Growing In Grace and Knowledge

I was thinking about what I wanted to cover today, and I've been thinking about this for a while. It's a statement that Peter makes. He says, and he admonishes the church to grow in grace and knowledge. Now, grace is actually much more of a controversial subject in Christianity than you realize. I mean, the Catholics have their version of it. The Protestants are separated in about three different versions of what grace is. So, what is it? I mean, we think we know what it is. And there's a very simple definition, but it gets very complex in its application. And we'll end up talking about the application of grace in your life. So, how does that work? What does it look like? What does it mean? But how do you grow in grace? I mean, I could grow in knowledge. Grow in grace and knowledge. We'll have to go back and look at those verses in a little bit, because there's actually more in there. But how many times you hear, grow in grace and knowledge? It's like that little phrase that's pulled out of those verses and used, but how do you do that? If grace is something given to us by God, how do I grow in it? Do I obtain more of it? How do I get more of it? What does that even mean? Of course, we have to have a clear understanding of grace. So, we're going to be going through a very broad subject. In fact, what I originally planned today, you know, every January we have our annual congregational meeting. We had it last week in Nashville. But I thought, you know, I'm going to move it to February because I wanted to have Bible study time to discuss questions and go through a few extra scriptures on this, because it's such an important but broad subject. And it touches on all kinds of other biblical doctrines. So we'll just touch on a few things today to show you how they're all connected to this concept of grace. The Greek word translated grace, the Hebrew word translated grace, basically the same. There's subtle differences in them that theologians can argue over. But I'm just going to read this from the Oxford Dictionary of Biblical Words. That basically grace means the favor given by God of undeserved love, mercy, and pardon that allows for a relationship with Him. And that is, when you look at the meaning of those words in those other two languages, that captures it. Grace is something God gives from His love. It's a pardon He gives because no human being has the right to approach God on her own. Because we have evil in us and He will not live with evil. So it's a pardon He gives, it's the love that He gives, it's the mercy that He gives because evil demands judgment. And He gives it so that we can have a relationship with Him. The important thing is He doesn't just give it and that is the final issue. I give you grace and there are those who believe that. Once you receive the grace of God, it really doesn't matter what you do because you're in a continual state of grace and so you're continually forgiven. But it's so you can have a relationship with Him that's really important. It's something He must initiate. We'll talk about that. It's something only He can do. We can't offer grace to God so we can have a relationship with Him. I kind of want to come to you and talk to you, sort of man to man here, you know, get to know each other. That doesn't happen.

One of the most frightening things I've ever read in the Bible is where God tells Job, stand up like a man. And Job wisely stayed on his face on the ground. You know, you think we're equal here, stand up like a man and let's deal with this. You just stay on the ground.

If God ever says you stand up like a man or stand up like a woman, don't do it. It's rhetorical. He's making a point. You are in the presence of something greater than you can even imagine. So it's His love, it's His forgiveness, it's His mercy in order to have a relationship. So to grow in grace means to grow in a relationship with God. It's not a one-time event.

It's to grow in relationship with God. Now God's...another way that grace can be actually translated in English is its favor. In other words, I'm giving you, I'm showing you some favor here. You have a...I'm opening up for you can have a relationship with me. What becomes really difficult if you don't understand the greater plan of God is there's people He doesn't show favor to. And there's people He does show favor to, and it can seem rather arbitrary. It can seem rather arbitrary. That's why Calvinists, which is from Revelation, John Calvin, and their Christian churches that have His viewpoint, the pilgrims were Calvinists.

And that is, before anybody's ever born, because sin would enter into the world, God condemned every human being, because He knows, in Calvinism, He knows everybody before they're born.

So from the beginning of creation, He looked out over time and said, everybody goes to hell. And because of my grace, I'm going to pick a few here and there, and I'm going to save them. The important thing is they're just like everybody else, so that they will worship me forever by saying, wow, you chose me and not my neighbor. My neighbor's screaming in hell forever, and I'm not because of your grace.

There's something really twisted in that and understanding God. But it understands that nobody can have a relationship with God unless He initiates it, unless He does something. There's no way for that to happen. So let's look at Deuteronomy 9. We'll get a little bit of idea of grace in the Old Testament. Like I said, there is a Hebrew word that's translated grace. It's not in this particular passage. Deuteronomy 9.3, God is telling ancient Israel something very important. Therefore, He says in verse 3, understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy and bring them down before you so that you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord has said to you.

