“What if we sin deliberately?”

Hi, I'm Dr. Andrew Farley, host of The Grace Message. Got a Bible question, struggling with a personal issue, wondering about a tricky verse? At BibleQuestions.com, you'll get clear, grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No fluff, no confusion, just practical, biblical truth. Ask anything, anytime, and experience the power of God's love. At BibleQuestions.com, that's BibleQuestions.com, your go-to for biblical clarity. Jesus plus nothing, 100% natural, no additives. Andrew Farley is celebrating your freedom in Christ. Call in and ask your questions at 877-655-6755. That's toll-free at 877-655-6755. By a satellite from Texas, it's The Grace Message with Dr. Andrew Farley. Hello everyone, welcome to The Grace Message. I'm Andrew Farley, so glad you're joining us tonight to that number to call, 877-655-6755. We got open lines, room for you right now, you'll be sure to get in. Maybe you've got a question tonight about a scripture passage, or perhaps you heard something in church this past weekend, and you're not sure about it. You want to put it to the test. That's exactly why we're here for you. We are live across the United States and Canada on SiriusXM, all kinds of FM and AM stations, and yes, of course, we're live streaming on social media as well. It doesn't matter how you're listening or watching right now, you can simply call in and be a part of tonight's conversation. We'd love to have you. Again, 877-655-6755. If you're a first-time caller tonight, remember we love it. We love to hear from first-time callers and veteran callers, and don't forget this month, if you're supporting The Grace Message, make sure to request your copy of Forgiven Forever. You're going to love it. It's all about the finished work of Christ. It'll encourage you big time, and it's our way of saying thank you to those who support

The Grace Message and help us reach people all over the world. So we're grateful for you. Go to andrewfarley.org to learn more, and tonight we're going to start in Ohio, and we'll talk with Mark. Hey, Mark, what you got for us tonight, my friend? Hi, Andrew. I talked to you last night about, like, how do I have a relationship. What I meant to ask was, like, how do we pray to God? It's like, how do we communicate, if you know what I mean, like how a parent communicates with their dad or son, and vice versa? Okay, yeah. Well, I'm glad to know that, Mark. Yesterday you sounded like maybe you were wrestling with bigger things, like, am I saved and all of that. How do we pray? I mean, we pray however we want to pray. First of all, let me say there's no rules. You know, I have a son, Gavin, and when I talk with him, I don't set ground rules. Now, Gavin, make sure that you use King James English, and Gavin, I'm going to need you to follow this acronym. It's ACTS. I'm going to need you to adore me first, then confess and get yourself cleaned up for me. And then I want you to thank me, Gavin, for everything I've ever done for you. And then lastly, you can ask me for stuff. And that seems to be a formula that the Christian world today is pushing, ACTS, as a formula for prayer. And I hate that. I just hate it. I think, you know, it sets people up for some sort of formulaic relationship with God. It's not in the scriptures, and it's basically, let's butter him up first, and then we'll

ask him for what we really want. God doesn't tell us to do that. He says, let your requests be made known to him, and so you can be real with him. You don't have to flavor it up. You don't have to put it in a spiritual-sounding speech. Jesus said the opposite. He actually sort of poked fun at those who thought they would stand on the street corners and beat their chests and talk to God in fancy ways, thinking they were heard for their many words. So, Mark, just like you're talking freely to me right now, here you are calling up on our radio broadcast and talking freely to me with others even listening. It sounds like you know what it means to talk boldly and to express yourself. I would encourage you just to be yourself with your Heavenly Father, Hebrews chapter 4. says, let us draw near with confidence. Ephesians 1, it says, we're accepted. He freely bestowed his grace on us, so clearly he wants to hear from us. Ephesians chapter 2 goes on to say we have access in one spirit to the Father. So everybody has equal access. Your access to God is the same as mine or any other believer's. So we can even trust, I love this, we can trust that when we don't know how to pray, that the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that are too deep for words. So the bottom line is I wouldn't want to tell you how to pray other than be yourself, pray confidently, knowing what Jesus did. The Bible calls it praying in the spirit. That just means praying knowing that you are in the spirit and the spirit is in you. It's a local phone call. It's not long distance. Christ is in you and you're in him. You have that beautiful vine branches relationship.

