GROWING IN GRACE: And Knowledge!

TOPIC: Grace; growth, sanctification
TITLE: GROWING IN GRACE - & Knowledge!

TEXT: 2 Peter 3:18a

... grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

TRUTH CLAIM: Growth implies increase; and in this case not a growth that is attributed to man but to God.

Theologically there are two graces:

• Common grace is defined as “God’s unmerited favor to all mankind; He provides sunshine, rainfall, food, and clothing. (recall the Sermon on the Mount … fowl of the air, lilies of the valley) It also denotes God’s withholding of judgment (i.e., He has not been hindered from sentencing) and restraining sin (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
• Irresistible or efficacious grace is defined as divine love and mercy, bestowed freely for all people; involves God’s sovereign work in effectively calling some to salvation, those who know His voice will respond to His call.

Knowledge is learned familiarity, awareness, or understanding.

Grow in the grace and knowledge … not in one grace only, but in all of God’s graces.

INQUIRY: How should we grow?

I. GROW IN FAITH!

Grow in the foundation grace, faith. Believe the promises of God more firmly than before; our faith should be increasing in abundance, steadfastness, simplicity in our lives.

A. In abundance:

1. Dimensional: a great or plentiful amount.
2. Conceptual: fullness to overflowing: “My thoughts … are from the abundance of my heart.”
3. Practical: affluence; wealth.

B. In steadfastness:

1. Meaning fixed or unchanging,
2. as well as, firmly loyal or constant; unswerving.

C. In simplicity:

1. Definition: the property or quality of being simple, plain, undefiled.
2. Attributes:

a) an absence of luxury or showiness, of affectation or pretense, of sophistication or embellishment;
b) with clarity of expression.

II. GROW IN HUMILITY!

Thus, grow likewise in the character grace, humility. Endeavor to walk circumspectly, and know better of your own insignificance.

The Bible says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." [James 4:6]

We cannot consider the interests of others as more important than our own if we lack humility.

III. GROW IN PRAYER!

So grow also in the connecting grace, prayer. Christianity is a dependency relationship; being related to God and each other but unconnected is a contradiction.

As you grow downward in humility, try also to grow upward in prayer, gaining frequent entry to God.

Devote yourselves to prayer … [Col. 4:2]

… pray without ceasing [1 Thess. 5:17]

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. [James 5:16]

"… THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE UPON THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER." [1 Peter 3:12]

IV. GROW IN FELLOWSHIP!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the inter-cession of its members for one another or it collapses.”

Thus, grow further in the social grace, fellowship. Clear communication without intimate communion becomes a business transaction rather than a love relationship.

V. GROW IN LOVE!

Grow also in the ultimate grace, love. Pray that your love may be enlarged, be-coming more intense, becoming more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed.

But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. [1 Corinthians 13:13]
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God. [Psalms 42:1]

If you know the love of Jesus - as the hart pants for the water brooks, so will you pant after deeper drafts of His love.

Abide close by the Cross, and search the mystery of Jesus wounds; full apprehension of His love of us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.

VI. GROW IN KNOWLEDGE!

Moreover, grow in the practical voluntary grace, knowledge. May God the Holy Spirit make possible your growth “in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.”

To know Him is eternal life; to advance in the knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. Those who do not long to know more of the Savior, know nothing of Him.

And He answered [their question regarding the use of parables] and said to them,

"To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." [Matthew 13:11-13]

The one who resists growing in the knowledge of Jesus, resists the blessings of God.

If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.” Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven.

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE

[UNFINISHED] A missionary in Mexico relates how all the houses in the area had rebar sticking out of the top of the first story as if a second floor had been planned.

How this could have been was a mystery since the first stories were incapable of holding up another floor.

In Mexico a house is not taxable until it is finished, the rebar is proof the house is not finished.

We need to be sure we can carry a greater load and that we’ve built on a firm foundation … see if there is any rebar coming out of your head.

Whoever has sampled the wine of God’s grace will thirst for more. For although His grace is sufficient, it is such a sufficiency that the thirst is not appeased but all the more intensified.

So don’t be content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Endeavor to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, and in His future royal advent.

Morning & Evening

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