Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Spiritual mechanics must be parlayed into spiritual dynamics. Part 5. The manifestation of your inward spiritual power and strength.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
By succumbing to the attack of religion, which, in our day and age is exemplified by following rituals, program spirituality, obsession with doctrinal information, etc.
This believer is in danger of becoming a loser believer and ineligible for reward.
Self-abasement = false humility; most people are impressed by outward appearance, the tone of someone’s voice, the language they speak, what they give up, especially if giving up something causes them some pain or inconvenience.
Humility, in the sense of self-effacement, is not a Christian virtue; it is an attack of religion.
1TI 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
1. Satan attacks the authority of the Bible. He says that what you dream, what you see in a trance, what you see when you get ecstatic, what you experience is just as real or more real than what the Bible says.
2. It emphasizes feeling and ecstatic experiences as having merit. How you feel, then, is more important than what the Bible says.
The inflation without cause - pres-pass-part - phusioo = to be inflated with pride or arrogance.
“Being inflated or puffed up with smoke and arrogance.”
COL 2:18... by his fleshly mind (under the influence of the thinking from the source of his old sin nature).
The solution to these attacks is given in verse 19 which mentions two individuals; one is TLJC and occupation with Him; the other is a divinely appointed officer in the local assembly, called the joints and ligaments.
Pres-act-part - krateo - “holding” = to seize, to apprehend, to be occupied with someone or something which belongs to self.
“The Head” - accusative singular noun - kephale = TLJC and His absolute sovereignty over His body, the Church.
It is not only used for the head, but it is used in Greek literature for superiority, for the “chief” or the “principle one” to whom all are subordinate.
It also connotes the concept of celebrityship, and it is a reminder that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only celebrity in the Church-age. When a believer is occupied with the Head, TLJC, that believer will reveal so by living a life manifested by fruit from the daily function of perception, metabolization, and application toward doctrine.
The concept of Christ as the head of the Church is found in EPH 1:22,23; 5:23; 2:16; 4:4,5;
COL 1:18,24.
With doctrine as the working object of faith the believer has maximum category #1 response causing him to be designated philos Theos, a “lover of God.”
This title, a lover of God is used of Abraham in JAM 2:22-23, where he is called a philos Theou, a friend of God.
1. When a believer is occupied with the Head, his life is based upon the glorification of TLJC, COL 3:1-2.
COL 3:1-2 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
2. Occupation with the Head, TLJC, is the standard operating procedure for the Christian life, HEB 12:1-2, and it demands that we take in doctrine and that we become occupied with the person of Christ.
HEB 12:2 “Be concentrating on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our doctrine, who because of the exhibited happiness, He endured the Cross and disregarded [by the use of the problem-solving devices] the shame [imputation of our sins], and He sat down at the right hand of God.”
3. Occupation with Christ is illustrated by the doctrine of right-man, right-woman,
EPH 5:25-32; 1CO 11:7.
EPH 5:18-19 the man and the woman are filled with the Spirit, and speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
EPH 5:20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
EPH 5:21-22 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ, Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
EPH 5:33 Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.
4. Occupation with the Head, TLJC, is manifested by the function of perception, metabolization, and application toward doctrine and the believer responding to the love of Jesus Christ, JAM 1:21-22.
JAM 1:21... in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to deliver your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
5. Occupation with the Head, TLJC, includes total dependence on grace provision leading especially to this function in the supergrace life, PSA 37:4-5.
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.
6. Occupation with Christ is related to both stability and inner happiness, PSA 16:8-9.
PSA 16:8-9 I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.
7. Occupation with Christ is the basis for blessing in suffering. While reversion intensifies suffering occupation with Christ minimizes suffering,
2CO 12:9-10.
2CO 12:9-10 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
8. Occupation with Christ is based on the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life,
HEB 3:1-6.