Weekly Bible Study – January 4, 2016

What it means to have your feet prepared with your combat boots and ready for walking in the Spiritual Warfare.

PLEASE READ FIRST

Scripture References, Word & Phrase descriptions: If available on the website you're viewing this on, a few links (i.e., those without an already written scripture quote or brief explanation) are hover pop-up active, meaning the scripture reference will just pop-up if you hover your cursor over it (don’t click on the link, just hover your cursor over it), they work best using the Firefox browser – pop-ups in Internet Explorer, Chrome & other browsers only appear for a few seconds at best. If you don’t have Firefox (or hover pop-ups aren’t available on the website you’re viewing this on), that’s OK, move your cursor off and on the link until it is read; or left click the link which will open the verse at the online bible; or you can always use your Bible to look up the verses.

Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!

Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).

1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]

If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to have faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life:

John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." NKJV [italics added]

Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.

John 3:14-18 says: "¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV

Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:

Study to show yourself approved to God!

Grace Bible Church
Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings

STUDY TITLE:

What it means to have your feet prepared with your combat boots and ready for walking in the Spiritual Warfare.

OPTION: If you would prefer to go directly to the Grace Bible Church website to read this study message, all verse reference links are active there (but not hover active) and Enlarged Text is also an available option – right click the above link then left click “Open Link in New Window” or “New Tab”

Terms & Abbreviations used:

PPOG = Predesigned Plan of God
Human Good = Evil + Good Deeds while not in fellowship with God
OSN = Old Sin Nature
TLJC = The Lord Jesus Christ
SSE = Spiritual Self Esteem
PVTD = Positive Volition Towards Doctrine
+H - The Happiness of God
NVTD = Negative Volition Towards Doctrine
Doctrine = Bible Truth

To look up other “terms”, go to:

Alphabetical Listing

BEGIN BIBLE STUDY
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotes and references
are from the NASB – New American Standard Bible

What it means to have your feet prepared with your combat boots and ready for walking in the Spiritual Warfare.

Operation footstool is the ultimate victory behind the wearing of our combat shoes or our footwear.

First of all, let’s begin with a definition of operation footstool.

Operation footstool refers to the termination of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, by which the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth to establish His kingdom and to remove Satan and all fallen angels.

It constitutes a celebration whereby Satan loses the rulership of the world to the Lord, PSA 110:1; HEB 1:13; HEB 10:13.

This brings us to the ultimate victory of the angelic conflict:

COL 2:13-15, And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

The phrase had disarmed is the aor-mid-part of apekduomai which means to strip off the clothes and throw them away or to strip off from oneself, it means to disarm or neutralize the enemy. The middle voice of this word was used in a military sense. So when he had disarmed is an excellent translation. And who is being disarmed here?

The angelic forces of evil. The angelic forces under Satan.

COL 2:15, When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, the rulers is the accusative plural of the noun archon which is an old noun that refers to the highest ruler of Athens in the 5th century B.C. and the rulers or the archons speaks of the highest rulers in the angelic armies. The word authorities is ezousia which means demon commissioned officers in the demon organization.

While God the Father was cancelling our debt on the Cross the whole satanic system of fallen angels superior to man was disarmed and neutralized at the Cross. The Cross broke the back of Satan. Why did the Cross break the back of Satan if Satan has already been sentenced? The answer; the Angelic conflict. Satan appealed the case and the cross was the place of his second judgment.

COL 2:15 when He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, or demon archons and commissioned officers....next it says he made a public display over them.

After they were captured and after they were neutralized. He made a public display which is the aor-act-ind of deigmatizo which means at a certain point of time he began to make a show of them openly. And deigmatizo means to display the captives. A custom in the ancient world after winning a war was to bring the captives back. This was called a triumphal procession or a march through the city of Rome. The general who commanded the forces in the campaign rode in a very beautiful chariot. In front of him would be the captives displayed marching through the streets.

Sometimes if a king had been taken captive he would sit behind the general in the chariots and would be sometimes forced to hold a crown over the general. The idea was to make a display of these people or a public display of the captives.

At the end of the procession it always ended up at the Mamertime prison and there the crowd and the soldiers could fall upon special prisoners whom they wished personally to kill. And they killed them right there. Often many were executed at the end of the procession. So the triumphal procession which would begin at point A, usually around the capital somewhere and would go through the whole city winding up at the Mamertime dungeon, point B.

