GRIT AND GRACE
TOLERANCE
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 2:18
JANUARY 17, 2010
The Seven Cardinal Virtues were identified by the early church. The first 3 were faith, hope and love, identified by the Apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, is sometimes called the Pauline Triad: faith, hope and love. The other four, prudence, temperance, courage, and justice, were identified by the Greek philosophers, but defined biblically by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, author of The City of God. And so, the early church gave us these 7 cardinal, or supreme virtues: faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, courage, and justice.
Now, we live in changing times. These virtues have been venerated and valued by the church of Jesus Christ for century upon century, but we live in changing times and today there are many people in the world who do not esteem these 7 virtues so highly. Some feel, perhaps, that faith is naive or that hope is not realistic or that prudence is old fashioned or that temperance just isn’t any fun. That’s the world we live in today. I think today, if we were to try to identify in our culture and time what is the supreme virtue, it would be tolerance. In this world, in this culture, tolerance is viewed as the supreme virtue. We hear about it all the time. Kids are indoctrinated in tolerance in our educational systems. We read about it in the newspapers. We read about it in magazines. We watch and listen to teachings on tolerance in movies and on television. Tolerance is huge in our culture and in our time.
So, let’s take a look today at what the Bible has to say about tolerance. We’re going to look at the grit of it and we’re going to look at the grace of it. So, we’re going to begin with the grit. And the grit of the Bible is this: There are times when God does not want his people to be tolerant. That’s the grit of biblical truth. There are things that God does not want you to tolerate. There are situations that God does not want you to tolerate in this world, things in your life he might not want you to tolerate, things in the church he might not want you to tolerate, and even things in the world God does not want you to tolerate.
Now, some of you who are older, perhaps, saw the movie True Grit. It was made in 1969. It’s over 40 years old. It starred John Wayne. John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor in that movie True Grit, and I think it was kind of a lifetime achievement award. Does God have true grit? And the answer biblically is yes. The word grit, if you look it up in the dictionary, means tough and resolute. There are times when God is tough and resolute. So, you come to Genesis, chapter 19, and you read the whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah. And it’s a fascinating story. It’s a story about the family of Lot. It’s a story about angelic visitation. It’s a story about two cities that were corrupt and immoral. It’s the story about the oppression of the poor. It’s a story about sexual immorality and it’s a story about the judgment of God. There came a point in time when God would not tolerate Sodom and Gomorrah anymore. He would forebear them no longer and it was time for grit. It was time to be tough, time to be resolute. And the judgment of God fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. You know the story.
Now, today, archeologists and historians are looking for the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. And they don’t know exactly where those ruins might be. They know that Sodom and Gomorrah were two of the five cities of the plain. They know that Sodom and Gomorrah were two of the five cities in the Valley of Siddim. Most historians and most archeologists believe that Sodom and Gomorrah are now buried beneath the southern portion of the Dead Sea. But the truth is, they were dead before the water ever covered them because of the judgment of God.
You can go to Daniel chapter 5, and in Daniel chapter 5 you can read about Belshazzar, who was the last king of the Babylonian Empire. More accurately, he was the crown prince, acting king, but his father Nabonidus was on many journeys. So here is Belshazzar, King of the Babylonian empire, and he is a man without morality. He is a man who lives a life of corruption and debauchery. He commands, one day, that the sacred vessels that have been confiscated and stolen from the Jerusalem temple in the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem be brought for a huge party that he was going to throw with a thousand of his lords and his concubines. These sacred vessels from the house of God, from the Jerusalem temple, he used for drunkenness and gluttony and in an evening of orgy. And the judgment of God, the Bible tells us, came upon him. God would tolerate it no longer.
God would forbear it no longer. And suddenly this Babylonian king saw on the wall divine handwriting: mene, tekel, parsin. The Babylonian king did not understand this divine script. He did not understand the meaning of the words and he called upon Daniel, the prophet of God. And Daniel said, “Mene, tekel, parsin. These mean weighed, numbered, divided. God is saying you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. God is saying your days are numbered and have come to an end. And God is saying your kingdom will be divided and given over to the Medes and the Persians.” And that very night, the judgment of God came, and historians tell us that Cyrus the Great and the armies of Medo-Persia swept over the city of Babylon. That is the grit of God.
