Principle and Principles of Grace
Mike Doyle · Dec 16, 2007
Principles of Grace, No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926047281318

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

OK, the subject of this class is grace, in case you didn't know. And over the last several weeks, we've looked at several things and discovered several things. And I did a fill in the blank thing. So let's see how much you were paying attention. We're going to tell Jeremy how diligently you were listening.

The prescription for conduct under grace is what? Then that of and then that of what would you say that is on a hint? I'll give you a hint. The second one is the mosaic laws. So the prescription for the prescription for conduct under grace would be what? Then the mosaic law. Kingdom Law is right. What's the first one? The answer is much higher. The prescription for conduct under grace is much higher than that of the Mosaic Law and Kingdom Law. And we do know the difference between the two, Mosaic and Kingdom Law. He did a good job for that.

The divine enablement for conduct is none other than the infinite power of the indwelling easy wine. I have a class where we all say it at once. The prescription for conduct are addressed to men, only addressed to men what? The prescription for conduct for grace, who's it addressed to?

Mankind. No, it's not. It's not. It's only addressed to those who are born of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Does anybody outside the body of Christ live under grace? Live by the principle of grace? No, they don't. Only believers live by grace. Okay, for the position of the believer in the what? heavenlies, requires a walk consistent with the believer's citizenship in the heavenlies. So the walk of the believer has to be consistent with his position, right? If you are a heavenly person, then your conduct and your behavior needs to be consistent with who you are. Source is everything. Location, position is everything.

So scripture reveals of a manner of life. What do you think? A responsibility of a superhuman manner of life with a provided supernatural power for exact and perfect execution of conduct. So that's what we've learned the last couple of weeks. Number one, that the life to be lived under grace is high, higher than any other requirements ever put on man. It's superhuman.

But God expects them. God doesn't give us this provision for conduct under grace and say, now listen, you do the best you can, we'll grade on the curve, everything will be cool in the end. No, He expects us to live that way. And the reason he does is because he's given us his Spirit to enable us to live that way.

So no fair going to God and saying, I'm doing the best I can. That isn't good enough. Because the Spirit of God doesn't function based on the best he can. Right? So it kind of puts you in a dependent position, which is nothing wrong with that. So does the Word of God teach both conduct and enablement? Does the Word of God teach both of those things? What do you think? Yes or no or maybe? Sure it does.

There's a body of scripture that sets forth the character of conduct that is becoming the one who is already saved and safe in the grace of God. The epistles of Paul lay out specifically, and John and Hebrews, they lay out specifically a character of conduct that's becoming the believer. And also there are scriptures that lay out that set forth the fact that a life under grace is to be lived in sole dependence upon the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Those two principles are laid out in the epistles everywhere, everywhere. So all of the enabling verses that have to do with living the Christian life include all the details, all the instructions for a life of faith and a walk in the spirit.

There is not anything that we're going to encounter in the life of the believer under grace that has not already been covered in the Word of God. You'll never go to God and say, what about this? And why is that? Because remember we talked about the fact that the Word of God does not give us, as believers under grace, specific commands for everything, does it?

And we talked about stumbling and offending. So if you don't have a specific rule for a specific conduct, then what do you base your conduct on? Anybody other than Courtney? Principles. So we talked about, and we'll talk some more today about that. Your conduct is based on the principles set forth in the Word of God, not specific rules. we have an awful lot of liberty as believers and an awful lot of latitude as believers that other groups prior to us under law didn't have.

So among the commandments to believers are, now this is to demonstrate kind of how this believers are to, we're not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Anybody want to tell me how you do that? How do you not grieve the Holy Spirit? This isn't a suggestion, it's a command. You're not to frustrate Him in His work in you. So, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. How would you grieve the Spirit? That's a great answer, by turning from his principles, not being submissive to them.

1 Thessalonians 5.19, quench not the spirit.

Galatians 5.16 says, walk in the spirit. It's one of my favorite ones. How do you do that? How do you walk in the spirit? Just announce that you are? By believing. That's exactly right. That's exactly how you do it. You walk in the Spirit by believing.

Now, when you're walking in the Spirit, walking down Colfax Avenue in the Spirit, back around behind in your mind, what are you thinking about and focusing on? So you don't step out in the street and get hit by... What are you thinking about? What's going on in your mind when you're walking in the Spirit. What's the object of your mind? Christ himself. Now that's liberty, isn't it? You get free, you don't have to think about you.

