The Doctrine of The Open Door. Part 4

The Doctrine of The Open Door. Part 4.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The reasons why we must always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account for the hope or confidence that is in us and do so with gentleness and reverence.

This means that we must all have an understanding of the Sovereign will of God and the free will of man as it relates to the open door of opportunity.

JAM 3:1-5, Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect or mature man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!

PRO 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

JAM 3:6, And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

The Doctrine of the Open Door and how it relates to the glorification of God as He uses all kinds of people, whether believers or unbelievers.

The Lord used Cain, the first murderer, who murdered his brother Abel,
and this opened up the door for God to introduce capital punishment and the laws of establishment into the human race.

God using the evil sinful decisions of Abraham to establish the sacredness of marriage and the respect that should exist between the husband and the wife, even if the husband is a loser,

1PE 3:1-7, In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,

Well, if God could use the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart and the most wicked sinner who ever lived, an annoying little  religious man called Saul of Tarsus, He sure can use you!

Why should we always be available to the doctrine of the open door or the doors that the Lord opens?

2CO 1:3-4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;

who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

1PE 3:2-4 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. And let not your adornment be merely external - braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

What really matters is your inner disposition and therefore cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.

1PE 3:5, For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped or had confidence in God, used to adorn themselves,
By being submissive to their own husbands.

Sarah obeyed Abraham by following his guidance and acknowledging his headship over her, by calling him lord (master, leader, authority).

You are now her true daughters if you do right and let nothing terrify you, not giving way to hysterical fears or letting anxieties unnerve you.

1PE 3:7, the same principle goes for the husbands, You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Don’t ever buy the lie that Sarah was justified or vindicated because she was simply obeying her husband.

God would have honored Sarah in such a way that while disobeying her husband, she obeyed God.

ACT 5:29, We must obey God rather than men.

Sarah didn’t have to do anything but
PSA 46:10, “Be still, and know that the Lord is God.”

1SA 17:47, for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.

Sarah could have said what Moses said
in EXO 14:13, But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the deliverance of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today;”

For Jehovah Elohim promised Abraham in
GEN 12:7, “To your descendants I will give this land.”

What kind of people can God use and why should we always be available to the doctrine of the open door or the doors that the Lord opens?
The Lord can use liars, deceivers and wimps, like Abraham and Sarah acted like.

The Lord opened the door of forgiveness, power, and strength, so much so that both Abraham and Sarah finally ended up walking through the open doors and eventually made God’s hall of fame in Heb 11.

HEB 11:8, By [pistei] means of doctrine resident in his soul, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
HEB 11:17, By [pistei] means of doctrine resident in his soul, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son;
Or in HEB 11:11, By means of [pistei] doctrine resident in her soul even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised;

1. This was an evil act on the part of Abraham, revealing the love, longsuffering, and patience of God concerning the kind of people God can and will use…just like he used Pharaoh Amenhotep the Second.

God can use those individuals who are in desperate need of love, longsuffering, and patience.

2. This place was an open door for Abraham and Sarah to go through and reveal to Pharaoh and the Egyptians the courage a man and a woman of God could have if they followed TLJC, Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God.

3. Abraham had just learned the principle of
GEN 18:14, Is anything too difficult for the Lord,
and therefore should have been able to go through this open door of overcoming the odds.

LEV 26:7-8, “But you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.