Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the
Father.
If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins] (1Jn 1:9)
You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with God the
Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.
God
is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth. (Joh 4:24)
Divine Good vs
Human Good
Divine
Thinking And Righteousness — Virtue — Divine Good: (ABSOLUTE)
VS. Satanic and Human Thinking and Self-righteousness — Emotional — Satanic and Human Good: (RELATIVE)
The futility
of human do-goodism
I suppose that at
some time or other everyone has a “good” thought. Probably even the worst
characters who ever lived have had some kind of a “good” thought, even if only
in childhood. Perhaps you can recall a time when you said, “I’d like to do something
that really counts. I’d like to do something for people. “I’d like to be able
to help people and to help them in a permanent fashion.”
You can hardly
read history without wanting to do something for people. And yet the first
thing you learn from history is that even the greatest people who have ever
lived have had very little influence beyond their own generation, much less
forever.
One of the most
brilliant men of all time, Julius Caesar, had a tremendous influence, not only
on his own generation, but for nearly five hundred years thereafter. He
restored order out of chaos and brought to an end civil war and bloodshed which
had been going on within the Roman Republic for over a hundred years. In five
years’ time, he developed a system which made it possible for Rome to continue
for approximately another five hundred years. Now, here is a very rare man, one
out of millions, who was able in his own lifetime to do something that had
influence for several generations; yet, in spite of his genius, the Roman
Empire eventually fell.
A study of the
brief history of our own country will reveal some very “noble and very
wonderful” men; yet their influence rarely extended much beyond their day —
sometimes for a generation or two — after which their influence all seems to
disappear. As we consider our own country today, we
wonder where is all of the nobility, where is all of the tremendous Thinking
and the power and the ability of those men whose Concepts and Ideas have
complied with the Word of God and made our nation a wonderful country? And as you contemplate the entire world, you have to
ask again, “Where are the people who have influenced the world the great
people?”
In modern
history, one or two have arisen out of the masses; but these are only one or
two out of millions and billions of people. Yet there are still people in every
generation who have an intense desire to help humanity and have tried to
express it in various ways. One of these was Albert Schweitzer.
In his desire to
help humanity, he studied many things, including medicine, through which he
tried to fulfill this desire. He went to Africa; and during the course of his
lifetime, Schweitzer was able to help thousands of people, as far as their
health was concerned. Many of the natives of Africa almost worshipped him as if
he were God, even though he was a white man. Yet today, where is the influence
of Albert Schweitzer?
He was a “good
man;” he was sincere and did many wonderful things; but he did not bring about
any permanent change. The natives have gone back to their tribal fraternities;
and, as before, they are waiting in jungle paths to kill other natives in other
fraternities. Furthermore, they are killing off the animals; they’re killing
the white man. They haven’t learned anything! Their
nature hasn’t been changed!
I said to myself concerning the sons of
men, God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.
(Ecc 3:18)
So, here’s a man
who went to Africa and spent a lifetime out there doing many wonderful things;
but he brought about no lasting changes for the Africans. In fact, the passage
we are going to study compares him to a flower of the field. As far as we can
tell from the study of his life, his good was “relative
good.”
It is a
rather discouraging world for altruistic people. There are those who would
sincerely like to be helpful; also there are many frustrated people who are
trying to help but have only succeeded in messing things up because they don’t
know how to help.
For example,
thousands of people today would like to abolish poverty. Let’s assume for a
moment that the “War on Poverty” is sincere; (A debater’s assumption, meaning
it isn’t necessarily true). In their sincerely deceived
desire to abolish poverty, those planning the program propose giving
money to everyone whom they consider to qualify under the category of poverty. It sounds like a “noble” idea, until you look at it from God's
Viewpoint, for
Jesus said, “...For you always have
the poor with you...” (Mat 26:11) “Always” means
that poverty cannot be abolished! But let’s say it is a beautiful idea
and look at it from its altruistic concept. How does it work?
Well,
you refloat the money, the money invariably goes into the hands of a few, and
soon everyone else is poverty-stricken.
What do the poor do when they get the money? They
spend it! And where does it go? It goes to a small group of people who will
become wealthier than ever. Soon someone runs
out of the pork barrel, and there is more poverty than ever. But it’s a “noble”
idea! So you can see it’s a very frustrating world for people who want to do
“good.”
Seek
the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked
forsake his way [Of unbelief in Christ]
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
[Believers using human sin nature sentiment, emotion and thinking to
live their life] And let him return to the LORD, And He will
have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. (Pro 1:23) For My Thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways, declares the
LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My Thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:6-9)
Now, there are a
lot of places where “good” can be done, but nothing seems to come from all of
this doing “good.” There are some sincerely deceived
people in the world right now who are trying to abolish warfare. “Let’s get
everyone to give up his weapons and have world peace,” they say. So when you
take guns from the nations that have a sense of responsibility and disarm them,
all you do is to turn the whole world into a jungle.
There are mothers
who march on Washington every year or so in the hopes of abolishing war. Well, this, too, is a beautiful satanic thought, because no
one really wants to go to war, with the possible exception of a few
romanticists who have read too many war books or seen too many war movies that
glamorize war. But once you get to war, it’s no fun at all. The food is
terrible; the pay is worse. And even more than that, you might lose your life
any day on the job! So you can see that war is really no picnic, even though it
has been romanticized in some ways.
But no matter how
good the idea of abolishing war may seem, the Bible declares that there shall continue to be “wars and rumors of wars,” and that “nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (Mat 24:6-7) Men shall
say “peace, peace, when there is no
peace.” (Jer 6:14; Mic 3:5) And “while they are saying, Peace and safety!
then destruction will come upon them” (1Th
5:3) Only Jesus Christ can bring peace, (Psa 46:9; Hag 2:9)
and He will; when He returns to earth. (Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3)
Until then, it is utter folly to try to “turn the swords into pruning hooks”!
(Joe 3:10 )
There
are also very altruistic people who are trying to abolish crime by getting rid
of guns. Even now, they are attempting to pass gun legislation in Congress whereby
guns will be taken out of the hands of law-abiding citizens; and they imagine
that this will solve all the problems. Actually, it will only make it easier
for the criminals, and both criminals and crime will increase!
Gun legislation won’t solve anything, nor will world
disarmament nor an international court! But all the “liberal do-gooders” have
these false satanic ideas. In fact, there is
one great religious organization in this country that has as one of its basic
tenets: “let Red China into the United Nations, and this will solve the world’s
problems.” (They
are now, and still no change)
The trouble with all these do-good projects is that they do
not line up with the Word of God, even though many times the people are sincere. (And we’re not even considering here the ones who are
not sincere, such as do-goodism in politics, which has made hypocrites out of
thousands of people) But the sincere do-goodism of our
day has complicated everything. Instead of helping people for any length
of time, much less for eternity, it is actually making conditions worse, because all this
is Satan's false thinking, which in the long run accomplishes
nothing. So, as I say, it is a frustrated world; and because it is a frustrated
world, I should like to propose to you the answer which was given by God to
Isaiah back in 700 B.C.
Do-goodism
in Judah
The do-gooders
were very much in evidence in those days, and, like today, they were all
frustrated. We hear a familiar strain from these do-gooders of Judah, for they
said in effect, “Let’s abolish our cavalry.” And when they abolished the Jewish
cavalry, the Rabshakeh of Assyria stood up in front of the walls of Jerusalem
and challenged: “Look, my king has several thousand extra horses from his
cavalry; we will even supply you horses, if you can provide riders for the
mounts and then well whip you!” (Isa 36:8-9)
When the
Assyrians finally came, all that the Jews had left in their disarmament program
were their fortifications, which slowed down the Assyrians for one year. Now,
the Jewish state department not only abolished the military, but they also had
a “foreign aid program”; they made certain economic concessions to the
Assyrians. (2Ki 18:14-16) For five
years before the Assyrians invaded, Hezekiah sent millions of dollars of the
taxpayers’ money to them.