Here’s the point, when the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected three days after the Cross He was on the earth for 40 days and then He ascended to the right hand of the Father. When He arrived in the presence of the Father, He arrived as the conquering general and in front of him during the ascension it was quiet on the earth because Satan and all demons were in the triumphal procession as captives. As captives they were probably accompanied by the elect angels because angelic assemblies always included all angels.

So, our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ has already had one Triumphal Procession. It started but it won’t be over until the Second Advent. And Jesus Christ as a man and as our High Priest was superior, and He conquered at the Cross. So while God the Father was canceling the debt of sin for the entire human race something else was happening...the fallen angels were ultimately defeated. God does not want the creation of robots. He wants all His creatures to have a free will or freedom of choice. If He only gave life to those who would choose Him then true freedom would not exist.

If He said I will destroy or annihilate those who do not choose for Him, then true freedom would also seek to exist.

He says in effect as Moses said in DEU 30:15-20, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

This is the principle of the famous Triumphal Procession. Therefore we begin with the Doctrine of the Triumphal Procession.

Point 1. Background and Preparation for the Triumphal Procession.

In the Roman army, there were three categories of officers.

a. Company grade officers were called Centurions.

b. Field grade officers were called (Trib-bunes) Tribunes.

c. General officers were called Priator or Imperium.

When an Imperium was victorious, his army lined up and saluted him with a tremendous shout: So the victorious general was called an Imperator, the highest honor that could be given to an Imperator was called the Triumph, Triumphus in the Latin. No general could have a triumph unless he also had led in a battle where at least 5,000 of the enemy had been slain in a single battle. Now a triumph always included a procession. The Senate had to approve the triumph and vote a sum of money to defray some of the expenses. On the day appointed for the Triumphal Procession, the Senate declared a holiday and the entire population of Rome came out of their homes and stationed themselves along the steps of buildings and the streets.

All the temples in Rome were opened and decorated with garlands of flowers. Incense burned on every altar.

The city was literally filled with perfumes and incense. The victorious general, the Imperator assembled his troops outside the gate of triumph and delivered an oration commending his army on their victory. At the end of his speech, the general then decorated the heroes. There were various categories of decorations which were given including the highest honor which would be the Coronas.

The highest honor was the Corona (Latin), equivalent to the Greek stephanos, translated Crown.

There were six categories of crowns given by the military.

Each had a great monetary reward that went with it.

a. Corona gramania, a golden wreath woven of golden strands; also called golden grass. This guaranteed a tax free income. This decoration was given for breaking a blockade.

b. Corona civica, wreath of golden oak leaves, given for the highest type of valor in battle or for unusual acts performed by a civilian.

c. Corona navalis, the medal of honor for the navy. It was given to the first sailor to board an enemy ship during battle.

d. Corona muralis, awarded to the first soldier to scale the wall of a besieged city similar to our Distinguished Service Cross. This was only given to enlisted men.

e. Corona castrensis, awarded to the first soldier to reach the enemy lines in a battle, or to any enlisted man who did unusual things in battle.

f. Corona triumphalis, awarded to a victorious army general who commanded a winning army, or men who did secondary things of valor. The Corona triumphalis was awarded to the victorious General or Imperator as a part of his triumphal procession. Then the Imperator gave a command, and the finance corps distributed to every Roman soldier a large sum of money for his part in the campaign. Then the general mounted his chariot with four horses and commanded them to fall in.

They presented arms, and he moved in his chariot to the gate. At the gate, the Imperator was met by the Roman Senators and Magistrates of the city.

They welcomed him in the name of the Senate and people of Rome, and then he rode through the gate.

Now, there are at least five categories of crowns for believers in the Word of God.

The first are available to all believers; the last is available to pastor teachers only.

1) The crown of righteousness.

2) The crown of life.

3) The incorruptible crown.

4) The crown of rejoicing.

5) The crown of glory.

Some will have the crown of righteousness for loving his appearing or being totally occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and producing divine good, 2TI 4:8.

Some will have the crown of life for enduring trials, heartaches, disasters and coming out glorifying the Lord, JAM 1:12, a href="http://www.gbible.org/verse.php?ct=REV/2/10" popup=" Revelation 2:10 'Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (NASB)">REV 2:10.

Some will have the incorruptible crown for mastering their O.S.N.

Some will have the crown of rejoicing for being soul winners, 1TH 2:19.

Some will have the crown of glory for being willing to feed the flock of God, 1PE 5:4.

Therefore, there is the warning regarding crowns, REV 3:11, hang on to what you have, so that no one takes away your crown.

2JO 1:8, Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life:
Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.