Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
August 8, 2018
Grace is God’s right to deal with us on the basis of His justice and righteousness being satisfied upon the cross.
PSA 85:10 Lovingkindness (grace) and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
God is free to express His love to you and me through grace because of what His Son accomplished on the cross – namely propitiation.
Propitiation is the Godward side of the work of Christ in salvation.
Propitiation is the work of Christ on the cross, which deals with the integrity of God.
Propitiation means that the justice of God judges our sins and the integrity of God which is perfect righteousness is satisfied with that judgment.
Propitiation frees the justice of God to immediately give anyone who believes in Christ the righteousness of God (one half of His integrity, the other being His justice).
Grace always depends on the character and nature of God.
Prin: For the believer who resides in the PPOG, grace must be multiplied.
The believer cannot execute or fulfill the divine plan from his own ability, human energy, or talent.
“grace” – then the next phrase in the original is “to you” and then peace [prosperity].
Peace – eirene = peace, blessing, and prosperity but the basic meaning of the word is prosperity.
2Pe 1:2 should read, grace to you and prosperity
This prosperity is spiritual prosperity, social prosperity, mental prosperity, economic prosperity.
“grace to you and prosperity be multiplied.”
be multiplied – aor-pass-optative of the verb plethuno – meaning to multiply, to increase.
The aorist tense refers to a specific point of time when the believer increases in grace and prosperity because of residence and momentum in the PPOG.
Whenever a believer spends the majority of his time in the PPOG executing his very own (PSD), he becomes very teachable and therefore, grace and prosperity are increased.
With that metabolize doctrine momentum occurs in the Christian life.
His momentum is not from “wanting to be envied” but from “loving” God.
Once you are motivated by personal love for God then your desire for doctrine will increase.
Prin: It is very important that you learn to solve your own problems and that you do not go outside of your own soul for counsel.
PRO 11:14 Where there is no guidance, the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory.
When you go outside of your own soul for counsel you usually get bad advice.
In 2Pe 1:2, the “passive voice” of plethuno means the mature believer receives the action of the verb, i.e. the multiplication of grace and prosperity increases.
The optative mood = the mood of strong desire or the mood of contingency and possibility.
Whether you advance or not is a matter of your own volition and decisions.
The optative mood says that it is God’s wish and desire that every believer attains spiritual maturity.
The optative mood depends upon certain conditions being fulfilled or the contingency depends upon the believer either remaining in the PPOG or rejection of the divine plan.
We have a prepositional phrase which describes how God reveals to us His perfect power and perfect plan.
We have the preposition en plus the instrumental noun of epignosis which says literally “through the instrument of metabolized doctrine.”
Epignosis translated knowledge is metabolized doctrine.
It should read, grace to you and peace be multiplied by means of the epignosis knowledge of the God and of Jesus our Lord;
Prin – Multiplication of grace and prosperity comes through residence, function and momentum in the PPOG and the spiritual advance momentum comes from metabolized doctrine.
Second prin – Note that grace and prosperity are multiplied by means of knowledge of God the Father and of Jesus our Lord,…..not by means of knowledge of ourselves and our incompetence.
Knowledge of God refers to that which the Father has done for us in eternity past.
Whereas, knowledge of TLJC refers to the humanity of Christ during the dispensation of the hypostatic union, and how the humanity of Christ functioned in the PPOG under the power of God the H.S.
This is a recognition of the power God the Father has provided for the believer to become a winner.
“granted” – is the perf-middle-part of the verb doreomai which means to give, to bestow graciously.
The perfect tense recognizes the completion of the action of the verb which means God has already given us everything that we need from His divine power.
The middle voice emphasizes the subject of the sentence, which is the divine power of God.
The participle denotes that there is a purpose for receiving divine power and that is to glorify God.
What His divine power has given to us,….everything pertaining to life and godliness or the spiritual life.
The word life is zoe and it refers to one’s means of existence in the natural realm, one’s spiritual life.
Human metabolism is the reason why we are alive physically.
We metabolize air and food – We also have the involuntary respiratory system which helps us breathe through the night.
