Principle and Principles of Grace
Mike Doyle · Nov 4, 2007
Principles of Grace, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926043435458

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

In case you don't know, this is a class on grace. And we had worked our way down in lesson 12 through about to question 5. We talked about in 4, what is to be the motivation for everything that we do? And the motivation is to be the glory of God, to manifest His glory. And we talked about why the glory of God is so important. And that's because he did and does everything to manifest his own glory, his glory being the sum total of his intrinsic attributes. And as they are manifested, like in his creation, and then as particularly through believers, as we're conformed to the image of Christ, we manifest his glory. And so everything is centered in Christ, which is God's purpose.

And then we talked about why is behavior under grace an individual decision when my behavior is not covered by a specific command? We'll talk a little bit later today about the Mosaic Law and things like that and how it fits in. But why is behavior under grace an individual decision when it's not covered in commands?

I think I showed you. If I didn't, I've got it here. I've got a Harry Schaeffer, the infamous Harry Schaeffer's refrigerator list, which is he, with the help of your dad, went through the New Testament and took out all of the commands. How are you doing with these? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Twelve and a half pages.

And these are the commands in the New Testament. This is not the Mosaic system. This is the commands in the Gospels and the Epistles. And what we've discovered in studying grace is that not every situation in your life is covered by specific commands, right?

Give me an example of one that wouldn't be. Can I go to soccer playoff games? How about that one? Can I drink coffee? Can I have a beer? That kind of thing. Thou shalt not drink Budweiser. Is that in the epistles anywhere? No. Individual decisions. We have the liberty as believers to make decisions about our behavior that are not covered under the specific commands of the word. So rather than gauge your behavior on specific commands, how do you determine what to do?

What do you what would you call it? What would you like? That's just one of them. What would you call it? It's a principle. Right. You make decisions about your behavior based on biblical principles. And so we had just gotten to the principles. The real question always is. Am I growing in the likeness of Christ by whatever I do? Right? Wouldn't that be the ideal question? Because the more that I grow into the likeness of Christ, the more I manifest as glory. See the logic there? So we've been talking for several weeks. There are five basic principles under which we would determine any activity that we would engage in as believers. The first one was, what? This is probably the most crucial one.

And the first one is, does it master me? Paul said, I can do all things, but I won't do anything that masters me. I'm at liberty to do anything, but does it master me? And we gave a bunch of decisions, or not decisions, a bunch of examples about what someone could do that would master them. The obvious ones are like addictions, but you can be mastered by golf. You can be mastered by being a workaholic. You can be mastered by sports. You can be mastered by a lot of things.

The second one was, does it cause my brother to stumble? Now, remember we talked about the difference between whether I cause my brother to stumble or whether I just offend him. Now, last night at the soccer game, I probably offended a few people by the way I was cheering for my team. And I was taking the ref a task. And some of the people in this audience were looking at me like, this is an elder? So there's a difference between causing someone to stumble and just offending them.

How do you cause somebody to stumble? How would you define that? Have doubts. OK. It's a little more than that. Add to that. Cause them to sin. I cause them to revert back to some sinful behavior that they've had before or even some sinful behavior behavior maybe they hadn't done before. But I have caused that to happen. Now, if I cause you to stumble, that's my sin, right? How about if I offend you?

You mean political correctness is out of the window? Yeah, I think the Bible says, look, if you're offended, let's say that you are offended by people who drink black coffee because it has caffeine in it. And so you make it a point that everybody around you needs to know that you're offended if any of you drink black coffee. Should you stop drinking black coffee?

How many think you should? How many think, nah, come on. No, that's your problem. That's your problem. But stumbling is a different thing. So there's caretaking. And the primary determining factor, I think, between stumbling and just offending people, I mean, you don't want to go around offending people and saying, hey, that's your problem. It's not that.

The third principle is, do I love? What am I doing? Whatever I'm doing, do I do it because I love? Because I don't want to do anything, stumbling or otherwise, if I love you, that would cause you to be in any way being a barrier to you of your spiritual growth, no matter what it is.

Although Paul says he's got the liberty to do everything, he would modify his liberty. An example he gave, we talked about last week, that he had the right to take a wife. Didn't he? He had the right to have the people he was ministering to in Corinth to help support him. But he said he would not exercise the right for support because it would somehow, in his mind, hinder the furtherance of the gospel. So he didn't take any money. See that? He had a right to, but he didn't because he loved them. The fourth principle is, does it edify? What's the word edify mean? Make better to build up. Does my behavior cause you to be edified? What's that? It can, or maybe it doesn't.

