Being a soldier for the Word of God. Part 7.
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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]; we call this REBOUND, read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. REBOUND
If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, 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 simply exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life; when you do, you will instantly receive Eternal Life: John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 20:30, 31.
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 3:14-15, 16, 17, 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 McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
STUDY TITLE:
Being a soldier for the Word of God. Part 7.
We are continuing our study of what it means to be a Christian soldier with emphasis upon the spiritual life we are called to live by God.
Rom 11:29, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Eph 4:4, {There is} one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
We began with our first point, Point 1. which was our definition and Introduction.
We began with a very simple but important statement. The spiritual life that God has provided is a system of biblical mandates and biblical principles, not designed to change your personality, but designed to glorify God as He intended it to be.
And we noted the importance for the Christian Soldier which he needs to fulfill.
Col 3:1-2, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
The word desire is the pres-act-imp of phroneo which means; To keep on searching for, pursuing, endeavoring to obtain. So, the Christian way of life requires obedience to MAR 12:30. An intensive and dedicated search; PRO 2:4. Faith-Obedience and trust.
Heb 11:6, Without faith [doctrine resident in the soul] it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
How do you know if you’re living the spiritual life of the adult Christian soldier? 1Jo 3 gives us some insight into how this must be done.
1Jo 3:5-6, And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him [TLJC] there is no sin. No one who abides in Him [live in the PPOG or the spiritual life] sins.
The principle is that you cannot sin inside of the spiritual life or under the power of the Holy Spirit that God has provided for you as a Christian soldier, you must leave the plan in order to sin.
For sins to be committed, the soul, which means the real you or the self consciousness, mentality, volition, emotion, conscience must take over. The old sin nature is not part of the soul. It is genetically formed in every cell of the body. It battles for control of the soul through sin, human good and evil. Because we have an old sin nature, we are said to be totally depraved. This is why only the soul, not the body, is saved at the point of regeneration, Psa 19:7; Psa 34:22; Mark 8:36 37; 1Pe 1:9; Heb 10:39.
Psa 19:7, The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
Psa 23:3, He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Psa 34:22, The Lord redeems the soul of His servants;
1Jo 3:7-9, Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous or honorable, just as He [Christ] is righteous or honorable; the one who practices sin is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
This is not a verse designed to condemn you or make you feel guilty about and personal sin, it is designed to teach us the reality of our spiritual life. We have all received a nature at the moment of our spiritual birth that cannot sin. It is a new nature mentioned in 1Pe 1:23, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.
That’s why Paul said twice in Rom 7 concerning his struggle with certain sins,
Rom 7:17, So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin nature which indwells me.
Again in Rom 7:20, But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but the sin nature which dwells in me. That’s because of Gal 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;
So 1Jo 3:9 says, No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed inside of your very own spiritual life designed by God, the believer is controlled by God the Holy Spirit who empowers the new seed or the new nature called in this passage His seed. When a believer is controlled by God the Holy Spirit he cannot simultaneously be controlled by the Spirit and sin. It’s either Col 3:9, lay aside the old self with its evil practices, and in Col 3:10, put on the new self.
There is the old creature and the new creature; 2Co 5:17, Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
The believer’s volition is involved in sin whether it’s a sin of ignorance or a sin of cognizance. When he chooses to sin from his own volition, he rejects the control of the Holy Spirit and he leaves the spiritual life that God has provided for him to live in. You cannot be controlled by the Holy Spirit and at the same time sin. And what makes the difference?
Your volition.
You have to take the responsibility for your own decisions and that includes all the decisions related to sin whether known or unknown.
1Jo 3:9-10, No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed [that is the seed from God the Holy Spirit received at the moment of salvation] keeps abiding in him; and he cannot sin or he is not able to sin with this new nature, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
We are talking in this passage about believers, believers are called here children or learners or students of the devil. The word children is the noun tekna which is where we get the English word technical from. It has the connotation of children under discipline and training from their parents, it also means agent, pupil, disciple.