Ephesians 4.1, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherein you were called. There's a verse that calls us to walk consistent with who we are. See?

1 John 3.16, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

I've been trying to convince you to do that for a long time. or have this mind in you which is also in Christ Jesus. These are not suggestions, they're commands and they're superhuman. I mean, if anybody in this group right here can raise their hand and say, hey, no problem, I got them covered. Maybe you ought to go to the church down the street. I'm kidding.

Now, along with that, some verses that have to do with the spirit that indwells every believer to accomplish these commands. John 7, He that abideth in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. As you abide in Christ, not only will you be able to live up to the standard of grace, but it will be overflowing out from you to others.

Romans 5.5, and hope makes us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who's given unto us. You don't have to worry about loving God because the Spirit of God is in you, revealing the love of God to you overwhelmingly.

1 Corinthians 2.12, now you have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that you might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

That's what the Spirit of God is there to do. What? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own. Anyway, I've got a lot more. addressed only to the person born of and indwelt by the Spirit of God. The enabling spirit has always been presented as a fundamental part of salvation by grace in this age, right? No one's born if it isn't by the Spirit of God. So, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, which we talked about, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Romans 7, 6, but now you are delivered from the law that being dead wherein you were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."

That verse is addressed only to believers, right? You wouldn't walk up to a non-believer, someone that you're sitting around with who's not a believer and you're talking to them about the Lord and they are not a believer yet, and lay that verse on them, would you? What would you say to a non-believer? You should serve in newness of spirit. That's right. They wouldn't know what you were talking about. These commands are addressed only to believers. Only. We have been called to live a life that is supernatural, superhuman. And what that life consists of is all over the Word of God.

But you know, we do. We're pretty subtle. We decide, well, that's too tough, so maybe we'll slide into the Mosaic system. It's easier. Problem is, the Mosaic system is condemnatory, so no matter which way you go, you're stuck. Okay. The position of the believer in the heavenlies requires a walk consistent with the believer's citizenship in heaven. What do you think about that? Is that where the criteria is? Is that where the standard is? What do you think? I mean, the principle holds true for all human beings that they should function... Well, maybe you put it this way.

There's a principle in Genesis that I don't think Vern has gotten to it yet. The principle of like begets like. When God created birds, they were birds, and when they reproduced, they reproduced birds. They didn't reproduce monkeys. And like begets like not only holds in the physical realm of things, but also the spiritual realm. So we've been recreated in Christ. We're new creatures in Christ. We should function as what we are. That's the point.

That the believer, because he is a heavenly citizen, The code of conduct for a heavenly citizen is much different than earthly citizens. It's heavenly and it's done only by grace. So, if you're a man of the earth or a person of the earth, you are living by what principle? Now, if you're a man of the earth, you're not a believer, you're just a guy who showed up on the planet one day, how do you live? By law principle, right? But if you're a heavenly citizen, under what principle do you live?

You live under grace. I think that's where you get confused about the different dispensations, and you try and follow the life of Christ in the gospel, where he was demonstrating an earthly existence. He was fulfilling the law, and therefore his was a legal code of conduct. But as New Testament saints, we're following the risen Christ. So as I'm walking down the street living my Christian life, and I'm trying to be as good a Christian as I can, I'm struggling. What's wrong with that idea? As a Christian, I'm struggling. Do you see the flaw in that argument, in that statement? That's exactly right.

The Christian life goes from being a struggle to perform to a reliance on the Spirit. Now, I know the Constitution of the United States doesn't give you that phrase, that we're free men and we're to go out there Because you're heavenly citizens, your life and my life is lived not by struggle in the flesh, but by reliance on the Spirit. And I have to tell you, if the Spirit of God didn't teach us to trust Him, we never would. Right?

Myles Stanford used to say, one of his greatest sayings was, man, you have to trust the Lord has come to that. And it has to come to that. And he was right because we don't trust anybody but ourselves because we know ourselves pretty well and kind of know what we can do. We've been educated or not educated. We have skills and talents, whatever, and so we utilize all those kinds of things to function in the world. And then the Word of God comes along and says, no, put that aside.

