Tuesday, April 10, 2012

LLM Question for 4-10-2012, and, The Grace of God, part 8 of 9

First the Question: THERE IS NO UNPARDONABLE SIN IN THIS AGE OF GRACE. True or False?

Take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day

And now the answer to the LLM Question of 4-1-2012

Question: Self righteousness can be a sin far more deadly than murder and adultery. True or False?

Answer: TRUE! Self-righteousness can be a sin far more deadly than murder and adultery. The greatest blunder that any person on earth can make is to reject the LORD Jesus Christ as Saviour, the Saviour from the awful, terrible wrath of God. Luke 12:15 and Luke 16:15, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”, and, “God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” Now, out of the 1040 responses we received to this question, again, 87.5% of you got it right! Therefore, NOW, let us take a look at,

The Grace of God, part 8 of 9

The Grace of God enabled the Apostle Paul to labor more abundantly than other saints (1 Corinthians 15:10); to be the wise ‘masterbuilder’ or ‘head-carpenter’ (1 Corinthians 3:10), and to preach to Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians 3:8). This was the Apostle of Christ, who used the word ‘Grace’, 105 times, who found that Grace all sufficient for every task, every test and every trial. Can you join with Paul, saying, “I do not frustrate the Grace of God?” It was Paul who referred to God’s Grace for saints and for sinners as the ‘much more’, ‘over‑abounding’ Grace. (Romans 5:20, 2 Cor. 9:8).

Perhaps after reading Romans 5:21 one thousand (1000) times prayerfully, in the Spirit, we should begin to comprehend its meaning, “that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might Grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our LORD.

Understanding Romans 5:17, first, helps us to understand Romans 5:21. Note Romans 5:17, “MUCH MORE they which receive ‘ABUNDANCE OF GRACE’, and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by ONE JESUS CHRIST.

The God of all Grace wants to bestow His ‘ABUNDANCE OF GRACE’, His ‘ALL SUFFICIENT’, ‘MUCH MORE’, ‘OVERABOUNDING’ Grace upon every person on this earth. The great majority of Adam’s race do not have the willingness or desire to receive this marvelous, matchless, Divine Grace.

We wonder how many Pastors, Evangelists, Preachers, and Bible teachers, are responsible, at least in part, for the nation­wide ignorance of the Grace of God, which the Apostle Peter defines as the “true Grace of God wherein ye stand.” (1 Peter 5:12). Thousands of preachers, in pulpits and over the radio, occasionally call the message which they are proclaiming ‘the Gospel of Grace’, when the truth is they are preaching a perverted Gospel, which subverts the soul. (Acts 15:24).

How few Christians really experience and rejoice in the truth of Ephesians 4:7, “unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

What a tragedy that thousands upon thousands of religious church‑members fall from Grace by adding their religious doings to the Grace of God to keep from falling from Grace! (Galatians 5:4).

Just think of the spiritual crime of bringing over front Leviticus and Exodus and Numbers into this present age and dispensation and program of Grace some of the religious sacraments and ceremonies to make the Grace of God and the perfect redemptive work of the LORD Jesus MORE efficacious and effective! They do this even though, when the omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, Divine, sinless Christ cried ‘FINISHED’ on the cross, and then entered heaven and by His own precious shed blood He obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12), God blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, nailing them to the cross of Christ, the Christ Who then became the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. (Colossians 2:13-16, and Romans 10:4).

God is a jealous God. Be very, very careful about perverting His ‘GRACE’ Gospel or frustrating His ‘GRACE’. It is indeed a spiritual crime, for which everyone who claims to be the LORD’s steward will surely give account. Read Paul’s testimony in Galatians 6:14, Philippians 3:7-8, and Philippians 1:21, and make it your testimony and experience.

Do not be afraid of the Grace of God. Read, believe, and carefully and prayerfully consider the truth of Romans 11:6, “If by Grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise Grace is no more Grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more Grace; otherwise work is no more work.”

ARE YOU REPEATING ISRAEL’S GREAT BLUNDER?

Millions of religious Gentiles are today making the same serious, fatal blunder, that God’s religious nation, Israel, made in the first Christian century, the blunder that brought their downfall, “Israel hath not attained unto the law of righteousness. Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. They stumbled at that stumblingstone.” (Romans 9:31-32).

Why is it that the religious Gentiles of 2012 do not profit by or learn from the great blunder of religious Israel? Why do they not believe and receive at full face value the glorious truth of 2 Cor. 5:21 and 2 Cor.8:9, the truth that the sinless LORD Jesus Christ was made sin in our behalf when He yielded up the ghost on the cross, that believers might be made ‘THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD’ in HIM. “For ye know the Grace of our LORD Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”

Then concerning the riches of Christ and the riches of God’s Grace for all the human race, note the truth of Romans 11:12, which tells of the diminishing and fall of religious Israel, because they refused to be saved by the infinite Grace of the God of all Grace, “Now if the FALL of them (Israel, albeit temporary) be the ‘RICHES’ of the world, and the DIMINISHING of them the ‘RICHES OF THE GENTILES’.” The blinded Israelites in this Age and Dispensation and reign of Grace are spiritually very poor. Many of them are rich in worldly possessions. Together with many Gentiles they are but little influenced by the words of their own Messiah in Luke 12:15 and Luke 16:15, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”, and, “God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”

Self-righteousness can be a sin far more deadly than murder and adultery. The greatest blunder that any person on earth can make is to reject the LORD Jesus Christ as Saviour, the Saviour from the awful, terrible wrath of God.

Although Satan, the god of this age, is responsible for the unbelief of lost, condemned sinners (2 Cor. 4:4-5, and John 3:17-19), to every rational man or woman in this land of Bibles God is today repeating the charge of Romans 2:1; “thou art inexcusable, O man.” In Romans 1:20 we learn that before the LORD Jesus and the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, long before the risen Christ gave to Paul the Gospel of Grace and the dispensation of Grace, the human race was without excuse.

Remember the great truths of John 3:17, 1 Timothy 2:4-6, and Ephesians 2:8-10, “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved”; “God will have all men to be saved; ONE GOD, ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all”, “by Grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast; for we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Only people who have been redeemed in God’s way, “justified without a cause by God’s Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 3:24-26), can ‘walk in the Spirit’ and thus fulfill the righteousness of the law. (Galatians 5:25 and Romans 8:4). Unless, and until a person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that person cannot please God. (Romans 8:8-9). When the believing sinner meets God at Calvary and receives Christ, that believer receives freely God’s righteousness and the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 3:14, Ephesians 1:13-14). There are NO other requirements: NO ordinances, NO religious ceremonies, NO worthiness, NO merits, NO good deeds on the part of the believing sinner. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”; “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”; “being now justified by His blood.” (Romans 5:6-10).

Justified believers are saints and are temples of the Holy Spirit. They are exhorted to “walk as becometh saints” (Ephesians 5:l-4); to “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22); to be shining lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, holding forth the Word of Life. (Philippians 2:14-16).

***

In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.

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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