But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory
both now and forever. Amen. I want to talk about growing
in grace. Growing in grace. And I believe
the subject of this text, Growing in Grace in the Knowledge of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, is of great importance to every true
believer, those who are really, truly believers. I know when
I read it, I say, am I growing in grace? Am I growing in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I a better Christian today
than I was a year ago? Am I? Am I stronger? Do I show more
of the character of Christ now than I did before? Now to folks
who just play in church, people just going through the motion,
it don't mean anything to them. Growing in grace doesn't. But
people who are earnest, earnest about their relationship with
God, earnest about their souls, Those who really truly hunger
and thirst after the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have spiritual
life. Do I grow in grace? Those are things that we're earnest
about. We're not stagnant. We don't want to get stagnant.
Do we grow in grace? Am I growing in grace? And there's
seasons and times and periods in our lives But I believe it
would be good for us to examine ourselves. And of course, I think,
personally, I've always wondered where I'm at spiritually. You
know, a good time to examine ourselves is when we get to the
end of the year and we start a new year. That's a good time.
You know, I've been here 50 years. Have I learned anything? Have
I grown grace? Have I had any spiritual progress
in my life? A birthday, a birthday, whether
it's a spiritual birthday or a natural birthday, that's a
good time to examine yourself. Set yourself down and say, am
I growing in grace? Am I growing in our Lord Jesus
Christ? Is there any spiritual progress
in my life? And on the day when we take the
Lord's table, When we gather around and take the Lord's table,
that's a good time. That's a good time to say, am
I growing in grace? Do I have a greater appreciation
and love for the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, beloved, time is flying
by. Brad told me back there this
evening, he heard Greg Elmquist preaching this morning before
he came to service, and Greg says that in this world there's
a constant funeral procession. A funeral procession in this
world going on continually. And time is flying by. Oh, it's
flying by. Not creeping by, flying by. And
our lives will soon be a tale that's told. Very, very soon the reality of
all of our professions and our profession of faith will be tested
And God will let us know whether we're on the straw or whether
we're built on the sand. Just as sure as God's on His
throne. And that's why I ask, do we grow? Are we growing in
grace? Are we making any progress at
all in the things of God and the things of Christ? And I've
got three little points tonight. I'm going to try to deal with
them pretty quickly. Growing in grace is a reality.
There is a reality in growing in grace. And then there's some
marks or some evidence or some things we can tell whether we're
growing in grace or not. And then the things that God
uses to cause us, the means that God uses to grow in grace. Now
I'll tell you there is such a thing as growing in grace. There's
a reality to growing in grace. But let me tell you what it doesn't
mean. Let me tell you that. I always do this. I say, yes,
this is what growing in grace is, but let me tell you what
it doesn't mean first. It does not mean that a believer's interest
in Christ can grow. Our interest in the Lord Jesus
Christ cannot grow. Once you believe Him, trust Him,
and what He's done for you, it cannot grow. Our interest in
Him and our union with Him, our being joined to Him, that cannot
grow. And I'll tell you something else
a man cannot grow in. He cannot grow in his safety
or his security or his acceptance with God. The moment a man trusts
Christ, he has his safe and secure and accepted in the Beloved as
much as he'll ever be. That'll never change. That never
grows. Your acceptance with God can
never grow, never be any better one time than it is in another.
Your apprehension of it may be better. But it can never grow. And another way you'll never
grow. A man cannot be more justified,
pardoned, forgiven and sanctified and in peace with God than he'll
ever be. When God justifies a man, forgives
a man, establishes peace with a man, sanctifies a soul, that
cannot grow. That's a done deal. That's over
and done with. And what I'm saying is that believers
are complete in Christ. Perfect in Christ. So then if
that's not what it means, what does it mean? Well, growth in
grace means that a believer's God's elect. They grow in strength. They grow in vigor. And you know,
God gives us graces. He works in our hearts. And He
produces some graces in our heart. The old timer called them graces.
Spiritual things. And the Holy Spirit plants them
in a believer's heart and they increase over the years. God
works in our hearts. He puts repentance in our hearts. And repentance, that's something
that grows. He puts faith in our hearts.
He puts hope in our hearts. He puts love in our hearts. He
puts humility in our hearts. Zeal and courage. And I know
all these things, they vary greatly at different times in our lives.
Sometimes you feel like you can pull a thing, and other times
you feel like just a little bit. Sometimes your hope abounds,
other times it's very, very dim. But yet, beloved, they grow. They never stay stagnant any
one time. And I know for a believer, as
he grows, The sense of sin grows. Is your sense of sin greater
now than it was a year ago when you first believed? What do you
know about sin now? Oh, do you feel it more? Do you
struggle with it more? Does it bother you more? And oh, our faith, our faith
gets stronger. How do you know it gets stronger?
God says, you know, that our patience worketh... Trials works patience, you know,
and as you go through trials, you just wait and wait and wait.
That word patience means just going about what you're doing
and waiting. And we're more than conquerors through Christ. And
that faith, it may not cease to go. But every trial you go
through, that faith gets stronger and stronger and stronger. And
you can wait easier. You can wait more longer. And
you can go through greater and deeper trials. And it never seems,
nobody will ever know what you're going through. And oh, our hope
gets brighter, our love gets stronger, and all of these things
are more cleanly seen, clearly seen. You may not see them, but
other people see them. Paul Mahan called me a few weeks
ago, and he was talking about how the Bunyan's Progress, he
says, where's that added Bunyan's Progress works? When they put
the garment on the man, and the other one stood by and put him
on two men, put him on Christian and put him on faithful. And
when they put that garment on him, Old faithful looked at Christian
and said, oh that's a beautiful garment I have. Oh my goodness,
you look glorious. Oh you look so bland. I tell
you, I wish I looked like that. And hopeful Christian looked
back and said, well you do. Oh my, you look so much better
than I do. And he wanted to know where that
was. He wanted to know so he could, he wanted to use it as
an illustration. And it took place. You know where
that takes place at? At the cross, the minute you
go to the cross, the burden's lifted and that garment's put
on you. It's not way down the road, but once that garment's
put on you, everybody can see it. And these things of love
and faith and repentance, they grow stronger and they're clearly
seen as other people look at you. You may not see them the
way they are, but other people see them. They see whether you're
growing or not. And the Scriptures teaches that
we grow in faith and increase in knowledge of God. Look over
with me now in 2 Thessalonians. Look with me in 2 Thessalonians. I want to show you something
here. 2 Thessalonians 1-3. The Scriptures
teaches that we increase in faith. Increase in these things and
we grow in these things. The Bible is very plain on these
things. Look what Paul told the Thessalonians
here in 2 Thessalonians 1, 3. He said, We are bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, as it is meet or necessary, because
that your faith groweth exceedingly. Paul said, Your faith groweth
exceedingly. And the charity of every one
of you toward each other abounds. your faith and your love growing
exceedingly. So you see, and look what he
said over in 1 Thessalonians 4-1. Talking about growing, talking
about increasing in some things. Furthermore, then we must teach
you, brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ that as
you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God
so you would abound more and more. Grow in these things. Walk before God. Gradually before
God. To honor God and do it more and
more and more. And I tell you, look over here
in 1 Thessalonians 1, let's look over here in Colossians
1, verse 10. Colossians is right before it. That's 1 Thessalonians. Look
here, Colossians 1, 10. We can increase in the knowledge
of God. The Scriptures teaches these things. And look what He
said here in Colossians 1, 10. that you might work worthy unto
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing in the knowledge of God. Oh my, we increase in our knowledge
of God, our faith grows more and abounds more? And Paul says,
you know, having hope when your faith is increased, he says in
2 Thessalonians. And look here again in 2 Thessalonians
3.12. No, 2 Thessalonians. First Thessalonians 3.12, I'm
sorry, I can't read my own writing, it's just pitiful. Second Thessalonians 3.12, look
what he said here. And the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even
as we do toward you. Increase and abound in love?
Growing grace? Growing these things? Look what
he says down here in verse 9, 1 Thessalonians 4. But as touching brotherly love,
ye need not that I write unto you. For you yourselves also
are taught of God to love one another, and abound in these
things, grow in these things. And Paul told us that the believers
to grow up into Christ, up to Him in all things. And he said,
Desire the sin-filled milk of the word that you may what? Grow! Grow! And so you see the scriptures
teaches us that we can increase in these things and we do. We
do. And I also know this about growing
in grace. It's a fact and our own experiences
teaches it. And you can see it in the Bible
and all people in the scriptures. Look at Abraham. You read it
tonight. If God would have told Abraham, Before Isaac was born,
he said, you know when you have a son, I'm going to cause you
to take him up on a mountain. He would have rebelled against
that. He said, no, no. But God had
caused him to grow and grow and grow until there came a time
he could do exactly, take his own son. There had been a time
he couldn't have done that. But God gave him the grace and
the love and the obedience and the faith and the power to trust
Him that he could do that very thing. He increased in his knowledge
of God. He increased in his love of God.
He increased in his faith. He abounded in those things and
that's why he could do what he did. And you take Simon Peter. One time he denies the Lord three
times. He tries to keep the Lord from
going to the cross and pitying himself. Don't go to the cross.
And then our Lord said after you converted you strengthened
the brethren and you know what the next thing you find him doing?
Standing on the bay of Pentecost preaching with great power like
a lion. Put him in jail for preaching,
he laid down and slept like a baby. Oh my, how about the Apostle
Paul? Went from hating God and went from being a baby in Christ
and people had to take and lead him around by the hand and he
was just a baby in Christ and then he went off into the desert
and he came back and you watch him grow. You watch him grow
in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as he goes
through his life. And there was a time in the book
of Acts where Barnabas and And Paul was out preaching and a
young man, the man who wrote the book of Mark, he was Simon
Peter's nephew. And they were out together and
Mark decided he didn't like what was going on, he wasn't enjoying
himself, he wasn't spiritual. And Paul said, he went back to
the house. He left them. They wanted to
go out again and old Barnabas said, I want John Mark to go
with us. I want Mark to go with us. And Paul said, there ain't
no way. He done failed me once. He's
done let me down once. He's too young. He don't got
enough grace. He don't have enough strength.
He don't have enough wisdom. He don't have enough zeal. I
ain't going with him. Barnabas went one way with John
Mark. Paul went one way with Silas. And Paul got to be an
old man. You know what he said? He said,
send John Mark, cause he's needful to me, and tell him to bring
my cloak and my books. Cause John Mark grew. John Mark
grew. He didn't stay young and inexperienced
and he never forsook them again. And that's why the Scriptures
tell us there's newborn babes. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word. And over in 1 John, you look at it yourself. In one chapter,
in John chapter 2, he starts out with little children. Little
children. You don't expect much out of
a little child. You don't expect much out of children. You expect
more out of a 12 year old than you do a 6. You expect more out
of a 5 year old than you do a 2. But little children, he said
little children. Then he comes in and then he says he starts
addressing them as young men. Babes, little children and young
men. Then he starts talking about
young men, then he starts talking about them as fathers. And Paul
talked about the young women and the mothers. And so you see
that he talks about them as children, young men and fathers. And look
at those that you know. Look at those that you know personally.
Can't you see a difference in their growth? Can't you see they've
learned that they've grown in the grace and knowledge of Christ?
How about your own self? How about your own self? About
your own faith, your own knowledge, now compared when you first started
believing? Don't know how it seems like
you're the same person, does it? Huh? They're all the same
in principle. Faith is faith. Repentance is
repentance. Love is love. They're all the
same in principle, but they grow. It's just like a baby. When a
baby's born, he's got everything it takes to be an adult. But he's not an adult. But he's
got a mind that's just a little deluded. Girls, little girls
are going to grow up to be a woman. Little boys, and that's what
they look like. Little men and little women. And then they got
everything that it takes to be a full grown. And you watch them
start growing and growing and growing. Everything they had,
they had to start with. It just grew and grew and grew
and grew. And they got smarter and wiser
and stronger, more intelligent. And that's the way it is in spiritual
things. We start out as little babies. We got everything in
principle, but it starts growing. Starts growing. I mean a baby's
got ten fingers, eyes, ears, walk, talk, but he can't do what
an adult does. They just keep us on our toes. And I know this, where there's
a growth in grace, There's evidence there's grace, but there must
be life where there can be any growth. Anybody's not growing,
it's a pretty good indication that they ain't got no life.
Wherever there's life, it grows. It grows. Let me quickly give
you a few things about some evidence, some signs of a growth in grace.
How in the world can I know if I'm growing in grace? Well, I
do know this. We are very, very poor judges
of our own selves. Ain't we? We're poor judges of
our own selves. We're poor judges of our own
condition. And others can see better than
us. But there's some things that's obvious, obvious, of a growth
in grace. And you know what it is, the
first one? Humility. You increase in humility. What
do you mean by that? When a man starts to really see
and feel his own sinfulness, he sees and feels it more and
more and more. And he comes to the place where
he does like David. He says, Who am I, Lord, that
you'd even think of me? He said, Lord, I'm a worm. Why would you have anything to
do with me? You're like Job, the Lord, I've
heard about you, we've been here and there, my eyes sees you.
Now I've whored myself. I've detached myself. You're
like Abraham, when he was going to talk to God, he said, oh,
who am I but dust and ashes to speak to the Lord. Me, dust and
ashes, and I'm going to come and speak to the Lord? Jacob, He said, I'm not worthy,
not worthy of the least of thy mercies. And Isaiah said, woe
is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. That's what
I'm talking about. When you start growing, you start
going down. Religion tips going up. Grace is going down and down
and down and down. Do you absolutely have no confidence
in the flesh? Peter said, oh Lord, depart from
me! I'm a sinful man. Oh, Paul, when he first started out,
you start writing, seeing what he says, he first started out
and said, I'm the least of the apostles. One out of twelve? Been the least one out of twelve
ever? You're still in awful good company. that you're just the
least of the apostles. Then he said, I'm less than the
least of the saints. You find the least saints and
I'm less than that. And didn't you know what he said
before he left this world? He said, I'm the chief of sinners. Started out one out of twelve,
that's pretty good. Then all the saints. And then
he said he was nothing. Then he said he was the chief
of sinners. Don't have a child like me, he was going this way.
He's going this way. Going that way. And I tell you,
beloved, and the more we see of God, and the more we know
of God, the more we see of His holiness and perfection, the
more we see our imperfection. Our imperfection. And I know,
how many of y'all, every one of y'all raised corn over the
years. And you know corn, it stands up like this. But when
they, you know, when they, with the corn that they raise in the
field, when it gets ready to be picked and to be made into
cornflakes or whatever, bread or whatever they're going to
make it in, that thing stands up there and then all of a sudden
it just hangs down. It just hangs down. You go through a whole
field full of corn, when it's wrapped, these guys, these big
pickers go through there, stand up like that, when it gets dried
out and getting ready to be picked, it just hangs the whole way,
you're hanging down like that right there. And you know when
we get ready to be picked, that's the way we're going to be. We're
going to be just like this. And that's when you know, you
tell when you're ripe. When you're getting ready to
be harvested. You're like that corn. You're just hanging down. Just hanging down. And oh beloved,
that's why Paul said, I'm not already perfect. I'm not arrived
yet. But he said, I'm present. I'm
present. And I'll tell you another way
we have one of the marks of growing in grace is this. Our faith and
our love toward the leading Lord Jesus Christ, it grows, it increases. We find more in Christ now to
rest upon. More and more to rest upon. We
find more and more in Christ to rest upon. We sang that little
chorus. Learning to lean. Learning to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. Finding more power than I've
ever dreamed. I'm learning to lean hard on
the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, the more we know
about Him, the more we find out about Him, the more we rest on
Him, the more we love Him, the more our faith apprehends of
Him. We look at Him in His offices.
