Growing in the Grace of God #23 - Various Aspects of New Covenant Grace Part 1 — Bob Hoekstra

Your children be with you, and be in Christ, and know you. And we come seeking you, Lord. We ask you to speak to us now. We come humbling ourselves under your mighty hand, realizing you give grace to the humble, and we yearn for your grace.

We hunger for your grace. We need your grace. So we come humbly, confessing our need. But we come in faith, anticipating, expecting what you can and will do, and ask you to shape us, mold us, and pour out life within us, we pray, Lord.

By your grace, in Jesus' name, amen. Study number 12, Various Aspects of New Covenant Grace. Just a title that lets us highlight some things on the issues of grace. A title that lets us catch up on some things, tie some things together, biblical issues related to the New Covenant and the grace of God.

New Covenant Sufficiency: Humility and Faith

By way of introduction, let's let the context be set by one of our theme verses for the whole course, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3 .5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

A verse worthy of frequent meditation and prayer, and every word, every phrase, just key and critical in this verse, as is so often the case. And this is all about New Covenant living. Next verse, God who also made us sufficient as ministers, servants of the New Covenant.

The New Covenant, acknowledging our insufficiency, relying on God's sufficiency. We're talking about humility and faith. Remember, we've looked at that before. Humility and faith. Humility, facing our own need, acknowledging our insufficiency.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves. The things that are needed in the kingdom of heaven do not source in man even redeemed man. The we here, born again New Covenant servants.

And we cannot consider that we are sufficient to think of anything. Anything eternal, anything heavenly, anything godly, anything that matters, anything that saves souls and changes lives. That any of that is from ourselves.

It does come to us, but it's not from us. Critical. Because that indicates, finally, where we'll put our hope. Not in self, because it doesn't come from self. Doesn't mean we can't find what we need, a sufficiency for life.

It just has to be the sufficiency of God. But our sufficiency is from God. There's the faith part. Humility, it doesn't come from us. Faith, it does come from God. And humility and faith are critical in living daily by the grace of God.

We've looked at that extensively in previous studies. This is all about God's grace at work. That's what the New Covenant is. God's grace at work. 2 Corinthians 1 .12, early on in the book. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.

How did Paul conduct himself in life and ministry? By the grace of God. Another verse that makes it obvious that God's grace is not just His willingness to forgive us. This verse is talking about how Paul lived the daily Christian life and how he ministered.

And it wasn't by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God. That's how he lived and ministered. That's what a New Covenant servant's life is all about. Living by the resources of the grace of God. Chapter 4, verse 15.

For all things are for your sakes that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. What a great ministry in Christian life verse that is. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 15.

4 .15. For all things, all things that we get involved in in ministry, end up for the sakes of those we are ministering to, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

We want our ministries, our lives, to be for the sake of others, that their lives might be touched by what? By grace. And that grace will just spread through the many. To us, through us, out touching others and out through them to touch others.

And what does that eventuate in? It causes thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Oh thank you Lord for your glorious grace. Grace for this and grace for that. Grace that met me here and grace that touched a life there.

That's what ministry is all about. Being filled with the grace of God, pouring it out and letting thanksgiving abound to the glory of God as grace spreads through the many. Now that's just sort of introductory to let the Lord put our minds in the same direction on the grace of God and life and ministry in the New Covenant.

New Covenant Truth in the Old Testament

As we look at various aspects of New Covenant grace. Now let's think together in the scriptures for a while about New Covenant truth in the Old Testament. Too many folks think the Old Testament is all about law and only the New Testament is about grace.

Not true. Common misconception. There's law and grace in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And some get the Old Covenant and the New Covenant mixed up with the Old Testament and New Testament. Same word so it's easy to do.

But the Old Testament, you know the collection of the inspired writings of the prophets before Messiah came. And then Matthew and following the inspired message of God through the apostles about the coming of Messiah and after he came.

That's what really separates the Old and New Testament. One kind of looking forward to his coming, the other he's here. And then the expounding of the significance of who he is, what he did and all the shadows in the Old Testament brought out in vivid image in the person of Christ in the New Testament.

But in that looking forward record, the Old Testament as well as the here he is and here's what he did when he came, New Testament. There's law and grace in both. There's Old Covenant and New Covenant, truth in both.

Of course the Old Testament has a lot of Old Covenant and some beautiful indicators and foretaste of the New Covenant. And then the New Testament has some of the law, therefore the standards of the Old Covenant.

But it is concentrating on expounding the New. But let's look at the Old Testament and see New Covenant truth there. Like Genesis 15, 6. New Covenant truth, you know, man's insufficiency, God's sufficiency, living by faith, accessing God's grace.

Genesis 15, 6. And he, Abraham, believed in the Lord and he, God, accounted it to him for righteousness. God counted Abraham righteous, not because of some standard he achieved, but because of his trust in the Lord's promises.

Trusting in the Lord, and interestingly enough, this is even before the law was given, like 430 years from Genesis 12, the first promise to Abraham till the law is given. Trusting in the Lord became righteousness for Abraham.

And folks often say, well, how are these Old Testament saints saved? I mean, it's clear how we are and it just seems so different there. Just take some time to read again Romans 4. Romans 4 makes it very clear by telling David's testimony and Abraham's that justification has always been by faith.

Just believing God, trusting in his promises, his provision, whether he promises something yet to come, which he did to Abraham and to David, or whether to us he promises the consequences of believing who came and what he brought.

It's faith in the Lord's promises and provisions wherein we find justification. God accounts that to us for righteousness. Numbers 14, 6 through 9. You don't think of numbers when you think of the New Covenant generally.

Think of Israel staggering under the law and building a bad testimony. Wandering and griping. Numbers 14, 6 through 9, but look at this. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes when they heard the doubt and the majority report.

Hey, we can't take this land. The walled cities, the giants, I mean, let's be realistic, let's be practical, let's use some common sense. You know, the majority report. But Joshua and Caleb, verse 7, they tore their clothes and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, the land we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only, do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.

Their protection is departed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. They hinged it all on the Lord. If the Lord wants to give us this land, if it's his delight toward us, to bless us this way and he promises this land to us, then he will bring us into the land.

Not self-sufficiency involved here, but God's sufficiency. Sure, they looked at, you know, just this band of stragglers wandering through the desert, more or less. And here are these great walled cities and these giants.

It didn't look like it was possible, humanly speaking. Sure. Very practical, realistic approach, except one thing. It overlooks all the promises of and the character of God, which changes everything. Joshua and Caleb, how did they view what lay before them?

Through the eyes of God's sufficiency, not their sufficiency. There was a foretaste there of the new covenant. Hebrews 6 says, we taste now, we get foretaste of the powers of the age to come, what it's going to be like in the millennium and the new heaven and new earth.

There were many in the Old Testament who had foretaste of what we now have abundantly before us. Joshua and Caleb were certainly two of those. They were living in anticipation of what God could do, not what they could do.

That's right at the heart of the new covenant. Yeah, give it to us. Give and gift and grace, they just overlap all over each other, you know. Like talking the same kind of language. Amen. Deuteronomy 20.

Faith in God’s Victory Over Overwhelming Enemies

Deuteronomy 20. Again, you think of the law, the second giving of the law. Yeah, plenty of that. To show the standard and the need and the holy God and the unholiness of man. But oh, look at these glimpses of new covenant living, living by faith and the gracious provision of God.

Deuteronomy 20, verses 1 through 4. When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies.

Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid and do not tremble or be terrified because of them. Why? Why not be terrified in light of being outnumbered? For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.

That's pretty straightforward. We can count on God to bring us the victory. How this echoes verses we've seen in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Same kind of spirit, same God, same faith. Enemies greater than us. Don't be worried, afraid, the Lord is with us. God will fight for his people. It's like new covenant truth that the Old Testament saints were putting their hope in.

