Jam 29-50 2/6/90

DOCTRINE OF GOOD (Part 1)

A. Introduction.

1. Good as it Relates to Christianity.

a. In the English language, the word `good’ may be defined in terms of certain adjectives: excellent; righteous; honorable; worthy; moral; beneficent; valid; commendable; admirable; meritorious.

b. What further complicates the subject is the problem of relating good to deeds or to work, since the Greek uses all kinds of words: AGATHOS - absolute good; KALOS - honorable good; ERGON - deeds.

c. What contemporary theologians have to say about the subject.

(1) Dr. Douglas J. Miller, professor of Christian and Social Ethics at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary says the following about `good,’ “The word good is the most comprehensive term used when praising the excellence of something. To speak about a good book or good food is to use `good’ in a typically non-moral way. However, `good’ conveys a moral sense as well when someone says, `He is a good man; or she did a good deed.’ The man is laudable for his excellent moral character, and the woman for her effort in fulfilling a human need. As in these examples, the morally good refers to various aspects of personhood, which includes: deeds; character traits; motives; intentions; desires; and needs. When an action is commended because of transpersonal factors, such as its conformity to principles, the term `right’ is most often employed. The relationship between right and the good has been the most persistent problem of ethics. The solution lies not in the contested search for the criteria or standards of goodness, but has centered around the most compelling of all human questions - what is good? An answer to this question rests upon one’s philosophical assumptions and/or religious beliefs. This has offered a host of clashing distinctions, such as: objective versus subjective good; temporal versus eternal good; immutable versus mutable good; good as an end versus good as a means. Classical thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle tried to clarify and unify these various facets of good. Their ideas greatest influenced both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who in compelling rigor related these discussions about the good to the Christian faith.”

(2) Dr. Eugene M. Osterhaven, professor of Systematic Theology at Western Theological Seminary of Holland, Michigan states, “The New Testament teaching on human works are characterized in general as: “from the devil,” 1 Jn 3:8; Jn 8:41; “of darkness,” Rom 13:12; “of the flesh,” Gal 5:19; “evil,” Jude 15; Mt 23:3; “lawless,” 2 Pet 2:8; “dead,” Heb 6:1, 9:14. The only works that will stand the scrutiny of God are those which are effected by His Holy Spirit and grounded in faith [Bible doctrine], Jn 3:21; Jn 6:29; 1 Thes 1:3; Rom 2:6-7; Acts 26:20. Soon after the apostolic age a drifting from the Biblical viewpoint of good works is noticeable. Whereas the New Testament had taught that the Kingdom is built upon God’s grace, not human merit.”

(a) Dr. Osterhaven has discovered that what Christians often call `good’ is Satanic, from the old sin nature, evil, lawless, and dead works.

(b) Many sincere believers have entered into a system of good deeds that are not acceptable to God, in fact, they contradict the protocol plan of God.

© There are many believers who have the gift of helps and have taken that gift beyond its function; for the gift of helps was never designed to control other people. The gift of helps was never designed to be a system of dependency, where people depend on you. It was never designed to be a system of developing cliques or organizations within a church. It was designed for something far greater.

d. There are two categories of good: divine good and human good.

e. Principles Related to Divine and Human Good.

(1) Divine good is an absolute concept related to God. Human good is a relative concept related to mankind. Divine good is related to God’s perfect standards. The fact that we, as believers, can perform divine good means that God has given us in grace the means of doing so. The means of producing divine good is the filling of the Holy Spirit and the perception of Bible doctrine.

(2) Divine good is permanent and absolute. Human good is temporary and relative.

(3) The absolute good from God will last forever. The human good from mankind may last a day, month, year, decade, or century.

(4) Human good is corruptible, because mankind has a sin nature and commits acts of personal sin. Human good produces blind arrogance and corrupts the one who produces it.

(5) By way of contrast, the absolute good from God is incorruptible and eternal. When the believer is filled with the Spirit and growing from doctrine, his human good is converted into divine good.

(6) Human good is based upon the relative standards of mankind; divine good is based on the absolute and eternal standards of God.

f. Human Good and Dependency.

(1) It is possible for believers to enter a congregation, and through the function of human good create a dependency so that there is a church within a church.

(2) The dependency becomes a substitute for doctrine. A person becomes a role model, a crutch. Our dependency is on Bible doctrine and not on the good that can be and will be done for us.

(3) The spiritual gift of helps never crosses over that invisible line. The spiritual gift of helps means the filling of the Spirit and occupation with Christ provides a fantastic motivation of doing something as unto the Lord, and does not discriminate with regard to whom is being helped and what their attitude may be toward you.

g. General Introductory Principles.

(1) Absolute good is from God, and therefore, incorruptible.

(2) Human good is from sinful standards, and is corruptible. This is why human good can be parlayed into evil by arrogant motivation.

(3) Human good is corrupted by sin in two areas: sinful motivation or intent; sinful result from human good.

(4) When human good is corrupted, it is parlayed into evil.

(5) There are two categories of the corruption of human good.

(a) Sinful motivation produces the formula: sin plus human good equals evil.

(b) Sinful result produce the formula: human good plus sin equals evil.

(6) Human good cannot sustain itself in the sphere of spiritual death. In spiritual death we are in total depravity, total separation from God, and total helplessness to do anything to establish a relationship with God, and a dichotomous status quo. This makes it impossible for the unbeliever in spiritual death to understand God or the plan of God, even that related to good. But he can understand establishment good. Therefore, establishment good is something that both the believer and unbeliever can accomplish by self-determination.

h. There are systems of human good, such as: socialism; the attempt to create perfect environment.

i. Counseling is a part of human good. See the Doctrine of Counseling.

j. Good includes the fact that God has already done everything for us in grace.

(1) The Exodus generation had to learn that God had already done everything for them. For example: the crossing of the Red Sea, water in the desert, the Manna, the quail. The battle is the Lord’s and He will fight for us every day.

(2) Since God has already done everything, we only need to stand still and not be concerned about anything. The key to this is what happened on the cross.

(3) Our Lord did the greatest deed or good work in history by bearing our sins. Who has the nerve to take his human works and add them to the perfect finished work of Christ? Christians who say you also have to:

(a) Make a commitment to God.

(b) Repent (which they define as feeling sorry for your sins).

(d) Perform some ritual work, such as being baptized.

(e) Be good, be moral, keep the Mosaic Law.

(f) Perform some psychological work, such as raising your hand, walking forward.

(g) Feel saved, speak in tongues, weeping tears at the altar.

(h) Invite Christ into your heart or into your life. No spiritually dead person can invite Christ anywhere. The spiritually dead person can only accept the invitation of God to believe in Christ.

(4) All good deeds begin with what God has done for us. Anything added to faith in Christ for salvation is human good, and it cancels the validity of faith. Tit 3:5; Rom 3:20-28; Rom 4:4-5. Anything added to faith cancels faith, Eph 2:8-10.

(5) If human good and human works are excluded from salvation, and they are, it follows that human good and human works are excluded from the plan of God for the believer. Mankind in spiritual death has no system of good deeds by which he can impress God and have eternal life. When it comes to salvation, the only good that impresses God is the saving work of Christ on the cross.

k. What kind of works are involved in the protocol plan of God for the Church?

(1) There is a system of good which can be performed by believers, and which is acceptable to God. These works are classified as divine good.

(2) Divine good performed by the believer is always a result of the grace provision of God. God provides the basis by which we can perform the good deed. He provides the filling of the Holy Spirit, our portfolio of invisible assets, problem solving devices, promises from the Word of God, and the doctrine which motivates us to perform the good deed.

(3) Divine good is the only legitimate system of works in the protocol plan of God. Human good can be performed in relationship to the laws of divine establishment, but for the believer the divine mandate requires divine good. We are created in Christ Jesus for good of intrinsic value deeds, Eph 2:10.

l. Three areas of good will be emphasized in this study.

(1) Human good.

(2) Divine good.

(3) Good and evil.

2. Introduction to Human Good.

a. The Relative Standards of Human Good.

(1) Human good means many different things to many different people because different people have different standards.

(2) Human good is defined to the individual on the basis of his own standards. What may be good to me, may not be good to you. This is not true of divine standards, which are based solely on what the Word of God says.

(3) No conclusion can be reached with regard to human good from the multifarious standards of mankind.

(4) Therefore, the perfect, absolute, and eternal standards of God, revealed in the Word of God, must be the norm for understanding the true nature of human good.

(5) The Bible reveals the standards used to determine the nature of sin, the nature of human good, and the nature of evil, which are all related.

(6) Anytime you have an opinion as to whether something is good or bad, whether something is sinful or virtuous, you are expressing your standards as over against someone else’s standards. Only divine good is in contrast to evil. Human good is not in contrast to evil.

(7) In God’s standards, sometimes good merges into evil through either sinful motivation or sinful results from an act of good. An act of good may have consequences that are evil. An act of good may be motivated by sinfulness, arrogance, in which case the good has lost its good.

(8) Therefore, human good must be categorized from the Scripture in the same way that sin is categorized in the Scripture.

(9) Three things were in place in the Garden of Eden prior to man’s original sin.

(a) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in place in the Garden, but was not necessary until man’s sin. This tree was the issue as to whether man would remain perfect and innocent or sinful and degenerate.

(b) Adam and the woman were created by God in a perfect status.

i. Sin had to come before good. They could only sin by disobeying God’s prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

ii. The potential for sin was the divine prohibition to eat from the tree. Therefore, the potential for evil was not there in original creation. It came after the original sin of mankind.

iii. Good was in contrast to evil. But after the first sin, there is immediately the parlaying of human good into evil by operation fig leaves. This was salvation by works, which is always evil.

b. The Corruption of Human Good.

(1) There are three categories that compose human good. Motivation is corrupted by sin, by the lust pattern of the sin nature. The action itself may be corrupted by sin. The result may be corrupted.

(a) The motivation for human good.

(b) The action of the good deed or the function of human good.

(2) Divine good is incorruptible; human good is corruptible. When man sinned, the first thing he did was not to commit another sin, but to commit an act of human good.

