Isolation of Sin
Before you begin your Bible study, be sure that, as
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have named your known sins privately
to God (I John 1:9). You will then be in fellowship with God, under the control
of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and ready to learn doctrine from the Word of
God.
If you are an unbeliever, the issue is not naming
your sins. The issue is faith in Christ.
He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
When
the Lord Jesus Christ said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone . . .” (John 8:7), there were no rock throwers that day, even though the
crowd was made up of many self-righteous and religious people! It is quite
obvious, even to the most unintelligent, that every member of the human race
has sinned and failed the Lord (Rom: 3:23).
Suppose the
Lord were to say to us, “Let him who is without sin serve me in the Christian
life.” There would be no one qualified for service or production, and the Lord
would have no ambassadors on earth. Therefore, God in His grace' has made
provision for overcoming sin and the old sin nature, b which will dominate and
control your life unless you understand the important principle of isolating
your sins. This principle is based on the laws of spirituality and carnality
found in Romans 8:2:
For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
'Me first law is the law of spirituality, or “the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus.” “in Christ Jesus” is a reference to positional truth.
You must be IN CHRIST before this law can become operative. No one can be
spiritual until first of all he is saved (Acts 16:31). The law of spirituality,
which is the filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5: 18), has set us free from another
law operating inside us ‑ the law of carnality. This law stifles
production, prevents bona ride service for the Lord, and creates misery any
time it controls our lives.
This second law is “the law
of sin” ‑ “the law of the sin nature, and death.” The sin nature has produced
spiritual death in the human race since the time of Adam (Rom. 5:12); but when
we are born again (John 3:3, 15), the production of the sin nature is limited
to temporal death, which means to be out of fellowship and therefore useless to
the Lord. This law is called “carnality” in 1 Corinthians 3: 1.
In the state of
spirituality, the believer is liberated from the domination of the old sin
nature. The aorist active indicative of “hath made me free” indicates that this
occurs at the point of time when the believer is filled with the Spirit.
Spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive, and therefore are absolutes
in Phase Two. d When a believer is filled with the Spirit, he is spiritual, and
he walks in the light (I John 1:7); when a believer sins, he is carnal and
walks in darkness (I John 1:6). These two laws are in constant conflict within
every believer. For the execution of the Christian way of life, the law of
spirituality must supersede the law of carnality.
In Romans 8:3, a third law
is introduced: the Mosaic Law, representing in this case human self‑righteousness
‑ trying to keep the Law in order to gain the approbation of God.
Therefore, it is more than just human self‑righteousness; it is self‑righteousness
plus legalism.
For what the [Mosaic] law
could not do, in that it was weak through [limited by the flesh [the old sin
nature ‑so God did something about the sin nature], God [the Father ‑
Author of the divine Plan I sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
[humanity] and for sin [a sin offering] , condemned [overcame] sin [sin nature]
in the flesh.
The Mosaic Law was holy,
just and good (Rom. 7:12) and had a definite function under its three codices
(moral, spiritual and social codes); but it could neither save nor provide
spirituality. The Law was limited by the presence of the old sin nature.
Jesus Christ, sent by God
the Father, not only paid the penalty for sin, but also destroyed the power of
the old sin nature by His spiritual death on the Cross.
That the righteousness of
the law [perfect standard demanded by the law] might be fulfilled in us, who
[as we] walk not after the [standard of the] flesh [old sin nature] , but after
the [control of the] Spirit (Rom. 8:4).
The believer may have victory over the sin nature as
long as he lives under “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
To operate under this law of
spirituality, there are three things you must always do when you sin:
1. Rebound.' 2. Isolate past sins. 3. Keep moving.
If we confess [acknowledge]
our sins [to God], he [God] is faithful [He always does it because His essence
is immutable] and just [on the basis of the Cross] to forgive us [to blot out completely]
our sins [the personal sins that come from our old sin nature], and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness [sins we commit of which we are not even aware] (I
John 1:9).
Now, let's go back to the
point of salvation. Salvation begins at the Cross. The moment you believe in
Jesus Christ, you are given a new position “in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17), a place
of eternal fellowship (Rom. 8:38, 39), represented by the “top circle.” At the
same time, you are also entered into the “bottom circle” (temporal fellowship).
As long as there is no unconfessed sin in your life, you remain in temporal
fellowship with God, and you are filled with the Spirit. However, at the moment
you sin, you are carnal and under the control of the old sin nature. When you
confess your sins, God forgives you immediately, He blots out your sins, and
you are not only back in fellowship, but as of that moment ‑ for one
second, at least ‑ you are filled with the Spirit.
If you were under discipline for that sin, whatever
suffering was involved is converted into blessing. But before you can take
another breath, you may be out of fellowship again because of failure in the
second step.
Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended [over‑taken and gained possession of experiential sanctification,
h or spiritual peak] but one thing ‑ forgetting those things which are
behind . (Phil. 3:13).
