You're listening to Truth Time Radio with Trey Searcy. Bible questions? Email us from our website, TruthTimeRadio.com. There you are. Back for another shot of truth with no chaser. Okay, my question today is, are we to be law working or grace resting? Now, the gainsaying legalists who oppose and frustrate God's grace, now, they'll have us believe that salvation is a gift of God, but only bestowed on those whose works merit their salvation. Measures up. But that's not grace at all. And listen, if we can merit our salvation by our own efforts, then Christ died in vain. Galatians 2:21. And the Ephesians 2:8-9 free gift is not free at all.
Truth hunger is one of the worst illnesses people are experiencing today. While I'm aware that after being saved, God does expect us to work, there's no doubt there. However,we must make sure that our works come after salvation and are not included for salvation. Don't get it twisted. Don't believe a message that includes works to be saved or to stay saved. It's not probation, it's salvation. To get saved by grace through faith without any works, then allow God to go to work through us. That's how he designed it to function. We've all heard the term, fallen from grace, right? Today, with an open Bible, we're going to find out just what that means. What does it mean to fall from grace?
Last time I took the mic, I asked the question, is it okay to boast? In context, of course we're talking about our own self-effort, adding self to the salvation transaction, which so many do today. What did we find? We found out that it is not. Boasting is excluded. Not included, but excluded. Romans 3:27 asks, where is boasting then? Answer, God said it's excluded. Religion teaches that it's included. Scripture says it's excluded. Who are you going to trust? It's time we get self out of the way. Self-evaluation only produces self-righteousness, and God forbids that. Romans 10 verse 3. The righteousness of Jesus should be our focus. His righteousness is greater than Adam's unrighteousness. The strength of God's grace is so extreme, you'll never out-sin it a day in your life. Oh, you shouldn't
say that. That makes people want to go out and sin. Hey, listen, the majority of people don't want to sin. They don't set out to sin, but it happens anyway, because we remain trapped here in this body of flesh. Read about it in Romans chapter 7. A chapter you don't hear preached on very much, and you see where that's gotten us, don't you?
Withholding the truth about our sinful flesh and God's amazing grace isn't the answer. It hasn't helped control sin as of yet, so how about we just try telling the truth for a change? Placing people in bondage with legalistic law don't work. It never helps. It only makes things worse. Hanging law over people's head only sets them up for failure, and it's why suicide and depression is higher among those who grew up hearing it. There is wonder-working power in the grace message. Preach the pure, unadulterated truth about the finished cross-work of Christ and watch what happens. Hearts begin to soften, eyes begin to open, people start falling in love with God's word, they start loving others more, and not with that fake, sappy love, but real genuine love that centers around God, his grace, and his truth. It happened for me, and I've witnessed the miraculous change that grace makes in others. You need
some of this.
I recently got a question concerning the term, fallen from grace, a term that's found in the Bible, and while God made it super easy to understand, it seems as if almost everyone from the pulpit to Hollywood gets it wrong. There are movies about fallen from grace, songs about fallen from grace. You go to the bookstore, you'll find books about fallen from grace. They wrongly define what fallen from grace actually means. It's incredible how that just one simple verse can get so twisted. But Twistianity has done just that. Movies, songs, books, and popular mainstream preachers claim that you fall from grace when you fall into sin. You're in God's grace, then you sin and fall out of his grace. Now that's what they say, but let's put it to the test. The term, fallen from grace, is taken from Galatians chapter 5. Let's go there. Galatians chapter 5 verse 4. But let's back up and start at the beginning. Verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. These Galatians were familiar with Paul's grace gospel, however, they're showing signs of returning to the law.
Verse 2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Circumcision is something done in the flesh, and Paul says things done in the flesh are of no value. There's no profit found in them. Verse 3, For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Sounds like Romans 4:4 where Paul told the Romans, To him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. To those who claim that works are a part of salvation, you don't get to pick and choose which works you like. No, you've made yourself a debtor to the whole law, all of it. No cherry picking allowed. And what is the result of this wrong belief? Verse 4 answers that. The result is, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. There it is. There's the term that continues to corn-fuse so many, three simple words, fallen from grace.
