Chapter 13

We need to realise the fact that every believer is in full time Christian service. The meaning and purpose of your life before the Lord is very definite. There are no exceptions. You are left on this earth for a very definite purpose and full-time Christian service is something you do not decide to get into, you do not make a decision, you do not “come forward,” you do not “surrender to preach,” you do not dedicate yourself to full-time Christian service, etc. What you do is simply to be born again and you are in it. You are in full-time Christian service and there are two principles involved. The first is ambassadorship and the second is priesthood. Ambassadorship is emphasised in the book of Corinthians whereas in this passage we have priesthood.

The outline of this chapter is a very simple one. In the first nine verses we have the function of the royal priesthood. In verses 10-19 we have the sacrifices of the royal priesthood. In verses 20-25 we have the conclusion.

We have in verse 1 the extension of category #3 love. Brotherly love in not what most people think it is at all. Brotherly love is an extension of category #3 love under certain conditions that are specified in the Word of God.

The doctrine of category #3 love

1. Definition. For the royal family of God love comes in three categories. Category #1 is toward God, category #2 toward right man or right woman, category #3 toward friends. In addition to this there is an obligatory mental attitude love toward the entire royal family of God. It is known as “loving the brethren.” It is called in our context “brotherly love.” Category #3 love, therefore, refers to the function of love in friendship. It is restricted to those who are truly friends, not just acquaintances. This type of friendship or love is based upon mutual soul rapport. The principle of category #3 love is found in Proverbs 17:17 — “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity”; 18:24 — “A man of many friends is broken in pieces, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

2. Category #3 love provides pleasant and relaxing environment — Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” There is no true friendship or category #3 love where mental attitude sins exist. The one mentioned here is hatred, it could just as easily be arrogance, jealousy, vindictiveness, etc. Psychosis makes it impossible to have true friends. Romans 13:10 — “Love works no evil to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilment of the law.”

a) You can relax around your true friends, you don’t have to be on your guard, up tight, etc.

b) Your friends are not competing with you, therefore your friends do not stab you in the back socially or economically.

c) Your friends guard your privacy.

d) Friends never gossip about you or malign you to others.

3. Therefore, category #3 love is free from hypocrisy. Romans 12:9 — “Let your love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cling to that which is good.” This sets up the principle of soul rapport.

a) In the avoidance of hypocrisy true friendship is often established. In other words, you can be honest with your friends.

b) When you have a true friendship, friends are not designed to be deceived. Don’t deceive your friends.

c) Anyone you seek to fake out, or anyone to whom you must give a false impression, can never truly be your friend.

d) Some people never have friends because all of their lives they are arrogant and are proud of their hypocrisy, their ability to fake people out, to deceive people. These people are to be avoided.

4. Therefore category #3 love is outgoing and objectivity rather than subjective and hypersensitive. 2 Samuel 1:26, David’s lament of Jonathan — “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” The words “distressed for thee” is an idiom that means “I grieve for you”; “very pleasant” should be translated “very kind”; “wonderful” means “extraordinary.”

The principle is found also in Galatians 5:13 — “For you were called to freedom, members of the royal family of God; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the old sin nature, but through love serve one another.” Category #3 love is very clearly portrayed under the principle of freedom. You must be free to love and not use it as an opportunity for the function of the old sin nature.

a) Capacity for category #3 love through doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for a relaxed mental attitude toward all believers.

b) You will have few friends but you are commanded as royal family to have a relaxed mental attitude love toward all believers, including the worst stinkers in the family of God.

5. Category #3 love is a function of the soul — Proverbs 27:9,10, “Oil and perfume give happiness to the right lobe; so a man’s soul is sweet to his friends.” In other words, the perfume or the oil which has a very fragrant odour is what a friend does in your own life. “Therefore do not forsake your own friend, or your father’s friend” — some of the best friends you will ever have you father made for you — “therefore do not go to your brother’s house in the day of adversity; better is a friend who is near than a member of the family who is far away.” Category #3 love is not only the function of the soul but it is the function of an adult person in the human race.

a) Of keen interest in Proverbs 27:9,10 is the fact that we inherit friends. This is a most unusual principle of doctrine.

b) Some of the best friends you will ever have in your life time are inherited from your father or your mother.

c) Category #3 love overlaps generations.

d) Under category #3 love there is no generation gap. (There is no such thing as a generation gap)

e) Note also that category #3 friendship is closer than family love.

f) As perfume is sweet to the senses, so category #3 friends are to your soul.

6. Jesus Christ commands love in the royal family as an extension of category #3 love — John 15:11-17. Loving the brethren is not category #3 love. Category #3 love is restricted to a few real friends. But we are also commanded to love the brethren — all members of the royal family — as an extension of category #3 love. While Jesus Christ loves all believers we are not all His friends. Filoj qeou applies to those believers who reach supergrace, as illustrated by Abraham — “Friend” or “Lover of God.” God loves all believers with maximum love — application of propitiation — but all believers are not the friends of God. In other words, God has a few friends in every generation and a lot of believers. “You are my friends if you do what I have commanded you.” He has commanded that they get into doctrine and stay with it.

a) The love which is commanded here is directed to all believers.

b) it is not category #3 friendship, which is limited to a few, but an extension of category #3 love directed to all members of the royal family of God.

c) This extended love to all members of the royal family is strictly a mental attitude, not a social obligation.

d) It is a relaxed mental attitude which comes from the balance of residency in the soul, the balance between doctrine resident in the soul and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

7. Grace dynamics often involve an appeal to category #3 love rather than divine command. The illustration is taken from Philemon verses 8,9. Paul is speaking to his dear friend Philemon, a person who is a category #3 friend. He is basing his request now upon friendship rather than on rank. So he makes an appeal rather than make a direct order as an apostle.

a) As an apostle Paul can order his friend Philemon to free Onesimus.

b) He prefers to appeal to category #3 love and the friendship between two ambassadors.

c) In this way the freedom of Onesimus becomes a grace function rather than an obedience to a direct order from higher authority.

d) Remember that friendship in category #3 love is limited to a few.

e) It takes both energy and sacrifice to have true friends.

f) The energy and sacrifice is compensated by desire in the soul plus soul capacity.

g) In one life time you will have many acquaintances but few real friends who qualify under the biblical standards of category #3.

h) Learn to distinguish between loving the brethren and category #3 love. They are related but they are different.

i) As previously seen, loving the brethren is an extension of category #3 love but not the same.

j) However loving the brethren has the same source as category #3 love.

8. Category #3 is a giving love — 1 Samuel 18:1, 4.

9. Category #3 can be neutralised or destroyed. It can be destroyed primarily by mental attitude sins — Job 19:19,22; by verbal sins — Proverbs 16:28; 17:9; by national disaster — Jeremiah 20:4. National disaster breaks up friendships, though it starts new ones.

10. Counterfeit category #3 love or pseudo category #3 love is taught in Proverbs 19:6,7.

11. Loss of category #3 love is a part of intensive discipline — Psalm 38:11; Psalm 88:18.

Hebrews 13:1 in the Greek is slightly different to the KJV translation. It says, “Brotherly love [royal family love] must keep enduring.” The words Let continue” is the present active imperative of the verb menw which means to endure, to abide. The suffix, third person singular, applies to the noun filadelfia — the present active imperative plus the noun. The word means “brotherly love” or, in this case, love in the royal family. The nominative singular of the noun filadelfia makes it the subject. Hence, love in the royal family of God is in view in this verse. This is the first function of the royal priesthood. The object of category #3 love are a few real friends; the object of filidelfia are all members of the royal family. We have the customary present tense indicating that which is expected to occur or what habitually should occur in the royal family. The active voice: since filadelfia it produces the action of the verb. The imperative here is the imperative of entreaty. This imperative does not convey the finality of a command so much as the force of an urgent request. “Brotherly love must keep enduring.” Why? Because we are all members of the royal family of God and there must never be any chink, any crack, in the defences of the royal family. We are all in the same priesthood, we all have the same objective. We are commanded to be relaxed toward each other. It is not social life that is involved here.

We have two illustrations of filadelfia, one in verse 2, the principle of hospitality, and one in verses 3, the principle of intercessory prayer. Each in its way illustrates the principle when you understand that hospitality does not mean to entertain your friends. Hospitality means to entertain people who are comparative strangers, people that you know casually, people that you do not know very well, or people that you have never met before. Intercessory prayer often is the same. It is praying for people who are strangers, people you do not know well, people with whom you are not too familiar. The beautiful thing about intercessory prayer is that you can pray for people you do not know at all — and you are commanded to do so. Both of these illustrations deal with category #3 love extension in the field of brotherly love. Brotherly love is not friendship. Brotherly love is an extension of it but it is simply God’s policy toward the relationship between members of the royal family on the earth. It is God’s policy for the Church, it is God’s policy for the body of Christ. And what is His policy? That all members of the royal family of God while living on the earth will have a relaxed mental attitude toward each other. You don’t have to like believers but you are commanded not to dislike in the sense of having mental attitude sins. You don’t have to speak to believers, you don’t have to have social life with believers.

The first illustration is the principle of hospitality. What really complicates this passage is what is not taught here. There is a spiritual gift of hospitality.

Verse 2 — “Be not forgetful” is the present middle imperative of the verb e)pilanqanomai, it means to neglect or to forget. Here we have the negative mh with it, so it means “Don’t be neglectful, do not forget.” We will use the word “neglect” because this is the word which best represents the present middle imperative. The present tense is an historic present, it views the past historical event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The middle voice is the indirect middle, emphasising the agent, the member of the royal family of God producing the action rather than participating in its results. The imperative mood plus the negative is called the imperative of prohibition and it should be translated “Stop neglecting.”

“to entertain strangers” is a noun, not an infinitive, and it is in the objective genitive. The noun is filocenia which means hospitality. It should be translated, “Stop neglecting hospitality.” Why? Hospitality illustrates grace function. Hospitality depends on the character of the host rather than the merits of the stranger. Hospitality is an application of loving the brethren, it is a demonstration of mental attitude love or the relaxed mental attitude of grace orientation.

“for thereby” — this is the explanatory use of the particle gar followed by the prepositional phrase dia plus the demonstrative o(utoj for something near at hand. It should be translated, “for you see through this [or “through it”].” In other words, you are to understand that there are some real blessings involved here. The demonstrative refers to hospitality.

“some” — the nominative plural of the indefinite pronoun tij which often expresses a substantive idea in the general sense as representing a category — some in this category, some who have exercise hospitality have actually ..

“have entertained angels” — this is a reference to Abraham entertaining the Lord Jesus Christ as the angel of Jehovah and several angels accompanying Him. It refers specifically and historically to Genesis chapters 18 & 19. It also refers categorically to the fact that you never know that sometimes in entertaining a stranger you are going to have a lifetime friend, you are going to have great blessing in the relationship with the person you have entertained. “Have entertained” is the aorist active participle of the verb cenizw which takes its derivation from an Attic Greek word meaning a stranger, but it can mean either a guest or entertaining a stranger. “Angels” is the usual word for angel, the accusative plural direct object of the noun a)ggelloj.

“unawares” is the aorist active indicative from the verb lanqanw which is Classical Greek again. It should be translated “they escaped notice.” Lanqanw means to escape notice. The third person plural suffix indicates the category of people who are entertained as a blessing escape notice as being something wonderful. The Classical Greek idiom here cannot really be translated “they escape notice,” and this also tells us something about that aorist participle, it is a temporal aorist participle and should be translated “when.” That is, when you are entertaining these people. Therefore the whole Classical Greek idiom undergoes a tremendous change. A temporal participle followed by an actual aorist indicative type verb goes like this:

“Stop neglecting hospitality; for through it some without knowing it have entertained angels.”

That is the correct way to translate this entire Attic Greek verse. There is no Koine Greek here at all.

Summary

1. Hospitality is not only a blessing to others but becomes a blessing to the grace oriented or supergrace believer who possesses such a modus operandi.

2. Hospitality is another form of generosity in which the believer host merely expresses the doctrine in his soul rather than seeking to gain something by exercising hospitality.

3. A generous person gives without strings or hope of gain.

4. The hospitable royal priest exercises the grace function of host to strangers without desire for reward or without motivation of gaining something.

5. While hospitality brings the stranger into your home intercessory prayer takes you to the stranger in adversity. Hospitality and intercessory prayer are two sides of the same coin. On one side the stranger comes to you, on the other side you go to the stranger.

Verse 3 — again we have a verb for calling to mind. “Remember” is the present middle imperative from mimnhskomai. It is middle and passive in form in the New Testament and here it has a reflexive meaning and it means to call to mind, to keep in mind. It comes to mean in the middle voice to be concerned about. To be concerned about strangers without intruding into their privacy demands that you are aware of their adversities. The present tense is the customary present denoting what habitually occurs to the growing believer. The imperative is a direct command.

“them that are in bonds” — the noun desmioj plus the definite article. It means “prisoners,” it is in the plural. This is the objective genitive plural of the definite article plus the objective genitive plural of the noun desmioj and it should be translated simply “the prisoners.”

At the time of writing the Roman empire was at a state of great upset. This is the last year and a half of the reign of the present Caesar. The phrase “the prisoners” is a reference to the persecutions of the royal family of God by the reigning emperor in Rome in 67 AD. This concern would be expressed in intercessory prayer, but remember this is prayer for people you have not seen. You do not have to know the believers personally to pray for them but you must know your rights and privileges as a royal priest. You have to understand the doctrine of prayer, how it works and how it functions, as a member of the royal family of God.

“as bound with them” — the comparative particle o(j is used as a conjunction to express comparison. And with this we have the perfect passive participle of sundew. It means “as fellow prisoners.” The participle is used as a noun. While the Jews in Jerusalem are not imprisoned by the Romans as yet, they are members of the same royal family of God, members of the body of Christ. They belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, they are in union with Him. All believers are in union with Christ, the believers in Rome are being imprisoned, believers in Jerusalem are still free. So we have a principle here: All believers are in the same royal family. The principle is also found in 1 Corinthians 12 under the doctrine of the body. But here, intercessory prayer for those unseen and unknown is a means of expressing brotherly love or filadelfia. Intercessory prayer is grace support for suffering members of the family of God. So, “as fellow prisoners.” Why are they called fellow prisoners? Not because they are in prison but because the word dew in the verb sundew means to be bound with them. They are bound together as members of the royal family.

“them which suffer adversity” — we have an articular participle, kakoukew [kakw means bad; o)ukew means torture, maltreatment, incarceration, etc.] So we can translate it, “those who are being maltreated.” The historical present views a past historical event with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is just as vivid to us now as it was during the time in which it was happening in AD 67. The passive voice: the believers receive maltreatment, torture, persecution, from Nero. The participle is a temporal participle. And with this we supply once again mimneskomai — “remember the ones being maltreated.” Remember them in prayer, that is the only way they can be remembered.

“as being yourselves also in the body” — this part of the verse is correctly translated.

Translation: “Be concerned about prisoners, as fellow prisoners; be concerned about those who are being maltreated, as being yourselves in the members of the body.”

We are all in this together. All believers on the earth are on the same team.

Verse 4 — “Marriage” is o( gamoj; “is honourable” — whether it is a good one or a bad one the principle is there. There is no verb here. We have a predicate nominative, timioj, which means to be held in honour or noble. When you have a very strong construction like this, the omission of certain words — we are still in Classical Greek — allows the bringing in of one word. It is understood every time, it is an idiom. This word is never expressed but it is always understood. The word is e)stw, the present active imperative of e)imi and it is translated “Let [the divine institution of] marriage be held in honour [or respect].”

“in all” is incorrect. It is “by all” — e)n plus the instrumental of paj, and “by all” means by all the human race.

“and the bed” — the word for “bed” in the Greek is koith, and it doesn’t mean the bed for sleeping. It is a reference to sexual intercourse. Why did the Greeks use the word “bed” here for sex? This is a euphemistic word, so it is used euphemistically for sexual intercourse from the time of Homer in the 9^th century BC. Therefore the bed was used euphemistically for sexual intercourse. So we translate this, “and the sex act.” God designed it to be one of the great institutions of life. Sex, as a part of divine institution #2, is a divine institution in itself.

“undefiled” — a)miantoj. a means “no”; miainw means sewage. We can be euphemistic and say something like “not covered with sewage” or “unsoiled.” Miainw here, which seems to cover it, is going to be discussed under the principle of adultery or fornication, which is covering the act with sewage. “And the sexual relationship of marriage unsoiled by fornication” is what it means.

One of the most important things that every believer needs to understand is morality and spirituality. First of all, you need to understand that they are not the same, that while spirituality and morality are both found in the scriptures they cover different areas, although there is some overlap. Morality is best defined as the means by which the divine institutions function, whereas spirituality is the means of functioning in doctrine. Unbelievers can have morality but they do not have spirituality. On the other hand the believer with doctrine has both morality and spirituality. The reversionistic believer has neither. Spirituality functions through the power of the Spirit; morality functions through the volitional and mental aspects of the soul. Hebrews 13:4 is one of those areas where morality and spirituality are both enjoined as far as the royal family of God is concerned.

In the first part of this verse we have already seen o( gamoj, “the marriage,” is held in honour. “Let the divine institution of marriage be respected [or held on honour] by all.”

“but” is the adversative conjunction, but it isn’t really a conjunction at all. Instead, it is an epexegetical conjunctive particle gar and it should be translated “for.” And next we have two old English words “whoremongers and adulterers.” So we go to the Greek of this passage to discover exactly what we have. The word “whoremonger” is the accusative plural direct object of the noun pornoj, and pornoj has a very definite technical meaning. We will translate it with its plural, “fornicators.” That doesn’t tell us what it means, that simply is the translation. We next have an accusative plural direct object word which is not synonymous, moixoj. We can translate these “fornicators and adulterers” provided that it is understood what they mean. A fornicator is a person having illicit premarital sex. Moixoj refers to illicit post-marital sex. The only thing these two have in common is “illicit.”

Proverbs 5

Verse 1 — “My son” has two connotations. In the original passage it was David teaching his son Solomon, but it is also used in the sense of members of the class or students. “My students, concentrate on my doctrine, extend your ear to my understanding,” — a Hebrew idiom which means to concentrate.

Verse 2 — Why? His objective: “To guard against feminine divisiveness, as for knowledge that your lips may guard it.” This is something that you must learn and some day you will have the privilege of passing on this information to someone in need somewhere.

Verse 3 — the divisive female. “For distilled honey [flattery, the way she sets you up] drips from the lips of her that is the reversionist, and more flattering than oil is the inside of her mouth.” The inside of her mouth is the most dangerous part, her tongue.

Verse 4 — “However entanglement with her becomes like wormwood” — wormwood is a word for cheap wine. With cheap wine you may get some kind of a rosy glow but the hangover you are going to get is unbelievable — “sharp as a double-edged sword.”

Verse 5 — At the time that this was written one of the great sex symbols in the woman was the foot. “Her seductive feet are going down to death [the sin unto death or reversionism]; her sexy mincing steps embrace the grave.” In this verse the sexual attractiveness of the woman’s foot in the ancient world is used in the analogy.

Verse 6 — “Perhaps you should consider her manner of lives” — a woman who is promiscuous , on the prowl, doesn’t have a manner of life, the Bible says she has a manner of lives. In other words, she lives a life in each sexual encounter. This means that a promiscuous woman will have a number of sexual encounters with different men, she is not faithful to one man. Therefore she is unstable — “her manner of life wavers back and forth” — she is with you now, she is going to late-date you later on with another one — “you do not know her.”

Verse 7 — “Listen to me, my sons [class], and do not depart from the words of my mouth.” At this point he stops and repeats what he said in verse 1: “Listen”. Why? After six verses he has stepped on someone’s toes. So there is the distraction of getting into your own problems and failing to get the next point. It means regroup now, get away from your problems.

Verse 8 — “Remove your sex life from her, do not come near the door of her house” — when you happen to be in the vicinity and you come to her door, keep moving.

Verse 9 — “Lest you give your glory” — Every man has been given from God the ability to produce in his body that which is called glory. Glory is the male in sex. While the male lion has a mane the male in the human race has sexual glory. And a man gives his sexual glory. The principle here is a very simple one: Do not give your glory to a pseudo, to a phony woman. A man has glory in two ways. The glory of his sexual capabilities which are designed for his right woman. He has them on a momentary basis and he has them over a .long period of time. In the second line of verse 9 we have the long period of time — “and your years of sexual vigour to the vindictive.” In other words, some people make it a lifetime of messing around with every female who bats her eyes. Promiscuous men dissipate and destroy their glory. The word “sex” is used in the term of “glory” for one person only, the right woman. Therefore dissipating or giving your glory to someone else is not only fornication or adultery but more than that it is the dissipation of something that God designed for one person only. All promiscuous women are vindictive.

Verse 10 — “Lest promiscuous women become satiated with your vigour in sexual performance” — in other words, you are giving away your glory to something that is not worthwhile — “and your human male body be shattered in a whorehouse.” In other words, the man and the man’s sex apparatus is very delicate. The man’s sexual glory can be destroyed soulishly or physically. Soulishly it is destroyed with words and physically it is destroyed with promiscuity and the various types of venereal diseases. Here is verse 10 the man is portrayed as the total sucker.

Verse 11 — “And in distress you groan at your end — the end here is impotence, no sex, failure to utilise your glory with your right woman — “when your body and your phallus are ruined.”

Verse 12 — “And you say, I have hated disciplinary warning” — that means that the various types of discipline in reversionism didn’t succeed — “also my right lobe despised and ridiculed corrective discipline.”

Verse 13 — “Furthermore I have not listened to or obeyed the voice of my pastor, nor concentrated on the message of those who taught me!” Therefore it is a spiritual problem: failure to take in doctrine.

Verse 14 — this man goes on to explain that when he neglected doctrine, when he ignored warning discipline, “Shortly after that I was in every kind of trouble, both in the worship assembly and in the function of the nation.”

Now he has learned his lesson, so in verse 15 there is some advice:

Verse 15 — “Drink waters of pleasure from your own cistern” — the cistern here is a covered well which refers to one’s right woman. She is a well that only uncovers for you. She is covered, you are the only one who has the right to drink there. She is waiting for you, you are waiting for her — “and flowing waters [good sex response] from your own well.”

Verse 16 — “Your fountains [sexual acts] should not overflow to other women,” — that causes revolution — “in the streets the dividing of waters.” In other words, the instability of the nation comes from the instability of a nation’s sex life.

Verse 18 — “ … “therefore take pleasure in the woman of your sexual vigour.”

Verse 19 — “Who is an amorous sexy doe” — the word “doe” is used because of the grace of the doe, and therefore amorous, sexy means she is a graceful person and that her physical body conforms to the physical body of her right man. She is called a “wild she goat of grace” which means a very, very responsive person to you. She responds with abandon — “her breasts shall intoxicate you at all times, you shall always wander up and down her body in the area of her love.”

Verse 20 — “So why, my son, should you wander up and down the body of a promiscuous woman, or embrace the genitals of a nymphomaniac.”

Verse 21 — “For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of a man, and God weighs all of his tracks” — the tracks to the doors.

Verse 22 — “His own reversionism will trap him with a reversionistic woman, furthermore he will be seized and bound with the chains of his own feminine idol.” A man makes an idol out of a promiscuous woman and he chains himself to that idol.

Summary

1. By having sex with the wrong woman the reversionistic believer is binding himself to an idol he has fashioned with his phallus.

2. But this idol of man’s adulterous manufacturing is not the right woman created for him by God.

3. Man in fornication has intruded on God’s perfect design, so fornication or adultery is blasphemy.

4. Every act of fornication is another chain or rope binding the reversionist to an idol called sex.

5. Every inconsequential person taken to bed is another link in the slavery to sex.

6. Once the right woman comes along the phallic reversionist is so bound to his sex idol that he has no capacity for category #2 love.

7. The idol cannot satisfy, only the reality. The fornicator who does not wait for the real thing will never know the happiness designed for category #2 love.

Verse 23 — “He [the reversionist] shall die without doctrine, and in the magnitude of his folly he shall go astray.”

Proverbs 6:20 — the words “My son” refers to students. In the original concept it was David instructing Solomon in the area of divine institutions, but it comes to mean students, those who are in the classroom.

“guard and preserve the commands of your father, and do not abandon the law of your mother” — the principles that we have studied in Proverbs 5 should be taught in the home. The fact that they are not taught in the home is indicative of the failure of parents to properly train their children for life and the result is tremendous reversionism. They are also related to doctrine in verse 21 …

Verse 21 — “Tie them [the doctrines] to your right lobe [the function of GAP] always, fasten them around your neck” — fastening around the neck has to do with the ancient notebooks. The phylactery or the notebook was tied around the neck and inside were written portions of the scripture, and when you had time you simply opened the pouch and read them, learned them, studied them.

Verse 22 — “Wherever you go, she [doctrine] will guide you; when you lie down to sleep, doctrine will guard you; when you wake up, doctrine will converse with you.”

Verse 23 — “For happiness is the commandment, and the law is prosperity, and the way of life is the discipline of doctrine.” These few verses emphasise the importance of knowing Bible doctrine and having it resident in your soul, and being very familiar with the principles involved.

Verse 24 — the purpose is now given in regard to our subject. “To guard you from a reversionistic woman, from the flattering tongue of the wrong woman.” This refers to the fact that every man is vulnerable in time of pride, that the male is very vulnerable when it comes to flattery, and the only protection is Bible doctrine in the soul.

Verse 25 — “Do not lust after her beauty in your right lobe” — notice that the frame of reference in the right lobe is hooked up with the old sin nature and is the basis of lust. Man is weak through his lust. Pride as a mental attitude sin plus lust weakens the man in the place where strength or weakness is measured. The soul is the area for the measurement of strength or weakness — “and not let her arouse your passion with her eyelashes.”

Verse 26 — “Because for the sake of the fornicating woman the right man comes to the smallest piece of bread [crumbs] — he comes to poverty — “and the right woman of the right man will hunt for him for his precious soul.” The implication is she will not find it because he is down where the crumbs are and she isn’t.

Verse 27 — “Can a man drop a hot coal in huis pocket, and his clothes not be burned?”

Verse 28 — “Can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be burned?”

Verse 29 — “So the once going to seduce his neighbour’s wife, the one touching her will not remain unpunished.”

Verse 30 — “They do not despise a thief when he steals to satisfy his appetite, or when he is starving”

Verse 31 — “If he is apprehended, he shall restore seven times the value of what he has stolen; he shall give up the entire wealth of his estate.” This is the way they dealt with a thief in the ancient world. In other words, a thief did not lose his life.

Verse 32 — “The one who keeps on fornicating with a wrong woman is destitute of right lobe, he that seduces her corrupts his own soul.” So he punishes himself.

Hebrews 13:4 — “for fornicators and adulterers.”

Summary

1. Inasmuch as marriage is a coalescence of body and soul it is imperative that all who are single wait for the right man or the right woman.

2. While waiting premarital sex is ruled out. Sexual experience, contrary to popular belief, does not improve marriage. Sexual experience does not improve sex, much less marriage. Therefore premarital sex is not necessary to be great in expressing one’s category #2 love toward one’s opposite number.

3. Premarital sexual experience is neither necessary nor desirable, in fact the Word of God says it is forbidden.

4. It is forbidden because it destroys the soul part of sex, which is the most important. The ignition for sex is in the soul, not in the genitea.

5. The blessing and happiness of sex is designed by God in eternity past between one right man and one right woman.

6. There must be a coalescence of souls so that the ignition must not be fouled up. There must be the ability to respond.

“God” — o( qeoj, “the God”; “will judge” — future active indicative of the verb krinw. The gnomic future here is unusual. It is a statement of fact or performance which is to be rightfully expected under normal conditions. The reason it is a gnomic future is because occasionally there are exceptions. When people rebound and get with doctrine they become an exception to the rule. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb, prohibiting illicit sex before marriage as well as during. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty.

Translation: “Let the divine institution of marriage be held in honour by all the human race, and the sexual relationship of marriage unsoiled by infidelity: for the God will judge fornicators and adulterers.”

Principles

1. The first principle is a reminder to learn to distinguish between fornication and adultery. Fornication deals more with the ignition system whereas adultery deals more with the physical system of the body.

2. Fornication, then, is premarital infidelity to a future right man or right woman, hence premarital sex is infidelity to an ideal.

3. Adultery is post-marital infidelity to right man or right woman and therefore is unfaithfulness to a person.

Any sex relationship outside the marriage bond is illicit.

The doctrine of category #2 love

1. For the royal family of God love comes in three categories: a) toward God; b) right man-right woman; c) friendship. In addition to these three categories there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family. This is not category #3 love, it is simply an extension of category #3 love. Category #2 love refers to the soul and body relationship between a right man and a right woman. It is a touching love, it is a touching of the souls as well as the bodies. It therefore consists of a soul and body rapport. Sex is the unique expression of this love.