Teknon has to do with our relationship with God in time and our major function is that we are under training, under authority, under discipline. So therefore, the best word here is student, if you understand that a student is suppose to be under authority and training and discipline. So a student of God or a disciple of the devil is the issue.
If the believer lives his spiritual life inside the PPOG, he is a student of God. But if he resides in the cosmic system, the devil’s world, he is the agent of the devil. Most believers today are the agents of Satan because they don’t have their priorities straight and doctrine is not number 1.
1Jo 3:10, By this the students of God [believers who live the spiritual life] and the disciples of the devil [believers inside the cosmic system] are obvious:
The adjective phanera translated obvious means manifest, well-known, apparent, visible, evident, obvious.
1Jo 3:10, By this the students of God [believers who live the spiritual life] and the disciples of the devil [believers inside the cosmic system] are obvious, apparent, evident, manifests.
When a believer is inside the cosmic system and is not living the spiritual life inside the PPOG, he cannot be distinguished from unbelievers inside the cosmic system.
Trends toward morality, asceticism and self-righteousness characterize some disciples of the devil while trends towards lasciviousness, immorality and degeneracy characterize other disciples of the devil, it all depends on what their trends are.
Some of them have trends toward asceticism, some have a trend toward lasciviousness.
The trend toward asceticism prints out morality, self-righteousness. The trend toward lasciviousness prints out degeneracy.
1Jo 3:10, By this the students of God [believers who live the spiritual life] and the disciples of the devil [believers inside the cosmic system] are obvious: anyone who does not practice.
Righteousness is the noun dikaiosunen which means integrity, righteousness, virtue and honor and the fulfillment of the spiritual life inside the PPOG. And this can only be manufactured inside the spiritual life that God has provided for you to live with a combination of the filling of the Spirit plus the perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine.
When a believer does not live the spiritual life, he has no integrity. He can have morality. He can have self-sacrifice. He can be great overtly doing all kinds of things from God but he has absolutely no diakaiosune, no integrity or virtue. Integrity and virtue can only be manufactured when the believer lives in his very own spiritual life inside the PPOG.
Now, what reveals whether or not a believer is a student of God or a student of the devil? Anyone who does not produce righteousness or as the Greek brings out manufactures integrity is not a student or disciple of God. You see, the average Christian can counterfeit an outward righteousness through change of behavior pattern, but he cannot counterfeit an inner change of integrity. The only way to manufacture integrity is through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit controlling the soul of the believer filled with doctrine as he lives in the spiritual life that God has provided.
So whosoever does not manufacture integrity is not of God. And anyone who does not love his fellow believer is not of God or a disciple of God. What I am saying to you is if we do not have impersonal love toward our fellow believers, we definitely do not live like we are from God.
A believer who is in the cosmic system is not living in the divine plan and therefore cannot fulfill these two results:
1) To manufacture integrity.
2) To love the brethren.
This is how we live like members of the royal family of God. One of the most frustrating things in the Christian life is for you to try to love the brethren while living in the cosmic system. Life in the cosmic system manufactures disciples of the devil or stereo type believers. And anytime you hate a believer you are in the cosmic system!
1Jo 3:10 By this the students of God [believers who live the spiritual life] and the disciples of the devil [believers inside the cosmic system] are obvious: anyone who does not manufacture integrity or virtue is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
Unbelievers are not in view in this verse and that’s why it says nor the one who does not love his brother. So, the believer who does not learn about his spiritual life inside the PPOG lives in the cosmic system and therefore cannot live the Christian way of life.
No matter how nice he is…, no matter how personable…, no matter how sweet and kind and apparently loving…, the whole thing is hypocrisy. He can be moral and filled with self-sacrifice and witness to a thousand people a day and do all of the things that the fundy’s want him to do. Like giving sacrificially, he can do this until he’s blue in the face and he is still a failure, a flop, and that’s how a born again believer becomes a disciple of the devil.
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.
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