Now, you know you can go throughout the pages of the Bible, and particularly throughout the pages of the Old Testament, and you see God’s grit again and again and again and again. There are things God just will not tolerate, things God simply will not forebear. And you might be thinking, well, what about the New Testament? What about the Son of God? What about Jesus? What about gentle Jesus, meek and mild? But again, you go to the New Testament, and you see that Jesus has grit. You see the Son of God come into the temple in the city of Jerusalem and you see him in anger and wrath. You see him begin to turn over all the tables of the moneychangers—to just throw them over and to drive the moneychangers out of the temple because he would not tolerate it. He would not forebear it. They had desecrated the house of God and he had grit.
You go through the synoptics and John—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and you see Jesus pronouncing judgment. You see Jesus pronouncing judgment on Capernaum, Jesus pronouncing judgment on Chorazin, and you see Jesus pronouncing judgment on Bethsaida. Bethsaida, Chorazin, Capernaum. Judgment. And why? Because they refused to believe in the Son of God. We see the words of Jesus that these cities, by the judgment of God, would be destroyed and they would never ever be rebuilt again. Today archeologists in Galilee, around the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberius, have found the ruins of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida and they were destroyed and have never ever been rebuilt again. That is the grit of Jesus.
As judgment of Jerusalem, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you in my arms as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not.” And Jesus said, “I tell you, even today I wish you knew the things that make peace, but they are hidden from your eyes. I tell you, the day is coming when your enemies will surround you, hem you in, cast up a bank around you, hem you in on every side, dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and not one stone shall be lying upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. The Son of God has come. You don’t even know it and the judgment of God is coming.” Four years later Titus and his Roman legions swept over the Holy City of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount not one stone was left lying on another. The grit of Jesus.
You come to the book of Revelation, the end of the book at the back of the Bible, and you have the description of Jesus coming in judgment and power. And in the apocalyptic language in that genre of the book of Revelation you see the description of Jesus coming from heaven on a white steed, on a white horse. The armies of heaven are arrayed in fine linen riding behind him, and he comes in power. He comes in judgment, Son of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and we’re told he will tread the winepress of the wrath of the fury of the Lord God Almighty. “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” So, he has grit. There are some things he just won’t tolerate. There are some things he just will not forebear—at least he will not forbear them forever.
And he wants a people who have grit. Jesus wants a people who have grit. There are just some things they just won’t tolerate in their own lives, in the church, even in the world. He wants a people with grit. You look at the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, and Paul warns the church in Corinth that they’re too tolerant. You’ve got a man in your church who is committing incest and he refuses to repent and you’re not doing anything about it. How can you tolerate this? Even in the world, even in the secular world, incest is not tolerated. “So, I command you to assemble and to pronounce judgment on this person who refuses to repent of incest and deliver his body to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” Grit.
Now, you say, “Well, in the church are we all not sinners? Do we not all need grace?” And yes. We are all sinners. We all need grace. There are some sins so grave that if there is no repentance, there must be consequences and the church of Jesus Christ, by the will of Christ, must have grit. Of course, historically, you see people like Martin Luther. Martin Luther, the great reformer, translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into German. He was a brilliant man, hymn writer, and a great servant of Christ. Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg. There were things happening in the church he would not tolerate, things happening in the church he could not forbear, so he nailed his grievances on the door of Wittenberg and he said these words: “Here I stand, and I can do no other.” And thank God for his courage, for his grit.
So, we have the warning of Christ in our passage of Scripture for today as Jesus sends the letter to Thyatira. He introduces himself. “These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet, are as burnished bronze.” He introduces himself with grit. “And I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet, who calls herself a prophetess. But she is teaching and beguiling my children, teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent. She refuses. Behold, I will throw her on a sick bed and I will throw all of those who believe and endorse and buy in to her teachings into great tribulation if they do not repent. And I will strike her children, her followers, dead. These will know I am he who searches heart and mind.” Grit.
