Grow in Grace and Knowledge

Thank you, Mrs. Royster, for that very encouraging music. It's funny, we were discussing Last Sabbath, I think, in Cincinnati, in the area that in succeeding weeks we'd had two very different styles of music. I said, that's one thing Mr. Myers is happy to bring in different styles as long as they're worshiping God. And I said, yeah, you bring Helen Royster, and there's a whole different style from any of those. Looking forward to having you at the Bluegrass Jam at the feast this year, as well. And I want to thank Mr. Call for that introduction. I always like being called Professor. I think I picked that up watching Gilligan's Island. I always wanted to be like the Professor. If I can learn how to make a radio out of coconuts and seashells, all have arrived. But I'm not quite there yet. Anyways, it is good to be... I feel like I'm back home today. It's good to be here, and good to have Sue and Connor with me. We always feel welcome, and I'm... Sorry, it's been so long, but I'm very glad to see you all and be back. It's been quite a busy week at the home office. It's funny, it's quiet a lot of the summer. And in most of this last week, the Council of Elders were meeting. So I'd come in, and it's bustling, and men are in meetings, and you hear laughter sometimes coming out of the room and other things. And they all went home, and yesterday I went in, and it was dead quiet, because half of the staff were gone. It was a good time to get work done, though. So we're rushing along, and two weeks from tomorrow we have the welcome picnic for the students coming in, and then orientation the next day. So we're working hard to get ready for the start of the school year. And speaking of working hard and all this study, in my introduction, I wanted to comment on... every now and then I think about how much I like words. Words, you know, they help us communicate, we share our thoughts, but it's worth thinking or remembering that words also help us to think. Scholars and psychologists have discovered that if we don't have a word for a thing or a concept, we have difficulty even thinking about that thing or concept. Of course, the other way around is true. If we have a word for something, it seems to help us understand it and to think about it. I think that's one of the reasons we so readily make up words. If we don't know what something's called, we'll think of a name, just make it up. Or we'll borrow one from a different language. English is very... well known, I don't know... I'm not sure if that's the word, but, you know, in English, we have a lot of words we've just borrowed from other languages freely.

And I think this is important not only for studying the English language, but it's something for us to consider as we focus on developing godly character and preparing to be in God's kingdom.

And the reason I say this is we might have and use the words that we only partly understand or we misunderstand, and then it gets us thinking in a different direction. And that's probably happened to all of us at times.

I was trying to think of an example, and I'm not sure if this is the same as not understanding a word, but I remember coming across a word that I started to learn what it meant, but I didn't know how to say it. I think I might have mentioned this in a sermon before.

You know, when I was younger, especially, I'd be reading along. If I came across a word I didn't know, I'd usually be too lazy to go look it up in the dictionary. I'd try to figure it out from the context. And I was often good at that. But I remember the word citadel, coming across that.

And I figured out what it meant, but I had no idea how it was pronounced in my mind. I was always pronouncing it katadel. You know, you go into the katadel to be safe.

Which is okay, that's no big deal, except then I'd hear people say the word citadel. And I wonder what that word means. And over time I started realizing that it meant almost the same thing as that katadel word.

Now, that's just an odd example, but do you see how, you know, thinking of something you can get off track?

And there are cases where sometimes we use a word so much that it sort of loses its meaning. It doesn't have the impact that it would. I thought of the word great. Now, we use the word like, hey, something has, oh, that's great. I use it all the time. Or if it's really good, we'd be like Tony the Tiger and say, that's great! And then I thought, well, you know, I also have two great toes. They're not really all that great, though. People have used the word great so much, you know, that they've lost sight of its original meaning of large or impressive. And even so much that it doesn't even carry that connotation of something being really, really good anymore. So we set it aside and we pick up other words like awesome. Or, as if I had the right haircut, I'd say, awesome, dude. And that's been so overused, we're losing sight of that. Well, what about religious-sounding words? Do we do that? I think we do sometimes. I'm tempted to say that about the word faith. Faith comes up a lot and it's been stretched to mean other things besides what the Bible says. We use it as a general term for religion in general. What's your faith? Are you part of the Christian faith?

Being faithful not only applies a religious meaning, but not cheating or not stretching the rules. But luckily, we have Hebrews 11, verse 1 to keep us grounded in that definition. I thought of a different word, though. What about grace? That's a word that has several different uses in the English language. Like if you move with grace, I was thinking of trying to demonstrate that, but you know me well enough. Just imagine someone who is graceful. It means certain body control and beauty of motion. But if a person is gracious, it tends to refer to how they deal with other people in a kind way, one that's generous and appreciative. If you say a prayer before eating a meal, some people call that saying grace. Is grace a prayer? Is it a way of moving, a way of thinking, a way of treating people? Maybe that and all these things. I'm going to...we're told...and I don't know if I want to turn there. We're going to go eventually, but we might as well. 2 Peter 3, verse 18. Scripture we quote fairly often. 2 Peter 3 and 18. This is Peter closing up this important book.