Psalm 18, 1 through 3. Psalm 18. In many ways, there's hardly a more new covenant book in all the Bible than the book of Psalms. Have you noticed that? I love to spend time in the Psalms looking at the Psalms through the eyes of the fullness of the provision of the new covenant.

You can just see seeds of it, foretaste of it, glimpses ahead of it. The relationship with the Lord available. Even to these Old Testament saints. Psalm 18. I will love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.

My God, my strength in whom I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. These statements, the Lord is.

That's getting right at the heart of new covenant truth. The new covenant truth is all about who the Lord is. What the Lord is going to do, what the Lord has done, all based on his character. And these words, my, the Lord is my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.

That's a man depending on the reality of the person and provision of God himself. In whom I will trust, the new covenant. Living by faith, humbly, letting God pour out his grace. That's the kind of heart David had.

And then David said, I will call upon the Lord. What's the result of those who call upon the Lord? So shall I be saved from my enemies. Rescued just by calling upon his name. Not proving you're worthy, not getting the upper hand yourself, not making victory appear.

I just call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. Here's a man living by the sufficiency of God. He showed what happened when he ran on his own sufficiency. Bathsheba.

Numbering Israel when he wasn't told to by God. Obviously there were carnal reasons there. We're not, it's not expounded exactly why. And there are probably many reasons it could be. God has his reasons to do something fine.

But if we just take it upon ourselves, do it for our reasons, it's the flesh. But basically David was a man after God's own heart. Even when he failed miserably. He didn't try to earn himself back into God's good favor.

He fell on the mercy of God. And when he was victorious, he gave God the glory. When he stumbled and fell, he cried out for mercy. I mean, this is a man after God's own heart. Psalm 36. Psalm 36. New covenant truth in the Old Testament.

God’s Loving Kindness as the Fountain of Life

Psalm 36. Oh, these are great verses. 7 through 9. How precious is your loving kindness, O God. Therefore the children of man put their trust under the shadow of your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house.

And you give them drink from the river of your pleasures. For with you is the fountain of life. In your light, we see light. Oh, that just screams out the character of the new covenant. Marked the relationship of David to the Lord.

The hope and confidence and fulfillment of God's people. Depends on God's loving kindness and God's provision. How precious is your loving kindness, O God. Not only does the word grace appear in the Old Testament, but this word is a very strong spiritual synonym for grace.

Some versions translate it loyal, steadfast love. God's faithful commitment to his people just is there all the time. His loving kindness, how precious it is. Just like his grace. Therefore, in light of that, children of man love to run under the shadow of God's wings when they are willing not to trust in themselves.

They end up abundantly satisfied with God's fullness. He lets us drink of his river of life. With him is the fountain of life. Life flows from him, not from us. And as far as light, knowing light from darkness and living in the light, it's in God's light we see light.

In man, there's only darkness. Real light has to come from God. Beautiful new covenant truth in the Old Testament. Psalm 37, commit your way to the Lord. Verse 5. Let's start at verse 3. Trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass.

What a tremendous picture of new covenant living. Trust in the Lord, verse 3. Feed on his faithfulness. Delight in the Lord. Let him be our joy, our thrill, our all in all. Then he'll give us the desires of our heart.

All the way from causing the right desires to sprout there, as well as then fulfilling them. It's not just delight in him and you can get whatever you want. It's delight in the Lord and then he'll be giving your heart the kind of desires.

He'll give you the desires of your heart. He'll put them in there. There'll be desires that fit his character and his heart because he's your delight. Your heart's wide open to whatever he wants. You're thrilled with what thrills him.

You're blessed with what blesses him. Your will wants his will. Commit your way to the Lord. Lord, here's my path. It's in your hands. You're in charge. I entrust it to you to lead, to guide, to guard, to develop.

Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. He'll bring to pass the unfolding of the path we're to walk in personally. Fantastic picture of living by faith in God, which lets God's grace have room to work in our lives.

God’s Strength for Those Who Wait and Hope in Him

Isaiah 40. There's another great new covenant truth in the Old Testament. Isaiah 40. I love this passage. Maybe you do too. Think of it in light of all the things we've looked at over these 11 plus weeks concerning the grace of God.

