Why the Unsaved Prosper Too: Common Grace Versus Saving Grace
Dr RJ Sing, 28 min
Originally preached as “You Are Unstoppable in God's Saving Grace”
Sermon outline
In Christ you have your mind, your name and your heavenly language back, and you live under saving grace, not just common grace, which makes you an unstoppable force sent to bring others in.
Main text
- Philippians 2:5-6
Opening
After a short television opening on the power of the spoken Word, the edit joins him partway into Philippians 2:5-6. He explains that humility is not being subservient, and that Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
Let this mind be in you: think like God
Religious people keep trying to appease and reach God, but Philippians 2 tells us to think, function, speak and be creative like God. Coming from a Christian family does not do your growing for you. As we grow in the knowledge of Christ, we begin to function like Him.
Illustration: An Irish proverb: your grandfather might be a tall man, but you have to do your own growing.
“When we grow in the knowledge of Christ, we begin to function like Him.”
- Philippians 2:5
- Philippians 2:6
Point number one: you got your mind back
When you were born again you got your right mind back, the mind of God, and you are no longer bound to think the way you were raised. Your priorities shifted and everything changed. We were all prodigals, and we came back to our senses.
Illustration: A lady he asked how she was doing replied, 'I have the mind of Christ.'
“You don't have Satan's mind. You don't have your mind. You have the mind of Christ.”
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
- Luke 15:17
Point number two: you got your name back
At salvation you got your identity back as a son or daughter of God, and in water baptism you take His name. You were delivered by the blood, delivered by water as Israel was through the Red Sea, and delivered by the Spirit, the three witnesses that agree in one. Egypt and Pharaoh, the world, no longer appeal to you.
Illustration: Israel crossing the Red Sea as Pharaoh's army closed in behind them, a picture of being taken out of the world into the kingdom.
“Intertwined in your name, in your biological identity, is God.”
- Matthew 5:13-14
- 1 Corinthians 10:1-2
- 1 Corinthians 10:11
- Acts 7:38
- Colossians 1:13
- 1 John 5:8
Point number three: you got your language back
The third witness is the Spirit, and those filled with the Holy Ghost have a heavenly language. Speaking in tongues is supernatural, a prayer language that speaks mysteries to God which the devil cannot understand. The Spirit-filled life is a life of remembrance that you belong to God, which is why your family may not understand you.
Illustration: Loving your family while accepting that they cannot understand you, and finding that believers understand one another because they come from the same Father.
“Stop asking for them to understand you.”
- Mark 16:17
- Acts 2:4
Last point: common grace and saving grace
Unbelievers can prosper because God loves the whole world and sends His rain on the just and the unjust; working God's laws, like hard work, brings results under common grace. Believers have been taken out of common grace into saving grace, which is common grace plus saving grace. The church is the bridge that brings people from common grace into saving grace.
Illustration: In the old Pentecostal circles he was taught that believers go to heaven, everyone else goes to hell, and God does not care about them, which he says is not true.
“It's common grace plus saving grace.”
- Matthew 5:45
- John 3:16
Putting it into practice
- Choose to think, speak and function like Christ.
- Pray and sing in the Spirit, your heavenly language.
- Stop needing unsaved family to understand you, and keep loving them.
- Be the bridge that brings people from common grace into saving grace.
Closing
He hands over to Pastor Zubeda, telling the church that when God looks at them He sees His name, His mind and hears His language, which makes them an unstoppable force. He reminds them they are born of incorruptible seed, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and that they will drink from the rock and eat the manna of the Word on their journey, because nothing can stop those God loves.
Declarations he led
- I have the mind of Christ.
- We've come back to our senses.
- I am a son of God.
- I have been delivered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
- I'm an unstoppable force.
- It is the power of God unto salvation.
In his words
- “Religious folk who fall in the mold of being religious always try to appease God and reach God.”
- “You are an example to somebody.”
- “The devil doesn't understand you, but God, your Father, understands you.”
- “God is good to everybody.”
- “Now that's not motivational speaking. That's just the truth.”
Every scripture in this message
- 1 Corinthians 2:4
- Mark 16:17
- Isaiah 60:1
- Philippians 2:5
- Philippians 2:6
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
- Luke 15:17
- Matthew 5:13-14
- 1 Corinthians 10:1-2
- 1 Corinthians 10:11
- Acts 7:38
- Colossians 1:13
- 1 John 5:8
- Acts 2:4
- Matthew 5:45
- John 3:16
- 1 Peter 1:23
- Romans 1:16
- 1 Corinthians 10:4
- Romans 8:31