Russell Miller - De-confusion Chamber-Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth(2 Ti. 2:15)If you are a former Catholic, what do you now believe? Why not complete the journey and receive ALL that God has for you? - Christian Growth/Maturity - EX-CATHOLIC and saved by grace - Message Board - Yuku

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Russell Miller

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Gods Trombone	Russell Miller	Lead	[-]
Posts: 4354 (09/02/08 06:35 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None September 2, 2008 THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD by Russell S. Miller "Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph.1:2). The above verse is the theme of all of the Epistles of St. Paul. The words of this verse are found at the beginning of every one of his letters. Even in Hebrews we find "grace" to be the theme of the Epistle. So, which would you rather have the "grace" and "peace" of God, or would you prefer to see the Lord Jesus Christ on that "white horse" of the Book of the Revelation? "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war" (19:11-16). It is on account of the wickedness of men in seeking to run the world without the Lord Jesus Christ that He judges the earth and makes war. However, since we are living in the Day and Age of Grace, we may enter His presence without fear of the wrath of God upon sin. This does not mean that even the people of God have a license to sin, far from it. It simply means that "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved [One]" (Eph.1:7). And Ephesians 3:12 states: "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him" (Eph.3:12). He rules from "the throne of grace" (Heb.4:16) don't you see? Now that we are "made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Eph.2:13), "draw nigh unto God, He will draw nigh unto you" (Jas.4:. Just as our "walk", as Christians, is one of faith so salvation is received "by grace through faith" in the finished work of Calvary's cross. Paul therefore declares in his Epistle to the Corinthians with regards to "the gospel by which ye are saved…" (ICor.15:1,2): *"…How that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS* according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (ICor.15:3,4). This redemption that is in Christ Jesus is ours by simple faith in Him. "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph.1:7).** Therefore we can, and should, "draw nigh" unto Him, through faith His blessed Word, the Bible. Read especially the epistles of St. Paul. Herein is the grace and peace. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom.5:1). There is no peace in this world, so worth having, as "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom.5:1). www.bereanbiblesociety.org Gods Trombone DE-CONFUSION CHAMBER
Gods Trombone	Access To God By Grace	#1	[-]
Posts: 4386 (03/07/09 06:25 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	ACCESS TO GOD BY GRACE by Russell S. Miller If "grace" reigns today, and the Apostle Paul states emphatically that it does, then it must reign from "the throne of grace" in Heaven. "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom.5:20,21). Thank God that grace was dispensed when He could have justly poured out His righteous judgment upon a Christ-rejecting world. There is nothing in prophecy to prevent His wrath upon mankind except His own heart of love toward an undeserving world. God, in grace, reached down from heaven to save His chief enemy on earth, Saul of Tarsus. The very one, who represented a doomed world, was also the one to whom our Lord was pleased to reveal "the riches of His grace" and "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph.1:7; 3:8,11). In the Epistles of St. Paul, we have "grace" and "peace" to enter God's presence without fear through the finished work of Christ on Calvary: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Heb.10:19). In this new dispensation Jews and Gentiles are bidden by God, Himself, to come confidently into His presence "through Jesus Christ our Lord": "IN WHOM WE HAVE BOLDNESS AND ACCESS WITH CONFIDENCE BY THE FAITH OF HIM" (Eph.3:11,12). Indeed, Old Testament saints could not even imagine the access we have today into God's presence "by His own blood" (Heb.9:12). In grace He gives us a full and complete audience whenever we call: "LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY, AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED" (Heb. 4:14-16). Berean Bible Society
Gods Trombone		#2	[-]