Every Jew
actually paid two-tenths of his income as a tax: one-tenth for the upkeep of
the Temple, (Lev 27:30-33) and
one-tenth for the priesthood. (Num 18:21)
Every third year, one-tenth went to the poor of the land. (Deut 14:28-29) Although today it is incorrectly
called “tithing,” it was actually a system of taxation for believer and
unbeliever alike in the land of Judah. Offerings
were the Spiritual giving of the believer, (Deut
16:17) cf. (2Co 8:1) thru (2Co 9:15) over and
above the tithe.
But what happened
to a large portion of their taxes? Hezekiah took them out of the Temple
treasury and hustled them over to the Assyrians. A lot
of people involved in these programs then, as well as today, were sincere and
wrong. (Sincerity is not God's Standard Truth
is!) They might think they are doing a good
thing; but whether it is in the field of politics, or statesmanship, or even in
Christianity, human do-goodism is demonism; and is not the answer!
Now actually, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ and have received Him as your Savior, you can fulfill the principle of
doing Divine righteousness, of doing permanent good, of having something that
will count for all eternity. In fact, the
believer in fellowship is the only one who can! (Heb 11:24-29)
Divine good
begins at Salvation
The message of John the Baptist, whose
ministry was parallel to Isaiah’s, provides the background of our subject. In,
(Isa 40:3) Isaiah Prophesies concerning
John the Baptist. From 700 B.C., Isaiah looks down the corridors of time to 29
A.D. when John the Baptist would be preaching his
message that would accomplish permanent absolute good.
John the Baptist
was represented merely as a “Voice,” which puts the
emphasis on the Message rather than on the man. It was John’s message
that could change lives for time and eternity. The “Voice” communicates Truth, which endures after the voice is
silent. John is gone, but the Word abides forever.
(Isa 40:8)
What was his Message? “Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the
desert a highway for our God.” (Isa
40:3) cf. (Mat 3:2-3; Joh 1:23) The first
part of his message is the means of doing good on a permanent basis, and it
gives us our first clue as to how we can join Isaiah and John and other great
men of the past; who have had Divine Virtue come out of their lives. (Gal 5:22-23)
“Clear the way for the LORD” is simply
the message of Salvation, It’s the message of the Gospel. John kept crying! “Repent = Change your mind from not believing in Jesus and
not believing His Word.” (Mat 3:2; Mat 3:8)
Now, how can you change your mind for time and for eternity? How can you have a
changed mind, that will meet every exigency of life, whether living or dying,
as well as the problem of eternal Salvation. The answer is, first of all, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Act 16:31) We know from, (Act 19:4) that John preached this Gospel.
. . . John baptized with the baptism of
repentance, telling the people, to BELIEVE IN HIM who was coming after him,
that is, in Jesus.
People
are trying to meet problems today by saving money, by making good investments,
by making the right friends, by gaining influence, by developing power! All of these can be classed as a
certain preparation for problems in time. BUT… NONE of these is the real answer
to the problems of time, much less to the problem of eternal Salvation!
How can you be
prepared for eternity? There is ONLY ONE WAY: BELIEVE GOD AND HIS WORD! (Rom 4:20)
He who has the Son has the life; he who
does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things [Thoughts] I
have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1Jn 5:12-13)
That is the only
way to be prepared; and when you are prepared for eternity, you also have
preparation for time, “Be prepared for
the way of the Lord!” The “way of the
Lord” is God’s plan for the human race: Phase I — Salvation;
Phase II — Spiritual maturity; Phase III — the believer in eternity. And the preparation begins
in a moment of time. In that moment when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
God provides for time as well as for eternity.
Jesus Christ
meets every need in this life; He meets every need of the future; He provides
in living, in dying and after death. When John stood before the people and
cried, “Repent,” (Mat 3:2) he was doing the best thing he could do
for those people. He was dealing with them as individuals and with their
problems as individual problems; he was “snatching
brands from the burning,” (Zec 3:2)
and doing permanent and eternal good for them.
No
production apart from rebound
Then John
continues: “…MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE
LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!” (Mat 3:3)
This part of his
message indicates the need for confused believers to get straightened out. Some of you met many of the people who came forward
in the Billy Graham Crusade. John the Baptist’s ministry was parallel in one
way to this Crusade: the majority of people who came forward were sincere
seekers; they were “born-again,” but
they were ignorant of the Word of Truth.
Many of
them had guilt complexes; many of them thought that they had lost their
Salvation; many of them, knowing their lives
were not counting for the Lord, wanted answers. What they needed first of all
was rebound — (1Jn 1:9)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Then they needed to understand some of the
techniques;
(Rebound, the filling of God the Holy Spirit, faith-rest,
grace orientation, Doctrinal orientation, personal sense of destiny, personal
love for God, impersonal love for self and all mankind, sharing the happiness
of God and Occupation with Christ) which God has provided for the
believer in time. While they might have come forward to “dedicate” or
“rededicate” or “reaffirm their faith” or to make sure they were saved, all of
this added up to one thing — CONFUSION!
John the Baptist
had the same type of ministry. Thousands of confused people came all the way
from Jerusalem. For many of them, their problem was the issue of the cross: to
believe in Jesus Christ is eternal life; to reject Him is eternal condemnation.
John, [The Baptist] said, He who believes
in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (Joh 3:36)
Then John, (The
Baptist) had a message to the great numbers of believers who were out of the
“bottom circle” that is, out of fellowship with God. (1Jn 1:3) “Make
straight,” John told them; (Joh 1:23)
and the only way to “make straight”
is to move back into the bottom circle where they can produce DIVINE GOOD — Virtue
— Growth to Spiritual maturity. (Spiritual growth comes before Spiritual function!)
The top and
bottom circles
Let’s let two circles represent John’s twofold message — the
top and bottom circles.
Those who heeded
the message of Salvation began at the cross; where Jesus Christ would die for
their sins. They received Him by faith, (Joh 1:12)
and were immediately placed into two positions: in Christ, (Top circle — Eternal
relationship) and, (Bottom circle — Temporal fellowship). The bottom circle is also the place of the filling of God
the Holy Spirit, by means of which God produces Divine good — Virtue in us. (Gal
5:22-23)
When
the believer is out of fellowship, he is under the control of his old sin
nature, and that means that he will produce “X” number of sins, as well as a
certain amount of “satanic good thoughts and works.” The big problem is that any “good”
done while out of fellowship is false good and does not count with God. Only DIVINE GOOD counts. You
have to be “in the bottom circle” in order to produce Divine good — Virtue.
You are already clean
because of the Word which I have spoken to you. Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself unless it abides in the vine, so
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, he bears much fruit, [Spiritual maturity] for
apart from Me you can do nothing! (Joh 15:3-5)
Basically, then,
the combination of John’s message was that first of all, people must be saved
by believing in Christ; secondly, while they produce
only satanic “good” when they are out of fellowship, they can go from satanic good to Divine good by means of, (1Jn 1:9) cf. (Act
26:18) Now this was the message that John the Baptist would preach
700 years after Isaiah. But in the meantime, this is the message that Isaiah
must preach. Isaiah
must be a “voice”; he must have Truth in his frontal lobe as well as in his
human spirit; and as he disseminates this Truth to the people, there are going
to be permanent results.
The first category of permanent results: people will
believe in Jesus Christ and be eternally saved from the Lake of Fire; second category: believers
will learn how to handle their sins; and then as a result of Thinking with
God's Thoughts — Truth, they will be free
from their guilt complexes, free from worry about past sins, free from the
bondage of trying to do penance for sins, and free from all the accompanying
emotionalism. This
freedom brings home the fact that they are still alive and still under grace,
that God has a purpose for their lives, and that they can accomplish permanent
results!
Production of Divine good under pressure
In, (Isa 40:3-4) we have one brief message from
Isaiah:
A voice is calling, Clear the way for the
LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a
highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, And every
mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the
rugged terrain a broad valley.
