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GOD GETS ALL OF THE GLORY! HE IS LOOKING FOR A BELIEVING 300!
(Ver 1.1) I was not gong to post any more about the United States election. However, I believe with all of my heart that God is not finished yet and is waiting to see who will stand with Him in faith, patiently expecting Him to fulfill what the church of Jesus Christ has prayed. I know it looks really bad like the evil has won. It looks like we are against an overpowering enemy that has defeated us. But this is when God works best and our God is still doing some amazing things in these last days, even if it does not always seem that way to our human viewpoint based upon circumstances. Has God ever really done that before? Read your Bible and tell me a story where God answered a problem in the way that a human wanted Him to answer it or when they wanted Him to answer it?
God is very gracious and kind, but His love is also balanced with the need for our faith’s participation to receive His free Grace heavenly provisions. We are never to tell God how or when He should answer our prayers. That is not our choice. We just know that God will answer and many times it will be at the last second before we think the world is about to end and Satan is about to win. Remember God is faithful (Deu 7:9) and He will always answer believing prayers(Mk 11:24), so let’s believe, stand (Eph 6:13) and fight a good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12) until we see the answer. Because it will be our faith that will give us the victory to overcome Satan and the evil world (1 Jn 5:4).
If God would have answered our prayers immediately, the way we all thought He would on election day, November 3, 2020, we would not have seen all the works and plans of the devil. We would also not have seen how Satan overplayed his hand of cards to expose himself. This delay by God was an exceedingly wise plan but it looks like a very foolish plan to the carnal human mind. Watch and see God continue to work and see what He is desiring to accomplish in the world and simultaneously in the church.
If God would have answered our prayer on election day, He would not have been able to expose all of the crime, evil, corruption and fraud in our government, politicians and the election processes. God would not have been able to expose the lengths that Satan was able to overreach to use evil people to try to steal all of the votes for our President to get him out of office. God would not have been able to expose the Jezebel false prophets in the media as being such corrupt liars. These are people being used by demons to prophesy lies of propaganda to attempt to brain wash the American people and the world to cause us to get into fear. God would not have been able to expose the corrupt Tech-companies that have been used by Satan on a mission to silence the truth of the righteous people on the earth.
WILL GOD GET THE GLORY OR MAN?
Now that brings me to today’s main topic. God would not have been able to get all of the Glory for re-electing the President, if He had won the election in a landslide without the criminal fraud, foreign interference and all of the hidden activity taking place in the collusion under the disguise of hidden darkness. Our President could have claimed that it was him, his personality, his accomplishments, his fame or fortune, etc. that gave him the election results of victory. But those that know God realize that it is only God that put him into office in 2016 because of prayers and it will only be God that gets him back into office in 2020 because of faithful prayers. Yes, God heard our prayers and God answered our prayers to save human lives. I still believe that 100%. I am not moved by what is going on in the news. In fact I don’t watch fake news anymore. But God’s answer was not done immediately as we expected and this is causing a lot of people who call themselves Christians to not stand with God anymore agreeing with the evil report of the 10 spies that said “we are not able to take the land because we are just grasshoppers”.
Now that brings us to topic number two about a faithful remnant with faith that did get the victory even if the majority failed to enter into it. Remember the two spies with the good report “we are well able to overcome this enemy so let us go up and take it now” had to experience a delay of 40 years because of all of the unbelief. yet they still got the victory. Ok, I’m not saying we must wait 40 years to see the victory. I’m not even saying we have to wait another 4 years. No, I’m saying there will be a delay but victory will take place sooner than you think. Let us go and read another story that shows us what is happening in this delay period.
ARE YOU ONE OF GOD’S 300?
This is one of the main messages that God spoke to me this morning. In the book of Judges chapter 7 we will find a man named Gideon. This man had an army of 32,000 soldiers. This army seemed big enough to defeat the enemy quickly with no problems. But God told Gideon it was too many and they would think they got the victory without the need of Him. That is how it would have been if the landslide for our President took place on Nov 3 without any crimes being committed. But God told Gideon to gather the army and ask them “whoever is fearful and afraid depart and go home” in verse 3. That left 10,000 soldiers. Those that left the army were never in faith and they represent Christians that have already admitted defeat or are afraid of what might happen if God does not answer our prayers. These are usually types of Christians that know very little about the Word of God. We will see why I said this next.
10,000 soldiers were still too many for God and God told Gideon to take all of them down to the water. Water usually represents the Word of God in the Bible. For example, Jesus told the disciples now you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you (Jn 15:3). To a woman at the well Jesus said “If you knew who it was that spoke with you, you would ask of me a drink, I would give to you living water…” (Jn 4:10). And I could give you other examples. The men that never came to the water going home did not get to come to the Word of God. But the 10,000 men of Gideon that remained were instructed to come to the water and drink. God said to Gideon that He would “try” them there. That Hebrew (H6886) word literally means to refine/melt metal. I think you may have heard that in the New Testament regarding our faith being tried by fire in 1 Peter 1:7. Our faith is being tested and we are in need to remain bold and courageous.
In Judges 7, God was showing there was a special way that the qualified must drink. Those that lapped the water like a dog were accepted for the battle. How does a dog drink water? They are always on their feet. They use their tongue as a scoop to bring the water up into their mouth. But there were those that drank laying on the ground which required them to get on their knees first and then lay down on the ground to reach their mouths to the water like a snake. These people were rejected. The Hebrew word translated as “bowed down” (H3776) in verse 6 means they needed to be prostrate on the ground in a laying position with their face down to reach the water. These were the ones that disqualified for battle. There were only 300 men that used their hand to scoop the water with their heads up, feet on the ground looking alertly for the enemy that were approved by God for battle (v6).
Wow, I hope you saw the typology in this example. Those that lapped water like a dog were prepared for a surprise attack of the enemy. These were the 300 that had wisdom to stay alert, aware and were ready for the fight of faith no matter if it happened at that moment or many days later. They were ready no matter if there was a delay or the fight was now. This is the type of Christian that God is hoping we are. He is calling out a people that are ready at every moment and remain in faith no matter how long it takes to achieve the victory. We must be prepared because the enemy can surprise us at any unexpected moment.
Did you notice what type of Christian did not go to battle and get the victory? These were people that were worldly and acted like a snake laying on their belly on the ground unaware. It is virtually impossible for a human drinking on their belly to see what is happening around them and they can easily be surprised and killed by a sly predator. A Christian with one foot in the world and one foot in church is not going to be able to stand with God. God wants someone who spiritually alert and aware and is fully committed to Him. These are too many Christians that are trying to please the world to not offend them with the truth, while going to church to try and make God happy. Jesus said to the church in Revelation 3:15-16, “I would that you be hot or cold, because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth”. Wow, that is a very strong warning.
This election delay is causing a lot of Christians to depart from their faith and become joined with Satan and his world agenda. Christian have been sitting on a fence with one foot in the world’s party system and one foot in the Kingdom of God party on Sunday and this is still unacceptable to God. God desires a victorious church (Rom 8:37), but first, He is returning to the earth to see if there is anyone that still has the faith to receive the victory (Lk 18:8). Remember God eliminated the fearful and those that were afraid from Gideon’s army FIRST! These were people with NO faith in Him. Then God got rid of the carnal worldly people that wanted life in the world with a future hope of going to heaven with His victory too. These were types of people that were double minded and easily swayed between two opinions. But only the faithful that believed God and were constantly alert, aware, believing, and faithful were the soldiers that received the victory of God.
Which one of the Christian types are you? Do you believe God is still “ABLE” to give us the victory? Do you believe God “Will” give us the victory even if it looks like we are totally outnumbered and about to get slaughtered with only our 300-soldier army? God is giving everyone that says they are a Christian a chance to choose right now. Whose report will you believe? Will you believe the report of the Jezebel false lying prophet media? Or will you believe and stand with the God that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask or think (Eph 3:20)? God is still God! God still rules! God is still for Life (Jn 10:10)! God is not a liar (Num 23:19).
I’m standing with God no matter what happens or how long it takes to win the spiritual battle. Just like the Hebrew children in Babylon in the book of Daniel, when the king told everyone to bow or burn. They said to the king “Our God is able and will deliver us and even if He does not we will not bow”. This is what God is looking for today. I would rather die in faith without receiving the promised answer rather than to bow and allow death to take another innocent life from the womb.
CONCLUSION
If this strong message offends you, that is very sad and heartbreaking to God and myself. But please take your negative comments somewhere else! You are free to go and bow to the false gods of Baal in the world and join them in their slaughter and sacrifice of innocent babies. My God will deliver us, some us will believe and have faith no matter what the world says. IT IS TIME TO KEEP STANDING! God has already started the exposure of the massive crimes that were committed in this election. Justice is coming as God the Supreme Judge in heaven has already ruled in our favor. All we do now is stand and praise Him for the victory! Thank you Jesus! Please rise up and continue to stand with God. There are more in the spiritual realm that are for us than there are against us. God bless you. I love you and God loves you. He has given to us the victory and He receives all of the glory. Be one of God’s 300!
Understanding the Divine Spiritual Laws and Court System of Heaven – Part 2
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 2 in a series of very advanced spiritual Bible lessons on what I believe is a critical and important subject that has been popularly overlooked by so many Bible teachers and students. The more that I have studied this subject the more that I have become absolutely convinced that this is a required Bible theme to learn about. After learning this subject we then must learn how to balance it with other vital spiritual Bible subjects like Faith, Love and Grace to name just 3 other major Bible themes. If you have not read “Part 1” I would recommend that you go back and read this lesson before continuing here.