What are those things which
are behind? SINS! As soon as you confess a sin, you are commanded to forget it.
But suppose you do not. All right, look at the “bottom circle.” You are in the
bottom circle when you confess that sin; but the very moment you start thinking
about that sin again ‑ talking about it, worrying about it, playing with
it like a dog with a bone ‑ out of fellowship you go! That is why some
people say rebound doesn't work. They are never in the bottom circle long
enough to know whether it works or not!
Did you ever observe a
“chain smoker”? He lights one cigarette from the other ‑ never uses a
match. That is the condition of many believers; they are CHAIN SINNERS ‑
carnal believers ‑ those who say that rebound doesn't work! Well, of
course it doesn't ‑ for them! They sin, confess the sin, and then start
worrying about that sin as though God had not forgiven them. The old sin lights
up a new sin, and they never advance in their Christian fife. They jump in and
jump out, in and out of the bottom circle, and never move ahead. If you get out
of fellowship because of a sin already forgiven, you start chain sinning ‑
building one sin on another. This keeps you continually under discipline ‑
not from the original sin, but from some current sin which grew out of failure
to isolate the first sin.
“Forgetting” denotes both forgetting and
disregarding ‑ in other words, “to assign to oblivion.” Once you have
rebounded, you should assign that sin to oblivion. This can be accomplished
only by believing I John 1:9 and understanding the principle of I John 1:7: “. .
. the blood of Jesus Christ his Son [keeps on] cleansing us from all sin.” The
blood of Christ refers to the spiritual death of Christ on the Cross.’ The work
of the “blood,” or His spiritual death, is twofold: judicial cleansing at the
moment of salvation, and experiential cleansing of the carnal believer after
salvation at the point of rebound.
How can a righteous God
forgive unrighteousness? Because His righteousness was satisfied when the
penalty of sin was paid at the Cross. This is the link between 1 John 1:7 and 1
John 1:9. When you simply name your sin, you are citing a sin which has already
been judged. So, because of the work of Christ on the Cross, God is absolutely
just and fair in forgiving sins.
Once you confess a sin, you
put your problem in the hands of the Lord; you have no right to take it back.
Since God has blotted out your sin, what right do you have even to look back,
to cry or to feel guilty about that sin? It doesn't belong to you any more! If
you take the sin back and fret over it, you will create self‑induced
misery. If you want to live like this, it is your business; but to worry about
your past sins or to have a guilt complex is to perpetuate carnality by mental
attitude sins. Any blessing that may come your way is converted to discipline.
So you go ‑ in and
out, in and out ‑ piling up sins. You never experience anything but
discipline ‑ you never receive blessing! This usually triggers some type
of adverse reaction, such as discouragement, disillusion or negative volition
toward doctrine, and without realizing it, you are launched into the first
stage of reversionism. It is most important that you rebound and isolate your
sin in this initial stage before reversionism reaches the latter phases where
recovery is far more difficult!
Both temporal and spiritual
blessings are potential by virtue of our position in the top circle (in
Christ), but they can be realized only in the bottom circle (in fellowship).
The extent of blessing depends on attitude toward Bible doctrine and progress
toward spiritual maturity. Doctrine resident in the soul becomes the “cup” into
which God pours out His blessing. However, the learning of doctrine must be
accomplished in the filling of the Spirit by means of rebound and isolation of
sin.
Production in the Christian
life can occur only when we are in the bottom circle. Why? Because nothing we
do counts for God when the old sin nature is in control of our lives. Any good
deed generated by the old sin nature is human good k and totally unacceptable
to God (Jer. 17:9; Heb. 6:1). Therefore, the only source of divine good' is the
ministry of the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit produces in our lives only
while we are in the status of spirituality. Once we have confessed ANY kind of
a sin, our greatest problem is to stay in the bottom circle; we must isolate
that sin so that we can begin to utilize our spiritual assets and move on
toward the objective of maturity.
... and reaching forth unto those things which are
before [in front of you] ... press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus [rewards and decorations in eternity] (Phil.
3:13b, 14).
God's purpose for every
believer is the advance toward maturity and the super‑grace life. ' In
accomplishing this goal, you enter the struggle of the angelic conflict you
function as a normal believer in the consistent production of divine good. The
basic hindrance to this objective is the failure to confess and isolate sins.
You must always use God's grace provision ‑ rebound and keep moving!
Forget your failures!
Nor must you stop there, but
continue to move toward the goal ‑ maturity or experiential
sanctification! God has made grace provision for reaching this goal through the
gift of the pastor‑teacher, who communicates Bible doctrine, and through
the volition of the believer, who takes in doctrine in the filling of the
Spirit. This is the function of the “grace apparatus for perception.” We never
stand still in the Christian life; we either progress or retrogress. The way
that we go, and the rate at which we advance depends on our consistency or
failure to take in Bible doctrine.