He says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grow in grace and knowledge. To which I often...I've stopped and thought, um, how? How do we do that? Well, I would certainly help to be sure that we know what grace and what knowledge mean. So I want to look at those things today. In particular, grace, but not neglecting the word knowledge. And discuss how we as Christians can grow in grace and knowledge.

Now, I'm going to turn to discussing some definitions, but it's interesting. I wanted to make a sort of an upfront disclaimer, because when I first started working on this, I thought, well, I'd like to cover this, but it might only be enough for a long sermonette, maybe a split sermon. Then as I got into it, I said, well, there's more of this than I thought. So I wanted to say, don't necessarily think I'm going to give the definitive message on growing in grace and knowledge. Of course, if I thought I was going to give the definitive message, that might be a bit vain of me anyways to think that I could do that. But I want to cover some things that I think are pertinent and that I think will be useful. And if you've heard other sermons that perhaps explain a little better for you, or if I leave you wanting, well, that's okay.

Consider this just a contribution to our fund of knowledge. First, let's consider the meanings of the words. Knowledge, that one's relatively easy. When Peter wrote, Grow in Grace and Knowledge, the Greek word that he used for knowledge is gnosis, spelled with a G, silent G. G-N-O-S-I-S. That's in English. In Greek, I don't know the Greek alphabet well enough to remember, but I know it's all Greek to me.

Grow in Grace and Knowledge. Gnosis means knowledge. It means having information and understanding it. Gnosis has worked its way into some of our English words, especially in the medical field. Like if you get a diagnosis of a disease. It means identifying, knowing what it is. A prognosis, using, again, the word gnosis, it means an informed judgment of how this illness or injury will progress.

Now, in sermons, we tend to bring up the word gnosis usually when we're talking about a type of philosophy and mode of thought that became common about the end of the first century, beginning of the second century after Christ, called Gnosticism. That's like the word gnosis, only with a schism at the end.

It was a heretical teaching that people could gain a special type of knowledge. Actually, they called it Epinosis, a higher knowledge. Then if you had that special knowledge, you could get special powers. You'd have special advantage. Now, that became actually a real problem in the early Christian Church, because those beliefs started creeping in and replacing the truth that's in the Bible.

And so, as I said, normally when we talk about knowledge in the Church or Gnosis, we're discussing that.

But a careful look at God's Word would remind us that knowledge itself isn't bad. We might argue against the heretical teachings of Gnosticism, but knowledge is good. Study is good. Paul wrote, to study, to show yourself approved.

I think Mr. McKinney did a good job of reminding us, though, that we want to have the right kind of wisdom. Getting the right knowledge is very valuable. And it's not only enough to have knowledge. We've got to put it to good use. But I want to leave off discussing that for now. As I said, I think it's pretty straightforward. What about grace? We use that word almost as easily as the word knowledge, and it's certainly more religious-sounding.

I trust that we feel that we know what it means when we say it, but there's where I said there's some words that we use a lot without having a real clear understanding of what it means, or maybe not a full understanding. And I wanted to address that because in the Church of God, for many years, we've used what I like to call a quick and easy definition. And it's not inaccurate. It's actually quite accurate as far as it goes. And I'm guessing many of our old-timers, if I said, how would you define grace, we often say, free, unmerited pardon. And that is not inaccurate. And please, because I'm not going to focus on that as much, I don't want you to think that I'm giving this as a correction, because free, unmerited pardon is correct. When God forgives our sins, He's showing us grace. And we certainly don't earn that forgiveness. We can't repay it. It's free, and it's unmerited. But it's worth realizing, though, that God's grace is often about much more than forgiveness. In the Old Testament, the word grace is translated from a Hebrew word, khen. It's spelled with a C-H, where you get that out-of-your-throat sound, khen. It means kindness. It can be defined as favor, even pleasure. It's something good.

It's derived from the word khanem. We could spell it C-H-A-N-A-M. Khanem means to bend. It means for a superior person to bend down, to stoop, to show kindness to someone inferior. It's easy to think of a parent bending down to help a child, like bending down to wipe a nose, or to clean something up, or anything. When you have a little kid, you realize you're bending down all the time. That helps me to understand how grace comes from God. Think of God up high, stooping down to show us some kind of kindness and favor. That's His attitude towards us as His creation. I found it interesting when I looked into the Greek. The base definition doesn't necessarily imply the direction.

