Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
June 13, 2018
The different areas where you can have things stolen from you or maybe you are a thief and stealing is your way of life.
Love means following His commandments, and His unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love.
The context the apostle John is referring to is the fact anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God.
Whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.
That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner.
Someone or something can be used by Satan and the kingdom of darkness to steal away our spiritual accomplishments by distracting or hindering us from going forward in the PPOG-PSD.
The only true role model we should have is the one we develop in spiritual adulthood in our occupation with Jesus Christ.
The point again is that our spiritual accomplishments must be guarded and cherished and we must be very careful that we do not allow anyone to take us away from our Lord.
PRO 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding."
When things seem to be chaotic and are filled with confusion that is when you need to: "Trust in the Lord not in people!"
When you find yourself in a situation that is filled with "Cosmic Thinking" Do not lean on your own understanding.
You cannot change other people; you can only change yourself.
You cannot change yourself through Christian fellowship, but only through perception of Bible doctrine.
Your relationship and your fellowship with God is the major issue.
When your relationship with God is straight, then your relationships with people will fall into line.
Changing yourself is a matter of consistent perception, metabolization and application of Bible Doctrine from which comes the consistent use of the ten problem solving devices of the predesigned plan of God.
The most dramatic change in the life of any believer occurs when he is using all ten of these problem solving devices.
Relationship with God must precede relationship with people. Christian fellowship is secondary to perception of doctrine.
Christian fellowship is not the source of spiritual growth or momentum.
- It establishes wrong priorities in the Christian life through the influence of confused believers.
- It is a distraction from Bible doctrine through preoccupation with romance or friendship.
- It is the acquisition of legalism through association with legalistic and arrogant believers.
- It involves anti-nomianism, therefore association with promiscuous believers, which is also distracting.
- Using Christian fellowship as a dating bureau or a marriage pool is a distraction from growing in grace.
- Christian fellowship often results in acquiring erroneous views of doctrine, or the ridicule of doctrine in a group of Christian believers.
- Christian fellowship uses people as a crutch rather than learning and using the ten problem solving devices of the Christian way of life.
- A lifetime friendships develop among positive believers while they're growing in grace.
- Encouragement from conversations among believers of like faith and practice.
1Co 3:16 Do you not know that you [you is the second person plural = ya'll or believers] you all are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you [second person plural = ya'll]?
1CO 3:17 If any man destroys the temple of God that is the church of God, --- [notice the temple of God is called the Church of God.]
God will destroy him, for the temple of God is Holy, and that is what you [Second person plural = you all are.
Verse 19 tells us to be God's fool is the path to true wisdom.
That is "not discerning" the value of the impeccability of our Lord's physical body as well as it can refer to His Church, the spiritual body of Christ or the Temple of God.
Not discerning the blood of the Lord or His spiritual death is to reject the Work of the Lord and Word of the Lord.
PHI 3:18 For many keep walking, concerning whom I have warned you many times, and now continue to affirm, even weeping, the enemies of the cross of Christ.
2CO 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh or according to human viewpoint but rather divine viewpoint;
It is EPH 4:32 And be kind to one another, tender‑hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
The divine viewpoint of the church or the temple of God is found in such passages as JOH 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
Heb 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but gather together for the purpose of encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.
ACT 17:11 Now these were more noble‑minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so.
For the best results and for the correct and the most accurate translation of any passage, it is wise to stay under the authority of the principle we call "ICE."
- Isagogics is the historical setting of the passage.
- Categories is the systematic theology developed from combining Scripture with Scripture.
- Exegesis is the grammatical and syntactical analysis of the passage from the original languages.
As we go forward in the PPOG and fulfilling our personal sense of destiny, it is important that we also know not "what glorifies the Lord" but "how to glorify the Lord."
1Co 3:17 God will destroy him, for the temple of God is Holy, and that is what you are.
Because you have not judged or evaluated the Lord's body, His church, His temple, correctly.
For this reason many among you are weak [mentally] and sick [physically], and a number sleep or died.
Because they did not or do not discern the Lord's spiritual body which is His church, also called His Temple.
They did not or do not discern the Lord's physical body which He kept impeccable or His spiritual body which is His church and His Temple.
The fact that His spiritual body presently also known as His church, His Temple will forever be known as the bride of Christ for all eternity and it cannot be overstated or should ever be taken for granted; Pro 20:25.
The bride of Christ will be occupied with her right man, TLJC, for all of eternity and she will do whatever her husband desires for all of eternity.
Your life right now is being recorded by the Lord as to whether you are a winner believer or a loser believer, it all depends upon you!
Do you operate with the Temple of God with your spiritual gift; ROM 12:6 And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly:
Do you neglect or reject your spiritual gift for 1TI 4:14 says Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you.
1PE 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Notice the three main words I mentioned, exercise, neglect, serve.
Exercise -- ROM 12:6, let each exercise their gift accordingly:
I.P. - The operation of your spiritual gift has been given to serve others in the Temple of God or the Church of Jesus Christ.
And how do you judge yourselves rightly?
PSD#1 - Rebound or confession of sin or rebound and recovery, if needed or necessary.
If you steal something, you are a thief who thinks you have the right to take what you can or whatever you are lusting after.
Because Satan loves to torture us to try and get even with us because our husband, TLJC, already shut the lid on his Angelic butt when He defeated Satan and the kingdom of darkness on the cross.
Act 5, we have three believers mentioned, Ananias and Sapphira, who did evil in the sight of the Lord, and then a man called Barnabas, known as the son of encouragement, who did right in the sight of the Lord.
They do understand how to "rob from God" because we are told that they did so in Mal 3:8-10.
The last part of verse 1 says :Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of the GOD‑of‑the‑Angel‑Armies.
He'll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they're fit for GOD, fit to present offerings of righteousness.
Notice that we are to be clean even before we make an offering to the Lord.
This passage then says -- "Stop stealing from the Lord."
MAL 3:3 "And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.