The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

REDEMPTION THROUGH GRACE (1 Peter 1:2c-d)

So when we are facing times of terrible persecution, or difficult trials, when things are so bad that they are out of our ability to control, what are you most grateful for?

Certainly, I am grateful for a loving God who cares for me, watches over me, and provides for me.  I am grateful for the power of the Holy Spirit living within me.  I am grateful for the promises of God that we find in His word, such as, that we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

So this verse is interesting because it doesn’t promise that all things work together for the good of all men, it puts a qualifier on this promise.  What is that qualifier?

You have to be someone who loves God, and someone who is called according to His purpose.  This means that if you want to claim the promise of this verse, that no matter what you are going through, that it will work out for your good, then you must meet the requirements of this promise.  And in order to meet those requirements you must be saved, a born again child of God.  

So, the first thing that you need to have in order to face persecution, trials, or difficult times in your life, is the certain knowledge that you have been redeemed by God, and that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Master.  This is the basic minimum for this promise to be true.   

The next most important thing that I believe we need is the grace of God.  When I am facing a difficult time, the one thing that I cherish most from God is His grace.  It is His grace that allows me to be forgiven.  It is His grace that allows me to be justified freely before God.  It is His grace that allows the blood of Christ to wash my sins away, in spite of the sin in my life.  That is God’s grace.  

This leads us to the third thing that we must have to face persecution.  The result of knowing that we are saved, and that God’s grace has been bestowed on us, is the peace of God in our hearts.  When we have God’s peace in our heart, we have comfort in the knowledge of God’s provision for us.  

So salvation, grace, and peace, are what I consider the three most important things that I must know, claim, and be sure of, when I have hard times.  Everything else that God is going to do for me flows from these three Biblical truths.  The presence and power of the Holy Spirit resides in my heart because of the redemption and grace that God has given me, and it is because I am redeemed, and that I am the recipient of God’s grace, that God’s peace is there, as well.   

Listen to this podcast to learn what it means to be redeemed by God, and to have God’s grace and peace, to give us comfort during times of persecution. 

HOW SECURE IS THE BELIEVER? (Romans 8:31-39)

What is the security of your faith based on?

Is it how much good you will do versus how much bad you will do?  If this is what your faith is secured by, then you have already failed, for no man can be good enough to meet the perfect and righteous demands of God.  

Is it how faithful you are to your church or religion?  If this is what your faith is secured by, then your faith is in your religion and not God.  A faith based on anything but God will fail because God will accept man on one basis only, faith based on the completed work of Jesus Christ which provides for our salvation.   

Is it based on your performance of certain religious rituals?  If this is what your faith is secured by, then your faith is based on the works of man, and nothing that man can do is sufficient to meet the demands of God.  

For the true believer in Jesus Christ, our faith is based on the power, the complete sovereignty, and the grace of God.

Paul says:

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

KJV

The closing verses of this magnificent chapter of comfort for the believer explores all of the possible ways that man can think of to try and mess up our salvation and separate us from the love of God.  In our lesson today, Paul refutes each one of them and states that they are blocked by the grace of God.

Once you have made Jesus Christ your Lord, then nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from the love of God.  Your faith secure because your faith is in God.  

GOD'S GIFT AND GOD'S GRACE (Romans 5:16-21)

Each day that I live I am grateful for the gift of God and the grace of God.  It is by the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, that I can have eternal life in Heaven, and it is the grace of God that makes it all possible.

Nothing can stand in the way of God’s grace.  It is absolutely sovereign.  Eternal life through Jesus Christ is assured.  God’s abundant grace will reign through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, for all who believe on Him, unto everlasting life.  That is our security as a believer.  It was God’s gift and God’s grace that allowed us to have salvation, and nothing can stand in the way of God’s grace.  Absolutely nothing.  We are secure in God’s grace.  

This whole concept of sin and death, and of God’s gift and grace, is so amazing that it is hard to believe.  Yet, it is also so simple and direct that it truly brings out the divine nature of God, His omniscience and omnipotence, and most of all His love for each of us.  His desire that none should perish but that all should have everlasting life is one of the great promises of the Bible.  I know that God loves me because the Bible has told me so.

On this week of thanksgiving, I praise God that:

John 3:16-18

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

KJV

HOW CAN WE BE RIGHTEOUS? (Romans 3:24-26)

For the believer who has Christ as his Savior, words like justified, freely, grace, redemption, propitiation, faith, and blood all have very specific meanings to their faith.  Yet how many Christians can define these words in a way that allows others to understand how God’s plan of salvation has changed their lives?  

For example, as you relate God’s plan of salvation to someone you know, can you tell them how it meets their need of being seen as righteous before God because of the redemptive price that was paid by Jesus on the cross.  How it grants them redemption?  How it serves as propitiation, and how the means of this salvation is our faith in Christ?  How the redemptive price for this salvation was so high, that it cost the shed blood of the Son of God?

The wonderful good news about God’s plan of salvation is that a holy and perfectly righteous God devised a plan of salvation that reaches down into the depths of sin and darkness that man has fallen to, and yet does not compromise God’s own inherent holiness, justice, and righteousness.  Listen to this podcast to learn what these words mean to your salvation, and to the salvation of those who want eternal life with Jesus in heaven.