The Sufficiency of His Grace
(week 32/02)
Olubi Johnson
We are living indeed in perilous times in which iniquity is abounding.
However we need to know by revelation and operate experientially the fact the grace of God is sufficient to totally overcome the evils that we see and experience in the world today.
In our article this week we will be looking at the fact that God’s grace is sufficient and more importantly how it can be sufficient in your life and situation no matter what you may be facing now.
Abounding iniquity in the church and the world
Matthew 24:12 (KJV) And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
We are living in the end-time: a time of abounding iniquity: we are seeing homosexuality practiced openly even in the church; hypocrisy, immorality and materialism plague the body of Christ, even the leadership, like a cancer. We are seeing violence in the form of terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery perpetrated in cities all over the world with such a ferocity and sophistication that no generation before us has ever witnessed.
Indeed it is a time in which the Christian needs to understand and tap into the sufficiency of the grace of God, lest we be overwhelmed by the wave of evil sweeping over the earth.
Some will say there is revival in the church. I beg to disagree. Revival is coming but has not yet come to the degree of what we see in the book of Acts. In fact, the scripture says the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former. So it is obvious we are not yet in what God intends for the end-time church.
In the church the less obvious, and subtler, sins of prayerlessness, self-centeredness, covetousness, envy and pride pervade the entire body of Christ, especially the leadership, like a cancer. These ‘little foxes’ that spoil the vine are actually the root of the greater sins of homosexuality, abortion and violence that we see every day on TV perpetrated with greater and greater ferocity and sophistication in the nations of the world.
The scripture says
2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
This promise is for any nation under heaven. If the christians will humble themselves, fast, pray, seek God in genuine repentance, God will forgive and heal the land. If we keep seeing the abounding of iniquity in the nation, then the problem is with the church and not just the sinners.
Furthermore we see in,
Psalm 144:9-15 (KJV) I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
This scripture reveals that if the church is purged of strange children: by genuine repentance, fasting, prayer and seeking God as shown in 2 Cor.7: 14 above then the nation will prosper economically and socially. Notice that is an open promise to any people not just natural Israel.
So we see that if the church is humble, prayerful and seeks God diligently, God will heal the nations.
The good news then is that if the church taps into the sufficiency of the grace of God then the grace of God will much more abound than the sin and evil we presently see in the church and in the world. Hence this message.
Grace much more abounds than sin
Romans 5:20 (KJV) Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
These scriptures reveal that where sin or evil may be abounding, as it is today in the church and in the world, the grace of God is sufficient to abound even much more than the sin. This same truth is illustrated in
Isaiah 59:19 (KJV) So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
When the enemy comes in like a flood, or when sin and evil may abound, the Spirit of the Lord, by the sufficiency of His grace, will raise up a standard against him and overcome the enemy and his attendant evil and sin!
The problem is knowing how you and I: the church, are to tap into the sufficiency of His grace.
In our article next week we will see how to tap into the sufficiency of God’s grace.
