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 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)
Isolation of
Sin
PREFACE
Before you begin your Bible study, be sure that, as a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have named your known sins privately to
God. (1Jn 1:9) You will then be in
fellowship with God, under the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and ready
to learn Truth from the Word of God.
If you are an unbeliever, the issue is not naming your sins.
The issue is faith in Christ.
"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)
THE LAWS OF
SPIRITUALITY AND CARNALITY
When the Lord Jesus Christ said, “He who is without sin
among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Joh 8:7) There were no rock throwers that day,
even though the crowd was made up of many self-righteous and religious people!
It is quite obvious, even to the most unintelligent, that every member of the
human race has sinned and failed the Lord. (Rom
3:23)
Suppose the Lord were to say to us, “Let him who is without
sin serve me in the Christian life.” There would be no
one qualified for service or production, and the Lord would have no ambassadors
on earth. Therefore, God in His grace has made provision for overcoming
sin and the old sin nature --- which will dominate and control your life unless
you understand the important Principle of isolating your sins. This Principle
is based on the Laws of Spirituality and Spiritual death. (Rom 8:2)
For the Law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the Law of sin and
of death.
The first Law is the Law of Spirituality, or “the Law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” “In Christ Jesus” is a reference to Positional
Truth. You must be IN CHRIST before this Law can become operative. No one can
be Spiritual until first of all; he is saved. (Act
16:31) The Law of Spirituality, which is
the filling of God the Holy Spirit, (Eph
5:18) has set us free from another Law
operating inside of the believer --- the Law of
carnality. This Law blocks production, --- prevents bona fide
service for the Lord, and creates misery any time it controls our lives.
This second Law is “the Law of sin” --- “the Law of the sin
nature, and death.” The sin nature has produced Spiritual death in the human
race since the time of Adam. (Rom 5:12)
But when we are born again, (Joh 3:3-16) the production of the sin nature is limited to temporal
death or carnality which means to be out of fellowship; and therefore renders
the believer useless to the Lord. This Law is called “men of flesh” in,
(1Co 3:1).
In the state of Spirituality the believer is
liberated from the domination of the old sin nature. (Gal 5:16) The
aorist active indicative of “has set you free” indicates that this occurs at
the point of time when the believer is filled with the Spirit. (Rom 8:2) Spirituality
and carnality are mutually exclusive, and therefore they are absolutes in Phase
Two. When a believer is filled with God the
Holy Spirit, he is Spiritual, and he walks in the light; (1Jn 1:7) when a
believer sins, he is carnal and walks in darkness. (1Jn 1:6) These two Laws are in constant conflict
within every believer. For the execution of the
Christian way of life --- the Law of Spirituality must replace the Law of
carnality. (Rom
8:13-14)
In, (Rom 8:3) the
Mosaic Law representing in this case: human old sin
nature ability --- trying to keep the Law in
order to gain the approval of God. (The old sin
nature: WILL NEVER BE MADE HOLY)
For what the [Mosaic] Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, [The old sin nature --- so
God did something about the sin nature] God [The Father --- Author of the
Divine Plan sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh [True humanity]
as an offering for sin [A sin offering; Exod 29:14]
He condemned sin in the flesh, [Judged sin in Christ's human soul; Isa 53:10].
The Mosaic Law was holy, righteous and good, (Rom 7:12) and had a definite function under its
three parts; (The Obedience, Spiritual and Social codes) but it, (The Mosaic
Law performed in the old sin nature) could neither save nor provide
Spirituality. The Law was and is PERFECT because it
is GOD'S THINKING; we are limited by the
presence of the old sin nature. (Rom 7:18)
Jesus Christ, sent by God the Father, not only paid the
penalty for sin, but also destroyed the power of the old sin nature by His
Spiritual death on the Cross.
So that the requirement of the Law [Perfect standard
demanded by the Law] might be fulfilled IN US,
who do not walk according to the flesh [As carnal believers] but according to
the Spirit. (In Spirituality; in fellowship, filled
with God the Holy Spirit) (Rom 8:4)
The believer may have victory over the sin
nature as long as he lives under “the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus.” (Stays in fellowship)
OPERATING
UNDER THE LAW OF SPIRITUALITY
To operate under this Law of Spirituality, there are four
things you must always do when you sin:
1. Rebound. 2. Isolate past sins. 3. Forget what is behind.
4. And keep moving.
Rebound
IF we confess
[Acknowledge] our sins [to God] He [God] is faithful [He always does the same
thing, (Forgives us) because His essence is immutable] and righteous [On the
basis of Christ being judged in our
place for our sins --- and no one can be judged for the same crime twice] to
forgive us [To blot out completely] our sins, [the personal sins that come from
our free will] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, [Sins we commit of
which we are not even aware]
(1Jn 1:9) cf. (1Co 11:31).
Now, let's go back to the point of Salvation. Salvation
begins at the Cross. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ, you are given a
new position “in Christ” (2Co 5:17) a
place of family relationship, (Rom 8:38-39)
represented by the “top circle.” At the same time, you are also entered into
the “bottom circle.” (Temporal fellowship) As long as there is no un-confessed
sin in your life, you remain in temporal fellowship with God, and you are
filled with the Spirit. However, at the moment you
sin, you are carnal and under the control of the old sin nature. When
you confess your sins, God forgives you immediately, He blots out your sins,
and you are not only back in fellowship, but as of that moment --- for one
second, at least --- you are filled with God the Holy Spirit. Top And Bottom Circles.jpg
If you were under discipline for that sin, whatever
suffering was involved is converted into blessing. But before you can take
another breath, you may be out of fellowship again because of failure in the
second step.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having
laid hold of it yet; (Finishing God's will for his life) but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and
reaching forward to what lies ahead. (Php 3:13)
What are those things which are behind? SATANIC --- HUMAN THINKING AND SINS! As soon as you confess a
sin, you are Commanded to forget it. But suppose you do not. All right, look at
the “bottom circle.” You are in the bottom circle when you confess that sin; but the very moment you start thinking about that sin again --- talking about it,
worrying about it, playing with it like a dog with a bone --- out of fellowship you
go! That is why some people say rebound doesn't
work. They are never in the bottom circle long enough to know whether it works
or not!
