WASTED GRACE AND UNUSED POWER

When we learn in Romans 5:20 and 2 Cor. 9:8 and Ephesians 2:8-10 and 2 Timothy 1:9-10 and Titus 2:11-14 , that God’s all sufficient, more abounding Grace is altogether adequate for all the sins and all the sinners in this world, and equally adequate for every need, every task, every test, every affliction (2 Cor. 12:9 ), for every problem, every trial of every Christian, we can truly say that so far as 80% of the UNSAVED people on this earth are concerned, God’s Grace is wasted.

Millions of church members, including many saved church members, do not believe 2 Timothy 1:9 , “God, Who hath saved us, and called us with a Holy Calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and Grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” This gift of God’s Grace included the gift of God’s Son; so that God might be just and merciful and freely justify any kind of a believing sinner. (Romans 3:24-28 , Titus 3:5-7 ).

More than 95% of God’s people, members of the Body of Christ, will not let God do for them and with them that which He desires to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-14 ). But hear God’s Word to His children, “I beseech you that ye receive NOT the Grace of God in VAIN!” (2 Corinthians 6:1 ). The Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians that God did not bestow His Grace upon him in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:10 ).

Then hear of God’s mighty power for members of the Body of Christ. God is “able to do exceeding abundantly ABOVE all we ask or THINK, according to the power that worketh IN US” (Ephesians 3:20 ), “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Christ from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies far above.” (Ephesians 1:19-23 ).

Now, consider this, so far as more than 90% of Christians are concerned, MUCH of this power is NOT appropriated. “Now the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 ).

HOPE-SO CHURCH MEMBERS AND KNOW-SO CHRISTIANS

It has been truly said that there would not be so many unsaved, religious church members, going to perdition, labeled as ‘Christians’, if there were not so many carnal, worldly, compromising truly SAVED people who are members of one of the three hundred or more sectarian church organizations, called denominations.

It has ALSO been truly said that there has never been a time in this country when, on the one hand, more servants of the LORD were preaching the Gospel of Christ by radio and otherwise, and when, on the other hand, there was so, much real apathetic indifference, as to Spiritual things, on the part of unsaved people who are headed for the wrath of God.

It has been observed by many church historians that multitudes have been spiritually indifferent during the seasons of unusual material prosperity. Others have stated that 80% of the people, who are really born again and become members of the one true Bible Church of this Age and Dispensation of Grace, ‘the Body of Christ’, receive God’s saving Grace and His Son either as children or in the time of adversity or real trouble.

Then again it has been often said by God’s servants that Satan has caused many really saved people to doubt their salvation, and many unsaved people to feel secure without regeneration. Satan is accused of the crime of deceiving the whole world. (Revelation 12:9 ). The Apostle Paul was directed by the Holy Spirit to write, “I fear, lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds, should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:3 ). Satan did such a deadly work in Eden that we read in 1 John 5:19 , “we (Christians) know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one (in the lap of Satan).”

If the Christian is to stand against the tricks of the clever devil, he must put on the ‘whole’ Armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-20 ), and resist Satan steadfastly in the Faith (1 Peter 5:8-9 ).

When we read in 2 Cor. 2:14 concerning Satan, “we are not ignorant of his devices,” we should read with this 2 Cor. 11:13-15 , “Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, ‘TRANSFORMING THEMSELVES INTO THE APOSTLES OF CHRIST’; And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into ‘AN ANGEL OF LIGHT’.”

Satan sends out his ambassadors as ministers of righteousness. The Bible foretold that these camouflaged religious messengers would creep in to the Body of Christ ‘unawares’. (Jude 4 ). Many of them are very sincere, VERY religious, philanthropic, benevolent, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. They use Christian terminology and Bible phraseology to propagate what has been called “christianized agnosticism.” They deny the LORD that bought them, which God calls ‘the damnable heresy’. (2 Peter 2:2 ). MANY are following their pernicious ways. (2 Peter 2:2 ). Of course, Spirit-taught members of the Body of Christ know that a ‘Christian infidel’ is an impossible paradox.

As ‘COMMUNISM’ is ‘ANTI‑GOD’, so ‘MODERNISM and every (so‑called Christian) METAPHYSICAL CULT is ‘ANTI‑CHRIST’. These are described in 2 John 7-11 , as deceivers, who abide not in the doctrine of Christ, and have not God.

God warns His people that their religious works are evil deeds, and NOT to support them in any way. Then we have many ‘ANTI‑GRACE’ movements carried on under the leadership of RELIGIOUS men who are steeped in ‘RITUALISM’.

Satan knows that, with HEATHENISM and COMMUNISM, and with MODERNISM and RITUALISM and SECTARIANISM and the METAPHYSICAL CULTS and WORDINESS in the denominations, and with many of his agents, ministers, and servants preaching another Jesus and another Gospel (2 Cor. 11:3-6 ), he has most of the members of the human race where he wants them.

It is sad, but true, that many spiritual Christians do not have assurance of salvation, and hesitate to join in the “WE KNOWS” of 1 John 3:14 , 2 Cor. 5:1 , and 1 John 3:2 . “We KNOW that we have passed out of death into life”, “we KNOW that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house eternal in the heavens”, “we KNOW that when Christ shall appear, we shall be like Him.”

