Hypocrites and Backsliders Lessons -053 and 054

1. Hypocrites and Backsliders Lessons -053 and 054 Armor of God: GAP (Grace Apparatus for Perception)

2. The Doctrine of GAP • Knowledge Vs. Feelings Or Experience •      The Bible repeatedly emphasizes the importance of knowing God's Word, over that of our own feelings or experience.   • The following is an interesting word study regarding the number of times certain words appear in the New Testament, using the King James Version of the Bible:

3. The Doctrine of GAP • Know, 301 times;   • Knowledge, 52 times;   • Think, 47 times. • Feel, 1 time;   • Experience, 1 time;   • Feelings, 0;   • Emotion, 0. 

4. The Doctrine of GAP •      Despite the fact that so many Christians put their own emotions and experiences over knowledge of the Word, it's clear that God values the true disciple (student in the original Koine Greek) who abides in that Word. • In the mature spiritual life, feelings or experiences are the result (not the means) of our love for God, and our knowledge of Him.  

5. The Doctrine of GAP •  They are the effects (not the causes) of being transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2).   • They are responses to the grace of God, to who He is (they are not the method of living the Christian life).

6. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 (NLT) • 12 And God has actually given us his Spirit so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. • 13 When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. • 14 But people who aren’t Christians [who only have a Soul, but not a spirit] can’t understand these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means.

7. The Soulical Man Heart HEART Kardia Mind Volition BODY SOUL

8. Human Life and the Soul, and the Spirit • The Soul Man • 1 Cor. 15:45—“The first man Adam became a living soul. The last man Adam became a life-giving spirit.” • And, also without controversy, the Believer is more than fallen Adam, more than a Soul with Self-conciousness, he is a new spiritual being, with God-consciousness, now his raison d’etre, his reason to be. 8

9. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it is written: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” • God the Holy Spirit: His Regeneration • As the Christians life of faith begins with being born again, regeneration is one of the fundamental doctrines in relation to salvation. • Accurate definition of this work of the Spirit and an understanding of its relation to the whole Christian life are important to effective evangelism as well as to spiritual maturity. 9

10. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • In the Bible the word regeneration is found only twice. • In Matthew 19:28 it is used for the renewal of the Earth in the millennial kingdom and does not apply to the Christian salvation. • In Titus 3:5, however, the statement is made, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit." • On the basis of this text, the word regeneration has been chosen by theologians to express the concept of the new life, new birth, spiritual resurrection, the new creation, and, in general, a reference to the new supernatural life that believers receive as sons of God. 10

11. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • In the stupendous task of preparing and qualifying fallen, earthly beings to be the family of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — even to be a suitable Bride for the Lamb — the partaking of the divine nature by the impartation of the very life of God is one of the most important features of the whole transforming undertaking. 11

12. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • The receiving of the divine nature means that the individual has been born of God. • God has become his legitimate Father and he is the Father’s legitimate son. • This is a change so radical and so complete that there is a passing from one order of being into another. • Eventually, with the jettisoning of the Human Body at death or the Rapture, The saved one will have become precisely what his new position in glory requires him to be. 12

13. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • The basic metamorphosis which is achieved by a birth from above—a generating wrought by the Holy Spirit—though actually now entered by all who are saved, is too often and for want of due consideration almost wholly misapprehended. • The conception that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is merely an influence for good in the individual’s present life is far below the conception set forth in the New Testament. 13

14. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Instead it teaches that Believers are a new and eternal order of being created with an indestructible family relationship to the Creator of all things. • The fact of the new birth, whether comprehended or not, is the basic and distinguishing feature of the Christian. • The life of God which is eternal, and which therefore Christ is, has been imparted as definitely as the breath of natural life was breathed by God into Adam at the first creation. 14

15. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • At least eighty-five New Testament passages indicate that a Christian is a changed person by virtue of the fact that he has received the very life of God. • Through infinite love, the Son of God was given by the Father that sinful men should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and “I am come that they might have life” (John 10:10). • So, also, “the gift of God is eternal life” (Rom. 6:23). • That imparted life is said to be “Christ in you, the expectation of glory” (Col. 1:27). 15

16. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Regeneration by the Holy Spirit • By its nature, regeneration is a work of God and aspects of its truth are stated in many passages. • According to John 1:13, the regenerated one is "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." • It is compared to spiritual resurrection in several passages, John 5:21; Romans 6:13; Ephesians 2:5. • It is also compared to creation in that it is a creative act of God (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; 4:24). 16

17. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • It is also compared to creation in that it is a creative act of God (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; 4:24). • Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. • For we are God's masterpiece, created in the Messiah Jesus to do good works that God prepared long ago to be our way of life. • and to clothe yourselves with the new nature, which was created according to God's image in righteousness and true holiness. 17

18. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • All three persons of the Trinity are involved in the regeneration of the believer. • The father is related to regeneration in James 1:17-18. • Jesus Christ is frequently revealed to be involved in regeneration (John 5:21; 2 Corinthians 5:18; 1 John 5:12). • It seems, however, that as in other works of God where all three persons are involved, the Holy Spirit is specifically the regenerator as stated in John 3:3-7 and Titus 3:5. • A parallel may be observed in the birth of Christ in which God became his father, the life of son was in Christ and yet he was conceived of the Holy Spirit. 18

19. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Eternal Life is Imparted by Regeneration • The central concept of regeneration is that a believer who formerly was spiritually dead now has received eternal life. Three descriptions are used to describe this. • One is the idea of being born a second time - a new way, or the figure of rebirth. • In Christ conversation with Nicodemus he said, "you must be born again," or as better translated, "you must be born from above." • It is thus in contrast with human birth in John 1:13. 19

20. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • In a second figure, that of spiritual resurrection, a believer in Christ is declared to be "alive from the dead" in Romans 6:13. • In Ephesians 2:5 it is stated that God, "even when we were dead in sins, has made us all live together with Christ." 20

21. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • In the third figure, that of the new creation, the believer is exhorted to "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). • And 2 Corinthians 5:17 the thought is made clear: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." • All three figures speak of the different aspects of the new life which is received by faith in Christ. 21

22. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • When a believer receives Christ by faith, he is born by the Holy Spirit and in the act of the new birth receives a new Spiritual nature. • This is what the Bible refers to as "the new man" in Ephesians 4:24, which we are exhorted to "put on" in the sense that we should avail ourselves of its contribution to our new personality. • Because of the new nature, a believer in Christ may often experience a drastic change in his life, in his attitude toward God, and in his capacity to have victory over sin. • The new nature is the nature of God himself and is totally different from the human nature of Adam before he sinned, which was entirely human even though sinless. 22

23. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • From the nature of the act of new birth, spiritual resurrection, and creation, it is clear that regeneration is not accomplished by any good work of man. • It is not an act of the human will in itself, and it is not produced by any ordinance of the church such as water baptism. • It is entirely a supernatural act of God in response to the faith of man. 23

24. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Regeneration is the foundation upon which our total salvation is built. • Without new life in Christ, there is no possibility of receiving the other aspects of salvation such as the indwelling of the Spirit, justification, or all the other subsequent results. • There are some features, however, that are immediately evident in the fact of regeneration. 24

25. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • The new nature has divine qualities and longs after the things of God. • Although in itself it does not have the power to fulfill its desires apart from the Holy Spirit, it gives a new direction to the life and a new aspiration to attain the will of God. 25

26. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • While regeneration in itself is not an experience, the new life received in regeneration gives the believer new capacity for experience. • Once he was blind to God, now he can see. • Once he was dead, now he is alive to spiritual things. 26

27. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Once he was estranged from God and out of fellowship; now he has a basis for fellowship with God and can receive the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. • In proportion as the Christian yields himself to God and avails himself of God's provision, his experience will be a wonderful, supernatural demonstration of what God can do with a life that is yielded to him. 27

28. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Phil. 1:19 - the believer united to his Risen Lord ‘grows continually to a more perfect knowledge and likeness of his Creator,’ and grows up ‘after the image of Him that created him, in the sphere where ‘Christ is all, and in all.’ • “that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11). 28

29. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • The child naturally grows up in the likeness of his father, and the new Spiritual Child grows up in the likeness of Him who is the Creator of the new creation if so be that the death with Christ is unflinchingly recognized, and ‘old things’ are truly allowed to pass away to make room for the growth of the new man ‘which is after God . . . created in righteousness, and holiness of truth’ (Eph. 4:24).” 29

30. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • The Apostle likewise declares that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10). • This passage reveals the truth that, as a result of the divine workmanship, the Christian is no less than a divine creation—a form of being which did not exist before. • Similarly, the same Apostle writes: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision (Religion) avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Gal. 6:15). 30

31. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • Of this He said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:27–28). 31

32. Spiritual Life - Regeneration • The rest here promised is that of the soul and is the result of coming to know God as Father. • It is one thing to know about God, but quite another thing to know God. • According to this great invitation, it is possible to come to know the Father by the gracious offices and effective working of the Son, and no soul has ever found true rest apart from this intimacy with God. 32

33. The Doctrine of GAP • There is a deep desire or a yearning in all believers, especially those new to the faith. • Just as the physical body needs food and the soul desires stimulation, the human spirit which has been created within the believer at the moment of salvation by God the Holy Spirit, also hungers to be filled. • This natural hunger for sustenance has been placed within the believer by God.