Posts: 4400 (03/23/09 07:17 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	PAUL, NOT ONE OF THE TWELVE by Russell S. Miller Printer Friendly Version "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office" (Rom.11:13). These are Paul's inspired words in Romans 11:13. He is not one of the Twelve Apostles as many teach today and certainly was not chosen to take Judas' place. Acts 1:16-26 gives ample proof that Saul of Tarsus did not even qualify as a follower of Jesus Christ at that time, he was an unbeliever! He had not followed the Lord from John's baptism "unto that same day that [Jesus] was taken up from us" (Acts 1:22). Listen to Paul's own testimony as he later recounts his conversion before King Agrippa: "And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities" (Acts 26:11). When Paul finally does come upon the scene in the Acts of the Apostles, Acts 9:1,2 reveals him as "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious" (ITim.1:13), on his way to imprison and "put to death" Christ's followers at Damascus (Acts 26:10). This is a far cry from being eligible for the position that Judas held with the disciples of the Lord. Paul was therefore most ineligible, for he had not seen Jesus Christ of Nazareth during our Lord's earthly ministry! The qualifications for the position that Judas held are clear enough: "Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection" (Acts 1:21-22). The "lot" therefore fell to "Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26). Later, when Saul finally did get saved, it is the Lord Himself who stopped Saul in his tracks, and saved him from further persecution of Messiah's followers: "And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? ... And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus" (Acts 22:7-11). Thus, Paul is specially "chosen" by God through whom God's Son is to be revealed to all nations since the favored nation refused Messiah under their so-called "Great Commission." This is what makes Paul's ministry, and apostleship, so very distinct from that of the Twelve, and their kingdom gospel. Furthermore, Colossians, chapter one, makes it clear that God began something very new and different with Paul's conversion--the Church which is the Body of Christ: "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church: "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of God; "EVEN THE MYSTERY WHICH HATH BEEN HID FROM AGES AND FROM GENERATIONS, BUT NOW IS MADE MANIFEST TO HIS SAINTS: "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col.1:24-27). www.bereanbiblesociety.org
Gods Trombone		#3	[-]
Posts: 4403 (03/25/09 07:02 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE ABUNDANT MERCY OF GOD by Russell S. Miller Printer Friendly Version "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (IPet.1:3). Upon several different occasions in the Gospels our Lord spoke of His coming death and resurrection (Matt.12:39-42; 16:21-26; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33,34), yet His disciples did not understand that He would die, much less that "CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS" as Paul later wrote to the Corinthians. Luke clearly states that all the disciples were totally ignorant of Christ's approaching death: *"And they understood NONE of these things: and this saying was HID* from them, NEITHER KNEW THEY THE THINGS WHICH WERE SPOKEN" (Luke 18:31-34).** The Apostle Peter had believed Christ to be the very Son of God in his affirmation: "Thou art the Christ [Messiah], THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD" (Matt.16:16). This is what was "revealed" unto him of "My Father which is in Heaven" as the Lord states in Matthew 16:17. And Peter's reaction in Matthew 16:21-26 to this announcement of Christ's approaching crucifixion confirms that he most definitely did not understand Calvary's cross! It was those "fifteen days" with the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:18, as well as the light and understanding which that Jerusalem Council afforded this beloved brother (Acts 15:7-11; Gal.2:7-9), combined of course with the Spirit's working as recorded in Acts 10, 11, that opened Peter's eyes to see the truth of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Until Peter had met the Apostle Paul, he did not know what could free him from the law, "which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear" (Acts 15:10). This is why Peter now writes concerning "the abundant mercy of God" and "the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Hear what this Apostle has to say to his brethren about the very subject of "obedience" in their salvation today: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied" (I Peter 1:2). This is very different from any thing he had ever preached before. A far cry from his "repentance and water baptism" on that momentous Day of Pentecost in Acts 2! At Pentecost he did not offer the death of Christ, and His shed blood, as the payment for sin. Rather he brought a stunning indictment against his own nation for having "killed the Prince of life" (Acts 3:14,15). The "remission of sins" was there based upon their repentance and submission to water baptism (Acts 2:38). Nothing was said in Acts 2 about the shed blood of Christ for salvation. It is not until we come to Paul's epistles that we learn about Christ's shed blood "for the remission of sins": "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS THAT ARE PAST, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, AT THIS TIME* HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS: that He might be JUST, and the JUSTIFIER* of him which BELIEVETH in Jesus" (Rom.3:24,25,26). "NEITHER BY THE BLOOD OF GOATS AND CALVES, BUT BY HIS OWN BLOOD* HE ENTERED IN ONCE INTO THE HOLY PLACE, HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL REDEMPTION FOR US" (Heb.9:12). Brethren, "propitiation" is a Pauline* concept of the Old Testament "mercy seat." Jesus Christ became the mercy seat, sprinkling His own blood upon Calvary's cross. And this is FIRST made known in the Pauline revelation. If God is therefore "satisfied" with Christ's redemptive work, shouldn't you be satisfied with His finished work also? In Galatians, Chapters One and Two, we see that the Apostle Peter had comprehended this aspect of the "mystery" which had been "committed to his trust" through the Apostle Paul. In this he most assuredly came to see the grace message through Paul's ministry. This does not mean that God has changed His mind about the Kingdom promises to the "Little Flock" of Messiah's followers (Luke 12:32; Rom.11:29; IPet.2:9; IIPet.1:16). Don't worry. When He shall come, "at the revelation of Jesus Christ" with all His holy angels, the Twelve Apostles "shall sit upon Twelve Thrones, judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel" (IPet.1:7; Matt.19:28; 25:31). However, it does mean that Peter "stood" in the very same position where all believers "stand" today, in "THE TRUE GRACE OF GOD" (I Peter 5:12)! The Apostle of the Circumcision had become well acquainted with "the present truth" as he writes in II Peter 1:12,13: "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in THE PRESENT TRUTH. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." The Apostle Peter had forsaken his Pentecostalism for "THE SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST." Thus he could write to "the strangers scattered" throughout Asia Minor: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ACCORDING TO HIS ABUNDANT MERCY hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (IPet.1:3). Thus in his first epistle, Peter's own words reveal his understanding of Paul's gospel and the grace message: *"FORASMUCH AS YE KNOW THAT YE WERE NOT REDEEMED WITH CORRUPTIBLE THINGS, AS SILVER AND GOLD, FROM YOUR VAIN CONVERSATION RECEIVED BY TRADITION FROM YOUR FATHERS;* *"BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, AS OF A LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH AND WITHOUT SPOT" (I Peter 1:18,19).* www.bereanbiblesociety.org
Gods Trombone	THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH	#4	[-]
Posts: 4500 (06/20/09 06:37 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	"THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH" by Russell S. Miller Printer Friendly Version Two Thousand Years ago a certain Man, innocent of all wrongdoing, was taken into custody by the authorities, given a trial in which He was charged of crimes He had not committed, and even when "no fault" could be found in Him, He was condemned to the cruelest death that man could invent. Now it should not be supposed that simply because these Two Thousand Years have passed that this terrible miscarriage of justice will not be avenged in the Highest Court! Nor should it be supposed that everyone who has had a part in this travesty will escape the judgment of this Court! You may think you know nothing, at all, about this event. But you are still guilty of His blood, and it behooves you, now, to cry unto Him, "the Judge of all the earth", for mercy and grace, in, what cannot be otherwise, your impending and eternal doom! His name is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who, in the greatest of love and grace, paid our debt of sin, Himself, on the Cross of Calvary. Though He was crucified at the hands of wicked men, Jews and Gentiles are guilty of His death. But more, it was your sins, your lifestyle, that nailed Him to the Cross, so you are not innocent in this matter, but guilty as charged. Yet because He not only was innocent of all wrongdoing, but righteous in all that He did, the grave could not hold Him. Death had no claim upon Him. Consequently, by His own Almighty power He arose from the dead; and alive forever more, He is seeking for all those who had a part in His crucifixion. Now it seems to me that the wisest thing that any man could do under such circumstances is to plead for mercy from this Court of Justice. Because this Man, whom you have crucified (your sins also nailed Him to the cross), is alive, and He is coming again to take vengeance upon all mankind. Jesus Christ is The Judge of All the Earth!

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