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of
God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be
defiled (Heb. 12:15).
What is the “grace of God”
in context? When you confess a sin, when you name it to God, He forgives you.
That's all! The sin is blotted out (Isa. 44:22); you are back in the bottom
circle and filled with the Spirit. That's grace! None of us earns it nor deserves
it.
The grace of God never fails
US, but WE fail the grace of God. This indicates, first of all, that we do not
understand what God is really like. God is gracious! When He forgives the
believer who uses the rebound technique, He applies the same principle of
forgiveness that canceled our sins at the Cross‑. We did not earn
forgiveness at the Cross; we do not earn it afterwards. After salvation, it is
necessary only to confess sins. The most difficult issue for some people to
understand is that when they simply name or identify their sin to God, He
forgives and blots it out immediately. This seems almost impossible for them to
grasp. Yet it is so simple ‑ it is the grace of God in action!
Failing the grace of God (HUSTEREO in the Greek) has
several connotations: to fall short, to be below standard, to fall back, to
miss out on; in other words, it indicates failure to utilize the grace of God;
refusal to avail yourself of the grace provisions for advancing to maturity,
the objective of the Christian fife and the purpose for which the believer is
left on this earth. To fulfill Hebrews 12:15, you must begin with REBOUND,
follow by ISOLATING YOUR SINS, and then MOVE ON to the goal. Negligence or
rejection of this rudimentary principle of doctrine results in retrogression
and, if allowed to continue, will draw you into the various stages of
reversionism.
It is impossible to serve
Jesus Christ, to fulfill your ambassadorship or your priesthood unless you use
the grace of God. Nor is that all. This failure has a by‑product: it is
guaranteed to make you miserable for life. You may try to sublimate; you may
try “agonizing in the closet”; you may try to work up some ecstatic or
emotional experience; you may try fasting and praying, good works and giving or
changing your behavior pattern; but you will never know what hit you! In order
to possess the happiness, the peace, the blessing, the joy, the power that God
has provided for you, you must appropriate GRACE! If you think you can help God
to erase your sin by changing your behavior or because you are so “holy” or use
“holy” language, if YOU insist on doing the work, then you have failed the
grace of God!
The first fifteen verses of
Hebrews 12 describe various aspects of discipline. However, we must be sure to
distinguish between divine discipline for believers and divine judgment for
unbelievers, which is the subject of verses 16‑29. Discipline is God's
reprimand of the believer for carnality or reversionism and is confined to
time. Judgment, God's punishment for the unbeliever, extends into eternity
(John 3:18). Hebrews 12:15 concerns the failure of the believer which results
in discipline in time.
One of the signs of our
salvation is divine discipline for sin:
For whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth [skins alive with a whip] every son whom he receiveth
(Heb. 12:6).
When God disciplines Its children, it is not His
intention to inflict torture nor to make us cry “uncle!” “For he doth not
afflict willingly
nor grieve the children of men” (Lam. 3:33). God
loves us with an infinite amount of love; and if there is anything that God
does not want to do, it is to cause us hurt in any way. However, for our own
benefit in training and blessing, His love must often be expressed in
discipline.
When you allow unconfessed
sin to keep you in perpetual discipline, it is impossible for you to grow up
spiritually, to produce divine good or to function as an ambassador for Christ.
Failure to rebound ultimately leads to reversionism. Let us assume that you
recognize a sin in your life and confess it to God. What happens now? You are
forgiven, and your discipline, if it continues at all, is turned to blessing.
Now, perhaps ten years later, you have some pressure in your life. You
associate it with that sin in your past ‑ a confessed and therefore a
FORGIVEN SIN! You are, in effect, harboring a guilt complex (which is a
terrible sin) or bitterness, or jealousy, or hatred, or any of the devastating
mental attitude sins that grow out of other sins. Perhaps you were not even
aware that these were sins. But when you do learn to recognize them as sins and
confess them, you ARE FORGIVEN – guilt feelings or not! So get up and
keep moving!
Let's call that ancient sin
the “skeleton in the closet.” You still associate all discipline with your
skeleton in the closet of ten years ago instead of with the current sin. You
have been out of fellowship all the time. You are miserable; and not only are
you miserable, you are confused! You will go through life always having trouble
but never understanding why. There is nothing worse than undergoing discipline
or misery, adversity, trial, heartaches or problems without really knowing why.
You may try some system of penance. You may try confessing to a friend, to a
psychologist or a psychiatrist ‑ anything to obliterate your past sin,
when it is already dead and gone. In fact, it has ceased to be an issue of any
kind in your life.
It
is amazing what unbelievable memories people have ‑ better memories than
God's! Some people remember things for years ‑incidents that God has
forgotten and graciously blotted out. They associate all their misery with
something that happened in the past, when their suffering is really due to
something in the present. God is patiently waiting (Isa. 30:18) to convert
discipline into blessing so that they can grow up! But they are still children ‑
spiritually immature. Some believers never mature because they will not isolate
the sins committed in the past.
