Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday,
May 25, 2018
2 Corinthians - the abuse of the physical body as the holy temple of God.
Every time we hook up with something or someone in the cosmic system, we are in partnership with the cosmic system.
One of the major categories of sins that a believer can be involved in is life in the cosmic system resulting in the believer entering into what the Bible calls carnality.
Being spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's Spirit is doing, and we are to judge ourselves and we should not be judged by unspiritual critics.
COL 2:16-17, Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day‑‑ things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Phi 2:5 "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,"
What should challenge the adult spiritual believer is to keep their physical body always ready to be used by our Lord.
1PE 3:15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
"Therefore come out from among them." is the advice our Lord gives the apostle Paul to warn believers to "flee from carnality and immorality."
Learn, believe and apply the word of God to the handle the "giants" who are living in your very own promise land.
He cuts off every branch of that doesn't bear grapes and every branch that is grape‑bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more = suffering for blessing.
In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, we can't bear fruit unless we are joined with our Lord.
This can result in divine discipline taking us home early and delivering us from the evil that is to come, ISA 57:1.
ISA 57:1 The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; And devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from the evil to come.
If you make yourselves at home with the Lord and His words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.
Relying upon ourselves is a trap from Cosmic 2 not Cosmic 1.
Cosmic 1 = living for yourself
Cosmic 2 = living in the false Gospel or doctrine of demons (religious).
Your reliance on yourself, your desire to have your own programs to follow, or to live and make your own decisions is dealt with by TLJC.
The first sin ever committed in the universe was not a sin of immorality but the sin of independence committed by Satan in Isa 14:12-14.
If sin goes unconfessed and not checked, it becomes a lifestyle and the individual ends up involved with evil.
All sin is evil but all evil is not necessarily sin.
If sins are allowed to control your life then the sins will eventually be parlayed into evil, which is a whole system of evil as a lifestyle.
JER 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then it should read, "Neither can you do good you who are accustomed to doing evil.
Listen to GOD's case: "I had children and raised them well, and they all turned and revolted against Me."
He is saying that even the ox knows who's boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, but not Israel.
EPH 4:22,24, "You lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and you have put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
You live and move and have your being in 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.
GAL 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.
GAL 6:15 "For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation."
What is preventing you from taking the promises of Word and appropriating them in your life?
By giants, I am referring to insurmountable problems and issues.
Many try to fight and defeat their personal giants but these giants often seem to only grow stronger with the passing of time.
It might be a giant of some type of personal sin that you fall into again and again. It might be the sin of pride or envy or gluttony or lust or something else.
God is bigger than your giants.
With the powerful weapons of spiritual warfare we can tear down the strongholds and fortresses of these giants; 2Co 10:3-6.
Victory is supposed to be the norm and standard in Christianity.
"What is preventing you from taking the promises of the Word and appropriating them in your life?"
Because God is bigger than your giants, God commands and the giants must go.
Your giant might be one of addiction, something that has a grip on your life.
What does the Bible teach us concerning going to court with another believer?
Guess what church needs to understand why they shouldn't go to court over church matters = the church of Corinth.
MAT 25:45 "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."
ACT 9:1 - Saul who later on became the apostle Paul was threatening and murdering the disciples of the Lord, both men and women, and would bring them bound to Jerusalem to have them killed.
Who was Paul persecuting Jesus or the Christians?
It couldn't have been Jesus because He was in heaven seated at the right hand of God.
To persecute the Lord's people is to persecute the Lord, or the Lord's temple where He indwells corporately.
By corporately I mean as a community of believers who make up any local assembly as a Temple of God.
It is true that your physical body is a temple of the Holy Spirit but so is your spiritual body which you are a part of temple of the Holy Spirit.
That is your physical body but also a reference to the spiritual body that you have been called into in 1Pe 5:2, where you are to glorify God with your Time, Talent, and Treasure and operating in your spiritual gift.
2CO 6:16 For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Notice here the temple is called "we" not "you" referring to the church that you are a part of.
It is true that I am referring to the individual Christian, but the Epistle is addressed "also unto the Church of God which is at Corinth,"
Notice that the Church, the body of Christ, is referred to as a temple.
