GRACE AND THE TRUTH - DAILY INSPIRATION

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Our Union with Christ and the New Heart
Part 3 of 6
by Pastor Ken Lawson



The Root and the Fruit

In Romans chapter six, Paul does not address "sins" (plural) but "sin" (singular). "Sins" refer to acts of sin that people commit. (Paul dealt with this in chapters one through five). "Sin" deals with the root source within us that causes us to commit acts of sin. Many Bible students find it helpful to think of sin here as "the sin nature" or as verse six says, "our old man" (self). Sin is the root; sins are the fruit. It is truly wonderful to know that God saved us from the punishment of sins by forgiving our sins (plural) through the blood of the Cross. Now He wants to save us from the power and dominion of sin (singular) in our Christian lives. Christ not only died "for sins," but He also died "unto sin once," thus breaking the power of the sin nature over us.

You may say, "I must have missed something for I know I am saved, but I still struggle a lot with sin. It sure doesn't seem like I am dead to it." Be encouraged for Paul dealt with the same problem (Romans 7:15-24). God apparently allowed Paul to experience the failure of Romans chapter seven that he might be an excellent teacher of God's solution in Romans chapters six and eight.

You see, everyone seems to think that the answer to sin in a believer's life is to appeal to will power or to legislate against it. However, Paul wrote " ... to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (Rom. 7:18b). If the holy apostle could not will the victory over sin, neither can we. Another way is to set up rules and regulations against it, but that only serves to inflame sin within us and provoke it to life. "But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence (evil desire). For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Rom. 7:8-9).

So much for legislating moral goodness. Many have found that when they put up a sign like, "Don't touch wet paint," people are prompted by something within to do that very thing. Then they wise up and print something like "Please don't touch wet paint." Now it is in the form of a polite request rather than an order. Even when the law is successful in restraining outward acts of sin, the sin nature simmers beneath the surface waiting for the opportunity to express itself.

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Our Union with Christ and the New Heart
Part 4 of 6
by Pastor Ken Lawson




The Grace Way

To overcome sin we must not rely on rules and regulations, the law, will power, or anything in ourselves. The grace way is the only thing effective because it is God's way and the method by which He works in His own children today. "For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). What Paul teaches here about being dead to sin but alive to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the most valuable lesson he learned from God for complete victory over sin. You might think of it this way: if I were to die today, there would be one positive; I would not be able to sin against God anymore. The negative is that I would not be able to serve Him anymore in this life. Similarly, when we receive Christ as Savior, God puts our old self to death (affected by Christ's death) and we become disconnected with our old nature. Thankfully, He doesn't leave us in death but now imparts new life (Christ's resurrection life) to us by which we have strength to serve Him.

Romans 6:5-10 is a further explanation of verses three and four. It does not deal with the future death and resurrection of the body but our current spiritual death and resurrection with Christ.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is free from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

To be "dead to sin" does not mean that sin cannot affect us nor does the fact that "our old man is crucified" with Christ indicate that he no longer bothers us. Dead men affect us every day. Our parents and grandparents affect who we are, how we think, and how we react. Even dead presidents affect us in ways we don't even realize. But we need not be enslaved by a dead man. And we need not be controlled by the old man within that God has put to death.

It may be helpful to think of death as separation. Physical death, for example, is a separation of the spirit from the body. Likewise, the Romans chapter six form of death is a separation of our sin nature from us. When we believed the Gospel, God affected this separation by a spiritual circumcision in which He cut off (or surgically removed) the old heart (self) and a new heart (Christ) was replaced as the life-giving Source. Lack of knowledge, unbelief, and selfishness wait in the shadows to derail our spirituality. The old heart can be reconnected and take control of our lives if we allow our spiritual life to flounder.

