Carty’s Contemporary Classics – Justice, Mercy, Grace & Cold Showers

Christian Podcast Central Classic Podcast

To say that Jay Carty is an unusual communicator is a mild statement. Maybe a little nuts would be more accurate. He’s certainly off the wall. Not a preacher, not a teacher, more a storyteller with a very important message. Traditional he is not. Challenging he is. Where some deep preachers are too snoozy for the rank and file and where some humorists don’t have much to say, Jay’s stuff is generally regarded as an unusual blending of humor and content.

Jay played basketball at Oregon State and coached there for two years. He was on John Wooden’s staff for three years at UCLA, where he coached Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jay then played for the LA Lakers. Following basketball and a time in the business world, Jay dedicated his life to helping people say yes to God. Now, we hope you enjoy Carty’s Contemporary Classics.

You have your Bibles, turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, maybe you don’t know how to get there. Doormat, check mark, two eyeballs, looking into the back flap of a pair of long johns. You look inside, see some actors, one sticks out in your mind dressed like a Roman soldier. He’s got an apple core in each hand, pushing the doorbell to the General Electric Power Company.

Five letter T’s in alphabetical order coming out of that factory. Let’s see. Thistles growing out the first two, Tiny Tim astraddle a second. He’s wearing tights. There’s a file with a man’s head on it. A file man with a happy little Hebrew sitting right there. And that’s how you get there. He’s making a jam sandwich, no lettuce. We use peat moss, two bales. For second peat moss, dangle three outhouses over the whole thing in your mind’s eye. First, second, third, John. Yes. And the Beatles, Beatles and the third one singing “Hey Jude.” That’s right. And a revolver spinning on your finger revolveration. That’s the way I memorized the books of the Bible. Perhaps you do it somewhat differently than that. Is that correct? Yes. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We’re in Hebrews 12 and we’re starting in verse 15. This is our passage for our entire time together. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. Now to understand grace, need to understand a couple words. Justice and mercy. Brisco says justice is getting what you deserve and mercy’s not getting all you deserve and grace is getting something you don’t deserve at all.

Assume I’m a star high school basketball player. I’m out with this young lady. It’s 9:30, curfew is 10. Break curfew, you got to run 20 laps. I don’t think she’s going to kiss me goodnight. Not at 9:30. I need another hour. Oh, but I’ll have to break curfew. Well, I’ve run 20 laps before. I know what that feels like. Don’t know what it feels like to kiss this young lady. I show up the next day at practice. Coach says, “Carty, judging you by the smile on your face, you broke curfew last night.” “Yes, sir. I did.” He says, “Well, don’t stand there talking to me, start running.” See that’s justice. I got what I deserved. Now, who made the rule?

Coach.

Coach. Who broke the rule?

Carty.

Who decided he would run 20 laps?

Carty.

I did. Who makes the rules of life?

God.

Who breaks them?

We do.

You do. Yeah, no, no, you do. Not just me. No, no, no. You, too. So, who does the sinning, folks? That’s what’s amazing.

God wants to spend eternity with you anyhow. Even though you do the sinning, he doesn’t do the sending. You know what you are in your private moments. And in spite of that, God wants to spend eternity with you, but don’t ever get pious and pray for justice. “Oh God, give me what I got coming to me.” You don’t want that. You’re an onion. You just don’t want that. Justice is getting exactly what you deserve.

Now mercy’s a little different. I’ve run 10 of my laps. “How many laps have you run?” “10, sir.” “How many you got to go?” “Well, 10.” He said, “Well, sit down. I’ll get someone else to run the other ten.” Now that’s mercy. I don’t have to run all my laps.

That illustration doesn’t apply to hell. You don’t run 10 laps in hell and get out for the other 10. Doesn’t work that way. This is the way it works. This is a very nice room. You know, I haven’t spoken in many rooms that are much bigger than this. And this is a very nice place to speak. So, this is real comfortable. And I’ve spoken to some better looking people than you, but not many. You’re really nice. Well dressed and look good. Look good. And it’s certainly true that you’re very well fed. And you’ve heard better preaching, amen?

Amen.

Yeah, but you’ve heard worse. So things could be a whole lot worse than they are right now. I mean, things are pretty good. And if you’re here and you don’t know Christ, unless you have a massive heart attack in the next moment, you’ve got a little more time. And how ever much time that is, that’s mercy, because you’re not currently getting all you deserve.

But grace is real different. I show up, “Carty, you break curfew?” “Yes sir. I did.” “Well sit down, Jay. I’ll run your laps for you.” I played basketball for a lot of coaches over a lot of years. And I can honestly tell you not one has ever considered doing that. But in that while we were yet onions, Christ ran our laps for us. And what was it that we did to deserve that? Nothing. We’re onions.

Now how do you come short of grace? Two ways. As a nonbeliever, you can miss eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord if the Book is right. Now you understand I can’t prove to you that the Book is right. It might be wrong. It might be. I’m on page 2000. And all of these pages, these are on the money aren’t they? And how about these 50? What are the odds that these 50 won’t happen the way these 2000 say they’re gonna when these 2000 have always been right?

