One day I was speaking with a gentleman and proceeded to invite him to our weekly Bible study. His response to my invitation was unexpected. He replied “You're not one of those fluffy grace guys are you? I don't want any of that!”. He proceeded to tell me that in his opinion, what we all need is more fire and brimstone preaching against sin, and how all of these fluffy grace preachers are diluting things further.
This kind of thinking is actually fairly common. However, is this what the Bible actually teaches? I know that it is a commonly held belief that too much grace is a dangerous thing… but is that commonly held belief supported by what the scripture says? This is what we will be studying today. As we see the truth of what the scripture says, it will quench any doubt that we have have regarding the message of Grace.
One day someone asked me straight out “what is the ministry of the spirit?” – now this man was a believer, and as embarrassing as it may seem, I hadn't actually considered that there were believers today which did not know what the Bible says about the ministry of the spirit, or even that there has been a change in ministry. So his question caught me a little bit off-guard. Since that time, I've come to realize that the majority of believers also have the same question, unaware that there has been a change in ministry due to Jesus Christ.
This is what we are going to be studying today, seeing the change that has occurred in our ministry. It's important to see this truth for two reasons: first because as ambassadors for Christ, we should know what the message from our King is! And second, this will also help us to distinguish between truth and falsehood in ministry.
There are many forces in this world that put themselves in a place of leadership. Men desire to lead other men; simply turn on the television and you will see countless people all eager to give their opinion and advice on all kinds of things, setting themselves up in positions of leadership. We in moments of pride, desire to lead ourselves, and of course Satan has always desired leadership as well.
However, when we follow these leaders, or ourselves, where do we end up? The Bible says in 2nd Peter that those who follow other things and people are led into sin and darkness. However there is One Good Shepherd; One who does not lead astray, but leads into true rest and freedom from all bondage and oppression. This is what we will be studying today. Following the Good Shepherd into Righteousness.