Everyone has a skeleton in
the closet. If there is anything that is gruesome, it is a skeleton ‑ and
that is the way it should be to you. But there are times when you lean on your
skeletons. Every time things go wrong, you immediately think about that
skeleton in the closet. Here is the pattern: you have a crisis in your life;
instantly you remember the sin which is the vilest sin you ever committed. (It
may not be, according to divine standards, because sin is sin; but in your
estimation it tops the list.) You assume that this blatant sin is the reason
for the adversity you are experiencing; and this results in ignoring the
principle that there are numerous causes for suffering, and out of all these,
only one is for discipline.
Suppose for the moment that
this pressure IS discipline for some recent unconfessed sin (probably some sin
you do not consider so bad, such as mental‑attitude envy, gossip, etc.);
yet you pull out that skeleton from the closet ‑ that sin, the worst that
YOU THINK you ever committed ‑ and assume it is the culprit. On this
assumption, you ignore any sin in the periphery of your present life that may
be responsible for your distress. Because you keep returning to a sin committed
years ago, the problem is never resolved.
There are three categories
of sins by which you can perpetuate chain sinning: mental, verbal and overt
sins.
Guilt
Complex You
may harbor your skeleton in the closet through mental sins. These sins include
envy, pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self‑pity,
worry and guilt complex. And to remember these sins is the worst mental sin, as
far as perpetuating something that God has blotted out is concerned. If you remember
sin, you are out of fellowship, either because you do not BELIEVE God has
blotted it out, or because you do not FEEL it is blotted out. Remembering sin
results in a number of adverse effects. In most cases, you remember this sin
with horror; it causes nightmares, and you become discouraged and despondent;
you have developed a guilt complex ‑ the most detrimental thing that can
happen to the mind of a believer, for it will keep you spiritually immature and
despondent.
Let's straighten out the
situation right now. If you have a guilt complex about anything in your life ‑
ANYTHING AT ALL ‑ you are out of fellowship and unhappy. You are a
failure! As long as you carry that guilt complex around with you, you can never
represent or serve your Lord nor produce divine good. At best, you can try to
assuage your guilty conscience by performing human good deeds ‑ an old‑sin‑nature
deeds ‑ wood, hay and stubble! What a waste of time! Your efforts do not
count because you did not believe the Word of God; you did not claim I John
1:9! However, you are still alive and on this earth, and God's purpose for you
continues.
Self‑recrimination. A by‑product of the
guilt complex is a mental attitude I will call “self‑torture,” or “self‑recrimination”
‑ and you could not torture yourself more efficiently than if you held
your foot in a hot fire or drove bamboo stakes up your nails. You can do a
better job of torturing yourself in YOUR
OWN MIND than anyone else
can, no matter what type of physical torture he might inflict.
In the Middle Ages, when people did not feel that their sins were
forgiven, they often had someone beat them with a whip, or they beat
themselves; or they would inflict other tortures upon themselves, such as lying
down on a bed of sharp glass or splinters for so many hours. Going through
their minds was the attitude, “I hurt; therefore, I am being forgiven!”
Of course, that isn't true
at all. Your feelings do not determine God's forgiveness. You are forgiven
because of Who and what God is, not because you hurt. That is why many
Christians never produce for the Lord; and that is why, no matter what they do
or where they go or what happens to them, they will never have one moment of
real happiness in their lives. They are denying themselves the blessings God has
provided for them. They have failed the grace of God!
Just think of it! God offers
every believer, in every situation in life, perfect inner peace, perfect power,
all kinds of prosperity for blessing, as well as all kinds of suffering for
blessing. The believer never
need lose the perspective,
and he can have tremendous production for God! But what has happened? Very few
believers are even filled with the Spirit! Why? Because after they confess
their sins, they never learn to isolate their “skeletons.”
Hatred,
Hostility, Jealousy. Perhaps at some time in the past you lied to a person. You
confessed your fabrication, but you perpetuated the sin by jealousy and hatred
of that person. When you allow a sin to nurture jealousy, jealousy becomes an
even worse sin; and if it goes unchecked, you move into perpetual discipline.
But you will be disciplined for the current sin of jealousy, not for the
original sin of lying!
You hear
people describe the wonders of the Christian life, the marvelous grace of God and
how it works, the inner happiness, inner peace and production; but you never
experience any of these things. Why not? Because you are spending your time
mentally feeling sorry for your sin, trying to think of something to make up
for your sin, trying to destroy the terrible guilt feeling when you have no
right even to THINK about it! All these insidious thoughts prevent the
isolation of sin. You have said in effect, “The sin is dead! Long live the
sin!” Yes, the SIN IS DEAD, because GOD BURIED IT! But you dug it up!
