26 Feb 2010
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 201 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS.”
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There are many wandering, lost souls and back sliding believers whose shadows will not likely darken a Church door again until the day his/her bodily remains are carried out on the way to the grave.
There is nothing that can be said or done to alter the eternal destiny for the better or the worse once the soul departs the body (John 3:18).
The departed soul is NEVER present at his/her own funeral.
Accordingly, funerals and memorial services are for the benefit of those we leave behind.
Such things can provide earthly closure and remind others of their own, forthcoming, appointed time with death.
Our Lord, in Matthew 8:22, to the amazement of many, taught that the details of such temporal things are the focus of those who are spiritually dead.
Religion puts much emphasis on postmortem arrangements in order to maintain its pressure and control over those in its grasp, offering much, but producing nothing.
Nothing can be done to improve or diminish the eternal life that was received at the moment of salvation, along with the regenerated spirit (Titus 3:5) that was imputed to the body already containing the soul with its everlasting life that was created and imputed at birth (Genesis 2:7).
Nothing in Heaven or on the Earth will ever impede God’s ability or faithfulness to resurrect (1Thessalonians 4: 16, 17) the dust or what’s left of the physical remains of the body that born again believers leave behind at the moment of physical death.
The focus of the advancing disciple is to be on the execution of the post salvation spiritual life.
In Matthew 8:22, we read, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
Within the limits that Heaven allows, the time to do something for the lost soul or back sliding believer is while the person is on Earth with the capability and presence of mind to make a John 3:18 response to the Gospel Message or edifying passage of Scripture.
God will not, and we cannot, violate the free will that God has given every soul that He has created, but God will allow circumstances that will present the unsaved soul and/or back sliding believer with the opportunity to make any necessary adjustments before meeting his/her Maker.
I see such wandering souls as the one sheep out of a hundred that the good shepherd leaves the other 99 for and carries it back on His shoulders (Luke 15: 4, 5).
It was on the shoulders of our Lord that He carried the cross in order to provide the means that brings ALL of us back to a relationship with God.
Once a lost soul is saved, he/she is forever in the family of God.
There are NO post-salvation conditions required to retain salvation.
However, the degree of intimacy that is or is not to be experienced between God the Father and any given born again believer during the course of one’s post salvation spiritual life here on earth will GREATLY vary from one believer to another.
It is this intimacy that the minority of born again believers have with the Lord that gives others the impression that they are closer to God.
Although Rev. 3:16 gives a graphic description of what the Lord thinks about lukewarm relationships, this passage pretty much describes the lack of intimacy in the relationship that many of those who fill the pews on a Sunday morning have with the Lord.
Such believers go through the motions once or maybe even twice a week, but they are neither hot nor cold in their DAILY walk with the Lord.
They may occasionally be amused by a comment or two that comes from the pulpit, but they are no further along the road of discipleship than they were 5, 10, 15 twenty or more years ago.
Salvation is permanent, but one is either progressing or regressing in the realm of discipleship at any given time.
Salvation determines WHERE one will spend eternity, but it is one’s production of divine good that determines HOW the experience in Heaven will differ (1Corinthians 3: 12-15) from one believer to another.
There are NO rest areas along the spiritual highway and there is no such thing as neutrality.
These varying degrees of intimacy are not because of the lack of desire or inconsistency on the divine side of this Father and child relationship.
Occupation with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the characteristics of a spiritually mature believer, but this intimacy is not automatic.
Intimate relationships begin by getting to know how a person thinks.
How the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ thinks is revealed in the “…mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16)”, that is revealed to us in Scripture. Discipleship is not merely learning OF the doctrinal principles disclosed in Scripture. If that were so, one of the most successful disciples would be the devil himself.
Discipleship involves the personal application of principles of Scripture and the eventual teaching of others through our actions and words.
On the surface, this would not seem to make discipleship any harder than learning any other subject matter, but what the advancing disciple learns soon enough is that there is an enemy within us that we must contend with every inch of the way.
A born again believer must also learn the schemes and diabolic objectives of the devil who speaks to and through this enemy within.
The enemy within is not the devil or his demons, but he and they will arouse this enemy within us, as we progress in the realm of discipleship.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 202 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS.”
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When we closed our last session we were taking a look at the enemy within us.
This enemy within that I am speaking of is the fallen nature that was passed down when our humanity was conceived (Psalms 51:5).
This enemy speaks to our soul as it promotes its own self-centered agenda, as well as passing along all the evil that the devil and/or his Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil brings to its attention and desires that we entertain.
In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul, after accomplishing much in the spiritual realm, still spoke of this ongoing conflict with this fallen nature nearly thirty years after he was born again.
What makes this enemy so hard to contend with is that prior to being born again, and/or during the periods of time in our post salvation spiritual life that we are out of fellowship with God, we are in full agreement with its concepts.
Worse yet, is that not only are we prone to be receptive to the false concepts of this fallen nature, this fallen nature is actually hostile towards God and things of God!
In all of creation, there are only two basic schools of thought.
Accordingly, every thought that has or will ever enter into our minds has roots that can be traced back to ONE of these two schools of thoughts.
It is ONLY through spiritual discernment that we can begin to perceive the spiritual issues that ARE behind virtually every activity under the sun.
One of these schools of thought is the mind of Christ, revealed to us in the Word of God.
The other is the mind of Satan, a.k.a. “evil”, revealed to us in many forms, including the perverted presentations of the Word of God.
The most influential and powerful form of evil is religion.
Religion is NOT from God.
ALL “religions”, including so-called Christian religions, are demonically endorsed (1TIMOHTY 4:1) thoughts, practices, and products, in which Man has made in an attempt to make or to keep himself right with God.
What makes Christian religion different from the other religions in the world, is that Christian religions are promoted as being based on the Word of God, when it fact, what they do represent is what Man has added to or taken from what can be Biblically substantiated.
What Christian religions and the other religions of the world have in common, is that they are designed to lead souls away from entering into an eternal relationship with the true God and the true things of God that can ALWAYS be Biblically substantiated.
Satan promotes all religion, including Christian religion, as alternatives to genuine spirituality that IS from God and IS revealed in what we now refer to as the Canon of Scripture.
Be it a pagan religion that promotes a false deity altogether, or ANY one of the Christian religions that promote a distorted presentation of God or the things of God, religion is religion and is contrary to the mind of Christ.
Canonicity is not our subject here, but there are some basic facts worth noting.
This Cannon of Scripture, in its original languages, began to be written with what we now know as the Book of Job whose date of authorship is unknown, but is believed to have been written prior to the writings of Moses.
What we now know as the Book of Genesis was written by Moses in around 1500 BC, and what we now know as John’s Revelation was completed in 96 AD.
The exact dates that the various writings were composed is not as important as it is to be aware of what parts of Scripture apply to the Church Age dispensation in which we live, and which parts refer to past dispensations or dispensations yet to come.
Scripture was never intended to inform us of all that there is to know (Deut. 29:29), but it does reveal to us all that we need to know.
The so called missing information is a part of the divine design that requires faith on our part (Hebrews 11:6).
Scripture written by human hands, but the Words are not the independent thoughts of the human authors.
Christian religions, in the form of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthadox, Protestant, and non-denominational varieties, with varying degrees of accuracy, include teachings that ARE based on various interpretations and applications of the Canon of Scripture.
The problem is that they also include many erroneous interpretations and applications of Scripture, as well.
Worse yet, many Christian RELIGIONS include teachings and practices that have NO Biblically substantiation at all, and contradict and pervert what IS revealed in Scripture.
Such perversions are the counterfeit alternatives designed by Satan. Like any other form of counterfeiting, the phony MUST have the appearance of the real thing if the deception is going to work.
The diabolic objective is to counteract the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
The Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20) calls for the proclaiming of the TRUE Gospel Message for salvation, and the making of disciples out of those who are born again.
