Rebound revisited, part 6. 1Co 11:28; 1Jo 1:8-10; Eph 4:17; 2Ti 2:25.

Class Outline:

Title: Rebound revisited, part 6. 1CO 11:28; 1JO 1:8-10; EPH 4:17; 2TI 2:25.     

 

Everyone please pray for the churches.

 

PSA 23:1A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

 

PSA 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

 

What kind of waters? Is the Shepherd in the business of confusing the sheep, scaring the sheep, dividing the sheep? Sheep do not prosper when they are confused, scared or divided from the herd.

 

PSA 23:3 He restores my soul [David bears some of the fault of the Absalom revolution];

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name's sake.

 

PSA 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;

Thy rod and Thy staff [protection, but also discipline and correction], they comfort me.

 

PSA 23:5 Thou dost prepare a table before me [prosperity of soul] in the presence of my enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.

 

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. [and not be scattered away from it]

 

1.Judge yourself throughout, separating divine thoughts from sin and human good, 1CO 11:31.

 

2.Acknowlege the sin, evil, wrong, error, human good, etc.

 

We can see from the scriptures how the false systems of Gnosticism were brought to the light by God through the writers and how the believer is firmly entreated to avoid them, and if in them, to recover from them.

 

1TI 1:3 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,

 

1TI 1:4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God [God’s plan for the Church] which is by faith [not speculation or wrangling about words].

 

1TI 1:5 But the goal of our instruction [commands] is love from a pure [clean or cleansed] heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

 

 “conscience” = literally to know yourself. To distinguish divine good and bad (opposition) within oneself. A good conscience does the good and avoids the bad.

 

Distinguishing in the conscience is judging yourself throughout, and avoiding the bad is acknowledging the bad and stopping it, and a change of mind is doing the good.

 

It isn’t occupation with sin that is going to recognize sin, but rather occupation with Christ (the light) that will recognize it and acknowledge it quickly.

 

Don’t even think about sin or anticipate sin for it is dead and buried and therefore should be ignored. If you’re occupied with Christ, with the light, then you will spot darkness quickly, recover, forget it, and move on in truth.

 

 “sincere” = not to pretend or not fake. The truth is simple and pure and needs not to be faked, but learned.   

 

The goal of our commands:

 

 “love from:” (1) a heart cleansed of all sin and judgment of others (no guilt or condemnation), (2) a conscience that easily distinguishes between good and bad, acknowledges bad and chooses good, and (3) a simple and unfeigned truth.

 

Love is not committing sin, for sin and love cannot coexist in one heart. You can say that an object is round and another say it is square, but it can’t be both. Truth is truth. I recognize the sin, acknowledge the sin, stop it, and apply doctrine in changed thinking and I know I am cleansed from all sin by the work of Christ and therefore I don’t carry any guilt or condemnation. But I cannot love and sin at the same time. I can say I love you while I’m sinning against you, but saying it is not love.

 

1TI 1:6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion [vain prattling as a bell out of tune],

 

1TI 1:7 wanting to be teachers of the Law [OT turned to allegory as well as ascetic living in salvation by works], even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

 

Those who advocated asceticism from the belief that all matter was evil and not created by God but by the demiurge explains passages such as COL 2:20-23; 1TI 4:3-5.

 

This was a belief in the east long before Gnosticism but incorporated by them, which explains such passages:

 

COL 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world [cosmic system], why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

 

COL 2:21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"

 

COL 2:22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) —  in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

 

COL 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

 

 “indulgence” = to fill up or satisfy. These things are of no value in satisfying the flesh, i.e. the flesh is never satisfied by ascetisicm.

 

Asceticism doesn’t work. The flesh will continue to desire no matter how much you deprive it. This reveals the hidden danger which is out right binging of the flesh after it has been denied, but not laid aside by a superior power. So what is of value against the flesh?

 

GAL 5:16

But I say, walk by the Spirit [yielding to God, in the new creature, in the light], and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

 

Desire implies temptation to yield to the orders of the old nature. The Spirit doesn’t control my thoughts in so that I lose my freedom of choice and become a robot, but I cannot walk in the light without His power. Freedom is not found in exceedingly indulging the flesh or exceedingly denying the flesh its natural needs, but is in walking in truth, walking in light, walking by the Spirit within the boundaries of God’s righteous plan.

 

1TI 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times [not end times but later times] some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

 

1TI 4:2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

 

A seared conscience is a deadened one. It loses the sensitivity of right and wrong just as cauterized flesh loses sensitivity of touch.

 

1TI 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

 

1TI 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude;

 

1TI 4:5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

 

Certain passages are against the elevation of Gnostic knowledge that only the special initiated had and was superior to faith, 1CO 13:2-3; 1TI 6:20-21.

 

1CO 13:2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge [gnosis - secret Gnostic mysteries and knowledge]; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

 

1CO 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned [asceticism], but do not have love, it profits [useful or advantageous] me nothing.

 

Divine love is of profit. What is the greatest honor and reward for the child of light? To walk in the light.

 

1TI 6:20 O Timothy, guard [protect] what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly [profane or godless] and empty chatter [talk which has no content] and the opposing arguments [logically inconsistent] of what is falsely called "knowledge"

 

Truth is the only thing that stands up to intense scrutiny. Gnosticism was profane, godless talk that had no content and was logically inconsistent.

 

1TI 6:21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.