And the last principle is, is the one we just covered a minute ago, is whatever I'm doing, is it motivated by glorifying God only? Is that why I'm doing what I'm doing, or am I doing it for me? The example I gave last week was, It's important for us to keep our bodies under control and keep them fit and keep them in good shape. Primarily because, and only because, they are the vehicle God uses to spread the gospel, right? I mean, that's what he uses. So if I'm going out on a three-mile run and going to the gym every other day, why am I doing it? What's my motivation for doing that? For you, it's looking good. Or am I doing it because it's in some way it's glorifying to God that he can use my body, he can use whatever I have for his use.

Okay. So, question, are we to always obey specific commands? Every time? What do you think? I gotta know. I like a guy who says no when it comes to commands. How many think, yeah, whenever there's a command in the word of God, especially in the epistles and in the gospels, you know, I don't get to pick and choose. I have to obey them. Everybody agree with that or not? How many think we do? How many think, nah, we can kind of think them over. If we don't like the command, we can try to apply the principles.

The answer is you have to obey the commands. We're to obey every one of them explicitly. Now, trust me, it isn't. That's not me. What's that? Well, written in the word, and we're going to distinguish here in a few minutes between commands that were in the Old Testament system and commands that are in the New Testament, because we're to obey it like these commands taken out of the New Testament. We're to obey them explicitly every time. OK, now.

The commands are based on, again, principles, the will of God in the context of his grace. Every command that God gives us in the New Testament is his will. And they're in the context of his grace. And they're given. in the Lord Jesus Christ, so they're given to the new life in Christ, which you have, and they're revealed in the entire Word of God. So those are the four basic things that the New Testament commands come under the heading of.

They're the will of God. They're in the context of grace. What's the definition of grace? I've only asked this question 20 times. What's the definition of grace? It's the unlimited and the unmerited blessings from God based on what? On the totally adequate work of Christ. So, if we're given a command, it is the will of God, it's in the context of His grace, it's totally unlimited and unmerited, it's given in the Lord Jesus, so it's given based on His completed work, and it's revealed in the entire Word of God. Okay? Alright with that?

Now, taking into consideration the individual growth of a believer? Are we allowed to make mistakes under the commands? What if I, let's see here, let's pick one. What if I just am having trouble doing every act in love? I read 1 Corinthians 13 11 and it says to mend, I'm supposed to mend my ways or greet one another the brethren with the Holy Kiss, or live by the Spirit, or be not conceited. Those are commands. Can I mess those up and not get condemned? What do you think? Sure you can. What's interesting is that you can't grow. I don't think you can grow unless you're allowed to make mistakes. You see that? And trust me, they're big ones. You can make really huge mistakes.

How about if I think I know how to apply the principle, but I just don't want to? Well, we're going to have an inquisition around here and out the door you're going. Are you allowed to even go that far under the Word of God, under grace, and say, I just don't want to. So I ain't gonna. So what happens in that case? Loss of fellowship. Because I don't want to is really a sin. So here you are in the I don't want to mood. You've decided you ain't gonna. Right? Now what? And I'm not going to change my mind or repent or do any of that. Now what happens? What's that? Child. That's right. And who is the implementer of the child training? God himself.

So here it comes, you know. I mean, what's interesting about the Lord is that he, you know, those two great words in Greek, there's rasmos and dakimos, and they're in James, and it talks about that we are tempted to failure by our own strong desires. Tempted to failure I hope I get this right, is the dhakymas word, which means that my sin nature tempts me to sin so that I can be condemned and fail. But in the middle of all of that, God intercepts what I'm doing and implements the word parasmas, where he takes that trial and suffering and he uses it to approve me. Isn't that cool? I mean, that's grace. That's how grace functions. So you are allowed to make mistakes. You are allowed to sin. It doesn't give you a license. That's not what I mean.

Or you may have the viewpoint, in my judgment, here's the way a thing ought to turn out. And it doesn't because it wasn't based on Scripture, but on human opinion. Let's say that you've decided that that, well, I've got this circumstance in my life and I've already determined that it should work out. And I base it on good, solid human principles. And it doesn't work out that way. Now, what have you made of it? I've learned a new human principle. So it isn't a godly principle.

And I have. made all my judgments and conducted all my actions based on what I thought was the right thing to do. I made a mistake. Either I was ignorant of the biblical principles, or I just purposely went against them, and you know it isn't going to work. I'm allowed to make those kinds of mistakes. I don't have license to do it, but I'm gonna.