Before there is
relief for the Jews, before the Assyrian army is destroyed by Jesus Christ, (2Ki 19:35) there will
be one year of pressure. Now, how are the people going to live during
that year; (And in the Tribulation)? Some of them
are going to live under the techniques of the Word of God; they are going to
mix the Promises of God with faith, and they are going to be relaxed and have
inner happiness, even in the valley. As a result, “they will be
exalted.” This word “exalted” is the first of several words in this context for
Spiritual maturity.
When you are down
in the valley of pressure or sorrow or tragedy, there is exaltation. Exaltation means that you can have inner peace and
happiness. As you face the Christmas season, many of you may anticipate
parties and pleasures and fun; but for some, it is going to turn on you — it’s
going to turn out to be as miserable a day as there is in the year. In the
first place, it is a time of gift giving, and you always get the wrong thing;
so there’s that disappointment.
Secondly, it is a
family day and for many, that is a time when families get together and fight!
Thirdly, it is a holiday time when people do not have enough to do, so they
start to grumble. Oh, it is a miserable day! For some, it is even a nightmare. There
is that “Christmas cheer” build-up; and when it doesn’t materialize, they block
the day out by getting “stoned,” But of course that isn’t the answer, either.
I
want to invite you to a “B.Y.O.H.,” party bring your own happiness! Now, how can you carry your own happiness around with you?
You can grow a permanent Christmas tree inside and have
Christmas every day! I like to call it the “edification
complex of the soul — the mature Christian life.” (2Co 10:8; 2Co 13:10;
Eph 4:12; Eph
4:16; Eph 4:29; 1Ti 1:4; Jas 1:4)
When Truth is coming daily into the frontal lobe in the filling of the Spirit
and is transferred BY FAITH into the human spirit; (Eph
3:17) from which it can be Thought with
and applied, (Through Operation Z — 1Co 2:1-13) the
believer begins to build in the soul a beautiful structure, (A Holy Temple — The Spiritual life) which is the reflected
glory of God. (Psa 119:130; 2Co 4:6-7; Gal 4:19; Eph 5:8-9;
1Jn 2:8)
This
structure is made up from a maximum amount of God's Thinking and time staying
in fellowship with God the Holy Spirit; and then tested under the pressure of
adversity and prosperity! Some of you are going to have the
best Christmas you’ve ever had because you are steadily taking in Truth and
building an edification complex in your soul. It’s
marvelous beyond description because you have your own happiness inside!
You see, this is
what Isaiah is to tell the believers of his day: “Now look, the Assyrians are going to conquer 47
fortifications; they are going to defeat our allies, the Egyptians; there’s
going to be bad news, bad news, bad news! Yet while you’re down in the valley in the midst of all
this, you can have exaltation... ‘The valley
shall be exalted.’ You can have inner happiness; you can have inner peace; you
can have inner blessing, (Based on the
edification complex — the completed Spiritual life in the soul) and absolutely nothing can change it! You can sit
on the walls and laugh at the Rabshakeh!
Can you do that today, believer? Can you look at your own life
and say, “I bring my own happiness; everywhere I go, I take it with me; I take
it to parties, I take it to business, I take it to pleasure, I take it to
recreation?” Well, you can! This is the whole point of the Word of God! However, it is impossible to carry around Spiritual
happiness unless we have time filled with God
the Holy Spirit and Truth that you Think with; (Joh 4:23-24) — and
reach SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY!
Confidence
through Truth
“A Voice says, Call out...” (Isa 40:6) Call out forcefully; (Literally)
PREACH DOGMATICALLY! The “Voice” is
the Voice of God here, and God Says, in effect, to Isaiah: “If you’re going to help people on a permanent basis, you
must have confidence yourself; because you have reached Spiritual maturity; and
everything you say has to be ABSOLUTELY TRUE; and you have to give it as you
KNOW it to be ABSOLUTELY TRUE.”
When you preach
the Word, you don’t say, “Now maybe it could mean this,
and maybe it could mean that. There are five different views of this, and dear
Brother So-and-so holds this view, and Brother So-and-so holds that view, and I
think maybe they all have a little Truth in them.” That’s for the birds
— not for people! People need something ABSOLUTE — GOD'S PERFECT THINKING!
So God is saying
to Isaiah, “When you stand up before those people, don’t you say, ‘Well, the scribes say this, the Pharisees say that, and the
chief priests say this.’ It can’t mean three
different things it doesn’t mean two different things — this is it! This is absolute, this is unchangeable, this is
Truth; so you speak THE TRUTH!” (Joh 3:34)
But Isaiah is
still stalling: “What shall I preach dogmatically?” he asks. Isaiah has already
had his first lesson from the Baptist’s message. What did he preach
dogmatically? One, Christ died for sinners — therefore, believe on
Christ and be saved. Two, when a believer sins,
he confesses his sin, and he is forgiven immediately now he is to forget it and
move on! If your life as a believer is
ever going to count, if you’re going to take your own happiness wherever you
go, then this is the lesson, beginning in the middle of, (Isa 40:6).
Human
old sin nature thoughts and works are USELESS!
(Psa 14:2-3; Rom 3:12; Psa 94:11; 1Co 3:19-20)
“All flesh is grass...” Do you realize
that you are just a blade of grass? And you know, it is rather interesting that
God should use this analogy to teach THIS THOUGHT. Just what is grass? I have
asked myself this many times as I have faced a jungle in my yard. What is this
grass? Well, first, grass is something that appeals to the eye because it is
green. I suppose you know that green is the easiest color on the eyes. You look
at this green grass and it looks fine.
Of course, there
are other views about lawns. My first preference is to pave the entire yard;
then if you have to have green, just paint it! But I’ll tell you something else
about grass: grass contains misery. Did you ever see beautiful grass that you
had a desire to roll in? I did that ONCE — and the grass was full of chiggers!
You see, grass contains misery! You often see the dogs and other animals
rolling in the grass; but just watch what they do afterwards. They scratch!
Now, grass is misery
for another reason: it requires continual care. I understand a lot of people
enjoy fooling around with grass and plants and flowers and that’s fine; to each
his own! But no matter how beautiful and green the grass is, do you know what
always happens to grass? Someone comes along with a mower and chops it down.
And then what happens? It is dumped into a garbage can, the green grass dies
and turns brown and is either discarded or burned. Now, isn’t that an awful
life? Beautiful for a moment, then chopped down, and it’s all over!
“...All flesh — HUMANS ARE GRASS, and all
its loveliness is like the flower of the field.” Grass in this passage is different from grass as we know
it. As you know, there are certain things we call flowers, and all of these
flowers have some kind of a stem. With most of these flowers, the stem is
originally green. The stem of the flower is also grass here; and it goes on to
say that it has “loveliness.”
Now we have
arrived. What is this loveliness? The Hebrew word is actually “good” — good works — RELATIVE GOOD! Now, I’m out of my field, but I think I
have observed enough to say that flowers are beautiful for a moment, but then
they shrivel up and they’re gone. In the springtime in the mountains of
Arizona, there are wild flowers of every color and description as far as you
can see. The same thing is true in Texas and many other parts of the world at
certain times of the year. Carpets of flowers stretch for miles and miles, and
it’s beautiful! But then you come back a couple of weeks later and it is all
gone.
These
“flowers” refer to human production...
the good deeds that you do in the energy of the flesh...
the things that come from our old sin nature! Everyone performs a certain amount of human good, but it
doesn’t last. Just think of all the do-gooders today. Think of all the men of
the clergy who are a part of the World Council of Churches and who are trying
to do good. They’re trying to get rid of all our
arms; they’re trying to get Red China to give us MONEY; and they think all of
these things are going to help.
Think of
Schweitzer’s devoting the greater part of his life and expending all of his
energy in Africa — and what happened? Why, the natives are reverting to all of
their old ways! All that human good has accomplished no
lasting good. And yet today the world is filled with people trying to
perform some type of human good.
The
source of ALL human good is, old sin thinking
— SATAN'S THINKING!