Isaiah 40 .29. He, God, gives power to the weak. And to those who have no might, he increases strength. Think how many in the American church immediately, habitually disqualify themselves from God's strengthening.

Why? Because they're all into being strong. You gotta be strong. You gotta be tough. You gotta be able, you know. And that's, those aren't the people God gives strength to. He gives power. Pardon? The power team.

Yeah, the power team. Oh man, you know how to push my button. The power team. Oh, Lord help us. Oh my goodness. Oh, do we have the time to even reflect on that? Oh man. Now we don't have time for that, Jonathan.

Yeah, look who. Yeah, we need a new power team. Just a bunch of weaklings. Going, God help us. Then the right message would be coming forth, you know. He gives power to the weak. And to those who have no might, He increases strength.

The last thing people want is to be weak. Without might. People fight it to look tough, be strong, act strong, you know. It doesn't matter, just at least put forth the image, you know. What a farce. God gives power to the weak.

Even to those who have no might, He increases strength. That's the grace of God. See, again, we're talking about God's sufficiency, not man's sufficiency. Do you think it's likely, in light of that, that Samson was probably just a very ordinary stature?

Very normal strength. Probably human. I think that the common way of depicting Samson is a very humanistic view of him. It's like, hey, he doesn't need God. He can rip pillars down by himself. Really.

Really. No doubt. No doubt. Look at this, verse 30. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. You know, the strength, the vitality of youth. I remember when I was 18.

I thought I was going to live forever. Not because I was saved, because I was invincible. Sickness, disease, aging, inability. Who's that about? Must be those old 20, 30, 40-year-old people. Even the youths shall faint and be weary.

There's even a limit to that natural human vitality of youth. But those who wait on the Lord of any age, those who wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Don't get fooled by that word wait. The word wait is not just allowing the passage of time. It's not an activity-inactivity kind of word.

Generally, it involves passage of time, because every moment of our existence involves a passage of time. But that could be translated. In fact, in some versions, it is. And in some other places in Scripture, this exact word is translated hope.

Hope. But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength. Those who put their expectations in God, they find a renewed measure of strength. God's strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Look at those promises. Shall renew their strength. Shall mount up with wings like eagles. Shall run and not be weary. Shall walk and not faint.

How did they enter into that? By waiting upon the Lord. Hoping in God. As time passes, putting expectations, day by day, step by step, issue by issue, in the Lord. So often, we're just almost driven to reduce the Christian life to do's and don'ts.

And it's natural in all of us. We want to make it more manageable, more workable, more doable. I mean, it's just... I don't know if there are any exceptions to that. If there are, I haven't come across them.

Certainly, I'm not one. But it isn't that. It's other issues like, who are you counting on? Where's the source of your resource? Those are the issues. And sometimes, the Christian life is a very active season.

And sometimes, it's a very inactive season. But listen, you can be inactive by the flesh and by the spirit. You can be active by the flesh and by the spirit. It isn't in those quantifiable things of how busy or how unbusy.

Or how much do or how much not to do. It's in a whole different realm. You can quantify human life a lot in those things. How busy are you? How many hours did you put in? How hard did you try? And all that.

You can kind of get at human life that way. But Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. He has a whole different realm for us to walk in. It has to do with trusting or not trusting. Looking to Him or looking to self.

It has to do with His grace poured out or us trying to perform up. I mean, those are the kind of issues. And God's spirit is willing to reveal those to us and be convicting our heart all along the way.

And those are the arenas where growth comes. This is a fantastic revelation of new covenant truth in the Old Testament. Those who wait on the Lord shall have all these wonderful spiritual benefits. Here's a mighty one.

Trusting in the Lord Rather Than Human Strength

This is a powerful one. This is one of the first ones I ever came across in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 17. I remember teaching on this in the early 1970s in Dallas. Just as the Lord was beginning to explode this new covenant in my own heart and life.

