Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 62 - The World. 2Pe 1:4; Eph 3:18; 1Co 7:31.

Title: Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 62 - The World. 2PE 1:4; EPH 3:18; 1CO 7:31.

 

Announcementsopening prayer: 

 

 

The regenerate believer does not become a christ or god but a new creature of a divine nature and so the old man and old world just don't fit anymore.

 

2PE 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

 

2PE 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

 

2PE 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

 

The life of the world and the unregenerate creatures in it, like the vastness of space, is not the life of God. God gives this life to the believer only [eternal life] and he must learn how different it is from the old life that he had before. The world cannot understand this since this life is from another world, totally alien to the life of the world.

 

EPH 2:12

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens [separate: NASB] from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: [KJV]

 

Regeneration is like going from two dimensions to three dimensions. In one dimension there can only be a line. In two dimensions there can be a figure, like a square. In three dimensions there can be a shape, like a cube. What if you lived in a two dimensional world? If someone tried to explain to you a three dimensional world, would you possibly understand it? And yet, in dimensions, the more you advance to more real and complicated levels, you do not leave behind the things you found on a simpler level. In one dimension you have a line and in two dimensions you have a square that is made of four lines. In three dimensions you have a cube that is made of six squares. How can the unbeliever understand the next dimension, which is spiritual? How can the world system, which is organized to oppose God, understand or reveal a dimension that it is not made of? [fourth dimension - heaven…]

 

EPH 3:14 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,

 

EPH 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

 

EPH 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;

 

EPH 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

 

EPH 3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

 

EPH 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

 

As a side note, how can we as believers, but still limited in many ways, understand a Trinity or a duel nature of Christ or how an indwelling Spirit can possess the heart of a man in order to teach, lead, and empower him? I believe these questions are on a level which we have not yet progressed to, or maybe we never will, and so cannot in our limited place understand them. We must believe them by faith.

 

Making this practical to our present lives is not hard. Some Christian have thought that they would have an easier time in the spiritual world if they separated themselves from the temporary natural world, but in this they are misled.

 

The spiritual life doesn't depend on where you are, what you are doing, or what you are partaking of, but in Spirit and truth.

 

If the mature believer knows the truth about where he is, what he is doing, and what he is partaking of then he will not be of the world or in the manner of the world that is alien from God. He will be walking with God in the midst of the world and so as a witness unto the world of the kingdom of Christ that is hidden with Christ and not within the hearts of the unsaved. He will be free to do all things but will resist those things that are not profitable or edifying to God's glory, himself, and to others.

 

1JO 3:17

But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

 

1CO 7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none [marriage does not interfere with service to God];

 

In times of great trial the married believer should be well devoted to God as if he had no wife, in other words, not depending upon her over his dependence upon God for deliverance. 

 

1CO 7:30 and those who weep, as though they did not weep [weeping turned to joy in God's deliverance]; and those who rejoice [in their worldly situations], as though they did not rejoice [they will not deliver]; and those who buy, as though they did not possess [not dependent on material goods];

 

1CO 7:31 and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it [excess or indulgence]; for the form of this world is passing away.

 

2PE 3:10-11

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness

 

The word of God is mistranslated and abused. Many think that God favors the poor and so all should be poor, however, God favors the poor of the world. He is pleased when His creature become poor concerning the ways of the cosmic system. This has nothing to do with how much money a person has.

 

JAM 2:5

Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world [dative: "as regards the cosmos"] to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

 

With these principles in mind the believer should have a clearer understanding of the scriptures that denounce the world.

 

The Scriptures spare no words in denouncing the world.

 

Friendship with the world is called spiritual adultery and the friend of the world is the enemy of God.

 

JAM 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

 

Love of the world excludes love of the Father.

 

1JO 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 

 Union with the world and conforming to the world is forbidden.

 

ROM 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

2CO 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

 

The whole world is declared worthless in comparison to the value of a human soul.

 

MAT 16:26 "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?