2. A panoramic view. Song of Solomon 8:6,7. This passage, by way of background, is the story of Solomon’s divine discipline for his failure to wait for his right woman. First of all there was infidelity to the ideal as indicated by his extensive conquests. Then there was infidelity to the right woman when he finally found her, for he put her immediately in a harem with hundreds of others. However, his right woman was not his right woman, she was merely the most beautiful woman of her time. She is called the Shulamite woman. She had a shepherd lover who was her right man. The shepherd lover, the right man, has rescued the Shulamite woman from the harem, and Solomon the villain of the passage has been frustrated. They are traveling in his chariot and are having a conversation. The conversation deals with the subject very close to both of them, category #2 love. The man speaks to her and as he speaks to her of the subject there emerges the panoramic category #2 love principle — one man designed for one woman in eternity past.

The first thing he says to her deals with the soul relationship. The first thing that must be emphasised is soul relationship. He says first of all, “Set me” — the qal imperative of the verb sum which means to impress, like on wax. In the ancient world you didn’t write your signature, you merely had someone etch it on a signet ring, and then you simply had soft wax at the bottom of the paper, took off your signet ring and pressed it into the wax. You had sinned. So “set me” means to impress with your signature.

“as a seal” — this is to indicate what kind of impression we have in the analogy. The word for “seal” is a signet ring really, chotham. When a man was engaged to a woman he gave her a ring. She wore it around her neck, suspended between her breasts, and it meant she had already discovered her right man, that she belonged to him, she was wearing his signet ring. She wore it to portray the fact that she belonged to her right man and no other. This is the same concept as the woman today in the 20^th century wearing an engagement ring. So “Set me as a seal” means “take my signet ring.”

“upon thine heart” means that the identification of right man, right woman must be made in the soul and it must be the identification of one soul to another. The body is secondary. Right man and right woman identify each other in the soul, not in the body. The right man must be engraved in the woman’s soul — stamped with the signet ring. The fact that she wears the ring around her neck suspended on a cord or a chain merely means that in her soul his name, representing his person, is stamped in her soul forever. That is divine design. The signet ring signifies waiting for the right man. The signet ring must be in the soul before it is placed on the finger — the 20^th century meaning. Soul love must precede sex love. The first thing you notice, then, in the panorama of category #2 love is the soul relationship.

“as a seal upon thine arm” — this takes us to the sexual or the physical relationship between a right man and a right woman. It is really a signet rather than a seal. “Upon your arm” here means “on your strength.” When the right man in sex fulfils the right woman’s body he becomes her strength. A woman is never stronger than when a man has given his glory to the woman — he has completely satisfied her in the sexual relationship. At that moment he may be totally weak but she is totally strong. The third part of the panorama is the principle of category #2 love — “for love is as strong as death.” Category #2 love carries the strength, the power, the influence of death. Death is a motivator in life. People do a lot of things because they are afraid of death. They do a lot of things by overcoming the fear of death. Category #2 love is also a strong motivator in life. The power of category #2 love is related to death as an analogy, and it introduces a great enemy — “jealousy,” qinah. It is used here for the mental attitude sin.

3. While category #2 love is as strong as death and cannot be quenched by any pressures of life, death does destroy pseudo category #2 love and its resultant mental attitude sins — Ecclesiastes 9:5,6: “For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything [anything about the living and what is going on in time] and do not have any longer a reward; for their memory is forgotten” — they cannot go back and remember the difficulties of life on earth. There is a purpose for bringing this out and it is found in verse 6 — “Consequently their pseudo love” — these are people who did not live well and died poorly, people who in life were full of mental attitude sins, and therefore could not, even if they found right man or right woman, enjoy, they didn’t have the capacity. They were filled with jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, arrogance, etc. — “their hate and their jealousy have already perished” — when you try to build category #2 love on mental attitude sins the only thing you have to look forward to is dying because in dying you get away from the illusion that you can love someone under category #2 and at the same time entertain mental attitude sins — “therefore they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun” — they are dead, they missed the boat is what the passage is saying. Category #2 love is available even to unbelievers, and unbelievers in time when they find the right woman or the right man, and they have the capacity, it is wonderful. But death cuts off the possibility of ever knowing how wonderful category #2 love can be. The only chance of ever knowing how wonderful category #2 love is is to be free from these mental attitude sins.

4. Category #2 love is designed for one person of the opposite sex. All other are excluded. Proverbs 5:15-19. “Drink waters of pleasure [sex] from your own cistern [covered storage, your own right woman is covered and only for you uncovered], and flowing waters [sexual response] from your own well [your own right woman]. Your fountains [your sex acts] shall not overflow to other women; dividing of waters in the streets. Let them [sex acts] be reserved for your one and only [right woman], and not for a reversionistic promiscuous woman. Your fountain [sex life] shall be permanently blessed, therefore take pleasure in the woman of your vigour [right woman], who is an amorous, sexy doe, a wild she-goat of grace [she is totally abandoned to you]; her breasts shall intoxicate you at all times, and you shall wander up and down her body in the area of her love.”

5. Category #2 love is the provision of God’s grace — Proverbs 18:22, “Whosoever finds his right woman receives grace from the Lord.” The source of right woman is divine design in eternity past.

6. God has set aside time in each life for category #2 love — Ecclesiastes 3:8. However, certain functions of life can destroy the allotted time to love. Mental attitude sins like jealousy, others things which include promiscuity, drug addiction — the chemical destruction of the soul destroys capacity for all categories of love.

7. Category #2 love is more important than circumstances of life — Proverbs 15:17, “Better is a dish of herbs where love is, than a fatted ox and hatred with it.”

8. Category #2 love is protective in absence and in presence. In absence we have the sealing of the soul, the impressing the soul with the signet ring, and with that sealing of the soul we have the fragrance of memories — Song of Solomon 1:13; 4:6. The presence protection is Song of Solomon 2:4 — “He has brought me to the house of wine [she is perfectly safe], his banner of love is over me.” In other words, she is protected by his love.

9. Women must be taught to love under category #2. Everything that women do well they have to be taught. The women must teach the other women how to love. Women are responders by divine design in their souls, and since they are responders all responders must be taught. Who teaches them? A woman who has learned.

The great enemy of love

1. Mental attitude sins of all kinds destroy category #2 love.

2. Jealousy is the strongest of all mental attitude sins [pride is the worst] — Proverbs 27:3,4.

3. Jealousy always motivates persons to revenge tactics — Proverbs 6:34.

4. Reversionism as a spiritual maladjustment is always characterised by jealousy — Romans 1:28,29; James 3:14,16.

5. Jealousy rejects Bible teaching and Bible doctrine — Acts 13:45; 17:5.

6. False doctrine, therefore, produces jealousy — 1 Timothy 6:4.

7. Jealousy motivated the brothers of Joseph to sell him into slavery — Acts 7:9. Therefore jealousy is a motivator that destroys category #3 relationships.

8. Jealousy and all mental attitude sins destroy the soul, producing mental illness — Job 5:2; Proverbs 14:30.

9. Jealousy destroys category #2 love — Song of Solomon 8:6.

10. So great a sin is jealousy that under the Levitical code an entire chapter and an entire sacrifice was devoted to it — Numbers 5:11-31.

11. Jealousy causes revolution. The jealousy of Ephraim split the nation of Israel — Isaiah 11:13.

12. Jealousy motivated the religious leaders in our Lord’s day to crucify Him — Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.

“jealousy is as cruel as the grave” — the grave is cruel in that it robs us of loved ones. So jealousy has the same cruelty, it robs us of the one we love the most in category #2. Jealousy can destroy with finality the love between a right man and a right woman.

Next in the panorama is the illustration of category #2 love — “its coals are coals of fire” should be “her flames [of her love] are the flames of fire, the flame for the Lord.” Fire is used here in the sense of passion, power, intensity of category #2 love. So great is the soul and sexual relationship of category #2 love that nothing in life compares to it, it is unique and overpowering like the flames of a fire.

Translation: “Stamp me like a signet ring on your right lobe, as a signet ring on your strength; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as cruel as the grave; her flames [of love] are the flames of fire, this flame is from the Lord.”

Verse 7 continues the panorama with the durability of category #2 love. Having expressed the passion of category #2 love in terms of a fire, the flames that get greater and greater and stronger and stronger as the fire burns, many waters can’t put out the fire. “Many waters” refer to the pressures, the disasters, the many problems which confront category #2 love. God did not bring the Shulamite woman to her shepherd lover until He had used her to punish Solomon for his failure to comply to Proverbs chapter five, which was originally given by David to Solomon.

“cannot quench love” — “are not able to extinguish the love”; “neither can the floods [lit. flood waters] drown it.” There is no water of human pressure or adversity that can extinguish the flames of category #2 love.

The last picture in the panorama: Category #2 love cannot be purchased. The literal translation: “If a man were to give all the wealth of his estate for love, it would be totally rejected.” In other words, a millionaire could give all of his money and his love would be totally rejected. You can’t buy category #2 love.

Translation: “May waters are not able to extinguish the fire of this love, nor can floodwaters inundate it. If a man were to give all the wealth of his estate for [category #2] love, it would be totally rejected.”

Principle: Category #2 love cannot be purchased with all the money in the world. Money cannot buy what was designed by God in eternity past. God’s grace design in category #2 love is a fire which cannot be extinguished by any adversity or by any hardship in life. You yourself can destroy it by promiscuity or mental attitude sins, but it cannot be destroyed from the outside. Category #2 love is not for sale, it is the most common form of legalism to seek to purchase what can only be provided by the grace of God.

Hebrews 13:5 — the supergrace perspective. “Let your” is not found in the original, and yet it does belong here. “Your conversation” is o( tropoj, and it means way of life, modus vivendi, lifestyle — “let your lifestyle.” It is the thinking that is the life of the individual. Your living depends upon your ability to think, and if you have a limited vocabulary you have a limited life — limited by your vocabulary. This is why this was translated in the KJV “conversation", because conversation is the formation of words. The formation of words means the development of thought. Your ability to think depends upon your vocabulary.

The word “be” is not found here. This is Classical Greek in this passage, so we add e)stw, the present active imperative of e)imi which is used to translate a Classical Greek idiom into English. So it should be “Let your lifestyle be.”

“without covetousness” is a predicate nominative in an Attic Greek phrase — a)fiarguroj. The a) is negative; filoj is love; a)rguroj is silver. It means love of money. “Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money.”

We have already covered the major concepts of doctrine and the last chapter of Hebrews brings a phase of application, of applicatory doctrines. These doctrines are the links between that which is resident in our soul and the dynamics of our life as members of the royal priesthood in this life. Therefore our handling of friendship, of sex and love, of money, all relate to the subject and indicates once again that the Bible is very practical and very unusual in this regard. We have before us a very interesting passage which covers two verses and changes the subject.

“Let you conversation be without covetousness” is not quite a correctly translated phrase. The word “conversation” is tropoj and it means “lifestyle.” It means manner of life and manner of life always begins in the soul. Manner of life is what you think. What you think is formed into words and so the translator used the word “conversation", but today it means way of life, modus vivendi, or lifestyle; “without covetous” — a)filarguroj which means love of money. This should be translated correctly from the Classical Greek idiom, so it actually means, “Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money.”

Philippians 4:11,12 — “Not that I speak with reference to poverty; for I have come to learn, in whatever circumstances I am, to keep on being content.” The apostle Paul through his own spiritual growth was content in every circumstance of life. “I know how to live in poverty, and I know how to live in prosperity; in all places and in all circumstances I have been taught the secret both how to be well fed and how to be hungry.” Here is a man who because of doctrine in his soul knows how to be hungry, knows how to be well fed, whose capacity for life is so great that his circumstances are inconsequential and he enjoys all kinds of circumstances — both how to prosper and how to be in poverty.

Circumstances in life vary, this is the devil’s world, it is inevitable that life will be unstable from the standpoint of overall circumstances. The only stability we have in this life comes from our Lord Jesus Christ who is the controller of history and who permits the devil to go just so far and then He rectifies whatever situation is necessary in order that the angelic conflict might be perpetuated from one generation to another.

The doctrine of money

A. Definition.

1. Our English word “money” is derived from the Latin word moneta which actually means a mint. A moneta in Rome was where they coined the money, manufactured silver coins. So it refers to a stamped coin of gold, silver, or other metal used as a medium of exchange.

2. Therefore money, by the very use of our Latin word, is the medium in which prices are expressed, debts discharged, goods and services paid for, and bank reserves held.

3. The term “money” is synonymous with circulation and a circulating medium and may be regarded as comprising demand deposits in common money or currency — coins, bank notes, paper money issued by a government.

4. The British economist Ralph Hautry states: “Money is one of those concepts which is like a teaspoon or an umbrella but unlike an earthquake or a buttercup.” He means they are definable primarily by the use or purpose which they serve. Therefore money must be defined in terms of its function and related to its value.

5. Money is a medium of exchange whereby goods and services are paid for and debts are discharged. Money is the means of stating the prices of goods and services as well as expressing the debts, the salaries, the wages, the rents, the insurance obligations, and innumerable contracts of this type.

6. Money serves as a reserve for ready purchasing power. Money is the only complete liquid asset. In the ancient world money was used as a store of value. The rise of commercial banking and central banking resulted in a corresponding increase in the importance of money used as reserves for a banking system. Money is unique among economic goods, it is regarded not as wealth but as a device for exchanging and measuring wealth. So money was never regarded historically as wealth in itself but as a device for exchanging and measuring wealth. An increase in the quantity of money in a country does not necessarily constitute an increase in the country’s wealth.

B. The history of money

Different objects have been used as a medium of exchange. Slaves were used that way, gunpowder, and in some primitive societies the jawbones of pigs. The ox of Homeric times was used in that sense. The elephant in Ceylon was considered to be money in that area for many hundreds of years. Wool, barley, wheat, timber have all been used for money. The most widely known monetary standard is gold and silver. Before coins were invented money was measured in terms of rings and ingots as well as bars or shekels. Coin type money was invented by Creasis, King of Lydia.

Three kinds of coinage existed in the time of the New Testament. The imperial coinage was the best. There were the provincial coins which were minted at Antioch and Tyre, and they were based on the Greek standard of drachmas. Then there was the local Jewish money coined in Caesarea and it had wide circulation because the Greek became great loaners of funds.

C. The legitimate functions of money.

1. Monetary transactions are a legitimate function of life all the way from Genesis 29:3 to Jeremiah 32:44 and throughout the scripture. It is legitimate for believers to enter into business and into monetary transactions. To carry on monetary transactions the believer must have money or credit, therefore if he gave it all to the church he couldn’t engage in business and his children would starve and he would be worse than an infidel.

2. Money was used to pay taxes by Jesus Himself — Matthew 22:17-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26.

3. Money is necessary for the function of an economy, therefore it is not wrong or sinful to possess and use money.

4. However, you should know that as a member of the royal family of God money is a very useful and helpful servant but it is a cruel and harsh master — Jude 11. The word for “deceit” is Jude 11 is the word planh. It connotes three areas of deceit regarding money. When a person gets into monetary reversionism there are three areas of deceit:

a) That money will bring happiness. Many people abandon doctrine and try simply to make money. It is all right to make money so long as you don’t abandon doctrine, but when you abandon doctrine and simply go out for money the first objective is that money means happiness. There is no happiness in money or in any of the details of life apart from doctrine resident in the soul.

b) That money is security. Security for the believer is provided through the grace provision of God in eternity past. It is provided through the principles of living grace and supergrace, not through monetary principles — Matthew 6:24-33.

c) That money can buy anything. That is erroneous. Money cannot buy salvation, category #2 love, security, or even peace of mind, happiness or stability. While Balaam is the illustration of monetary reversionism the emphasis in Jude 11 is on the point of doctrine that money does not provide happiness, security or love.

Consequently money and its use is permissible. It is not carnal for the believer to possess money. The believer with wealth is not required to give all of his money to the church. There are also some illegitimate uses of money — bribery, to buy power, to buy fornication, to corrupt character; these are forbidden to the believer. This does not make money evil, it just confirms the old sin nature’s evil. There is nothing wrong with money, the problem is always the love of money.

D. The dangers of money to the unbeliever.

We anticipated this with the quoting of Mark 8:36,37. Salvation cannot be purchased with money, and a person who has a lot of money thinks he can buy anything. He buys celebrityship, he buys affection or friendship (or thinks he does), he buys people, situations, power. In other words, he is in the field of purchasing things that he could not get any other way. He has to get everything through money and therefore he assumes that he can buy salvation. Money causes the rich man to put his faith in the wrong object, says Mark 10:25. Therefore, Jesus concludes that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. This does not mean that a rich man cannot be saved but it is just very difficult for them to be saved because they have a tendency to depend upon their money for security and they have a tendency to try to buy their way out of every kind of trouble.

Money hinders the unbeliever from seeking salvation, according to Luke 16:19-31, and we must understand always that money has no credit with God. If there is such a thing as credit with God it is only found in the inner residency of Bible doctrine.

Note some of the passages dealing with this subject: Proverbs 11:4 — “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness imputed delivers from the second death.” In other words, you can’t buy salvation. Proverbs 11:28 — “The one who trusts in his riches will fall, but the believer will flourish [or prosper] like the green leaf.” Money does not mean capacity for life — Proverbs 13:7, “There is one who pretends to be rich, but he has nothing in his soul; there are those who are in poverty but have great wealth [of doctrine resident in the soul].”

E. Believers have succumbed to the various temptations related to money. Solomon had monetary reversionism in Ecclesiastes 5:10-6:2; Balaam in Jude 11; Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5:1-10; 1 Timothy 6:3-17; James 4:13,14; James 5:1-6.

F. Monetary prosperity is part of supergrace blessing under paragraph SG². Under paragraph SG² God has provided as a part of spiritual advancement great supergrace blessing in the field of money. Men like Abraham, David, Solomon, were blessed by monetary prosperity as a part of their supergrace blessings. Often great wealth and business success is a sign of supergrace or spiritual maturity — Proverbs 13:8 (Isaiah 30:18, God is waiting to provide you great wealth); Proverbs 13:13,18; 11:18.

Hebrews 13:5b — “and be content” .Now we are getting down to the secret of the supergrace life, total contentment based upon doctrine resident in the soul. We have the present middle participle of the verb a)rkew. The word means to be content, it has several other meanings that are related but this is the one that is correctly translated in this passage. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues to the present time. It is called the present tense of duration. Like most but not all of the uses of the present it has linear aktionsart. It should be translated, “keep on being content.” This doesn’t say keep on being rich, keep on being successful, keep on being happy; it doesn’t say keep on being anything except content. Content has to do with Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Contentment has to do with the status quo of divine happiness in every circumstance of life. The middle voice: the subject who is the supergrace believer plus those who are positive toward doctrine participate in the results of the action. The middle voice relates the action more intimately to the subject and the permissive middle is one in which the subject yields himself to the results of the action in his own interest. The action is GAP, the results of the action SG² — wealth, success, prosperity.

“with such things as ye have” — this is an articular participle. The definite article is in the dative plural, it is the dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to have anything from God on the basis of grace. The masculine gender of the definite article applies to either persons or things and that is why it is used instead of neuter. If it was in the neuter it would simply refer to inanimate things but being in the masculine gender it includes all of those things and persons. The present active participle of the verb pareimi goes with the definite article. It means here to have in possession or to be present, and the ascriptive use of this particle means that the participle is going to be translated like a noun. It should be translated “with what you possess.”

“for” is the illitive use of the conjunction gar, it expresses a ground or reason why you should be content under all circumstances. At the same time with this we get a reflexive pronoun a)utoj — intensive used as a reflexive pronoun — “for he himself.”

“hath said” — the perfect active indicative of legw. This introduces five quotations from the Old Testament, all of which say the same thing. These five passages should be familiar to all believers because of their importance in their lives — Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Chronicles 28:20; Isaiah 41:10. The imperfect tense of legw is the intensive perfect, it indicates a completed action with emphasis on existing results. The existing results are these five passages. They stand written in the scripture forever. They are a part of the Word of God which endures forever and their message is one which we need constantly in our lives. The active voice: since all doctrine is the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16 — Jesus Christ, in effect, produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative represents the verb from the viewpoint of historical reality. “For he himself has said in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever.” Now we are dealing with something that is dogmatic, something that is permanent, something that is right, something that is absolute, something you can hang your life on, something that you can take with you as emergency rations for every circumstance of life.

Now we have the quotation of part of these five passages — “I will never leave thee”, a very strong passage in the Greek: o)u mh se a)nw o)u mh se. O)u means no; mh means no. So we have “no” twice. Se is the accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su for “you.” The word a)nw is the aorist active subjunctive of a)nihmi, a word which means to abandon or to desert. The negative o)u denies the fact; the negative mh denies the idea. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It means that from the time that you were saved to the time that you depart from this life He will never abandon you or desert you. he will not only not desert you but He will not ever desert you — not ever abandoned. The active voice: God the Son produces the action of the verb, but all members of the Trinity do. The subjunctive mood is the subjunctive of emphatic negation. In other words, it is stronger than the indicative. So God never deserts any believer, not matter how he fails, no matter what his problems are or what disaster he faces or what his situation is. There is no such thing as being deserted by God.

“nor” — we go back to a negative adverb, o)ude, which means “neither”, or in this case, “nor.”

“forsake thee” — the trouble is that between “nor” and “forsake”, between o)ude and the verb, we have another double negative. The verb for “forsake” is e)gkataleipw. The word means to abandon or forsake. The aorist tense is constative, it expresses the faithfulness of God. The active voice: all members of the Godhead are producing the action. Again, we have the subjunctive of emphatic negation. We also have the accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su which comes in at this point.

Translation: “Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money; keep on being content with what you possess: for he himself has said in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever, I will not ever abandon you, neither will I ever dessert you.”

The doctrine of divine faithfulness

1. Definition: Divine faithfulness is God’s grace expression to the believer, using His perfect character as the basis for expression.

2. God’s faithfulness to the believer is never more obvious than to the new believer who discovers rebound. God is faithful to the believer in the principle of rebound — 1 John 1:9.

3. God’s faithfulness is manifest in a perfect plan — 1 Corinthians 1:9.

4. God’s faithfulness is manifest in provision and blessing — 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

5. God is faithful to us in time of testing — 1 Corinthians 10:13.

6. God is faithful to the royal family of God — Hebrews 10:23. This includes our home in the holy of holies plus supergrace blessings in time.

7. God is faithful to the reversionistic believer — 2 Timothy 2:13.

8. God is faithful to the believer in the realm of the angelic conflict — 2 Thessalonians 3:3.

9. God’s faithfulness is a reality in supergrace status — Hebrews 11:11.

10. The principle of conclusion: Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God. God cannot be inconsistent with His own essence, He cannot change His essence, He cannot be unfair, he is consistent with Himself. Therefore, He is consistent and faithful to us.

The doctrine of category #1 love

1. Love comes in three categories for the royal family of God: category #1, toward God; category #2, right man, right woman; category #3, friendship. In addition, there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family called “loving the brethren.” Category #1 love is the believer’s capacity to love God and to respond to God’s love. It is based upon Bible doctrine resident in the soul and, furthermore, when the believer reaches maturity [supergrace status] this category #1 love is known as occupation with the person of Christ. The command to category #1 love is found in Deuteronomy 6:5 — “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your right lobe, and with all your soul, and with all your power.” The power is both capacity based on doctrine resident in the soul and general capacity for life. Category #1 love is the most difficult one of all because consistency in the intake of Bible doctrine.

2. The means of category #1 love.

a) Since God is invisible and since at the same time God is the object of category #1 love we must see and love Him through the Word — through Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

b) The reversionistic believer is incapable of category #1 love. he is incapable of loving God because he lacks doctrine resident in the soul.

c) The immature believer does not love God because he lacks doctrine, and therefore no one can love God without doctrine resident in the soul.

You cannot love God unless you know God. 1 Peter 1:8 says, “Even though you have not seen him you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with happiness inexpressible and full of glory.” This verse does not apply to all believers, all believers do not love God. Ephesians 3:18,19 also describes category #1 love — a “surpassing knowledge love.” Hebrews 6:10 relates this to the pastor-teacher whose job is to communicate Bible doctrine so that Bible doctrine resident in the soul will produce category #1 love. 2 Timothy 1:13,14 — “Retain the standard of sound teaching which you heard from me in the sphere of doctrine, and the love of those who are in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the deposit of doctrine which has been entrusted to you.”

3. Category #1 love sets up the standard for grace. As you have the capacity to love God [through resident doctrine] you also have the capacity to be grace oriented and to live by grace. Psalm 119:132; 31:23.

4. Category #1 love is the basis for supergrace blessing — 1 Corinthians 2:9; Psalm 37:4,5.

5. Category #1 love is the basis for both personal and national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15,16. If you love the Lord you walk in His ways and you keep His doctrines. Verse 20 gives the conclusion.

6. Category #1 love motivates combat courage and military victory — Joshua 23:10,11.

7. Category #1 love provides strength for adversity and pressure — Hebrews 11:27.

8. There is a special curse on believers who fail under category #1 love — 1 Corinthians 16:22.

9. Witnessing must be motivated by category #1 love — 2 Corinthians 5:14.

10. Description of category #1 love — 1 John 4:15-19.

Hebrews 13:6 — the supergrace application of category #1 love. “So that” — the conjunction w(ste can be either inferential or result. When it is inferential it introduces an independent clause, but when it is resultant it introduces a dependent clause. This is an actual result here, and because it is what we have is a dependent clause brought out by the accusative with the infinitive.

“we may say” — when you say something it is because you think it. When you think it it is because you have a doctrinal basis for thinking it. Therefore what we say here is very important, and how we say it is important. Not only do we say it but we say it boldly. “We may say” is an accusative of general reference. We have the accusative plural of the personal pronoun e)gw, and it is translated “we.” It is the subject and that is the correct way to translate the accusative of general reference. With it we have the present active infinitive of the verb legw which means to say, to form words that are in the mind. This is an actual quotation from Psalm 118:6. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. It is used to express the quotation at that moment. The active voice: all supergrace believers, in effect, say Psalm 118:6 at a certain point in their category #1 love relationship. The infinitive expresses result. “So that we say.” But we must first look at a present active participle of qarrew which is translated like an adverb. The word means to be confident. The static present takes confidence in supergrace for granted as a fact. The active voice: the supergrace believer produces the confidence in category #1 love. This is a causal participle, and it can be translated “since being confident” .But since we already have a result clause we will translate it “So that being confident we say.”

What we say is found in Psalm 118:6 — “The Lord is my helper.” The word for “Lord” here, kurioj, is a title for deity. It is equivalent to the Hebrew tetragrammaton which we translate “Lord” or “Jehovah.” In this verse therefore we have a reference to the deity of Christ. We also have a reference to relationship with Christ in the supergrace status, and here is occupation with Christ or the expression of our category #1 love. This what we say when we truly love the Lord. We have come to know Him, we have Bible doctrine resident in the soul, and now we are able to come to a conclusion. “The Lord is e)moi bohqoj,” a Classical Greek phrase. The e)moi is a dative of possession of the personal pronoun e)gw, translated as a part of the Classical Greek idiom, and it means “to me” literally; and then, bohqoj means “helper.” The Classical Greek is an idiom and is correctly translated “My helper.” There is no “and” here. It simply says, “I will not fear” — future passive indicative of the verb fobew plus the negative mh. The future tense here is a gnomic future which states a fact which may be rightfully expected under conditions of being a supergrace believer. This is normal for the supergrace believer, says the gnomic future. The passive voice: the supergrace believer receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that the supergrace believer is occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, and he expresses it by saying, “I will not be afraid.”

“what” — the interrogative tij is used as a relative pronoun. The accusative singular neuter is used as the direct object; the word “man” is a)nqrwpoj which means mankind.

“shall do” — the future active indicative of the verb poiew. The future tense is a predictive future used to predict an event which is expected to occur in future time. It is also known as a deliberative future used for questions of uncertainty which are expressed, therefore, in the future tense. While the writer does not know what will occur in the future he is already of the fact of doctrine resident in his soul causing him to love the Lord. The issue of love is always settled in the soul, it is not settled in the body, it is not settled in attraction, it is not settled in the desire to use a person, to gain something from a person. Again, the writer does not know what will occur in the future but he is ready because of doctrine resident in his soul. All supergrace believers are prepared therefore for future adversity or for future blessing, they already had the preparation — doctrine in the soul. The active voice: unknown persecutors of the future produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a potential indicative because it has the negative mh in the previous phrase, and it presents the idea of contingency.

Translation: “So that being confident [from maximum doctrine resident in the soul] we say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid of what man will do to me.”

Principle of this verse

1. The supergrace believer is characterised by all categories of courage and nobility.

2. He has great moral courage so that he ignores all detrimental consequences and stands by the truth no matter what the cost to himself.

3. He has courage of integrity and nobility of soul.

4. He has capacity for life type courage. This means no circumstances of life frighten him.

5. Courage is a part of both capacity for life and enjoyment of life. Courage gives the soul freedom to enjoy life. Courage is developed from doctrine resident in the soul.