It’s a warning to the churches at all times and in all places. We’re all fallen. We’re all sinners. We all need grace, but you can’t allow in the church teachers who lead people astray. You can’t allow it. You can’t forbear it. You can’t tolerate it. You can’t tolerate in the church of Jesus Christ teachers who teach false morality or teachers in the church of Christ who teach false theology. And we have this lesson from history. Is it not true? Churches that have tolerated anything and everything are no longer light in the world. You can look today at the PCUSA, the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. Eleven thousand churches. You can look at the United Methodist Church, the UMC, you can look at the Anglican and the Episcopal Church, you can look at the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church. You can look at a number of mainstream denominations that have allowed teaching that is not biblically moral and have allowed teaching that is not biblically true and they embraced false doctrine and false theology and these churches are sliding into apostasy.
We see it not only in mainline churches, we see it in other institutions that were at one time Christian but they tolerated what they should not tolerate. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were founded by Christians with Christian mission statements. But over time they were allowing, tolerating, forbearing false morality, false theology, and now they are no longer light in the darkness and they no longer bear Christian witness. The YMCA, a great movement that grew out of London, England, this great Christian movement that sought to disciple young men… now many YMCA’s are totally secular. Some are only nominally Christian because they tolerated, they forbore, teaching of immorality that is not biblical. They had no grit.
Jesus is looking for a people with grit. I asked you a few weeks ago if you would sign the Manhattan Declaration. I asked you to download it on your computer and asked if you would sign that. It takes a stand. It says, “Here we stand. We can do no other.” It speaks of the sanctity of human life. It talks about the tragedy of wholesale abortion. You understand, most abortion in America has nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother. Most abortion in America has nothing to do with gross fetal deformity. Most abortion in America has nothing to do with rape or incest. Most abortion in America simply represents a belated effort at birth control. We live in an increasingly promiscuous society, and now 45 million babies have been terminated since Roe v. Wade. It’s a national tragedy. And how can you not stand? Where is your grit? How can you not grieve?
Some of you have criticized my support of the Manhattan Declaration. I say, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” The truth of the matter is the declaration speaks of the beauty of marriage and the sanctity of marriage. It really has a sacramental view of marriage, as I do, that marriage has been instituted by God. It’s regulated by his commandments; it’s been blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ and clearly defined in the Bible, and it’s been clearly defined since the dawn of time. And yet, we live in a culture that is trying to change that. I don’t like to get people mad and I am like anyone else. I don’t want people to hate me, and I want to love people and I want to love all people, but sometimes you just have to stand. You’ve got to have a little grit to live in this world. Christ wants his people to have a little grit, and sometimes a lot of grit. So with regard to tolerance, there should be some things we just don’t tolerate in our own lives, in the church, and even in the world. There are some things we just don’t tolerate.
But there’s also grace. There’s grace. What a beautiful word. And our church is on Grace Boulevard and that’s no accident. I was sharing yesterday with the Discovery Class in the Atrium how it came to be that we’re on Grace Boulevard. çit really happened when our church began here. Craig McCallum, who was president of Mission Viejo Company in Colorado, and his wife Melinda were members of our church and Melinda taught Sunday School here. Craig and Melinda have moved to California and they are very close friends with my aunt and uncle. But Craig MacCallum came to me after we had bought the land down here. For Mission Viejo Company and Craig McCallum, Highlands Ranch was their vision and it was their project and he came to me and he said, “You know, we want to give you a chance to name two streets and you can name the streets that property corners are on.”
So I chose Grace and Mercy. And then they told me later that you can only name one street, and so it’s Grace and Fairview. It would have been Grace and Mercy. Wouldn’t that have been cool? “The church on the corner of Grace and Mercy.” But I love the word grace and it’s the word “charis” and the word means unmerited favor. God has shown us, in Christ, unmerited favor. We don’t deserve it, we don’t merit it, but he’s given us favor and now as we go into the world Christ wants his people to show others unmerited favor. In fact, the strongest grace word in the Bible is “eleos,” and the word eleos sometimes is rendered mercy and sometimes it’s rendered compassion. But it means, “favor even toward those who have done something wrong.” Even towards those who might have done something wrong to you, you still show them favor. This is the incredible teaching of Christ that we are to have this kind of grace. So, tolerance.
