We find God's grace in various places of the Bible, but the full-out pouring, dispensing of His grace, it's only found in Paul's writings.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
But shun profane and vain babblings, for they'll increase unto more ungodliness.
There's a lot of profane and vain babblings today, and the only way to avoid them is to dig in and rightly divide the word of truth.
Now to rightly divide the word of truth is to rightly divide the gospel of your salvation from other gospels that are found in Scripture.
But there's even some rightly dividing to do when it comes to how we use grace.
All throughout the Bible, there's grace, and then there is the dispensation of grace,
that which was given to Paul.
Adam and Eve, who failed God miserably, failed Him by disobedience.
He gave a simple instruction, which they ignored.
But not long after, God came to them and extended grace.
Genesis chapter 3, verse 21, Moses wrote, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them.
Even after their sin, after their blatant disobedience to God's instructions, He showed them grace by sacrificing an animal to cover and clothe them.
Adam and Eve found grace, but not Paul's dispensation of grace.
Noah, a just man, committed to pleasing God.
We read in Genesis chapter 6, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,
both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air.
For it repenteth me that I have made them.
But in the next sentence, Moses writes, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Out of all the humans on earth, God chose one, Noah.
Here we have another beautiful picture of grace.
But not to be confused with Paul's dispensation of grace.
Noah did not find the full-out-pouring, dispensing of grace, but he found grace nonetheless.
Abraham, who lied about who his wife Sarah was, slept with another woman.
And still, God promises to Genesis 12:3, To bless them that bless thee, and curse him
that curseth thee.
And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Folks, Abraham found grace.
What about Moses, who early on, he was a stubborn, arrogant man, a murderer, who was full of doubt, yet God never forsake him.
And in due time, he learned to walk in obedience and lead God's people out of bondage.
He became a great leader, but only because of the grace he found with God.
An important thing to remember is, there is grace within a dispensation, and there
is the dispensation of grace.
It's imperative that we distinguish between the two.
What about the Israelites?
They went after false gods, made and worshipped idols at almost every turn.
They suffered immensely for their wrongdoings.
And unlike us today, they often found themselves facing God's judgment.
Not so for us.
At times, they faced His judgments.
At times, He showed them grace.
But showing grace and dispensing a continuous outpouring of grace is entirely different.
Let's take David.
Okay, he was a fornicating murderer, a thief, yet he found favor with God.
Unlike us today, David was on the other side of the cross, and didn't have the benefit of non-imputed sins, from what he wrote in the 51st chapter of the book of Psalms.
Verse 1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy love and kindness. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin.
David wasn't as fortunate as we are today to have non-imputed sins, and neither was
he sealed with the Holy Spirit.
That's evidenced a few verses later in verse 11.
Nonetheless, David, Acts chapter 7, verses 45 and 46, found favor before God.
What about Rahab, the harlot, a prostitute?
She found grace.
Most everyone back then thought of her as being one of the least likely candidates for receiving God's grace.
But in Joshua chapter 2, she indeed found grace and decided to faithfully serve the God of Israel.
She found grace, but wasn't as fortunate as you and I to be living under it.
Noah found grace, Abraham found grace, the Israelites, David, Rahab, they all found grace.
And there's other examples of God's grace throughout scriptures.
The account of Ruth also comes to mind.
But today, the time in which we live is a unique and special time, a time like no other.
When God is not showing up in our day-to-day circumstances, every now and then, a little sprinkle here, a little sprinkle there, and supernaturally gracing us.
We're not experiencing individual grace in dribs and drabs to help us escape or make
it through certain situations.
No.
What we have on this side of Calvary's cross is far greater.
We're enjoying a full outpouring of God's grace.
Amen?
Hence, the word dispensation.
You know, it's like a soda fountain, so to speak.
Place your cup under the spout and your drink is dispensed.
Well, today we live under the constant dispensing flow of grace, a grace flood.
Hence, the reason God is not judging us for our sins.
No Ananias and Sapphira happening in the dispensation of grace.
No, the grace dispensation is a system whereby God is dispensing grace non-stop.
Again, there is grace within a dispensation, and then there is the dispensation of grace.
These are quite different.
The grace we're being shown today is not about God every now and then stepping down from heaven to intervene in our daily circumstances.
It's not about Him stepping down.
It's the fact that He already stepped down.
And when He did so, what He accomplished on the cross led to the greatest dispensational change in history.
And we're enjoying the fruit of His labor.
A dispensation deals with how things are administered economically.
And we're under the dispensation of the grace of God, Ephesians chapter 3, which deals with being exempt from a rule or what was normally required.
This is why Paul, Romans 6:14, wrote, "...for sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace."
In your mind, picture a parenthesis.
Place one side of the parenthesis in front of Paul's meeting Jesus in Acts chapter 9.
And take the other side of your parenthesis and place it on the right side immediately after Paul's letter to Philemon.
Inside the parenthesis is where we find ourselves today.
Most of the world is oblivious to this piece of knowledge and is why we've been commissioned by Paul with our Great Commission, which is to tell the world about it.
How that during this time of God's dispensing of grace, He is not imputing anyone's sins.
In this but-now period, He's dispensing His abundant grace, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 15.
Under this administration, grace reigns, Romans 5:21.
A different system, a different arrangement, different rules, a different program
than what God had prior with Israel as a nation during their rise.
They've since fallen.
And this is a brand new administration by which we've been cleared from having to perform under Israel's works-based law system and given the green light to proceed ahead according to grace.
God is currently dispensing nonstop grace and is why He is not pouring out, dispensing His wrath and judgment.
These cannot both run simultaneously.
His dispensing of grace is currently holding back His day of dispensing judgment.
That's far different and certainly unique from finding a little grace here and a little grace there in between His judgments.
That's what often happened to the Israelites.
See we mustn't get confused.
Let's not mix up the mail.
Let's keep it separate and that'll make things easy to understand.
We're in a time when God is not judging the sins of mankind at any time, because they are not even being imputed.
They were imputed to Christ.
This is why it is vital that we rightly divide—rightly dispense—the word of truth.
Now go tell someone the gospel today how that under the current dispensation of grace, forgiveness is rated E for everyone.
But salvation is only found in Jesus.
So you must believe on Him.
He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.
He died for sins and rose on day three.
Salvation isn't getting your sins forgiven, it's believing they already are.
Grace and peace.
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