You're to live by trusting the Spirit of God. Oh, okay. Not that easy. Or maybe it is that easy. Do you think it's that easy? to trust somebody else for conduct that's pleasing to God? It's tough, yeah. But part of the spiritual growth is to learn to trust the Spirit of God. to learn to let Him have the reins in your life being that one that's consistent with who you are as a son of God and a citizen of heaven. That's very difficult to learn that, but you know, the Spirit of God is about His business. So, number six. What is the supreme purpose of the indwelling Spirit? What's He there to do? What's he trying to do? What's he going to accomplish in every one of your persons?

Win your soul. Win your soul. Okay. He already has my soul. Point you to Christ. Point me to Christ. Transform me. Conviction of sin. Conviction of sin. Transform me. Transform me from what to what? From the old man to the new man. That's right. I think his job, is to reproduce Christ's likeness in the believer. That's his job.

And so you can't do that yourself. You can memorize all of the Gospels and wear your little bracelet, the WWJD bracelet, The problem is, or you can read Thomas Akempis' book, The Imitation of Christ, and you can memorize all, I think there's 500 plus pages in that book. The problem is that you cannot live the life of Christ by imitation. One, because it's superhuman. And two, because you can't do it. See that? So the Spirit of God is here, to reproduce Christ-likeness in the believer. So how does he do that? How does he do it? Well, if he dwells on you, then it's a natural thing that you do Christ-like things.

Okay. No, that's all right. Romans 8, 28 and 29, and 29 specifically says, For those he foreknew, He also predestinated or he pointed out or determined beforehand that to be conformed to the image of his son. So God has determined before you ever showed up on the planet that you were going to be conformed to the image of his son. He already determined that.

So conformity and the word imitation are really carefully distinguished. Imitation would be my investigating and if I wanted to be like Steve, then I would study Steve and try to copy all his behaviorisms and in all his manners, try to think like Steve, but I wouldn't be Steve because it would be me trying to be like Steve. So I can study the Lord Jesus and try to imitate his behavior patterns, which coming out of Catholicism, that's what the system is. And if you're honest with yourself, after about three and a half seconds, you come to the realization, I have no way this isn't going to happen. So that as opposed to conformity, let's talk about conformity.

What would conformity, if it's not imitation, what's conformity mean? or it's changed nature. If your behavior is based on the source, right? My old daddy said the reason my black Labrador barks is because he's a dog and he's got the nature of a dog.

The believer, because he's in Christ and is a heavenly citizen and is indwelt by the Spirit of God, the source of his life and behavior is Christ himself. How does God get that position of life in my heart out through my faculty so that it's expressed as I walk around?

How does he do that? One way is that he gives us examples, and that's supposed to be the leaders of the church. Paul said, in Scripture, in a chaos, because he was walking through Christ. So, let's talk about Paul then. How did Paul get in a position where he could say to believers, if you want to see how a believer functions, look at us. All right, so all you guys that want to be leaders, come up to the first three rows. We'll make you leaders. I'm not picking on... I'm after... Steve? The process of that identity. Because you could probably successfully imitate Christ, but internally you wouldn't necessarily have an identity.

That's right. And you wouldn't have the same source of life. See, how many weeks and months have we been doing a grace class? I still haven't convinced any of you that the life you're supposed to live is beyond your capacity. You think you can do it. Isn't it only when you get to that point that you're just totally beat up and knocked down to your knees that at least I've come to that understanding? I can't. I think that's a legitimate point. A believer has to come to the place where he really is convinced he can't live this life. Because if he could, why would God give you the spirit? Just so you'd have the spirit?

Yeah, an add on. Yeah, great. This is really cool that the word for is more possible, which is a combination of two words together. The first word means together and the second word is to shape or form. So the gist is that it's a joint forming, a joint forming. Cool. Somebody else have a hand up back there?

The thing is, is that there is a definite process from a conditional standpoint that the Spirit of God goes through to conform us conditionally to the likeness of Christ. Positionally, are you like Christ? Sure you are, because you have a position in Him. You have His very life, the life of the resurrected Son of God. You're a member of the family of God, organic offspring.

