The doctrine of glorifying God, Part 7, John 15:8Title: The doctrine of glorifying God, Part 7, John 15:8.
The first and most important aspect of the believer glorifying God.
/1. Growing to spiritual maturity by means of the mystery doctrine and the filling of the HS whereby the believer produces fruit glorifies God.\
/a. Believing the promises of God gives glory to God, Rom 4:20,\
/b. The Law of Expediency glorifies God, 1 Cor 10:31.\
/The law of expediency, directed primarily toward the unbeliever. The Christian must often refrain from doing certain things not because they are wrong but because they prevent the unbeliever from seeing the true issue of salvation, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.\
/c. Singing to God with thankfulness under the correct motivation glorifies God, 2 Chron 5:13.\
/d. Dying grace glorifies God, John 21:19.\
/Dying grace is for the mature believer and is the link between super-grace blessings in time and surpassing-grace blessings in eternity. It is filled with happiness and a lack of fear. \
Fear of death is the ultimate slavery. Heb 2:14 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15 and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
/Ps 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, they comfort me. \
The death shadowed valley is the believer’s perception that death may be approaching, whether he is correct in that assumption or not. David was incorrect, but there was no way of knowing that. To David, death was lurking all around him and it seemed imminent. God is glorified by having this attitude.
/Excellent to God is when one of his godly ones comes home to Him, so then it follows that those who are mature spiritually should also rejoice, Ps 116:15.\
/Ps 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His godly ones. \
/God finds no pleasure in the sin unto death for the believer or the death of the unbeliever, Ezek 18:23.\
/Ezek 18:23 "Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord God, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?\
/A further comfort is that no one but God is Sovereign over their timing or manner of their death. Suicide is the exception, which makes it evil since it supersedes God’s Sovereignty, Ecc 8:8.\
/Eccl 8:8 No man has authority to restrain the wind with the wind, or authority over the day of death; \
/The entire reason for experiencing happiness in death and a complete lack of fear is the victory of the Lord over death, Isa 53:9,12. \
Isa 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
Isa 53:12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
/There is a power to death in that it can be the bridge to the second death, which is separation from God forever, however, Christ conquered both deaths by substituting willing impeccability, Act 2:24.\
/Acts 2:24 And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. \
Therefore, rather than being a time of sadness or fear or regret physical death becomes a victory for the believer and a bridge to great reward for the mature believer.
1 Cor 15:54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.
1 Cor 15:55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
1 Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
1 Cor 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Paul’s confidence in surpassing grace blessings for eternity came from his reception of super-grace blessings in time.
Phil 1:12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances [imprisonment in Rome] have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel,
Phil 1:13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,
Phil 1:14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
Phil 1:15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;
Phil 1:16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;
Phil 1:17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.
Phil 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.
Phil 1:19 For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
Phil 1:20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death [super-grace blessings in time].
Phil 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain [profit – surpassing-grace blessings for eternity].
Phil 1:22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.
Phil 1:23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;
Paul doesn’t wish for death as an escape from the troubles of the world for he knows to remain, despite the troubles, means for even more fruit production and more building up of the Church. His attitude shows us a certain joy that escapes almost the entire world; a joy based upon a life that has glorified God, without fear of the manner or time of death, and a heightened expectation of being with his Lord and Savior face to face for all eternity.
[Example: Phil – gotten so depressed that he was euphoric]
Phil 1:24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.
Phil 1:25 And convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,
Phil 1:26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
All of this leads us to the instance on the beach where the Lord commissions Peter as the leader of the 11 to teach the Church the doctrines of the mystery with an added prophecy concerning Peter’s future.
John 21:18 "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself, and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go."
John 21:19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me!"
/Just as the mature believer yielded to the will of God through his spiritual life, dying grace is the acceptance of the timing and manner of physical death. \
Peter is going to fail this since he has not yet had the time to grow up spiritually and develop a life of yieldedness to the will of God, and so he uses a classic defense mechanism of dissociation or withdrawal which leads to the evil of socialism.
John 21:20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His breast at the supper, and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?"
John 21:21 Peter therefore seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?"
John 21:22 Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!"
/Every believer is given the plan of God for his life that is patterned after to the Lord’s plan for the incarnation, but each contains nuances that are unique to the individual. \ |