APRIL 2007

APRIL 2007 continues with SECRET OF THE MYSTERY lessons from our Philippians series as well as other subjects in order by date, (0190) 1535 -1546 with notes and links attached below.

*Some MP3 lessons are not available for the notes. If the link does not bring you to a direct message, it will take you to the related series.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 205. The mystery of invisible heroes. Part 6.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Point 8. The Danger Of Using Self-justification For Not Becoming An Invisible Hero.
(a) Self-justification is connected with the cosmic viewpoint of being in harmony with Satan’s system of thinking.
ISA 54:17 “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.
ISA 54:17 “but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what GOD’s servants can expect. I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” GOD’s Decree.
- The Message
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
(b) Self-justification often includes the condemnation of others or even God in some way, either directly or indirectly by calling attention to environment, circumstances, or social injustice.
JOB 40:8 “Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? Do you presume to tell me what I’m doing wrong?”
Most often the attempt to justify one’s self must
include the accusation that God is not really in control of His people.
(c) Justification of one’s actions - for example self-serving actions which may be hurtful to others are often traceable to some early abuse or “unfairness” or “fate” or some recent injustice.
MAT 7:3-4 “And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?”
Your hands are drenched in blood, your fingers dripping with guilt, Your lips smeared with lies, your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
(d) Self-justification is not an attitude or a practice which is isolated, but is always expressive of either passive or active hostility against people but really God.
MAT 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, {even} the least {of them,} you did it to Me.”
(e) Self-justification as a skill of arrogance is connected with the defense mechanism called rationalization which is the formulation of excuses for one’s actions or decisions.
LUK 14:18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, “I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.”
(f) These clever rationalizers are not only self-deceived but masterful in deceiving others.
2TI 3:13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
(g) The weakness of self-justification is that it continually seeks support from others, as was the case of the interpreter of the Mosaic Law in LUK 10:29.
(h) Self-justification is related to man’s frustrated attempt to establish his own righteousness and is therefore in direct opposition to grace-orientation.
(i) Self-justification precludes rebound and is compatible with self-deception.
(j) Self-justification also is in agreement with self-absorption, ROM 7:19-24.
PHI 2:12 ...work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
The individual who has to justify his own life is in eternal bondage to himself.
The best thing to have is a heightened awareness of the worst that is still in you, not others.
One of the many benefits of living the spiritual life that God has provided just for you is to rid your soul of the garbage it has stored up throughout the years.
Believers who live in self-justification will also end up in denial - a defense mechanism in which a person fails to acknowledge some aspect of external reality that is obvious and apparent to others.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 206. The mystery of invisible heroes. Part 7.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Point 9. The Pattern for Invisible Heroship in the Church-age -
the Apostle Paul.
EXO 3:11 “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
EXO 4:10 “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
1CO 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
1CO 2:4 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
2CO 10:10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible.”
2CO 11:6 But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.
Paul received both momentum testing and evidence testing while in prison.
While incarcerated, or in some dungeon or prison situation, he was able to advance to spiritual autonomy and to spiritual maturity.
Each stage was tested by suffering for blessing.
Instead of being discouraged by his sufferings for blessing, the recipients of the prison epistles should be benefited by the perception and metabolization of the mystery doctrine of the Church-age.
God has provided both prosperity and adversity in a very organized form for you to execute His plan and will for your life.
Because in prosperity, our friends know us; however, in adversity, we know our friends.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a god to be worshiped.
Seneca -
“The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.”
Prosperity is not without many fears and disasters; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, whereas adversity is the blessing of the New.
Real prosperity is living easily and happily in the real world, whether you have money or not.
Satan is ever present, through his cosmic system or cosmic concensus trying to destroy our glory and remove our crown.
Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.
- Aristotle.
If you do not quit but continue, he who does not tire, tires adversity.
Adversity makes men, while prosperity makes monsters.
You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday.
You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Adversity is the state in which man becomes really acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers.
Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.
Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.
The first is the advance to spiritual maturity through momentum testing and receiving the distribution of your escrow blessings for time.
The second is spiritual maturity plus evidence testing equals the glorification of God to the maximum: the reason why invisible heroes are kept alive.
Point 10. The Source of Invisible Heroes.
The plan from the sovereignty of God is the only plan God recognizes in this Church-age.
He decided to permit the free will of man to coexist with His sovereignty in human history.
Man makes two kinds of decisions: good decisions from the position of strength or bad decisions from the position of weakness.
Since during the course of human history, the sovereignty of God permits the coexistence of our human volition with His sovereignty, He has provided a protection so that we can choose for something far greater than anything man can contrive: Truth.
Our good decision: personal faith in Jesus Christ.
