Pastor Curt Crist www.welcometograce.com
We come to what the apostle of grace, the apostle Paul, called the dispensation (or dispensing) of the grace of God. You see, God doesn't bring armies of insects on people today, whether they be believers or sinners of the world. God doesn't bring climate catastrophe on the world today. He's not bringing tornadoes on certain places today in order to teach certain people, in certain places a lesson. He isn't opening the earth for the purpose of swallowing men alive. He isn't sending calamity of any kind on men today, whether it be by climate disaster, financial upheaval, or whatever else might be attributed to God's hand of judgment on a Christ rejecting world. Why? Why is He not doing that in this age of grace?
2 Corinthians 5:18-19: "And all things are of God, who hath (already) reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (what is it, Paul?) "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
You see, the things that are happening today, however catastrophic they may be are not special judgments brought upon the world by a God who is imputing the sins of sinners to those sinners, and judging certain regions of the world on account of the fact that they're sinning. The 2nd Corinthians 5 passage tells us that God is NOT imputing men's sins unto them today—why?—because He imputed them to somebody else. He imputed them to the person of His Son at Calvary; that is if the Bible is to be believed and I believe it is! The Bible is the very Word of God.
Why all the turmoil and distressful circumstances in the world today? It's the age of sin, it's sin in the world, and sin playing itself out; the natural consequence of the sin of the world. The apostle of the age of grace delivers to us the truth that God is not bringing special judgments on the world today. Paul's statement in every epistle remains constant, as we see in Galatians 1:3: "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, what's the opposite of grace and peace? Have you ever thought about that? The opposite of grace would be judgment. What's the opposite of war? Peace!
The things that are occurring in our world today come as a natural result of the sin-cursed world in which we live, not from special judgments. They come from choices people make and the natural course that sin brought on this world back in the Garden of Eden. They are not special judgments being delivered from a God who is not imputing the sins of the world to a world of sinners. God is not trying to get even with people today because of their sins. And he's not calling down some special bad thing; some adverse situation in order to teach certain individuals a lesson. God doesn't teach through special judgments during the dispensation of grace, He teaches us through His written Word today.
1Corinthians 10:13: "There hath no temptation..." (Testings...because the word temptation doesn't mean being tempted to do something. The word temptation in this verse means testing, trial.) "There's no special testing or trial..." (the Greek pi-ras-mos' (peirasmos) from another Greek word meaning: a testing, or a putting to proof, an experience of adversity for the purpose of discipline.) "There hath no special trial or testing taken you but such as is (what does it say?) common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you, or permit you to be tested, tried, by the natural course of this sin cursed world above that ye are able; but will with the temptation (or testing, whatever physical, mental, emotional difficulty you happen to be facing) also make a way to escape..." Does that mean delivered from? No, it doesn't. It means delivered through. Notice the rest of the verse: "...that ye may be able to..." (do away with it? get out of it? escape it? "...that ye may be able to)...bear it." Do you see the difference? In other words, He's given you what you need to endure whatever you face in this life whether it be best circumstances or worse circumstances from our perspective. He's given what you need to bear up under it. Does He push a special button and give you that? No! It's sitting in His Word. We take it in. It sustains us and builds us up. It fortifies us. As Paul says, "It stablishes us." It stabilizes believers today. It's the Word that does the stabilizing work of God so that we're able with the Word hold up under what's happening today. Why? We know that this life isn't all there is. We know there's much more to come after this brief, short time of trial and tribulation that we face. This is our light affliction.
Romans 8: 22 - 23 Creation groaneth - suffering tents
2 Thessalonians 3:5 patient waiting for Christ
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Roadmap To Repossession #3 (Israel's Education) (5/21)by DTPetrucci123490th31 views
Preach it! We are saved by grace ALONE ... and not by works! Hallelujah!
It's not Jesus plus our self-efforts (or the Law) ... it is Jesus finished work at the cross plus nothing!
EvaggelionMinistries 4 weeks ago 2
@EvaggelionMinistries AMENNNNNNN
GraceAboundedMore 4 weeks ago
Good word on disengaging from political discourse. Totally futile. Another distraction to prevent believers from our true calling, ambassadorship, telling others the Good News so they can get aboard the lifeboat and avoid the real wrath that's coming.
gore53 4 weeks ago
@gore53 So trueeeeeeeeeee.
GraceAboundedMore 4 weeks ago
Amen! Good to hear when your knee deep in alligators. It's true what he say's about both sides of the political landscape... notice the stars on the GOP elephant, they are up side down...satan tagged it.
NOMOORELIES 4 weeks ago
@NOMOORELIES I see what you mean...I never noticed that before.
GraceAboundedMore 4 weeks ago