(3) Human good is corrupted through intent or motivation: the motivation from the arrogance complex; the motivation from the emotional sin complex. Fear, anger, self-pity, and guilt corrupt the function of good.

(4) Sinful motivation plus human good equals evil. Human good is corrupted through its results. Human good plus sin equals evil. If sin comes first, then human good is parlayed into evil through motivation. If human good comes first, then sin is parlayed into evil.

(5) All corruptions of human good results from some form of evil.

(6) The corruptions of human good should never discourage a person from performing good deeds, though the expression of those things related to the filling of the Holy Spirit. Love, kindness, compassion, generosity, or altruism are legitimate ways for both believers and unbelievers to perform good deeds.

c. The Motivation for Human Good.

(1) Sinful motivation always corrupts human good, and generally parlays it into evil.

(2) Evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Satan is trying to incorporate a great deal of good, so that He can control people through various aspects of good. When Satan said, “I will be like the Most High God,” it was a demonstration of the ultimate in the motivation of arrogance. Believers form evil when they say, “I will be like so and so.” In so doing, you have a major distraction from Bible doctrine. Our Lord Jesus Christ is your role model.

(3) Sinful motivation includes the arrogance complex of sins and the emotional complex of sins which corrupt good.

(4) Sinful motivation takes the believer away from his capacity under his spiritual gift and puts him over his head in good deeds. This can only be rectified by maximum perception of Bible doctrine.

(5) Scripture.

(a) Matt 23:5, “But they [the Scribes and Pharisees] do all their deeds to be noticed by men.”

(b) 2 Cor 11:14-15, “For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants [human beings] also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end shall be according to their deeds.”

© 2 Jn 10-11, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him in your house and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

(d) Jam 2:4, “Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and you have become judges with evil motives?”

(6) The motivation which maintains the integrity of the good deed must come from God the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine in the soul.

(7) Certain problem solving devices are good motivation for good deeds: the filling of the Spirit; grace orientation; doctrinal orientation, Rom 12:20-21, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by means of good.” There is a type of good which overcomes evil and a type of good in which evil overcomes. The good here is personal love for God as a motivational virtue, impersonal love for all mankind as a functional virtue, and occupation with Christ which produces love, compassion, sympathy, altruism necessary to produce divine good.

d. Human good is rejected at the point of salvation.

(1) 2 Tim 1:9, “He saved us, and He called us with a holy calling, not on the basis of our works but according to His own purpose in grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus from all eternity past.” The entire work of salvation was accomplished in the divine decrees in eternity past. God’s grace means that God does all the work and God gives.

(2) Rom 3:20-28, “Because by the works of the Law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin, but now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets [the Old Testament], even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.”

(3) If human good and human works are excluded from salvation, it follows that human good and human works are excluded from the plan of God. God has provided for us a substitute for the production of human good: the production of divine good. Divine good is a legitimate system of works which results from the execution of the protocol plan of God.

(4) Rom 4:4, “Now to the person who works for salvation, his wages are not calculated on the basis of debt. But the person who does not work for salvation, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly [the spiritually dead], his faith receives credit for righteousness.” The more you work for salvation, the deeper you go in the hole.

(5) Rom 4:14, “For if those who by means of the Law [i.e., keeping the Law] are heirs, then faith has been made void, and the promises have been canceled.”

(6) Gal 2:16, “Knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; for by works of the Law no flesh shall be justified.”

(7) Principles.

(a) Anything added to faith in Christ for salvation is human good and cancels the validity of faith.

(b) Anything added to faith in Christ cancels faith.

(d) Salvation by faith alone excludes human good and human works, and opens the door for the fantastic system of works called divine good. These divine works were prepared for us in eternity past by God Himself.

(e) But when it comes to salvation, the only work that impresses God the Father is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Since human good and human works are excluded from the way of salvation, it follows that human good and human works are not a part of God’s plan for the believer after salvation.

(8) The exclusion of human good and human works at salvation sets the precedence for the exclusion of human good and human works in the Christian way of life.

3. The Challenge to Produce Divine Good.

a. There is a system of good that can be performed by the believer which is acceptable to God. A system of good which is based on spiritual gifts, the filling of the Holy Spirit, spiritual growth, and becoming spiritually self-sustaining.

(1) The challenge to produce divine good comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit plus consistent cognition and perception of Bible doctrine. The combination of these two factors leads to converting human good into divine good.

(2) Divine good results from several factors.

(a) The filling of the Holy Spirit.

(b) The consistent function of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, which strengthens motivation, function and result. Post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation means that doctrine reinforces what the fruit of the Spirit does in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. It is the understanding of doctrine that gives great strength to Christian service and the production of all kinds of good.

b. Divine good is defined as those Christian works and Christian service functions which are acceptable to God and His perfect standards. If we are to going to do something that meets God’s standards, then we must have all of our help and all of the means from God. The standard of God demands from us that a right thing be done in a right way to be right.

(1) A wrong thing done in a wrong way is wrong.

(2) A wrong thing done in a right way is wrong.

(3) A right thing done in a wrong way is wrong.

c. Only the grace of God can provide what is necessary to meet divine standards.

(1) Therefore, all production of divine good originates from the grace of God, which includes the filling of the Holy Spirit and spiritual growth. All good deeds must be the result of spiritual growth. The good deeds which we perform are the result of spiritual growth, never the means of spiritual growth.

(a) Divine good performed by the believer is the result of the grace provision of God, just as salvation is the result of the grace provision of God.

(b) All three Persons did the work of salvation.

i. God the Father planned salvation and judged all sins while Christ bore them.

ii. God the Son received the imputation and judgment of our sins.

iii. God the Holy Spirit reveals this salvation through common and efficacious grace. The Holy Spirit takes faith, and faith alone, and makes it effective for salvation. If you add anything to this, you cancel the faith.

© The policy for production of divine good is grace. Therefore, the importance of using the problem solving devices to recover when we fail so we can continue to produce divine good. The result of the inculcation of Bible doctrine is the problem solving device called doctrinal orientation.

(2) Therefore, divine good must have a grace result. If the function of your good does not have a grace result, if it leads to dependency in some way, if it erodes legitimate authority in life, then it is dead works and often parlayed into evil.

(3) Since the grace of God provides everything necessary to produce good works acceptable to divine standards, those works are classified as divine good. This nomenclature gives credit to God for production which is acceptable to Him and which meets His standards.

(4) Eph 2:10, “For we are His creation, having been created in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of good of intrinsic value deeds, which God has prepared in advance that we should walk in them.”

(a) The new spiritual species is created to utilize God’s grace provision for the production of divine good.

(b) Divine good is the only legitimate system of works in the protocol plan of God. The protocol plan of God mandates the production of divine good.

d. These good of intrinsic value deeds have been prepared in eternity past by the grace of God. They are the result of having our very own portfolio of invisible assets, learning what those assets are, and using them. Learning and using this portfolio inevitably results in producing good deeds.

e. Good deeds from the filling of the Holy Spirit can be classified as divine good. But the divine good is only just starting. Good deeds resulting from perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine is classified as divine good. Good deeds resulting from the attainment of spiritual adulthood, the execution of the protocol plan of God, is classified as divine good.

f. Principles of Divine Good.

(1) The good of mankind is relative; the good of God is absolute.

(2) Divine good lasts forever, while human good may last a day, a month, a year, or even more.

(3) Divine good is absolute and eternal, while human good is relative and temporal.

(4) Human good can be performed in the energy of the flesh, since human good is both the function of believer and unbeliever related to the laws of divine establishment.

(5) The believer’s production of divine good is rewardable both in time and eternity.

(6) The believer’s production in the status of carnality or Christian degeneracy is classified as dead works.

g. Principles Related to Precedence and Divine Good.

(1) If human good and human works are excluded from salvation, and they are, it follows that human good and human works are excluded from the plan of God for the Church Age believer.

(2) Salvation by faith in Christ excludes human works and human good.

(3) Mankind in spiritual death has no system of good deeds by which he can impress God and thereby have eternal life.

(4) When it comes to salvation, the only good which impresses God the Father is the salvation work of Christ on the cross.

(5) The exclusion of human good and human works from salvation sets a precedent for the exclusion of human good and human works for the Christian way of life.

(a) Tit 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but on the basis of His mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

(b) Eph 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this [salvation] is not from yourselves; it is a gift from God, not by works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His creation, having been created in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of good of intrinsic value deeds, which God has prepared in advance that we should walk in them.”

i. The new spiritual species is created to utilize God’s grace provision for the production of divine good rather than human good.

ii. Divine good is the only legitimate system of works in the protocol plan of God.

(6) This precedence has two sides. From the negative side human good is excluded from the Christian way of life; and when we have human works, they are classified as dead works. From the positive side the production of divine good, through the filling of the Holy Spirit, cognition of Bible doctrine, and spiritual momentum, is the basis for whatever deeds or Christian service is acceptable to God.

(a) The production of divine good is the inevitable result of spiritual growth through the inculcation of Bible doctrine.

(b) The policy for the production of divine good is always grace. Therefore, the importance of grace orientation as a problem solving device.

(d) Furthermore, our portfolio of invisible assets was prepared in eternity past, making it possible for each one of us to produce divine good.

h. Divine good is one of three categories of production in life.

(1) Divine good is the production of the Church Age believer through utilization of the grace provision of God in three categories: the filling of the Holy Spirit; cognition of Bible doctrine; and the execution of the protocol plan of God.

(2) Human good is any good that can be performed by believers or unbelievers in the energy of the flesh. There is also a special category of human good related to the laws of divine establishment.

(3) Dead works is good deeds performed by a Church Age believer in the status quo of carnality, cosmic involvement, and Christian degeneracy.

(a) Divine good is distinguished from dead works at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

(b) The existence of dead works by the carnal believer is mentioned in:

i. Heb 6:1, “Therefore, having graduated from basic doctrine regarding Christ, let us advance toward maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance [changing your mind about] from dead works.”

ii. Heb 9:14, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The work of Christ on the cross was the ultimate in divine good. Dead works are good deeds and Christian service which do not meet the standards of God.