In other words, I'm going to give you this land and I am going to drive the people out. Think about that. I'm choosing you and I'm going to kill them. There's people that get very offended by this.

But once again, there's whole concept here of God. There's the concept here of God's sovereignty. There's the concept that every person has a day of salvation. There's all these other doctrines that lock together into this. If you believe this is the only day of salvation, when God says wipe some people out, that just means they're going to go to hell and be tortured forever. That's what God wants. He says, do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me into possess this land.

He says, now remember, I'm going to do this, but don't you ever think it's because you were such a great people? Because you were so good, I chose you over them. That's what he tells ancient Israel. He says, it is because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you.

It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go into possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that he may fulfill the word in which the Lord spoke to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He said, I'm doing this. Their wickedness is so terrible. Their evil is so terrible. I want them driven out of the land, but I'm only doing this because I promised Abraham. So don't think that it's just because you're so special. So he tells them this before they go into the land. Verse 6 says, therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. So he even tells them, don't think that you're so special you're getting this land.

It's because of Abraham, and because I have a plan. Now we understand the plan of God that really, really begins to take shape through the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah. Okay, that's where it really begins to take shape, and it starts with a promise in Genesis 3.15, the first Messianic prophecy. It starts there, and then it really launches here, where Abraham comes along. He says, because I made promises to Abraham, you and I in the church today are not here because we were better than anybody else, that we received the grace of God.

It's because of promises made to Abraham. And he said, through your seed all the nations will be blessed. And Paul says, you know who that is? It's Jesus Christ, who is of the seed of Abraham and the seed of David, because the prophecy said it would come from David.

And Paul says, the whole world now gets blessed. He's telling them, you're getting a blessing because the promises are made to Abraham, and you and I have received grace from God because of the promises he made to Abraham. And Jesus came, and we're receiving that promise now, as the people of God. That's only through his favor.

It's not because any of us were called, because we were better than our neighbors. Okay. Why didn't he call them? Okay, that's a whole other story. We have to look, though. We have to learn not to define other people until we have first had God define who we are. Who are you? So we define everybody else by looking at them and making judgments. And God says, first of all, define who I have called you to be. So he tells them, before you define yourself, as the people I've chosen because you're just better than everybody else.

Remember, I called you because the promise is made to Abraham, and let's face it, you're stubborn people. That's what he told each of us. This is the concept of grace. I chose you because. Because God made a decision to choose them. You know, it's very interesting in Romans 9. This takes us a little bit into a different subject I don't want to go to, and that is the concept of election. God chooses to, when he chooses to call people, it's at different times. And this isn't the only day of salvation, which is a really important doctrine. But the point he's making here is, when God calls somebody is his decision. You know, we can preach the gospel to the world, and unless God calls them, no one's coming.

You can go tell all your neighbors. And unless God calls them. He says you're supposed to tell everybody. We're still supposed to spread it.

But to understanding that, it's not only the response of the person, but it's God's grace that comes to them that causes the response. God doesn't give his grace because of our response. We have a response because of God's grace. You understand the difference, and that's real important. Because God says, I'm going to give favor to you. And he does. And he gives us favor. He comes into our lives. And in that, when he comes into our lives, he opens up the ability to have a relationship through it. Remember what we just read from the Oxford Companion to the Bible, Oxford Dictionary of the Bible. And it is that grace is the love of God, it's the mercy of God, it's the forgiveness of God, that he initiates so that we can have a relationship with him. It starts there, it never starts with us. That's really important in understanding. That's why in Romans 9, he makes this statement, Paul does, verse 14. I'm going to go through a lot of scriptures. That's why I want to take some time at the Bible study, and also if we have questions. I almost said, everybody read the book on grace, and we will spend the next three months at each Bible study studying the book on grace. But I thought, now let me introduce the subject here. We might do that in the future. We might do that in the future. Because when we understand this, our response to grace has to be, there has to be certain responses to this. Romans 9, 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. We're back to who initiates anything in this human relationship.