And I'd seen it in the New Testament, but I didn't realize it was woven through the Old Testament as well. Jeremiah 17, 5 through 8. Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.

You know, human resource his hope. That's not just inadequate, that is cursed. Cursed is the man who trusts in man, himself or others. And makes flesh, human resource his provision. Whose heart departs from the Lord.

That is, shifts from hoping in the Lord to hoping in man. Look at the curse involved here. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert. And shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness.

In a salt land which is not inhabited. We're talking about barrenness of life. The curse of man trusting in the resources of man. Is the human life becomes like a shrub in the desert. You know, you drive through the desert and you see these dry scraggly bushes out there every now and then.

That's a human life, spiritually viewed. Depicted so we can see it. When man trusts in man. It's a curse. Look at the other hand, verse 7. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. And whose hope is the Lord.

Whose expectation, confidence, sense of certainty and guarantees in life and time and eternity is the Lord. Why is such a person so blessed? Because he shall be like a tree planted by the waters. Which spreads out its roots by the river.

And will not fear when heat comes. I know I drive a lot from down here in North San Diego County. Out into the Calvary chapels across the southern half of the state. Usually if it's beyond, oh I don't know, Fresno or somewhere like that I don't drive.

I usually fly because it seems to reverse in the utility of time or whatever. Why is such a person so blessed? Because he shall be like a tree planted by the waters. Which spreads out its roots by the river.

And will not fear when heat comes. I know I drive a lot from down here in North San Diego County. Out into the Calvary chapels across the southern half of the state. Usually if it's beyond, oh I don't know, Fresno or somewhere like that I don't drive.

I usually fly because it seems to reverse in the utility of time or whatever. The wisdom. But in just driving that, that's like 300 mile or whatever stretch. In a lot of directions, like Calvary Chapel Barstow, you can see a little desert when you drive out that way.

As well as a lot of other Calvaries I drive through. Indio, Palm Springs. And it's interesting because you can see a lot of lifelessness. And down there you see a little shrub out there. Just a shriveled excuse for a plant.

But you can look off in the distance and you can see a winding line of green, vibrant, lush undergrowth and trees. Well you know in an instant what's happening. There's a stream running out there. And there are plants without that water and then there are the plants with the water.

The curse of trusting in man is there's no living water innately in man to find fullness of life from. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. The Lord is the fountain of living water. And we hope in Him we become like a tree planted by the water.

Just anchored in there. Which spreads out its roots by the river. Life. Life. Living water from the Lord. And we'll not fear when heat comes. Hey what's the problem with the heat coming if you know you're plugged into living water?

But its leaf will be green. There will be signs of life. And we'll not be anxious in the year of drought. Oh how will I make it through the dry time? Because that living water is eternal. Ever flows. Ever available.

Nor will cease from yielding fruit. Fantastic. What a tremendous New Covenant passage here in the Old Testament. Cursed by trusting in man. Flesh our strength like a parched shrub. Oh the blessing of trusting in the Lord.

Hoping in the Lord. Makes our lives like a green tree bearing fruit constantly. Fantastic. Fantastic. New Covenant truth. You know these verses we just read. In many ways. They summarize. Everything we've been studying for 11 plus weeks.

And we're reading the Old Testament. It's not that we have a Old Testament God and then a New Testament God. We have THE Lord God Almighty. The Great I Am. He always is and there always shall be. Who He has been and will be.

Now He knew man needed to have Him, God, revealed to us little by little. Digestible portions. To us it's like, yeah but thousands of years in this process? Oh yeah. What's that to God? A few days. Thousands of years!

Promises to Abraham. Down to the prophets. And the Messiah to come. And the Messiah came. And then afterwards the writing of the New Testament and all. Happened like that before God. It's nothing. He knew what man needed to have a revelation of who He was and how to approach Him.

And He just starts to unfold it. No wonder we look way back there and we find things that... Now, you don't find that on every page. What concentrates on most pages is the early lessons. The shadows. Boy the shadows get pretty crisp with some of these passages.