The bad decision: to reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
Point 11. Invisible heroes in the Church-age are a testimony to angels.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 207. The mystery of invisible heroes. Part 8.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Point 11. Invisible heroes in the Church-age are a testimony to angels. The angelic conflict is divided into two categories: visible and invisible warfare.
In the Old Testament dispensations, the angelic conflict was a combination of both visible and invisible warfare, both in heaven and on earth.
The only exception to this is during the Church-age, when it is strictly invisible warfare.
Whatever your function or station in life, as a believer in Jesus Christ you have only one objective which should be placed above everything else, and that is to become an invisible hero.
During the Church-age, there are no visible angels, elect or fallen, yet angels are watching your every move.
In the dispensation of the Church-age, angels observe members of the Royal Family of God in their failure or success to execute and fulfill the PPOG, 1CO 4:9; EPH 3:10; 1TI 5:21; 1PE 1:12.
Spectacle - nominative neuter singular - theatron (theater) = a theater, a place for public shows, a play, a place for the performance of dramatic representations.
EPH 3:10 in order that the multi-faceted or many-sides of the wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Angels even observe the believers in the Church-age receiving commands from headquarters -
1TI 5:21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.
“Long” - epithumeo = to have a desire for something, to long for, to set the heart upon.
The Church-age is the focal point of the invisible angelic conflict, 1CO 4:9; EPH 3:10; 1TI 5:21; 1PE 1:12.
They have refused for so long to deal with God that they have lost touch not only with God but with reality itself.
PRO 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
One reason why God’s plan changes for every dispensation is because during some dispensations, angels are visible; during others, angels are invisible.
In most dispensations, there is a mixture of the two, e.g., in the dispensations of the Old Testament and during the Tribulation.
Point 12. Summary of the Winner.
The winner or the invisible hero receives distribution of his escrow blessings for time.
Eph 1 teaches that billions of years ago in eternity past, God the Father, as the grantor, deposited greater blessings into escrow for every believer, i.e., greater blessings for both time and the eternal state.
1) They have an influence on the establishment principle of freedom through military victory.
2) They have an influence on law enforcement, from the judge on the bench to the police officer on patrol.
3) They have an influence on the economy.
4) They have an influence on the general life and culture.
5) They have an influence in Christianity - in evangelism, Bible teaching, and missionary activity.
Invisible God plus invisible assets plus invisible power equals invisible heroes.
Visible heroes are related to the laws of divine establishment.
Invisible heroes are related to the pivot of mature believers.

Easter Speial 2007. Close, but no cigar.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Close, But No Cigar
One thousandth of an inch was the difference between success and failure. "Close but no cigar” says you almost captured the prize; you almost were a winner; you almost had succeeded.
Marred - mishchath = to be completely disfigured.
Although our Lord suffered immensely not one bone in His body could be broken according to prophecy -
JOH 19:36 “a bone of Him shall not be broken”
His face received disfigurement from His physical suffering but also His spiritual suffering which caused mental pain and showed on His face as well.
Tetelestai - JOH 19:30 “It is finished!”
JOH 17:4 “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.”
The phrase “Close, But No Cigar” also meant you were a loser, a failure.
Resurrection Sunday means Christ’s victory over death, the devil, and the dark deeds of mankind is complete.
By the saving work of TLJC on the cross and now the living Lord, salvation and deliverance from the OSN is yours.
The political and spiritual parties, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, who had never been able to agree on anything, agreed on this: Jesus had to be stopped.
Scribes were men who spent their lives copying, studying, and teaching the laws of God.
They were, according to all accounts, some pretty serious scholars, Ezra 7:6,10-12; NEH 8:1,4,9,13.
Not content to study and teach God’s laws, these Scribes came up with more than a few laws of their own (Mat 23), over 666.
In saying that God’s law is best served when His people love the one true God with every fiber of their being, and love their neighbors as themselves, TLJC summarized the true spirit of all of God’s laws.
The total, absolute love of God is to be behind our every thought, every action, every word.
“You are not far from the kingdom of God” = the man was still on the outside looking in.
Love the Lord with every fiber of your being; love your neighbor as yourself. The great difficulty and the great problem is, you cannot do it.
If I can get you off track so easily, think of what the world with all its temptations, and what the devil, with all of his experience, can do.
ROM 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
Do you see moments of anger of which you are ashamed?
Do you see desires which, if revealed would cause endless embarrassment?
Do you see selfishness and pride; days filled with bitterness and envy?
We need a Savior whose suffering, death, and resurrection are an acceptable substitute for our sins and shortcomings, our flaws and failures.
As you read you will see a Savior who was hated; but He endured that hatred so you might know the Father’s love. In those chapters, you will find a Savior who was tempted, but He resisted every temptation, so you could live an eternity at peace in heaven. In those verses of inspired Scripture, you will see a Savior who walked a path of pain so that your path might lead directly to paradise.
