Growing in Grace and Knowledge

What inspiring, beautiful music! Well, good afternoon, everyone. It's so very good to see you on this very beautiful Sabbath day. And it's just, to me, very, very meaningful as I see people that I have had a lifetime with going back to Minneapolis days, to Wisconsin-Dell's days, to Rockford days, to Illinois days. It's just amazing to see all the people and to see everybody here today. It's been very, very wonderful before services and to be here during services. It's very good to see artists who I'm just very, very help, very, very happy to see. It's been a very traumatic and very difficult time for all of us, particularly for the Rowan Speece family.

But it's good to see her here. And while we're happy, we also have a mixed sadness with the recent things that have happened. But it's just wonderful, in a time like this, for all of us to stick together, to encourage and to lift one another up. My wife, Bev, and I have been in Wisconsin for a family reunion. We had 25 of us in our family that met north of Wisconsin Dells and Warrens, Wisconsin, north of the turn-off to La Crosse. And we had four cabins that were connected, and there were 25 of us, half of which were under the age of 12.

So, there were a lot of children. It was very, very wonderful to see our generations. It seems like the ones who were little children were the ones who were the parents of those children just a few short years ago.

And one of those is with us right here. We're on our way home, actually, from Warrens back to drop her off at her parents in Indianapolis later tonight. And then we want to make it all the way back to Cincinnati, yet tonight I've got a big day tomorrow with many different things that have to be done. I have to comment about the sermonettes about contentment. That's one of the best sermonettes I have ever heard. Actually, I was sitting here just thinking of all the wonderful points that were made from the book of Philippians about contentment. They were so well presented that I would like to give it to the Council of Elders when they come into town next week about the state of the church and where we're at and where we're going.

So, I would like to get those notes for that. I have the points, but I would like to get more thought. They were so well delivered and so very well done. It just so happens that this morning it was very, very early and very dark. Of course, we don't want to turn on any lights because of all the kids who are asleep, but I had my little tablet and I thought to myself, What book of the Bible can I read today or read just all the way through? I picked the book of Philippians. So, if I could turn a light on, I could just read it from the tablet.

And I read all four chapters of the book of Philippians, and here was a sermonette right from the book of Philippians. That was so very, very wonderful. I'd like to also comment about the fact that we have gone through some of our trials in the church. We've had two of our senior pastors die, Bob Fay and David Ronesby.

And then, just a little over six weeks ago, Roy Holiday had a stroke, a major stroke, that he's recovering from, and he's doing well. He's going to be alive. We're very happy about that, but it's a great loss as far as the work that is being done, and the work with Ministerial Member Services, which is a big job. It's a very, very big job because we have a ministry that goes back to a legacy period of a former age, to younger ministers, to those who are retiring, to those who are dying, to those who are going through various stages in life.

And we do need to have a pastor to the ministers, which right now is a position that's lacking. But those are the things we'll be talking about at the Council of Elders, who will be coming in, starting this coming Friday, for some very, very important meetings that we have coming up. One other thing I wanted to comment about was, well, first of all, it's just wonderful to be with Brethren on the Sabbath. No matter who you're with in the world, and those who always have friends in the world, and friends, and neighbors, and so forth, there's nothing like Brethren who have the same goals, and they have the same vision of life, and the same understanding of truth.

From the moment that we entered into the parking lot, you know, we could tell exactly where the church was because a suit, you know, a tie, cars all bunched up on the Sabbath, and of course, we were here. I was here three years ago on the way to the Feast of Tabernacles in the Wisconsin Dells. In fact, our granddaughter was with us, and she remembered this place.

She remembered this place. This was in 2012 because her mother and dad's mother wasn't able to come to the feast because she just had her twin brothers who were just born, just before or after a day or so of the Feast of Trumpets. She remembered very well being here.

But I just enjoyed being with all of you, and again, connecting with Mr. Black back from Mount Vernon, Illinois days. I remember that so well, and that's a lifetime ago. And then to see the Hofferts and to see Bob Holman playing the French horn, just like he did in Minneapolis years ago, and Helwig's daughter, who reminds of her mother. That's what her mother was just not too long ago in our church in Mankato, Minnesota.

So, I mean, all this is somewhat emotional and somewhat very interesting as all these feelings come together. I just wanted to comment to you, Gail and Morson made a comment about how the French have found comfort in Ernest Hemingway now, for solving and solving the wounds of what had happened just about three weeks ago now, yesterday. One of the efforts that we're doing right now in preaching the Gospel to the world is the Going Forward with a Public Appearance campaign, which we have worked on all summer long with a program.

We want to do it in quite a number of cities. We've done it in three cities in Texas last month. And the name of the campaign is America, The Time Is Now. And it's a three-part presentation by the three presenters of Beyond Today television. And it's under the name Beyond Today. In fact, the magazine Good News, the next issue of it, is Beyond Today with a new format.