Verse 7 — what this passage is saying is not to remember those who are ruling you but remember them because they rule you and teach the Word of God. You don’t follow their faith, the word “faith” is doctrine, and you don’t consider the end of their conversation because if they do their job right there is no end of their conversation! This is one of those passage so close and yet so far off that we must go to the original language to understand what is said here.

The word “remember” is correctly translated, it is the present active imperative of the verb mnhmoneuw. It means to remember, to keep in mind, to think of or to fix your thoughts on something. It really connotes concentration with emphasis on the memory centre. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. In the use of the temporal element it is very remote here since the act or state is assumed to be true in the past, present, as well as the future. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb as a member of the royal family of God. Concentrating on the teaching of doctrine is in view here. The imperative mood is a command to that effect, we are to concentrate on the teaching of Bible doctrine. So we will translate is, “Be concentrating on them.”

“them” — the objective genitive plural of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun. The demonstrative pronoun calls attention with special emphasis on a designated object which in this case is the pastor-teacher. Every believer has his own right pastor. Using it as a demonstrative pronoun it should be translated, “Be concentrating on those [pastors].” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the pastors as the agents producing the action of the verb — this means ruling. The participle is a circumstantial participle for pastors having authority over the local church. “Be concentrating on those [pastors] who themselves are ruling,” is the corrected translation.

“over you” — an objective genitive plural from the personal pronoun su, and this refers to the congregation; “who” is a nominative masculine plural. It is a qualitative relative pronoun o(stij which means here “of such a kind” or “such a category.”

“have spoken” — aorist active indicative from the verb lalew which means to communicate, to teach doctrine. It is one of the synonyms for teaching the Word of God. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the faithful and consistent teaching of the pastor of the local church. This, by the way, he establishes his authority, the way he grows up himself, the way he establishes leadership ability; it is the whole secret to everything. The active voice: pastors do it. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The pastor establishes his authority, he establishes his policy, he establishes his rule through Bible teaching.

“unto you” — dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun su. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the Bible teaching is performed. This also becomes the dative of advantage, it is to the congregation’s advantage to hear Bible teaching every day so that the high ground of the supergrace life can be reached. It is also to the advantage of every believer to have his own right pastor communicating to him Bible doctrine. We have with this “the word of God,” ton logon tou qeou — “the word” is the accusative of direct object, this is what is communicated, plus the ablative singular of source of qeoj, and it should be “the word from the God.” The pastor teacher is the means of communicating the Word from the God. The local church is the classroom and this is accomplished under strict academic discipline.

“whose faith follow” — the present middle imperative mimeomai which means to follow, to imitate, to emulate. The present tense is a progressive present of description to indicate what is now going on or should be going on. It is also known as the pictorial present which presents to the mind the events in the process of occurrence. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. Believers must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to keep doctrine in one’s own life. The verb mimeomai means to follow, to live up to, it means a willingness to take the same way without surrendering your individuality.

The verb mimeomai came into existence about the sixth century BC, it was used in both prose and poetry. It originally meant to imitate, to mimic, that is, to do what is seen to be done by someone else. It connotes learning by observation. It also means watching the example of someone else and learning from it. The noun mimoj which came from the verb means an actor. It is also the source of our English word “mimic.” So to imitate means to learn, but it means to learn without surrendering your individuality. An actor plays a part on the stage but he does not surrender his individuality. So it doesn’t mean to imitate the personality of the pastor. It does mean to learn by emulation. So “to emulate” is a good translation of mimeomai — “be emulating.”

Next we have the definite article in the accusative singular, used for a possessive pronoun, plus the accusative singular direct object of the noun pistij. It means doctrine — “be emulating their doctrine.”

“considering” is the present active participle of a)naqewrew which means to view again and again, to observe carefully, or to concentrate. The present tense is a futuristic present denoting what has not yet occurred with the reversionist but is regarded as so certain in thought that it is contemplated as coming to pass — “be carefully considering” or “be concentrating.” The active voice: the believer produces the action. The participle is an imperative, and the imperative is used here in the sense of a command.

“the end” — the accusative singular direct object of e)kbasij which does not means the end, it means the issue; “of their conversation” — the descriptive genitive singular a)nastrofh, which means “way of life.”

Translation: “Be concentrating on them [your right pastor-teacher] who themselves are ruling over all of you, [pastors] who have communicated to you the word of God; [pastors] whose doctrine be emulating, be carefully considering the issue of their way of life.”

They present to you daily an issue, the grace way of life.

The doctrine of pastor-teacher

1. Definition and concept.

a) Since every believer is a priest as well as member of the royal family of God it is important to understand the system of authority which God has ordained, authorised for spiritual growth and progress in this life.

b) There are two basic categories of authority in the dispensation of the church. This refers, of course, to the spiritual authority in the royal family. There is overt authority which includes divine delegation of authority to the royal priest in the form of the Word of God — our first authority. The pastor-teacher is the communicator authorised by God to disseminate doctrine, so he a part of overt authority. Then secondly, there is the inner authority which is the function of the believer’s volition of soul compatible with the sovereign will of God as expressed in the scripture.

c) The function of the pastor-teacher brings together the two basic systems of authority. Bible doctrine is transferred to the individual soul by means of the pastor teaching the Word of God.

d) Consequently the pastor-teacher is a spiritual gift sovereignly bestowed by God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, a gift bestowed totally apart from human merit.

e) The spiritual gift provides both the ability and the authority to communicate doctrine to the congregation via monologue — one person speaking, everyone else listening.

f) The gift of pastor-teacher, like all spiritual gifts, is bestowed on the principle of grace at the moment of salvation.

g) The gift is extended to males members of the royal family and is based on the sovereign decision of God without regard to any stereotyped personalities.

h) There is therefore no such thing as “surrendering to preach” or dedicating yourself to full-time Christian service. The people who do this say in effect that God the Holy Spirit didn’t know what He was about. In effect they say they are overruling the Holy Spirit. In effect, therefore, no one has ever surrendered to preach without blaspheming.

What therefore is the way, the basis for discovering if you have the gift? All you have to do is quit worrying about the gift and grow up spiritually. It is inevitable that at a certain stage of your spiritual growth that Bible doctrine resident in your soul will make the gift a reality if it is there.

2. Nomenclature for the pastor-teacher actually revolves around four words found in the Greek New Testament. Each one of these words emphasises a different facet of the pastor’s function, ministry, person, and so on. In other words, a pastor is a four-faceted person, according to the Bible.

a) The first of these facets is presbuteroj which is generally translated “elder” .However, it means the leader, the ruler. This word emphasises the authority of the pastor. One church has one elder. There is a false doctrine called plurality of elders. There are pluralities of elders in a city but each elder has a different church. Wherever you find elders in the plural you simply are referring to a geographical locality which has more than one local church. There is one elder for one local church. His power is distributed for administrative function of the policy of the local church. The pastor is also called diakonoj, and when he is the translators cautiously translated “minister.” But when they talk about administrators in a church they transliterate it “deacon.” 1 Timothy 5:17,19; Titus 1:5; James 1:5; 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1.

b) The second area of nomenclature is the function of the pastor-teacher — poimhnoj (shepherd) kai didaskolouj (teacher) — Ephesians 4:11. Under the word pastor his function is ruling, the pastor rules the sheep; the shepherd rules the flock. Pastor means shepherd. Under teacher we have the whole reason for the gift: to take the doctrine from the Word, from the Canon of scripture, and transfer it to your souls by way of Bible teaching in the local church. Why in the local church? You have to be organised. The point is that the only place Bible doctrine can be taught is where there is a clearly defined, well disciplined organisation. That is what the local church is.

c) The pastor is also a policy-maker. His policy-making noun is e)piskopoj, from the which get Episcopal, and it means an overseer. The word was used for working slaves and getting the most out of them. The reason it is used in the Word of God is very simple. It is used because it means that a person who is a boss has to have a policy to get the job done. The pastor has the authority to set the policy. This doesn’t mean that he handles every policy in the church, it means that he handles the overall policy. Because he has the wisdom to know that there are other supporting gifts he delegates certain responsibilities.

d) A pastor is an administrator under diakonoj which is used for both the pastor and the deacons. Diakonoj used as the “minister” is found in 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:7,23; 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 6:10; Acts 6:4.

3. The purpose of the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 4:12,13, “For the purpose of training and equipping the saints [royal family] for combat [the angelic conflict], for the purpose of the vocation of the ministry [the general ministry of all believers], for the purpose of the edification of the body of Christ [spiritual growth], until we all [members of the royal family] have attained the goal of supergrace, because of the consistency of doctrine, and the full knowledge [e)pignwsij] of the Son of God, with reference to a mature nobleman [a supergrace hero], to the standard of maturity which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” The purpose of the pastor-teacher, then, is defined in terms of training, teaching, preparation for the angelic conflict, and above all, the spiritual growth which gives us the tactical victory and glorifies Jesus Christ in this dispensation.

4. The function of the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 3:20,21, “But you [members of the royal family of God] have not been taught in this manner the Christ, inasmuch as you have begun to hear him, and have been taught by him, since doctrine is in the Jesus.” This is the function of the pastor-teacher in terms of teaching. The function can be summarised by a few sub points:

a) The pastor-teacher derives his function from the various derivatives of the verb didaskw which means to teach, and its cognate didaskaloj which means good teacher or noble teacher.

b) The public assembly of the local church is the classroom of this dispensation. The pastor is the teacher and the congregation are students without portfolio.

c) The pastor establishes authority by the faithful teaching of the Word of God under the ICE principle — Isagogics, Categories, Exegesis.

d) To do so the pastor must have the proper credentials, and this means he must have the spiritual gift which is bestowed at the point of salvation by God the Holy Spirit, he must have spiritual maturity, he must have academic preparation, he must have strong self-discipline and good study habits, and he must have academic honesty and moral courage.

e) The public assembly of the local church is designed by God to provide privacy for each member of the royal priesthood.

f) The believer is assembly is called in the New Testament Greek maqhthj. The word means a student, a learner without privileges. It is mistranslated in the KJV “disciple.” The purpose of the student is manqanw which means to learn.

g) Since every believer is royal family he must be taught under conditions of perfect privacy, which means that all authorised teaching of the Word of God is monologue.

h) This means that personal time with members of the congregation is an intrusion upon their freedom and privacy — unless it happens to be a social situation agreeable to all parties.

5. The appointment of the pastor-teacher. All pastor-teachers are appointed at salvation. His function takes place when he actually becomes the pastor of a local church. Between the two there are years of preparation. The function of the pastor-teacher is to teach the Word of God, everything else is relative to this; but his appointment occurs at salvation. There is a casualty rate. Everyone who is appointed doesn’t get there. And many who get there are not prepared to be there. Those who make it are those who do the following things: a. They get under their right pastor who teaches them the Word and they have normal spiritual growth from babyhood to adolescence to maturity or supergrace. Somewhere between adolescence and maturity they discover that they have this spiritual gift. b. Once they discover it they are then involved in preparation that can involve the military, academic life, the period of waiting patiently for the right congregation, waiting for the Lord’s appointment. But the appointment is the issue now and the appointment occurs at salvation. It is the function of the Holy Spirit to decide who is to have the gift and who isn’t. The gift is imparted at salvation totally apart from human merit, therefore compatible with grace. The gift is recognised by spiritual growth and once there is recognition there is the necessity for preparedness. The gift is not acquired by human volition or dedication and the gift is a permanent one. The principle of appointment is found in such passages as 1 Corinthians 12:11,28; Ephesians 4:11.

6. The principle of the right pastor, right congregation is found in 1 Peter 5:2 — “Shepherd the flock of God among you” — this command is given to a pastor under the principle that he has a right congregation — “do not do it from compulsion, do it voluntarily according to the grace; not for gain, but from enthusiasm.” When you have a combination of right pastor, right congregation the pastor does have an enthusiasm, and the last word here is one of the most beautiful keys of all. A pastor will be enthusiastic.

7. The concept of the pastor as the total product of grace is very important. This will keep you from falling into that trap of somehow thinking of the pastor as being so close to God he is next to God and he is absolutely perfect. The pastor is not the pastor because he worked for it, because he earned it; the pastor is the total product of grace — 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:7; 1 Timothy 1:12-16.

8. The biblical documentation for the pastor. There are three great passages in the scripture — Ephesians 3:7-13; 4:11-13; Colossians 1:23-29; 1 Timothy 2:24-26; 3:1-9; Titus 1:6-9.

9. The authority and concept of the pastor. There are two specific passages on this subject — Hebrews 13:7, 17.

10. The reward of the pastor-teacher is found in Hebrews 6:10.

Hebrews 13:17a — the word “obey” obviously sets up a system of authority. This is the present middle imperative of the verb peiqw, it should be translated “Keep obeying.” The principle here is a very simple one. Since every believer is a royal priest he has the top rank. He is superior to believers in past dispensations and in future dispensations. This superiority is misleading because there must be authority over you. Our equality is in the field of the universal priesthood of the believer. All believers are royal family of God and there must be a system of authority over the priesthood in time, and this verse brings it all together. The word “obey” sets up a system of authority in the spiritual realm and it indicates the fact that certain royal priests have more authority than other royal priests. In effect, that is what we have at this point. There is also a principle of human maturity in this word “obey.” It is a sign of human maturity in your ability to recognise authority in others. No one really grows up until he has the ability to recognise the authority of someone else and to respond to that authority objectively. The principle of maturity is related to your volition and your free will. Human maturity is the ability to assume your responsibility for your own decisions and to recognise authority where authority exists.

“them that have the rule” — is a dative case, present middle participle of the verb e(geomai which means to guide, to lead, to govern, to rule. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time, meaning that God has provided pastors to be the authority in the royal priesthood on earth. The indirect middle emphasises the pastor as the agent producing the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle for pastors having authority over the local church. This authority, as previously noted, is established by the faithful teaching of the Word of God. The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the pastor as the authority over the local church and it should be translated, “Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you.” The words “over you” is the objective genitive plural of the pronoun su, used for all members of the royal family of God on earth. Again, the universal priesthood must have authority.

“and submit yourselves” — the word to submit here is the present active imperative of u(peikw, a very strong word which means to submit to the authority of those who are authorised to be over you. The present tense is extremely strong linear aktionsart. It is a static present. The active voice: every believer fulfils the action of this verb to grow and to glorify God in time. The imperative mood is a command. The word “yourselves” is derived from the middle voice of peiqw.

The key to learning doctrine is amenability to discipline. Because if conflicting personalities, doctrines and viewpoints which oppose and criticise the believer discipline becomes the factor in your learning. But this authority also means maximum privacy for each believer, and for the local church as the public teaching of doctrine one person is in authority and this guarantees your privacy.

The factors necessary for learning doctrine

1. The believer must have positive volition toward the Word of God and realisation of the importance of Bible doctrine resident in his soul. This comes through some exposure to teaching, through adversity in experience, divine discipline, it comes in many ways.

2. The expression of positive volition in regular and consistent attendance at the local church where doctrine is taught. This involves positive identification of your own right pastor.

3. The filling of the Spirit which is provided in grace through the rebound technique.

4. Objectivity with regard to personality, grooming, public speaking, and the character of the pastor.

5. Objectivity with regard to the content of the pastor’s message. The content may seem irrelevant for the moment. The content may be critical of you personally and even intrude upon your present lifestyle. The content may not be euphemistic enough for you, therefore you don’t think it is spiritual. You associate spirituality with euphemisms and therefore you are personally offended. Or the content may have no personal interest for you at the moment. All of these must be approached with objectivity and you must concentrate in spite of these. This requires some measure of growth.

6. The believer must have patience in hearing doctrine he does not understand.

7. The believer must have privacy in public assembly of the local church and he must give privacy to other members of the royal family of God. This is application of the principle, live and let live. Therefore the believer must avoid gossip, maligning, critical attitude toward other believers.

8. The believer must have good manners which, in effect, is thoughtfulness toward others in the congregation. The believer must not create a disturbance through body movement, must not talk and discuss while the pastor is teaching.

9. Believers must exercise maximum self-discipline by concentration on the message.

10. Believers must understand the grace principle of giving and willing to give without coercion to support the administration of their local church.

We now have the function of stability in the royal priesthood in verses 8,9. Firstly, the stability of our high priest, Jesus Christ. Secondly, the stability of the royal priesthood which means each one of us as believers in the Lord Jesus. It is very important that we understand the issue of consistency, the issue of stability. Stability and consistency is the only way that any believer ever becomes mature.

Verse 8 — “Jesus Christ.” He is King of kings and Lord of lords. We are in union with Him, therefore we share His royalty. He is the high priest forever, we share His priesthood. Therefore as members of the royal priesthood forever we have the wonderful privilege of focusing our attention on who and what Jesus Christ is.

We start out with the very words, I)hsouj Xristoj, the perfect example of consistency. The word “Jesus” before “Christ” emphasises His humanity. There are three words used in the Greek to emphasise the person of Christ. The first is kurioj. This emphasises His deity. Then we have Xristoj which emphasises His mission and His future appointment and our relationship to it. This means “commissioned one, appointed one, Messiah.” The Hebrew “Messiah” and Xristoj are synonymous terms. Then we have I)hsouj which actually means the humanity of Christ.

We have the omission of “Lord.” We have simply “Jesus Christ,” emphasising His humanity. In the scripture, when Lord comes before Jesus Christ it emphasises His deity. If Jesus comes first it emphasises His humanity. When Christ comes first it emphasises God’s purpose and plan for the Lord Jesus Christ, related to the purpose and plan for each one of us. Here the emphasis is obviously on the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus” emphasises the hypostatic union; “Christ” emphasises the high priesthood of the Lord.

The doctrine of the hypostatic union

1. In the person of Jesus Christ are two natures, inseparably united without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal. The hypostatic union will exist forever.

2. The scriptures dealing with the subject and developing the theological concept — John 1:1-14; Romans 1:2-5; 9:5; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14.

3. The incarnate person of Christ includes His deity. Jesus Christ is God, always will be God, there never was a time when He wasn’t God. He is co-eternal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.

4. The incarnate person of Jesus Christ is also true humanity. He is bona fide humanity with a body, soul, and spirit. He is trichotomous in His humanity.

5. The two natures of Christ are united without transferring the attributes of one to the other. The attributes adhere to their corresponding natures, they never cross over and become involved in the other nature. The attributes of deity adhere to deity; the attributes of humanity adhere to humanity. The essence of deity cannot be changed — immutability; the infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To rob God of even one attribute of essence destroys His deity. To rob the humanity of Jesus Christ of a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His humanity. He is true humanity, He is undiminished deity in one person forever.

6. No attribute of essence of deity is changed by the incarnation. In fulfilling the purpose of the first advent the Lord Jesus Christ maintained all of His attributes of deity. This does not imply that He used them every moment but they were there. As a matter of fact they were not surrendered, they were not destroyed, as per the false doctrine of Kenosis. The true doctrine of Kenosis says that Jesus Christ during His incarnation voluntarily restricted the independent use of certain divine attributes in keeping with the plan of the Father for the first advent. If the Lord Jesus Christ had used all of His attributes of deity all of the time He would never have been taken to the cross. Those who tried to seize Him would all have been killed and no one would have been able to move Him from the spot where they came to arrest Him. During the incarnation the Lord Jesus Christ gave up the independent exercise of certain attributes in order to fulfil the Father’s plan for coming to the earth and taking upon Himself the form of man.

7. Therefore the union of divine essence and the human nature of the incarnate Christ are hypostatic and personal. “Hypostatic” comes from the Greek noun u(postasij, it means standing under, it means the essence of taking on an essence other than the one essence that a person has. Jesus Christ as God took on the essence of man. He already possessed the essence of deity and there never would be a time when that would change. This is emphasised in Hebrews 1:3. Hypostatic, therefore, refers to the whole person of Christ as distinguished by His two natures, divine and human. It refers to the fact that in one person He is God and man without compromising either one by the union of the two. Personal in hypostatic union refers to the emergence of a unique person. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. As deity He is equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, but different from then in that He is man. As man He is perfect man, greater than any man who ever lived, but true humanity and greater because He is also God. He is the unique person of the universe.

8. There is also a false interpretation that should be recognised. This implies that deity possesses humanity or that the deity of Christ indwells the humanity of Christ. The union, however, between deity and humanity is more than that, it is more than harmony or sympathy, it is personal. There are two natures, divine and human, which have been combined in one hypostasis or one essence forever.

9. Therefore, Jesus Christ the God-Man has one hypostasis, one essence, forever. The attributes of both the divine and human natures belong to one person. The characteristics of one nature are never attributed to the other nature. This means that during the first advent Jesus Christ could be simultaneously omnipotent and weak, omniscient and ignorant. In His deity He was omnipotent; often in His humanity He was weak. When the baby in the cradle was born He was omniscient God, He knew the end from the beginning, He knew everything that ever was or ever would be, His omniscience was not in any way changed. However, the baby was ignorant. By the time the baby had grown to twelve years he had reached supergrace, but He had to follow the usual GAP procedures in His humanity in order to mature spiritually. He did mature spiritually, as taught in the first chapter of John as well as in the second chapter of Luke. So His maturity came through overcoming His ignorance, the same way in which our spiritual maturity is attained. The ignorance of His humanity was quickly overcome by the daily function of GAP — Luke 2:40; John 1:14.

10. The necessity for the humanity of Christ, therefore the necessity for the hypostatic union is found under four categories:

a) The saviourhood of Jesus Christ — Acts 4:12. Jesus Christ as eternal God cannot die on the cross. As sovereignty He is not subject to death. As eternal life He cannot die. As immutability He cannot change. As omnipresence He can’t reduce Himself to one point. So the deity of Christ cannot go to the cross and die for our sins. However, by becoming true humanity and by remaining perfect humanity He is qualified to go to the cross and our sins were poured out upon Him and judged in His humanity. Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15/

b) The fact of mediatorship. A mediator or an umpire has to be equal with both parties in the mediation. Party of the first part is the Trinity. Party of the second part is mankind. Whoever mediates between the two must be equal with both parties. Therefore Jesus Christ qualifies because He is God and because He is man. He had to be the God-Man, and therefore the necessity for the hypostatic union — Job 9:2,32,33; 1 Timothy 2:5,6.

c) The priesthood. The priest must be a man representing man before God — Hebrews 7:4,5,14,28; 10:5, 10-14.

d) In order to be the King of Israel forever. He had to become David’s greater son. He is born directly into the line of David and as David’s son He will reign forever and ever.

11. Everything verbally communicated by Jesus Christ during the incarnation had to come from one of three sources: a) His deity — John 8:58, the Lord Jesus Christ as God always existed; b) His humanity — John 19:28, “I thirst.” Deity doesn’t thirst; c) The combination of His deity and His humanity, His hypostatic union — Matthew 11:28; John 14:6, He had to be the God-Man to be our saviour.

The word “Christ” refers to His high priesthood. It refers to why He came. He came to save, but He did so as the high priest. He came to provide a royal family forever and He does that as the high priest. When Jesus Christ was on the cross He offered Himself a sacrifice of the priesthood. It was the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ which was so important in the function of the hypostatic union. Therefore the word “Christ” means His priesthood

The doctrine of the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ

1. There are three bona fide priesthoods in the Bible. The first of these occurred during the dispensation of the Gentiles. This is known as the family priesthood. The firstborn in every family was the priest of the family. Abraham, Job, and Melchizedek are classical illustrations of the family priesthood of the Age of the Gentiles. In the dispensation of Israel we have the Levitical priesthood. This is the family of Aaron from the tribe of Levi. They were appointed. The eldest surviving son was the high priest, the other male members of the family were priests. In the dispensation of the Church we have the unique priesthood. We have the priesthood of Christ. Jesus Christ is the high priest and every believer is a member of this priesthood — 1 Peter 2:5,9. This is a royal priesthood, the same as Melchizedek in the family priesthood era.

2. As a high priest the Lord Jesus Christ is the minister in spiritual things — Hebrews 5:1. All of the spiritual things which pertain to us as royal family came to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Jesus Christ is appointed high priest by God the Father — Hebrews 5:4-10; 6:20.

4. Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice of the priesthood — Hebrews 9:26,27.

5. Christ has an eternal and untransmissable priesthood. — Hebrews 7:20,21,24.

6. Because of positional sanctification — union with Christ — every believer is a priest, a royal priest, and that is why each one of us has the privacy of the priesthood, and that is why each one of us is in full time Christian service, and each one of us must live his life as unto the Lord — 1 Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

7. Jesus Christ as high priest performs the ministry of intercession for every believer on earth — Hebrews 7:25.

8. The believer priest in phase two possesses a different sacrifice from the Levitical code.

“the same” — we have a predicate nominative of the intensive pronoun o( a)utoj. This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun. Remember that the function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasise the identity of the important person in a context. The VIP here is the Lord Jesus Christ. The other emphasis on the uniqueness of His person is the omission of the verb to be. There is no verb here. it is simply, “Jesus Christ the same.” This is the Classical Greek idiom which indicates a predicate nominative. The stability of Christ is coming up next, but first of all the identity of the one who is stabilised. How do you know a stabilised person in the royal priesthood on earth? They are identified very easily because they are supergrace believers, they are mature believers. So the one who is the most stabilised of all is identified by the intensive pronoun. Jesus Christ is the same.

This is followed by an adverb, e)xqej, and it refers to the incarnation. It refers to the moment when Jesus Christ became the God-Man, and once again, it refers to the hypostatic union. The stability of the Lord Jesus Christ during His first advent is in focus here. “Yesterday” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ during the first advent. The stability of Christ during the first advent continues into the Church Age, for the next adverb brings out that point — “today.” The word is shmeron. It refers to the Church Age and the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of the Father. The great strategic victory of the angelic conflict came with the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ, and at the right hand of the Father He is still perfect ability, perfect consistency, perfect stability. he has the ability to function as a high priest, He has the perfect stability to be perfect high priest. He also has the ability to be the eternal victor of the angelic conflict. So at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ remains in hypostatic union.

The next word is “and” which is not correctly translated. The conjunction kai can be translated that way, and frequently is, but that is what is called the connective use of the conjunctive particle. What we have here is the adjunctive use which means “also.” “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, also forever.” “Also” means that forever He will be unique, forever He will be the God-Man, forever He is eternal God and true humanity in resurrection body, and that will never change. This is a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative plural of the definite article plus the accusative plural of the noun a)iwn, and e)ij plus aiwn is a very old Greek idiom for eternity. It can be translated literally, “unto the ages,” or “to all eternity,” but it actually means “forever.”

Translation: “Jesus Christ is the same one, yesterday, today, also forever.”

Summary

1. Jesus Christ remains in hypostatic union forever as a memorial and commemoration of his strategic victory in the angelic conflict.

2. Throughout human history the method of worship changes, but the object of worship never changes. Methods of worship changed after the hypostatic union, they changed after the session of Jesus Christ, but the object never changes. The object of worship for man has always been the second person of the Trinity, the manifest person.

3. For example, in the dispensation of Israel the Jews had shadow forms of worship under the Levitical code. These shadow forms included animal sacrifices, holy days, sacred furniture, buildings that were sacred [the tabernacle and the temple], and a specialised priesthood.

4. But the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ as a part of His first advent resulted in the fulfilment of these shadows. The real image removed Old Testament shadows.

5. While the reality of Bible doctrine in a completed canon of scripture replaces the Levitical shadows the object of worship has always been the same whether it is the Levitical priesthood, the family priesthood, or the royal priesthood of the Church Age. The object has always been o( a)utoj, “the same one.”

6. Jesus Christ as God is immutable, therefore unchangeable. Jesus Christ was also perfect man and stabilised man.

7. In hypostatic union the God-Man was and is unchangeable, consistent. His consistency is perfect, His stability is absolute.

8. Therefore it is impossible for Jesus Christ to be unfaithful to any member of the royal family ever.

9. Furthermore, since Jesus Christ never changes truth or doctrine which comes from Jesus Christ never changes. Therefore both the living Word and the written Word abide forever — Matthew 24:35 cf. Hebrews 13:8.

Principles of introduction to verse 9

1. The stability of our great high priest overflows into the royal priesthood.

2. Positive volition toward Bible doctrine results in the daily function of GAP, resulting in maximum doctrine resident in the soul. This is the equipment of the royal priesthood for this dispensation.

3. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul produces priestly maturity and the normal function of the supergrace life.

4. Supergrace status results in maximum love of Jesus Christ plus the stability of life based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

5. The exception to all of this is reversionism characterised by negative volition toward Bible teaching.

6. Therefore the warning against become seduced by false doctrine. When this occurs the believer is negative toward Bible teaching and he is unstable. There is nothing worse than the instability of the royal priesthood in time. Therefore the first command …

Verse 9 — “Be not carried about,” the present passive imperative from the compound verb paraferw. In the imperative mood it means to be carried or to be led away. Here it means to be seduced. We have a negative mh with it and it means “Do not become seduced.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive which indicates that reversionism has begun in the past with the result that it continues into the present time. There is special emphasis placed here on the fifth and sixth stages of reversionism, which are negative volition with the opening of the vacuum and the resultant blackout of the soul. Negative volition toward doctrine opens a vacuum into the left lobe. Through this vacuum comes Satanic doctrine, false viewpoint, human viewpoint, and this causes the blackout of the soul which results in scar tissue of the soul in the right lobe. These are the conditions that immediately precede reverse process reversionism. The passive voice: the royal family receives the action of the verb, namely being seduced or deceived by false doctrine. The imperative mood plus the negative mh is the imperative of prohibition which expresses a negative command. Altogether it should be translated, “Do not be carried away” or “Do not be seduced with divers and strange doctrines.”

