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Preparing yourself for the study of God’s Word
Before we begin, only 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) John 3:16, John 6:47 as a few examples; it is very important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so the Holy Spirit can teach you as to what your reading or hearing is true or false. To be taught by the Holy Spirit you must be filled with the Holy Spirit which means abiding in Christ. To place yourself in fellowship with God the Holy Spirit [also called abiding in the Christ], take a moment to simply name, cite or acknowledge [confess] your known unconfessed sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father). Why? Because you cannot grow spiritually if you’re not abiding in Christ [in fellowship with Him] when you take in bible truth.
1 John 1:9, says: “If we confess [meaning to simply name, cite or acknowledge to God the Father] our sins [known unconfessed sins], He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [known sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [all unknown and forgotten sins];” NKJV [New King James Version]; we call this REBOUND; read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. Left click the following link to learn more and fully understand the doctrine of Rebound; which answers the question, why do I need to keep confessing my sins all the time? 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 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
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
STUDY TITLE:
Weekly Bible Study, September 25, 2023, Doctrine of the Weak and
Strong Believer
Doctrine of the Weak and Strong Believer
In our passage (Phil 2:19-21), we have been noting the difference between the church at Philippi
and the church at Rome.
To the church at Philippi Paul sends Timothy in place of their pastor,
Ephaphrodites, who was quite ill. Paul tells the Philippians to receive Timothy warmly seeing that he
is of equal soul status with himself! Then in verse Phil 2:21 he makes reference to the church at Rome who
all seek after their own interests, not the interest of Christ Jesus.
The church at Philippi is filled with
mature believers whereas the church at Rome is filled with reversionists.
Reversionism is maximum
control of the old sin nature over the life of the believer. In such a state the believer functions under
the dictates of the old sin nature exactly as he did as an unbeliever.
Only the daily function of Perception, Metabolization and Application (PMA – positive mental attitude) of Bible doctrine
(BD) can produce in any believer seeking the interests of Christ Jesus, divine viewpoint.
The believer seeks the interest of Christ he continues with doctrine until and after he reaches spiritual
maturity (SM) and qualifying for evidence testing.
It is actually at SM that the believer begins to serve
the best interest of Christ Jesus. Reversionism and evil are manifested by seeking one's own interests
rather than the interests of Christ Jesus. In 1Corinthians 13:5 we learn that impersonal love does not
seek its own gratification.
When a believer seeks his own interests, he becomes vulnerable to the lies
of the cosmic system as well as becoming vulnerable to cosmic pastors who do not study and teach
accurately.
The contrast between the reversionistic believers at the church of Rome and the mature
and adult believers at the church of Philippi has brought us to note the Doctrine of the Weak and
Strong Believer.
The strong believer is one who has attained spiritual adulthood, being where God has perfectly
timed Him to be. The "strength" of the strong believer originates from the soul. It is strength in one's system of thinking which causes the believer to be strong under pressure.
And the hindrance to
mental strength is either negative volition toward doctrine at either of the three stages: perception,
metabolization or application, or emoting under pressure.
Becoming emotional in a pressure situation
is the antithesis of strength. The emotional believer operates in either fear or anger under pressure
rather than thinking doctrine. So, the issue of strength is how do you think under pressure? The soul,
i.e., how you think, is the real you, it is your home as noted in Prov 24:3-6.
The difference between a weak and a strong believer is wisdom, which is metabolized doctrine
applied, Luk 2:40.
Knowledge increases power, Prov 24:5. When the Roman church began to come
under persecution (as all doctrinal churches will come under pressure) they freaked out.
Believers fail generally for two reasons, (1) they lack the mental strength needed, or (2) they have the doctrine in
their soul but refused to apply it.
Once the believer does not live in integrity under pressure, this leads
to self-justification and, if not checked, it takes the believer cycling through the arrogance skills.
This then leads to academic dishonesty, i.e., misinterpretation of passages to back up one's self-justification. And though this type of believer may be quite sincere, such erroneous interaction can
only lead to hardness of the heart and scar tissue of the soul.
The strong believer is confident that by continuing in spiritual growth and being challenged
with regard to eternity, he has the hope of the imputation of eternal rewards and blessings in time and
at the judgment seat of Christ.
A strong believer functions under the royal family honor code, rightly
dividing the word of truth and is flexible with regard to the non-essentials while being inflexible with regard to the essentials. The essential being the PMA [positive mental attitude] of BD [bible doctrine] for spiritual advancement. The strong
believer has also received the initial increment of his escrow blessings and will continue to receive
blessings until the point of dying grace.
Mental strength produces character and character produces the proper action. Character being,
integrity and spiritual strength. Spiritual strength gives the believer confidence to stand up against the
odds or the giants in life.
The strong believer utilizes his royal priesthood to advance spiritually and
so has maximum production in his royal ambassadorship. God promises that He will reward us for
our work done in Spirit and in Truth.
Do not grow discouraged and give up if the immediate
circumstances do not look right nor seem to have the potential to be right. God can make all things
right if we only wait on His perfect timing.