I saw the new issue of Beyond Today magazine. It's a lot more white space. It's very airy. It's a lot easier to read, I feel. And we have to think of not just what we want to read for ourselves, but what we want to give to the public and what they will relate to. And I feel like it'll be a magazine that will be tying together our television efforts along with our publication efforts.

But our program, America, The Time Is Now. And we want to have a program that really tells the world who we are, what they need to know, what the future is, man's purpose, and a message of repentance. And how are we going to get all this into one program? Because we could have a prophetic message about how everything is terrible and that this world needs Jesus Christ to return. I think that we know that very well, but that's not enough. It really isn't enough. It's a message that you can preach by itself.

But just to tell the world is terrible, I think everybody knows that. People just don't know what to do with it, and they don't know how to relate to it, and how to live with it, and how to cope with it. But it begins with a message which is from the book of Habakkuk. In fact, we spent a summertime really refining the message. And one of our presenters said, I was reading the book of Habakkuk, and for many of us, we've not read the book of Habakkuk in years.

What is this book of Habakkuk? You can hardly find it in the Bible. It's only three chapters. It's lost among the minor prophets. And who was he? What did he say? And why is it important that book is there? Well, that book has now become the clarion call for the public appearance message that we want to get to the world. And it focuses around chapter 1 and verse 5. Habakkuk, the prophet, in the first four verses of the book, talks and tells God that he seemed to be a very tender man. He was a man who never asked God for anything for himself.

He doesn't ask for prayers. He doesn't speak about himself. He just says, God, this nation is sick. And he was writing just shortly before Judah fell, probably about 610 to 615 B.C. And the Babylonians invaded 604 B.C. And then over a series of invasions, Judah fell and the people were taken captive to Babylon.

He says, this nation is sick. This nation needs help. God, can't you see this? Please fix this nation. It's like him bringing a sick child to God and says, please heal this child. God comes through with an answer in verse 5. He says, oh, I hear you. He says, I will do an amazing thing, things that you wouldn't believe, even if I told you. And yet, what God goes on to say astounds Habakkuk, because it's not what he wants to hear.

He says, here's my kid. He's sick. God says, I am going to punish this nation. They will go into captivity. They're going to learn things that they will not seem to learn any other way. Habakkuk says, God, why are you doing this? You're bringing in the Babylonians. You're bringing in these wild people out of the east to punish your people by your name. Isn't there any other way that you can do it? And then God goes on and talks in chapter 2 of the book of Habakkuk, how the nation will have to go through a period of trauma, test, and trial, and captivity.

And then in chapter 3 is a chapter of redemption. It's actually a song, and it actually says what kind of instruments it has to be accompanied by. It has to be accompanied by a particular stringed instrument. And it's a prayer, a psalm, you might say, of redemption, of God smiling upon a nation that has learned his lesson. So this has been now the message that we want to tell the American public.

And so the first part, divided into three sections, Darris McNeely does the first part. The second part is done by Steve Myers. The third part by Gary Petty. But in the first part, he talks about how sick our nation is, how our nation has drifted from God, how our nation no longer looks to God for any types of answers.

We live, some say, in the post-Christian period in the United States. We have thrown God out of the classroom in prayer in 1963. Roe v. Wade, 1973 or 1974, 55 million abortions conducted in this country. And then the Supreme Court ruling in the month of June. We've completely tried to redo and rewrite the natural laws that God has given regarding human relations. Then he talks about the first section about the state of the nation, how they have thrown God out, and now we are suffering the consequences. We have choices that we can make.

We can make any choice that we want. We're a nation that's free to do what it wants. Unfortunately, we cannot choose the consequences of our actions. We can choose what we do, but we can't choose the consequences. And the reason we have the consequences and why they are going to continue to snowball to be what they are is because of the choices that we have made. And the second part is what I call our Why Were You Born section, where the big questions of life are brought up and then leads are given as to where to find the answers.

Who are we? What is man's purpose? What is God? What is the relationship of man to God? What is the God family? And Steve Myers does a phenomenal job of bringing some of the biggest questions of life into this section about Why Were You Born. The first part is about the state of the world. The second part is, who am I?

Where do I fit? What is this thing called humanity and civilization in this universe? And the third part, which is extremely important, is the message of the New Testament church. Jesus Christ began his ministry with repent. The kingdom of God is at hand. The apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, spoke to the crowd that was assembled, who began to understand that they killed Jesus Christ, the Messiah of mankind.

And they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter says, repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. It's a message of repentance. Okay, now that you see what the world is like, you begin to understand where you fit in. What am I supposed to do? It's to change your life. It's to bring your life with harmony. It's to make a commitment to Jesus Christ. It's to come to repentance. So that's the message that we have. Now we're going to continue the Beyond Today America, the time is now campaign in the cities of Indianapolis, Louisville, closer in, where we can go out for a day, have our group do the production, Columbus, Cleveland, and other cities around.

