Good morning. We’re going to continue our series on the grace of God today, which will, one of these days turn into a book, so this is sort of preparatory for that. And today we’re going to talk about grace and vision. God has a great vision for our lives and we need to talk to God and pray and develop a vision for our lives going forward as well. And you will find as we look into these visions, the records we’re going to use may not use the word grace very often, but it is very clear that God helps people with a good vision for their lives and helps them accomplish great things and receive great deliverance — not dependent on them following a bunch of rules. That may happen in a business deal, I may sign a contract that if I fulfill these 12 things, and pay these fees, and hit this deadline then somebody is either going to some work for me or pay me for something. It is always a bunch of requirements, a bunch of contingencies, a bunch of goals to be met.
But, you don’t see that when you look at these records.. The reason I say it is by grace is that God just says He is going to do these things for His people without anything else; it is just He loves His people and He is going to take care of them. He is going to encourage them to have a bigger vision for their lives, and He is going to help show them that He can do more for them then they ever imagined. So, I think we’ll have a great time looking at these records, many of them are very familiar, but we’re looking at them again from the point of view of it is simply by God’s love and grace that He does these things. Let’s start in II Kings chapter six…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20211205. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
II Kings 6:8-23 Chariots of fire – Raise your vision for your life
Psalms 60:11-12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he shall tread down our enemies
Psalms 71:1-15 Thou art my hope (vs. 5), I will hope continually (vs. 14)
Psalms . 91 1000, 10,000 shall fall, but it shall not come nigh thee (vs. 7)
Psalms 146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God
Psalms 147:11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy
Proverbs 16:2 Commit(roll) your works unto the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision (divine communication), the people perish (wander): but he that keepeth the law, happy is he
Ecclesiastes 9:4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope
Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is
Jeremiah 29:11-13 An expected end [NRS – a future with hope – tiqvah – hope, expectation, grounds for hope] (vs. 11)
Danielle 11:32 The people that do know their God shall be strong (stand firm) and do exploits (take action)
Romans 8:31-39 Nothing shall separate us from the love of God!
II Corinthians 4:(1-)18 Look not at those things which are seen
Philippians 3:3 Worship God in the spirit, rejoice in CJ, have no confidence in the flesh
Colossians 3:1-3 Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth (vs. 1)
Good morning. Today, we’re going to continue our series on the grace of God and get into a subject, that is frankly rather involved, consider this kind of an introduction today then a final word on the topic, because we’re going to talk about grace and judgement. Judgement is a tough thing. People, I think, perhaps by nature, probably the nature of the old man, like to judge everything and everybody around them. They like to compare people to the way they are, and people that don’t measure up to the way they are, or the way they claim to be, they want to judge and think of them as somehow inferior, or sinful. And it is a very slippery slope. Because, as we’ll see as we go into this, first-of-all, the human condition is such that it’s impossible for any of us to ever be perfect. Sometimes we do better than others, sometimes we do better than ourselves, sometimes we do well for a while, then we don’t do so well for a while, and it is just a tough thing. And, when it comes right down to it, God is the only one that can judge accurately where people are at.
And, because we are in the age of grace, He doesn’t seem to spend a lot of His energy judging people, He seems to spend His energy loving people and answering their prayers and trying to help them, which as we are to imitators of God, that is what we ought to be doing instead of judging people and deciding who is more righteous then somebody else, we ought to realize as we try to do that righteousness come through Jesus Christ, and we just shouldn’t be worried about what everybody else does. Other than to love them and pray for them and help them. But it is a very challenging topic, we’re going to read some very challenging sections of scripture.
Again, I don’t pretend to have the final word on the sections of scripture, even on the topic. I’m reminded of things like where it says the weakness of God is strong than man, and the something of God is wiser than man. In other words, God is so far above where we are, that the idea that we should judge between ourselves is amazing. It would be like somebody is driving down the road in a Ferrari and you and I are taking a walk, and you’re all excited because you can walk a little faster than I can; well, so what, there is a guy in a Ferrari. He can go much faster then either of us can walk, run, or sprint. Well that is sort of the way God is. He is so far above where we are, that the idea that I should compare myself to you and say I’m better, or smarter, or anything, is just silly. Just silly. But people do it. So, we’re not going to stop people from dong it, but what we can do is learn from God’s word the folly of judging others.
