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For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (II Corinthians 2:16) |
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There is a great deal of compartmentalized thinking in the world, even among the saints of God. We have two or more compartments in our brain in which we put ideas. The ideas in one compartment do not agree with the ideas in the other compartment. |
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We Christians believe in righteousness. We know that without holiness no person will see the Lord. We believe the Bible to be a holy book that directs us to be clean morally, to tell the truth, to refrain from violence and covetousness, and so forth. |
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But our doctrine does not agree with this. Our doctrine tells us that Jesus did it all and if we will only believe, God will see our conduct only through Christ. |
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We are happy living in this illogical state but sooner or later we get into trouble. The individual who hears each Sunday about grace then goes off with a woman (sometimes another "grace-filled" believer) and leaves his wife and children. |
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The minister who preaches grace falls through lust. Then his associates and his congregation who cheered him on in his preaching of grace cry shame, shame, and he is barred from the ministry. |
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If God does not see the man's misbehavior but only the moral purity of Christ, who are we to cry shame, shame? |
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This inconsistency has not been so obvious in time past because our cultural mores have taken the place of sound doctrine from the pulpit. We know it is a shame to commit adultery, to lie, to steal. If the Lord Jesus or the Apostle Paul had been an adulterer, liar, or thief, we wouldn't pay attention to what they said. |
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But now the cultural mores have been corrupted. Satan has torn down our last defense against sin and we are left with the overemphasis on the grace of forgiveness (as though that were the only aspect of Divine grace). Any sociologist could have predicted the outcome—our nation is on the skids to Hell. |
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The Muslims and the Hindus put us to shame in the area of decent moral behavior. And we are the children of God? |
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The Spirit of God is crying for repentance in America. But our doctrine is not compatible with repentance. If we are perfect in Christ, if God sees us only through Christ, there is no real basis for repentance. |
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We need to hear from God! The fear of the Lord is gone from the American churches because we are overemphasizing God's love, mercy, and forgiveness. These abound for the truly repentant. We are setting forth the goodness of God but not His severity. If the balance between mercy and wrath is not restored the present generation of Christians will be of little use to the world as a moral light. Our only hope will be the children who are coming up. |
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God is good, loving, kind, merciful. He has given us Christ, not as an alternative to righteous behavior but as the means of acquiring righteous behavior. May God give us the mind of Christ until our whole body is full of light. |
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Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24) |
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When we considered going on the Internet the thought came that we should emphasize righteousness, not imputed or ascribed righteousness but actual righteousness of conduct. Perhaps the most important subject of the Bible, next to the revelation and work of Jesus Christ, is righteous behavior. |
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God's purpose in giving us a new covenant is that we might have the Divine grace necessary to enable us to live righteously, that is, in honesty, moral purity, faithfulness, truthfulness, upright dealing with other people. |
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But Divine grace has become an alternative to upright, godly behavior. The result of this perverting of the Divine intention is Christian churches that give a dim moral light or no light at all. |
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How did this misunderstanding come about? |
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The view of grace as an unconditional amnesty that operates independently of our moral behavior (which is antinomianism, an ancient heresy) proceeds from a misunderstanding of the early chapters of the Book of Romans. |
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Paul is speaking primarily to Jewish Christians in these passages of Romans. The Jews already were trained in the laws of righteous behavior even though in some instances they did not obey them. Paul went to the heart of the new covenant and exhorted the Jews to look up from the Law and put their faith in the Lord Jesus for salvation. |
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Along come the Gentiles. Most of us have not had the excellent training in righteousness given to Jews in the time of Paul. When we read that we are justified freely by the grace of God through Christ we think, "Whoopee! I ought to try to do good but since I'm justified freely by grace I will go to Heaven no matter how I behave" (added confusion in that Paul was not referring to going to Heaven but to salvation in the Day of the Lord). |
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Paul was not presenting Divine grace as an alternative to godliness (as the remainder of his writings reveal beyond all doubt) but as an alternative to circumcision, not eating pork, and all the other statutes of the Law of Moses including the moral injunctions codified by the Law. |
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By offering faith in Christ, Paul was not saying we can go ahead and commit adultery, steal, covet the things of our neighbor, and murder people. Paul says several times that if we break the eternal moral laws of God, of which the Ten Commandments are a special edition, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. |
