In view of the present state of ‘distress’ in our country and the world today we as believers need to become more and more “established,” to be grounded securely, unshakably, in the dispensational Biblical truths of “the faith” so that we might stand steady in these “perilous times” (2Tim. 3:1).

We don’t bury our heads in the sand, but we as knowledgeable believers of the Pauline “gospel of the grace of God” should know that have a higher calling than trying to fix this corrupt world. It is unfixable by man. Only Christ can renew the world in real justice as He will in His coming Millennial kingdom on earth. Our calling today, during the remainder of this age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” is to share the ‘good news’ of the ‘grace gospel,’ by which we may bring the genuine hope of the gospel to lost souls as well as the many confused Christians we may encounter. We as believers have an eternal inheritance in heaven as our confident expectation that we can share.

Thankfully, if you are reading this then you are still alive and still have some time to learn how we can be established in the faith and to live victoriously on earth during today’s pressure filled age of what Paul calls “the last days” … even before we are Raptured to heaven. Then, being established in the Truths of the Faith that we can learn from the Apostle Paul’s epistles we can come to a Rest and Peace in Our Hearts. Even while the world is ‘crazy awful’ all around us – we can have the inner resource of the truth of Christ and the power of Christ’s Life that yields the necessary inner stamina and power to “endure.”

With “the knowledge of the truth” being critical, we as believers need to take Paul’s instruction to heart, that we are to;

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, ‘rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

We are to discern the truth by “rightly dividing the word of truth,” in order to learn what in fact in the Bible applies to us ‘Gentiles’ during this Gentile age of “the dispensation of the grace of God.” Sadly, most Christians do not yet understand the truth that is for today due to having been blinded and misled by false Bible teachings of the organized Christendom, whether of the large so-called churches of Christendom or of independent small groups. Knowing the truth is vital if we are to stand steady in this evil age.

Paul prayed accordingly for the Ephesian believers. Notice his emphasis on revelation knowledge and understanding.’

“Wherefore I [Paul] also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, ¹⁶ [I] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

¹⁷ That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in The Knowledge of HIM [Christ]: ¹⁸ The eyes of your Understanding being Enlightened; that Ye May KNOW What Is the Hope of His Calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance IN the saints [that is in ‘all believers’],” (Ephesians 1:15-18 (KJV)

The Question:

Many do not know or understand the Pauline “mystery [Grk. musterion, former ‘secret’]” gospel truth that is for today concerning our simple unreligious, undenominated, genuine Christian faith that operates on the basis of God’s unconditional love and ‘pure grace,’ They also don’t recognize that God uses the negative of this world to accomplish His purposes.

He used the Cross to bring liberty to us who were bound with sin and destined for “everlasting destruction” (2Thes 1:9). Today He uses the negative of this world to ‘push’ and ‘turn,’ not only the unsaved, but also the immature believers to TRUST Christ as their all-sufficient Lord.

So, these lost souls and still confused Christians might ask; “What in the world is God doing?”

The Answer:

The fact is that Our Lord by His Spirit is doing the same thing He has since “the gospel of the grace of God” was revealed to Paul for all men, nearly 2000 years ago. It’s just that most Christians today have not yet clearly heard the truth for today. Sadly, the truth of “the mystery [Grk. musterion, secret] of Christ” and His Cross-work has not been preached, taught, or learned.

Today, God’s Holy Spirit is working in us to dispense the Knowledge of His Love and Grace that is evidenced by the Cross of Christ… to all those who today would genuinely BELIEVE [i.e., trust in, cling to, and rely upon] Christ. For God has dispensed the very LIFE of Jesus Christ INTO every believer’s “spirit of man,” to be their new and Overcoming life.

In our opening text of Part 1, Jesus said this in the face of the pressures of life;

“… be of good cheer; I [Jesus] have overcome the ‘world’ [the arrangement of this corrupt age].” (John 16:33 (KJV)

It is the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2a) who indwells believers that can overcome the stresses of this life. He is ‘The Overcomer’ within us. He in us is effectual when we Trust Him, taking on His Mindset, for Jesus always kept God’s ‘eternal plan in view.’ – thus we are to “look for the Savior” and the redemption of our bodies at our Rapture to heaven… being filled with a ‘confident expectation.’

“For our conversation [Old English meaning, ‘citizenship’] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: ²¹ Who shall change our vile [corruptible] body, that it may be fashioned Like Unto His [Jesus’] Glorious [resurrection] Body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Philippians 3:20-21 (KJV)

Trusting in the ‘good news’ of our resource being ‘in Christ as our all’ is not NEW to intelligized mature believers. Yet sadly, the simple Bible truth that is for us today has not been studied and taught... so the uninformed believers of today suffer needlessly.

Sadly, Paul and his Christ-given “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) and the ‘sturdiness’ if offers us has largely been ‘forsaken.’ Paul and his unique gospel of pure grace has been largely marginalized in the Churches, Bible schools and seminaries of the past 75 years or more. Therefore, the power of these truths is not known among Christians today. Because of this lack of ‘the knowledge of truth’ believers suffer needlessly with ‘FEAR and STRESS’ in the face of the problems they encounter in this life. They are ignorant of the Truth of our Present and ‘Eternal Security’ in Christ.

The Lord once scolded Israel’s corrupt priest and leaders as seen here;

“My people [Israel] are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou [Israel’s teachers] hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6 (KJV)

Those leaders of Israel were much like those of today’s Christendom among ‘the churches of nice,’ the ‘false church’ that is all around us. They would rather be popular by preaching the niceties of ‘feel good false religion’ – being vain in “having but a form of godliness [outwardly] but denying [not believing] the power thereof” (2Tim. 3:5). They proclaim a man-centered powerless messages rather the truth of Paul’s gospel of God’s ‘pure 100% grace’ that is Centered Upon the Cross of Jesus Christ.

We need the Biblical understanding of how that Christ’s life and power operating WITHIN US is to be trusted. He alone is Able to Free Us from Religious Bondage and from the power of the ‘sin nature that is located in our flesh’ (cf. Rom. 8:3).

Satan created has Legalistic Religious Bondage commonly found in many segments of Christianity’ with its unbiblical empty liturgies, masses, prayers, dogma, rituals and rites. These things simply make an ‘open show’ of a false piety that cannot offer us salvation and certainly not the assurance of ‘eternal security’ that we have as a genuine regenerated child of God, thus leaving religion’s adherents unassured, fearful and distressed in times as these.