But trust me, we don't all act like that all the time. So the Lord has put in place a specific principle by which you and I are conformed practically, conditionally to the image of Christ. Anybody want to tell me what it is? It's real simple. Faith, yeah, better word than that. There's a specific principle and formula that the Lord has put in place to conform each one of us to the image of Christ. Tell me what it is? What's the formula? What's the one word? The word is behold.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, it says, Beholding with unveiled face, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. That's the mirror. OK, so I'm beholding as in the mirror with unveiled face the glory of the Lord. So think about what that beholding is. I don't know if you well, a lot of you probably weren't here. Hal gave a 20-minute deal on that word beholding one time, it just blew me out of the pew.

He said it's like sitting in a going downtown and going to a movie or to a play and you are so enwrapped by what you're seeing that you project yourself into the lead character's role. I remember I used to go to the movies with my younger brother. He would project himself so much in the movies that when the bad guy was sneaking up on the good guy, he'd yell out, look out. Of course, me and my other brother would punch him in the arm and tell him to shut up. But the believer has the privilege, through the Spirit of God, to behold the glory of the person of Christ in the Word. And that's different than going into the Word to get a bunch of spiritual facts.

It's going in there to fellowship and to hang out with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the rest of the verse says, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, I am transformed, transfigured, changed, into the very image of Christ. And what does it say? From glory to glory. And then the bottom, the last tag on that verse is, even as by the Spirit of God. So what the Spirit of God is about is to reveal Christ to every one of us in the Word so that we get conformed to the image of Christ. And as we're conformed, guess what comes out of us?

The life of Christ. I mean, to me, there's no greater privilege in all of the universe than for us, sinners saved by grace, living on this planet, to have the capacity and the ability to behold Christ in the heavenlies. Can you imagine how cool that is? There's no price you wouldn't pay for that privilege.

But the Spirit of God has been sent to do that very thing, that very thing, to conform us to Christ. This conforming process that we've been talking about, it still has to be an active component of the leader. Because ultimately, we're going to be held accountable not for how good a job he is by playing seriously our job, but how good a job he is as a leader, walking through the interview. So since this is an active component, what does that actually look like? The tense for being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a horse, but it's actually present tense.

So the believer is allowed to be filled on a continuing basis with exactly what you're saying. The more you allow yourself to be filled with that, the more that you can give. My responsibility is to what? To believe. What am I to believe? I'm to believe what God tells me, not only factually, but also principally. If I learn from the Word of God that what He expects of me is to trust Him, that's my responsibility, is to trust Him. If I learn from Him that I'm to believe Him when He tells me something, that's my responsibility.

My responsibility is not to produce the fruit. My responsibility is to allow Him to do it. You see the difference? If my mentality is that I'm the producer, I'm under a lost system. If my mentality is that I have to trust the Spirit of God and rely on Him to produce the fruit of Christ in me, then I'm focused in the right direction.

Because the great thing about grace is that it's unmerited. It's unmerited. So if it were merited, then there would be something I would have to do so that I could go to God and say, Because I did 1, 2, 3, 4. Now, God comes at us full on with unmerited and unlimited grace based on what Christ did. And what am I to do about that? I'm to take it. I'm to receive it. That's all I'm to do. I'm to trust Him and believe Him and receive what He's got for me.

The minute I think I'm going to earn anything, I've jumped off. or out of the stream of grace and onto the wagon of law. See that? Now, I'm not saying that having a grace mentality is an easy thing to acquire, but the acquisition of a grace mentality is done by beholding the glory of the Lord. Because as you behold His glory, there will be no sense in you of, You know, when people we know leave this planet and go home to be with the Lord, do you think they ever, standing face-to-face, unobstructed with the Lord, ever have the thought, oh, I've got to add to this somehow. You know, I've got to do something to show the Lord how appreciative I am of what He's doing. The problem is that the glory of the Lord at that point is coming at you so fast, you don't have time to think about what you can do, because there isn't any ego involved in that process. Sure. That's a really good point because that's really what it is. I mean, a young child like that, Like William, you know, he, you know, I love you, William. Come here. No problem, Mom. You know, yeah. Okay. Streaking ahead here.

How would a believer define the location in which grace functions? How would you describe the location? Not a trick question. Where is the location? Where is all of this grace? Where is it? Holly Hills Bible Church, only place in Denver. Where is the location of all this grace is?

Louder. It's in Christ. I'll be darned, it's in the person. It's not in a building. It's not in a fraternity. It's not in a legal system. It's not in a denomination. It's in the person of Christ. And guess what? We're in the person. So the grace functions, or the believer, the location in which grace functions is in Christ alone. So we might say that Christ is the believer's sphere of grace. That's where it is.