Bitterness. Taking the bitterness route
means that you find a “patsy” and make that person responsible for your sin.
Sometimes you may even blame God, and you may ‑ note this ‑ become
bitter toward God! Or you may be bitter toward another believer. As long as you
harbor bitterness toward any member of the human race because of your sin, you
will stay perpetually out of fellowship; you choose the law of carnality with
all of its attendant misery, and your suffering can never be converted to blessing.
It must remain discipline, since you continue to be out of fellowship by what
you think.
“. . . lest any root of
bitterness springing up . . .” ‑ the words springing up” actually mean
“to SPROUT in the mind.” In order for anything to sprout, there first of all
must be a seed. And what must the seed do before it can sprout? It must die!
When a seed dies, a root grows downward and a sprout shoots upward.
This
phrase in the Greek is saying, “Look ‑ what causes this bitterness? A
seed that is dead ‑ a sin which is already confessed, dead and buried!”
You take a sin that is dead and buried, forgiven and forgotten, and you plant
this sin into your life with mental‑attitude bitterness, mental‑attitude
hatred, guilt complex, self‑torture, self recrimination, mental
flagellation. What do you suppose sprouts up? Weeds of sin, misery, discipline!
You are not being
disciplined for the sin that is DEAD ‑ you are being disciplined for the
SPROUTS that have surfaced: here is a blossom; there is another blossom ‑
bitterness, gossip, maligning, plotting, harassment, vengeance, ostracism!
These sins result in divine discipline, not from the confessed sin in the past
but from new sins that are “lit” on that sin. This passage commands you to
forget the skeleton in the closet! Dispose of it where God has already taken
it: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us” (Psa. 103:12). You need never to look back. You are
never commanded to look back.
There are two kinds of
believers: the great believers who profit from their failures and the believers
who are buried by their failures. The great believers never look back. David
never looked back. Abraham never looked back. Joseph never looked back. These
men failed but they never recalled their sins from oblivion; they moved forward
‑ and glorified God!
“ . . . . lest any root of
bitterness springing up trouble you . . . .” “Trouble you” is the present
active subjunctive, indicating that it keeps on troubling you. Now here is the
failure to isolate a sin which has been blotted out. It keeps on troubling you;
it makes you miserable. But there is one glean of light ‑ the subjunctive
mood! The subjunctive mood is potential, which means that bitterness does not
HAVE to trouble you. Confess your sin and forget it! When you are miserable
because of these sprouts, it is because you allow some past sin to harass you,
even though you have confessed it. Inevitably, bitterness springs from its
roots; and from bitterness comes an undesirable cluster of fruit.
These sins become the object
of discipline so that you are troubled. Furthermore, you cause others to be
defiled also: you drive others from the Word; you cause others to become
bitter; you generate revenge activity; you turn other people into gossips an .
engender emotional upsets, guilt complexes and auto flagellation! Whenever you
fail to isolate your sin, the repercussions never stop with you. Your failure
overflows to everyone around you; not only do you make yourself unhappy but
also those with whom you associate.
The people you love most are
those you always hurt when you succumb to this type of carnality. First, you
hurt the Lord Jesus Christ by ignoring God's Plan for your life; then you hurt
loved ones by “Operation Fallout.” As long as you fad to isolate sin, you will
constantly be off‑balance; you will find a “patsy” and turn your wrath
and vindictiveness, your bitterness and hatred, gossip and maligning against
this person and that person. You not only drive people away from YOU, but you
drive people away from the LORD.
However, as long as you are
alive, it is never too late. And the time to stop is now! When a sin dies by
confession, God takes over, and you begin to produce divine good. Back in
fellowship, you have a different type of sprout. You have a new mental attitude
‑ LOVE. You do not hate anyone; you are completely relaxed, and you live
and let live!
Whatever you have done, you
cannot go back and undo; but this does not mean that you can welsh on your
obligations. If you have debts, it is your responsibility to pay them. You
fulfill responsibility without becoming involved with any past sins connected
with your failure. You have confessed your sin, and now you simply stop looking
back and move on. From this point, you can begin to have joy, inner happiness,
peace, inner stability, inner beauty. You have the power of the Spirit, which
will enable you to function under GAP, mature and produce.
Every great believer in the Bible
sinned or failed at some point in his life. There exist no great Bible
characters who did not fail. And what did they do ‑ sit around and cry
about it? They did not! They confessed it, forgot it, and kept moving. They
were great because they isolated their sins. When they confessed their sins,
they knew that God had forgiven and forgotten them. They never looked back;
they never remembered. As a result, when suffering came to them it was a
blessing from the Lord (Psa. 119:67). In suffering or prosperity, they had
inner happiness. Why? They were filled with the Spirit; they were in the bottom
circle, and they were advancing! One of the greatest drags in serving the Lord
is failure to isolate sin ‑ to allow your past sins to hold you back.