So I certainly ask you to pray for this particular foray into the public. We have gone out with printed material. We have an internet presence that's outstanding. We have a television program that's very, very credible. But I feel it's important for us to go out there face to face with a crowd for those whom God is calling.

So do ask for your prayers in that. So I wanted to give you just a little bit of what we're doing with media, where we are with the ministry, and with the work of God.

Last week I understand that you had snow, and the services were canceled. Actually, Mr. Morrison told me that some people heard my sermon about Thanksgiving. That was online, so he said, if you're going to speak, you may be tempted to give a sermon about Thanksgiving, including your last one here. But many people may have heard it. So I was actually going to do that. Mr. Morrison said it's already up there. Anyway, it's online anyway. But what I did want to talk about is something dealing with the greatness and the fullness and the full stature of Jesus Christ. I'd like to turn to Ephesians 3 and verse 17. Ephesians 3 and verse 17. The book of Ephesians is a grand book of talking about the big things of life.

If you really want to understand what Jesus Christ is all about, a very good read is the book of Ephesians. There are several wonderful books. Philippians is very personal. It talks about humility, it talks about being content, and so forth. The book of Ephesians is about the greatness of Jesus Christ in our lives, in His fullness. Ephesians 3, though, Paul writes to the people, saying that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length, depth and height.

He said, I really want you to grasp the full dimension of Jesus Christ, that He was not just a human being, that He had a lot more dimension to Him. He was God. He was God in the flesh. And that what He taught were not just some aphorisms and things dealing with being a great teacher, but that He was a person who had the depth and the fullness of God, and that we are to understand and to come to understand the total dimension of who Jesus Christ was.

Now, this is one of the things that I really like about the Church, from the time that I first began to understand some of the truths that I did as a teenager, listening to the World Tomorrow television program, coming to understand more things through the Bible study course at that time. But, you know, every year that we go through the Feast of Tabernacles, I understand more. Every time I keep the Passover, I understand more. There's just more to this than just what you pick up one time through. Most of us have kept the Feast dozens of times here.

And I'm certain that you can say that what I knew at the very beginning was only a fraction of what I know now, as I see the greater fullness of God's plan for mankind, but also for me personally.

Verse 19, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Not just a couple good proverbs and things to know that are very helpful. You know, there are many people who think Christ was a great teacher. They regard Him as a teacher like Gandhi, you know, or others, you know, as just a great, wonderful person in His time. They realize that He was God in the flesh, and that the fullness of God came through the life of Jesus Christ and how He lived it, what He did for mankind, and what He taught.

In Ephesians 1, 2, Ephesians 1, and verse 17. In fact, sometimes if you want to just sit back and read one chapter of the Bible, that gives you a big overview of what God is doing. Read Ephesians 1. There are two chapters in the Bible that I look upon as chapters that are very, very important to me. One is Ephesians 1. I've given an entire sermon from just that first chapter. And the other one is Colossians 1. It talks about God's plan for mankind. I thought to myself and have said that if ever I was stuck in a church and I came unexpectedly into church services and I was asked, could you give the sermon today?

I've got one. I just turned to the first chapter of the book of Colossians and there's my sermon right there. It's got everything that you ever need to know. Anyway, Ephesians 1, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. See, not only do we just read about Jesus Christ, but we're to ask God, give me wisdom and reveal things to me that maybe aren't just quite there.

Show them to me. Show me what Jesus Christ is trying to tell me. And give me the spirit of wisdom, of being able to properly divide the word of truth, understand it, and be able to gain from the full nourishment of it. Verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Help me when I read it, be able to see something far bigger than just the printed ink on paper. That you may be able to understand what is the hope of His calling, not just what Jesus Christ says about what will be for us, but to actually feel it and feel hopeful as a result.

What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? And verse 19, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe according to the working of His mighty power? Wow! These are just tremendous words inscribed by the Apostle Paul. And I think to myself, I would just love to have been there when he was thinking these words, writing them down, whoever inscribed them. Just tremendous words that have become immortalized for all of us.

But today I want to speak about one of those teachings of Jesus Christ that is one that we are told to actually grow in. Not something that we are just told once, this is it, like being in a physics class or biology class where you are given knowledge, and, oh, I know it, I can answer it on a test. I can answer it, I can write an essay about it, and that's it. Many of the teachings of Jesus Christ are those that you grow in and understand more deeply and understand more fully and have the full dimension of Jesus Christ with you.

And that is the subject of grace. It's kind of a long way to get to the subject that I'm speaking to, but I'm talking about the subject of grace because we're to grow in grace and knowledge. The Apostle Peter, at the end of his first book, in the very last words, grow in grace and knowledge. It is something that we're to be different in and have more of this year than we did last year, and next year we're to have more of from the year this year.