But turning around and seeing His disciples,
He rebuked Peter and said, Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your
mind on God's interests, [Thoughts]
but man's. [Satan's Thoughts] (Mar 8:33)
...Therefore you
also do the things [Thoughts] which you heard from your father. (Joh 8:38) ...You are doing the deeds [Thoughts and actions] of your father... (Joh
8:41) You
are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the Truth because
there is no Truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his OWN
NATURE, [This
is also the SIN NATURE; that we are ALL born with] for he is a liar and the father of
lies. (Joh 8:44)
Why are all these
good deeds simply “dead works” (Heb 6:1)
and unacceptable to God? Why does He condemn all human good in the believer, (Rom 8:8; 1Co 3:12-15)
as well as in the unbeliever? (Isa 64:6;
Ecc 12:14) No
matter from whom it comes, it all emanates from the OLD SIN NATURE. (Rom 6:6; Rom
7:17-18)
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits NOTHING; the
Words that I have spoken to you are spirit [Spiritual] and are life.
(Joh 6:63)
Let’s take a look at the old sin nature.
It is called by
various terminologies in Scripture. In, (Eph 4:22)
and, (Col 3:9) it is called the “old self,” because it originated with
Adam. (Rom 5:12) It is sometimes called
the “flesh,” as in, (Rom 7:18; Eph 2:3;
Gal 5:16) because it resides in the
human body. The “heart” occasionally
refers to the sin nature, as in, (Jer 17:9;
Mat 15:19; Mat
12:34; Mar 7:21). In the New
Testament, as mostly in Romans, the word “sin”
in the singular and in the noun form refers to the old sin nature. e.g. (Rom 6:11-12; Rom
6:17-18)
Now, the sin
nature has two areas, the area of weakness and the area of strength. It also
has two trends. It may have a trend toward asceticism or a trend toward
lasciviousness, although these sometimes change in an individual. From the area
of weakness comes personal sins; from the area of strength, satanic “good.”
When Christ died on the cross He bore the sins of the
entire world, and therefore, He solved the sin problem. Sin is no longer an issue at Salvation. At the same time, Christ rejected human self-righteousness, because His work on the cross was Divine righteousness
— Virtue: From staying filled with God the Holy
Spirit and Thinking with Truth. (Isa 40:13-14; 1Co 2:11-16) Therefore, the issue in
Salvation is the work of Christ; (Divine
Thinking and actions) versus human works,
(Satanic and human thinking and actions). A lot of people are doing good simply because they want to
go to heaven: they’re giving money in order to buy their way to heaven; they’re
performing good deeds kindly deeds; they are trying to help humanity, they are
being sweet to people in traffic, they are even joining certain churches,
(Which are good-deed houses) so they can go to heaven! They are trying everything…
And they’re working, working, working, AND WORKING! — Trying to get to heaven!
But the Bible
says it is “not by works of
righteousness, [Human deeds of sin nature righteousness] which we have done...”
(Tit 3:5) Later on, Isaiah preaches a
message on human righteousness, and he denounces our righteousness as “filthy rags” in God’s sight. (Isa 64:6) All the human
works that all the people in the world can perform is as filthy rags in the
sight of God. (IDDAH
in the Hebrew: is a menstruation cloth!) God rejects human works. There is no place in the plan of
God for satanic and or human righteousness. (2Co 11:13-15; 2Ti 3:5)
Who has saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according
to HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, which was
granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. (2Ti
1:9)
I want to emphasize again the sins of the old sin nature
were judged at the cross.
And He Himself bore our sins in His body on
the cross, so that we might die to sin [The control of the sin nature] and live to righteousness; [Stay in fellowship] for by His wounds [Judgment] you were healed. [Reconciled] (1Pe 2:24)
Every
sin that man has ever committed or ever will commit was judged at the cross.
According to the law of double jeopardy, sins have been judged once and thus
can never be judged again. The door of
heaven is open to all members of the human race. Through a simple act of faith
in Christ, we can have eternal life; we can be born again; we can become
children of God. “For you are all sons of
God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26)
BUT the do-gooder
doesn’t want to go the way of faith minus works for Salvation. He rejects Salvation by grace because he does not want to
depend upon the good work of someone else. He doesn’t want to be saved
simply by faith in Christ; he wants to work; he wants to help God . . . he
wants to boast of his own good deeds. (Luk 18:9-14)
and (Luk 18:15-30)
For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, [Salvation] it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, [From
the power of the old sin nature] so that no one may boast. For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD
WORKS, which GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND so that we would walk in them. [Stay in fellowship and Think
with His Thoughts and Reality] (Eph 2:8-10)
The judgment
of the unbeliever’s human deeds
For the
do-gooder, here is the message: human good is going to be judged just as
certainly as, in the past, sin was judged at the cross. All of our sins were
poured out upon Christ: every sin — past, present and future — that has been
committed in the human race was judged in Him. He (The Father) made Him
(Christ) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21)
The sin problem
has been solved, and that is why the Bible says, “...Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’’
(Joh 3:16)
But
human sin nature righteousness has yet to be judged by God. Turn to, (Rev 20:12-15)
and notice for a moment this passage: “And
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne...” The
word “standing” is in the perfect
tense, indicating a resurrection. Here is the second resurrection, composed of
people who have rejected Christ as Savior. They have refused to believe in Him.
In other words, when a person rejects the cross no matter who that person is he
must stand on his own merit — his own righteousness.
Rejection of Christ as your Savior means you prefer your own RELATIVE
righteous deeds instead
of the ABSOLUTE good deed of Christ on the cross! When a person faces
the cross, as all must; sooner or later, he
sees Christ dying for his sins. He sees Christ doing the work. The unbeliever says, in effect, “I reject the work of Christ;
(I will not take the plea-bargain — Full Pardon) I am going to stand on my own deeds — works for Salvation.”
(I want to take it to trial) “...All flesh is
grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.” Will be displayed in unbelievers then; and believers at the
Judgment Seat of Christ. (2Co 5:10)
Satan and the
demons did and are doing the very same things they did in eternity past; (They would not take the deal of obedience to God and His
Word; and used their own plan and righteousness) Satan is using members
of the human race to build his perfect self-righteous One World Order through
misdirection; by using evil thinking # 1 and evil thinking # 2! Evil # 1 is evident, (Clearly revealed to the mind or
the senses).
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident,
which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as
I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the
kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-21)
Evil # 2 is very
deceptive is uses God's Word and Principles, in the
power of the old sin nature; and this produces
self-righteousness — satanic and human “GOOD.”
Holding to a form
of godliness, [Looks
and sounds “GOOD”] although they have denied its power; [The Spirit and Truth] Avoid
such men as these. (2Ti 3:2-5)
Always learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth. (2Ti 3:7) They are using
socialism, welfare, universal healthcare, “global warming,” gun control,
genetics, find new planets to live on, abortion reform, the nationalizing of
capital and industry to create a system of thinking; free from OBEDIENCE to
God; and that is separate from the filling of God the Holy Spirit and Thinking
with the Mind of Christ! (1Co 2:11-16)
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little
faith! Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat? or What will we drink? or
What will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles
eagerly seek all these things; for your
heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom [The Thinking of Christ] and His righteousness, [Growth to Spiritual maturity] AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOU!!! So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Mat 6:30-34)
Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. A
voice says, Call out. Then he answered, What shall I call out? All flesh is
grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass
withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely
the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the Word of our God stands forever. (Isa 40:5-8)
Thus says the LORD, Cursed is the man who
trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from
the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see
when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land
of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who
trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. (Jer 17:5-7)
“...And I saw the dead, the great and the
small, standing before the throne, and books were opened...” (Rev 20:12) Now, immediately, I want you to notice
that the word “books” is in the
plural; it is books that were opened not simply one book, but BOOKS! And that
means two sets of books. The first set of books is the “books of deeds.” The book of deeds are a record of all human sin
nature righteousness in the unbeliever.
Mentioned also in
this passage is another set of books, the “book of life.” The book of life
simply contains the names of all who are believers in Jesus Christ. Actually,
the Lamb’s book of life originally had the names of all people born into the
world; but when a person dies without accepting Christ as Savior, that person’s
name is blotted out (Rev 3:5) So, in
eternity, the book of life contains the names of believers only.