Did you ever observe a “chain smoker”? He lights one
cigarette from the other --- never uses a match. That
is the condition of many believers; they are CHAIN SINNERS --- carnal believers --- those
who say that rebound doesn't work! Well, of
course it doesn't --- for them! They sin,
confess the sin, and then start worrying about that sin as though God had not
forgiven them. The old sin lights up a new sin, and they never advance in their
Christian life. They jump in and jump out, in and out of the bottom circle, and
never move ahead. If you get out of fellowship because of a sin already
forgiven, you start chain sinning --- building one sin on another. This keeps
you continually under discipline --- not from the original sin, but from some
current sin which grew out of failure to isolate the first sin. (Heb 12:15)
“Forgetting” denotes both forgetting and disregarding --- in
other words, “to assign to oblivion.” Once you have rebounded, you should
assign that sin to oblivion. This can be accomplished only by believing, (1Jn 1:9) and understanding the Principle of, (1Jn 1:7) “...The blood of Jesus Christ his Son,
[Keeps on] cleansing us from all sin.” The blood of Christ refers to the
Spiritual death of Christ on the Cross.’ The work of
the “blood,” or His Spiritual death, is twofold: judicial cleansing at the
moment of Salvation, and experiential
cleansing of the carnal believer after Salvation at the point of rebound.
How can a righteous God forgive unrighteousness? Because His
righteousness was satisfied when the penalty of sin was paid at the Cross. This
is the link between, (1Jn 1:7) and (1Jn 1:9). When you simply name your sin, you are
citing a sin which has already been judged. So, because of the work of Christ
on the Cross, God is absolutely just and fair in
forgiving our sins.
Once you confess a sin, you put your problem in
the hands of the Lord; you have no right to take it back. Since God has blotted out your sin, what right do you have
even to look back, to cry or to feel guilty about that sin? It doesn't belong
to you anymore! If you take the sin back and fret over it, you will create self-induced
misery. If you want to live like this, it is your business; but to worry about
your past sins or to have a guilt complex is to perpetuate carnality by mental
attitude sins. Any blessing that may come your way is
converted to discipline.
So you go --- in and out, in and out --- piling up sins. You
never experience anything but discipline --- you never receive blessing! This usually triggers some type of adverse reaction, such as
discouragement, disillusion or negative volition toward Truth, and without
realizing it, you are launched into the first stage of reversionism. It
is most important that you rebound and isolate your sin in this initial stage
before reversionism reaches the latter phases where recovery is far more
difficult!
Both temporal and Spiritual blessings are potential by the
fact of our position in the top circle, (In Christ) but
they can be realized and UNDERSTOOD only in the bottom circle. (In fellowship) The extent
of blessing depends on our attitude toward the Word of Truth; and progressing
toward Spiritual maturity. Truth resident in the soul becomes the “cup”
into which God pours out His blessing. However, the learning of Truth must be
accomplished in the filling of the Spirit by means of rebound and isolation of
sin.
Production in the Christian life can occur only when we are
in the bottom circle. Why? Because nothing we do counts
for God when we are trying to use the old sin nature to be holy. Any
good deed generated by the old sin nature is human old sin nature good and
totally unacceptable to God. (Jer 17:9;
Heb 6:1) Therefore,
the only source of Divine Virtue-production is the ministry of God the Holy
Spirit; and God the Holy Spirit produces Virtue; only while we are in the
status of Spirituality. (Gal 5:22-23) Once we have confessed ANY kind of a sin, our
greatest problem is to stay in the bottom circle; we must isolate that sin so
that we can begin to utilize our Spiritual assets and move on toward the
objective of Spiritual maturity.
Keep Moving
...And reaching
forward to what lies ahead, [Staying in fellowship] I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus. [Rewards and decorations in eternity] (Php 3:13-14)
God's purpose for every believer is the advance
toward Spiritual maturity and the super-grace life. In accomplishing this goal, you
enter the struggle of the angelic conflict; and you function as a normal
believer in the consistent production of Divine Virtue. The basic
hindrance to this objective is the failure to confess and isolate sins. You
must always use God's grace provision --- rebound and keep moving! Forget your
failures and victories! (Rebound, Reception,
Retention, Recall, Resist, (Sinning) and Repeat)
Nor must you stop there, but continue to move toward the
goal --- Spiritual maturity or Experiential
sanctification! God has made
grace provision for reaching this goal through the gift of the pastor-teacher,
who communicates Truth, and through the volition of the believer, who takes in
Truth in the filling of the Spirit. This is
the function of the “grace apparatus for perception.” (Operation Z) We never
stand still in the Christian life; we either progress or retrogress. The way that we go, and the rate at
which we advance depends on our consistency or failure to take in Truth.
FAILING THE
GRACE OF GOD
See to it
that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness
springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Heb 12:15)
What is the “grace of God” in context? When you confess a
sin, when you name it to God, He forgives you. That's all! The sin is blotted
out; (Isa 44:22) you are back in the
bottom circle and filled with the Spirit. That's grace! None of us earns it nor
deserves it.
The grace of God never fails US, but WE fail the grace of
God. This indicates, first of all, that we do not understand what God is really
like. God is gracious! When He forgives the
believer who uses the rebound technique, He applies
the same Principle of forgiveness that canceled our sins at the Cross.
We did not earn forgiveness at the Cross; we do not earn it afterwards. After
Salvation, it is necessary only to admit being out of fellowship, (Sins). The
most difficult issue for some people to understand is that when they simply
identify this to God, He forgives and blots it out immediately. This seems
almost impossible for them to grasp. Yet it is so
simple --- it is the grace of God in action!
Failing the grace
of God, (HUSTEREO in the Greek) has several meanings: to fall short, to be
below standard, to fall back, to miss out on; in other words, it indicates
failure to utilize the grace of God; refusal to avail yourself of the grace
provisions for advancing to Spiritual maturity; the objective of the Christian
life and the purpose for which the believer is left on this earth. To fulfill, (Heb 12:15) you must begin with REBOUND, followed
by ISOLATING YOUR SINS, and then FORGETTING THEM and MOVE ON to the goal. (Spiritual maturity) Negligence
or rejection of this rudimentary Principle of Truth results in retrogression
and, if allowed to continue, will draw you into the various stages of
reversionism.