It's like, I can almost recognize that face. Then you get into the new and you find these everywhere you look. One more. Micah. Don't we all agree that's one of the great new covenant books? Micah. Where is it first?

Yes, I remember coming across it. Amos. Obadiah. Jonah. Micah. And all that soon after Daniel. Micah 7. Verses 7 through 9. Therefore, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation.

My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him until He pleads my case and executes justice for me.

He will bring me forth to the light. I will see His righteousness. What a fantastic passage of grace and faith and not man's sufficiency, but God's sufficiency. Look to the Lord. Wait for the Lord. When I'm in this predicament and that mess, even sin and needing to repent, the Lord will do this, the Lord will do that, and the Lord will bring me forth to the light.

And I will see His righteousness. Here is a man learning to live by the sufficiency of God, not of man. Now, shifting from New Covenant truth in the Old Testament, which is confirming, exhilarating, reminds us of the everlasting character of God and beautiful indicators of what was to burst forth in fullness when Jesus Christ came, the Messiah, our life, our light, our salvation.

New Covenant Grace Produces Spiritual Fruit

Now, to bring that to some other issues, like bearing fruit and then good works. Let's launch into the bearing fruit one, get started, and then we'll take a break before we look at good works and the much more grace of God.

Bearing fruit. How does this New Covenant of God's grace relate to bearing fruit? I mean, we do want to be fruitful Christians. We have the desire. We sense it's right. We're called to it in the Scriptures.

Well, here's the beauty of it. The New Covenant grace of God is designed to produce fruit in and through our lives. The New Covenant, the grace of God, is available to develop fruitful lives. Colossians 1 .6.

Fruitful lives. You could even say the development of a godly Christ-like life. And you think the fruit of the Spirit, Christ-likeness. Colossians 1 .6. Speaking of the gospel which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit.

As it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. What is it that these believers at Colossae had heard and got to know in reality, in truth? The grace of God. Well, what was it doing?

Bringing forth fruit since the day they heard it and knew it in truth, in reality, in actuality. In other words, they heard it. God gave understanding. And it was their experience. Their reality. To put it another way, the grace of God is the heavenly dynamic behind the bringing forth of spiritual fruit in our lives.

There is another way to say this. And maybe we are more commonly familiar with this way. And that is Galatians 5 .22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. And it well may be that fruit singular therefore is the fruit of love.

Love manifested in many forms like joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. All these things are the fruit of the Spirit. Not a work of the flesh that is an activity based on human resource.

That is not what produces the fruit of the Spirit. Not activity based on human resource. It is something that grows. Fruit is something that grows. What is the cause? The Spirit. Now in Colossians 1 .6 it says the grace of God was bringing forth fruit.

Here it is the fruit of the Spirit. Well remember we had a study about grace and Holy Spirit. Living by the grace of God and walking in the fullness of the Spirit. They are two different ways to say the same thing.

No surprise here when it gets to fruit we find that grace causes it. Well I thought the Spirit caused it. Well that is just somewhat redundant. But we need God to give us all those insights. I must confess before God showed me the connection between living by the Spirit and living by the grace of God.

I had a significantly diminished understanding of each of them. When I realized that each was describing the same thing in different terms. Each of them took on a whole new meaning. You mean walking in the Spirit is living by the resource of the grace of God?

I had it more down to a technique than something like that. You mean living by the grace of God is just the Holy Spirit unleashing God's grace in my life? Wow. Praise God. That is exciting. That is encouraging.

That is helpful. The Holy Spirit brings forth fruit in those who walk according to the Spirit. Thereby allowing God's grace to work in and through their lives. Just two different ways to say the same thing.

Abiding in Christ to Bear Much Fruit

Let's do one more verse on the next page because it would be a better place to stop. John 15, 4 and 5. Good place to take a break after we get started on that because that is so obviously about fruit bearing.

We are talking now about bearing fruit and its relationship to New Covenant grace. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Wow. Kind of humbling, isn't it? Well, living by the grace of God necessitates a willingness to walk in humility.