There are times when he calls us to grit and there are times when he calls us to grace. Tolerance is a biblical word. We have the word “anecho,” a Greek word which basically means tolerance. And the people of Christ are exhorted, at times, to be tolerant. And of course, in 1 Corinthians 13 we’re told that love is tolerant and there are a number of tolerance words in 1 Corinthians 13. The word “hupomone,” which means endurance, is a tolerance word. The word” makrothumia,” which means long suffering, is a tolerance word. And the word “stego,” which means to bear with one another, is another tolerance word.
So, love is tolerant, and so we need to understand when Christ wants us to be people of tolerance and when he wants us to forbear something we disagree with. See, that’s the meaning of tolerance. The world’s changed the meaning so that it kind of means acceptance or even approval, but that’s not what tolerance means. Tolerance comes from the Latin “tolerare,” which means to forebear that with which you disagree. So, tolerance means you forbear even though you disagree. If you don’t disagree with anything, you don’t need tolerance. In this world of post-modernity, where a lot of people believe nothing and disagree with nothing, you don’t need tolerance. Everything’s cool. But if you really believe something, there’s going to be times when you need tolerance. If we really believe something, there’s going to be times when we need forbearance. We’re going to disagree at times and we’re going to need loving tolerance and loving forbearance. Christ needs to be our guide.
Of course, God has tolerance. God has grace. In the year 1850 a man named Sir Austin Laird made an amazing discovery. He unearthed a city on the banks of the Tigris River in Mesopotamia in a region of the world that is now called Iraq. And so, in 1850 this British archeologist, Sir Austin Laird, unearthed this ancient city. And as they began to dig and unearth it, they were stunned. It was the ancient and biblical city of Nineveh, and it was exactly as the Bible described it. It ran 2 ½ miles along the banks of the Tigris. It had a wall 50 feet high and they unearthed this. They found the wall 50 feet high, 8 miles long, 8 miles in circumference. It was a huge city. And there were temples and palaces and parks and botanical gardens. It was the city of Sargon II, the city of Ashurbanipal, the last capitol city of the Assyrians empire. And it’s the city Jonah was sent to.
Have you ever read the book of Jonah in the Old Testament? This was the city Jonah was sent to: Nineveh, a gentile city. Jonah was a Jewish prophet. You might think, “Well, God in the Old Testament is only concerned with Israel. He’s only concerned with Judah. He’s only concerned with the chosen people. He’s only concerned with the Jews.” Not true. God at all times, at all places, is concerned with everybody. And so God is looking at Nineveh, this gentile city, this non-Jewish city. God is looking at it. He sees the immorality, he sees the poverty, he sees the social oppression, he sees the sexual decadence, and God grieves. And for centuries he showed tolerance and forbearance, but the time had come. So, he calls upon Jonah, the Jewish prophet, “I want you to travel to the gentiles. I want you to travel to Nineveh. I want you to warn the people. I want them to repent that I might show them my grace. Jonah didn’t want to go. Jonah doesn’t want to go because he hates them. He hates these debauched gentiles. And so, he takes another boat heading to Tarshish, and you know the story and ultimately by the will of God, the hand of God, Jonah arrives in Nineveh. He prophesies to the world. He warns them, there’s repentance, and the mercy and the grace of God that follows, and Nineveh is saved. Jonah hates it. He hates it. He hated that mercy, hated that grace.
I hope you’re not like that. I hope you love the grace of God. I hope you love the mercy of God and I hope you always remember God has grace. He has grit, but he has grace; we see the grace of Jesus. We love the grace of Jesus, don’t we? So, we read in the Bible, in Luke, chapter 9, how Jesus is traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem, from Galilee to Judah, and he passes through Samaria. And as Jesus passes through Samaria with his disciples, they come upon a village and the village refuses the message of Christ. They not only refuse it, but they will not give Jesus and his disciples habitation. They will not allow them to stay there. And so, James and John, Boanerges, the Sons of Thunder, who surely were volatile personalities, come to Christ and they have a great idea about this village that has just rejected them. In Luke, chapter 9, they come to Christ and they basically say, “Let’s nuke the village. Let’s call down fire from heaven. Let’s call down fire from heaven and destroy the whole village.” And Jesus rebukes them. He rebukes them. This is not a time for grit. This is a time for grace, and we see the grace of Jesus again and again.
