TOPIC: THIS DISPENSATION OF GRACE

WHAT IS GRACE?
Grace simply is unmerited favour. The dispensation of grace started with
Jesus Christ John 1:7
WHY THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE.
Let us trace it to time immemorial. Before the time of Moses, we had the
dispensation of conscience; every man does what he wants to do. It is
only your conscience that judges you. Remember the time of Adam and
Eve, what made to go and hide himself, it was his conscience. His
conscience pricked him and he had no choice than to run away from God.
Why did Cain challenge God, “Am I my brother’s keeper? He knew he had
done something wrong, because at that time, there was no law that says
“thou shall not kill”. But he knew that he had done something wrong. And
when God asked his brother, the worst thing he did was to challenge God.

That time passed, we had Abraham, Isaac Jacob, the Israelites, their
going into captivity, then God sent them a deliverer, Moses, God saw the
kind of people the Israelites were, He gave them laws, rules and
regulations to guide their conduct and worship of Jehovah God. There are
Ten Commandments and there several laws.

The good thing is that if most of us live in that dispensation, we would

have escaped any punishment. Why? This is because the law judged your
action. It is what you do physically that the law judges. Thou shall not kill.
If you do not physically kill any body or nobody dies by your actions, you
cannot be charged for murder. The agents for enforcing the laws are the
human beings.

According to the law, if you catch a man and definitely a woman, in

adultery, you must have at least three independent witnesses. How do
you get three independent witnesses? You won’t call your friends, you
won’t call your neighbours, you will go a good distance, and call
somebody who does not know the people involved. And you can prove
that these two are not married and are committing adultery, they will be
stoned to death. That is the dispensation of law. Let us take an instance
where they did it sharp, sharp and they left. The law will not punish
someone you did not accost at the scene of the crime, except you have
witnesses. The law judges your actions.

God now realise that the spirit man must be purged and that was why He
sent Jesus Christ full of grace and truth. And brethren, the time of grace
in the most dangerous dispensation. Let me tell you why. Jesus, when he
was referring to the time of Moses (that law is what the Muslim are still
practising) it is as eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If you break my
right eye and you are found guilty, your own right eye will be broken. If
you steal, the hand you used in stealing will be cut off. That is the
dispensation of law.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, the dispensation of grace started with

Jesus Christ. In the dispensation of grace, it is your motive that is first
judged, before even your action. Jesus Christ said “if you look lustfully at
a woman who is not your wife you already committed adultery with her”.
The agent in operation in this dispensation is no longer man, but the
Spirit of God. If you bring your offering grudgingly, it is no longer
acceptable before God. Every body saw you bring the money, made your
contribution but with grudges, it is not acceptable.

The dispensation of grace is a dispensation we have to be careful. Do we

continue in sin for grace to abound? God forbid. The reason why God went
beyond the action, to know or access the motive, remember the
Pharisees, when he stood, he said I give my offerings I pay my tithe, “
this motive was pride, self- righteousness, that was why he said, “ I am
not like this publican. It is glaring that he had a wrong motive. Jesus
Christ said something about the Pharisees they make laws they
themselves cannot keep in order to lord it over those that fall the law.

In this dispensation of grace can anyone now raise up his hands and say I
have not sinned. Most of the times when we confess our sins, we sins
according to law. We confess adultery, stealing etc. What of the sins we
commit with our thoughts. These ones are the ones that are taking us to
hell. Why do I say this? The apostle of love John, is one of his epistles
said, if you hate your brother, you have already killed him. Can anyone
here say I have not hated anybody? Can anybody say I have not wished
this person dead, or wish him to have accident?

The reason why God is particular about our thought life is that when you
think, you are operation on a spiritual level, and eventually, it will
manifest in the physical; except another spiritual law cancels it.
Remember the Medes and Persians any law the king have sealed must be
carried out. When the king passed the law that the Israelites be killed, he
did not issue any contrary law to save the Israelites but he made another
law that the Israelites can defend themselves. So if you create something
in the spiritual, it stands. The only thing you can do is to create another
thing that will counteract it. That is why our thoughts, our motives must
be right. God judges all our motives, irrespective of who you are, what
you that required you to do it. Even if you are doing it for the love of God
the motive for doing it must be right.

The interesting thing is that none of us can escape in this dispensation. In

the dispensation of law, it is very easy to escape as long as you are not
caught with any physical sin, you don’t build an idol, you don’t steal, you
don’t covet your neighbours property etc. under the dispensation of grace
nobody here can tell me that for 24hours you can control your thoughts.
And what are the things that are responsible for our thoughts. What we
see, what we touch, what we hear, what we feel. If you want to tell me
you are a superman go and watch adult films or any corrupt film or listen
to a corrupt music and tell me year thoughts will not be corrupted. It is
not possible. That is why we have the Holy Spirit.

That is where we are really going to. God wants us to depend on Him, and
not on our ability in this dispensation. The righteousness of the holiest
person is like a filthy rag. It was said of a great man of God in this our
present generation, he was in a meeting and Lord showed him his state,
the picture of his life in a vision, he saw that he was covered with faeces.
In Zechariah, the high priest Joshua was resisted by the devil because he
had a filthy garment on. Someone we consider holy is in this state, how
much more you and I.

We are to subject our thoughts to Christ. Thoughts are things. Ps 925

I believe that before God begin creation He must have thought of it. At
least the order in creation shows this. Your thought is where your motive
and action starts. The only way we can escape is to subject our thoughts
to Christ. I Cor 7:1:2. How much are we depending on God. What work
are you doing?