© Failure to produce divine good results from the believer being out of fellowship, a status which is often unknown to that believer. Anything that the believer does outside of the divine dynasphere is not a part of the protocol plan of God, and therefore, dead to God.

(4) There is a relationship between dead works and human good.

(a) Human good is defined as what the believer can do apart from the grace provision of God. Human good is also what the unbeliever can do in the energy of the flesh. Human good is what the believer can accomplish from his own volition and self-determination plus his own energy.

(b) There are two categories of human good in the life of the believer.

i. Legitimate human good related to the execution of the laws of divine establishment.

ii. Corruptible human good which is a synonym for dead works. Corruptible human good is the production of the believer out of fellowship.

(d) Sinful motivation parlays human good into evil or dead works or both.

(e) The production of divine good in Biblical nomenclature is known as “fruit-bearing,” while the production of carnality or corrupted human good is classified as “dead works.”

(f) Carnality cuts off the basis for the production of divine good; for there can be no divine good without the filling of the Spirit.

(g) For the carnal believer, no divine good can be produced until he rebounds, 1 Jn 1:9.

i. 1 Cor 3:1-3, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual persons, but as to carnal believers, as to babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to understand it. Furthermore, even now you are still not able, for you are still carnal. As a matter of fact, there is jealousy and strife among you. Therefore, are you not carnal, and are you not walking on the basis of man’s [unbeliever’s] standards?”

(1) Spiritual skills must precede production skills. Just as social skills must be learned before competitive skills in orientation to human life, so spiritual growth and problem solving skills must precede good deeds and Christian service in the protocol plan.

(2) Under the protocol plan of God, spiritual growth through the inculcation of doctrine must precede the good deeds of Christian service. Otherwise, the Christian service and good deeds will become dead works.

(3) In the Christian way of life, spiritual skills must precede works or production skills. If you teach competitive skills before social skills, then the competitive skills replace the social skills, so that kindness, thoughtfulness, and consideration for others is eliminated.

(4) Just as the chicken came before the egg, so spiritual adulthood must precede maximum effectiveness in Christian service and good deeds.

(5) The problems of parlaying good into evil or dead works are avoided by giving priority to spiritual momentum through inculcation of Bible doctrine. This does not preclude Christian service or good deeds in spiritual adolescence; but it does provide the grace perspective for the place of Christian service in the protocol plan and emphasize the importance of spiritual advance.

(6) The effectiveness of good deeds and Christian service is to avoid wrong motivation, especially crusader arrogance followed by Christian activism.

(7) If spiritual skills are not developed first, then production skills will replace spiritual skills, with disastrous results:

(a) The believer will never execute the protocol plan of God for the Church, and therefore, will never glorify God or do anything that can be classified as divine good.

(b) The believer’s good deeds and Christian service will be wood, hay, and stubble, and will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

(8) Therefore, the new believer should never be encouraged to become involved in works, deeds, or Christian service until he has learned his spiritual skills first. It is disastrous for a new believer to become involved in a works system. Avoid Christian service until at least the basic spiritual skills are developed: rebound, the faith-rest drill, doctrinal and grace orientation, personal love for God the Father as motivation for good deeds.

(9) Carnality means the believer is out of fellowship; he is not living in the divine dynasphere. Therefore, he is not able to metabolize doctrine, and all of his good deeds are dead works. Apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit, no matter what you do it is dead works.

(a) Where motivation for Christian service and good deeds includes the arrogance complex or the lust pattern of the sin nature, the result is either dead works, or human good parlayed into evil. Here we have jealousy and strife for the basis of production. Therefore, the production is dead works.

(b) Never function under good deeds and Christian service until the basic skills of the Christian way of life are developed (e.g., the use of the problem solving devices).

(d) Good deeds and Christian service must not become a system of manipulation and control of others or gratification of power lust. Such function is dead works, and sometimes evil, and sometimes both.

(e) Christian degeneracy means motivation for good deeds and Christian service has to come from arrogance and the lust pattern of the old sin nature.

(10) There is a subtle distraction to doctrine as the number one priority in life by what we shall the “beyond doctrine movement.”

(a) The beyond doctrine movement places emphasis on getting involved in works, Christian service, and good deeds before the believer has learned the spiritual skills necessary to convert works, deeds, and service into divine good. There is a converter called grace, which takes everything you do and converts it into divine good while you are filled with the Spirit.

(b) This sometimes happens to ministers who are tired of looking at their small congregation and want to do something to increase their crowd. These pastors often think that there must be something more, something they are missing, something beyond doctrine, which is why others have a big ministry. These pastors come to emphasize works, counseling, getting involved, and activism. Eventually, what it becomes is crusader arrogance and competitiveness.

j. The function of Christian service and the production of divine good is most effective in spiritual adulthood.

(1) Spiritual adulthood includes three categories: spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity.

(2) The characteristics of spiritual self-esteem apply to the function of Christian service and the production of divine good.

(a) Contentment must be a base for Christian works, so that you do it as unto the Lord and not as unto man.

(b) Mental stability is the correct and accurate application of Bible doctrine to prosperity, adversity, and the function of good deeds.

(d) Grace orientation is correct and accurate application of grace principles without distortion. This is an absolute must in the production of divine good. It is so important that it is the fine line of difference between dead works and divine good, and evil and divine good.

(e) Doctrinal orientation to reality, which is the maintenance of humility, the avoidance of inordinate ambition and competition, and the development of a spiritual common sense.

(f) The understanding and maximum use of the problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God. When you reach spiritual self-esteem your spiritual gift really begins to function.

(g) Good decisions from a position of strength based on divine viewpoint thinking. The baby believer does not have the doctrine to “do all things as unto the Lord.”

(h) The production of divine good motivated by personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for all mankind. Your divine good is directed toward all, not just toward those you like. This avoids elitism. When you are occupied with the person of Christ, what you do for other people is based upon your love for Jesus Christ. Your motivation becomes not only pure, but virtuous. Personal love for God means you are fulling the divine mandate to do all as unto the Lord.

(i) Maximum effectiveness in the production of divine good because spiritual skills have been developed prior to production skills.

(j) A personal sense of destiny related to God, to self, and then related to others. Spiritual adolescence reverses this order. When believers are doing divine good and performing Christian service from a personal sense of destiny, that is spiritual self-esteem.

(k) Stabilized priorities, in which personal love for God reverses all priorities in life, causes the believer to be in command of himself or herself rather than lack of spiritual self-esteem. Your priorities are never stabilized if you constantly emphasize problems. You do not stabilize your life or have security through human friendship. God stabilizes us through Bible doctrine. The result of the reversal of all of your priorities when you put the Lord first is poise, self-regulation, self-control, self-restraint.

i. You cannot accurately and properly communicate with others apart from command of yourself.

ii. All successful relationships in life are based on good and Biblically accurate communication. You must have the divine viewpoint.

iii. You cannot command others, unless you command yourself. You have no self-command as long as you are preoccupied with the problems of others, as long as you are involved in crusading and activism.

(3) The believer who attains spiritual self-esteem is qualified for providential preventative suffering which advances the believer to spiritual autonomy. Spiritual self-esteem is Christ being formed in you, Gal 4:19.

(4) Spiritual autonomy is related to the production of divine good.

(a) Spiritual autonomy includes all of the characteristics of spiritual self-esteem plus greater production of good deeds and Christian service. You increase in the field of your productive skills.

(b) The production of good deeds is based on the principle that spiritual skills have preceded production skills.

(d) Contentment increases in spiritual autonomy.

(e) Impersonal love becomes a spiritual skill which is productive in passing various categories of testing.

(f) Under personal control of your life, you understand and accept your own limitations, and, at the same time, realizing that there are no limitations in your advance to maturity. Under personal control of your life, you also stop interfering in the lives of others.

(g) Both spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy remain righteous without becoming self-righteous. You live and let live without getting into crusader arrogance. Spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy can remain helpful without hindering others.

(h) Spiritual autonomy remains moral, but avoids the moralistic orgies of crusader arrogance.

(i) Spiritual autonomy is free from possessive arrogance, which includes seeking to control and manipulate the lives of others.

(j) Spiritual autonomy respects the privacy of others, making correct application of the principle “live and let live.” You do not need more application taught by the pastor; you need more spiritual skills. Application only becomes consequential when you have spiritual skills.

(k) Spiritual autonomy resolves the problems of relationship with God, then with self, before solving the problems of relationship with others. This is how you are able to pass people testing.

(l) Spiritual autonomy is self-directing, the sovereignty of true humility over arrogance.

(m) Spiritual autonomy is not manipulative.

(5) Spiritual maturity is related to production.

(a) Most of the mature believer’s production is invisible, yet it is the greatest production. He has a impact and testimony with angels which is not visible at all.

(b) The mature believer possesses cognitive invisibility which glorifies God in a number of ways.

© He lives a life of maximum effective, contentment, capacity for life, problem solving capabilities, grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, control of his or her own life, invisible impact, use of his or her spiritual gift, and maximum production of divine good in Christian service.

(6) The good deeds and Christian service of the believer in spiritual adulthood are never a distraction to Bible doctrine and do not undermine the authority of the pastor or family units in the church.

(a) The production of divine good is never a means but always a result of spiritual growth.

(b) The production of divine good does not perform dependency on people, but on Bible doctrine in the recipients.

(d) The production of the invisible hero is neither seen nor lauded by the Christian community, but is seen and rewarded by God himself as the greatest possible production in the spiritual life.

(e) Legalism judges the believer from overt and inadequate standards.

k. The challenge to produce divine good is found in the vine and the branch metaphor of Jn 15:1-8.

(1) Jn 15:1, “I [Jesus Christ] am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.”

(a) The vinedresser metaphor refers to God the Father as the author the protocol plan of God. The vine metaphor refers to the humanity of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union.

(b) The vine is the basis for the production of divine good or fruit-bearing. Fruit through the branch is a metaphor for the Church Age believer.