In John chapter 8, you see the woman caught in the very act of adultery and she’s dragged before the people and there’s a suggestion of stoning. And you read those incredible words of Jesus. “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.” And one by one, the people walk away, for they are all sinners. “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.” And Jesus says to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Are there none to condemn you?” She says, “No one, my Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Do not do this sin again.” That grace, wonderful grace.
You look at John chapter 4, and you see the Samaritan woman at Sychar, in the Samaritan village at the well, and Jesus confronts her, engages her in conversation, offers her living water from which she will never thirst. And Jesus said to her, “Go and tell your husband and come back to me.” She said, “I have no husband.” Jesus looked at her. I don’t know whether he smiled or what he did, but he said, “You’re right in saying you have no husband, for you have had 5 husbands and the man you are living with now is not your husband.” She has a live-in guy. And she says, “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet, yes.” But the grace, the living water he gave her. And she, in faith, went back and led much of her village to salvation in Christ. Grace.
You love that grace. You love to see the woman of the street in Luke chapter 7, who came into Jesus. She was a prostitute. She came unto Jesus in the courtyard of the home of a Pharisee and she, in her tears, washed Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair and you see the forgiveness, the grace, the love of Jesus. A whole lot of grace.
So, Jesus wants his people not only to have grit but to have grace. And he’s called us to grace. And how’s it going? I mean, you think about your life. Are there places in your life where you need grit? And are there places where you need grace? How’s it going? How are you doing on the roads when you drive your car? I mean, is everybody an idiot? I mean, are there behaviors and driving patterns you disagree with out there? Do you need to forbear a little bit? Do you need a little bit of tolerance? I drive down the road and I see people just laying on their horns. I see people shaking their fists. I see people flipping the bird. I won’t illustrate that. But then I look a little closer and I’ll see, you know, a fish, an ichthys, on their car, or the name of a Christian school, and I’m thinking, just don’t put anything on your car. If you’re not going to have grace, don’t advertise that you’re a Christian.
It’s not easy to know when to have grit and when to have grace. I think of Pat Robertson. I don’t know what to say. Barb and I have been to Regent University, which is Pat Robertson’s school, and it’s very impressive. I met Pat Robertson in the city of Jerusalem. I think he has done some amazing things in his life. Every once in a while, he just comes out with a bold public statement and it’s got a lot of grit, but sometimes I think it’s time for grace. Tough, isn’t it? In this Haiti tragedy, where so much destruction has taken place and maybe 100,000, maybe half a million have died, I don’t know. I know Pat Robertson, allegedly, has said that it was the judgment of God on the island of Haiti and the Haitian people—the judgment of God because he said, allegedly, they made a pact, they sold their souls to the devil years ago seeking independence from the French.
I don’t know, I hope he really never said these things, but I was thinking, does God ever judge nations? Yes. And at the consummation he will judge all nations. Does God judge individuals? Yes. And at the consummation he will judge all people. But does Pat Robertson know all God’s purposes and judgments? I think not. And was it kind of an insensitive remark, given massive tragedy and suffering? I think so. This is tough, isn’t it, this grit and grace thing.
It’s really tough, and sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like so many Christians have no grit. They just have no grit. And the church suffers and the world suffers.
Sometimes I cringe because I see Christians who have no tolerance. They have no tolerance and not much grace. So we have this call, and I wish it were easy. I wish I could just stand up here and say, “Now, in this situation, grit, and in this situation grace,” but you see the Bible doesn’t deal with every situation so you’re going to need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But I do ask you this: I ask you to every day to think about grit and grace. Pray about grit and grace. Ask the Lord, and it might have to do with your kids, it might have to be about how you’re raising your children, what they’re going through. It may have to do with your own life. It might have to do with something else. It might have to do with something political. It might have to do with something huge. But ask the Lord, “Is this the time for grit? Or is this the time for grace? Lord, give me wisdom.” Would you do that? You know, God bless you. I know this is a tough subject. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.