It is impossible to serve Jesus Christ, to fulfill your
ambassadorship or your priesthood unless you use the grace of God. Nor is that
all. This failure has a by-product: it is guaranteed to make you miserable for
life. You may try escapism; you may try “agonizing in
the closet”; you may try to work up some ecstatic or emotional experience; you
may try fasting and praying, good works and giving; or changing your behavior
pattern; but you will never know what hit you! In order to possess the
happiness, the peace, the blessing, the joy, the power that God has provided
for you, you must appropriate Spiritual Virtue! (Gal
5:22-23) If you think you can help God to
erase your sin by changing your behavior or because you are so “holy” or use
“holy” language, if YOU insist on doing the work, then you have failed the
grace of God!
DIVINE
DISCIPLINE
The first fifteen verses
of, Hebrews 12 describe various aspects of discipline. However, we must be sure
to distinguish between Divine discipline for believers and Divine judgment for
unbelievers, which is the subject of verses 16-29. Discipline is God's
reprimand of the believer for carnality and or reversionism and is confined to
time. Judgment, God's punishment for the unbeliever, extends into eternity. (Joh 3:18)
(Heb 12:15) concerns
the failure of the believer which results in discipline in time.
One of the signs of our Salvation is Divine
discipline for sin:
FOR THOSE
WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES [Skins alive with a whip]
EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES. (Heb 12:6)
When God disciplines Its children, it is not His intention
to inflict torture nor to make us cry “uncle!” “For He does not afflict
willingly Or grieve the sons of men.” (Lam 3:33)
God loves us with an infinite amount of love; and if there is anything that God
does not want to do, it is to cause us hurt in any way. However, for our own benefit in training and blessing, His love must
often be expressed in discipline.
When you allow un-confessed sin to keep you in perpetual
discipline, it is impossible for you to grow up Spiritually, to produce Divine
good or to function as an ambassador for Christ. Failure to rebound ultimately
leads to reversionism. Let us assume that you recognize a sin in your life and
confess it to God. What happens now? You are
forgiven, and your discipline, if it continues at all, is turned to blessing. (Cursing turned to
blessing) Now, perhaps ten years later,
you have some pressure in your life. You associate it with that sin in your
past - a confessed and therefore a FORGIVEN SIN! You are, in effect, harboring
a guilt complex, (Which is a terrible sin) or bitterness, or jealousy, or
hatred, or any of the devastating mental attitude sins that grow out of other
sins. Perhaps you were not even aware that these were sins. But when you do
learn to recognize them as sins and confess them, you
ARE FORGIVEN – guilt feelings or not! So get up and keep moving!
For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His
abundant lovingkindness. (Lam 3:32)
THE SKELETON
IN THE CLOSET
Let's call that ancient sin the “skeleton in the closet.”
You still associate all discipline with your skeleton in the closet of ten
years ago instead of with the current sin. You have been out of fellowship all
the time. You are miserable; and not only are you miserable, you are confused!
You will go through life always having trouble but never understanding why. There is nothing worse than undergoing discipline or misery,
adversity, trial, heartaches or problems without really knowing why. You
may try some system of penance. You may try confessing to a friend, to a
psychologist or a psychiatrist --- anything to obliterate your past sin, when it is already dead and gone. In fact, it has
ceased to be an issue of any kind in your life.
It is amazing
what unbelievable memories people have --- better memories than God's! Some people remember things for years --- incidents that God has forgotten and graciously blotted
out. They associate all their misery with something that happened in the
past, when their suffering is really due to something in the present. God is
patiently waiting, (Isa 30:18) to
convert discipline into blessing so that they can grow up! But they are still
children --- Spiritually immature. Some believers
never mature because they will not isolate the sins committed in the past.
Everyone has a skeleton in the closet. If there is anything
that is gruesome, it is a skeleton --- and that is the way it should be to you.
But there are times when you lean on your skeletons. Every time things go
wrong, you immediately think about that skeleton in the closet. Here is the
pattern: you have a crisis in your life; instantly you remember the sin which
is the vilest sin you ever committed. (It may not be, according to Divine
standards, because sin is sin; but in your estimation it tops the list.) You
assume that this blatant sin is the reason for the adversity you are
experiencing; and this results in ignoring the Principle that there are
numerous causes for suffering, and out of all these, only one is for
discipline; (Being out of fellowship).
Suppose for the moment that this pressure IS discipline for
some recent un-confessed sin; (Probably some sin you do not consider so bad;
such as mental attitude envy, gossip, etc.) yet you pull out that skeleton from
the closet --- that sin, the worst that YOU THINK you ever committed --- and
assume it is the culprit. On this assumption, you ignore any sin in the
periphery of your present life that may be responsible for your distress.
Because you keep returning to a sin committed years ago, the problem is never
resolved.
There are three categories of sins by which you can
perpetuate chain sinning: mental, verbal and overt sins.
MENTAL
ATTITUDE SINS
Guilt Complex.
You may harbor your skeleton in the closet through mental sins. These sins
include envy, pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability,
hatred, self-pity, worry and a guilt complex. And to
remember these sins is the worst mental sin, as far as perpetuating something
that God has blotted out is concerned. If you
remember and then THINK ABOUT AND OR PLAY WITH THE SIN, you are out of
fellowship, either because you do not BELIEVE God has blotted it out, or
because you do not FEEL it is blotted out. Remembering sin results in a
number of adverse effects. In most cases, you remember this sin with horror; it
causes nightmares, and you become discouraged and despondent; you have
developed a guilt complex --- the MOST detrimental
thing that can happen to the mind of a believer, for it will keep you
Spiritually immature and despondent.
Let's straighten out the situation right now. If you have a guilt complex about anything in your life
--- ANYTHING AT ALL --- you
are out of fellowship and unhappy. You are a
failure! As long as you carry that guilt complex around with you, you can never
represent or serve your Lord nor produce Divine Virtue. At best, you can try to assuage your guilty conscience by
performing human old sin nature good deeds --- wood,
hay and straw! (1Co 3:12-15) What a waste of time! Your efforts do not count
because you did not believe the Word of God; you did not APPLY, (1Jn 1:9)! However, you are still alive and on
this earth, and God's purpose for you continues.
Self-recrimination.
A by-product of the guilt complex is a mental attitude I will call “self
torture,” or “self-recrimination” --- and you could not torture yourself more
efficiently than if you held your foot in a hot fire or drove bamboo stakes up
your nails. You can do a better job of torturing
yourself in YOUR OWN MIND than
anyone else can!