© No fruit or production can be any better than the vine which produces it. Because of positional sanctification plus the grace provision of the operational type divine dynasphere, it is possible for the believer to produce divine good.

(d) The vine metaphor emphasizes the fact that all precedence and all production of divine good in the Church Age comes from the vine - our Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) Jn 15:2, “Every branch [believer] in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [discipline]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes [suffering for blessing], that it may bear more fruit.”

(a) This is the believer’s side of the metaphor. The branch is a metaphor for the Church Age believer. “In Me” is a reference to the believer in union with Christ. We are the branches in union with the vine, Jesus Christ.

(b) There are two categories of branches found in this passage: dead branches representing dead works, or production skills minus spiritual skills; and live branches representing divine good, or spiritual skills as the basis for production skills.

(d) God the Father removes and takes away all dead wood, dead branches, branches which produce dead works. God the Father takes away or removes the dead works through punitive suffering in two categories: the law of volitional responsibility which produces a tremendous amount of self-induced misery; and divine discipline.

(e) Mt 7:17-19 has a true analogy, “Every healthy tree produces good fruit. And every diseased tree produces worthless [degenerate, or evil] fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

(f) Pruning is necessary to redistribute where the energy for production should go. The branch that does bear fruit has to be pruned occasionally so that the spiritual skills will increase and maximize. This is suffering for blessing. Just as God provides divine discipline and punitive action for the non-fruit bearer, so God provides suffering for blessing for the fruit bearer.

(3) Verses 3-4 are the cleansing of the branches for production. Verse three is salvation cleansing of the branches. Jn 15:3, “You are already clean [saved] because of the doctrine [the gospel] which I have spoken to you.” Nothing in your life before salvation should be a hindrance to your production of divine good.

(4) Verse four refers to post-salvation cleansing of the branches, which is the rebound technique. Jn 15:4, “Abide in Me [stay in fellowship], and I in you [mandate for cognition of Bible doctrine]. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

(a) The fact that “abide” is a command means that it is an experience after salvation and not a reference to positional sanctification. We are never commanded to be in union with Christ.

(b) This is a command to remain in fellowship with God through the use of 1 Jn 1:9, so that divine good can be produced. The believer can only produce divine good when filled with God the Holy Spirit.

© The branch in Christ of Jn 15:2 is positional sanctification, but the branch commanded to abide in Christ is the believer mandated to experiential sanctification through the filling of the Holy Spirit.

(d) “I in you” is the mandate for the believer to learn and metabolize Bible doctrine. Our Lord demands that His thinking be in you.

(e) The vine has provided for us the precedent, the pattern, and the information necessary to produce divine good. As the Lord produced divine good, so we can produce divine good. But we cannot produce fruit apart from the function of spiritual skills: the filling of the Spirit; perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine; and execution of the protocol plan of God.

(5) Jn 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me [fellowship with God], and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

(a) The vine and branch metaphor is repeated. Our Lord is the vine, we are the branches. Our Lord had spiritual skills for thirty years before He had three years of production in His ministry.

(b) Abiding in Christ is the filling of the Spirit. Christ in us is cognition of Bible doctrine. These spiritual skills are required before we can produce “much fruit.”

© The phrase “do nothing” is dead works, the function of production skills without spiritual skills. The production of divine good is a grace provision from God which meets God’s perfect standards. God provides the means for fruit-bearing through the filling of the Holy Spirit, cognition of Bible doctrine, and through the attainment of spiritual adulthood.

(6) Production skills minus spiritual skills result in dead works. Jn 15:6, “If anyone does not abide in Me [believer out of fellowship], he is thrown away like a branch [judgment of the dead works of a believer], and dries up; and they [angels] gather them, and cast them [dead works] into the fire, and they are burned.” (a) The believer who does not abide in Christ is out of fellowship, and therefore, minus the first spiritual skill.

(b) This is not a true analogy, but a descriptive analogy. All dead works are judged and burned immediately after the Rapture of the Church, Rom 14:10; 2 Cor 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be rewarded for his deeds done in the body, on the basis of what he has done whether good or worthless.” Many things that are commendable and commended by other believers are absolutely worthless because they do not measure up to divine standards.

© The drying up of the branch means that the believer minus spiritual skills dries up with the production of dead works. Production skills minus spiritual skills equals dead works. Whenever we get into a dead works syndrome, we will inevitably hurt other people and cause a lot of trouble, which means we will end up being hurt.

(7) The power and the production of divine good is taught in Jn 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”

(a) There are three concepts in this verse.

i. The believer in fellowship.

ii. The believer in doctrine.

iii. The believer in prayer.

(b) Abiding or remaining in Christ is reference to the Church Age believer in fellowship with God. It is called “abiding” because the filling of the Holy Spirit only occurs in the divine dynasphere. When we reside in the divine dynasphere, we reside in the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit. The believer has fellowship with God on the basis of the fact that the Holy Spirit controls the soul of the believer. The believer in fellowship has good deeds and Christian service which are produced from the execution of the protocol plan of God.

i. The filling of the Holy Spirit produces divine good.

ii. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the first spiritual skill.

iii. The believer cannot have fellowship with God apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit.

© The words of Christ are the thinking of Christ, the Bible. “My words abide in you” is a reference to consistent post- salvation epistemological rehabilitation, cognition of Bible doctrine, or inculcation of doctrine. This is the second spiritual skill. The third spiritual skill is the execution of the protocol plan of God by advancing through the three stages of spiritual adulthood. Spiritual maturity results in maximum fruit-bearing in three categories:

i. Visible production of divine good. Others can observe your Christian service. This is often the basis for making a role model out of someone other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

ii. Invisible production of divine good. This has maximum impact in life, and others do not see it. This is the function of the pivot of mature believers. This production is best because it always makes a role model out of Jesus Christ.

iii. Invisible impact related to the historic phase of the angelic conflict.

(d) “Ask whatever you wish” does not apply to believers out of fellowship, new believers, or even adolescent believers, but to believers who have the three categories of fruit-bearing, visible and invisible impact.

(e) “And it shall be done for you” does not imply that all your dreams will be fulfilled. It does mean that God will do exceeding abundantly above all you could ever ask or think. God only gives this promise to a few believers who are fruit bearers in spiritual maturity. By the time you reach maturity, you ask for the right things. The concept is: ask for what you wish as a mature believer and God will provide it for you.

(f) When production skills become a substitute for spiritual skills, there is neither spiritual growth nor the execution of the protocol plan of God. There is no fruit-bearing; instead there is the production of dead works.

(g) Prayer is used here as the function of a spiritual skill which produces divine good. Spiritual skills extend to the function of prayer. As a result, the function of prayer becomes the production of divine good. Prayer is used here as an illustration of the production of divine good. Spiritual skills plus production skills equals divine good in prayer. Divine good in prayer can only occur where spiritual skills precede production skills.

(h) Prayer can also produce dead works. Jam 4:3 is the function of the believer with production skills and no spiritual skills, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask for yourselves with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your lusts.”

(8) Jn 15:8, “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My indoctrinated ones [students].”

(a) Maximum production of divine good occurs in the three stages of spiritual adulthood: spiritual self-esteem; spiritual autonomy; spiritual maturity. Each stage of spiritual adulthood produces more and more good until there is maximum production of divine good.

(b) Spiritual skills glorify God. Glorification of God is much more than good deeds or Christian service; it is the function of spiritual skills.

(d) Production or fruit-bearing is a result of spiritual momentum, but never the means of spiritual momentum. The production of a believer is not a sign of his spiritual life; only God knows if the production is divine good or dead works. It is wrong to conclude that a person is spiritual because they are working hard. It is equally wrong to conclude that a person is not a fruit bearer or believer just because you do not see any evidence of it. Most believers today are not fruit bearers because they have no spiritual skills.

(e) The Greek word for “disciple” means to be indoctrinated, to be inculcated with Bible doctrine. A disciple is a student of the Word of God under the teaching and authority of whomever is his or her right pastor-teacher.

(f) Where spiritual skills are by-passed by negative volition or silliness in the application of doctrine, production skills take over completely. Spiritual skills are often abandoned to carnality; and good deeds become the production of dead works, because motivation now becomes arrogance.

(9) Summary of Jn 15:1-8.

(a) Fruit-bearing is never a means, but always a result of spiritual growth.

(b) Spiritual growth occurs through the combination of the filling of the Holy Spirit and cognition of Bible doctrine. When fruit-bearing is the result of spiritual skills, especially in spiritual adulthood, God is glorified.

© Divine good is the result of spiritual skills preceding production skills. Spiritual skills must precede production skills in order to bear fruit and glorify God. Spiritual skills plus production skills equals the performance of divine good.

(d) Production skills do not bear fruit apart from spiritual skills. Unless spiritual skills are developed and constantly used, the production of dead work has many adverse repercussions. Therefore, spiritual skills must be operational during any performance of good deeds or the function of Christian service.

(e) Spiritual skills occur in three progressive categories: first, you learn how to be filled with the Spirit; then you use the filling of the Spirit for your cognition of Bible doctrine; eventually you execute the protocol plan of God. You execute the protocol plan of God in three stages of spiritual adulthood.

(f) The good deeds and Christian service of the believer in spiritual adulthood does not create dependency on the doer. The production of divine good does not produce dependency on people, but on Bible doctrine in the recipients. Good deeds are never a distraction to doctrine and do not undermine the authority of the pastor, the marriage, or the family. The production of divine good does not create cliques or manipulate the recipients. Instead, the recipients give praise to God for what has been accomplished. Divine good does not establish cliques or a church within a church.

(g) When fruit-bearing is the result of spiritual skills, then God is glorified. Fruit-bearing glorifies God because spiritual skills have been inculcated by the pastor-teacher. The believer performs the good deeds as unto the Lord, and never for the praise of men. Fruit-bearing glorifies God, because, in His matchless grace, God has provided through spiritual skills the means of compliance with His perfect divine standards, which demand from us divine good.

(h) The greater part of fruit-bearing is hinder from the view of other Christians, but seen by God who is glorified by these invisible works. The production of the invisible hero is neither seen nor lauded by the Christian community, but seen and rewarded by God Himself.

