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And there you are.
Back for another shot of truth with no chaser.
Today on Truth Time we're going to be taking up the issue again of fallen from grace.
Galatians chapter 5 verse 4.
Fallen from grace.
And that is what can indeed happen if you don't stay in God's word.
His word of truth rightly divided will set you free.
Wrongly divided, it will have you in bondage.
And think with me, if faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,
if you're not in God's word, faith can't come.
If you're not in the word of God, you might have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Paul told his brothers at Rome,
I am persuaded, Romans 15:14, I am persuaded that you are filled with all knowledge.
If you're not in God's word, faith can't come.
Study to show thyself approved.
God's word is what feeds our faith.
A major problem that we're faced with today is we're not hearing the word of God.
We mostly hear storytelling.
That's what's popular today.
Stories, jokes, motivational speaking.
Listen, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Scriptures.
The word of God all by itself is what grows our faith.
How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17, we read,
Come out from among them, and be separate.
Touch not the unclean thing.
Now what is this unclean thing?
Verse 6 says, By pureness, by knowledge.
Verse 7 says, By the word of truth.
And Paul says in verse 11, O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you.
This concerns knowledge.
Preaching knowledge.
Preaching the word of truth.
Verse 13, I speak as if I were speaking to my children.
So now, what is the unclean thing?
Unclean doctrine.
If you go to church this week and your pastor doesn't rightly divide the word of truth,
he's preaching an unclean thing.
It's like mud.
M-U-D.
Mixed up doctrine.
How do we clean up the mud?
Rightly divide it.
When we make God's Word priority, our spiritual eyes open our understanding.
One of the most mixed up and misunderstood subjects is understanding the difference between our state and our standing.
State and standing.
Seeing the distinction will help answer many questions.
There's our day-to-day physical state, which is how others see us.
And then there's our eternal spiritual standing, which is how God sees us.
Physical state versus spiritual standing.
They're different.
Galatians 3 tells us that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female.
No, we're all one in Christ Jesus.
This scripture is important when showing, when demonstrating to others the need to rightly divide the word of truth.
If in Christ there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, then explain why Jesus in John 4:22 said,
Salvation is of the Jews.
Thought there was no difference.
Explain why Peter wrote, Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation.
Thought there was no difference.
If in Christ there is no difference, explain why the beginning of the book of James, verse 1, starts out by saying,
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
Why does he greet the twelve tribes of Israel if in Christ there is no difference?
The reason Jesus said, Salvation is of the Jews, is because it was.
It was but is not now.
The reason Peter did not write his letters to you but instead wrote to a quote, Holy nation, is because he was addressing the nation Israel when they were still operating in their preeminent position.
John 4:22, Salvation was of the Jews.
And it's why the book of James opens by saying, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
Salvation was of the twelve Jewish tribes of Israel.
But things have changed.
Through the letters of Paul who had an abundance of meetings with the Lord Jesus Christ, things changed.
Listen, these books you're trafficking in to try to find your doctrine don't have your doctrine.
You can find spiritual application but hands on day to day doctrine you won't find there.
The doctrine there is in line with when salvation was of the Jews.
But it's not anymore because there is now neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, we're all one in Christ.
You see, in the Bible we can find passages where there were differences between Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female.
And we can find passages that demonstrate that there aren't any longer, not in Christ.
And if you're not rightly dividing those, you're making a spiritual mess of things.
In the natural, I can look around and see the various differences, but not in Christ.
Once we realize this, once we realize that God no longer sees us according to our day to day state,
but sees us as we are in Christ, our spiritual position in him, we can then begin to walk in newness of life.
Don't fall from grace by falling back to self.
Keep standing in your spiritual liberty.
In the spiritual, God no longer sees me because I've been baptized into Christ.
Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Now, if I quote, Put on Christ, then who does God see when he looks at me?
Ephesians 5:30, For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
I Corinthians 12:13, By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.
In Colossians 1:24, Paul said, For his body's sake, which is the church.
You've been baptized into Christ. You've put on Christ. You're a member of his body, flesh, and bones.
Hey, your identity has changed.
You've got a spiritual makeover.
Believe that, think that, live that.
Believe that, think that, live that.