The word for “divers” is an instrumental plural of the adjective poikiloj which means various kinds, various categories; the word “strange” is a second instrumental adjective which means “foreign” or “alien” — xenoj. The two adjectives together describe false doctrine which seduces the believer in reversionism. Literally then, “Do not be carried away [seduced] by means of diversified and strange doctrines.” This is a reference to false doctrines which infiltrate the soul when the believer is negative toward doctrine. This vacuum only opens when the believer is strong in his negative volition. In other words, when he has entered into some form of reversionism. The negative volition toward doctrine is characterised by several factors. The first of these is indifference or apathy toward Bible teaching. The second is indifference or apathy toward anyone who is teaching Bible doctrine, antagonism or personality hang-ups toward other members of the congregation, too busy or too bored for face to face teaching, or failure to appropriate grace provision of GAP [assembling for Bible class], failure to rebound.

Believers today have a lot of idiotic ideas which have come from reversionism but not from the Bible. So much so that today when anything is clearly taught from the Word of God people are shocked. They do not think that is Christian at all. It has now become so bad that people assume that whenever something is said with regard to the laws of divine establishment or some principle of grace is enucleated people immediately assume that that is not Christian doctrine. They think that Christian doctrine is becoming liberal and becoming involved in a lot of idiotic panaceas.

The explanation of this comes next with the word “For” — the illitive use of the epexegetical particle gar, which gives a ground or reason for the previous statement. Then, after this, you have to have the verb to be. This is going to be idiomatic — “For it is.”

“a good thing” — a predicate adjective from the adjective kaloj which means here “a noble thing” — “For it is a noble thing.” The word “thing” is thrown in because kaloj is in the neuter gender.

“that the heart be established” — the establishment of the heart is an accusative of general reference. The accusative of general reference always has first of all a noun in the accusative case plus an infinitive. The accusative case noun acts as the subject of the infinitive rather than its object. Now the accusative singular definite article plus the accusative singular of the noun kardia. Kardia means heart in the sense of the right lobe, heart in the sense of where you live. The right lobe of the soul actual handles all of the processing of doctrine and everything else that you think in life. The left lobe merely processes information and keeps your objectivity together. The right lobe has a frame of reference into which everything that you have ever learned enters. You have never learned anything but what was first of all in the frame of reference, then it went into the memory centre. You cannot think beyond your vocabulary. All members of the human race think with words, and when you start thinking apart from words you are either emotional or you may be very clever but you are not smart at all. It takes vocabulary to think. Vocabulary eventually develops categories. Then we have norms and standards. And then there is the launching pad. Everything you ever applied to life goes from this launching pad into your own personal experience. This is the word “heart” .The word is never used in the Bible for the physiological pump that handles the blood of the body, it is always used for the thinking process of the individual. The individual’s heart therefore refers to the right lobe of the soul and this is where you do all of your thinking. “As a man thinketh in his heart [right lobe], so he is.”

“that” — the word “that” is used for translating purposes but it actually is not found in the original. While the accusative is used with the infinitive it is not really the subject, it describes what the person or thing connected with the action in the infinitive will do. Therefore it is always translated like a subject and it is much easier to explain it by saying it is a subject.

Now we have a present passive infinitive of the verb bebaiow. The word means to be stabilised. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs when believers have maximum doctrine resident in the soul. The passive voice: the believers right love receives the action of the verb — stability from resident doctrine. This is an infinitive of purpose.

“with grace” — the instrumental singular of the noun xarij, and it should be translated “by means of grace.”

So far we have: “Be not carried away [into reversionism] by means of diversified and alien doctrines. For it is a noble thing that the right lobe be stabilised by means of grace.”

The doctrine of grace

1. Definition.

a) Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

b) Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His love to mankind without compromising or jeopardising His essence.

c) No one can truly give and rightly give apart from freedom. God gives out of total freedom because of the cross, because of propitiation.

d) Consequently grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. Grace is actually a one-word description of God’s plan. Therefore …

e) Grace is also God’s policy. God’s policy in dealing with the believer is always in grace.

f) Grace in summary is the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi. Under grace God does all the work, all of the providing, and man does all of the receiving and all of the benefiting totally apart from human merit.

The concept: Grace depends upon the essence or the character of God. Therefore, grace depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own character. Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation. So that under its concept grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity, totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s talent, man’s planning.

This brings up an issue: The great enemy to grace is legalism. Legalism is simply, by definition, man’s intrusion in the plan of God with his own works, his own ability, his own talent, his own schemes, and using these in order to gain the approbation of God. Legalism has many forms. One form of legalism is religion: man by man’s efforts seeking to gain the approbation of God. One thing Christianity is not is religion. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are in the plan of God, the plan of God is grace. Grace excludes religion, grace squeezes religion out of your soul like a strong man squeezes a sponge and squeezes the water right out of it. Religion is the worst enemy of man. Religion is the devil’s ace trump — Satanic systems of human ability and works used as substitutes for God’s works in grace. The believer must learn to sort out the difference, then, between grace and legalism, between grace and religion. The believer often clings to some talent or some ability, some plan, some gimmick, and actually tries to infiltrate into the plan of God with this gimmick. But anything that man adds or throws into the plan of God, if accepted, would destroy operation grace. The plan, operation grace, is never destroyed or neutralised because grace rejects all energy of the flesh, all human talent, all human ability, and all human viewpoint ideas. Therefore you must understand the issue that legalism and grace can never coexist. One entire book is devoted to this, the book of Galatians. Great portions of the book of Romans are devoted to this subject, and throughout the Word of God you will constantly see references to the fact that grace and legalism are mutually exclusive. In other words, a little leaven of legalism leavens the entire lump.

2. Grace and the new contract for the Church.

a) The glorification of Christ by resurrection, ascension and session is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. When our Lord was brought back from the dead and ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, that point is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The reason it is related to the angelic conflict is brought out by Hebrews 1: now Jesus Christ as a man in a resurrection body is higher than all angels. He is supreme and superior to all angels. He sits there as the God-Man in hypostatic union forever. Now He is higher than the angels and some day we in resurrection bodies will be physically greater than angels. In the meantime we are positionally greater than angels. This is the strategic victory that broke the back of Satan in his great angelic revolution. This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish age in order that the royal family of God might be formed. Until Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father there never was a royal family. All believers were family of God, now we are royal family.

b) Positional sanctification is a part of God’s grace plan. Under positional sanctification the greatest thing that God the Father could do for the believer is to make him like His Son, Jesus Christ. This is accomplished positionally at the point of salvation by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All the Old Testament believers were regenerated by the Holy Spirit at the moment of faith in Christ. This act of regeneration is tantamount to being in the family of God forever. The same thing was accomplished at salvation for every believer in the Church Age. For the first time in history the baptism of the Spirit occurred through which every believer was entered into union with Christ. This is what God did when Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father. He began the great process of calling out a royal family. By being entered into union with Christ immediately, at salvation, you became superior to all angelic creatures. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict, therefore when the first Adam failed through sin Jesus Christ became true humanity and won the victory at the cross, according to Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 2:14. So that believers in union with Christ have two factors of grace: positionally all Church age believers are higher than angels, and all Church Age believers are royal family of God forever. Therefore, paragraph one of our new contract is called the new covenant to the Church or the new contract.

We are in a new grace contract, and in this new grace contract paragraph one is the entering paragraph. It provides for royalty plus the fact that each member of the royal family is positionally higher than angels. This is grace, we don’t earn it or deserve it. In addition, the royal family all have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit as a sign or as the escutcheon of the royal family. The sealing of the Spirit is our security.

The second part of the paragraph deals with experiential sanctification. Paragraph two of the new contract provides for the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. This is, again, a strictly-speaking grace provision of God where He has provided numerous things for tactical victory:

i. The principle of living grace by which the believer remains alive in the devil’s world. What good to have a contract unless you could stay alive? Satan would like to destroy you and all royal family. Satan would like to rid the earth of the royal family of God, even as he would like to rid the earth of the Jew. The Jew must be destroyed, says Satan, because God has unconditional promises to the Jew. And God is going to keep the Jew alive in spite of Satanic efforts. The same thing is true of the Church or the royal family of God. God guarantees under paragraph two of the new contract to keep us alive in the devil’s world for a determined length of time. The length of time is strictly a matter of the sovereign policy of God. How long we live is strictly up to Him.

ii. He has provided for us a pastor-teacher. He has provided the local church as a classroom, and the Bible as a text book. In other words, He has provided spiritual factors for the spiritual growth of the royal family. He has provided factors in life that we might grow physically; He has also provided the spiritual factors for growth.

iii. He has provided a grace apparatus for perception whereby Bible doctrine can be transferred from the page of the Bible to the soul of the royal family, and the system is a grace system of perception, it has nothing to do with human IQ.

iv. Through GAP, the filling of the Spirit, and academic discipline, the local church exists for your spiritual growth. It is the only place for spiritual growth.

So in paragraph two we have the perpetuation of supergrace status through God’s grace provision. Experiential sanctification, therefore, or paragraph two, is designed to take you as a member of the royal family of God on earth to take you from salvation to the supergrace status. That is where the normal function of the royal priesthood begins. And your tactical victory compliments the strategical victory of Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. The supergrace blessings that you receive as you reach SG² are in three categories: spiritual blessings, temporal blessings promoted by God, and dying grace.

c) The third and final paragraph of the new contract has to do with ultimate sanctification. This deals with eternity.

All three paragraphs in the new contract: paragraph 1, salvation — all that God does at the moment we are saved, the moment we believe in Christ; paragraph 2 — all that God does for us in time; paragraph 3 — all that God does for us in eternity. These paragraphs all form the new contract to the church. This is the contract under which we live and in all three paragraphs there is no room for human merit or human ability.

3. The five stages of grace:

a) Stage one is saving grace. Every believer hast tasted the grace of God at least once, and that was the point of his salvation — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3. The moment of salvation brings the believer 36 irrevocable items of grace. These cannot be cancelled and they cannot be destroyed. Because of propitiation every believer is also under maximum love from God — 1 John 2:2. Maximum love frees God to pour out maximum grace, but grace can only benefit where there is a capacity for grace. The capacity for grace, like capacity for life is based upon the amount of doctrine resident in the believer’s soul. However, the believer is saved by grace which is all the Trinity has accomplished for our salvation — Romans 3:23,24; 4:4; 5:20; Ephesians 2:8,9.

b) Stage two is living grace. Living grace is all that God must do to keep the believer alive and on the earth in this dispensation. Under that principle God provides everything.

c) Stage three is supergrace, which is equivalent to maturity in the spiritual life. In 1 Timothy 1:14 supergrace is described as the abundant life. Supergrace is the adult stage of spiritual growth, attended by maximum blessings from God which glorify God. Supergrace is the ultimate in spiritual growth in time and the basis for the normal function of the normal priesthood. Supergrace is the sphere of life in which the royal family reaps what God sows in eternity past. Therefore the fulfilment of Romans 8:28. James 4:6 says, “But he gives greater grace [or supergrace], and therefore he says, God opposes the arrogant [reversionist] but gives grace to the humble.” Ephesians 1:6 — “Resulting in the recognition of glory from the source of his grace, from which he has pursued us with grace in then beloved.” Cf. Ephesians 3:20,21; 1:16-19.

d) Stage four is dying grace. This is the permanent change of station from time to eternity, the greatest blessing that can exist in life, the highest decoration of life. Dying grace is the experience of physical death under special grace provisions whereby no matter what the type of death may be it is nothing but blessing all the way. The principle of dying grace links the supergrace blessings of time with the surpassing grace blessings of eternity — Hebrews 11:13. Therefore dying grace is the extension of the glory road over the chasm between time and eternity. It is that high golden bridge by which we go from paragraph SG² to paragraph SG³. Cf. Psalm 33:18,19; 116:15; Philippians 1:20,21.

e) Stage five is surpassing grace. This is the second of the special blessing and reward paragraphs for the believer. This one lasts forever; this one is in eternity. This is above and beyond the normal blessings of heaven which belong to all believers. Beyond these normal blessings of heaven are the special blessings and rewards for the mature or supergrace believer — Ephesians 2:7. Again, God is glorified forever for those believers who are decorated in eternity.

4. The modus vivendi of grace.

a) Grace is the means of growth — 2 Peter 3:18. All growth comes through knowledge of doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine gives us love for Jesus Christ.

b) Grace is the basis for stability in life — Hebrews 13:8,9; 12:28; 1 Peter 5:12.

c) Grace is the basis for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1.

5. The failure to utilise grace. This is describes as reversionism — Galatians 5:4, reversionism is defined as drifting off course from grace; Hebrews 12:15, reversionism is described here as falling back from the grace of God. Whichever definition you use they all add up to neglect of Bible doctrine. 6. Grace and suffering. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, we have the importance of the grace apparatus for perception [GAP], the importance of the constant and daily intake of Bible doctrine. The grace principle meets every exigency of life.

7. The axioms of grace.

a) God is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect.

b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from the source of a perfect God.

c) If mankind can do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is not longer perfect. Why? Man is imperfect, he cannot contribute to a perfect plan. His imperfection only contributes imperfection, therefore man’s contributions are excluded.

d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in God’s plan.

e) Grace excludes, therefore, all human merit, all human ability, all human good, all legalism, all self-righteousness and arrogance.

f) Legalism, therefore, is the enemy of grace. There is no place for legalism or human good in the plan of God.

g) All legalism and human good is associated with the greatest of mental attitude sins which is pride. Arrogance has no place in God’s grace plan.

8. The four areas in which pride or arrogance reject God’s grace.

a) The pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. The believer who rejects eternal security thinks that his sins are greater than the grace plan of God. This is the quintessence of arrogance.

b) The pride of that believer who succumbs to pressure and adversity. He assumes that his sufferings and adversities are greater than the grace provision of God.

c) The pride of reversionism. The reversionist assumes that his form of reversionism is greater than supergrace blessings. He assumes that his emotions, his ecstatics, his experiences, his legalistic functions, or even his phallic stimulations are more important than Bible doctrine, the daily function of GAP and the resultant supergrace blessings.

d) The pride of pseudo-spirituality. The pseudo-spiritual believer thinks that his system of spirituality, his system of energy of the flesh, is greater than the true function of God the Holy Spirit in his life and in the life of the royal family. In his arrogance he becomes a holy-roller, becomes involved in the tongues movement, he ejaculates verbal nonsense which he calls tongues, or enters into spiritual functions like witnessing and prayer in the energy of the flesh, or observes the taboos in the name of asceticism, or functions under some point program which impresses him and impresses his friends. He changes his personality to become sombre, or he changes his personality to be one of the ‘happy boys’, but whatever he does it is pseudo and it is phoney.

Hebrews 13:9b — “not with meats”, the strong negative o)uk plus the instrumental of brwma which means food. It is in the plural here and it should be translated literally, “not by means of food.” This is a reference to the food taboos of Judaism which are mentioned in Romans 14:1-4. It means a system of pseudo spirituality here. Our spirituality does not depend on what we take into the mouth, it is what we take into the soul that counts.

“which” is a prepositional phrase — e)n plus the locative of the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated “in which.”

The next phrase “have not profited” is the aorist passive indicative of wfelew which means to profit. Here it has the negative o)uk, so “they have not been profitable” or “they have not been benefited.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It means that there is no spiritual benefit in observing certain food taboos; health to the body but no spiritual blessing to the life. The point is that the issue is found in spiritual food, not in physical food. The passive voice: legalistic believers who are observing food taboos for spirituality are not benefited [spiritually] by these taboos. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Food is very important to your health but of no importance in your spiritual life.

“that have been occupied therein” — the word “therein” is not found in the original; “that have been occupied” is a present active participle of the verb peripatew which means to walk, and the linear aktionsart of the present tense indicates that people have kept walking. It doesn’t mean occupy, it means to walk. They have walked in a system or a pattern of life where they used food taboos as a system of spirituality. But they are not benefited by food taboos — much better that they get on Bible doctrine.

Translation of verse 9 — “Do not be carried away [into reversionism] by means of diversified and alien doctrines. For it is a noble thing that the right lobe be stabilised by means of grace; not by foods in which those who keep walking were not benefited [spiritually].”

Conclusions

1. Taboo reversionism is a form of legalism in total opposition to God’s grace plan.

2. Jewish taboos failed to stabilise the soul.

3. Only Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer can stabilise and add to the spiritual life of the royal family.

4. In the Church Age each member of the royal family must function under his own priesthood and totally reject any form of legalistic dictatorship.

5. The only legitimate taboos in the life of a believer are those things which you give up as a result of taking in doctrine and growing up spiritually.

6. Under these conditions of spiritual growth Bible doctrine will dictate certain taboos and spiritual growth causes one to change his scale of values and his lifestyle. But don’t get saved and give up something immediately because what you give up and what you take on is going to be based upon the values that will develop in your life. That scale of values will come with Bible doctrine.

7. Any change in your lifestyle is based upon doctrine resident in the soul and the filling of the Spirit applying this doctrine. Taboos are not the result of legalistic bullying but spiritual growth and the attainment of the supergrace status.

8. Anything forced out of the life by doctrine is certainly legitimate. So here is the great principle. The royal family must function on the basis of doctrine in the soul causing the believer to be spiritually self-sustaining in his priesthood and stabilised by the grace of God. The congregation of royalty must concentrate on the teaching of doctrine, the message of the pastor-teacher, recognising his authority in the pulpit, and as a result, taking in doctrine. In other words, you develop your own dictator. Doctrine in your soul is your absolute dictator. The kingdom of royal priests does not exclude authority but emphasises becoming spiritually independent and grace oriented. Therefore it is extremely important that you continue to be consistent in your intake of doctrine in order that inside of your soul might be the absolute dictator of your life — Bible doctrine. When doctrine in your soul becomes the absolute dictator you are doing the will of God.

We begin a new paragraph: the sacrifices of the royal priesthood, verse 10-19.

Verse 10 — the altar of the royal family of God. The royal family has an altar and it is presented in this verse. We go now from the importance of our Lord and saviour to the importance of the function of His priesthood on earth. This is a royal priesthood and verse 10 tells us immediately that we do have an altar.

“We have” — present active indicative of the verb e)xw which means to have and to hold. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past [beginning of the Church Age] and continues into the present time or the duration of the Church Age. The active voice: the royal priesthood of the Church Age produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact and a dogmatic concept of theology. “We keep having and holding an altar.”

“an altar” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun qusiasthrion. The word means an altar but it means an altar where there is a function of worship. It is an altar that connotes worship, not merely sacrifice. The altar here refers to the function of the royal priesthood in contrast to the function of the Levitical priesthood before the brass altar. This altar represents the entrance into the plan of God by way of the cross. It also represents the five categories of sacrifices which were offered in the Levitical activity of the past — the burnt sacrifice, the food or meal sacrifice, the peace, the sin and the trespass offering. However, it presents them from a slightly different standpoint from what we have studied before. For example, the burnt offering represents the Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiator, it emphasises His work in propitiation. The food offering represents propitiation with emphasis on His person. So His person and His work are emphasised in the first two offerings. The whole point of the royal family altar is this. The brass altar of the Levitical priesthood was designed to look forward to the cross and to look forward to grace, and to teach grace. The altar of the royal family of God not only looks back to the cross but it also looks to the fact that is was designed to make us consistent, stabilised and operational to the glory of God. The peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering are all related to this. The answer is very simple. Always the key to our altar is grace, and grace is portrayed by reconciliation or the peace offering. The sin offering and the transgression offering both represent the principle of rebound, and rebound is also a grace principle. The whole concept is, how can a perfect God design a perfect plan and have imperfect creatures involved, and still make the plan work. The answer to that is the altar of the royal priesthood. So we have and we possess an altar.

The historical events of the cross fulfil the Levitical offerings. Therefore the brass altar of the old priesthood is removed. It is replaced by the historical cross and by the royal priesthood and by a new altar. The new altar is related to grace. The shadow sacrifices of the brass altar are replaced by the real doctrines of the Church Age reduced to writing.

Here is the issue. We have a royal priesthood but a royal priesthood must have a dictatorship, and the dictatorship of the royal priesthood is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. If you do not have a dictatorship in your soul — maximum doctrine resident there — you are not living a normal Christian life, you are not functioning under a normal priesthood. You must have a dictatorship in your soul. This dictatorship is developed by the transfer of Bible doctrine from the Word of God to your individual soul. Doctrine in the Bible does not constitute a dictatorship, only doctrine which is resident in your soul. So we have an altar. It is an altar that is constructed just as definitely as the altar in Israel was constructed. You an I must have an altar in the soul. If we are going to function as a royal priest we must have a helm, we must have some system of guidance, we must have power. All of these things come from doctrine in the soul, and you are not living a normal life if someone else is dictating your course of life. If your lifestyle is influenced by those around you, by trying to please someone, by trying to get ahead, by ambition, by lust, by desire for happiness or blessing apart from God’s plan, whatever it is, it is going to destroy you just as certainly as a ship without a rudder is going to crack up. You must be able to answer questions for yourself, you must be able to face life and not have to rely on someone else — “What do I do now?” You cannot use other people as crutches. We have stability when we build in our souls an altar, and that comes by the daily function of GAP.

The Jewish altar was a literal brass altar, it was historical. It is replaced by the altar of the royal family which is not a literal altar — it is literal in the sense that Bible doctrine is real but it is not a visible altar in that Bible doctrine resident in the soul is not visible to others around you. While the Jewish altar was composed of literal objects representing future events the altar of the royal priesthood is composed of literal words representing both past historical victories as well as victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our altar is made up of words and thoughts and categories and principles and promises. The altar of the past priesthood was made up of literal objects.

This passage is a challenge therefore to us as members of the royal family of God to come as quickly as possible to the point where we have an absolute dictator, whereas in our soul is a control centre, Bible doctrine, telling us what is right and what is wrong, telling our volition this is God’s way and this is the way of cosmos diabolicus.

Animals were used on the Jewish altar, and to continue offering animals on a Jewish altar when there is a new altar is blasphemous, and that is exactly what reversionism is, it is a state of spiritual blasphemy.

The word “whereof” is a preposition, e)k, plus the ablative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. It means “from which.”

“they” — the Levitical priesthood, the Old Testament saints; “have no right to eat” — fagein o)uk e)xousin e)cousian. The word e)csousian means no authority, no right. The strong negative o)uk plus the accusative singular of e)cousia (e)xousin) means no authority or no authorisation. They were not authorised to eat at the brass altar. The words “to eat” is the aorist active infinitive of e)sqiw and it refers to the Levitical priesthood of the dispensation of Israel eating certain portions of the animal sacrifices. This was their means of living. We as royal priests do not literally eat animals, we as members of the royal priesthood live on spiritual food, Bible doctrine which becomes our altar as that doctrine enters the soul. Our altar which we keep having is the daily function of GAP resulting in doctrine resident in the soul. The aorist tense of the verb to eat is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to the spiritual feeding of the royal priesthood. The Levitical priesthood ate animals to stay alive physically, we eat spiritual food in order to fulfil the very basis for our royal priesthood. The active voice: the royal priesthood produces the action of the verb. The whole point of this constative aorist is, Jesus Christ is the same one yesterday and today, also forever. He is consistent, and the only way that we as believers can be consistent is to GAP it today, tomorrow, the next day, the next, and so on. The infinitive denotes the purpose of the royal priesthood and so functioning at the altar of GAP so that each believer attains supergrace through maximum doctrine resident in the soul. supergrace is the place of tactical victory, the place of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. So we do not eat at the altar of the Levitical priesthood because we would eat animal sacrifices. We eat spiritual food.

Why is it called an altar? An altar always connotes sacrifice. GAPin it is a sacrifice. There are many sacrifices necessary to be consistent. The constative aorist gathers every sacrifice into one entirety, resulting in the supergrace life, and that is exactly the concept we have here. You have to come to the altar to build that inner dictator. In order to glorify God you have to take in doctrine on a daily basis. It is a sacrifice to constantly GAP it. It is a sacrifice to do a lot of things related to the function of GAP.

The next word is a participle: “serve” — the articular present active participle of latreuw, which is used for spiritual service as a function of the royal priesthood. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to the Levitical priesthood in contrast to ours. The present tense is a customary present for the function of the Levitical priesthood at the altar of the tabernacle, later on the altar of the temple. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb as authorised by the Mosaic law. The participle is circumstantial for a past activity when the Levitical priesthood functioned within its own dispensation.

Translation: “We [royal priesthood] have an altar, from which they who serve the tabernacle [Levitical priesthood] have no authorisation to eat.”

Summary

1. The Levitical priesthood authorised by the Mosaic law had the right and the privilege to serve in the tabernacle and later on in the temple.

2. However, in the Church Age they have no authorisation to function since their contract and their dispensation have both been abrogated. We have a new contract and a new dispensation.

3. Under the new contract and new dispensation we have the royal priesthood of the Church Age replacing the Levitical priesthood at the altar, and we have a new altar replacing the old. Instead of the old brass altar we now have Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

4. The Levitical priesthood was limited and based on physical birth. The royal priesthood is universal to all believers in the Church Age and based on regeneration.

5. The Levitical priesthood ate the flesh of animal sacrifices offered on the altar, while the royal priesthood partakes of doctrine offered by the pastor-teacher in the classroom of the local church.

6. The Levitical priesthood was physically sustained by eating a portion of the animal sacrifices. The royal priesthood is spiritually sustained by eating doctrine — the function of GAP.

7. From eating animal sacrifices the Levitical priesthood possessed physical energy to carry on. From partaking of Bible doctrine the royal priesthood has the spiritual energy to fulfil the tactical victory, the purpose for which we remain in this life.

Remember this. We have a dictator. Our dictator has to be Bible doctrine. You must have a dictator, a ruler, an authority, and Bible doctrine is not your authority as located in the canon of scripture. Bible doctrine only becomes your authority and your dictator as you have it in your soul. The more doctrine you have in your soul the more you are free to live your life as unto the Lord.

In verses 11 and 12 we have a contrast to sacrifices. To set up the analogy a brief comment on the disposal of the bodies of animal sacrifices on the day of atonement is necessary. Our next portion of this study depends upon your understanding of what happened to the body of the animals on the day of atonement. What happened to the sacrificial goat? There were two goats. One went wandering out into the wilderness, the other was sacrificed. What happened to the sacrificial lamb and the sacrificial calf? What disposal was made of the bodies of these sacrifices?

We know what happened to the blood, the blood of the goat and the calf was sprinkled in the holy of holies on the mercy seat. But the blood of the other animals was not sprinkled. The burning of the bodies of those sacrifices outside of the camp, the sprinkling of the blood, are all a part of the analogy coming up in the next two verses.

Verse 11 — we begin with the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gar expressing a ground or reason for our new altar, and the difference between our royal altar and the altar of the Levitical priesthood. The word “bodies” is not found in the original manuscript, it just simply says, “For with reference to those animals.”

“of those beasts” is the genitive plural of the noun zwon, meaning animals or living creatures. I is a descriptive genitive as well as a reference type genitive, it refers to the animals used for the sacrifice on the day of atonement — the bullock plus the two goats and the ram. These sacrifices are well documented in Leviticus 16:5-28; Numbers 29:7-11. The ram was used for a burnt offering. The young bull or bullock was used for a sin offering for the priests — Leviticus 16:3. Then came the two goats of Leviticus 16:5 offered for the people’s sins, plus one ram for a burnt offering for the people. And remember that the offerings fell into two general categories: the offerings for the priests and the offerings for the people. Since the day of atonement was a Sabbath the usual Sabbath offerings were also offered at the same time.

“whose” — the genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j; “blood” — the nominative neuter singular of both the noun and the definite article, to a(ima. This refers to the literal animal blood which was shed on the day of atonement. It has nothing to do with the blood of Christ, it is the blood of animal sacrifices. The blood for the royal priesthood was animal blood sacrificed on the altar, the blood for the royal priesthood are words, doctrines. The blood for the royal priesthood is reconciliation, redemption, and propitiation. Our altar is made up of doctrines. The blood of Christ are the words, the doctrines pertaining to the death of Christ on the cross. Whereas the blood of animals belongs to one priesthood the blood of our altar are the doctrines pertaining to salvation, doctrines pertaining to Christology. They had al altar of brass upon which they placed animals, but our altar is an altar of doctrine and on our altar the blood of Christ are all of the doctrines pertaining to salvation, His saving work on the cross. But here we have the animals at this point, and the blood of animals was literal blood which was shed during the ritual of the day of atonement.

