Special.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Grace Bible Church
Pastor/Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Thursday,
May 10, 2007
1KI 8:56 Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.
The One who strengthens me says, ROM 4:21, all the promises of God are assured by divine ability.
Godliness means that you are in the place where God can train you, that is, residence, function, and momentum inside the spiritual life that God has provided.
Having perfect happiness, God then gives us the ultimate in suffering for blessing which is evidence testing and this is how “godliness is a means of great profit.”
“Contentment” refers to perfect happiness, begun in spiritual self-esteem, continued in spiritual autonomy, and completed in spiritual maturity.
Providential preventative suffering at spiritual self-esteem is designed to put you in a state of weakness in that there is no human solution to the problems that you are facing.
These four types of testing, in verse 10, are warm-ups for spiritual self-esteem in order to advance to spiritual autonomy:
1. People testing
2. Thought testing
3. System testing
4. Disaster testing
“On behalf of Christ” = the glorification of our Lord demands that the believer in spiritual self-esteem put muscle on that status, that he pass providential preventative suffering so that he might advance to spiritual autonomy, thus increasing his perfect happiness.
“Strong when weak” as the last verse says refers to the utilization of divine power for momentum in the spiritual life that God has provided for the Church-age believer.
Providential preventative suffering brings you to the point where you realize life and the devil are bigger than you, and that you will not be able to solve your problems on your own.
To the extent that you have illusions about your so-called strong points, you are depriving yourself of the blessings of grace.
The objective is to have money as your slave and perfect happiness as your master.
Once you reach spiritual maturity, you have an entirely new and refreshing system of thinking, and you never think in terms of needs.
Contentment and happiness is something you learn, not something you have, want, or anticipate.
One of the greatest signs of prosperity is maximum use of perfect happiness.
Humiliation is associated with arrogance; being humbled is associated with spiritual growth and understanding God’s grace.
What we cannot learn from Bible doctrine, we must learn from adversity and undeserved suffering.
It is difficult for prosperity to successfully work in anyone simply because of arrogance.
1CO 4:7 What are you so puffed up about? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?
To be initiated means to learn the secrets of the fraternity and to endure the testings of the fraternity.
“I have the power” is a reference to the availability of divine omnipotence for the execution of the spiritual life that God has provided for the Church-age believer.
So whatever the circumstances, you still have perfect happiness.
PHI 1:21 “For me, living is Christ and dying is profit.”
“All things” refer to the three stages of spiritual adulthood, the problem-solving devices and the tremendous invisible impact on history.
Perfect happiness is increased at each stage of spiritual adulthood but it must be learned.
The source of this power is the Father, “through Him.”
(EN + instrumental of agency = expresses personal agency.)
ENDUNAMOO = “through Him who makes me strong” or “through Him who pours the power into me.”
1. Capacity for life is related to how you handle undeserved suffering, 2CO 12:10.
2CO 12:10 “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses: in insults or slanders [people testing], with distresses or pressures [thought testing] with persecutions [system testing], with difficulties or stresses [disaster testing] on behalf of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2. Capacity is also related to your status quo in life or lifestyle, HEB 13:5.
HEB 13:5-6 Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money; keep on being content with what you possess, for He Himself has said, “I will not abandon you, neither will I ever forsake you,”
3. Capacity for life is related to the circumstances of life,
PHI 4:11-13.
PHI 4:11 “Not that I speak with reference to need, for I have come to learn that in whatever circumstances I am to be content [capacity for life].”
PHI 4:12 “I know both how to live in humility and I know how to live in prosperity, in all places and in all circumstances I have been taught the secret both how to be well fed and to be hungry, both how to prosper and to be in poverty.”
4. Capacity is related to prosperity and blessing, 1TI 6:6.
1) You cannot build your happiness on the details of life: money, success, pleasure, social life, friends, relatives, health, sex, or status symbols.
2) You cannot build your happiness on pleasant environment.
3) You cannot build your happiness on people, romance, marriage, friendship, children, or social activity.
4) You cannot build your happiness by changing the Devil’s world through reform crusades, social engineering, violence, civil disobedience, or revolution.
5) You cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness.
“Were glad” –
aor-pass-ind – chairo = to be happy.
Adversative use of the conjunctive particle de which relates one context to another by contrast.
Eusebeia = a synonym for living the spiritual life that God has provided for the Church-age believer.
When we live the spiritual life, God provides contentment, capacity and blessing which all adds up to His happiness in us or +H.