And I know there are verses in the Bible that talk about, that if your brethren have a fight with each other, rather than going to the law or unbeliever, we should be wise enough as Christian brothers and sisters to judge the truth of the matter and work through it, but that is a different thing. That is working through a disagreement, I’m talking about just judging people about the way they live or the way they talk, or the way they dress, or one of the many, many other things that people judge each other on, it is just silly to do that, because it is really God’s job.
What we’ll see is as we get into this, is that is very challenging being a human being. It is just as challenging being a human being who is Christian trying to live God’s word. It is very difficult to really understand where people are really at, completely, you may see a little bit. What does it say somewhere? No one knows the heart of a man, except the man himself and God. It’s just not possible, so when it comes down to it: we love one another, we help one another, and ultimately, we look to God. Because God is the one who really understands us completely and can show us what to do. And, if we are off the ball, he can show us. And there are plenty of other verses about that. Like I say, we might have to have a part two on this one, I’m already thinking of half-a-dozen of things I should have put in the notes, so maybe we’ll do part two next time. At any rate, let’s start in II Kings chapter five…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20211121. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
II Kings 5:18-19 Go in peace
John 8:10-11 Neither do I condemn thee
Matthew 12:1-8 David and the shewbread (sacred loaves)
Romans 7 I delight in the law of God after the inward man (vs. 22)
II Corinthians 3 Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (vs. 17)
Matthew 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged (vs. 1)
Romans 2:1 Thou that judgest doeth the same things
II Corinthians10:1-12 They measuring themselves by themselves are not wise (vs. 12)
Romans 5:1ff We HAVE peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
Good morning. We’re going to continue our series on the grace of God today, talking about grace and loving God. Last time we talked about grace and God loving us, no matter what we do or where we are. And, we may have covered what I’m gong to cover today to some degree in previous episodes, but we’ll look at it again from the point of view of the grace of God, and I’ve added a few scriptures that I don’t cover very often to just give another perspective on it. So let’s start in Deuternomy chapter six…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20211107. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Love the Lord thy God
Deuteronomy 7:7-9 Them that love him
Deuteronomy . 10:12-16 Love him and serve
Deuteronomy 11:1-25 Love the Lord
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Life and good
Joshua 22:1-5 Be diligent to love the Lord your God
I Chronicles 10:1-14 How did Saul die?
Isaiah 1:11-19 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices
Matthew 22:34-40 First and great commandment: love God
Matthew 23 These ought ye to have done, and not left the other undone (vs. 23)
Good morning. We’re going to continue our series on God’s Grace, looking specifically at God’s love, which is a topic we’ve looked at before, but today we’ll be looking at it from the point of view that we don’t earn His love, we probably don’t deserve His love, but God loves us anyway. So even though the word grace doesn’t show up very much in these verses we’re looking at, the fact that God loves us regardless of what we do is very clear. And, that is amazing. We often talk about unconditional love that God shows towards us, and that is very unique because we know with people, that you occasionally meet a rare individual that will love you unconditionally. And that is wonderful when that happens and I thank God for that. I know we all endeavor to do it, but is hard as people, because we don’t like slights, we don’t like attacks, we don’t like insults, we don’t like it when people let us down. So, even as much as we might try to love people unconditionally, it is difficult. Of course, a lot of people don’t’ even try to love unconditionally.
There are people that we try very hard to love and take care of and they don’t care about us at all. We’ve all dealt with that. But, all that aside, God’s love is unconditional. It’s purely by His grace, it’s purely because He chooses to love us, and no matter what we do He still loves us. So, I wanted to point that out because I’m sure there are places you could go where if you didn’t follow a group’s rules and recommendations, they may not come out and say God doesn’t love you, but they would sure as heck imply it. But, that is their problem, we’re not here to pick on other groups, we may look at them just for comparison, but we’re here to focus on God’s incredible grace and today, the great love we have because of that. So let’s start with some very familiar verses, we’ll go back to Deuteronomy chapter seven….
