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Amazing Facts

Grace or Disgrace

Joe Crews

Grace or Disgrace Part 1

The earliest writing of which we have record was done on plates of stone.

Most of the prehistoric authors are unknown by name, but 1 writer has been definitely identified and his composition translated.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about wisdom from the ancient past.

Hello this is Joe Cruz from the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

Our topic today is the subject of law, grace or disgrace.

Now these are the questions I'd like to ask as we begin our broadcast today.

First of all, are you living under the law, friend?

Now let me ask you, are you absolutely positive of your answer?

Now secondly, are you living under grace?

And then my third question, could it be that you are living under disgrace?

Now I have discovered there are many, many people in the world today who profess to be Christians and who profess to be living under grace, but in reality they are living under disgrace.

Now we have already established in previous broadcasts that God wrote the 10 Commandment Law with His own finger.

Now today we come to another very important point.

The first Bible fact about the Law is this.

Now I know there are hundreds of definitions of sin, but God has His own definition, and He gives it to us in 1 John 3, 4.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, For sin is the transgression of the law.

And I want you to note that He does not have any time for these weak definitions of sin that are floating around the world today.

And we hear so many people saying, well, it is just a mistake in judgment or it is a personality defect or just plain human weakness.

No, no, we just left up to modern enlightened 20th century men to make up that kind of evasive definition for sin, friends.

We find in the Word of God, sin is a transgression or breaking of God's law.

So even if you are a church member in good and regular standing, a Sunday school teacher, a deacon, an elder, a preacher, if you are breaking any 1 of those 10 Commandments, you are a sinner Because the Bible says sin is breaking the 10 Commandments.

Now, I am assuming you are doing it willfully and knowingly.

You could belong to 15 churches and experience 16 baptisms, but if you are not keeping the commandments of God, you are still a sinner on the authority of 1 John 3, 4.

Now the devil, I know, has invented a doctrine.

You are probably well acquainted with it.

And it goes something like this, that to be saved all you have to do is just love Jesus and just join a church and then you won't have to worry about the law of God, you'll be saved anyway.

I'd like to remind you that the devil himself invented that teaching.

It is not to be found in the Bible at all.

The Bible teaches something entirely different.

Now another Bible fact about the Law is this, no 1 has ever been saved by keeping the Law because salvation is through faith in Jesus alone.

Now let's read a text to elucidate that point in Romans 3, verse 20, Romans 3, verse 20, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Now that is pretty clear and pretty frank, isn't it?

You put it down and remember it forever Because God has clarified this point.

By the deeds of the law, nobody will be justified.

Jesus said in Luke 19.10, For the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost.

There is no other means of salvation except faith in Jesus as our dying Savior.

But now, friends, notice in James 1, 23-25, our lives are compared to a mirror, or rather I should say the law is compared to a mirror.

If I go into the kitchen or the bedroom and look into the mirror, and if I have been working out in the yard and have a dirty face, the mirror will show it to me, and I will see that spot on my face.

But that mirror does absolutely nothing about removing that dirt from my face.

It has no value whatsoever when it comes to getting the dirt off.

But the mirror is necessary because if I didn't look in there, I might think I was clean when I was really dirty.

And it's the same way with the law of God.

When we look under the law of God we see spots on the character, but the law of God does absolutely nothing about removing those spots.

It takes the blood of Jesus Christ to do that.

Let's take a framing square that a carpenter uses.

Now, he takes the square and places it on a board.

The square immediately shows that the board is crooked, if it is crooked.

The end is not straight and the square shows it, but the square does nothing about it.

Then you put the square back on the board and the square shows everything's all right after you've used the saw.

The square had nothing to do with making everything all right.

It took the saw to do that, but you still have to have the square to show that it needs repairing.

You take a fever thermometer and place it under the tongue.

In just a few moments, the nurse comes along and says, I'm sorry, you've got a fever.

Now does the fever thermometer do anything about the fever?

You can become upset, you can take the thermometer and break it up and throw it out the window and say, I've destroyed the thermometer so I no longer have the fever.

Destroying the thermometer wouldn't cure you.

So the doctor prescribes medicine and you take it.

After a while, the thermometer is put back under the tongue and shows that the fever is gone.

Now that is the way it is with the law of God.

That law is helpless except as a mirror to show me what I lack.

Then I must go to the Lord Jesus and the lack will be supplied there.

Then I can come back and look into the mirror and see that a change has taken place.

But let me warn you, unless you are willing to go to that mirror and take a good, long, careful, prayerful look at yourself, you are very apt to end up thinking you are something you are not and can be lost because of it.