In Hebrew, the direction is from above to those below. The Greek word for kindness comes from the word karas. You can spell it with either C-H-A-R-I-S or some people spell it K-A-R-I-S. Once again, it would be spelled in Greek letters that aren't any of those. The Greek, just translating it simply means favor or goodwill. It could also be translated as loving kindness. That's a Greek word for grace, karas. It's closely related to the word kairo, and that would be spelled K-A-I-R-O, and that word means sweetness or attractiveness, something that's drawn, that's good, it's sweet. Now, that's the overall meaning in everyday Greek. But as I studied into how it's used in the Bible, almost all Bible scholars seem to agree that the way it's used by writers in the New Testament, it did have that same meaning as hen in Hebrew, meaning it has a direction. A direction from God above us stooping down to show favor to those who are below. And you can see that, actually, I'll give you two citations here. I'm not going to turn to them, but in 1 Peter 5, verse 5, 1 Peter 5, 5, and James 4 and verse 6, they both say, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The reason they both say the same thing is both of them were quoting from Proverbs. That's in Proverbs 3 and verse 34. But I like that image. It fits with the definition of the Hebrew word. God resists the proud but he gives grace. He bends down to show favor to the humble.

And that's the way I like to define grace. It means, or it can mean, divine favor. God's showing favor. It can mean God's kindness or even good feelings towards someone, which is often expressed as a blessing.

So grace can be a divine benefit, a gift, a blessing, all from God. I guess that's the divine part of that.

These come about because of God having a favorable attitude towards the person to whom he's showing grace.

And that explains why the apostles, and probably many in the early church, would often use this as a greeting. If you turn to 1 Corinthians 1, I'm going to turn there just as a demonstration because it's the first...

Actually, 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 3. See it very clearly. Here the apostle Paul, early in this letter to the Corinthian congregation, says, "...grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." And as it turns out, he'll use that in just about every one of his epistles. Grace and peace as a greeting. As 2 Corinthians 1-2, Galatians 1-3, Ephesians 1-2, and in my notes I've got, and so on and so on, rather than list them all. Peter also used it. 1 Peter 1 and verse 2, "...grace and peace to you." Second Peter 1 verse 2, grace and peace. 1 John 1 verse 2. And he also used it in Revelation 1 verse 4.

These are part of a greeting because they're...well, think of it this way. It might sound better if we think of...we know peace in Hebrew is shalom. Shalom is still a greeting that's used in Israel today. It can be used for either hello or goodbye. The closest equivalent I could think of was aloha. In Hawaiian, you say aloha for hello, aloha for goodbye. And anyone who speaks Hebrew says shalom. It means peace. And I think there are...I'm not sure if I should say hippies or rock musicians. I've heard at the end of a concert they say, peace out! You know, peace. But wishing someone peace, that's a nice greeting either on hello or goodbye. In the early church they added peace and grace. And when they said peace and grace, they didn't mean peace and may God forgive you of your sins. Although we often want to be forgiven of our sins. But they were saying when they said grace to you, they meant may God look favorably upon you. Only instead of may God look favorably upon you, which is a lot of syllables, they could mean the same thing by saying grace. That's a nice greeting. I'd love to have someone...oh, I'm glad to see you. May God look favorably upon you. With that in mind, let's consider some examples. Some examples of God showing grace to people. Actually, the first one is a big one. And it's one we probably know. I want to go back to Genesis. Genesis 6. It's actually the first time that the word grace appears in the King James translation of the Bible. And probably in any translation, but only check King James and New King James. Genesis 6, starting in verse 5. That's interesting. The words look clearer, but you all look blurry when I have these on. This is, of course, early in the history of mankind. It says, Then the eternal saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. How bad must it have been? Well, it goes on. And the eternal was sorry that he'd made man on the earth, and he grieved in his heart. That's pretty bad. Enough to make God wish he'd never even created mankind. Wish he'd never done it in the first place, and he's ready to wipe him out. But... well, actually, I didn't finish verse 7. The Lord said, I'll destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things, birds of the air. I'm sorry that I made him. Now the but. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace.

It doesn't say that Noah never sins. We know from Romans 3, 23, everyone has sinned. All have sinned, including Noah, and fallen short of God's glory. It doesn't say that Noah earned an exemption. He didn't do something good enough to make up for his sin. It didn't say that he was too good to suffer and die, but he found grace in God's sight.