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We see then there is enormous confusion today concerning grace. |
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Grace is not an alternative to righteous conduct. If we do not behave righteously, as God helps us, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. We will be removed from Christ, from the Vine. |
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The blindness to this simple biblical truth must be of supernatural origin because devout, otherwise brilliant scholars keep on advising the Christians they do not have to endure to the end in order to be saved. |
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We have thwarted the purpose of Divine grace. It is time to start preaching the truth. God wants His children to keep His commandments. Let's quit the excuses and start doing what the Bible says. Maybe God will have mercy on us before the good old USA slides into the ocean. |
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(And please . . . let's stop calling people legalists who are trying to get the believers to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles! They are only trying to fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you kindly.) |
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Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34) |
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Are you a stressed-out personality? I am—the original choleric. |
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One evening (just before my heart attack) I was in my office at church praying. The service was about to begin. |
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The Lord said, "All there is, is now." |
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I thought, "Boy, I'm a short-termer. I may die before I go out to preach." |
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Well I didn't. In fact I am still alive and giving people a bad time. |
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It took a while before the wisdom of the Lord's word took hold. It's really profound! Yesterday at that time was now. Tomorrow will be now when it gets here. |
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Did you ever lay in bed all tense with your fists clenched and your toes curled up? Analyze the situation. You probably will find there is nothing wrong right now, it is the future or the past that has you tensed up. Right? |
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It is difficult for some of us to live in the present. |
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I'm riding in the car. I'm all tensed up. Why? Because I'm thinking about what I'm going to do when I get there. |
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Did you ever notice on the airplane what happens during a landing? The seat belt sign goes off. Everyone springs to his feet. Most of the people stand bent over because of the low ceiling until they can get out in the aisle. There we stand all tense, waiting for the line to move. |
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Usually you don't save five minutes doing this. It makes much more sense to stay seated until there is room. But there we are, living in the future, not aware we are cramped and uncomfortable, worrying about when the line will start moving. |
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Do you ever do this? |
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It isn't easy but I have been trying to catch myself from time to time and say "All there is, is now." It really helps. You begin to relax, realizing you aren't hurting (most of the time). In fact you might take a nap instead of hoping you get where you're going. |
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This sounds like Reader's Digest material but I'm not into smelling the flowers and noticing how beautiful the sunset is. Maybe you are. You're fortunate. God made a beautiful world and it ought to be enjoyed. |
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But I've got things I want to do, like telling people what I have learned over the last half-century as a Christian and some of the stuff the Lord tells me. Maybe somebody will be encouraged and begin to joyfully seek the Lord and walk in righteousness. |
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One such person makes all the tension worthwhile. But taking a deep breath and saying "All there is, is now" gets rid of some of the strain. |
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This procedure is most effective if you have committed all that you're worrying about to the Lord. |
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Today is the day of salvation. Thank you, Lord. |
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Mother, are we there yet? |
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Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3,4) |
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The mainspring of Christianity is death and resurrection. |
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Christianity is thought of today as a religion. Actually it is a continuation of Judaism. In fact, Judaism itself is not a religion. It is man's attempt to systematize a revelation of God. |
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The Christian life is a series of deaths and resurrections. Our first nature, that which was born of our parents, may be considered a temporary form that God invented so He could create an eternal humanity. |
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When we receive Christ, our sins are forgiven. We then embark on the pathway of life. There is no true eternal life in our first nature. Eternal life has to come from outside, from the living God. |
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In order to embrace the true life we have to turn away from the old. This we do through prayer, step by step, as the Spirit of God leads and enables us. |
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Let us say someone offends us. The adamic nature is easily offended. |
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Now we have a choice. We can fume and seek revenge, or we can go to God in prayer until the bitterness is past and we are able to let the anger go and get on with life. |