When, by God’s grace, you are led to faith in Him, you will find that you are no longer close to having forgiveness; God gives it as one of His many gifts.
You will not just be close to the peace of God; it will permeate every one of your days.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 208. The mystery behind Christian marriage. Part 1.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The relationship between Christian husbands and Christian wives mentioned in this passage as well as the church and TLJC is called a musterion, a mystery.
1JO 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

One of the most important concepts and overlooked principles concerning living the spiritual life is the principle of unity.
One of the many blessings that we have because of the cross is that our Lord not only restored all that Adam lost in the Garden but He gained back for us all of things that the first Adam lost.
The perfect environment in the Garden of Eden is duplicated in the spiritual realm by the PPOG for the Church-age but will be experienced in totality in the eternal state.
Once a believer recognizes this particular fact, and the analogies of the first Adam in the garden and the Last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, then he will see the importance of God’s word as far as relationships are concerned.
The predominant problem with the woman toward the man is lack of respect.
COL 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.
“How can I love her when she is constantly nagging or complaining or being critical or like the drip-drop queen”PRO 19:13 The contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.
The Moffatt translation –
“the nagging of a wife is an endless dripping.”
The Jerusalem Bible –
“a woman’s scolding is like a dripping gutter.”
PRO 12:4 “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, But she who shames him is as rottenness in his bones.”
PRO 21:9 It is better to live in a corner of a roof, Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
The Living Bible –
“It is better to live in the corner of an attic than with a crabby woman in a lovely home.”
PRO 21:19 “It is better to live in a desert land, Than with a contentious and vexing woman.”
The Bible in Basic English – “It is better to live in a waste land than with a bitter tongued and angry woman.”
PRO 27:15-16 A constant dripping on a day of steady rain and a contentious woman are alike; He who would restrain her restrains the wind, And grasps oil with his right hand.
He loved her with an impersonal unconditional love.
1. The Filling of the Holy Spirit.
2. Metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the soul.
3. The ten problem-solving devices.
4. The power for the execution of the PPOG.
PSA 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
The believer cannot think, apply doctrine, or solve problems through the mind or the thinking of another person.
The importance of problem-solving in the privacy of your soul.
The importance of self-counseling from the Bible doctrine that you have accumulated in your soul.
Therefore you are going to have greater testing; you are going to have to face the temptation of greater distractions than any ordinary believer in the past.
That is tragic, because never before in history has there been such an emphasis in the word of God on the prehistoric angelic conflict.
Above all there is assembled in the heavens, in the universe the entire angelic host, who are observers in this stage of history. Elect angels observe human history while fallen angels are designed to oppose human history.
Mystery, Christ, church.
The exception is Christian marriage, in the dispensation of the church, being a part of the testimony that once and for all condemns Satan and all fallen angels to the eternal lake of fire.
The standards for Christian marriage, not unbeliever marriages – unbelievers can extrapolate from establishment principles even in the Church-age certain principles that were given from the beginning and have a great and happy marriage, Ecc 9.
The marriage of a born again husband to a born again woman, a wife, is something very special and has the highest standards ever assigned to marriage on the part of those who possess a sin nature.
Marriage is a divine institution for both believers and unbelievers.

The secret of the mystery, part 209. The mystery behind Christian marriage, part 2.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The standards for Christian marriage, not unbeliever marriages, are something very special – the highest standards ever assigned to marriage on the part of those who possess a sin nature. Marriage is a divine institution for both believers and unbelievers.
Before marriage a man will lie awake all night thinking about something you said. After marriage he will fall asleep before you have finished saying it.
He did not love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that.
Honor is summarized in this expression by the poet Tennyson, “Man’s word [of honor] is God in man.”
ISA 54:5 “For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.”
The Message Bible –
HOS 2:19 And then I’ll marry you for good – forever! I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.
HOS 2:20 Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go. You’ll know me, GOD, for who I really am.
Marriage and spiritual conflict are back-to-back and very intensive.
Christian marriage as a divine organization has the greatest influential power in the Church-age against principalities and powers that have fallen and are trying to make their case now before God by destroying that which God has created.
The real battle in Christian marriage is not being fought between the partners in a marriage; it is being fought between the kingdom of darkness and the marital partners.
It’s not just the superiority of weaponry by which wars are won but it’s also through information and intelligence.
The same is true in this great spiritual invisible battle in which we are waging war; we need that information and intelligence so that we will not be ignorant of Satan and his devices.
God has put the law of forgiveness in EPH 4:31-32, because Satan doesn’t want the battle to be turned from the couple against him but to the couple against each other.
When Satan can convince us that the battle is with flesh and blood and not with the rulers, the powers, the world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness, he succeeds in destroying the spiritual energy and potency that could blow him away, 1JO 4:4 because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
Satan’s greatest bid happened when the twelve were gathered together personally with the Lord Jesus Christ in the upper room and Satan entered into one of the disciples, called Judas Iscariot.
