Let Grace Abound (#1022)
Go bless you! Welcome to our final session on the Grace of God, before we have our weekend class on the grace of God, next week, which is all moving towards our book on the grace of God
Now I have to clarify something that I said a few weeks ago, when I was talking about my wonderful brothers in Christ, who based on their study of the chronology around the book of Revelation, feel that there will be born again Christians there present in the early part of the book of Revelation, when all of those tribulations, and the mark of the beast, and all that nasty stuff happens. The way I worded it turned out to be not exactly correct. I said that they were claiming we could lose our salvation, but I heard from them since then and apparently they didn’t actually say that. But, what they did do, so I was incorrect in saying they said we could lose our salvation, but what they still continue to do is, based on their study of the Word is put Born-again Christians there during that time where there are verses that say “if you’re faithful to the end, then you won’t go in the lake of fire.” “If you’re faithful ’til the end, then you’ll inherit the crown of life.” So, by implication, I still believe their teaching implies it strongly. So, I stand by what I taught, just the way I worded it, I admit was not 100% correct. Because they never actually said we’d lose our salvation, but by putting us in a time-period and in an Administration where you can lose your salvation and end up in the lake of fire, I think it all comes out the same. Even though they didn’t say that, I think it is implied. And if those wonderful saints can convince me otherwise, I will gladly retract that. But, having spent many, many hours talking with them and reviewing their materials as couple of years ago, again, based on what I know now, I stand by that. But we’re still brothers in Christ, and we still love each other and pray for each other, and one of these days there will be a trumpet, and if the trumpet sounds before the stuff in the book of Revelation, I was right. If we go through a bunch of tribulation in the book of Revelation, and the trumpet sounds sometime later, they were right. Either way, we’re born-again and the Lord is returning.
So, with that brief clarification of what I taught a few weeks ago, let’s get into today’s session, which is entitled: “Let Grace Abound,” and this is going to get into some fairly deep doctrine in the book of Revelation and in Corinthians, because the problem you come into when you get deep into the grace of God is whether you should just go do any silly thing you think and claim the grace of God as justification, or whether their are some guidelines for Christians today. Many Christians groups can’t figure out this balance, so they do what they consider the safe thing, and put every body under the law. We’ll I’m neither going to put everybody under the law, at least my teachings won’t say that. And neither am I going to say, go do any dang fool thing you want. But, where the balance is, that is a challenge because we’re talking about walking by the spirit of God and enjoying the freedom we have in Christ. And the freedom we have in Christ is massive, but there are still some guidelines we want to follow. We won’t have time to go into all of them today, but I hope to set the groundwork for that.
Just a historical note, as you many notice by some of the comments made, I’ve been studying a lot of medieval history recently, just as I drive around, I got a great series of lectures I got from a library in audio. So, I’ve studied that extensively, but I’m continuing to learn more things. And the thing that hit me this week was why so many European knights in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, roughly, AD; why they were willing to leave everything behind, risk all their fortune, and their lives to go to the holy land and to try to recapture Jerusalem. Well the reason is very simple, the knights were soldiers, they were fighting men, the killed people, which was considered sinful at that time. And they felt that because of their lifestyle of running around killing people that they would go to hell. That is what the theology of the time was. Well, the Pope offered them an Plenary Indulgence, which simply means that if they went and fought to try to reclaim Jerusalem, get back the true cross from the Arab groups that had gotten it and that kind of thing, if they made the crusade, then all of their sins would be forgiven. And they’d get into heaven. And it was a very good ploy.
The popes at the time were very good, they wanted to reclaim the holy land from the Muslims, and they used this plenary indulgence as a way to do it. The knights just flocked by the hundreds and thousands because they wanted to get into heaven and they realized that based on the theology of the time, their lifestyle wouldn’t allow them to. Now, wouldn’t it had been fascinating if they knew that salvation was by grace, and all they had to do was accept Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, they would be born-again and have eternal life, but no, that wasn’t the theology of the time. They were under the law, they thought they would be judge by their works, which is why I get so adamant when I see anybody trying to put Christians under the law and saying that anything they do other than getting born again affects their salvation. What you do after you’re born-again obviously affects your life, you know if I run around killing people and worshiping the devil, I’m not going to live a very happy life, but I’m still born-again. And I’ll still be there when the Lord returns.
So, any rate, that was my little historical note for this week, that I enjoyed. Let’s go to Romans chapter five…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20210613. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Romans 5-6 Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (5:20)
Romans 7 I delight in the law of God after the inward man (vs. 22)
I John 5:1-5 His commandments are not grievous (vs. 3)
II Corinthians 3 Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (vs. 17)
Matthew 6:1-5 They have their reward (vs. 2)
II Corinthians 10:12 They comparing themselves by themselves are not wise
Teaching