He protects us even in our sleep; PSA 4:8.
PSA 4:8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety.
The Lord even gives to us while we are sleeping; PSA 127:2.
PSA 127:2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
He promises our sleep will be sweet and relaxing; Pro 3:24.
PRO 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Bible doctrine will guide you even in your sleep, doctrine will watch over you and when you awake doctrine will talk to you; Pro 6:22.
PRO 6:22 When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.
Respect for the Lord leads to life so that one may sleep satisfied, and untouched by evil; Pro 19:23.
PRO 19:23 The fear of the Lord leads to life, So that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.
You and I will continue to breathe after we go to sleep at night, thanks to an involuntary respiratory center that makes it possible.
The entire human race lives by grace, courtesy of the grace policy and power of God.
“everything pertaining to life” = the provision of logistical grace support which includes the air that you breathe, the food that you eat and whatever beverages you drink etc.
Our gratitude toward God should be reflected in our prayers and our dedication and devotion to Him in the PPOG as a part of our PSD.
“everything pertaining to life” refers to the natural things we need to survive which are given to us from the power of God.
godliness – eusebeia – which is a reference to reverence and respect toward God. Godliness is simply a description of the believer functioning most of time in the PPOG.
People who are self-righteous think they’re godly.
People associate godliness with personality.
People associate godliness with sincerity.
People even think that if your minus a sense of humor,….you’re godly.
Some even associate godliness with the way people dress.
Godliness is derived from the Greek word eusebeia, which connotes duty and responsibility of the royal priesthood to God under operation grace.
Godliness refers to residence, function, and momentum inside your own palace, your own PPOG and your own PSD.
I say palace because that is a reference to the “spiritual mansion” that the Lord has prepared for us; Joh 14:1-3.
Godliness refers to the grace part that deals with our spiritual life.
Prin – God has provided logistically for us to be alive today, and He has also provided spiritually for us to execute His plan.
One of the most powerful expressions of God’s nature within man is the omnipotence or power of the Lord operating in compassion which motivates forgiveness.
Notice that it wasn’t until the Lord operated in tough love that got their attention; Rev 2:4.
They had to learn to rely on His omniscience, omnipotence, and the omnipresence of the Lord all revealed by His faithfulness to them in spite of their faithlessness towards Him.
- Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God.
- Faithfulness is the perfection of God’s essence and the fact that He cannot be inconsistent or compromise His essence.
- Faithfulness is the fact that God cannot change His essence and be unfair to anyone.
- God is consistent with Himself; therefore, He is faithful and consistent with us.
There never was a time when God was unfaithful as Hos 14:4 says, “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them.
Unfaithfulness is totally incompatible with the very nature and essence of God, Mal 3:6 “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
The very existence, function, and provision of blessing for the Royal Family of God, both now and forever, depends on the faithfulness and character of God.
God is never caught off guard.
How refreshing it is to know that in spite of all this there is one who is faithful.
He is called the faithful God as Deu 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God.
His grace never ceases in Lam 3:22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions “never” fail.
It is one thing to accept all these divine attributes as truth but it is another thing to act upon it.
God is not only faithful to tell us the best things about us but He is also faithful to tell us the worse things about us or what’s wrong with us or even the worst problem we face.
In His faithfulness, He has faithfully described the ruin that NVTD leads to.
He has faithfully diagnosed the terrible results and effects of sin and sin nature control.
God is faithful in keeping His promises. 2Co 1:20 “for as many as be the promises of God, in Him they are yes.”
Num 23:19 God is not like man that he should lie, has He not said and He will do it, or has he spoken, and will He not make it good?
Think of all the rebellion that the children of Israel, the Jews, fell into and yet God was faithful.
Titus 1:2 It is impossible for Him to lie!
Heb 10:23 He who promised is faithful.
It is the permanence of God’s character that guarantees the fulfillment of all His promises.
- Just
2. Righteous
3. Love
4. Immutability
5. Eternity - Omniscience
7. Omnipotence
8. Omnipresent
9. Veracity
10. Sovereignty