Diaboloi, a title for the devil = “rip apart” and Satan tries to tear apart the mind.
1. He creates discord.
2. He breaks up unity.
3. He destroys patterns.
He also brings in “false concepts” as truth.
Anything that causes confusion and division and splits your thinking up is “cosmos diabolicus” – of the devil’s world system.
There is assembled in the heavens, in the universe the entire angelic host, who are observers in this stage of history.
Elect angels rejoice over the salvation or the rebound of one person, LUK 15:7,10. LUK 15:10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
If a believer entertains a satanic agenda under prolonged carnality, the angels see the ruining of a possible witness for their benefit, and for the benefit of the plan of God.
1CO 11:10 – angels observe the attitude that the woman has toward her husband and the symbol of authority that it represents.
Satan is a master of twisting the scriptures, distorting the scriptures, misinterpreting the scriptures; therefore he hates when passages of scripture are fulfilled.
The fallen angels do not want the man and the woman to be restored to the original design of God.
There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated.
Submissive – hupotassoo = to be in subjection, to obey, to be under obedience, to submit yourself unto your husbands.
Chaste – adjective hagnen = exciting reverence, pure from carnality, clean, innocent, modest.
Respectful – phobo = reverence, respect for authority, rank, dignity.
1CO 11:9-10 for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
What matters is not your outer appearance – the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes – but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.
Tekna = students or women who have learned from a doctrinal woman.
The weaker vessel does not mean that she is weaker mentally, physically, or spiritually; she is the responder in the marriage and you are responsible for filling up her vessel.
1CO 11:3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman,
1CO 11:7 …the woman is the glory of man.
When a man invests nothing in his relationship or marriage, he can expect nothing in return.
The man needs to understand that the woman’s desire is for him and that she desires to feel wanted and protected, GEN 3:16.
A woman truly desires to respect her man. She does not want to look at him as just another child to rear and handle.
The man needs to understand the female mind and the female body.
The husband is also commanded as a part of his responsibility to please his wife and to do his best to make the marriage a success, 1CO 7:32-33.
a. Rule his wife, GEN 3:18,
b. Support the family, 1TI 5:8,
c. Protect the family, EPH 5:23, 1PE 3:7,
d. Administrate the family,
EPH 5:23,
e. Set the spiritual pace for the family, EPH 5:23-25.

The secret of the mystery. Part 210. The mystery behind Christian marriage. Part 3.
Friday, April 13, 2007
EPH 5:31-32 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
Because there are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated.
Submissive – hupotassoo = to be in subjection, to obey, to be under obedience, to submit yourself unto your husbands.
Chaste – adjective hagnen = exciting reverence, pure from carnality, clean, innocent, modest.
Respectful – phobo = reverence, respect for authority, rank, dignity.
1CO 11:9-10 for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
What matters is not your outer appearance – the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes – but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.
Tekna = students or women who have learned from a doctrinal woman.
The weaker vessel does not mean that she is weaker mentally, physically, or spiritually; it means she is the responder in the marriage and you are responsible for filling up her vessel.
1CO 11:3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman,
1CO 11:7 …the woman is the glory of man.
When a man invests nothing in his relationship or marriage, he can expect nothing in return.
The man needs to understand that the woman’s desire is for him and that she desires to feel wanted and protected, GEN 3:16. A woman truly desires to respect her man. She does not want to look at him as just another child to rear and handle.
The man needs to understand the female mind and the female body.
The husband is also commanded as a part of his responsibility to please his wife and to do his best to make the marriage a success, 1CO 7:32-33.
The woman must have freedom to respond to the man’s love for without freedom she will not have a desire to do so.
a. Rule his wife, GEN 3:18,
b. Support the family, 1TI 5:8,
c. Protect the family, EPH 5:23, 1PE 3:7,
d. Administrate the family,
EPH 5:23,
e. Set the spiritual pace for the family, EPH 5:23-25.
There is such a satanic attack against what God originally designed, and one of them is marriage. It is not the ultimate manifestation of the spiritual life, because that would be a contradiction of the principle of equal privilege and equal opportunity.
EPH 5:32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
Christian marriage in the dispensation of the church is a part of the testimony that once and for all condemns Satan and all fallen angels to the eternal lake of fire.
In the Old Testament, women did not have the rights and the equal privilege and equal opportunity that they do today.
“Make” – Qal imperfect – asah – imperfect tense – describes something God keeps on making or doing, PRO 18:22; 19:14; GEN 2:22; ECC 9:9; 1CO 7:17.
“Helper” – noun ezer = someone to aid, help, and to respond to the man.
No animal can fulfill human needs by responding to their master.
“Took” – laqach = to seize intensely; to seize in an intense manner.