(i) In the Christian life, when production skills replace spiritual skills there are disastrous results.

i. The formation of cliques.

ii. The development of mischief makers.

iii. Arrogant counselors who interfere and manipulate the lives of others.

iv. Arrogant crusaders who function as legalistic tyrants, telling others how to run their lives, and judging those who do not comply with their pseudo-standards.

v. From self-righteous arrogance plus crusader arrogance comes fanaticism and activism.

(j) Therefore, spiritual skills must precede production skills, otherwise, production skills dominate and detract from the importance of the filling of the Holy Spirit and cognition of Bible doctrine.

4. The Problem of the Clique Syndrome.

a. Why cliques are counter productive.

(1) Because they undermine legitimate authority of husbands, parents, and pastors.

(2) Therefore, cliques create a marriage within a marriage, a family within a family, and a church within a church.

(3) Because a clique establishes dependency in others, it violates the doctrinal principle of privacy and freedom. In a clique, you surrender your privacy.

(4) Cliques establish elitism, which destroys normal social intercourse among Christians, so that previous friendships are destroyed. The clique ostracizes others, causing loneliness and discrimination within the local church.

(5) Cliques have a way of destroying former friendships, thus creating loneliness.

(6) Cliques limit spiritual growth and prevent those involved from ever reaching spiritual self-esteem.

(7) Dependency on a clique sets aside Bible doctrine which is necessary to attain spiritual self-esteem. In fact, the clique leader often redefines spiritual self-esteem in terms of bad human viewpoint.

(8) Therefore, Bible doctrine is replaced by human viewpoint as the clique leader establishes control by counseling and even lecturing.

(9) Divine good is replaced by dead works and human good is parlayed into evil.

b. There are two clique syndromes: the dominate-adaptive clique syndrome; and the co-dependency clique syndrome.

(1) Both the dominant-adaptive syndrome and the co- dependency syndrome can be involved in one clique. Both clique syndromes become involved in maximum production of good deeds and much Christian service, most of which is dead works or human good parlayed into evil.

(2) Each clique syndrome has the following in common.

(a) They first establish false standards of elitism, which do not represent the dynamic impact of invisible heroship.

(b) They undermine three categories of authority in the local church: the authority of the pastor-teacher; the authority of the husband in marriage; and the authority of parents in the family.

© Cliques are always trying to rescue people. Stop trying to rescue people; let them take the responsibility for their own lives and solve their own problems. Parents have that privilege and responsibility; it does not belong to anyone else.

c. The Dominate-adaptive Clique Syndrome.

(1) A Christian clique is defined as a narrow, exclusive group of Christians bonded by emotional dependence on its leadership.

(2) The Christian clique is composed of several categories.

(a) Clique leadership is usually composed of two persons, one is dominant and one is adaptive.

(b) Those closest to clique leadership are classified as the privileged ones.

(d) There is generally conflict between the two person leadership until the dominant and adaptive roles have been assumed. Further conflict and tensions are removed from the two leaders by focusing their attention on someone else who needs help or has some apparent or real problem. At this point, emphasis on production skills takes over, with only lip service to Bible doctrine. Spiritual skills may be partially understood, but are ignored when the dominant one is filled with self- righteous and crusader arrogance or other arrogance factors.

(e) Principles of doctrine are constantly ignored or set aside, especially principles related to the privacy of the believer and principles related to marriage and the family. They are ignored or set aside by the dominant one in clique leadership, which results in using the clique like a net to capture people with problems, real or imagined; and to lure them away with short term solutions which bypass the problem solving devices of the Word of God. Short term solutions are parlayed into control, manipulation, and dependency.

(f) The dominant clique leader throws a bone to the adaptive leader by announcing to the pawns that the adaptive leader is now their authority. The inevitable result includes counseling by the dominant leader and much provision of activity for the adaptive leader. This increases the emotional dependency of the pawns: social dependency; special treats, so that fear of reject by the clique is stronger than authority orientation to husbands, parents, and pastor.

(3) Those involved in a Christian clique choose to be loyal to the clique leadership rather than Bible doctrine which is taught by the pastor-teacher. This follows the wrong emphasis, the procedure of basing the Christian life on fellowship and friendship rather than Bible doctrine, and basing it on role models rather than pastor-teachers. Jesus Christ is the only role model. This is why Christian cliques and occupation with Christ are mutually exclusive.

(4) Generally, clique leadership begins with the motivation of helping someone else. But the leadership eventually becomes obsessed with controlling others. Therefore, what begins as good deeds eventually becomes dead works through creating a dependency on people rather than on Bible doctrine.

(5) There is a fine line between helping and controlling people. People who are being helped are usually appreciative and responsive to the ones who help them. Then comes the obsession with changing others, controlling others, reacting to the behavior pattern of others. Clique leadership often feels bored, empty, and even worthless, if there is not someone around to help, a problem to solve in someone else’s life, or even a crisis. Hence, clique leadership establishes a reputation for helping others, for coming to the rescue. This is compatible with the gift of helps and could be perfectly normal. However, clique leadership crosses the invisible line between divine good and dead works when they create a dependency. No matter how sincere the initial function of the spiritual gift of helps may be, it must never cross that invisible line of domination, manipulation, interference, or dependency.

(6) The dependency occurs when there is a motivational change from the filling of the Holy Spirit in the divine dynasphere to arrogance and lust in the status of carnality. This change is quite subtle and generally unnoticed until repercussions occur.

(7) The dependency is created in counseling, which eventuates in control and manipulation of the lives of those who are being helped. The counseling is generally conducted by the dominant leader, while the adaptive leader provides activity for the pawns. This increases the emotional dependency to include social dependency, special treat dependency, and elite status, so that fear of rejection by the clique group begins to become stronger than authority orientation to husbands, to parents, and to pastors.

(8) The clique leadership is naturally stimulated by their good deeds and influence on others. Therefore, there infiltrates into the soul an enchantment with self in the role of leadership and an accompanying obsession with changing the lives of the clique to conform to the preconceived standards of clique leadership. There is also a recruiting for the clique by the clique leadership.

(9) As the dependency crystallizes into a clique, the authority of Bible doctrine shifts from the pulpit to clique leadership. Dependence on the clique leader is established through the role model syndrome, which bonds the group to loyalty to the clique leader. Once dependency is established, the pawns are often robbed of their independence to make their own decisions on the basis of the principles of Bible doctrine given from the pulpit. This is due to excessive counseling, human viewpoint advice from the clique leader. Inevitably, the standards and modus operandi of the cliques are established by the clique leaders, and especially the dominant one. In cliques, people get their eyes on people, on self, and on things.

(10) The obsession to control others replacing the spiritual gift of helps; for often blind arrogance has replaced the filling of the Holy Spirit and the application of doctrine to experience with an obsession to run the lives of other people. Hence, clique leaders have changed from humble to arrogant believers.

(11) Control and manipulation are given respectability by using bits of doctrine here and there to prove that God is on the side of the clique leaders.

(12) The clique syndrome undermines the authority of husbands, parents, and pastors. The victims are often young children, teenagers, lonely single persons, and unhappy wives. Fear of rejection is stronger than authority orientation.

(13) Cliques are abnormal emotional dependence on a group in contrast to normal social life among Christians, which involves friendship, companionship, rapport, communication, encouragement without creating dependency. There are two exceptions for dependency:

(a) Children. They must recognize the authority of their parents and depend on parents or parent for their orientation to life.

(b) Congregations. They must recognize the authority of their pastor-teacher and depend on him to teach, to indoctrinate, to inculcate Bible doctrine.

(14) Cliques have a way of interfering with the divine institution of marriage, family, and sometimes even with government in the case of Christian activism. Cliques can undermine the authority of the pastor, and never understand the use of the problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God. Unless believers break out of cliques, they will never understand the simple basic concept of live and let live. Friendship often involves intimacy, advice, encouragement, rapport, communication, and companionship, which are all normal, but never control, possessiveness, dependency, manipulation, and interference.

(15) Clique leaders filter all doctrine; and they distort it with human viewpoint, motivated by crusader arrogance. For example, good deeds and Christian service do not include tampering with the Word of God.

(a) Example: Eph 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may turn out well for you [so that you may prosper], and so that you may live long on the earth.”

i. Good deeds do not include the rearing of other people’s children. Two fathers or two mothers is an intrusion on family life, so that parental authority is undermined, and children lose a fantastic divine blessing. Children are to obey their parents, not someone else.

ii. Children are commanded to honor their father and mother, not love them. It does not say honor the leader of a clique.

iii. Your life will never turn out well and you will live a short life, unless you obey your parents and honor your father and mother. Cliques oppose this by appointing surrogate parents. There is no precedent in the Word of God for accepting the authority of any self- appointed surrogate parent. No one has the right to take the place of a mother or father, whether the parents are divorced of not.

(b) Col 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, accomplish it from your own soul, as to the Lord and not to people; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

i. Every believer must live his life as unto the Lord, and not to please clique leaders. When you start trying to please people, you will have a miserable life. ii. You can only change one life, your own, and only through cognition of Bible doctrine.

iii. You can only change one person, yourself, but only through the application of epignosis doctrine.

iv. If you control others in a clique, you lose control of your own life.

v. You must not try to rescue people (to run, control, manipulate their lives). You must allow each believer to take the responsibility for his or her own decisions, and to learn to solve their own problems from Bible doctrine.

vi. You cannot walk on crutches (dependency on the clique) and execute the protocol plan of God.

vii. The believer who walks on crutches is a pawn, controlled, manipulated, and dominated by the clique.

(16) Cliques ignore or abandon spiritual skills, so that crusader arrogance dominates. With crusader arrogance comes human viewpoint. With human viewpoint comes control, manipulation, and interference. With interference comes the establishment of role models and pseudo-authority figures which attack legitimate authority in the home and pulpit.

(17) Being part of a clique is a sign of lack of spiritual self-esteem, a sign of dependence on a group. A clique is always an emotional group with little possibility for common sense in its interpersonal action. To understand and use the problem solving devices demands that you be on your own. Your social life is the application of your spiritual life. You have no privacy in a clique, which is far different than being a part of a social group.

