2Corinthians 8:7
The Graces of God (2)
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I laid the foundation for this message last Sunday night. Let me just review
the highlights:
Phi 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure.
God works.
God works according to His plan.
God works to bring Himself glory.
The Bible calls God working GRACE.
Grace is like a river.
Grace is strong like a river.
Those who resist grace will only hurt themselves.
Grace will take us to where God wants us to be.
This verse tells us that the River Grace has been tributaries; that is, grace is
made up of many smaller graces. Paul lists some here (i.e. faith, knowledge,
diligence, love, giving). It is important for us to not only see the big picture
(grace) but for us to see the smaller tributaries (graces). Why? Because unless
we see the small graces, we may not respond well to them.
Tonight, I want to start talking to you about some of the many graces God uses to
direct us to the place He wants us to be.
I. Truth
A. Of all the graces that I may mention, truth is one of the most
important.
1. Why?
2. Because truth is God communicating with us.
a. Anything God says is truth.
b. God can’t say anything that is not truth.
c. Now, everything that is true may not be a direct revelation
from God; but every direct revelation from God will be truth.
B. It is of the most extreme importance that every child of God hear from
God. There are so many reasons that we need to hear from God that I
don’t think I could name them all. However, I think that most of the
reasons would fall into three categories.
1. Hearing from God is what feeds our souls.
a. I have been speaking a lot about worship lately.
b. Worship is adoring, magnifying, loving on Jesus.
c. The human spirit can not worship very well without hearing from
God.
(1) You can go to church but church is not worship until God
speaks.
(2) You can sing songs but songs are not worship until God
speaks.
(3) You can read the Bible, listen to a sermon, talk religion,
and most every other spiritual act you can name but it
does not stir the heart, feed the soul, or lift the
spirit until God speaks.
d. It has been awhile since some have had a real experience with
God.
(1) It may be that you have developed a wrong attitude or
behavior towards truth.
(2) If you want to be feed, lifted, and stirred, you must
respond properly to truth.
2. Hearing from God puts us in the place we are supposed to be.
a. Truth gives knowledge.
b. Knowledge gives wisdom.
(1) That is, knowledge gives us the ability to see things as
God sees them.
(2) Suddenly, our point of view changes.
c. Wisdom gives understanding.
(1) We see how things work in the grand scheme of things and
we are finally able to make the proper decisions.
(2) The light finally comes on.
(3) Once we have knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, we
can start standing on the correct side of the issues.
d. Every issue has at least two sides to stand on and some many
more.
e. Truth gets us to the right side of the issues.
(1) Remember, grace carries us to where we are supposed to be.
(2) Truth puts us in the place of God’s blessing and not God’s
cursing.
(3) With truth as our guide, we will always be on God’s side.
3. Hearing from God also gives tools to us to help us.
a. There are three TRUTH tools that God has made available to His
children to help them do the right thing.
(1) Truth gives us commandments.
(2) Truth gives precepts.
(3) Truth gives methods.
b. There are many other tools that God has made available to us,
but these three belong to every person who will receive God’s
truth.
C. How do we get truth from God?
1. I have said often that God communicates with us through two main
mediums.
a. The Bible
b. The Holy Spirit
2. Sadly, both of these sources must come through a human filter to
get to us.
a. The Christian life would be so much easier if we could just
plug our spirit directly into God.
(1) We cannot.
(2) Everything spiritual is subject to our human filtering
system.
b. For example, we read the Word of God or listen to it being
spoken and preached, but our human mind filters it.
(1) Some things our mind just doesn’t hear.
(2) Some things our mind hears but doesn’t think is important
enough to dwell on.
c. What about the Holy Spirit? He is inside us so He can speak to
our spirit directly without going through the human mind.
(1) And He does. That is why sometimes you something is right
or wrong without knowing why.
(2) That is true, but then we face the question, "Is that
God’s Spirit speaking to me or is that my spirit
speaking?"
3. Frankly, this difficulty makes it very hard for us to get God’s
message.
a. What are we to do?
b. We must use both mediums together.
