Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 107. The antagonism of the world system toward believers and Bible doctrine, Part 10. Royal Ambassadorship.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Point 6. The Royal Ambassadorship is Related to the Angelic Conflict.
Not only does the Church-age believer function as an ambassador for mankind, but he also functions as an ambassador to angelic creatures as well.
Angelic creatures are observing certain aspects of human history.
Elect angels observe human history while fallen angels are designed to oppose human history.
a. Elect angels rejoice over the salvation of one person, LUK 15:7,10.
b. In the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, angels observed every part of the first advent and incarnation of our Lord - 1TI 3:16 - “Beheld by angels”
c. In the dispensation of the Church-age, angels observe members of the Royal Family of God in their failure or success to execute and fulfill the PPOG, 1CO 4:9; EPH 3:10; 1TI 5:21;1PE 1:12.
d. Angels even observe the believers in the Church-age receiving commands from headquarters, 1TI 5:21.
e. Angels also desire and long to look into the things that so many of God’s people take for granted; 1PE 1:12.
f. MAT 18:10 - angels also observe and protect children.
g. 1CO 11:10 - angels observe the attitude that a woman has toward her husband and the example of respect for authority.
Judge - fut-act-ind - krino = to make decisions for, to conclude, to approve, to decree, to rule, to govern, to preside over with the power of giving judicial decisions.
Satan has organized a tremendous demon army to hinder Church-age believers from fulfilling the PPOG.
Fallen angels are organized to resist and oppose positive believers, EPH 6:12-17; JOB 1:6; 2:1-3; 1PE 5:8.
1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit [Attain S.S.E.], be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1. To blind the minds of unbelievers so they will not accept Christ.
2. If they do believe in Christ, hinder their function and execution of the PPOG, distract them in every way possible, and keep them from making Bible doctrine their number one priority.
Fallen angels are organized to oppose our ambassadorship, EPH 6:12, and therefore they are opposed to you growing in grace because grace brings glory to God.
Grace = that which is limitless and measureless.
Grace is nothing less than the unlimited love of God expressing itself in measureless blessing.
Point 7. The Ambassador for Christ Must Operate in Dignity.
The dignity of the ambassador should appear in the greatness of the one or the country who sent him. The greater the king, the greater the ambassador should be.
Ambassadors usually have respect from those who respect their master and rejection from those who reject their master.
We are sent to the world as representatives of the Creator of heaven and earth.
We cannot despise the messenger and yet honor the master, LUK 10:16; MAT 10:40; 25:35-40.
LUK 10:16 “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Point 8. An Ambassador Should Beware That He Cast No Indignity upon His Office, 1Co 6.
1TH 2:10 You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;
1TH 5:22 abstain from every form of evil.
In so doing, the ambassador brings honor upon himself and therefore on the one who sent him, rather than reproach upon himself and therefore on the one he represents.
a. Law of Liberty - this law is directed toward one’s own self.
The law of liberty clears my conscience from any guilt or condemnation that might try to take away my liberty,1CO 6:12; ROM 14:1-4.
b. Law of Love - this principle takes other believers into consideration.
I refrain from these liberties myself so others will not see and fall.
As a believer in advanced doctrine I desire to help others and not hurt them, ROM 14:13; 1JO 2:10; 1CO 8:12; 9:12.
c. The Law of Expediency - this law considers the unbeliever.
It is expedient that I have a testimony in my life before the unbelieving world. The unbeliever has set up in his mind, “right and wrong,” standards of conduct for Christians. Therefore I refrain from doing certain things not because they are wrong, but because they can keep the unbeliever from the true issue = Christ died for all our sins, 1CO 9:19-23.
d. Law of Supreme Sacrifice - this law says that there are times when certain believers should refrain from doing some very normal and very legitimate things. So that they can have a maximum effectiveness for TLJC as ambassadors enlisted in His army. 1CO 9:1-5, 19-23.
Point 9. Every ambassador must answer to the king who sent him, LUK 12:48; GAL 6:5; ROM 14:12.
3JO 1:9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.
1CO 2:3 I was among you with much fear and trembling.
2CO 5:11 Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men.
2CO 5:20 We invite you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.
Point 10. The Ambassador Must Also Be Faithful to the One Who Sent Him.
He must be faithful in all things including the little things, MAT 25:21; LUK 16:10.
MAT 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’”
LUK 16:10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.”
JOH 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Point 11. An Ambassador Should Protect and Seek the Interests of His Fellow Citizens or Those Who Are in the Foreign Country with Him.
We are not here to compete and compare, 2CO 10:12.
As ambassadors for Christ, as members of His body, as branches with the vine, stones in the same building, sheep of the same flock, priests of the same kingdom, members of the new creation, and a part of His bride we ought to treat each other with the utmost of respect, GAL 6:9-10; MAT 25:40.
MAT 25:40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, {even} the least {of them,} you did it to Me.’”