So we can't always judge. It's easy for us to say, well God didn't do that in somebody else's life. They don't know what we know. God initiated something with you, even if you were born in the church. At some point, God initiates this relationship with you.

Who knows what God is doing with somebody else and initiating a relationship with them?

Where are they on that journey? No. Wow. I don't know where they are. That's why we have to define who we are first. I see this, this, I see younger people in the church discuss, well, is Sabbath required? I mean, if a person keeps Sunday and doesn't know any different, is that okay? You're asking the wrong question. Do you believe the Sabbath is required for you? Answer that question, and then you can answer another question. Have I received a grace from God that has opened my mind to the Sabbath? If He has, it is required for you, so start there. Start there. Who is God, and what has He given me, and what is required of me? The more grace, grow in grace, the more grace you have, the more that is required of you. And we have been given an enormous amount of grace.

So, start with those points. Who am I with God first? It changes everything about how you look at other people. It doesn't mean you accept sin. It just means that you live your life the way you know to live it. You know your life. Now, you can look at other people and say, that's wrong. But you're not in this dilemma of, I have to define everybody.

You know what God is doing with you. But He says, so then is it not of Him who wills, or to Him who runs, but of God who shows mercy? Now, that doesn't mean we have to give our will to God. It doesn't mean that we're not supposed to run this race. Paul, in other places, says, run the race. Is he contradicting himself? No. What he's saying is, God didn't call you because, well, you have such a will to obey Him. He didn't call you because you're already running the race. You didn't even know there was a race. We didn't even know. It is God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says this to Pharaoh. Now, this presents an interesting conundrum if you believe in the Calvinistic viewpoint of grace. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I may show my power in you, and that my name I will be declared in all the earth. In other words, I chose you to fail to show the greatness of what I can do. I chose you to do what you're going to do because you're such a stubborn man, and I knew what you were going to do. So I chose you to do it so that I could open the Red Sea. And the Calvinists say, and He's burning in hell now. God chose Him to put Him in hell. What do you want to say? I don't want to pick on Calvinists too much, but they're sort of easy to pick on, okay? He says, Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will not say to me then, why does He still find fault, for who has resisted His will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Well, the thing for Him say to Him, if formed it, why have you made me like this? And He goes on to talk about that God is like the potter. We talked a little bit about that from the Old Testament in the Sermon on Brokenness.

The point He's making is, find out what God is doing with you, and then realize He has shown you favor to do that with you. He didn't choose to make the Pharaoh of the Egypt evil. He was already evil. He just said, you're such a stubborn man, I'm going to show the history what I could do because of you. And He did! He used Him. Because every time God said something, what? He would give in, and then He got so stubborn, no, I won't give in. He knows He's fighting in a supernatural being, but of course, remember, He believes He's a God, too. So it's hard to admit I'm not the greatest God. He's having difficulty.

The point is, the salvation of Pharaoh is not an issue here. It's how God used him. God never called Pharaoh, gave him grace. He never gave grace to him. He gave it to Moses. He gave it to the Israelites. Some Egyptians got some grace because why? They left with the Israelites. It's like, we've got to get out of here.

But He didn't give him grace. Grace is a choice God makes. This is what's so difficult. Why so many Christians believe that all the people who never heard of Jesus, the Mongolians, or thousands of years before Jesus lived, never heard of Him, they're in hell. There was no way for God to give them grace.

And that's why there are others that are driven to be missionaries, which I respect that. We should be driven to share the gospel because God is calling people. God isn't calling everybody, but He is calling people. Our responsibility is to get that out to people so they can receive the grace of God. But we can't convert the world. I've reached millions of people on television, and I haven't converted one of them. Now, there's people in the church that are baptized because of it, but I didn't convert them. Only God can do that. Only God can do that. Matthew 13. And this is the very starting point of grace. It has to do with God, and then it's receiving it, it's accepting it, and sometimes people won't accept the grace of God. I've been in prisons. God can't forgive me. Yes, He can't. No, He can't. I'm too evil. And they refuse God's grace. They just refuse Him. And it's a sad thing. I just... But I'm telling you, He will if you repent. No, I have repented, but He can't forgive me. I had a man who had committed a murder and said, they need to kill me. He said, not necessarily. God may give you grace, forgive you, and maybe you'll get a life sentence. I deserve to die. Of course you deserve to die. That's why you need to repent. That's why you need to receive the grace. You can't make yourself undo what you did. No, I need to die. I walked out of there. I never knew what happened to the man. He was going to ask for the death penalty. He probably got it.

He just could not accept that. Maybe God's answer was, you may suffer for this for the rest of your life, which is right, but I will forgive you and give you eternal life. I will give you something beyond this life. He couldn't see beyond it.

He could not accept God's grace. Matthew 13, and let's start in verse...let me see. Okay, verse 10. Because He gives some parables and nobody understands them. In verse 10, the disciples came and said to Him, Why do you speak to them in parables? He answered and said to them, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

But to them it has not been given. They're not getting grace from God the way you are. Now, the people He's talking about, by the way, had received a great grace from God. They were Jews. They were the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It was their forefathers who had gone through the Red Sea. It was their forefathers that had been ruled over by David. They had been brought back into the land because God had prophesied He would bring them back into the land. So they had received a certain grace from God. The Son of God is now there explaining the truth. He's explaining what God is actually doing, and they're not getting it.

But the disciples do. Now, they can't figure out why. The Pharisees, the trained men, who knew the Scripture, the scribes who wrote down the Scripture, transcribed it. These people couldn't get it. Why can't they? You know, we're fishermen. One's a tax collector. I mean, these are no one special. They're not greatly educated men. Why? And He says, because you've been given something, they have not. This would have been a shock to them. Because they were Jews. Why don't the other Jews get it?

The smarter Jews than me. He says, because God hasn't given it to them. He says, verse 12, for whoever has to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away from him.

What? Oh, yes, I'm expecting a lot more out of you, because you've been given some more grace than they have. So that's why you have to define who you are. Yes, more is expected of you. The more grace God gives you, grow in grace? Well, the more you grow in grace, guess what happens? The more that's expected of you, because God is giving you things. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear. Nor do they understand. He goes on and actually quotes from Isaiah to support what he's doing.

And then verse 16, he says, But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear. For surely I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. He's telling them Daniel was a man given great grace by God, and Daniel served God, including suffering to serve God. Isaiah died. I mean, you look at what all these people went through. To serve God, because God gave them grace, and he said, Moses, all those people in the Old Testament, all they wanted to see was the Messiah.

And I'm here. They didn't quite get it yet. They would. They've all looked forward to this time, and you're living it. That's what he told them. You've been given greater grace than them. And I'll ask you to be required of you. Because of that. This free gift is free. I mean, if someone came along and gave you a quarter of a million Mercedes-Benz, and you decided to go hot-rot it, and strip it, and tear it up, and they came along and said, you can't have it anymore.

I mean, I didn't sign it over to you. I just gave it to you. You know, you weren't very nice. You took back your gift. God says, well, I'm giving you a gift, and if you don't want the gift, I can take it back.

We're going to talk about that in a minute. Can he take back grace? That's argued in the Christian world. That's a big argument. Can God take back His grace? It's a huge argument. So we see in Scriptures that God's desire is for all people, but people are called at different times. His desire is for all people. And that's, once again, I'm not going to get into that teaching because that's a huge teaching. But He doesn't accept all people. He desires all, but He doesn't accept all. He doesn't accept all. And all those, all people, will get an opportunity to have God give them some grace.

But we must grow in grace. We have to grow in grace. Oh, that means what? That means I have to get more strict in my Sabbath-keeping. Well, it may, but I mean, that's, maybe that's not the issue at all in your life. It's, what, opening a relationship with God. If you think, if I keep the Sabbath more strict, I will earn my grace with God, you've missed the point, the Jews believe that, the Pharisees believe that.

If I keep the Sabbath so I have a relationship with God, you're getting grace. You're understanding grace. You want to remove everything from the Sabbath that hurts your relationship with God. That's because you're responding and growing in grace. See, people think grace throws out the law. It does the opposite. It makes it real and practical to everything in life, and we'll talk about that.

I, like I said, this is four sermons crammed into one. So I can't cover all of it. Romans 3. Now let's go back to, remember what I read from the Oxford Companion to the Bible. Romans 3. And I don't have anything new for you today, but I hope it's put together in a way that's going to help you in your life. Because in the end we're going to talk about how do you grow in grace. How do I do that?