God wants to raise our level of thinking, and that comes via rightly dividing the word of truth.
We start thinking in line with the Spirit instead of the flesh.
You see, a new way of baptism was revealed unto Paul, and this baptism you can't see.
It's spiritual.
In Philippians chapter 3, Paul speaks of our conversation in heaven.
Question, can you hear it?
No, and neither can you see the baptism God performed on you.
It happened at the moment you trusted Christ for salvation, and it's spiritual, not physical.
In verse 18, Paul explains that there are those who are enemies of the cross of Christ.
Verse 19, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.
And they do what, Paul?
Mind earthly things.
This same type, Paul dealt with then, are here today.
I encounter people today who think and operate just like those Paul describes here back in the first century.
Their mind is stuck on earthly things.
You ask them how to be saved, they respond by giving you something to do in your flesh, something they can see.
If it's not a law in the Bible, it's some law they'll make up.
Come down front.
Open your mouth and repeat after me.
Make an appointment so the congregation knows when they can come and see you get baptized.
God's word, when taught correctly, brings peace.
When wrongly divided, frustration and depression.
I read an article the other day.
A man took his life, hung himself from a tree in his backyard, left a note that said,
This tree has roots.
I have none.
You think he had been taught the grace message?
No, he most likely heard that his salvation depended on how well he performed,
that God was watching and judging him according to his every move,
that when he died and stood before God in heaven, his works would be judged,
and if his good works outweighed his bad, God would let him in heaven.
And the pressure to perform eventually caught up to him, and it became too much to bear.
He was probably never taught, Colossians 2:7, about being rooted and built up in Jesus
and stablished in faith, not works, and how that is what brings peace and thanksgiving,
being rooted and built up in Jesus and his performance, not our own.
When the word of truth is taught rightly divided, it is understood rightly.
Our spiritual eyes will open and allow us to see that we are no longer self-centered, but God-centered.
This man probably never heard that Jesus took his place on his own tree.
He was hung so that this man wouldn't have to be.
He took his punishment.
He took his judgment, judged so that he wouldn't have to be.
And I bet he never heard that all of his sins, 2 Corinthians 5:21, were placed on Christ at Calvary.
Listen, if they were placed on Christ at Calvary, he was judged, he was punished, he took your place, what can you do about it?
What is there left to do about your sin as pertaining to your salvation?
Nothing.
Now, you want to change subjects? You want to talk about your Christian life, your Christian walk, your Christian service?
That's a different conversation.
We should all try our best to live for the Lord and to put away ungodliness.
But we don't do anything to be saved.
We do those things because we already are.
You see, the popular teachings of today are fear-based, guilt-based.
The message is that the deciding factor to see if we're fit for heaven is measured by how well we perform.
And it's that false message that is pushing folks over the edge.
I landed my first job in Christian radio broadcasting back in the late 80s,
and I can honestly tell you that I have witnessed the Christian message evolve and morph into what we now have today.
And it's almost unrecognizable.
A Muslim who knows their scriptures will tell you that their Quran states that if their good works outweigh their bad works, they'll be forgiven of their sins and gain access to paradise.
Sound familiar?
Those whose balance of good deeds is heavy, will be successful.
But those whose balance is light, will lose their souls and abide in hell.
Yeah, sounds like what's taught in some of the Christian churches of today.
Christianity has become the religion of self-fulfillment.
Self-confident instead of God-confident.
Self-centered instead of God-centered.
Self-reliant instead of God-reliant.
And when you put all of this together, you wind up self-serving instead of God-serving.
This legalism will push you over the edge.
You end up fallen from grace.
Fallen from grace and for the delusion of human accomplishments.
Our self-centered accomplishments will never measure up.
It's the hamster wheel of infinity.
It's never-ending.
Our accomplishments will never equal God's standard of holiness.
You can forget it.
And salvation is not graded on a curve.
So, this stuff about, well, just do your best, that's all God asks.
Your best ain't good enough.
Your best is just your best.
It's not perfection.
And that is the requirement for salvation.
Christ was the perfect one.
He was perfect on our behalf.
We put our trust in him, rest in his perfection, commit our salvation to the perfect one, and totally give up on self.