Interestingly, I did check some other translations. Many of them say Noah found favor in God's sight. And that fits with the Hebrew definition of grace. The definition in Hebrew that includes a superior bending down to an inferior to show kindness. And we know the story of what happens next. It's funny, I made a special note here. I've heard a lot of young people say, we don't like it when you ministers say, you all know this. Because some of us haven't been in the church that long, or were young, we might not know this. But, I'll bet everyone here does know that Noah built an ark. God gave him the instructions, he built an ark, and God used it to preserve not only mankind, but all of the animals while the flood came on the earth. So let's remember that and get back to the focus on why that happened, or why God had Noah build the ark, to save him, but because God looked favorably upon Noah. Noah found grace. That doesn't mean he was out looking for it with a magnifying glass. I mean, but God showed him grace. That describes the way God thought about Noah. I would say the way God felt about Noah. But it also accounts for what God did. God spared Noah and his family from a disaster that took out everyone else. So it wasn't just a feeling. Often, I like to say that about love. Love is not just a feeling, it's what you do. Well, showing grace is also not about just a feeling. It usually involves some type of action, or at least words, gracious words. So God obviously was merciful. He granted forgiveness, but God also gave a blessing. He gave benefits to Noah. The benefit of saving his life was a big one. And I think maybe being a parent helped me realize, I think, the fact that God didn't just save Noah and Mrs. Noah. So how many of us have said Mrs. Noah, thinking, I wish they'd written her name down. So we didn't just save them. He saved Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. Now, it doesn't say that they found grace. Obviously, God did show them grace. But I wonder if he saved them as a favor to Noah, so that he didn't have to know that his children died in that flood with everyone else. What a special favor from God to say, I'm not only going to save you, but I'm going to save your children. Now, if he didn't save the children, he would have had to have Noah and Mrs. Noah start over again. Can you imagine having kids at 600? Now, I say that as a joke, but then again, when you lived, Adam and Eve lived at nearly 1,000 years old. They were probably having kids at 600, and so were the other patriarchs. I wonder. I'm just guessing. But I wanted to point this out, to emphasize that grace conveys more than the idea of free, unmerited pardon. It can mean that divine favor or blessing. That certainly includes God's mercy. Let's turn to one other big example in the Old Testament. It's another man of whom we should not be surprised to hear that he found grace in God's sight. I'm speaking this time of Moses. So we're going to turn to Exodus. Exodus 32 is where I'm going to turn and read. And I would say, actually, we could probably list several men and women in the Bible that we would say, well, certainly they found grace in God's eyes, but the Bible specifically says it about Moses and Noah. It says, God found, you know, they found grace. I think others, it's implied, but I wanted to look at these two since it's very explicit. The word it says it.

Now, Moses had a very interesting life. A lot of exciting things happened. I want to focus on the one specific incident, and I'm going to describe it first, because not that long ago, it seems not that long ago, I discussed these items in a sermon already, but we know God instructed Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. They went through all the plagues, confronted Pharaoh, turned the water to blood, exciting things. Then they went out, right after the Passover, the days of unloving bread. They had God fed them with manna and led them up to Mount Sinai. God came down and spoke in person, gave them the Ten Commandments. Then, when they said, please don't have God talk to us anymore, Moses, you go talk to him and come back and tell us what he said. So Moses did. He went up on the mountain, gone 40 days and 40 nights, and something happened while he was gone. Something that made God angry. The people lost patience. They went to Aaron, convinced him to make that golden calf, started worshipping it. That made God angry. It made Moses very angry. Moses came down, saw what they were doing and broke the tablets, destroyed the altar, ground it up and put it in the water so they could drink it. Had the worst of the ringleaders executed. And after that, Moses went to talk to God. That's where I'll pick up in chapter 32. Exodus 32, beginning in verse 30. Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, you've committed a great sin. So now I'll go up to the eternal. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. And then Moses returned to the eternal and said, oh, these people have committed a great sin. They've made for themselves a God of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin. But if not, I pray blot me out of your book which you've written. And the Lord said to Moses, now whoever sinned against me, him I'll blot out of my book. And now therefore go leave this people to the place which I've spoken to you. Behold, my angel will go before you. Nevertheless, on the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin. And of course it said he plagued the people. So apparently some other people were punished by losing their life for this. But I find it interesting, and I'm still somewhat speculating, but I walk away from this with the impression that Moses was offering to sacrifice his eternal life for the sake of the people of Israel. And God said, no, you can't do that. Moses, you have your own sins. But we know we already had in mind somebody else who would. That eventually Jesus Christ would come, live a perfect life, and he would pay for those sins. But that's setting the stage. I want to show that God would show grace in a different way for a different punishment.