I feel an understanding of grace is vital to our spiritual well-being, and it's a subject that oftentimes we have come to a point of understanding up here, and that's it. And we perhaps need to take a look at going another level up and understanding about the fullness of the graciousness and goodness of Jesus Christ. It's a subject that, at times, historically has been controversial and even feared. Oh, grace! It means that God is forgiving and that perhaps we don't need to be doing all the things that are told to us, that are commanded to us in the Old Testament.

It is something that may lead to permissiveness and may lead to laxness and may lead to ultimately godlessness. And yet we're told to grow in grace and knowledge. It is not a subject to be feared. In fact, there's nothing in the Bible that's to be feared. There's nothing in the Bible that's to be restricted. There's nothing in the Bible that can't be explained.

What is your understanding of grace? We're going to go down the aisles here. It would be a good exercise sometime. Could you please give me a two or three-sentence understanding of grace and what it means to you? We would probably find certain commonalities, but we also find certain nuances that are different, one from another. For some, grace is a merited pardon, where God pardons us, us no-good human beings that have violated His law and were no longer guilty. It's like a president who, in the last days of office, pardons all his buddies. It's like Jesus Christ pardoning us for the sins that we have committed. We don't deserve it, but nonetheless, we get it. We're no longer liable to the consequences or the penalty of that sin. Or, grace can be the forgiveness of sins. Certainly, by us asking for forgiveness, God returns in response with, I forgive you, for your sins.

I feel for a long time that we have been perhaps even trapped into just a very, very minimal understanding of the subject of grace, because these two statements that I have made, a merited pardon and the forgiveness of sin, are absolutely true. And it is a definition of the subject of grace. But it's not the full definition. It's not the whole dimension of grace. Both these definitions are correct. Correct. There's good news about the subject of grace. It is not a difficult subject to understand. There's not a lot of tricky wording definitions. There's not even a lot of different words for the subject or the definition for the word grace, both in Old Testament and New Testament. It's one that is straightforward and basic. The biblical study of grace is not complex, because, again, there's only one word for grace in the Old Testament and one word for grace in the New Testament.

The subject of grace is not one that appears only in the New Testament. It is something that is a response to something from the Old Testament. In fact, the very first reference to grace is in the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis. Genesis 6, where Noah is spoken of as one who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The first reference to grace is Genesis 6 and verse 8. Genesis 6, verse 8. The first person recorded to be connected to the word grace. Not that Abel wasn't, but grace is one that Noah found. Genesis 6, verse 8. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So was his sins forgiven? Was he given unmerited pardon? He found grace in the sight of God. What does it mean? What is the definition of the word grace in Hebrew? It's one very, very simple word. You have Strong's concordance if you still follow and do your Greek and Hebrew by numbers, because we don't know these languages. All these languages is Strong's word 2580, 2580, which is the word c-h-e-n, which means him. That's the only word for grace. And it appears many times in the Old Testament, him, which means kindness, favor, beauty. Even it means beauty. It means to be pleasant, means to be precious, and to be well favored. Okay, how does that fit into where Noah was in relationship to God? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was well favored. He was on God's good side. And was Noah a person who deserved it, who earned it? I don't think so. Even after the flood, Noah got drunk.

Noah was not a person of perfection, but he was a person who was well favored with God. He was on God's good side. Now, we all want to be in grace with certain people.

In fact, one thing that makes for any friendship is people who are found in grace with one another. People who are friends are people who, you know, I just like being with this person. I just enjoy being with this person. I'm well favored. We can see faults and things that people should say or not say, but I like being with this person.

When God says you have grace, God likes to be with you. And that's the relationship with how it's based. I think all of us want to be in grace with our mates. I want to be in grace with my wife. The last thing I want is not to be in grace with my wife. Now, we certainly don't want that. We don't want a relationship to where we're not on somebody's good side. Because when you're on somebody's good side, you can overlook faults. You can overlook knowledge of that person's shortcomings. But you love them, and you are well favored. That person is precious to you. You are well favored. You want to be in good graces with your boss. You want to show up for work, you know, a boss that you work for. You want him to know that everything is okay. And when you're in good graces with your boss, he'll maybe overlook things. He'll let you go early at times, especially at the winter time, you know, where sun sets early. Or he knows you. He knows that you have these beliefs and that you really need to get off by 4.30, 4.45. You're in good graces. The thing is, if you're not in good graces with your boss, he says, Hey, 4.45. You're supposed to be here until 5 o'clock. When a person is not in good graces, the slightest mistakes are amplified. But when you're in good graces with somebody, a person will let certain things go because you are well favored with them. That's what Noah was with God. And God could work with Noah. He had a big job for him. He had the job of preserving animal life on the earth as God was going to start all over again with Project Human.