I mean, you and I both know that spiritual growth, being conformed to the image of Christ, It's more about what not to do, maybe, is the way to say it. Is it more important to be teachable or to be rigidly set in my doctrine? I mean, it's a fairly easy answer, but are we teachable or am I rigid about what I believe and what I know? And I'm not moving. What do you think? Depends on the subject. All right, I'll give you one. I'm a premillennial dispensationalist. All right. Which means that I believe. Isn't that good? Yeah.

That means that I believe that the rapture is going to come before the tribulation. And because I'm dispensational, basically what I believe is, is that Israel and the church are totally separate entities and you can't blend them together. the Mosaic Law and all of Israel. We are not an extension of Israel. And you are of the covenant persuasion. You think Israel and the church are going to blend together and you think now the church is going to go through the tribulation and by going through the tribulation we're not going to get raptured out of here until afterwards.

And I'm rigid on my side and you're rigid on your side. Is that okay? I'm right, by the way. I have a t-shirt that says I'm right. You're wrong. Any questions? Can you function like that? Sounds okay to me, especially if you're dispensational. That sounds okay to me. Why not? If you don't think you can, what's wrong with that viewpoint, if anything? I'm out of the word of God and I'm not teachable. Right now. So it's really important, I think. What am I proceeding to? I'm proceeding to. To be established in Christ, to be conformed to his image, I remember a guy said to me one time. I probably shouldn't mention his name.

He used to come to this church a long time ago when he moved to California. He was an elder in another church. It was a Presbyterian church, I think so. He got really frustrated with being an elder and going to meetings and stuff. He said to me one day, he said, Mike, most people are more interested in being Presbyterians than they are being Christians. That was a really profound statement. because they were rigid on Presbyterianism. They were not teachable via the Word of God. Do you see that? So we have a tendency to, well, that's the way we do it around here.

And we all, you know, and we have to agree on everything. And we all must teach this. We all must say the same thing. No, no. But I think we all must be teachable. You agree with that? Under grace, I think we all must be teachable. Now, what will the Word of God, if we are teachable via the Word of God, what will the Word of God teach us? Teach us the truth. Let's look at some verses. Let's go to Romans 12, 1 and 2.

Rather than read the whole thing, what I'm after is about the last phrase of two. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or reasonable service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Purpose. that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. I want you to notice a couple of things here.

One is that the will of God is enshrined with the mercies of God. It's the mercies first. The first 11 chapters of Romans are taken up with the mercies and the grace of God. Once the center of God's mercies and grace are revealed and established, God beseeches us to realize or to be wise about his will in grace.

See that? The entire written word of God is able to make us wise with reference to the salvation and spiritual growth that we have in Christ. So this verse tells us that there's grace in play so that in every one of us individually we might prove out or demonstrate or show forth what the will of God is.

The second verse I'd have you look at is John 5.39 and this goes to part of the same thing.

John 5.39 says the Lord Jesus was standing in front of the Pharisees and they were opening up their books and he said, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. But it is these that testify of me. So the second principle is that the Lord Jesus Christ declares himself to be the central object and the theme of all written revelation.

All of it from Genesis 1-1 to the end of Revelation. Eternal life comes by divine grace alone, and that grace of God comes only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is found in Christ alone. So God, to prove out what the will of God is, is centered in the Lord Jesus Christ, right? The third scripture I want you to look at is 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work." So the entire Word of God from Genesis 1-1 forward is profitable to all believers in all of its parts, which includes the Law of Moses. How does that fit under grace? which we'll talk about in a second. We're not under the Mosaic Law as a part of the written word, but why is it still profitable to us?

If we live under grace, which we do, Romans 6.14 says you're not under law but grace, then how could the study or the spending any time in the Mosaic Law be profitable to us? It describes God's character. It does, that's exactly what it does. It doesn't give you, as believers, the rules to live by, but it is profitable for us to know what the Mosaic system is.

It's profitable for us to read the Old Testament, is it not? If the will of God is revealed in His written word, which it is, then we have to understand that that's where we're going to find it. If we also understand that it is in the context of grace, then it will change your viewpoint as you read the Old Testament. This is my own personal opinion. I'm going to tell you now, but do it whatever way God leads you to do it.