You know, a different punishment besides death, or in addition. And in this case, Moses did convince God to change his mind. And he changed his mind about at least how to implement this punishment. It's in the next chapter, chapter 33, beginning in verse 2.

So we've taken care of all this, and God says, I'll send my angel before you, and I'll drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Parazite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I'll not go up in your midst. So he said, you go, go ahead and go do that. I'm not going with you. For you are a stiff-necked people.

Okay, so God basically said, I'm not going with you. You know, it's interesting, in many translations you see the word angel is capitalized, because the translators think it's referring to the one that we call the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. But I think not, because here he just specifically says, I'm not going with you. You're a stiff-necked people, I might wipe you out. But later Moses will ask God for what I consider a personal favor. Look, drop down to verse 11.

Now see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know who you'll send with me. Essentially, you said earlier, I'm going to send an angel. Well, I don't know which angel. I don't know who you're sending with me. Yet you've said, I know you by name. You have also found grace in my sight. This is the thing that zeroed me in on this story. Moses is telling God, look, you said I found grace in your sight.

Similar to the way Noah found grace. Now therefore, if I found grace in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you. If I found grace, let me get to know you more. You say that I found grace and consider that this nation is your people. So basically, he's saying, I want to spend time with you. I want you to be with us. And he, that is God, said to Moses, my presence will go with you and I'll give you rest.

Here we see God changing his mind. Earlier he said, I'm not going with you. I'm going to send an angel. Moses said, if I found grace, you know, if you want to do me a favor, come with me. Be with us. In verse 13, this he said, Moses says to God, if your presence doesn't go with us, don't bring us up from here. Moses said, look, if you're not going to go with us, I want to just sit right here where we are. I don't want to go anywhere. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight and accept you go with us? So we shall be separate, your people and I, from all the peoples on the face of the earth. So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you've spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. So God, I don't want to diminish this because I think it's kind of a big deal, but the phrase that came to mind was Moses called in a favor. Now, he didn't call in a favor. Like sometimes when you do something for someone, you say, now you owe me. I'm going to call in a favor later. Now, God didn't owe Moses. You know, there's no way that Moses could call in a favor that way, but he asked for a favor.

Look, you say I found grace. I'm your friend. Please go with us. Don't send me out there. You know, I know how stiff-necked these people are. It's like Moses said, please don't send me alone. And don't send just some angel. Please, you go with us. And God said, okay, you have found grace. I do want to show you a favor, so I'm going to go. It seems to be a case of God literally changing his mind.

Now, it's not changing his mind on a big thing. He's not saying, okay, we'll move to Sabbath to Sunday, you know, just because somebody asked. No, it's, you know, it's the smaller thing. And he fulfilled it. I'm going to come back here, but if you'll leave a finger here, but turn to the end of the book, Exodus 40, we see that promise actually fulfilled. I like reading this whenever. I think it's a really nifty story, so I work it in whenever I can. But Exodus 40 in verse 33. Exodus 40 verse 33, here, speaking of Moses, he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, hung up the screen of the court gate, so Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of the meeting, and the glory of the eternal filled the tabernacle. Moses wasn't able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the eternal filled the tabernacle. That's what they say in Hebrew, the Shekinah glory. God's presence came in. And as far as we know, it stayed there. Later, it came into the temple when Solomon dedicated it. But God answered Moses' request, please go with us. So God did come with us. Or with them, not us. Although we could say God comes with us, with the Holy Spirit that enters us, the Shekinah glory is here. And again, this wasn't about forgiveness, but it was an aspect of God showing grace. It's in addition to free unmerited pardon. Now, for that matter, I want to go back to chapter 33 because there's one other thing where Moses was bold enough to ask for another favor. Something I think few people would have asked for. Chapter 33 and verse 18, carrying on from where we were, Moses is speaking to God and he says, please show me your glory. Moses wanted to see God the way he really was. And interestingly, God said, okay, as much as he could. Because he says in verse 19, I'll make all my goodness pass before you and I'll proclaim the name of the eternal before you. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. But he said, you can't see my face, or no man can see me and live.

And the eternal said, here's a place by me. You'll stand on the rock and it shall be when my glory passes by, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand when I pass by. And when I, and I'll take away from my hand and you'll see my back, for my face won't be seen. And if you're like me, I envision that this could have been done in one of two ways. I mean, because we don't know if God changed his size.