Too many times in the church a pastor receives a revelation from God on a particular subject and too often they take it way beyond the base revelation to an extreme position of error. This is what I often call “Taking A Truth and Making it THE Only Truth or THE Highest or Most Important Truth without a Regard to any Other Truths in the Bible”. Any Bible truth can be exalted into an extreme position either to the left or to the right of the balanced middle and this will usually cause the belief to become an unbalanced deception. It is happening in many churches today with the Grace truth. Too many modern Bible teachers have taken the awesome truth of God’s revealed Grace and simply ignored the other central themes of God’s Holiness and Judgment to name just two that must be balanced with His Grace correctly.
In today’s Bible lesson we will be introduced to the major theme of “Judgment” from the perspective of the Heavenly Court system. Grace and Judgment are both central themes found from Genesis to Revelation. We can see these subject threads woven together in practically every book. For example, in Genesis 6:8 God says Noah found His Grace. But, within the same context the world was found to be so wicked that God was sorry that He ever created man on the earth (Gen 6:6) and He judged the earth with a great flood. The subjects of Grace and Judgment are found intertwined so closely together that it should absolutely amaze us.
In this lesson we will be looking at this subject of Judgment from the viewpoint of New Testament writers like Paul and Peter. Both wrote about grace but they also included a balanced message of God’s judgment even in the same context. I would be a fool to ignore the subject of divine judgment just because I like the subject of Grace much more. You see our flesh loves the grace message but our spirit should understand that there is still judgment available for sin. Grace is not the freedom to sin with no consequences, but should rather be viewed as a position of humble thankfulness that I was saved from committing sin.
The battle between doing right and doing wrong occurs in our minds. Satan tempts us with thoughts to sin and God convicts us through our spirit. This battle can be called the human conscious. However, the human conscious should be viewed to be the Holy Spirit trying to help us think correctly, and then to say and do what is true, good and right. I, like other Christians am in a war between these two realities. It is my goal and priority to let my born-again spirit overrule my flesh desires but sometimes it is more of a challenge than at other times. I pray that you understand what I am talking about.
I believe the LORD showed me that this lesson series on God’s Divine Spiritual Laws and Court System in Heaven must be read, understood and balanced rightly with today’s extreme Grace teaching that tries to teach us many things that do not touch on what is being stated in the verses that will be clearly covered in this series.
God teaches us very plainly in Hosea 4:6 that His people are destroyed (by Satan) because of their ignorance and stubborn refusal to learn the truth. He is so clear in John 8:32 that it is only by the dedicated continuation in studying the Bible that we will ever learn the actual truth and only then can this truth that we know correctly set us free from the things that the enemy uses to keep us in captivity and bondage.
Therefore, we should learn that what we do not know is being used against us by our legal opponent and adversary Satan to gain an advantage over us while we live here on this planet (2 Cor 2:11). I pray that you will continue to read these lessons with an open and receptive mind avoiding any prejudicial preconceived ideas, thoughts or conclusions towards what is being taught. I believe with all my heart that it is the Holy Spirit’s direction for this information to go forth and be spread to all believers. Pray first before continuing and ask the Holy Spirit to bear witness with the truth and to reveal anything that may be only a man’s opinion on any verse, topic or subject.
We are commanded by God to study and to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Tim 2:15). But, only the Holy Spirit can lead us into all truth (Ps 25:5, John 16:13). So put your full confidence in Him and not me or anyone else on the earth. Let’s begin Part 2 with a quick review of the first lesson in which I have added some additional supporting evidence that was not included in the first lesson.
Lesson 1 Review with New Additional Thoughts
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
In the first lesson in the series we should have learned at least two primary essential Bible truths. The first truth came from the Lord recorded by Peter to us in 1 Peter 5:8 and the second came to us from John written in Revelation 12:10. We also learned from two very important Greek words. The first Greek word G476 was translated as “adversary” and this word meant an “opponent in a lawsuit or a court of law”. The second Greek word was G2725 and was translated as an “accuser” and it is defined as a “person who brings a complaint of law to court against someone else that allegedly commits a crime”. Both were very accurate technical descriptions of Satan who God informed us in Revelation 12:10 brings up charges of accusations against us as brothers and sisters in Christ every single day and night. The term “day and night” in Revelation 12:10 must represent a continuous repeated daily action of Satan. These two words are used like this several times in the New Testament and this is the correct way to interpret them.
Always remember that Satan is God’s enemy and our enemy and please never believe that he has no right, power or ability to win a law case over you because he is very tricky and has been around much longer than you and knows so much more than you can imagine. We are in a legal fight for our lives and we must understand that doing nothing to fight or win permits Satan almost automatic victory.
In 1 Peter 5:8 Christians not the world are warned that we have an “adversary” who is named the “devil” and he is plainly defined to be our legal opponent in the court of heavenly law. It is worth noting again that this Greek word translated as “adversary” is only used 4 times in the N.T. and every time it is mentioned it refers to a court case between legal opponents. This was certainly no accident and God is informing us in a very pure direct easy to understand way that this is how He is using this word in 1 Peter 5:8 also. There can be no other logical conclusion that Satan is anything else but a spiritual individual that is bringing up charges before God to gain an advantage over us in order to devour us. If you don’t believe me please hang in there and read all the verses that we will cover today and then tell me if you still believe the same.
We should have learned from reading 1 Peter 5:8 that our adversary the devil (Satan) is described to be going about the whole earth to find someone (primarily a Christian since it was written to us) to devour. I would ask any reader this question to consider, what is Satan seeking (looking for) that permits him to devour some but not others? It would appear to me based upon Job chapter 1 that God places a hedge of protection in order to keep Satan out. Why would it be necessary for a hedge of protection to be present if Satan could do nothing to Job unless he had permission? I find that to be an amazing question. If Satan could only harm someone if granted permission as is taught by many Bible teachers there would be no need for any hedge round about Job. It is fascinating to me to see in Job 1 that Satan accuses God of doing this unjustly and accuses Job of fearing God for no cause. There were at least two accusations brought before God’s court and we need to see this.
However, it is very important to learn from 1 Peter 5:8 that Satan cannot devour everyone. Therefore, there must be something that a Christian does or does not do that permits Satan’s admittance into their lives. Also by antithesis reasoning there must be something that a Christian can do to keep Satan from killing, stealing and destroying their lives. I believe the determining factor is our sin and we will learn why as we continue in this study.
I have concluded from significant study of the book of Job that Job opened the door in the hedge and we will certainly be getting into this part of the subject as we continue the Bible study series. Please expect to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit on what we all need to do to keep Satan as far away from us as is possible in this world. Let’s continue to explore another new thought.
I believe that it is also critical to learn the definition of the title “devil” used by the LORD in 1 Peter 5:8. We should learn these details in order to more fully comprehend the impact of the warning being spoken of by the LORD. I believe the title being used in every verse reveals a great deal about Satan’s specific character, plans and methods of operation. The Greek word G1228 that is translated as “devil” literally means an “accuser”. This title speaks volumes of information to us. It teaches us that Satan and his followers are speaking malicious accusation against us as related in Revelation 12:10 both day and night. Who do you believe they are doing this to? Of course we learned in Job 1 before the law was given Revelation 12 long after Jesus was resurrected from the dead that these accusations have been taken up before God the supreme judge in Heaven. I pray that you will agree that spiritual trials will continue until the middle of the tribulation where all of sudden Satan is finally cast down never to return.
You may remember in Lesson 1 that God connected this verse statement of truth found in 1 Peter 5:8 directly to the activity found in the book of Job using very similar synonymous truths. I believe this was not an accident or chance occurrence and that it confirms that Satan came before the throne of God to hold a court trial of the man Job. I also firmly believe that this connection confirms that these same court trials were occurring even after the death, burial and resurrection of the LORD Jesus in the early church day when Peter wrote this epistle. I believe 1 Peter 5:8 was a part of God’s commentary of the O.T. story of Job that helps us interpret what happened in the book more accurately. Always remember a basic rule of interpretation that the God who wrote the Bible is smarter than both you and I and He will always assist us in the correct interpretation His own writings.
I would recommend that you go and reread Job 1 and 2 again and again from this new legal trial perspective. For example, we should have learned in Job 1:6 that Satan had come into heaven before the presence of God Almighty to present his legal case for obtaining access into Job’s blessed and protected life. We should be able to know that this was an accusatory trial case being presented to God since the spiritual being described is revealed to us by the name “Satan” in Job chapters 1 and 2 nearly 14 times. God’s usage of this name proves to us by the name’s definition that this being was present before God as an “opponent” and an “adversary” present to accuse Job. We should be able to easily see how the name “Satan” in Job and the description “adversary” in 1 Peter 5:8 are married together. One is a Hebrew transliteration (Job) and the other is just a translated Greek word (1 Peter 5). But, both mean the exact same thing.
Again names and titles in the Bible have great significance. None are there by unplanned chance. For example, one of the first direct titles mentioned of Satan found in the Bible is seen in Genesis 3:1. Here, Satan is called by a symbolic description of “serpent”. The title used by God in Genesis 3:1 is a totally different type of informative description. Serpent is in no manner like the other names used in other verses like Satan, devil, accuser or adversary. This teaches us that Satan was not present in the garden to accuse, but to do something else that he is also good at.