The woman was pulled intensely out of man and she is to be brought back to him intensively or passionately.
This rib actually belonged to Adam, but it was actually taken out so that a part of Adam is missing, and there is only one who can fulfill that missing part, the woman that God built for him.
“Fashioned” – Qal imperfect – banah = to build; He built the woman’s body and it is still being built today.
The Hebrew says that He caused her to be brought to the man.
She was caused by God to be brought to the man.
The woman was brought not to Adam which is the human race but to “ha Adam” one particular man.
Adam awakes from his dreams and calls her ishshah “woman.”
He hasn’t touched her yet and the identification was made in his soul.
She’s the right one for him and he knew it before they touched.
Adam had no sexual experience but still a physical attraction.
“Because she was taken out of man” = laqach.
Under the first mention principle, when you establish precedent, it is to show that this is a firm established principle from the beginning of time to the end of human history.
Cleave – dabaq = the perfect sex that the right man can have with the right woman; it literally means the two bodies being joined together through the sexual organs.
Sex was designed for recreation for right man and right woman and no one else.
The pleasure that sex gives should serve as a reminder of the copulation not recreation because it was through copulation that we have the virgin birth, GEN 3:15.
The right man and the right woman can be naked together and not ashamed or embarrassed.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 211. The mystery behind Christian marriage. Part 4.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
ROM 16:25-26 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
ISA 54:5 “For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.”
The Message Bible – HOS 2:19-20 And then I’ll marry you for good – forever! I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness. Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go. You’ll know me, GOD, for who I really am.
It cannot be between the Lord and His relationship with His people, because that also existed in the Old Testament and mystery doctrine was not yet given in the Old Testament.
When the apostle Paul gives guidance and mandates for marriage in Eph 5, he is talking about a unique corporate entity called Christian marriage, totally different than the institution of marriage throughout human history.
Because of this, the standards for Christian marriage, not unbeliever marriages, are something very special and have the highest standards ever assigned to marriage on the part of those who possess a sin nature.
The relationship between Christian husbands and Christian wives mentioned in this passage as well as the church, made up mainly of Gentiles and TLJC, is called a musterion, a mystery.
One of the many blessings that we have because of the cross is that our Lord not only restored all that Adam lost in the Garden but He gained back for us all of the things that the first Adam lost.

The predominant problem with the woman toward the man is lack of respect.
There has never been a time in human history when the institution of marriage has been under a severe satanic attack as it is in the Church-age.
EPH 6:12 Because our struggle is not against blood [people’s souls] and flesh [their old sin nature], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness [against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the atmosphere around the earth, the stellar universe and in the presence of God]
Satan is a liar and has been a murderer from the beginning, and he tries to murder or bring to death that which God has created for His glory, such as marriage.
1JO 3:12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
Satan, the father and author of the lie did not attack the man, Adam, before the woman Ishshah, was created.
After the woman was created he attacked the man Adam indirectly through the woman following their marriage.
God had a plan all along to get to the serpent through the institution of marriage, and He predicted this in
GEN 3:15.
GEN 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.
God had a plan therefore all the time to get to the serpent through marriage and that plan was for the virgin birth, even as this serpent had a plan to get to the man through marriage.
Not only does this refer to the sexual relationship between the man and the woman, but also, in the Church-age, they are no longer two individuals, but form a new unity – the corporate entity of Christian marriage.
It is uniquely through the corporation called Christian marriage that the great mystery is unfolding and revealed and through marriage God is presenting a devastating blow to Satan’s defense.
1. The star witness, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the faithful and true witness –
REV 3:14 And to the messenger of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
2. The individual witnesses, born-again believers who fulfill the spiritual life and glorify God, ACT 1:8.
3. The corporate witness of Christian marriage wherein two believers, a man and a woman, fulfill the three laws of marriage.
a. The husband’s love for the wife, EPH 5:25.
b. The respect of the woman to the man, EPH 5:22.
c. EPH 4:32 – forgiveness.
ACT 7:60 “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And having said this, he fell asleep.
LUK 23:34 “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.

The secret of the mystery. Part 212. The mystery behind Christian marriage. Part 5.
Saturday, April 18, 2007
It is uniquely through the corporation called Christian marriage that the great mystery is unfolding and being revealed, and through marriage God is presenting a devastating blow to Satan’s defense.
It will be an unsuccessful defense because of the quality of witnesses that are being called to the stand before the Supreme Court of heaven and the angelic conflict.
1. The star witness, the Lord Jesus Christ, “the faithful and true witness” –
REV 3:14 And to the messenger of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
2. The individual witnesses, born-again believers who fulfill the spiritual life and glorify God, ACT 1:8.
3. The corporate witness of Christian marriage wherein two believers, a man and a woman, fulfill the three laws of marriage, EPH 4:31-5:33.
a. The husband’s love for the wife, EPH 5:25.
b. The respect of the woman to the man, EPH 5:22.
c. EPH 4:32 – forgiveness.