The strong believer is known as the crisis personality.
The strong believer is sure that there is no problem, difficulty, pressure or disaster in life that is too great
for him to handle, whether it be personal or historical. God's power and God's word supplies all our
needs.
So, the church at Philippi was equipped for the day of battle whereas the Roman church gave
up!
No personality ever remains the same, it is in a constant state of change. This is especially true
in the spiritual realm, each day the believer either advances forward or reverses and loses ground.
One either grows closer to being a strong believer or closer to being a weak believer. There are two
categories of weak believers, the ignorant believer who is positive, hence a new believer, or the
ignorant believer who is simply negative. The weak believer is usually flexible regarding the
essentials and inflexible regarding the nonessentials, the opposite of the strong believer.
An example
of a weak believer is one who feels something or has gone through some type of experience and based
on that experience labels it to be "truth" becoming inflexible even though being shown in the
Scriptures that his experience, though real, is wrong.
Many are weak due to the infiltration of legalism and antinomianism (not applying what you
believe). Because the weak believer is ignorant of doctrine he is also arrogant be it blatant or hidden.
The weak believer becomes a victim of his own emotions and becomes a law unto himself.
The Christian way of life, though perhaps at one time learned, has eluded the weak believer. However, the
weak believer who is positive toward doctrine is tolerated by the strong believer's flexibility in the
non-essentials, Rom 5:1. All believers start out as weak believers and must be given time and grace to
grow, Rom 14:1.
While toleration is in view toward weak believers who are positive, separation is the divine
order regarding the weak believer who is negative toward doctrine. Such a believer is in a state of
apostasy and is constantly under divine discipline.
The weak believer also has false norms and
standards. His conscience is distorted through rationalism, empiricism and emotionalism.
The weak
believer, though he may seem strongly opinionated, holds to wrong opinions of what Christian virtue
is. In the weak believer, lack of doctrine means erroneous application, therefore lack of common
sense, lack of capacity for life, lack of orientation to reality, lack of orientation to authority, and lack
of grace orientation.
The weak believer can only gain strength and what he considers prestige, by discrediting the
strong believer.
Therefore, the weak believer constantly seeks to judge, malign, and vindictively
criticize the strong believer. He resents the strong believer and uses his own false norms and standards
of arrogance to attack the strong believer, Rom 14:4, 10-12.
But, the strong believer, even under
attack operates in impersonal love and does not try to defend himself, apologize, nor explain himself.
The strong believer remains so even when the weak believer continues to pour it on in an attempt to
get a reaction from the strong believer since it is the only way the weak believer can gain strength.
But such action on the part of the weak believer only serves to further weaken him and bring in more
divine discipline.
Both strong and weak believers continue to possess in this life an old sin nature with its
potentials toward sin, human good, and evil. Therefore, the difference between the weak and the
strong believer is the difference between ignorance and cognizance of doctrine plus the amount of
time logged in the filling of the Spirit. Both strong and weak believers alike have their own areas of
frailty pointing us to the principle that no one is perfect, 1Jo 1:8,10.
All are susceptible to the sin of
pride. Pride manifests itself in different ways. In the life of the weak believer, pride is demonstrated
by judging others, by revenge tactics, verbal sins and retaliation. In the life of the strong believer,
pride is demonstrated by intolerance of the weak believer and ridicule.
Each believer has equal
privilege (EP) and equal opportunity (EO) to grow spiritually. Normal spiritual growth through
perception of doctrine involves variations of standards. One's norms and standards are replaced as
spiritual growth progresses.
The weak believer lives by the background standards of environment,
academic, and other pre-Christian norms whereas the strong believer lives by the mature norms and
standards formed through doctrine in the soul.
The strong believer operates in the Four Laws of Love:
1- Law of Freedom or Liberty - this law is directed toward self-offering freedom to serve the Lord
Jesus Christ (TLJC - The Lord Jesus Christ) and produce divine good. This is not freedom to operate in one's flesh, Gal 5:13.
The law of freedom means that no one else has the right to tell you how to live your spiritual life. The
word of God is your final authority.
2- Law of Love - is directed toward other believers. This law is especially focused on impersonal love
toward weak believers, 1Co 8:13 and refraining from you freedom when it would lead a weak
believer astray. So, this law is directed mostly toward new or weak believers.
3- Law of Expediency - is directed toward unbelievers in regard to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In order for the Gospel to be made clear and side-step false issues, it is expedient that certain types of
procedure be followed. The rule here is when in doubt refrain from it, that no offense may be given to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 1Co 9:16; 10:23-24.
4- Law of Supreme Sacrifice - is directed toward the Lord, 1Co 9:1-5. This law states that because of
your love for the Lord Jesus Christ you may set aside normal and legitimate functions in life to
progress in the plan of God and offer your service to the general progression of His plan.
Whether you are a strong or a weak believer is based strictly on your own decisions in the
spiritual realm. There is no room for blame such as, well, he made me/she distracted me, and so on.
EP and EO in the spiritual realm offers every believer the privilege of becoming a strong believer in
time and a winner believer for all eternity!
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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