Wednesday, January 18, 2012

LLM Question for 1-18-2012, and, THE LLM STUDY OF THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, CHAPTER 5, PART 2 of 3

First the Question: Pride is just as great a sin as adultery. True or False?

Please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day

And now the answer to the LLM Question of 1-15-2012

Question: It is a spiritual crime to pervert the Grace of Christ by mixing law or religion with the Gospel of Grace. True or False?

Answer: TRUE! It is truly a spiritual crime to frustrate the Grace of God or pervert the Grace of Christ by mixing law or religion with the Gospel of Grace. An example of this is done by mixing Peter’s Pentecostal message with Paul’s Gospel. Romans 16:24-26. It is likewise a spiritual crime to teach or practice that a believer may continue in sin that Grace may abound. “By the Grace of God I am what I am: and His Grace which was bestowed upon me was NOT in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10. Now, out of the 728 responses we received to this question, 95.7% of you got it right! Wonderful! Therefore, now, let us take a look at,

THE LLM STUDY OF THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, CHAPTER 5, PART 2 of 3

God is not a merchant, offering salvation for a certain price: God is a King who longs to give salvation to as many as will receive Christ.

We should not confuse “falling from Grace” with “failing of the Grace of God” (Hebrews 12:15); or “despising the Spirit of Grace” (Hebrews 10:29). We have already commented on the Apostle Paul’s words, in Galatians 2:21, “I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” It is truly a spiritual crime to frustrate the Grace of God or pervert the Grace of Christ by mixing law or religion with the Gospel of Grace. An example of this is done by mixing Peter’s Pentecostal message with Paul’s Gospel. Romans 16:24-26.

It is likewise a spiritual crime to teach or practice that a believer may continue in sin that Grace may abound. “By the Grace of God I am what I am: and His Grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10. Here we have a pattern for the believer; the possibility of God’s Grace. Perhaps all of us would join in the confession “I am not what I ought to be.” “I am not what I hope to be.” “But by the Grace of God I am not what I once was.” “Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound.” Romans 5:20. “And God is able to make all Grace abound unto you.” 2 Cor. 9:8. “And He said unto me, My Grace is sufficient for thee.” 2 Cor. 12:9.

The law entered (by Moses) 2500 years after the offence entered (by Adam). Grace came by Jesus Christ. Grace did MUCH MORE abound. For the believer, God’s Grace is altogether sufficient for any and every task, test and trial. “My Grace is sufficient for thee.”

“The hope of righteousness by Faith.” Galatians 5:5.

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13. Our hope is laid up in heaven. If we only have hope in THIS life, then we are of all creatures most miserable. But, the member of the Body of Christ is “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.

With the middle wall of partition out of the way, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but Faith which worketh by love. “Now abideth Faith, hope and love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13.

From the circumcision of Abram to the revelation of the Gospel of the uncircumcision to Paul: circumcision was an advantage. But NOW “we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3. “Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the Faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.” Colossians 2:12.

From Sinai to the revelation of Grace God’s people were “under the law.” Now they are “IN Jesus Christ”. The believing sinner “in Christ” is NOT “under the law.” “In Christ”, “in Him”, “in Whom”, “in Christ Jesus”, “in the Beloved”, “in Jesus Christ”, we find about 80 times in Paul’s messages. Let this sink in!

Now, LOOK, there is no value, no profit, no advantage, in any kind of religion. Christianity is not a religion! Christianity is eternal life. It is Christ. Christ is the believer’s life; his hope; his peace; his redemption; his righteousness, his holiness. “For me to live is Christ”...“Christ liveth in me.”

The believer, who knows Grace, should be gracious. If he knows Grace and endeavors to live up to the possibilities of God’s Grace, he runs well. When the believer presents a mixture of law and Grace to the sinner, or adopts such a mixture as his own rule of life, he is NOT running well. Neither is the believer running well when, by failing of the Grace of God, he does not walk as becometh the saints of God. The carnal Corinthians walked as men. 1 Corinthians 3:3.

