Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Point 5 The Election of the Church or the Church-age Believer.
After the first forty years of the Church-age, 30‑70 AD, the Royal family of God provided spiritual champions or invisible heroes.
Secondly, he answered the question; After Salvation, What?
COL 2:6, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
The Church-age believer must not only understand his relationship to God, but also his relationship to man and to history as well.
1TH 1:4 Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, His election for you.”
COL 3:12 “As elected ones of God, holy and beloved, put on the affections of grace orientation.”
2TI 1:9 who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling [this holy calling is our election], not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
ROM 8:33 “Who will bring any accusation against the elect of God, God is the one who justifies.”
EPH 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
EPH 1:4 “Since He Himself has elected us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”
“Holy” is a reference to both the absolute and relative concept of experiential holiness or experiential sanctification.
Election doesn’t have anything to do with God violating someone’s free will, election relates to the experiential part of God’s plan for our lives.
Holiness has to do with separation unto God and the execution of the PPOG.
Absolute holiness describes the mandates related to the filling of the Holy Spirit.
When we talk about the Cosmic System, we are basically talking about two fundamental systems.
The first one can be called Cosmic One which is Satan’s exploitation of believers through their own arrogance.
2TI 3:1, But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money,
Cosmic two is Satan’s propaganda and indoctrination college to educate and promote antagonism toward anything related to God, especially the grace of God.
Cosmic one, living for self, represents Satan’s attitude at the time of his prehistoric fall.
Cosmic two, antagonism toward God and His grace, represents Satan’s attitude at the time of Adam’s fall in the garden of Eden.
GEN 3:1, 4-5, when the serpent said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Cosmic one, living for self, emphasizes arrogance and abnormal preoccupation with self.
Cosmic two emphasizes antagonism and intolerance toward the plan, purpose, and will of God, as well as toward all Christians executing it.
GAL 4:29 But as at that time he [Ishmael] who was born according to the flesh [from Hagar the slave girl] persecuted him [Isaac] who was born according to the Spirit [from Sarah], so it is now also.
Cosmic one is Satan’s philosophy in the prehistoric angelic conflict. Cosmic two is Satan’s philosophy in human history as the ruler of this world.
The target of cosmic one is yourself; the target of cosmic two is Bible doctrine.
In cosmic one, we destroy ourselves. In cosmic two, we become antagonistic toward Bible doctrine.
a. Self related to arrogance, and therefore divorced from the reality of God’s plan.
b. Antagonism toward Bible doctrine. Only through the perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine do believers have any hope of becoming tactically victorious, complementing our Lord’s strategic victory in the angelic conflict.
Cosmic one emphasizes self in contrast to God.
Cosmic two emphasizes the human viewpoint of psychological living in contrast to the divine viewpoint of spiritual living.
1. C1 = Emphasizes arrogance; and preoccupation with self. C2 = Emphasizes animosity, antagonism toward God & His plan.
2. C1 Target: ego, self‑consciousness of soul. C2 Target: truth or doctrine.
3. C1 Result: preoccupation and obsession with self to the exclusion of God and man. C2. Result: antagonism toward Christ as the living Word and doctrine as the written Word.
4. C1 Emphasizes self in contrast to God and objective reality. C2 Stresses human viewpoint over Divine viewpoint.
5. C1 Represents Satan’s attitude at time of his prehistoric fall. C2. Represents Satan’s attitude at the time of man’s historical fall.
6. C1 – Believer in cosmic one assumes the arrogance inculcated with the attitude of Satan before human history. Believer in cosmic two becomes inculcated with the attitude of Satan during human history.
7. C1 Believer is slave to self. C2. Believer is a slave to Satan.
The believer in cosmic one is said to be grieving the Spirit because the old sin nature controls the soul, though still indwelling the body.
The issue is WHO controls the soul: the old sin nature or the Holy Spirit.
This is an absolute; you’re either filled with the Holy Spirit and inside the PPOG which is 100% spirituality, or you’re in the cosmic [world] system, which is 0% spirituality and 100% carnality.
2PE 1:10‑11 “Therefore brethren, be all the more diligent or more motivated [this is from your perception of doctrine and the ability to recognize your invisible assets] to make certain about His calling and electing you;
For as long as you practice these things [fulfillment of the PPOG, perception of doctrine], you will never stumble [become a loser in cosmic system].
For in this way [execution the PPOG in time], your entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ [this is at the judgment seat of Christ when you are in the state of ultimate sanctification in the resurrection body]
will be will be abundantly supplied to you [conveyance of the escrow blessings to winners in the eternal state].”
Temporal state – your dedication in the PPOG determines whether you enter eternity abundantly or deficiently, rich or poor, winner or loser.
In the temporal state, the believer is either a winner or a loser either rich or poor.
I’m talking in terms of the phenomenal spiritual blessings which have been provided for every believer which may include financial blessing depending on whether or not you have a capacity for it.
2CO 9:6, Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.
LUK 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you in a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they [blessings] will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
PRO 11:24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.
PRO 11:25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
Giving graciously or sacrificially produces an attitude in the individual which allows God to pour more blessing to the one who gives.
Positive decisions regarding Bible doctrine and the PPOG leads to life.
Positive volition toward doctrine = rich in time, rich in eternity.
Negative volition toward doctrine = poor in time, poor in eternity.
The “interim state” is the in-between state.
2CO 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent [HB] which is our house is torn down [physical death], we have a building [another dwelling place, not a resurrection body but what is known as an interim body which is temporary until the resurrection body] from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2CO 5:2-8, For indeed in this house [our human body] we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling [the interim and resurrection body] from heaven; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked -or without a body for our soul and human spirit]. For indeed while we are in this tent [this human body], we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed [naked with just a soul and spirit], but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord‑‑ for we walk by faith, not by sight‑‑we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
In this state winner or loser rich or poor is not an issue.
The third state = Eternal state – begins with the resurrected body and the Rapture of the Church.
The “Judgment seat” of Christ in the eternal state determines and distinguishes between “rich and poor” and “winners and losers” in the spiritual realm.
God’s desire is to bless you, and He has, however your desires can cause you to reject His blessings.
Just like God’s desire for the unbeliever is to be saved but His perfect complete desires are not always fulfilled. 2PE 3:9 “The Lord is not willing for any to perish but for all to come to a change of mind [repentance]”.