Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
a. There is common grace, which is totally the work of God, especially God the Holy Spirit, whereby He brings the Gospel to all mankind, TIT 2:11.
TIT 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
1CO 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
The Gospel is spiritual phenomena and we were in a state of total helplessness, the day that we first heard it.
b. The call of God in passages like, ROM 1:6; 8:28-30; 11:29; 1CO 1:26-29, when after we understand the gospel there is a divine invitation that comes with the understanding.
You were predestined by God to be called or really be a part of the ekklesia, the church known as the called out ones.
God doesn’t change His mind once you respond to the divine invitation of His calling, ROM 11:29.
What kind of people does God call and why are most of them called?
They are usually those who are not considered to be mighty, wise, strong, in this life but those who recognize their total depravity and are humble enough to respond to the divine invitation of His calling.
Paul also states that this divine invitation of His calling is also to share in the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, EPH 1:18.
PRO 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
EPH 4:29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
As a part of the divine invitation of His calling, we are to learn how to take and love in the eternal life to which you were called, 1TI 6:12.
We do it by fighting not with one another, but fighting off our basic three enemies, 1TI 6:12.
1TI 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
This calling is called a holy calling according to God’s own purpose, 2TI 1:9, which is why we are called not just to salvation but also sanctification,
2TI 1:9, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
The calling of God is also relate to receiving your eternal inheritance or escrow blessings, HEB 9:15.
HEB 9:15, And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were {committed} under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Peter says the divine invitation of His calling takes you out of the devil’s domain or the kingdom of darkness, 1PE 2:9.
The calling of God is also related to undeserved suffering, 1PE 2:21.
In 2PE 1:3, Peter states that the divine invitation of His calling calls us share in God’s glory and virtue.
a. Common Grace b. Call of God. c. Efficacious Grace.
Efficacious grace is which God the Holy Spirit takes the useless faith of the person who is spiritually dead and makes it effective for salvation.
EPH 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that [the grace, the salvation and even the faith] is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
2CO 6:1-2, And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain‑‑for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I HELPED YOU”; Behold, Now is “the acceptable time,” Behold, Now is” the day of salvation ”
When you think about election, think about God’s sovereign choice, but always remember that it is very dangerous to separate His sovereign choice from His righteousness and justice and from His omniscience from all the other attributes of His deity.
Election is a subject that cannot be viewed apart from God’s integrity.
God is just and righteous, He will never violate your free will.
Election does not mean that God chose you to do something or be something or be someone that you have no say in the matter.
When He elected us, He elected us according to His sovereign choice linking up with His omniscience and knowing what decisions we would make if given the proper equipment needed to understand spiritual phenomena.
Point 1. Introduction and Definition.
The first question that naturally arises is “Does man have a free will?”
“If man has a free will then what part does the free will play in the doctrine of Election?”
“in the knowledge of God is literally” by means of the epignosis knowledge of God, (not gnosis which is simply just knowing something but epignosis which means applying what you know to your personal life).
It is through PMA of Bible doctrine that gnosis which is simply knowledge becomes epignosis which is wisdom.
Nothing is more important in our lives than Bible doctrine, since Bible doctrine reveals the invisible assets and how to glorify God and receive our fantastic inheritance from God.
He understood why he was still alive and why God had sustained him.
Prin-Peter was a prepared pastor and God uses prepared men and women.
Next we have the phrase, to remind you, the pres-act-inf of hupominnesko which means to remind you, to bring to your remembrance, to teach you something you’ve already learned and therefore to repeat.
Second prin – The purpose of repetition is to fulfill a deliberate objective which is to inculcate Bible doctrine in the believer’s soul so that the believer will remain in the PPOG.
A well taught congregation is one that has been repeated to over and over again.
1. In eternity past the blessings placed in your escrow account called in the Bible your inheritance were made contingent upon the future performance of each believer.
2. Spiritual maturity is the result of doctrines being repeated over and over again to the congregation, and spiritual maturity is the place that the believer graduates from.