I could see God's whole hand covering Moses and then pulls it away. Or if he just Moses there and God put his hand over his eyes until he's passing and then removes it. And it doesn't matter which might be the case, but in either case, Moses asked God for a favor. Hey, I know you're God and all, but can I see you? No, you can't see me. No one can do that and live, at least not my face. But I'll let you see the back part. I'll let you see me walking away. And he did that as a favor. He was showing grace. That's a small thing, but I think it's interesting. Moses had grace in God's sight. It wasn't expressed just in feelings, not just in forgoing punishment. But there were positive acts, benefits that God gave to Moses. And not just Moses, but the whole nation.

What about us?

Now, here's where I want to come back to the definition, and the reason we've used that definition of free, unmerited pardon so often. The benefit or the blessing that comes most often is pardon, forgiveness of sins. Now, think about it. Isn't that the divine benefit that's most needed among mankind? Of course it is. Without it, we'd all be dead. The Bible clearly shows that. I referenced Romans 3, verse 23 before. It says, all of sin comes short of the glory of God. Romans 6, 23 says the wages of sin or the results of sin is death. But the eternal life is the gift of God. We've all sinned. The sin is death. So without God's mercy, without His grace, we all pay a well-deserved death penalty.

So everyone who's ever lived needs God's grace in this form. And not just once, but happens over and over again. And we know that forgiveness of the death penalty, not saying it too fast, death penalty, that was made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That was an act of graciousness to the extreme. That's the central element of Christianity. So what our religion is all about, as the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. Sorry, I'm turning to it and I didn't even tell you where it is. Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. We usually call this the resurrection chapter because that's the focus. But I like the fact that early on Paul establishes what's most fundamental to our religion and our belief. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 1, he says, So first of all, what I received and what I told you is Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. He adds that he keeps saying, So Paul's saying, again, that basic foundation of the gospel of the kingdom of God is built on the fact that the Messiah died for our sins and He rose again. How's that for a benefit? How's that for a divine favor? And I always like to add to that, of course, the resurrection of Christ is as important or more so than the death. We turn up a few pages to Romans chapter 5. Romans 5, 10 reminds us that we need Christ to be alive, not just a sacrifice. Romans 5 and verse 10 says, That is, we're saved. We become beings that can live in God's family forever through Christ living in us. That is, by the Holy Spirit that's living in us. So we're saved. That's a benefit. God putting His Holy Spirit in us is one of the greatest benefits we could ever have.

And the sacrifice and the Holy Spirit being available are both acts of God's grace, acts of God showing His kindness and His benevolence towards all of us. He bestows us blessings because He's favorable towards us. He says, God likes us. Sometimes I wonder why, at least in my case. I could see why God likes us. Sometimes I wonder why, at least in my case. I could see why He might like a lot of you, but I know me better. This is the supreme example of God's grace. That's more so than those stories in the Old Testament.

The story of Noah finding grace and being saved in all the world, that's impressive. Moses getting to see some of God's glory is impressive and convincing God to stay with them. But what happens every day with us, that's pretty impressive. The fact that we're being born into God's family. But I think in the same way it occurred to me, the same way Moses had this great thing, and then he also asked for, like I said, convincing God to go with them, to go with the nation and not wipe them out.

That's big. He said, by the way, then also, could you let me see what you look like? I wonder, God is saving our lives and bringing us into His family, but don't you ever ask Him for little things too? I've stopped and said, God, I cannot find my keys. Can you help me to find them? And I've had that prayer answered. Never mind. I didn't plan this ahead of time. I remember Sue lost one of her earrings, not some two or three weeks longer, you know, and looked all over and the back came off and it was a diamond, so it's not super valuable, but one you wouldn't want to lose.

And finally, I think I was out somewhere. Her and Connor sat down and said, let's pray. And later, she sat down somewhere and there it was right in front of her. That's like God shows us favors. He grants us grace in some of the little things and big things. In fact, it's interesting. I've told people at ABC, well, this is getting sidetracked, but, you know, when Mr. Antion retired and I moved into the office, I said, I want to go through all the applications so I got a better idea of what students are coming in. I said, we've got a lot more girls than guys. It's like that old song.

Or did I say that when I was here before? Two girls for every boy. I said, we need some more guys. So I said, I'm going to ask God to give us five more men. I'm not asking a big thing. Please give us five. Within two days, we had two more men's applications come in. And then we finally got to five.

So, I mean, it was pretty impressive. And I asked that as almost a special favor. Not just for me. I thought it would be good for the class. But it's, you know, God hears those prayers. But I want to turn back also, let's not forget that question that arose from 2 Peter 3.18. Remember where it says, Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That question again, how? How do we do that? Well, as I said earlier, part of that can be kind of easy.