The third witness, according to the jurisprudence system of God, is accepted by God, though not necessarily needed.
Legitimate evidence is based on two or three witnesses being interrogated “independently” and agreeing to their testimony.
NUM 35:30 If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
DEU 17:6 “On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.”
MAT 18:16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed”
2CO 13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
1TI 5:19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.
One of the greatest attacks against marriage happened in Gen 6 in the Nephilim experimentation, in which Satan had his own genetic engineering program going on to destroy the human race.
Before marriage a man will lie awake all night thinking about something you said. After marriage he will fall asleep before you have finished saying it.
Divorce was permitted under the Mosaic Law.
Pre-salvation marriage, divorce, and remarriage is not an issue, ISA 44:22; ISA 43:25.
Marriage is dissolved by the death of a spouse.
Adultery is a legitimate basis for divorce and remarriage by the innocent party.
If the guilty party remarries that is adultery, and causes the second husband or wife to be living in adultery.
Desertion is a legitimate basis for divorce and remarriage, 1CO 7:15.

The unbelieving husband can be touched by the believing wife, 1PE 3:1.
The divorce gimmick is a legitimate basis for divorce and remarriage.
1. It is always the innocent victim in the adultery case, desertion case, or gimmick case who has the right of remarriage, not the guilty person.
2. If the guilty person remarries, he or she is living in adultery. However, there is a solution to that as well.
The Scripture is silent on such reasons as: brutality, drunkenness, drug addiction, sexual molestation especially of children, violence, insanity, criminality, suicidal tendencies.
Any time the person is in a life threatening situation they have the right of divorce.
If the guilty party remarries or dies, then the victim has the right to remarry.
a) The elapse of time in single status to recover from the horrible experience by growing in grace.
b) If the guilty party dies or remarries, then the marriage is officially dissolved for remarriage by the innocent party.
c) The guilty party is not permitted to remarry, MAT 5:32.
Legitimate Biblical divorce is analogous to the death of one partner in the marriage.
This category gives the surviving mate the right of remarriage, ROM 7:1-4; 1CO 7:39.
If you have sinned and have been the guilty party – any sin or failure regarding marriage or divorce on your part before you became a believer was blotted out at the moment of salvation, ISA 43:25; PSA 103:12; 1JO 1:7.
You cannot rectify past failure in marriage and divorce by leaving your present spouse in a second, third, or fourth marriage and go back to a former spouse.
The solution to living in an adulterous marriage is the grace of God, which begins with rebound and logistical grace, and continues through spiritual growth and the attainment of spiritual adulthood.
Do not try to make adjustments for your past failures in marriage, divorce and remarriage, but remain in your present status quo.
If you are still alive after any failure in the sphere of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, then remember that God still has a purpose for your life – to glorify Him.
1. People are no better in marriage than they are as people.
2. People who are losers in single status are losers in marriage.
3. People who are winners in single status are winners in marriage.
4. It takes two winners to make a successful marriage, because each is responsible for his own decisions and modus operandi.
5. A good marriage is not designed for happiness, but for virtue.
6. Marriage is not designed for happiness, because happiness comes from sharing the perfect happiness of God (+H).
7. Marriage is not designed for happiness, but for winners, because winners have both understanding and use of the problem-solving devices.
a. There must be spiritual compatibility.
b. Soul compatibility.
1TI 2:11-12 Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
b. Soul compatibility.
c. Physical compatibility. Are you attracted to their appearance, grooming, dress, etc.?
d. Economic compatibility.
e. Family compatibility.
f. Stability compatibility.
GEN 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived,
Marriage is designed for character, virtue, integrity, and the problem-solving devices.
If husbands and wives apply the standards of the three laws of marriage the testing is passed and marriage becomes a place of the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ and phenomenal contentment.
Marriage is an arena and a forum for the expression of virtue.
If they refuse the divine standards, the problem-solving devices for believers they enter into bitterness, especially on the part of the man.
Bitterness escalates into implacability, then implacability into hatred and malice and vindictiveness and in some cases even violence.
Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and that does not involve bringing her past the dictates of her conscience in the Holy Spirit.
The head of every man is Christ and the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, and part of Christ’s love is not summoning the church past the dictates of their conscience in the Holy Spirit.
When the husband follows the prescription of loving his wife with the quality of virtue love with which Christ loved the church and when the wife sees the authority of the husband as an umbrella over her and respects the husband – and when both parties of marriage fulfill the law of forgiveness – that marriage has the potential to become a corporate witness for the prosecution of Satan and his appeal trial which is coetaneous with human history.

The secret of the mystery. Part 213. The mystery behind Christian marriage. Part 6.
