19 Feb 2010
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 197 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORTINTHIANS
If you are following along with a Bible, please open to 2Corinthians Chapter 7.
Paul continues with his letter to the local assembly at Corinth with what we now know as 2 Corinthians Chapter 7.
As we have noted in the past, the chapter and verse designations of our Bibles were added by the various translators over the years and were not a part of the original transcripts.
Paul begins 2 Corinthians 7 by making reference to the promises of God spoken of in the closing verses of 2 Corinthians 6: 16-18.
There, God promises to enter into a familial relationship between He, as the Father, and we, as His sons and daughters.
The intimacy of this familial, father and child, relationship is available to all born again believers.
God is NOT a respecter of persons. Our race, gender, nationality, educational or socio-economic status is of no significance in our relationship with God.
There is no inner circle of born again believers in which any group is any closer to God than any others.
However, the intimacy of this familial, Father and child, relationship will be the earthly experience of only a minority of born again believers.
The determining difference is the prerequisite of separation recorded in 2Corinthians 6:17.
This “separation” is the inevitable result of true discipleship.
In 2 Corinthians 6:17, we read, ““…come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.”
This prerequisite of separation requires some explanation so that there will not be any misunderstanding or misapplication of the principles being conveyed here.
There have been and are times when circumstances require a physical separation from certain individuals and ungodly environments, and there are times that one’s calling will send him/her right into the midst of such things.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His apostles that they were “not of this world” in John 15:19, and repeats this principle in prayer with God the Father in John 17:14 and in John 17:17.
Yet, in the Mission given to the Church, better known as the Great Commission, we find the Church being given the its marching orders to go out in the world to proclaim the Gospel Message to unbelievers, and to make disciples out of those who are born again
Is this a contradiction, or a change in the method of operation regarding the principle of separation?
No, it is not.
The not being “of” the world is not being of the same mind set as the unbelievers are, and not being a part of the world’s system of doing things, when in doing so, it would require one to violate a principle of the Word of God.
Separation, in this sense, is not physical, but primarily concerns one’s mindset and the inevitable behaviors that follow.
Believers are called to interact with the unbelievers of the world, but are to conduct themselves as God’s ambassadors as they do.
A believer, who develops and applies the attitudes and behaviors required of true discipleship will not to announce to anyone his/her relationship with the Lord or to seek out persons to whom he/she may witness.
It is theses contrasting attitudes and behaviors that God the Holy Spirit will use to draw the attention of seeking inquirers to the believers, giving the believers the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel Message to unbelievers, and edifying doctrine to those who are born again.
Believers are trained and prepared to do so when they gather together (Hebrews 10:25) for their own edification, under the teaching authority of the pastor teacher that God has trained, ordained, and provided for this purpose.
As each born again believer advances in his/her post salvation spiritual life, he/she will become more and more edified by the Word of God.
The more truth one receives, the more aware of the false and or counterfeit alternatives there will be to separate oneself from.
There are times when the principle of separation is not only one of the mind, but will require physically removing oneself or from the company of certain individuals or environments.
Believers are to remove themselves from false teachers and/or the false practices.
This does not mean that you must be in full agreement with everything that comes from any given pulpit.
There never has been, and there never will be, a perfect local assembly, with a perfect pastor teacher, with a perfect staff, who ministers to a perfect congregation.
As many wise observers have noted, if there were such a local assembly, it would cease to exist as soon as you became a member of it.
At the same time, if it is God the Holy Spirit who is leading you to move on so that you as an advancing disciple can spiritually mature, then that IS the time to do so.
If it IS God the Holy Spirit leading you to move on, and not the devil trying to separate you from the intake of Bible Doctrine, GOD will always have another one in the ready for you to move on to.
If there appears to be a move in the making, it is usually best to wait until the next local assembly or ministry has been made known to you before leaving the one that you are presently attending or receiving doctrine from.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 198 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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An advancing disciple cannot afford to risk the consequences of spiritual malnutrition of his/her own soul over non-essential issues that inevitably will take place from time to time in any given local assembly.
Personality conflicts with the pastor teacher or with other members of the congregation cannot be allowed to become major distractions to one’s ability to remain focused on the primary reason that God the Holy Spirit brought each believer to any given local assembly in the first place.
Cutting off food supplies to besieged cities and fortresses is an age old military tactic that can be very successful if an invasion would be inadvisable or if time was not of an immediate concern.
Make no mistake, the Ephesians 6:12 forces ARE going to try to distract the attention or otherwise prevent the advancing disciple from taking in as much doctrine on a regular basis that it can.
Satan knows the value that the intake of doctrine plays in the development and maintaining of a Biblically edified soul structure.
During one’s childhood, the choice of the local assembly that the family is to attend is usually made for him/her by a parent or guardian in a position of authority.
However, once an individual is given the option to continue on with his/her parental choice, or to pursue another that he/she finds more edifying, he/she then has a choice and a personal responsibility to make that determination for him/herself.
In 1Corinthians 13:11 we read, “When I was a child , I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”
Childhood in the spiritual realm is not a stage that is to be measured in time, but in growth.
Spiritual birth begins with the Titus 3:5 regenerating Work of God the Holy SPIRIT that takes place AFTER one reaches the age or stage of moral accountability and is the result of making a conscious decision to make a positive response to a presentation of the Gospel Message.
This can take place at Age 7 or 97 years old.
Many born again believers NEVER go any further in their spiritual development and remain babies for their entire post salvation spiritual life.
The Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil have earlier than ever access and opportunity to influence children with the seemingly endless means to expose them to see and to hear things that can have a negative influence on their developing minds.
Satan has done much to redefine family and familial roles in the American society, contributing much to its decline.
This has impacted the efforts of American based evangelistic efforts to proclaim the Gospel Message in non-Christian cultures, but who never the less, have maintained strong family structures that continue to honor the father and husband as head of the home.
On the positive side, the need to address some contemporary issues and lifestyles that liberality has produced, some that weren’t even spoken of in adult circles in past generations, provides parents and other care givers the opportunity to talk to children about the spiritual issues at a much earlier stage in their children’s lives.
Children can be MADE religious, but they can NOT be made spiritual unless they choose to do so.
Hell is going to be filled with people who thought that their involvement with religion made them good enough to escape the wrath of God.
Hell is not for those who weren’t good enough. If that were so, we would ALL be there.
Hell was originally made for the devil and the fallen angels and was later enlarged to await the arrival of human souls who reject the Gospel Message (John 3:18/Rev. 20:15).
The reality of (Luke 12:52/John 3:18) can be heartbreaking to parents and children alike who have been taught the truth about who is going to Hell, for how long, and why.
In Luke 12:52, we read, “…for from now on five members in one household WILL be divided, three against two and two against three.”
And in John 3:18, we read of what it is that divides the family in the Church Age in which we live, and the accompanying blessings or consequences, “…He who BELIEVES in Him is not judged [in Heaven]; he who does not BELIEVE has been judged [here on Earth] already, because he has not BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Everyone who leaves this world in the spiritually dead condition in which he/she arrived, will find him/herself in the torments of Hades when he/she departs this world at the moment of physical death and later in the lake of fire for all of eternity (Rev. 20: 15).
Religion consists of everything that Man has added to what can be Biblically substantiated. Religion sounds good and appeals to the fallen nature in Man as it appears to satisfy the desire in Man to provide the means to make and to keep himself right with God.
No amount of “religion” that anyone does or has done for them is going to get anyone into Heaven or out of Hell!
Being presented with the true Gospel Message once one has reached the age or stage of moral accountability is serious business.
There is no such thing as NOT making a response. Not to accept it, IS to reject it.