“brought into the sanctuary” — the present passive indicative of e)isferw, and it means to be carried in. The customary present tense is used for what habitually occurred on the day of atonement. The passive voice: the blood receives the action of the verb, namely it was carried into the holy of holies by the high priest. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality, they did the same thing every year. The word “sanctuary” here is e)ij plus the accusative plural of a(gioj. A(goij in the plural always refers to the holy of holies. It should be translated “into the holy of holies.”

“by the high priest” — dia plus a)rxieruj which means the high priest, the ruler priest. Dia plus the genitive means by means of or through; “for sin” — peri plus the genitive of a(martia means on behalf of sin. It connotes substitutionary concepts and it means “on behalf of sin.”

The whole point here is what happened to the bodies of the sacrifices afterwards. The great emphasis in this passage is on the burning of the bodies of the animals. The blood was extracted but the bodies were burned.

“are burned” — present passive indicative of katakaiw which means to burn up completely. This burning up of the bodies of animals occurred after the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat to commemorate propitiation. This leads to the principle that once we have passed the point of propitiation we are to go outside the camp. Going outside the camp is the daily function of GAP.

“without the camp” — the adverb e)cw is used as an improper preposition. It means “outside.” With it we have the genitive of parembolh for the camp or the bivouac of Israel. In other words, this is a paraphrase of Leviticus 16:27 dealing with this same day of atonement — “But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was carried in to make atonement in the holy of holies, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides and their flesh and their dung in fire.” The whole point is this. It took a great sacrifice for Jesus Christ to be the same yesterday, and today, also forever. Jesus Christ was totally consistent. And to do that, to go to the cross, He went outside the camp. He went outside of Jerusalem, He was crucified outside of the gates. And for the royal priesthood, we are told to follow suit, we are told to go outside the camp. We are told to build an altar outside of the camp. The cross is an altar outside of the camp.

Summary

1. The function of the royal priesthood does not cease after passing the point of propitiation, it begins.

2. There is the burning of the animal corpse outside of the camp. The burning of the body portrays the physical death of Christ outside of the gates of Jerusalem, outside of where the temple was located. Just as the sprinkling of blood portrays the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, so the burning of the bodies of the sacrifices outside of the camp is a picture of Christ dying outside of religion, condemned by religion. Christ died twice on the cross as depicted in the shadows of the feast of atonement. The significance of the blood being shed, then collected, carried into the holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, is a portrayal of the doctrine of redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation — or the spiritual death of Christ or the blood of Christ. However, that is only half of the picture. The burning of the animal carcasses outside the camp portray the physical of the Lord Jesus Christ and the challenge of His last words. His last words were for us to get with Bible doctrine.

Translation: “With reference to those animals whose blood is carried into the holy of holies on behalf of sin by the high priest, and whose bodies are burned outside the camp.”

Our altar is made up of words, principles, concepts, which are stored, resident in the soul. Verse 11: the blood is the holy of holies — the spiritual death of Christ on the cross; the burning of the animal carcass outside of the camp — the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It is now our objective to relate the burning of the carcass to the altar. In other words, the physical death of our Lord was the last challenge in relationship to that altar which we are to construct.

Isaiah 53:12 — “Therefore” — laqen is a combination of a preposition and an adverb. It calls for a conclusion based upon the context of Isaiah 53;11— ‘By knowledge of him [Christ] my righteous servant will justify [vindicate] the many; for he [and he only] will bear the punishment of their sins’ — now the conclusion: Because Jesus Christ went to the cross, because He was judged for our sins, because He rose, ascended, and was seated at the right hand of the Father, “Therefore will I divide” — the piel imperfect chalaq of means distribution of spoils — “to him [Jesus Christ] with the great” — the Hebrew here is a prepositional phrase meaning ‘because of the many’ [supergrace believers, and to us the supergrace believers of the Church Age] — “the spoils [the plunder of victory because of the many supergrace believers]” — The spoils or plunder are also described in Hebrews 4:8-12. The strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ demands the distribution of plunder — “with the strong [supergrace believers in the royal family of God]” — the distribution of the spoils of victory includes pastor-teachers to communicate doctrine to the royal family so that each member of the royal family can reach the supergrace status. When this is accomplished a distribution is made — “because he has poured out his soul to death” — the word for pouring out the soul, arah in the hiphil stem, means to uncover the soul and refers specifically to physical death. The physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed in Hebrews 13:11 under the principle of burning the carcass outside of the camp. The blood was sprinkled in the holy of holies (redemption, reconciliation, propitiation), the burning of the carcass outside of the camp refers to the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His physical death He provided for us a new altar which is Bible doctrine in the soul, the dictatorship of the soul.

Matthew 27:50 — the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ before He died physically. This verse emphasises the sound of His death. The word “cried” is the aorist active participle of the verb krazw and it means to scream, a very loud scream. The constative aorist indicates the fact that when our Lord exhaled His last breath it was a loud sound. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and during that last exhale of the sentence it was a very loud scream. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb. The participle is both circumstantial for the dying breath of Jesus Christ as well as having antecedent action.

“yielded up” — the aorist active indicative of a)fihmi means to dismiss or send away. The culminative aorist indicates that at the end of that scream He died. He dismissed or sent away His air. This can be His human spirit or air — pneuma. He shouted a sentence but Matthew doesn’t describe the sentence. Matthew is more impressed with the noise of the scream. Mark 15:37 describes the same incident but with a different emphasis. It starts out by saying, “And Jesus cried.” But that is incorrect. This is the aorist active participle of the same verb, a)fihmi. Mark picks up where Matthew left off. The literal translation is “Jesus having exhaled.” While Matthew emphasises the sound as a loud noise or a scream Mark emphasises the exhale of air. The main verb here in Mark is “gave up,” the aorist active indicative of e)kpnew. This is a constative aorist meaning at the end of His exhale He stopped exhaling. So Matthew emphasises the sound; Mark emphasises the breath. The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of existing results: Jesus Christ died physically, He never inhaled again after that moment. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the manner of it. So Mark says literally, “And Jesus having exhaled with a loud voice, expired.” Luke 23:46 — Luke is the only one to emphasise that the last scream, that last breath, was actually made up of words. Matthew said it was a scream, Mark said it was the exhale of air, Luke says that the scream and the exhale of air was formed into words. “And when Jesus cried” — and again we have the aorist active participle, but this time the verb is fwnew, and indicates that it is broken up into words. Jesus enunciated while He screamed, while He exhaled for the last time. The aorist tense, again, is a constative aorist gathering up into one entirety the action of the verb. Each time we have a constative aorist followed by a culminative aorist. The same syntax is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, enunciating words in His last breath. The participle is circumstantial and it expresses a coterminous action with the main verb rather than an antecedent action. The main verb is “he said.” In other words, the exhale of air was coterminous with the uttering of the sentence. So we could actually translate the aorist active indicative of legw here, “he enunciated.”

This is what He said: “Father, into your hands I commend.” “I commend” is the present middle imperative of the verb paratiqhmi. The imperative mood is very important here because it is called the imperative of mild exhortation. In other words, He is exhorting the Father, not in a direct command but in an exhortation to receive His spirit. Actually, it does not mean to commend or to receive, it means to deposit. The present tense is the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. He is demanding the deposit of His spirit at the time He spoke. The middle voice is the indirect middle which emphasises Christ as the agent producing the action of the verb in His own behalf. And, again, a very mild imperative. “and having said this, he expired” — the aorist active indicative of e)kpnew. Again, this is a culminative aorist, at the end of the sentence Jesus Christ did not inhale again.

Notice that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic writers, all have the same pattern but different words. They each have a constative aorist participle followed by a culminative aorist which is the result. John emphasises the fact that Jesus delivered over His spirit to God the Father. He uses the word paradidomi which means to deliver over — John 19:30, “When Jesus, therefore, had received the issue wine [cheap wine (o)coj) which was issued every day to the Roman soldier], he said, Tetelestai,” which is the perfect passive indicative of telew, indicating that salvation was completed. This refers to His spiritual death on the cross. We have a dramatic perfect, the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect which means finished in the past with results that go on forever — our salvation. In addition to that we have the passive voice, the subject (salvation) receives the action of the verb, namely completion. Salvation was completed while our Lord was still very much alive. The declarative indicative mood is used for a dogmatic and absolute statement: salvation has been completed in the past with the result that it remains completed forever, with the result that we have eternal salvation by believing in Christ. This was the sixth cry on the cross, not the last. John does not mention the seventh cry, “Father into thy hand I deposit my spirit.” He only mentions number six because John is emphasising the spiritual death of Christ, whereas the synoptics in their account emphasise the physical death. All of the writers mention both but each has a different emphasis.

“and he bowed his head, and delivered up the spirit” — the bowing of the head emphasises the body posture.

Luke 23;46 is very helpful for this reason. What our Lord said is actually a quotation from Psalm 31:5, the entire quotation. None of the gospel writers were permitted to give the entire sentence. Outside of Mark they were all at the cross. We do not know if Mark was there but we do know that Peter dictated the gospel of Mark to Mark. Matthew, Peter, Luke and John were all there, they all heard what was uttered. Luke had to stop in the middle of a sentence. What was the entire sentence? This entire sentence becomes, in effect, the challenge for each member of the royal priesthood to build an altar in his own soul, the altar of resident doctrine.

Psalm 31:5 — “Into your hand I deposit [not ‘commit’],” the hiphil imperfect of paqadh means to deposit — “my spirit;” — and then he goes on to say what was not recorded, “for you have delivered [the qal perfect of padah] me, [Adonai El emeth] Jehovah, God of doctrine.”

Jehovah God of doctrine has two concepts, two types of significance. First of all, doctrine resident in the soul of the humanity of Christ kept His head up, kept Him on the cross, kept Him in there bearing our sins until every sin in the human race was judged. What sustained Christ on the cross? Bible doctrine resident in His soul. Jesus Christ is our high priest, He offered Himself as the sacrifice. The high priest of the Old Testament carried the blood into the holy of holies. He didn’t carry his own blood and he didn’t offer himself on the altar. Jesus Christ offered Himself on the altar, and when He did He called Himself the sacrifice. The basis for His doing all of this was because He was occupied with Adonai El emeth, Jehovah the God of doctrine. He was sustained in His humanity by Bible doctrine resident in His soul. As out high priest He set the pattern. Doctrine resident in His soul kept Him on the cross bearing our sins until salvation was completed, and doctrine in the soul becomes the altar of the royal priesthood. Every royal priest must build his own altar, and he builds his altar by means of doctrine resident in his soul.

Hebrews 13:12 — “Wherefore Jesus also.” “Wherefore also” is a combination of things. We have an inferential conjunction dio which is generally translated “for this reason.” With it we have the adjunctive use of kai which is correctly translated “also.” Then put in the word “Jesus.” Because of the shadow Jesus had to fulfil the reality by suffering outside of the gate. Jesus Christ Himself died outside of Jerusalem. Why? The temple was still standing in Jerusalem. The temple which spoke of Christ was becoming a desecration and a blasphemy, therefore the temple was in Jerusalem. Christ is outside of Jerusalem. Our priesthood has nothing to do with the temple, nothing to do with a sacred building. Our priesthood in itself has its own sacred building, the body of every royal priest.

“that” is the conjunction i(na introducing a purpose clause; “he might sanctify” — aorist active subjunctive of the verb a(giazw. This verb is a very important one because it refers to the first paragraph of the new contract, the entrance paragraph. We have a culminative aorist, it gathers up the action of the verb in its entirety but always emphasises the results of that action. Result has the emphasis here: the fulfilment of redemption, reconciliation and propitiation results in sanctification or the establishment of a royal priesthood. We are in that royal priesthood. The glorification of Jesus Christ is being seated at the right hand of the Father is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, and because Jesus Christ is the only royalty He must have a royal family. The Age of Israel was interrupted for that purpose. The result of the historical cross is the interruption of the Jewish Age and we might call the Church Age the dispensation of sanctification or Jesus Christ provided with a royal family. The royal family is provided on the basis of the baptism of the Spirit. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His two deaths on the cross. The subjunctive mood goes with the conjunction i(na to express a purpose clause.

“the people” — the accusative singular direct object of laoj. It has with it a definite article used as a possessive pronoun and it should be translated “his people.” This is a reference to the Church, the body of Christ, the royal family. Laoj is used for believers in the Church, not only here but in Acts 15:14; 18:10; Romans 9:25; Hebrews 4:9. But nowhere is laoj more evident for the royal family than in 1 Peter 2:9,10.

This is accomplished “through his own blood” — dia plus the genitives of i)dioj and a(ima. This time it is not animal blood, it is a reference to the blood of Christ which is the spiritual death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place.

“suffered without the gate” — this is actually in the middle of the Greek sentence. The translation should be: “For this reason also, Jesus suffered outside the gate, in order that he might sanctify [or set apart] his people [the royal family] through his own blood.”

The word “suffered” is the aorist active indicative from the verb pasxw and is a reference to the historical death of Christ on the cross. The historical death here includes both His spiritual death and His physical death. Christ was crucified outside of the gates of Jerusalem.

“without the gate” is the adverb e)cw used as an improper preposition. In other words, it wasn’t originally a preposition, it was an adverb, but it becomes a preposition meaning “outside” with the genitive of the substantive pulh for gate — “outside the gate” [the gate of Jerusalem].

Maximum doctrine resident in the soul not only means an altar for the new priesthood but it means the function of separation from anything that might be connected with cosmos diabolicus.

Verse 13 — the royal sacrifice of perspicacity and separation. We begin with the verb “Let us go forth", the present middle subjunctive of the verb e)cerxomai. The word means to go out and obviously it refers to going outside of the gate or going outside of the camp. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what is expected of the royal priesthood while we live on this earth. We are expected to grow in grace, we are expected to function under GAP, we are expected to accumulate maximum doctrine resident in the soul. In other words, we are expected to build an altar and keep it. Remember that the altar for the royal priesthood is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This Bible doctrine resident in the soul is not only our altar but it becomes our dictator. We do not live a normal priestly life until we come to the place where Bible doctrine is the dictator of the life. Bible doctrine has to be on the throne to be the dictator and the only way that Bible doctrine can be on the throne is to be accumulated in the life. This accumulation only comes through the daily function of GAP. The principle of the customary present is that we must constantly go outside. We go outside when we take in Bible doctrine through the function of GAP. When we do, eventually we build that altar; once we have the altar we have supergrace, the normal function of the royal priesthood. The middle voice is a permissive middle which represents the agent, the royal family, as voluntarily seeking to secure the results of the action in his own interest. It is to our benefit, it is to our interest, it is to our advantage as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to take in Bible doctrine every day. The subjunctive mood is not potential, it is hortatory. The hortatory subjunctive is a command but it is a special kind of a command. It is a command in which the one who is writing the epistle has already obeyed and he invites the readers to join him in the action. The purpose for all of this is to construct as quickly as possible that altar.

Next we have the inferential particle toinun which is correctly translated “therefore” .This inferential actually comes first in the sentence and it is a little better to translate this one “hence.” It should be translated this way, “Hence, let us be going outside.”

“unto him” — this is a prepositional phrase, proj plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and it means face to face with him or simply to him. The intensive pronoun emphasises the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest.

Summary — this takes into consideration everything that we have had from verse to this part of verse 13.

1. The altar of the royal priesthood, Bible doctrine resident in the soul, is always constructed outside the camp, outside the gate — outside the gate of Jerusalem, a religious city; outside the camp of legalism.

2. The first function of the royal priest is to construct in his soul through GAP the altar. Maturity, in effect, is getting every signal for every play, every bit of strategy, every tactic, strictly from inside your soul. In other words, your soul loaded up with doctrine must be calling the plays.

3. The entire phrase (“Hence, let us be going outside to him”) connotes the first sacrifice of the royal priesthood during the Church Age, namely the daily function of GAP, following the colours to the high ground of supergrace.

“outside the camp” means totally apart from religion, totally apart from legalism, totally apart from everything that is anti-grace. The adverb e)cw is used as an improper preposition with the genitive parembolh. Parembolh is a bivouac, it is a military term. Being outside of the camp not only connotes the daily function of GAP, the accumulation of doctrine in the soul, but whenever you accumulate doctrine in the soul you automatically begin to form a separation in your life. It is not a forced separation or an enforced separation but you begin to separate from an awful lot of things.

The doctrine of separation

1. Definition:

a) Separation is a decision or an action which stems from the control centre of the soul. The control centre is composed of whatever doctrine is resident in the soul. In other words, it is a decision or an action that comes from the altar.

b) The decision or action of separation demands the balance of residency in the life of the royal family. The filling of the Spirit with no doctrine means the believer is off-balance. The filling of the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean a thing as far as function is concerned until you have doctrine in your soul. You must be balanced. The filling of the Holy Spirit functions in the intake of doctrine but the Holy Spirit does not produce any significant action in your life until you have balance of residency. The decision or action comes from balance of residency in the royal family of God. Separation comes after the doctrine, then the doctrine does all of the dictating as to how you separate.

c) Separation, therefore, is produced by the activation of the altar in the soul.

d) Separation, therefore, must be related to the construction of the altar of the royal priesthood. Separation must be based on doctrine. Perspicacity precedes separation.

2. The first place where you learn to separate is from other believers. You love [RMA] all believers but you don’t associate with all of them. There are several categories:

a) There are certain types of carnal believers from whom you must separate or become involved in their carnality. 1 Corinthians 5:10-11 is the classical illustration.

b) Separation from reversionistic believers — 1 Samuel 22:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14,15.

c) Separation from religionism, emotionalism, and legalism.

d) Separate from religious types — Hebrews 13:13.

3. Separation must also be related to social life. Basically there are two areas: separation from the fast crowd — Proverbs 1:10-19; 1 Peter 4:4; the superficial social crowd — Jeremiah 15:17.

4. Separation from the unbeliever. The believer is in the world but not of the world, therefore we live with and among unbelievers. The principle of separation which applies is very simple. We don’t separate from all unbelievers, far from it. We work with unbelievers, we work under unbelievers, we have some social life perhaps with unbelievers, we have friends who are unbelievers, parent who are unbelievers, children who are unbelievers. You don’t separate from them. You never separate from an unbeliever unless doctrine is compromised. That is when you separate from an unbeliever. Example: a believer should never marry an unbeliever. Doctrine says no!

Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14; Hebrews 13:13.

5. Separation from worldliness. Worldliness is not something you do. It is not going to a night club, it is not having a good time and laughing and playing, it is not enjoying life. Worldliness is actually lack of Bible doctrine in the soul producing human viewpoint. Worldliness is something you think, not something you do. Romans 12:1,2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice [rebound technique], holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable worship. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely that it is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Being transformed from the world or from worldliness is the renewing of the mental attitude. Worldliness is a mental attitude human viewpoint. You can be worldly doing a lot of things: reading your Bible, going out in the morning to get the paper, having a good time, having a bad time. You can be worldly and miserable at the same time. Worldliness is not sophistication, dancing, etc., worldliness is something you think. It is what you are thinking, not where you are. Separation from worldliness can only be accomplished by all building an altar. The altar of the royal family is maximum doctrine resident in the soul, or in terms of the sixth chapter of Ephesians, putting on the full armour of God. Both of these are tantamount to following the colours to the high ground of supergrace. Worldliness is lack of doctrine in the soul and the answer to worldliness or separation is maximum doctrine resident in the soul so that you think divine viewpoint.

6. Separation from religion and apostasy — 2 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:5; Hebrews 13:13. These passages all demand that the believer separate from any group that separates him from his right pastor and the ministry of his right pastor. Separation from religion and apostasy comes from staying under the ministry of your own right pastor.

7. Separation from members of your own family over doctrine. Doctrine resident in the soul is more important than family relationships. Matthew 10:34-39 — “Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth, I come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

The problem with that passage is poor translation. “Think not” is the aorist active subjunctive of the verb nomizw plus the negative mh. Nomizw is used for arrogant people, for liberals who are always arrogant. They assume that they have answers to the world’s problems and they are totally arrogant in their assumption. Liberals, therefore, in their arrogance are presumptive and this verb is designed for them. In effect, this tells you, do not be a theological liberal and do not be a political liberal. If you do you are incompatible with your salvation and your relationship with God. So what this says to each one of us as believers is “Do not presume.” This is a verb of presumption. Presumption is arrogant thinking. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. Jesus is catching His disciples before they go too far with this. The active voice: the disciples in their arrogance and in their liberal philosophies have made a presumption. The subjunctive mood is the subjunctive of prohibition, it is a strong command, a negative command.

“that I am [have] come” — “that” is the conjunction o(ti after verbs of presumption, thinking, or conclusion. O(ti merely indicates the content of the presumption that is now forbidden. “I am come” is the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai and obviously it refers to the first advent of Christ. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb in its entirety covers the period of the first advent with emphasis on the public ministry, the last three years of the first advent. The active voice: Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is the historical reality of the first advent of Jesus Christ.

“to send” — aorist active infinitive of ballw which means to throw or to hurl. The gnomic aorist regarded the thinking of the disciple as so real as to be described as an actual occurrence. The aorist goes with the constative and it means that He did not come to thrust or to hurl, but the disciples have assumed that He has and therefore they regard His ministry, in the gnomic sense and erroneously, so as to bring peace — just like the liberals today. So the gnomic aorist takes up the thinking of the disciples and makes it very real but erroneous; this is their real thinking but it is wrong. The infinitive denotes the erroneous purpose in the thinking of the disciples.

“peace on earth” is a reference to world peace, cessation of warfare here, and this is the erroneous conclusion of the disciples and their failure to distinguish between the first and second advent. When Christ returns He will establish world peace and abolish warfare. But this is a presumption for the first advent, it is arrogance and liberalism.

“I have not come” — aorist active indicative of e)rxomai, and this time we have the strong o)uk, the objective negative; “to send” — ballw; “peace, but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla gives the truth in contrast to the false, it sets up a contrast between the arrogant false thinking of the disciples and the true purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I am come to hurl [thrust] a sword into the world.” He means that the angelic conflict will be intensified by His coming. The coming of Jesus Christ means strategic victory at the right hand of the Father. The strategic victory intensifies the unseen conflict, but more than that, the first advent of Christ also sets up a system of and a pattern of history: Jesus said, “There will be wars and rumours of wars until I return.” In other words, the pattern of history is going to be warfare. The protection against warfare is a strong military establishment under the laws of divine establishment. Anything else is no protection at all, except for one additional spiritual factor which is a maximum number of supergrace believers in a national entity acting as the salt of the earth and the security of a nation. So this means there will be warfare until the second advent, it means that the angelic conflict intensifies during the Church Age, but it also means something else. The third factor is the one that our Lord is going to develop. It means that the Lord Jesus Christ will become a divider of people.

Translation: “Do not presume [arrogance in thinking] that I have come to hurl peace upon the earth; I have not come to hurl peace, but to hurl a sword.”

The cross and doctrine will always divide people. The rift is no respecter of families, and families are divided over the cross and over the Lord Jesus Christ, and over the doctrine or the written Word. The Lord Jesus Christ in hurling this sword indicates there will be a royal family, and that will be divided by erroneous concepts from reversionism and apostasy. And then there will be human family, and Jesus chooses here to use human family as His illustration since royal family is a prophetical subject reserved for the upper room discourse and the Gethsemane discourse. So it is human family that comes into focus at this point.

Verse 35 — “For I have come.” “For” is the conjunctive particle used in an explanatory means here, gar. He is now going to explain the hurling of the sword in terms of human families; “have come” — the constative aorist of e)rxomai again contemplates the action of the verb in its it entirety, it gathers into one entirety the first advent of Christ, including His strategical victory of His resurrection, ascension and session. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It is the mood of unqualified assertion, it is the dogmatic statement of fact, there is and was a first advent.

“to set a man at variance” — the aorist active infinitive of dixazw, a word which means to disunite, to cause one to turn against another. The culminative aorist views family schisms in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — because of the first advent of Christ it will result in schisms, in family dissension, and eventuating in family separation. The active voice: Jesus Christ is separating these families. The infinitive expresses the purpose as well as result. So we have “to set a man at variance” or “to disunite, to turn a person against,” and the word “man” is a)nqrwpoj in the sense of a person, “against his father” — kata plus the genitive of pathr.

The verse says in all of its detail, “I am come to turn a person against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

In other words, the impact of the first advent, the glorification of Christ, is to disunite and divide families. This must be related to the last sentence on the cross. In His quotation of Psalm 31:5 He emphasised the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul, and when some members of the family have resident Bible doctrine and other members of the family do not have resident Bible doctrine family schism is inevitable. There is one of the great problems of all time — those with doctrine, those without in the same family and the antagonisms which inevitably result from divine versus human viewpoint. In this way Jesus Christ divides families. Now, where there is a family of unbelievers and they are all pro-establishment that family will be united. A family that is pro-establishment in its thinking lives together, loves together, and has a great life. A family made up of believers where they have the altar — each one has his own altar in his soul — will have the most phenomenal relationship. But harmony in families depends upon two divine laws. For the unbelievers it depends upon establishment. With believers the issue is not establishment but resident doctrine in the soul. Where there is resident doctrine there is great family rapport and great family relationship.

What causes disunity in families? A family of part believer and part unbeliever; a believing family which is part reversionist, part supergrace; an unbelieving family, part liberal, part conservative. Bringing into this, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ, He says that He Himself is the divider of such families. By that He means that where there are believers with maximum doctrine in the soul it is inevitable that they will pull apart, that there is nothing that can hold them together. It is inevitable that when a member of the royal family builds an altar of Bible doctrine in his soul or, if you prefer, follows the colours to the high ground of supergrace, a supergrace believer cannot indefinitely remain in close contact with members of his family who are anti-doctrine. They may be believers who are reversionists, they may be unbelievers who are liberal.

In real life the basis for compatibility has to be in the soul. That was always true. But compatibilities of soul must be defined. They are related to doctrine and to the laws of divine establishment, and because the Lord was going to bring a new family into the earth, a new dispensation (the dispensation of the royal family), and because the Lord demands our undivided concentration, it is inevitable that in everything that takes us away from this concentration on the Lord, anything that takes us away from occupation with Christ, inevitably leads to conflicts and conflicts inevitably lead to separation or succumbing. If you succumb you become a reversionist, if you separate you maintain your supergrace status. This, in effect, is what our Lord says in this passage.

Verse 36 — the Lord is quoting now from Micah 7:6, “And a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.” It is possible that some of the greatest enemies you will ever have will be your own flesh and blood.

Jesus Christ demands our attention. The whole objective of the Christian way of life is to advance to the high ground. The objective is to reach the high ground of supergrace and hold until dying grace. This is the place of supergrace blessing, this is the place where we glorify God. So it is inevitable that one of the conflicts in life can very possibly be a family conflict — loving a member of your own family more than the Lord. The Lord therefore puts out the challenge in verse 37 — “the one loving father or mother more than me.” He is referring to Himself and he is referring to a reversionist believer.

“is not worthy of me” — this doesn’t mean he is not saved, it refers to the state of reversionism. The state of reversionism is the state of unworthiness, the state of supergrace is the state of nobility. So it’s nobility versus unworthiness. The issue is, what is more important to you, Bible doctrine or family ties? Bible doctrine is tied up with the living Word, Jesus Christ, since Bible doctrine is His thinking. The problem is a part of a greater principle of the details of life versus doctrine. The details of life include many other things beside family but family is included. The details of life include money, success, pleasure, family, social life, friends, health, sex, materialistic things, status symbols, and so on. All of these details can hinder the function of GAP or the intake of doctrine, and therefore hinder the objective for which God keeps you alive. When anything is more important than Bible doctrine you are in a state of reversionism.

Verse 38 — “And he that taketh not his cross.” “He that taketh not” is the present active indicative of lambanw plus the objective negative o)uk. The descriptive or pictorial present tense depicts events in the process of occurrence. The only person who does not take up his cross is the reversionist. The active voice: the believer produces the action in reversionism by not taking up his cross. The potential indicative is used to denote an obligation.

But to what does the cross refer? It refers specifically to failure to take up Bible doctrine. The brass altar in the Old Testament on which animal sacrifices were offered, and which stood in front of the tabernacle or in the forecourt of the temple, refers to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have a different altar because we are not under the Levitical priesthood, we are a royal priesthood and our altar is Bible doctrine resident in the soul — the balance of residency or Bible doctrine. We cannot pick up the Lord’s cross, all we can do is pick up our cross.

Notice all of the synonyms we have had with regard to supergrace: follow the colours to the high ground, which means in this case a until advancing from the authority. The colours is the right pastor-teacher, and under the ministry of the right pastor-teacher reaching your paragraph SG²; the altar of the royal priesthood made up of words and sentences, categories, principles, Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The altar, then, is doctrine transferred through the function of GAP; we are going to have a third one called in the Greek panoplia, it refers to the full armour of the Roman infantry soldier, and to pick it up and put it all on is also to reach supergrace. But the one we have now is taking up your cross. To pick up your very own cross is to GAP it daily, no matter what the cost. So to pick up the cross is to take up Bible doctrine, to GAP it daily, and to think more of doctrine than you do of father, mother, etc. The picking up of the cross is the daily function of GAP. The present tense indicates that you do this every day, you do it consistently. And to follow the Lord is to GAP it daily — the present active indicative of a)kolouqew. The pick up the cross means that you as a believer must put doctrine first. That is putting the Lord first. And when you reach the high ground the Lord is first because of doctrine resident in your soul. Following the Lord is the other side of the coin, it is your daily function of GAP. Taking up the cross is coming to Bible class instead of watching football on television. “Is not worthy” describes the reversionist who is negative, who is inconsistent, who is unstable in his attitude toward Bible doctrine.

