The Doctrine of Supergrace. Part 15.
Friday, June 8, 2007
PHI 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
1. All of us at some time or another are going to bump into con-artists in life.
2. Being people smart is no defense against the con-artists of this life.
3. Neither is spiritual maturity, for David was one of the greatest believers of all time and in the state of spiritual maturity he was conned by certain individuals as well.
4. It is certainly a true factor of life and it is probably good for anyone in life to be taken in at sometime by a con-artist because there are so many things to learn.
5. Sometimes greatness in business or in a profession or in the spiritual life or even in social life are measured in terms of con-artist testing.
6. All of us at sometime will fail because it is inevitable that the very thing that makes us strong, honor and integrity, also makes us vulnerable and even sometimes weak.
7. The con-artist also uses someone else, the victim, to get to his objective.
8. The con-artist must deceive his victim.
9. The con-artist is a reversionist and in using deceit, must hide the evidence to make the lie stick.
10. A con-artist must do something to flatter himself with his victim, whether it is inferiority or superiority.
PHI 2:16 Be concentrating on the word of life, so that I may have a basis for boasting with reference to the day of Christ [the Rapture with emphasis on the Judgment Seat of Christ] because I did not run without profit nor worked hard in vain.
1. The Lord is “near” from the standpoint of the omnipresence of His essence; He sees and hears everything we do, ISA 41:10; HEB 4:13.
HEB 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
2. The Lord is also near in the enlargement and the amplification of living grace which makes it possible for the believer to reach supergrace and understand fully the reality of the grace provision given by God.
MAT 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
JOH 6:27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, {even} God, has set His seal.”
3. The intimacy and the nearness of the Lord or near grace makes it possible for the supergrace believer also to advance to ultra-supergrace.
PRO 21:30 There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord.
ROM 8:28 And we know that God, to those who love God, He works all things together for good,
4. PHI 4:5 - “The Lord is near” = You went from saving grace to supergrace, by way of living grace; now because you have grown spiritually you will experience near grace, or greater grace, or more grace.
You had food, shelter, clothing, transportation.
You had the preservation of divine thought in a sacred book, the Canon of scripture.
You had a pastor-teacher.
You had the academic discipline of a classroom, the local church.
The grace provision which took you from salvation to supergrace will also carry you from supergrace to ultra-supergrace.
Living grace keeps the believer alive in the devil’s world.
Living grace provides every need and every blessing for the advance.
Near grace is a supercharger performing the same function as living grace except that the provision is intensified in the advance.
Saving grace - when you believe in Jesus Christ.
Living grace - takes you all the way through the maturity barrier to supergrace.
“Near grace” or “greater grace” - takes you from supergrace to the next objective, ultra-supergrace.
Saving grace, living grace, supergrace, near grace, ultra-supergrace leading all the way to dying grace and then surpassing grace.