Hyper Grace

2. "But It's All About Grace Now, Isn't It?" (Hyper-Grace)

There are some who have been saying that Christians can do anything and even live any way they want because God's grace will cover any thing they do. That is part of the great falling away --in fact people can depart from the faith any time they want...they still have free choice!

Ezekiel 18 (KJV2) ²⁶ When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he has done he shall die.²⁷ Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.²⁸ Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.²⁹ Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

Without a doubt the Lord is speaking about genuine repentance in Ezekiel, the same kind of repentance He sent John the Baptist to preach as John prepared the way before Jesus to begin His ministry. Jesus ministry was similar to John's except in addition to repentance and water baptism, Jesus taught Kingdom principles, and He equipped and prepared the way for His apostles to begin the NT Church when He returned with holy Spirit baptism at Pentecost (Acts 2).

Ezekiel 33 (ESV)¹³"When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trusts in his own righteousness, and commits iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it. ¹⁴Again, when I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right; ¹⁵If the wicked restores the pledge, gives back that which he has stolen, walks in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.¹⁶None of his sins that he has committed shall be mentioned unto him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.¹⁷Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die for it.¹⁹But if the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live by it".

These truths God speaks by His prophet Ezekiel are also echoed throughout the NT and Jesus absolutely reaffirms this in the Book of Revelation when He reveals that five of the seven Churches are being rebuked for being backslidden and one is in danger of having their names blotted out of the Book of Life! For example, Jesus scolds the Church of Ephesus stating in Rev. 2:4 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent". Another church has been listening to false prophets termed 'Jezebel" and has been seduced to worshipping idols, committing fornication, etc and unless they repent He will kill her children with death.

Notice that Jesus no longer even calls them His children—but "her children"!

So we are only on the first page of this article and already we clearly see that five of seven churches are rebuked for having fallen from grace— clearly evidenced by wilful and unrepentant sinning and as a result are no longer practicing righteousness! Do not be deceived by Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light, for " Satan's fallen angels also appear as ministers of righteousness seeking to deceive even the very elect if it were possible. ..."Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." (Heb 12:14). [BTW - If you have not studied what Jesus speaks to the seven churches, you should, & it makes for a great bible study topic. Jesus says "He who has an ear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the Church's."]

Satan will always twist the Word of God when he is allowed to roam unchecked! Believer's are instructed to test and try (judge) the spirits to see whether they are of God. The Word of God is given to the Bride to prepare ourselves and to make ourselves ready for Christ's coming. God has magnified His Word above all--even His name—and His Word is given to the men and the women of God for reproof and for correction, for Godly edification, and to produce repentance from dead works - if the hearer is open to the Lord's chastening.

Because of Christ's love, the true believers are made clean by the washing of water by the Word of God. By His grace towards true believers —He has opened the door for us to now walk as a new creation, separate from the world. God is Spirit and we must not only worship Him in Spirit, but also in Truth! Unfortunately, there are a lot of carnal men guided by "spirits of error", we see them all the time and also through the ages as Jesus and the apostles warned us about—so keep your spiritual eyes open and spiritual discernment on high alert!

Look at this big "IF" that Apostle Paul writes to the Colossians:

1Colossians 1:20 "And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. ²¹ And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled, ²² In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight: ²³ If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;"

The hyper - grace movement removes the demonstration of faith by good works scriptures. But showing faith by works is the subject of Hebrews chapter 11. —without which Paul and Jesus deemed as dead faith. Jesus said the same thing about the Dead Church - Sardis. He said their works were not perfect before God. They had a reputation that they were alive...but guess what...Jesus said they were now dead...fallen from grace! According to Jesus, even the Church is burdened by tares that the devil has sown. These tares that will be in our midst until the time of the final harvest of ungodly men from the earth. These tares pretend to be saved but spread dangerous lies seeking to shipwreck the faith of many! These are the ones that usually advocate that some kinds of sins are permissible and they practice them either openly or in secret and approve of others who practice these sins.

1Peter 1:13 "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

The NT reaffirms that it is the doers of the law that are justified in the sight of God. The "Hyper-Grace Movement" or "Greasy Grace" as many have called it denies or suppresses much of God's Word in unrighteousness and as a by-product promotes lawlessness. Check out recent Charisma articles on this false movement that is sweeping across the nations. The devil is spewing out water (false gospel) like a flood trying to sweep away the Woman and her children (Church) but God has prepared a place for us in the midst of the storm (wilderness) as we rest in Him. If you build your house on a solid foundation, the foundations of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone, you shall never be moved. Those houses built on sinking sand (false doctrines) will be carried away with the flood of lies and scripture twisting that Paul often warns us about - for example in Acts 20:30 (ESV) .."and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them." So these are the tares or false believers.