(18) In a clique, you will never come to occupation with Christ, and you will never have a normal relationship with your husband or wife.

(19) Spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy means you do not need a clique. You refrain from controlling others, so that they can advance spiritually. You cannot control others and at the same time maintain control of your own life. You cannot manipulate others and at the same time be objective in your own decisions. You remain helpful without hindering. This is the true function of the gift of helps.

(20) Concluding Principles.

(a) You can only change one life, your own, and only through Bible doctrine. Therefore, there is no excuse for a clique.

(b) You can only change one person, yourself, and only through post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation.

(d) Once those believers who have been controlling, manipulating, and creating a dependency through cliques understand this doctrine, they must release or free such believers so they can take the responsibility for their own lives, make their own decisions, and solve their own problems.

(e) Therefore, the believer who remains in a clique is walking on crutches; he is under the control, domination, and manipulation of the clique leader.

(f) Bible doctrine is so designed by the grace of God that all dependency is related to the grace of God and not to people.

(g) The believer who walks on spiritual crutches cannot execute the protocol plan of God.

d. The Co-dependency Clique Syndrome.

(1) The co-dependency clique syndrome is defined as a narrow, exclusive group in which clique leadership and the clique group are bonded by a mutual emotional dependence.

(a) In the dominate-adaptive clique the bond is emotional dependence on leadership. But in the co-dependency clique, it is mutual emotional dependence.

(b) The co-dependent clique can be defined as relationship based on emotional needs of clique leadership and the dependent believers. The dominate clique leader, or controller, provides profuse flattery and attention which controls the dependents, so that they will think and do whatever the controller desires.

i. The fear of not having power lust assuaged will cause the clique leader to control with extravagant flattery and attention.

ii. The fear of not having approbation lust assuaged will cause the dependent ones to do and think whatever the controller desires.

(2) The co-dependency clique is formed through the lust pattern of the sin nature. The clique leader possesses a self-righteous crusader arrogance plus a deep seated power lust which produces an obsession for controlling others. Co-dependent leaders are reactionaries, and they over react.

(3) The dependent believers are generally unhappy, frustrated, discontented persons. These types are always seeking happiness outside of themselves. They want someone to make them happy. Therefore, they gravitate to someone they think can provide happiness for them.

(a) The dependent believer often comes from a disastrous childhood experience. Often in their self-pity, they never felt loved or approved by their parents. Consequently, the dependent believer seeks love, approbation, and approval from the clique leader. In fact, the dependents in this category try to prove that they are good enough to be loved. Hence, they center their lives around people; and this distracts them from Bible doctrine.

(b) Dependent types worry about being rejected by the clique leader.

(4) There are some pre-clique mechanics.

(a) The dominate believer or controller has a very deep seated, and often unrecognized, lust for power.

(b) The dependent believer has a deep seated, and often unrecognized, lust for approbation.

© The lust for power and lust for approbation gravitate toward one another. This is how co-dependency is developed. Neither category know themselves well enough to understand what has happened to them.

(d) Power and approbation are emotional lusts; hence, they have an inordinate desire for fulfillment.

(e) These inordinate needs are often caused by incomplete emotional development within an environmental setting during one or more stages of human development. The inordinate needs are developed during the stages of human development:

i. Childhood, age zero through twelve.

ii. Adolescence, age thirteen through twenty-one.

(5) These lusts are generally developed from failure to fulfill the two divine mandates of Eph 6:1-3: obey your parents; and honor your father and your mother.

(a) In childhood, the first stage of human development, parental authority is necessary for the attainment of integrity. Integrity begins with obedience. Integrity gives us capacity for life and love. Teenagers with integrity do not have problems with drugs, alcohol, sex, and the arrogance complex of sins. Cliques come between children and their parents. The child is commanded to obey its parents.

(b) In adolescence, the second stage of development, honor and respect for parents is absolutely necessary for the attainment of integrity. As a believer, Jesus Christ is your best friend, not your parents. You are commanded to honor your father and your mother.

© If these two commands are obeyed, in childhood the person will have the foundation for integrity plus virtue. The key is obedience to parents, not to adults outside of the home. Note that there is no command from God for children or adolescents to love their parents, because they do not have capacity for love. God never commands what is impossible. If you give honor and respect to one parent and not to the other, you have lost your integrity.

(d) In human development, integrity must precede capacity for love and capacity for life. Integrity must be developed in the home in relationship to your own parent or parents, not in relationship to clique leaders or role models. You learn to handle loneliness from integrity.

(e) Two attitudes towards parents result in the attainment of integrity: obedience to parents in childhood; honor and respect for both your parents in adolescence. If a person makes too many mistakes in adolescence, then it is very difficult to develop integrity in adulthood.

(f) Disobedience and lack of honor and respect for parents in childhood develop frustrations and emotional lusts (power lust and approbation lust) that are indelibly registered into the lust pattern of the sin nature. Your weaknesses are printed into your sin nature during your formative years of childhood and adolescence. As adults, they have scars on their soul they themselves do not even understand or realize they have. You can in adolescence through the various lust patterns, and as a result, you put into your sin nature certain wishes and desires that are not normal because of the scars of childhood.

(g) Children can and must have integrity. The children who possess virtue and integrity from obeying their parents do not have problems related to scar tissue of the soul, and keep their souls clear from scar tissue. Obedience, not love, insulates children from the problems of youth. Teenagers can have integrity, but not if they are in a clique. Teenagers in a clique honor someone above their parents, or they would not be in the clique. Teenagers who honor or make a role model out of a clique leader have no virtue. Teenagers who have virtue and integrity from honoring their parents do not have scar tissue of the soul and the problems of adolescence.

(h) Many people emerge from youth with scar tissue of the soul. This scar tissue may be classified as environmental handicaps. These handicaps occur because people fail to fulfill these two divine mandates. Therefore, many people emerge from youth, not with integrity from obedience to their parents or honoring their parents, but with a lust pattern in both dominant and recessive personalities. The dominant personality develops a power lust, and the recessive personality develops an approbation lust. If the believer is not aware of these environmental handicaps, these lusts will be the driving force and motivation in their lives, even though they are not aware of it. These environmental handicaps become the driving force in life.

(i) Only Bible doctrine can correct sin natures drives and lusts. Distraction from doctrine will result in failing to resolve these problems of scar tissue of the soul.

(6) One of the greatest distractions from Bible doctrine is to become involved in a co-dependency clique syndrome, where emotional lusts, developed in childhood, are assuaged. Continuous involvement in cliques means the promise of Eph 6:3 (that you may live a long and prosper life) will never be fulfilled, and the believer involved in the clique will never reach spiritual self-esteem. If the unbeliever fails in the formative years, they have nothing to fall back on.

(7) God keeps His word, and He has made a promise to all children: if they obey, honor, and respect their parents, they will have a long and prosperous life.

Therefore, do not let involvement in clique keep you from developing integrity. Never put anyone before your father or mother, even if they are divorced.

(a) Both parents must be honored, even if they are divorced. You are not to judge the actions or behavior of your parents (exception - molestation). Never allow others to judge your parents. Never allow others to run down your spouse.

(b) If you have a step-mother or step-father, this honor and respect extends to them as well.

(8) Summary Principles.

(a) Obedience to parents is the foundation for virtue and integrity in life.

(b) Honoring father and mother (or step-parents) is the superstructure for virtue and integrity in life.

(d) For the individual believer or unbeliever who develops virtue and integrity in his or her home, God has promised a long and happy life.

(e) The young people who do not obey these mandates of Eph 6:1-2 develop scar tissue of the soul and environmental handicaps (which are deep seated, often unknown, sin nature drives). And by the sin nature drives, they destroy their own lives under the law of volitional responsibility plus punitive action from God.

(f) This is why clique leaders often rationalize that they are being tested for blessing, when in reality, clique leaders are being judged for distracting young people from their homes and the doctrine of the church.

(g) Cliques cause confusion and distraction. Cliques control and manipulate, creating co-dependencies which are unnatural and disastrous.

i. They interfere with the relationship between husband and wife, creating a marriage within a marriage.

ii. Children become so preoccupied with the role model that their parents are in second or third place. Scar tissue is being developed. You have a family within a family which is destructive to the family.

iii. When you get into a clique, you are going to be distracted from Bible doctrine. Your clique leader will give you all of the counseling you could ever want; and it is wrong because you are cut off from Bible doctrine.

(9) How the co-dependent clique syndrome is formed.

(a) The scenario always begins with the dominant one, the clique leader, the controller. The clique leader always has a deep seated power lust. He is often not even aware of this power lust and accompanying arrogance.

(b) Sometimes this inordinate ambition and power lust, which motivates deeds and works, is rationalized as the spiritual gift of helps rather than interference into the lives of others.

© It is very difficult for a clique leader with scar tissue from childhood to see the evil results of crossing the invisible line between helping someone and controlling someone. The clique leader, while originally intending to help others, crosses the invisible line by using good deeds as leverage to gain control over the dependent ones. (Once you begin to help people who express their appreciation, and then get out of fellowship and allow the sin nature to take over, then what was developed in childhood as a sin nature drive now goes into operation and you cross the line.) By doing this, power lust is assuaged behind a barrage of works, directed toward x-number of dependent ones in the clique.

(d) Once power lust is stimulated, blind arrogance comes into the picture. With that blind arrogance, there comes the fear of not having power lust assuaged tomorrow. Fear of not having power lust assuaged results in controlling and manipulating the dependent ones with profuse flattery, the giving of gifts, entertainment, luncheons, dinners, parties, special attention, and above all constant counseling (you are encouraged to call).

(e) The dependent one having his or her approbation lust assuaged begins thinking and doing the wishes of the controller. Consequently, the dominant believer with power lust and the dependent believer with approbation lust slip unknowingly into a relationship classified as the co-dependency clique syndrome. This co-dependency is often classified by people as a friendship. It is not friendship; it is really a clique.