“A LITTLE LEAVEN LEAVENETH THE WHOLE LUMP.”

Now, pay attention. See this. Behold the pitiable spectacle today; the divisions and subdivisions in the Christian Church. It’s all here: heresies, perverted Gospels, legalistic sects and religious delusions abound. With eighty per cent of these being professing Christians, the Gospel of Grace has been buried beneath ritualism. This part of the lump is leavened. Romanism is a mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and just pure paganism. There are no popes, cardinals, archbishops or church dignitaries in the Bible Church of the Age of Grace, The Body of Christ, that have been revealed to us through the Apostle Paul. Priests, high priests, holy robes, holy water, candle sticks, masses, incense, holy days, and confessionals have no place in God’s spiritual program for today. This is all the unscriptural doings of religious dignitaries in an unscriptural church. NONE of the program of this religious political organization is Scriptural.

If that is not all, a large percentage of the remaining twenty percent are in fanaticism of some kind; propagating a mixture of the programs of Israel and the Body of Christ, endeavoring in vain to carry on a religious mixture of the message and ministry of Moses, John the Baptist, the Sermon on the Mount, Peter’s Pentecostal message and program for the Twelve Tribes, and then mixing all of that into Apostle Paul’s dispensation of the Grace of God. (Ephesians 3:1). Their religion is very much leavened; and what they consider to be super spiritual is in reality: FLESH. In many instances the Red lettered New Testament has proved a curse rather than a blessing, causing Christians to give more importance to the words Christ spoke on earth (PRIMARILY to Israel) than to the words He spoke from Heaven, (through the Apostle Paul), concerning our day and message of Grace and concerning the Church which is His Body.

Christ’s message of Grace, revealed through Paul, is God’s antidote for every false doctrine of this present day. The Christian whose slogan and message is “back to Moses”, “back to John the Baptist”, “back to Jesus and the kingdom Gospels”, “back to Peter and Pentecost”, will forever be putting leaven into God’s Grace message.

Even the Christian who fails to distinguish between the message of repentance and baptism, preached by John the Baptist, as well as in the early chapters of Acts, and the Apostle Paul’s dispensation of Grace, will not understand or proclaim the clear message of Grace.

Perhaps modernism is the greatest menace to the church ever known. Modernism is nothing more than Christianized agnosticism. It is not Christianity. Salvation by character is the message of modernism and is the result of the same leaven. Cain preached and practiced this and slew his brother. Many are going in the way of Cain today, despising the glorious Gospel of blood redemption. The leaven has produced “Ritualism”, “Fanaticism” and “Modernism”.

Not only will circumcision take away the offence of the cross; but many so glory in baptism and so emphasize its importance, that they take away the offence of the cross. Membership in the true Church of the Bible is by Grace, and not by Grace plus ordinances ( such as water baptism). Inasmuch as the correct translation of 1 Corinthians 11:2 is not “ordinances” but “traditions”, the word “ordinances” is not mentioned in connection with the spiritual program for members of the Body of Christ. “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using) after the commandments and doctrines of men?” Colossians 2:20-22.

The LORD’s Supper, which is to be observed “till He come,” is NOT called an ordinance. NEITHER is it called a sacrament.

Compare Galatians 5:12 with Genesis 17:14, “I would they were even CUT OFF which trouble you”, and, “And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be CUT OFF from his people; he hath broken my covenant.” Here we see the absolute necessity for the obedience to 2 Timothy 2:15, “rightly dividing the Word of truth.” in Galatians 5:12, the people who insisted on the practice of circumcision were to be “cut off.” In Genesis 17:14, those who did not practice circumcision were to be “cut off.” Answer. Different dispensations. Both God’s programs. The student who fails to study the Bible dispensationally will be a workman who needs to be ashamed.

“Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short

Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.

In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry

Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)

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