In the Middle Ages, when people did not feel that
their sins were forgiven, they often had someone beat them with a whip, or they
beat themselves; or they would inflict other tortures upon themselves, such as
lying down on a bed of sharp glass or splinters for so many hours. Going
through their minds was the attitude, “I hurt; therefore, I am being forgiven!”
Of course, that isn't true at all. Your
feelings do not determine God's forgiveness. You
are forgiven because of Who and what God is, not because you hurt. That
is why many Christians never produce for the Lord; and that is why, no matter
what they do or where they go or what happens to them, they will never have one
moment of real happiness in their lives. They are denying themselves the
blessings God has provided for them. They have failed the grace of God!
Just Think of it! God offers every believer, in every
situation in life, perfect inner peace, perfect power, all kinds of prosperity
for blessing, as well as all kinds of suffering for blessing. The believer
never need lose the perspective, and he can have tremendous production for God!
But what has happened? Very few believers are even filled with the Spirit! Why?
Because after they confess their sins, they never learn to isolate their
“skeletons.”
Hatred, Hostility, Jealousy. Perhaps at some time in the past you lied to a person. You
confessed your fabrication, but you perpetuated the sin by jealousy and hatred
of that person. When you allow a sin to nurture jealousy, jealousy becomes an
even worse sin; and if it goes unchecked, you move into perpetual discipline.
But you will be disciplined for the current sin of jealousy, not for the
original sin of lying!
You hear people describe the wonders of the Christian life,
the marvelous grace of God and how it works, the inner happiness, inner peace
and production; but you never experience any of these things. Why not? Because
you are spending your time mentally feeling sorry for your sin, trying to think
of something to make up for your sin, trying to destroy the terrible guilt
feeling when you have no right even to THINK about it! All
these insidious thoughts prevent the isolation of sin. You are saying in
effect; Long live the sin!” But, the SIN IS DEAD, because GOD BURIED IT! But
you dug it up!
Bitterness.
Taking the bitterness route means that you find a “patsy” and make that person
responsible for your sin. Sometimes you may even blame God; and you may become bitter
toward God! Or you may be bitter toward another believer. As long as you harbor
bitterness toward any member of the human race because of YOUR sin, you will
stay perpetually out of fellowship; you choose the Law of carnality with all of
its attendant misery, and your suffering can never be converted to blessing. It must remain discipline, since you continue to be out of
fellowship by what you think. (Pro 23:7)
“...That no root of bitterness springing up...” (Heb 12:15) The words springing up” actually mean
“to SPROUT in the mind.” In order for anything
to sprout, there first of all must be a seed. And what must the seed do before
it can sprout? It must die! When a seed dies, a root grows downward and a
sprout shoots upward.
This phrase in the
Greek is saying, “Look, what causes this bitterness? A seed that is dead --- a
sin which is already confessed, dead and buried!” You take a sin that is dead
and buried, forgiven and forgotten, and you plant this sin into your life with
mental attitude bitterness, mental attitude hatred, guilt complex, self
torture, self recrimination, mental flagellation. What do you suppose sprouts
up? Weeds of sin, misery, and discipline!
You are not being disciplined for the sin that is DEAD; you are being disciplined for the SPROUTS
that have surfaced: here is a blossom; there is another blossom --- bitterness, gossip, maligning, plotting, harassment,
vengeance, ostracism! These sins result in Divine discipline, not from
the confessed sin in the past but from new sins that are “lit” on that sin.
This passage Commands you to forget the skeleton in the closet! Dispose of it
where God has already taken it: “As far as the east is from the west, so far
has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psa
103:12) You need never to look back. You are never Commanded to look
back. (Php 3:13)
There are two kinds of believers: the great believers who
profit from their failures and the believers who are buried by their failures.
The great believers never look back. David never looked back. Abraham never
looked back. Joseph never looked back. These men failed but they never recalled
their sins from oblivion; they moved forward --- and glorified God!
“...That no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble...”
“Causes trouble” is the present active subjunctive, indicating
that it keeps on troubling you. Now here is the failure to isolate a sin
which has been blotted out. It keeps on troubling you; it makes you miserable.
But there is one glean of light --- the subjunctive mood! The subjunctive mood
is potential, which means that bitterness does not HAVE to trouble you. Confess your sin and forget it! When you are
miserable because of these sprouts, it is because you allow some past sin to
harass you, even though you have confessed it. Inevitably, bitterness springs
from its roots; and from bitterness comes an undesirable cluster of fruit.
These sins become the object of discipline so that you are
troubled. Furthermore, you cause others to be defiled also: you drive others
from the Word; you cause others to become bitter; you generate revenge
activity; you turn other people into gossips and engender emotional upsets,
guilt complexes and auto flagellation! Whenever you
fail to isolate your sin, the repercussions never stop with you. Your failure
overflows to everyone around you; not only do you make yourself unhappy but
also those with whom you associate.
The people you love most are those you always hurt when you
succumb to this type of carnality. You hurt loved ones by “Operation Fallout.”
As long as you fail to isolate sin, you will constantly be off balance; you
will find a “patsy” and turn your wrath and vindictiveness, your bitterness and
hatred, gossip and maligning against this person and that person. You not only
drive people away from YOU, but you drive people away from the LORD.
However, as long as you are alive, it is never too late. And
the time to stop is now! When a sin dies by confession, God takes over, and you
begin to produce Divine Virtue. Back in fellowship, you have a different type
of sprout. You have a new mental attitude --- VIRTUE
LOVE. (Gal 5:22-23) You do not hate anyone; you are completely relaxed, and
you live and let live!
