29 Jan 2010
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 185 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS.”
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What makes religion the diabolically evil form of human good that it is, is that it is promoted and received as having come from God.
The fallen nature is Man is very vulnerable and receptive to the deception of religion’s primary promoter, the devil himself.
Religion makes sense and appeals to the pride and arrogance in the fallen nature in Man.
Religion appears to provide the much desired means for Man to take part in his own salvation.
Man doing ANYTHING, apart from God, to either obtain or retain salvation is something that Scripture clearly declares to be impossible.
In Matthew 19:26, we read, “…with people this [being saved] is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Persuading Man to that he CAN make himself right with God is what all religions, including the various forms of so-called Christian religions, are all about.
The phrase Christian religion is actually an oxymoron as religion and true Christianity are diametrically opposed and come from two very different sources.
Religion consists of all that Man has added to, deleted from, or is a perverted version of what can be Biblically substantiated.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is a matter of accepting, in an act of faith (John 3:18), all that GOD has done to provide the means of salvation, and all that GOD desires to do THROUGH the born again believer during the course of his/her post salvation spiritual life (John 15:5).
The ability to distinguish what is religious from what is spiritual is an essential part of becoming and continuing to be an advancing disciple.
It is due to these differences that advancing disciples will inevitably find themselves on a collision course with the majority of persons who identify themselves as being a part of the Christian Community.
In most cases, this will include the MAJORITY of one’s family and friends who consider themselves a part of the Christian Community.
Why is this so?
Although ALL born again believers are and remain saved, the majority of born again believers CHOOSE to never enter into Biblical discipleship, or if they do, they abandon it because of the pressure they receive.
While unwilling to deal with the challenges of discipleship, believers who take the alternate route of either legalism or antinomianism can be quite hostile when interacting with advancing disciples.
As Scripture (John 16:2) teach, those entering into true discipleship will learn soon enough that some of the most intense opposition will come from WITHIN the Christian Community.
Because of the inevitable divisions that the Gospel and Church Age Mystery Doctrines create, the advancing disciple’s greatest SPIRITUAL enemies will be the members of his/her own household.
The gathering of all the members and generations of any given family occupying the same section of pews week after week is NOT the scenario of the Church Age spoken of by our Lord in (Luke 12:52).
There we read, “…for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.”
In Matthew 10: 33-39, the Lord Jesus Christ taught, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the Earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
In Luke 14:26, the Lord places relationships with one’s wife, brothers, and sisters in the same category.
God, who established both marriage and family, is certainly not opposed to either one.
What our Lord was teaching was the need for an advancing disicipleto establish priorities and to take stands that are inevitably going to run against the grain of family members who are not born again and/or family members who are born again, but have taken the route of either religion or antinomianism.
In marriage, insecure or self-centered spouses will resent the fact that they find themselves playing second fiddle when it comes to matters that are between their spouse and the Lord.
Mentally and spiritually mature spouses will be wise enough to recognize that a spouse’s devotion to the Lord will result in their marriage being blessed.
The demands of Christian marriage can be very challenging as it is, but no more so than it is for the wife and children of a pastor teacher.
Needless to say, the marriage and home of a pastor presents a greater target for satanic attacks. If successful, Satan will not only destroy the productivity of the individual family members, but can take down or diminish the productivity of a ministry as well.
If a pastor simply prepares the expected Christmas sermons during the Holidays and a pep talk for Mom’s on mother’s day, then the ministry can be both a soft and lucrative endeavor.
But if a pastor is going to prepare and/or develop discipleship in the members of his congregation, then that is another matter altogether.
To prepare and to present beneficial, doctrinal presentations for the spiritual edification of the congregation on an ongoing basis, it takes much time and solitude on the part of the pastor, which means much time away from the family and family activities.
The wife of a pastor is called to maintain an environment in which the pastor can study and teach.
Disrespect for the authority of a pastor in his capacity as a husband and head of the home can cause much harm to the effectiveness of his ministry (1Timothy 3:5).
Opposition will not only come from within the home.
STOP
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 186 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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Religious people, both outside and within the Christian Community have proven to be the most ruthless and violent of human beings throughout the course of Church History.
In John 16:2, we read, “… an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”
Because of the increase in false doctrines WITHIN the Christian Community, discipleship will become more and more of a challenge, as we come to the end of the Church Age.
In 1Timothy 4:1 we read, “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.”
We know that this passage is speaking of believers within the Church at large, as it speaks of believers “falling way” from the faith. One would obviously have to first be WITH accurate doctrine in order to later fall away from it.
The word for disciples in the Greek language of the original manuscripts is m-a-t-h-e-t-e-s, which means to be a technical student in a teacher-student scenario.
In the plan of God for the Church Age, the Gospel Message was first entrusted to the eleven apostles (Matthew 28:16-20), and the mystery doctrines of the Church Age were introduced primarily through the Apostle Paul (Acts 9:15).
Prior to the completion of the Word of God, God performed various miraculous activity (Acts 3: 6, 7/Acts 8:15/Acts 19:11) through the apostles.
The purpose was to confirm the authenticity of their teaching.
As the Apostolic period came to its end, the unadulterated Canon of Scripture was completed in the approx. year 96 AD, and in the plan of God, became the one and ONLY tangible source of spiritual edification.
The mentor of the Church Age believer is God the Holy Spirit, but the audible spokesmen for the Church, as of the end of the Apostolic Period, are the Biblically qualified pastor teachers whom God the Holy Spirit selects (1Corinthians 12:18).
It is through the pastor teacher that God the Holy Speaks to the Church at large during the course of the Church Age dispensation (Revelation 2: 29; Revelation 3:6,13, 22), but at no time does the pastor teacher speak of anything that has not already been revealed in the completed Canon of Scripture (Proverbs 30:6).
After the conclusion of the Apostolic period of the Church Age, the Kingdom of Darkness (Ephesians 6:12) through religion has established some form of hierarchy as the means of control over the religious institutions that they have established.
This is contrary to the Biblically established form of Church government that, as of the end of the Apostolic period, places the teaching and administrative authority of each local assembly under the pastor teacher who is to function within the parameters established in the Word of God.
Depending on the size of the local assembly, the pastor may appoint and delegate functional authority to deacons, but the responsibility of all that goes on remains to be the pastor teacher’s.
Pastor teachers are charged with the responsibility of teaching the entire realm of doctrine for the edification of the congregation and the development of discipleship.
Each pastor teacher will give an accounting to God (James 3:1) as to the quantity and quality of the doctrine that he makes available to the members of the congregation or ministry.
The pastor teacher is NOT accountable to any council or hierarchy within or outside of the local assembly.
The pastor teacher must not temper his messages in the interest of job security.
Born again believers are to seek out the pastor teacher that God the Holy Spirit would have him/her receive doctrine from at any particular time during his/her walk with God.
If a believer(s) are led away from a ministry or local assembly because they are not being fed with spiritually edifying information, the ministry will self terminate due to lack of attendance and/or support.
As long as a pastor teacher is faithful to his calling, there will always be believers who need to be ministered to. If one door closes on him, another one will be opened.
The leadership role that was given to Peter was for the purpose of restoring the apostles by reassuring them of their relationship with the Lord.
It would be James (Matthew 13:55/Jude 1), one of four of the half-brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ who would be the administrative leader of the Jerusalem Church where most of the apostles first established and gathered together to conduct Church business.
At another time, Paul rebuked Peter (Galatians 2:11). Subordinates do NOT rebuke persons who are in authority over them.
The “rock” on which the Church was and is to be built is the BELIEF in the Gospel Message.
This was what Peter’s statement of faith (Matthew 16:16) was all about.
It is important to keep in mind that it is the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic languages that God the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors to use when writing Scripture, and that Scripture must be interpreted in light of these languages.
ALL other versions of the Bible that are not presented in these original languages are only translations of the original documents that God the Holy Spirit inspired.
How the veracity of Scripture was preserved is the work of God, but there ARE limitations that the different languages present that are not to be overlooked when studying, and especially when communicating the Word of God.
The ambiguity of the English language makes it especially difficult to retain many of the principles of Scripture that are made much clearer when the same passages are studied in light of the original languages. STOP.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 187 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS.”
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Until the (1Thessalonians 4:16.17) Rapture takes place, the intangible (1Corinthians 3:16) Church will continue to be built each and every time that another soul is born again (John 3:3) when that soul believes (John 3:18) in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter’s Matthew 16: 16 confession of faith revealed that he identified the Lord Jesus Christ as being the Son of God who came to provide the means of salvation. He did not however, understand HOW this was to take place (Matthew 16:22), resulting in one of the strongest rebukes that any servant of God ever received.