Mental sins unconfessed and unisolated inevitably
branch into two other fields ‑ sins of the tongue and overt sins.
If as a result of any of the
mental attitude sins (guilt complex, vindictiveness, implacability, jealousy,
bitterness, hatred, etc.), you begin to talk about the person who is the object
of your jealousy, hatred or bitterness, you will usually follow one of three
avenues, any one of which can put you on the road to a miserable life.
1. Maligning or Judging. Heretofore, your sin has been
confined to the mind; but now you express your thoughts, and they take the form
of maligning, gossiping and judging. Maligning is a part of judging. It means
to “run down” someone who has become the object of your hatred or hostility.
You ascribe to him certain sins. The unkind things you say about him may be
true, but that is not the point ‑ you are still judging!
Perhaps you feel bad all the
time while he appears to feel good, and that aggravates the entire situation.
Someone you hate, someone toward whom you are bitter seems to be getting along
very well, and you just can't stand it! You begin a campaign to malign him and
to attribute certain sins, real or imagined, to him. And you are maligning for
one reason ‑ so that others will ostracize him; so that he will be
degraded or hurt. In so doing, you are superimposing your volition over the
divine prerogative of judgment and condemnation.
Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is
mine; I will repay, saith the Lord (Rom. 12:19).
What you observe about a
person is not the issue. Even if what you say about that person is true, you
are still in the wrong ‑ for you are judging! That is why the Bible says,
“Judge not, that ye be not judged”
(Matt. 7: 1 ). A literal translation from the Greek
of verse 2 will help you to understand this better:
For by which judgment [the sin of another you named]
ye judge, ye shall be judged: and by which measure you pay out to someone else,
it will come back to you.
It is possible to malign or
judge and at the same time do that person the greatest favor. How? God takes
the discipline from him and pours it on you! Thus, you are not only receiving
your own discipline, you are also receiving the discipline of someone you
maligned ‑ as if your own were not enough! Furthermore, double discipline
continues until you stop judging and maligning. So help yourself to someone
else's discipline ‑ if you want to be miserable as a Christian! Before
you know it, you will be under triple‑compound discipline:
(1) Discipline for mental attitude sins.
(2) Discipline for judging (Matt. 7: 1).
(3) Discipline for sins you ascribe to the object of your bitterness
(Matt. 7:2).
If you malign more than one person
in a situation like that, you could multiply your discipline until you go right
out of your mind. That is what is commonly called “asking for it”! This is the
reason that three of the sins which God is said to hate (Prov. 6:16‑19)
are sins of the tongue. Only one overt sin is named, and that is murder. All
maligning, criticism or “sour grapes” result in a triple dose of discipline,
which produces the most horrible anguish and suffering possible in the life of
the believer. The self‑righteousness involved in promoting yourself as a
“judge” hurts you more than it hurts others. Self‑inflicted suffering is
added to the discipline, and under these conditions, you dedicate yourself to
perpetual misery of your own making.
2. Gossip. To gossip is to
say something derogatory about a person which is NOT TRUE. Hence, you ascribe
to him sins he has not even committed. If you are the recipient of such gossip,
whether or not it is true is of no consequence; the issue is privacy: you live
your life as unto the Lord and afford others the same courtesy. The only result
is that you hurt yourself ‑ God's discipline falls on you, not on the
victim of your gossip. If you are the victim, do not ever try to explain
yourself. People will believe what they want to; in fact, an explanation
usually makes matters worse. Those who are walking in fellowship with the Lord
and maturing know that your life is none of their business; it is business that
God will handle personally (application of the doctrine of privacy).
3. Manufacture
of controversy. This sin is the failure to isolate your differences with
other believers. Schismatic‑type people complain to outside parties in
order to gain their sympathy and support. Wives complain about husbands;
workers state their discontent with the boss; members of the congregation
express resentment toward their pastor. They turn uninvolved and innocent
persons against the object of their hatred and malice, and the result is
dissention. among those within their periphery.
4. Public
Confession. The fourth way in which you can stay out of fellowship is to start
a fire with your tongue. James, Chapter 3, is the great passage on self‑control.
For in many things we offend
all [we sin in many areas]. If any man offend not in word [notice, if any
person does not sin with his tongue], the same is a perfect [or mature] man ...
(Jas. 3:2).
You can always recognize a mature believer. He
neither judges, maligns nor gossips. He does not pass on dirt or evil about
someone else. He is not guilty of the sin of the “long proboscis.” He is also
“able to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2). A mature believer has the greatest
type of self‑control that can exist, which is the ability to control
every area of his life, even his tongue!
It is frightening to
contemplate the damage the human tongue is capable of creating. So small a part
of our anatomy, it can nevertheless determine the course our life will take as
well as wreck the lives of others. Horses may be controlled by bridles, and
ships by rudders; wild animals can be tamed; but there is only one thing that
will tame the tongue ‑ a maximum amount of Bible doctrine in the soul,
applied to the life.