Whatever you have done, you cannot go back and undo it; but
this does not mean that you can welsh on your obligations. If you have debts, it
is your responsibility to pay them. If you can fulfill this responsibility
without becoming involved with any past sins connected with your failure. (We do not mortgage the future to pay for the past) You have confessed your sin, and now you simply stop looking
back and move on. (Psa 51:4) From this point, you can begin to have joy, inner
happiness, peace, inner stability, and inner beauty. You have the power of the
Spirit, which will enable you to function under Operation Z --- mature and produce. http://thinkingtruth.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/top-and-bottom-circles/
Every great believer in the Bible sinned or failed at some
point in his life. And what did they do when they failed --- sit around and cry
about it? They did not! They confessed it, forgot it, and kept moving. They
were great because they isolated their sins. When they confessed their sins,
they knew that God had forgiven and forgotten them. They never looked back;
they never remembered. As a result, when suffering came to them it was a
blessing from the Lord. (Psa 119:67) In
suffering or prosperity, they had inner happiness. Why? They were filled with
the Spirit; they were in the bottom circle, and they were advancing! One of the
greatest drags in serving the Lord is failure to isolate sin; and to allow your
past sins to hold you back.
Mental sins un-confessed and un-isolated
inevitably branch into two other fields
--- sins of the tongue and overt sins.
SINS OF THE
TONGUE
If as a result of any of the mental attitude
sins, (Guilt
complex, vindictiveness, implacability, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, etc.) you begin to talk about the person who is the object of
your jealousy, hatred or bitterness, you will usually follow one of three
avenues, any one of which can put you on the road to a miserable life.
1. Maligning or Judging.
So far, your sin has been confined to the mind; but now you express your
thoughts, and they take the form of maligning, gossiping and judging. Maligning
is a part of judging. It means to “run down” someone who has become the object
of your hatred or hostility. You ascribe to him certain sins. The unkind things
you say about him may be true, but that is not the
point --- you are still judging!
Perhaps you feel bad all the time while he appears to feel
good, and that aggravates the entire situation. Someone you hate, someone
toward whom you are bitter seems to be getting along very well, and you just
can't stand it! You begin a campaign to malign him and to attribute certain
sins, real or imagined, to him. And you are maligning
for one reason --- so that others will ostracize
him; so that he will be degraded or hurt. In so doing, you are
superimposing your volition over the Divine prerogative of judgment and
condemnation.
Never take
your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is
written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. (Rom 12:19)
What you observe about a person is not the issue. Even if
what you say about that person is true, you are still in the wrong --- for you are judging! That is why the Bible says, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” (Mat 7:1)
A literal
translation from the Greek of, (Mat 7:2)
will help you to understand this better:
For in the way you judge, you will be
judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
It is possible to malign or judge and at the same time do
that person the greatest favor. How? God takes the discipline from him and
pours it on you! Thus, you are not only receiving your
own discipline, you are also receiving the discipline of someone you maligned
--- as if your own were not enough!
Furthermore, double discipline continues until you stop judging and maligning.
So help yourself to someone else's discipline --- if you want to be miserable
as a Christian! Before you know it, you will be under triple-compound
discipline:
(1) Discipline for mental attitude sins.
(2) Discipline for judging. (Mat
7:1)
(3) Discipline for sins you ascribe to the object of your
bitterness. (Mat 7:2)
If you malign more than one person in a situation like that,
you could multiply your discipline until you go right out of your mind. That is
what is commonly called “asking for it”! This is the reason that three of the
sins which God is said to hate; (Pro 6:16-19)
are sins of the tongue. Only one overt sin is named, and that is murder. All
maligning, criticism or “sour grapes” result in a triple dose of discipline,
which produces the most horrible anguish and suffering possible in the life of
the believer. The self-righteousness involved in promoting yourself as a
“judge” hurts you more than it hurts others. Self-inflicted suffering is added
to the discipline, and under these conditions, you dedicate yourself to
perpetual misery of your own making.
2. Gossip.
To gossip is to say something derogatory about a person which is NOT TRUE.
Hence, you ascribe to him sins he has not even committed. If you are the
recipient of such gossip, whether or not it is true is of no consequence; the
issue is privacy: you live your life as unto the Lord and afford others the
same courtesy. The only result is that you hurt yourself --- God's discipline
falls on you, not on the victim of your gossip. If you
are the victim, do not ever try to explain yourself. People will believe what
they want to; in fact, an explanation usually makes matters worse. Those who are walking in fellowship with the Lord and
maturing know that your life is none of their business; it is business that God
will handle personally; (Application of the
Doctrine of privacy).
3. Manufacture of controversy. This sin is the
failure to isolate your differences with other believers. Schismatic type people complain to outside parties in order
to gain their sympathy and support. Wives complain about husbands; workers
state their discontent with the boss; members of the congregation express
resentment toward their pastor. They turn
uninvolved and innocent persons against the object of their hatred and malice,
and the result is discord; among those within their periphery.
4. Public Confession. The fourth way in which you can stay
out of fellowship is to start a fire with your tongue. (Jas 3:1-18) is the great passage on
self-control.
For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he
says, he is a perfect man, [Spiritually mature man] able to bridle the whole
body as well. (Jas 3:2)
You can always recognize a Spiritually mature
believer. He neither judges, neither maligns nor gossips! He does not pass on --- dirt or evil about someone
else. He is not guilty of the sin of the “long proboscis.” He is also
“able to bridle the whole body” (Jas 3:2)
A Spiritually mature believer has the greatest type
of self-control that can exist, which is the ability to control every area of
his life, even his tongue!
It is frightening to contemplate the damage the human tongue
is capable of creating. So small a part of our anatomy, it can nevertheless
determine the course our life --- and can take as well
as wreck the lives of others. Horses may be controlled by bridles, and
ships by rudders; wild animals can be tamed; but there is only one thing that
will tame the tongue --- a maximum amount of Bible
Truth in the soul, applied to the THINKING!
Now if we put the bits into the horses'
mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at
the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are
still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot
desires. (Jas
3:3-4)
“Even so the TONGUE IS A SMALL PART OF THE BODY, and boasts
of great things...” Now here we are: “Behold, how great a forest [Problem] is
set aflame by such a small fire!” (Jas 3:5)
The tongue is a tiny object in the body, but it stirs up great trouble. Public
confession of sin falls into this category.
Some people think that a revival begins with open confession
of sins --- a heresy which has been practiced throughout history. Public
confession puts that sin in the minds of all who hear it confessed, and it may
keep them out of fellowship for a long time. Instead of bringing revival,
public confession can bring down an entire church. “But,” you say, “it makes me
feel better!” It may make you feel better for the moment, but it does not stop
the anxiety; and often permanent damage results, both to yourself and to other
believers. Furthermore, it contributes nothing toward removing the discipline;
this does not require human help! That is why a pastor should never permit
anyone to stand up and confess his sin to others in a place where the pastor
exercises the authority. Confession is a matter
between the individual and God.
OVERT SINS
The third area in which we fail to isolate our sin is overt
activity. Perpetuating verbal sins overtly is generally done by revenge tactics
--- DOING something you know will hurt someone else.
The function of hypocrisy and pseudo-love generates implacability and
vindictiveness. If you are ingenious, you can think of
a number of ways whereby you can injure someone else.
When you begin a revenge plot, it generally falls into one
of two categories: harassment or violence, or both; neither solves a thing. You
must be a frustrated, confused believer to ever think that violence will solve
your problems. So you punch someone in the nose! What have you solved? Nothing!
You have only brought discipline on yourself. You can never build your
happiness on someone else's unhappiness. Two wrongs do not make a right! You
simply dedicate yourself to perpetual pain; you fail to produce for the Lord,
and therefore fail to realize the purpose for which you are left in this life
--- to move into the area of super-grace. (Spiritual maturity = THINKING
WITH GOD'S THOUGHTS AND BELIEVING HIS REALITY!)
Now you can begin to
see that one of the great challenges of the Christian life is to forget your
confessed sins. FORGET THEM COMPLETELY! What
does it take to do that? Something you may or may not have --- the faith-rest
technique. (Heb 4:1-12) You must
believe, (1Jn 1:9)! If you begin thinking about that confessed sin again, you
are lighting one sin on another. You are causing
one sin to burn into another sin, beginning first in your mind, then going to
the tongue, and finally to vicious overt sins! You have started a chain
reaction of continual frustration and reversionism from which it is very
difficult to recover.
CHECKING ON
YOURSELF
Look at the first two words of, (Heb
12:15) again: “See to it.” This is a phrase of mental attitude. It
is a present active participle - KEEP ON LOOKING
DILIGENTLY. It actually means “to ride herd on yourself”; “to check yourself constantly.” For what should you be
checking yourself. That you do not allow sin to be
perpetuated in your life. That you make sure
you have no mental attitude sins of lust, judging, hatred and or hostility
toward anyone!
In checking your mental attitude, ask yourself, “Do I have a
guilt complex about my sin? Do I keep thinking about
this? Do I keep reliving this situation? Do I
get upset and associate it with every difficulty in my life? Do I want to tell
everyone because it makes me feel better? Do I want to take revenge? Does it
make me happy to see someone crawl who has wronged me?”
Don't ever let one sin in your life be the basis of more
sins! When you make a “patsy” of your sin and blame all your other weaknesses
and failures and difficulties on it, you are totally divorced from reality,
except that you know you are in agony.
The Bible is filled with wonderful Truths, but you will
never understand them. The Bible contains all the Principles of inner
happiness, inner peace, inner joy, but you will never experience them. You will
always wonder, “What is happening to me?” After
the suffering continues for years, you will want to die; you will want to
commit suicide. You will think life has passed you by. You are a Spiritual
“humpty-dumpty,” and no one can put you back together again! You think no one
understands!
But cheer up! The Bible understands you, because the Bible
is the “Mind of Christ,” (1Co 2:16) and
He says, “It is not that no one understands you --- you don't understand ME
(Christ) or My Word. (The Bible) You don't know what Virtue love is. You have
no concept of My grace! You think everything that happens to you is discipline
for something you did in the past. Oh, no! It is
discipline for something you are doing right NOW. It is discipline for a mental attitude sin; for a sin of the
tongue; for an act of revenge.”
If you do not isolate a confessed sin by the faith-rest
technique, you will set up a perpetual misery machine. Mental attitude sins and
sins of the tongue produce their own grief. You never have to say that the
devil is after you, because he isn't --- he is not omnipresent! But do you know
who IS after you? (This should scare you!) YOU are
the," monster" chasing yourself!
The solution begins with the isolation of your sin. Once
again the mechanics: first of all, when you confess or name your sin to God, it
is forgiven --- whether you believe it or not. On the authority of the Word of
God, WE can say dogmatically, IT IS FORGIVEN! It does not even depend on your
faith. It depends on the Word of God! Whether
or not you believe, (1Jn 1:7) simply
determines if you will ENJOY the benefits of the forgiveness of sins. Capacity for enjoyment involves believing that when you
confess a sin to God, it is cleansed immediately; and blotted out forever.
Your lack of faith never affects the immutability and faithfulness of God, but it will cause you great discomfort. It is
ridiculous to feel bad over a sin that has been blotted out!
Perhaps you can begin to see that; (Heb 12:15) is a key verse in the orientation of
a believer to the Christian life. We all have a
certain amount of pressure, adversity, trial, heartache and difficulty. You
cannot mature Spiritually without suffering and pressure! Just as physical muscles are developed under pressure, so
Spiritual muscles are increased under adversity. Therefore, the majority of the causes for suffering are designed for
blessing; only LIVING OUT OF FELLOWSHIP is for
discipline! It is important for you to know whether the suffering is for
discipline or for blessing. If it is for discipline, then
you must evaluate your life and REBOUND! (1Co
11:31) When you DO; ALL IS FORGIVEN; and
the slate is wiped clean! (Isa 1:18-20)
Should the suffering continue, it is no longer for
correction; the cursing of discipline is turned to blessing. How can God
do that? There is a one-word answer, and if you understand that, then you have
understood in Principle everything that has been said. The word is GRACE. That's it!
What does this grace add up to? It
adds up to the fact that all of us as believers are not worth the powder it
takes to blow us up. David said, “What is man that You take thought of
him,? And the son of man that You care for him?” (Psa
8:4) The word “care” means to bless in grace. What is man? What are
we that God would lower oneself to have anything to do with us? The answer is,
WE ARE NOTHNG! If we are nothing, why DOES God have anything to do with us?
Because of positional Truth! Since every believer is placed “in Christ,” God
the Father loves each one with the same amount of love that He has for God the
Son. It goes right back to this Precept: everything we ever do that counts ---
every blessing, anything that might be construed as great, or as victory, or as
power, or as honoring the Lord; is not because of who and what we are, but because of WHO HE IS and WHAT HE PROVIDES!
