Hi, y'all, this is Troy Black, so today I want to talk about how sometimes,
even if not knowingly, we can assume that we're more perfect than God.
So I want to paint a picture of how God's
perfection and his standard in His grace all go together:
So I'm gonna use this crazy big board right here to do that. And I'm what I'm gonna do is draw four boxes -
and so I'm gonna start with box number one, which is God's standard.
So y'all are gonna get a taste of my amazing drawing skills - being sarcastic if you couldn't tell
So this is God's standard so I'm gonna write that right here at the top and the box that has God's standard is,
it's basically the list of God's
laws, so under that we could put: the laws of God.
Laws, and then under that we could list things like for instance; don't
steal, or don't commit adultery, or don't
lie. So we've got God's standard right here
and and if you've read the Bible, it's probably pretty clear to see that God has a perfect standard
but
What happens sometimes is that like I said, we make this assumption that we can be more perfect than God.
And I'm not saying we do it consciously
but I think we do it in little ways without realizing it and what ends up happening
is we take this list here and we try to
raise the standard, and
when we try to raise the standard
we always fail, and the reason is because God is perfect. And if He's perfect then his standard is perfect as well
and so we can't possibly raise the standard. So,
instead of raising the standard, what we end up doing is we end up
creating another box over here and this is what I'm gonna call
Our standard
and our standard is just a list of things that we try to add to this list and we think
we've got to also do all these things to please God. So,
here's one thing that
specifically that we sometimes add to this list;
There's just a specific example,
alcohol. Hey, is that how you spell alcohol? No, it's not. So, ok
spelling was never one of my strong points. Oh, okay
I'm just gonna cross that letter out but pretend this says alcohol right here. So under our standard -
there's a reason that if you get online people are asking this question all the time,
"Is it okay for Christians to drink alcohol?"
And the reason is that when we look at God's standard and we realize it's perfect,
and if we're trying to actually meet this standard,
sometimes it's easy when we look at it from a fleshly perspective,
it's easy to assume that the more that's on this list the better. And so we look at things like alcohol then we say,
"Well, if I don't drink alcohol, I'll probably be a better Christian in God's eyes,"
But when you take that specific example, and you look at the Scripture, and you look at the fact that Jesus drank alcohol,
the fact that Paul tells people, 'Hey you're having these stomach problems
Why don't you have a little wine, you know to help you with your stomach?'
So if we look at that specific example, we can clearly see that it's not always a sin to drink alcohol.
However, you know, that being said the Bible does give us principles
surrounding alcohol and in the consumption of it, like using it in moderation, like
not allowing it to control us or to control our desires,
like not abusing alcohol, and even not pushing it on other believers who it's going to cause them to stumble.
So,
that's one specific example,
but we, I think, sometimes we add a lot of things to this list. So I'm just gonna - a
few other things might be the type of church you go to, the way you dress at church.
There's so many things that could be on this list here,
but I think what we don't realize that we're doing is that
not only is it not helping us meet God's standard,
it's making it even harder for us to try to do that.
And the crazy thing about this is not only can we already not meet God's standard on our own, but this
over here, just puts another burden on our shoulders and something else that we're trying to do in our flesh
that's also impossible to do because we're not perfect people and we make mistakes, but here's what's so amazing about
the love of God; is that because - God knew we weren't gonna meet this standard -
but because He loves us He sent His Son Jesus and then He offers us His grace.
So here's the third box. The third box is God's grace, and
God's grace is made available to us because of what Jesus Christ, His Son, did on the cross.
And when Jesus died on the cross (I'm going to write the word righteousness right here)
Jesus came to earth - He is God and man -
and He lived a perfect life and then He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and
when He did that, it was like He was swapping His perfect righteousness for our unrighteousness, which is such an amazing gift
And so I'm gonna write Jesus right here, because we can only get the righteousness of God through
believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And here's what's so great about God's grace; is that it's perfect and
that when we receive God's grace (there's a huge arrow here)
we meet God's standard because we receive the righteousness of God through faith.
So, what ends up happening, because like I said earlier,
sometimes we make this assumption I think in the back of our minds that we can be more perfect than God
so sometimes what ends up happening is we create -
we're trying to receive God's grace
but we think that we can do it better than God could do it himself,
and so what we do is we actually create this other box over here where,
we've got this box that we're living under that's called, what I'm gonna say is 'our grace'
but all it is our version of grace in our minds.
And here's the thing about God's grace; is that not only does God's grace
give us the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins
it also gives us the opportunity to have power over sin.
But when we're relying on our own version of grace, because it's not God's grace, there's no power here.
So I'm gonna write no power.