Behold, we put bits in the
horses' mouths, that they may obey us [and they do]; and we turn about their
whole body. Behold also the ships, which even though they be so large, and even
though they are driven with fierce winds, yet they can be turned about by a
very small rudder, wherever the steersman wants it to go (literal trans., of
Jas. 3:3,4).
“Even so the TONGUE IS A
UTTLE MEMBER, and boasteth great things . . . .” Now here we are: “Behold, how
great a matter [how great a number of people] a little fire kindleth!” (Jas.
3:5). The tongue is a tiny object in the body, but it stirs up great trouble.
Public confession of sin falls into this category.
Some people think that a
revival begins with open confession of sins ‑ a heresy which has been
practiced throughout history. 7he public confession puts that sin in the minds of
all who hear it confessed, and it may keep them out of fellowship for a long
time. Instead of bringing revival, public confession can bum down an entire
church. “But,” you say, “it makes me feel better!” It may make you feel better
for the moment, but it does not stop the anxiety; and often permanent damage
results, both to yourself and to other believers. Furthermore, it contributes
nothing toward removing the discipline; this does not require human help! That
is why a pastor should never permit anyone to stand up and confess his sin to
others in a place where the pastor exercises the authority. Confession is a
matter between the individual and God.
The third area in which we
fad to isolate our sin is overt activity. Perpetuating verbal sins overtly is
generally done by revenge tactics ‑DOING something you know will hurt
someone else. The function of hypocrisy and pseudo‑love generates
implacability and vindictiveness. If you are ingenious, you can think of a
number of ways whereby you can injure someone else.
When you begin a revenge
plot, it generally falls into one of two categories: harassment or violence, or
both; neither solves a thing. You must be a frustrated, confused believer to
ever think that violence will solve your problems. So you punch someone in the
nose! What have you solved? Nothing! You have only brought discipline on
yourself. You can never build your happiness on someone else's unhappiness. Two
wrongs do not make a right! You simply dedicate yourself to perpetual pain; you
fail to produce for the Lord, and therefore fail to realize the purpose for
which you are left in this life ‑ to move into the area of super‑grace.
Now you can begin to see that one of the great challenges of the Christian life
is to forget your confessed sins. FORGET THEM COMPLETELY! What does it take to
do that? Something you may or may not have ‑ the faith‑rest
technique. You must believe I John 1:9! If you begin thinking about that
confessed sin again, you are lighting one sin on another. You are causing one
sin to burn into another sin, beginning first in your mind, then going to the
tongue, and finally to vicious overt sins! You have started a chain reaction of
continual frustration and reversionism from which it is very difficult to
recover.
Look at the first two words
of Hebrews 12:15 again: “Looking diligently.” This is a phrase of mental
attitude. It is a present active participle ‑ KEEP ON LOOKING DILIGENTLY.
It actually means “to ride herd on yourself”; “to check yourself constantly.”
For what should you check yourself9 That you do not allow sin to be perpetuated
in your life. That you make sure you harbor no mental attitude of hatred or
hostility toward someone.
In checking your mental
attitude, ask yourself, “Do I have a guilt complex about my sin? Do I keep
thinking about this? Do I keep reliving this situation? Do I get upset and
associate it with every difficulty in my life? Do I want to tell everyone
because it makes me feel better? Do I want to take revenge? Does it make me
happy to see someone crawl who has wronged me?”
Don't ever let one sin in
your life be the basis of more sins! When you make a “patsy” of your sin and
blame all your other weaknesses and failures and difficulties on it, you are
totally divorced from reality, except that you know you are in agony.
The Bible is filled with
wonderful doctrines, but you will never understand them. The Bible contains all
the principles of inner happiness, inner peace, inner joy, but you will never
experience them. You will always wonder, “What is happening to me?” After the
suffering continues for years, you will want to die; you will want to commit
suicide. You will think life has passed you by. You are a spiritual “humpty‑dumpty,”
and no one can put you back together again! You think no one understands!
But cheer up! The Bible
understands you, because the Bible is the “mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2:16), and
He says, “It is not that no one understands you ‑ you don't understand ME
(Christ) or My Word (the Bible). You don't know what love is. You have no
concept of My grace! You think everything that happens to you is discipline for
something you did in the past. Oh, no! It is discipline for something you are
doing right NOW. It is discipline for a
mental attitude sin; for a sin of the tongue; for an act of revenge.”
If you do not isolate a
confessed sin by the faith‑rest technique, you will set up a perpetual
misery machine. Mental attitude sins and sins of the tongue produce their own
grief. You never have to say that the devil is after you, because he isn't ‑
he is not omnipresent! But do you know who IS after you? (This should scare
you!) YOU are the ,'monster” chasing yourself!
The solution begins with the
isolation of your sin. Once again the mechanics: first of all, when you confess
or name your sin to God, it is forgiven ‑ whether you believe it or not.
