1) Have You Fallen From Grace?

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Romans 3:27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Welcome to Truth Time Radio. Want to hear some good news? You are Romans 7, freed from the law of sin and death. Now that's good news. There are those who attend church every time the door is opened, wouldn't miss it for a hurricane. They'll fight El Nino to get there, but when they get there, they're not hearing the gospel. Service after service, all they hear are misapplied Bible verses that have been taken from other ages and presented as if they were meant to be applied today. You've been freed from the law of sin and death, yet you're being told you need to keep it. Listen, Peter was given the keys to the kingdom along with binding and loosening power, and then just seven verses later the Lord called him a devil. He couldn't do it, and neither can you. No human being has ever kept the law perfectly, and you're not going to be the first. The first one to keep the law was Jesus, and you're not going to be second. Too many church folk are being taught that they can satisfy God by their own law-keeping.

Law-keeping is in the Bible, but you've got to rightly divide the word of truth. It's in the Bible, and so is stoning children to death for being disobedient to it. Law-keeping is in the Bible, and so is selling everything, all possessions, and laying the money at the apostles' feet. Are you doing that? Why have you been taught to cherry-pick? Why aren't you being taught about the new information that God added after humanity failed at law-keeping, information that was hid in time past but is now made manifest, information about being a new creature, a new creature by faith and without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:24. We have listeners that admit they've never heard this verse before. Is this preached at your church? Being justified freely, freely by faith and faith alone? You'll use a coupon for a free hamburger, a free car wash, hold up the line at the supermarket scrolling through your cell phone app looking for coupons, but when God offers you something free, you suddenly become skeptical. You trust the cell papers, the cell phone app, but you don't trust God. And I'm talking about churchgoers.

Romans 3:24. Justified freely. The only redemption available today is in Christ Jesus. You won't find it in law-keeping. You won't find it in following rules. Law-keeping represents works. It represents flesh, and there is no redemption found in any work of the flesh. You can't find it in sin confessing, in repentance, water baptism, turning from sins, church attendance, tithing. Your prayer life won't affect redemption. It is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and that alone. There's nothing in your flesh you can do to satisfy God, only Christ and what he did all by Himself satisfied God.

Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who died to save you from the law of sin and death, was buried, rose on the third day, and offers you the free gift of salvation by grace through faith in his finished cross-work. Romans 3:22, Righteousness is by the faith of Jesus. Verse 24, Justification is by His grace. Verse 26, God is the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. This work is amazing. God did it all. So if God did it all, and the entire transaction of salvation was settled by him, the Just and the Justifier, then verse 27 asks the perfect question. Look at it. Verse 27. Where is boasting then? Now that God has satisfied everything needed, he did it all, what's left to brag about? The verse asks, Where is boasting? And then it answers the question. It's excluded. Every time I sin, I confess it. You're bragging. I do my best. You're bragging. God did his part, now I got to do mine. You're bragging. I got catechized. More bragging.

You can be catechized or baptized, but you better realize those are just works of the flesh, and no flesh, Galatians 2:16, will be justified by works. Just fill in the blank. It's bragging. It's boasting. And where is boasting? Romans 3:27. It's excluded. I got to talking with a man in a bookstore, so I asked, Are you saved? He said, Yes. I said, How do you know? He said, I make sure to confess my sins, and I try my best not to miss church. Boasting. I had another tell me, Yes, sir. I stopped drinking, gambling, and chasing women when I was about 36 years old. More boasting. Where is boasting? According to scripture, it's supposed to be excluded, but it's not. It's included.

You see, these false salvation testimonies are a result of mainstream teaching. This is what you get today. A salvation testimony will always point to Christ and what he did and not you and what you do. How narcissistic. And these same people will say they don't believe in salvation by works, yet works is the only thing they talk about when asked if they're saved. I go to church. I stopped doing this, and I stopped doing that. I started doing this, and I started doing that. I've been catechized, baptized, and repent of my sins. I, I, I. The middle letter in the word, pride. Where is the gratitude toward Jesus Christ and his finished crosswork? It's been replaced with boasting. Boasting in man's own accomplishments.

Your church won't tell you, but I will. The Lord Jesus did it all, and you trust him. If you're trusting in church attendance, sin confessing, how faithful and loving you are toward others, or, or, or any work done in your flesh, you've fallen for a lie. You've fallen from grace. None of these things or any other work, just fill in the blank, nothing you can perform in your flesh will save you. Salvation is a free gift of God, Ephesians chapter 2, a free gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Sound familiar? Sounds like what we just read in Romans.

And in Romans 3:28, Paul concludes something. Watch this, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified without the deeds of the law. A man is justified without works. So why do you bring up the laws you keep? I don't care about the laws you keep. I'm interested in your faith. Your deeds won't justify you. Your faith will. There's no place for your bragging, so just keep it to yourself. Have you ever noticed that, that when someone famous dies, the media automatically puts them in heaven? Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, the list goes on and on, the do-good religion of pride, the religion of self. She must be in heaven. Look at all the good things she did. According to popular belief, the measuring stick for getting in heaven is works. It's not faith in Christ. It's works, self-effort, faith in self. Salvation is not of works lest any man should boast. So where is the boasting of works? It's not included. It's excluded.

