Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday,
September 10, 2017
Keeping the Mosaic Law in itself is not happiness. The Law merely provides a “house” where happiness can live and be sustained.
There is a house that a believer builds when he fulfills the first commandment which has to do with loving God which is revealed by loving Him and putting Him first in all areas of your life.
EPH 4:27 "Do not give the devil an opportunity = a topos --- room in your soul.
EPH 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
EPH 6:16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.
The Law or the 10C especially merely provides a “house” where happiness can live and be sustained.
Jealousy leads to pettiness which destroys the believer.
Mental attitude sins destroy both moral, battle, and spiritual courage.
You must be willing to take discipline whether fair or unfair.
The mature believer doesn't slander or malign, Pro 24:2.
Genuine spirituality functions from integrity, right priorities, and a true scale of values.
Spiritual growth to maturity is the greatest help for loving God and putting God first.
The "house" is the construction of the edification complex of the soul through the metabolization of doctrine.
The house is almost built when you are in spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy and is completed in spiritual maturity.
Preparation for loving God and putting God first demands accumulating in your soul certain technical data.
The spiritual believer strengthens his love for God, Pro 24:5.
"A wise soldier [GEBER] lives in the power of doctrine, and a man of knowledge [doctrinal incite] strengthens his professional ability.
Through the art of building a house in your soul for God you will execute spiritual warfare, therefore victory resides in the greatness of the one who does so.
1JO 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
We have begun to note certain principles for freedom contained in the Decalogue, where it is necessary to study them exegetically, beginning with verse 1-3 in the book of Exodus 20.
The whole purpose of the 1OC is to show he principles by which the freedom of your soul can be maintained; and this individual freedom in turn provides the objectivity necessary to protect the freedom of you and your nation.
The “am,” is in italics, it has been inserted, and is misleading. In the correct declaration, “I, the Lord thy God,” God is not establishing His existence, but is establishing Himself as the Source.
The principle is that the Lord is saying, “I have caused you to go forth out of the land of Egypt.”
The Doctrine of Human Freedom.
- First of all, Freedom Demands Responsibility.
HOS 8:7 For they sow the wind, And they reap the whirlwind.
Once they were free from physical slavery, the Jews had the responsibility of not only exercising their freedom, but also of protecting and maintaining their freedom.
- Human Freedom is a Primary Factor in the Resolving of the Angelic Conflict.
This is why "whosoever or whoever" can be saved in the midst of this conflict.
- Human Freedom also Gives mankind the Opportunity for a Relationship with God.
- God has Designed Laws for the Protection of Freedom in the Angelic Conflict.
Without divine provision for the stability of the soul, man is no match for Satan, “the god of this world” (2Co 4:4).
Without God’s principles for maintaining freedom, there would be no norms or standards to guide the soul and no restraints on the old sin nature; and that would result in the old sin nature’s dictating to the soul (emotional revolt of the soul).
Legalism is the greatest enemy of all of God’s grace provisions, and the Decalogue has been distorted and abused by legalism.
Legalism is Satanic in origin and is part of Satan’s strategy in the angelic conflict to destroy the true purpose of the Ten Commandments, and in this way destroy human freedom.
- All Sin, Known or Unknown Involves the Action of the Volition.
Subsequent events reveal that Adam understood the issue involved in God’s commandment, “Thou shalt not eat,” given in Genesis 2:17, but that the woman did not.
Since the serpent beguiled the woman, it is evident that she had developed an unstable soul in innocence.
Gen 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate;
Even though she did not understand what she was doing, her volition was involved. Adam, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing.
How did they sin without an old sin nature?
Mechanically, there was only one way — through their volition. Volition operated in both souls: both sinned, one knowingly, one unknowingly, but both willingly.
They did not possess and old sin nature; yet the sin nature, once acquired, never produces sin apart from volition — NEVER!
- Volition and Human Freedom Are the Basis of the Function of True Love.
There are three categories of love: Category One — love toward God; Category Two — love toward right man-right woman; Category Three — love toward friends.
The man is the aggressor, and the initiation of love must come from his volition.
By contrast, a woman is designed to respond, but the response of love must come from HER VOLITION! True love cannot be coerced; it must be freely given.
True love cannot be found where it doesn't truly exist and it cannot be hidden where it truly does.
A woman can be very aggressive in responding to a man, but that does not mean that she is manly. It means that her volition has been protected, and she is free to respond.
