Class Notes: 2/24/2016

John 8:32; Gal 5:1; The doctrine of freedom part 5

In our study of the doctrine of freedom: John 8:32: Gal 5:1; We noted that positive volition to any aspect of God's Word of truth creates freedom because God imputes grace through the divine decree to bless positive volition wherever it is found. Lam 3:21-23; James 4:6;

When we left off last time we were noting how moral and amoral arrogance engages in crusader activism that destroys freedom because crusader activism rejects God's grace policy, takes matters into it's own hands and in the process of trying to make things better actually makes things worse because of the attack on divine establishment freedom.

We noted that when a believer resists attacks on divine establishment that any resistance must take place on one of the boundaries of authority that is established by God through divine establishment.

These points of authority are political boundaries including the nation, state, county, city, or town, the family, the marriage and free volition.

The disciples did the when they refused to comply with the Jewish supreme court's orders regarding teaching about Jesus Christ they refused to comply at the boundary of free volition. Acts 5:27-42;

Daniel's friends refused to obey emperor Nebuchadnezzar's orders to bow down to the golden idol. Dan 3:15-18;

Sin is evil and human good becomes evil when people are forced to comply. When anyone including the government uses force or tries to use force to make people comply with something that opposes divine establishment that is evil and it is the believer's responsibility to resist in every possible way.

This is why in the upper room just before He was crucified Jesus told His disciples to acquire and carry weapons because in the Church Age they would be traveling into the devil's world to communicate the Gospel so they would need to be able to defend themselves against criminals and evil do gooders who oppose divine establishment. Luke 22:34-38;

Criminals with amoral arrogance and evil do gooders with moral arrogance function under sin nature control of the soul where the arrogance sins combine with the lust pattern of the soul take complete control of the individual's life.

This results in the production of jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, vilification, malice, and revenge motivation in the believer's thinking making them irrational and irreconcilable. John 16:2;

In addition the emotional sins including fear, worry, anxiety, panic, irrationality, dissociation, denial, projection, animosity, self-pity, the guilt complex also surface.

The sins of the lust pattern including power and approbation lust, social and sexual lust, pleasure and chemical lust, greed, avarice, criminal lust, crusader lust, lust for revenge, malice, inflicting suffering on others become false motivation for life.

The root cause of many of the problems we have in our society today is the emotional sin of bitter hatred. Heb 12:15; This comes from breaking the 10th commandment. Rom 13:9;

Self-righteous moral arrogance can be illustrated by the way that the morally arrogant try to use forgiveness as leverage to manipulate others with guilt, demand reparations, or to self justify their own evil conduct by blaming others.

The function of real forgiveness in the spiritual life avoids these distractions. The warning regarding forgiveness is given in Eph 4:30-32; "Stop grieving the Holy Spirit, the God by whom you have been sealed to the day of redemption.

v31 All bitterness both anger and wrath both quarreling and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice.

v32 Instead be kind (have grace orientation) toward one another, compassionate (impersonal love), forgiving each other, just as God by means of Christ has also forgiven you."

God removed our sins from us at the moment we believed in Jesus Christ. Forgive and forget is real forgiveness. We are to forgive without any subsequent reaction or demands, without any subsequent emotional sinning such as bitterness, vindictiveness or implacability.

Morality is for both believer and unbeliever, but the spiritual life is only for the believer. This does not mean that the believer is amoral because the spiritual life adds a dimension of virtue to morality that is based on the believer's personal love for God. 1John 4:19; and our response to His love that is expressed to us through His grace policy. Titus 2:11-12; NET

When the believers understands and uses God's grace provision complying with God's mandates is not difficult. 1John 5:3; If the believer does not understand and use God's provision God's mandates are impossible because they cannot be performed in the energy of the flesh. Mark 10:27;

Christianity is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, 2Cor 5:17. Morality is not the Christian way of life but morality is the automatic result of living the Christian life. When believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, they are always moral because they do not sin. 1John 5:18;

We see from this that morality is not Christianity, but the Christian is moral. Morality is the product of anyone who complies with the laws of divine establishment.

Morality forbids immorality, Eph 5:3, "But immorality and all licentiousness or insatiable erotic desire should not even be mentioned by you as is protocol for the saints."

The subject of this passage is morality and it is directed toward believers because God's grace plan does not give the believer permission to sin, nor does the Bible condone antinomianism but at the same time morality does not provide the spiritual dynamics that are necessary for the Christian way of life.

The Christian spiritual life results in morality but morality does not result in the Christian way of life because morality is not the cause, the source of, or power of the Christian life. Morality is simply one of the many products of the Christian life. Gal 5:22-23;

Remember the unbeliever is expected to be moral and if the unbeliever can do it its not the Christian spiritual life.

The power of Morality is limited. Morality provides temporal freedom on the earth in the devil's world but morality cannot do anything that God can accept. Isa 64:6;

Morality does not provide eternal salvation, Titus 3:5; Gal 2:16, Gal 3:2; Rom 3:20, 28;

Morality does not produce the spiritual life, Gal 3:2-3; "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 the hearing of faith?

v3 Are you so foolish that having begun by means of the Spirit, you are now trying to be perfected by the flesh?"

While morality does not advance the believer in the plan of God, immorality prevents the believer from executing the plan of God, because the sins of immorality quench and grieve God the Holy Spirit terminating the Holy Spirit's control of the believer's life.

Morality does not produce the enabling power of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Morality does not advance the believer to spiritual maturity, escrow blessing, or enable the believer to pass evidence testing that glorifies God. The true dynamics of Christianity is virtue, not morality.

The true power of Christianity is comprised of experiential sanctification and the advance to Christian maturity. Experiential sanctification is the synergy of maximum metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness and the enabling power and filling ministry of the Holy Spirit inside God's power system.

This power exists when the believer is advancing by means of the momentum developed through the daily PMA of metabolized doctrine and the application of the 10 PSD's to the adversities of life in the devil's world under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

The power of the Christian spiritual life greatly exceeds morality because the virtue-love, honor, and integrity produced by personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind that are produced by God's power are far greater than any morality that man can produce in the energy of the flesh.

Morality is designed to produce the freedom that is necessary to make evangelism possible in every generation of human history. Morality comes from compliance with the Ten Commandments that establish, protects and maintains human freedom.

Morality also protects the human freedom that is necessary for the local church to function in providing the communication of Bible Doctrine for the spiritual growth of the believer.

Morality also protects the freedom of the client nation as it comes under assault in the angelic conflict from satan and his doctrines of demons. God designed morality to provide for the survival and the perpetuation of the human race as the angelic conflict rages during human history.

God designed morality for the function of the human freedom that is necessary for mankind to make a free will choice regarding the issues of freedom, salvation, spiritual growth, and divine blessing.

Morality fulfills the divine institutions of volition, marriage, family, and nationalism and demands that the believer become a participant who opposes any and all tyrannical assaults against freedom whatever the source.

We see from this that there are two sources of morality, the strong side of the old sin nature and the filling and teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Elihu's speech in Job 35:4-8; NET explains that neither immorality nor morality affect God; they only affect man. This means that in God's plan, virtue is the issue, not morality

This brings us to our study of the doctrine of virtue.

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