From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Today we want to conclude this series with the question. And it's a very important question and it's a very personal question. Are you growing in grace? Are you growing in grace? You know, we can help you as a church, as a church family, we can help you grow in grace, but we can't grow in grace for you. That's a personal thing and it's not an optional thing. It's not one of the things that a Christian says, well, you know, that's just optional. No, it's essential. God calls us to grow in grace.

Larry Nobles: This is from His heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve who today will help you answer this question. How do you personally grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus? In other words, can you know that you are maturing in your Christian walk, your life? Today Pastor Jeff shares three very simple, straightforward truths concerning the word of God and our growth in this thing called grace. Now the message today is part one of the last message in Pastor Jeff's seven lesson series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. And this series is also our thank you gift for your support this month of any amount.

You can find out more when you go to from His heart dot org. If you can, open your Bible to second Peter. And here's Pastor Jeff to begin the lesson called Are you growing in grace?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: So I want to share with you today three very simple, straightforward truths concerning the word of God and our growth in this thing called grace. Remember what did we say grace is for this whole series? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Grace is that which you can't earn, you don't deserve. God just gives it because God is the God of all grace. And remember this, we never grow into grace. We grow in grace. What's the difference? Grace is something you receive. You don't grow into grace. You don't say, well, I'm I'm getting close. I'm really close.

I'm just growing into this thing called grace. Think about grace like being pregnant. You know, nobody's a little pregnant. You either are pregnant or you aren't pregnant. There's no in between. You are either in grace or you're not in grace. You've either received Christ or you haven't received Christ. But just like when you are are pregnant, what happens? Well, a normal healthy pregnancy, the baby grows inside until the baby is birthed. What do we do in the Christian life? For by grace you've been saved through faith. The Christian life is all about grace and faith.

We put our puny little hand of faith in God's great big hand of grace and that's how we start a relationship with Jesus and that's how we grow in Jesus. Colossians 2:6 as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord. How did I receive him? By grace through faith. So grow in him. How do I grow? By grace through faith. It's by grace through faith all the way until you're taken to glory, until you are glorified. So all through the Christian life it is by grace through faith. And the word of God is critical if you are to grow, if I am to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So three truths concerning the the Bible, the word of God as it relates to growing in grace. Truth number one, the Bible is our spiritual food. It's our food. Now when we have a baby and we take that baby home, the critical thing for that baby to do is to eat. Your baby can do all sorts of things, but if your baby is not eating, it is red alert because the baby has to eat. The baby has to start gaining weight. And that's one of the questions you hear all the time. Is the baby eating?

Because the baby won't grow unless the baby is eating. That is critical. Peter says this in his first letter as newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Now the wonderful thing about a newborn coming into this world, they're hungry. They have a desire to eat. And if they're hungry and you're not feeding them, they will let you know, right? They're going to be screaming. And if it's 2:00 in the morning and they're hungry and they need to be changed, they're going to be screaming.

Oh, mom, you were sleeping? Tough. I am the priority here and they will let you know and they have a a longing to eat. How do you know that you've really been born again? There's a longing for the word of God that like a newborn babe, you're wanting to be fed and you're wanting to grow. The Lord puts that into your heart. And so the Bible is our spiritual food and the Bible says of itself that it is milk. You long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow with respect to salvation.

It also says that it is bread. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So it's likened to bread. And then in Hebrews chapter five, it's likened to meat. It says meat, solid food is for the mature man who's had his senses trained to discern good and evil, who because of practice, practice in the word of God has his senses trained to discern good and evil. So the Bible's full course meal. It is milk, it is bread, it is meat. It is spiritual food, soul food for the soul of man.

And here's the thing, we can take in the word every day. Now one of the things that's really important, I learned this in seminary in my sermon development class. It was the first class I took in seminary with my seminary or preaching professor Dr. Wayne McDill, dear dear friend. God used him in my life in great ways. And he told us as students, he said, listen, guys, it's just a bunch of guys that that felt called to preach. He said, guys, always preach for faith. Don't ever preach do better sermons. Don't ever get people together and say, well, you need to do this and you need to do that and you need to do the other.

He said, it's not about doing better. It about trusting God. And so encourage people and let them know, hey, you can do this and we can do this together. And so when it comes to the word of God being our spiritual food, we can take in the word every day. We can spend time in the word of God. You say, well, I'm not a good reader. Well, hey, there are tons of resources. I I listen in the morning when I get ready. I have the YouVersion Bible app on my phone and I just put in whatever passage I want to do and it just reads it to me.

And if I want to memorize stuff, I'll just have it read to me. And so I'm an auditory learner. Maybe you're an auditory learner. I learn well that way. And so there are lots of things that we can do to take in the word and to spend quality time with the Lord. Jeremiah said this in Jeremiah 15:16 your words were found and I ate them. And your words came became for me a joy and the delight of my heart for I've been called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. He ate the word because it's milk and it 's meat and it's bread.