Peter confirms that Paul often spoke about the assault on God's Word stating in 2 Peter 3:16(AMP) ¹⁶"Speaking of this as he does in all of his letters. There are some things in those [epistles of Paul] that are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist and misconstrue to their own utter destruction, just as [they distort and misinterpret] the rest of the Scriptures."

Deliverance from False Prophets

2Peter2:4 (Berean) ^1. "Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies that even deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. ²Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of the truth will be defamed. ³In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with tales they have concocted. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep."

"For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them in chains to be held in gloomy darkness until their judgment;⁵if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; ^6. if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; ^7.and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment."

Yes, friends, we are in a battle for our eternal soul and we need the full armor of God to withstand this evil day including understanding and wielding the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

But do not lose heart, for we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, and "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2 COR. 10) but are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."

Some Hyper - grace folks advocate that Apostle Paul taught that grace replaces holiness, but he said no such thing. In fact said grace leads to and teaches holiness. They ignore the majority of what the Apostle preached in order to rally around a couple of pet verses that Peter said unstable men twist to their own destruction.

Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit and dropped dead.

Romans 6:1-4 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Romans 8:12 "So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. "

Romans 12
¹"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ²And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Galatians 16 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. ¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ²⁴ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. "

Because the Spirit we receive from God is Holy we are able to put away our old sinful nature and bury it with Christ, and by the Spirit put to death the sins of the flesh. We cant do that without the Spirit." If we couldn't live the way the apostles preached then they would not have gave us those warnings and instructions.

Hebrews says that if we willfully sin after receiving the knowledge of truth that we are now trampling Christ under our feet, counting his blood as unholy and are insulting and despising the Spirit of Grace! Paul said heaven forbid that once we receive initial grace - heaven forbid that we continue in sin - somehow thinking that even more grace will abound. (hyper- grace movement) He goes on to say that our old man or old nature of sin has been buried or become dead in baptism (water and Spirit) and now we are expected (required!) to walk in the newness of life. Grace applies to our time of conversion, and is ample for even the chief of sinners to be converted, but even then faith is required following godly repentance. Because we are still human we may struggle with sin from time to time but true grace of God will always lead us to repentance and the blood of Christ will always wash away our sins ——when we repent and turn away from sin. It is still up to us to repent - God never makes us do anything we do not want to do.

Because of the hyper - grace movement deceiving some believers—some have fallen away from truth and are in danger of insulting the Spirit of grace and losing their hope of salvation. Solomon in Ecclesiates says this:
"8:10And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity."

Other Scripture Warnings (if you have not read part 1 of this article - it does go hand in hand with this theme)

Besides warning 5 of the 7 churches in Revelation, Jesus warns us in Matthew 24:48 and Luke 25:46 that He will cut off the unprofitable servant ( the believer who started practicing unrighteousness while the master delayed His coming) from Himself, and will appoint him the same portion (fate) with the hypocrite and unbeliever. [damnation in lake of fire] Now that is serious stuff! Who would want to hang onto sin if they "verily, verily" heard the words of Jesus Himself? Only the rebellious!

Hebrews 10 declares ²⁶ "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Therefore if anyone is willfully sinning and they call themselves a believer - the scriptures confirm that this type of believer is backslidden and must repent, turn away and practice righteousness as all prophets and apostles testify by the Spirit. What kind of sin? Good question, but Paul in Galatians 6 (above) gave us examples, and if we walk in the Spirit the Spirit will always lead us in truth.

So let us not have that mindset [fallen from grace] that we need not repent and turn away from sin after we have believed or were saved —because as the years goes by and we become too far removed from our day of grace and salvation. Don't allow someone to twist away the gospel power of salvation from your grasp. Seventy times seven still applies today! Return to your First Love and do the first works which were works of repentance! And then carry on again in the Spirit of Truth and obedience to the Word!

Departing from Faith is possible! The devil is busy now working at attempting to deceive believers (Rev. 12:9) into thinking that Jesus died so they could have the freedom to do as they please, and to worship Him as they please. God reveals to us that many shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. So God says you can come to faith and you can depart from faith. What about hyper-grace then? Wont that save you? Not according to God's scriptures. When you are gone from faith you will no longer be pleasing to God. If you die in that state— you die lost. Jesus said that only those who endure until the end shall be saved!

This is not anything new, the Holy Spirit has been saying this since the Spirit began giving Scripture in the Old Testament. There are examples and warnings in the Old Testament about apostasy. There are warnings in the Old Testament about people who would depart from the faith, and also about "not all Israel being true Israel", not all Jews being genuine believing Jews, some of them having uncircumcised hearts, though they had circumcised themselves on the outside. The Spirit through all of the centuries of redemptive history has said there would be those who departed from the faith. There would be rebels within the camp of Israel. The prophet spoke of it, Daniel spoke of it, Ezekiel spoke of it, Paul Spoke of it, Peter spoke of it, Jesus spoke of it, etc, etc, it is not an uncommon subject at all, rather distinctly and explicitly the Spirit (expressly) made such predictions.

