Great Grace - Clip 2

This is an excerpt from Mike’s brand new message Great Grace, part of Witnesses Unto Me, available for purchase on disc and download.

Transcription

Michael Pearl: Acts 13:43, “Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking of them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.”

Obviously, believers who are in the grace of God need to be encouraged to continue in it. Now, what would a believer do if he didn’t continue in the grace of God – what would he do as an alternative to continuing in the grace of God? He would turn to the law. He would turn to psychological principles – psychology, psychiatry, drugs – to control his behavior. He would turn to counseling, to control his behavior. He would turn to some sort of anger management, to control his behavior, or some other program that helps him manage his behavior and his mental state. Or, a person could depart from the grace of God by becoming a Roman Catholic, or by converting to a Jehovah’s Witness, or Mormons, or becoming Amish, you’d leave the grace of God. Not that there are not some Amish in the grace of God, but if you were to leave the grace of God to become Amish, and change the way you dress, and the way you act, and the way you live, in order to try to please God, then in fact you would be falling from the grace of God. When you go back to works, back to law, back to systems, back to outward manifestations and so forth, and ways of conducting yourself, in order to try to please God; things that back in those days would have been getting circumcised, or keeping the Sabbath – you became a Seventh Day Adventist, and started keeping the Sabbath in order to please God – you would be falling from the grace of God. If you started tithing in order to please God, you’d be falling from the grace of God. When you go back to the laws of Moses and the Jewish system, start singing Jewish songs in order to try to please God, or saying “Yeshua” instead of “Jesus” or “Yahweh” instead of “Jehovah” – all of that is an attempt to do something that brings you closer to God or pleases God, and it is departing from the grace of God. So, he persuaded them to continue in that grace that came to them.

You see, when grace finds you, it makes no demands upon you whatsoever, other than to come believing – to come freely, to come accepting the full pardon of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, there is one demand, and that is to come. There are many who will not come; there are many who would like to go to heaven, but they will not come to Christ. There are many who would like to not go to hell; but they won’t come to Christ. Many would like to be religious, be good; but they won’t come to Christ. There’s only one demand, and that is to come to the grace of God. There’s one fountain, and you have to drink from it. You don’t wash your face before you drink; you don’t wash your hands before you drink; you don’t change your clothes before you drink. You don’t prepare yourself in any way when you drink from the fountain of grace. You come to the fountain of grace, and there you kneel and you drink. Now, you say, “But what if you’re proud?” Well, if you’re willing to kneel and drink, that takes care of the pride problem. You say, “But what if you’ve got lust in your heart?” If you’re willing to take your eyes off, and look down into the pool of grace and drink, you will be healed and cured. You see, it’s just one fountain, one drink, and it becomes a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life. And grace comes for grace and continues to flow.

Now, you add anything to that, and your message won’t work on sinners, as my message does. You add anything to that and you won’t get converts. You add anything to that and your children will not be born again. Your religion will not produce salvation in your children, and it will not last through the generations; you’ll end up with worldliness, you’ll end up with godlessness, and it will take strict rules in order to manage them and keep them controlled, because the grace of God will not manage them.