(1) The Word of God has little effect in our life with the
Holy Spirit.
(2) The Holy Spirit has little credibility in our life without
the Word of God.
c. But both used together magnifies the ministry of the other.
D. That leads us to another issue.
1. What kind of relationship do you have with the Word of God?
a. Do you read the Bible?
b. Do you listen to it as you read it?
c. Do you obey what it says?
2. What kind of relationship do you have with the Holy Spirit?
a. Do you talk to the Holy Spirit?
b. Do you listen to Him?
c. Do you think of the Holy Spirit as a Person, as God, or do you
think of Him as a force or influence?
d. Do you think of the Holy Ghost at all or do you make all of
your decisions based on what you can reason?
3. You cannot get to the truth without the Word of God and the Holy
Spirit.
4. Without truth your soul cannot feed,
you cannot get the tools you need for life,
and you will not get to the right side of the issues.
II. Faith
A. A grace that goes with truth is faith.
1. Faith is one of those unique graces in that it is both a grace and
a response.
a. Interestingly, it is mentioned in Paul list of graces
\\#2Cor 8:7\\.
b. As a grace, it is what God does. Remember, grace is God
working.
c. As a response, it what we must do.
2. How can it be both?
a. I take it that God is working in us even when it is up to us to
take the next step.
b. Perhaps you have heard of the term "totally depraved"?
c. It means we are wicked to the place that we cannot do right on
our own.
d. To some extent, we are, so God has to help us do right even
when it is our choice to do it.
B. One of the most important and most talked about graces in the Bible is
faith.
1. We don’t normally think of it as a grace but it is.
2. God works on us, through us, and for us by our faith.
3. The word faith is mentioned 229 times in the New Testament.
4. Because faith is mentioned so often, we just think of it as a stand
along commodity, but it is actually a tool God uses to work on us.
C. The Bible tells us many things about faith.
1. It tells us that we cannot please God without faith.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
a. God changes us through grace.
b. Faith is a grace from God.
c. The more you believe God, the more God will work in your
life to change you.
2. It tells us that God can and will work through us according to our
faith.
Mt 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto
you.
a. What does that mean?
b. It means that if we will hear God on a topic, then believe God
about that topic, that God will be able to work in the lives
of others through us.
c. So faith is a ministry increaser.
D. How is faith related to the grace of truth?
1. Faith is knowing and believing the truth.
a. No one can have Bible faith in a thing unless God tells them
something.
b. Whatever God tells them is truth.
c. Once a person knows God’s truth, for it to do them any good,
they must believe it.
2. Believing the truth to the place that it changes you is faith.
a. I have said before and say again, "You and I cannot BELIEVE God
in to doing something."
b. Anything that we exercise our faith for must be something that
God desires to do in the first place.
c. However, there are things that God is willing to do but will
never do if we do not exercise faith for it to be done.
d. Truth is God telling us what He will do and faith is us
believing God to the place that our life is changed by it.
e. Having these two, truth and faith, will allow the mighty
promises of God to be carried out in us, through us, and for
us.
E. Sadly, the Bible also indicates that faith is waning.
Lu 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son
of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
1. Jesus never answered His question. It is one of many rhetorical
questions.
2. The fact that He asked it at all indicates the answer is NO.
3. I don’t know why.
a. Maybe it is because truth will be forsaken.
(1) So few Christians.
(2) So many false prophets and erroneous Bible translations
and interpretations.
(3) Because the very notion of absolute truth will simply
disappear.
b. Maybe it is because Christians will just quit believing in the
God of miracles.
c. Maybe it is because the atheists win.
(1) There is a new bread of atheism in the world today.
(2) It is called New Atheism.
(3) This is an aggressive form of atheism that not only
believes there is no God but that they have a duty to
vanquish any belief in God from the earth.
4. One thing is for certain, without faith, truth has no footing.
As I close, I remind you that I have question your standing in two areas.
1. What is your relationship to truth, specifically to the Bible and the Holy
Spirit?
2. What is your relationship to faith?
If you want to be moved further down the stream of life by the River Grace, you
must yield to truth and faith.
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