You see, my dad, he was a bookie. I do understand something about odds. And if you’re only betting a buck, bet a buck on the lottery, who cares? I mean, I don’t care. No big. You don’t have much at stake. But you don’t want to bet your soul on the odds in the lottery. And the odds on the Bible being wrong, those are not good odds. You might bet a buck on the deal, but you certainly wouldn’t want to bet your soul. Does that make sense to you?

Yes.

So if you miss eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, you’ve come short of God’s grace. He has a free gift for you. Eternal life. You can also miss it as a believer. You can. You can live a life where there’s no fruit of the spirit. No love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, kindness, self control. You can miss it. And it’s the same three things that’ll either keep you from coming to Christ or keep you from leading a powerful spirit led life. Here are the three things. A root of bitterness springing up and causes trouble, immorality, and godlessness.

We’ll start with the first one. Pride of life. Root of bitterness. Have your nostrils flared lately? Think about the last time you got mad. Don’t let the juices get flowing again. Don’t do that. Just think about the last time you got mad and reconstruct the emotion that preceded your anger. Okay. Just reconstruct the emotion. It was one of four, maybe five. Hurt, fear, frustration, injustice, tremendous sense of loss, or grief.

Hurt. Now, as I told you, I’m staying with your pastor. And last night we chatted how nice it was to renew the friendship and how deep the bond is with so little time that we’ve had together and called me his friend. And it was very tender, good time. Then this morning, his daughter’s home from school and so she took her shower. And then Sherry took her shower and she hums in the shower. Did you know that? And then your pastor took his shower and it was a good shower. It was a real good shower. He sang all the verses of “Just as I Am” while he was in there. And then it was my turn to take a shower. And guess what?

No hot water.

No hot water. Now, frankly, I was a little hurt. Well, the night before he told me that, you know, friend and all this sort of stuff. And what kind of friend would use all the hot water? You know what I mean? And so I was hurt. You can understand that can’t you?

You’re walking around the edge of your bed and your little toe finds the wheel. The foot goes straight and the little toe goes to right angles. There is nothing in life that hurts… But it doesn’t hurt right away. There’s a beat and a half before it hurts. It goes crack, crunch and you say, “Oh no, that’s really going to hurt right about NOW.” It just hurts like crazy. And you get really mad at the bed. Now who kicked who? It seems to me, if you kicked the bed, the bed has the right to get mad at you. But no, you kicked the bed and then get mad at the object that caused you pain. You swing the hammer, it hits your thumb, you get mad at the…

Hammer.

Hammer. You never get mad at the hand that swung it. Always the object that causes the hurt. The anger is directed towards the object.

So, what happens when someone hurts you emotionally? Folks, same thing. You see hurt produces anger. And it’s always directed at the object of the pain, the perceived object of the pain. Hurt produces what?

Anger.

Anger.

Fear. Now this is not a real hugging kind of church. I speak in some churches where they hug a lot. And it’s just a cultural kind of thing. You just do a lot of hugging. I’m kind of glad that this isn’t one of those hugging kind of churches today, because I have the pit. I do. I have BO. I didn’t get a shower. You see? And whose fault is that? It’s your pastor. Bob.

You’re riding your bike. Yeah. Yeah. This works better in Kansas, but you ought to get it. Car cuts you off, you’re headed for the ditch, you’re going to crash and burn. Shot of adrenaline, your eyes dilate. Your body does what it’s supposed to. You’re on your way over the handlebars, you bury gravel in your forehead. And just before you do, you find the eyes of the driver in the rear view mirror and like the good Christian you are, you go, “You dirty raga, baga rega, berga rega.” Right? You know you do. Because fear produces what?

Anger.

That’s why I step on spiders. I’m afraid of you. I will kill you. Hurt, fear, frustration. Last night, I went to bed thinking about hot drops of water peppering down all over my body this morning. And all I got was cold prickles. And whose fault was that?

Bob’s.

Remember in school, you thought you were going to get an A. You got the C. You remember that? You got mad at the teacher. Remember? Remember the coach, you thought you were going to start. You rode the pine, got mad at the coach. Frustration, you see. Gentlemen, you’ve been on the road, come home from a road trip, wife doesn’t come through for you quite like you thought she should. And what’s the next reaction, ladies?

Frustration.

Anger. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Because when there’s frustration, that’s always followed by what?

Anger.

Hurt, fear, frustration, feelings of injustice. I want you to know that a serious problem occurred this morning. I’m the traveling evangelist. Bob is just the pastor. And in this book I have a special privilege. I can either leave my blessing of peace on his house or I can dust my shoes on his doorstep and curse the place. And I tell you if it wasn’t for Sherry, that sucker would get the dust for sure.