THE PURPOSE
FOR YOUR LIFE
The object of this message is really not to step on your
toes, although it can't miss! But here is the point: it is a tragedy to be
without peace and happiness and blessing in our Christian lives --- because we
fail the grace of God! The grace of God never fails
us! How do we know His grace never fails us? Because
we have failed so many times, and yet we are still alive --- God still has a purpose for our lives! He wants us to have happiness, inner peace, inner power
and production that will count for ALL ETERNITY!
Somewhere in your vicinity, there is someone who needs
Christ and Truth; someone waiting to see the power,
the peace and the happiness that you can have in adversity; waiting to see that
great stability which a Spiritually mature believer has in time of prosperity;
waiting for a demonstration of the dynamics of God the Holy Spirit in your
life. But in failing to appropriate the grace
of God, you are “snubbing” the Holy Spirit; you are grieving and or quenching
Him. (Eph 4:30; 1Th 5:19) It is impossible
for Him to produce in your life. Thus, you are missing all the great
blessings of the grace of God.
So the issue becomes the same issue we had in; (Rom 8:2) “choose you which Law you will serve.”
(1Ki 18:21) To
serve the Law of Spirituality means that the sin nature is dead and isolated,
and the Holy Spirit takes over and produces! To
serve the Law of carnality means that one sin is lit on another until you burn
away your own life and those around you --- destroying
yourself and them by your carnality or reversionism.
SUMMARY
PRINCIPLES
In summary, I want you to note several Principles which Will
help you to serve the Law of Spirituality consistently and to move on into
super-grace. (Spiritual maturity)
1. Learn the Truth of Hamartiology. (Sin) Many categories of
sin are unknown to the believer until he studies BIBLICAL
THINKING.
2. Master the Truth of Spirituality. It is essential to know
how to recover from carnality and to log a maximum amount of time in
Spirituality. (Fellowship with God; Joh 4:24)
3. Understand retroactive positional Truth ---
identification with Christ retroactively in His death --- and the fact that
human old sin nature good was rejected at the Cross.
4. Begin to grow Spiritually
through the knowledge and understanding of Truth and orientation to grace,
which results in stability, the super-grace life and maximum production.
5. Avoid the pattern of, (1Ti
5:13) “Operation Long Proboscis”; learn
to mind your own business; (Rom 14:4)
and live your own life before the Lord.
THE ISSUE OF
SALVATION
This message has been for those who are believers in Jesus
Christ. Perhaps you have never made that most important of all decisions. The
Lord Jesus Christ bore in His own body on the Cross every sin you have ever
committed or ever will commit. (1Pe 2:24) By His Spiritual death He also made provision for you to
overcome the sin nature and to be forgiven of every sin in the Christian life.
(Rom 6:17-18) There is nothing between
you and God --- not even sin --- only your own REJECTION OF TRUTH!
You can possess eternal life right now because you can have
God the Son as your Savior. How? “Whosoever BELIEVES in Him shall not perish,
but have eternal life.” (Joh 3:15) Just
as in confession, so in Salvation, appropriation is non-meritorious.
For by grace
you have been saved through faith; and that [Salvation] not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9)
By a simple act of faith in Jesus Christ, you can be born
again; you can become a child of God and a member of His Royal Family forever.
This is yours for the taking. Jesus says, “Come to
Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mat 11:28) “The one
who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (Joh 6:37)
This is your opportunity. You can offer a silent prayer:
“Father, I am believing in Jesus Christ. I am receiving Him as my Savior.” The
alternatives are clearly defined in, (Joh 3:36)
"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."
APPENDIX
THE DOCTRINE
OF REBOUND
1. Rebound means restoration to fellowship with God and
recovery of the filling of the Spirit. (Pro 1:23;
Eph 5:14 cf. Eph 5:18)
2. Rebound must be understood in the light of a relationship
with God, (Jer 3:13) or in the light of
positional Truth. (Rom 8:1)
3. The frame of reference for rebound is the efficacious
death of Christ on the Cross, where He paid for our sins (1Pe 2:24)
4. Eternal security is the prerequisite to understanding the
rebound technique. (Rom 8:38-39)
a. The believer
sins after Salvation, but such sin is categorized as CARNALITY, not loss of
pardon from the Lake of Fire (1Co 3:1-3;
1Jn 1:8-10)
b. Both carnality
and reversionism are results of refusing or rejecting the rebound technique. (Pro 28:13)
5. The mechanics of the rebound technique: confess it; (1Jn 1:9) isolate it; (Heb 12:15) forget it; and move on! (Php 3:13-14)
6. The alternative to rebound --- Divine discipline. (1Co 11:31; Heb 12:6)
7. The discouragement to rebound:
legalism and other Christians. (Preoccupation with self and preoccupation with others)
(Luk 15:11-32)
8. The grace provision for helping other believers to
rebound:
a. The mechanics. (Gal 6:1)
b. A mental
attitude of grace. (Mat 18:23-35)
c. Grace
orientation. (Col 3:13)
d. Reward for
assisting others. (Jas 5:19-20)
9.Biblical synonyms for rebound:
a. Confess. (1Jn 1:9)
b. Judge self. (1Co 11:31)
c. Yield. (Aorist
tense) --- (Rom 6:13; Rom 12:1)
d. Lay aside every
weight. (Heb 12:1)
e. Be in subjection
to the Father. (Heb 12:9)
f. Lift up the
hands that hang down. (Heb 12:12)
g. Make straight
paths. (Mat 3:3; Heb 12:13)
h. Arise from the
dead, or literally, “stand up again out from death.” --- (Eph 5:14)
i. Put off the old
man (Eph 4:22)
j. Acknowledge our
iniquity. (Jer 3:13)
10. Old Testament rebound Commands (Psa 32:5; Psa 38:18;
Psa 51:3-4; Pro
28:13)
THE DOCTRINE
OF DIVINE DISCIPLINE
1. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive measures
by which God corrects and judges the believer in time. (Heb 12:5)
a. Discipline is the alternative to blessing.
b. It is based on God's love for the believer. (Heb 12:6; Rev 3:19)
2. Two areas of Divine discipline exist in Phase Two:
carnality and reversionism.
a. Discipline for carnality is temporary and canceled by the
rebound technique (1Jn 1:9).
b. Discipline for reversionism is permanent and continuous
in time and terminates in the sin unto death, (1Jn
5:16) unless recovery occurs.