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20211024. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deuteronomy 7:8 God’s motives
Deuteronomy 23:5 God turned the curse (of Balaam) into a blessing, because He loved
Psalms 13:5-6 I have trusted in thy steadfast love
Psalms 34:8-10 O taste and see that the Lord is good; they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing —
Psalms 36:7-9 How excellent (precious) is thy lovingkindness
Psalms 92:1-2 To shew forth (declare) thy lovingkindness in the morning
Psalms 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend
Jeremiah 9:23, 24 He knoweth the Lord which exercises lovingkindness (vs 24)
Jeremiah 31:3 With lovingkindness He drew us.
Romans 8:28 All things work together for good
Romans 8:38, 39 Nothing can separate us
Ephesians 1:4-6 Holy and without blame, lovely and acceptable
I Thessalonians 4:9-12 You are taught of God to love one another (vs. 11 – aspire to lead a quiet life, aspire to live quietly, let it be a point of honor with you to keep calm)
Good morning, we’re going to continue our study of the grace of God today. And, this is the last Sunday before we have our second weekend get-together, where we’ll have part two of what I call in those weekends, Let Grace Abound. And, that should give enough preparatory material that I might even start writing that book, which I’ve been talking about. That’s the plan.
But today we’re going to study about how joy and peace relates to grace. So much of the purpose and focus of this series that we’ve been on for many months, has been: that with the grace of God we don’t have to earn our salvation, we don’t have to worry about losing our salvation, we don’t have to worry about being thrown in the lake of fire or going though all the wrath and tribulation of the book of Revelation. And, some of the other things we have in life, are simply provided by the grace of God. Now, two topics I enjoy teaching on frequently, are joy and peace and we’ll go back and look at some of those verses we’ve looked at other times, but today we’ll look at it from the point of view of are these things that are available from God simply by His grace or are they things we have to earn, and they’re not available to people that don’t behave in certain ways that certain groups would like them to behave in.
In other words, is joy and peace by works or by grace? Is it taken away if some preacher somewhere says you are a sinner? Do you all of sudden have no joy or peace? Or is it simply available by God’s goodness and grace? That’s what we’ll look at, and the word grace doesn’t always appear in these verses that we’ll look at, but we’ll see lots of places that joy and peace come from and we’ll see a general pattern that they come from God’s love, and God’s goodness, and God’s grace. Not by the works of man. So, I think it will be very enlightening to wrap up this series of teachings we’ve had on the grace of God by looking at joy and peace. So, let’s go to second Chronicles chapter twenty…
As taught by Bruce Mahone, 20210926. All right reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
II Chronicles 20:27 They returned with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice
Nehemiah 8:1-12 The Joy of the Lord is your strength
Psalms 5:11-12 Let those that trust thee rejoice, let them ever shout for joy
Psalms 16:11 In thy presence is fulness of joy
Psalms 21:1 The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, he shall greatly rejoice
Psalms 43:4 God my exceeding joy (NLT: the source of all my joy; NIV: my joy and my delight; lit: gladness of my joy)
Ecclesiastes 9:4-10 Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart
Isaiah 26:3-4 Perfect peace whose mind is stayed
Jeremiah 15:16 Thy word was the joy and rejoicing of mine heart
Luke 1:43-44 Babe leaped in womb for joy
Luke 2:8-14 Good tidings of great joy (vs. 10)
John 15:10-14 That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full
Luke 24:49-53 Returned to Jerusalem with great joy
Acts 8:1-8 There was great joy in that city
Acts 13:42-52 The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost
Romans 5:6-11 We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ
Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
Colossians 1:9-11 All patience and longsuffering with joyfulness
I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice evermore
I Tim 6:17 Trust in the Living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy
Phil 4:6-7 The peace of God shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus