I covet your prayer as I attempt
to bring this message because I fear darkening counsel with
words without knowledge with regard to this subject of growth. What does the Bible teach regarding
spiritual growth? And this is not a how-to message. There's been plenty of those,
how to grow, how to grow. That's not what this is about.
And I approach this subject with fear. So please pray for me as
I try to bring this message. I've entitled this message grow,
increase and abound. These are three scriptural words.
grow, increase, and abound. And let me remind you of three
things before I begin this message. Number one, the Lord gives the
increase. The Lord gives the increase.
If you and I are going to grow, it's because he causes us to
grow. And You can't really see yourself
grow. I'm really making some progress.
No, you're not. No, you're not. You can't see
yourself grow. And you can't make yourself grow. Keep those things in mind. Yet
every believer desires this thing of growth. Peter said in verse
18, grow in grace. That's a command. Grow in grace. Now, if he tells us to grow in
grace, that means there is such a thing as growth in grace, isn't
there? Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. These are two things
that can't be separated. If I grow in the knowledge of
him, I'll grow in grace. If I grow in grace, I will grow
in my knowledge of him. Now, I've been thinking about
this message for a couple of months, kind of simmering on
the back burner, and a scripture came to my mind just a few days
ago that made me know I want to deal with this tonight. It's
where the apostles asked the Lord, they made this request,
increase our faith. What a prayer. Increase our faith. We're going to look at that in
context in a few moments. We love babies, but what if they didn't grow?
I've seen this once, and it's Dirk and Reba's daughter, you
remember. It was a very disturbing sight,
and what a terrible thing it was for them. It's a couple at
the church in Crossville. They had a child, a little girl,
that never did develop. The baby was on a ventilator
for several years, never did develop, never recognized her
parents, and the baby died at five years old. I don't know
why this was, but this baby never did develop. Can you imagine
how happy they were upon the birth of this baby girl? And yet, what a grief that must
have been to see where that child never did develop. Now, where there is life, there
is growth. Amen. Where there is life, There
is growth. And Peter says, grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There
is such a thing as growth. You know a scripture, I wish
I could comment on it the way I should, but it said regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he grew. in wisdom and in stature
and in favor with God and men." Somebody says, explain that to
me. I'm not going to give a shot at it. What can I say other than
he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men."
Now, with regard to growth, and I've made this statement before,
the growth of a believer is like the growth of a tree. If a tree
is going to grow high, it's going to grow down, isn't it? the roots
are gonna go down and down and down. And I know this, if I experience
true growth and grace, I'm gonna see myself as lower and lower
and lower. And when I reach the bottom,
then go down some more. Now that's growth and grace.
You see yourself as Paul saw himself. the very chief of sinners. Paul would look at me or you
and he would say, I am the chief of sinners. Now, growth is always
downward. And if someone has a high opinion
of themselves, they don't know anything about growth. It's downward. Growth is outward. You grow when
you love people more. When you are more gracious, more
merciful, more forgiving, more kind toward those people, you
grow outward. And you grow upward in your amazement at the character of
God. All at the character of God. All at his holiness, at
his sovereignty, of his power, of his omniscience, of all his
omnipotence, all of his wonderful attributes. you grow to admire
him and love him more. Now those three things always
go together. Where you have one, you'll have all three. You'll
grow down in your view of yourself. You'll grow outward in your love
to others and you'll grow upward in your view and your awe and
your fear of God. Now, The Scripture teaches that
there are different stages and states of growth. John speaks
of little children. He speaks of young men who are
strong. He speaks of fathers in the faith. And we all have seen mature believers. What a joy it is to be around
a mature believer. And we've seen believers whose
growth seems to be stunted. And that is scriptural, too.
I mean, think of what Paul said to the Corinthians. He said,
you're babes. He said, you're carnal. I got to preach to you as if
you were just natural men because your growth is stunted. The writer
to the Hebrews said, you ought to be teachers, but you have
one need to teach you again. What be the first principles
of the gospel? So there is a such a thing as
maturity in the faith, growth in faith. There's a such a thing
as being little in faith. And didn't the Lord talk about
great faith and little faith? One time even said, where is
your faith? I don't see it operating. Where is it? So this is definitely
a scriptural concept, the fact that there are mature believers
and there are immature believers. And I know all of us want to
be a mature believer, someone who grows in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now turn with me
to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, beginning in
verse one. Then said he unto the disciples,
it is impossible, but that offenses will come. But woe unto him through
whom they come. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanging about his neck, and he cast into the
sea, then that he should offend one of these little ones. Take
heed to yourselves. Watch out. If your brother trespass
against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee
seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again, saying
to thee, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles
said unto the Lord, increase our ability to forgive. give us more of a forgiving spirit. That's all he said is they said,
increase our faith. The only way we will be enabled
to do this is through an increase in faith. Now somebody reads
that passage of scripture and they think, well, does that mean
if my brother sins against me and doesn't apologize and repent,
I'm not required to forgive him. Is that what that means? Well,
What if the Lord did you that way? What if He would not forgive
you unless you came to Him? Scripture doesn't teach that,
does it? His forgiveness of us is not in accordance to our asking
to be forgiven. Well, if they don't ask, I'm
not going to forgive them. No, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. He didn't
forgive you because you asked to be forgiven or because you
were sorry for your sin or because you promised to not do it again
or because you stopped committing that sin. He forgave you for
Christ's sake. Now, You forgive the way he forgives. For Christ's sake, if it's seven
times a day, do it. And what did the apostles ask
for? An increase in faith. Now, when I have my faith increased,
I have more of an understanding than I did before that I'm forgiven
wholly for Christ's sake. It is that simple. And if you
see that you've been forgiven for this one reason for Christ's
sake and no other reason, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to forgive the same way. Paul said to the Corinthians
who were very immature, babes, carnal, walk as men. He says,
we have hope. This was said in 2 Corinthians
10, 15. We have hope that when your faith is increased, we shall
be enlarged by you. We're looking for something when
your faith is increased. And then in 2 Corinthians 9,
verse 10, you can jot this down. I got so many scriptures. I'm
going to just read them. You can jot them down if you
can. But Paul spoke in 2 Corinthians 9, 10 of the Lord increasing
the fruits of your righteousness. Now, what are the fruits of righteousness? Well, it's the fruit of the Spirit.
That's what he's talking about. The Lord increase the fruit of
the Spirit. Now, everybody that's born of
God is born with the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Now when a baby is born, he's
got all his parts, but they grow. They grow. And he's telling us
to grow in the fruit of God the Holy Spirit. I want to love God
more than I did yesterday. I really do. I want to love him
more. And I want to have more joy in the gospel. I want that
to increase. And I want to believe Him more
thoroughly. I want to grow in faith. And I want to grow in
longsuffering. I want to become more longsuffering,
believing God is on the throne and just being calm about everything.
He's in control. And I want to grow in gentleness
or kindness. I want to grow in goodness. I
want to grow in faith, meekness, temperance. Every believer desires
growth in the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. And remember, I
love these scriptures. Consider the lilies how they
grow. Our Lord reminds us of that.
Consider the lilies how they grow. They toil not, neither
do they spin. Yet I say unto you that Solomon
in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Now, a message
on growth is not supposed to think, oh man, I need to grow
more. Yeah, sure you do. Who doesn't? But this is to be
encouraged. Consider the lilies, how they
grow. It's not through anything but the power of God and the
cause of God and the grace of God that they grow. I would say
the same thing regarding the Beatitudes. I love the Beatitudes.
That's what a believer really is. You read the first 12 verses
of Matthew chapter 5. Poor in spirit. Somebody that
mourns over their sins. Somebody that's meek before God.
Somebody that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. Somebody
that's pure in heart. Someone that's merciful. Someone
that's a peacemaker. Someone that's persecuted for
righteousness. I want to grow in this. I want to become more
poor in spirit, don't you? I want to have a lower view of
myself than I ever have. I want to see myself as completely
dependent upon the charity of God at all times. I want to have
this poverty of spirit. No, I want to mourn over my sin. I don't want to be indifferent
about my sin. I want to mourn more over my
sin. I want to become more meek before
God, more submissive to whatever He does is right. Believing whatever
comes to me comes from His hand, and it's for His glory and my
good, and therefore I'm to meekly submit. I want to hunger and
thirst more after righteousness, see my need of Christ more, hunger
for Him more. I want to be like that heart
who pants after the water brook, that desires. I don't think you
can grow in purity of heart, that's talking about the new
heart that he is, but you can grow in the sense of manifesting
it more, manifesting it more in all things. I want to grow
more merciful, I want to be more of a peacemaker, and I want to
be persecuted for righteousness sake. I do, I want to represent
the Lord in that way. I want to grow in this. These
are all matters of growth. First Corinthians 1558 says,
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding. There's the word. Always abounding
in the work of the Lord. For you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord. I want to always be abounding
in this thing of the work of the Lord. And what is the work
of the Lord? It's the promotion of the gospel.
It's the preaching of the gospel. It's the standing for the gospel.
I want to always be abounding in the work of the Lord. Turn
with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. He says to the Corinthians in
verse seven, therefore, as you abound, now there's the word
it's you grow, you increase. Therefore, as you abound in everything
in faith, in utterance, in your word of the gospel, in your knowledge,
coming to understand Christ more clearly, in all diligence, in
your love to us, see that you abound, grow in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity
of your love." Now, what he's talking about is giving. I want
to become more generous. Now that's only by the grace
of God, I realize that. But I want to give more sacrificially. I love what David said, I'm not
going to offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing. I want
to abound in generosity, not worrying about what somebody
else is doing, but I want to abound in being a cheerful giver.
I love that passage of scripture, God loves a cheerful giver. Here's
something to abound in. Here's something to grow in. generous. He said, see that you
abound, that you grow in this grace also. Look in Ephesians
chapter 4. There's so much in the scripture
about this. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 11. He
gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting, the maturing of the saints. for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying, for the building
up of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect
man, a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to
and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to
deceive, But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him
in all things, which is the head, even Christ. What are we doing
right now? This is about the perfecting
of the saints, about the edifying of the body of Christ. That's
what the purpose of this is. Turn with me to Philippians 1. This is Paul's prayer for the
Philippians. And he says in verse nine, and this, I pray that your
love may abound, may increase, may be over surpassing, that
your love may abound yet more and more to him, to his people. And look what he says. I pray
that your love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all discernment. I pray that your love would grow
in knowledge, true understanding of him and all discernment. Now here's what he's praying.
I want you to love Christ, increase in your love to Christ so that
you can discern that which is contrary to him. This is what
I'm praying for you, that you might be enabled because of your
love to Him. When you hear something that's
contrary to Him, you know it, you discern it, you're quick
to see the difference because you've been given this grace
to abound in love to Him. So you can tell the difference
between law and grace, between that which is true and that which
is in false, that which is of the flesh and that which is of
the spirit. Now, What happens when somebody
comes to love Christ? They have a discerning ear. They
hear because they know Him. And because of your love to Him,
you despise that which robs Him of glory. Because you love Him,
you despise that which is contrary to Him because You love his glory. You know, some folks, I think,
well, they're just, they're too exact in their dogma. And what
it is, it could be that because of their love to Christ is so
little, they can tolerate that with someone who loves him more
will not. And so what he's asking is that
your love would abound. Not that you'd know more, that
you'd be more doctrinally sound, but that your love to him would
abound more. in all knowledge, in all judgment,
and that word judgment is discernment, that you may approve things that
are excellent. You hear what's excellent, what
glorifies Him, and you approve of it. That's what happens when
you love Him, when your love abounds. And the only way our
love is gonna abound is His grace causing it to abound, that you
may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. Now we're in Philippians, turn
to Philippians chapter four, verse 17. Not because I desire a gift.
I'm not saying these things because I want you to give to me, but
I desire fruit that may abound to your account. I want to see
fruit overflow is what he's saying to the Philippians. I want your
fruit to overflow. It's another way of speaking
of growth in the fruit of the Spirit. Turn to Colossians chapter
2, verse 7. Verse 6, as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord. How'd you receive him? How'd
you receive him? freely. As an empty-handed sinner, needing
his mercy. That's how you received him.
As you received him, don't graduate past that. So walk in him. As you received him, so walk
in him, rooted down and built up in him. and established in
the faith as you've been taught, abounding, there's the word,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Now I want to abound in being
a thankful person. Abounding in thanksgiving. Walking
around amazed at the greatness of his grace toward me. Amazed
and thankful for what he's, how he's revealed himself to me.
Oh, thankful people. If there's anything a believer
ought to be, it ought to be thankful. Not, not murmuring and complaining,
but thankful for the greatness of his grace. And I want to grow
in thankfulness, thankfulness to him for his grace. First Thessalonians chapter four. Verse nine, that is touching brotherly love.
You need not that I write unto you for you yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. And indeed you do it toward all
the brethren which are in all Macedonia, but we beseech you
brethren that you increase in this thing of love to the brethren,
that you increase more and more. Don't you want to love God's
people more? Don't you want to increase, abound, grow in your
love to them? Second Thessalonians chapter
one verse three. We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it's meet, as it's appropriate, because
that your faith groweth exceedingly. And the charity of every one
of you all toward each other abounds. Now this is something
you can see. Your faith grows exceedingly. You've seen people's
faith grow. Your charity toward each other abounds. But what
I want us to notice is who did he thank for this? Man, you're
all great people. I thank you that you've grown.
No, he thanked God. He thanked God. I thank God that
your faith grows exceedingly and that charity for each of
you abounds one toward another. Turn to 1 Peter 2. Verse one, wherefore laying aside
all malice, all guile, hypocrisies, envies, all evil speakings, as
newborn babes desire the sincere, and that word sincere, I'm not
real sure why they translated that because it's just pure,
pure. Desire the pure milk of the word
that you may grow thereby. crave, just like a newborn baby.
I want to hear his word. Lord, give me a heart to hear
your word. Give me a heart to read your
word. Give me a heart to receive your
word. Give me a heart to understand your word. I want to grow through
hearing the word, and that's how growth comes. It's through
the word of God. Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. Second Peter. Second Peter chapter
one. Simon Peter. A servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ. to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us. You know, I love that. Like precious
faith. You know, all believers have
the same faith. Believe the same thing. No difference. And it's
precious. It's the gift of God. Now he
says to them that have obtained like precious faith with us.
And we know the reason we have this like precious faith is we've
obtained it. He gave it to us. That's where
it came from. Through the righteousness of
God, our Savior, Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
according as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness. You've already got it. He gave
it to you through the knowledge of him that had called us to
glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises that by these you might partakers be
partakers of the divine nature. That's what every believer is
a partaker of the divine nature. That's what's given in the new
birth. Having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust
and beside this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue. And add to your virtue knowledge
and add to your knowledge, temperance, control from within the fruit
of God, the Holy Spirit, and add to your temperance, patience
and add to your patience, godliness and add to your godliness, brotherly
kindness and add to your brotherly kindness, charity. For these
things be in you and abound. They make you that you shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I don't want to be barren
and I don't want to be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. And he said, add all these things. Second Peter, here's our text.
Second Peter chapter three. Verse 15. and to count that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Anybody he's longsuffering toward,
he saves. The longsuffering of the Lord
is salvation. Look back in verse nine of the
same chapter. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. I think it's amazing how people
try to use that verse of Scripture to talk about how God wants to
save everybody. You can't get out of that if you read what
He says. He's longsuffering to usward, those who are partakers
of the divine nature. Those who have been given faith,
the elect of God, all who believe, His longsuffering to us would
remember His longsuffering if salvation. And He's not willing
that any of them perish. And you know what? If He's not
willing that I perish, I'm not going to perish. Not going to
happen. He's not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now back to verse
15. Now you account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you. Now I love the way Peter talks
about his beloved brother Paul. Now Paul publicly rebuked Peter
in front of a whole lot of people. How will most people handle a
public rebuke? They'll be upset. But what grace
Peter demonstrates here, he calls him our beloved brother, Paul. Verse 16, as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things, these things of
salvation, in which are some things hard to be understood. You know, there's no doubt in
my mind, reading Peter and reading Paul, Paul was intellectually
superior to Peter. I mean, you just read the two
and you can tell such a difference. And Peter says, I don't know
what he's talking about sometimes. I have a hard time grasping it.
But that's not a reason for unbelief, because look what he kept on
saying. As also in all his epistles, speaking them of these things,
in which are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable twist, as they do also the other
scriptures. He acknowledged Paul's writing
as being scriptures. And he says they twist his writings
and they twist the other scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures,
unto their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, seeing
that you know these things before, beware, lest you, being led away
with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. What's going to prevent that
from happening? But grow in grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and
forever. Now here are two things that
cannot be separated. Grace and the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now that isn't referring simply
to knowing a lot of things about him. It's knowing him. The knowledge of him, or when
I use his name, I'm not name dropping. He knows me. Now that you've known God, or
rather are known of God, I want to be somebody that he knows,
that he acknowledges, not just because I say it, but because
it's real. Grow in grace. Now, what is grace? It's God's salvation. I want to grow in my understanding
of my need of grace. Don't you? I want to be the person
who's more dependent upon the grace of God than anybody else
in the world, because I see I need it more than anybody else in
the world. I want to grow in my understanding of my need of
His grace to save me. I want to grow in my understanding
that I can't be saved by my works, that the only way I can be saved
is by what He does for me by His grace. I want to grow in
my love for His grace. I want to be so appreciative
of His grace. How He saves me by free and sovereign
grace. I want to grow in my love of
electing grace. And I want to grow in my love
of redeeming grace. And I want to grow in my love
of regenerating grace. I want to grow in my love of
preserving grace. I want to grow in my love of
grace before grace. Provenient grace. I want to grow
in my love of everything with regard to His grace. I want to
grow in it Salvation is by grace. I want to grow in my appreciation
of that, my love to that. I never want to think, well,
I already know that, let's go on to the next thing. No, I want
to continually be amazed. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me, a sinner
condemned, unclean. I want to grow there. I want
to grow in my graciousness. Now, every time I say something
like that, it always scares me because I think, well, the Lord's
going to give me something to let me do that. So I hope nothing
like that happens where I have to. But still, I want to grow
in graciousness. I want to grow in being a merciful,
gracious person. I want to grow in my understanding
of what it is to preach grace. What it is to communicate the
grace of God. grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the altogether lovely
one. And here is the automatic response
that comes out of growth. To him be glory. If you grow in grace, You know
to Him the glory, both now and forever. Now, if you hear this
message and think, I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. I can see my growth. No, you're not. Let me assure
you, no, you're not. And if you're discouraged, well,
you ought not be. It's growing grace. It's not
growing your own strength and your own works. It's growing
grace. You ought not be discouraged.
but how every one of us ought to desire and ask God to cause
us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Now, it is true that we have a sinful
nature that never gets better, and that never improves. It's just as sinful as it ever
was. And you have the same wicked
desires and thirst for sin that you've ever had. Isn't that true?
Sure it is. Somebody says, not with me, I
don't believe it. Either that or you're just being given over
a reprobate mind and you're just blind and can't see yourself.
Every believer recognizes that. Settled. If someone has God's grace given
to them and they're no different than they were before at all,
they don't have God's grace. Now, both of those things are
true. Both of those things are true. You've got a nature that
is just as bad as it ever was. And it's not going to get better.
I can tell you that. It's not going to get better. It's not
going to get weakened. You're going to be living with that
hellish person until you die. That's one of the reasons we
desire death. I'm not going to have to deal
with sin anymore. That being said, if God gives you grace, He gives you grace. And you grow
in love to Him. You grow in appreciation of His
grace. You grow in your desire to be
like Him and to honor Him in your character and in your conduct. That is your desire. Grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name. That you will cause us. To grow in grace. And in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Lord, we ask that
you would increase our faith. Lord, cause us to be strong men
in Christ Jesus. Not carried about with every
wind of doctrine. but rooted and built up in him. And Lord, you have said in your
word for us to grow in grace. So we ask that you would cause
us to grow in grace, to grow in our love for your grace, to
grow in our understanding of your grace, to grow in our ability
to preach your grace, And Lord, we ask in Christ's name that
you would cause us to grow in graciousness for the glory of
thy son. Lord, we're so aware of our sinfulness. We confess our sin. We pray for
forgiveness. We pray for cleansing and ask
that you bless these words for your glory and our good. In Christ's blessed name, we
pray.