That law of God, His mirror, shows us as to what we really are in His sight.

The law is given so that we can see ourselves as the great God of heaven sees us.

So it is very essential for me and for you to look into this mirror often if we expect to be saved.

People living under grace must keep God's law.

Now I know it is a common belief today that if I am under grace I can forget all about the law.

But let's see what the scripture says in Romans 6.15.

Shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace?

Now this is actually Romans 6.14, I guess.

All right, shall we sin is the question, because we're not under the law but under grace, and Paul says in the very strongest language he can muster, God forbid.

Grace or Disgrace Part 2

A mirror is often condemned for telling the truth, but breaking the mirror does not improve the image.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about looking glasses and dirty faces.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts Broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

We started a series of studies in our last broadcast concerning law, grace, or disgrace.

We talked about those who are under the law, and those who are not under the law, who think they are not under the law, and then those who are living in absolute disgrace even though they profess to be faithful Christians.

We will do just a little bit of reviewing today before we get into our study of the remaining Bible facts concerning the great law of God.

Now many, many people have been confused on this subject of law and grace.

They go off either to the left or right and make mistakes that fail to give balance to their faith and works.

You see, friends, we have got to have faith in Jesus.

That is the only way we are saved is by trusting Him.

But If we are saved by grace through faith, we are going to love Him so much that we will want to obey Him.

Now we discover that the law cannot save anybody.

We compared it in our last broadcast to a mirror.

In fact, we didn't do it, James himself did it.

In chapter 1 of James, beginning with verse 23, he said that the law is like a mirror, it is like a looking glass that shows us what kind of a person we really are.

And so just as we look into a mirror to see if there is a dirty spot on our face, we look into the law of God to see if there is any imperfection in our character, if there is any sin in our life.

Now when we find a sin there, immediately we are directed to the foot of the cross of Jesus where we have it removed by faith in Him.

The mirror cannot remove the stain from our face.

Neither can the law of God remove the spot of sin from us.

It directs us over to Jesus where it can be taken away freely.

We could rub a mirror over our face all day and it wouldn't remove a dirty spot on the face.

And we could stand in front of that great moral law of God all day long and even a lifetime looking at it, but it would never be able to save us from our sins.

We could break the mirror, but that wouldn't help the spot on our face.

We could try to dispose of the law of God, but that does not improve our standing before God at all, because we can only be cleansed of our sin by having faith in Jesus and trusting in Him as our Savior.

So today we come to point number 6 about the subject of law and grace.

We presented 5 of the great facts on this subject in our last broadcast, and now we come to the sixth Bible fact concerning the law, and that is this.

No unconverted person can keep God's law.

Now, I don't know whether you've thought about this or not, friends, but in Romans 8, 7, notice this very clear, very plain and positive statement, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Now I can't help but remember this text when people say to me, well, nobody can keep the law of God.

The Bible here says that the carnal mind cannot keep it, but it also says to be carnally minded is death.

So that's the first point we want to establish.

The unconverted person can't keep the law of God.

He doesn't have enough love for God to do it, and it's only love that can produce true obedience.

If the unconverted person tried to keep it, it wouldn't do him any good.

But in John 14, 15, Jesus said, If ye love me, keep my commandments.

So the saved converted person will keep his commandments.

It will be a joy for him to do it, and he'll do it because he loves the Lord, and not because he's doing it as a firescape.

Now I realize a lot of people have a firescape religion.

They don't want to be thrown into that fire at the end of the world, and so they try their best to do the things which they believe is expected of them, which is their duty to do, so that they might avoid the punishment for sin at the end of the road.

That is no true motive, my friends, for obeying God.

But now let me read Romans 8, verses 3 and 4.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

Now do you see what this verse is really saying?

People have said the law is weak, but that's not what the verse says at all.

It says what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh.

You see, friends, it was the flesh that was weak.

They tried to do it in their own strength but failed.

Did He say, Let's give up, let's not fool with men, they're just not going to live up to the pattern?

No, indeed, He sent His own Son to pay the penalty for them, and to arrange for them to have the power to keep His law, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.

And that word righteousness is the Greek word dikayma which actually means literally the just requirements of the law.

So when we were not able to produce the just requirements of obedience to that law because of the weakness of our flesh, God sent Jesus to do it perfectly, and then Jesus offers to come into our lives and give us the grace and strength to do it.

Suppose I bought a new axe, a great big heavy duty axe and very sharp.

Then suppose I found a little two-year-old youngster and I said, Here, take this and cut down that tree.

