1 Thessalonians 5 verses 21 and 22, Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.
What's evil?
Religion.
Abstain from it.
What's good?
Grace.
Hold fast to it.
God laid it out pretty simple here, guys.
In Ephesians 3:2 Paul said, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
No, Paul, they haven't.
Most still haven't heard about it.
Your gospel remains 2 Corinthians 4:3, hid.
In this day of grace, hey, you want to know God?
If you do, if you want to know him, and in you're presently involved with religion, put on your best pair of Nike's and run.
I'm just, I'm just keepin' it real.
You may think you know God, but you don't.
You know religion's version of him.
And it matters not what some call themselves.
You can say grace this, grace that, and still not have a handle on what really went down at the cross.
Blind to the truth of reconciliation and still religious, they don't believe God stopped imputing the world's sins.
To the religious mind, that sounds crazy, because they see themselves as good people, and the world as bad people.
Just proof, just more proof that they never fully left religion, hanging on to their goodness as if it means something.
Some, some look at the goodness of others, and they're impressed.
They, they allow it to convince them that the words they speak, they must be true.
But hey, that's not Bible.
That's human nature.
It's why the Mormon boys put on a clean white shirt and tie before coming to your door.
It's why pastors hang their credentials on the wall of their office, so you can see them.
As if a piece of paper from a theological seminary means anything, as if it means they speak the truth, it does not.
You either understand the Bible mid-acts dispensationally or you don't.
And be careful, watch, because even the grace message is being hijacked by fakers, pretending to understand Paul's unique apostleship.
Oh, they got a little.
They understand a little, just enough to be dangerous.
But, it's being hijacked by those who never truly left their denomination.
Paul talks about them in Acts chapter 20.
In Acts 20 he says, he called them wolves.
He said, Some wolves coming in from the outside, and some are already among us. Speaking perverse things to draw away disciples, only causing you to digress backwards.
Hey, we're seeing that now, some are saying that Romans 3:25 is the gospel of your salvation.
Even though the verse only speaks of sins that are past.
Newsflash, you having faith that you've only been forgiven of your past sins will leave you lost and on your way to hell.
That's phony baloney.
That's a phony gospel that's making false converts.
All and past are different.
Colossians chapter 1 verse 14, In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
And just flip the page and watch.
Here we'll see which sins Paul was speaking of, Forgiving you all trespasses, Chapter 2 verse 13.
All trespasses, not remission for sins that are past.
Religion's greatest tool has been to cause confusion concerning forgiveness.
Satan would love nothing more than for you to believe that Romans 3:25 is the gospel of your salvation.
Some, they conflate past and all, just as some conflate forgiveness and justification.
Which leads them to believe that forgiveness of sins is conditional.
It flies in the face of grace by putting you under the law of, "do."
When you tell someone they have to do something for forgiveness, you've just made, "do," a law.
And it doesn't matter what the, "do," is, you don't have to teach the law of Moses to teach law.
Any, "do," any, "do," you place on forgiveness runs contrary to what God said through Paul for this grace dispensation.
His forgiveness was for all sins, not past sins.
And was unconditional, not conditional.
It happened at the cross, not at your turn from sin.
It happened at the cross, not when you said a prayer.
It happened at the cross, not when you were baptized.
At the cross, not when you believed and got saved.
Saying you got to do something to be forgiven only poisons God's pure, undefiled, unconditional forgiveness.
We didn't have to do anything for it, it was freely given, and if we allow Ephesians 4:32 to be our pattern, we forgive others the way God forgave us, unconditionally.
Have you ever noticed, have you ever noticed how some they, they'll go to great lengths to avoid someone who hasn't forgiven them?
Avoiding them, thinking they're still angry, and perhaps they are.
And that's how they see God.
Religion has taught the unbeliever that they need to go to an angry God to get forgiveness.
So out of fear, they most often don't.
Satan loves this teaching.
But God's way is so much better, right?
It's so much better than man's.
He says that after the sacrifice of my Son, I stopped being angry and stopped imputing sins to the world.
God's not angry with anyone today, and it's a message that few preach.
Few preach it and it's why most don't know it.
They've never heard it.
As ambassadors, it's our job to publish this good news so the world will have one less reason to avoid God.
He's not angry with you about your sins, and the only thing separating you from him is unbelief.
Salvation isn't getting your sins forgiven, it's believing they already are.
Believing he forgave every last one of your sins, was buried, and rose to give you new life.
But some, they think their belief is the birthmark of their forgiveness.
They've chose to give no regard to Colossians chapter 2 where we learned that at the cross, the handwriting of ordinances that were against and contrary to us were all blotted out, every one of them.
Taking out of the way and nailed to the cross, limited forgivers don't believe this.
They don't believe this verse and they don't believe 2 Corinthians 5:19 where God said he stopped counting the world's trespasses.
Neither verse is hard.
I mean, both are simple.
Acts 26:18 is another simple verse, and it's another one that limited forgivers don't believe.
Here, the Lord said to open their eyes, now watch this, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins,...