And he trusted and he had favor with this man called Noah, who certainly had skills, among them shipbuilding, all the things, planning, the architecture, and so forth. God could work with that person. In the same way, when we are in grace with God, or God is gracious to us, God is building something and doing something very, very important and very big with somebody who is very imperfect. But God also knows that you love him, he loves you, and there's a trust that's built because of grace. It's not just, well, you've made this mistake, you've made this mistake, God picks and picks and picks at us. He doesn't do that. It's not only obedience, which has to be there, and a desire to be obedient, but the attitude that one has towards another. Grace simply means to be on someone's good side as Noah. That's a further definition of grace. It's not the only one. The problem with definitions, as people define one subject, is that they limit it to that, and then it's that or this or that or that, instead of and and and. You need to put all the different definitions and descriptions together to get a full definition.

In the New Testament, there's also one word for the subject of grace, and that is Strong's 5485. 5-4-8-5. And the word, Carise, from which the word, Charisma, comes from. The word, Gift, comes from Carise.

The word, Love, comes from Carise. Charity itself is a word that comes from Carise. 1 Corinthians 13, if I have not charity, if I have not charisma, if I have Cherise, that subject is brought out there. It has very much the same definition. It means to be acceptable. It means to be beneficial, beneficially favored. It also means gift, liberality, pleasure, and thankfulness. All these have influence on the word, Carise.

It means the divine influence upon the heart, reflection in life, including gratitude. So you can look up a further definition, a fuller definition, of this word that is used for grace every single time in the New Testament. One of the problems with the word, Grace, is the way it comes across in the English. There is baggage associated with the word. When we say, Grace, we may have immediately a defensiveness towards the word, because of what has been said about it, as to how it's been abused, as to how maybe certain ones abused it, to say, I can just keep on sinning and God will be good to me. And so people say, we've got to stay away from that. That's grace. We've got to be careful. People have even set grace apart from law, pitted, graced against law. Do you want grace or do you want law? So a person will go, oh, what do I do? I need to obey the law, but here's grace, and the two are incompatible. When you understand the full subject of grace, you'll find the two of them being very much in the same area of definition to give the full understanding and meaning of the word. In the Russian and Ukrainian language, which I'm blessed to know, when I began to understand the word grace, it had a different feel to it than it did in English. Because in English, again, we grew up with some of the baggage associated with the word. But in the Russian language, the word is blagadat. That's the word for grace. And you say, oh, that's simple. It just means God's goodness. That's all it means. Blagadat is not some spiritual word, grace. It means goodness. Good things that God does for you. It's interesting that the word blessing is a word that has a somewhat similar kind of a root. It's a word that means the saying of good, and grace is the doing of good. A blessing is where God's saying good things. That's the word blessing, means saying good. Blagaslava, good word. Very simple.

Blagadats. Blago means good, dots, giving. The giving of good. Simple. End of statement. And a person, just by seeing it said that way, understands the meaning of that concept. The problem with some definitions of grace are they are too restricted and narrow. It's taking a subject where you have God's goodness, and then you just kind of decide, well, it's His forgiveness of sin. Or it's this little thing that He does here, instead of saying the whole dimension of all the wonderful things that God is doing to us. An important rule of Bible study, which is the word hermeneutic, is the Bible is a book of addition. You add this subject to this point, to that point, and then you get the whole scope of the understanding of that definition. It's not a book of subtraction. It's a book of addition. If the Bible says one thing about a subject, and then something else in another place, it does not mean that they are contradictory. Why would they be contradictory? It just means that it could mean both. In the book of Proverbs, this is a place that you have heard, it says, answer a fool. And the very next verse is answer not a fool. You would think that if you wanted to really deceive people, you'd at least put those two verses far apart, but they're one after another. So, which is true? Well, they're both true. They're telling you that you answer a fool. Shut up! There are times you just walk away from them. There are times you answer a fool. There are times you don't answer a fool. You just have to know which is which, or what type of person to answer, and what type of person to ignore it.

Let's take a look at some of the references to grace. We already looked at the very first one in the Bible, which is in Genesis 6 and verse 8. Genesis 6 and verse 8, which is, We have a number in the book of Psalms, which you would naturally expect to find, and also in the book of Proverbs. Psalm 84 and verse 11, just one. You can find these verses for yourself in the Concordance.

Psalm 84 and verse 11, The Lord will give grace and glory.

This sounds pretty New Testament, doesn't it? It's a little testament that you can be. This is David talking about God. He's talking about God's grace and the giving of good things to all those who walk uprightly.

Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 32. Again, I can't possibly go through all the verses here because it's a grand subject. Psalm Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 32.

Verse 34, Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble. He talks about the kind of people who are on God's good side. Not the proud, not the mocker, not the one who sits in the seat of the scourner, not the rebel. He gives grace to the humble. So God likes to have a person on His side who has humility. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 9.