(f) The emotional pattern of the controller is assuaged through manipulation and control. Therefore, power lust is stimulated and satisfied. The emotional pattern of the dependent ones is assuaged through the extravagant and generous flattery, reinforced with all kinds of attention, including counseling sessions. Approbation lust therefore, is satisfied and stimulated.

i. The fear of not having power lust assuaged will cause the controller to continue to flatter, to manipulate, to give attention and gifts and other systems of control.

ii. The fear of not having approbation lust assuaged will cause the dependent one to continue to do and think like the controller wishes.

(g) Each side of the co-dependency relationship satisfies a deep seated lust pattern that was developed in the formative years. The co-dependency clique syndrome is a relationship based on the emotional needs of both sides.

(h) As the clique continues and expands, sinful hidden emotions, lusts, and various kinds of arrogance phase out doctrinal thinking, so that divine viewpoint and spiritual common sense cease to function in the dependent one. It is replaced by human viewpoint rationalization, in which those involved actually assume they are serving God and doing a good thing. Therefore, divine good and common sense are left twisting in the wind.

(i) The clique leader becomes the false doctrine of the group. Motivation from fear and lust replaces motivation from metabolized doctrine in the soul.

(j) Christian women with environmental handicaps from childhood, whose dreams have been frustrated by reality and unfulfilled, and who lust for approbation and attention, become recruiting material for such a clique.

(k) As co-dependency cliques enlarge and power, control, and manipulation of the clique leader extends among church members, there are three disasters which develop.

i. The clique creates a marriage within a marriage, creating a rift between husband and wife.

ii. The clique creates a family within a family, creating a rift between parents and children.

iii. The clique creates a church within a church, resulting in a rift between pastor and congregation.

(l) No clique leader is an expert of Bible doctrine, and no clique leader has the gift of communicating that doctrine. The authority of husbands, parents, and pastor have been destroyed.

e. Cliques, whether dominant-adaptive or co-dependent, become the breeding ground for abnormal relationships. While cliques emphasis friendship, they exceed anything the Word of God says about Christian social life, which some people call fellowship.

(1) Loyalty to a clique leader exceeds loyalty to Bible doctrine as the number one priority in life.

(2) Loyalty to a clique leader exceeds obedience or honoring father and mother.

(3) Because of the role model syndrome related to the clique leader, those involved in the clique possess misplaced loyalty; for they have chosen to be loyal to a person rather than to the principles of Bible doctrine.

(4) Cliques have a friendship obsession. Clique leaders collect friends like some people collect stamps. For example, “My advice to you is to find all the

friends you can.” This statement ignores Bible doctrine as the only permanent thing in life. This statement rejects Jesus Christ as the believer’s best friend. This statement emphasizes dependence on people rather than dependence on God. This statement represents clique philosophy. This statement is bad human viewpoint.

(5) The difference between friendship and the function of a clique can be summarized in three words: control; manipulation; dependency.

(6) Clique relationships are not normal friendships.

(a) In normal friendships, there is a rapport between the individuals, encouragement, and divine viewpoint from doctrine both thought and expressed. True friendships demand integrity on both sides.

(b) In a clique there is abnormal dependence on a group, manipulation, counseling, the establishment of pseudo-authority, the destruction of the privacy of the priesthood, and the function of no self- determination. In a clique there is abnormal dependence on the group in contrast to normal social life among Christians, which includes rapport, companionship, communication, and encouragement without creating a dependency.

© Normal social life is that interpersonal relationship based on compatibility from cognition of Bible doctrine and the effective utilization of wisdom and spiritual common sense. Bible doctrine is so designed by God that all dependency is related to God and to doctrine, not to people and not to cliques.

(d) In normal social intercourse among Christians:

i. a friend does not take advantage of intimacy to start dominating and controlling the life of another.

ii. no clique leader ever appoints some person in the clique to be the authority over others.

iii. a believer does not intrude upon the privacy of another, but allows each one to make his or her own decisions before the Lord.

iv. the believer does not coerce, but encourages; the believer does not dictate, but states principles, when asked; the believer does not manipulate, but provides comfort from doctrine.

(e) Normal friendships among Christians do not hinder spiritual progress. But clique involvement makes it impossible for a believer to grow beyond a certain point: up to, but never into spiritual self-esteem. Why? Because a clique develops dependence instead of independence and self-determination.

(7) Believers who remain in a clique inevitability receive suffering.

(a) They always assume their suffering is testing for blessing, when in reality, it is often gracious punitive discipline from God in two categories.

i. The law of volitional responsibility in which clique involvement in sowing to the wind and reaping the whirlwind.

ii. Divine discipline.

(b) It is an erroneous rationalization to assume that once you have control of a group of people as a group leader that your suffering is only for testing for blessing. What suffering occurs is often God’s gracious warning to cause the believer to examine his own life and correct a disastrous course such as clique involvement.

© The believer who lusts for power takes on him or herself the responsibility for playing God. This is obviously blasphemous and liable for divine discipline. The believer who lusts for approbation is in a place of unauthorized dependency.

(8) There is the principle of wrong dependence.

(a) Approbation lust, in or out of a clique, is a constant danger to a believer, keeping him or her from seeking divine approbation through the Word of God.

(b) Clique involvement is wrong dependence. It is loss of individuality and life outside the will and plan of God for your life.

© The dependent believer cannot make decisions apart from the controller or clique leader. This is because there has been a constant counseling from the clique leader, so that he or she does not make independent decisions. Soon the dependent one forgets the principle that each one of us must stand accountable at the Judgment Seat of Christ for our own decisions. Accountability demands that each believer depend on Bible doctrine and not on clique leaders.

(9) Summary of the basic characteristics of the clique leader.

(a) Most people get into clique leadership through a sincere desire to help others. As their good deeds become known and their helping activities increase, they often acquire feelings of self-worth from helping others. It is an occupational hazard.

(b) As the clique forms, these leaders are established as role models. This follows a trend of basing the Christian life on fellowship with others rather than on Bible doctrine, and on following the role models rather than learning and using the problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God.

© Clique leadership often have so many discussions about people in their church that they eventually establish their own standards for recruiting. As the clique enlarges and the clique leadership becomes obsessed with the controlling of others and solving the problems of others, so they create a dependency on the one hand and an elitism on the other hand.

(d) Eventually clique leadership cross the invisible line between helping someone and controlling someone.

(10) Summary of the basic characteristics of the dependents.

(a) They are not happy, content, or at peace with themselves. They are looking for happiness outside of themselves. They gravitate to anyone they think can provide that happiness.

(b) Generally, they do not feel love or approval from their parents, which is often the excuse for being involved. They do not have human self-esteem; they do not love themselves; they have an inferiority complex. Hence, they desperately seek love and approval outside of the system mentioned in Eph 6:1-2.

© Often, they seek love from people who are incapable of loving them; or they try to prove that they are good enough to be loved; or they do not take time to see if other people are good for them. They center their lives around people rather than Bible doctrine. They worry about rejection from the clique. They become depressed from lack of compliments or praise. They take things personally; hence, they become very subjective, very hypersensitive. This is a flaw from which wrong priorities are established.

(11) Through application of our own inventory of Bible doctrine we avoid abnormal clique relationships.

(a) Every believer must live his own life as unto the Lord, Col 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, accomplish it from your own soul, as to the Lord and not to people; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

(b) You can only change one life, your own, but only through cognition of Bible doctrine.

(d) If you control others in a clique, you loose control of your own life.

(e) You must not try to rescue people, to run their lives, to control their lives, to manipulate their lives. You must allow each person to take the responsibility to make their own decisions.

(f) You cannot walk of crutches and execute the protocol plan of God.

(g) The believer who walks on crutches is a pawn, controlled, manipulated, dominated by someone else.

B. Dead Works.

1. The existence of dead works is verified by Scripture, where the actual words “dead works” are used.

a. Heb 6:1, “Therefore, having graduated from basic doctrine about Christ, let us advance toward [spiritual] maturity, not laying again the foundation of dead works.”

b. Heb 9:14, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” You cannot serve God with dead works.

(1) Note that in both passages dead works applies to believers only. This is because all good deeds and Christian service performed out of fellowship with God are performed in what is called carnal death.

(2) Carnal death is the believer in post-salvation sinning, human good, and evil. Carnal death is described in:

(a) Eph 5:14, “Therefore, wake up, you sleeping ones, and stand up out from acts of death.” Acts of death are dead works or any good produced by the believer out of fellowship.

(b) Jam 1:15, “Then when lust has become pregnant, it gives birth to sin. Furthermore, when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

(d) Rom 8:6, “The mindset of the flesh [sin nature] is [carnal] death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and prosperity.”

(e) Rev 3:1, “I know your production that you have a reputation that you are living, but you are really dead.”

2. The believer in the status of carnal death produces dead works or human good parlayed into evil or both.

a. All good deeds and Christian service performed out of fellowship are tantamount to carnal death.

b. The believer’s dead works are burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

c. Dead works are performed through sinful motivation. Dead works are performed beyond doctrine. Dead works are performed with evil results. Carnality provides wrong motivation that converts good deeds and Christian service into dead works or evil or both.

d. Good deeds and Christian service in the status of carnality may be classified as non-fruit-bearing or dead works.

e. Perpetual carnality results in the accumulation of dead works, worthless Christian service, and often, the performance of evil.

f. Dead works is the result of carnal death.

3. The believer performing works when he is still a baby in Christ is almost as bad as a believer performing dead works.

a. The sincere baby believer may become involved in a works system for which he has no capacity, does not understand the filling of the Holy Spirit, does not understand momentum from metabolized doctrine, and understands nothing about the protocol plan of God. Yet someone has him out hustling under the principle of doing something beyond doctrine.

b. He is not only producing dead works, but being brainwashed by the sincere belief that his dead works are actually spirituality.

c. The beyond doctrine movement encourages various categories of good deeds for which believers are not prepared to accomplish through the filling of the Holy Spirit and application of doctrine. Divine good is never the means of spiritual growth. The beyond doctrine movement emphasizes getting involved in:

(1) Counseling.