Priest? Oh, we learn more about His priesthood
and we understand, oh, how we love Him in His offices. As our
King who provides for us, protects us, As our prophet who teaches
us, takes us in hand and teaches us as he opens our understanding. Oh, we learn more about his love.
Oh, as Rick sang this morning, you know, he loved us before
we ever loved him. And oh, we learn more about his
power. Has he got power? Has he got power to keep us? Power to save us? Power to heal
us? Power to keep us? And oh, we
learn something about His heart. You know, people, we talk about
Christ, but our Lord Jesus Christ, we talk about His heart. His
heart. His intentions. Our Lord's heart
is towards us. Our Lord's heart is affections.
And as we learn more about His heart and His affections and
His intentions, every intention He has towards His people is
always good. Never ever intends to do us wrong. He intends, his intention before
the world ever began was to do something for us. And as we learn
more and more about him, our faith and love increases. We
see him as our substitute. Oh listen, we was on the altar
and the knife was getting ready to cut our throat. That's what
he's going to do. I'm not going to stab him in
his heart. He's going to cut that boy's throat. And when we were saying, and
justice, my from God, justice fixing to cut our throat, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, Stop! Take me! Put me there! And justice said, I will. And oh,
the more we learn about Him, and oh, as our intercessor and
our advocate, oh Lord, plead my cause, plead my cause, make
me, take me to the Father, make me acceptable to the Father,
take up my case, take up my cause, I've sinned and I've come and
I've failed you so, and I've been a miserable wretch. Lord,
take up my cause! And oh, we learn about Him being
a physician. Oh, our great physician. Bless His holy name. He heals
our hearts, heals our minds, heals our souls. When we're in
darkness, He brings us light. When we're sick in our souls,
He heals us. And He's our shepherd. And he
told his disciples, he said, a servant don't know what his
master's going to do, but you're not my servants, you're my friends.
And a friend knows what he's going to do. Oh, bless his name. And as these things unfold, our
understanding, he finds we understand that the half ain't been told
yet. The half ain't been told. And all I tell you, beloved,
And I say we want to, as we grow in grace, we want to be more
careful about our temper. We want to be more careful about
our actions. More watchful over our conduct. Be very careful
about it. We want to be conformed to the
image of Christ. We're trying to forget what was
behind and press toward the mark. And we thirst, and I know this
about growing in grace. A man who's growing in grace,
he thirsts and longs for his will to be conformed to the will
of God. Not my will, but thine be done.
Would you ever have anything in your life but the will of
God done? Would you ever want anything
other than God's will done in your life? There was a time you didn't want
that. There was a time you didn't even question it. And oh, to
grow in grace is to one of these days long to be free from sin,
to never ever sin again, to never ever, ever, ever sin one more time. Won't that day be
something? Won't that day be something? Huh? Oh, I tell you what. I know our
affections, as the man is growing in grace, our affections are
less and less on the world. More and more on spiritual things.
The pleasure of life, the pleasures become trifling. And I know that
we want to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And let me quickly give you a few reasons, things that
God uses to cause us to grow. Look over here in James chapter
1 with me. James chapter 1. You know these people sang that
song, Lord lift me up and take me up on higher ground. You kidding?
The grace of God don't take you on higher ground. It can't take
you any higher than Christ. But if you're in Christ, you're
going this way. You're going down. That's the
thing about salvation even. God's going to empty you before
He fills you. He's going to strip you before He clothes you. He's
going to wound you before He ever heals you. That's the way
the Lord works. He isn't just walking in an aisle,
switching your blowgun from one side to the other, coming to
an altar to accept Jesus. There ain't nothing to that.
