"What is hyper-grace?" – in the Bible #3

On February 1, 2014, the message was about how to determine if a church is teaching the relatively newly dubbed “Hyper-Grace”. There were at least 8 identifiers. I have already covered #1-2.

The following are signs of a hyper-grace church:
1. The preachers never speak against sin.
2. The lead pastor never takes a cultural stand for righteousness.

3. The Old Testament is almost totally ignored.

In these churches, the Old Testament is treated as only types and shadows for sermon illustrations but has no real value regarding our standard of living today. As I show in this article, my position is that the New Testament and Old Testament are organically connected, with the New building upon the Old, not eradicating it altogether!

Matthew 5:
• 17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
o Jesus says directly that He did not do away with the Old Testament teachings
• 18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
• 19 "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
o He stressed that we are to keep the commandments

Acts 8:
• 26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert.
• 27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,
• 28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
o He was reading the Old Testament – all they had at the time
• 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."
• 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
• 31 And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
• 32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
• 33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth."
• 34 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?"
• 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
o Philip taught Jesus from the Old Testament
• 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"
• 37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
• 38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
• 39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.
o All he knew was OT, and that was enough for him to be baptized

Daniel 7:
• 1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.
• 2 Daniel spoke, saying, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea.
• 3 "And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
• 4 "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
• 5 "And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: 'Arise, devour much flesh!'
• 6 "After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
o Compare these 4 beasts to Revelation
• 7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
• 8 "I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
• 9 "I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;
• 10 A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.
o The books were opened – compare Revelation 20
• 11 "I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
• 12 "As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
• 13 "I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
• 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
• 23 "Thus he said: 'The fourth beast shall be A fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.
• 24 The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings.
• 25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.
• 26 'But the court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it forever.
• 27 Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.'
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• 28 "This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed; but I kept the matter in my heart."

Daniel 12:
• 8 Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, "My lord, what shall be the end of these things?"
• 9 And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
o Daniel was told many things he was not allowed to write down
• 10 "Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
• 11 "And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
• 12 "Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
• 13 "But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days."

Matthew 24:
• 5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
o There is MUCH deception today in every facet of life
• 6 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
• 7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
• 8 "All these are the beginning of sorrows.
o The wars are just the beginning
• 9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
• 10 "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
• 11 "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
• 12 "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
o Lawlessness = living without regard to Good’s law
• 13 "But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
• 14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
• 15 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),
o Daniel 12.11
• 16 "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
o Geographical reference – big trouble in Jerusalem
• 17 "Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
• 18 "And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
• 19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
• 20 "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
• 21 "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
• 22 "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
• 23 "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.
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• 29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
• 30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
• 31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
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• 35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
• 36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
• 37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
• 38 "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
• 39 "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Revelation 4-19 contains the same messages as in Daniel and Matthew. Compare them carefully to see if the Old Testament is irrelevant.