If you look up the definition of “serpent” in the Strong’s Concordance you will find it comes from a Hebrew root word H517 that can describe someone who came to Eve’s mind to whisper a magic spell. Wow, that is deeper than many may possibly comprehend. Serpent literally meant someone who was attempting to magically foretell the future to Eve. My main point here is that God reveals what Satan does or is doing to us by his symbols, names and titles. We need to learn this principle and use it to help us understand spiritually what is then happening in the context. Let’s get back to our lesson 1 review.
It is critical to see how God asks Satan where he had come from in Job 1:7. Because God is the omniscient author of the entire Bible He knows the right questions to ask to teach us what is happening. It is this wise question and true answer of Satan that provides the joining evidence that we need to learn from. Satan replies to God’s question very truthfully by saying he had just come from walking up and down on the face of the earth which is the amazing parallel admission of confirmation of the truth that we had learned about Satan in 1 Peter 5:8. This Hebrew word in Job 1:7 which was translated as “going to and fro” literally means that Satan had just come from traveling all around the earth and was there in heaven for an implied purpose. We learned Satan’s motivation for this movement from earth to heaven in God’s commentary description in 1 Peter 5:8. Satan was only searching the earth so that he could locate one of God’s people on the planet that he could devour. This is exactly what Satan does to Job, is it not? If we believe anything has changed from Job to Peter we would be mistaken. Satan was doing the exact same thing in Job’s day as he was doing in Peter’s day and even all the way to the current church now. We are in the exact same church as Peter was writing to therefore, please don’t write off these words as unimportant or as not applying to you.
This direct connected satanic activity description between Job 1:7, 1 Peter 5:8 to Revelation 12:10 is no inadvertent assembly of synonymous truth. God has designed the Bible with tremendous amounts of hidden connected verses and these help us to understand correctly the information that He planned to reveal to us in these last days. I pray that you are learning how God does this so that we do not have to lean onto our own weak human reasoning as so many have.
We then should have learned from Job 1 that it was only after the appearance of Satan before God’s throne of judgment that Satan was given access to come back to the earth to devour (kill, steal and to destroy) Job, his family and his possessions. It is so very clear to me that Satan won this access legally and justly to Job’s life in God’s heavenly court system.
I believe that God is the Supreme Judge of everyone but, I also believe His character is amazingly far above our human comprehension. We cannot ever compare God to any human judge on the earth. I have never seen any human judge that knows everything and never make any errors. No, I believe that God is perfect and does not make any mistakes in judgment and that He is a completely fair and just to humans in every spiritual court case. Therefore, if judgment is pronounced on any man there was a valid cause and reason and we will learn more of this as we continue the series.
I also believe that God is compassionate and merciful in His judgments. Let’s explore this part of the topic briefly. Job is not directly mentioned very many times in the Bible but this next verse is another divine commentary on the court trial and verdict that was rendered in this law case found in the book of Job.
Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
According to God’s Holy Word commentary He showed Job great mercy in His judgment. I know it might not seem that was true by our reading the book, but He did. For example, we can clearly read in Job 1:12 how God restricted Satan from touching or taking the physical life of Job personally. That limitation was a display of His infinite and great mercy. The entire duration of the trial of Job did not last a significant amount of time especially in light of God’s view of time and eternity. God actually restored and blessed Job at the end of the book more than was taken by Satan away from him at the beginning of the book. So again we see God’s infinite forgiveness, grace and mercy at work. Let’s go back to James 5:11 and continue reading further.
The Greek word that was translated as “the end” in this verse in James is G5056. This is a very fascinating word to understand. One of the primary meanings of the Greek word is “the point aimed at as the limit”. It is absolutely critical to know that Satan’s attack usually have a termination point where it will end. I said usually because it does depend upon if we learn the lesson of Job and stop doing what we were doing to let Satan in our life to devour us. If we repent like Job did and close the open door of attack the blessings of God can and will return.
In one other definition of G5056 it can also represent “the price that was paid as a fine or tax”. Wow that is an important legal description of judgment from a trial if you do not know it. Job paid a very heavy price for his sin, but yet I believe that we can read and see that he was able to get his life back on track by repenting at the end of the book before God in Job 42:6. We should clearly learn from this book that if we do the same we can also recover from what we have done to allow Satan’s access into our lives. I believe that knowledge should encourage and inspire us and give us hope.
I know that many will try writing this teaching of Job off by explaining it away as an act of the Sovereign God giving Satan His permission to teach Job a lesson. Others will say this is the Old Testament and we are not now under that law or that covenant. But I cannot agree with those reasonings using any Biblical rational form of belief since God is a loving good God (1 John 4:8, Romans 2:4) and I believe does not work with Satan to correct His people.
Then you must also understand that Job was not at all under the Mosaic law or the Old Covenant since his life story occurred before either existed. What we are learning are three examples of spiritual judgment from heavenly court trials. Job was before the Old Covenant and law, Peter was in the Old Covenant and under the law and then in 1 Peter 5:8 we in the church are the New Covenant people. We will very soon learn more about these legal activities occurring in the New Covenant as we continue in today’s lesson.
I believe in every realm of the Bible that there must have been some human action, words, motivation, emotion or other negative sin committed by Job or others that unlocked the door within God’s hedge of protection in order for Satan to come into their lives to legally devour them. As we learned again from 1 Peter 5:8 that “Satan is going about seeking for someone whom he may devour” and from this we should be able to logically deduct by strong implication that there MUST be something that we do that allows permits or grants Satan this access.
In the first lesson, I listed at least two reasons that I believe the Lord showed me that opened the access door for evil to enter into Job’s life and I also believe there were other reasons stated that I did not mention. These two door opening sins were first Job’s fear and second his pride that caused him to try to judge God and his friends. Both of these are huge and they still occur in church members today. We could write a lot on these two subjects but I do not have the time today. Perhaps the Lord will lead me to write a more detailed lesson just on the trial of Job someday.
In our second key study verse from lesson 1 we read what the Spirit of God said to us in Revelation chapter 12. Here we learned about how in the future when this chapter is prophesied to occur how Satan the “accuser” of the brethren (the Church) will finally be thrown down to the earth to never again be allowed entrance into heaven to accuse us. This clearly taught us that Satan had been authorized to do this legal accusation in the past human history and he must still be accusing the people of God on the earth even now since Revelation chapters 4 through 12 have not been fulfilled. Therefore, these court battles in heaven will continue according to God’s Word right up until the middle of the 7 year tribulation period. Time is running out on Satan’s access and I believe personally that he is working especially hard at holding as many trials as he can to gain access to devour Christian people remaining on the earth.
I pray that you will at least study these things to see if they are true for yourself (Acts 17:11). Let’s move forward into some more New Covenant verses to learn from on this subject. These fresh perspectives on legal things found in the New Covenant will help build a firm foundation for our knowledge on this important spiritual subject. They will confirm that even though we are in the church age of Grace that we are still living in a time where legal trials are still occurring.
New Testament Spiritual Court Confirmations
In today’s lesson, I would like to expand the topic of spiritual court systems and trials to other New Testament Bible verses that will benefit our study to support this truth from the present day New Covenant saved Christian perspective and viewpoint. As I have just tried to say, I want us to learn beyond any shadow of doubt that these heavenly trials are taking place even as I write and type the lesson and as you may be reading this lesson. This would imply that it is even possible that you or I may be on trial presently in heaven and we probably would not know about it until Satan came to execute the sentence. Remember in the examples that I gave in lesson 1 that Job knew nothing of Satan’s attack and he even attributed everything negative that happened to him as being caused by God’s work. Do you remember in Job 1:21 where Job said that it is God that gave and God has taken away? However, Job was very ignorant of God, His truth, His Character His ways and His enemies and when we are ignorant of what is really happening in the spiritual realm we can very easily fall into the same trap to accuse God for what Satan is doing to us.
Even Peter was totally unaware of the fact that Satan had demanded to sift him like wheat until Jesus directly warned Peter and even prayed for him that his “faith” would not fail during this time of trial. That is a great point to learn from. The objective of every satanic attack is Satan’s attempt to get your faith to waiver enough for you to fall away from following after the LORD. Peter learned a tremendous revelation from this legal trial experience and if you read his letters written to us in the church you will find this was very true. We have already read in 1 Peter 5:8 about our legal adversary but we will back up in the letter to the previous chapter to learn more. Let’s observe two of the most important confirming verses that will reveal and ratify this truth of the existence of heavenly trials being carried out in the church now.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Can you see the words written to us in the church by Peter given according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? We will begin by observing the initial time reference of the recorded statement. It appears to me to be plainly a present tense “now at the time of writing” statement. According to proper grammatical framing whatever is written directly that follows this introductory time frame must be applied directly to the reader then and by forward association to us the modern reader now. This makes the next statements active until there is a verse that we encounter that reveals the end of the validity of the stated truth being discussed by God. Let’s read what was occurring to them at that time and by forward implication is occurring now to us also.
The immediate statement following the identification of the timing is about the legal court issue of “judgment”. God informs us that “judgment” will begin with us in the church and again the time being stated was clearly present tense “now” as Peter wrote the letter. This means that this stated “judgment” written about was to believers in Peter’s day of life on the earth while alive and could not be referring to a “future” judgment after they were dead even though there are other judgments in the Bible that people will face after death. I hope you understand that there are repeated judgments listed in the Bible. Just because we are judged once now does not mean we cannot be judged again later and vice versa.
Both of these verses were well written relevant warnings to believers. It is very plainly stated about judgment originating with forgiven saved believers in Christ. Notice how in verse 17 that God presents us with a sharp contrast between believers and non-believers and it cannot be any clearer. Then in verse 18 there is a restated direct warning to every Christian that they are just “barely” saved. We could talk about that truth for a long time and we probably should but it is really not the main thought line of this lesson.
I know for sure that we now live in the prophesied church age of God’s Grace (1 Peter 1:10). I know for sure that God’s Grace saved us through faith (Eph 2:8). But, I also know verses like 1 Peter 4:17 and 18 that speak additional truths and these must be aligned correctly with God’s saving grace and forgiveness message. I just can’t teach this enough. It is so very important to learn.
What do these verses in first Peter say to us? Do you think they do not apply to you now? I know with 100% certainty they apply to me and were written to me. I would strongly recommend that you find out if they were written to you also because if they were not then you may not be a real Christ follower.
God wrote to you and I (the righteous and saved) and He informs us very clearly that we may be just “scarcely” saved. This Greek word that was translated as “scarcely” is G3433 and it means “with difficulty”, “hardly” or “scarcely”. Some synonyms of scarcely are “barely”, “narrowly” or “by a small margin”. Some other idioms for this word would be to be saved by “the skin of your teeth” or to be saved “by a whisker”. This Greek word can also mean “with a lot of significant work” we are saved. Wow, have you heard that taught in any church lately? No, I don’t think so. I know I don’t hear it personally being taught but this is what God said. In fact I hear the opposite being taught in churches and on TV.
You see the antonym or antithesis truth of this Greek word G3433 translated as “barely” is to be saved “fully”, “entirely”, “completely” or “totally”. That is the very popular message being spoken of by many extreme Grace Teachers and even other churches who teach a salvation without any further challenges, struggles, or any other human choices to be made in order to remain a Christian. That is just not what the Bible actually says. Please do not misunderstand what I say here. We are not saved by our works. Salvation is ONLY through our faith in God’s finished work of Grace found only in Jesus Christ. But, that does not mean we will never be judged for doing wrong things here on the earth after salvation. Peter clearly is telling us that “judgment” for sin begins with us right now.
We could literally talk a very long time on these two verses in 1 Peter 4 but I pray that we receive what Peter says by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Remember that Peter is also speaking from his own personal direct experience along with God’s inspiration. Remember we have seen how that Peter was judged and demanded to be sifted like wheat. Then we will soon see another example where Peter was present where Christians were judged.
This Greek word G2917 that was translated as “judgment” is the key word that reinforces the truth of a trial system in heaven occurring. This Greek word is defined as “a decision” that has been rendered by an implied Judge with proper authority (God) to make a ruling. The decision can either be for us (in our favor) or against us (in the favor of Satan the accuser). The implied cause of this decision (judgment) is given for the crimes (sins) that have been committed by Christians. This same Greek word can also mean that we could be “condemned” or it is even translated as “damned” in other N.T. verses. We certainly don’t hear these words mentioned in many of our Grace churches do we? Since we all have been guilty of committing sins we can understand a little better why Peter said that we are just “barely” saved, can’t we?
Acts 5 – Another Example of N.T. Judgment #1
Did you ever read Acts chapter 5? Remember that it was Peter that was the man that wrote the words of 1 Peter 5:8 and 4:17-18 for us. Peter is also the man found to be preaching in the book of Acts chapter 5 to saved people of the church when another believer named Ananias comes into the service late to bring his offering to the Lord. However, this man held back some of the money in secret and only gave a part of the money using deception saying that this was all of the money obtained. That was a lie. Immediately the same Peter that we are studying about was inspired by the Holy Spirit of a judgment against Ananias by giving Peter a word of knowledge. Peter asks the man Ananias “Why has Satan filled your heart to LIE to the Holy Ghost?” And immediately Ananias drops dead in the middle of church and his body is carried out and the church service just continues like nothing happened. I seriously believe that a spiritual trial occurred in heaven and a verdict of guilty was determined and the sentence was carried out immediately. You of course can explain it away and believe whet ever you like about these truths. I have heard one popular unnamed TV extreme Grace Preacher say that Ananias wasn’t really a true Christian and this is why he was killed. But, that cannot be the truth based upon what we just read in 1 Peter 4:17. It is my goal to use the Bible to interpret the Bible and 1 Peter 4:17 stated that judgment begins in the church not in the unsaved world..
You will also notice in Acts 5 that this event is repeated again for his wife Sapphira. Please go and reread the story again from a court room trial perspective where a judgment and verdict is rendered and carried out. The saved Christian wife does the exact same sin as her husband and she also drops dead in the middle of church after being confronted by Peter and the Holy Spirit. Wow, after all of this occurs in the church a “great fear” fell on the people in church. It may be that these types of things will occur in the last days also before Jesus returns. We should really learn from them rather than repeat them.
Act 5:11 And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
“Fear” in this verse is the Greek word G5401 and it means a person who is in a state of “terror”. Why would there be any GREAT fear in the heart of saved Christians if two unsaved people just suddenly dropped dead in the church? Why not weeping? Why not sorrow? Why not compassion? Fear would only be justified for one reason. The only way fear could be appropriately found in Christian believers would be because they knew Ananias and Sapphira were also Christians and judgment just fell on them so it could happen to them in the exact same way. Do you understand this?
It is very foolish for Christians to try to believe these two individuals that were judged by God were anything but Christians. The belief that a loving God would condemn two unsaved people to immediate death and eternal punishment in hell is ludicrous. If God did this in the age of Grace He would have to do it to everyone that is not saved because they all sin. Jesus said very plainly in John 3:17 that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. Please let that verse found in John sink into your heart and grow very deep roots.
I hear too many preachers try to accuse God of judging lost sinners while forgetting that God loves them enough to wait for them to get saved (James 5:7). Why wouldn’t God’s love be the same for Ananias and Shapphira if they were unsaved Christians? I believe God so loved the unsaved world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
We are going to read several more verses in today’s lesson about this subject. I would strongly recommend that you not stop reading because of what has been taught so far. God is only trying to change our perspective so we can see some potentially new truths in the Bible. All of this so far is to help us think in a fresh and a new way on things in the Bible that we have never seen in this light before. This is really good stuff that will help us fight the enemy’s temptations and accusations that will be coming to us all.
New Testament Judgment #2
We have already observed where Peter said Judgment will begin with the Church. We then just read through Acts 5 for example #1 of an actual judgment that occurred to two Christians. We are now going to turn in the Bible to a verse written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11. In this verse we are going to be reviewing the implied topic of the heavenly court system to obtain further confirmation that judgment will begin now in the church. Please read this very carefully and accept the fact of truth that this was written directly to you and I personally as Christians:
1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
This is an amazing truth that is too often ignored by everyone reading and teaching from the Bible. It is addressed to “we” and that is a plural pronoun that even includes the “Apostle Paul” the writer, as well as you and I the readers. It always amazes me when a Bible teacher misses the fact that Paul included himself in statements like these. If Paul needed to do this and he wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, how much more do you think we should do this? What was it that Paul needed to do along with us? Paul says very plainly that IF I JUDGE MYSELF, then and only then I will NOT be judged. Wow, that is as insightful as it could get for a lot of Christians. Paul is declaring very simply that a spiritual heavenly trial could have occurred for him if he did not judge his own intentions, emotions, motives, actions and words.
There are two different Greek words spoken of in this verse that we miss totally if we do not look up the original language definitions. The first Greek word translated as “judge” is speaking of our human responsibility and it is not the act of a judge in a court. This Greek word is G1252 and it literally means that we need to separate ourselves thoroughly and completely from sin. This is a human right of choice found and encountered every day of our saved existence. We can do what the world does, live like the world, speak like the world, dress like the world or we can come out from the world and choose to be separate and different than they are. This is our choice. We can choose to either obey God or if we don’t what does God say will happen? God says very clearly that we will be judged for doing what the world does.
Let’s observe the second word in the verse translated as “judged”. This Greek word is G2919 and it does mean that a judge will make a decision over us to possibly condemn or punish us. Don’t take my word for it, go look up the word for yourself and learn.
The Greek Word translated as “should not” is G3756 in verse 31 is much stronger in this stated original Greek language than you can imagine. It literally means the “absolute negative”. It should be translated in this statement as “we are never judged” IF we judge our own self. This is revelation #1 for us to keep from being judged. It is also the #1 reason why Christians are judged. How many Christians think before they speak? How many Christians really think hard about what they are going to do before they do it? How many Christians are going to bars and night clubs acting and looking like the world? I know there are some Christians who are doing better at being separated from the world’s way of doing things than others. But, this is just a small part of the subject of judging yourself first in order for Satan not to bring a case before God about you! If we read the next verse that follows verse 31 God will help clarify the reasoning why He must judge Christians even after all of our sins were forgiven in Christ:
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
Notice the initial wording of the sentence. God begins the statement by speaking a fact of truth about “when we are judged” (G2916). He does not say “IF WE ARE JUDGED”. No it will occur, God leaves no doubt. Then God gives us the #1 reason for this discipline. The God of all knowledge says we must be chastened of the LORD so that we won’t fall into the exact same “condemnation” that the world will be judged with after we die. There are two judgments being spoken of. One in the future is called the “Great White Throne” judgment (Rev 20:11-12) where those that are not written in the book of life will be judged one at a time standing before God. The other judgment that occurs before this is the one that is occurring in the Church age of Grace. This judgment occurs when we sin willfully like the world and God needs to bring correction. This is exactly what happened in Acts 5 believe it or not.
We as Christians can choose to judge ourselves now and choose to be different than the world now so that we can skip this after life judgment. If Ananias and Shapphira would have judged themselves before going into the church service they would not have been struck down dead. I will try to talk more about this as we go on in the series. Lets read some of the preceding context verses of 1 Corinthians 11 in order to learn more on this subject of judgment for those who did not judge themselves:
1Co 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
1Co 11:30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
If we read this context carefully we will confidently confirm that this was written to Christians about Christians concerning spiritual court trial cases that were taking place even when Paul was writing this letter to the church. We should be able to see in verses 29 and 30 how that some in the Corinthian church were found guilty of both spiritual and natural sins. In verse 29 they had been found guilty of eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ unworthily and disrespectfully. It appears from the previous context that this church came and possibly got drunk from too much wine and ate too much bread as if they were gluttons. Paul informs us very clearly that for this reason the result came that many of them (Christians) in the church were either sick or dead because of these abuses. In other words, I believe that Satan had brought the judgment of the LORD against them and oppressed some of these Christians with physical illness that put them in a weakened physical state or Satan had actually been granted permission to take some Christian’s lives. Wow, that is some very amazing truth to apply to our subject of study.
It is so very obvious to me that because of specific sin in the church that some judgments were passed in heaven in order to allow or permit Satan to come down to devour them to make some of them ill and others of them dead. This is exactly what happened to Job. This is exactly what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. This clearly informs us that judgment was passed before they knew of this and that only after Paul wrote to them in order to warn them how to fix it was it learned what the real problem was to begin with. I personally believe that Paul was given a word of knowledge for this church and Paul tells them very plainly that if they would only begin to judge themselves to do things differently than the world that they would never be judged.
Wow, Wow and Wow!!! Who was it that judged them? Who was it that accused them before the judge? Who was it that gained an advantage over them to take them out of this world or make them sick? I hope you can already see the answers are plain. God had to pass judgment because they had not judged themselves. The judgment had to have been initiated by the accuser of the brethren and that is only Satan or at least it should be. I hope and pray that you as a Christian would not pick up a stone to throw at your brother. Please never do this. Don’t act like Satan, but rather choose to act like Christ who said to the woman caught in adultery “Woman where are your accusers? Neither do I condemn you, go your way and sin no more”. What an amazing example lesson to learn from.
CONCLUSION
I think I have gone long enough in this lesson. We can certainly learn so much more from these chapters in Acts 5 and 1 Corinthians 11 than I was able to go into in today’s lesson. The Lord has provided us all great and very significant meaty spiritual food for thought. We all should take these words of God to heart and meditate on them for a long time. Please study for yourself and verify exactly that what is being said in this series is what the loving God of the Bible actually says as a warning to Christians. God has provided at least two major witnesses to every truth being taught.
Thank you for reading and taking your time to study these advanced Bible lessons. I am truly humbled that God would use anyone as imperfect as me to teach anyone anything. The goodness of God is truly overwhelming me every day of my life. I love the LORD and trust Him to help mold me and you into the highest pattern of Christ Jesus. I pray that you are blessed with every spiritual blessing of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Amen.
If you would like to continue reading this series about making Jesus Your Personal Advocate Now, click here “Part 3“.
Introduction to Divine Grace! Balancing the Grace Truth with the Fear of God Truth! Part 1
(Ver 1.1) This is Part 1 in a series of basic Bible lessons on the infinitely important subject of God’s Divine Grace. The subject of Divine Grace is by far one of the most significant found and emphasized by God in the New Testament but also one of the most misunderstood, overstated, exaggerated and unbalanced modern messages that I have found on TV, the internet and in many churches. Any subject in the Bible can be taken to a position of errant inaccuracy causing the underlying true message to become lost. Departing from a well-studied, thoroughly balanced, rightly divided, sound doctrinal view of God’s Word is a very dangerous but prevalent reality found in the church today. The subject of Divine Grace is just one of these subjects found in the present church that has experienced this sad fact of extremism. Many modern extreme Grace Bible teachers only teach a slanted selected fragment of the complete subject ignoring the rest of the Bible concerning sin, repentance, forgiveness, the fear of God, judgment, faith, holiness, sowing and reaping, deception, spirituality, carnality, being sprit led and the many other N.T. subjects which all must be taken into the full discussion equally. Instead of doing this these Bible teachers are working very hard to explain these complementary subjects away or totally ignoring them all together. I refuse to take that kind of narrow minded approach to such a broad important subject with so many other associated and linked matters being overlooked. I will warn you up front that this will be one of the most significant Bible lessons never taught by many modern Bible teachers on the subject of Grace. In fact, it will be so different that I may expect to receive several negative comments from my religious carnal readers who do not wish to see the spiritual truth of God’s Word. I ask that you open your mind and spirit to receive from what the Bible has to say on this subject.
INTRODUCTION TO THE FEAR OF GOD
I’m going to begin this Grace Bible lesson series with an introduction to another very important Bible subject called “the fear of God”. In this part of the Bible lesson I will be using a personal testimony from my life experiences that God used to help teach me to see things differently in the Bible about the subject of Grace than many other Christians. Why am I starting a lesson on God’s Grace with the subject of the “fear of God”? That is a great question and the reason that I do this is because this subject is so consistently ignored that it has become lost to the modern Christian. In teaching with this approach I will have to battle an apparent Biblical surface text contradiction. The subjects of the “fear of God” and “Grace” appear to be in direct opposition to each other. Why should I fear God if God has given to me this free gift of divine grace and forgiven all of my sins? Because people do not know how to correctly balance two opposing subjects is the primary reason they choose to ignore the one they do not like. You are about to learn what these two directly opposing subjects mean when joined together correctly if you decide to continue to read the rest of this lesson.
The teaching of the “fear of God” is dramatically lacking and at times non-existent in the modern church. It is a well-known fact that Christians today disregard this subject called the fear of God and have no driving desire to learn it. The “Grace” message appeals to our flesh and that is more highly desirable for the normal Christian to seek after. However, I’m one of those different types of Christians that likes to believe that we must balance all of the subjects found in the Bible together in order to correctly understand any of them? This is why I have chosen to teach Grace by giving you an introduction and an overview to the subject of fear. Let’s begin this part of the subject by determining how God defines “fear”? Here is one N.T. Greek Word from Strong’s to begin with:
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G5401
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From a primary φέβομαιphebomai (to be put in fear); alarm or fright: – be afraid, + exceedingly, fear, terror.
This Greek word occurs in 44 verses of the New Testament. There are 14 verses in the Gospels, 5 verses in Acts, 3 verses in the apocalyptic book of Revelation and the rest (22) in the letters written to the church. G5401 is not a superbly popular word but it is well distributed throughout the N.T. and therefore should not be ignored. I will begin my discussion of this Greek word by saying that I believe God’s definition of fear is based upon human awe and respect of His great power but that is not a complete and accurate definition based upon this Greek word’s usage. I certainly do believe that a reverential fear of God is a very healthy part of a real Christian’s relationship with God. I also believe that this reverential fear of God is a requirement and not just an optional condition placed in the mind of those that do not wish to see the truth. Those that wish to explain away the subject of the fear of God do so by stating this fear is nothing but “reverence” and that is by far not an accurate representation of the word’s definition as you can see.
Reading from the Greek word definition given to us by Dr. Strong this Greek word means more than just giving God respect and goes to a deeper human response level of being afraid, to become fearful or even to be in terror of. How does that fit your relationship with God? I personally believe that if you have no real fear for God or of God then you really do not know Him very well. God is described to be omnipotent and this simply means “all-powerful”. Do you believe anyone else is more powerful than God? I certainly do not believe that anyone else is even close. Since you or I are not omnipotent it would be very foolish of us not to be in total awe of Him that is.
The Greek word G5401 or the Hebrew word H3374 translated as “fear” can be researched in the Strong’s dictionary/concordance to verify how they are defined and used. Doing this research, will help us to better understand what these words mean. For example, when Jesus came walking up to the boat with the disciples on the water in the darkness of night, they were described by God to be in “fear” (G5401) crying out “it is a ghost”. Can you put yourself into their position and think how you might have reacted? Does that story help you to see what this word “fear” means? This word “fear” means to be un-expectantly terrified because this is not a normal/natural situation found in this life. Matthew 14:26 describes this event and God uses this same Greek word G5401 to describe how the disciples reacted. This Greek Word we will soon discover in the other parts of the N.T. is used by God to describe how we should react to God. I will give you several examples to help you learn how God uses this word when speaking of Himself and our reaction to Him and His works. It would be very wise of you to verify everything that I will say to you today for yourself using your own Bible and Strong’s dictionary.
Is “fear” always a negative or can it ever be viewed as a positive emotion or reaction? What about physical pain? Is physical pain a positive? Can we agree that God created fear and pain as possible human benefits? If God created the response of fear and the feeling of pain do they have a purpose for existence? Is this purpose for our benefit or for our harm? I believe that fear and pain should be viewed as positives and not a negative aspect of our life or our relationship with God. You see if you did not have the sensation of pain you would not know to take your hand off of the hot stove. Likewise if you do not fear big trucks and step out in front of one moving very fast, you could be found dead in just a very few moments. Having fear of a greater power is healthy and normal and we should respect anything or anyone that is bigger than we are if we want to live a long well life. But, this subject fear and terror is still a potential major conflict for the God revealed to be Love who displays and extends us Grace in the New Testament. How do we balance “fear” with “love” and “grace”?