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Our Union with Christ and the New Heart
Part 5 of 6
by Pastor Ken Lawson


A Prophetic Voice and a Contemporary One

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel spoke of a time in the coming kingdom when his restored people, Israel, will receive their heart transplant. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, an cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Ezek. 36:26-27). Their hard heart will be replaced with a soft heart which will be ready to do His will. While Israel's stony heart will be removed, God, in His wisdom, allows ours to remain within, and while separated, we still have the freedom to yield to its destructive ways. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the, flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Gal 5:17).

Years ago, I heard a message on Romans six from Pastor Win Johnson of Denver, Colorado. He spoke at the annual Bible conference of the Berean Bible Fellowship. When the venerable old saint ascended the platform, the first thing he said was, "I wonder if I could amend the title of the message tonight. The title as it appears on the program reads, 'A Change of Masters.' I would like to change it to be 'A Choice of Masters.'" He, was right and I never forgot it. While we do have a change of masters in standing and position before God, it is nevertheless true that in our state and condition in the world, we have a responsibility to reckon it to be true of us personally and to yield ourselves to God as alive from the dead. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

What Paul says in verse six about "the body of sin being destroyed" doesn't mean that our bodies cannot become the instruments of sin. That notion is dashed by what Paul says in verses twelve and thirteen as well as our own experience. All too often we open the coffin and consult with the old corpse of sin, The word "destroyed" does not mean annihilated but "rendered inoperative" or ineffective. It is potential.

Think of this illustration: Mark and Carol have been married for 15 years. Mark thought that it would be a wonderful wedding anniversary gift if he would surprise her with a new car. When the day came, Carol looked out the front picture window to see a bright, colorful, new car with all the accessories. She was delighted! But then Mark thought of a devious joke to play on her. During the night, he got out of bed, went to the garage, and disconnected the battery to the new car. The next morning, Carol got in the car to head off to work. Mark stood in the kitchen listening and laughing as she tried desperately to start the car. Carol finally walked in the house in tears and said, "Mark, I think we got a lemon!" Mark explained the prank and in a few months she thought it was funny too. The new car was in perfect running order. Mark had just separated it from its power source.

So Christ has positionally separated us from the sinful nature (or old heart) and connected us to Christ with His resurrection life. What God has joined let us not put asunder, and let us not join together what God has separated!

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Our Union with Christ and the New Heart
Part 6 of 6
by Pastor Ken Lawson



Three Hinges for Better Understanding

Three key words will serve as hinges to help us open the door to Paul's teaching in the beginning of this chapter. They are Know - Romans 6:4, 6, 9. Reckon - Romans 6:11. Yield - Romans 6:13. So far, the key word has been "know." But knowledge of the way of holiness is not enough to actually reach it. The following verses supply the remaining elements.

11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Romans 6:11-13).

The next key word becomes "reckon." We understand that Christ died to put to death our sin nature and rose again. Now He says, consider it to be true of you personally. Since we are one with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection, reckon that He put the old heart to death and gave you a new resurrection heart that doesn't respond to sin. This is where we get to exercise our faith in what God has said. Notice how many times the phrases "unto sin" and "unto God" are used. Verse eleven describes the position of every believer as dead to sin but alive to God. Verses twelve and thirteen show potential movement toward either sin or God, depending on our choice. The command to "Let not sin reign in your mortal body" shows that it is possible to do so if we fail to reckon.

Let's face it. Sin is pleasurable to the flesh and is still a draw (1 Tim. 5:6; Heb. 11:25). But God wants to draw us to His right hand where there are pleasures forevermore. Nothing is more pleasurable and fulfilling than living close to God and honoring the lordship of Christ in our lives. He fills the heart with a peace, love, and joy that eclipses any pleasure that we could experience in sin. And it lasts forever.

The final word is "yield," and it is an act of the will. It is the same word that Paul uses later in Romans 12:1 and is translated "present." "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." God wants His children to choose God and His righteousness as a continuing lifestyle and yield their eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, and entire being to Him as an act of acceptable worship for His name's sake. We do it not out of fear or guilt but because "the love of Christ constrains us to live for Him who died for us and rose again (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Paul says much more in the remainder of Romans to complement this short introduction to practical holiness but suffice it now to repeat Paul's instruction, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).