The only cross you can pick up is learning Bible doctrine, only through learning Bible doctrine do you follow the Lord. And when you follow the Lord you automatically separate yourself, you automatically separate from things. You don’t have to have someone beat the drums: “Separate” from something. When you have doctrine resident in your soul then you will make your own decisions about separation.

Verse 39 — is not “He that findeth his life", it is “The one having made the intellectual discovery of his soul.” The word for “life” is yuxh or soul. Some of you discover your own souls when you get doctrine in there. The word for “findeth,” e(uriskw, means to discover, to make an intellectual discovery based upon investigation, observation and reflection. Or, you could even say, “The one having gained doctrine for his soul.” So to discover or to gain doctrine for the soul means building up as a royal priest the altar in the soul, resident doctrine, or following the colours to the high ground, or taking up your cross and following the Lord.

When you do this, you lose something. The word “lose” is the future active indicative of the verb a)pollumi which means to destroy. It means the one having discovered his soul through the function of GAP shall destroy it — not the soul but the former content. It means that doctrine resident in the soul voids you old scale of values. You have a new vocabulary, you destroy your old. You have new categories, you destroy old categories of panaceas. You have old norms and standards that are destroyed and replaced by new ones. You had human viewpoint before, that is destroyed and now you have divine viewpoint on the launching pad. In other words, the old content of the soul is destroyed. The progressive future tense is one in which the idea requires the future to denote the fact that you have made progress. The active voice: the believer accomplishes this through the consistent function of GAP. The indicative mood is potential, depending upon the consistent intake of doctrine.

“he that loseth” is the aorist active participle of that same verb, a)pollumi, and it means to destroy or void — “the one having voided his soul for my sake.” A)pollumi means to void the old content, or to abrogate. All of the human viewpoint that used to reside there is abrogated or voided, and replaced by divine viewpoint.

“shall find” — the future active indicative of e(uriskw and it should be translated “shall discover it.” He shall discover his capacity for life, he will discover the Lord Jesus, he will discover everything related to his paragraph SG². This is true separation in its best sense.

Translation: “The one having discovered his soul [through the daily function of GAP] shall void it [of the old things]; and the one having voided his soul for my sake shall discover it.”

So it is a brand new discovery, it is a new world, and in the process of doing that he separates himself from his family.

We have one more phrase in Hebrews 13:13 — “bearing his reproach.” The word “bearing” is the present active participle of the verb ferw which means to carry. It is the same thing as taking up our cross, only this means to carry rather than to pick up — “carrying his reproach.” The word for “reproach” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun o)neidismoj, and it has the same idea as picking up the cross, only in this case “his reproach” is the antagonism of Judaism, the antagonism of religious legalism, the antagonism of the apostates, and antagonism of family and former friends.

Translation: “Hence, let us be going outside the camp to him, bearing his reproach.”

Bearing his reproach means the inevitable. It means that as you GAP it and GAP it you will drop old friends, old relationships, your old scale of values will change, your capacity for life will develop, you will see your content of soul being destroyed and a new content of soul taking its place.

Concepts

1. In our context religion and legalism have captured the city of Jerusalem in AD 67. The former headquarters on earth of the Church has succumbed to legalistic reversionism.

2. Therefore the headquarters of the Church on earth is any command post where supergrace believers have separated from legalism and religionism.

3. For religionism, legalism and reversionism insult, reviling, censor, reproach, is the order of the day against all grace function and grace principle. So “reproach” here means to be insulted, to be censored, to be reviled, to be ridiculed, to be rejected by religion and by legalism.

4. Therefore, bearing the reproach means a supergrace believer, having picked up the cross and having carried it to the point of supergrace, is now automatically separated from ant-grace groups, individuals, or things.

5. the reproach of Christ means that you are totally separated from religion and legalism, it means that you are separated from anything else that distracts you from occupation with the person of Christ.

6. Such separation or bearing the reproach also results in great Satanic antagonism. It also means censor and rejection by cosmos diabolicus and sometimes means rejection or active persecution.

7. Why? Because religion cannot tolerate the principle of live and let live. Religion despises the principle of freedom and privacy. Religion encourages nosiness along the line of the doctrine of demons. Religion is always antagonistic toward Bible doctrine. Religion is therefore antagonistic toward grace, toward privacy, and toward freedom. The grace-oriented believer finds himself, therefore, forced outside of the camp of religion, outside of the camp of this world. The altar of Bible doctrine resident in the soul is in direct opposition, therefore, to the altar of religion and legalism. In this way we come to share the reproach of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we do not share this reproach until we have taken up our cross over that period of time necessary to develop supergrace.

Verse 14 — the tale of two cities. We start out with the word “For”, a post-positive enclitic particle gar which is explanatory in its connotation. To be explained is the fact that the city of Jerusalem has been captured by reversionism. The capture of the city of Jerusalem by reversionism means that the headquarters at the beginning of the Church Age has been taken over. The fact that the city has been taken over by reversionism, however, has not destroyed the eternal headquarters of the Church which is the heavenly Jerusalem. So we are looking at two cities, both called Jerusalem. There is the earthly Jerusalem of AD 67, now apostate and reversionistic and on the verge of being destroyed by the Romans. And we have the eternal heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation 21:2, 9-11.

The word “here” is the adverb of place w(de referring to the city of Jerusalem in AD 67. We are told in this verse why we must go outside the camp, why we must separate from religion. The Church no longer has Jerusalem as the headquarters of Christianity, it has been captured and taken over by reversionism, and three years after this was written it was captured and destroyed by the Romans.

“we have no” — present active participle of e)xw plus the negative o)uk. The present tense is a historical present which views the past event of Jerusalem’s apostasy and reversionism with the vividness of a present occurrence. Jerusalem will never again ever be the headquarters for Christianity. The royal family of God produces the action of the verb under the active voice. We do not have Jerusalem as a grace centre, as a headquarters for the royal family, nor do we have it as a holy city for the Church. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated, “For here [in Jerusalem] we do not have.”

“a continuing city” — the word continuing a present active participle of the verb menw which means to abide. The ascriptive use of the participle means that it is now used as an adjective and means abiding. Then we have the word polij for “city.”

Principles

1. Jerusalem is not an abiding city.

2. It has been captured by Satan and destroyed by legalistic reversionism. All of its local churches are apostate. There are some non-apostate types in these churches but they are making no advance because they are starved to death spiritually.

3. It was about to be overtaken by the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, therefore destroyed.

4. Therefore, the Church, the royal family of God, must look elsewhere for its headquarters.

5. The first capital of the Church Age has become the headquarters of legalism and reversionism./

6. Until the end of the Millennium and the beginning of the eternal state the Church will not have a holy city on earth. In the Millennium it will have one suspended above the earth.

7. In the meantime, as always, our headquarters is in heaven, the throne room of God, where Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. In other words, the holy of holies is our permanent home, our permanent residence, and our headquarters.

“but” is the adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up a contrast between the two cities. One city, Jerusalem, is the city of apostasy. The other city is the third heaven which is the headquarters for the believer in this dispensation.

“we seek” — present active indicative of e)pizetew which connotes here and intensive search or an intensive desire. for something. Here it means an intensive search and an intensive desire all put in one ball of wax — “but we keep on desiring.” The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. It is also called the present tense of duration. The active voice: the royal family who are positive toward doctrine fulfil the action of this verb. They desire the residency of their real home, they desire their future headquarters. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Our desire for our permanent headquarters is because it is the residence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and once we have maximum doctrine in the soul we have occupation with the person of Christ and maximum category #1 love.

“one to come” — the articular present active participle of mellw, which means “one coming.” The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the future reality of the eternal city which will be the headquarters of the royal family forever. The present tense is the futuristic present to denote an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in the mind of the writer it is already a reality. The active voice: the eternal holy city produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

Translation: “For here [in Jerusalem] we do not have an abiding city, but we keep desiring that one which is coming.”

The article used for the demonstrative pronoun refers to the eternal holy city. It is found in Revelation 21:2. This holy city is in contrast with the Jerusalem which was destroyed in 70 AD as a part of God’s judgement against Israel and against reversionism. This holy city must also be distinguished from the Millennial Jerusalem. Our headquarters will be above the Millennial Jerusalem, not right on the earth.

The difference between the Millennial Jerusalem and the eternal Jerusalem

The Millennial Jerusalem is described as having natural light, whereas the eternal Jerusalem is set to have supernatural light in Revelation 21:11,23; 22:5.

The Millennial Jerusalem has no walls — Zechariah 2:4,5. The eternal has walls and pearly gates — Revelation 21:12.

The Millennial Jerusalem has a temple — Ezekiel chapters 40-48. The eternal Jerusalem has no temple — Revelation 21:3, 22.

The Millennial Jerusalem has animal sacrifices used as a memorial to the death of Christ — Ezekiel chapters 40-48. There are no animal sacrifices in the eternal Jerusalem.

The Millennial Jerusalem has unsaved people living in the city — Zechariah 12:6; 14:11. Only saved people live in the eternal Jerusalem — Revelation 21:24,27; 22:14.

There are living waters coming from the temple in the Millennial Jerusalem — Ezekiel 47:1. In the eternal Jerusalem the water of life comes from the throne of God — Revelation 22:1.

In the Millennial Jerusalem there are trees for food and healing — Ezekiel 47:7-12. In the eternal Jerusalem there is only the tree of life — Revelation 22:2.

Verse 15 — the sacrifice of praise, one of the sacrifices of the royal priesthood. “By him” is the preposition dia plus the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasise identity. It therefore has demonstrative force. This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun so it should translated literally, “Through the same one,” i.e. through Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest is in view here. The specialised priesthood in Israel in the past offered special shadow sacrifices while the universal priesthood of the royal family offers spiritual and real sacrifices. They offered their shadow sacrifices on an altar and they offered an animal. We offer ours on an altar, Bible doctrine resident in the soul, but instead of an animal we offer the sacrifice of our lips which is praise. Praise is an expression of your category #1 love, therefore it varies with the individual. Doctrine in the soul is what becomes the sacrifice of praise or the sacrifice of your lips.

“therefore” — the inferential particle o)un is used to denote what is introduced as a result of what precedes; “let us offer” — the present active subjunctive of a)naferw which means to offer up. It was used in the Septuagint for the offering up of the Levitical sacrifices. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs in the royal priesthood when the believer is positive toward doctrine, when the believer begins to build inside of his soul his own altar. The altar is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This produces the action of offering praise. The royal priest in the Church Age only offers praise when he is filled with Bible doctrine. The subjunctive mood is a hortatory subjunctive in which the writer invites the readers to join him in a course of action. it therefore carries the weight of a command — one in which the writer intends to obey and he wants the readers to join him.

We are familiar with the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood. They offered animal sacrifices, food sacrifices, at a specific altar under specific conditions. In verse 10 of this chapter we have seen the new altar which is composed of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. In order for that doctrine to be there, there must be that constant use of the rebound technique. The rebound technique is comparable to the last two of the Levitical sacrifices, the trespass offering and the sin offering. So the first sacrifice of the royal priesthood we might call the use of rebound. it is the basis for the filling of the Holy Spirit which is the basis for balance of residency or Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer. Verse 10, then, implies our first sacrifice.

Then we have in verses 11 and 12 of our paragraph the contrast between the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood — actual animals — and the sacrifice of our priesthood which is, of course, Bible doctrine resident in the soul producing certain things.

In verse 13 we had a specific sacrifice mentioned again, the royal sacrifice of perspicacity. That is the function of GAP. GAP is a part of the sacrifice of the priesthood. In that same verse we studied separation as a sacrifice of the priesthood. But notice that separation is in the third place, it cannot come before rebound and GAP. There is no separation until you are filled with the Spirit and have doctrine in the soul as the basis for making your separation.

Now we come to the next one, the sacrifice of praise. It is called a sacrifice, the accusative singular direct object from the noun qusia, the regular Greek word for sacrifice. Qusia is used here in contrast to the shadow offerings of the Levitical code. There are real offerings based on Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The word qusia is minus the definite article because of the emphasis on the quality of the sacrifice. The quality of the sacrifice is the highest and the noblest. The quality of the sacrifice of praise is based upon Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The word “praise” itself is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun a)inesij. The sacrifice of praise is the believer’s doctrinal response, specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ as the revealed member of the Trinity, but also to the other members of the Trinity. Therefore, by way of analogy, as sex is an expression of category #2 love so praise is the expression of category #1 love. Praise is the soul’s appreciation of Jesus Christ expressed verbally or vocally from altar inside — Bible doctrine resident in the soul. It comes at intervals. You have to brush your teeth and do other things along the way! So keep it balanced. Praise in the soul, then, is the appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ from your inner altar. The altar must be built before you can praise God. Capacity for love is expressed in praise.

“to God” — dative of indirect object from the noun qeoj. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act of praise is performed. It is with the definite article to indicate a very well-known person. God here is Jesus Christ.

“continually” — a prepositional phrase, dia plus the genitive of paj. It is a Classical Greek idiom of extended time and it means “always.”

“that is” — tout e)stin, a phrase use for apposition. E)stin is the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, and tout is the nominative neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. So in apposition to the sacrifice of praise we have “the fruit of our lips” or literally, “fruit of lips.” We have the accusative singular of karpoj used as a Hebrew idiom for the praise offering of the royal priesthood. Karpoj explains what is meant by praise by setting up apposition. Praise, in other words, is speech. It is homage to God, eulogy, approbation, verbal worship, based on doctrine resident in the soul. “Of lips” is the genitive plural dual of the noun xeiloj. There is no definite article here. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the fruit of the lips, namely production based on doctrine resident in the soul.

“giving thanks” — present active participle of o(mologew. The only problem is that o(mologew doesn’t mean to give thanks, it means to acknowledge. The present tense is an iterative present describing what recurs at successive intervals. In other words, we don’t praise God all the time, it occurs at successive intervals, at regular intervals. This is sometimes called the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: the royal priest produces the action of the verb from doctrine resident in his soul. The participle is a modal participle signifying the manner in which the action of the main verb is accomplished. The main verb is “be offering up.”

“to his name” is the dative singular of o)noma meaning name or celebrityship. With it we have that intensive pronoun used in a possessive sense — “acknowledging his fame.” The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the function of the priestly praise is performed.

Translation: “Through the same one [Jesus Christ], let us continually be offering up a sacrifice of praise, that is, a fruit of lips acknowledging his fame.”

Principle: The royal priesthood offers its own sacrifices

1. The sacrifice of rebound producing the filling of the Spirit.

2. The sacrifice of GAP — the filling of the Spirit producing doctrine resident in the soul.

3. From this a result: the sacrifice of separation, rebound plus GAP, results in the altar in the soul. The altar in the soul is the place of sacrifice. There we offer two sacrifices on that altar. The first is separation, the second one is the sacrifice of praise.

When you have an altar in the soul it means that you have systematically rebounded, that you have systematically been positive toward doctrine, that you positive volition toward doctrine has produced inside of your soul this wonderful altar of the royal family, and with it you produce the sacrifice of separation, the sacrifice of praise, and the sacrifice of divine good.

Verse 16 — the conjunction which begins the verse should be translated “also.” It is a post positive conjunctive particle de. It is used in the transitional sense without any contrast intended.

“to do good” — this is a noun, the objective genitive singular of e)upoiia which means the doing of good. It has a definite article which means that it was well understood by the people to whom this was written, they understood the issue of divine good — “Also the doing of good.”

“and to communicate” — the objective singular from the noun koinwnia which means generosity here. “forget not” — the present middle imperative from e)pilanqanomai means to neglect. With the negative mh it means “stop neglecting.” The present tense is a descriptive present indicating what the believers in Jerusalem were doing. They were neglecting the production of divine good. The middle voice of e)pilanqanomai is an indirect middle emphasising the agent as producing the action of the verb, rather than as participating in its results. The imperative plus the negative is an negative command or the imperative of prohibition. They have been neglecting divine good because they are negative toward doctrine, negative toward rebound. Obviously these believers were in reversionism. To produce divine good requires doctrine in the soul. Grace generosity always demands the altar in the soul, and they have not constructed the altar through the function of GAP. The neglecting of these priestly sacrifices means the failure of rebound and the failure of the function of GAP. In other words, they are negative toward Bible doctrine. The neglecting of doctrine means the neglecting of the normal function of the priesthood. These sacrifices are offered in a normal way when the believer has reached supergrace.

The doctrine of divine good

1. Definition. Divine good is the production of the royal priesthood based upon an altar in the soul, i.e. doctrine resident in the soul. Therefore divine good is the production of doctrine resident in the soul.

2. The source of divine good. Divine good originates from the balance of residency in the soul, therefore from three sources. The balance of residency includes the filling of the Holy Spirit, doctrine resident in the soul or the altar, and supergrace status.

3. The believer in time is the recipient of grace. Consequently he is designed by God for the function of divine good — Ephesians 2:10.

4. The grace principle of divine good — 2 Corinthians 9:8. The abundance for the production of divine good is Bible doctrine resident in the soul or the altar of the royal priest.

5. In the grace perspective of GAP and the resultant altar in the soul this is the means of the production of divine good — Colossians 1:9,10; 2 Timothy 2:21; Titus 2:7.

6. Divine good produced by grace is both mental and verbal — 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17.

7. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

8. Divine good will be rewarded under the principle of surpassing grace — 2 Corinthians 5:10.

“for” — the explanatory use of gar, a post positive particle; “with such sacrifices” — the instrumental plural of cause from the categorical Attic demonstrative toi o)utoj, plus qusia means “because of such sacrifices;” “God” — o( qeoj, “the God,” God the Father, author of the divine plan, source of grace.

“is well pleased” — present passive indicative of e)uarestew, and it means to be pleased. It is a static present for a condition which always exists under these conditions. The passive voice: God receives delight when the royal priesthood in supergrace status produces the sacrifices. The indicative mood is declarative for the statement of a simple fact. It represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute dogmatic certainty, God is always pleased with the function and the operation of the supergrace hero.

Translation: “Now stop neglecting the doing of good and generosity: for because of such sacrifices the God is well pleased.”

The doctrine of the royal sacrifices

These sacrifices are the many sacrifices that are offered on the altar of Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

1. Definition: The royal and universal priesthood of the believer demands priestly function in the field of sacrifice. The Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament and of Israel offered animal sacrifices on a brass altar in front of a tabernacle or in the forecourt of the temple after it was constructed. The royal priest of the Church Age does not have a metal altar, an overt altar that can be seen, but an altar in his soul. The altar in the soul of the royal priest is the accumulation of bible doctrine which becomes resident there. This accumulation is based upon his consistent daily function of GAP. The sacrifices of the royal priesthood of the Church Age, therefore, all come from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

2. The sacrifice of the rebound technique is mentioned specifically as a priestly sacrifice in Romans 12:1 where the living sacrifice is the rebound technique. This is the way in which we present our bodies. This is comparable to the fourth and fifth Levitical sacrifices which portrayed the rebound technique. The sin offering of Leviticus chapter four emphasised rebound on the unknown sins and the trespass offering of Leviticus chapters five and six was rebound with emphasis on the known sins of the believer. The rebound technique of 1 John 1:9 and 1 Corinthians 11:31 is the means of the filling of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit is the means for the daily function of GAP and therefore the means for the construction of our priestly altar in the soul.

3. The sacrifice of the daily function of GAP — Hebrews 13:10 mentions this under the construction of an altar. The altar of the royal priesthood here is in contrast to the altar of the Levitical priesthood. Remember that the Levitical priesthood was specialised, belonging to one family, the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron. They functioned at a definite brass altar. However, the royal priesthood of which we are a part has its altar in the soul and, again, it is the accumulation of Bible doctrine resident there. They royal altar of the believer, then, is constructed by the daily function of GAP and all of the offerings are based upon doctrine resident in the soul. Therefore our basic priestly function as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is our daily intake of the Word of God. The result of this is maturity or the supergrace life.

4. The sacrifice of separation — Hebrews 13:13 — is the result of maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Doctrine in the soul is the dictator that gives us wisdom with what we associate and what we do not. All separation is the principle of choosing your own associations.

5. The sacrifice of praise — Hebrews 13:15. This is the mental and verbal expression of category #1 love or occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

6. The sacrifice of divine good — Hebrews 13:16. This sacrifice, again, is the result of the construction of the altar in the soul, and this sacrifice is the attainment of the supergrace life and the normal function of that life. The normal function of the supergrace life produces divine good.

7. The sacrifice of academic discipline, and that brings us to verse Hebrews 13:17, the sacrifice of your recognition of your right pastor and consistently assembling to learn doctrine under his ministry. This sacrifice demands maximum objectivity. From the ministry of God the Holy Spirit this is possible and this sacrifice demands maximum concentration on teaching.

Verse 17 — anyone who is a student obviously must live under the principle of sacrifice. The word “obey” is the present middle imperative of the verb peiqw. It means to obey in the present tense. This is a pictorial present tense, it has the distinctive force of presenting to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurrence. The picture is one of the believer priest, a member of the royal family of God forever, sitting in a classroom and concentrating on the teaching of Bible doctrine. This is also called a customary present to denote what is reasonably expected of any member of the royal family of God. Every member of the royal family has a right pastor and that is your academic authority. The middle voice is the permissive middle, it represents the agent, the believer priest, as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action of the verb, or seeking to secure the action’s results in his own behalf. In other words, you as a member of the royal family of God are sitting in Bible class and listening to the teaching of the Word of God in order that you might reach supergrace and the blessings of paragraph SG², the place where God is glorified. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. This is a command to all members of the royal family of God.

Principles about the word “obey”

Since every believer is a priest and since every believer is royalty it is important to understand the system of authority authorised by God for the universal priesthood. Two basic principles of authority exist in the royal family of God, one is overt and one is inside. The overt makes it possible to have the inner authority. The overt authority in the royal family is the gift of pastor-teacher and, again, every priest has his own right pastor who communicates the Word of God. In his communication he is the authority, he speaks in monologue and everyone else listens. But the whole purpose for the overt authority is to make the believer spiritually self-sustaining, to give him an inner dictator of his soul. So there is an inner authority. Bible doctrine resident in the soul must become the dictator of the believer’s life. This is only possible by reaching the supergrace life, this calls for a lot of recognition of the authority of your right pastor so that you can grow up spiritually and become mature. These are the two systems of authority which exist in the royal family — the overt, including the divine delegated authority of the pastor-teacher as the communicator of the Word of God; the inner authority, consisting of the believer with Bible doctrine resident in his soul. This demand (obey) brings together both systems of authority in the royal family: the right pastor plus the function of your own free will in positive volition toward doctrine.

There is a very important biblical principle here. A sign of human maturity is your ability to recognise whatever authority exists in your general life, and your ability to respond to that authority with objectivity is a sign of your maturity. All principles of maturity are related to volition and to free will. For example, human maturity is the ability to assume the responsibility for the decisions of your free will. That is true as far as the royal family is concerned. The believer priest must take the responsibility for his attitude toward doctrine. If it is positive there will be great blessing in his life; if it is negative there will be great discipline. There is no middle ground for the royal family. You are going to come to the place of great blessing or you are going to come to the place of great discipline. You must decide, but remember this: in your decision you must take the responsibility for that decision.

“them that have the rule” — this is a dative case, present middle participle of the verb e(geomai. E(geomai means to guide, to lead, to govern, to rule. It means to guide in the sense of knowing what you are doing and taking along people who don’t know what they’re doing. It also means to govern and rule those who understand the issue, so that would take care of the more mature people in any congregation. But it does mean to rule. “Keep obeying those who themselves are ruling.” This is a present middle participle. The retroactive progressive present tense denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. God has provided for every believer in this life his right pastor-teacher, and for those who are positive toward his ministry they are going to grow up. Those who are negative are called reversionists because they have reverted from the normal function of the royal family of God. The middle voice is an indirect middle which emphasises the pastor as the agent producing the action. The pastor has the rule over the congregation. The participle is circumstantial for pastors having authority over one local church. This authority is established on the basis of faithful Bible teaching. And when the pastor is the ruler of a congregation it should be very definitely understood that he does you a favour by being the ruler because the sooner you get Bible doctrine, the sooner you have an altar in your own soul, the sooner you will find the control centre dictates your life. In other words, you become spiritually self-sustaining. On the basis of Bible doctrine in your soul you are going to handle your own life. We also have the dative case which is the dative of advantage. it is to your advantage to have authority as a member of the royal family. We also have a definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the pastor as the authority over the local church. The corrected translation of this portion of the Word says, “Keep obeying those [pastors] who themselves are ruling over you.”

“over you” is an objective genitive plural from the personal pronoun su — “you all.” it is more than one person. A pastor cannot rule one person, that is dictatorship. He has to be ruling a group of people, two or more. So the objective genitive plural is used for all members of the body of Christ or the royal family of God on earth. In the universal priesthood of the believer the pastor-teacher is the ruler of the sheep, and this authority is necessary for the teaching and communicating the Word of God so that the believer might build within himself his own altar. This is the only way we fulfil the purpose for which God leaves us in this life. He leaves us here to glorify Himself. He leaves us here for the purpose of glorifying Him through growth, through the attainment of maturity. The only way that you will ever glorify God is to be on the high ground of supergrace, and the only way you get there is through learning Bible doctrine. Therefore, only through doctrine resident in the soul can a royal altar be constructed in your soul. The responsibility for the transfer of doctrine from the canon of scripture to your soul is the responsibility of your pastor-teacher. No pastor can effectively communicate Bible doctrine apart from strict academic discipline.

The doctrine of didaskw — one of the many designations for the pastor-teacher. Didaskw means “teacher.”

1. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom in which didaskw operates. It operates in the classroom only. There must be a local church and it must be organised according to biblical principles.

2. The pastor-teacher must have complete authority as well as the proper spiritual gift. He must, along with the spiritual gift, study, prepare, teach. And he must have along with his study and his preparation that which is lacking to day among pastor-teachers — moral courage and academic honesty. Moral courage keeps the pastor-teacher objective in the communication of all subjects in the Word of God.

3. The public assembly of the local church is designed for the privacy of the royal family. The reason that the local church is the way God has ordained is because as royalty it gives you privacy. When the believer is in the local assembly he is called maqhthj. It is translated in our English Bibles “disciple,” but maqhthj means “student.” The one who teaches is called manqanw which means the teacher of the disciples, the students. He is also called didaskw which is the same as manqanw except that didaskw carries more authority. Didaskw emphasises the authority; manqanw emphasises the function.

4. Therefore, only in the public communication of doctrine in the classroom of the local church does the believer have the necessary privacy for learning Bible doctrine, its personal application, and living his life as unto the Lord — Colossians 3:16,17.

5. Personal time with the individual — one on one — is an intrusion upon the freedom and privacy of the royal priesthood. It violates freedom, it becomes a system of dictatorship, it becomes bullying.

6. Primarily the pastor is the teacher, a policy-maker, a super-student of the Word, an administrator and a spiritual leader. By administration is meant finding those in the congregation who can do it. All of these are accomplished without intrusion upon the privacy of other members of the congregation.

7. The pastor, therefore, must have absolute authority in teaching. His authority is derived from the spiritual gift and the authorised authority by God Himself. His objectives in teaching are to construct the inner altar of the royal priesthood — Bible doctrine resident in the soul; and secondly, the lead the believer to the tactical victory of supergrace; thirdly, to accomplish this by equipping the believer with the full armour from God; fourth, to challenge the royal family of God to pick up the cross and follow the Lord Jesus, which means constant consistent coming to Bible class.

“Keep obeying those [pastors] who themselves are ruling over you.”

Next, “and submit yourselves” — first of all we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, plus the present active imperative of the verb u(peikw which means to submit to someone’s authority. The present tense has very strong linear aktionsart, which means as long as you live you will always have a right pastor. It indicates a static present for a situation that perpetually exists. The active voice: every believer must fulfil the action of the verb and grow up to glorify God in time. The imperative mood is a very strong command. The word “yourselves” is derived from the middle voice, there is no reflexive pronoun here.

This means…

1. The key to learning doctrine is amenability to discipline.

2. Because of conflicting personalities, conflicting doctrines and viewpoints, which you often possess when you come to class discipline becomes the factor of cohesion, listening in spite of your own personal disagreement.

3. This authority also means maximum privacy of the believer priest.

4. With the local church as a place for public teaching of doctrine plus one person in authority you are guaranteed the privacy of your priesthood in learning doctrine.