Now what do you suppose would happen to the tree, friends?

Well, is there anything wrong with the axe?

The axe was all right, but the flesh was weak.

So I take that same axe and hand it to a big, strong, stalwart man, and the tree goes down in just a few moments.

Now this is the same thing that God is trying to get across here.

The weakness was not with His pattern, the law.

And that's what John 1, 12 is talking about.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.

All right, now the seventh Bible fact about the law is this.

Commandment keepers are the only ones who really love the Lord and who will be saved.

Now I hope you followed me on that, friends, because I believe it is true.

I wouldn't make that statement on my own, but it is really in the Bible.

I would like to read it for you right now in 1 John 2.4.

Now let me say something about this scripture.

This is something that I would never say if it weren't in the Bible, but apparently God knew that there would be some question rising regarding what it meant to serve Him and what it meant to love Him, And so he put these words in the Bible.

I always read them so that people will not think I'm calling them a liar.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

So friends, to know and love the Lord is to keep His commandments.

And then Revelation 22, 14 says, Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Now that's pointed, plain, clear, and positive, isn't it?

Now let me read you something else that fits in right here.

So many times when we talk about commandment keeping, people say, Oh my, the terrible, heavy, burdensome, grievous law.

Well, now let's see what the Lord says about it, friends, in 1 John 5, verse 3.

1 John 5, verse 3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

Grace or Disgrace Part 3

The fear of death is man's most commonly recurring terrifying prospect.

The urge to live outweighs all of the natural desires of the average human being.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about the amazing secret of victory over fear of death.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

Today, we're going to continue discussing 1 of the most important subjects in all the world, law and grace.

Now I believe the most important question probably that's ever been asked in the world is found in Matthew 10, 16.

A rich young man came to Jesus, you remember, and looking at him he asked this question, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

I don't know anything more important than that, friends, do you?

How can I be sure of having everlasting life?

Oh, I don't believe there's anything more urgent than that question.

A banker can ask no other question more important, for he'll have to stand someday before God in the great judgment and he ought to be crying out, what must I do to be saved?

To the student In college there's no other question so important to ask.

Nothing on the examination paper at the end of the term even begins to mean as much as that 1 supreme question, what can I do to be saved?

It makes no difference what an individual may be doing in this life.

The 1 supreme question remains, what can I do that I may have everlasting life?

Remember you students out there, everyone must 1 day sit for the final examination, and God has already entrusted us with the questions.

He's already given us the information necessary that we can 1 day sit for that great final exam.

And isn't that the 1 important thing in life, how to be sure of eternal life?

The young man in Matthew 10, 16 asks a very fair question, and Jesus, of course, gave him a wonderful answer.

Verse 17, he said, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

And then almost flippantly the young fellow answered and said, Oh, I've done that ever since I was a child.

You see, that young fellow didn't recognize his obligation to his neighbor.

The law of God is actually divided into 2 parts.

Half of it has to do with our connection with God, the first table of the law.

It has to do with loving the Lord with all the heart.

The other half has to do with our relationship with our fellow men, loving our neighbors ourselves.

The young man did not regard his neighbor as he ought to.

Now, maybe he was keeping the first 4, but he was certainly falling short on the last 6.

He was trying to get all he could out of life and didn't recognize his obligation to his fellow man.

So Jesus touched him in a very sensitive spot.

He said, Go and sell that thou hast, and give it to the poor.

Verse 21, Well, the rich young fellow began to tighten up, and his face flushed.

But the question of his property disposition was not really the main thing Jesus was after.

You see, some people stop right there, and I've heard a good many preachers making quite a point about selling everything and giving it to the poor.

Now I think it's good, of course, to give to the poor and to give to the Church, but I don't believe that's the primary lesson in this story.

I believe what follows that is the primary point.

Whatever it is that stands between you and following Jesus, That's the thing he tells you to get rid of.

If it's your social standing, forget about it for your soul's sake.

If it's all the clubs you belong to, all the activities that stand between you and a closer walk with Jesus, then away with those things.

Whatever it is, if your eye offends you, pluck it out.

Do anything necessary in order to be right with God.

Let nothing stand between you and following Jesus.

Now there are a good many individuals who allow loved ones, friends, or maybe even pleasures of the world to stand between them and serving the Lord.

This matter of salvation can really be boiled down very simply.

If thou wilt enter into life, number 1, keep the commandments, number 2, Come and follow me.

It's a matter of 2 principles standing side by side.

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Grace or Disgrace

Grace or Disgrace Part 5

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