Perhaps you were raised by strict parents that loved you? Did your parents ever discipline you when you did wrong? Did they do this because they were bad parents or only because you were being bad? Could it be that they were good parents for spanking you? Love was always my motivation for disciplining my child to instruct him which way to go. You see the Bible says “He that spares the rod, hates his child” (Prov 13:24). It is only a parent that does not discipline their child that proves to God they do not love their children. This is the main reason we have a generation of bad grown-ups doing evil in the world. No one took the time to train them in the right ways to live. Because I was bigger and stronger than my child, my child’s respectful fear for his loving father was a positive influence and this fear of getting a spanking was a positive influence and not a negative. This is the way that we should become with our own God and spiritual heavenly Father. Let me take you to a New Testament verse written to the church and see what God says on this subject:
- Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
This description is exactly what I was attempting to teach. We should learn to respect our God because He loves us enough to bring us correction. This Greek word for reverence is not “fear” but it contains implied fear in order to give someone reverential status. God is basically informing us that we need to become aware of His correction in our lives because this is just a normal part of the healthy relationship between the teacher/master to a lesser student/disciple in need of guidance. Perhaps you do not believe that you need any divine guidance and that will become your downfall soon. The Bible very clearly tells us that “those that are LED by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom 8:14). How can anyone lead someone else without also bringing correction when they stray from the instructions? I do not see how that is possible so pay attention to what God is teaching us. We need to learn from the parent analogy that fear, correction and judgment coming from God is a necessary and healthy part of divine power, grace, love and guidance. Without all of these subjects being found present there is no need for any of them. I’m not sure if you understand what I just said, but it was very profound and important.
Numerous teachers today in the modern Grace message teach that every sin is completely covered by the shed blood of Jesus (TRUTH) and that there is nothing that they or any other Christian can do by omission or commission, good, bad or indifferent that will cause them to depart from God’s Grace or to fall under God’s divine judgment (LIE). In other words they are teaching Christians that God never judges them because He has judged Jesus and therefore, God does not love them enough to bring them any correction for their ways. They have foolishly taken the truth reality of the perfection of Jesus to mean that they are now perfect because of what Jesus has done for them and that is definitely not a sound Bible truth. This very popular belief places all of the responsibility of us remaining a Christian on God and omits any human influence, participation, contribution, responsibility, freewill choice or satanic involvement for deception. This extreme grace doctrine is simply a newer modified version of a very old doctrinal lie called “Once Saved Always Saved” (OSAS). They have placed salvation and eternal security totally and completely in God’s hands while ignoring what God says in His Word for us to do after we are saved. I always ask them, if God controls the outcome of the Christian race then there is no need for our effort to run in it (Heb 12:1). Therefore, there are no consequences for quitting, no disqualifications for cheating, no need for correction and certainly no need to fear God. That doctrinal belief sounds satanically inspired to me and I pray that you begin to see it in the same light.
Eternal security and divine personal safety are both valid parts of the N.T. Gospel message but they are not everything that the Spirit of God taught me from my life experiences or from what is written in the Holy Bible. Try not to misunderstand what I just said. We do not base our faith or our beliefs of God solely upon our personal experiences in this life, but we can use them as examples if they align with the words of God in the Bible to teach others a lesson. That is what I will attempt to do today. I’ll tell you about what happened to my family and then you can judge if I am speaking the truth or if I am just here trying to deceive you. Will you do that? Can I count on you to be an unbiased, just and fair judge of what I teach you today?
When I was a young man my father and mother went to a Bible school here in the United States. They were in their second year of Bible training with a great man of God teaching the class when suddenly the Holy Spirit interrupted the class giving the Bible teacher a supernatural spiritual vision. This Bible teacher saw a cloud of death hovering over the head of just one student in class and that man was my father. This vision from the Holy Spirit was a warning sent to my father. The Bible teacher being very concerned stopped the class and called my father to the front and prayed for him and asked him to come see him privately in his office later. My father basically did not understand the importance of what God had just tried to do for him and he ignored the request to come see the man of God privately. My father’s refusal to become obedient was the continuation and not the beginning of the downfall of my father. You see when the man of God gives anyone a message from God and they disobey it, they are not disobedient to the messenger but rather to God and His message. A few weeks later my father collapsed at home, was rushed by ambulance and went into a coma at the local hospital. The doctors did the best they could to save him but my father died suddenly in the hospital as a young man in his forties and never finished that year at Bible school. All of this happened despite the fact that my father was a Christian, the pastor of several churches, the graduate from one 4 year Bible College going to another Bible school to further his education of God and the Bible and all of us living in the church age called the dispensation of God’s Grace.
I do not believe that my father was not a Christian or that he did not go to heaven when he died. I am convinced that he was born again and a Spirit-filled preacher man. But the fact that God gave another Spirit filled preacher man a clear vision to help warn my father of what was going to happen weeks before it happened is a major problem for the modern “no fault”, “no fear of God”, “no responsibility”, “no sin”, “no repentance” and “no judgment” Grace message. Every time I hear some preacher trying to tell me what people do today doesn’t matter for them being a real saved Christian living long in this world causes me righteous anger knowing what I know now about my father, God and the Bible. I believe you can see why I feel this way but let’s continue to read the end of the story.
My family and I learned the rest of the story after the funeral. The man of God that was given the vision’s warning told my mother privately that God had showed him that my father was in sin not walking in love towards certain people. This man of God was shown what to tell my father to instruct him to change in order to not die this premature death. My father being a young man was definitely not in the season or time for his death. Since my father showed no fear and ignored the warning and did not humble himself to go and get the message from God, he died exactly as it was shown to the man of God. Some will try to say this was not a warning but a prophecy for something that could not be changed. Others will try to say the preacher lied about the vision or that my father was not really a Christian. Some will try to tell you that my mother lied to me and that none of this really happened this way. That is what one extreme grace preacher tried to tell me and then he unfriended me on Facebook like a real Christian brother would do walking in love. He definitely did not want to hear the truth but that is his choice and it will become yours shortly. I stand by everything that I just said, and I can show you the death certificate, let you listen to recorded testimonies and name every name that was involved giving dates and locations, but what difference would that make if you don’t want to see the truth.
Does this story of my father’s death sound like any other Bible story to you? When I heard this being described by my mother and later learned more of the Bible it sounded exactly like a story given to us by God in the Old Testament with very similar circumstances. I’ll use this story found in the Bible to help us see how God aligns the Bible with the story of my father:
- 2Ki 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Have you ever studied this Bible story? Isn’t this basically what the Lord tried to do for my father? God sent a prophet with a vision that said you are going to die in both cases. What happened to this king after Isaiah the prophet visited him with this very comparable message of pending death sent from God? You did know that my father was a king, didn’t you? Perhaps I did not mention that in my testimony. Maybe you have read in 1Timothy 6:15 that Jesus Christ is called the “King of kings”. Who exactly are these kings that Jesus is King over? If you don’t understand who these kings are go read Revelation 5:10 and find out it is God’s church who will reign with Christ Jesus during the millennium. If you think that God does not still send His prophets to His kings when they do wrong you better wake up and learn you’re not God and He is still the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8). Notice what King Hezekiah did that my father did not do and then see what God does in response:
- 2Ki 20:2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,
- 2Ki 20:3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
The king seeks his God with his whole heart. Notice that the king’s response was “fear based” and precisely what my father should have done. What exactly do you believe would have happened if Hezekiah would have not feared the message of God or would have ignored the prophet’s warning like my father did? Not taking the warning of God seriously and giving God respect will always result in what was warned to happen, occurring. God is omniscient and that simply means God knows the future before it occurs, but that does not mean that the future cannot be changed. What did I just say? Did you know that your future is not set in stone? That is what I am trying to teach you today. People like to think there is an appointed time for a man to die and nothing will change that, but that is just not what the Bible says. My father’s future outcome was not set in stone either and if he would have made the right choices he would not have died. We learn this fact from this profound story here in 2 Kings. God states emphatically that the future for King Hezekiah was going to be his quick death. God offered the king no deals nor made any other options available to him. But Hezekiah seeks God’s face and notice what happens next:
- 2Ki 20:4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
- 2Ki 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
- 2Ki 20:6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
I hope that you can see that the previously prophesied demise of the king was changed and Hezekiah’s life on the earth was extended by a further allowance of God’s Divine Grace. God said to His prophet to go back and tell the king that I have heard his prayer and saw his TEARS! That was a clear sign of the king reaching out to God with an attitude of repentance asking for forgiveness. Didn’t God initiate His divine grace to Hezekiah by first warning him about his death before it happened? If God would have kept silent and given him no warning the king would have died and that would have been justice for his sins. It is very clear to me that it was not the warning sent from God that was going to kill him. It was the warning sent from God that was designed to help the king make the necessary corrections. This is exactly the same truth for my father’s story. God’s warning was intended to turn my father around like King Hezekiah. Do you understand this point of the existence of God’s grace in these warnings? You will find this truth becoming clearer as we continue to study this subject. Grace will always be God’s initiated involvement in our life especially when we do not deserve it.
