The Grace of God in the Economy of God
Message Four
Grace in Peter’s Epistles
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
2 Pet. 1:2 Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
1 Pet. 4:10 Each one, as he has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God.
1 Pet. 5:10 But the God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.
Word of Appetizer
Have you ever wondered what it means to multiply grace?
The word multiplied indicates that a certain thing is present and that instead of having another of the same thing added, we need what we have to be multiplied. This means that we need the multiplication of the grace we already have. We do not need another grace. What we need is to have multiplied the grace we have already.
The multiplication of grace is the grace that multiplies in our daily life in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; the grace of God in His economy is rich, multiplying, and abounding.
Spiritual Burden
Grace is Christ as our Burden-bearer; and grace is multiplied to us through our sufferings, limitations, and weaknesses; the more burdens we have, the more opportunities we have to experience Christ as grace.
The true grace of God is the grace in which, together with the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the believers should grow unto His glory both now and unto the day of eternity.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
Grace is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit giving Himself freely to us, being everything to us, and doing everything in us, for us, and through us for our enjoyment.
The multiplication of grace is the grace that multiplies in our daily life in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; the grace of God in His economy is rich, multiplying, and abounding.
he prophets in the Old Testament prophesied concerning the grace that was to come unto us. The grace on which the believers set their hope perfectly will be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The grace of life is the inheritance of all the believers, whether strong or weak. The varied grace of God indicates the riches of the grace of God in its varieties ministered by the saints one to another. God gives grace to the humble, but He resists the proud.
The Experience of Life
Grace is multiplied to us through our sufferings, limitations, and weaknesses; grace is Christ as our Burden-bearer; the more burdens we have, the more opportunities we have to experience Christ as grace.
We are heirs to inherit the grace of life and vessels to contain the grace of life; the grace of life is the inheritance of all the believers, whether strong or weak.
“The God of all grace”—who has called the believers into His eternal glory—perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds them through their sufferings; this “all grace” is the “true grace of God,” into which the believers should enter
and in which they stand.
Practice and Application
Day by day we should be open vessels to be continual receivers of grace and set our hope wholly and perfectly on this grace.
We need to be good stewards of the varied grace of God, speaking the words of grace as the oracles of God and ministering out of the strength and power of grace, which God supplies.
We must be willing to be made humble, lowly, under the mighty hand of God in His discipline and to throw our life with its care upon God, because He cares for us lovingly and faithfully.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The multiplication of grace and the abundance of grace (2 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 5:20b)
(Please illustrate that the grace of God in His economy is rich, multiplying,
and abounding.)
T2 To have multiplied the grace we have already (1 Pet. 1:2b)
(Please illustrate that what it means to multiply grace.)
Day 2
T1 The prophets in the Old Testament prophesied concerning the grace that was to come unto us (1 Pet. 1:10)
(Please illustrate that Peter uses the Old Testament prophets to confirm his teaching concerning the New Testament salvation. The Lord Jesus did the same thing.)
T2 The grace which was for the salvation of the believers’ souls (1 Pet. 1:9-10; Mark 8:36)
(Please illustrate that how the grace mentioned by Peter in first Peter 1:10 differed from the grace mentioned in John 1.)
Day 3
T1 The grace given to us in Christ was bestowed on us before the world began (2 Tim. 1:9-10)
(Please illustrate that God’s grace that was given to us in eternity was manifested by the coming of Christ.)
T2 To set our hope completely on the grace (John 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:13)
(Please illustrate that the grace has been brought to us by the Lord’s first coming (John1:17). It will be consummated by His second coming. )
Day 4
T1 The divine life within us enables our behavior something gracious in the eyes of both man and God (1 Pet. 2:19)
(Please illustrate that the “gracious” here is grace.)
T2 The expression of the Triune God as grace from within a believer (1 Pet. 2:19-21)
(Please illustrate that the grace and the model are closely related.)
Day 5
T1 The grace of life is the inheritance of all the believers, whether strong or weak (1 Pet. 3:7)
(Please illustrate that this life is the Triune God Himself as our life, living in us to be our inheritance.)
T2 Both husbands and wives are joint-heirs of this grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7)
(Please illustrate that we are heirs to inherit the grace of life, and at the same time we are vessels to contain the grace of life.)
Day 6
T1 God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5)
(Please illustrate that humility invites God’s grace, whereas pride makes us a top fool.)
T2 “Casting all your anxiety on Him because it matters to Him concerning you” (1 Pet. 5:7)
(Please illustrate that our whole life with all its anxiety, should be cast on the Lord.)