If you study and spend time in Paul's epistles, and then you go back and read the Old Testament, it makes a ton more sense to you than if you were to start reading the Bible from Genesis 1-1 forward. Because you would see how gracious God has been, even through the Old Testament. And you would see it from a perspective of grace, rather than coming up the line, historical line, as God is dealing with people, especially when you get to the Mosaic system, and here come the 624 laws and rules and regulations and all that kind of thing, and all of the failures. If you understand grace and go read the Old Testament, it's much more expansive than if you just started the other way.

That's my opinion. The Word of God can be opened up to you by the Spirit any way you want to read it. The context of grace is the only environment in which the will of God can be most fully realized in the believer's life. Do you agree with that statement? in the context of grace is the only environment in which the fullness of the will of God can be realized in a believer's life. What do you think?

Because I nodded yes, you said yes. Yeah, no, that's right. Because God is gracious and he operates in that system. Any questions about that? I would have thought you'd have some questions, especially when I mentioned the mosaic system. Being a dispensationalist, I'm going to talk about the mosaic law. Question nine.

Is life under grace and harmony with human rules? An example, am I to obey all the ordinances of the state of Colorado, the country of the United States, city of Denver? What do you think? Is that consistent with living under grace? 1 Peter 2.13 says, Be subject to every human ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, etc. So, are you saying to me that our traffic laws came from the throne of God? 65 miles an hour came from the throne of God? Yeah, it came from the federal government or it came from the state. but they have been given the divine authority by God for the good of the society. So, you know, I mean, we sort of laugh about this, but the next time you get stopped for speeding, you can say, now, look, I'm a Christian and I live under grace.

And, you know, you have to let me go because you can't give me a ticket because I live under grace. No, sorry, you're going to pay the fine, probably double. So do certain commands overlap under grace with the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic system? Answer, yeah, they all do, except what's the one of the Ten Commandments that doesn't overlap? Come on, it's an easy one. No? What's the one that doesn't overlap? How come you're here today and not yesterday? Yeah, keep holy the Sabbath day. It's the only one that doesn't overlap. All the others do. I mean, would you say that, well, because I live under grace, I can lie? Can I steal your stuff? Can I commit adultery? Can I, you know, not honor my parents?

No, they overlap. All the commands of the mosaic system are in the commands and the principles needed for spiritual life and growth. What's the difference? Why wouldn't I say, well, gee, if all the commands are there except for the one, I'll switch from Saturday to Sunday to go to church. So all I need to do is learn these rules and keep them and I'll be in good shape.

What's wrong with that, if anything? What's that? You won't be able to. Well, that's one thing. But gee, God commands me. If he commands me, does he? Is he just pulling my chain and saying, well, I'm commanding you to do this stuff? Ha, ha, ha. Good luck. I get to condemn everybody because you can't do it. I mean, it also has been pointed as to the glory of His grace because of the fact that it couldn't So, yeah. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's a problem.

If I'm going to live under the law, can I pick and choose how many I want to keep and disregard the rest? I can't do that because there's plenty of passages to say if I break one law, I've broken it all. Well, OK, I'm not under the law. I'm under my own law. came up with my own set of rules.

How about those? You know, God is very gracious. He says, OK, we'll judge you based on your rules. How's that? See, the Christian life is not lived, I don't think. The issue is not doing right and wrong. But it has more to do with under the relationship in which we serve. If we live under a coded system, The law serves to condemn us for being sinful. If you're freed from the law, then you don't live by a coded system anymore.

You live how? How do you live? You live freely, right? You live freely. If you were under a law system, lots of those laws you would be trying to do with a lot of angst. But the great liberty of the Christian life is that we are free to do what God has called us to do. We have the resurrected life of Christ in us that functions and operates on grace alone. And we are free to live that way willfully. Do you think that in the resurrected life of Christ, that the mind of Christ resists obedience to Him?

What do you think? Do you think that the resurrected life of Christ that you are and that you have ever even has a thought about not complying with what God has called you to do? Never. Never. And if you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, has he ever asked us to do anything or commanded us to do anything that's impossible? No. Because the life of Christ is lived totally in dependence on the power of the Spirit of God.

All right. Example. If our children won't obey us, let's say that, you know, in Ephesians it says, Ephesians 5 says, children obey your parents. Well, let's say they refuse to do that. What will they not know What would they not know how to do as they grow as believers? Let's say that your child says, I'm not going to obey you, mom and dad, anymore.