Both sets of books are opened; but the books of works are in
focus in, (Rev 20:12-13).
...And books were opened; and another book
was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged from the things
which were written in the books, according to their DEEDS. And the sea gave up
the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in
them; and they were judged every one of them according to their DEEDS.
I want you to get
the picture: a man comes before God; he is resurrected; he is an unbeliever. He
has performed thousands of good deeds. Now what will God do about these good
deeds? Well, his good deeds are mentioned every kindly act, everything that
could be construed as human righteousness. His sins will never be mentioned
since they have already been judged. All of his deeds will be the basis of his
indictment. Why? They will not add up to perfect
righteousness. In order to be saved, we must
have the righteousness of God! (2Co 5:21)
For what does the Scripture say? ABRAHAM
BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Rom 4:3-5)
All the
good deeds of the entire human race are not enough to save one person. Only the work of Christ can save!
“Those that are
in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom 8:8) Our
righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight. (Isa 64:6) Our human
righteousness is no good to God. (Rom
3:10-12) It is “not by works
of righteousness which we have done.” (Rom 4:6)
The Bible recognizes works of righteousness, or human good.
The judgment
of the believer’s human righteousness
Well, what about
certain believers, you wonder? What about the person who accepts Christ as
Savior, but never learns any Truth? The Holy Spirit in his life is constantly
quenched and grieved, (Eph 4:30; 1Th 5:19) and he is
therefore controlled by his old sin nature, which cranks out nothing but human
sin and self-righteousness. His life is not counting, and he is no different
from any unbeliever because he is producing only human righteousness. There is no impact... there
is no growth to Spiritual maturity. So what happens? His human production has
to be judged.
Remember, human
production is analogous to flowers in, (Isa 40:6).
This is why I have never particularly appreciated flowers. But just as there
are all kinds of beautiful flowers from all of the stems which come up, so
there are all kinds of human good. There are many ways in which you can perform
good deeds. There are many ways in which a person in this life can be a
wonderful person; but if it is ALL OLD SIN NATURE GOOD,
it is ALL non-acceptable! Furthermore, as the
flowers fade and the stems are cut down, so human good will be judged in the
believer. Let’s see the development of this in, (1Co
3:11-15).
For no man can lay a foundation other than
the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if
any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, [God's Thoughts and absolute Virtue] wood, hay, straw, [Sin nature thoughts and relative righteous] each man's
work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed
with fire, [Judgment by God's Word] and the fire itself will test the quality
of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains,
[Reaches Spiritual maturity] he will receive a reward. If any man's work is
burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through
fire. (1Co
3:11-15)
There
are two categories in this verse: the category of Divine Thinking and Virtue is
“gold, silver, precious stones”; the category of human thinking and sin nature righteousness
“wood, hay, stubble.” The believer in time either USES
God's Thoughts and righteousness or human
thoughts and sin nature righteousness, depending
on who controls his life. If the Holy Spirit controls his life, a maximum
amount of time, he produces Divine Virtue; if
the old sin nature is in control a maximum amount of time, he produces sin
nature good. This is the issue that has to be
faced in the Christian life!
You are either
progressing or retrogressing in the Christian life. (2Co 13:10) You are either building
the edification complex and therefore growing Spiritually, or you are building “scar tissue” on your soul, (Eph 4:17-18; Ignorance
and arrogance) and producing DEAD WORKS.
(Heb 6:1)
Now, here again is what God Thinks of sin nature good. As far as the
unbeliever is concerned, it is judged; it is the basis of indictment at the
last judgment. As far as
the believer is concerned, every bit of sin nature good we have developed in
our lifetime will be removed, for there will not
be satanic or human thinking and relativism in eternity; ONLY GOD'S THINKING AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
(1Co 3:13-14) “Work”
here is the believer’s GROWTH. (Mar 4:20) Every believer’s production shall be made
manifest; for the day shall declare it; (At the Judgment Seat of Christ; 2Co 5:10) (His
Spiritual growth or lack of it).
The fire is going
to test (Evaluate) the believer’s works and will destroy all the wood, hay and straw. (Human
false thinking and righteousness) The fire is Divine judgment, “If any man's work which he has built on it
remains...” (1Co 3:14) This is Spiritual growth; this is everything the believer
does when filled with God the Holy Spirit; this is everything performed in the
power of God the Holy Spirit. “If
any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.”
Just think! The edification complex is the result of
Operation Z given to every believer; (Truth going into the mind through
the filling of God the Holy Spirit, transferred by faith into the human spirit,
and exhaled out the left and right bank of the soul toward God and toward
people) — no works actually; and yet we receive a
reward which will glorify God! (Heb 4:10)
Spiritual growth is recognized by God, Virtue is pleasing
to God, and Divine Virtue is reward-able. BUT …“If any man’s work shall be burned up, [This is the wood, hay and
straw] he will suffer loss; [Loss of reward] but he himself shall be saved; yet
so as by [Through, literally] fire.” (1Co 3:15)
In other words, ALL old sin nature production is
going to be judged. When the believer arrives at the judgment seat of Christ,
the first thing that happens is that all of his self-righteousness is destroyed!
Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when
He appears, we may have confidence and
not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If
you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices
righteousness [Stays in fellowship]
is born of Him. (1Jn 2:28-29)
The means of
producing Divine righteousness “good” — Virtue-love
The next verse
follows in this context very logically: “Do
you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
(1Co 3:16) It
is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to produce Virtue-love; (Gal 5:22-23) and ALL
Spiritual Thinking in the believer's life. (1Co 2:11-14) ALL actions in life can be either Divine or human righteousness, depending on the means by which
they are performed.
Do you not know
that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, [Using satanic and human thinking; to live the Spiritual life]
God will destroy him, for
the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that
he is wise in this age, [Satanic and human wisdom] he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. [With God's Thinking] For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN
THEIR CRAFTINESS; and again, THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS [Thoughts] of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS! (1Co 3:16-20) cf. (Psa 94:11)
One of the
greatest tragedies in the Christian life is that, as believers, we are so often
DOING things which we
think are “good” — “of God,” and should
be, but in our ignorance and or our carnality, this is rendering them only
human sin nature good. For example, the giving of money — you can give money to a church and everyone says it is “good.”
Or you can offer prayer, and people say, “Oh isn’t that wonderful! He prays so
beautifully.” You can attend church, and someone will tell you, “That’s great!”
You can even witness for Christ, and DO many
other things, and they are all considered good. (Psa
55:21; Psa 66:18; (Pro 12:10) Pro 15:8;
Pro 21:27; Pro
28:9)
But when you do
these things, they can be either sin nature good or Divine good, depending on
who controls your life; and what you are thinking. (Act
5:1-11)
“Do you not know that you are a temple of
God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” If
you DO these things in the power of God the Holy Spirit and Truth, (Joh 4:24) they are
Divine righteousness — Virtue-love. If you DO
these things in the energy of the flesh, (In
carnality) they are human sin nature good — self-righteousness.
You can give ALL your money to the poor, you can give ALL your money to the
church; (1Co 13:3) but if you do it in
the energy of the flesh, it will not be credited to your account as Divine
Virtue-love! (Spiritual growth; Mat 6:19-21)
It is wood, hay and straw. (1Co 3:12) And so again, it isn’t
WHAT we DO, but WHAT we THINK; and are we in
fellowship with God the Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the
flesh profits nothing; the Words that I have Spoken to you are spirit
and are life. (Joh 6:63)
God
may use what we DO, and He always blesses His Word; but it is not reward-able,
there is no growth, Virtue-love, invisible impact, or ANYTHING ELSE for the
believer who does ANYTHING in the energy of the flesh!
Because
the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for
it does not subject itself to the Law of God, [The
Thinking of the Word] for it is not even able to do so,
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God! (Rom 8:7-8)
By living in the Spiritual life; (Rom 8:10-14) is how
we take our own happiness wherever we go! If you’re controlled by the Spirit,
if you are taking Truth into the mentality of the soul and by faith it is
transferred into the human spirit, you’re going to carry your own happiness
wherever you go, because you will have that edification complex of the soul — a Temple — the Divine nature!