What does that actually mean? Romans 3.21. This gets into, I gave a sermon last year on justification, and with some sections here in Romans. I'm just going to cover one little section that talks about this, and this is what grace, this is now we understand what grace produces immediately. Verse 21. Now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and prophets. So let me tell you, Paul says, about how righteous God is. And I'm not going to go take you to the Ten Commandments.

I'm just going to tell you, let me understand, and remember, righteousness means He's right. It's the opposite of being wrong. Unrighteousness means wrong. This shows you how right God is. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and to all who believe, for there's no difference. He's saying it doesn't matter, Jew Gentile, it doesn't matter what your sins have been.

There's a point where God has to do something. To cause the response.

Being justified freely, oh I'm sorry, verse 23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justification is the right to come before God. So you and I don't have a right to come unless He says, come.

Unless He lets us know. Now you may be searching for God, and someone say, God if you're there, please come into my life. Why? Because God is doing something to you because each of us have a desire for God. It's built in every human being. That's why if we don't have a religion, guess what we do? We make it up. If we don't have a God, we make up God. And of course, Satan and the demons love that because they create. There is a power in paganism. We've talked about that before. There's a power in it because there are demonic forces behind it. So we have this need, we have this desire for God. That's put in us by God to lead us to His grace. So if you go to God and say, show me, oh He showed Himself to me because I asked, well you asked because you're designed to ask. We're supposed to look for Him. It's inside of us. So we're justified freely by His grace through this favor He gives us through the redemption of Jesus Christ. So we have to understand, grace as far as salvation is only through Christ. God gives people, ancient Israel was promised rain and deuces. Ancient Israel was promised that their foot would be on the necks of their enemies, right? They were promised they'd have none of the diseases of Egypt. You know you're not promised that. That's not what we're promised. We're promised, come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, be transformed into His children and live forever. The promises made to us is much greater than anything ever given to ancient Israel.

Much greater. Because the grace He's giving us is greater than the grace He gave them. The favor, the opening up of this relationship so we know Him more. And how does that happen? Because of Jesus Christ. This is really important. This level of grace can only come through understanding who Jesus Christ is. He says, verse 25, whom God said forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate what? God's righteousness. Because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. That could not have been written by Moses. He could have talked about the coming of the Messiah to restore and justify, but He wouldn't have had a name to the Messiah.

That's why it talks about all those of the Old Testament that had God's spirit, that had a relationship with God. You and I look forward to the coming of the Messiah. You and I look forward to the Second Coming. That only has meaning if we understand the First Coming. Right? The Second Coming means nothing unless there's a First Coming. You and I have received a greater grace. They longed for no to know what you know. They wanted to know. David wanted to know. Read the Psalms. He begged God, show me more. Daniel said, what does this mean? And God says, just shut the book. You won't understand. You won't get it. They were all men who had received God's spirit. They're all people who obeyed God. They spent their whole lives obeying God, and they will be in the First Resurrection, but they didn't know what you know. That's a grace from God. We take it for granted. They wrote it down for us, losing their lives. They write it down sometimes for us. God says, you write it down and they'll get it. And they wrote it down and they died. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James. Most of them died violent deaths. So that we have the record, we get the greater grace. So justification, then, is this right to have a relation with God that only comes through Christ and what God is doing through Christ? Our response to grace begins with faith. That's the first of our response. I believe you. I believe in you, and I believe you. And what do I do next? As we go through this, we'll see everything God is doing for you to do, and we don't do it. We are actually stepping away from His grace. I don't mean God has thrown us away, but how many times do we not do something we know God wants us to do? And what are we doing? We're denying the grace of God. I want your forgiveness, but surely you don't mean it will cost me this.