And you say, well, there isn't much I can do about that. Is there something you can do about that? I think there is. I think there is. And here's the danger. If they don't learn to submit to you when It comes time to submit to the Lord. Are they going to know how to do that? Not a chance. Not a chance. If you want them to learn about submitting to the Lord as they get older, then submission to you is an important thing. But it puts a lot of pressure on you to be a person that It's not an under-your-thumb kind of thing.

When God calls me to present my body a living sacrifice, as I said, He does it in the context of His grace and His mercy. Right? But He expects me to do it. Right? It's not a thing that, ugh, okay. And if I do it, I take credit for it. It isn't that.

How about wives, submit yourself to your own husbands. How about that rule, command? Is it because all of you husbands have been given divine judgment? You are real spiritual heavyweights, every one of you? It's because you husbands never made a mistake?

Why do you wives submit yourselves to your husbands? Why do you do it? Well, maybe you don't do it. Tell me why you don't. Why would a wife, a Christian wife, submit herself to her husband? Just a basic reason. Yeah, the word says to do that. It's actually a principle in a system that God has set up on the earth. Now, you know, I've had women tell me, well, I don't need to submit to my husband. I mean, the Bible says clearly that we're all the same in Christ. There's neither the male or female, we're all one in Christ.

I don't need to submit to that bozo. I'm married to, but I'm commanded to. So you say, well, how do I do that? How do you do that? Just because he said to. Just because. Think so? How about, so you say, well, OK, I'll submit to you, husband, if. Is that legitimate? Is the if OK? What do you think? That's right.

And what's interesting is right after that verse is if you go down through Ephesians 5, you'll find that most of the illness is put on the husband. that he used to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Now how are you guys doing with that one? Everybody living up to that standard? It got kind of quiet in here, men.

You're to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Both of those commands cannot be carried out without the energy of the Spirit of God and without some sort of intimacy with Christ and some sort of spiritual growth. You cannot do that on your own. I don't think you can. I never met anybody who thought they could.

But it's the system God has set up for a marriage. And if those principles aren't being applied, then the marriage won't work very well, right? What's interesting about God's principles is that if we try to function as a society or in a marriage or in a family outside of God's principles, whatever we're trying to do won't work very well, will it? I think we're all pretty convinced about that. If a child doesn't obey a parent, Who's at fault? I think so. Do you agree with that? Does everybody agree with that? Yeah, I think so. Question 12.

Are we to obey them that have the authority over us in the church? Hebrews 13, 17 says obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them. Okay, get out your wallets. Here's the reason. For they watch in behalf of your souls, as they shall give an account. Is that serious? Anybody want to come up here and take my place? You can have the microphone. Because we've got to go give an account later. You want to do that? They may do this with joy and not with grief. for this is unprofitable for you.

The authority is from God to whoever rules over you. That's where it comes from. And he's assigned some with authority and some with responsibility to watch over souls. If anybody aspires to be an elder or a deacon, if that isn't their attitude, then they're not qualified. I don't think. That they have to understand that they have been given responsibility to watch over souls. That's what they're there for. And they're going to answer to God for that.

Now that's almost too scary to even want to go take the job. Don't you think? I mean, you guys all have the responsibility to pray for me, but I've got to go at some point and answer to God about my care for you. I stay up nights worrying about that sometimes. That's right. Does an elder always have the correct ruling because he has a direct pipeline from God? No, I don't. They don't? No. Elders make mistakes. They live under grace like everybody else. That's right. That's exactly right. And you know what?

If there's any group of people that are teachable, it better be the elders. They're the ones that better be the most teachable. And actually, what the coolest thing about being a teacher is, a Bible teacher is, you get to spend more time than most other people in the Word of God, getting ready for the classes that you teach. That is such a blessing. That makes it almost worth it.

How am I doing time-wise? Is it appropriate to look for and study the principles that we've talked about in the Word? The answer is obviously yes. You never look to the law or human principles to decide about your behavior. The Word of God, you always look there because all of the Word of God is profitable to you and to every believer and it's served to center our attention in Christ. The Word of God affixes our attention on the person of Christ. It fixes our attention on the love of Christ. It directs our attention on the work of Christ. And it opens up our eyes to the words and the commands of Christ.

And it teaches us the totality of the grace under which we live. When I stand up here and say, well, the definition of grace is the unlimited and unmerited blessings from God. How are you ever going to find out? how unlimited and how unmerited those blessings are if you never look in the Word of God.

You're not going to find out about them because that's where they are. In the context of grace, what are we to do under grace? I've got a whole list of them. See how many you can get. I'll check them off as we go. In the context of grace, what are we supposed to do? according to the Word of God. I'll give you some hints.

