Stumbling blocks – Cultural or legalistic taboos; the solution is the law of love. John 16:1; Eph 5:1-2.

Title: Stumbling blocks - Cultural or legalistic taboos; the solution is the law of love. John 16:1; EPH 5:1-2.

 

Difficult doctrines that go against preconceived notions can cause stumbling because of human viewpoint and lack of patience, John 6:61.

 

John 6:61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble?

[eat My flesh and drink My blood]

 

John 6:62 "What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before?

 

John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

 

John 6:64 "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

 

John 6:65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father."

 

John 6:66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore.

 

John 6:67 Jesus said therefore to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" 

 

John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

 

John 6:69 "And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.

 

In Him are combined the deep thoughts and counsels of God, with the heart and affections of man.

 

In Him there is no incongruity; in the days of His flesh, and on the cross itself, He was “the same,” the “I AM,” the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.

 

He could say, whilst on earth, “The Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” When speaking to Nicodemus, in that memorable meeting by night, He said, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.” And subsequently, when some of His disciples murmured at the difficulties raised in their carnal minds by His words of life, His answer was—” Doth this offend you? What, and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?” (John vi, 61, 62.)

 

If you don’t understand something, don’t run, stay and be patient until revelation comes by God the HS. Applying human reason or empiricism will never make sense of any doctrine.

 

Such words as these, from the lips of the Son of God, should silence our fleshly reasoning’s, and cause us to bow down and worship, instead of attempting to fathom that which is unfathomable.

 

Vain of our own conceit, we try, with our puny resources, to sound the depths; and fancy, when we have run out our little line, that we have reached the bottom. [The Tabernacle, the Priesthood, and the Offerings; Henry Soltau, 1852]

 

ROM 11:33

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

 

We cut and square systems of divinity, and stamp, with our so-called official license, as orthodox, the theology of this or that divine; and all the while, lose sight of HIM, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

 

Man can applaud his fellow; for, in so doing, he praises himself. He can approve the sayings of another; for, thereby, he constitutes himself a judge. And thus, in the divinity of the day, we shall find that creeds, confessions of faith, and writings of the Fathers, really assume the place of the Word of God: and orthodoxy consists, not in holding what God says, but in subscribing to articles drawn up by fallible man. [The Tabernacle, the Priesthood, and the Offerings; Henry Soltau, 1852]

 

We complete the list of stumbling blocks:

 

Hatred from those in the world system:

John 16:1

These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling.

 

Cultural or legalistic taboos, 1Cor 8:13:

 

Introduction [turn to Gal 3]:

 

Spirituality is a term that means a believer who is in the confines of the plan of God under the filling of God the Holy Spirit.

 

Spirituality is what makes the Christian life work and spirituality is the only basis for executing the commands of the Christian life.

 

To attempt the CWL by means of the flesh leads to frustration, misery, failure, and eventual quitting, i.e. falling into the trap of stumbling blocks.

 

GAL 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

 

GAL 2:21 "I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

 

We already had the Law, meaning we already had the energy of the flesh. There was no filling of the HS in the OT. Things have changed drastically from the dispensation of the Law. Only a person who did not possess an OSN could possibly fulfill the Law, which Christ was and did.

 

To attempt to live the CWL in the flesh is to nullify the grace of God. 

 

GAL 3:1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

 

GAL 3:2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

 

GAL 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

 

GAL 3:4 Did you suffer so many things in vain —  if indeed it was in vain?

 

GAL 3:5 Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

 

 “The Law of Moses, the perfect standard of righteousness was a mirror that showed man to himself. The Law shows us what we ought to do, but it does not give us the power to do it.” [Martin Luther]

 

Luther understood that righteousness comes to man by faith alone and he also understood that even if man could perform the whole Law, he still would not be righteous.

 

Grace is reliance on the power of the filling of the Spirit and doctrine in the soul. We fall short of grace when focusing on what we must do rather than what God is doing through us.

 

This is often hard to understand when a believer is focusing only on what he must do. The CWL is not a labor, rather it is a lifestyle that results from being filled with the happiness of God based on the promises of God.

 

Therefore, since promises are the impetus of love and happiness it can only be faith that secures God’s happiness and not the production of good. Love and happiness joyfully do good, produce fruit. So it is not producing fruit that makes one happy but rather the happy believer produces fruit.

 

GAL 2:20b and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

 

This subtle difference is the area of attack by the KOD who, by using deception, get the believer on a works program and off the grace program, which is the only program.

 

In grace the focus is on what God will do through the believer who follows the mechanics of the CWL by faith and so executes the PPOG that has been so graciously given.  

 

Be filled with the Spirit through rebound, walk by means of the Spirit by applying sound and strict doctrine to your circumstances and avoid going back to human viewpoint, or what we have studied to be cosmic viewpoint.

 

The world has propaganda as what the CWL should be and it is totally devoid of grace. The Galatians as well as the Corinthians fell right into it after being freed from the world by the grace of God through the crucified and resurrected Savior.

 

Man is always struggling with deception.

 

While wrong may be done, then, in either of two ways, that is, by force or by fraud, both are bestial: fraud seems to belong to the cunning fox, force to the lion; both are wholly unworthy of man, but fraud is the more contemptible. But of all forms of injustice, none is more flagrant than that of the hypocrite who, at the very moment when he is most false, makes it his business to appear virtuous. [De Officiis; Marcus Tellius Cicero]

 

The flesh must be completely rejected and that becomes glaringly obvious when we read certain commands in the Word.

 

EPH 5:1 Therefore be [become] imitators of God, as beloved children;

 

Imitator of God [humanity of TLJC] - filled with the Spirit, having momentum in doctrine daily, and applying sound doctrine correctly.

 

The essence of deity cannot be imitated. It is blasphemous to think that a sinner can imitate God’s essence. However, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union functioned in the plan of the Father for His humanity and this can be imitated but not continually maintained in this life.

 

 

EPH 5:2 and walk in love [command - agape, we love because He first loved us(vs.1)], just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

 

Agape love is devoid of MAS’s and it sees others as more valuable than self and as such it sacrifices for others.

 

This propaganda of the world concerning the CWL still exists in the thoughts of many believers, in fact, a good portion of it, to varying degrees, exists in every believer who has not reached spiritual maturity. It usually surfaces when you are weak, tired, guilty, or plagued by difficult circumstances, especially if there are others who know of any of these things. Embarrassment because of what others see is not proper motivation; it only motivates the flesh.

 

When human viewpoint surfaces and love is rejected or replaced that viewpoint must be rejected immediately for it is of the cosmos and not of the grace of God as revealed in the mystery doctrine.

 

And that is the stumbling block in 1Cor 8. There is no spiritual growth and no amount of agape love but only self-absorbed believers.  

 

There are four laws of Christian behavior which are designed only to operate on spirituality - in the confines of the plan of God under the filling of God the Holy Spirit.

 

These are laws and not theories. They are non-negotiable. And they cannot be accomplished unless they are fueled by divine power.

 

Law #1: The law of liberty - directed toward self, it is the function of the believer priest to serve the Lord in freedom without interference.

 

The first of these laws of Christian behavior is the law of liberty which operates in the filling of the Spirit. The believer has the freedom to serve the Lord and that is the first meaning of the law of liberty. The law of liberty is always directed toward self.

 

This law gives peace and tranquility to the soul of the believer when he is doing something that isn’t causing him to sin and lose fellowship with God. It is not a law to sin. When others who are under cultural or legalistic taboos put him down he retains his peace. If he does sin he has been given the right of rebound, the only action of the believer priest when he is outside of fellowship, and in privacy he receives his due from God and not from man.

 

When we sin we fall under the law of volitional responsibility, not a spiritual law, but a natural one. That law brings a level of misery, though it may not be directly from God. In certain cases divine discipline is incurred. Divine discipline is directly from God.

 

When we rebound the natural misery andor the divine discipline may be removed, it may diminish, or it may remain at full strength, but the curse is turned to a blessing.

 

That flies right in the face of the cosmos thinking. Rebound works every time [490] and upon confession we are immediately filled with the Spirit. Whatever the pain is, that remains after that, it is used for instruction and therefore blessing and is no longer under the category of discipline.

 

Law #2: The law of love - directed toward others, it is a lack of MAS’s toward others as well as the avoidance of offending a weaker believer or becoming a distraction to their spiritual growth.

 

This law supersedes the law of liberty if what you do, though not a sin to you hinders the spiritual growth of a weaker believer.