So enjoy it. Talk to daddy, father, let him know what's on your heart. Be real with him. You're not going to shock him. You're not going to break him. He's heard it all for thousands of years. You never can stand around the corner and yell boo and scare God. He already saw it coming. So go ahead and be yourself in every way. He loves you so much and he just wants to do life with you every day, all day long. Thanks Mark for your call. Reach out to us again anytime. All right, well, let's go now to Ontario, Canada. We'll talk about struggle with salvation. We got Kat on the line. Hi Kat. Hey Andrew, how are you? Hey, I'm doing good. Go for it. I was listening yesterday with Tim Chalice and I just love listening to him so much. And I have been going through a lot of just, it's partly with my health lately. I'm struggling with gut issues and getting older, you know, and kind of like what he was saying too, that sometimes even when we get older, things happen. But I guess my question is that I've just, I don't know, I don't like to share this too much with you, but I have been struggling again just with my thoughts and, you know, I haven't been very kind too to people lately. And just with the Lord, I've been struggling, feeling like I'm struggling a lot with myself, you know, like lately. But lately I've just been, I don't even know what I'm saying now with you, sorry. But you know, it's just my thought life and then connected with the new heart and everything

else like that. And I feel like I'm sort of almost stuck. Okay. All right. Well, you, you've had some things that have kind of shocked you lately. I mean, you've said some ugly things maybe, or some mean things or cruel things, or you've thought some thoughts that shocked you and then you go, Ooh, wow. If I can react like that, then does that mean I really do have a new heart? Does that mean I really am a new creature in Christ? Like I've been believing and then maybe doubts creep in about salvation because of recent performance. And I just want to assure you first that any Christian is capable of any thought, entertaining any thought or engaging in any action at any time. So your performance is not an indicator of your salvation. Any Christian can struggle with anything at any time and different Christians have different struggles. And you've been calling in some for some time now, I'd say, I don't know, maybe three or four years. And there's been a common theme. You're not getting along well with your neighbors. You don't like where you live. You wish you could move apartments. You wish your neighbors were quieter. You wish they were nicer. So that's been a theme for you for several years. And so does it surprise me that you reacted in some way that wasn't nice or was angry or upset? No, it seems like that's been the pattern of struggle for you and for you to fall back into that occasionally or whatever. I mean, that would be life on planet Earth.

So it's not a salvation issue, Kat. And you're not saved by your perfect performance. You're not saved by your niceness. You're not saved by your politeness. You're not saved by your good treatment of other people. You're saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that's final. That's literally final. The finality of the cross, the finished work, that is what has saved you. So it's too late, I'm sorry. You could be a real jerk to a whole lot of people and you wouldn't lose your salvation. It's too late, you're beautifully saved. You could be unkind, you could be mean, you could think all kinds of thoughts and say all kinds of things and it wouldn't change the blood of Christ or his resurrection. So I know that's not your heart. Your heart is to treat people well. Your heart is to love people and forgive them and to give thanks that you have a roof over your head and to not let bitterness or resentment consume you. That's your heart and that'll never change, but that doesn't mean you always act that way. So it's not a salvation issue, it's just a life on planet Earth issue. You're growing, you're learning, just like the rest of us.

So I hope that comforts you today and reach out to us anytime. All right, let's go now to California and we'll talk with Jay. Hi, Jay, what you got for us tonight? Hi, Andrew. So I love the grace message. I love your grace message and how you obviously tie it to the Bible and everything. I struggle a little bit with, I'm not sure how to pronounce this, antinomialism? Yeah. The sin of the high end. So can you help me understand how those two go together and that we don't fall into that with the comfort of grace? Sure, yeah. I mean, first of all, let's get a few things straight. Antinomialism, that's a big, long word. A lot of people don't know what that is. It sounds like something the dentist might warn you about. Watch out, or you might come down with antinomialism. What is that? Well, the root gnome relates to the law and anti means against. So are we against the law? Are we law bashers? Are we law haters? Now, it's interesting that you brought in

