The Grace of Christ

Galatians 5:7-8

Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

When someone persuades you, they give you an argument to believe and they persuade you in your mind.  You consider what they say and you think, “Yup, that’s for me.”

Paul was not the one who persuaded the Galatians to not obey the truth.

Galatians 1:6

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Galatians 5:1-3

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.  Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised [or,today, put under any type of legalism], Christ shall profit you nothing.  For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

Paul says, “It wasn’t that long ago that I gave you this message.”  The one who called these gentiles was God in Christ through the apostle Paul. 

2 Thessalonians 2:14

Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul marveled that they could leave the grace of Christ for another gospel.  You know what that gospel was my friend?  It was the gospel preached to Israel by John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus and the 12 apostles:  the gospel of the kingdom, this earthly kingdom.  That’s not the gospel for today.

Paul’s gospel is that Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried and rose again (1 Cor. 15:1-4).  It is a heavenly kingdom gospel.  When you die as a believer (or are raptured before you die) you go to heaven.  Israel is going to inherit the earth.  Those are two different gospels!

Somebody came and confused the Galatians.  They used good words, fair speeches, cunning craftiness, and they just waited to deceive the hearts of the simple.

Romans 16:18

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Ephesians 4:14

that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

The most deadly thing you can do is just listen to a man.  Don’t just take my word for it.  God uses preaching, but you make sure you’re in the word rightly divided.  When a man says something against what the apostle Paul writes, you don’t listen to him.  Paul says to rightly divide.

2 Timothy 2:15

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?  God has a message of grace for you today.  Your works can’t save you, it’s your faith: you believing that Jesus Christ the son of God died on the cross for your sins.  Do you believe the living Saviour Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again?  If you do, God will save you right this moment.  You don’t have to pray a prayer; you don’t have to move a finger; get water baptized; go to church.  You just believe God and God looks in your heart and sees your heart resting in what his word says about his Son.  Through faith in his blood you can have redemption of sins.

Romans 3:24-25a

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood

If you’re a believer, you don’t need to be on the treadmill of religion anymore by being in a church that doesn’t teach the Bible rightly divided.  If you are, I can guarantee you that you’re on a treadmill and you’ll never grow in your Christian life.

God has given us the apostle Paul to be our instructor, our teacher, our preacher, our apostle today.  Without understanding the word rightly divided and obeying what Paul says, you’ll never please God with your walk.

1 Thessalonians 4:1

Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

1 Corinthians 14:37

If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

You can get the profit out of the Lord Jesus Christ that God put in him for you if you study with a ministry that rightly divides the word of truth.

Transcribed excerpt from video post: The Grace of Christ