Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 109. The antagonism of the world system toward believers and Bible doctrine, Part 12.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
1. Verse 18 - because the kosmos system hates Christ.
2. Because once a person is in the plan of God, as a believer priest, they no longer belong to the world.
3. Verse 20 - the slave is not greater than His master.
4. JOH 15:21 - because the kosmos is ignorant of the plan of God.
All these things is a reference to Satan and the kingdom of darkness who are in the business of exalting the creature and opposing the creator.
The one thing that Satan is obsessed with opposing in the life of every believer is the grace of God.
JOH 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
PSA 92:5-6 How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep. A senseless man has no knowledge; Nor does a stupid man understand this:
PSA 94:8 Pay heed, you senseless among the people; And when will you understand, stupid ones?
JER 4:22 For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children, And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, But to do good they do not know.
Grace represents that which is limitless and measureless.
Grace is nothing less than the unlimited love of God expressing itself in measureless blessing.
Grace = favor.
The Old Testament identifies grace by the word favor.
Grace also means kindness, mercy.
Grace is the divine provision for mankind, before, during, and after salvation.
Grace can also be defined as undeserved blessing; therefore, grace is free, unmerited, and undeserving.
1. The divine policy in salvation for all mankind.
2. The divine policy for the Church-age believer which is totally grace as Royal Family of God.
a. Total depravity - you cannot earn anything from God under total depravity.
b. Total separation from God - there is no way He can bridge the gap.
c. Total helplessness - the unbeliever cannot do a thing to gain the recognition or approbation of God.
JOH 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
After salvation, God’s grace is extended to all believers in the PPOG.
Grace = all that God is free to do for mankind on the basis of the saving work of TLJC on the cross.
Grace = ALL that God is free to do for each Church-age believer without compromising His essence.
Grace is the genius of God directed toward the entire human race, believer and unbeliever.
1. Grace is not held back or withdrawn because of our failure.
Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human failure or sin.
PSA 95:10 they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.
LUK 23:34 “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Through the cross all questions of demerit have been banished and God is righteously free to exercise grace in every case.
2. Grace cannot be LESSENED because of failure or sin.
God cannot do less in grace for one who is sinful than He would have done had that one been less sinful.
Grace cannot be increased, for it is the expression of God’s infinite love, and grace cannot be diminished, for every limitation that human sin might impose on the action of a righteous God has through the cross been dismissed forever.
Grace does not mean that God ignores or overlooks sin; grace means that God has dealt with sin perfectly by means of His Son on the cross.
When you think of grace I want you to think of the freedom God has to express His love to all mankind.
3. Grace cannot incur or bring on a debt.
Grace must always remain unadulterated in its generosity and benefit.
Pure God, and nothing whatsoever to do with man.
Through grace, God is glorified and sinners are saved.
JOH 15:21 “All these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
What God does, He does in grace and therefore He bestows as a gift, and rightfully.
A benefit cannot be called a gift if it is paid for before, at the time, or after the gift is given.
Any attempt to compensate God or to pay Him back for whatever He does is totally incompatible with the grace of God.
GAL 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
All attempts to repay His gift, be they ever so sincere, serve only to frustrate His grace and lower the marvelous kindness of God to some form of creature credit. How faithfully we should serve Him - but never to repay Him.
Service is our means of expressing our love and devotion to Him, but it is not what we owe Him.
The grace of God is too often denied by well meaning attempts to compensate God for His benefits.
Salvation must be understood and treated as a gift from God and Christian service and faithfulness must be the expression of the believer’s love and gratitude to God.
JOH 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
Salvation is never conditioned on human faithfulness or on the promise of human faithfulness.
4. Grace is not something that God OWES the human race because of the cross.
The offer of salvation to the human race is not something that God owed the human race, nor is it something God had to do.
It is strictly a manifestation of the grace of God.
COL 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.
Answer - By grace, through faith.
The entire human race has been placed under the divine judicial sentence of sin.
It is obviously true that all men are sinners both by nature and practice.
All men have already been condemned; they are children of disobedience, EPH 2:2, not on the ground of their own sinfulness but on the ground of their federal headship in fallen Adam.
ROM 11:32 For God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all.
ROM 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;
GAL 3:22 But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
ROM 3:19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God;
5. Grace is never the overpayment of a debt or a reward for trying hard.
Grace is neither treating a person “as” he deserves, nor treating a person “better” than he deserves.
Grace is infinite love expressing itself in infinite goodness.
Divine grace is never decreased or increased; however, the experience of that grace depends on the believer’s fellowship with God.
6. Grace did not appear in the immediate divine dealings with the sins of the world.
Grace did not judge our sins; justice and righteousness did.
Not because God is gracious enough to excuse their sins, but because there is redemption through the blood of Christ.
COL 2:13 He has forgiven you all trespasses.
When God forgives absolutely and eternally, through the cross of Christ, He is acting as a judge, not a father with a father’s heart.
We call this judicial forgiveness.
Judicial forgiveness itself is not an act of grace but a judicial offer to all mankind from the righteousness and justice of God.
The forgiveness of God toward the sinner, then, is made possible only through the cross and never an act of immediate grace.
Forgiveness cancels every debt before God, whereas justification declares the sinner to be forever judicially righteous in the eyes of God.
Those acts which deal with human unworthiness and sin are “acts of justice” - including forgiveness, justification, death to the law, freedom from the law, and the whole new creation.
Those aspects of salvation wherein God is revealed as imparting and bestowing His benefits are “immediate acts of His grace.”
These include the gift of eternal life, the imputed righteousness of God, and all the blessings found in your escrow blessings.
This is one of the reasons why a believer “loses rewards” at the bema seat, 1CO 3:11-15.
7. Grace is not the issue in dealing with the sins of the saved.
He acts in strict faithfulness to His covenant and promise concerning forgiveness of sin.
Forgiveness of sin is based upon the righteousness and justice of God not the grace of God.
Grace = the uncompromised, unrestricted, unrecompensed loving favor of God toward sinners.
Grace is more than love; it is love which is absolutely free “to love.”
Grace depends upon who and what God is and never who and what man is.
Grace is God doing the work and man receiving what God has provided in a non-meritorious way.
Legalism or religion means man does the work and man gets the credit.
Satan hates when God gets the credit; it is creator-credit versus creature-credit.
Grace is needed in prayer,
HEB 4:16;
in undeserved suffering,
2CO 12:9-10;
in the release of divine power,
2TI 2:1;
in the stability for the believer,
1PE 5:12;
and to grow spiritually; 2PE 3:18.