So what are we denying? We're not denying God exists, we're denying His grace. So let's just build a little summary of what we've looked at. Every person who has lived on earth except Jesus has been deceived by Satan and cannot be saved, cannot receive salvation unless God does something which is His grace. It's His favor. Hey, I'm going to do this for you that you can't do for yourself. Second, the action of God's grace and sacrificing and resurrection of His Son is the only way a person can receive salvation. There is no other way. There is no other religion, no belief. You can't do enough good to earn salvation. It's not possible. God has to do something, and Christ is showing us what He's doing. He calls various people at different times out of Satan's world to be prepared for Christ's return. Others will be called at another time. That's why we believe so strongly in the great white throne judgment. It isn't just people to be resurrected and catch the lake of fire. We believe that is God saying, all you people who never knew get grace. Now some will deny it. There is a lake of fire. There isn't universal salvation. Unfortunately, sometimes we sort of swing towards universal salvation, and there is not universal salvation because there are people who refuse the grace of God. There are just going to be people who will do so. But everybody gets the opportunity to have their destiny fulfilled that God wants for them.

Those people called at any given time, and remember, He's working with people all over the place in different stages and all kinds of things. But if we look at ourselves and define ourselves, not as we're the best in the world, we're in trouble. If we define ourselves as receiving the great gifts of God, we define that God has given us a lot of grace, and accept that we don't know everything, accept that we're not perfect, but we have been given this great grace from God that defines who you are, and that's going to define how you see everything in life. And it's going to define even your obedience to God. You don't obey God to earn it, you obey God because of what He's doing, because He's worthy of it, because you understand who Jesus Christ is, and you're going to give everything you have to that. What are we going to hold back from the grace of God? What in life is so important to you that you're going to say to God, your grace isn't enough. See, even the word grace is so twisted around with different meanings. Your favor, the fact that you even pay attention to me is so incredible. What do you say to Him that, but I can't do this, or I won't do this, or I won't pay that price. I've done it. You've done it. We don't say that to Him, but it's what we do, right? I can't. I'm not going to do that. That's too big a price to pay. What are you telling to God? Your love, your pardon that you've given to me, your mercy isn't enough for me, because I can't believe that you'll work it out in my life. I can't be that important. I don't know what more He has to do to show us how important we are to Him. What more? What more does Christ have to do to show us how important we are? But we just can't accept that. And I understand that, too. I just wish God would come talk to me sometimes. Then I'd say, no, no, don't do that. Because He's going to say, stand up like a man, and I'm going to be in real trouble. So I don't want that to happen. But I would like sometimes, people always say, I've asked for a sign. Be careful what you ask for. Or then we'll make up something that's a sign from God. I asked God to give me more light, and I got up this morning, and it was all cloudy, and suddenly the clouds parted. A little bit of light came through from the sun. That was God telling me something. What was He telling you?

I asked for light. I mean, we can really, we can twist things all over the place.

So, we are called today not because we're the brightest and the best. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 to the church of Corinth? Let me explain your calling. You're not the best, you're not the brightest, you're not the most talented. You are the proof of what God can do. It's a remarkable, wow, that's sort of depressing, and then you get to the end of it. No, no, no, you're not even average, folks. You're called by God because God wants to say to humanity, this is what I can do. When we make it what I can do, we're in real trouble. Now, we have to participate. Grace doesn't mean we don't participate. We have things we do.

But in this relationship, it is not, God, you know what I would like to do today? Now, He lets us do all kinds of things. He gives us talents and ideas. You know, we're supposed to have fun in this life. We're supposed to experiment, hey, I think I can do this. I'm going to try to play the piano and sing. You'd be glad that I don't do it. I've tried it. My mother tried to give me piano lessons. I couldn't even do chopsticks. She gave up. It didn't take long. She just gave up.