And remember this too, when you're reading the Bible, some people are good at reading lots in one sitting and some people aren't. And so I've always told especially young Christians, don't read for distance, read for depth. What does that mean? It means maybe you're not it's not so good to try and read five chapters of John in one sitting because then you don't remember anything that you read. It's just too much overload. You know, if I meet one or two people, three people, I can remember names. If I meet 10 people all at one time, I can't remember anybody's name.

It's just too much. And so read for depth, not for distance because you want to to grow. And so you know, if you're a you know, a little baby that a little babies don't gain four pounds overnight. You know, it's just like, man, I hadn't been spending any time in the Bible and I'm weak, so I 'm just going to eat a lot. Well, well, it doesn't work that way. It it works over time. And we take in the word every day. This is what James says about the word. Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your soul.

There is power in the word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says it's living and active. And how do we receive the word? In humility. That is important. We come before God's word and we don't come arrogantly, we don't come proudly, we don't come and say, well, I know the Bible is full of errors. No, we come humbly. Receive the word implanted in humility. And remember this as we talk about growing in grace, you can never grow in grace. You can never receive grace or grow in grace when you're prideful. Why? James 4:6 God is opposed to the proud.

He gives grace to the humble. If you have a prideful heart, if I have a prideful heart, God's not going to share things with us. God is not going to to develop us. Why? Because he hates pride. So he says, put aside your pride in all humility, receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls. And we put God's word not only do we take it in, but we put it into practice. And that's something that some people fail to do. So we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Some people just grow in knowledge and they learn a lot of things about the Bible. The Pharisees are a good example of that. They knew a lot of the Old Testament scripture because they would memorize it. But they didn't grow in any grace. They did they were prideful. So there was no grace there. There was no relationship with God there. And we grow in grace and we take in the word and then we act out the word. We put God word into practice in our lives every day as we take it in, then we work it out.

Jesus said, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You work out what God has worked in. James 1:22 but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. Well, how does a just a hearer of the word delude himself? Delude herself? Well, here's how you deceive yourself, delude yourself. You think that it's all about just knowing the truth and knowing the word of God. And you're deluded into thinking blessings from God and the relationship with God comes from just knowing. Jesus said, John 13:17 if you know these things, you're blessed if you do them.

It's not in the knowing, it's in the doing. Now you can't do what you don't know, so you have to know. You have to be a hearer of the word, but don't be a hearer only. Be a doer of the word. And when you do what God says to do, that's when you are blessed. James 4:17 says this the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it to him it is sin. If you know what you're supposed to do and you say, I don't want to do that, I know I'm supposed to forgive that person that hurt me, but I don't want to do that.

I refuse to do that. Well, to you that is sin. You know what you're supposed to do and you refuse to do it. Hey, don't be a hearer only, be a doer of the word. So the Bible How am I going to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? I have to spend time in the word. Acts chapter six verse four, but we will devote ourselves, the apostle said, to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff is sharing some important and impactful lessons today from God's word. You're listening to from His heart and today's lesson Are you growing in grace? It's from the seven lesson series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. Now in this series he directs us to important warnings about treating grace as permission to live however you want. That's contrary to what real grace should produce in the heart of everyone who truly loves Jesus. Through these messages he systematically helps us understand what God's grace really looks like and how we should live it out every day.

Beyond Amazing is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. And to get your copy of this series in the format of your choice, go to fromhishart org or call 866 40 Bible. 866 40 Bible. We hope you'll join this ministry with a financial gift this month so that together we can tell the world that real grace is beyond amazing. Go to fromhishart org or call 866 40 Bible. Remember what the apostle Paul understood better than anyone. Looking back on his life, he wrote by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace toward me did not prove vain.

That's in first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 10. What a verse. Well, let's return to our teaching today in the message Are you growing in grace? Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Second truth. The Bible, not only is it our spiritual food, the Bible is our handbook of truth. How do we know truth? From the word of God. That's how you know truth. Jesus when he prayed his great high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, he said in verse 17 as he prayed to his father, he said, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Truth is under major attack today. You know, we have people that they like to say, well, that's your truth. Well, that's this is my truth. You're going to speak your truth, I'm going to speak my truth.

Hey, there's just truth and it's God's truth. And we either get on board with what God says or we're wrong. You're you're believing lies because the truth is found in Jesus and his word. Now Peter talks about the false teachers that were coming in. And he talks in chapter three about in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts and and saying, where is the promise of His coming? You guys are talking about the coming of Jesus. Well, where is he? He's been 2,000 years. Where is Jesus? He's not coming.

And they're mockers following after their own lusts and they attack the word of God. Listen. How important is the Bible? How important is the word? It is critical. Everything you know about God comes from this book. Everything you know about the kingdom of God comes from this book. Everything you know about his grace and his nature comes from this book. Everything you know about the heart of man comes from this book. This book is our handbook of truth. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter four when it speaks of the way the Lord set up His church says, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers.

And what's the point of those guys that are called by God? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even Christ.

We speak the truth in love and we're grounded in the truth and we don't get blown around by every wind of doctrine and false teaching. The Bible is critical for the Christian. It's critical for growth. Now Peter says, very interesting, that the Bible can be hard to understand in parts. Did you pick that up? He's talking about Paul and Paul's writings. He said, just as our just as also our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given him wrote to you, as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things. What things? The coming of the Lord in which are some things hard to understand.