For Heaven will reward soul winners, DAN 12:3. Humble servants, MAT 10:42. Faithful stewards, MAT 25:23. Those who give, LUK 6:35.
Heaven will reward those who produce divine good, ROM 2:10. Those who are persecuted, MAT 5:11-12. Those who suffer un-deservingly, 2TI 2:12.
Heaven will reward those who master the O.S.N., 1CO 9:25. Those who love His appearing, 2TI 4:8. Those who endure temptations,
JAM 1:12. The faithful pastor teacher, 1PE 5:4.
This is why spiritual failure is brought in the scriptures such as in MAT 7:26-27; building upon the wrong foundation.
MAT 7:26-27, “And everyone who hears these words or doctrines of mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.”
Spiritual failure is brought in MAT 17:16 as not being able to perform that which God has given the opportunity to perform (equal privilege, equal opportunity).
Remember EPH 2:10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
In LUK 14:30, spiritual failure is revealed by starting but not being able to finish.
In HEB 4:6, refusing to enter into God’s rest.
The main cause for spiritual loss is ignorance, 2PE 1:8.
Spiritual loss related to sin, JER 5:25, “your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have withheld good from you”
In MAT 25:27, spiritual loss results from not using your spiritual gift or talent.
In MAR 8:36 spiritual loss results from worldliness, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul”?
Some believers have the most fantastic blessings in time while other believers are discontent, filled with self-pity, filled with self-induced misery, and constantly off balanced from divine discipline.
2CO 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
This is the reason why some believers enter the eternal state very rich at the Bema seat and others, at the bema seat, very poor.
Being poor in eternity means having a resurrected body in eternity, and that’s all.
The spiritually rich are those believers who receive the distribution of their fantastic inheritance for time and eternity.
The spiritually poor are those believers who, as losers in the “world system”, do not receive their blessings from their inheritance, why?
Whether negative through ignorance or negative through cognisance it all adds up to the same thing….a loser in time and a loser in eternity.
By teaching expository teaching, which is verse by verse teaching that causes you to suddenly discover that the apostle Paul, Peter, John, James, the human writers of the N.T., all under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit repeated doctrines.
Why? REV 4:11 “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory”
Prin-The teaching of Bible doctrine repetitiously brings glory to Christ not to the communicator.
“to stir you up” is the pres-act-inf of diegeiro which means to wake up, to arouse you, to stir up.
REV 3:2, ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
EPH 5:14, For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead ones, And Christ will shine on you.”
This is a progressive present tense which signifies action in a state of progress or persistence.
Everyone resents at some time hearing something that they’ve heard a hundred times before.
EPH 4:1 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
EPH 4:2 With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,
The active voice of “stir you up”, Peter produces the action of the verb through repetition.
The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose, it is the purpose of the repetition of Bible doctrine to stir you up!
“en plus the instrumental singular noun, hupomnesei which means by reminding or repeating.
Peter is about to die, and inasmuch as he is about to die, he will leave behind a legacy which is the greatest of all…the legacy of Bible doctrine.
This also dramatizes the fact that death cannot hinder or destroy the communication of Bible doctrine and the declaration of spiritual truth.
We have the fut-act-ind of spoudaso which means to be diligent, to make an effort, and to study, (2TI 2:15).
Prin-Doctrine is always available in every generation.
Second prin-The only thing that keeps a believer from doctrine is his own negative volition and his “erroneous priorities.”
He is going to emphasize the fact that it is not the “man” but the “message”! No one is indispensable in the plan of God but the members of the Godhead.
Third prin-Apostles, pastors, good Bible teachers die, but Bible doctrine is permanent.
Bible doctrine is permanent and eternal.
MAT 24:35, Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
1PE 1:25, But the word of the Lord abides forever. “And this is the word which was preached to you.
Fourth prin-Every pastor who is faithful in teaching Bible doctrine will build something permanent.
The pastor’s memory is the doctrine resident in the soul of his own congregation.