(2) Activism.

(3) Christian service without grace capacity.

d. Instead of teaching Bible doctrine verse by verse, and letting the Word of God provide the power, the capacity, and the motivation for service, many pastors emphasize getting involved and doing something.

e. Both pastors and congregations have forgotten the fact that believers have a far greater area of Christian service in advancing to spiritual maturity. In maturity you have your greatest Christian service and impact, but it is invisible. You have an invisible impact on human beings, on history, and in the angelic conflict.

f. In many cases, getting involved in works is a distraction to the perception of Bible doctrine. For the new believer, getting involved in works is a distraction to learning doctrine.

4. The beyond doctrine movement is:

a. The Christian out of bounds.

b. The circus show addition to the plan of God.

c. The use of human power, the energy of the flesh.

d. The function of wrong priorities.

e. Counseling, the big camp movement.

f. The production of human good.

g. The production of human viewpoint.

h. The status quo of arrogance.

i. The function of self-promotion.

j. The status of losers.

k. Being on the wrong track for advance spiritually.

5. It is very hard for believers to realize that works are incidental to God’s plan and a result of God’s plan; they are not the means of anything, except to impress other people.

6. 2 Jn 6-11, “And this is virtue-love, that we should keep walking according to His mandates. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should keep walking in it. Because many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This category is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out for yourselves, that you may not lose your momentum which you have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. No one has fellowship with God who keeps advancing out of bounds and does not remain on the playing field through the doctrine of Christ. The believer who remains in the doctrine, this person has fellowship with both the Father and the Son. If any one comes face to face with you [a teaching situation] and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your church, in fact do not even welcome him; for the one who welcomes him [listens to his teaching] participates in his evil deeds.”

a. What you hear in the filling of the Holy Spirit is far more important than what you do, because it is your spiritual growth that is the issue of good works and Christian service.

b. Your full reward comes from spiritual growth, not from good works.

c. Evil deeds are the result of production skills minus spiritual skills. Evil emphasizes the sinful motivation, the sinful function, or the sinful result of good deeds or Christian service of the carnal believer.

(1) Arrogance plus good equals evil.

(2) Emotion plus good equals evil.

(3) The lust pattern of the sin nature plus good equals evil.

d. Some good works can be destructive or divisive, and therefore, not good at all. This does not imply that good is evil, but that under certain circumstances good can be parlayed into evil.

7. 2 Cor 11:10-13, “As the doctrine of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do! But what I am doing, I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity for those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. For such persons are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

a. Paul was going to continue to teach Bible doctrine to cut off opportunity from those who wanted to be regarded as true teachers of God’s word because of their works. Carnal believers were boasting about their works which were dead works while Paul was producing divine good through the communication of Bible doctrine.

b. False apostles are those who go beyond doctrine and emphasize works. Deceitful workers are those who are hustling for God without any Bible doctrine. One believer advancing to spiritual maturity accomplishes more work for God than a thousand believers out hustling.

c. All of the thousands of works being performed are nothing compared to the invisible impact of the attainment of spiritual maturity. For you have become a witness for the Prosecution against Satan. Once you reach spiritual self-esteem you cannot avoid Christian service; your spiritual gift will function.

C. Good and the Laws of Divine Establishment.

1. Introduction.

a. There are two kinds of legitimate good in relationship to the laws of divine establishment: human good and divine good. Human good is a legitimate function of the believer or unbeliever related to the laws of divine establishment.

b. There are three areas of life where the function of human good is legitimate.

(1) The function of establishment and morality.

(2) The function of establishment and freedom.

(3) The function of establishment and authority.

c. The legitimate function of human good is the origin of civilization and true freedom. The principles of establishment can function under any form of government.

(1) Freedom without authority is anarchy.

(2) Authority without freedom is tyranny.

(3) Neither anarchy nor tyranny is the answer to government. While democracy tends toward anarchy, too much authority tends toward tyranny.

(4) Morality, freedom, and authority must properly coexist through the function of human good. This is a biblical principle found in the laws of divine establishment. Human good ties morality, freedom, and authority together.

d. Human good can be corrupted by the function of the sin nature. This is especially true in the field of motivation for human good. If the motivation for human good comes from the lust pattern of the sin nature or any of its forms of sinfulness, then human good is parlayed into evil. For example, arrogance plus human good equals evil; approbation lust plus human good equals evil.

e. Both civilization and the function of the client nation to God must have uncorrupted human good. Therefore, human good belongs to both the believer and unbeliever. Because human good belongs to the unbeliever as well as the believer, it has no spiritual value. God has a set of standards for the human race; and God has a set of standards for the believer only.

f. Human good is corruptible; divine good is incorruptible because it originates from the filling of the Holy Spirit, from maximum understanding of doctrine, and from spiritual adulthood.

g. When the unbeliever fulfills the laws of divine establishment, it is human good. When the believer fulfills the laws of divine establishment through spiritual skills, he performs divine good. The believer can parlay the human good an unbeliever performs into divine good, when the believer is using his spiritual skills.

h. If the believer in the status of carnality fulfills the laws of divine establishment, he performs dead works.

i. Human good has no spiritual value in itself. It is very important for the function of the human race, for the rise of civilization, for the modus operandi of human freedoms. But human good is not a part of the Christian way of life.

2. The laws of divine establishment are a part of Christian standards, Rom 13:1-7. This passage explains how the believer, through the filling of the Holy Spirit, can perform divine good in the execution of establishment laws.

a. Rom 13:1, “Let every soul [believer and unbeliever] be subject to governing authorities. For there is no authority except that which is delegated by God, and those authorities which exist are established by God.”

(1) Two things happen to the carnal believer in relationship to the laws of divine establishment.

(a) He can actually fulfill the laws of divine establishment and perform human good which has no spiritual value.

(b) He can violate the laws of divine establishment and become a criminal.

(2) The believer must recognize the authority of the government under which he lives, and therefore, be subject to it. Authority orientation is a major principle in the fulfillment of the laws of divine establishment. When the unbeliever does this, he produces human good. When the believer in fellowship does this, he produces divine good.

(3) God established government to avoid all of the terrible evils of internationalism.

(4) There are four possibilities in Rom 13:1.

(a) The believer executes this divine command under the filling of the Holy Spirit producing divine good.

(b) The believer executes this divine command in the status of carnality producing dead works.

(d) The believer or unbeliever violates this divine mandate and is punished under the laws of divine establishment, and disciplined by God as well.

b. Rom 13:2, “Therefore, he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; in fact, they who have opposed [establishment authority] will receive condemnation upon themselves.”

(1) The condemnation they receive on themselves is the fulfillment of the law of volitional responsibility. This is a case of sowing to the wind and reaping the whirlwind. “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that shall he also reap.”

(2) This condemnation is a reference to punishment by government for criminality. This punishment is a part of the law of volitional responsibility and applies to believer and unbeliever alike.

(3) Principles.

(a) The believer who uses spiritual skills to fulfill the laws of divine establishment performs divine good.

(b) The unbeliever who uses his volition to fulfill the laws of divine establishment performs human good. This is rewardable by man, just as divine good is rewardable by God.

c. Rom 13:3, “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good works, but for evil works. Do you want to be free from fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same;”

(1) Good works refers to three categories: divine good performed by the believer; human good performed by the believer out of fellowship, but not in Christian degeneracy; and human good performed by the unbeliever.

(2) Evil works refers to criminality or to anything which is anti-establishment by way of conspiracy or revolution. Evil works refers to two categories: corrupted human good performed by the believer out of fellowship; and corrupted human good parlayed into evil by the unbeliever criminal. Christian activism and civil disobedience is the believer’s function of good parlayed into evil.

(3) If you execute the protocol plan of God, you will also be patriotic, respect the laws of the land, respect government, and be a good citizen.

d. Rom 13:4, “for it [establishment authority] is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it [establishment authority] does not bear the sword [capital punishment] in vain; for it [establishment authority] is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.”

(1) God has delegated authority for punishment to government. “Doing what is evil” refers to Christian criminality, Christian activism, conspiracy, and civil disobedience.

(2) Capital punishment is the power and strength of the law. Without capital punishment, law enforcement gets out of control.

(a) Capital punishment was ordained by God in Gen 9:5- 6.

(b) Capital punishment was reaffirmed by our Lord, Matt 26:52, “For all who draw the sword [criminality], will die by the sword [capital punishment].” This does not refer to the military, the function of police officers, or an individual defending his own life.

e. Rom 13:5, “Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection [to establishment authority], not only because of punishment, but also for conscience’ sake.”

(1) See the Doctrine of The Conscience.

(2) Conscience is related to the laws of divine establishment.

f. Rom 13:6, “For because of this you pay taxes, for those in authority are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.”

(1) Under the laws of divine establishment, we pay taxes that support those who work in government. Therefore, they devote themselves to the administration of government and the proper function of justice.

(2) Government is a divine institution designed to protect the rights and freedom of everyone in a national entity.

(3) Therefore, God has delegated authority within the framework of the divine institution of government.

g. Rom 13:7, “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom is due; respect to whom respect is due; honor to whom honor is due.”

h. Concluding Principles.

(1) When the believer executes the laws of divine establishment in the status of the filling of the Holy Spirit, he or she is performing divine good.

(2) When the believer executes the laws of divine establishment in the status of carnality, he or she is performing dead works.

(3) The believer who uses spiritual skills to execute the laws of divine establishment performs divine good.

(4) The unbeliever who executes the laws of divine establishment performs human good.

(5) Human good is necessary for the fulfillment of laws of divine establishment in the national entity.

(6) Both divine good and human good is necessary for the entire population of a nation to execute the laws of divine establishment. The fulfillment of the laws of divine establishment is a team effort between the believer and unbeliever. Patriotism is the motivation for a team effort.

(7) The believer executes the laws of divine establishment from a conscience which contains spiritual norms from Bible doctrine. Therefore, that doctrinal orientation is another spiritual skill which produces divine good.

(8) The unbeliever executes the laws of divine establishment from a conscience which contains moral norms and standards, and he performs human good.

R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740