So, we're not going to be seeing that power over sin and and in overcoming sin that we would be
seeing if we were receiving God's grace on a daily basis. And so what happens, what ends up happening here is that we begin to
justify
sins
instead of receiving power over sin, and then we begin to list these sins down here.
Over here, there's a list of sins that God has forgiven, over here
there's a list of sins that we think God doesn't need to forgive.
And what we end up doing- and here's a specific example:
We might look at the Old Testament and say, "Well sexual immorality was a sin in the Old Testament
but it's probably not a sin nowadays because, oh
You know, because of the grace of God," and then what we do is we start to make these justifications like, "Well, you know,
It's my own body
what does God care what I do with my own body, as long as I'm not hurting somebody else?" But when we do this
what we're doing is we're not receiving God's grace
because what we've done is we've rejected God's standard.
And so if we're not receiving God's grace, then we're not meeting His standard and instead we're over here on the outside
trying to find salvation our own way.
And when we're doing that
What we don't realize is that we're actually trying to - the same way that over here we tried to raise God's standard
- we're trying to expand God's grace.
But the reason we can't expand His grace is because, like I said at the beginning, God is perfect.
And because He's perfect, His grace is already perfect and we can't add to it.
We can't expand on it. And I think every single believer at some point is either over here
following their own standard, or over here trying to justify sin.
Because none of us are perfect. None of us live a perfect life. Even when we are receiving God's grace
there's times where we make mistakes still and we still need His grace, that's part of it. And
when it comes to the Word of God and these two camps on the outside here, because God is perfect
He gave us the perfect version of His word, the best version that we could have received, and if we're over here on this camp over here
following our standard, than what we're doing and we don't realize it is we're actually adding to the Word of God. And then if
we're over here and we're living by our grace,
what we don't realize we're doing is that we're ignoring the Word of God.
But here's what's so amazing about it. No matter which camp you might be in today. God still has grace for you today.
And if you've watched some of my other videos and you've wondered, "Why do you talk about grace so much in your videos?"
This is the reason why; it's because for a long time I lived over here in my standard
thinking that because I was doing all these things on this list that I had created,
that I was somehow making God more happy with me, and He was more pleased with me,
maybe I was going to be blessed,
you know, more I was gonna have a better life or whatever because I was over here.
But eventually I got to the point, because I'm not perfect at all, where I realized, "Oh, I messed up my standard.
I can't meet that standard and, in effect, I also messed up God's standards.
So, not only have I messed up the list of things I thought I needed to do on top of everything else,
I've also messed up
the things God is actually asking me to do." So I found myself down here in this other place, the state of hopelessness and
depression because I realized that I had messed up God's standard
and so, what I ended up doing down here was I tried to work as hard as I could to
try to meet all of these qualifications to try to work my way back into the good graces with God,
but I couldn't do it because I'm not perfect still. But the day
that I found God's grace,
my whole life changed. Everything changed,
because when I received God's grace, I realized I'd also met God's standard.
And so if you've never read my testimony book, I want to just give a quick shout out right now. I
recently re-released this book. It's been rewritten. It's been re-edited. If you haven't read it, I highly encourage you to read it.
This is my story of
realizing that I was not perfect, and eventually finding grace, and then some of the things that God has done in my life.
So I want to close with this;
that
no matter which box you're in today, God's grace is still perfect. God has His grace for you today.
He's offering it to you right now.
And you can receive it and you can meet God's righteous standard by believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and maybe you're watching
this video and you have done this at some point, but your God is speaking to you right now,
the Holy Spirit is working on your heart and you're realizing that,
"Maybe I've been living in this camp over here or over here,
and maybe I haven't been listening to God and to His word the way I should," and you want to receive grace for that right now.
Then I encourage you to pray along with me, and say, "Lord Jesus, I
admit that I am a sinner and I need your grace. I need your forgiveness. I
believe, Jesus, that You are the Son of God. You came to earth, You lived a perfect life, and
then You died on a cross to pay the penalty for my sin.
And then You were buried and You rose again on the 3rd day, so that I could receive the righteousness of God through faith. I
thank You so much for Your love for me, and for Your grace for beginning a relationship with me, Lord.
I love you. In Jesus' name, Amen."
If you just prayed that prayer, I'm so proud of you right now. And here's the thing,
not only am I proud of you, but God is pleased with you as well.
And I encourage you not just to stop there
but, the amazing thing about God's grace is that we get to live here every single day.
We can be walking in a relationship with God every single day
so I encourage you, if you just prayed that prayer for the first time find a believer, find someone who you can trust
and ask them, "What's next?" Because God has something great in store for you and for your life.
I love you,
I'll see you next time.