We have come to the first of several classifications of doctrine which amplify the translation. The doctrine before us at the moment:

The factors necessary to learn Bible doctrine

1. Positive volition toward the Word of God and the realisation of the importance of doctrine resident in the soul. You have to have strong motivation to be consistent in the function of GAP. You have to understand the importance of the transfer of doctrine from the Word, from the printed page, to the thought content of your soul. You have to understand the importance of the royal priesthood, the importance of the altar, and how the altar is constructed on the daily function of GAP.

2. The second factor is the expression of positive volition in a stabilised attendance of your own local church. The expression of positive volition in regular, consistent attendance involves the positive identification of your own right pastor, and therefore your own local church.

3. The filling of the Holy Spirit which is provided in grace through the rebound technique. No one can learn doctrine apart from the Spirit’s ministry.

4. Objectivity with regard to the personality, the grooming, the public speaking, and the overt character of the pastor. Included in the objectivity are the preconceived notions as to what you expect from a pastor. You must in your objectivity learn to focus attention on the teaching of the Word of God.

5. Objectivity with regard to the content of the pastor’s message. This often becomes a hang-up to people. They can’t stand the language of the message and the subject. There are several problems in this area. The content, for one thing, may seem to be irrelevant for the moment. The content may be critical of you and may even destroy your lifestyle temporarily. The content may not be euphemistic and therefore offensive to you personally. The content may have no personal interest for you.

6. The believer must have patience. The believer sitting in a congregation, listening to Bible teaching, must be very patient with the pastor and patient in hearing doctrine. The reason is that he will not understand everything at once.

7. The believer must also have privacy in public assembly, and therefore he must give privacy to other members in public assembly. The believer also in the assembly must avoid gossip, maligning, and a critical attitude toward other believers.

8. The believer, in order to learn doctrine, must have good manners. But you expect good manners because royalty have good manners. Good manners makes it possible for the entire congregation to concentrate. Believers must not create a disturbance through body movement.

9. The believer himself must exercise maximum mental self-discipline by his concentration on the message.

10. The believer must understand the grace principle of giving, and being willing to give without coercion, to support the administration and the function of the local church.

All of these functions come through spiritual growth and progress coupled with the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 17b — “for” is the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gar. It is used to express a reason.; “they watch” — “they” refers to pastor-teachers as a classification, as a group of people station throughout the world. “They watch” — present active indicative of a)grupnew. The word means to be awake. Not just awake, however, you can be awake and be asleep. This means to be awake and be vigilant, to watch while others sleep. So we translate this, “For they keep watching.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs with the type of pastor who teaches Bible doctrine. He loses sleep to prepare but his preparation and communication provides a guard or a watch over your soul. The active voice: the pastor who teaches doctrine produces the action of the verb. In other words, at a time when he ought to be sleeping he is mounting guard. The indicative mood is the potential indicative, it has the idea of contingency. This is called the potential of obligation. The pastor is obligated to be alert when others sleep. In other words, long hours spent in studying. The nominative plural actually belongs to an intensive pronoun, a)utoj. This is the subject of the verb. It is the intensive pronoun used here as a demonstrative and it refers here to pastor-teachers. This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun and in its demonstrative sense it can be translated “they", but it is literally, “for these same ones.”

“for your souls” is a prepositional phrase, u(per plus the ablative of yuxh — “for the benefit of your souls.” We also have a personal pronoun here in the genitive of possession meaning “your souls.” This means that every pastor who teaches doctrine is constantly alert for the benefit of the souls of those in his congregation.

The pastor’s alert

1. The pastor’s alert is his constant and daily study of the Word of God through which he exegetes every passage, relates it to its historical setting, and categorises its pertinent doctrine.

2. This is known as the ICE approach — Isagogics, Categories, Exegesis.

3. The pastor’s alert includes the use of his authority to rule the congregation.

4. This means that he must protect the privacy and the rights of all members of his congregation.

5. This includes the right to exercise authority in removing from the congregation those believers who are unruly, gossiping, maligning, intruding upon the privacy of others.

6. Therefore this verb suggests that the pastor-teacher is on a lifetime red alert.

Principle

1. The true function of the pastor-teacher is the benefit of the souls of his congregation.

2. The pastor’s ministry is too vital to be ignored, rejected or distracted, and therefore there is always the process of some staying and some departing. In this way the souls of the ones who remain will be benefited. The soul is where Bible doctrine must reside for grace benefit in your life.

3. The soul of the believer is the battleground for the angelic conflict. It is the place for residency of Bible doctrine which leads to growth and the attainment of all objectives, including supergrace.

4. The pastor is the means of transferring Bible doctrine from the page of the canon of scripture to the soul and the spirit of the individual believer.

5. Therefore the pastor is a part of the grace provision for learning Bible doctrine.

Grace provision for learning Bible doctrine

1. The formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as God’s faithfulness in protecting the written canon from Satanic destruction. Satan is constantly attacking the Word of God. The 20^th century believer has the canon intact, preserved in the original languages, so that the meaning of any passage is as perspicuous today as it was in the time when it was written by the apostles or any other writer of scripture. This is grace.

2. Divine authorisation for the local church. The local church is the classroom for learning doctrine and therefore the place of assembly of all believers. The prescribed organisation is very simple. It includes the pastor as the absolute ruler, deacons as the administrators, and a congregation of believers who are positive toward Bible teaching. All worship is centred around learning doctrine, and therefore there must be strict academic discipline. The royal family assembled in the local church are students without portfolio. The only right they possess at that moment is the right to learn. The continued existence of local churches where doctrine is taught is a matter of grace in every generation of the Church Age.

3. The provision of your very own right pastor. All born-again believers have a right pastor. They may not be aware of it, but they do. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher provides ability and authority to communicate the Word of God via monologue. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, like all spiritual gifts, is a grace gift from God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation.

4. The royal priesthood of the believer. Every believer is his own priest. This is the royal priesthood of the believer as a grace provision for learning Bible doctrine. In this dispensation there exists for the first time, and the only time in history, the universal and royal priesthood of all believers, those who are saved in this dispensation. The purpose of this priesthood is for privacy and reception of Bible doctrine. Each believer must have doctrine resident in his own soul as a priest must have his own altar. Your own altar is made up of the amount of doctrine you have assimilated in your spiritual life. Each believer must grow in grace through knowledge of doctrine. Therefore each believer priest must live his life as unto the Lord.

5. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is inevitably related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit who at the moment of salvation accomplishes five things for every believer.

a) Baptism of the Holy Spirit by which we become royal family in distinction from all people to all people who are born again in previous dispensations and future dispensations. The Church Age is the only dispensation in which the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at the point of salvation for each believer. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is every believer entered into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Being in union with Christ gives us our royalty.

b) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It must be understood that this is indwelling of the body of the royal priest.

c) The sealing of the Holy Spirit which is the security of the royal priest.

d) Regeneration or being born again.

e) The sovereign giving of a spiritual gift. The spiritual gift is a part of the function of the royal priesthood in this dispensation.

So the aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is related, then, to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and at the moment of salvation these things which are provided also become the basis for learning Bible doctrine. The Holy Spirit, therefore, not only regenerates the Church Age believer but simultaneously performs these other four ministries. For the first time in history the believer’s body is indwelt by the Spirit, he is in union with Christ, he is sealed to the day of redemption, he possesses at least one spiritual gift. All of this adds up to one of the titles that every believer possesses, ambassador for Christ. Every believer is the personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. So we have royal ambassadorship.

In addition to these five ministries at the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit also controls the soul under the subject of the filling of the Spirit in order that we might learn Bible doctrine. It is impossible for us to taker in doctrine apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is imperative that each one of us be in fellowship during the teaching of the Word of God. This is also proved for by means of grace. We have the rebound technique which is strictly a grace operation.

6. The provision of the human spirit. We not only have the third person of the Trinity to make it possible for us to learn doctrine but we are provided at the point of salvation a human spirit. Remember that we are born into this world dichotomous — body and soul, we do not have a human spirit. When the soul is saved at the point of regeneration we receive a human spirit and become trichotomous. The human spirit is that immaterial, invisible part of the believer by which doctrine is stored for the purpose of processing and construction. The human spirit is the first target for doctrine in the function of GAP, doctrine is stored in the human spirit. From there is flows into the heart or the right lobe, and there is becomes the basis for the construction of the edification complex of the soul. The principle of perspicacity by means of the Holy Spirit teaching the human spirit is found in Romans 8:16,17. The human spirit and the Holy Spirit are both necessary and grace provision for learning Bible doctrine.

7. God’s provision of the laws of divine establishment. Under the laws of divine establishment the nation is responsible for protecting the freedom and the privacy of the local church. Here is the importance of the principle of freedom through military victory as well as the importance of true law enforcement in the national entity. There is no local church without a strong military to protect the freedoms of a nation. The system of authority which exists throughout the laws of establishment is the basis also for the orderly function of the local church. The believer who rejects the authority of the police officer will also reject the authority of the pastor-teacher.

8. The principle of grace in human anatomy. None of us could learn any doctrine unless we have some normal function within the framework of physiology. In our physiological being we have the perfect illustration of grace because all kinds of people, regardless of merit or demerit, have the ability to think. All ability to think, all ability to draw erroneous conclusions or good conclusions comes from human anatomy. In the anatomy of grace there are certain non-meritorious functions of the human body which provide the ability to think and to concentrate, thereby contributing the assimilation of Bible doctrine. Two things are necessary for thinking from the standpoint of body function. There must be oxygen in the blood and there must be energy in the neurons of the brain. Both of these are provided on a grace basis. These grace processes all go to make it possible for the believer to learn doctrine and to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 — “Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you, and submit to their authority: for these same ones [pastors] keep watching for the benefit of your souls.”

Next is the comparative particle o(j used to introduce a comparative clause — “as.” it is used to explain what has just preceded. There is an explanation for this. The pastor has responsibility before God, both now and in eternity.

“they must give an account” — the future active participle of a)podidomi means to “render an account.” The future tense is the predictive future, pertaining to the judgement seat of Christ which occurs after the Rapture where pastors lose or receive decorations based upon your spiritual advance in life. The active voice: every believer who has the gift of pastor-teacher and has a congregation will have to render an account with regard to that congregation at the judgement seat of Christ. The telic participle denotes purpose. The pastor has no worries as long as he is faithful in teaching the Word. The rest is up to the congregation’s volition. So this should be translated “as those having to render an account” — 1 Peter 5:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20.

Summary

1. In this last phrase the crown or wreath of glory is the highest eternal decoration available to the pastor-teacher in his paragraph SG³.

2. This reward is given for his faithful and consistent teaching of doctrine under the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.

3. While other rewards and decorations are open to the pastor this one is presented for everyone in his congregation who gets to surpassing grace.

4. When any number of the congregation persist in the function of GAP under the pastor’s ministry, reaching the high ground of supergrace, transferring to eternity by dying grace, decorated under surpassing grace forever, such members of the royal family becomes the pastor’s present happiness and future reward.

5. This future reward is called in 1 Peter 5:4 the wreath of glory.

6. Here, then, is the explanation and motivation for a pastor studying and persisting in Bible teaching.

7. No congregation ever grows on programs, devotionals, evangelistic messages, and textual sermons.

“that they may do it” — the conjunction kai introduces a final clause. This is a rare use of kai. The futuristic present tense denotes judgement, the judgement seat of Christ, evaluation. We have the future tense of the verb poiew for “do it.” It is a futuristic present which denotes the judgement seat of Christ, an event which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain to happen that it is put in the present. Therefore the futuristic present indicates the reality that every pastor will stand before Jesus Christ after the Rapture and give an account of his congregation. The active voice: each pastor produces the action of the verb at the judgement seat of Christ. The subjunctive mood is potential, it is used in a subordinate clause to imply a future reference.

“with joy” — meta plus the genitive of xara which means “with happiness”; “and not with grief” — remember the pastor is in his resurrection body, the Rapture has occurred. He can be miserable once in his resurrection body. The word “grief” is the present active participle of stenazw and it means “groaning.” The participle is used as a substantive here.

“for” is the explanatory use of the post positive particle gar; “that” — the nominative neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun a)utoj. This refers to the pastor’s groaning because of the failure of his congregation to respond to his teaching. So not only does the pastor groan in time for negative volition but he groans at the judgement seat of Christ.

“is unprofitable” — a nominative singular neuter from the adjective a)lusitelej which means “disastrous or unprofitable”; “for you” — the pastor only has to groan, the disaster belongs to the congregation.

Translation: “Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you, and submit to their authority: for these same ones [pastors] keep watching for the benefit of your souls, as those having to render an account. Keep on obeying in order that they may do this accounting with inner happiness, and not with groaning: for this accounting with groaning is disastrous for you.”

Principle

The faithful teaching of doctrine from the pastor results in the spiritual maturity of the congregation. This spiritual maturity is described under four great synonyms in the Word.

a) Tactical victory, following the colours to the high ground of supergrace — Philippians 3:12-15; Hebrews 12:1,2.

b) The royal priest building an altar in his soul — Hebrews 13:10.

c) Taking up the cross and following the Lord — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27.

d) Putting on the full armour of God — Ephesians 6:11,13.

All of these synonyms are related to the daily function of GAP and the resultant Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer. Therefore each one demands that we spend time under the ministry of our right pastor every day.

We have an altar made up of doctrine, and from this altar we make our royal sacrifices.

Verse 18 — the sacrifice of prayer. Prayer is one of the sacrifices and of all of the things that functions of the priesthood which requires maturity prayer is tops on the list. Prayer actually requires more concentration and good prayer is hard work. The only people who are really free to spend any lengthy time in prayer are people who really have nothing else to do in life. They are confined to an area, they develop a tremendous maturity, they develop their altar and they become great prayer warriors. Prayer is the hardest work in the Christian life. The ability to concentrate, the ability to be consistent in prayer is the most difficult thing, the least spectacular and yet the most important factor of the teamwork of the body of Christ on earth.

“Pray for us” — the present middle imperative from the verb proseuxomai. Proj means face to face. When you are praying you are face to face with God regardless of your posture. The present tense is a tendencial present for an action which is purposed and commanded of all royal priests but is not actually taking place with the ones to whom this was originally addressed. They original recipients of Hebrews weren’t praying, they were in reversionism. The tendencial present tells them they ought to be doing it but they’re not. The middle voice is simply a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning. The Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67 were guilty of neglecting prayer as a part of their function of the priesthood. In addition we have the imperative mood of command. They writer is demanding that they wake up and start praying and using their priestly function, and he asks that he be placed on their prayer lists. The words “for us", peri plus the genitive plural of the personal pronoun e)gw, should be translated “about us.” It means for us or about us or concerning us.

Some of the ground rules for prayer

You must remember that prayer is maximum concentration.

1. There are three categories of prayer received by God the Father. The first category comes from the greatest prayer warrior of all, the Lord Jesus Christ our great high priest — Hebrews 7:25 describes His prayer life on our behalf. The second area is the “emergency prayer.” God the Holy Spirit does all of the emergency praying — Romans 8:26,27. The third category is the prayer from the believer priest, as per Hebrews 4:16.

2. How to approach God in prayer. All prayer must be addressed to God the Father — Matthew 6:9; Ephesians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:17. The channel of approach is through our high priest, Jesus Christ — John 14:13,14. The power of approach of prayer is the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

3. We should understand that God has encouraged us to pray through promises. An extrapolation of prayer promises falls into three categories: Those related to the faith-rest technique, like Matthew 18:19; 21:22; Mark 11:24; or the Old Testament promises of prayer which are somewhat different from the New, but just as valid — Psalm 116:1,2; Isaiah 65:24; Jeremiah 33:3. Every legitimate prayer that ever was uttered in history was heard in eternity past, and if it was a legitimate prayer it was included in the plan. Then there are the New Testament promises, like Matthew 7:7,8; John 14:13:14; 15:7; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Hebrews 4:16, etc.

4. The eight principles of prayer.

a) Prayer effectiveness increases as Bible doctrine becomes resident in the soul. It is based upon the consistent function of GAP and the resultant doctrine in the soul. Prayer becomes more effective as the believer puts on the full armour from God, as he follows the colours to the high ground, as he constructs the altar of Bible doctrine in the soul. This principle is taught in John 15:7; Ephesians 3:16-19.

b) Prayer is an extension of the faith-rest technique. It is a soul exhale toward God — Matthew 21:22. The function of the faith-rest technique demands for its fuel the intake of doctrine on a daily basis.

c) Prayer demands cognisance of the will of God and therefore demands maximum doctrine in the soul — 1 John 5:14.

d) Generally prayer must be offered under the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18. The exception is the rebound prayer.

e) Mental attitude sins resulting from both carnality and reversionism destroy any possibility of an effective prayer life — Psalm 66:18.

f) Efficacious prayer exists to the extent that the believer is grace oriented. Therefore prayer begins to be effective when the believer has constructed the first floor of the ECS — Hebrews 4:16.

g) The eternal decrees took cognisance of all prayer in time and incorporated the answers before history began. Before there was any human history all of the prayers that would ever be uttered in human history were known to God through His omniscience, and as a part of the divine decrees they were incorporated into history long before history existed — Jeremiah 33:3.

h) Prayer effectiveness reaches its zenith at the time of supergrace status, and from then on if the believer holds the high ground he will become a great prayer warrior — Psalm 116:1,2.

5. Private prayer. Organisation is one thing that is absolutely necessary in an effective prayer life. So you need an agenda, and the Bible suggests a fourfold agenda for your private prayers.

a) Confession of sin is the first function of private prayer — 1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 11:31.

b) Thanksgiving — Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Thanksgiving is grace orientation, it recognises the source of all blessing.

c) Intercession (Praying for others) — Ephesians 6:18.

d) Petition.

6. The doctrine of intercession.

a) The dynamics of intercessory prayer are mentioned in 1 Kings 18:42-46; James 5:16-18.

b) The power of prevailing prayer — Acts 12.

c) The prayer for the unbeliever — Romans 10:1. (That the issue be made clear, that doctrine will be presented, that the witnessing and the evangelism will be so lucid that they will understand the issue)

d) The prayer for the unknown believer — Colossians 1:3-11.

e) Prayer for the known believer — Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21.

f) The true Lord’s prayer in John 17 — the dynamics of the Lord’s prayer.

7. The four categories of petition in prayer.

a) Positive-negative (Each petition is divided into two parts, the petition which is what you actually say; the desire, which is what you really want) in which the petition is answered with a positive but the desire behind the petition is not answered — 1 Samuel 8:5-9; 8:19,20. The Jews asked for a king so that they could be like other nations, and God gave them a king — Saul — but they weren’t like other nations, they had more trouble than all the others.

b) The negative-positive, where the petition is not answered but the desire is — Genesis 17:18; 18:23-33; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. This is where God says no to the petition but He gives you the desire behind it.

c) Positive-positive, the ideal prayer, where the petition is answered and the desire is also answered — 1 Kings 18:36,37; Judges 16:28; Luke 23:42,43; John 11:41,42,45.

d) Negative-negative, the worst prayer of all where neither the petition nor the desire is answered.

8. Nine reasons for negative-negative — why prayer is not answered.

a) Carnality or reversionism or both causes failure to be filled with the Spirit. Failure to be filled with the Spirit means failure in prayer — Ephesians 6:18.

b) Mental attitude sins caused by either carnality of reversionism hinder prayer — Psalm 66:18.

c) The specific Satanic sin of pride and resultant self-righteousness. This is not just the mental attitude sin but what comes from it. Job 35:12,13 says this person is dead when it comes to prayer.

d) Lust type selfishness — James 4:2-4.

e) The malfunction of faith-rest — Mark 11:24. This means negative volition, toward doctrine, one of the maladies of reversionism.

f) A general lack of obedience or a lack of subordination to divinely constituted authority — 1 John 3:22.

g) Insubordination to the known will of God — 1 John 5:14.

h) Malfunction of marriage. Lack of domestic tranquillity — 1 Peter 3:7.

i) Reversionistic lack of compassion and grace orientation. If you are legalistic your prayer life is ineffective. Proverbs 21:13.

9. The principle of grace in prayer.

a) The scripture tells us that grace is a principle in prayer — Hebrews 4:16; 1 Peter 1:7.

b) Prayer is the privilege of the royal priesthood, and since grace is the basis of prayer no believer can come to God in prayer and expect to be heard on the basis of his human merit, ability, or any other human success story.

c) In other words, every believer approaches God on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ. The Father has already been propitiated with Christ and since He is no respecter of persons as far as we are concerned He accepts and hears our prayer on the basis of the fact that we are in Christ. In other words, God doesn’t answer prayer because I’m good, because I’m benevolent, because I’m sincere, etc. God hears and answers prayer on the basis of who and what Christ is.

The first phrase of verse 18 says, “Be praying about us.” Next we have why the unknown writer has requested prayer from the recipients of this epistle.

“for” — the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. The explanatory particle indicates a demand for intercessory prayer, and such a demand requires explanation. The readers are mostly reversionists and so it seems at this stage to be a rather strange request, and he is not merely asking for prayer but since he is talking to those who are in reversionism and since he has challenged them to recover from reversionism he is actually doing something else. Apparently the writer has been under a tremendous amount of criticism from these readers. He is unknown to us but he was well-known to his readers. In effect, he is not only requesting prayer on behalf of himself but he is requesting prayer as a substitute for criticism. But more than that there is a principle here. All of us are inclined periodically to be critical of someone else. It is very easy to be critical of someone else that you do not know but whose appearance is offensive to you, or it may be something else; in other words, an in-built antagonism. We all have the temptation or we give in to the temptation and we roast someone at some time — unfairly, unjustly. Now the writer is saying, “Pray about us” for another reason, in fact two reasons: a) You need to pray to rebound, so obviously he is suggesting that at the beginning of their recovery they will have to begin with rebound and then move to a more positive attitude toward doctrine. b) But he is also saying that when you pray for someone you can’t be critical of them at the same time.

“we trust” — the present middle indicative from peiqw. Peiqw means many things, it means to be trusting, to obey, in the perfect tense it means to have confidence, it means with the middle voice here to be persuaded — “for we are persuaded.” The historical present tense is a past event viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is both a Classical Greek and a Koine Greek idiom. The middle voice is a direct middle in which the agent performs the action of the verb with the idea of gaining from the results of the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the persuasion here. “Be praying for us: for we are persuaded.” It is a little stronger than simply being talked into something, this means to be persuaded that something is true, axiomatic, a dogmatic irrevocable fact from God Himself

“we have” — the present active indicative of e)xw which means to have and to hold. There is a word found in the original but not found in the translation of the KJV, it is the conjunction o(ti. It is merely used as a means of indicating the concept of the persuasion. It is used after verbs of mental activity or perception or conclusion to denote the content of the persuasion or the conclusion — “that we keep having” is the way it should be translated. The retroactive progressive present denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. The unknown writer of Hebrews produces the action of the verb which is confidence about his own modus operandi which has been subject to a great deal of criticism by his readers. The indicative mood is declarative, simply stating a dogmatic fact.

“a good conscience” — in other words, the original readers in Jerusalem have been highly critical of the one who is writing them this epistle, they have apparently maligned him, and yet he has an honourable conscience. This is another way of saying he is right, they are wrong. He has to say this for another reason. The believers who receive this epistle were reversionistic, and being so and long out of fellowship, under divine discipline, this was designed to awaken them to their need. The word for “good” is the adjective kaloj which has many translations. The best general one is honourable or noble. The word for “conscience” is suneidhsij, the perfect tense form of o)ida which means to know. Sun is the preposition “with.” It means to know with. In other words, it means to have a standard of knowledge in your soul. The writer himself is a supergrace believer and he does possess an honourable conscience.

The doctrine of the conscience

1. Definition: A conscience is a norm or standard residing in the right lobe of the mentality of the soul. The conscience is located in the heart or the right lobe of the soul — Romans 2:15; Titus 1:15.

2. The conscience establishes norms for both human and divine relationship — Acts 24:16.

3. The conscience also has a part which is designed to establish concepts of wrong or right. The conscience, therefore, convicts of wrong or evil — John 8:9.

4. The conscience establishes norms for morality, for laws of establishment, for relationship with God — Romans 2:15.

5. False norms and standards in the conscience produce legalism or self-righteousness — 1 Corinthians 8:7.

6. The law of liberty and freedom, and certain superseding laws for the believer — love, expediency, supreme sacrifice, are also related to the function of the conscience — 1 Corinthians 10:24-29.

7. Conscience is the basis for patriotism and establishment — Romans 13:5.

8. Human happiness in the field of neutral H, which is legitimate happiness, is based on compliance to the standards of one’s own conscience — 2 Corinthians 1:12. No person is a happy person who is violating his own standards.

9. Norms and standards reside in the conscience for the communication of doctrine — 2 Corinthians 4:2. By having these norms and standards in the conscience we avoid intellectual dishonesty as well as academic snobbery.

10. The function of GAP builds up the divine standards in the human conscience — 1 Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9.

11. The conscience can be distorted or destroyed by negative volition toward doctrine. Great destruction of the conscience is wrought by blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul.

12. Conscience establishes norms and standards for serving God — 2 Timothy 1:3; Hebrews 9:14.

13. Conscience containing doctrine is the basis for meeting the exigencies of life, handling all the problems of life during maltreatment, misunderstanding, and is directly related to capacity for life — 1 Peter 2:19; 3:16.

There are certain things that feed the conscience, like the original environment. Environment is no way of explaining away your failures, your maladjustments in life, your bad personality. But it is true that your original norms and standards are based upon your early environment. We also acquire a conscience from our early environment, whatever it may be. For this reason a stabilised early environment gives you your first great thrust in life which is a good strong conscience. So the environmental factor is a contributor to the conscience whether it is good or bad. These norms and standards are standards you carry for life, and unless there are some radical changes you pretty well have the same norms and standards that you had when you left school. Bible doctrine can change that, it si the greatest factor in adding dynamics to conscience, but outside of that there isn’t much hope. As a generation is influenced in the elementary high school stage of its life that is the way the generation will shape up or ship out, and the only thing that will ever change it is a radical disaster whereby a maximum number are destroyed in a shocking manner and the survivors have to undergo a complete change of norm or standard to survive.

Here we have the best type of a conscience in our passage, the honourable conscience. It belongs to the supergrace believer. “Be praying for us: for we are persuaded that e keep having an honourable conscience in all things.” The “all things” refers to every factor of life, nothing is left out. Here is a man who is so dogmatic from his supergrace status that he says he has an honourable conscience in every facet of life.

“willing” is a present active participle from the verb qelw and it means desiring. It means the use of the volition of the soul. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past, continuing into the present time. It is also known as the present tense of duration in the Greek. The unknown writer of this epistle produces the action of the verb. This is a telic participle expressing purpose.

“to live” — present middle infinitive of the verb a)nastrefw which doesn’t mean to live so much as it connotes lifestyle. It therefore connotes modus vivendi. We have the transitive connotation of the verb, not used here, which means to be overturned or upset. This is called the reflexive concept of the verb and it means literally to go back and forth, to get into a rut, and eventually comes to means to have a lifestyle. The present tense is the customary present for habitually occurs from a standard of norms, from a conscience which is completely based upon Bible doctrine. The middle voice: the agent produces the action for his own benefit, he has norms and standards based on doctrine resident in the soul.

“honestly” — the adverb kaloj meaning nobly or in compatibility with royalty.

Translation: “Be praying about us: for we are persuaded that we keep having an honourable conscience in all facets of life, constantly desiring to have a lifestyle in a royal manner.”

Verse 19 — we begin with the transitional use of the particle de, and it should be translated “now” or “then”; “I beseech” is old English, and is the word parakalew in the Greek, a word which has many meanings. It means to comfort, to encourage, to urge. “I urge you” would be a good translation in modern English. The present tense is descriptive for what is now going on. The active voice: the unknown writer produces the action of the verb by urging his readers into a course of action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of encouragement; “the rather” — should be translated “even more.” The Greek word is the comparative of perissoj. — “Now then I urge you even more.” The writer has been dealing with the subject of prayer.

“to do” is the aorist active infinitive of poiew which means to do. It is an ingressive aorist, contemplating the action of the verb at its beginning, or beginning to do something. In other words, in the concept of the aorist tense the writer encourages the reader to produce the action of the verb, which is intercessory prayer for him. The infinitive is used as an imperative of command — “that you do this,” the accusative neuter singular direct object of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the importance of prayer. This demonstrative pronoun places special emphasis on the designated object in context which is prayer; “that,” a conjunction introducing a final clause — i(na, denoting a purpose, aim, or a goal. The purpose: He wants them to pray for something specific. He has even specified what it is so that they will be praying according to his own instructions, and therefore according to the will of God in this manner. But it also tells us something about the unknown writer of this book.

“that I may be restored” — the aorist passive subjunctive of a)pokaqisthmi which means to restore, to bring back, or to re-establish a former relationship. Actually the verb connotes restoring a thing to its former state. We do know from this verb plus what we have in verse 24 that whoever the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is he was at one time a pastor in the Jerusalem church and parted from the congregation which was negative. The message buried in this passage is a very simple one. What do you do when you are entirely wrong, when you wake up one day and realise that you are completely and totally out of line, and whoever has been in the altercation with you is one hundred per cent right, and it is the first time in a thousand years that someone has been completely right and you completely wrong? Apparently that is what was beginning to happen in the local church to whom this was originally addressed. They are beginning to realise that there pastor who left them was entirely right and they were entirely wrong.

