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Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2022 17:42:30 GMT
We have been noting the many different problems that PSD # 7 and PSD # 8 both have as manifestation of a winner believer\This morning, we are going to begin with some principles from the Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict and how PSD # 7 and PSD # 8 is a part of it.
There are two parts to the angelic conflict as it extends into human history, there is the strategic side of the angelic conflict and there is the tactical side of the angelic conflict.
Within these two principles we also have the importance of the Chief witness.
The chief witness of the angelic conflict in all of human history is the humanity of Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union.
Our Lord is what we would classify as the strategic witness.
By strategic I mean that He came up with a strategy to defeat Satan and executed that plan magnificently and He defeated Satan.
Satan has a lot of strategies as his strategic servants as we are told in 2CO 11:13-15.
2CO 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
2CO 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2CO 11:15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.
Satan used these false strategic witnesses to cause division in the Corinthian church as the apostle Paul tells us about in 1CO 5:1-6 and 2CO 2:1-11.
In 1CO 5:1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.
This would be the wife of the father but not the man’s mother who was his step-mother.
1CO 5:2 And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.
This is the principle of a little leaven taking this act of sexual immorality with the father’s wife lightly.
1CO 5:3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
This is a righteous judgment which we are allowed to function under at certain times in our life.
JOH 7:24 "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
To judge with righteous judgment is to judge others based on what is truly righteous, not based on our opinion of how their actions appear to us.
Judging righteously based on Scripture is the key to judging with righteous judgment, as the Lord taught us to do, based on the Word of God.
So, the apostle Paul goes on to say in 1CO 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
1CO 5:5 {I have decided} to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Given someone over to Satan was something that only the first century apostles could do.
Not us, thank God, or else everyone would be given someone over to Satan, including ourselves be given over to Satan by someone who hates us!
1CO 5:6 Your boasting [in their so-called grace] is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump {of dough}?
1CO 5:7 Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are {in fact} unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
1CO 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1CO 5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
1CO 5:10 I {did} not at all {mean} with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world.
Then notice the next verse in 1CO 5:11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so‑called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler‑‑ not even to eat with such a one.
1CO 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within {the church}?
1CO 5:13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
Now, let me show you what happened because of Satan’s strategy.
2CO 2:1 But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again.
2CO 2:2 For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful?
2CO 2:3 And this is the very thing I wrote you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy would be {the joy} of you all.
2CO 2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.
2CO 2:5 But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree‑‑ in order not to say too much‑‑ to all of you.
2CO 2:6 Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was {inflicted by} the majority,
2CO 2:7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort {him}, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
2CO 2:8 Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm {your} love for him.
2CO 2:9 For to this end also I wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.
2CO 2:10 But whom you forgive anything, I {forgive} also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, {I did it} for your sakes in the presence of Christ,
2CO 2:11 in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
So, again…..
The chief witness of the angelic conflict in all of human history is the humanity of Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union.
It was because of the Hypostatic Union Our Lord came up with a strategy to defeat Satan and executed that plan so magnificently that defeated Satan once and for all.
So, The Chief witness is TLJC.
The other witnesses are the invisible heroes who are those believers in the dispensation of the Church-age who execute the PPOG and understand their role in the angelic conflict.
Mature believers are classified as tactical witnesses.
Tactical means we do the same thing but in lesser form.
For example, the definition of tactical is as follows:
Tactical means to involve actions or means of less magnitude than those of strategy.
Our Lord accomplished the strategic victory of the angelic conflict through His salvation ministry on the cross plus his physical death, burial, resurrection and ascension.
The believer accomplishes the tactical victory of the angelic conflict through his advance to spiritual maturity in the PPOG at which point he becomes an invisible hero.
So,…..
When our Lord was on the cross, He won the strategic victory, when our Lord returns, there will be the Second‑Advent or the Second Coming and the tactical victory.
The tactical victories will belong to the winner believers who will be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
In the meantime…..
Anyone who believes in Christ is a winner strategically in the angelic conflict, so that in effect, all Christians today, are strategical victors through their union with Christ.
Under the doctrine of positional truth, we share all that Christ is and therefore we share in His victories at a strategical witness.
It is the tactical victory that is in view with Bible doctrine as the means of understanding what happens to all believers because of being in union with TLJC.
Strategical belongs to our Lord whereas the tactical belongs to the winner believer.
It is the believer in time, phase two of God's plan, and your daily attitude toward Bible doctrine, in both perception and application which becomes the tactical victory.
