Are You Hiding Behind Grace

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Are You Hiding ... Behind Grace?

    There is a doctrinal plague sweeping through the institutional church which allows professing Christians to justify their sinful lifestyles. These  professing believers are hiding behind a cloak of grace as the churches look the other way ... after all what's more important holiness ... or a full house. An ongoing message of holiness drives unsaved people away and therefore doesn't pay the bills whereas the message of grace keeps 'em comin' back for more.

     Many churches have become fair havens for these carnal attendees who are given to crude bodily pleasures and appetites. They brazenly continue unchecked in their cycles of sexual gratification; all the while hiding behind a facade of grace, and the church allows it ... and then we wonder where the Holy Spirit went (1 Thess 5:19)!

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What exactly is biblical grace?

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• unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification 
• a virtue coming from God  
• a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace

     Grace is how we get saved. It is God's mercy extended to us even though we don't deserve it (Rom 3:24; Eph 2:8-9). There is nowhere in scripture that leads us to believe that grace is a license to sin. As a matter of fact just the opposite is true.

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Grace is not a license to sin

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Just look at these verses:

 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:1-4 NKJV)

     Church pastors will get up behind their polished pulpits and boldly herald these scripture, verses, but alas -- you can tell a tree by it's fruit. If the pews remain lined with habitual abusers of holiness, attempting to take advantage of grace; then something is sorely amiss.

     Churches aren't doing anyone a favor by allowing this type of behavior. Many of these adherents have convinced themselves that it's all right to sin as long as they say a little sorry to God now and then. Reminds me of the confessional in the church I grew up in. You went in, said I'm sorry, did penance, and went out the next week and did it all over again only to return for more absolution next time. Allow me to be really blunt here:

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"If you are living in repeated cycles of sin there is a very real possibility that you were never really saved at all."

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     The apostle Paul sent a letter to the professing believers in Galatia and writes: 

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy,

murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21 NKJV).

     In this we have all  failed by allowing the world's standard to slither into our midst and inject it's poison into the very bloodstream of Christianity.
Beloved, we must come to our senses and realize that it is not okay ...

• That the divorce rate in the church is the same as the world outside (Mal 2:16).
• That we allow couples to live in sin without saying a word (1 Cor 5:11-12).
• For both young and older men alike to dress and act according to the spirit of rebellion that so permeates the world. (1 Cor 2:12)
• For young girls as well as grown women to dress sensually in order to draw attention to their bodies -- fishing for attention; always wiggling the worm so to speak. The really sad part is that they've been lulled into thinking that the way they present themselves is actually godly. They honestly don't even know what pleases God and what holiness is all about (1 Tim 2:9-10).

    You might be getting a bit upset with me at this point, but what I'm writing is true and we all know it at some level. There are a lot of people professing Christ as their Savior and wondering why things are no better in their lives.They live defeated miserable, down trodden lives trying anything and everything to try to feel better... Perhaps your one of them. 

     If the Body of Christ doesn't offer folks like this a genuine salvation they will go elsewhere looking for relief.  Yes, the Devil has slowly boiled the frog (the church) in the water of the world's standards.

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Is the following not an apt description of our churches today?

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Rev 2"14 To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

      These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

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The good news is that ... Genuine salvation works!!!

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     True salvation is a miracle of God; one that has cost him dearly. The sinless blood that our Lord Jesus shed for sin is very precious. It has earned a response of holiness from those who partake of it -- not in terms of behavior modification (trying to be good) but by receiving the powerful, free gift of a new creation (Eph 2:8-9 KJV).

     Any one who is truly saved is changed deep, deep down inside. Our spirit is made alive in Christ and we have the power of God living in us. Our hearts cry out "Abba Father." and we take on a new-found passion for holiness where every cell in us cries out, "I want to be like Christ!" This is not natural -- this is supernatural! This is genuine Christianity!!!

     It is this gift (our new nature in Christ) that propels us to desire holiness, righteousness, modesty and humility. This is what rips our heart out of the world and into living out our citizenship in the kingdom of God. We find that we have entered into a new dimension where out hearts are in heaven with Christ, even though our feet walk upon earths troubled sod.

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The Perfect Law of Liberty

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"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jer 31:33 KJV)."

     Could it be that the "perfect law of liberty" mentioned in the letter of James is the fulfillment of the above Old Testament prophecy in which the law of God is indelibly branded onto our hearts and we become the property of another (Jas 1:25 KJV)?

     As partakers of this new heart we find ourselves automatically fulfilling "the perfect law of God" in joy and Liberty out of pure gratitude. A glorious liberty which brings with it the freedom to be who God created us to be. The sheer magnitude of the joy of sins forgiven ignites an insatiable all consuming fire that burns deep within us (Lk 3:16 NKJV). At last we become free to practice the virtue of true holiness. And that wonderful verse found in Matt 11:30 comes to life ... "for His yoke truly is easy and His burden truly is light" --- hallelujah (paraphrased)!

Who the Son sets free is free indeed!

     If your not living in liberty such as this, with a new heart that cries out for true holiness, then my advise to you is to return to Acts 2:38 and to begin again. Receive a true salvation along with the of the promise of the Father (the Holy Spirit). Don't settle for the soft-sell, watered-down, cheap gospel that many institutional churches are peddling for prestige and financial gain. Unconditionally surrender your life to Christ and be truly born-again!

If you do, you will never be the same ...

 Here's a few more verses to help nail holiness down: 

1 John 3:6 NKJV Whoever abides in Him does not sin.
Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.  

1 John 3:9 NKJV Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.  

1 John 5:18 NKJV We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.