The fact that Satan has NOT made any serious challenges to the spread of non-Christian religions, but HAS persistently and relentlessly infiltrated the Christian Community at large with varying degrees of religion, reveals the roles that both pagan religion and Christian religion play in the strategy and agenda of Satan.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 203 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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As long as we are under the influence of our self-centered fallen nature, we will have a secret agenda that we keep from others, and in our arrogance, think we are keeping from God.
God has a general and a specific plan for your life, and so does the devil.
God will allow you to live for yourself and for your own plan, if that is what you want to do, but there is no guarantee that it will or will not work out the way you plan.
Satan will promote you and bless your plan to the extent that his world can benefit from all the human good you can produce, and to the extent that it will take time and resources away from time you spend with God.
How familiar are you with the plan and goals that God has for you? How familiar are you with the plan and goals that Satan has for YOU?
Both God and Satan desire that believers have “success” while here on Earth, but have different definitions of how ultimate “success” is to be defined and who it is that is going to be blessed by it.
The production of human GOOD, with the human ability and talents you possess, is very much a part of both the plans that God and Satan has in mind for you.
Satan’s plan is to encourage the production of all forms of human good that contributes to making his world (Luke 4:6) a better place to live.
The more Man can do for himself, the less he will appear to be in the need of God.
Establishing and maintaining a prosperous kingdom that is independent of God was the stated goal of Satan (Isaiah 14: 13.14) long before Man was brought into the conflict between God and Satan.
It should not come to us as a surprise as to why the educational requirements for temporal success in virtually every profession there is, includes an indoctrination of studies that challenge God and the things of God.
God’s uses the human talents and abilities that humans possess to arrange and set the stage for the divine work that He has ordained for each born again believer, while enabling both the unbeliever and the believer to secure the logistical needs and necessities of life.
God also blesses individuals independently from what they obtain through their own efforts.
The difference in the unbeliever, the believer, and the disciple is the emphasis that one places on temporal success, and the reason that God has given all of us different human talents and abilities.
It is a part of God’s plan to produce His DIVINE good through the born again believer (John 15:5), as he/she interacts with those in his/her personal periphery at home, work, school and recreation.
It is during these divers and daily activities that the advancing disciple will be given the opportunity to present the Gospel Message to unbelievers and to share edifying principles of Scripture with fellow believers.
It is the production of divine good in the course of one’s daily activities that give spiritual significance to each and every day of one’s post salvation spiritual life.
This does not mean that you go around preaching AT people.
If YOU live in the devil’s world according to the principles of Scripture, it will NOT go unnoticed by human and spiritual beings.
It will cause some to roll their eyes back, but will cause others to seek the disciple out and to make spiritual inquiries, thus presenting him/her with the opportunity to either evangelize an unbeliever or to edify a fellow believer.
If you are not sensitive to this calling, then you are not involved in the post salvation life that God has called you to identify, develop, and execute.
If this is presently true of you, say this not to find fault, but to encourage you to do so.
Of course, a born again believer can only function as an ambassador for the Lord to the extent that he/she has first advanced in the realm of discipleship for his/her own spiritual edification.
There are many sincere and outspoken “religious” individuals who are out there every day exercising their faith, but are unwittingly promoting the evil that is found inside and outside of the Christian Community.
Unless you have been called to be a pastor teacher or an evangelist, most of the days of the advancing disciple will be spent exhibiting the SILENT testimony of your life and lifestyle, as you go about your daily routine interacting with both unbelievers and believers.
It is there, that unbelievers and believers, as well as fallen and elect angels, observe you in your domestic, personal, social, and work environments, taking note of the consistency or inconsistency of your speech, attitudes and behaviors with what you claim to believe.
The Bible (Luke 4:24) teaches that a prophet, that meaning one who speaks for God, is going to be the least effective in the midst of people who know him best.
The reason for this is that the people who know us best, also know of all the areas of personal weakness that we have, that we, as individual believers, that we still need to address.
The less we can do the walk as well as we can talk the talk, the more stones the Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil will have to give to others to hurl at us when we inevitable hit nerves by the presentation of the Gospel Message or an edifying passage of Scripture.
At the same, if we are going to wait to reach some level of sinless perfection before we take a stand for God, we never will, and the devil hopes we don’t.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 204 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS.”
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God’s desire is to evangelize unbelievers and edify believers in all walks of life.
It is while attending the local assembly or through other means of remote communication that pastor teachers provide born again believers with the information they need for their own spiritual growth first, and then for taking part in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
God’s arranges and places His disciples and ambassador’s in all areas and walks of life.
God is not the only one who can bless people during their time here in the devil’s world (Luke 4:6), and it is not for us to assume where the blessings that anyone receives is coming from.
We should never consider those whose calling from God places them in the spotlight or in an environment of prosperity to be having an “easier” time in life.
To whom much is given, much will be required of him/her.
Most of what the eye can see in this world is the results of producing the wood, hay, and straw of human good.
Much of what we see is also a part of the illusion that Satan uses to deceive us.
If the circumstances in life are such that you have the opportunity to enjoy any form of legitimate prosperity, then by all means do so (3John 1:2).
At the same time, don’t be so foolish as to let such things cause you to fail to make deposits in the Bank of Heaven, as well (Matthew 6:19,20).
Some of the hardest environments to be an effective ambassador in are those in which people think they have it all and do not need God.
Only the divine good, symbolized in Scripture as gold, silver, and precious stones (1Corinthians 3:12) have ANY spiritual value and warrant eternal reward.
Every born again believer will be given the opportunity to produce divine good within the scenario that God places them in, each and every day of their post salvation spiritual life.
All the human good that is produced can be of great of value to those who benefit by it while here in the devil’s world, but human good, symbolized in Scripture (1Corinthians 3:12) as wood, hay, and straw, is of NO spiritual value and will receive no eternal reward.
The classic example of great human good, but that has NO eternal value, is the work of a talented doctor or surgeon.
Be it at the hands of a believer or an unbeliever, no one is disputing the contribution that a doctor can make, but never the less, human good remains to be just that, human good.
Born again believers can produce both human and divine good, but only the divine good will be rewarded in Heaven (1Corinthians 3: 12-15).
Regardless of the quantity and the quality of human good an unbeliever produces, he/she will still find him/herself in Hades and then in then lake of fire for all of eternity (Revelation 20: 13,15).
Only born again believers, and then only when Spirit-filled (John 15:5) can produce divine good.
ALL other good deeds are of the human good variety and can be produced by anyone who has the human talent, ability, and opportunity to do so.
Be it in an environment of great prosperity or relative poverty, it will make no difference either way to an advancing disciple as long as he/she knows he/she is where God wants him/her to be and producing the divine good that what God desires.
Both the riches and the poverty of this life are only temporary, but Heaven and the rewards to be received are forever.
The advancing disciple does NOT serve God in order to be rewarded, but it is God’s stated plan to reward the believer for DIVINE good that is produced here on earth in the course of one’s post salvation spiritual life.
An unbeliever becomes a born again believer when he/she uses the free will that God gives to every soul that He creates, and with that free will, chooses to believe a presentation of the Gospel Message.
Once born again, the born again believer, now has access to the power of God the Holy Spirit to produce divine good.
Divine good is produced when born again believers, while in fellowship with God and by the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit, glorifies God by identifying and executing the TRUE post salvation spiritual life.
Executing the TRUE post salvation spiritual life involves growing in God’s grace and knowledge, applying the principles of doctrine that he/she learns to the events and circumstances of daily life, and taking part in the fulfillment of the Great Commission given to the Church.
All of these activities are associated with the others.
The advancing disciple would much rather make deposits in the Bank of Heaven (Matthew 6:19, 20), than receive the temporary blessings of Earth that, like any one of us, can be here today and gone tomorrow.
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Pastor Doug Laird
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