Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday,
August 26, 2018
Just because a subject may not be applicable to you, that does not negate your responsibility as a member of the RFOG to learn it as well as teach it.
2CO 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
1PE 3:15 It is to 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;
For you to be "always ready" to give an answer for the reason of the hope or confidence that lies within you, then you have to learn the whole realm of Bible Doctrine with the Lord.
Point 2. The Supreme Court of Heaven is always Open and Available for Believers Only and for any problems we may face.
The Lord is with you and available to you no matter what it is that you are bringing to the SCOH.
If you desire for Him to take over whatever is that is hindering you or prohibiting you from serving God with joy and inner happiness then give whatever it is that is taunting you to the Lord.
Ask God the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction in the matter and He will always guide you to do the right thing, in the right way and at the right time.
Timing is of extreme importance in solving your problems within the SCOH with the power of God the Holy Spirit as your strength!
We need to understand some of the very basic principles that we need to be aware of when we are serving God with joyfulness of heart.
We will be targets for Satan and his kingdom of demons and fallen angels.
- Evil in the world.
b. Sinfulness and injustice in human affairs.
c. The rise and the fall of nations.
d. Anti-Semitism, personal or national. - Conflicts among believers.
f. Satanic accusations against believers.
g. Divine discipline of believers.
h. Child abuse. - Evil in the world. 1TH 5:21-22, But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.
- Sinfulness and injustice in human affairs. PSA 53:1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God," They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.
- The rise and the fall of nations. REV 2:26 'And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations;
- Anti-Semitism, personal or national. GEN 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
- Conflicts among believers. JAM 4:2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
If possible fulfill ROM 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
- Satanic accusations against believers. REV 12:10 "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
- Divine discipline of believers. HEB 12:5-6, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives. "h. Child abuse. MAT 18:6 Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.
First of all, the question that needs to be answered and understood is how do children handle pressure and adversity?
Depending on the age, growth, and maturity of the child, adversity, stress, and circumstances can be all one and the same.
The parents should be the child's FLOT line of the soul (the forward defensive line of troops).
You cannot be a FLOT line for the your children when you cannot be a FLOT line for yourself.
The parents should be there to prevent the development of stress in the life of a child.
What happens to the FLOT line protection, if: the parents are not there, the parents are hearers of the Word and abuse their authority or the parents are totally inflexible with the "I am right" syndrome.
This happens when the parents are fighting all the time or the parents do things in front of their kids that they should not do, or they tell their children doctrine is number one in their life and then they divorce.
The child has no FLOT line but only stress from the parents who are suppose to be protecting him or her.
Stress in a child's life is directly proportional to the stability of the parents or parent.
Incest and child abuse are sickening, but if one in three children are sexually abused (and they are), then probably eighty percent are mentally abused and deprived of their parental FLOT line.
Your true life is based upon learning, believing, and applying the principles behind your spiritual life not advance in the cosmic system.
We do not need teenage programs but what we really need is what the apostle Paul taught us --- we need parental application.
Many parents expect different results in their life when they do the same thing.
What we really need are the changes in our doctrinal perception and application to get the differences that result from us being humble or being humiliated, whatever we choose.
Whenever we're ready and prepared we will also be thankful and grateful for all the other believers who stood with us against Satan and the kingdom of darkness.
Immature believer - Because he has the knowledge of divine blessings and how to receive them, and he thinks he is now qualified to receive those fantastic blessings as they work together.
Parents need to know how to use their tools, how to use their influence because children begin life with blind faith and trust.
God goes out of His way to do anything He can to save the soul of the abused child. He will judge those who have abused children.
The believer victim must not have any mental attitude sins toward those who abused them
The greatest and highest function of your spiritual life is to win a complete victory over any traumatic experience of your life
In Mat 18:1-14, all of these verses are part of one subject--young people and child abuse.
(1) The question of the disciples, verse 1.
(2) The illustration of the child, verse 2.
(3) The analogy to conversion, verse 3.
(4) A second child analogy, verse 4.
(1) Parents are the guardians of the child's soul, verse 5.
(2) Soul murder of the child, verse 6.
(3) The first guardian of the abused child, verse 7.
(4) The warning to the unbeliever child abuser, verses 8-9.
(5) The second guardian of the abused child, verse 10.
Verses 11-14 are the recovery from child abuse.
And then a vital principle that needs to be mentioned in MAT 18:14 "Thus it is not {the} will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.
The background to this is that the disciples have gathered for a party in honor of the Lord at the home of Peter, Mar 9:33-34.
The point being here that you can create your own outside pressure by the thoughts in your own soul. Stress is what we do to ourselves.
We often deal with this stress by using a defense mechanism, which creates unconscious garbage in our souls.
Here the disciples manifest stress in the soul because they were completely absorbed in themselves.
They are so preoccupied with themselves, they are arguing about who among them is the greatest.
The greatest among them, Paul, was not even a believer yet.
Arrogant preoccupation with self excludes reality by adopting defense mechanisms and accumulating garbage in the subconscious instead of using the problem solving devices.
They had learned doctrine but had great gaps in the FLOT line of their soul.
TLJC will use this young child as an illustration of the importance of humility as a virtue of the spiritual life.
Humility is authority orientation which must first be taught in the home. None of the apostles will accept the authority of the others.
Humility is grace orientation which reflects metabolized doctrine circulating in the soul of the child-believer.
This must be taught by the parents and cannot be left up to the church, the school, or any other organization.
Humility is objectivity, and therefore, teach-ability.
Humility is doctrinal orientation, which is the basic value and function of the spiritual life, and therefore, a combination of parental and pastoral teaching, resulting in the parents acting as the FLOT line of the soul of their children.
"Truly I say to you" means "This is a most solemn declaration which I say to you." "To you" is a dative of advantage in the Greek which means it is to your advantage to hear this doctrine.
The aorist passive subjunctive from the verb STREPHO has the active meaning "to turn, to change something into something else," and in the passive "to turn or change inwardly."