For by these [Spirit
and Truth] He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent Promises, so that by
them you may become partakers of the Divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2Pe 1:4)
That,
in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the
old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, [Thoughts] and
that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which
in the LIKENESS OF GOD [Thought and Virtue-love]
has been created in RIGHTEOUSNESS and Holiness [Integrity]
of the TRUTH.
(Eph 4:22-24)
Do
not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its
evil practices, [Thoughts] and
have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to
the IMAGE [Thought and Virtue- love]
of the One who created him. [God the Son] (Col 3:9-10)
Whether you are at a party or find yourself in the valley of tragedy,
you will be exalted; whether you are in a place of prosperity or in a place of
testing, you will always have this marvelous inner happiness, which belongs only
to the believer in fellowship; and at, or on the way to Spiritual maturity! (Act 20:32)
The Word of Truth; is the only permanent
solution!
Now here is the
Principle of the grass and flowers of the field; (Isa
40:6) HUMAN GOOD is like the flower of the field. All of these
beautiful flowers are here for a moment, and then they are gone; they make a
great impression at the moment, but they do not last. And that is what life is
like. People are doing things which make an impression for the moment, but
their works have all disappeared. Caesar made an impression, but it has gone.
The greatest men in history have made an impression through their “good,” but
it has vanished.
But
you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, can today, tomorrow and the next day and
the next; do things which will count for all eternity. Long after history books have been burned and destroyed and
when all history is in its true Divine light from the Word of God, the Divine good — Experiential righteousness — Virtue love — Spiritual growth —
etc., of the
believer will be made manifest. (Mal
3:16-18) Yet you don’t have to wait until
then you can see it now; and you can make your life count!
You can make life count by being filled with God the Holy
Spirit. You can make your life count by getting Truth into your human spirit;
and then your production will remain! (Joh
15:16) Your giving will count, even if it
is only half a penny. Your witnessing and your prayer will count. Your worship
will be meaningful, because, to be acceptable, worship must be in the Spiritual life and with Truth — God's Thinking!
(Joh 4:24)
Now ask yourself
some questions. “Am I going to have the same old frustrations, the same old
disappointments? (Whether it is Christmas or not) Am I going to be hilarious
for a couple of moments and then miserable? Am I going to roll along as I have
in the past?” All your life as a believer you’ve been
cranking out human good; you’ve been sincere, but your life isn’t meaningful.
I wonder how many
of you have a thrilling, adventurous and marvelous Christian life? Do you take your Christian life to business with you? Do you
take it into your social life? Do you take it everywhere you go? There is only
one way in which you can; and that is through Truth taken in on a daily basis
and transferred BY FAITH into the human spirit! This
is the Divine Viewpoint. You can enjoy life or not, depending on whether
you have the Word or not. Christmas can start today, and you can have Christmas
all the way up to Christmas, and forever, and have a
meaningful and wonderful life! You can even throw New Year’s in for a
little hilarity,
Or are you going
to be the same old up-and-down miserable person? You get in the valley, and you
are so miserable everyone can hear you howl for a hundred miles away; and the
louder you shout, the poorer your testimony! When you throw a tantrum, it’s
like the atomic bomb going up. Now, which way you go is entirely up to your own
volition. I can’t make you get with Truth. I can tell
you it’s here, but your volition must go into action. Sometimes it’s not as easy as it sounds; you have to start
learning some Truth; you have to start using Truth — beginning with the faith-rest technique! AND THE WORD HAS TO BE FIRST!
Do you really
want to produce Divine good? Do you really want your life to count? There is no
short cut. It would be nice if I could say, “Look, if you want everything to go
right... If you want to be happy... You need to do only two things: first, come
into the office, and I will wave a magic wand three times; second, go home and
stand in front of an east window, take a deep breath and then say, “It’s okay.”
Then you take another deep breath, and after fifty of them, everything will be
fine.” Have a cookie, and you will be right as rain.
That is
the kind of solution many people want.
In fact, many come to my office with just that in mind: I will wave the magic
wand, and suddenly there will come over them a great feeling of happiness; then
I will tell them to do something very simple such as standing in front of a
window and engaging in self-hypnosis. But it isn’t that easy. It’s the Word, the WORD, THE WORD! Furthermore, you must get it today and tomorrow and the
next day and keep on taking it in and taking it in and taking it in, and Think
with IT, Think with IT and Think with IT! The Word of God must become our life,
(Deut 32:46-47)
and the Word must become OUR REALITY! It must become your Standard! That
is why we have, (Isa 40:7-8).
“The grass [People] withers, [We are here
today and gone tomorrow] the flower fades.” [Human good is beautiful today but
gone tomorrow] I wonder whether those of you who are interested in human
good can remember some of the good deeds you did even ten years ago. They fade!
Even in your mind they fade. Why? Because, “...The
breath of the LORD blows upon it...”
The “breath of the Lord” is
judgment. Because God’s judgment blows upon it, “...Surely the people are grass.”
Now, here’s the
point: “The grass withers, [Dies] the
flower [Human good] fades, but the Word of our God
stands forever.” (Isa 40:8) The only permanent and stabilizing thing in this world is
the Word of Truth. The Bible is the Thinking of God; the Bible stands forever!
But you must take the Word from the page, and by the
filling of God the Holy Spirit, transfer it to your mind, where the Spirit
makes it comprehensible; then it is transferred to the human spirit by faith,
where it becomes your Standard of Thinking!
What the Bible says must be more REAL than anything else in
life! If you know Bible Truth and it is more real to you than anything
else, then you can have inner peace and inner power, and you can answer that
invitation not B.Y.O.B. “Bring your own bottle,”
but B.Y.O.H., “bring your own happiness!” And
this means that your life is counting for God, now as well as for eternity,
because you have the Spiritual life through which Divine good is produced.
So that the proof of your faith, [Spiritual life]
being more precious than gold which is
perishable, even though tested by fire, [The
Spiritual life] may be found to result in
praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1Pe 1:7)
Summary:
three sources of Divine good
Divine good is
produced from three sources in the believer, depending upon his stage of
growth: (1) from the filling of God the Holy Spirit; (2) from the exhale of
Truth, from the human spirit; and (3) directly from the Spiritual life.
An immature or
“baby” believer can produce Divine good, though not consistently; but whatever
he does while filled with God the Holy Spirit is Divine good. As the believer
matures and becomes “adolescent,” he begins to store residual Truth in his
human spirit from which Divine good is exhaled out the right bank of the soul. The mature believer with a completed temple in his soul
consistently produces Divine good — Experiential righteousness —
Virtue-love.
During His
incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ exemplified the production of Divine good
from all three sources. In, (Joh 3:34)
Jesus is said to have been filled and controlled by God the Holy Spirit at all
times. In, (Luk 2:40-52) Divine good was exhaled from His human spirit; so we see
that He had the same Spiritual life. (Joh
17:8; Joh 17:13; Joh 17:17; Joh
17:21-23)
The
do-gooder, an enemy of God
Now, if you have
not received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are an
unbeliever and declared in the Bible to be an enemy of God. (Rom 5:10) Perhaps the greatest shock a sincere
do-gooder could sustain is to hear that by Biblical Standards he is an enemy of
God, for this person is usually performing his good deeds to gain the
approbation of God.
Yet the Bible
condemns as enemies of God all members of the human race who are unregenerate,
whether they are sinning or whether they are expressing the other part of their
old sin nature. (The performance of human good) Why? Because they are born
Spiritually dead and condemned, which is the basis of enmity with God. (Joh 3:18)
Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned (Rom
5:12)
There is never a
time when the UNSAVED PERSON ceases to be the enemy of God. We usually think of
enemies as people who are in status of hostility toward us mentally or overtly.
