Thursday, September 13, 2018 – Ephesians 6:23
Faith, Peace, and Love in Your Life are from
the Grace of God. Pt. 3, We Must be Grace Oriented!
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
5. The Encouragement, vs. 21-24.
Eph 6:23, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
Under the grace policy of God, all believers are mandated to have grace
orientation, 1 Peter 5:12, “This is the
true grace of God, stand fast in it.” Therefore, we are to stand fast in
grace orientation. We are not to be confused by legalism or impressed with our
works. We are to stand fast in grace. In terms of God’s grace policy, the
believer who fails to execute the command to “stand fast in grace” is described
in four ways.
1. In Heb 4:1; 12:15, such a
believer “comes short of the grace of God.”
Heb 12:15, “See to it that
no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up
causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.”
2. In 2 Cor 6:1, such a
believer “receives the grace of God in vain.”
3. In Gal 2:21, such a
believer “nullifies the grace of God.”
4. In Gal 5:2-4, such a
believer, “has fallen from grace.”
Gal 5:4, “You have been
severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have
fallen from grace.”
Under God’s grace policy, you have to accumulate an inventory of
metabolized Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness in order to have
Divine viewpoint, because Divine viewpoint is the basis for making right decisions
or applications of God’s Word. No decision is good unless you have the facts;
and the facts are Bible doctrine.
Therefore, under Grace Orientation, the thinking of Bible doctrine under
every circumstance of life is the only viewpoint by which you can live with
true contentment and tranquility in the Devil’s world. In that, to truly solve
the problems of life, we need to learn His Word, think His Word, and solve problems with His Word.
If we do not understand the principle that God solves problems through
His grace policy and grace provision, we will never advance in the Plan of God,
because you have to be grace oriented, and grace orientation depends on
metabolized Bible doctrine in your soul. God’s grace is the only way the
believer can be strong.
2 Tim 2:1-2, “You
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2And
the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,
these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
Grace Orientation is a Problem Solving Device along with: Rebound, the
Filling of the Holy Spirit, Faith Rest, Doctrinal Orientation, Authority
Orientation, Personal Sense of Destiny, Personal Love for God, Impersonal and
Unconditional Love for Mankind, Occupation with Jesus Christ, Sharing the
Happiness of God.
Grace Orientation is the way of discernment in life. It is the basis for
establishing right standards about everything, about people, about things,
about life in general and then making good decisions in all situations.
Grace is the Divine policy that depends on God’s wisdom rather than our
desires. Therefore, grace does not always give us what we want. But when we
stop and recognize the grace, we realize grace always provides for us what is
best. Grace gives us what God wants, which is far, far greater than any desire
we could ever have, far beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine.
The age or dispensation in which we are currently living in is called
both “The Church Age” and the “Age of Grace.,” Eph 1:7-10; 3:2, 8-9. That is because God is building His Church,
i.e., the body of Christ, cf. Eph
2:19-22; 3:6; 4:12, and He is doing so through and by means of His Grace
applied in our lives; 1 Cor 3:10.
Eph 3:2, 8-9, “Inasmuch as
you have heard about the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me
for your benefit. 8To me, the very least of all saints, this grace
was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9and
to bring to light what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages has
been hidden in God who created all things.”
Being in the Age of Grace, we have tremendous benefits inside the plan of
God. Never before in human history has the grace policy of God provided so much
for the ordinary believer. In this Age, the Royal Family of God is the
beneficiary of the firm and unchangeable policy called grace as follows.
1. Grace is the Divine policy of providing you your very own Portfolio of
Invisible Assets that God designed in eternity past through His grace policy
and provided to every member of the Royal Family of God in time. The #1 asset
is escrow blessings. As the grantor, God the Father in eternity past deposited
into escrow for you two categories of greater blessings, for time and for
eternity. As the very first thing God ever did for you, escrow blessings are
something you could not earn or deserve, since they were provided for you
billions of years before you existed.
2. Grace is the Divine policy of providing us the unique environment of
the Church Age where God has provided you a Dispensation of the greatest power
experiment in human history. It includes the permanent indwelling of God the
Holy Spirit to every believer during the Age of Grace, plus the indwelling of
the Father and Son, and also includes His Word.
3. Under the Divine policy of grace, every Church Age believer has been
given equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute God’s plan, purpose, and
will. God makes us all equal so that we can use our freedom to be winners or
losers.
4. The Divine policy of grace is the means of creating a new spiritual
species for the utilization of Divine power.
5. Grace is the Divine policy in appointing every believer a Royal Priest
and Royal Ambassador. We represent ourselves before God, and represent God to
the human race. We have privacy for the perception and metabolization of Bible
doctrine.
6. Grace is the Divine policy whereby every Church Age believer is
indwelt by all three persons of the Trinity for a purpose.
7. Grace is the Divine policy of providing us with a spiritual I.Q., so
that our human I.Q. is no longer an issue in the perception, understanding, and
application of Bible doctrine. Under post-salvation renewing of the mind, Rom 12:1-3f., grace is the means of
understanding and applying God’s Word and God’s policy.
8. Grace is the Divine policy for keeping both winners and losers alive
through logistical grace support.
9. Grace is the Divine policy for the manufacture of invisible heroes,
who glorify God in time as well as in eternity.
10. Grace is the Divine policy that depends on God’s wisdom rather than
our desires. Therefore, grace does not always give us what we want. But when we
stop and recognize the grace, we realize grace always provides for us what is
best. Grace gives us what God wants, which is far, far greater than any desire
we could ever have, far beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine.
Therefore, grace is all that God is free to do for each member of the
Royal Family of God and be consistent with His own essence and attributes.
Grace demands that God must be compatible with His own essence. Therefore, God
is only free to bless the believer where perfect righteousness is the target or
recipient. As such, there is perfect affinity between the grace policy of God;
His perfect Divine righteousness and justice. This also makes up His holiness:
perfect and incorruptible righteousness and perfect and incorruptible justice.
All grace blessings travel between those two attributes. The function of Divine
integrity and God’s grace policy follows the principle that righteousness
demands righteousness; justice demands justice. To avoid compromise of Divine
essence, Divine justice as one-half of Divine holiness can only bless Divine
righteousness, the other half of Divine holiness. Divine justice can only bless
perfect righteousness.
Righteousness is the principle of Divine integrity; justice is the
function of Divine integrity. God cannot accept anything less than perfect
righteousness. God cannot bless anything less than perfect righteousness.
Therefore, there is affinity between Divine justice and Divine righteousness.
At the moment of salvation, Divine righteousness is imputed to every believer,
which means both justification and the basis for God’s grace policy.
What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God must execute.
This indicates how the grace policy of God functions without compromising
Divine attributes. The righteousness of God demands life support; it comes from
the justice of God. The righteousness of God demands blessing; it comes from
the justice of God, etc. We cannot do anything to be blessed by God after
salvation; it is done for us through Divine grace.
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