They don't believe it so they try to twist it to make you think you have to do something for forgiveness.
They say you have to believe first.
No, you don't.
Listen, you would never ask someone, Hey if you will first receive my forgiveness, then I will forgive you.
How illogical is that?
Forgiveness is at the heart of our faith, so it's important that we get this right.
It's what allows us to embrace our new identity and successfully live out the grace life confident in Christ.
It's what leads to a life of peace and purpose.
So thankful you've chosen to be here with us today.
You've downloaded the app and you're enjoying this grace life with us.
It's just awesome to be a saved by grace through faith member of the body of Christ.
Praise the Lord.
United, unity bound by peace.
United by faith in Paul's one doctrine, the faith of Christ, the Ephesians 4:1 body, one faith, one Spirit, one baptism and one calling.
What's sad is often it's those who claim to know the most about grace that are the ones that have the most difficulty showing it.
Grace is unearned, unmerited, but they hold on tightly to the position that one must do something for it.
We're to forgive others as God forgave us, instead of holding grudges and harboring bitterness, we freely forgive.
Forgiveness doesn't automatically mean reunion, reunification, okay?
Don't get it twisted.
Forgiving someone doesn't always mean there will be reconciliation.
They may never be a part of your life, just as most of the world will not reconcile to God and be a part of his.
But as he did so do we, we freely forgive without requiring anything from those we forgive.
And the ones who can't do this, they're the ones teaching limited forgiveness.
To be frank, they're stuck, reliving, rehashing things in their past and holding grudges, which only breeds anguish.
Anguish that can lead to emotional distress.
Some have a problem giving grace to others because they've never understood the grace God gave to them.
But be that as it may, we are to freely forgive.
Forgiveness is free.
We freely forgive without the person who wronged us having to ask for it.
They don't have to beg for it.
They don't have to acknowledge it.
They don't have to show remorse.
They don't even have to know about it.
Because we're to Ephesians 4:32, forgive as Christ forgave us.
Oh, this, my friend, this is the beauty of forgiveness.
We can free ourselves from the energy it takes to hold on and harbor unforgiveness.
And we don't need anyone's permission to do it.
Which is what God did, forgave us without our permission or belief.
By forgiving unconditionally, we display that God kind of forgiveness that was shown to us.
This is how we release ourselves from the offender's offense against us.
Forgiveness belongs to the offended, not to the offender.
Go read Daniel 9:9.
God forgave us on the basis of what his Son did, not on the basis of what we did.
And we forgive the same way.
An argument used by the limited forgivers is that if God forgave the world, then the world is automatically going to heaven.
As if they can use forgiveness as their ticket.
This is just more toxic stew they're serving.
There's no truth to it.
What they've done is confuse forgiveness with justification.
They're separate words with separate meanings and separate calendar dates.
No one goes to heaven for simply being forgiven.
Forgiveness only took one.
God.
But justification, it requires the individual to respond in faith.
Same goes for reconciliation.
God reconciled you unto himself, now you need to reconcile him to yourself.
His parts deal when he done, and he didn't need you to do it.
Your part is undone until you believe what he did.
Complete reconciliation can never be achieved without two agreeing parties.
So when the unbeliever places faith in what Christ completed, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, they are reconciled to God.
It's important we have this correct, this correct understanding of these terms will help you navigate your way through the Bible.
Forgiveness and justification are not synonymous, not by grammar, definition, or context.
Some things are up for debate, this is not.
God's word is the independent arbiter of truth.
Justification is a legal judiciary act whereby God removes guilt so that he can then declare the guilty party righteous.
But he had to forgive first.
Forgiveness doesn't mean you're justified, because it doesn't clear you from guilt.
Now if you can grab on, if you can grasp this, you can get out from behind the eight ball.
Okay?
The key is to educate ourselves by letting God's word, not man's, but letting God's word be our final authority.
Exodus chapter 34.
For those having trouble with this, allow God to help you here.
Exodus chapter 34.
You've heard what the grace school had to say about it.
Now try God on for size.
Exodus 34 verse 7. Moses, speaking of the Lord here, said, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty;...
You see it?
It's a big flashing light, it's a big billboard right here in front of you.
No longer hidden in plain sight, we're bringing it out here for you.
That's forgiveness without clearing guilt, plain and simple.
God forgave the world without their belief, but his forgiveness did not clear one person in the world of their guilt.
His forgiveness didn't clear the guilty for what they were forgiven of.
We just read it and we can do it again.
Here's more, Numbers chapter 14 verse 18.
Same thing, watch, The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty,...
Uh-huh, again, made ever so clear.
Don't kick against the pricks.
Receive this truth.
Are you beginning to see this?
Limited forgivers have no argument.
They never have.
They've been playing with you for some time now, but it's time you arm yourself with God's word and stand up to their nonsense.
Just connect the dots.
It's pretty simple.
When God stopped imputing sins to the world, he did not clear anyone of guilt.
So, being forgiven by itself will not get you into heaven.
Make no mistake.
No guilty person goes to heaven.
They go to hell.
They go there because of guilt and not because of sins that are not being imputed.