Sunday, April 19, 2007
1. The star witness, the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful and true witness, REV 3:14.
2. The individual witnesses, believers who fulfill the spiritual life and glorify God, ACT 1:8.
3. The corporate witness of Christian marriage, EPH 5:32.
a. The husband’s love for the wife, EPH 5:25.
b. The respect of the woman to the man, EPH 5:22.
c. EPH 4:32 - forgiveness.
1. Love toward God.
2. Love toward man.
Love toward others = spiritual autonomy.
Love toward self = spiritual self-esteem.
True biblical love called agape is a virtue.
It is not an emotion, not a feeling, but a virtue.
Virtue-love called agape in the Greek is a system of thinking, 1CO 13:5, which proceeds from the mind in PHI 2:2.
2CO 5:14 For the love for Christ motivates us,
Personal love for God motivates the believer; it is a motivational virtue.
When love is directed toward mankind then love is a functional virtue.
We need the functional virtue of impersonal unconditional love to learn how to function in Christian marriage, and we need the motivational virtue of love toward God for personal motivation.
Impersonal unconditional love gives the believer two things -
1. Confidence
2. Courage
Virtue means two things: graciousness and power.
Virtue means right thinking resulting in right action.
A virtue is a particular moral quality regarded as good or meritorious.
Personal love is only a virtue when it is directed toward God or when it is rooted in God’s love.
When God’s love is in view, agape love is simply a mental attitude love requiring the thoughts in the Bible concerning how to handle different situations.
Agape love has virtue when it is the love of God or from God.
Agape love has power and is graceful as God’s love, but agape love is not automatically the love of God.
Toward God personal love will give you power and grace in your life.
LUK 6:32 And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners agape-love those who agape-love them.
LUK 11:43 “Woe to you Pharisees! For you agape the front seats in the synagogues, and the respectful greetings in the market places.”
2TI 4:10 for Demas, having agape’d this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica;
Agape love is a certain way of loving, and it all has to do with thought, not feelings or emotions.
When someone says, “I don’t love you anymore,” they better be talking about phileo or personal love not agape.
Impersonal unconditional love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get; it is what you are expected to give, which is everything.
If you love something set it free; if it returns it is yours forever, if not, it was never meant to be.
Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction, for in Christian marriage it is love toward God.
When the satisfaction or the security of another person becomes as significant to one as one’s own satisfaction or security, then the state of love exists.
“Love” - agapao = a mental attitude love based upon a maximum amount of doctrine resident in your soul.
“Heart” - kardia =
1. Frame of reference.
2. Memory center.
3. Vocabulary storage.
4. Categorical doctrinal storage.
5. Conscience.
6. The momentum department or the department of spiritual growth.
7. The wisdom department or the launching pad.
8. The subconscious mind.
“Soul” - psuche =
1. Self-consciousness, ACT 20:10.
2. Mentality, PRO 19:2.
3. Volition, ACT 3:23.
4. Emotion, LUK 12:19.
5. Conscience, TIT 1:15.
Strength - ischus = all your physical strength, not human power, but all your strength in the sense of you making the maximum effort to get to know God and His plan for your life.
Mind - dianoia = the left lobe of the soul and the place where you first perceive and understand knowledge.
PSD #7 is Personal love for God the Father, and that is followed by PSD #8, Impersonal love for all mankind.
1CO 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha [under a curse until the Lord comes back].
1. Temporal blessings = above and beyond logistical grace support.
2. Eternal blessings = blessings for the eternal state.
Control - pres-act-ind - sunechei - sunevcei = to motivate, to compel, to urge.
ROM 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

The secret of the mystery. Part 214. The mystery behind Christian marriage. Part 7.
Friday, April 20, 2007
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
COL 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.
This true biblical love called agape love is a virtue.
It is not an emotion, not a feeling, but a virtue.
When God’s love is in view, agape love is simply a mental attitude love requiring the thoughts in the Bible concerning how to handle different situations, especially marriage.
Control - pres-act-ind - sunechei - sunevcei = to motivate, to compel, to urge.
ROM 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
A certain type of love, a love that comes from the mental attitude of the soul = a love that is based upon thoughts and knowledge.
God does not “work all things together for good” until there is love for God.
When you start to love someone you have not seen, it is because you have them in your soul, and you have lined up your thinking with their thinking.
“Believe in Him” is not used here for salvation; it is the key to loving God - believing or metabolizing Bible doctrine.
“Full of glory” = the spiritually sustained believer who is reflecting the glory of God.
When there is love for God, it results in love for people. Personal love for God therefore is a virtuous love, and you must have virtuous love in order to make personal love in relationships, such as marriage and friendship, succeed.
The strength of personal love towards people comes from your personal love for God.
Virtue means right thinking resulting in right action.
Virtue means graciousness and power.