Depending on how one chooses to respond to it, a presentation of the Gospel can assure one of an eternity in Hell just as it can assure one of an eternity in Heaven.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 199 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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God can only use an individual to LEAD another person to the same level of spiritual growth that he or she has first attained for him/herself.
Be it in the capacity of a parent or other relationship, what everyone learns sooner or later is that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
You can take your family to church, but you can’t take your spouse or kids to Heaven. God’s policy for salvation does not have denominational or family plans; it only offers individual coverage.
What you CAN do for them is lead the way!
If all your friends and family members were boarding a plane that you knew for a certainty was going to crash, would you share that information or would you consider it none of your business and let them find out for themselves?
I would rather have every person who comes to know me reject me, then to know that I had the truth, but failed to share it with them.
If we wouldn’t hesitate to take action that could only save another’s physical life, why would hesitate to share the Gospel Message with someone that could save their souls?
Although the Gospel Message can be heard at any time and in any place that God chooses, many will hear it for the first time in a Biblically based local assembly.
The primary purpose for the local assemblies, however, is for those who ARE born again, as it is there that one receives (or should receive) the necessary information to identify and to execute the post salvation spiritual life.
Until one is born again, he/she can become as religious as he/she desires, but he/she cannot understand the true God or the true life of God beyond the limits of human understanding until he/she IS born again (John 3:3).
Believing there IS a god and believing IN God are two totally different things.
While religion offers little options, if any, spirituality always provides the freedom, opportunity, and accountability to make choices.
While corporate worship, involving the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and the study of the Word of God is a common activity and was designed to be experienced with other believers (Hebrews 10:25), the post salvation spiritual life is also very much a personal and individualized walk that the advancing believer will have with God.
Every disciple will be faced with decisions in which he/she will have to offend God in order to please family, or offend family in order to honor God.
For the advancing disciple, there is no choice.
In Luke 14:26, we read, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple”.
The word hate in the Greek does mean that we are to have ill-feelings towards these people or our relationship with them, but we are to love them less in terms of priorities and when faced with having to choose between honoring one at the expense of offending the other.
The execution of the Great Commission involves both group and individual activities.
Group activity is the work that God has given to each local assembly to accomplish.
The individual activity is related to the divine good that one produces within his own personal periphery.
A group of individual born again believers from every generation of the Church Age is chosen by God (1Corinthians 12:18) to be evangelists.
The function of an evangelist is to proclaim the Gospel Message to large audiences of unbelievers through various means of communication.
Those who choose to make a positive response to the Gospel Message, by believing in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ are then ”born again” (John 3:3) and immediately receive the regenerating Work of God the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)”.
Another group of born again believers in each generation of the Church Age are chosen by God to be pastor teachers.
The primary function of these pastor teachers is to study and teach the Word of God to groups of born again believers who assemble themselves together for that purpose, making disciples out of individuals who were born again.
All born again believers, are called to true discipleship that will include personal evangelism and edification of those within his/her personal periphery, thus giving purpose and meaning to every day of his/her post salvation spiritual life.
Some of these days will involve setting the stage, while others will involve the presentation of the Gospel Message to an unbeliever or an edifying principle of Scripture to a fellow believer.
Every born again believer is given a spiritual gift that is for the edification and/or service of other members of the Church, as Church is defined in (1Corinthinas 3:16).
These spiritual gifts are (usually) to be exercised within the local assembly that he/she attends, but there are times that one will find his/her spiritual niche in the post salvation spiritual life to involve activity outside of the local assembly that he/she attends for his/her own spiritual edification.
Believers who function with their spiritual gift within the local assembly are under the authority of the pastor teacher and provide service(s) to the ministry and/or members of the local assembly.
Those who find their spiritual niche outside of the local assembly should still support the local assembly with his/her prayer, time, and financial support as God leads him/her to do so.
In this way, all members of a local assembly have a part in the “group” plan that God has for that particular local assembly of believers.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 200 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, ‘PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS.”
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All believers receive the same regeneration at the moment of salvation (Titus 3:5) settling the issue of their salvation once and for all.
But within a marriage, family, and a local assembly, there can be members who have not been born again, and there are always born again believers who are at different stages of their spiritual growth.
Accordingly, there are divers needs that individual believers need to have met in order for them to grow in both God’s grace and God’s knowledge.
The curriculum of the well trained pastor teacher will provide information on the entire realm of doctrine to the members of the congregation.
But like chapters in a book, you can’t skip any if you are going to get the most out of the story.
Under the guidance of God the Holy Spirit, the born again believer is to identify, remain, or leave any given local assembly, on the basis of the quality and the quantity of the teaching that is or is not being made available.
Failing to have an appetite for food in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm is a sign that something is going on that needs to be addressed.
Wholesome food in both the natural and spiritual realm is what sustains good health.
In America, many of us are very concerned about the quality of the food we feed our bodies that are all heading for dust, but have little regard for what we are feeding our souls that are going to live on for all of eternity.
To select and or to remain at ANY local assembly or with any ministry for any other reason than the quality and quantity of the food with which our souls are being fed is an indication that a wrong set of priorities has been accepted.
Providing we do receive it, it matters not where and how we receive a presentation of the TRUE Gospel Message, but the quality of one’s POST salvation spiritual life is VERY much determined by how often and with what spiritual information we feed our souls.
God the Holy Spirit did not call you to a relationship with any given denomination or religious group of human beings.
God the Holy Spirit called you to a personal relationship with the Triune Godhead through the Person and Works of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once born again, you are then called to identify and to execute the true post salvation spiritual life.
God has promised to provide ALL that any born again believer needs to learn and to do in order to execute the plan of God.
A local assembly or ministry with its pastor teacher of God’s choosing is an essential part of the logistic grace that all advancing disciples need to have fulfilled.
In 2Peter 3:17, 18 we read a stern warning and one of the 300 or more New Testament commandments that apply to Church Age believers.
“You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of undisciplined men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2Peter3: 17, 18).”
It would be contrary to the character and nature of God to make such a statement and issue such a command, and then not supply the means for us to do so.
The born again believers who attend a local assembly must DEMONSTRATE respect for the teaching authority of a pastor teacher.
This includes refraining from engaging in body language or verbal criticism during a presentation.
If a given local assembly or ministry is NOT the one that God has for you at any given time, it does not mean that it is not the one that He has for others.
We are NOT to critique the choice of local assembly or ministry of other believers.
The presentations of a well rounded pastor teacher’s ministry will lift you up at times and tear you down at others, but if what is being presented consistently fails to edify your soul, it’s time to move on.
Persons who interrupt or become an annoyance or a distraction to serious students of the Word of God when the believers of a local assembly are gathered together to receive doctrine are to be corrected or removed.
I do not take it personally what believers do with the doctrinal information I supply to them. I consider such matters to be between them and the Lord.
As a pastor teacher, however, I am obligated to teach what the Bible reveals, regardless of how well it is or is not going to be received.
In the case of flagrant and unrepentant believers (1Corinthians 5:2), Scripture does authorize his/her removal from the local assembly and barring the members of the local assembly from fellowship with them.
Paul goes on to say that believers are not even to eat a meal with such a believer (1Corinthians 5:11), extending the non-fellowship status is to be applied outside of the local assembly as well.
One of the advantages of having an Internet ministry is that I can present the Gospel Message to anyone, at anytime, anywhere, and anyplace where there is access to the Internet or has association with someone else who does.
It matters not what someone has done, how many times he/she has done it, or if he or she will ever be able to stop; the “doors” to an Internet ministry are never closed to anyone that has access to the Internet or has association with someone who does.
There are unsaved souls out there that need to hear the true Gospel Message, and there are many souls that need to hear that neither success nor failure in the course can enhance or diminish the saving work of God that took place at the moment of salvation (Titus 3:5).
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Pastor Doug Laird
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