DECEMBER 2004

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

How important is Bible Doctrine?

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

“I have learned” – manthano, and “I know” – oida, introduces our first subject – the importance of doctrine.

JOH 18:38 “What is truth?”

“The way” = the entrance into the plan of God.
“The truth” = what we learn after we enter into the plan of God.
“The life” = the function that comes from truth or doctrine.

“The way” – hodos = used for entrance into a systematic course of planning and action.

For the Church-age believer there is one baptism, the baptism of the Spirit, EPH 4:6;
1CO 12:13; GAL 3:26-28.

Everyone enters into the plan of God at exactly the same place – everyone has the same chance and the same opportunity to glorify God and become a winner – equal privilege, equal opportunity.

“Hodos” – the way = entrance into the plan of God, a plan that is already laid out, in which everything is provided, categorized by one word “grace.”

Aletheia = truth or doctrine taught categorically.

1TI 2:3-4 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

JOH 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Experiences may come in passing but, if I do not have truth, experiences and feelings though real can be false.

1. Truth – emeth = stability, certainty, trust, that which is faithful, stable and secure.
Dr. William Gesenius – Emeth means firmness, security and integrity of mind.

Aletheia = integrity of character, that which is faithful and certain. Thayer – That which frees the mind from pretence, deceit and falsehood.

2. Truth is said to have a price upon it –
PRO 23:23 Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

The price of truth is humility, commitment, dedication and consistency.

3. Truth must be valued above money, riches and any form of prosperity.

PSA 119:127 Therefore I love Thy doctrines above gold, yes, above fine gold.
PSA 119:72 The doctrine of Thy mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

4. It is impossible to serve the Lord apart from truth being the motivator –
JOS 24:14 “Now, therefore, respect the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth;”

1SA 12:24 Only respect the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.

1KI 2:4 “If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.”

5. Truth gives us guidance and direction to worship God properly.

JOH 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in [the filling of the] spirit and truth[doctrine].”

6. Truth is something we must be taught, it does not come naturally –
PSA 25:5 Lead me in Thy truth and teach me, for Thou art the God of my deliverance

JOH 8:31-32, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, {then} you are truly disciples of Mine;”
and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

ISA 38:19 – parents are to make truth known to their children.
MAT 22:16 – our Lord taught the way of God in truth.
God’s will for all mankind is to “be saved and to come to the epignosis knowledge of the truth,” 1TI 2:4.

7. Truth protects us and keeps us from deception.
1CO 2:16 But we have the mind of Christ.
PHI 2:5 Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

JOH 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

In the last days “truth” will be rejected and deception accepted, 2TH 2:7-12, 2TI 3:5-8, 2TI 4:1-4.

2TH 2:10-11, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false,

8. Truth is that which God desires in our life – PSA 51:6 Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom.

1CO 4:5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts;
JOH 12:48 “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”

9. In His love God always reveals grace and mercy with His truth, 2PE 3:18, 2PE 3:18, PSA 85:10, PSA 85:11.

God’s righteousness is completely satisfied when He sees His truth in operation in man, PSA 40:10, PSA 40:11,JOH 1:14.

10. Truth cleanses us and purges us from sin – JOH 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you”
JOH 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth.”

PRO 16:6 By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, And by respect for the Lord one keeps away from evil.
ZEC 8:19 “love truth and peace”

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Zoe-life. Part 1. A life filled with inner happiness and contentment.

Thursday, December 2, 2004

JOH 18:38 “What is truth?”
JOH 14:6 “I am the way [entrance], and the truth [doctrine], and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

“The way” = the entrance into the plan of God.
“The truth” = what we learn after we enter into the plan of God.
“The life” = the function that comes from truth or doctrine.

The Truth leads to the Christian lifestyle.

JOH 14:6 I am the way [entrance], and the truth [doctrine], and the life;

Zoe – zoology
Bios – biology
Zoe = the function of life.
Bios = the pattern of life.

In the spiritual life, zoe = the super-grace life which is the objective of Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

The “zoe-life” is God’s fantastic grace provision which is far beyond your desires and even your most fervent prayers.

The “zoe” life is God’s fantastic grace provisions which are far beyond anything that you have ever asked God for or others for.

JOH 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have [zoe] life, and might have {it} abundantly.”

The “zoe” life is also God’s fantastic grace provisions which are far beyond your fondest dreams.
The “zoe” life is the direct result of fulfilling the life beyond gnosis or knowledge.

The life beyond gnosis of EPH 3:19 is the means of entering the zoe life of EPH 3:20.

The life beyond gnosis or knowledge is the means of executing the PPOG, and the “zoe” life is the result of executing the PPOG.

a. He does infinitely more than all we ask, whether the asking is toward God in prayer, or toward man by request.
b. He does infinitely more than all we think or imagine, which is our personal desires, expectations, and our thoughts associated with happiness symbols.

Dreams can represent:
what we want to be, what we want to have, with whom we desire to associate, to what we want to be promoted to, where we desire approval, and where applicable, with whom we desire to marry.

COL 3:3 For you have died and your life [zoe-life] has been hidden together with the Christ by means of the God.

The Filling of the Holy Spirit,
Metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the soul,
The ten problem-solving devices,
The execution of the PPOG.

Dreams are often an escape from reality, but there is nothing but reality and indescribable blessing in the “zoe” life.

1CO 2:9 However, as it stands written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

ISA 55:8 “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways,” says the Lord.

ISA 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

You cannot even begin to think, imagine, or dream of the fantastic things that God has provided for you in the zoe life.

In the life beyond gnosis, the Church glorifies God through the attainment of spiritual maturity.

In the zoe life, the church glorifies God through receiving their escrow blessings for time and in the eternal state.

a. Greatness or success.
b. Commendation from people.
c. Money and security.
d. Social life and romance.

e. The possession of materialistic things which are coveted for pleasure or desired as a status symbol.
f. Achievement in some field in which they are interested.
g. Possessing beauty, strength, attractiveness, and/or health.
h. Where applicable, being married to the ideal person.

God has provided for the mature believer a zoe-life, beyond imagination, and beyond our greatest solicitation to self-interest.

1. This life is only found in Christ and gives us guidance and direction in this life, JOH 1:4.
2. This life is made available to anyone who believes in TLJC, JOH 3:15.
3. This zoe life or the life which comes from God fulfills the desires which are found in everyone of us, JOH 4:14,Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

4. This life is made available to us in time, not beginning with eternity, JOH 5:24.
5. This “zoe” life or the life which God gives to us is given to us through the intake of doctrine, JOH 6:27.

6. This life is given in measure depending upon the believer’s desire for it, JOH 10:10.
7. This life can never be taken away, JOH 10:28-30.

8. This “zoe” life is described in JOH 17:3 as “knowing” God and TLJC.
9. It is through the written communication of Bible doctrine that this life is offered to every member of the human race, JOH 20:31.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Zoe-life. Part 2. “Zoe” is the supergrace life, which is the objective of Bible Doctrine resident in the soul.

Friday, December 3, 2004

PHI 4:11-12 – the correct interpretation of life for the believer who sticks with doctrine and lives in the way and the truth manifested by the life.

JOH 14:6 “I am the way [entrance], and the truth [doctrine], and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

In the spiritual life, zoe refers to the super-grace life – the objective of Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

This zoe-life refers to an extraordinary peace that God desires for us to experience even in time.

This sense of inner peace and contentment may decrease or increase because this new life, the zoe life, a life of complete contentment, is given little by little.

God has a plan for our lives which enables us to recognize death to the old sin nature with its selfish desires; as a part of that plan He also gives us the experience of zoe-life in time.

JOH 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, “has” eternal life zoe life or the life which comes from God, and does not come into judgment, but “has passed” out of death into life.

JOH 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you.

PHI 4:7 In fact, that spiritual peace and prosperity from the source of the God, which surpasses or rises above and beyond all comprehension, shall garrison your hearts [right lobes] also your minds in Christ Jesus.

We do not always understand the will of God, but to trust His sovereignty completely leads us to the experience of this zoe-life within.

As we stay dedicated and devoted to the way, the truth and the life, outward problems caused by persecution, injustice, and even what is perceived to be the unfairness of God, are no longer perceived to be a negative and reacted to.

This life of contentment and inner peace is a life of fantastic inner happiness –
PHI 4:4 Keep on having perfect happiness by means of the Lord at all times;

It will cause us not to be worried and give us fantastic inner peace, PHI 4:6-7.
It will give us a fantastic positive attitude toward life, PHI 4:8.

PHI 4:8 From now on, members of the Royal Family of God, whatever is true [doctrinal], whatever is honorable[noble or worthy of respect], whatever is just [fair or right], whatever is pure [of proper motivation] whatever personal loves exist, whatever is commendable, if there is any virtue [there is for the mature believer – first class condition] and if anything worthy of praise [there is for the mature believer – first class condition], be concentrating on these things.

It will allow us to be totally content in any and every circumstance of life, PHI 4:11-13.

It will give us phenomenal confidence that no matter what the odds are against, God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, PHI 4:19.

This is truly escrow blessings in time, not wealth and overt prosperity, but an incredible superb inner peace with God.

Zoe-life refers to an extraordinary peace that God desires for us to experience in this life.

Zoe-life means we will experience deliverance from the bondage of the world and the stronghold of the cosmic system.

To leave God, after coming to this zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, would be the most miserable thing in the universe.

JER 17:5 Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord.

JER 30:14 For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, With the punishment of a cruel one, Because your iniquity is great And your sins are numerous.
JER 30:17 For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,

This zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, is a state in which the believer does not need to be rescued from external problems and difficulties in order to remain happy and content.

In this zoe-life, we realize that what we were trying to accomplish in our own human power has now been graciously given to us by God as a reward for our faith in His character and His word.

MAT 10:39 “He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.”

His real soul-life, zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, and therefore his personal sense of destiny, resulting in the experience of this zoe-life.

HEB 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

If you are ever faced with any problems or difficulties, remember there is this zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, where we leave behind the old self-life for the new life in Christ.

Adam’s fall was our fall into spiritual death, however, our Lord’s life is our life from the dead nature to the new nature, experiencing the love, happiness, peace and gentleness in the mentality of our soul.

Just as we had nothing to do with our first birth and our fall into spiritual death, we have nothing to with our second birth resulting in this zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment.

We are not in union with the life of Christ as He lived on earth in His perfect humanity, we are in union with the life of the resurrected Christ in Heaven.
EPH 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus,

We have the privilege to partake of that spiritual life that He took possession of for us at His resurrection, and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the fruits of it.

ROM 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

MAT 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Zoe-life. Part 3. The Zoe-life is God’s fantastic grace provision, far beyond anything you have ever asked for.

Sunday, December 5, 2004

Verses 11-12 – the correct interpretation of history and what it means to be on the right side of history and to accept your calling and place in life.

“I have learned” – manthano, and “I know” – oida, introduces our first subject – the importance of Bible doctrine.

JOH 14:6 I am the way [entrance], and the truth [doctrine], and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.

“The way” = the entrance into the plan of God.
“The truth” = what we learn after we enter into the plan of God.
“The life” = function that comes from truth or doctrine.

Socrates – “Contentment is natural wealth; luxury, artificial poverty.”

True contentment is a real, active, virtue.
It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.

Being “contented” = being pleased.

Truth leads to a lifestyle.

Zoe – zoology.
Bios – biology.
Zoe = the function of life.
Bios = the pattern of life.

The zoe life is God’s fantastic grace provisions which are far beyond even your most fervent prayers.

The “zoe” life is God’s fantastic grace provisions which are far beyond things which you have ever asked for, from God or from others.

EPH 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

JOH 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have [zoe] life, and might have {it} abundantly.”

The “zoe” life is God’s fantastic grace provisions which are far beyond your fondest dreams.
1CO 2:9 However, as it stands written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

No matter how wild and seemingly impossible your dreams may be, God has provided something far greater than any thinking or imagination in any dream you have ever had.

The “zoe” life is the direct result of fulfilling the life beyond gnosis or knowledge.

The life beyond gnosis of EPH 3:19 is the means of entering the zoe life of EPH 3:20.

This zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, means that I am free from worrying, free from anxiety, free from frustration.

You are at rest not from troubles and anxieties but in the midst of troubles and anxieties.

JOH 10:10 “I came that they might have life, and might have {it} abundantly.”

Paul was living in the new creature or the new spiritual species under the filling of the Spirit but still wanted to attain or to experience this zoe-life, filled with inner happiness and contentment in time.

This zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, can be experienced as a reward only by those willing to live the spiritual life by sticking with the plan of God.

God not only rewards those who diligently seek Him in the eternal state, but also in time, HEB 11:6; MAR 10:30, not through materialism and overt prosperity, although He may do that to some, but through the experience of this zoe-life.

The new nature gives us the power and the ability to live the spiritual life but this zoe-life, filled with inner happiness and contentment, is the ultimate experience of living in that new nature.

We will experience times when the peace of God is such a reality in our lives that the problems and difficulties we are facing have no control over us whatsoever.

Does it mean that we have to keep on sowing to God the Holy Spirit to earn our eternal salvation?
To sow – pres-act-part – speiro = to sow, to invest one’s time, to invest one’s life.

If we keep on living the spiritual life we will keep on reaping more and more of the experience of our eternal life in time, the ultimate = what Paul had, this zoe-life.

1. Tranquility of soul. You begin to relax in your soul.
2. Stability of mental attitude, including never feeling threatened by others and avoiding inordinate ambition and competition.
3. Composure marked by self-assurance, which is the correct and accurate application of doctrine to life.

4. Grace-orientation to life which includes mercy toward yourself when you fail and giving others the benefit of the doubt.
5. Doctrinal-orientation to reality – based upon genuine humility, objectivity, teachability, spiritual common sense, and the avoidance of inordinate ambition and competition or inordinate self-esteem.
6. Good decisions from a position of strength, which includes motivation from personal love for God the Father plus divine viewpoint thinking.

7. Personal control of your life.
8. A personal sense of destiny, which includes solving the problems related to God, self, others, and things.
9. Self-confidence from wisdom – the function of doctrinal purity or the application of metabolized doctrine to experience.
10. Poise – the believer under spiritual self-command.

When a believer reaches spiritual maturity and goes on to supergrace and ultra-supergrace then he will have the privilege of experiencing the zoe life.

As we walk in dependence upon the Spirit, He will cause this zoe-life, a life filled with inner happiness and contentment, to flow through us as rivers of living water.

If you knew the magnitude of the desires of God for your life, you would relax and enjoy every day, living one day at a time.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Doctrine of Contentment. Part 1. Your ability to adapt to any situation in life.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

PHI 4:11 Not because I am speaking with reference to poverty or lack; for I have learned in whatever circumstances I am to be content.

“Content” – predicate nominative – adjective autarkes = self-sufficient contentment.

A predicate nominative has the same value or grammatical weight as the subject.

Paul is saying – “I am nothing myself without this contentment.”

Autarkes, contentment = not just self-sufficiency, and not just contentment, but self-sufficient contentment.

It is adaptability to any difficult circumstance in life.

JOB 20:20 “Such God-denying people are never content with what they have or who they are; their greed drives them relentlessly.”

Autarkes or contentment is your ability to adapt, accommodate, adjust, or conform to any situation in life.

If it is something dull, then you just weave a little web of contentment around it, and you encompass it with happiness, with challenge, with blessing, with stimulation.

HEB 5:11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

You make the circumstances, the circumstances do not make or break you.

A mature believer, a supergrace or ultra supergrace believer becomes content and self-sufficient, all in one package – self-sufficient contentment.

Contentment is a natural and authentic wealth.

Indulgence and riches are artificial prosperity.

The mature believer takes his contentment in his soul wherever he goes and when he walks into a dull situation, he just takes his contentment out of the soul and sprays the place.

ZEP 3:12-13, I’ll leave a core of people among you who are humble in spirit – What’s left of Israel that’s really Israel. They’ll make their home in GOD. This core of holy people will not do wrong. They won’t lie, won’t use words to flatter or seduce. Content with who they are and where they are, unanxious, they’ll live at peace.

The mature believer is never a slave to circumstances, because of the blessings and provisions of the supergrace zoe life.

Message Bible – MAT 5:5 You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

Point 1. Definition.
a. Autarkes, contentment – from Aeschylus = sufficient for oneself, strong enough or possessing enough to need no aid or support; to be independent of external circumstances.

Amplified Bible – 1TH 4:12 So that you may bear yourselves becomingly and be correct and honorable and command the respect of the outside world, being dependent on nobody [self-supporting] and having need of nothing.

b. Autarkes = to be contented with one’s niche, with one’s means, even though little.
c. To be strong enough or possessing enough to need no aid or support.

d. In the spiritual realm, autarkes means to be spiritually self-sustained and to become sufficient enough to be in need of no one else.

1TI 6:6 But living the spiritual life keeps on being a great means of prosperity when accompanied by contentment or capacity for life.

e. Arkeo = “to be sufficient, to be possessed of sufficient strength, to be strong, to be strong enough for anything;” “to defend, ward off.”

f. “To be satisfied, contented with your wages,” LUK 3:14, with food and clothing; 1TI 6:8, with “such things as you have,” HEB 13:5.
Used negatively of Diotrephes, 3Jo 10, “was not content.”

Point 2. Godliness or Living the Spiritual Life That God Has Provided is a Means of Great Profit When Accompanied by Contentment.

Godliness = you are in the place where God can train you – residence, function, and momentum inside the spiritual life that God has provided.

Having perfect happiness, God then gives us the ultimate in suffering for blessing, evidence testing, and this is how “godliness is a means of great profit.”

“Contentment” = perfect happiness, begun in spiritual self-esteem, continued in spiritual autonomy, and completed in spiritual maturity.

Godliness [eusebeia] = you are in the place where God can train you – residence, function, and momentum inside the spiritual life that God has provided.

Contentment = the perfect happiness developed from living the spiritual life that God has provided for every Church-age believer.

The purpose of providential preventative suffering is to learn obedience, self-discipline, and enforced and genuine humility.

1CO 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.
1CO 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

It insulates against the arrogance complex.

Providential preventative suffering is the provision of the sovereignty of God in compatibility with His grace policy to provide the power for spiritual self-esteem to advance to spiritual maturity – the power to advance through the valley of momentum testing.

Providential preventative suffering prevents, restrains, intercepts, insulates against sin and evil in the life while challenging your spiritual self-esteem to suffer for blessing and profit.

Illustration: a woman falls in love with a man who walks out on her just before the marriage. She is miserable temporarily, but this is better than a lifetime of misery with the wrong man.

a. Impersonal love for all mankind is the first sign of spiritual autonomy.
b. Authority orientation, or enforced humility.
c. Genuine humility, which insulates against arrogance during momentum testing.
d. Self-discipline.
e. Obedience to the Word of God.

PRO 19:8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul [spiritual self-esteem]; he who cherishes understanding prospers [spiritual autonomy].
Providential preventative suffering at spiritual self-esteem is designed to put you in a state of weakness in that there is no human solution to the problems that you are facing.

Whatever the solution, it must be a divine solution, spiritual common sense, which comes from your own soul’s resources of Bible doctrine.
1. People testing
2. Thought testing
3. System testing
4. Disaster testing

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Doctrine of Contentment: Part 2; The four types of testing that strengthen our contentment.

Friday, December 17, 2004

PHI 4:11 Not because I am speaking with reference to poverty or lack; for I have learned in whatever circumstances I am to be content.

Point 1. Definition.
a. Autarkes, contentment – from Aeschylus = sufficient for oneself, strong enough or possessing enough to need no aid or support; to be independent of external circumstances.

In the spiritual realm, autarkes means to be spiritually self-sustained and to become sufficient enough to be in need of no one else.

Point 2. Godliness or Living the Spiritual Life That God Has Provided is a Means of Great Profit When Accompanied by Contentment.

“Contentment” = perfect happiness, begun in spiritual self-esteem, continued in spiritual autonomy, and completed in spiritual maturity.

1. People testing
2. Thought testing
3. System testing
4. Disaster testing

Satan is the first creature guilty of arrogance, ISA 14:14.

His original sin of arrogance is amplified in EZE 28:17 – he was corrupted by his wisdom.

Arrogance is a high-minded self-respect totally apart from reality.
It is high esteem of oneself from some imagined or real superiority.

Arrogance is synonymous with vanity, which is empty pride in regard to one’s person, attainments, or possessions coupled with an excessive desire to be noticed, a lust for attention, lust for approval or praise from others.

1CO 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.

ISA 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And clever in their own sight!
ROM 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;

Spiritual self-esteem is vulnerable to arrogance without providential preventative suffering, which God graciously provides.
People testing, Thought testing, System testing, Disaster testing

“On behalf of Christ” – the glorification of our Lord demands that the believer in spiritual self-esteem put muscle on that status, pass providential preventative suffering so he might advance to spiritual autonomy, thus increasing his perfect happiness.

“Strong when weak” = the utilization of divine power for momentum in the spiritual life that God has provided for the Church-age believer.
To be “weak” means you must make maximum use of divine power, the basis for blessing in the midst of testing.

Providential preventative suffering brings you to the point where you realize life and the devil are bigger than you, and you will not be able to solve your problems on your own.

To the extent that you have illusions about your so-called strong points, you are depriving yourself of the blessings of grace.

a. In personal love or admiration, the object of your love often controls your life or provides for you unhappiness, unless you have attained spiritual self-esteem, spiritual independence, or spiritual maturity.
b. In personal hatred or animosity, the object of your antagonism or irritation often has control of your life or happiness, unless you have advanced to spiritual adulthood.

You are supposed to have personal control of your life, a personal sense of destiny, self-confidence from metabolized doctrine, contentment, and therefore, poise and command of self.

EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

PRO 13:20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm.
PSA 119:63 I am a companion of all those who respect Thee, And of those who keep Thy precepts.
MAL 3:16 Then those who respected the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who respect the Lord and who esteem His name.

The solution to people testing is found in the combination of personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind.

“Sound judgment” = thinking in terms of sanity for the purpose of being rational without illusion.

At some time in life, you may be promoted to some area totally beyond your ability, and in arrogance you may accept this new position.

To be “rational without illusion” means to have no illusions about yourself.

GAL 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
1CO 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

A system is an organization composed of people under the command of other people functioning under a policy which is designed to fulfill a specific objective.

Some systems are good and some are bad, however, the issue is not whether they are good or bad, the issue is –
do you enter into the system or an organization with the perfect happiness and contentment from God?

1CO 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The characteristics of a system –
1. Authority.
2. Policy.
3. Objective.

1. The authority may give unfair and unjust treatment, as from management, the boss, supervisor, senior officer, coach, professor, government bureaucrat, husband, parents, etc.
2. The policy may be unreasonable, or may conflict with normal living or with your own personal norms and standards, or it may be a stupid though still enforceable policy.
3. The objectives may be unreasonable or even impossible because of lack of ability in the personnel trying to fulfill them.

The greatest enemy to any organization is arrogance in its personnel.
A second enemy is incapability; a third is laziness.
Other enemies include distraction from wrong priorities and ignorance.

Before the believer reaches spiritual maturity and has +H plus real contentment, there will be some major disasters in the life.

PSA 57:1 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in Thee; And in the shadow of Thy wings I will take refuge, until destruction passes by.

1. Personal disaster testing is designed as suffering for blessing for acceleration of momentum, or warning of cosmic involvement, in which case divine discipline becomes involved.
2. Historical disaster, collective disaster, or national disaster testing is related to the bad decisions of others in which you are involved by association.

1. Pain – physical or mental pain and anguish.
2. Crime – where you are the victim.
3. Persecution (not paranoia).
4. Privation – hunger, thirst, exposure, fatigue.
5. Loss of loved ones, property, success, money, etc.
6. Disease and handicaps.

a. Violence, crime, terrorism, dope, murder.
b. Warfare.
c. Weather disaster includes heat, cold, storm, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes.
d. Cycles of discipline.

In this test, there is always the temptation to take the easy route of money, security, fame, and lose forever the conveyance of escrow blessing.

There is always the disaster that will make you prosperous if you rely on the power of God to pull you through.

JER 17:17 “Thou art my refuge in the day of disaster.”
JOB 5:19 From one disaster after another he delivers you; no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you.
PSA 86:13 You’ve always been great toward me – what love! You snatched me from the brink of disaster!

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Doctrine of Contentment. Part 3. How to handle the seemingly boring mundane things in life.

Sunday, December 19, 2004

PHI 4:11 Not because I am speaking with reference to poverty or lack; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

Predicate nominative adjective – autarkes = self-sufficient contentment.
When a predicate nominative follows a verb in the sentence under Greek structure it has the same value or grammatical weight as the subject.

Paul is saying – “I am nothing myself without this contentment.”

The Doctrine of Contentment.
Point 1. Definition.

a. Autarkes, contentment = sufficient for oneself, strong enough or possessing enough inner strength to need no aid or support; to be independent of external circumstances.
b. Autarkes = to be contented with one’s niche, with one’s means, even though little.
c. To be strong enough or possessing enough strength to need no aid or support from others.

“To be satisfied and contented with your wages,” LUK 3:14, with food and clothing; 1TI 6:8, with “such things as you have,”
HEB 13:5.

It is used negatively of Diotrephes, who in 3Jo 10, “was not content,” and therefore he sowed division.

Point 2. Godliness or Living the Spiritual Life That God Has Provided is a Means of Great Profit When Accompanied by Contentment.

This is a means of great profit because it is the beginning of the development of true contentment and the resultant inner happiness, becoming occupied with Christ, and having personal love for God.

Having perfect happiness, God then gives us the ultimate in suffering for blessing – evidence testing, and this is how “godliness is a means of great profit.”

“Contentment” = perfect happiness, begun in spiritual self-esteem, continued in spiritual autonomy, and completed in spiritual maturity.

Being content with food and shelter means that if you are content with the basic things and you develop perfect happiness, then God can trust you with the most magnificent things in life, as packaged in your escrow blessings for time.

2CO 12:10 Therefore I am well content [the beginning of perfect happiness] with weaknesses [providential preventative suffering]: in insults or slanders [people testing], with distresses or pressures [thought testing] with persecutions [system testing], with difficulties or stresses [disaster testing] on behalf of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Providential preventative suffering is undeserved suffering brought to us by permission of God to protect us from becoming arrogant and thinking more highly of ourselves than what we ought to.

The purpose of providential preventative suffering is to learn obedience, self-discipline, and enforced and genuine humility through the application of the contentment you possess.

Point 3. The Challenge to Contentment is Boredom.

Many things we do in life are monotonous, wearisome, exhausting and tiresome, and seem to be a waste of time.

As a result of looking at the things you do habitually as being monotonous, life has no meaning, no purpose and no significance because you lack contentment in your life.

ECC 3:9-10 What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

ECC 1:3-5 What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes – it’s business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again – the same old round.

ECC 1:8 Everything’s boring, utterly boring – no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear.

MAT 10:42 “And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.”

There comes a time in every believer’s life of going through dryness or dullness in the spiritual life.

This low point of dullness or monotony will not of itself take us away from the plan of God unless we allow it to be properly exploited by the kingdom of darkness.

It has to do with a physiological need that the individual has a difficult time identifying, and then through satanic deception, it turns into all sorts of things.

This was a low point in David’s life, he stayed back when he should have gone forward.

David’s real problems began by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Even though he is a mature believer, as high as you can go, he fell into a state of degeneracy.

1CO 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.
1CO 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

ROM 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think
GAL 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
1CO 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

This is another indication of David’s spiritual status, he is sleeping during the day time while his soldiers are out fighting the war.

It started out by tempting him at a low point and it ended up with his son dying, his daughter being raped, his son being murdered and the Absalom revolution.

Satan and the kingdom of darkness know that believers have a body, soul and spirit and that it is the spirit part of man that can get in touch with the spiritual world and eternal things.

They understand that while our spirit can be directed to eternal things, our bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change and basically affected by earthly things.

As long as we live on this earth, periods of emotional and physical highs will alternate with periods of apathy or calmness and passivity about certain things.

To live on the dull edge is really to become a slave to life.

Are you allowing someone or something to enslave you so that you live and you will die not really knowing who you are?

I get up each morning, dust off my wits,
Pick up the paper and read the O'bits.
If my name is missing, I know I'm not dead,
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed!

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

PSA 92:12-14 The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green,

Our attitude is one of over-protection.

1. To get what you want.
2. To enjoy it.
Only the wisest of mankind, achieve the second.

1. “I’m waiting until I get the things I’ve always wanted, then I’ll be happy.”
LUK 12:15 And He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

2. “I’m waiting until I meet the person who will fulfill my life.”
PSA 118:8-9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord Than to trust in man.It is better to take refuge in the Lord Than to trust in princes.

3. “I’m waiting until I have achieved my goals and realized my dreams.”
Goals and dreams, as great as they may be and as much as they keep us plugging in the valley, will never bring satisfaction.

We spend so much longer climbing than we do enjoying the view when we reach it.
MAT 16:26 “For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Doctrine of Contenetment. Part 4. Contentment related to lifestyle and the spiritual life.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

PHI 4:11 Not because I am speaking with reference to poverty or lack; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

The Doctrine of Contentment.
Point 1. Definition.
Point 2. Godliness or Living the Spiritual Life That God Has Provided is a Means of Great Profit When Accompanied by Contentment.

Point 3. The Challenge to Contentment is Boredom.
Point 4. Contentment is Related to Lifestyle, HEB 13:5.

KJV –
HEB 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness;

“Love for money” – NAS and “covetousness” – KJV = aphilarguros.
Arguros = money!
Phileo = to love.
Negative “a” = “do not.”

Lifestyle – tropos = your lifestyle or character, not conversation!

When money becomes your master, you become a pitiful slave to money.
The objective is to have money as your slave and perfect happiness as your master.

If you are content with what you have, you have perfect happiness in spiritual autonomy, the second stage of spiritual growth.

This promise assures you of both temporal and eternal security.

There is a great deal of difference between enjoying money and loving money.
If you love money then you are the slave.

If you have capacity for life and contentment you will enjoy money; then you are the master and money is the slave.

You can be a wonderful person and over-night, you can become a slobbering, slithering, evil person – because you’ll do anything for money or someone who has your price.

Point 5. Contentment is the Result of Spiritual Maturity, PHI 4:11-13.

You still have the Lord and you still have the doctrine in the soul and the doctrine in the soul gives you capacity for life.

Once you reach spiritual maturity, you have an entirely new and refreshing system of thinking, and you never think in terms of needs.

Once you reach spiritual adulthood, needs become inconsequential, so you do not have to spend time thinking about them.

Your needs are not nearly as important once you reach spiritual adulthood, resulting in an improved prayer life that does not include all your needs.

Contentment and happiness is something you learn, not something you have, want, or anticipate.

To learn to be content takes a lot of doctrine repeated, knowledge about the uniqueness of the Church-age and all the mystery doctrine resulting in understanding your personal sense of destiny.

One of the greatest signs of prosperity is maximum use of perfect happiness and true contentment.

Humiliation is associated with arrogance; being humbled is associated with spiritual growth and understanding God’s grace.

What we cannot learn from Bible doctrine, we must learn from adversity and undeserved suffering.

PRO 16:18 First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.
PRO 29:23 Pride lands you flat on your face; humility prepares you for honors.
PRO 13:10 Arrogant know-it-alls stir up discord,

PRO 15:25 GOD smashes the pretensions of the arrogant;
PRO 16:5 GOD can’t stomach arrogance or pretense; believe me, he’ll put those upstarts in their place.

It is difficult for prosperity to successfully work in anyone simply because of arrogance.

1CO 4:7 What are you so puffed up about? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?

To be initiated = to learn the secrets of the fraternity and to endure the testings of the fraternity.

“How to be prosperous and how to suffer need” – both categories are necessary for the advance to spiritual maturity and the fulfillment of the spiritual life that God has provided.

“I have the power” = the availability of divine omnipotence for the execution of the spiritual life that God has provided for the Church-age believer.

Whether you are strong or not depends on you learning that God’s power exists in three categories (omnipotence of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) and is available to you, and then utilizing it through the perception of doctrine.

Perfect happiness and true contentment actually equates living with dying for the believer.

PHI 1:21 “For me, living is Christ and dying is profit.”

“All things” = the three stages of spiritual adulthood, the problem-solving devices, and the tremendous invisible impact on history.

The source of this power is the Father – “through Him” – the preposition en + instrumental of agency expresses personal agency.

Endunamoo = “through Him who makes me strong,” or “through Him who pours the power into me.”

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Christmas Special: There was no room at the Inn.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

JAM 1:17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.
JAM 1:17 Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.

Even in His giving, there is no shadow cast upon Him for our frequent turnings.

Anekdiegetos = indescribable – the only one that would fit.

Main verb based on indescribable = to recount, to set forth in detail, to describe.
Negative = unable to set forth in great detail, unable to describe.

2CO 9:15 Now thanks be to God for His Gift, [precious] beyond telling [His indescribable, inexpressible, free Gift]!
2CO 9:15 Thank God for his Son – his Gift too wonderful for words. – AMP
2CO 9:15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! – TLB
2CO 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! – RSV
2CO 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. NKJV

Undiminished deity, true humanity, unmixed, yet forever in one body from birth throughout eternity.

God gave Himself.
TLJC is the only member of the God-head who is visible, and ever will be visible; JOH 8:18; JOH 6:46.

God the Son – thanks to the incarnation and deity becoming humanity – He is not only seen, but He is to be worshipped and adored.