Have you ever read parts of the Bible and you just say, man, that's hard to understand. That's really hard to understand. I don't know what it says. Now the Old Testament is a lot harder to understand than the New Testament. You know why that is? Because the Old Testament covers a long period of time. The New Testament takes place inside of 100 years from the beginning the the birth of Christ. You know, Jesus wasn't born at years one. Uh he was probably born at in 4 BC at the time of Herod the Great. But then he is crucified uh in 33 according to Harold Honer 33 AD April 3rd 33 AD.

And then it goes through to the book of the Revelation which is about 95 AD. Now that that takes us into the future, but it was all written inside that that time period, that 100 year period. The Old Testament comes from the in the beginning. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So whenever that is, the Lord doesn't give us a date. We know it was 1656 years. Uh Genesis chapter seven the flood came and then you have uh the people after the flood. And so it's a long period of time and you had kingdoms and you have uh empires that come and go.

And so you read the Old Testament and it's like, okay, I don't know what Nahum is talking about. I don't know why Jonah uh really hated Nineveh. It must have been a bad place in Nineveh, but I don't understand why he hated that. And so there are lots of questions that come up. So when you read the Old Testament, you have to know the historical background so it makes sense. Not as much in the New Testament, although with what Paul wrote you read the book of Romans and it's deep. And and so it's like, ah, I'm having trouble understand this.

Read about the second coming of Jesus. There are lots of different interpretations with the second coming of Jesus. Why? Because some things are hard to understand. And if what Paul wrote was hard for Peter to understand he said it he didn't say he couldn't understand it. He says hard to understand, then you're in good company and I'm in good company. And so when you run across uh some parts of the scripture that you say, I'm not sure what this means. Here's the thing. The Bible never contradicts itself. If you have trouble with a part of the Bible that doesn't mean that God made an error it means that uh probably you with your pea sized brain don't understand uh God with a massive sized brain, you don't understand what he's doing.

So I never come to the Bible and say, ah, this is an inconsistency for me. God must be wrong because Jeff Schreve is so smart. No. You know, I've told you before how how big is the understanding, the knowledge and the understanding of God? It's like the Pacific Ocean. If you've ever been on the West Coast and you take in the Pacific Ocean, I mean, it's just everywhere. How big is your brain, my brain compared to that teacup? You come before the Lord with your teacup. He's got a Pacific Ocean of of understanding and knowledge and we say to God, well, God, because I can't understand this, you must be wrong.

No. You can't understand it because you're a teacup. That's okay. I'm a teacup too. That's all right. So we just come before the Lord and say, Lord, this is hard to understand. Give me understanding, but don't throw out the scripture because you can't understand it. You can't figure it out. Hey, we all have questions, but just know that the Bible never contradicts itself. You can have passages in scripture that make you think you can lose your salvation. Hebrews six, Hebrews 10, we talked about that last week. Galatians five, you've been severed from Christ. You are seeking to be justified from law.

You have fallen from grace. Some people say, see, right there you can you can fall from grace. You you can lose your salvation. There are tons of scriptures that teach us that salvation is eternal. It's eternal life. You can't lose eternal life because if you could lose eternal life it wouldn't be eternal. If you could have it for five years and lose it, then you didn't have eternal life. You had five year life. Jesus isn't giving five year life. He's giving eternal life. And so when you when you run into something in the Bible that you say, I don't see how this matches up with that go to the places that are your solid on and just know say, well, I know the Bible teaches this truth.

So I'm probably misunderstanding this other passage of scripture because nothing in the word of God contradicts each other. You stand firm in the parts that you do know and you ask the Holy Spirit to teach the parts that you don't know. So the Bible, Peter makes it clear, hey, some of those things are hard to understand, but know this that what Paul wrote was scripture as they do also the rest of the scripture to their own destruction. Peter recognized Paul's writings are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Paul is writing scripture. So the Bible hard to understand in parts.

The Bible is attacked by the devil and His messengers.

Larry Nobles: Christians and non-believers alike are familiar with the hymn Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. In Pastor Jeff's seven lesson series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God that we're airing this month he shares clear biblical insights into God's grace. A grace that is truly beyond amazing. And today we're in the middle of the last lesson in the series which is called Are you growing in grace? Now all seven messages in this series are our gift to you to say thank you for your support of any amount to from His heart this month.

Just call 866 40 Bible. 866 40 Bible. Or go online to fromhishart org to make that gift today. You'll be reminded of God's continually faithful amazing grace throughout life and in the promise of eternity with Him for His children. Again call 866 40 Bible or go to fromhishart org Well, we're out of time for today. Thank you for being here. We really appreciate it. I'm Larry Nobles and we hope that you'll return tomorrow for part two of the last lesson in the series Beyond Amazing. And it's called Are you growing in grace? Be with us on Tuesday when Pastor Jeff Schreve will again open God's word so he can share God's real truth, real love and real hope from His heart.