On the cross, 2 Corinthians 5:19, God was in Christ doing what?
Reconciling the world unto himself so that he could what?
Stop counting our sins against us.
Sins are no longer being charged to anyone.
And listen, when we come to realize that we were forgiven of all, we can begin to love with all.
The interesting thing about love is, while it's what the world needs most, it's the thing we understand the least.
And why is that?
Look at the rest of the verse.
Verse 19 not only says that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but it goes on to say, And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Why doesn't the world have a better understanding of love?
Because of the world's lack of reconciliation ministers.
Where are they?
Where are the teachers of reconciliation?
How many do you know?
Those who preach the word of reconciliation, telling the world that God stopped counting their sins against them at Calvary.
Oh no, no, no, no, Trey, we gotta have them down at the altar.
We gotta have them come into this building to get their sins forgiven.
Repeat after me and say a prayer.
We gotta have them turning from all their sins in order to be saved.
The key to peace is giving up and selling out.
Give up on self and sell out to God.
Don't fall from grace by falling back to self.
Twistianity won't teach this, but you'll hear it here on Truth Time.
We've got to make the transition from self-dependent to God-dependent.
It changes everything.
Don't just say you believe.
Hey, belief has evidence, fruit.
If you've believed on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you've stopped believing on self.
You can't follow two masters.
You're no longer confessing your sins and asking him to forgive them.
That's self.
You've trusted that he already forgave them at Calvary.
If you've believed on him, you're in a state of rest.
Resting in Christ in his finished work.
There's no better place to be.
It will free your mind.
Anything contrary to that is an indicator that you have fallen from grace.
Do you consider yourself a Christian?
I do.
Oh yes, I am.
Ah, yes.
Yes sir, yeah.
Absolutely.
Mh huh.
Yes.
I was raised in Christianity.
Do you believe you're going to heaven?
Oh, I don't know. That's not up to me.
I do my best.
Do you believe that you're going to heaven?
Um, I can't say if I am or I'm not.
I'd like to think so.
Well, I'm hoping for that, yes.
I don't know. Hopefully.
How good would you have to be in order to get into heaven?
Um, yeah, I don't know.
I believe that there's steps, though, to get there.
Do you believe that you contribute anything to your going to heaven?
Yeah. Yeah, I try to make sure at least, uh,
I try to make sure that I make some kind of an impact on someone every day.
How would you react if I were to tell you that your salvation doesn't depend on your works?
It depends on what Christ has already done.
Well, I can agree with that, but it also depends on how you live your life.
You follow what God's guidelines are.
I read a lot of, you know, sacred texts and literatures and, um, from all different religions because I'm kind of fascinated with that and I don't consider myself to be of one particular religion.
Um, so I just think if you really read them in a roundabout way, they're all saying the same thing.
Do you believe that man is basically good by nature?
Yes.
Yes, I do.
I think we can be.
Well, I'd like to say yes to that.
Yeah, by nature, they are supposedly in the Bible.
You was all deemed good until, you know, some people got corrupt.
We have the opportunity to be good.
It's a God given trait.
We are created by God and we as humans are gods.
There are evil and good, you know, and, um, we just have to get all on the right path.
Hi, my name's Will, and I'm a legalist.
Actually, I'm a recovering legalist.
A legalist is someone who uses external measurements, performance, behaviors, religious activities to gauge how spiritual they or other people are.
Legalists are not much fun to be around, and they expect, typically, everyone to think like they do and believe like they do and worship like they do and live like they do.
If they don't, they judge them.
And I was, for the better part of a lot of my adult Christianity, a flaming, out of control, not happy legalist.
And what was worse about my legalism was that I didn't live up to what I was imposing on everybody else.
I would preach stuff and say stuff and write stuff.
And expect people to act certain ways.
And in my own life, I wasn't even doing it and wasn't able to do it.
I was not just a flaming legalist.
I was a flaming hypocrite.
God busted me of my legalism.
And it took a decade because I'm so thick in my skull and slow to learn.
But he did bust me and free me from my rule keeping and my judging of others and introduced me to the wonderful, healing, freeing concept simply known in the term as grace.
