If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is mere fight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
Martin Luther
Grace Bible Church
Gbible.org
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday,
December 11, 2022
1.Grace is God’s policy with all of mankind, [unbelievers and believers].
2. The divine policy for the Church Age believer is totally grace. Grace is what God does for us.
- Every single one of us are said to be in total depravity from birth.
- Every single human is born totally separated from God.
- Mankind is born in total helplessness.
Grace is all that God is free to do for mankind, on the basis of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 11:32b, …so that He may show mercy to all.
The mystery doctrine is the manifestation of that infinite and eternal genius of God called grace.
Grace is never withheld or held back or withdrawn because of failure.
Jeremiah 31:34, They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the LORD, 'for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.'
Grace ceases to be grace, if God is compelled to withdraw it.
The sin question has been set aside forever and through the believers eternal savings account God has now brought in equal privilege and equal opportunity for everybody to have His highest and His best.
Grace cannot be increased or diminished because of failure or sin.
Grace cannot be exercised, where there is the slightest degree of human merit to be recognized.
Through the Cross, all questions of demerit have been banished, and God is now righteously free to exercise grace in every case.
Grace cannot be increased because it's the expression of God's infinite love and Grace cannot be diminished, for every human limitation that human sin might impose on the action of a righteous God, God has through the Cross dismissed forever.
The Doctrine of
Grace, Part 3.
Our first word is grace and in the Greek noun charis correctly translated grace.
Point 1. Introduction.
- First, God exists.
He acts in strict faithfulness to His covenant and promise concerning forgiveness of sins.
Forgiveness of sin is based upon the righteousness and justice of God not the grace of God.
The believer does not depend upon the mercy and grace of God when he is restored to fellowship, but he depends on the character and nature of God for his forgiveness.
It can be concluded that the word grace represents the uncompromised, unrestricted, unrecompensed loving favor of God toward sinners.
Grace is the limitless, unrestrained love of God acting on behalf of the lost.
God saves sinners by grace; Eph 2:8.
God keeps us saved by grace, a passage you should all be familiar with; 2Pe 1:2-4.
It does have two words in it = family and liars and perhaps that is where we get the phrase “you’re too familiar with the situation.”
PRO 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
PRO 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
If there is one principle that we have emphasized throughout the years, it is Divine Institution # 3 the family.
I’m referring to the entire Trinity and here specifically it is God the Holy Spirit who teaches us.
Grace depends upon who and what God is and never who and what man is.
Legalism or religion means man does the work and man gets the credit.
Still under Point 2. Dealing with the Definition and Description of Grace.
Grace is also undeserved blessing and suffering from God to mankind.
Undeserved suffering is a manifestation of the grace of God because it makes us stronger as individuals.
In grace, God works and mankind benefits.
In grace, God provides for mankind and mankind receives.
ISA 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
ISA 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And clever in their own sight!
- The Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Church-age believer
3. Christian marriage with the right-man-right woman analogy.
Grace means that God knows best.
Grace is the policy of God in establishing a relationship with mankind.
Grace is the policy of God in providing and maintaining fellowship with God.
God provides everything necessary to bring us into a relationship with Himself.
Grace is the policy of God in providing both relationship and fellowship with all three persons of the Trinity.
Relationship with God is the grace policy for eternal salvation of the unbeliever because we are spiritually dead.
Fellowship with God is the grace policy for all Church Age believers to execute the PPOG.
(1) Grace is extended to mankind in spiritual death.
(2) Grace is extended to mankind at the point of salvation.
(3) Grace is extended to mankind as a believer in Christ under the grace policy of God under the PPOG.
God is the aggressor in establishing a relationship with man.
This means that grace is the policy of God in blessing mankind totally apart from any creature merit or ability.
The grace policy of God provides blessings for believers and provided these blessings in eternity past before man was created.
What God provided for man in grace in eternity past cannot be earned, merited, or deserved.
Man was not around when God provided blessings for him.
That includes our portfolio of invisible assets, our escrow blessings for time and eternity
It also includes the 10 PSD for each believer in the Church-age, the blessings of dying grace, the blessings of resurrection, and the blessings of the eternal state.
As Peter said in ACT 10:34, God is not one to show partiality.
Grace is also the divine policy in creating a new spiritual species for the utilization of divine power; 2CO 5:17.
2CO 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Just think about what a relief it is for us that we don't have to make ourselves presentable to God.
Our portfolio of invisible assets, our escrow blessings for time and eternity, the 10 PSD for each believer in the Church-age, the blessings of dying grace, the blessings of resurrection, and the blessings of the eternal state.
The portfolio of invisible assets and our escrow blessings refers to those blessings that were deposited in your name that God blessed you with before the foundation of the world.
The ten problem solving devices refer to the solutions to all of your problems which is deposited in your portfolio of invisible assets before the foundation of the world.
ISA 57:1 The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; And devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from evil that is to come.
Notice that in this verse the righteous man and woman perishes, and no one takes it to heart.
Then we are told that devout men and woman are taken away which means, while no one understands that the righteous man or woman are taken away from the evil that was about to come their way.
God looked down the corridors of time and knew the evil that was about to come upon the individual and took him or her away from the evil that was about to come upon them.
PSA 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
The word for delight is the Hebrew word “anag” meaning to make love with the Lord, and the promise is that if we do that with PVTD, the Lord will give us the desires of our heart.
For the greatness of any individual, man or woman, is not determined by how successful their ministry was when they were alive but does his and her message go on after the died.
What a great principle that describes Colonel Thieme who many are still listening to today, including myself.
PHI 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.
God delivers the believer from violent death, Job 5:20; Psa 33:19, 56:13, 116:8. Dying grace is the greatest blessing in living.
Death is a matter of the sovereignty of God based upon His omniscience of all the facts, Psa 68:19‑20.
Because of His perfect sovereignty, God is able to pick the right time, place, and conditions of your death.
Love (personal love between right man and right woman) is stronger than death, SOS 8:7.
SOL 8:7 "Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.
Love is a motivation and is stronger than any fear of death.
This is also true of category one love for God the Father and occupation with Christ.
It is also true in the right-man-right woman relationship, especially when it comes to the third witness in the Angelic Conflict.
- The first witness = The Lord Jesus Christ.
The second witness = The Church Age believer.
The third witness = Christian marriage or the “right man-right woman” relationship.
DAD???
One is the Lord Jesus Christ is called the faithful witness.
- The second witness is the believer who fulfills the plan of God for his or her life.
- A third witness is not necessarily needed in a Jewish trial but there is a third witness in the Angelic Conflict (i.e., the witness of Christian marriage).
1CO 7:17 Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus, I direct in all the churches.
Notice the word for assigned is the Greek word “meros” which means to be assigned, appointed, chosen, arranged,
1CO 7:28 But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.
This principle of love and then the three witnesses in Christian marriage definitely needs some concentration and requires an understanding of the importance of comparing scripture with scripture.
“On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death.” Deu 17:6.
DEU 17:6 "On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed.
Just as the Lord Jesus Christ and the winner believer are tested and interrogated separately, so too will Christian marriage be tested and interrogated separately.
The individual witness or invisible hero is of great importance as the second witness, but a good Christian marriage carries a strong message to Satan and the fallen angels as well.
“shall cleave” has to do with both the spiritual and the sexual, the spiritual is the husband thinking with the mind of Christ and loving his wife as Christ loves the church.