3. The purpose of Divine discipline is to correct the
believer and bring him to the point of rebound or reversion recovery.
4. Divine discipline, no matter how severe, does not imply
loss of Salvation from the Lake of Fire. (Gal 3:26;
2Ti 2:11-13)
5. Discipline is related to the grace Principle of turning
cursing into blessing.
a.This is accomplished through self judgment. (1Co 11:30-31)
b. If the believer
rebounds and the suffering of discipline is neither canceled nor diminished,
then the suffering continues as blessing rather than punishment. (Job 5:17-18)
7. All Divine discipline is confined to time and at death,
There is no discipline for the believer in eternity. (Rev 21:4) Triple-compound discipline combines
self-induced misery with Divine judgment.
a. Mental attitude sins
motivate sins of the tongue. These mental attitude sins are subject to
discipline.
b.Sins of the tongue are the basis for further punitive
action from God (Mat 7:1)
c. Whatever discipline
for sins attributed to the victim of the sins of the tongue --- is also added
to the maligner. (Mat 7:2)
8. There are three categories of discipline for
reversionism.
a. The warning stage
--- “knocking at the door”: (Jas 5:9; Rev 3:20) is a general category of discipline,
which is removed by the application of the rebound technique.
b. The intensified
stage, which includes loss of health and other extreme types of discipline: the
sphere of strong delusion; (Psa 38:1-14;
2Th 2:10-12) recovery
requires persistent intake of Truth.
The dying stage: the believer is under the sin unto death; (1Jn 5:16) continuation in the status of
reversionism results in the sin unto death. (Jer
9:16; Jer 34:20; Php 3:18; Rev 3:16)
cf. (1Co 11:30)
THE DOCTRINE
OF SUFFERING
I .General causes for suffering.
a. Loss of health,
wealth, loved ones, etc.
b. Administration
of justice. (Imprisonment, etc.)
c. People (Gossip,
war, social conflict, etc.)
d. Privation
(Hunger, thirst, etc.).
e. Weather. (Heat,
cold, tornado, hurricane, etc.)
f. Mental pressure.
(Worry, fear, jealousy, etc.)
g. Isolation by
society. (Loneliness, ostracism, etc.)
h. Mental attitude
sins. (Self-induced misery)
i. Reversionism.
(Reaping what you sow)
j. Rejection of
authority.
2.Categories of suffering.
a. Time.
(1) Unbeliever. (Two
categories)
(a) Violation or rejection of Laws of Divine establishment.
(b) Self-induced suffering.
(2) Believer. (See point 4)
b. Eternity.
(1) Unbeliever --- Lake of Fire. (Rev 20:12-15)
(2) Believer --- no more suffering. (Rev 21:4)
3. Premise of suffering.
a. All suffering is designed for blessing in Phase Two. (1Pe 1:6-9; 1Pe 4:14)
b. Exception is discipline. (Heb
12:6)
c. Exception is removed by rebound from carnality, (1Co 11:31; 1Jn 1:9)
and recovery from reversionism.
d. Suffering follows the Principle of grace, whereby cursing
is turned to blessing. (Rom 8:28; 1Th 5:18)
4. Purpose of Christian suffering.
a. Disciplinary (Deserved).
(1) For carnality,
(Psa 38:1-18) and reversionism. (Ecc 1:1) (The whole book)
(2) By association.
(1Sa 21:7; Rom
14:7; 1Co 12:26)
(3) Because of
wrong priorities. (Ecc 1:1) (The whole
book)
(4) From a guilt
complex. (1Ti 1:5-6, 1Ti 1:19-20; 1Ti
3:9; 1Ti 4:1-2; Tit 1:15)
(5) Through national
discipline. (Lev 26:14-39; Isa 59:1-15; Hos
1:9)
(6) From rejection
of Principle of right man-right woman. (Jer 12:7-8;
Jer 15:7-8; Eze
16:15-32)
(7) From failure to
isolate sin. (Heb 12:15)
(8) From temporary
loss of grace norms. (Jer 2:24-25)
(9) From war or
revolution.
(10) For
reversionism. (Self-induced misery)
b. Blessing. (Undeserved)
(1) Suffering to
glorify God in the angelic conflict. (Job 1:1;
Luk 16:20-21; 1Pe 1:12; 1Pe 3:17)
(2) To learn
obedience and self-discipline. (Php 2:8;
Heb 5:8)
(3) To demonstrate
the sufficiency of grace. (2Co 12:1-10)
(4) To eliminate
the occupational hazard of pride or arrogance and to relate suffering to the
sufficiency of grace. (2Co 11:24-33; 2Co 12:1-10)
(5) To develop
faith necessary for the function of the faith-rest technique. (1Pe 1:6-8)
(6) To accelerate
the construction of the edification complex in the soul, (Characteristics of
Spiritual maturity) and to enter into super-grace status. (Jas 1:1-4)
(7) To help others
who suffer. (2Co 1:3-5)
(8) To learn the
value of Truth; (God's Thinking). (Psa 119:67-72)
(9) For the impact
and advance of Truth. (2Ti 2:15-16)
(10) As a means of
witnessing for Christ. (2Co 3:4-12)
5. Demonstration of God's love through suffering.
a. Since there is
no suffering for believers in eternity, time is the only situation in which God
can demonstrate His love through suffering. (1Pe
4:14-16)
b. There is no
suffering too great for the Plan of God.
c. Divine provision
for suffering is greater than any pressure of life.
d. God's love
through suffering is realized to the maximum; by the Spiritually mature
believer.
e. A Super-grace believer is qualified through resident Truth
in his soul to weather any storm of life.
6. The unique sufferings of Christ (Isa 53:1-12)
7. Reasons for the suffering of the pastor-teacher.
a. To perpetuate occupation with Christ. (2Ti 2:8)
b. To disseminate Bible Truth. (2Ti
2:9)
c. To fulfill the grace objectives of Phase Two (2Ti 2:9-10)
8. Principle of ultra super-grace suffering.
a. The ultra Spiritually mature believer receives as the
highest decoration in time the mantle of undeserved suffering --- opposition
from evil and all satanic forces. (Php 3:10;
2Ti 3:10-12)
b. The sufferings of the ultra super-grace believer are an
award, the highest honor given to a believer in time.
c. The sufferings intensify the blessing of his special
blessing paragraph.
END
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