This study was first taught on July 9, 2013

Topic: The Essence of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives (6.4): The Necessity of Works (1)

(use the audio to study)

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Background
As we concluded our study on the “Supplies of Faith”, last week, we saw that other supplies must be added to the ones we had studied earlier: moral excellence, knowledge of spiritual things, self-control, and patient endurance. And these other supplies are godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity.

We noted that godliness is the nature of God in man, lived out on a daily basis, and manifested in religious piety, obedience to God, and the reverential fear of God. And upon godliness, must be built, brotherly kindness, which is the affection a believer in Christ has and exhibits towards other Christians, who really are his brothers and sisters, regardless of their age, race or colour; and it involves foregoing certain necessities of life, including life itself, if need be, for the benefit of other believers, and showing benevolence toward other believers. We noted further that every true believer must go beyond making sacrifices and showing kindness to the brethren, by attaining to the ultimate and pinnacle of Christian maturity—the demonstration of the love of God towards all men, irrespective of their race, religious persuasions, political affiliations, social status, etc.

We said that the love of God in our hearts must be the basis for all that we do in leading and bringing men to God, through evangelism, missions, church planting, discipling, etc.; and not the vanity of self-glory! God showed this love when He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for the sins of the world; and, the Lord Jesus manifested it during His earthly ministry, as He wroth miracles, and, preached and taught the word of God. Indeed, all that we do in the kingdom of God will amount to nothing, without the love of God in us, which manifests as compassion towards others, no matter how worthy a cause it may seem to be. The love of God is poured into the believer through the Holy Spirit; hence, without it, all our works will be based on selfish ambition and self-aggrandisement, resulting in pride, conceit, and the works of the flesh; just like the devil, who performs lying wonders for vainglory, and teaches heresy to lure men away from God. All such acts are the “unfruitful work of darkness!”

Scripture Text(s)
2 Peter 1:1-11
Tonight, we shall turn our attention to the reasons why, in spite of God’s work of grace through the Holy Spirit, it is important that we also build on our faith with the necessary supplies. It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit will help us not only to see the need for these supplies, but also, the necessity to work hard at adding them to our faith in Christ, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
v.8-11 of our scripture text gives us the upside of adding these supplies to our faith; the downside of not adding these supplies to our faith; and, the ultimate necessity of working hard to add these supplies to our faith in Christ Jesus. We shall begin tonight, with the downside of not investing time and energy in adding the supplies of moral excellence, knowledge of spiritual things, yielding control of self to the Holy Spirit, patiently waiting for God, living as God would have us live, making sacrifices and showing benevolence to other Christians, and manifesting the love of God to all men; to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:20-21; 6:1-2; Galatians 5:1, 4; Proverbs 29:18; Matthew 15:13-14; 1 Corinthians 2:12-14; Revelation 3:17-18; Matthew 13:14-16; 12:43-45; 2 Peter 2:20-22; Hebrews 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

Conclusion
There are many people today, who believe that once you are saved by grace, you need do nothing, but go on ahead and continue to live as you wish, because the grace of God is sufficient. Unfortunately, these people do not realize that the Lord has warned us not to take the grace of God in vain or for granted, which is what such an attitude is. Indeed, the grace of God is taken for granted, when we don’t apply its resources to making sure that we are growing in the things of God. And when we take the grace of God for granted by doing nothing to build on the faith which we were so freely given for salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), we show that we are short-sighted, if not blind, and have forgotten that we were purged from sin through the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is the refusal of many believers in Christ to build on the faith they profess to have that has made them to become unfruitful in the things of God. These unfruitful believers are earthly and sensual; they claim that repentance is unnecessary after salvation; they are visionless and wanton in their lifestyle; their lives and lifestyle contradict the faith they profess in Christ; and, some have even become demon possessed after being born again! Indeed, today, there are many so-called Christians who are living only for this world, without a thought about heaven, and the Second Coming of Christ. Unfortunately, with an attitude like this, many believers in Christ will lose, and have really lost the salvation that was so wonderfully won for them. The sad thing is that a number of these people still think that they are doing okay, whereas, everything points to the fact that they are heading for destruction in hell, unfortunately. And this is one of the reasons why those of us who have received the free gift of salvation should work hard to add the supplies of virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, to our faith. For this reason also, the Holy Spirit, our “Paraclete”, has been given to us—to encourage and enable us do all that is required of us, as heaven-bound children of God.

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