Sharing the happiness of God, part 25, adapting to divine discipline and conclusion; John 15:11.
length: 1:05:36 - taught on Apr, 24 2012
Class Outline:
Title: Sharing the happiness of God, part 25, adapting to divine discipline and conclusion; John 15:11.
6. Divine discipline removes happiness, yet rebound and recovery will turn the curse into a blessing and happiness will be restored.
HEB 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
HEB 12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives."
Deserved suffering - under the law of volitional responsibility we reap what we sow and suffer deservedly for personal sin, human good, and evil. Rebound removes the deserving aspect.
Rebound is claiming a judicial imputation.
Judicial imputation - an imputation not deserved since there is no home or target for it. Christ received the judgment of sin that He did not deserve.
When you rebound, you claim this fact, and then your will lines up with God’s perfect will and fellowship is restored. When fellowship is restored, any remaining suffering is for blessing. When you fail to rebound you are in essence attempting to take the sin upon yourself, and that is a real imputation.
Real imputation - a deserved imputation since there is a home or target. Every person is imputed with Adam’s original sin at birth being born with an OSN and separate from God.
Deserving sin, you cannot in any way make atonement for it as a substitution. The condemned cannot take the place of the condemned. In salvation, as well as every time you rebound, you are claiming, as you would in court, the atonement of an innocent, and willing substitute. Be sure to understand that salvation is one decision of faith for all time; you cannot lose your salvation, while rebounding occurs many times for the restoration of fellowship.
All of these categories of deserved suffering remove our happiness and are unbearable.
Punitive suffering (Warning): If rebound is ignored the beginning stages of reversionism begin and God adds warning divine discipline.
Punitive suffering (Intense): If warning discipline is ignored God applies intense divine discipline, which is great mental or physical pain.
Punitive suffering (Dying): If intensive discipline is ignored long enough then God adds dying discipline, which is the process of dying with misery and regret.
At any one of these stages rebound and recovery puts the believer back into the plan of God and the suffering may be removed, diminished, or continue to exist at full strength.
If your suffering remains then you can handle it in the plan of God and it becomes a source of blessing, adding muscle to your faith. By adding muscle to your faith, divine discipline increases your endurance.
HEB 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
HEB 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
HEB 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
HEB 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness [integrity].
HEB 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness [sorrow is returned to joy].
HEB 12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble [quickly adapt to divine discipline],
HEB 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet [recovery; walking in the light again], so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Therefore, no believer is judged for their sins, ROM 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Discipline and judgment are not the same. If a believer were judged for sin then he would die a spiritual death, not a physical death, since Christ made this payment with His spiritual death.
Therefore, forgiveness and discipline become a source of happiness for the believer.
The believer’s sins are not counted against him and when he fails to rebound, in order to restore fellowship, God will bring discipline that he may not go too far out of bounds. This is the source of happiness.
Ps 32:1-2
How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
Ps 38:18
For I confess my iniquity;
I am full of anxiety because of my sin.
Anxiety invaded David’s soul because he would not confront the real problem and tried to alleviate his discipline with human gimmicks. It wasn’t until he was caught and rebounded that his anxiety was vanquished.
7. The joy of the pastor-teacher comes from unity in the congregation through doctrine, developing mature believers from his communication who understand his God-given authority.
Phil 2:2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Phil 4:1 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
1 Thess 2:19-20
For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.
This verse indicates that the PT will stand with his congregation at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and if he has done his job of studying and teaching he will receive the crown of glory.
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders [presbuterous] among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
1 Peter 5:2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
1 Peter 5:3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
1 Peter 5:4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
1 Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
2 John 13
I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
8. Happiness is a result of living in the Royal Family Honor Code while looking to the future with confidence in God’s deliverance.
Fear occurs in people who are occupied with self, but are convicted in their conscience to live for others. If I live for others, then what’s in it for me and who will live for me? That is the general thinking. However, the promise in the word of God is that God’s love is the greatest power and source of blessing in the universe. And blessing really is mental attitude capacity and not the things or relationships of this world.
Much of God’s happiness depends on an RMA towards the future. But relaxation must be premised on a real deliverance and not just a dreamed or imagined one. The adult believer has confidence in God’s essence and in the Trinity’s ability to deliver in his unknown future, and so by not worrying about tomorrow, he is happy today.
The RFHC is all about living for others, [others!] while residing in the plan of God and avoiding involvement in the cosmic system. The RFHC is the thinking of royal family aristocracy.
We have become a nation of peasants. The aristocracy of thinking has disappeared.
ROM 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
ROM 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
ROM 12:11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
ROM 12:12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
“rejoicing in hope” = “possessing happiness from faith in future deliverance from pressure, adversity, and prosperity by the justice of God.”