And it's profoundly changed how I live and how I view others.
I hope I'm extending grace not just to myself but more importantly to other people as well.
My name's Will. I'm a recovering legalist.
We glory in you alone, Lord, and ask that you bring us to the place where we come to realize that no flesh will glory in your presence.
God tells us, Philippians 3:3 I think it is, to not have any confidence in our flesh.
He says to be found in him not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Philippians 3:9.
1 Corinthians 1:30, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
You want to fall from grace?
Try making yourself righteous.
We just read God makes us righteous, and all he needed to do that was our faith in the finished work of Christ.
We don't perform for righteousness, we believe for it.
He, Galatians 5:1, made us free. he, Ephesians 1:6, made us accepted.
He, Colossians 1:12, made us fit to partake of the inheritance.
And he made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians chapter 2.
We're already there.
You need to get this.
We're already there.
Spiritually speaking, our position is in heavenly places.
We're already seated there.
There's our day-to-day physical state.
That's where I'm at right now here before the mic live on radio.
And this day-to-day physical state is how I see myself, and it's how others see me.
Then, there's my eternal spiritual standing, which is how God sees me.
Do you get that?
Making this distinction will help you understand God's word.
Physical day-to-day state versus spiritual eternal standing.
They're different.
My identity has changed.
If I leave here today and an officer pulls me over, I give him my ID.
On it is my day-to-day name.
But if the God police pulled me over, my identity would say, In Christ.
My name don't matter.
Understanding that God no longer judges us according to our day-to-day state will set you free.
Not free to sin, free to serve.
Serve him with all manner of liberty.
No longer bound and no longer drowning in condemnation, but free to serve the Lord with fervor.
And do it from a platform of grace.
You've never seen someone really go to work for the Lord until you've witnessed someone who understands that they've been saved by grace through faith and sealed until the day of redemption.
Nothing can touch their salvation.
One who has torn off the shackles and realized that they've been set free from man-made traditions and religious bondage.
You want to see God working in and through someone?
Get a good look at that person.
Hey, when someone understands they were made free, made accepted, made to be partakers of an inheritance, and made righteous, watch out.
You've been made these things, you didn't earn it.
Religion says do right to get right, grace says you are right, so do right.
Do right to get right.
Now, how's that working for you?
The only people it works for is those who lower the bar.
They lower God's standard and pretend they're righteous.
Because God's standard for righteousness is perfection, something we will never be, not in our flesh.
It's only found in him, in Christ, and it comes by faith, not works.
If you work for it, you fall from grace.
Your behavior can't line up with your identity if you don't know who you are.
We think if we change our behavior, it'll change our identity.
But God changed our identity so that we could change our behavior.
See how that works?
Don't put the cart before the horse.
I hear those who say, Repent and turn from your sins and then trust Christ.
That's cart before horse.
We don't turn from sins and then trust Christ.
We trust Christ and then turn from sins.
Beware of this subtle message being pushed by twistianity.
It won't work.
We trust him first and then he helps us turn from our sins.
Don't believe that false teacher.
What they don't tell us is the law don't get rid of sin, it only strengthens it.
The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, 1 Corinthians 15:56.
You want to combat sin the Bible way?
God's way?
Here's how it's done.
Titus 2:11 and 12.
You need to put this passage to memory.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, now listen, listen, what does grace teach us Paul?
Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
My friend, we've been taught wrong.
We've been taught the very opposite.
We've been taught that the law is what teaches us how to deny ungodliness and worldly lust.
No, in this dispensation of the grace of God, grace is our teacher.
We don't perform for righteousness, we perform from righteousness.
We don't perform to get our position, we perform from our position.
We're already there.
We're already seated in heavenly places and our conversation's in heavenly places.
This is simply a mindset adjustment.
You'll be on your way to experiencing true peace, true joy, true love, when you abandon self-serving for God-serving.
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, have fallen from grace.
If you want Christ to have an effect on you, the last thing you want to do is fall from grace.
To fall from grace is to fall back to self, away from God-confident and back to self-confident.
No longer God-dependent, but self-dependent.
To fall from grace is to try and earn it.
Remember, you only get two educations, the one you're given, and the one you give yourself.
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