Talking about the subject of the chapter is wisdom. She, and it personifies wisdom with a female gender, she, wisdom and understanding in this case, will place on your head an ornament of grace. Wisdom will place on your head an ornament of grace. If you have wisdom, a person who's humble, upright, who makes good choices, wisdom will place on your head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory she will deliver to you.

Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 11. Proverbs 22 verse 11. He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend. There's also a graciousness and a grace that you can practice. This is the word han again, a word of graciousness of speech that is benevolent.

Has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend. We can show graciousness ourselves by the way we talk and the way we relate to people and how we can be encouraging and positive in the things that we do. One reason why we meet for Sabbath services is to encourage and to lift one another up and to give grace to one another, to have graciousness come from each one of us in supporting and helping each other out.

One thing that people are finding is so important to have meetings. Meetings, meetings are so very, very important face to face because that is one way that grace can be extended better than any other way through personal human contact. For sake, not the assembling of ourselves together because we come together to encourage, to the old kingdoms, provoke one another into good works to lift one another up. Zechariah 12, verse 10, the prophecy of the future, but it's in the Old Testament, about the Kingdom of God and the descendants of David. Zechariah 12, verse 10, our poor are the house of David and our inhabitants of Jerusalem, talking about in the Kingdom of God the Spirit of Grace and supplication.

You know what we're talking about now is that the Kingdom of God itself is an expression of God's grace. So they will look on me whom they pierced. So the Kingdom of God itself will be given a spirit of grace, of goodness, of benevolence, of it's okay. There's a spirit of grace in the Old Testament, a big spirit of grace that perhaps is greatly overlooked. This is when Israel was thrust out of Egypt and they were under the protection of God. What was that period called? What were they under? A reference is made in Jeremiah 31, verse 2. Jeremiah 31, verse 2, the chapter about the New Covenant coming, but also in the Old Covenant, in the old history of Israel, Israel was under grace at this time. Thus says the Lord, verse 2, the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. When the people of Israel were watched over by God, when they were led through the Red Sea and they were in the wilderness, they were under grace. Under God's protection, God provided their food. He made sure they had shoes. They were specially protected. They were under grace. Every goodness of God was given to them. So we get a fuller picture here of the subject of grace as the goodness of God. Certainly, the Russian language puts it in very, very clear format. And it's not the Russian language. It's just the way it comes across with the natural words. Because it means the same thing in English. Grace is goodness, God's goodness.

The New Testament, the first reference to grace is regarding Jesus Christ when he was a little baby. But he was a child. Luke 2.

Luke 2. And verse 40. The child grew and became strong in spirit with wisdom. Talking about the development of Jesus Christ from being born of Mary. The child was 2, 3, 4, 10 years old. And the grace of God was upon him. The grace of the Father was upon Jesus. Who was more important to God the Father than Jesus Christ on the earth? God the Father was watching out for him more so than even Mary or Joseph. He was protecting him, watching out for him. And certainly this definition of grace far exceeds forgiveness of sin. This far exceeds unmerited pardon. Jesus Christ didn't need unmerited pardon. Jesus Christ didn't need forgiveness of sin. But God the Father's grace was upon him. Again, the definitions that we have could be too narrow, too small.

They're correct of themselves, but that's not the whole story. The whole story is far bigger, and that's why I read from the 3rd chapter of Ephesians. Do we get the full breadth, the full understanding, the full dimension of who Jesus Christ was? We should. And as one who is a Christian, growing in knowledge and grace, we will come to understanding these things.

John 1, verse 17. More references are made to the subject of grace. And once again, we come to passages that have to do with addition and not conflict or contention, or one is exclusive of the other.

John 1, verse 17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And people abused this so badly. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. It was something that was better. No, they were both important. The law was codified as we have the Ten Commandments and incorporated in the first five books of Moses, or the Torah. That's where the law is found. And then, grace and truth, graciousness and truth came through Jesus Christ as He brought forgiveness of sin. He brought understanding that His life was given as redemption for our sins, which did not do away with the law. It was because of the law. But when you understand the beauty of this one passage, John, chapter 1, 17, you see the law that was holy, righteous and good, as Paul said. And then you see the graciousness of Jesus Christ in granting forgiveness and a further expansion of that law, not as just don't forgive, so forth, but a further expansion of that law through the fruits of the Holy Spirit of God.