Unless you understand the importance of personal love toward God resulting in agape love or impersonal unconditional love for all mankind, you will never be a good lover, personally.
“We have come to know” - per-act-ind - egnokamen - e*gnwvkamen = to know, to become aware, to perceive, to understand, to be conscious of, to comprehend intellectually.
“Knowing” that God loves you is a process.
It is a process which is generated from facts.
Thinking doctrine is what separates winner believers from the emotional apostates or the self-righteous legalists.
Until you have divine viewpoint and metabolized doctrine in your soul you will have no capacity to love and no virtue.
Right thinking resulting in right action.
Virtue means graciousness and power.
Agape is used here in the sense of “virtue love” and “divine love.”
This is the love which God has from His own virtue or perfect righteousness.
JOH 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
God has virtue love or impersonal unconditional love from His own perfect righteousness.
JOH 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you,”
A believer speaking out of fellowship without virtue-love is like a noisy gong, used by peddlers in the ancient world to attract attention to their merchandise. It was used for attraction to self.
The clanging symbol analogy refers to the fact that professional mourners in the ancient world would draw attention to themselves by their loud noise.
Even the gift of prophecy, no matter how much reliable information comes from it, is intrinsically valueless if it operates without love.
Not only are the spiritual gifts exercised without love of no value, but, as he says at the end of verse 2 -
“I am nothing,”
“Spiritually I am a cipher or a zero.”
My deeds of philanthropy and my resolute determination to remain loyal to the truth even in the face of martyrdom.....cannot in themselves verify my high spiritual position or the superiority of my experiences with the Holy Spirit.
Divine mathematics -
Six minus one equals zero.
Tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, philanthropy, martyrdom, minus love = 0
“I am nothing”
By themselves, your spiritual gifts attest nothing spiritual about you.
D.A. Carson in “Showing the Spirit,” page 61.
“If Paul were addressing the modern church, perhaps he would extrapolate further - You Christians who prove your spirituality by the theological information you can cram into your heads, I tell you such knowledge by itself proves nothing.”
And you who affirm the Spirit’s presence in your meetings because there is a certain style of worship, (whether formal and stately or exuberant and spontaneous) - if your worship patterns are not expressions of love, you are spiritually bankrupt.
“There is not evidence of even a first work of the Spirit.”
Any particular gift is dispensable, so far as spiritual profit or confirmation of the Spirit’s presence is concerned, but love is indispensable.
Virtue-love, the love husbands are to have toward the wife in Christian marriage, has nothing to do with emotion or feelings but everything to do with thought pattern and behavior.
It is virtue-love itself that is kind, or does not boast, rather than the person who displays love. Lovelessness breeds thousands of variations of inferiority complexes and superiority complexes.
Patient - makrothumei = usually suggests not merely willingness to wait a long time, or endurance of suffering without giving way, but endurance of injuries without retaliation.
PRO 19:11 A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.
PRO 19:11 “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is his glory to overlook an offense.”
He' agape makrothumei = “the love is patient.”
Makrothumei or patience is simply poise and self-control where you are able to handle suffering, hostility, provocation, and unjust treatment... even in marriage.
Patience is stability of mentality under unjust treatment.
Patience also gives you the ability to make good decisions under provocation and unjust treatment. Patience also means that you have personal control of your life so you do not surrender your happiness because of someone who has been antagonistic toward you.
“Love is kind” = not merely patient or long-suffering in the face of injury, but quick to pay back in kindness what it received in hurt.
Kind - chresteuomai = to show oneself useful, to perform acts of kindness, to have integrity, to have moral, honest, and artistic values.
It is important to note that this is a verb, not an adjective. It is not describing agape love as an adjective; it is describing the action of agape love.
Pres-mid-ind = impersonal unconditional love causes an individual to perform gracious acts.
Jealous - pres-act-ind - zeloo = to be envious, jealous, to strive, to be resentful and spiteful.
Brag - perpereuetai = to boast, to brag; also one who is talkative, an exaggerator; in Classical Greek used for those constantly asserting themselves and having an obsession with criticizing and wounding others with aggressive words.
Phusioo = to be inflated, puffed up, conceited, to put on airs or to pretend.
Aschemonei = to behave indecently, disgracefully, to act improperly or unfairly.
In the Old Testament, in the Septuagint, it is used in DEU 25:3 to disgrace others publicly, or to publicly humiliate. Love not only does not seek that which does not belong to it; it is prepared to give up for the sake of others even what it is entitled to.
Provoked - paroxuno = to arouse and provoke to wrath, to irritate, to make angry.
“Ou logizetai to kakon” = “not reckons the evil”
This type of love will cause you to give up resentment, excuse a guilty party, release others from payment, forget an offense, never bringing it up again, not even to discuss it. Love will join with others in rejoicing over the truth.