the sin of the high hand. You wanted to talk about that. You mentioned that with the call screener as well. The sin of the high hand is an old covenant expression. And it was basically you had the wilderness law where God said there's a difference between someone who sins unintentionally and then someone who sins with a high hand, meaning they know what God says and they deliberately rebel anyway. So the problem with that is that basically what people have done is they've twisted that today and then they said, okay, well, there's two kinds of sin. Then there's, uh-oh, accidental sin. Oh, me, I don't know how that happened. Oh, what an accident. And then there's the other sin that they call deliberate. And then they say, well, now, if you sin deliberately, then that's different. Well, I got some news for you. Every sin is deliberate. I mean, you know, every sin is willful. Every sin involves your will. Now, if you had 613 laws and you were running around in the wilderness and you didn't have a clue what all 613 were, I'm sure you could accidentally transgress against one of the 613. But that's not the case here, okay? We got the Holy Spirit living in us.

And when you smack somebody across the face or you cuss them out or you cut them off in traffic on purpose or whatever, you know, whatever it is, whether it's holding bitterness and resentment against somebody or lashing out and outbursts of anger, I mean, you look at the deeds of the flesh, right? There's a long list of them. But it's not like we spend our lives going, oh, my goodness, I accidentally sinned. I didn't even know. Our will is involved. And so, you know, here's what's crazy. You know, Jesus died for all of our sins. He died for our willful sins. Jesus died for our deliberate sins. Jesus died for your high-handed sins, your low-handed sins, any sins you wanna categorize and label. Jesus died for them and he took them away. And so I'm not gonna be able to comfort you with some sort of weird doctrine where I say, oh, well, don't worry, Jay. I'm not saying Jesus died for your deliberate sin. No, I'm not gonna say that. The truth is the opposite. Jesus died for all your sins. And wherever you're getting this teaching of, oh, no, watch out for grace, it's law-hating. out for grace, they don't care about high-handed sins, well first of all, we're

not in the wilderness, we're not Israel, we're not in the desert, we don't have 613 laws to memorize and contend with. Anything that's not of faith is sin. And so I don't know many Christians that run around accidentally sinning and not even having an awareness of when they do. To me, that's what the Holy Spirit is for. He lives inside of us. So what these guys are trying to do is they're trying to get you to categorize your life, your sins, into accidental and on purpose and then treat them differently. Well that's a dead end, man. I wouldn't go there. Jesus died for all your sins, period. He took away all your sins. He remembers your sins no more. Now as far as this being anti-law, it's the opposite, man. I mean, we respect the law so much that we say we can't do it. And anybody who thinks they can do it, they're not respecting it. You know, for somebody to tell you, oh, you know, the message of God's grace is law-bashing and law-hating, well how? Tell me how. Because what we're saying is 613 laws, the perfect and impossible standard of God. That's why I need grace instead. Thank you, Lord. And I'll tell you what the other group is saying. The other group is saying, oh well, you know, don't worry. It's not 613. It's just 10. Let's focus on 10. Oh no, don't you worry about the Sabbath. Let's just, let's focus on 9. Well, we do want you to tithe. Okay, we want you to tithe. So let's do 10 minus the Sabbath plus tithing. Yeah, that's it. And they create, they sort of fashion their own flavor, their own version of the law. They pick their favorite 10 or 9 or 11, and then we're all chopped up in denominations based on how many laws we picked. And then everybody says, oh, look at us. We're respecting the law, while those grace people are not. Well, they're kidding themselves. The only people that are respecting the law are the ones who realize it's all or nothing. It's 613 commands, or you deserve the needle. Condemnation. And so that's what James says. If you keep the whole law and stumble in one point, you're guilty of all of it. That's what Galatians says. Cursed is everyone who does not obey everything written in the Torah, the Book of the Law, the whole thing. So there is no law-hating going on here. We love the law. We respect it so much. We recognize that it's perfect, and for that reason we