Growing in knowledge, most of us, well, you grow in knowledge by studying, learning. That's the main way. And I think that's mostly correct. So I'm not going to dwell on that point. But I did, it occurred to me, there's another way to grow in knowledge of Christ that we might not think of. You can see it if you turn to John 14. John 14 and verse 8. This is that section of John where he's writing an elaborate description of the last Passover that Christ spent with his disciples.

And it's funny, during that he said, I'm going to tell you a lot of things that you're not ready for them yet. And he probably told him a lot of things, did tell him things they weren't ready, and they would understand later. And he talked a lot about the Father and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And all this talking about the Father, remember Christ came to reveal the Father, so they didn't have this ready understanding of God the Father and God the Son. So here in verse 8, Philip said, Lord, well, show us the Father.

And that's sufficient for us. And Jesus said, have I been with you so long and you have not known me, Philip? And he who has seen me has seen the Father. So why bother saying, show us the Father? Now, he was making a different point, but it occurred to me. He said, okay, if you know me, you know the Father. And how did they know Jesus? They spent a lot of time with him. He said, haven't you been with me long enough to know me?

And it's a rhetorical question, because, of course, they knew him. The disciples traveled with Jesus. They walked along the road with him. They talked with him. They traveled. They camped out. They ate meals. They probably sang songs, swam in the river, all kinds of things. They got to know him, just like any good friend or husband and wife. When you're together, you get to know each other. Now, we can't spend time with Jesus Christ in quite the same way, but we can spend a lot of time with him by reading about him in his word. He's in here, and we can pray to him, and we can meditate occasionally fast to get close to him. And over time doing that, we get to know him. We can grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. So, as I said, it's partly gaining information, but partly just association and time together. I think it's very important.

Well, as I said, I don't think that's that hard to understand, and it might come relatively easy over time. I've sometimes wondered, though, about growing in grace. You know, if God looks favorably on us, how can we grow in that? Well, and perhaps partly by growing in knowledge. I noticed a connection in Titus, Chapter 2. Actually, I was surprised. I'm not going to turn to all of them, but I found a few scriptures where there's a connection, it seems, between teaching and grace, or grace and knowledge. Titus, Chapter 2, Verse 11.

It says, So the grace of God teaches us. As I said, there's sort of a connection there. Of course, it's still not spelling out exactly how to grow in grace. I think there are a couple of places that will give us some ideas, though. And I said, we can see this best when we think of grace in the larger sense, rather than free, unmerited pardon. And there, I want to be cautious, because I don't want to be correcting. I think that's a good definition, but we can add to it. We can realize that teaching helps us grow in grace. It's also in Ephesians, Chapter 4, Ephesians 4, and Verse 7.

Ephesians 4, 7.

This seems to be saying that His grace, His favor, is manifest according to the measure of gifts. And I'd like to point out that many things are gifts. Life itself is a gift, everything we have. But the Apostle Paul often is speaking of spiritual gifts, gifts of abilities to think or reason or do things that the Holy Spirit gives us. He discusses that back in 1 Corinthians. We're jumping around a little bit here. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 4. But keep in mind, as I said, I wanted to read Ephesians 1, where it says, "...each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift." Now we're going to discuss some of those gifts in 1 Corinthians 4. No, 1 Corinthians 1, I'm sorry, Verse 4.

1 Corinthians 1, starting in Verse 4, and then we'll jump a few chapters back. Breaking into authority, it says, "...who comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Oh, that's why. Are all of you in 1 Corinthians? Because I'm not. That was 2 Corinthians 1, Verse... Let's try 1 Corinthians 1 and Verse 4. That'll say what I wanted. "...I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge." See, grace and knowledge, once again, connected. "...even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you." So, you come short in no gift. Speaking to the Corinthian congregation, you don't come short. And throughout the rest of the book, you can see they had a lot of spiritual gifts, eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, Paul acknowledged that this church, which had problems they had to correct, but that they were zealous and they had a lot of spiritual gifts. Later on, in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, he discusses this in more detail. So, I'm going to stay in the right book this time. 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 7. So, I'll make the point, if it's God's grace by which we have a spiritual gift, then I would submit that how we use it can be a means of growing in that grace. Verse 7, But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all, not to each one for the profit of himself, but given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit. And once again, I commented on an earlier sermon, these aren't great superpowers of walking on water and turning water to wine, but knowledge, wisdom, faith by the same Spirit. Now, to some, gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles. So, some people do get to work miracles. To another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another in the interpretation of tongues. But one in the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. Paul acknowledges that God bestowed considerable spiritual gifts as a manifestation of grace, and we see that the grace, they're not given for a person's own benefit. They're for the profit of all. And so I just said it a moment ago, but I want to say it again. I think that to the degree that we use those gifts for the profit of all, it's growing in grace. And I think that fits with what we know of God's way. He gives gifts because he loves and favors us. As I said, favor is another way of saying grace. He wants us to become more and more like he is. Thus, the more we use the gifts he gives us by the Spirit for the benefit of others, the more God will view us favorably. So he'll feel more gracious towards us the more we're acting the way he is. So we'll find more grace in the eyes of the Lord. Without having to build an ark. Now, let's consider another way, though, that we can grow in grace. This one is a little bit more obscure, and it goes back to that, you know, looking at the meanings of words and understanding them. And it might seem obscure, but it was written by Peter, and Peter is the one that said, growing grace and knowledge of the Lord. So let's go to 1 Peter 2, if you will. 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 19.