1CO - the apostle Paul gives us a very serious warning concerning not only our communion and fellowship with the Lord but how the church should have communion and fellowship with one another and not judge one another.
God will destroy him, for the temple of God is Holy, and that is what you [Second person plural = you all] are.
In another related way, your giant might be one of addiction, something that has a grip on your life.
It might be a different kind of giant altogether, like an unbelieving spouse or a prodigal child.
We need to recognize that we all have giants.
The temptations in your life are no different from what others are experiencing.
1PE 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
While it is true that we all have giants, it is also true that every giant can be defeated.
Goliath was not always a giant.
He was not always 9-feet-6-inches tall.
The giants were once small but because they were allowed to remain in the promise land, they have now become stronger and the have spread throughout the promise land.
When we allow our very own giants to remain, then eventually they take over certain parts of our own the promise land.
As time passes by, these baby giants become very huge giants designed to attack the people of God.
SOL 2:15 "Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, While our vineyards are in blossom."
ZEC 4:10 "For who has despised the day of small things?"
In the same way, giants often begin quite small.
When we have a very serious problem with sin in our lives, it started as a little sin that was allowed, nurtured, fed, and even encouraged, and then became a giant that taunts us.
David told Goliath, "This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us!" (1Sa 17:47).
That is one of the main reasons why giants defeat us again and again—because we face them in our own strength and we lose. We need to realize this is the Lord's battle.
There are certain times when you need to stop everything you're doing and Three - attack your giant.
Goliath had come into the actual territory of the Israelites.
If you tolerate a Goliath, he will eventually take over your territory.
That is why you don't run from your giants.
You should always be ready to help others rid themselves of certain giants that are destroying them.
ECC 4:9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
When it comes to the giants in your life, you don't negotiate with them, you attack them.
1Sa 17:41 Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield‑bearer in front of him.
Call on God and pray for His guidance and direction and power, and then attack it.
Stay away from people or situations where you would be easily tempted.
We cannot make excuses for defeat. Why?
Because we were made to triumphant in Christ.
If I were to ask you, can you name some of the giant killers mentioned in the Bible, chances are that all of you would point to David (who killed Goliath the giant; 1Sa 17).
The Israelites under the leadership of Moses and later Joshua (who killed the kings Sihon and Og; Deu 3:11, Num 21:21-35, Jos 2:10)
and Caleb (who killed the gigantic descendants of Anak that lived on a mountain; Jos 14.
Under the leadership of Moses and later Joshua (who killed the kings and giants in Sihon and Og; Deu 3:11, "For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant and it is referring to the giants in the land known as the Rephaim."
He was approximately 12 feet tall and if the weight correlates with the size of the other giants, he would be about 450 pounds.
I'd rather have you occupied with the fact that there is a good chance that Church history may record your name as a giant killer.
Speaking of their victories over the giants in the land, Jos 2:10.
GEN 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
The point is that Moses, Joshua, Caleb and David, as well as members of David's family, just to mention a few all had on their eternal resume the fact that they were giant killers.
They will be rewarded as giant killers says 1Co 3:11-15; 2Co 5:10.
Caleb killed the gigantic descendants of Anak that lived on a mountain; Jos 14.
It is unlikely that one of the names in that list would be of man known as Elhanan.
Elhanan is mentioned once in the Bible (in two verses) and what makes him stand out is that in his introduction (in both verses), he is identified as the killer of Lahmi, a giant, who was the brother of the giant Goliath.
Elhanan carried weapons and a spear very similar to that of Goliath (1CH 20:5; 2Sa 21:19)
1CH 20:5 And there was war with the Philistines again, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
2Sa 21:19 And there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare‑oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
Goliath the Philistine or Goliath from Gath is the name of the giant that David killed, Goliath the Gittite is one of the giants that one of David's relatives killed.
It is not how much is known OF us, but what is known of us that matters.
Sometimes our feats and accomplishments, though it may be similar in magnitude, may not be very well known by others as that of some others.
We must be diligent in our duties to do what is required of us.
Elhanan is recorded as a giant slayer and will forever hold that accolade, irrespective of the extent of how much people known of him.
Elhanan = known as a giant killer, placed in the same echelon of David, Moses & Joshua and Caleb.
Whatever the giant is that we face, we must be willing to acknowledge its existence in order to overcome it.