But I'm glad I tried. Life is supposed to be lived, but when it comes to our relationship with God, we have to remember this is not between equals. Everything comes from Him, and we respond. He is watching for our response. He's gauging our response. He wants our response. We have to put that in our heads. God is saying, I want you to respond. You know how you have a baby that's starting to walk, and you're all saying, come on, come on, you can take this step and then wobble? That's God with us. I want you to respond. I've given you the grace to be here with you. Now come respond to me. We have a hard time doing that because, like I said, we don't see Him. But if we know He's there, then we're trying to respond to Him. And then also our response involves repentance, and this is a big issue in the grace argument. Is God's grace irresistible? There's lots of Protestants, about half of them. Well, I know, that group's getting smaller and smaller. No, with Wilt Christianity, He's actually getting bigger. God, He gives you grace, and you can't resist it. So even if you just go out and be a complete sinner, you're getting to heaven. Now the Calvinists would prove, I could prove that to you. Look at David, a murderer and an adulterer, and God still accepted him when he repented. Well, no, God made him repent. God's control, God made him repent. But then look at this other, look at Rahab, a prostitute, but God called her. Then look at these other people in the Bible who were good people. You see a lot of the Jews in the first century were good people, and God rejected them. Because He's saying, no, no, no, you're good, but you think you're too good. I'm going to call this terrible person to show how great I am. That's a twisted viewpoint of God's view of humanity. Nobody has value, so God just arbitrarily, well, it's not arbitrarily, it's beyond our understanding, picks people, and says, I'll save you and you and you and you and some Calvinists say up to 99% of all people will be screaming in hell forever. Because God just picks a few here and there, and we don't know why He picks them. Because it's irresistible. There's no response to grace. Well, there is. You respond because you have no choice. God's picked you so you will be sick. So free will becomes a convoluted concept. Let's just look at Hebrews 6.

And he says the same thing basically in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 6 verse 4. And I need to give a sermon here on the unpardonable sin. I haven't given a sermon probably in eight years on that. Hebrews 6 verse 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened. How are you enlightened? Because God turns on the light. You and I never turned on the light. He turned on the light. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have overcome partakers of the Holy Spirit. And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

In other words, it is possible to resist the grace of God. Now there are some other verses where it sort of appears that it is not, but those verses, and we won't go through them as a different subject, are usually based on encouragement. Look, God is going to do it. God is going to make this happen. Just stay with God. But even Jesus talks about what it is going to be like in the day of judgment. And now some of you, the people He was talking to, were obeying God in remarkable ways. He said, it is going to be easier for the people of Sodom than for you. The light is on and you don't get it. But then again He hadn't poured His Spirit upon them either. The average Jew of Jesus' day did not have the Holy Spirit. And there's only a few people that we see through the Old Testament that had God's Holy Spirit in them. God worked with them, His Holy Spirit was there, but it wasn't in them. Now there were ones that were and they will be in that resurrection.

God chooses when and where and how to give His grace to anybody. And if somebody gets a little bit of grace from God, I've been told many years ago and early in my ministry not to anoint anybody that's not in the church. I never obeyed that. And I've watched people outside our fellowship that don't even believe a fraction of what we believe. And I've watched God heal people. I'm not saying those people have the same grace that's been given to you. I'm saying God gave them grace. And who am I to argue with that? If God gives them a healing, who am I to argue with that?

But boy, what He's given to us.

And we need to constantly be aware of that. Let's go back to 2 Peter. I quoted part of this at the beginning of the sermon. 2 Peter, chapter 3.

So I'm covering a lot of ground, and I'm covering a lot of ground, you know, but I want to put it together to see the bigger picture.

2 Peter 3, 17. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, he was talking about, you know, the whole... 2 Peter has not only encouragement for Christian loving, but has some prophecy in it. Since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Wait a minute. He's telling them in the church, be careful you don't lose your place with God.

And this isn't a once saved, always saved message. Now, once again, there's a lot of Scriptures we shouldn't live in fear of losing our salvation, because we, if we trust in God, we stay close to God, He promises to give it to us. It's when we give up on God, it's when we refuse God's grace, we refuse His interaction, we say no, we turn back and go back to what we used to be with no conscience about it, we can end up losing our salvation. I mean, I know people who want, they fear their whole lives, they're walking a razor's edge, that they're going to lose their salvation. It's not that simple. It's possible, but it's not that simple. And yes, we sin, we still do wrong things. It doesn't mean we've lost our salvation. It's always coming back to this point, God, You have called me, You have given me this grace, please do not cast me away. Now let's look at the next verse. But grow in the grace and knowledge, and using the phrase as the grace and knowledge, but that's not the entire phrase. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory both now and forever, amen. The grace of God to us, that's why it's different than receiving land, you know, around Jerusalem, that Joshua takes you into. That's the grace of God, but this is greater than that. Because we know how salvation happens. Salvation happens through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who came here from heaven to do that, to open the door for a deeper relationship with God. For a deeper relationship with God.