During the dispensation of the Church Age in which we live, the Titus 3:5 regenerationprocessthat follows this ONE time decision to BELIEVE the Gospel Message is the Work of God the Holy Spirit.
It requires no religious ceremonies or rituals to initiate the process or to retain ALL that it provides.
This simple, yet profound truth, flies in the face of religion, as it nullifies any pressure or fear that it might otherwise use to force compliance with ITS demands in order to either receive or retain eternal life.
In our last session, we took a brief look at the Biblical system of authority and the counterfeit systems of authority that religion has constructed.
We now take a closer look at the case of Peter.
In Matthew 16:18, we read (in the English), “You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church….”.
An examination of the Greek in the original transcripts will reveal that the Greek version of the name Peter (P-e-t-r-o-S) is what is used in the first part of the verse.
P-e-t-r-o-s is a person’s NAME that MEANS rock or rock man.
Our Lord used P-e-t-r-o-s, the Greek form of his name Peter, to compare the LIKENESS of the meaning of his name with the rock-hard characteristic of the belief Peter expressed in his confession of faith.
Our Lord was NOT referring to Peter as being the figurative foundational rock on which the Church was to be built.
The “keys to the kingdom” (Matthew 16:19), a phrase that refers to the Gospel Message and the proclamation of it, were initially given to Peter.
However, later on, but PRIOR to the establishment of the Church (Acts 2), these keys were also equally given to the other apostles (Matthew 28: 16-20).
As a part of the Church (1Corinthians 3:16), each and every one of its members has been commissioned and called to take part in the Great Commission.
The binding on earth and the binding in Heaven is a reference to the blessing or consequences that every individual is subject to as a result of believing or rejecting the Gospel Message while here on Earth.
It does not mean that whatever the Church does here on Earth will necessarily be honored in Heaven.
Many individuals within the Christian Community have assumed authority and functions that were neither Scripture nor God ever sanctioned.
Scripture clearly identifies the foundation of the Church as being none other than faith in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 1Corinthians 3: 11 we read, “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
The English versions of the Bible fail to make these and many other critical distinctions that ARE discernable in the original languages of Scripture.
This loss in the translation process contributes to the misconception that the Lord was speaking of Peter, when He was in fact speaking of Peter’s confession of faith.
Roman Catholicism is NOT the only sector of the Christian Community to create either a non-Scriptural, or a perverted version of the system of authority that Scripture establishes for the Church.
Every organization, especially one that has designs of making itself a global one, needs to have a system of authority in order to maintain control.
In the case of the true Church, its head is the risen the Lord Jesus Christ who, in Heaven, controls human history and intercedes for the Church on Earth.
The Church at large, here on earth, is under the mentorship of the omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscience of God the Holy Spirit.
The unity of the true Church is based on the true doctrines of Scripture and the common goal of the fulfilling the Great Commission.
Never-the-less, the Church is to function as separate local assemblies under the authority of the individual pastor teachers who God the Holy Spirit chooses and empowers.
The unity of the Church at large is based on the correct doctrines of Scripture and in the common goal they share to fulfill the Great Commission.
On the other hand, we have the counterfeit systems of religion, who gained and retained control by collaborating with the powers of the State during most of its infamous history.
The problem with this concept is that such an environment is only as good as the ones who administer it.
History has shown that the unity of religion and secular authority will inevitably lead to tyranny.
Many of the early European peoples who came to America did so, NOT to establish freedom of religion, but freedom from religion.
Because of the fallen nature in Man, a theocracy is not within Man’s ability to manage.
The only global theocracy that will endure will be the one that is established and headed by the Lord Jesus Christ during the Millenial Kingdom to come.
Until then, there is a need for secular governments (Romans 13) in order to preserve the human race that will self-destruct without them.
The plan of God calls for the preservation of the true Church (Matthew 16:18) until its mission is completed. The true Church is not bound or limited to any given race or nationality.
STOP
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 188 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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Many individuals have claimed to have had spiritual encounters with God or His messenger(s), who have allegedly revealed to them spiritual teachings that are inconsistent with what can be Biblically substantiated.
These are clearly the work of the Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil, that, in some cases have claimed to speak with the authority from and of God (2Corinthians 11:14), perverting or adding to what the Bible teaches.
Our Lord and the apostles spoke of such things and warned of the consequences awaiting all those who choose to follow these false teachings.
Religion is an evil and powerful force. Religion will come to its zenith during the brief, but global reign of the anti-Christ.
The anti-Christ will also have a false prophet and system of religion.
Religion and its counterfeit systems of authority are Satan’s alternatives to true spirituality.
If the health conscious persons within the Christian Community were as concerned for their souls as they are for their bodies that are heading for dust, anyways, the Church would be a lot better off.
If you haven’t been there yet, it will not be too far along the road in a born again believer’s walk with God, that he/she WILL come to the inevitable folk in the road that separates the majority of born again believers who enter into or return to religion or antinomianism, from the minority of born again believers who enter into and remain in true discipleship.
Those who continue in discipleship will identify and execute the true post salvation spiritual life.
Upon reaching this folk, the majority of born again believers in each generation of the Church Age follow the herd and take the path of least resistance.
Salvation, already having been addressed, is not the issue in view here.
The majority, choosing the popular and easy road, remain saved. They will generally be moral individuals, and will subdivide into one of two extreme subcategories.
Subcategory #1 are the legalists who will come to believe that now that they are saved, they must retain their salvation by adhering to ALL of the do’s and don’ts that are found in the New and Old Testaments of Scripture, as well as all the additional requirements of the various rituals that have infiltrated and evolved throughout the Church Age in the name of religion.
Satan, not having the divine attribute of omnipresence, but working through his Ephesians 6:12 agents, has had considerable success dating back as far as the early Church in Galatia.
As in the case in Galatia, Satan will inspire “religious” oriented people to introduce and contend for religious activity within the Christian Community (Galatians 1: 6, 7) .
There, we read, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Note that when Paul addressed the problem, he asked the believers there who had “bewitched” them (Galatians 3:1), confirming the demonic activity afoot.
The introduction of religion and religious practices is promoted when there is a failure to distinguish what passages of Scripture have and don’t have application to the Church Age dispensation.
All of Scripture IS for our edification, but not all of Scripture is for our application during the Church Age.
Because there APPEARS to be a Biblical background for some of the religious practices that have come along, it takes more discernment to identify former practices that have no application for the Church Age than it does to spot a teaching or practice that has no Biblical substantiation at all.
Religion is Satan’s counterfeit alternative to true spirituality.
Like all successful articles of counterfeiting, it must appear and be accepted as genuine if the deception is going to work.
The longer one is involved with religion, the harder it will be for the same believer to perceive the evil nature, source, and actual promoter of it; the devil himself.
It is much easier to spiritually edify a former atheist who has been born again, than it is to edify a newly born again believer who came from a “religious” background, or chooses to return to it.
The idea of equating religion with what is spiritual has been and continues to be a primary strategy of Satan.
In light of the rigidity of some areas of religion, one might ask how religion can be considered the path of least resistance.
It is the path of least resistance because religious activity is promoted and not opposed by the devil and the (Ephesians 6:12) forces of evil.
Subcategory #2 of those who take the road of least resistance consists of those who live with the misguided attitude that since salvation cannot be lost, the grace of God is a license to sin. This is antinomianism is all about.
This type of believer often shows little interest, if any, in God or in the things of God.
Such believers often play Church and go through the motions to appease their legalistic friends and family members.
We must distinguish the difference between the pressure that GOD applies to believers who are out of fellowship with Him, and the pressure that is applied by satanic forces to advancing disciples.
Post salvation sin invites divine discipline that can result in anything from living with a guilty conscience up to and including physical death.
Post salvation sin results in the forfeiture of Heavenly rewards that the same believer would have received if he/she spent the same periods of time executing the post salvation spiritual life instead of spending time being out of fellowship with God.
Regardless of which path a born again believer takes at this folk, salvation is never in jeopardy (1Corinthians 3: 15).
Upon coming to this same folk in the road, only a minority of born again believers choose NOT to follow the herd.
These born again believers do not only choose to take the path of MOST resistance, they will refuse to turn back, as they encounter the ever-increasing resistance from the (Ephesians 6:12) forces of evil, and the persecution that all advancing disciples are called to endure. STOP
Pastor Doug Laird
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