I mean, someone kicks a poor defenseless little dog. Why do you get mad? Because it’s not right and someone needs to defend it. Now folks, let me say it very clearly. Anger is not a sin. Anger is a symptom that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. And it might be a sin if you don’t get angry. When Jesus was personally affronted, He never got mad. When God was affronted in His presence, He always got mad. And there are some things going on in our country that if they don’t anger you, something’s wrong. And you see, you won’t be motivated to go fix the things that are wrong unless you get angry. But the problem is you’re an onion. And when you’re on the brink of emotionalism, the onion tends to take over. And we tend to sin when we’re angry, but anger is not a sin.

Let me prove it to you. Ephesians five, General Electric Power Company. You want electric. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Let’s go Ephesians four, verse 26, Ephesians 4:26. Be angry and yet what?

Don’t sin.

Don’t sin. So, if you can be angry and not sin, anger is not the sin. Anger is the symptom that something needs to be fixed. So because you get angry, you haven’t sinned yet. It’s what you do when you’re angry that determines whether or not it’s sin. So, let’s keep reading. Be angry, don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. That doesn’t mean fix it before the end of the day. What it means is fix it before verse 31 happens. And verse 31 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.” Now that’s the anger progression. And it all starts with a root of bitterness, a grudge an unwillingness to forgive. And whenever, whatever it is, that’s causing the anger, which is the symptom, settles to a grudge, it just became sin.

And if you don’t fix that, it will become wrath. In the Greek, that means hot coal. Takes long time to heat them up, takes long time to cool them down. But you don’t get hot coals unless you’ve got a grudge. And then it becomes anger. In Greek, that’s Thymos, dynamite, explosions. You don’t get explosions unless you’ve got hot coals, you don’t get hot coals unless you’ve got a grudge. And then it becomes clamor, loud shouting. And then it becomes slander, purposeful, loud shouting with the intent to hurt. And then it becomes malice. I just want to hurt. But it all starts with a root of bitterness.

Therefore, be angry. Don’t sin. Let sun go down your… Don’t give the devil an opportunity. When it settles to a root of bitterness, you give the devil an opportunity. In the Greek, it means geographical location. You’re walking along, you stumble, and you fall in the swamp of sin. You hop out, hose off, 1st John 1:9. Confess your sin, He’s faithful and just, forgive your sin, cleanse you of all unrighteousness. You glad that’s in there? Yeah, me too. Use it?

Yeah.

I hope so. Use it as much as you used to? I hope not. Because if you’re conforming to the image of Christ, you won’t need as much as you used to.

You’re walking along, you stumble in the swamp of sin. Warm in there, it’s kind of nice. Tread water a little bit, dog paddle. If sin wasn’t fun nobody would do it. You understand that? We just don’t realize it always has a consequence. Backstroke, spout swamp water like a whale. I mean you are digging it in the swamp and then you come to your senses and you hop out and you hose off 1st John 1:9. Confess your sin, faithful and just, forgive your sin, cleanse you of all unrighteousness. You glad that’s in there?

Yeah.

You bet. Here’s one little problem. What’s left after you hose the guy off? You know what lives in the swamp? Leeches. If it’s my generation, it’s Humphrey Bogart dragging the African Queen and Katherine Hepburn picking those puppies off of him. If it’s your generation, it’s Rambo being hoisted out the sewage pit. But the bottom line is after they hose him off, what’s left? Leeches. And how’d they get rid of them? Took out his knife and he went. How do you get rid of the leeches? Because whenever you spend any prolonged time in the swamp, you will pick up the number of leeches proportional to your time in the swamp. And the Bible calls it an opportunity. He says it gives the enemy geographical location. It goes beyond fiery darts. It goes to personal harassment. When Jesus was confronted in the wilderness, He went to the authority of scripture, the power of His name, said it is written. When He was confronted through Peter, He said, “Get thee behind Me.” And He spoke it. He prayed to God. He verbally spoke against the enemy. Why?

Ephesians six. You’ve got some armament. The last piece of armor is the Sword of the Spirit. The word of God, dig a little deeper in the Greek, it is the spoken word of God. Best I can tell, the enemy can’t read your mind. He’s got a good game plan. I mean, he’s got a scouting report that understands you, but you don’t have to do what you did last time. He’s assuming you will. And so when you pray to God, appropriate the authority that is in Jesus Christ, it says, “If you submit to God and resist the devil, he will…” What?

Flee from you.

Flee from you. How do you resist? Verbal proclamation of the authority of Scripture and the power of Jesus’ name. But make no mistake about it, resisting the devil is a lot like putting a two year old to bed. Have you ever put a two year old to bed? What do they do? Don’t stay there very long, up, test you, and back in, up, up, test you, back in and pretty soon they’ll stay there. Next night, same routine. Next night, same routine. And pretty soon they stay. Pretty soon they stay. If you’re faithful and consistent in practicing the principles, if you’d like to get rid of the leeches from your angry past, it’s possible.

We hope that you enjoyed this week’s installment of Carty’s Contemporary Classics. We’ll join Jay next week for a continuation of his laugh inducing and thought provoking insights. Until then, you can catch up on Jay’s and many other encouraging and instructive podcasts at the esquared podcast network at www.etwonetwork.net.