John 14.20, in that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. So, this in Christ phrase is used no less than 130 times in the New Testament. Do you think it's important? It's really important. If you're an honest believer, when you first run into, in Christ, in Him, you go to the Lord and say, what is that? Does that mean that I'm in the door, in the box of salvation? I'm on the glory train to heaven? What does that mean, being in Christ?

In precept they told us that it was like taking two ingredients when you bake a cookie. When you put them together to bake a cookie, you can try to find the ingredients, but you can't. Interesting. Because they are all part of and have become ingrained into the cookie itself. Okay. I might say this. How do you get in Christ? What's got to happen first? You've got to die. That's the number one thing. What's the word death mean? It means separation, right?

So we learned in the identification class that when a man believes on the person and work of Christ, he's co-crucified with Christ. His old man is crucified. Christ became sin for us, and when He died, He separated from sin. The sin nature. Because we were in Christ, when He died, so did we. We separated from that sin nature. So the cookie example goes with the separation. And when Christ rose from the dead, we were in Him when He rose. An entirely new creation. Everything in the resurrected Christ is new in kind and quality. There is not a single thing from the old creation that comes over. Nothing.

The principles are different. You go from law to grace. The modus operandi is different. You go from struggle to abiding and trusting. You go from being a citizen of the earth condemned in Adam to a son of God resurrected in Christ. You are a brand new, entirely new creature. When Christ rose from the dead, he was the firstborn of the new creation. There never been that kind of human being on the earth before. When you believed in Christ, you went into him, you're one of those never-been-that-kind-of-human-being-on-the-earth-before creatures. We are so entirely new that everything about us is different. Everything is different.

We do not function by the principles that we came from. We function only under grace now. So when you're reading along in Romans and you get to 6.14, it says, sin won't have dominion over you anymore. Why? Because I did 3,000 spiritual push-ups. No, because you're not under law, you're under grace. That's the reason. How'd you get under grace? I got under grace by being placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. That's how I got there. See?

So the sphere, that I live in now is only in Christ. It's nowhere else. So, number eight, the believer is in Christ and Christ is in the believer. Number nine, Christ is a sphere of the believers, and I know you don't have all of this, but the first one is character. In the believer, the believer has a new character. We call it Christian character, but it's really Christ character. A couple of interesting things about that.

If that's true, then I still have the old sin nature in me, maybe put it this way. The non-believer is in the sin nature, and the sin nature is in him, right? The believer is in Christ, but the sin nature is still in him, too. He's still got it in him, even though he's been separated from it, okay?

So if it's still in him, then the question comes up, well, gee, how's it going to be controlled? Well, there's that group of people that think it's controlled by eradication, that this identification with Christ and the cross eradicated the old man. He's gone dead forever. He's not in you anymore. What's the problem with that? We still sin. Great answer. That's the right answer.

Well, if you didn't have a sin nature, here's two interesting things that would be true of all of you. Number one, you wouldn't die. And number two, if you produced offsprings, they wouldn't have sin natures either. So far as I know, John's got one. The second thing is, can the sin nature be controlled by rules? Well, we've beat that one to death. And if you don't believe me, all you have to do is read the Old Testament, study 1500 years of the Jews living under rules and see how they did with it.

They didn't. So how is the sin nature controlled? Because you have Christ in you, you wouldn't magnetize to that. Who controls the sin nature? The cross. It's not the cross. Who is it? It's the Spirit of God. He's the one that controls the sin nature. And how does He do it? Apply Him a cross to it. That's how He does it. So sin in you can only be controlled by the sin nature. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not, you cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh. Okay. The second thing, number 10, is Christ is a sphere of the believer's conduct.

Now, we live in this perfect law of liberty. We are free from any law system. Everybody buy that? Are you free from any law system? So what does liberty, real Christian liberty, mean? It means to be free from, liberty means to be free from any restrictions to do as one desires. You buy that? If I say to you, you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you live under grace and you have liberty. And what that means is that you're free to do anything you want to do. What do you think? Tom. As a believer, my position is set. I understand who I am and where I am.

