we can still turn to our own will, the will of the flesh. Galatians 5.16,.

Lenny: 19:54

Paul writes walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. When we're born again, we don't get a new brain. We're given all kinds of things in Christ, but a new brain just isn't on the table. At this time we begin to see things differently, but our minds need renewal. We also have to realize that the desires of the flesh will remain with us, but we can turn to the Spirit, where those desires will not be gratified and we will in turn bear the fruit of the Spirit. The problem in the church through all the ages has been with us, not Yahweh. Just like the ancient Israelites, we constantly stop believing God and turn to things that are in opposition to him. The important thing to realize again is that God is not turning away from us. It's always the other way around. We're always turning away from him, we are always the problem. Christ is the perfect bridegroom and we never walk out of his fellowship. We can, however, live like we are.

Lenny: 21:01

Paul taught an extremely simple way of seeing things in Galatians 3. Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? From my view, this verse could be translated to are you so foolish? You were not saved by a works-based gospel. Why do you live by one? You can't be saved by works. If you believe you were saved by your own self-effort, you were never saved. It's not possible. Not because I said so, because God said so. If believing in our self-effort never saved us in the first place, why do we shift to believing in these things once we're saved? The answer is the flesh.

Lenny: 21:40

We see the apostles use all different words to describe looking to God, as opposed to turning away from God and looking to the flesh. It's written abide in Christ, walk in the light, walk by the spirit, hold fast to the word I preach to you, keep his commandments. Offer yourselves to the Lord, humble yourselves, seek his will. All of these statements are a call to live dependent on the Lord and not yourself. A call to live by the gospel that saved you, not a gospel of self-effort. A call to live in truth, not in lies. A call to see sin how God sees it. A call to believe in the glorified Christ that lives in you and guides you, not the Christ that is holding your sin against you.

Lenny: 22:21

As Christians, it can be easy to develop an attitude that the poor behavior of others cannot come from Christ. Therefore, they must not be a Christian If their moral values don't line up with ours. They must not be born again. I share in this struggle. You're not alone here, believe me. But we must realize that the apostles did not judge others in this way. They realized that living in unbelief was still possible for those in Christ and approached it accordingly.

Lenny: 22:46

Following the flesh is not behavior that we should accept as okay or invite into our fellowship. That would be lying. But we also lie when we slander and judge those who are caught up in sin. We lie when we adopt the attitude that those people are dirty sinners and we're not. Those people need to follow God's laws, many say today. We get ourselves all caught up in the wretched filth going on in the world today and begin to put on our self-righteous hats, forgetting that our minds are just as evil in their own ways. When we look to our own understanding, if we begin to view our works that please the Lord as our own, we make ourselves no better than Israel when they saw the law of Moses as the way to be right with God.

Lenny: 23:28

We need to remind ourselves of what Paul taught us in Ephesians 2.8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand. That we should walk in them Is slandering and threatening people with eternal punishment, one of the good works God prepared us to walk in. Were you born again by the gospel of condemnation and slander? There's no such thing is there.

Lenny: 24:01

When we live out these attitudes, we become the person that John wrote about in his first epistle. 1 John 1.6 says If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness. We lie and do not practice the truth. When we go around proclaiming ourselves to be Christians while promoting a gospel of the flesh, we lie and do not practice the truth. When we live by the gospel of Christ Yeshua, the one that gives life to the dead, we walk in the light and live by the truth, you'll always be close to God. The Christian cannot get any closer. That's the truth. We really don't realize how good we have it today.

Lenny: 24:36

We're given the counselor to guide us. Our salvation is fully secure. We're given the ability to turn to the Lord at all times, no matter how badly we behave and seek his counsel. Unlike the non-regenerate, we can turn to something other than the flesh, which is always in opposition with God. We have freedom to follow Christ and not the teachings of the world and the flesh. When we love and honor Christ, that love will work in and through us. By this we keep his commandments, not by following rules. When we love Christ, we love his teaching, we love who he is, we love what he did to us and we love what he did for us at salvation.

Lenny: 25:12

But is the Christian life always easy? Is it full of love and fun all the time? It's not, and we have to remember Yeshua taught that in this life we'll be suffering. That doesn't mean we have to feel far away, that doesn't. And we have to remember Yeshua taught that in this life we'll be suffering. That doesn't mean we have to feel far away. That doesn't mean we have to take a break from grace living. When suffering we need it all the more.

Lenny: 25:31

Our Lord displayed this truth quite well before the cross Luke 22, 41,. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. I think it's worth noting that in his agony an angel came to strengthen him, but he continued in agony and prayed more earnestly. It seems the strengthening caused more earnest prayer, but he didn't give up on seeking the guidance of the Lord, did he? No, he did not. And Christ would receive a great gift from the Father for his sacrifice the church, the body of believers, would be his. But something really amazing happened at the climax of his suffering. Luke 23, 39 reads One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying Are you not the Christ?

Lenny: 26:33

Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

Lenny: 26:58

What in the world made this man suddenly believe in Yeshua, based on what we know about this incredible event? According to the accounts found in our Gospels, both thieves initially mocked him, it seems, but one had a sudden change of heart. There was nothing substantial going on here in terms of teaching. There was no opportunity of any kind for behavioral turnaround in his life. They couldn't pull him down and baptize him in water. He just suddenly trusted the Lord. This was a gift from the Father to Christ for his encouragement.

Lenny: 27:30

I can see it no other way. We can never know exactly what our future will have waiting for us, and we shouldn't try and speculate and live out all the negative events that could take place. When we do this, we place ourselves in a false reality, even if you think you're certain of negative outcomes. Should we not fully realize that, when we actually get to that point in time, that God will be there with us and will strengthen us and comfort us? As I said before, I'll say again Christ is the perfect bridegroom. We cannot mess up our relationship with him. He's always close by. He has made his dwelling within you. We just have to believe it. If you're feeling far away from God, let him know and pray that he leads you to understand the error that's holding you in bondage, and stay tuned for our next episode.

announcement: 28:16

Thank you for listening to the Waking Up to Grace podcast brought to you by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to hear from you. You can send encouragement our way right from our episodes and transcripts page or reach Lenny privately from the contact form at wakinguptogracecom.