But this is not necessarily true with God. You may
never give God a thought; you may believe that there is no God. (Psa 53:1) It makes no
difference, for either way, if you are an unbeliever; you are still the enemy
of God!
Now, I
want to remind you again that at least fifty per cent of the unbelieving human
race, are nice people — very
lovely people; and they perform human good. Even the people whom you do
not consider to be nice people have human good in them. Some of the nicest people in the world are unbelievers... The most sincere do-gooders... The people whose acts and deeds we admire... These are just as much the enemies of God as the unlovely
members of the human race whose sins are personally obnoxious to you. There is no such thing, from God's Viewpoint, the unbeliever and or the believer living in carnality, with
all his human good, IS THE ENEMY OF GOD! (Rom 5:10; Php 3:17-19)
Why are
unbelievers enemies? They are enemies because they have a sin nature; (Rom 8:8) they have imputed sin, (Rom 3:23) they are under the penalty of sin,
which is Spiritual death; (Separation from God in time — Rom 6:23) they are born Spiritually dead; (Eph 2:1) their good is
human good and relative and therefore not acceptable as Divine Good; (Isa 64:6) they offend the perfect character of
God; (Psa 24:3-4; Rom 3:21-22) and they are in Adam.” (1Co 15:22) In other
words, the unbeliever has nothing, no asset by which to gain credit with God.
Why are carnal believers enemies? Because they think and live by the old sin
nature! (Rom
7:18; Rom 8:8)
There is an
insurmountable barrier which totally separates man from God. Whether the
unbeliever is actively antagonistic toward God or not, his very position is
enmity against Him. And he remains an enemy of God until such time as he
accepts Jesus Christ as Savior.
For while we were still helpless, at the
right time Christ died for the ungodly... For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son... (Rom 5:6-10)
The word “reconciled” means that Jesus Christ
removed the barrier that stood between man and God. He has done the work; ...Having put to
death the enmity [Being an enemy]... (Eph 2:13-16)
We have but to receive it AND BELIEVE IT.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which
we have done in [Sin nature] righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the
washing of regeneration [The new birth] and renewing by the Holy Spirit. (Tit 3:5)
Only through regeneration can you become acceptable to God.
If you add any human good to faith, it is no longer faith!
Nevertheless
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed
in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the
Law no flesh will be justified.
(Gal 2:16)
Faith is a
non-meritorious response to Salvation. The decision is up to you. “What do you think
about the Christ, whose son is He? ...” (Mat
22:42)
APPENDIX
The Difference Between Human Good and Sin
The question has
frequently been asked, “Is human good sin?” Human good is not classed as sin
because the Bible distinguishes between human good and sin, even though both
are obnoxious to God. The Bible speaks of our righteousness as “filthy rags.” Other phraseology for
human good, as we have already seen, includes “not by works of righteousness
which we have done”; “dead works”; “judged according to their works”; “every man’s work shall be tested.”
What, then, is the difference in God’s sight between human good and sin, since
they are both objectionable?
Human
good does not involve a Biblical Prohibition issued. For example, would anyone consider giving money to a church
sin? Or helping a person in need? Giving gifts at Christmas? You certainly
would not class witnessing or worship or prayer as sinful or lawless! So,
obviously, there has to be some way of distinguishing between sins and things
that are generally good except when accomplished in the energy of the flesh.
Now, the question
has undoubtedly arisen in your mind when you discover human good in yourself:
do you confess it, or how do you handle it? There is
only one way to deal with human good. You have to be filled with God the holy
Spirit and motivated by the Thinking of Christ; for, as we have seen,
everything that you do that’s nice, or good, or moral, or right every act of
kindness, any sacrificial giving, all of your prayer and witnessing and
teaching Sunday School, your service in the Ladies’ Missionary Society
everything that you do when you are out of fellowship is old sin nature good.
(Thinking: If we
are right with each other we will be right with God.) (Rom 7:18)
Therefore, the first answer as to how to handle human good is to avoid
it by being filled with God the Holy Spirit.
Under status quo grieving and or quenching God the Holy Spirit, any good
performed can only amount to old sin nature good. Remember,
you are indwelt by both God the Holy Spirit and
the old sin nature. You can never sin when
you are filled with God the Holy Spirit. (1Jn
3:9) You have to be tempted first. You can be tempted in regard to
mental attitude sins, overt sins, and sins of the tongue. But you have to be
tempted first, and then you have to go on negative signals. It is not a sin to be tempted. However, when you go on negative signals, you succumb to the
temptation, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and then you come under the power of
the old sin nature.
When you are under the control of the sin nature, you are
going to commit personal sins. At the point you confess the personal
sins involved, you go back to the control of God the Holy Spirit. (1Jn 1:9) Now the Spiritual life actively produces
Virtue-love from God the Holy Spirit; (Mat
22:36-40; 1Co 13:1-8) rather than from the sin nature. (Mar 8:31-32) The solution begins with, (1Jn 1:9) but you do not confess the sin nature good — you confess the sins.
You see,
somewhere along the line you are going to know you are under the control of the
old sin nature, because you will commit a personal sin. Then, when you confess that you are out fellowship, you are forgiven the
personal sin, as well as any sins you may unknowingly or forgot you had
committed. You are now filled with God the
Holy Spirit. Now no matter what you do while filled with God the Holy Spirit,
motivated by Divine Thinking; whether it’s only giving a cup of cold water in
the Lord’s name, or whether it’s praying and witnessing it falls into the
category of Divine good — Virtue-love.
NOW
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND: ALL REWARD ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN COMES FROM GROWTH!
WORKS ARE A NATURAL RESULT OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY! AND ALL THINGS GOD LEADS US
TO DO; IS THE REWARD NOW; AND AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT THEY ARE BEYOND EXPLANATION!
(Rom 8:18; 2Co 4:17)
Human Good
A Satanic Concept
Since Satan
was the first sinner and his sin was negative volition, (Isa 14:12-14) there is an obvious conflict in
the realm of Absolute Divine Righteousness versus human sin nature good. However, many believers,
as well as unbelievers, cherish the deception that only those things which are
regarded as evil by society originate from the devil. There is also a conflict
of good versus good — that is, Divine Righteousness versus satanic good. Dr. L.
S. Chafer points this out:
“It is not the
reason of man, but the Revelation of God, which points out that governments,
morals, education, art commercialism, vast enterprises and organizations, and
much of religious activity are included in the ‘cosmos diabolicus.’ That is,
the system which Satan has constructed includes all the good which he can
incorporate into it and be consistent in the thing he aims to accomplish. (The
destruction of man and the overthrow of God) A serious question arises whether
the presence of gross evil in the world is due to Satan’s intention to have it
so, or whether it indicates Satan’s inability to execute all he has designed.
The probability is great that Satan’s ambition has led him to undertake more
than any creature could ever administer. Revelation declares that the whole
‘cosmos system’ must be annihilated not its evil alone, but all that is in it,
both good and bad.” (L.S. Chafer, “Systematic Theology,” Vol. II, p.100)
Hence,
the great conflict between God and Satan is not only Divine good versus evil,
but Divine good versus satanic good. Satan's false thinking is promoted through
such agencies as the social gospel, socialism, world peace, internationalism,
economic human solutions, doing good in the name of good, and other man-made
plans which seek to improve human environment without providing man eternal
relationship with God.
Satan’s power is described in, (2Th
2:9) as “dunamis” (Greek)
power, (Dynamic or inherent power):
That is, the one whose coming is in accord
with the activity of Satan, with all power [Dunamis] and signs [Miracles] and
false wonders.
One of the
greatest “dunamis” powers is in the
field of thought. Satan’s power of thought is in the old sin nature. (False spirit and truth — 1Ti
4:1) Satan is constantly reaching us through
our sin nature's thought pattern. (Mat
15:19; Act 5:3) In the field
of religion, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of
life, etc. Truth is the ONLY WAY to become FREE! And our ONLY protection,
thereafter. (Joh 8:31-36)
Do not love the world nor the things in
the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not
from the Father, but is from the world. (1Jn 2:15-16)
But since all
people cannot be reached through religion, he has other dynamic systems, some
are in the field of the economy, politics, ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING; APART FROM
THE FILLING OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT AND TRUTH. (Mat
6:24) This isn’t to imply that the entire world is satanic. IT IS SATANIC! (Mat 16:26;
1Jn 2:15; 1Jn
5:19; Rev 12:9) His system goes in for human security solutions. Remember, he
has a fantastic plan which has been in operation since he took over the world.