Both statements are true. There's a period when the law was given to Israel, and there was a period when Christ poured out His grace on mankind. They are not competing concepts, but, once again, concepts that build upon one another. Chapter 4 of the Book of Acts, Acts 4, 33. Talking about the preaching of the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Acts 4, 33. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This was the heart and core of the New Testament teaching. This is right from the very beginning. They talked about, I was there. I saw Him. I was one of His students. I was one of His disciples. And I saw Him be killed for mankind. I saw His resurrection, and I witnessed His ascension into heaven. Result, and great grace was upon them all. This type of teaching just brought marvel to people as they heard the story of not from one or two people who had this revealed to them, but the twelve apostles. From the 120 that were assembled on the Day of Pentecost, the 3,000 that were baptized at that same time on the Day of Pentecost. Great grace was upon them all. God's goodness was being poured out upon mankind.

Romans 5, verse 17. What I'm trying to do is paint a picture. Paint a picture with the brush of the word grace. It's not hard. It's not a difficult subject. It's very, very straightforward. There's not a lot of theology and wordsmithing and word-defining. Not having to go into ancient Greek, but to use words that were very common to the Hebrew and Greek languages. Simply meaning goodness for the most part. Romans 5, verse 17. Romans 5, verse 17. For if the one man's offense, death reigns through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Can you see the power of that? That Jesus Christ was able to be the one who implemented all the goodness of God by removing our past. Forgiveness, pardoning us. And then we receive this goodness and the gift of righteousness, which I feel like was one of the themes of this last year's Feast of Tabernacles. We talked about righteousness, where it comes from, what it means, how it's something which is external to us. God's righteousness comes upon us. That all of our righteousness is nothing, because the greater righteousness is that which comes from God and is part of God's grace. There would have been no need for grace unless man put himself in the position of needing it because of his mistakes. Let me say that again. There would have been no need for grace unless man put himself into the position of needing it because of our mistakes. We can be so thankful to it for it because we have sinned, we have made mistakes, we need God's graciousness.

Let's go on. Romans 11. 5 Romans 11. 5 Even so then, at this present time, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. This is that section in the book of Romans that talks about all Israel will be saved, that God is going to be good as he will still visit remnants of his people. Really making a reference, if you really understand it fully, to the last great day, to the eighth day, to Israel in resurrection, to those who never got it. Because if you take a look at all the Israelites who were saved in the first resurrection, I don't have any figures or statistics that I can give you. It doesn't look good. The history, biblically, of the nation of Israel is a pretty miserable one. As people committed sins, they left God, they were slaughtered, they were dead. And you have a history of people who are coming up and have their opportunity for salvation without what they did. But anyway, this section of the book of Romans talks about Israel coming up in the resurrection for their opportunity.

And then it continues out of the subject in verse 6 of Romans 11, And if by grace, then it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace. Otherwise, work is no longer work. Grace inherently is not something that's earned.

I don't earn my wife's grace. I have to act a certain way. I have to have a certain attitude. And I think she wants me to be in good graces with me as well.

And I know that it takes an attitude, it takes a willingness, it takes a giving spirit to one another to cause the other person to be gracious towards you. But it's not something that's earned. It is something which is given to the one who is favored. It's a gift. One of the definitions of the word grace is gift. A gift is never earned. When you give a birthday gift, when you give a gift to somebody that you love, you don't give them a bill. You don't say, that's $22.95. You give your wife flowers. You don't say, okay, you owe me $35 for it. You give it because you want to give it. And it's given of yourself. That's grace. And that's how God gives us His goodness. It's not something that we paid for. It's not something that we ran and then earned certain credits and He stamped out little things. Okay, now you have 11 checks, you know, like, you know, getting a free ice cream cone. Okay, okay, now you get your free one because, you know, you've done so many good deeds. You've bought so many things. It is something which God gives to us. But also, it's a reflection of an effort and attitude on our part towards Him. I think that it's so important to really understand all this in its fullness. Now, did Paul, when he was writing these things, think that people would abuse this? Sure, he did. And that's why we become very, very careful and cautious ourselves about saying, okay, well, if God is so good and wonderful, you hear a sermon about God's greatness and goodness, He wants to give us all these things. And certainly we can become sloppy, and we can lose sight of what our responsibility is. In Romans 6, verse 1, Romans 6, verse 1, he saw that argument coming. He saw it coming, and he makes a very bold statement about it. Romans 6, verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Paul knew that that was going to be an issue. And people have abused the grace of God. But they have lived in sin, lived in adultery, lived in pornography, saying, oh God, I'm too weak to change. I won't change. I don't want to change. But God's going to be good to me. He'll forgive me, and it's as though I didn't do it. And then they go back and do it. Paul says, no way. Verse 2, certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? That is one of the most direct statements and most powerful statements in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Don't you dare abuse the grace of God. Because if you abuse the grace of God, you're no longer under grace. No longer in good favor. It's like an employee who is on the bad side of his boss because he's stealing, he's dragging his feet and doing all these things. Can he continue doing those things and be in good graces under his boss? Absolutely not. The boss will say, there's something wrong, or else I know that something's wrong, or else I know what the reasons are. He's no longer under grace. No longer in my good graces. Certainly not. And the same is true in a spiritual sense. How shall we, who continue in sin, in bad behavior, in sinful behavior, in neglect, think that God's grace will save us? It won't. A mature person will get it. I mean, when we train our children, we teach them to grow up to be mature people. We want them to understand responsibility. We want them to understand attitudes. We want them to understand what their part is. But also, as a loving parent, we understand their imperfections and their heredity and parts of us that we don't like that come through our children, and we love them. To understand the fullness of the graciousness of God is to understand His true love towards us.

