Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Ecc 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who {continually} does good and who never sins.
ROM 3:10-12; “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one. ”
Lifestyle = “fallen short of the glory of God.” ”Sporadic = when it comes to fallen short of the glory of God. Occasional = they are very much under the control of the Spirit but still fail.
The Doctrine of Flaws. Point 1. Definition. Distinction must be made between genetic and environmental handicaps and flaws.
Genetic flaws are the weaknesses with which we are born with because of the old sin nature in the cell structure of the body, Psa 51:5; 58:3.
Environmental flaws are those which we acquire because of where we live and the surroundings that we face.
In genetic handicaps and flaws, human volition is not necessarily involved. We are just born with a sin nature which has weaknesses and strengths.
In environmental handicaps or flaws, human volition is involved. We allow the environment to dictate to us and to control us and begin to make decisions based on that environment.
Genetic or inherent flaws often manifest themselves through impulsive actions whereby the person may be caught off guard and the suddenness of a pressure situation brings out a weakness that you may have never seen in that person before.
a. Flaws inherent in a dormant state and acquired under some circumstance or pressure, called impulsive flaws.
b. Flaws which are inherent or acquired. For example, bitterness can be inherent, acquired by the volition in some circumstance, or both.
c. Flaws which are acquired as a direct result of volition responding to the temptation of the soul. These are called environmental or acquired flaws.
They include such things as homosexuality, drug addiction, first degree murder, stealing, and some forms of lying, like pathological lying.
1. Inherent flaws are there without your consent.– We all have certain weaknesses and they are in our lives without us doing a thing to earn them or even deserve them.
2. Environmental flaws are there with your consent. While human volition can restrain inherent flaws, volition is not the original source of these flaws (with the exception Adam’s volition); spiritual death is the source.
We don’t sin and then become sinners, we are born in sin, with an OSN and therefore we sin.
Point 2. Biblical distinctions between inherent and environmental flaws. Inherent flaws are taught in Rom 7:15‑25.
This is the confusion caused from inherent weaknesses, because they manifest themselves in impulsive behavior whereas acquired weaknesses come through deliberate behavior involving human volition.
Impulsive is usually reacting without thinking first whereas deliberate behavior is thinking before you act upon your thoughts.
This is a sign of inherent weaknesses, possibly combined with environmental weaknesses.
Mat 6:1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven
These good intentions are hindered by the overtime work of the OSN with its trends toward evil and good.
JER 4:22 “For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children, And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, But to do good they do not know.”
HEB 6:1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
My point is that the OSN can make us think we are good enough without a crash diet of doctrine or PMA of BD.
Paul is saying if I keep on doing what I do not want to do then I realize that the law is good because it does reveal my helplessness.
So, Paul says this in effect; “Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.”
The old sin nature is the source of temptation, but also the source of inherent flaws from birth.
It is no longer I who do the deed, but [the sin nature principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.
Sin or the OSN lives in a person [inherent flaws] long before a person’s volition develops acquired flaws.
Since it takes volition to convert temptation into sin, this verse must refer to inherent sin and flaws.
He is saying that because he has received TLJC, that he is no longer the one alive but Christ is living in him.
Paul says it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.
Instead, they would be using their failures as an opportunity to appeal to the mercy of God.
Familiarity is a major problem when it comes to interpretation and forces some of us to quote others to give our opinion credibility.
1JO 3:9 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.
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.
Because the nature of God cannot sin, and Christ, the very nature of God is in Paul and he has learned to separate the two natures, the nature of God within him against that cannot sin and the OSN that indwells within him that produces sin nature control.
PHI 3:4 even though I myself might be having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone of the same category [Judaizers] assumes to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:
PHI 3:5 circumcised the eighth day, [born] out from the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews [an outstanding Hebrew]; with reference to the Law, a Pharisee;
PHI 3:6 with reference to zeal, constantly persecuting the church; with reference to the self-righteousness which is in the Law, having become blameless.
PHI 3:7 But whatever quality of things were gains to me, those things [gains] I have concluded as an expert as loss for the sake of Christ.
Phi 3:8 Not only this but more than this, I conclude as an expert all things [Paul’s pre-salvation human celebrityship and achievement] to be loss because of
the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have forfeited all things, also, I keep on concluding as an expert them to be piles of dung in order that I may win for Christ,
Phi 3:9 and that I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness derived from the source of the Law, but that [righteousness] which is acquired by means of faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from the source of the God at the point of faith,
Phi 3:10 that I may come to know Him, and the power of [behind] His resurrection and the participation of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
PHI 3:11 if, in some way, I may attain to the resurrection away from the dead ones.
PHI 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it [the resurrection life], or have already reached the objective, but I continue pressing on that I may attain that [or overtake that, or gain that, arrive at the objective] on account of which I was overtaken by Christ Jesus.
PHI 3:13 Brethren, I evaluate myself as not yet having attained the objective [the ultimate objective in time, living in resurrection life] ; but one thing I concentrate upon: constantly forgetting the things that lie behind and pursuing vigorously to what lies ahead,
PHI 3:14 I keep on pressing on toward the objective for the purpose of the reward belonging to the upward call of God [Father], by means of Christ Jesus.
Phi 3:15 Therefore, as many as are spiritually mature, let us have this attitude, in fact, if in anything you have a different attitude, the God will also reveal that to you.
Phi 3:16 However, the status to which we have attained [that is the spiritual growth from our discipline toward perception, metabolization and application of doctrine] let us keep marching or advancing in.
Phi 3:17 Brethren [members of the royal family], be co-imitators of me, and be having respect for the same ones, who constantly walk according to the pattern you have in us.
PHI 3:18 For many keep walking, concerning whom I have warned you many times, and now continue to affirm, even weeping, the enemies of the cross of Christ,
PHI 3:19 whose termination is destruction, whose god is their emotion, and whose time of glory will be a momentary time of shame, who keep thinking about earthly things.
PHI 3:20 For our citizenship [politeuma, or heavenly privilege] exists in heaven, from which place we eagerly anticipate the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Phi 3:21 who will transform the body of our humble station into conformity with the body of His glory, from which operational power that He and only He keeps on being able even to bring under authority all things to Himself.