How interesting, because contrary to popular belief, here it says that the one who falls from grace is the one that tries to justify themself by the law, by their works. Their attempt to keep the law is what places them into the fallen from grace crowd. In other words, those trying to do good to gain God's favor are the fallen from grace. That's what scripture says. Not the pulpit magician or the Hollywood movie, but scripture says to fall from grace is to try and earn it. Be careful to avoid the church of twistianity. They do a complete 180 here and twist the meaning to better fit their system. It's a vain attempt to make everyone act better and fly right, to supposedly make the world a better place. And to do that, they're willing to take a wonderful verse from God's word, rip it from its context, and actually lie about its meaning. It's time we set the record straight. Beware of the master manipulators. They're out there. Listen to them long enough, and they'll have you away from God-centered and onto self-centered. No longer God-confident, but full of self-confidence.
Away from God-dependent and onto self-dependent. When self-dependent replaces God-dependent,
bitterness replaces joy. You want to fall from grace? Fall away from cross-work reliant to being self-reliant. From humility to pride. You see, grace is undeserved and unearned, and because of this, everyone, all of humanity, qualifies for it. We all do. So the question is not, do I qualify? It's how do I, a qualified person, walk in it? If God freely offers his grace to me, the only thing I don't need to know is, what can I do to earn it? All I need to know is, how do I walk and rest in it? The answer is, by faith. By faith alone. What they don't tell us is Romans 4:4. Your works only put you further in debt. Mixing works with grace to be saved only grows your debt, but faith alone puts you square in the middle of God's grace. Some would like to turn our focus on the law of demands, the law of qualifications, the law of performance, of endurance. Why is it, just why is it that religion is so fascinated with the flesh? Trying to clean it up so you'll be the one in hell who smells the best. And they market a new treadmill every few months. You ever notice that?
Whether you're a couch guy or a pew guy, you've either heard it on TV or from the pulpit, they always
have a new way, and it's never the right way. Some sort of trending new gimmick for you to buy into. And some Christians are the most naive and gullible people I've ever met. They'll buy almost anything. They won't test it against scripture. They won't try the Spirit to see if it's of God. Just bait your hook with an emotional experience and reel them in. They're always set on go and ready to do the next new thing that everybody else is doing. The next new thing they can do, they can get involved in that will qualify them to receive the favor of God. And you'll never get a clear view of the cross until you get out of your own way. You can't see the cross in a mirror. Focusing on the law, on your self-righteous works, will not decrease sin. It will only increase sin. Romans 5:13, listen, For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. And this goes hand in hand with 2 Corinthians 5:19, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them.
You see how things change when we just compare Scripture with Scripture? Think about it. Romans 5:13 says sin is not imputed where there is no law. And Romans 6:14 says there is no law. Sin cannot be imputed where there is no law. Let God be true and every man a liar. Romans 5:20 reminds us of this, The law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Grace has demolished the law of sin and death. It's been obliterated. The defenders of law try to convince us that we can do it when they can't even do it themselves. You understand that? They want us to line up so they can slip a yoke of bondage around our neck. It's time we get out of line. God says, Romans 14:23, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Those that know to do good and doeth it not, to them it is sin. Now that gets everyone every day. No escaping it. We're guilty.
You ever walk on by, drive on by, miss an opportunity to do good? Ever do anything that is not of faith? The pretenders with their nose in the air are only lying to themselves. Not even one day out of the week can any one of us measure up to God's righteous standard. On your best day you still ain't good enough for God. Quit playing. Whether in thought, word, or deed, you can't hide from this truth. Others can't see our inward sins of the heart, but there's one who does. And it's precisely why we must come to the end of ourselves. That's where salvation is. Listen, if the speed limit is 55, you're doing 56 and I'm doing 70, which one of us broke the law? Just because you see yourself better than others,
better than the guy on the evening news, does not mean you're good enough for God. And is why 2 Corinthians 10:12 says it's not wise to measure or to compare ourselves with others. Not a wise thing to do.
Back to the question we opened the program with, are we to be law working or grace resting? If you're trying to qualify for God's favor, you've fallen from grace. Jesus did the qualifying, now you rest in him. Truth time radio. Truth won't set you free. Knowing the truth sets you free. And here's what I know, falling from grace does not mean what the popular mainstreamers have taught us. Grace is unearned.
So how do you fall from something unearned? Try to earn it. That's fallen from grace. Remember, you only get two educations. The one you're given, and the one you give yourself.
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