Doing what I do allows me to talk with a lot of people. And I have found that most are not certain of their never-dying soul's salvation. They're not sure if they're saved or not. Their religion has taught them this. The only faith they have is faith in uncertainty. And this is what happens when you're Romans chapter 10 verse 3 ignorant of God's righteousness. So what do they do? They go about trying to establish their own righteousness. How? By doing, doing, and then doing some more. And there they are hanging on with all their might and still have not submitted to the righteousness of God. They chapter 10 verse 1, they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. They sincerely want to get it right but don't know how. There's a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. Listen, if you could obtain righteousness by self-effort, then my friend, Christ could have stayed in heaven. He died in vain. And if that's your belief system, I have bad news. The God of this world blinded you, and he did it through the religious establishment.

Truth time is here and attempting to slip you the key that will unlock your shackles. If I can only get you to Galatians chapter 2, stop frustrating the grace of God, you'll begin to taste spiritual freedom. Paul calls the law weak and beggarly, and tells us that now we have much more. We have much more than the elements of law could provide. We have the finished blood work of Christ. Romans 5 verse 8, But God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 9, Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. We've been crucified with Christ by faith, apart from works. Where is boasting? It is excluded. We are Colossians 2:10, complete in Christ by grace through faith in the finished cross work of the risen Savior. Had this always been true? No. Couldn't have. Obviously, the cross work wasn't finished until after the death of Christ. And this is precisely why some teach a work-based performance for salvation. Where did they get that? From the Bible. Faith with attached works to maintain one's salvation. That's in the Bible, but they're not rightly dividing the word of truth. What they miss is something happened. The cross happened, and following that, Christ came back to Paul on several occasions and revealed the fullness of his cross work accomplishment.

This is what they miss. So their sermons are mixed up. They'll tell you to do things to be saved that a saved person should only do after they're saved. It's cart before the horse. We don't work to be saved. We work because we are saved. They mix salvation with service. Getting this wrong is the result of pulling up to church, unzipping our forehead, taking our brain out, placing it in the glove box, and going inside the church. No need to think. Just come on in and trust your feelings. Like a blind man, we've tried to feel our way through. Meanwhile, we've done nothing but build up a mountain of debt. Romans 4:4, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. By faith alone, leave your works out of it. By faith alone, you get grace. Add your works, you get debt. It's your choice. It seems that some have caught an intellectual virus and don't even know it. They need to be woke up from their dumbed-down, just-another-brick-in-the-wall brainwashing programming.

You know, 90% of modern warfare is information. So let's make sure we get the right information, the right information that will allow us to make an educated, informed decision. One of the first things that our listeners often ask is, How did I not see this? For all these years, how did I miss it? And then this ministry of reconciliation gets hold of them, and it's like a light comes on. They awaken, being awakened for the first time to facts and reality is certainly an outstanding thing, but it only happens to zthose who are not allergic to the truth. Thank God we're saved by grace through faith without our works, for if salvation had anything to do with our works, heaven would be a miserable place. We'd have to listen to everyone brag for all eternity. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Salvation is not of yourself. Keep salvation and your service separate.

When an African bushman needs water, when the water is scarce out there in the desert, they'll set up what is called a salt trap. Baboons are very inquisitive, and they love salt. The bushman will place a lump of salt in a tight hole, and then he'll sit back and wait on the baboon. The baboon comes along, reaches into the hole, grabs the lump and gets trapped. By holding on to the salt, he makes a fist, which makes his hand bigger. But because of his love for that salt, he refuses to let go. The smart thing to do would be to let go of the salt, unclench the fist, and the hand would relax, enabling him to pull his hand back out. But he's ruled by the love for salt. The bushman then puts the baboon in a cage and gives him all the salt he wants. The next morning, baboon gets thirsty, bushman lets him out of the cage. And where do you think the first place the baboon runs to? Water. Bushman follows him, and they both drink to their fill. The bushman lets the baboon do the work for him.

Is your ego being ruled by your love of performance? Religion will keep us in shackles, holding on, just like the baboon, holding on to this work, to that work, trying to measure up for God by adding self to the salvation equation. Listen, salvation is not holding on. It's letting go. Many hold on to their works, thinking they can add them to the cross. You've got to let go. Let go of your self-effort. To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Salvation is God's gift to us, not ours to him. Most today are attending church where they're preaching doctrine that has more twist and turns than a Texas two-step. It's left them allergic to the truth and suffering from scriptural phobia.

That's going to wrap it up. If you're uncertain of your salvation, give up on yourself and commit your salvation to Christ. You may believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again, but have you trusted in that alone for your salvation? There's a difference. It's like believing there's a chair in front of you or trusting that that chair will hold you. Christ died for all your sins. He was buried and he rose again. Your faith in that alone without any attached self-effort is what will save you. However, if you're adding an attached work, you'll remain unsaved. Where is boasting? It's excluded. Remember, you only get two educations, the one you're given and the one you give yourself.

 

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