So, you can be a strategic winner and a tactical loser.
Now, a strategic winner has eternal life.
But…..
In eternity, he doesn't have anything to show for the time that he spent on earth because he was a tactical loser.
A tactical loser is described for us in 1JO 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1JO 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1JO 2:17 And the world is passing away, and {also} its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
And…….
What this second phrase is emphasizing is the importance of being a tactical winner in time; REV 12:11.
REV 12:11 Furthermore, they [believers in TLJC] overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and [they overcame him] because of the doctrine applied by means of their testimony.
This reveals the importance of growing in grace.
The importance of the daily perception of doctrine.
The importance of application of doctrine to the different momentum tests that every believer must pass before he becomes a winner in the angelic conflict.
And that's why we're left on this earth, to become winners.
Not all believers are tactical winners.
In fact…….
In most generations, like ours, and probably the Tribulational generation, and the Millennium reign, the majority of believers are not winners especially in the realm of the information regarding the angelic conflict.
Therefore, in time, they are like the lukewarm believers in the Laodicean Church.
They are also described for us by the apostle Paul in 1CO 16:22.
1CO 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha. [Under a curse until Maranatha, the Lord comes back].
This is why we are told to…….
Be careful of the individuals who are your friends, especially, that you must fulfill certain commands towards in spite of the fact that you consider them friends.
Remember what our Lord said in MAT 10:34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
MAT 10:35 "For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter‑in‑law against her mother‑in‑law;
MAT 10:36 and a man's enemies will be the members of his household.
MAT 10:37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
MAT 10:38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
MAT 10:39 "He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.
MAT 10:40 "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
MAT 10:41 "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
MAT 10:42 "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward."
2TI 3:5 "They [believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system] hold to external forms of godliness, but have renounced the power of that same godliness; you also be turning yourself away form these men."
2Th 3:6 "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you separate from every believer who leads an undisciplined life that is not according to the doctrine you have received from us."
2TH 3:14 "If anyone does not obey our doctrinal teaching in this epistle, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame."
This is a PRO 27:6 passage – faithful are the wounds of a friend.
In ROM 16:17 "Turn away from them" is a physical separation from troublemakers.
ROM 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.
Separation from unbelievers inside the cosmic system is taught in 2CO 6:14-18.
2CO 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
2CO 6:15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
2CO 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? 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.
2CO 6:17 "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.
2CO 6:18 "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.
Every time you hook up with something or someone in the cosmic system, you are in partnership with the cosmic system.
This is why you are given the order: "therefore come out from among them."
My point is that we need to learn how to handle our friends, family, and loved ones.
Remember the words of the apostle Paul on his dying bed when he said;
2TI 4:9 Make every effort to come to me soon;
2TI 4:10 for Demas, having loved this present world [cosmic system], has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
2TI 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.
This was important because Paul and Mark really didn’t like each other.
Look at….
ACT 15:37 And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them also.
ACT 15:38 But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.
ACT 15:39 And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.
Paul and Mark really didn’t like each other, so Paul is saying to pick up Mark that he is useful to Paul for the ministry and this was probably Paul’s way of reconciling with Mark.
So he says again 2TI 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.
2TI 4:12 But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
2TI 4:13 When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments.
2TI 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
2TI 4:15 Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.
2TI 4:16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them.
2TI 4:17 But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth.
2TI 4:18 The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Notice the problems Paul had with people.
In 2TI 4:11, he said only Luke was with him and then there was the problem with Mark.
In 2TI 4:12, Tychicus was a friend and fellow-worker.
In 2TI 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did Paul much harm;
In 2TI 4:16 At his first defense no one supported Paul and all deserted him and in his humility, Paul said may it not be counted against them.
In 2TI 4:17, Paul says that the Lord stood with Paul and strengthened him so that all the Gentiles might hear that Paul was delivered out of the lion's mouth.
Paul didn't have many friends that he could really trust and count on so this should increase our respect for Luke who was a true friend to the apostle Paul.
Remember a few important principles that…….
PSD#7 and PSD #8 give the believer the power to handle friendship.
We close with eighteen principles upon handling friendship.
- The Bible warns us to be very careful in the selection of friends which is why impersonal love is a must; PRO 18:24. A man of {many} friends {comes} to ruin,
- Friendships are the types of relationships which can sneak up upon you and take you for a ride or take advantage of you; JOB 9:14.
JOB 19:14 "My relatives have failed, And my intimate friends have forgotten me.