Satan is trying to bring order out of chaos; he is trying to create a perfect
environment; WITHOUT GOD!
When the devil
came into the newly created Garden, he saw perfect environment, and he didn’t
like it. Furthermore, he saw that an inferior creature had been given the
perfect environment which he formerly possessed. In his jealousy, he formulated
a plan whereby he might remove man and woman from this perfect environment.
After succeeding, and then discovering that it was not God’s plan to take man
off the earth, he made up his mind to (“Show God”; Isa
14:13-14) — to set up his own perfect environment on the earth. This
is the plan he has been working on ever since.
Satan
would like to establish a millennial reign, with himself as ruler. He would like to beat Jesus Christ
to the punch — to get there first! To do this, Satan
must get the world straightened out. Consequently,
a tremendous area of good deeds, social action, and many similar old sin nature
solutions to man’s problems — that are ALL
Satanic in nature! (Joh 8:44)
Jesus “razzes”
Satan now and then. Knowing Satan would like to stop war, He said, (In effect) “There will be wars and rumors of wars until
I come.” (Mat 24:6) War is very
embarrassing to Satan in view of his attempt to institute perfect environment
on the earth. Satan would like to eliminate poverty; but Jesus said, “For you always have the poor with you...”
(Mat 26:11) Satan
is in the “do-good” business! Therefore, we
need to be extremely careful to line up with Biblical Principles and not with satanic dynamics! THE NUMBER ONE VERSE FROM THE
BIBLE; THAT SATAN'S KINGDOM USES IS: (Luk 6:31; with many wrong meanings; AND IN THE POWER OF THE OLD SIN
NATURE!) TREAT OTHERS THE SAME WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED! (Luk 6:31) In context;
(Luk 6:20-49) Means Personal
Virtue-love for God and Impersonal Objective Virtue-love for self, enemies, and
ALL OTHERS!
THIS IS A SUPERNATURAL SPIRITUAL LIFE! AND CANNOT BE PERFORMED BY THE
POWER OF THE OLD SIN NATURE AND OR SATAN!
NO ONE CAN THINK OR DO; (Luk 6:20-49)
WITHOUT SPIRITUAL
MATURITY! PLEASE TRY IT!
For the kingdom of God does not consist in
words but in power. [GOD'S
POWER: The filling of God the Holy Spirit and His
Thinking! Truth!] (1Co 4:20) cf. (Joh 4:24)
Satan’s objective
is to counterfeit genuine Divine good —
Virtue-love; which is produced by God the Holy Spirit. (Gal 5:22-23) But what do we have today? Program
Christianity! Do... Do... Do ...Get everyone to work... Find a job for
everyone... Create organizations so that everyone is doing something!
“Mediocrity” can pastor a church with a good program because everybody is working,
everyone belongs, everyone feels wanted, everyone is “making brownie” points
with God, and it is all one big, happy family! This is
taught in seminaries today! “Don’t bother with Thinking with Truth — just get with the
program!”
Satan also has a dynamic
“sensual — emotional — sincere love.”
(Pro 7:9-23; Jas 3:15) At best, however, it amounts only to pseudo-love no
matter how lovely it may appear on the surface. This is probably one of the
greatest invasions that Satan has made among believers: the “love everybody”
concept — the “neo-pseudo-love-ism.” When believers are
ignorant of or neglect believing and Thinking with the Word of Truth, they have
to have a substitute, and the “Love everybody” concept moves in.
Now, the
“love-everybody” cult produces a reaction; a guilt complex. The order of the
day is to “love” some person or race or group who is obnoxious to you in order
to assuage the guilt complex. And this has infiltrated everything; including
Christianity. Believers ARE commanded to love THE BRETHREN; but it can only be a genuine Virtue-love exercised in the
power of the Holy Spirit. No matter how sincere
you may be, if your Christian life is not operating in the filling of God the
Holy Spirit, it is FALSE!
The, (2Th 2:9) passage also mentions false wonders.
(Miracles) People today, as in every generation, are impressed with “miracles.”
We have those who are trying to produce the miracles of the pre-canon period.
What are they doing? They are lining up with Satan’s program. What is God’s
program? Miracles? Miracles were simply to focus attention on the message of
the Gospel until the canon of Scripture was completed in, 96 A. D., when
miracles were dropped, (Php 2:26-27; 2Ti 4:20) God had provided something better,
something greater — the Word of God in writing!
For, ALL FLESH IS
LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND
THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD
ENDURES FOREVER. And this is the Word which was preached to you. (1Pe 1:24-25) cf., (Isa
40:6-8)
How long does a
miracle last? Suppose God heals you of an incurable disease at age 20, and you
live for 80 years. How long did that miracle last? Sixty years! How long is
eternity? It’s the Word of God which lives forever!
God has a plan
for your life which begins the moment you are saved. The plan is divided up
into days one day at a time and He provides living grace for each day. Now, if
God wants to take you out of this life by a painful, terminal disease, He has
provided something greater than a miracle: dying grace for each day you are
dying; and this is greater than any miracle ever performed.
Our
perspective is wrong: we always think in terms of making it stop hurting... or of finding someone who can
wave a magic wand and make it well. What is the matter? We are lined up
with Satan’s do-good program. Our lack of Doctrinal orientation makes us prey
to every emotional gimmick that comes along, and there is no better or quicker
way to stop your happiness!
Since Satan is a creature and the author of sin,
his plan must fail. But it can succeed with you; if
your “grace apparatus for perception” is not functioning and you do not have a
“Temple’’ of the soul! He attempts, but Satan cannot
produce Virtue-love — the Spiritual life! (1Co 13:1-8)
The Concept of Morality
Distinction
should be made between morality and human good. Christianity is not a morality,
but a relationship with God through Christ. (2Co
5:17) Virtue-morality is a byproduct of
Christian Spiritual maturity, (Eph 5:3)
although human morality has no Spiritual dynamics. (Gal 5:16) The
dynamics of Christianity are in the Spirit-controlled life. (Rom 8:2-4; Eph 5:18)
(Obedience to authority and Law;
Rom 13:1-10) is absolutely essential for
the orderly function of the human race under the Divine Institutions.
(Volition, marriage, family, and nationalism) For this reason, (Obedience to authority and Law) is for the entire
human race. The unbeliever is capable of being moral,
but morality can neither provide Salvation nor Spirituality. (Gal 3:2; Tit 3:5)
Virtue-morality is a result of Spiritual maturity! Obedience to
authority and Law was designed by God for the perpetuation and survival of the
human race in the angelic conflict, and protects human freedom as the basis for
response in evangelism.
Morality is not the distinguishing factor between the
believer and unbeliever, for morality is outward, overt and or superficial.
Morality without Spirituality in the unbeliever and the believer produces
legalism, religionism, self-righteousness and hypocrisy. (Moral-degeneracy) The manifest distinctions are inner functions in the soul
and spirit of the believer: the filling of God the Holy Spirit, the function of
the “grace apparatus for perception,” the exhale of Truth from the human
spirit.
Only the overt
manifestation of the inner life can be observed. The production of sin and
human good are manifestations of the first birth with the old sin nature, which
causes Spiritual death at the moment of physical birth. The production of Divine good from both the filling of God the Holy
Spirit and the edification complex manifest inner Experiential righteousness.
Failure to produce Divine righteousness — Virtue-love, plus mental
attitude sins, are signs of a relationship with the devil by the first birth;
(1Jn 3:10) and
identification with his cosmos “One World” system.
For I know that nothing
good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;
for the willing is present in me, but the doing of THE
GOOD is not! (Rom
7:18)
End
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