The liberty I'm looking for is the ability to live like I am. So what liberty really means is that I just change masters. I go from the sin nature to the Spirit of God. In the Spirit of God, I have total freedom to do what I want to do. The question is, what do I want to do? You're now living in Him. That's right. And I want to stay there, and I want to do whatever He would have me do. So I'm in the Word, I'm learning of Him. I have this incredible liberty, and you know what? It's infinite. The liberty I have is infinite. You know why it is? Because the Spirit of God is infinite. See?

We think that we're this, you know, we don't need to follow this rabbit, but we think we have free will, which means that we get two choices, or three, and we get to pick one. What real freedom of will is, is to always be able to do the Father's will, because that's where freedom is. So Thomas Aquinas, if I can paraphrase it, said, Love God with all your heart, love your soul, love your mind, and do these things. Yeah, but I know Thomas Aquinas wrote that Summa Theologica.

The problem in that book is that there's no identification principle in there. It is true if you understand the principle under which you love God. Were you here when we went through the love circle? Why do you love God? You love God, right? No problem. Why do you do that? Because He first loved me. Why do I obey Him? Because I love Him. Why do I love Him? Because He first loved me. And you know, by obeying Him, He's going to reward me. Why do I get rewarded? because I obeyed him, because I love him, but it's all because he first loved me.

You have to complete the circle. God provides a safeguard for the believer's conduct. Now, I didn't really make all those people mad. They have to go sing. Does God provide us a safeguard to determine the desires of the heart? Because if I say, look, if I've got this liberty and this freedom to do as I please, well, what if I please the sin? Well, gee, that means that God sort of missed that one. Does God provide me with a safeguard for the liberty I have?

And the answer is, tell me. Yes or no? Where is it? What is it? The answer, I think, is in Philippians 2.13.

God works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. How does he do that? I think he does it the exact same way that he conforms us. He reveals Christ to the believer. Christ is so attractive. because he and I share the same life. J.B. Stoney made an interesting point years ago when I was reading. You know how you read sometimes and somebody says something and it sort of stops you? He said that with the new life comes a taste for the things of God. I thought, you know, that's really right, because when you're somebody like me who becomes a believer at 35, one of the things that really shocks you is that you like this new Christian stuff.

It's really cool. Before, I couldn't stand to be within five miles of a Christian. I didn't want to be around them. They were weird. But when I was saved, I found that within my heart was this desire to be pleasing to my Father. I never had that before. I didn't want to get hammered before, but I never had the desire to be pleasing.

That's the work of the spirit and the believer. God works into me both to will and to do of his good pleasure. I've got a new life that has a new will. So the character of the daily walk has to be under the heading of pure grace, doesn't it? Because if God left one little part up to me to perform in order to bless me, then it wouldn't be grace. Do you see that? It's a very important point. I'm living a life under pure grace, which is God's unlimited and unmerited blessing towards me. If there's any little part in there that says, Mike, you've got to do X, then it isn't grace.

Does that make sense? I assume by your not responding you mean yes. A couple of other things. You remember what we talked about under the same heading? We talked about several other issues. One is that this issue of the liberty. The second issue was the law of expediency. You remember what the law of expediency was?

First Corinthians 6, 12. or 1 Corinthians 10.23, that my behavior is controlled by this principle, the law of expediency. All things are lawful for me. I can do whatever, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I would not be mastered by anything. Remember we talked about that? That one of the principles that determines your behavior is, does it master you? Does it master you? And if it's not Christ, then it shouldn't be what's mastering you, because He's the only master we have.

10.23, all things are lawful, but all things are not profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. In other words, they don't build up, not only me, but you. If you think about those verses, like the edifying process, in Adam, you never think about edifying anybody. You only think about edifying yourself. In Christ, the focus is totally on edifying somebody else.

And why would that be? Well, if you're already blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, and the Spirit of God is like a water fountain gushing out of you, have you got anything to be worried about? I've always thought in teaching classes like this that when you talk about prayer, I never have to pray for myself. You know why?

That's your job. And there's a whole bunch more of you than there is of me. So all you guys need to be praying for me, which is going to be just the numbers alone say that the effectiveness is going to be a lot better than if I'm doing it. But that's the way the Christian life functions. You're all edifying and praying for me, and that's what I'm doing back.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace, how we thank you for the person, the very person of your son, the Lord Jesus, and how you have determined that we would grow in the knowledge and grace of him, beholding his glory and knowing him personally, Father. We thank you, we pray in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.