JOH 15:11 “I have taught you these things, in order that My happiness [God’s happiness] might be in you, and that your happiness might be fulfilled.”
God has absolutely perfect timing and this includes great spiritual blessings being given to you first.
Since we have reached that stage, that’s the beginning of blessing to our personal contentment.
The spiritual blessings give us our capacity for life.
Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ is maximum category one love.
The only way we can truly love God is through doctrine resident in the soul, 1PE 1:8.
MAR 12:30 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
“Hears” – pres-act-ind – akouo which is akouei = to hear in an audience, to listen, to concentrate, to understand, to learn, to give a hearing.
“Keep” – aor-act-imp – tereo which is teresate = to guard something that belongs to you; to watch over carefully, to keep, to hold, to preserve and to pay attention to, therefore to retain!
AMO 8:11-12 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.”
AMO 8:12 “And people will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.”
It is doctrine abiding in Christians, not works, that reveals to the Father how much we love Him.
If you guard or keep God’s Word in you, God’s love will be in you, JOH 15:10.
If you personally love God then you will also love doctrine even more than money, PSA 119:72, 127.
PSA 119:72 The doctrine from Thy mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
PSA 119:127 Therefore I love Thy commands above gold, yes, above fine gold.
Loving God is also revealed with impersonal love toward one another –
1JO 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
True love for God is the believer’s capacity to love God and to respond to God’s love based on Bible doctrine in his soul.
Since God is invisible and the object of our love, we must see and love Him through doctrine in the soul.
You cannot love God unless you know God, and you cannot know God unless you have metabolized enough pertinent doctrine,
1PE 1:8, EPH 3:18-19, HEB 6:10, 2TI 1:13-14, COL 3:1-2.
Love for God is the basis for supergrace blessing in your life, 1CO 2:9,
PSA 37:4-5.
1CO 2:9 but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
PSA 37:4-5 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
There is a special curse on believers who fail to have love for God,
1CO 16:22, They are said to be “cursed until the Lord comes.”
We love and appreciate God so much that we have our eyes on the Giver, and we have our eyes on the source of every blessing in this life.
Occupation with the person of Christ plus sharing God’s happiness and having all of that doctrine will give you a capacity for life, happiness, love, and blessing and all of these things add up to a marvelous spiritual picture.
God does not give what you cannot enjoy.
Having friends and loved ones and having things you enjoy and enjoying materialistic things is a by product of the capacity for life which comes from Bible doctrine.
1CO 4:7 What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?
JOB 1:21 “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
The great gain refers to the fact that when we live the spiritual life, God provides contentment, capacity, and blessing which all adds up to His happiness in us or +H.
This means that we love and appreciate God so much that we have our eyes on the Giver and we have our eyes on the Source of every blessing in this life.
PSA 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;
Once you get your eyes on the Giver then you begin to appreciate the gift.
Occupation with the person of Christ plus sharing God’s happiness and having all of that doctrine will give you a capacity for life, happiness, love, and blessing, and all of these things add up to a marvelous spiritual picture.
God does not give what you cannot enjoy.
Having friends and loved ones and having things you enjoy and enjoying materialistic things is a by product of the capacity for life which comes from Bible doctrine.
1CO 4:7 What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?
JOB 1:21 “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
“Is” – pres-act-ind – eimi which is estin = “to be”
= “keeps on being”
Great – adjective megas.
Gain – predicate nominative noun porismos = gain, profit or prosperity.
“A great means of prosperity”
“When accompanied by contentment” – preposition meta + the genitive of autarkeia = autakeias.
Autakeias = contentment, to be content, to be self-sufficient.
It actually describes the happiness of the believer who has reached certain stages of spiritual adulthood.
1. Autarkeia or contentment means a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed.
2. Autarkeia or contentment means freedom from anxiety or worry.
ROM 14:23b and whatever is not from faith is sin.
3. Autarkeia or contentment means “independence” or “self-sufficiency.”
4. Autarkeia or contentment is that disposition of mind in which one is independent of outward circumstances through the grace of God, PHI 4:11.
5. Autarkeia or contentment means to be free from worry because of satisfaction with what is already one’s own.
6. Autarkeia or contentment means to be sufficient, to be possessed of sufficient strength, to be strong, to be satisfied.
7. Autarkeia or contentment denotes freedom from reliance upon others, whether other persons or other things.
Whatever we have in time, literally we have it for a short time.
The only things that you can take with you when you leave this world are the things you pack in your soul.