Perversions of Grace

Jude 1:3-4 ESV

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Well, this is exactly where we are today, too. And it is massive! 

For it appears that the majority of those who are preaching the gospel these days are perverting the grace of God into sensuality. And the evidence of this is everywhere you look, pretty much. For everyone who teaches that we can believe in Jesus, without biblically explaining what it means to believe in Jesus, and then teach that all our sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and so now heaven is guaranteed us when we die, but regardless of how we live, is guilty of perverting the grace of God into sensuality.

For even many who are still teaching repentance and obedience to the Lord teach them more as a suggestion of something we should do but not as requirements for salvation and for eternal life with God, which is what the Scriptures teach. Rarely do I hear of anyone preaching what Jesus and Paul and John taught, that if sin is our practice, and if righteousness and obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith in Jesus we professed with our lips one time in our lives. 

But not many are even teaching biblical repentance these days, and not many are teaching that we must obey the Lord’s commands and that we must do the works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them. So many people are now caught up in a gospel message that is telling them outright or that is suggesting to them that they do not have to repent of their sins, and they do not have to obey God, and that no works are required of them at all, so all they have to do is “believe” (usually not defined) and now all their sins are forgiven and heaven is guaranteed.

So, that is a perversion of God’s grace which instructs us to renounce (to say “No!” to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14; cf. Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 2:10).

So, what we have presently is a whole lot of people in America, and perhaps in other countries, too, who are professing faith in Jesus Christ, believing that all their sins are forgiven, and that now heaven is guaranteed them when they die, but regardless of how they live. And so God’s grace has been turned into a free license for immorality, for outrageous conduct, indecent behaviors, lewdness, lacking in all restraint, and indulging in lawless insolence. For there is no fear of God in them, because the fear of God is not being taught much anymore, out of fear of offending human beings.

And then we have these Christians who are posting memes on social media going after such things as abortion and homosexuality, but they are looking totally on the outside, and not on the inside and to what is happening to today’s church, and how it has been corrupted, and how so much of what is called “church” are really businesses of men being marketed to the people of the world like any other businesses. And you want to know why there is so much wickedness and immorality in our culture? It is because the church has lost its witness for Jesus Christ because of the immorality in the church.

And there you have it! The reason things are getting so much worse in our nations is because those who profess faith in Jesus Christ are largely spiritually AWOL, i.e. missing in action, or absent without official leave, so derelict of duty. For so many professing Christians have been lulled to sleep by the lies of the enemy who are telling them that nothing is required of them and that a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ is enough to secure them heaven for eternity, but regardless of how they live. And so they are following after the lies and not the truth.

And, although we may be in the minority, we must take the truth of the gospel to the people of this planet, especially to those already professing faith in Jesus Christ but who are still living in deliberate and habitual sin and who are spiritually unconcerned (indifferent, apathetic) because they are so caught up in the ways of the world and the ways of the market-driven “churches” (businesses) which are being marketed to the people of the world, and thus they have diluted and altered the character of God and of the gospel of Christ to make them more acceptable to human flesh.

So, we need a revival. We need for people to humble themselves before God, to seek God’s face, to repent of (turn from) their sins and to now walk in obedience to our Lord in walks of holiness and righteousness, and no longer in sin, who then will take the truth of the gospel to the ends of the earth so that many can be saved from their sins and now live pure and holy lives for the glory of God before our Lord returns to judge and to take his faithful ones to be with him for eternity.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

https://vimeo.com/379484387