We certainly should KNOW that we are not going to be with Christ forever in glory, because we are worthy, but because HE is worthy.

When we are saved by Grace, and know it, boasting is excluded. (Romans 3:27 , and Ephesians 2:8-9 ). Spirit taught members of the Body of Christ “worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3 ).

A HOPE LAID UP IN HEAVEN

Christians are confident, and are willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the LORD. (2 Cor. 5:8 ). The Apostle Paul testified in this language, in Philippians 1:22 , “having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ which is far better.” Stephen, when dying, prayed, “LORD Jesus, receive my spirit”, “and when he had said this, (in Acts 7:59-60 ) he fell asleep.” (This experience is explained in Ecclesiastes 12:7 .)

Then note in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 , that the dead in Christ, Christians, whose bodies have returned to dust, will receive their resurrection, glorified bodies when the LORD Jesus Christ shall descend from Heaven to meet the Body of Christ in the AIR, (this is NOT when the LORD returns to the EARTH for Judgment). At the very same moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the living members of the Body of Christ will also be changed, raptured; and they shall not sleep. (1 Corinthians 15:51-53 ).

So Christians can truthfully say, “our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the LORD Jesus Christ, Who shall change our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21 ).

OTHERS WHICH HAVE NO HOPE

When the LORD Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:34-44 ), Christ, in John 11:25-26 , answered the question asked by Job centuries before Christ came down from heaven, “if a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14 ). We have the answer again in the verses we quoted from 1 Thessalonians 4 . There we read of ‘others which have no hope’. (1 Thessalonians 4:13 ). in 1 Timothy 1:1 we are told that the LORD Jesus Christ is our hope.

In Ephesians 2:12 we are told that people who are without Christ, are without hope, and without God. The word translated ‘without God’ is ‘ATHEOS’, from which we get the word ‘atheist’.

An atheist might be a respectable, moral, religious church-member, who not only contends for a personal God, but expresses great admiration for Jesus of Nazareth, and is sure he has the right to be called a ‘Christian’ because he heartily sanctions the SOCIAL Gospel and ETHICAL philosophy of the Master. However he does not hesitate to make God a liar by denying the eternal Deity and bodily resurrection of the Son of God. (1 John 5:10 ). Faith and confession are required of the sinner by God for salvation; confession of the Deity of Christ and belief in His bodily resurrection. (Romans 10:9-10 , 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ).

If a man can get into heaven by admiring Jesus Christ, by trying his very best to regulate his life and conduct by the teachings of Christ in the sermon on the mount and in the golden rule, then all of the Apostles of Christ were false witnesses; and Christ indeed died in vain (Galatians 2:21 ).

IF Jesus Christ was not God in heaven before He became Man, IF He did not perform the supernatural miracles with which He is accredited in the Bible, including the great miracle of His bodily resurrection (Matthew 12:40-41 , John 10:17-18 ), IF Christ did not come out of Joseph’s tomb the third day, and show Himself alive by many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3 ), THEN surely the Bible is a compilation of fables, forgeries, and myths and Christianity is worse than a superstition.

BUT NOW, read again Revelation 21:8 and John 3:36 and take a stand with the Apostle Paul, as he wrote in Romans 3:4 , “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” WAKE UP, sinner! After you leave this world you cannot correct the great blunder and tragedy of rejecting Christ.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” (1 Corinthians 3:19 ). “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”

The same worldly wisdom and human religion that crucified the LORD of Glory (1 Corinthians 2:8 ) is rejecting Him today. Read 1 Corinthians 1:18 to 1 Corinthians 2:16 and make a survey of denominational Christendom in the light of these verses and then hurry to Christ and Calvary.

FINAL WORDS TO CHILDREN OF GOD

One of the first statements in the Bible that the new born babe in Christ should read is Romans 11:11 , the statement that when the FALL OF ISRAEL took place, God sent salvation to the Gentiles, in a somewhat changed economy, called “The Dispensation, or Economy, or Administration, of the Grace of God for Gentiles.” (Ephesians 3:1-3 ).

To get the connecting link between the statements in Romans 11:11 and Ephesians 3:1-3 , it would be well for Christians to read Titus 2:11-14 , the meaning of the statement, that the Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men; and then to read ALL that is in this short Epistle to Titus. In this Epistle, God, the Father, is called the Saviour in each of the three chapters: and the LORD Jesus Christ is called the Saviour in each of the three chapters. God instructs His children to study the Bible, to rightly divide His Truth, and thus be workmen who need not be ashamed. (2 Timothy 2:15 ). This of course means to know the difference between God’s people under the Law, and His people NOT under the Law. (Romans 6:14 ). It means also that Christians should know the change in God’s dealings with both the Nation Israel and the Gentiles after the FALL OF ISRAEL (albeit temporary).

Observing this principle of progressive revelation, and the unfolding of God’s UNMIXED Grace Gospel, it would be intelligent, wise, and profitable, to study all ‘salvation’ messages in the light of Titus 3:3-8 . In Titus 3:3 we read of the awful, sinful condition of the human race, then in Titus 3:4 we read of God’s kindness and love toward these awful sinners. Then God’s saving power in action, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by His Grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life; Affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.”

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31 , while there is still time!

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short

Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.

In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry

Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20 )

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