The Apostle Paul, while the word grace isn't exactly used here in Romans, Chapter 7, you see the Apostle Paul making an amazing admission as an Apostle of many, many years. Talking about the flesh fighting against good intentions, and what's right, and not performing what you ought to be performing.

Romans, Chapter 7, verse 23. I see another law in my members. Warring, this is Romans, Chapter 7, verse 23. Warring against the law of my mind. I see other forces in me, warring against the things that I know are right. And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. This is an amazing admission. And I think that you have made this admission. As a Christian, you have made it when you were baptized, and it's an admission that you have made many times since. We see what we should be doing. We see the way we should conduct ourselves. We see how we should treat other people. But then we don't. And then we succumb. And we don't always fulfill the things that we should. Paul says, I see what I should be doing, but I don't do it. Then he says in verse 24, O wretched man that I am. And how many of us have said, O wretched am I? After so many years, couldn't I or shouldn't I have learned to be different? Who will deliver me from this body of death? Who's going to get me through this? As a person who's been around 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And he finds himself still succumbing to gossip, ill will, jealousy.

He says, Who's going to deliver me from the body of this death? And he says, verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And why is he thanking God? That he will be delivered. That he will be helped. God's goodness will get him through. But do you see the battle that Paul fought? Paul didn't say, I see a law warring against my members and I have succumbed to it. But you know something? I'm glad. I'm okay. No, he says, O wretched man that I am, showing a conflict, showing a juxtaposition of forces, of human spirit against what is ideal in Christian behavior. And not being able to fulfill it, which Paul wanted to, which I think all of us want to obey God's law. But we don't always fulfill it the way we should, because of neglect, you know, slipping back, because of problems that we have not overcome. I thank God through Jesus Christ that I will be delivered. So then, with a mind I myself serve the law of God, but with a flesh, the law of sin. He understood that these two forces were working against one another. Paul relied on grace, God's goodness, to help him in time of need.

But he had problems with alcohol, lying, dishonesty, secret problems that come across our way that don't seem to leave us. You know, when Jesus Christ told people who said, I want to follow you, in Luke chapter 14, I want to become one of those followers of Jesus Christ. Because no man can come to me unless he forsake every other relationship first, and who doesn't bear his cross, he bears himself his problems, his trials, as he drags them with him in life. He didn't say that he did away with the cross, so to speak, symbolic of trial, of being what we are. And believe me, if you're a person who doesn't have a cross, see me afterwards. I want to talk to you. I want to find out how it works. I think that all of us have a cross to bear. All of us have a cross to bear. But as Christians, we understand the goodness of God. We understand our responsibility. We understand there were to be law-abiding and respect the commandments of God. And we also know that the only thing that will get us through is the grace of God.

Grace is a wonderful concept because it helps us when we can't fully overcome just our willpower and just overcoming we can become discouraged. Romans 2, one of the most beautiful verses, biblically, talk about how God does encourage us. And how does He encourage us? Romans 2, verse 4. Or do you despise the richness of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering?

Do we despise the good things that God throws to us? He's throwing some really good things at us. Not knowing that the goodness or the grace of God leads us to repentance. God's grace is actually a tool to lead us to change and transformation. God's grace leads us to that. So what is grace? What is grace? It's a narrative pardon. It's a forgiveness of sin. But the grace of God is also reconciliation. The grace of God is the kingdom of God. The grace of God is His love towards us. The grace of God is eternal life. The grace of God is rulership with Him. The grace of God is a family relationship.

The grace of God is every good thing that God gives us. That's the full dimension of the concept and the subject of grace. When Peter wrote 2 Peter 1, verse 2, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

Not only did Paul understand grace, Peter did. The New Testament Church really understood it. He says, I want grace and peace to be multiplied to you. And you know, Paul opened and closed every single book with a grace and peace. Be with you. It's not just something which is kind of like how you're doing or kind of a pleasantry, but a statement of the power and the delivery that came from God Himself. Let's learn everything about Christ as we heard in the first Scriptures that I read today. Let's understand the full dimensions of Christ. Now, simply conclude with 2 Peter 3.18. 2 Peter 3.18, Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's Paul of Peter's admonition to all Christians. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Don't let it be static. Don't let it be something you learned 42 years ago. And then that's where you got stuck. But it's something that you continually to grow in its full impact. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Amen.