In fact, we continue into the New Testament and we sense how many have departed from the faith and how the Lord warned that they would do that. In Matthew 24, "Many false Christs, many false prophets will come, they will deceive many and many will leave the faith." Mark 13:22 says basically the very same thing. They would go away from the faith. The Scriptures indicate to us in 2 Thessalonians 2 that before the coming of Christ in glory there would be a massive departure from the faith. In 2 Peter there will come in the last times mockers and scoffers abandoning the faith. Jude 18, the same thing. 1 John 2, the Antichrist will come, as a result there will be people who will go out from us, it will reveal they never were of us, but they will depart from the faith. In 1 John again, in chapter 4, there is a very straightforward mention that there are false prophets who are gone out into the world and they will go out into the world and they will rest souls away to their own destruction.

1Timothy 4:1 (AMP) "But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons,"

The world is filled with apostates who practice unrighteousness, lawlessness, and iniquity. The unrighteous shall be removed and cast into the winepress of the wrath of almighty God. Before Apostle Peter's death, where he too was crucified (upside down) he goes on to warn us:

2Peter 2:12 "These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed. 13The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you. 14Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice the ones who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corruption. For a man is a slave to whatever has overcome him. 20 If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through their knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and turned away from the holy commandment passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

God is quite clear in scripture consistently from Genesis to Revelation that we are to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present age, discerning the times because the days are evil. We are to shine our light before men and thereby sharply contrast the sons of disobedience and darkness. The Church of born again believers are instructed to be doers of the word, demonstrating faith by our works even as Abraham was justified by works of obedience demonstrating faith that was pleasing to God.

In fact, God is so pleased with his children's righteous acts that are in keeping with His commandments, that scripture states in Acts that He gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey His commands. We are performing righteousness when we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church is our perfect example. In order to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus Himself underwent water baptism by John the Baptist, where God 's voice was heard and declared that Jesus was His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. When we are water baptized according to the command of Jesus and His apostles, God is also well pleased. That is a perfect example of our works being righteous and pleasing to God. John the Baptist performed righteousness when he baptised all those who came to him with repentant hearts...the others who came to him with unrepentant hearts he screamed at them "You brood of vipers and snakes, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matt 3:7) John told them to first bear fruit in keeping with repentance, demonstrating by their works, lifestyle, that they truly had become repentant and not just performing religious rites.

For those made right with God by grace through faith alone, and therefore adopted into God’s family, many of our righteous deeds are not only not filthy in God’s eyes, they are exceedingly sweet, precious, and pleasing to him. Perform the good works that the Lord has specifically prepared in advance for you to do. It truly will bring Him delight–and it will bring you into greater knowledge of His character as well.

Psalms 106:3 "Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times." 1Jn 3:22 "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

2 Timothy 4: I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ⁵ But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Why would God have to begin judgement in the house of God if everyone is saved by grace? Because you are not saved only by grace...you are saved by grace through faith. Grace will bring you to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and to apply His precious shed blood to cleanse your soul resulting in new birth. New creation birth brings to us knowledge of God's ways. As new born we are able to learn about the God who has saved us and we learn to walk in His ways.

Grace is the "unmerited favor of God" where God demonstrated His love for us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us who were formerly disobedient and ungodly. Once we respond to the gospel message by faith that comes from hearing the word of the gospel, we must walk in the Spirit and demonstrate faith.

Faith is required (essential) to please God that you can walk in His ways down the path of righteousness. If we lose or forsake our faith by choking God's word with the cares or love for the world's ways we are in danger of becoming like the third type of hearer that Jesus taught about in the parable of the sower ( Matt. 13) who became unfruitful and brought no fruit to maturity.

Matthew 13: ⁴⁰ Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, ⁴² and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! "

Yes we must continue (or begin) to abide in the vine "Jesus". Our fruit must be fruit of holiness if we want to see the Lord. The epistles are full of the apostles instructions of how to conduct ourselves or perform "our works".

Titus 2:¹¹ 'For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, ¹² Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; ¹³ Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; ¹⁴ Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. ¹⁵ These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee."

In fact it is the "grace of God" the favor of God itself that has drawn us to Christ, & after that the Spirit of grace teaches us to become new creations in Christ, bury the 'old man' of sin by denying ungodliness, worldly lusts. Grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly! Now what Christian wouldn't desire Jesus Himself to purify us as a people zealous of good works - living righteously. Will you put on the breastplate of righteousness?

Let us walk boldly in the Spirit of Grace that leads us into all righteousness and just as we read in Titus 2 we are to speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority.