NOVEMBER 2004

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The doctrine of compassion: God delights in forgiving, edifying and reconciling.

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Concern – pres-act-inf – phroneo = to care or be concerned about others with objective thinking, or to be compassionate and caring for others.

He discovered victory in his situation and it was someone’s tenderness and compassion that made the difference.

GAL 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.

ROM 12:8 he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

When we go through suffering because of our relationship with God, as Paul did, it works out for the comfort and deliverance for others.

Paul was in prison because of his compromise of grace and doctrine, but he was still God’s child, and under the principle of LUK 12:48; everyone who has been given much shall much be required; Paul was disciplined by God.

2CO 4:12 So death works in us, but life in you.

LAM 3:22-23 “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness.”

PSA 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

26 verses in Psa 136 – each one ends with the phrase, “for His lovingkindnesses or mercies endure forever.”

MIC 7:18 God delights in unchanging love.

JAM 2:13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

“Triumphs” – pres-act-ind – katakauchaomai = mercy holds a more excellent position than judgment.

Mercy reigned in our Lord’s heart,
LUK 19:41-42, when He looked down at Jerusalem and wept.

God delights in forgiving, edifying and reconciling.

LUK 18:13 But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”

Spirituality is not measured by how well someone exposes another in his sin, but by how well he restores his fellow believer.

The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.

At this point in time, the various churches he had started were not supporting him financially, so Paul began making tents to bring in money for himself and his traveling party.

MAT 14:14 And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and felt compassion for them, and healed their sick.

LUK 10:33-36 – the parable of the Good Samaritan.
LUK 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

They revealed the compassion of God and changed the situation.
JUD 1:22 And of some, have compassion, making a difference. – KJV

Those who have made mistakes will be changed, not by judgment or condemnation, but through the love of God expressed in compassion.

The compassionate believer considers every need equally important. He is available to be all things to all people –
1CO 9:22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

Counting every opportunity to minister as a sacred opportunity, he serves in faith, showing patience toward all men, 1TH 5:14.

1TH 5:14 And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men.

1PE 3:8-9, To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

Point 1. Definition.
1. Compassion = a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another’s suffering or misfortune accompanied by a desire to alleviate the pain and remove its cause.

2. Compassion = a sympathetic consciousness of others and their distress with a desire to remove or help correct their situation.

3. Compassion = to handle tenderly, lovingly, to be merciful, show pity, to be gentle of the mind.

a. Genuine compassion.
b. Pseudo compassion.
c. The misuse of compassion.

EXO 2:6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Point 2. The Lord is compassionate toward His people and expects them to be compassionate toward others.

1KI 8:50 and forgive Thy people who have sinned against Thee and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against Thee, and make them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive, that they may have compassion on them.

We have all experienced the compassion of God toward us and we are to share that same compassion with those around us.

Point 3. The Lord sends messengers, and in the Church-age pastor-teachers, to warn, reprove, correct and rebuke His people – because He has compassion.

2CH 36:15 And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place;

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Doctrine of Compassion. Part 2. The Lord is compassionate toward His people and expects them to be compassionate toward others.

Thursday, November 4, 2004

PHI 4:10 Now, I have received much inner happiness by means of the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern or thinking for me;

a. Compassion = a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another’s suffering or misfortune accompanied by a desire to alleviate the pain and remove its cause.

b. Compassion = a sympathetic consciousness of others and their distress with a desire to remove or help correct their situation.

c. Compassion = to handle tenderly, lovingly, to be merciful, show pity, to be gentle of the mind.

Point 2. The Lord is compassionate toward His people and expects them to be compassionate toward others,1KI 8:50.

Point 3. The Lord sends messengers and, in the Church-age pastor-teachers, to warn, reprove, correct and rebuke His people because He has compassion, 2CH 36:15; MAT 9:35-39.

Point 4. Compassion motivates forgiveness from God, PSA 78:38.

Point 5. Lack of Compassion Toward Others Brings on Divine Discipline from God,
2Sa 12.

PRO 12:10b – the compassion of the wicked is cruel.

David has become psychotic through the function of his own volition and his preoccupation with himself – there’s nothing lower than that in life.
David has become a psychopath – a mentally ill and unstable person and it will be manifested by his lack of being compassionate and caring for others.

He has become a neurotic – he has emotional disorders that affect the personality and produce anxiety, guilt, fear, worry etc.
He has become a sociopath – he is antisocial and can no longer function around people properly.

Prepared = to take a sharp knife and cut the throat of the animal, drain out the blood and cook it.

Wayfarer – arach = just a traveler or a wanderer, someone not that important.

David is the rich man who has everything as the king of Israel.
The poor man is Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba and Uriah was simply poor in comparison to David.

“The rich man had a great many flocks and herds” = David’s wives and mistresses.
The one little ewe lamb = Bathsheba.

Because David is so arrogant and self-righteous, it requires the simplest type of story – a very simple parable to reach what is left of David’s integrity.

Transference arrogance = taking one’s own flaws and transferring them to someone else.

For David to recover from his arrogance, which will be manifested by accusing others of not being compassionate and caring, when he is the one in view, David must come to a place where he judges himself.

Anger – Qal imperfect – harah = to burn; not the ordinary word for anger, it is the word for explosive anger.

He wants to judge the case because as the king of Israel he has the power to do so, so he also has authority arrogance.

How can a person be involved in sexual arrogance, rape a woman, get her husband drunk, then murder her husband and still be self-righteous?
Arrogance.

Self-righteous arrogance is quickly aroused to anger against others for doing the very same things that the
self-righteous do themselves.

Being compassionate and caring for others is a divine mandate and a divine expectation.

He should restore fourfold, according to the Law, EXO 22:1, four sheep for a sheep.

EXO 22:1 If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.

1. There will be the son of the adultery who will die, 2SA 12:14-19.
The innocent son will die in the place of the guilty father – a perfect illustration of TLJC dying in our place as the perfect eternal Son of God.

2. Amnon, David’s elder son by Ahinoam of Jezreel, will repeat the rape of his father on Bathsheba by raping his half-sister Tamar, the daughter of David by Maacah, 2SA 13:14.

3. Tamar is the full sister of Absalom, 2Sa 13; Absalom murders his half brother Amnon – a reproduction of David’s murder of Uriah.

4. A reproduction of David’s rebellion against God in the Absalom revolution.

Compassion = a sympathetic consciousness of others and their distress with a desire to remove or help correct their situation.
Compassion = that form of humility that causes a person to be aware of other people and to think about the needs, the sensitivities and the problems of other people.

Compassion = grace oriented objectivity in contrast to arrogance which is self-centered and self-righteous subjectivity.

David’s capacity for this promotion was destroyed not by lack of doctrine but by arrogance.

NEH 9:19 Thou, in Thy great compassion, did not forsake Your people.
NEH 9:28 And many times Thou didst rescue them according to Thy compassion,

NEH 9:31 Nevertheless, in Thy great compassion Thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them, For Thou art a gracious and compassionate God.
PSA 51:1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.

PSA 103:13-14 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

ISA 30:18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
DAN 9:9 To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness.

MAT 9:13 But go and learn what this means, “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

COL 3:12-13, And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Doctrine of Compassion. Part 3. “What kind of neighbor am I.”.

Friday, November 5, 2004

The Doctrine of Compassion
Point 1. Definition.

Point 2. The Lord is compassionate toward His people and expects them to be compassionate toward others,1KI 8:50.

Point 3. The Lord sends messengers in the Church-age, pastor-teachers, to warn, reprove, correct and rebuke His people because He has compassion,
2CH 36:15; MAT 9:35-39.

Point 4. Compassion motivates forgiveness from God; PSA 78:38.

Point 5. Lack of Compassion Toward Others Brings on Divine Discipline from God, 2Sa 12.

Point 6. Compassion serves as a motivation for the production of divine good.

a. Compassion serves as a motivation for healing to take place in the lives of others, MAT 14:13-14, LUK 15:20.

LUK 15:20 “And he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him, and kissed him.”

b. Compassion motivated our Lord to help take care of the logistical needs of others, MAT 15:32.
c. Compassion motivates identification with those who have lost loved ones, LUK 7:13.

d. Compassion motivates forgiveness toward others –
MAT 18:27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.”
e. Compassion motivates the believer to perform divine good,
LUK 10:30-37, the Good Samaritan.

HEB 5:2 “He will have compassion with the ignorant and misguided,”

1PE 3:8 To sum up, let all be harmonious, compassionate, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;

ZEC 7:9 Thus has the Lord of hosts said, “Dispense true justice, and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;”

DEU 32:36 “For the Lord will vindicate His people, And will have compassion on His servants; When He sees that their strength is gone, And there is none remaining, bond or free.”

When there is absolutely nothing you can do about a situation, and all your strength is gone, make room for divine compassion.

ISA 49:15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

PSA 119:77 May Thy compassion come to me that I may live, For Thy law is my delight.

The Lord is waiting to be compassionate toward us, ISA 30:18.

Our attitude even toward the wicked and unrighteous must be one of compassion, ISA 55:7.

LAM 3:32 for if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness.

MAT 9:13 But go and learn what {this} means, “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

MAT 12:7 But if you had known what this means, “I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent.

Point 7. There is a Pseudo-Compassion.

Pseudo-compassion is a system or weapon for the manipulation of people.

Those who have power lust will use pseudo-compassion as a system of propaganda, a system of manipulation, a system of making you feel guilty, so that you will make irrational decisions under emotional sinning.

Pseudo-compassion is a system of manipulation through the use of conspiracy as in revolution,
Pseudo-compassion is a system of manipulation through the function of human good as in activism,

Pseudo-compassion is a system of manipulation through the creation of guilt as a weapon of manipulation in socialism,
Pseudo-compassion is a system of manipulation through the function of political power to achieve political objectives which are contrary to the principles of freedom.

Absalom used the hypocrisy of “concern for others” as a system of manipulation to forge the weapon of revolution out of the people.

Absalom used pseudo-compassion as the facade of concern for the people to manipulate the people into a weapon for revolution, so that the power of the greatest king in Jewish history would be set aside for the evil of revolution.

Promises are no greater than the integrity of the person who makes them.

In their malcontent status of self-absorption (the third arrogance skill) they were vulnerable to the hypocrisy of pseudo-compassion.

Misuse of compassion describes the victims of pseudo-compassion, those on a guilt trip, who are sucked into the propaganda of pseudo compassion,
2SA 15:5-6.

Absalom used his friendly manner, his pseudo-compassion, and his stimulating personality to undermine his father’s authority as king and to manipulate the people into misuse of compassion.

To enlist support for his revolution against his father, Absalom must give personal attention to mal-contented people and set the facade of pseudo-compassion.

The mal-contented person is preoccupied with his grievances, consequently, preoccupied with himself.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Feelings and Emotions: How your feelings and emotions can deceive you. Part 2. .

Sunday, November 21, 2004

NAS – PHI 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.
KJV – PHI 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.

Concern or care – phroneo = no emotional connotation at all, instead it connotes a system of thinking not feeling.

MAT 16:23 – your mind
ACT 28:22 – your viewpoint
ROM 12:3 – your thoughts
ROM 14:6 – your observation
PHI 3:15 – your attitude

Having compassion and being concerned has nothing to with feelings or emotions, but with the thought content of the soul.

Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience all come from the heart, the right lobe, not from how you feel.

Emotion is part of the essence of the soul. The emotions of the soul are designed to respond to what is in the mentality of the soul.

Emotion is the female part of the soul and is to respond to the
right lobe, the male part of the soul.

PRO 14:30 A sound mind makes for a robust [vigorous] body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones.

The divine order of the soul = the emotion is to respond to the thoughts in the heart as the right woman is to respond to her right man.

Inside the right lobe [heart] of the soul is everything that should dominate emotion, so that emotion can become what it was designed to be by God – an appreciator and responder.

EPH 5:22-33 – to respect and honor the man’s authority.
EPH 5:22-23 – to love his wife as Christ loved the church.

While certain portions of the anatomy double for parts of the soul in the Bible, it is not difficult to distinguish the essence of the soul from the physiological anatomy of the body.

Kardia = heart, as the physiological anatomy of the body it refers to the area of thoughts in the soul.

Throughout church history, English words used in the Bible to describe the emotions included: bowels, belly, reins.

KJV – GEN 43:30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
NAS – GEN 43:30 And Joseph hurried out for he was deeply stirred over his brother, and he sought a place to weep; and he entered his chamber and wept there.

1KI 3:25 “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”

KJV – 1KI 3:26 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son,
NAS – 1KI 3:26 Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son

KJV- SOS 5:4 “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.”
NAS – SOS 5:4 “My beloved extended his hand through the opening, And my feelings were aroused for him.”

KJV- JER 4:19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me;
NAS – JER 4:19 My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent,

KJV- PHI 1:8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
NAS – PHI 1:8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Anatomy in the languages of the ancient world always doubled for the functions of the soul, because they did not have in the ancient languages a psychological vocabulary.

Only in the right lobe, the kardia, and the heart, exists the frame of reference, memory center, viewpoint, norms and standards, and doctrine.

Emotions are stimuli or energy for action, and therefore must be regarded as a form of human power.

Divine power and human power are mutually exclusive. It is like oil and water or gas and sugar.

You cannot mix human ability, human talent or human emotion with the power of God.

The omnipotence of God is the spiritual energy for the spiritual life that God has provided for you to live in.

HEB 12:3 Be concentrating on Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

Most systems found in Christianity today are related to some system of human improvement and emotional stimulation rather than the omnipotence of God.

God the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine is the only energy whereby we are able to live a life glorifying the Lord. If we are not led by the Spirit or filled with the Spirit we are functioning under a form of human power and energy, either emotion or arrogance.

Human power and emotion is simply a cheap substitute for the power to live the spiritual life. Many Christians live the Christian life under the human energy of emotionalism – pseudo spirituality.

Bible doctrine and the filling of the Holy Spirit is the only means whereby we as Church-age believers can glorify the Lord.

He will try to make them feel good or feel spiritual or feel guilty.

LUK 6:39-40 “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

Emotionalism is so dangerous because emotions serve as human energy. If we fail to utilize divine power we will either quit or accept a cheap substitute like human power. Human power can be emotional revolt, personality improvement, the works of the flesh, change of behavior pattern, spirituality by works, etc.

None of us can resist truth without operating on human dynamics.

Since the emotions of the soul were never designed to dominate the soul, wide emotional swings demonstrate the inability of the emotions to dominate.

The garden was perfect until the woman took over and dominated the man; then the Fall occurred.

Emotions are a stimuli for action, and therefore must be regarded as a form of human energy.

Emotional stress causes people to act on impulse.
The emotion of fear, also a sin, causes flight.
The emotion of disgust causes repulsion.
The emotion of anger causes violence.
The emotion of lust causes immorality.

Instincts are reflex behavior based on emotion rather than on
thought.

MAT 27:46 “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
ISA 52:14 – Our Lord did not even look human – a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
PSA 22:14 – all His bones were pulled out of joint;
MAT 26:67 They were spitting in His face and banging Him around. They ridiculed as they slapped Him:

His face received disfigurement from His physical suffering but also His spiritual suffering which caused mental pain and showed on His face as well.
He was rejected and the object of mental attitude sins, ISA 53:2-3.

ISA 53:3 – The Jews looked down on him, thought He was scum.
ISA 53:5 It was our sins that did that to Him, that ripped and tore and crushed Him – our sins.
ISA 53:7 He was beaten, He was tortured, but He did not say a word.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Feelings and Emotions. Part 3. The emotions within us are often at odds with the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

PHI 4:10 Now, I have received much inner happiness by means of the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern or thinking for me; indeed, you also were thinking about me [were concerned about me], but you lacked the opportunity to express it.

Emotion = a complex, biological, physiological
process, or a function concerned with somatic expression or feeling.

You will have a battle that goes on inside of your soul between what you feel and what you know is right.

Many times the emotions within us are at odds with the ministry of God the Holy Spirit using doctrine from the residual doctrine in our soul.

The emotions can become complex by tempting you to do things you do not desire to do.

Rom 7 – the relationship of the Law to the spiritual life and the battle that goes on inwardly between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the new nature within versus the old sin nature.

JER 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? {Then} you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.

We were born slaves to the O.S.N. and the only time that we will ever be free from slavery to the O.S.N. is not at salvation but when we enter into perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine.

JOH 8:32 “You shall know the doctrine and the doctrine shall make you free.”

Many times I do what I feel not what I think.

These good intentions are hindered by the overtime work of my old sin nature influencing the emotions of the soul when they are out of order, ruling rather than responding.

That was the purpose of the Law and the commandments, to reveal our helplessness.

Because he has received TLJC, he is to no longer live according to the flesh but Christ is to live in him.

Because the emotions are responders, they will respond to the OSN.

As you grow in the knowledge of doctrine, there can arise a tremendous conflict in the soul, not from the temptation of the old sin nature, but from the emotional revolt that can take place.

2 Cor 9:11 You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.

Eucharistia = gratitude; grateful language to God as an act of worship; thankfulness; giving of thanks; thanksgiving

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Thanksgiving and the Lord’s Supper are cut from the same cloth, as it were. The cloth of gratitude.
We start at the cross. We end at the Person.

Someone who got us out of the biggest, most horrible mess anyone could ever possibly imagine.

NOW WHAT???

You knew that for all the beauty and holiness staring you in the face you were never going to measure up to it. Ever.

James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

ROM 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

JOB 5:7 For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.

ROM 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Jesus Christ, His blood and His cross, He is the only satisfactory answer to the question “NOW WHAT?” Your sins are forgiven!

COL 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

At the Lord’s Supper, we express our thanks to God because He’s made a wonderful new LIFE for us to live in – worshipping Him in Spirit, truth, and freedom.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, NEW CREATURE; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

2 Cor 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ

Time to follow the Leader.

2 Cor 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Feelings and Emotions. Part 4. The basic emotional problem that we all have to deal with is the emotion of fear.

Friday, November 26, 2004

Many believers today have become neurotic and psychotic because they have intruded into God’s plan with a human form of energy called emotion.

The purpose of normal emotion is to respond to various things in our souls by way of norms and standards.

Two categorical functions of the emotions: the conscious sensations of the emotions of the soul, and the effects of emotions on the organic function of the body, especially the nervous system.

The prefrontal lobes, the right lobe and left lobe, are called the cortical areas of the brain and are associated with thought, motives, and decisions.

Emotional activity can occur without the presence of thought.
Emotion without thought is a tragic complication in life.

Emotion can respond to thought, but emotion
can also function without thought.

When emotion functions without thought, that is abnormal emotional activity – emotional instability.

Normal functions of the emotion include pleasure or entertainment, excitement, appreciation.

Emotion is related to human power and influence, but never to divine power and the mystery doctrine of the Church-age, which is the basis for fulfilling God’s will, plan, and purpose.

1. Such a believer makes a god out of his emotions, PHI 3:18f.
2. Such a believer’s emotional pattern distracts him from the execution of the PPOG, ROM 16:17-18.
3. Emotion hinders the perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine, 2CO 6:11-12.

4. Such a believer’s unrestrained or uncontrolled emotional pattern is the basis for criminality, violence, hatred, anger, total involvement in the arrogance complex – bitterness, vindictiveness, jealousy, implacability, self-pity, guilt reaction = a very close relationship between the arrogance complex and emotional sin.
5. Such a believer’s unrestrained or uncontrolled emotional pattern is related to the great categorical problem of life – fear.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Fear is crippling, a fearful life – fear of death, fear of judgment – is the result of the believer who is not yet fully matured in love.

Abnormal emotional experience may express itself in these emotional sins, and may also become the motivation for violence, murder, gossiping, maligning, inordinate ambition, and the inordinate competition of running down other people in order to promote yourself.

ROM 14:23b whatever is not from faith is sin.
DEU 31:6 Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.

2CO 4:15 – every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory.

DEU 31:8 “And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed.”
ISA 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
2TI 1:7 “For God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power, virtue-love, and sound judgment.”

Fear, worry, and anxiety are emotional sins and are contradictions to God’s plan for your life.
The trouble with people who are involved with the emotional revolt of the soul or the emotions trying to dictate and rule their lives is that there are really no divine solutions or wrong solutions or dependence on others.

Fear is the function of the believer operating in spiritual death as an emotional sin.
Fear is a complex system of emotional sins. It includes worry, anxiety – failure to think under pressure.
Under the snowballing effect of fear, the more you surrender to fear, the more things you fear.

There is no way you can have true love or true happiness apart from a healthy mental attitude.
You cannot be afraid without putting an abnormal emphasis on yourself.

For the believer who lives in a state of fear, the fear increases like a cancer.

With loss of personality identity, you fall into a total state of fear so that you begin to retreat from any form of reality, becoming psychopathic or neurotic.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Feelings and Emotions. Part 5. The solution to the emotion of fear.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

HEB 2:14-15 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Satan, our real enemy, fears death – that death to himself which he already experienced between GEN 1:1 andGEN 1:2; MAT 25:41.

When you fear something, you give that which you feel power over you.

A person who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Love is always creative, fear always destructive.

If you have personal love for God the Father and you understand His integrity, you do not need to claim specific promises for every situation.

Once you have virtue-love, love for God, you are not afraid of anything whereby you even need promises to hang onto.

ROM 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
MAT 7:11 You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?

If you are dependent upon God and His integrity, then having fear is not only an insult to God, but it is blasphemous and sinful.

1. You punish yourself through self-induced misery by letting others and certain situations get the best of you.
2. When fear gets into arrogance, divine discipline inevitably follows, unless there is rebound.

You can be punished three ways by fear: by yourself, by your peers, and by God.

Mature believers are not fearful or anxious for other than just brief periods of time.

2CO 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every arrogant thought raised up against the knowledge of God’s word, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

Mature believers are capable of appropriate action, despite high levels of fear being projected toward their personal lives, EPH 6:16.

If you worry about the possible troubles of the future, you are anticipating and adding to the weight of the problem – even if the problem does not come, you will experience some of the effects.

It pleases Him when you can testify, that you’ll trust your God to do what’s best and wait to find out why.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

DEU 31:6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

DEU 31:8 And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed.
ISA 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

The PPOG is designed to remove all the cobwebs of fear in your soul and replace them with confidence in doctrine, which leads to confidence in the Lord.

This inevitably results in the greatest courage in life, a mental attitude courage in all relationships and in all circumstances of life.

True courage means sound judgment, thinking under pressure no matter what you are going through.

Verse 7 – sound judgment comes from Bible doctrine, not from emotion.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

Believers in the emotion of fear cannot apply doctrine and handle the problem.

Courage is thinking doctrine and functioning under pressure as if there were no abnormal circumstances, no crisis, or no pressure.

The spiritually adult believer eliminates emotion as a criteria for Christianity since emotion cannot think, cannot apply doctrine, cannot learn or use the problem-solving devices, and cannot rationalize or estimate the situation from the divine viewpoint. The difference between fear and courage is the ability to concentrate under great pressure.

Adversity, suffering, and disaster have the ability to destroy concentration.

PSA 56:3 “In the day that I am afraid, I will trust in you.”
The solution to fear is found in the faith-rest drill, by which the believer claims a promise to stabilize the mind.

It is possible to learn a great many doctrines and yet fall apart in an emergency or sudden pressure situation.
For many believers, it is so difficult to deal with the test of distress and adversity because of the unexpectedness of it all.

The suddenness intensifies disaster and hinders the believer from concentration on the promises and on the doctrine that has been learned.

It was the suddenness of the trial and test that really challenged and caused them to live in fear.

True faith always selects something that is stronger than the strength of stress.
The faith itself is nothing except for the fact that faith reaches out and selects a promise from God, or better yet, a doctrine, to handle the stress.

The suddenness of a change often from prosperity, or what appears to be prosperity, causes stress.

They wanted to go back to dependence on man rather than dependence on God.
Many believers do not want freedom, they want security.

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The suddenness of the situation has caused them to become emotional and forget all those hours and hours of Bible class.
Looked – Qal imperfect – nasa = they kept staring, they concentrated on Pharaoh’s army, they kept staring, and thinking, and gazing upon the problem.

They began to gripe and complain about the situation that God had put them in.
Like the Jews, a picture of the believer’s soul, we concentrate on the disaster rather than the solution.
The reaction of fear and panic removed any possibility of applying doctrine.

Because they failed to concentrate on what they had learned, they developed fear and panic in the soul.
You do not face your fears, you stand up to them.

Letting the Lord fight for you = utilizing the faith-rest drill.
Fear sees the problem; faith sees the solution.
Do not fear that your life will someday end, fear only that you do nothing with it.

You hinder your destiny when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.