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If we allow the offense to create anger and bitterness in us (I am talking to Christians now) we keep our adamic nature alive. Soon other sins will crop up. We will lose the portion of eternal life given to us in the beginning. (You can't hate your brother and have eternal life at the same time!) |
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If we go to God in prayer, staying at it until we are able to forgive and let the anger go, a part of our old nature will die on the cross with Christ. In its place will come a portion of the nature of the risen Christ. This is what it means to be born again. |
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Being born again is not some religious experience that begins and ends when you first receive Christ. Rather it begins then and must continue each day until a new creation comes forth. |
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Death and life! Death and life! Death and life! This is why the Christian life requires patience. |
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It's worth it, though. Unless you are pleased with your adamic nature (I am disgusted with mine) you may wish to be changed. Your family wishes you would change. Your friends wish you would change. The world wishes you would change. God wishes you would change. Here is your chance to please everybody. |
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Anything is better than this! |
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Make the best of it. Die with your boots on. Say farewell to Adam. You won't see him in the Kingdom of God. |
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The new man, Christ in you, is the Kingdom of God. Celebrate Christmas by giving to the world a new person—you! |
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My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19) |
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The believers in Galatia had been saved and filled with God's Spirit. Paul spoke to them, as he did also to the believers in Ephesus, that they were to be strengthened until Christ was dwelling in them in the fullness of God. |
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There are numerous people in the world today who have been saved through the blood of Christ and have been filled with God's Holy Spirit. This is not the end. We must go on from here until Christ is formed in us. |
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We are using the term "born again" incorrectly today. It is as though all a person has to do is "make a decision for Christ" and he then is born again. No such usage is found in the Book of Acts or in the Epistles of Paul. |
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Making a decision for Christ is just that—it is deciding that Christ is our Redeemer and that we must come to Him if we are to be spared in the day of God's wrath. |
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But being born again has to do with our entrance into the Kingdom of God. Each moment of each day we must decide to go God's way or our own way. If we go our own way, nothing happens. We do not enter the Kingdom of God even though we have "made a decision for Christ." |
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If we go God's way of prayer, Bible reading, and obedience, our old adamic nature keeps dying and Christ keeps being born in us. Christ is formed in us, as the Apostle says. All the ministries of the Church keep on working and travailing that we might put our old nature on the cross and rise with Christ in newness of life. |
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Dying and living. Dying and living. Christianity is a religion. Salvation is a personal experience with the living Christ who gives us daily His body and blood that we might live by Divine Life. |
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This world is boring at best (unless one is living in the wild excitement of the fast lane—and the end of that is terrifying!) and a horror at worst. He who endures to the end shall be saved. But during this endurance contest we can know the joy of exchanging our adamic nature for the eternal life, wisdom, and power of God. |
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We cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God except as we are born again. Every member of the Kingdom must be born twice: once of woman and once of God. It is that second birth, birth of the Divine Nature, that brings forth the Kingdom of God, the rule of God, in us. |
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The weeds and the wheat are coming to maturity in our day. Each one of us is being forced to a decision. The middle ground is disappearing. Either we lay hold on the living Christ or we default to the power of Satan. We are only particles of dust confronted by two colossal personalities. |
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Choose Christ and you will walk the compressed, thorny path that leads to the gates of splendor. |
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Neglect Christ and you will walk in increasing deception until you realize you have been the plaything of forces greater than yourself and are driven to the flaming ovens that give no light. |
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O Lord, give us all eyes to see spiritual reality! |
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For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9) |
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When I received the Lord a while back, I was given the above verses to memorize. It was a long time before I read the next verse. The next verse does away with what I had been taught about the previous two verses. The next verse tells us we are saved to do good works. Why didn't they tell me that? Is there some kind of bias, some conspiracy working here? Now I'm getting paranoid. |
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I was informed that I was saved by grace and no matter what I did I would go to Heaven. But that tenth verse said I was saved to do good works. |
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It has taken me many years to grasp what was wrong with the evangelical (I am an evangelical) teaching of grace. |
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The general understanding is that grace is an all-inclusive panacea. I appreciate the fact that all-inclusive panacea is a redundant expression in that panacea means an all-inclusive remedy. But then the expression rule and reign with Christ is redundant and everybody says that! |
