The greatest doctrine metabolized by the wrong nature causes sorrow. John 16:6; 2Cor 4:7; Jam 4:14.

Title: The greatest doctrine metabolized by the wrong nature causes sorrow. John 16:6; 2Cor 4:7; JAM 4:14.

 

John 16:4 "But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

 

John 16:5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'

 

John 16:6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

 

Jesus doesn’t have to be a mind reader in order to see the gloom on their faces. “What in the world in going on? Where is He going, why is He going, why crucifixion, we want to ask a question but where to begin?”

 

When your life is changing rapidly and confusion blossoms you must learn to be patient and keep learning and in time the reasons for the changes will be made clear.

 

In Acts 2 the disciples are no longer confused as to the reason for Christ’s leaving and the interruption of the Jewish age.

 

2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels [Spirit and doctrine], that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;

 

Our human power is no great, never mind surpassingly great.

 

2 Cor 4:8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;

 

2 Cor 4:9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

 

2 Cor 4:10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

 

In so-called normal times we have an idea what tomorrow holds and the next day and we’re right, but that doesn’t mean that we will always be right. We assume that things will always progress the way that they have been lately. The disciples just assumed or naively presumed that whatever Jesus was saying about His death was some kind of metaphor and that life would go one as it had before, even after this Passover. They were unwise to assume that and Christ is making that clear on this night.

 

Just because we are correct in some assumptions doesn’t mean we will always be right. Be prepared for changes and don’t be shocked by them.

 

James 4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."

 

James 4:14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

 

James 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that."

 

James 4:16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

 

 “you boast in your arrogance” - you make your own plans for prosperity under the perception that there is a profit.[make a profit]

 

James 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do [trust in God’s plans], and does not do it, to him it is sin.

 

 

John 16:5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'

 

John 16:6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow [grief] has filled your heart.

 

This is mental anguish because of no ECS to orient to the plan of God. Therefore there is shock, anguish, distress. At this point the disciples should be reflecting glory and obviously the light is out.

 

In the last few hours Christ has presented them with the most exciting doctrine the world has ever seen and they are sorrowful. This is a total lack of orientation to the plan of God.

 

Jesus has clearly presented His death, burial, resurrection and ascension as a part of the plan for the first advent.

 

1. Instead of rejoicing in the victory of Christ the disciples are in mental pain and anguish - failure to understand God’s purpose.

 

At a critical moment the eleven disciples are all disoriented to the real purpose of God’s plan for redemption and glory.

 

2. Doctrine must meet with reality in your life through faith in God’s purpose.

 

3. Instead of orienting to the cross, the departure, the moving forward of the plan of God, they have associated the death of Christ with catastrophe.

 

4. They therefore cannot recognise the principle of Romans 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.

 

I have much to say on this principle before we get to #5.

 

If we are against His purpose then we are rejecting our election. One who does that does not love God, but is only looking for God to help them with their own purposes. And I’m not talking about sin, but purposes that would seem quite legitimate but are not in accordance to what God has revealed.

 

Saul of Tarsus had a plan. He was quite sure of himself and to him it wasn’t sin at all.

 

Acts 26:14

"And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'

 

goad - “God speed ye plough, and send us corn now!”

 

This is an old proverb that speaks of the ox who is being pricked with the pointy end of the goad and he kicks or resists the direction that the farmer wants him to go, and so he receives a more severe blow. It is a phrase depicting God’s directing and our resisting that direction only to receive a harder blow.

 

Remember in our study of the slave of Christ and how we are yoked with Christ and He bears the burden of the yoke and when He turns to the right or left, if we resist we will suffer the tugging, the bruising, the struggling of trying to go our own way?

 

“kick” is present active infinitive meaning continuous kicking and goads is in the plural all meaning that God was pricking Saul with goads for some time and Saul kept right on kicking against them.

 

Look again:John 16:6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow [grief] has filled your heart.

 

The verb “has filled” is a perfect active indicative of plhro,w[pleroo], which means to fill up a deficiency or to fill up a vacuum.

 

But rather than being filled with the Spirit we have a heart filled with grief and sorrow.

 

Here it means to fill up a vacuum in their souls. The deficiency that all of us have in our soul’s is the pet project of God the HS. He is to fill the deficiency.

 

But since fear has gripped them and they have failed to ask for the HS, the OSN is filling their deficiency or vacuum with mental attitude sins of fear, worry, depression, and anguish.

 

Grief and sorrow have filled their heart and so false doctrine was metabolized into false wisdom. They believed this was a catastrophe.

 

The heart is the place of the soul where information is metabolized or believed as truth.

 

As God the Holy Spirit metabolizes doctrine for the heart, the OSN metabolizes fears, grief’s, anxieties in the heart so that these sins become the negative believer’s “wisdom.”

 

And let this point not escape your notice - the disciples developed fears, grief’s, and anxieties from hearing sound and wonderful doctrine.

 

By looking at the doctrine from the wrong perspective of self the disciples developed fear instead of strength; anxiety instead of peace; and grief instead of joy.

 

This is how the truth can cause one to fear instead of developing courage, strength, joy, love, and peace.

 

ROM 8:15

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

 

Luke 19:11 And while they were listening to these things, He went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.