True Grace III

Review: Seducing Spirits, True Grace, Limits of Grace

I.                   ALREADY BUT NOT YET.

Many stumble because they don’t understand the biblical teaching of principal and possession. Another way to express the same principle is already but not yet.  As believers we must consider multiple dimensions of reality. Jesus declared the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (here). We belong to a spiritual kingdom but we live in earthly reality. This dynamic causes the dichotomy of already but not yet. For Example:

1.   The Kingdom is now (Luke 17:21), but it’s also not yet (Luke 22:30).

2.   We are already saved (Romans 10:9-10), yet we are still being saved (1 Corinthians 3:15)

3.   The hour has already come (1 Peter 4:7), yet the hour is still future (John 5:25)

4.   I am sanctified (1 Corinthians 1:2), yet I am still being sanctified (2 Timothy 2:21).

5.   I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) but I await resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:35–44)

6.   We are already seated in heavenly places with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6), but at present we are living in earthly bodies, because of which we groan (2 Corinthians 5:2)

7.   We are already adopted as sons (Romans 8:15), but for now, we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption (Romans 8:23-24)

8.   We are already redeemed (Ephesians 1:7) and we already have the Spirit, but at present the Spirit “is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (v. 14 NIV)

9.   So grace is both the virtue that saved me as a free gift and that governs me throughout the process of ongoing sanctification. But it never erases my free will or the call to be a faithful steward.

II.                 WHEN YOU SIN YOU NEED TO REPENT.

Repentance is a change of mind evidenced by change of behavior.

2 Corinthians 7:8-10

⁸ For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. ⁹ Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

2 Corinthians 12:21

²¹ lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness, which they have practiced.

Revelations 2:3-5

³ and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. ⁴ Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

Matthew 3:7-8

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

III.              SANCTIFICATION / HOLINESS IS 3 PHASE.

1.   We are Sanctified.

1 Corinthians 1:2

² To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

Hebrews 10:10

¹⁰ By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

2.   We must Grow in and Strive for Practical Sanctification /Holiness.

1 Thessalonians 4:4-5

³ For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: ⁴ That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.

1 Thessalonians 4:7

⁷ For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

²³ And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

3.   We still await Ultimate Sanctification.

Philippians 3:12

¹² Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 1:13

¹³ Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 John 3:2-3

² Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

IV.          ALTHOUGH WE ARE BORN AGAIN OUR LIFE IS NOT ALWAYS PLEASING TO GOD.

1 Thessalonians 4:1; Ephesians 4:30; Hebrews 12:5-8; 2 Corinthians 6:16 – 7:1

                   Ephesians 5:8-10

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

2 Corinthians 13:5

⁵ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. ⁶ But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

Colossians 1:9-10

⁹ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, ^vbeing fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.