Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday, August 29, 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.
b. There is 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.
c. There is the principle of efficacious grace, which is when God the Holy Spirit takes the useless faith of the person who is spiritually dead and makes it effective for salvation.
All three of these ministries are based upon the grace of God which unveiled our eyes so that we could see spiritually and opened up our ears so that we could hear spiritually.
When you think about election, think about God’s sovereign choice, and always remember that it is very dangerous to separate His sovereign choice from His righteousness, 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.
Because 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 phenomina.
Point 1. Introduction and Definition. Election is the expression of the sovereign will of God in eternity past before the universe existed and before mankind lived on planet earth.
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?”
Peter does not say “to those who have faith,” but he says “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours,” meaning that the faith to believe and even to learn is a gift from God.
Anything God gives is given by means of grace which means we can never take credit for what He gives because grace says that what God gives to man, He gives by means of grace which takes away any system of works.
GAL 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.
EPH 2:9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
ROM 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
“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.
Verse 10 actually says to make sure, certain or stablized concerning is calling and election.
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.
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.
Prin-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.
When God elected you before the foundation of the world, (EPH 1:3-4), He not only elected you to be saved but He also chose you or elected to have the opportunity to have His highest and best with blessings tailored just for you.
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.
Those who produce divine good, ROM 2:10. Those who are persecuted, MAT 5:11-12. Those who suffer un-deservingly, 2TI 2:12.
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.
PSA 31:19, How great is Thy goodness, Which Thou hast stored up for those who fear Thee, Which Thou hast wrought for those who take refuge in Thee, Before the sons of men!
MAT 25:34, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Spiritual failure is brought in the scriptures such as in MAT 7:26-27; building upon the wrong foundation.
MAT 7:26 “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.
MAT 7:27 “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 the work that God has given the believer the opportunity to perform (equal privilege, equal opportunity).
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 reason 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.
He said this to the one described in 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 4:1-2, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 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.
Thirs 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.