What happened after the warning was initiated by God? Isn’t the continuation of further Grace placed into the hands of the men that were warned by God? You see I view the subject of Grace to be like a heavenly/earthly tennis match. I see God always serving the first Grace Ball at humans, but then it is the correct human response to this serve that determines another round of Grace. Please do not accuse me of blasphemy for reducing God’s Grace to be like a tennis match. I am simply attempting to teach you the fact that there is always God’s Grace that is extended first, followed by man’s reaction to that grace and then if it is appropriate in God’s eyes, God will extend them more grace. Didn’t God show the king additional grace and mercy by changing his prophesied future? I believe He did. This lesson of Hezekiah is definitely a valid story of indirect or unstated divine grace and that is why I am including it today in this lesson on grace and the fear of God.
Can you agree with me that what God did for this O.T. king was an undeserved gift and an act of His divine grace designed to help avert disaster? If yes, what was missing from my father’s life story that was different from this King’s story? Both men were in a covenant with God and both were sent a prophet from God with a message for their coming death. But one man in the Bible believed the message in fear and sought God diligently and the other obviously did not. You have to throw the Bible away and simply call me a liar for telling you this story that happened to my father well over 30 years ago. The man of God must have made up the vision to his Bible class, my father, and my mother which started this whole chain of alleged deception. My mother then propagated the alleged lie to me and the alleged deception of Satan is continuing by me telling you the same story. That is certainly one way of looking at it attempting to explain it away if you do not want to believe the truth. I give you no proof or evidence for what I just told you other than this corresponding lesson from 2 Kings.
You are now going to be forced to judge if these stories that I just told you are true or not. Start with the Bible story and determine if God lied? Then review the links of the Bible to the story of my father. Finally, consider the following questions. What is my motivation for telling you this story of my father? Can you think of any benefit that I gain from it personally? If I do not gain anything from telling these stories then consider how or what you would either gain or lose from knowing them and believing them or rejecting them? How, would these stories cause you to be deceived to not know the real truth? What benefit would be gained by Satan over you if what I said is true and you don’t believe it? Then reverse that question and say what benefit would Satan gain over you if the story is false and you do believe it? You really need to use your brain and think when you read my Bible lessons. I just can’t do your thinking for you! What advantage does Satan gain if you believe the modern extreme Grace message that teaches us nothing we do matters in this world? I can see that Satan’s major advantage is your ignorance of the truth. You need to learn the truth or this lack of knowledge might be the open door that allows Satan to take you down.
I believe what we must discover from these stories is the fact that both Hezekiah and my father were warned by God’s initiation of Grace but because Hezekiah made the wiser choice to fear God the outcome of his death was stopped by God’s additional extension of divine grace. The story of Hezekiah teaches us a lot about the modern subject of grace found in the New Testament. What we are learning is that further grace from God is given out to men conditionally based upon the correct actions of these men and their attitude of respectful fear for God, His Word and His prophets. This same Old Testament pattern is found in more than one place. For example, Jonah another prophet of God was sent to warn Nineveh of their coming destruction. The city of Nineveh repented and changed their ways and their destruction was also prevented by their wise actions. What were the determining factors for the change of the prophet’s prediction not coming to pass in Nineveh? I believe that we can draw from these examples several facts starting with all the warned people needed to possess the “fear of God” in order to obtain any further grace from God. If no one would have feared God’s words, no one would have given the warning any second thought. The next factor for receiving God’s grace was belief in God’s words of warning. If no one believed what the prophet said then no one would have bothered to take the next step to seek God. Finally, there was the factor of humility being present in the people warned that played a major role in them asking God for forgiveness with an attitude of repentance to change. I am going to keep saying the same things in different ways to make sure you are grasping them. These are the facts again that I learned from these Bible stories:
- The fear of God must be present to receive God’s initial grace.
- Faith in God’s Words must be present to receive God’ initial grace.
- Faith in God’s messenger/prophet is also a requirement to receive God’s initial grace.
- The humility to admit your error must be present to receive God’s initial grace.
- Asking God for forgiveness must be present to receive God’s additional grace.
- Repentance and change must be present to receive God’s additional grace.
- God’s grace is conditionally extended to man based upon their correct human response.
- Greater extensions of God’s grace are a progressive reality based upon correct human attitudes, responses and corrections.
- Grace can be rejected and lost by no fear of God being present, wrong human beliefs, wrong attitudes, and human pride.
The first eight truths in my list were factors apparently missing from the life of my father and you need to learn from them to make your own wise choices in this life. Number 9 in the list was my father’s mistakes and again you need to learn to not repeat them. I just gave you two O.T. examples where they made right choices and lived a longer life and my father’s N.T. example where he failed to receive correction from the Lord and died. This is about the time I can hear people try to say “we are not under that covenant and the Old Testament does not apply to me”. Don’t be ignorant and speak where you have no knowledge. There are too many things that you don’t know to say the O.T. does not apply to you. Everything that was revealed by God in the New Testament was first concealed in the Old Testament. The O.T. is nothing but the N.T. covered and the N.T. is nothing but the O.T. exposed! They are practically identical in many corresponding ways with one being totally a natural pattern in the Old and the other being a totally a repeated spiritual pattern in the New. What I am attempting to teach is that if the fear of God existed in the O.T. it clearly must exist in the N.T. or God has changed.
THE FEAR OF GOD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
If you still believe that we should not have any fear of God in the New Testament you seriously need to reread your Bible more closely. God says too much for this subject to be ignored. For example let’s continue this subject discussion transferring to the scriptures on the subject in only the New Testament. Read these next four verses written to the people in the church and take note to what they say:
- Act 13:16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
- 2Co 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Eph 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
- Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Bible teaches us to let every truth be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Therefore, I wanted to show you that the “fear of God” is directly mentioned in the New Testament in more than one place. Pay close attention to see that these verses were written to Christians living in the age of Divine Grace and that they were written for us to learn from and to follow. Did you notice what the first verse in my list in Acts 13:6 said? Wasn’t Paul one of the first “Grace” preachers? Who was Paul preaching this message of Grace to? Did you see it? Paul was preaching grace to Christians in the church that first and foremost “feared God”? I thought Paul was the ultimate grace preacher that everyone today likes to claim to preach like? I have heard more than one of these modern day Grace preachers say that Paul got blasted by people in the church for preaching grace claiming that he was giving them a license to sin. However I noticed a major problem that is not lining up in the N.T. with this modern day grace message, did you see it also? Why are these modern extreme grace preachers NOT following Paul’s example in Acts? Why do these modern grace preachers speak to men that do not fear God and still claim to be like Paul? I believe that is one of the most profound things that I have taught you today. Is your preacher teaching people that fear God? If not the preacher is wrong or the people are wrong and do not fit the pattern given.
Did you notice that the other three verses that I listed were also all written by Paul? Make no mistake that the fear of God is still a major factor in the true complete N.T. gospel message. Consider why God sent a warning to my N.T. preacher father the same as he did to those in the O.T. like Hezekiah and Nineveh? Didn’t God extend them all the same Grace filled opportunity to change? Was not the same warning sent to my father that could have permitted him to turn and live? If you are not understanding yet that God does not change and what has already happened in the past is that which will occur again you either need to open the eyes of your heart to see the truth fast or go read someone else’s Bible lessons that will scratch your itching ears. It is just abundantly clear to me that the subject of the “fear of God” is still important for us to know. But, for those that are still not believing Paul here is one command from the mouth of Jesus, God in the flesh spoken right before the beginning of the church age:
- Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Jesus Christ is the revealed Head of the Church (Eph 5:23). If you do not believe my words or Paul’s words that the fear of God is still a factor for your salvation, why don’t you begin to believe the words of your God? In this verse Jesus clearly says “fear God” and do not “fear man”. Do not fear those that can only kill the body but not your soul but fear Him that is able to do both. This command will become significantly more important as I continue to teach. Remember these words! This verse is a statement not addressed directly to a people by name but rather by implication applies universally to every human saved or unsaved. Those that do not wish to believe the “fear of God” command was spoken to them will attempt to explain it away as a statement spoken only to unsaved Jews. However, if you read the context you should be able to see that this statement was made to the disciples of Jesus and that means the words apply to the future church more than they apply to the lost world or Jewish people but both are still relevant since none of the disciples were yet saved when this was said. Consider the audience that received this message was mixed with those that feared God and those that did not. Was not Judas present with the 12 when this was spoken? Eleven of these disciples of Jesus became founders of the church but one betrayed Jesus because he lacked this quality called the “fear of God”. Judas witnessed the same miracles of Jesus as the other 11. Judas heard all the same preaching and teaching messages that the other 11 heard. Judas saw Jesus walk on water, calm the storm and so much more. But clearly Judas lacked the important feature of the fear of God and regrets that eternally in hell today.
People are free to ignore these words of Jesus or to explain them away but they will be judged for that error someday. Ask yourself, do you fear God? If not why is there no fear present within you? Is it because of the modern grace teaching? Did you know that anyone that is ignoring the fear of God command is being disobedient to God and not man? The words spoken to “fear God” came from the one that was going to die for your sins and the giver of all grace, so do whatever you like. But be further warned that Jesus the head of the church also said “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say” (Luke 6:46). So what did Jesus say and why are people not following this command to become obedient? Let’s take a look at an important subject verse that is popularly ignored or explained away by the modern extreme grace message teachers:
- Act 5:11 And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
What did this verse just say? Not only was there “fear” in the early church there was a “great fear” and that just intensifies the terror of God level to a much higher plateau. The Greek word used here in this verse is again G5401 that was used to describe the disciples in the boat observing Jesus walking on the water. Clearly from the verse context this was a result of what just transpired within the church. What caused the early church to be in such excessive terror of a loving gracious God? Ok, maybe I should first ask you who were these fears in the church people directed at? The verse does not state directly who or what this fear is of or for, therefore these words can be explained away to be a fear of something else besides God. This is where one grace preacher unfriended me on FB. I simply told him that he knew how to read the Bible but that he could not see what the Bible really said right in front of him. In order to answer this question we need to study the context of the verse and find out what God teaches in the surrounding verses. Taking verses out of their context will allow Bible teachers to make them say what they want them to say but using the context to explain them is a wiser approach to correct Bible study.
