OUTLINE:

Grace & Love
Love is the pure motivation that causes true unselfish kindness (grace) to be freely cast towards another. There we see love in action (grace).

Living Out God’s Grace
Being born again, and becoming a fruit bearing tree (ala Mt 7:18) is a permanent grace gift.

Living Out God’s Grace
There is no doubting or questioning; this is the purpose we were born for, and born again for.

Mt 18:21-35
Satan despises forgiveness. It’s one of the reasons why he has rejected God’s salvation, himself. In the realm of spiritual death, there is no notion of forgiveness. A forgiving heart is a godly heart, something Satan hates. (ref: Jn 8:44)

“Forgot” how to love?
Remember the Cross. (Is 53:5)

Entertaining Doubts
Cast it off immediately. Wash your hands of it, for doubts are like a virus - the longer we “play” with a virus, the more likely we are to become infected by it.

“schemes of the devil”
“The devil has various stratagems - discouragement, frustration, confusion, moral failure, and doctrinal error. He knows our weakest point and aims for it. If he cannot disable us by one method, he will try for another.” - MacDonald

“that your faith may not fail”
The emphasis should not be placed on the potentiality of failure, but rather the effectiveness of the Lord’s prayer, “but I have prayed for you” (v32). Peter’s imperfect faith did fail at times, but it was never fully eclipsed - he always “turned again”.

Jn 18:9b
“Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.”

Jn 17:15
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

Eze 28:16
By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.

Web of Lies
Think of our 3 enemies in this life: the world, the flesh, and the devil... lies from without, lies from within, and liars called evil spirits whispering in our ears.

Web of Lies
The world will tell you that your “enemies” are those trying to thwart your flesh’s best efforts to “get ahead”. But that’s just a lie to entice you into a battle on the wrong playing field (see blog titled, “Take Me Out To the Ballgame”).

Satan’s Strategy
It’s not that Satan doesn’t want you to run a race - he just wants you to run towards a different finish line than the one the Lord has set before you (ref. Php 3:12-16).

We haven’t been designed to quit.