That makes no sense.
How can you go to hell for sins that are not being imputed?
How can you go to hell for sins that were put on Christ?
Take them off Christ and re-impute them to you, each person, and then send them to hell?
Can't do it, but you can send them to hell because they're still guilty of those sins because they were never placed in Christ and justified, meaning that God not only sees them as forgiven, but sees them as innocent, not guilty, as if they've never ever sinned in the first place.
Because you're in Christ and Christ never sinned.
So, if you're in Christ and he never sinned, then you're seen as he's seen.
Having never sinned, completely innocent, not guilty.
See, being in Christ does not mean forgiven, because Christ was never forgiven.
You get that, right?
This is so simple, most miss it.
Just because God stopped charging sins didn't make anyone not guilty and is the same with us.
Just because we choose to forgive someone doesn't mean that person isn't guilty of what we forgave them for.
It just means we chose to forgive them and let it go.
If you haven't already gotten this, at some point you got to catch up, catch up and catch on, and you can better articulate the gospel.
Not one person listening today had their guilt taken away when Jesus hung, bled, and died on the cross, not one.
You probably, you know, most of us know someone who likes to hold something from your past over your head to sort of keep you in check, right?
That's not love at all.
But they didn't come up with that on their own.
Knowingly or unknowingly, they got that from religion.
The world is set up on the religious system and affects even those who claim no religion.
Religious people like to hold sins against others.
But you were born with no sins in your account because of the blood of Jesus.
He took care of it before you were a twinkle in your daddy's eye.
And conflatin' forgiveness with justification distorts both.
Say you're, say you're in a courtroom and a man's on trial.
He's being tried for murder.
The victim's father, he stands up, looks over at the defendant and says, I forgive you.
What happens after that?
Well, to hear the limited forgivers tell it, the murderer is set free and everyone goes home.
Because they claim that forgiveness and justification mean the same thing.
So, once the father stood up and said, I forgive you, that meant the man's not guilty.
But to us, we who are sober thinkers and we who believe what we just read earlier in Exodus 34:7 and over there in Numbers 14:18, we know that's not how the judiciary system functions.
We know that while forgiveness only takes one, the one who was offended,
that forgiveness doesn't clear the offender of his guilt.
So he can't walk out of the courtroom just because the father said, I forgive you.
Because forgiveness is not synonymous with justification.
Religion has messed up the masses.
And this has caused a competitive mindset.
Which is responsible for a lot of unnecessary struggle, pain, anxiety, and discouragement.
It's responsible for creating a competitive atmosphere that will not only have you competing against others, but competing against yourself.
Listen, there's no one more competitive than me.
Ask anyone who knows me.
But leave it on the field, in the ring, on the court.
Leave it there because it has no place in grace.
We were forgiven on the merit of what Christ did and not what we do.
The way was made clear by the death, burial, and resurrection for every sin you'll ever commit, and salvation is a free gift for all who will simply believe that the work is finished.
No need to compete for something unearned.
No amount of stopping, starting, doing more, doing less, doing it longer, harder, none of that.
We're complete in him, complete in Christ, and that can't be improved on.
And the body of Christ, we're loved unconditionally, but most never hear this in any of these Fortune 500-style churches.
And if they do, it's always followed with a, "but," and then they add a condition.
It's a counterfeit gospel that only appears to be good news.
But as ambassadors with a greater news, the best news, we need to be faithful to the assignment.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:20, ...as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
So many wonderful verses overlooked.
Another verse that flies under the radar is found over there in the 5th chapter of Romans.
It's rarely preached, verse 13, (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law...)
Now that's a good verse.
It should settle it.
When limited forgivers come here, they have a hard time with this one.
Has the law been in effect during your lifetime?
Well, if the answer is no, and it is, then the Truth Time position here, the one we hold to, is correct.
And the entire limited forgiver platform callapses.
That argument faceplants.
For Christ's sake, God stopped imputing the world's sins, and this offends the grace Pharisees.
I don't know why.
It's good news.
But, hey, Satan has to be celebrating.
Millions out here needing to hear this, but religion with its man-made cohorts remain blind to this truth.
And we forgive others, listen, we forgive others the same way God forgave us.
He forgave us and stopped imputing our sins without us doing anything.
We didn't have to be there, we didn't have to acknowledge it, we didn't have to know about it, ask for it, believe it.
He just did it.
He demonstrated his immeasurable love by 2 Corinthians 5:19, removing the sin barrier that had stood between him and man, making a way for us to, verse 20, be ye reconciled by simple faith.
Which we do by believing the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
When the unbeliever repents, changes their mind, changes it from what they were trusting for salvation, and decides to trust Christ alone, they are cleared of guilt, justified, made righteous.
We're not saved by asking, inviting, turning, making, forsaking, praying, or joining, but through simple faith in what Christ done for us, on our behalf, in our behalf.
It's amazing news, guys.
Be faithful to the assignment, go tell someone about this today.
And remember, you only get two educations.
The one you're given, and the one you give yourself.
Grace and peace.
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