can't do it, and we need God's grace instead. It's called the New Covenant, and Scripture very clearly says we died to the law so that we might live to God. We're not under the law. Christ is the end of the law for all those who believe. So the law has not died, but we've died to the law. And so, Jay, all I can tell you is hang out with us a while, get to know the truth a little better. The people that are trying to sort of badmouth God's grace, they don't really understand what we're saying yet. They've overreacted. They've reacted too quickly. They have engaged in name-calling, using that verbiage, and they don't really understand that you can't pick and choose. The law is not a buffet line, like at your favorite Chinese restaurant. You don't get to pick the mushu pork and then skip the Kung Pao chicken. It's 613 laws or nothing, and that's why the law kills and the Spirit gives life, and then Jesus even comes along and makes it worse. He says, you want law? I'll show you law. How about you cut off your hand and pluck out your eye and be perfect like God, and then you'll really be keeping the Spirit of the law. And so he's pushing them. He's pushing them to abandon the law, to give up on the law, to die to the law, so that they can truly bear fruit for God. And that's what Romans 7 teaches. We died to the law so that we might bear fruit for God. It's the only way to bear fruit. So the other is a mirage. It's a pipe dream. You'll never bear fruit under the law. So Jesus died for all your sins. Don't label them. Don't categorize them. Don't say some were accidental and some were on purpose. That's crazy town. The New Testament never teaches that. Somebody's just pulling out the wilderness experience of Israel with 600-plus commands and then saying, oh, look at Israel's Accidental sin. Well, that doesn't relate to you and me. We got the Spirit of God living in us. We walk by faith. Anything that's not of faith in Him is sin. He's going to let us know how to move forward. He's in us to counsel us.

And our will is always involved. We're never overtaken by the enemy. Our will is always involved. And yet we're forgiven for every sin imaginable. So why behave? Well, because look at you. You're beautiful. You got a new heart. You got a new identity. You're a new creature. So thanks for your call today. I'll put you back on real quick, Jay. Does that make sense to you, what I said? That was very helpful, thank you. You bet, you bet. All right, well, let's go to Oklahoma and we'll talk with Mrs. White. Hi, Mrs. White, we got a couple minutes. Yes, sir, hi. I was watching this Sunday and Hebrews 12, well, Marlon, the dog, is having something to say in the background, I apologize. Hebrews 12, 12 and 13. I don't understand the limp hands and weak knees, how to strengthen those and what he's talking about. And then how do we make straight paths for our feet? Is that like, did you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you, I hear you. Yeah, there's a lot of colorful language here. I mean, basically, we got God's discipline,

his loving discipline toward his children in this chapter. And you're asking about the strengthening. Well, the New Testament never just says, be strong. It says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So these are spiritual words about a spiritual strengthening. I know he uses the analogy of knees and joints and limbs and being lame or being healed and all of that. Those are physical words, but he's talking about discouragement. He's talking about when you've been spiritually discouraged and you need encouragement, when you're spiritually feeling weak and you need strengthening. And the only thing that's gonna do that, according to the book of Hebrews, which we're reading here, is that it's good for us to be strengthened by God's grace. God's grace teaches us to say no to sin. God's grace gives us a new heart. God's grace gives us the presence of his spirit inside of us. So making straight paths for your feet means don't let any unbelief or the sin, which so easily entangles us, don't let that get in your way. Just kind of bob and weave and ignore the enemy, fix your eyes on Jesus, run the race, let the spirit of God strengthen you. So there's no magic potion here

or no special button that you hit and suddenly you're physically feeling better. These are spiritual concerns. And so if you're discouraged, let God's grace encourage you. If you've had things in your path, in your way, that are tripping you up, then let go of those things that easily drag you down. Say no to them, walk away from them, ignore them. Sometimes we have things in our lives that can be very, very distracting and they cause us to not think about Jesus anymore. In fact, they could even be churchy things or spiritual-looking things. They could be very sinful-looking temptations. They could be very religious-looking temptations. So what is our role? No matter what, fix your eyes on Jesus. He is your strength. For more information on the broadcast ministry of Dr. Andrew Farley, please visit andrewfarley.org. That's andrewfarley.org. Join us next time as we invite you to celebrate the grace message with Dr. Andrew Farley. This program is sponsored by your generous financial support. Hi, I'm Andrew Farley. I hope you enjoyed today's program. And if you have more questions, whether it's about a Bible verse,

a personal struggle, or anything on your heart, biblequestions.com is here for you. You'll get clear, grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No confusion, no judgment, just practical truth that meets you right where you are. Whatever's on your mind, you'll find real answers rooted in God's love Visit biblequestions.com. That's biblequestions.com. BibleQuestions.com you