2 Peter 3.18. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to grow in grace. Check that one off.

How about 1 Peter 5.12? Your thumbs aren't very fast today. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to stand in grace.

It's interesting that God tells us in 2 Peter 3.18 that we're not to grow into the grace, but we're to grow while we're in the grace. See the difference? We're not growing towards grace. We're already in it and we're to stay in it and to grow in it. The spiritual growth of the believer is done in the confines and in the operating principle of grace alone.

And so 1 Peter 5.12 says, stay where you are, is really what he's saying. You're already in grace. Just stay there. Don't move out. You know, Paul says that in Galatians. Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made you free. Just stay where you are. Don't move out of where you are.

Acts 20, 32. I hear pages roughly. Maybe I ought to hand out all the verses and then you can be ready. Acts 20, 32. We're to be built up in grace. Isn't that interesting? So we're to grow in grace, we're to stand in grace, and we're to be built up in grace.

2 Timothy 2.1. Now if you, as you're sitting here thinking, if you come up with one, shout it out. I'll check it off and we won't have to look it up. We're made strong in grace. Isn't that interesting? Grace is the thing that makes you strong. You thought it was going to be law, didn't you? But it's grace that makes you strong.

Back to 1 Peter 5.10.

First Peter 5.10. What's that? Perfect. What does it mean to be made perfect? His image. What's perfection mean? What's that?

Maturity. If I were to say to you, all of a sudden it started echoing. Somebody turned it up. Oh. Can't move around. If I were to say to you, you come over to my house and in a week's time I'm going to make you perfect, what would happen at the end of the week? Is that the first one? What would be true of you at the end of the week? What's that? I'd be perfect. Okay. Disappointed. Yeah, you would be, especially if you came over to my house. What does perfection mean? It's a really interesting term.

Every single thing that God has done, everything that he created, was designed to accomplish a certain uniformity. When Adam was created, he was created innocent, right? Was he perfect? The Bible doesn't say it was. It wasn't perfect. But the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect. In other words, perfection means that you have come into the full realization of what you were designed to be. So what are you all designed to be? What are you all designed to be? To conform to the image of Christ. The design is to be like Christ. The Word of God is able to accomplish that task.

Now, if you're like me, you look at that and you think, there isn't enough time in the eons of eternity for that to ever happen. At the rate that we're going, I'm going to live and die 4,000 times before that ever happens, right? How does that conformity happen from a biblical standpoint? How does it happen? What's that? positionally we are, but we're talking about conditionally now.

How am I going to be conformed to the image of Christ? Totally. Perfection. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. It's going to happen here? Not going to happen here. But what happens, when is it going to happen then? Before then. Even before then. Hal Malloy is perfect. How did he get perfect? This is in nature. This is in nature? Well, that's the process of elimination. But how did he get perfect? Because he beholds the glory of the Lord Jesus face to face. That's what makes you perfect. When you see him as he is, you're going to be just like him.

So that's why the Word of God says in 2 Corinthians 3.18 that conformity to the image of Christ is by beholding the glory of the Lord.

Only done in the Word. probably run out of time we find freedom from the dominion of sin in the word Romans 6 14 we find complete liberty from legal bondage Galatians 5 1 through 4 we also find sufficient motive for doing the will of God 2nd Corinthians 8 9 we find the enabling power for the Christian life that's the Spirit of God 2nd Corinthians 12 9 we also find recovery when we fall Hebrews 4.16. We find assurance as to the final outcome of the Christian life.

Acts 20.32. So the issue is, in the Word of God is everything that the believer needs to carry out the will of God under grace.

It's all there. And what you find is, as believers begin to grow, their love for the Word of God grows along with them because that's where the life, and that's where the context of the grace under which they live exists. That's where it is. It's not, you know, sitting down with somebody else and trying to come up with some sort of earthly or human viewpoint that would help me relax. That's not it.

To grow, to stand, to be built up, to be made strong, to be perfected, for me to live with the proper motive is all done and all carried out and all learned in the Word of God. I'm going to read a quote to you from a man named Alvin McLean. As believers, living under grace, we need to have our minds baptized and immersed in the epistles. becoming more and more familiar with the great grace-oriented commands that are found therein. Yes, we are certainly to obey God's commands, but the commands which God has given us are based upon the believer's glorious position in a crucified and risen Christ. These commands do not flow out of Mount Sinai, but they flow out of Mount Calvary.