Never has been, never will be. But I tell you what, look what
he said here in James 1 17. If we desire to grow in grace,
God gave us some means to do it with. He said in verse 17,
every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no bearableness,
neither shattereth of perfect." Oh my! God is a God of means,
and every good and perfect gift. If you want something from God,
you want to grow in grace, you know what the means He uses?
Prayer. Prayer. He uses prayer. He uses
reading the scriptures. He uses the Scriptures and we
can look at them and we find ourselves in the Scriptures.
And I'll tell you another thing that He uses, in these gifts,
if a man lacks wisdom, God said, let him ask of God who giveth
to all men liberally. And He don't break one bolt and
set one up above another. And I'll tell you another means
that the Lord uses. And that's the public worship
of God. God has means to bless us and
cause us to grow. And one of the main things that
he uses us to grow in gracing is other than prayer and reading
the scriptures for ourselves and thinking about the scriptures.
I said the other night, you know, a fella said, boy, we just, we,
you know, people that was born before the age of television
and born before, you know, and kids when they was little and
didn't have television, they think, they think, they would
think. They would think, they were thinkers,
they had a ability to think. Now people can't think. All they
got is a cell phone and a phone. Or an iPad or a tablet. There's
something all the time going on. And people don't stop and think.
And oh, God give us thinking minds. Think of the scriptures.
Think of what we heard. Think of God. Think of Christ. Think of creation. Think of ourselves. Think of salvation. Think of
God. Think of holiness. Think of righteousness. Think of just the things of God. But one of the things he uses
is attending to services. A man ain't going to grow in
grace if he don't attend services. And all to unite with the Lord's
people, we pray, and we praise the Lord, and we hear preaching,
and we take communion, and we take the Lord's table, and we
sing hymns to the praise of the glory of God. And in the way
we do them, not cold or mechanical, not heartless, but do it with
our hearts, and our souls, and our minds. And oh, here's another
means that God uses. to watch over ourselves while
we're living in this world. Me and Mary talked about that
this morning. Things that used to bother us and upset us don't
bother us at all now. And things, you know, you just learn that
some things ain't worth arguing about or debating about or conversing
about. And you know, after you've been
married a while, you learn, well, I just, you know, you watch your
temper, you watch your time, you watch your relationships,
you watch the way you use your time. It's awful to get to the
end of the day and say, what in the world have I done today?
I've wasted a whole day. Have you ever got to the end
of the day and says, oh my, what in the world did I do today about
anything? Oh, oh my. And I tell you, and I
tell you something else, the company we keep affects our character.
As they say, the birds of a feather flock together. The company you
keep affects our character. And I know disease is infectious,
but health isn't. You can get disease being around
people, but they can't make you, somebody sick can make you sick,
but your health can't make them well. And I tell you, let's not
close with this. Having a regular and a constant
and a, I should say, habitual more and more time in communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ. More and more time in communion
with our Savior. Believe Him. Call on Him. Think of Him. Meditate about
Him. You see, it's... It's possible to have union with
Christ, but very little communion with Christ. And stop and commune
with Him, son. And His offices in our clothes,
His offices show that communion, fellowship with Him, talking
with Him, knowing Him, conversing with Him, meditating upon Him
is so necessary. It's called saying the Savior.
He's the Savior. We're a saint. He's called the
bridegroom. We're called the bride. He's
called the head. We're called the members. He's
called the physician. We're called the patients. He's
the advocate. We're his clients. He's the shepherd. We're his sheep. He's the master. We're his servants, bond slaves.
And that's why, you know, we ought to lay hold on Him. and
pour out our hearts to Him. That's why Paul said this, he
says, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet it's
not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live,
right now, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, loved me, and gave himself for me. And that's why he says,
for me to live, that's Christ. For me to live is Christ, and
to die, death. Going in grace? Are we? Are we? I certainly hope so. I see you all are. I see you
all are. Every once in a while I think,
boy, they ought to... I had to ask Bruce Crabtree last time,
his fear. I said, Bruce, why don't you come down here and
pastor this church? He said I got my hands full where
I'm at.