When temptation comes, we can speak to ourselves and say, "I am dead to this through Christ's death and alive to God through His resurrection. He has set me free from the taskmaster of sin and I choose to conduct myself in newness of life because of who He has made me to be in Christ." A wise man once said, "When temptation knocks, send Christ to answer it."

In order to have the victory over sin, we must know (the fact of our co-crucifixion and resurrection with Christ), reckon (consider it to be true of us personally), and yield (an act of the will by which we choose to acknowledge the lordship of Christ in our lives). God's divine heart surgery has given us the power to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). As sons of God, we now have a choice of masters which by knowledge, faith, and commitment will lead to a change of masters in our conduct, faithfulness, and attitude.

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~A HEAVENLY HOPE~
By JOHN McKAY, Pastor



Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:5


If you are trusting the Lord Jesus with His death and resurrection, for your salvation, you have a wonderful future ahead of you. Your future will be significantly different from Israel's future. The Hope of Israel involved an eternal king - the Messiah - ruling the world in the eternal kingdom. The resurrection of the dead would provide the realization of Israel's hope. See Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2, also Luke 1:32-33, 67-79.

Our Hope is somewhat different. We are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Our future will give us the realization of what we already have spiritually. We will have a resurrection body, joint ownership of all things, fellowship with our Lord eternally without interruption, rewards, deliverance from Satan, sin, and frustration.

What a wonderful future! The certain expectation of these things in the believer's life is the result of Christ IN us. If the Lord Jesus is in us, and we have been placed in Him by the Holy Spirit baptizing us into His Body, we can be certain that glory will be ours. "God...hath called you unto His kingdom and glory...to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." In Romans 8:18, we read about the "glory which shall be revealed in us."

Is it surprising that the Apostle Paul thanks God for what we have? "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven..." (Colossians 1:3, 5). Let's study to show ourselves approved of God concerning the content and the difference of our hope.

Grace Bible Church,  Ohio

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~THE HOPE OF GLORY~
By JOEL FINCK, Pastor



Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:27


One of the key words in this dispensation is the word "grace." Paul uses this word some ninety times in his epistles. But did you realize there is another word he uses over ninety times? That's right, the word "glory." Grace and glory seem to go together. Perhaps this is why Paul called the grace message he preached, "the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust" (I Timothy 1:11).

In today's text we read, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians l:27). Many people hope for glory, but unfortunately most go about attaining it in all the wrong ways. The talented athlete may receive glory for a time, but it will count for nothing in eternity. Unsaved religious people also hope for glory, but seek it by works, not by faith. When asked if they are going to heaven, they will often respond, "I hope so." This kind of hope is actually nothing more than wishful thinking.

A true Bible hope is more than this. The word for hope in Scripture actually means a firm confidence or conviction. According to Colossians 1:27, there is only one way to acquire this kind of hope, and that is through Christ. Our unique hope under the Mystery program is to someday be caught away to Heaven where we will live eternally with our Lord. Paul calls this .."that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). Do you have this hope?

Falls Bible Church,

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THE THRONE WHICH IS NEVER ABDICATED!
By Paul Hume



Scripture Reading: Rev. 4:1-11; Heb. 4:16

What a glorious and great scene is this! John, by the Spirit, is caught away into "the Lordly day" (Rev. 1:10) to behold events which will certainly transpire in the heavens and on the earth. This is the scene of "the Majesty on High" in Rev. 4. Notice the throne and the One who sits upon it! How awful is this glorious scene! All the celestial beings who behold this sight can do no less than fall before Him on His throne and "Worship Him that liveth forever and ever."

Oh! Friend! Stop right now! Let this blessed scene flood your soul--that of the Sovereign God of the universe--our Father! Then bow low in spiritual worship!

"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!"
(Reginald Heber)

Here is the Throne which has never been abdicated!
Earthly monarchs are sometimes deposed. Some of them reign for a score or two of years, and they must finally yield the throne to their successors. All must die sooner or later. But not the One who occupies "the Throne of grace!" In the Person of the Lord Jesus, in Whom all the fulness of the Godhead has been pleased to take up its permanent home (Col. 1:19), our blessed God is still ordering our lives in His matchless mercy, grace, and love from that eternal throne. Furthermore, in the wider sense, He is still ordering the varied affairs of this old world--be they malignantly evil, or be they magnificently good--from that same throne! Little wonder we can sing from our hearts:

"God is still on the throne,
And He will remember His own,
Though trials may press us and burdens distress us,
He never will leave us alone
God is still on the throne,
He never forsaketh His own;
His promise is true,
He will not forget you,
God is still on the throne."
(Mrs. F.W. Suffield)

Is HE on the throne of YOUR heart today?

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~THE HOPE OF CREATION~
By RALPH F. BALOG,



Scripture Reading: Romans 8:20, 21

Tornadoes - Hurricanes - Floods - Raging fires - Drought - Famine. What do these things have in common? They are symptoms of a creation "groaning and travailing in pain until now."

Is it always going to be this way on earth? Things appear to be on the downswing weatherwise, worldwide. Scientists bemoaning the loss of something called the ozone layer, etc.

Sin has brought a curse upon God's perfect original creation. Just as Adam's sin brought physical death upon all men (Rom. 5:12), so too, it brought creation under the curse. Genesis 3:17-18: ".....cursed is the ground for thy sake...thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee......"

Disobedience to God was calamitous in consequences to man and creation. Is it to be this way forever? What is the "hope of creation"?

The deliverance in verse 21 of Romans 9 comes after members of the Body of Christ have been taken into His presence. Verse 23 states it is the redemption of our bodies that will trigger future earthly condition changes. While we, members of the Body of Christ, are physically on this planet earth in our mortal bodies, creation too, must wait for its hope. First, the members of the Body are changed and then creation.

The phrase in verse 21 "bondage of corruption" is sobering. It states why the earth is in such turmoil. Sin has caused the "bondage or corruption" and we abhor such humanistic signs as: "Love your mother - earth." The ungodly do not know this is a present evil age and that fervent heat awaits this sinful earth as described in II Peter 3:10. As 2 Peter 3:13 states there will be: "........a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."

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ARE BELIEVERS ABOVE THE LAW?
by Russell S. Miller


Some people understand the grace principal to mean that living "under grace" we may do as we please, but grace is, by no means, a license to sin. However, it is argued that because the covenant of the law was made with Israel, Gentiles were not under the law, and Romans 3:19 is cited in support of this thinking:

"Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."

The covenant of the law was, indeed, made with God’s chosen nation, Israel, and no such covenant was ever made with any other nation, but that did not exclude Gentiles from God’s law. The law was given, we read, "that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world might become guilty before God" (Rom.3:19). So, Israel represented the righteous and holy standards of the Law of God in the world. And "when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves" (Rom.2:14). This bears witness that Gentiles had "the law written in their hearts" (Rom.2:15). It is no wonder that we have such a lawless society today when believers feel themselves to be above the law.

In this dispensation of grace it is blessedly true of us, that "sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom.6:14). "Free from the Law" does not mean that we are above the law, although we are to produce that fruit which is spiritual (Col.3:1-4), and heavenly (Eph.1:20,21; 2:6), in character. In so doing we shall, by His grace, accomplish what the law could never do.

Therefore as members of the Body of Christ the Apostle Paul exhorts us:

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal.5:16).

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
"Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Gal.5:22,23).

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THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION
By Pastor Robert Hanna,


Scripture Reading: II Timothy 2:20, 21


"We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:10,14). God has set us apart unto Himself. "He (in Christ) gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and PURIFY UNTO HIMSELF A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS" (Titus 2:14). This is our positional sanctification, which places us under spiritual obligation to prove ourselves worthy of His expectation. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

The Apostle Paul exhorts us to faithfully dedicate ourselves to this end. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:I, 2).

Paul explains his responsibility to encourage our faithfulness through "ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, BEING SANCTIFIED BY THE HOLY GHOST" (Romans 15:16b). "If a man purge himself from these (vessels of dishonor), he shall be a vessel unto honour, SANCTIFIED, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work."

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PERSONAL APPRECIATION
By Miles Stanford



"As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him" (Col. 2:7).


We appreciate His benefits toward us, but are we appreciative-do we express to Him our appreciation?

"Let us be very watchful that the inner life, communion with the Lord Jesus, be the true source of our activities."

"The Lord Jesus longs for fellowship with us. He does not want patronage. It does not meet the desire of His heart to be followed, or admired, or gazed at, because of what He can do or give. He delights in a heart taught of the Spirit to appreciate His Person, for this glorifies and gratifies the Father. He retires from the gaze of an excited and tumultuous throng who would fain make Him a king, because they had eaten of the loaves and were filled; but He could turn with touching earnestness to the little band of disciples who still remained, and challenge their hearts with the question, 'Will ye also go away?'"

"Love could never be too near to its object. Nearness to the Lord Jesus is the instinct of divine life, as we see in the first question of the two disciples who followed Him, 'Where dwellest Thou?' Why is not this the first question now? Because there is not simple devotedness of heart to the Lord Jesus Christ."

"There is nothing in all the world so precious to the Father as a heart that, in any measure, appreciates His Son."

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28 ).

2Th 1:7  "And to you who are troubled rest with us, ......."

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ENEMIES OF GOD AND WORSHIPERS OF SATAN
by C. R. Stam



"...we were enemies..." (Rom. 5:10).

"...the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not..." (II Cor. 4:4).

Many religious but unsaved people will not accept the fact that they are enemies of God, and fail to understand why the Bible should insist that they are. But the God who says that they are sinners, worthy of everlasting judgment; that their only hope of salvation lies in the One who poured out His life’s blood to pay the penalty for their sins -- this God, the God of the Bible, they cannot abide. Let one of His servants tell them what He says about them and they are insulted. When this God, the true God, refuses to accept their "good" works or their "righteous" conduct they react like Cain, of whom we read: "And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell" (Gen. 4:5). They simply will not bow to this God, and their attitude betrays their enmity against Him.

But why will they not turn away from their self-righteousness and trust in Christ, who died for their sins?

Simply because they worship Satan, "the god of this age," who "hath blinded the minds of those who believe not." Worship Satan? This too is hard for the unregenerate man to believe about himself. As he has his own conception of God, he also has his own conception of Satan -- a wrong one.

Unbelievers do not know that the real Satan, the Satan of the Bible, has a vast wardrobe and, in this dispensation of grace, doubtless appears most often as "an angel of light" with "ministers of righteousness" (II Cor. 11:14,15). This Satan they do indeed worship. They adore him, and try to live by his precepts, convinced that the way to salvation is to do and be good.

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Boldness In Proclaiming the Gospel
by Steve McVey

In August of 1521, Martin Luther wrote a letter to his friend, Philipp Melanchthon. Here's what he had to say about how to proclaim the gospel:

If you are a preacher of mercy; do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners.

Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter, are looking forward to "a new heaven and a new earth" where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins?

Raw grace --- it's dangerous stuff. At the least, it makes some people nervous. Others will be outraged. Tell folks that their sins are all forgiven and some of them will become incredibly offended by such good news. Tell them that there's nothing they can do to separate themselves from the love of God and they'll accuse you of preaching license to sin. Tell them Jesus has done it all and there's nothing left for them to do to make themselves acceptable to God and they may say you're teaching passivity. It's a strange thing to see how much people often despise good news.

Share the truth in its purity and you'll likely find that your enemies will hate you and your friends will worry about you. That's a given. Plainly and simply put, if you are never misunderstood; if you are never criticized for your view of grace; if you never ruffle any feathers, you aren't being bold enough in proclaiming the gospel of grace.

>From the Apostle Paul forward, everybody who has proclaimed pure grace has riled up self-righteous religionists. Don't forget that the greatest opponents of Jesus were the religious people. I don't believe we should try to be offensive, but the Bible calls the gospel an offense, so if nobody is ever being offended by our proclamation of grace, we have to wonder how clearly we are presenting it in its purity.

Luther and others, both before and after him, paid a price for refusing to budge on the subject. May God raise up a generation of grace walkers today that show the same resolve. The need is great and the potential is staggering.

Be bold about grace. Don't raise the white flag by accepting that there must be balance. Don't surrender by agreeing that it may simply be a matter of semantics when we discuss the subject. Don't think for one moment that you can take grace too far. You can't because if you did it would stop being grace and morph into disgrace.

As Luther said, the exalted Lamb didn't pay a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins. The Trinity of Heaven spent every ounce of Divine Equity for our forgiveness and to bring us into the Divine Circle of Life. Let us not insult such a great expression of love with a wishy-washy testimony. Stand strong. Speak plainly and refuse to compromise. Too much has been spent and too much is at stake to do any less.

2Co 5:19-21  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we pray [you] in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

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ABOUNDING GRACE



In the Word of God following the statement in Romans 5:20, "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound," this question is asked: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

"Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again" (II Cor. 5:15).

"For in that Christ died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God" (Rom. 6:10).

"Christ died for our sins." If Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man, then by that same grace of God every believer is dead unto sin. Very few of God's people have fully appreciated, or even appropriated, the blessed truth of identification; that is, the glorious fact that the redeemed sinner is identified with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. He has been baptized into the death of Christ; and by the same Divine baptism he has been raised to walk in newness of life. He is also seated with Christ where Christ is, far above principality, power, and dominion (Eph. 1:20 and 2:6).

It is very interesting to study the 4 "much more's" in the fifth chapter of Romans, and learn that God's grace is altogether sufficient for every, task, every test, every trial, every temptation, every tribulation, and every thorn of every believer. What a wonderful statement we have in II Corinthians 9:8, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency, in all things, may abound to every good work."

Surely this super-abounding, inexhaustible grace, this ample provision for all things, leaves all believers without excuse. When the child of God blunders and fails, stumbles and falls, it is not because of any shortage of Divine grace. This marvelous provision for the believer's spiritual life of victory is definitely stated in Titus 2:11 to 13, which we quote: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

And when that blessed hope is realized, believers shall be saved from the very presence of sin. They shall then appear with Christ in glory and come into a new realization of that eternity of grace expressed in Ephesians 2:7; "in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." -Selected

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"PEACE ON EARTH"
By Miles Stanford


"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts" (Col. 3:15).


Peace does not, and cannot, exist in the fallen Adam life; and as long as the old man reigns within, there is going to be turmoil both within and without. The path of the Cross is alone the path of peace.

"The moment came when the Lord Jesus could say, 'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you' (John 14:27). This could only be on the ground of His death, for the man in Adam could never give up his will: to do so would be to give up his very existence. But the death of the Lord Jesus is - judicially, and for faith - the end of that man, and the Christian walking in the Spirit owns him no more.

"The believer can thus, and only thus, have freedom from the tyranny of sin as he reckons himself to have died unto sin, and to be alive unto God as one 'alive from the dead.' He presents his body a living sacrifice unto God, and proves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Thus walking, the peace of the Lord Jesus becomes an experiential reality in the heart of the believer. Thank God! we are no longer linked with the fallen Adam, and the Holy Spirit has placed us in union with Christ risen and glorified."-C.A.C.

"The more clearly we enter, by faith, into objective truth, or what is true of us in-the Lord Jesus, the deeper, more experiential and practical will be the Spirit's subjective work in us, and the more complete will be the manifestation of the moral effect in our life and character." -C.H.M.

"Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" (Heb. 2:11).

I love you and care about you so much. The Christian faith is not a buffet
where you can pick and choose what you want to believe. We don't get to
determine what Truth is, God has already done that and given it to us in the
Bible.