What do you do in this situation is get in fellowship. The next thing you do is start a vigorous prayer life for the person you have wronged. You pray for them, about them. This is to recover your poise, to recover in your spiritual life, to recover from reversionism. You begin to pray for the person that you have wronged in your reversionistic function, and you pray that you might be restored to them. That is the verb a)pokaqisthmi here. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis and it is used here for a state on the point of being accomplished. The unknown author lives in Italy at this time, he is absolutely right and his congregation were 99 per cent wrong. Therefore, he desires to return to them and in order to alleviate their embarrassment he has put them on a project on how to recover poise when totally wrong — begin to pray for the person who is totally right. In this way, they relate themselves to that person by prayer. The dramatic aorist indicates the principle of restoration. The passive voice: the human writer of the epistle receives the action of the verb, being restored to the congregation in Jerusalem. He will be restored by their prayers. They will pray that God will find a way to bring him back, and when he returns they will have entered into such an extensive prayer life they will be very happy to see him, their poise will be excellent, and no more will be said about their differences.

Point of doctrine: It is inevitable that you will have fights with your friends, it is inevitable that you will have misunderstandings with people to whom you are related, and it is inevitable that you will wake up one morning and realise you were wrong. The answer is to recover your poise, but your poise is your spiritual life so in effect it means to recover your spiritual life. When you suddenly realise that you were wrong and you have failed, of you can summarise the whole thing to God in five or ten minutes, you can be back in fellowship and then starting to take in doctrine. And always make it a point to pray for the person whom you have wronged. Don’t ever be critical of them again, pray for them.

The passive voice here: the human writer is going to receive restoration. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive which qualifies the whole situation with the element of contingency. The element of contingency is the involvement of more than one volition.

“to you” — the dative plural of the personal pronoun su — “to you all.” He is coming back to all of them. This is the dative of indirect object which indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed, the restoration to Jerusalem of this unknown writer of Hebrews is in the best interests of all involved. It is therefore a dative of advantage to all members of the royal family who have been involved in the controversy.

“sooner” — is a defective spelling of a comparative taxion, a comparative of the adverb taxewj, and it should be translated literally, “without delay.”

Translation: “Now then I urge you even more that you do this, in order that I might be restored to you without delay.”

Summary

1. Noted in the original language is the principle of urgency. This urgency is based on the fact that Jerusalem only has three more years before it is destroyed.

2. The writer wants to stand by his congregation in his time of disaster, and he knows it is coming.

3. The doctrine he has presented in this epistle is most pertinent but there are many things he needs to add to what he has taught in Hebrews.

4. Furthermore, if even a few of his former congregation respond the terrible disaster of the fall of Jerusalem can be avoided for those particular individuals.

5. The writer has the same attitude as Jeremiah possessed in similar circumstances. Jeremiah was around Jerusalem at the time of the fist administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. This is the second administration and therefore this unknown writer and Jeremiah has a great deal in common, they faced similar circumstances. Both were great Bible teachers, both were rejected by their contemporaries and yet both wanted to be right there on the spot when the disaster occurred. Jeremiah was there and the implication is that the writer got back there in time.

6. According to verse 24 the human author of this epistle is now living in exile in Italy.

7. However, he is ready to return and to share with his former congregation the adversities of the great historical catastrophe about to descend on Jerusalem.

This brings us to the third major subject in this closing chapter, the dramatic conclusion of the epistle. It includes two verses of royal benediction, verses 20-21.

Verse 20 — “Now” is the post positive conjunctive particle de, used here is the rare emphatic or intensive use. It is translated usually “indeed, really, in fact,” and introduces the basis for the grace contract or the grace covenant which the church possesses. We will translate it “In fact.”

“the God of peace” — the nominative o( qeoj refers to God the Father. Remember that every blessing you ever have, God the Father is the one who planned it. They comes through Jesus Christ but God the Father has done all of your blessing. We have with this the descriptive genitive singular of the noun e)irhnh. The word means prosperity, blessing, or even hello. It only means hello because the Hebrew word Shalom also means hello. So we have to decide in every context whether it is prosperity or no antagonism between us. Which connotation applies? The only way that you can tell is by other words in the context. Here we have “the God of the peace” and that means no antagonism between us. So e)irhnh here is used in the technical sense of reconciliation. There is no antagonism between us. “Now the God of the peace” introduces the principle of reconciliation, and you must remember that there is no antagonism between you and God.

The doctrine of reconciliation

1. By way of definition, redemption is directed toward sin, propitiation toward God, and reconciliation toward man. Reconciliation is the removal of antagonism between perfect God and sinful man. Reconciliation is the removal of the barrier between God and man and therefore is classified under the phrase “peace.” The word “peace” is used for reconciliation in Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20,21; 2 Corinthians 5:18.

2. Reconciliation is a part of the blood of Christ. Three words are used to described the blood of Christ. The blood of animals is literal blood. The blood of Christ is His saving work on the cross which is divided into three parts — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

3. Reconciliation and mankind. In the concept of reconciliation mankind is regarded as the enemy of God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21.

4. Peace is a synonym for reconciliation. Reconciliation finds man the enemy of God but the saving work of Christ on the cross makes peace between man and God — Ephesians 2:14 cf. 2:16; Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 13:20.

5. Reconciliation is portrayed in the Levitical offerings. It is the peace offering of Leviticus chapter three. it depicts the entire doctrine of reconciliation as it was portrayed in Old Testament times. It portrays Christ as removing the barrier between God and man. Also taught in Leviticus 7:11-38; 8:15.

6. The application of reconciliation to the royal family. Every member of the royal family of God, every Church Age believer, is an ambassador representing the Lord Jesus on the earth. Therefore each member of the royal family has the ministry of reconciliation — 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

7. The prophecy of reconciliation is found in Isaiah 57:19.

8. The mechanics of reconciliation. You have a barrier where man is on one side and God is on the other. The barrier is composed of six basic items — sin, the penalty of sin, the problem of physical birth, the problem of relative righteousness, the problem of the perfect character of God, the position of man — “in Adam all die.” Each one of these items is resolved by the work of Christ on the cross, and that particular facet of the work of Christ on the cross is one of the major doctrines of soteriology. For example, sin. Two major doctrines are involved here, the doctrine of unlimited atonement in which Christ bore the sins of all the human race — 2 Corinthians 5:14,15,19; 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2. The doctrine of redemption also cancels out sin — Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 Peter 1:18,19. The penalty of sin is removed by the doctrine of expiation — Colossians 2:14; Psalm 22:1-6. The problem of physical birth is removed from the barrier by regeneration. At the point that we believe in Christ God the Holy Spirit regenerates all those who believe and this removes the problem of physical birth — John 3:1-18; 1 Peter 1:23; Titus 3:5. The relative righteousness problem or the human good problem is removed from the barrier by two major doctrines of soteriology which describe the work of Christ on the cross. The first is the doctrine of imputation — Romans 3:22; 9:30-10:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:14. Under the principle of imputation God wipes out the sin that man has committed [redemption and unlimited atonement] and credits to his account +R. The crediting to the account of the new believer +R is called imputation of divine righteousness. Then, having imputed to us His very own righteousness He immediately says “vindicated,” translated “justification” in the Bible — Romans 4:1-5,23; 5:1; 8:29,30; Galatians 2:16; Titus 3:7. The fifth item in the barrier is God’s perfect character cannot have fellowship with man’s sinful person. This item is removed by propitiation — Romans 3:22-26; 1 John 2:1,2. In this, of course, God the Father is satisfied with the work of God the Son and He is able to save man without compromising His character. The final principle, the problem of position in Adam is removed from the barrier by positional sanctification — 1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:3-6. Between man and God there is no barrier, the cross has removed the barrier and man simply walks over the line. But whether man walks over the line by believing in Christ or not he is still reconciled to God because there is no barrier. All he has to do is believe, it is up to him now, the barrier has been removed. Stepping over the line is a picture of Ephesians 2:8,9.

Verse 20b — “that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus” is the next consideration; “that brought again” is the articular aorist active participle from the verb a)nagw which means to bring back or to restore. The aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb is resurrection; this is a constative aorist. So the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is viewed in its entirety, it takes the occurrence of our Lord’s resurrection and gathers it into a single whole. This constative aorist, therefore, refers to a momentary action. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by bringing back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. The circumstantial participle plus its antecedent action takes us back to the phrase “make you perfect” which we will see later. “In fact the God of peace [reconciliation], who has brought back [restored] from the dead.”

“from the dead” — the preposition e)k plus the ablative plural includes both spiritual and physical deaths because nekroj here includes two deaths, it is in the plural. Nekroj is in the ablative plural — “from deaths.” This refers to the fact that Jesus Christ died twice on the cross, and the two deaths of Christ are related to salvation and the completion of His work on our behalf, and it should be translated “out from deaths.”

“our Lord Jesus” — the accusative singular direct object plus the possessive genitive for “our,” and it should be translated “Jesus our Lord.” The Lord Jesus Christ belongs to every member of the royal family of God forever.

The doctrine of resurrection

1. Resurrection is bringing back humanity from the dead — it was the humanity of Christ brought back from the dead, deity doesn’t die. When a person is brought back from the dead in resurrection he is no longer subject to death. He is in a new body of incorruption and he will never die again. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the difference between resurrection and resuscitation. Resuscitation means to bring someone back from the dead but they subsequently die, e.g. Lazarus. It is not resurrection. When someone is resurrected they have a body of incorruptibility, a body not subject to death, a body that will last forever. In resuscitation a person is brought back from the dead in a body of corruption and therefore dies again, but in resurrection a person is brought back from the dead never to die again.

2. The resurrection is definitely a part of the gospel. The boundaries of the gospel are very clearly delineated in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Witnessing does not include the fact of sin. It is s true fact but it is not a part of the gospel. The gospel has definite boundaries. The emphasis is on the fact that Christ did something about sin, and because of what He did there is nothing we can do about it except to believe in Jesus Christ.

3. The difference between a theophany and a Christophany should also be noted in getting into the subject of resurrection. These are technical theological terms. A theophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ prior to the first advent. Jesus Christ appeared many times, generally as the angel of Jehovah. Occasionally he appeared as a man. For example, He was the man who threw Jacob at Bethel. On the other hand, a Christophany is a resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ. After His resurrection and before He ascended our Lord made a number of appearances — Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:13-43.

4. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — 1 Corinthians 15:20-25.

5. The resurrection is necessary for the perpetuation of the Davidic line — Romans 1:3,4; 2 Timothy 2:8. In effect, these verses say that Jesus Christ came as the son of David. As the son of David He came to fulfil a promise. He came to offer the Jews their King. The Jews said no and therefore the crucifixion would means that God does not keep His word, but the resurrection and the return of Christ means that God does keep His word. Jesus Christ will return and will fulfil that tremendous promise called the Davidic covenant. God promised David unconditionally that he would have a son who would reign forever.

6. The resurrection of Christ is also the basis for the believer’s confidence in the future — 1 Peter 1:3-5,21.

Our whole confidence in the future is based on the fact that we have a resurrection body coming up exactly like our Lord’s .He is called the firstfruits of them that slept. That is a guarantee of the coming harvest.

7. The resurrection of Christ indicates the completion of the ministry of justification — Romans 4:25. He was not raised for our justification as it says in the KJV, He was raised on account of our justification. We were justified by His work on the cross. Because of that He has to be raised.

8. Identification with Christ in His resurrection through the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the motivation for the tactical victory of the supergrace life — Romans 6:4. Therefore, tactical victory is the heritage of the believer priest — 1 Corinthians 15:57-58. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ makes it possible for a new dispensation of the royal family. When we believe in Christ we are taken by God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, entered into union with Christ, and we become not merely family of God forever but royal family. We are a royal priesthood and therefore a new dispensation is begun. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is seated there is resurrection body, He got there by resurrection and ascension, and that was the strategical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. To honour the strategical victory God gives the Lord Jesus Christ plunder, He gives Him a royal family. There has never been a royal family of God before. All of the Old Testament saints are merely family of God, there was no royalty until our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father. Once He was seated there we now have royalty, you are it.

9. Two general categories of resurrection are found in the scripture. These are general categories, the first of which are believers — Daniel 12:2; John 5:24-29; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22; Revelation 20:6,13. This is for believers only and it is called the first resurrection. There is a second category, a resurrection for unbelievers — Matthew 25:41; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 20:12-15. The second resurrection is the last judgement.

10. The first resurrection is broken down into various groups. There are intervals, everyone is not resurrected at the same time. In the second resurrection all unbelievers are resurrected at the same time, judged at the great white throne and cast into the lake of fire. The first resurrection occurs over a long period of history. For example, the Rapture of the Church at the end of the Church Age. For example, the resurrection of the Old Testament saints at the second advent. That means seven years interval between the Church and the Old testament saints. For example, the resurrection of the Millennial saints at the end of the Millennium. So we have 1007 years as the interval in resurrection. Therefore, we have echelons to the first resurrection. Basically, there are four echelons. Alpha company: Christ the firstfruits. In 1 Corinthians 15:20-24 the whole picture of resurrection is taken like a battalion review. In this battalion there are four companies — Alpha, Baker, Charlie and Delta. Alpha has already passed the reviewing stand, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Next will be Baker company which will pass at the Rapture of the Church. Royalty comes first in resurrection. John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1 John 3:1,2; Philippians 3:21. Then Charlie company will come next at the end of the Tribulation. These are the Old testament saints and the Tribulational martyrs — Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 6:19,20; Matthew 24:1; Revelation 20:4. Delta company brings up the rear, the Millennial saints get their resurrection bodies at the end of the Millennium.

11. The agents of resurrection. The agents of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first is God the Father — Colossians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21. Secondly, God the Holy Spirit is an agent of regeneration — Acts 2:24; Romans 1:4; 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18.

12. Resurrection is necessary for the advance of the plan of God the Father — Isaiah 53:10. The advance of the plan of the Father depends upon resurrection, ascension and session.

“that great shepherd of the sheep” — Jesus Christ is given a title, ton poimena probatwn ton megan.

This is literally, “the shepherd of the sheep, the great one.” It can be translated as has been translated in the KJV, “that great shepherd of the sheep.” The Lord Jesus Christ is not only King of kings and Lord of lords. He in not only the great high priest, not only God the second person. he is not only the unique person of the universe, being truly God and humanity in one person forever — hypostatic union. He is not only David’s greater son who will rule Israel forever. He has many titles, many functions, there are many glories which are related to the Lord Jesus Christ. The one we have before us is the one for supplying the needs of the royal family. You have to be a great shepherd to take care of royalty. Royalty demands so much more, royalty needs so much more. You and I are members of the royal family of God and, therefore, where we are concerned He is that great shepherd of the sheep.

The doctrine of Christ the shepherd

1. The shepherd of phase one — John 10:11, 14-16. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This refers to Jesus Christ dying on the cross. This is talking about His spiritual death.

2. The shepherd of phase two — Hebrews 13:20, which in its complete translation says, In fact the God of peace, who has brought back from deaths our Lord Jesus, the shepherd of the sheep, the great one, with the blood of the eternal covenant.” The great shepherd provides for the royal family in phase two. The great shepherd also emphasises the blessings that God has for the supergrace believer. The Lord Jesus Christ is the basis for the distribution of supergrace blessings.

3. The shepherd of phase three — 1 Peter 5:4, “And when the chief shepherd appears [Rapture].” He is called the good shepherd in phase one; the great shepherd for phase two; the chief shepherd for phase three. While the passage is addressed to pastors of the Church Age it refers to the principle of the chief shepherd providing eternal blessing and reward of phase three.

“through the blood” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of a(ima. A(ima can refer to lots of kinds of blood. it should be translated “with the blood.”

The doctrine of the blood

1. Animal blood defined. Animal blood is the seat of animal life — Leviticus 17:10-14. The life of a human being is in the soul. The animal does not have a soul. From the coats of skins in Genesis 3:21 down through the Levitical offerings of Leviticus chapters 1-6 animal blood is used to represent the figurative blood of Christ in His saving work on the cross. In other words, animal blood in the Old testament portrayed the redemptive work of Christ — Hebrews 9:22.

2. The blood of Christ defined. Jesus Christ in His humanity had blood flowing through His arteries and veins. Arndt and Gingricht — “Blood and life as an expiatory sacrifice, especially of the blood of Christ as the means of expiation.” The blood of Christ is a figurative term for His saving work on the cross.

3. A representative analogy emerges. While the animal blood was real and literal in the Old Testament as it was used to represent the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, a real analogy would be a literal death compared to a literal death. The animal blood was real and literal but it is part of a representative analogy. The literal death of the animal portrays the spiritual death on the cross. Christ did not die by bleeding to death. When Christ did die physically He died by an act of His volition. He dismissed His breath. The saving work of Christ was accomplished while He was alive physically.

4. Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death. The principle is found in John 19:30-34.

5. The blood of animal sacrifices was a shadow pointing to the reality of the cross — Hebrews 9-12-14.

6. Therefore the blood of Christ depicts the saving work of Christ on the cross.

7. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique. This is taught in the shadow offerings of the Levitical principle. The non-sweet savour offerings: Leviticus four, the sin offering; Leviticus five, the trespass offering. The two offerings together taught the rebound technique.

8. The true meaning if the blood of Christ, therefore, is important. It is found in the direction of the doctrines of soteriology — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

“through the blood” — e)n plus the instrumental is translated “with the blood.”

Translation of verse 20 — “In fact the God of that peace [reconciliation], who has brought back out from deaths Jesus our Lord, the great shepherd of the sheep, with the blood from the eternal covenant [the new covenant to the Church].”

Verse 21 — “Make you perfect” .If there is anything you will never be in time it is perfect. None of us will ever be perfect as long as we possess an old sin nature. Obviously the aorist active optative does not mean to make perfect. The verb is katartizw which means anything but perfect. The word actually means three things. The mechanical usage is found in 1 Corinthians 1:10 where it means to tune up a machine. The fishing connotation is found in 1 Peter 5:10 where it means to mend a broken net. Medical usage is found in Galatians 6:1 where it is translated “setting a broken bone.” The naval usage is found in 1 Thessalonians 3:10 where it means to supply a fleet for combat operations. The military usage is found in 2 Corinthians 3:11, and in this passage where it means to train and equip an army for combat. This is the meaning here. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers the action of the verb into one entirety. It views the action of the verb from the total function of GAP resulting in the supergrace status. It indicates everything that is necessary in order to grow spiritually. It starts out with the fact that you have to make your way to the local assembly which is the classroom ordained of God for the Church Age. The active voice: the royal family of God, the Church Age believer, produces the action of the verb. This is the optative mood, the voluntative optative which expresses a wish or desire. The optative is the mood of very strong contingency, the mood of possibility. it contains no definite anticipation of realisation but presents the action always as conceivable. Therefore it expresses a wish for the future. Therefore it should be translated

in a strong way. Having to do with the equipping of a military it should be translated “Equip you all in all intrinsic good.” It means to equip in the sense of training and providing for a military organisation.

“in every good work” is not quite correct. It is the preposition e)n plus the locative of paj and a)gaqoj. It should be “in all intrinsic good.” This actually refers to Bible doctrine resident in the soul. When the Lord Jesus Christ commands the believer to take up his cross and follow Him, taking up the cross is the royal family assembling in the local church. Following Him is consistency in the intake of doctrine.

“to do” — the aorist active infinitive of poiew is preceded by the preposition e)ij. This is a very common type of Greek idiom used in order to express an intended result, that is, when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate aim of goal. It is a blending of the purpose and result, and that is why we are here. We are here to do His will and we do His will by the intake of doctrine, it all goes together. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the function of GAP in its entirety but emphasises the existing results. The existing results: the execution of the will of God and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: the believer is producing the action of the verb.

“his will” is the accusative singular direct object from qelhma referring to the plan of God in eternity past for the believer in time; “working” — poiew, this time a present active participle. We have a progressive present of continuing the existing results. As a result of doctrine resident in the soul we continue to execute the will of God. We are doing the will of God by having that doctrine resident there. The basic will of God after salvation is the daily function of GAP. The active voice: doctrine resident in the soul of the royal priest produces the action of the verb which is the execution or the obedience of God’s will. This is called a modal participle, it signifies the manner in which the action of the verb katartizw will be accomplished. In other words, we are equipped by Bible doctrine in the soul.

“in you” is incorrect. We have the preposition e)n plus the locative plural of the personal pronoun e)gw, and it should be “in us.”

“that which is well pleasing” — the accusative singular direct object from the adjective e)uarestoj — “doing within us the well pleasing.”

“in his sight” — literally, “in the sight of the same one [God the Father].” We have an adverb here, e(nwpion plus an intensive pronoun a)utoj; “through Jesus Christ” — dia plus xristoj plus I)hsouj.

“to whom” — the dative of the relative pronoun has as its antecedent the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the dative of indirect object indicating the one in whose interest glorification is performed. Jesus Christ is obviously the one who is glorified; “the glory forever and ever.”

Translation: “Equip you all in all intrinsic good [doctrine] to execute his will, doing in us the wellpleasing [doctrine in the soul] in the sight of the same one [God the Father] through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Since the intrinsic good is doctrine in the soul this is what makes it valuable. Doctrine is valuable wherever you find it. It is valuable in the Word but it is not valuable to you personally. It has to be transferred to your soul before it is usable and before you can execute the will of God and do that which is wellpleasing. So the intrinsic good here refers to the basic function of the royal priesthood. This same doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for pleasing God, glorifying God, for growing up. Everything must be related to doctrine resident in the soul.

The next closing out, principle is the importance of this epistle.

Verse 22 — “And” should be translated “Now.” The post positive conjunctive particle is used as a transitional and continuative particle.

“I beseech” — the present active indicative of parakalew means to urge or to request, the verb means to comfort. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting something which has happened in the past and continues into the present time. This is a former pastor who has separated from his congregation and for a long time he has constantly urged them along the line of action reported here. The active voice: the unknown writer to the Hebrews produces the action by urging once more. This is a declarative indicative for the historical reality of the fact that a pastor to do his job right must constantly stay on the back of his congregation.

“brethren” — the royal family of God. This brings into focus the purpose of the epistle:

a) To warn believers of the royal family of God regarding the dangers and evils of reversionism, and to encourage them in reversion recovery.

b) To lead believers to maturity and toward the tactical objective of supergrace living, which involves the consistent function of GAP.

c) To prepare believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67 for the catastrophe of the Roman conquest and the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the province of Judah. In other words, to prepare the believer for catastrophe.

d) To clarify the relationship of the royal family of God to the angelic conflict. In other words, to relate the strategic victory of Christ at the right hand of the Father to the tactical victory of the royal family of the Church Age.

e) To reveal the glory of them person of Christ and to increase our category #1 capacity.

f) To bring the believer to supergrace resulting in the normal function of the royal priesthood.

“suffer” — the present middle imperative of a)nexomai and it means to listen willingly, rather than to suffer. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what is reasonably expected of any member of the royal family of God who is ever going to grow up. The middle voice is the permissive middle representing the agent, the royal family, as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action in his own interest. In other words, you attend Bible class for your own benefit. The imperative mood here is a command, so it should be translated, “Be listening willingly to this word.”

“the word” — should be “this word.” We have the objective genitive singular of logoj which refers to the Word or doctrine and the definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun and it should be translated “this doctrine.”

“of exhortation” — the word “exhortation” is encouragement, so we have “the doctrine of appeal and encouragement.”

“for also I have written” — the aorist active indicative of e)pistellw means to teach by letter, to teach by writing rather than to simply write. So, “I have taught by writing a letter unto you.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the writing of Hebrews and regardless of how long it took the writer it gathers it up into a single whole. The action of the verb probably extended over a relatively short period of time. it is much quicker to write this than it is to explain it. The active voice: the human writer under God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb in compatibility with the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration of the scripture. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified assertion of a dogmatic doctrine.

“letter” — refers to the epistle to the Hebrews; “unto you” is dative of advantage. Obviously it is to our advantage for us to have this great epistle.

“in few words” — dia plus the genitive of braxuj means “through a few words.” The relative shortness of the epistle demands intense concentration and careful attention to its contents.

Translation: “Now I keep urging you all, brethren, be listening willingly to this doctrine of appeal and encouragement: inasmuch as I have written to you briefly.”

Verse 23 — whoever the human writer is he has been associated with Timothy. “Know ye” — present active indicative should be translated “Do you know that.” This is the historical present which views a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The verb ginwskw means to have the experience of knowing something. The active voice: the writer intends that the readers produce the action of the verb by becoming aware of the fact that Timothy has been released from prison. The indicative mood is the interrogative indicative, it assumes that there is an actual fact which may be stated in the form of a question. It is a fact he has been released but it is stated in the form of a question, he doesn’t know if they are aware of the fact or not. So it should be translated, “Do you know that.” So it carries the force of a rhetorical question to indicate the circumstances under which the author is residing in Italy and now wants to make a trip back to Jerusalem.

“our brother Timothy” simply means another member of the royal family of God.

a) This phrase would indicate that Timothy, in response to Paul’s last request, made it to Rome before Paul died — 2 Timothy 4:11,21.

b) As a result of the association with Paul, obviously Timothy made it but he was also briefly imprisoned and then released.

c) There is a principle here. God had a plan for everyone involved — for Paul, for Timothy, for the unknown writer of this epistle. Paul is dead, Timothy is alive, and God has a plan for each one, and no one is in exactly the same category.

“is set at liberty” — the perfect passive participle of the verb a)poluw, and it means to be released. This is the dramatic perfect tense. It is a rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, the action is completed in the past, the results continue. Timothy will continue to function as a pastor on earth for another twenty years. The passive voice: Timothy receives the action of the verb, he is released from prison in Rome after the death of Paul. The participle is circumstantial.

“with whom” — meta plus the genitive of the relative pronoun o(j. The antecedent of that relative pronoun is Timothy; “if” — a third class condition; “he comes” — present active subjunctive of e)rxomai. This means if he comes to Jerusalem. This is a tendencial present tense for an action which is purposed but is not actually occurring. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb, which indicates his release from the Roman prison and the possibility of his coming to where the writer is residing in Italy. The subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition here; “shortly” means without delay.

“I will see you” — the future tense here is a predictive future describing a potential event anticipated in future time. The unknown writer of Hebrews will produce the action. The indicative mood is the potential indicative. It is a good possibility that he will be coming but it isn’t definite or certain as yet.

Verse 24 — “Salute” is the aorist active imperative of a)spazomai. At the time of writing a salute was not as we have it. The salute at this time in the Roman army was to take your fist and throw it right across the breastplate. Salute means to pay one’s respects to or to greet.

“all” — the masculine accusative plural of paj which refers to the numerous pastors who were located in Jerusalem in AD 67; “of them that have the rule” — there is not one pastor in Jerusalem. All of the large cities of the ancient world by this time had numerous pastors, each one having his own congregation. Note that the human writer of Hebrews respects the authority of those local pastors, even though as the writer of scripture he carries the authority of an apostle which ranks above a pastor in the year 96. The principle here: Those who have authority respect authority in others.

“over you” — the objective genitive indicating authority over; “and all the saints” — the word “saint” refers to the royal family.

`This is a courtesy verse where courtesy is extended in two principles. Courtesy is first of all thoughtfulness of others, and secondly, courtesy is a recognition of authority. So courtesy always recognises certain principles. “They of Italy” is literally, “This from Italy.” It is a reference to believers living in Italy and obviously this epistle was written in Italy.

“salute” — a)pazomai, pay respects. The aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The principle is mutual respect is implied. Mutual respect is something that can happen when believers have grown up spiritually, where they have doctrine resident in the soul.

Translation: “Pay my respects to all those who rule [pastor-teachers] over you, and to all the royal family. Those from Italy pay their respects to you also.”

Principle

1. Mutual respect must exist between all members of the body of Christ or the royal family of God. This is a part of being royalty.

2. This mutual respects from maximum doctrine resident in the souls of supergrace believers.

3. This mutual respect includes respect for authority and that necessary academic discipline to reach the high ground of supergrace. Once you have submitted yourself to discipline you usually become a very well-mannered type of person.

4. respect for authority in the royal family leads to mutual respect and royal family love which was commanded in verse 1 of our passage.

5. When Bible doctrine resident in the soul becomes the dictator of each life, then this mutual respect and mental attitude love is formed.

6. The royal family in Italy had progressed through consistent function of GAP. As supergrace believers they will last for another 500 years, while the reversionistic Jewish believers to whom they were sending greeting would be wiped out in three years. And there lies the tragedy of this verse.

Verse 25 — the plan of God is stated. H( xarij — “The grace.” The definite article is used actually as a possessive pronoun. It can be translated “His grace.” There are abundant uses of this is the papyri which indicate the definite article is so used.

“with you all” — the principle here is that as members of the royal family of God we have the privilege and the right to share in the provision of God which is classified by the word “grace.”