The enslavement of a woman’s volition destroys her capacity for love.
- Human Freedom is also the Basis for Determining Human Maturity. Human maturity is taking full responsibility for one’s decisions.
- Volition Is the Issue in Salvation. The reason volition is the determining factor is that everything else has been provided by God.
Salvation was designed by God the Father (Joh 4:34), is revealed by God the Holy Spirit (1Co 2:10), and was purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ through His work on the cross (1Pe 2:24)
Positive volition is: “He that BELIEVETH on the Son hath everlasting life”; negative volition is: “he that believeth NOT the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh 3:36).
- Human Freedom Is Protected by God’s Prohibitions. “Thou shalt not” is not a tyrannical expression of God’s will; rather it has been given by God in His grace for the protection of the freedom of your soul and the freedom of your nation.
The first commandment is where true liberty begins in EXO 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
There shall not be to you any other gods beyond Me.
What is actually being said is that there is room for only One at the top, and that place is to be occupied by the God of Israel, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, is the only revealed Member of the Godhead, as well as the Creator and Savior of the universe as well as the God of Israel.
The verb translated “Thou shalt have no” literally means “There shall not be.”
Idolatry always begins in the soul with Soul Idolatry.
The first commandment is dealing with idolatry in the soul, while the second commandment deals with overt idolatry.
The principle is this: freedom begins in the soul.
The story of the golden calf that Aaron and the Jews built when Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the 10C.
Their bodies were free, but their souls were not.......just like many of God's people today.
God freed the bodies of the Jews; but God could not free their souls because that requires individual volition.
“Operation Golden Calf” demonstrated that the Jews of the Exodus generation had NOT freed themselves from idolatry: they had idolatry in their souls.
Slavery of the soul is a part of the emotional revolt of the soul; such slavery is the most subtle slavery in the world.
Three categories of emotional revolt:
(1) Mental attitude sins, such as fear or guilt reaction;
(2) Lust pattern, such as approbation or power lust; and
(3) human good, such as pseudo-brotherly love or social action.
God has set up a “squad” a god-squard, if you will, in the soul of every normal human being and has designed the right lobe as “squad leader.”
The Comparison Between Moses’ and Jeremiah’s Generation.
The slavery of the soul inevitably leads to the slavery of the body.
The Jews spent forty years wandering in the desert to get into the land — from 1440 to 1400 BC; likewise, the Jews spent forty years in Jeremiah’s day getting out of the land — from 626 to 586 BC.
The fantastic analogy, it took a decadent generation forty years to get into the land, and it took a decadent generation forty years to get out of the land.
The Mosaic Law was designed to free the souls of the Jews; thereby their freed souls would be compatible with their freed bodies.
Even though Moses constantly taught them the Law, the Jews of the Exodus generation NEVER understood it as principles of freedom.
That, and their failure in the sphere of the faith-rest technique, were the two reasons why that generation, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, and their families never went into the promise land.
The next generation of Jews who went into the land lived in freedom as a nation through the provisions of the Decalogue, referred to subsequently by Jeremiah as the “Covenant.”
The overt manifestation of soul slavery was the same in both generations — idolatry.
In the Exodus generation, it was revealed by “Operation Golden Calf”; and in Jeremiah’s generation, it was revealed by “Operation Baal.”
Both forty-year periods were characterized by the constant pouring out of God’s grace; in fact, both periods of time could be called eras of “super grace.”
Freedom Through Doctrine. The Jews were the nation of people appointed by God to receive the gospel from Him and transmit it to Gentile peoples.
Jealousy in reference to God is an expression of possessiveness based upon the fact that God is free. If you are going to respond to God, you must be free to do so.
When God says, “No other gods beyond me,” God is saying, “Beyond me there is nothing.”
In order to maintain freedom, the Source of its origin — God — must be recognised. The principle is also clearly stated in John 8:32: And ye shall know the truth (doctrine), and the truth shall make you free.
Knowing the truth and having the soul freed by Bible doctrine, whether it be from the slave market of sin for the unbeliever, or from the Mosaic Law for the believer, are one and the same with the commandment, “There shall not be to you other gods beyond me.”
You, as a citizen of the United States of America, are twice blessed: you have freedom of soul in what is still a free country, and freedom of body, although this freedom is rapidly being destroyed.
Martin Luther expressed this so beautifully in that great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God”: “… the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still!”