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I thought I had it nailed by defining the current understanding of grace as "forgiveness." But then I realized grace is being used to include far more than forgiveness. It is like a magic, or snake oil, that makes up for every human imperfection. |
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You're not serving God? No problem. You're saved by grace. You're not taking up your cross and following Jesus? No problem. You're saved by grace. |
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You find the demands of the Bible too harsh? No problem. You're saved by grace. |
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You want to divorce your husband and leave your four children? You're a naughty girl and shouldn't do that. But, Honey, not to worry. You can never lose your salvation. Once you believe in Jesus you're saved by good ol' grace. |
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You want to leave your wife and children and run off with the piano player? Your denomination may defrock you for six months but you will still hear the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter the joy of your Lord." You are saved by grace. |
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Grace—the all-inclusive panacea. How wonderful to have some snake oil that will heal your cancer and take rust off your fenders. |
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Amazing grace is truly amazing! It can reconcile the worst of sinners to God. True grace is God in Jesus Christ forgiving people and then enabling them to live so as to please God. |
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The grace we are preaching today is even more amazing. The sinner is forgiven and brought to father's house where he can keep on sinning. We are preaching a panacea that not only forgives people but overlooks every shortcoming. No matter how people behave, they are assured of entrance into the Presence of God. |
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Do you have any idea how totally unscriptural, how totally abominable such a doctrine is to Jesus Christ? It frustrates completely His intention to take sinful human beings and turn them into holy warriors who can return with Him and drive sin from the creation. |
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What a wonderful thing such a panacea would be. We could have our cake and eat it too. We could fool around in this world, live as we please, and then appear as a great mountain of fire, ready to "rule and reign" (sic) with the Lord Jesus. |
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On the other hand it would not be so wonderful at all. We would be stuck in the new Jerusalem with the same crowd of backbiting, spiteful, malicious, slanderous church people, all praising God for His grace. |
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Dear Lord, deliver us from such "grace." Thank you. |
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They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (Matthew 25:3,4) |
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One time the writer asked the Lord why he would not be allowed to share his "oil" with the needy in the Day of the Lord. The Lord seemed to reply that in that Day one would have only enough oil for himself. Even the righteous are saved with difficulty. A sobering thought! |
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In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul reveals to us why "oil" is so important in the Day of Christ. |
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We Christians possess a physical body that is dead because of the sin that resides in it. |
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God already has placed within us the Spirit of life that, in the Day of Christ, will raise us from the dead: |
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We have a dead body but within us is the Spirit of the resurrection. |
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If we choose to put to death through the Holy Spirit the deeds of our body, overcoming the lusts of our flesh and our pride and self-will, the resurrection life within us will be powerfully present, awaiting only the trumpet of God to make alive our mortal body. |
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But if we choose instead to live "in the flesh," thinking and acting according to the desires of our flesh and fleshly mind, the resurrection life within us will decrease in vitality until it is present in minimal amount or not at all: |
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We still have our Christian "testimony"—our profession of belief in Christ, but the resurrection life is gone out of us. |
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When the trumpet of God sounds there will be no response from within us. We shall understand, because of our knowledge of the Word of God, what is taking place. But we shall find, to our panic and terror, that there is no eternal life rising up from within us. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that hour. |
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Satan will then turn against us and mock us because he has been successful in causing us to believe we can be involved in the prosperity of this world's culture and still be a servant of Christ Jesus. Satan will gleefully remind us that we have been as faithless as he himself. |
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The Day of the Lord will fall as a snare on the inhabitants of the earth, including the believers who have not been looking constantly to Christ Jesus. The Christians who have allowed the love of the world to interfere with their sowing to the life of the Spirit of God will not have the inner power to enable them to join together with the elect who have been raised from the dead. |
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It is not possible to be entangled with the things of the world, as so many Christians are today, and then respond successfully to the trumpet of God in the Day of Christ. |
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How about you? Are you carrying a good supply of oil in you? (From The Day of Messiah) |
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