Go study the entire context of this verse. We should back up to begin reading in chapter 4. I’m not going to go through everything said verse by verse but I will give you a synopsis overview of what is occurring and what is important to notice. Reading in Acts 4:1 it begins with a description of the disciples preaching to the people of Jerusalem. They preached the resurrection of Jesus to the people and were put into prison in verse 3. In verse 4 you can clearly see that many people believed the Gospel and at least 5000 men were saved. Therefore we are observing the church is growing by preaching the Gospel. What was this Gospel message being preached? We need to go back further in the context to chapter 3 to see if it contained any message for the fear of God. Read chapter 3 and in verse 23 tell me what it says? Peter tells the people that Moses told them to look for another prophet from one of their brothers and this one will have a greater message for them to hear. Peter then says the words of this prophet called Jesus is for you to believe or to be destroyed. Do you believe that this message was a warning to the people? I can see where Peter says believe or perish and that was a clear warning statement of fear. What happens when a warning is given by a messenger sent from God like Isaiah or Jonah? Does fear play a role in the people receiving the message? Please observe what the message was that Peter was preaching and then try to figure out if that is anything like what is being preached in churches today. Peter very clearly says for these people to believe or to be destroyed in verse 23 and I never hear modern grace preachers saying anything like this. I guess they just don’t want to offend them into heaven so they flatter them into hell. Let’s go back to chapter 4 of Acts.
If you continue to read down in chapter 4 of Acts you will see the leaders of the temple commanding Peter and John to never preach or teach in the name of Jesus anymore. Peter looks at them and says “Whether it is better to obey you or God, you judge” in verse 19. Clearly Peter was telling them we fear God more than we fear you and we will not stop. Isn’t this an example of Peter and John being a doer of the commandment of Jesus that I just gave to you? Do the disciples fear the leaders that can throw them into prison or do they fear God? The leaders of the synagogue finally relent and let them go and they return to the other church members and tell them what has transpired as a warning to them from men. They immediately stop and all pray together in one accord saying in verse 29 “Behold their threatening”. The disciples asked God for boldness to proclaim the truth in spite of these human threats to their life. It is very clear to me that these people in the early church feared God more than they feared man because in verse 31 it says God answered their prayer by shaking the place they were in. Let me explain to you what God was saying to them by shaking the ground. God was saying can these men that threatened you do this? That was God’s answer and I believe that is enough evidence to inform us who the early church feared and who they did not fear. So I’ll go back and ask you this question again about Acts 5:11, who did the early church fear in this context story? It was not any man, so it was either Satan or God. We could go through and prove that it was not Satan, but I am spending too much time trying to counter these false teachings so let’s just focus on the words that are written. Look at verse 33 in Acts 4 and find the subject of Grace.
- Act 4:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Here we have another exponential growth in the Grace of God given to His church. Not only were they shown “grace” but God has increased the level of His grace to a greater degree. What we learn from this verse is that Grace is delivered in stages. If there can be “great” grace then there can also be “little” grace or even “no” grace. What do you believe is the main factor for the presence of this greater level of God’s grace in the church? I believe it was a combination of factors beginning with the presence of a “great fear” of God. The church being in fear of God while not fearing what man could do to them, increased the level of God’s grace being offered to them. Of course there are other factors that are also involved in this grace being given but we will learn those as we continue to study this subject.
- Act 4:34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
- Act 4:35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
Verse 34 of Acts 4 is the opening of the story of Acts 5. Clearly the translators made a poor choice to divide the chapters at their current locations. Start reading in verse 34 and you will see God speaking directly about the church. He says those that were in the church lacked nothing because those that had were generous to give to those that did not have. That is the foundational context of what we need to know in order to understand chapter 5. We can clearly see who God is speaking of and speaking about in chapter 4 and this just continues in chapter 5. Man divided the chapters not God. So do not believe the chapter heading five starts a brand new story.
- Act 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
- Act 5:2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
- Act 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
- Act 5:4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
- Act 5:5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
- Act 5:6 And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.
- Act 5:7 And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
- Act 5:8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
- Act 5:9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
- Act 5:10 Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
One modern TV extreme grace preacher tried to explain away this story of the early church by teaching what happened was God’s protection of the early church from the deception of two unsaved people. That was a very creative attempt to explain what was happening so that all of the words on the pages are totally ignored. Since this TV preacher could not give us any scriptures to back that opinion I call that a private interpretation unworthy for consideration. Go back and read Acts 5:1 through verse 10 carefully again and again until you see what is actually said. Attempt to confirm that this is just one example of what was explained in Acts 4:34-35 given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. We can see clearly from reading Acts 4:34-35 that Ananias and his wife Sapphira were both Christians doing what all the other Christians were doing with only one major exception being omitted. It is very clear to me that neither Ananias nor his wife feared God. Otherwise they would not have lied to the Holy Ghost as was revealed to us by Peter in Acts 5:4. Peter also said they “tempted” the Holy Ghost in verse 9. Peter was very clearly telling Ananias and his wife that they did not lie to men or tempt men, but God was the one that took offense at what they did and they both then fall dead in church.
You do understand that this was a church service going on that lasted for hours and that Peter was given a Word of Knowledge by the Holy Ghost when God interrupted the service to bring judgment? Do you believe that both people just coincidently dropped dead in church at the exact appropriate time of rebuke of the preacher? What do you believe killed them? Was it a heart attack? I want you to notice something else here in this story. Both of their names are given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost as examples for us not to follow. Do you recall in Luke 16 where Jesus gave us the story of Lazarus and the rich man? The name of the rich man in hell was never revealed. Why was that? Was it because the rich man’s name was not known by Jesus? I do not believe that is the case. I personally believe the rich man’s identity was protected so that his relatives would not know he went to hell. Why then does God give the names of Ananias and Sapphira if they go to hell? You see that is a problem to me. I do not believe that they went to hell. I believe they were saved by grace but that they were judged by God that shortened their time here on the earth. That explanation would fit more precisely with what I learned from my father’s life. Clearly God took the sin of Ananias and Sapphira personally and had to bring judgment so that those that remained living in the church would learn a lesson. After all what was the result of this event? Was it not the spread of a “great fear” in all of them that heard it in the CHURCH? Look at the results and tell me who caused this fear. Was it God, Satan or man? I can only attribute it to God by careful observation.
Acts 5 is a major problem for the modern extreme Grace preachers that do not attempt to correctly balance grace with the fear of God and judgment. How can a God of such infinite Grace cause a Christian to fall dead in church when this sin was clearly covered under the blood of Jesus? Do you see the conflict this raises with the modern Grace message? God was teaching us that if Ananias and his wife would have feared God they would not have lied or tempted God. Do you understand that analysis? The key factor missing today in the modern church is the message concerning the fear of God. Before I conclude this grace study please allow me take you to another very important part of the Bible to consider concerning the modern “no fear of God” grace message being preached in many churches and on TV today:
- Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
- Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
What do these two verses say to you? I read them and they literally spoke volumes to me. After the church is taken up from the earth, the angels during the tribulation period will come to preach “the gospel” to the people still living on the earth that remained left behind. Did you notice what this Gospel message started with that was preached by the angels? Look closely again at verse 7 and see the angels commanding the people of the earth to change their attitudes and to finally begin to “fear God” before it is too late. It is very clear to me that these people on earth have no fear of God if the angels warn them they are lacking this quality. Then notice that there is coming a proclaimed judgment from God and both of these subjects are hardly ever preached or even mentioned by modern grace extremists. Why are the modern grace preachers teaching a gospel that is different from what the angels of God will preach? Who do you think is preaching right? Why have the modern grace preachers departed from the words of the Lord Jesus who established the church by His shed blood commanding us to “fear God”? Why have the modern grace preachers left the full teachings of Paul who preached to those that “fear God”? If the church age begins with a message of “the fear God” from Jesus, Peter and Paul and God ends the church age with the angels proclaiming the same message to “fear God” where is this message in all of the church services this Sunday? If your preacher never preaches about the “fear of God” you have the wrong preacher. People seriously need to wake up and see the truth. I do not understand or tolerate irresponsible people very well, but clearly many of today’s preachers are either very unwise, ignorant or extremely deceived. Since I did not call anyone’s name do not accuse me of speaking about you! However, if the shoe fits wear it. I’ll probably not make many new friends with this grace lesson introduction, but I am writing it from my heart. Look beyond your offense and learn what God says on the subject of the Fear of God and His judgments.
I think I have gone long enough in this Bible lesson and will end it here. I hope that you understand why I introduced the subject of the fear of God in the study of the grace of God more clearly now. In the next lesson on grace we will expand the subject and learn God’s definition of Grace by studying additional displays of His Grace. I pray that you will help me spread this very important message to those that need to learn it. If that is your preacher point him to my website and ask him to read it. If that is your congregation then preach it boldly to them so that they hear the message clearly. Learn to fear God and not man and watch God’s Grace increase in your life. If you want to see “great grace”, learn to do what God says. Until next time may the knowledge of the truth of God continue to increase in your life. God Bless you!
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