34. The Doctrine of GAP • PSA 119:19“I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy word.” • In verse 24 he again reveals his positive volition by stating, “Thy testimonies also are my delight; They (doctrine and testimonies) are my counselors.”

35. The Doctrine of GAP • Because positive volition toward Doctrine is so important and determines the believer's status with God experientially, the Lord has provided everything needed to fulfill this desire:

36. The Doctrine of GAP • 1. God has provided the mechanics of inspiration for the formation and preservation of the canon of Scripture. • 2. God provides the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit inside the Pre-designed Plan of God (PPOG) enabling us to understand the mechanics for the execution of His plan.

37. The Doctrine of GAP • 3. God provides the Divine plan for the Church and the Protocol Plan of God (PPOG) for the Royal Family of God. • 4. God provides a right Pastor-teacher for every member of the royal family who is positive to Doctrine. • There is no such thing as a self-made Christian.

38. The Doctrine of GAP • 5. God provides the privacy of the royal priesthood for the perception of mystery doctrine. • Every believer is given a royal priesthood for the purpose of freedom and privacy.

39. The Doctrine of GAP • 6. Logistical Grace Support. • Every member of the royal family is kept alive for the equal privilege and the equal opportunity to execute God's plan. • This includes the provisions for food, clothes, shelter, transportation and the other necessities of life.

40. The Doctrine of GAP • Why are we still alive? • After all the stupid things we’ve done, all the times we could have died, or at least deserved to die, why, why are we still alive? • Because God has a Plan for each of our lives, and it’s not moping and whining, it’s righteousness, peace and joy. • Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

41. The Doctrine of GAP • GAP is the way He teaches us this life and how to live it. • It’s not Church, it’s not the 10 Commandments, it’s not being good, it’s not being Religious; it’s living the Spiritual Life as He provides it in our new Genetics. • And just as a new-born baby stretches his lips out for food, the New Born Believer “hungers and thirsts for Righteousness.”

42. The Doctrine of GAP • Unfortunately, most Churches and most Pastors have treated their ministry as if it were nursing a human child and not a Spiritual Child. • Caring and providing for the Human Baby in all of us, rather than the Spiritual Baby of the Regenerated Believer. • Teaching us how to be good humans, and never teaching us to be what we are – New Creatures in Christ.

43. The Doctrine of GAP • 7. God provides the local church as the classroom for the royal family to learn His Word. • 8. God provides human volition as the means of integrating Doctrine into the life of the believer. • These are the provisions that God provides so that Christians may exercise their positive volition and grow in grace and knowledge.

44. The Doctrine of GAP • For Christians with positive volition, reception of Bible doctrine is the number one priority. • Daily or consistent exposure to Bible teaching takes precedence over everything else, and no one can learn doctrine without the help of a prepared pastor-teacher. • God has delegated the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher to certain male believers for the communication of His Word to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

45. The Doctrine of GAP • The principle of reception of doctrine includes the concepts of concentration and avoidance of distractions. • During that time which is given for exposure to doctrine, the Christian with positive volition concentrates l00% on what is being taught, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, residing in his PPOG, shutting out all distractions.

46. The Doctrine of GAP • Retention of doctrine is the spiritual function of converting academic (gnosis) Doctrine into metabolized (epignosis) doctrine. • Only metabolized doctrine provides spiritual growth and momentum. • It provides spiritual energy for living the Christian way of life.

47. 1 Cor 2:14 • The soulish man [ unbeliever with a soul but no human spirit ] does not accept the things from the Holy Spirit[ta: plural neuter article: divine knowledge ] for to him they are foolishness and he is not able to even acquire academic understanding because they are spiritually discerned.

48. The Soulical Man Heart HEART Kardia Mind Volition BODY SOUL

49. Life’s Choices • Event • Perception • Appraisal • The Representation • The Volitional Interlude • The Cognitive Response and Emotional Reaction • Spirituality (Righteousness, Peace and Joy), or • Carnality (Arrogance Skills) leading to Reversionism

50. The Event Perception Appraisal The Representation The Faith Response The Volitional Interlude The Rejection Reaction Spirituality Emotional Revolt OR