1 Peter 2, 19. This is commendable if because of conscience towards God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. Or what credit is it if when you're beaten for your faults, if you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. Here's something that's in our control. Now, suffering for doing good isn't in our control, but taking it patiently, keeping a good attitude, that's something we can control. I know it says commendable. The King James, the old translation says acceptable. But whether accepted or commended, who wouldn't want to be commended before God? And certainly more commendable is better.

So taking it patiently is the right thing to do.

I'm wondering if you're looking to say, yeah, but Frank, weren't you talking about grace? You know, we want to grow in grace, not grow in commendability. And that's right. And that's where I wanted to get to the meaning of the words, because the Greek word that's here translated commendable or acceptable is carous. Carous. The Greek word for grace. So this could have well said. What credit is it if this is grace, if because of conscious towards God, one endures grief suffering wrongfully? What credit is it if when you're beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is grace before God. It's carous. And I said you can check with your concordance or an interlinear translation.

And you might wonder, well, why didn't they translate it grace? It's grace everywhere else. And I don't have a positive explanation, except maybe the translators back in 1611 said, wait a minute, if you're suffering, that doesn't fit with grace. It's got to be something else. Maybe they had trouble thinking of suffering as a benefit from God. But I think we can see that more clearly. We're familiar with Hebrews 12, verse 6. I'll turn there and read it if you like. But Hebrews 12, 6, it says, For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. So if God loves you, he scourges you. No, not just for joy of beating on someone, but as any parent who loves his child and wants to see them grow and do better, sometimes they're punished to help them learn and grow. And just like the little child doesn't always understand, we might not always.

We can see that we grow and mature spiritually through a process that includes suffering. And thus, that suffering is actually a benefit. It's a blessing from God. But if we endure it patiently, it's a blessing from God. If we don't, then we're just suffering. That could help us to see it as a mark of God's favor, as a mark of grace.

That's what I'm looking into. I wrote something on my notes that I can't read. Well, I'll just say, oh, another thing I want to say is that God, we're not alone, even when we're suffering wrongfully and we're trying to have the right attitude and be grateful and take it well. God's with us when that happens. He doesn't just leave us alone. He's right there. And I think we can be growing in grace as much as we're willing to accept that help. We call to Him and say, please help me to take this patiently. Help me to be in a good attitude, knowing that I'm suffering. So when God blesses us with spiritual gifts, like a trial sometimes, it's a mark of His favor. We should see that as an opportunity to use the gifts wisely, even if the gift is a time of suffering. Use it wisely and take it patiently to grow in God's grace. When God blesses us that way, it's a mark of His favor, that He loves us, because He's giving us a chance to take it patiently. Now, I'm glad He shows grace in other ways. Like I said, sometimes you ask Him for a favor and He does it. And I've talked to members in the congregation here who have told me a lot of times they've answered prayer, and it's a really thrilling and exciting thing. I like it. It can boost your faith. Although I find myself sometimes, I'm surprised, and I say, you shouldn't be surprised when God answers a prayer. You should expect it every time. And I say, how immature am I spiritually? I'm still working on it. When I say, if it seems like I'm playing a bit of word games here, as I said, looking at the definition in different ways it's translated, or remember my introduction, I said, I really like words. I like how they help us to think about concepts. And sometimes concepts that could be rather difficult. So I hope you see this as more than just playing games with words. Just as I hope we can see grace as more than free, unmerited pardon. It is that, but it's also more. We are all in God's grace. And as Christians, we can grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can know what it means, and we can know how to do it. It's not just a religious sounding phrase. So when I say, let's grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, let's know that we can do it.