- David tells us to be careful of the familiar friend who you think that you can trust and then you find out you shouldn't have in PSA 41:9.
PSA 41:9 Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
You will know a true friend if you have any because he or she is the one who knows all about you and still likes you.....that's a true friend.
So, be very careful who you allow to get real close to you.
Because…..
If that person is an opportunist who takes advantage of any opportunity to achieve a personal goal, you will be shocked at how fast they will take advantage of you.
This is why we all need to master impersonal unconditional love for without it relationships are weakened.
- The Word of God warns us about the friend who will take advantage of you and deceive you for personal gain as Jonadab did to Amnon in 2SA 13:3.
- Be careful for those who become your friend because of what they can get from you, as PRO 19:6 teaches.
PRO 19:6 Many will entreat the favor of a generous man, And every man is a friend to him who gives gifts.
Remember this principle: Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.
Most of us have had certain so-called friends who were there simply because we were signing their pay checks or because of what they could get from us.
And then a little adversity and these individuals go running to the highest bidder like an anxious whore looking for her final trick.
- Then there are those so-called friends who flatter you with their speech as the friend in PRO 27:14.
PRO 27:14 He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, It will be reckoned a curse to him [the one who is being blessed].
This is a picture of individual flattering his friend early in the morning for all to hear!
Beware of the flattering friend!
- Then there are the ones who are friendly with you for your wealth as in PRO 19:4 which says "Wealth adds many friends"
In fact,…..
- The loss of prosperity will test the reliability and the faithfulness of your friends.
- There are also friends who will forsake you and flee from you when you need them the most as in MAR 14:50 And they all [Lord's disciples] left Him and fled.
There are also the ones who really shock you!
- These are the ones who use you and never return the kindness that you showed them as in LUK 15:16.
LUK 15:16 "And he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving {anything} to him.
How quickly people forget!
- Then there are those who claim to be your friends and who claim to love you who will turn against you when you're faced with tremendous adversity.
JOB 19:19 "All my familiar friends scorn me, And those I love have turned against me.
It is a tremendous wake up call concerning the nature of humanity when you and I realize that…….
There were people in our life who we truly loved and who we would lay down our life for and who turn against us for the right price.
Maybe they wanted a position of authority!
A better job!
A house or a better house!
An automobile!
Prestige!
It is a very shocking experience and something that I do not believe you can ever get use to, to have someone that you trust turn on you for personal gain!
And this is very difficult at times because…
- The unkindness of our friends is a greater trial to us then the hatred of our enemies.
The point is that I want you all to see why PSD #8, impersonal love is so important.
Look at David’s advice on handling relationships.
PSA 55:12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, Then I could bear {it}; Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, Then I could hide myself from him.
PSA 55:13 but it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend.
PSA 55:14 we who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the midst of the crowd
Down to PSA 55:20 He [the unfaithful friend] has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; he has violated his covenant.
PSA 55:21 his speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
Here is a principle that the believer who understands the importance of impersonal love should never forget……
Don't ever look at someone who is close to someone in authority and uses their own position of authority and power to turn on the one in charge.
Don't ever be so naive to say "Well, they were close to the one in authority so they must be justified in what they're doing!
Illustration:
Lucifer was the Messiah's personal angel in authority.
Joseph's brothers sold Joseph into slavery,
Korah, the cousin of Moses attacked Moses.
Prince Absalom was King David’s favorite son and he betrayed his father.
Judas Iscariot attacked the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember this principle: A doubtful friend is worst than a certain enemy.
Now, on the other hand….
- If there is anything that is priceless and rare to have in life, it is true friends; PRO 17:17.
PRO 17:17 "A true friend loves at all times and as a brother is born for adversity."
True friends are born for adversity!
They are there to fight for you when someone is trying to take advantage of you!
They will stick up for you and defend you when you're not there!
- Friendship makes prosperity marvelous and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it!
And believe it or not, but….
PSD #7 and PSD #8 is needed to handle these relationships.
This was the type of person that Luke was with the apostle Paul!
- One way to tell who your real friends are is when you are faced with some difficult times.
Job tells us that a true friend will be gracious and kind to you when you're going through a difficult time, JOB 6:14.
JOB 6:14 "For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend;
- David tells us that your true friends will never stab you in the back in PRO 17:9 "He who covers a transgression seeks love but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends."
- When your so-called friend don't cover your sins or transgressions and repeats them to others, then the intimacy of that friendship is gone!
- This is why we need PSD #7, Personal Love for God and PSD #8, impersonal love for all mankind to handle relationships in life.