I know, it's getting late. I'm trying to figure out where to stop here. Let me do one more passage. We'll stop and then I'll pick up a few things in the Bible study. Which is after we eat. Because I know eating is important. 1 Corinthians 1.

I said a lot of scripture today, but this is a very important doctrine. Let's start defining who we are.

When we define who we are, and we realize what God's doing, we'll want to share that. And we will draw less and less, be part of the world. We'll draw out of the world because it's not where God is working. It doesn't mean God isn't doing stuff with people, okay? It doesn't mean God isn't still interacting with His creation. The God, the creator of this universe likes interacting with His people. Even really bad people sometimes.

But what is conversion? What is salvation? These important doctrines lead us to, what is God doing with me?

And it defines my life. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 4. He says, I thank my God, always concerning you, for the grace of God which He has given to you by Christ Jesus. He's writing to the most dysfunctional church I could, I wouldn't even go to the church at Corinth. That was the most dysfunctional church, maybe in the history of Christianity, where God's Spirit actually was. That you are enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge. Here's the grace that's been given to you. You're listening to the truth and you're learning the truth. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. Oh, we get to something real important here. To be a Christian, the grace of God must be in you.

The Holy Spirit comes into us, that's by the what? The grace of God, right? Repentance is our response. If you don't repent, you won't receive the Holy Spirit. It's God's grace that says, come to me, repent, and become my child, and I'll give you my Spirit. If we don't respond, we don't receive it.

So the argument is, I don't have to be baptized and receive salvation, is not in accordance with the truth. The Scriptures. Because that's among a lot of evangelicals, that's the big thing now. You don't have to be baptized. So what Scripture says, they now, through, that's just the outward show of it, but they receive God's Spirit. We receive God's Spirit, and Christ lives in us. Remember, we just read that the grace of God and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That just doesn't mean accepting Jesus, by the way. That's just part of the grace. It's confirmed in you that Christ now lives in you. That is the greatest grace of God you can have until you're resurrected. The greatest grace of God that can be given to any human being before the resurrection is to have Christ in them. That's why we leave the world. When we truly understand grace, we understand how do you get that? Do you go to God one day and say, hey, how much does it cost to get Jesus? How much does it cost to get your Holy Spirit? That's called simony. Remember Simon, the magician? Can I give you some money and give this power to give the Holy Spirit to people? So in English, if you try to buy a religious office, it's called simony, which has been practiced in the Catholic Church for about 1,500 years. Actually, I don't think it's often now as it was in the Middle Ages, but it happens. You buy your office, but it's in you, it's confirmed in you, that you may come short in no gift. Okay, in this grace there's gifts. Eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we have this grace, we're looking forward to the Second Coming, just as much as those people were so hopeful Jesus was going to come and be the Messiah, right? They wanted Him to be the Messiah. They believed Him as the Messiah. We know He was. We are waiting. Waiting for the Second Coming is part of the grace of God. It's where it leads us. This is how we grow in it. Who will also confirm you when? To the end. That you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said this is our hope. That every day we live now by the grace of God, we're submitting, we're responding to what He is doing. What He is doing. And as we respond, we're being prepared for that. Verse 9, God is faithful. God's going to do this unless we say no.

He's going to do this unless we say no. He's going to take our free will away. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. There Paul does what he does all the time. He takes grace, growing grace, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ combines Him to show how you grow in grace. And you'll see he does that all over the place. That's a thought process that is just part of His...it's at the core of who He is. This is the only way I can grow in grace. He believed God had given Him a lot of grace. He was a Jew. He knew the Torah. He knew the Old Testament. And then one day He realized, oh man, what I didn't know when He was confronted by Jesus Christ. What I didn't know. And I received a greater grace and I want to share it with everybody. It didn't matter if they beat Him, stoned Him, spit on Him, drove Him out of town. He just went to the next town. I tell everybody about this. There's a man who's received grace. He knows what it means. He knows what it means to be without it. And He wants to share it with anyone who'll listen.

So, I'm sorry we're not going to have the congregational meeting. We'll do it next month. But I want to talk a little bit more about how we grow in grace and then we can have some discussion. So we'll go ahead and have our lunch and then we'll come back in here for those who want to stick around and we'll talk about growing in grace.

Thank you.