When you live under Roman rule you were under the authority of Caesar.

In those days you were born not only to fear, but to worship Caesar.

The Caesar decided that in order for there to be maximum taxation, he would have to have an accurate accounting of the people in his kingdom.

Micah the prophet, seven centuries before the birth of the Savior, unknown by Augustus, had written down in the record of the Scriptures, that it will be in Bethlehem, the most insignificant of all places, the Son of God would be born.

MIC 5:2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, {Too} little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”

PSA 76:10 For the wrath of man shall praise Thee;
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
COL 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
HEB 1:3 He upholds all things by the word of His power.

Back behind the scenes, a sovereign God is moving on the events of this world to bring forth His precious, inexpressible, unspeakable gift, in Bethlehem exactly as He promised 700+ years earlier.

Luke uses – engaged [mnesteuo] in the passive form = having been engaged to him, or promised to him in marriage – to remind us that he has not touched her sexually.

PRO 6:17 eyes that are arrogant,

PRO 30:13 There is a kind – oh how lofty are his eyes! And his eyelids are raised {in arrogance.}

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems,
more medicine, but less well-ness. We laugh too little, drive too fast, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little,
watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values! We talk too much, love too seldom, and judge too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.

We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever,
but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips! Disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

LUK 2:7 there was no room for them in the inn.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Christmas Special. Part 2. Things Mary pondered in her heart.

Friday, December 24, 2004

The first Christmas was filled with chaos and confusion while traveling with money making schemes as its theme.

ISA 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

2PE 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

ROM 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

God and His grace quiets the spirit of these people, lest they miss the message in their panic.

The one thing stolen from many people at Christmas time is the very emotion of the message, joy and happiness.

It will go from the lowliest person all the way to the throne of Caesar.

NIV – JOB 38:7 The morning stars sang together, And all the angels shouted for joy?

The same ones that sang at creation, were there to sing at the Incarnation.

MAT 23:24 who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

1TI 1:6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion,

The worthless ones met the worthy One.

Did she know that her baby boy would one day walk on water?
MAT 12:26.
Did she know that her baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
MAT 1:21.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

I have come to know how to be humbled and also I have come to know how to live in prosperity. Part 1. .

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

“I know” – perf-act-ind – oida – oi^da – used as a present tense = “I have come to know.”
Emphatic use of the conjunction kai – kaiV = “In fact.”

The greatest mistake some people make is living in constant fear that they will make one.

Life will be victorious when you can capitalize on your mistakes.

Paul’s mistakes in Jerusalem when he willfully disobeyed God and the warning discipline he was under, Act 21.

Pres-pass-inf – tapeinousthai – tapeinou'sqai = to be humbled, to be humiliated by being assigned a lower place at the table, to be degraded, or to be pressured.

Present tense = he can handle situations that continue for a certain length of time despite the pressures the situations may bring.
Passive voice = you receive from these circumstances pressure and humiliation; it is God’s purpose for you to face every situation in life rightly related to the grace of God.
Infinitive = this is part of the purpose of God conforming us to the image of His Son, ROM 8:29.

JAM 3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.

LUK 12:48 from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Passive voice – tapeinoo = Paul as a reversionistic believer received the action of the verb, humiliation under grace.

PHI 4:12 I have come to know how to be humbled, he is referring to his Jerusalem reversionism.

Adjunctive use – kai = kaiV = also.
“I know” – perf-act-ind – oida – oi^da – used as a present tense = “I have come to know.”

Intensive perfect tense = a completed action and the results go on after the completed action.
“Also I have come to know.”
Active voice – first oida = reversionistic Paul is speaking from what he learned from his mistakes in his Jerusalem fiasco. Active voice – second oida = supergrace Paul is producing the action of the verb, from what he learned from his victory.

Pres-act-inf – perisseuein perisseuvein= to have more than enough; to have prosperity.

Prosperity here is the result of his spiritual victories in supergrace.
Humiliation here, is not the humble grace orientation, but the degradation of discipline in reversionism.

Pres-act-inf – perisseuein = to have more than enough; to have prosperity.

1. Individual prosperity testing, in which some form of success challenges the top priority of doctrine.
2. Collective prosperity testing, in which a city, state, nation, or group becomes very prosperous.

There are many believers today who cannot handle any form of prosperity because promotion and recognition cause them to become arrogant and think more highly of themselves than what they ought to think, especially in churches.

Prosperity cannot bring happiness apart from the believer’s residence, function, and momentum inside the PPOG.

Our capacity must always precede our prosperity.

The cosmic system can offer you success, sex, fame, wealth, promotion, social and professional prosperity, but all these are without happiness and you make your own misery.

Passing this test consolidates the believer’s scale of values, making them consistent with the PPOG, resulting in stabilizing the right priorities of life, and giving capacity to enjoy prosperity.

Passing this test means that the mature believer receives God’s greatest prosperity, the greater blessings of time and eternity.

When you have the same happiness in adversity as well as prosperity, it means you have passed the test.

You concentrate on occupation with Christ,
HEB 12:2, so that He is the focus of your life, the priority solution, the motivation, and the basis for worship, as in communion.

Occupation with Christ becomes a major problem-solving device in passing momentum testing and advancing to spiritual maturity.

DEU 30:15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;”

ECC 7:14 In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider – God has made the one as well as the other.

On a good day, enjoy yourself; On a bad day, examine your conscience.
God arranges for both kinds of days so that we won’t take anything for granted.

JER 22:21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, “I will not listen!” this has been your practice from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.

The prosperity test also brings out the covetousness and jealousy that some believers still have within them.

There is the prosperity of the wicked which sometimes causes envy in the righteous.

Asaph was one of the finest and chief musicians in Israel.

Even if you do not understand what you are going through remember God is good to His people.

How do you handle the prosperity of others?

1CO 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
ROM 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

God in His grace actually will allow the wicked to prosper on this earth.

MAT 5:45b He causes His sun to rise on {the} evil and {the} good,

You do not see the discomfort and lack of content in their soul.
They do not have that peace that goes beyond understanding, PHI 4:6.

“Their body is fat” = their strength was from their riches.

You have something in your soul that money cannot buy, a peace that you can go through a tragedy, disaster, sickness, and still say, “I have learned to be content in whatever state I am in.”

ECC 2:10 And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,

PSA 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

They were standing on a smooth place, but always remember – smooth places can be very slippery.

JER 23:12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,They may be prospering right now, but slippery paths are going to follow. They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; For I shall bring calamity upon them, The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.

ECC 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

The Lord says, “There’s a year for their punishment” = every person who is anti-God and has negative volition has a year assigned by God for their punishment.

ECC 8:10 So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are {soon} forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is futility.

“Beast” – behemah = the water ox or the hippopotamus; it means a plump colossus of flesh – an emblem of colossal stupidity.

Many individuals enjoy blessing on earth from the grace of God because they will have nothing but suffering for all of eternity.

1CO 4:7 What do you have that you did not receive?

3JO 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

I have come to know how to be humbled and also I have come to know how to live in prosperity. Part 2. .

Thursday, December 30, 2004

PHI 4:12 – “I have come to know how to be humbled” [his Jerusalem reversionism] and also I have come to know how to live in prosperity [Paul’s experience as a mature believer being blessed by God].

Pres-pass-inf – tapeinoo = “to receive humiliation”
Pres-act-inf – perisseuo = “to be blessed” because of the positive decisions you make.

KJV – “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound:”

So many people are afraid to fail in certain areas – when the only real failure in life is the failure to try.
In great attempts, it is good even if you fail.

Theodore Roosevelt – “Man in the Arena” Speech (April 23, 1910) “It is not the critic who counts nor the person who points out how the strong person stumbles or where the individual who is trying hard to do good deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. The crown belongs to the one who strives valiantly for the cause of Christ; who makes mistakes and errs and comes short again and again. There is not effort without error and no success without shortcomings. The ones who actually strive to do good deeds; who know the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, of what it takes to live and to endure the spiritual life, who spend themselves in a worthy cause, who at best know in the end the triumph of victory, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. Your place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat, who sit in the seat of Moses and judge others for doing what’s right.”

PHI 1:15-18 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

Pres-act-inf – perisseuo = to have more than enough; to have prosperity.

Also I have come to know what it is to live in prosperity.

Prosperity here is the result of his spiritual victories in supergrace.
Humiliation here, is not the humble grace orientation, but the result of discipline in reversionism.

1. Individual prosperity testing, in which some form of success challenges the top priority of doctrine.
2. Collective prosperity testing, in which a city, state, nation, or group becomes very prosperous.

It may be the GIVING of prosperity which might change the believer’s LIFESTYLE or it may be the REMOVAL of the prosperity that the believer was enjoying.

Even if you do not understand what you are going through remember God is good to His people.

There are certain people who prosper even though they are wicked, and this is also a part of your prosperity test.

They do not have that peace that goes beyond understanding, PHI 4:6.

ECC 2:10 And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,

“They speak from on high” = their arrogance.

PRO 6:19 One who spreads strife among brothers.

MAT 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

PSA 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

Once he came back into the sanctuary or the place where God’s
Word was taught, his eyes were opened again to the truth.
They were standing on a smooth place, but smooth places can be very slippery.

JER 23:12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; For I shall bring calamity upon them, The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.
ECC 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

“There’s a year for their punishment” = every person who is anti-God and has negative volition has a year assigned by God for their punishment.
When the person awakes, a dream is forgotten quickly – so will the wicked be and their prosperity.

“Beast” – behemah – the water ox or the hippopotamus – a plump colossus of flesh = an emblem of colossal stupidity.
KJV – PSA 73:22 I was as a beast before thee.

There will be some weeping and some emotional response of shame on the part of many, 1JO 2:28.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The secret that the apostle Paul was initiated into.

Friday, December 31, 2004

He is talking here, not about circumstances, but about status.

Status as a reversionist believer is the first oida (I know), reversionism.

The second oida (I know) plus the infinitive in the verb is his status as a supergrace believer.

The prosperity varies with the supergrace status of the individual, depending upon the time in which he lives, and other related principles.

There are occasionally exceptions to this, but that means that the prosperity is all on the inside, and not visible.

The degree to which that prosperity is visible to others varies.

En – e*n + locative – panti – pantiV – adjective = all or every.
Locative singular = actually in any place.

First time it is in the singular, second time it is in the plural – pasin – pa'sin.
In the singular = a place.
In the plural = circumstances.

Singular – pas = several geographical locations where Paul learned – Jerusalem, Caesarea, and now Rome.

Plural – pas = all circumstances which contributed to the varying circumstances by which Paul was initiated into the blessings of supergrace.

Perf-pass-ind – mueo – memuvhmai = to be initiated into a fraternity, it does not just mean to be instructed but to learn a secret – the secret to life.

EPH 4:11-12 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

KJV – MAT 13:52 – every scribe which is instructed (matheteuo)
KJV – LUK 1:4 – wherein thou hast been instructed (probibazo).
ACT 18:25 – This man was instructed (katecheo) in the way of the Lord;
PHI 4:12 – I am instructed (mueo).

KJV – MAT 13:52 every scribe which is instructed (matheteuo)
NAS – MAT 13:52 Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple (matheteuo)

The fraternities of the ancient world were called the mysteries.
Musterion, in the New Testament = a system of doctrine by which you are initiated into the supergrace life.