On the authority of the Word of God, I can say dogmatically, IT IS FORGIVEN! It
does not even depend on your faith. It depends on the Word of God! Whether or
not you believe 1 John 1:7 simply determines if you will ENJOY the benefits of
the forgiveness of sins. Capacity for enjoyment involves believing that when
you confess a sin to God, it is cleansed immediately and blotted out forever.
Your lack of faith never affects the immutability and faithfulness of God, but
it will cause you great discomfort. It is ridiculous to feel bad over a sin
that has been blotted out!
Perhaps you can begin to see
that Hebrews 12:15 is a key verse in the orientation of a believer to the
Christian life. We all have a certain amount of pressure, adversity, trial,
heartache and difficulty. You cannot mature spiritually without suffering and
pressure. Just as physical muscles are developed under pressure, so spiritual
muscles are increased under adversity. Therefore, the majority of the causes
for suffering are designed for blessing; only one is for discipline. It is
important for you to know whether the suffering is for discipline or for
blessing. If it is for discipline, then you must evaluate your life and ask,
“What is the sin? Where have I failed? What haven't I confessed?” When you
discover and confess that sin, the slate is wiped clean. Should the suffering
continue, it is no longer for correction; the cursing of discipline is turned
to blessing. How can God do that? There is a one‑word answer, and if you
understand that, then you have understood in principle everything that has
been said. The word is GRACE. That's it!
What does this grace add up
to? It adds up to the fact that all of us as believers are not worth the powder
it takes to blow us up. David said, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psa. 8:4). The word “visitest”
means to bless in grace. What is man? What are we that God would condescend to
have anything to do with us? The answer
is, WE ARE NOTHNG! If we are nothing, why DOES God have anything to do with us?
Because of positional truth! Since every believer is placed “in Christ,”
God the Father loves each one with the same amount of love that He has for God
the Son. It goes right back to this precept: everything we ever do that counts ‑
every blessing, anything that might be construed as great, or as victory, or as
power, or as honoring the Lord ‑ is not because of who we are, but
because of WHO HE IS and WHAT HE PROVIDES!
The object of this message
is really not to step on your toes, although it can't miss! But here is the
point: it is a tragedy to be without peace and happiness and blessing in our
Christian lives because we fail the grace of God! The grace of God never fails
us! How do we know His grace never fails us? Because we have failed so many
times, and yet we are still alive ‑ God still has a purpose for our
lives! He wants us to have happiness, inner peace, inner power and production
that will count for eternity.
Somewhere in your vicinity,
there is someone who needs Christ ‑someone waiting to see the power, the
peace and the happiness that you can have in adversity; waiting to see that
great stability which a super‑grace believer has in time of prosperity;
waiting for a demonstration of the dynamics of God the Holy Spirit in your
life. But in failing to appropriate the grace of God, you are “snubbing” the
Holy Spirit; you are grieving or quenching Him (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19). He
is locked up in a little corner; it is impossible for Him to produce in your
life. Thus, you are missing all the great blessings of the grace of God.
So the issue becomes the
same issue we had in Romans, Chapter 8: “choose you which law you will serve.”
To serve the law of spirituality means that the sin is dead and isolated, and
the Holy Spirit takes over and produces. To serve the law of carnality means
that one sin is lit on another until you burn away your own life and those
around you ‑ destroying yourself and them by your carnality or
reversionism.
In summary, I want you to
note several principles which Will help you to serve the law of spirituality
consistently and to move on into super‑grace.
1. Learn the Doctrine of
Hamartiology (sin). Many categories of sin are unknown to the believer until he
examines Biblical standards.
2. Master the Doctrine of
Spirituality. It is essential to know how to recover from carnality and to log
a maximum amount of time in spirituality.
3. Understand retroactive
positional truth ‑ identification with Christ retroactively in His death ‑
and the fact that human good was rejected at the Cross.
4. Begin to grow spiritually
through the knowledge and understanding of doctrine and orientation to grace,
which results in stability, the super‑grace life and maximum production.
5. Avoid the pattern of I Timothy 5:13 ‑ “Operation
L4Dng Proboscis”; learn to mind your own business (Rom. 14:4a) and to live your
own life before the Lord.
This message has been for
those who are believers in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you have never made that most
important of all decisions. The Lord Jesus Christ bore in His own body on the
Cross every sin you have ever committed or ever will commit (I Pet. 2:24). By
His spiritual death He also made provision for you to overcome the sin nature
and to confess and isolate every sin in the Christian life. There is nothing
between you and God ‑ not even sin ‑ only your own REJECTION!
You can possess eternal life
right now because you can have God the Son as your Savior. How? “Whosoever
BELIEVETH in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15). Just as
in confession, so in salvation, appropriation is nonmeritorious.
For by grace are ye saved
through FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the GIFT of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8, 9).
By a simple act of faith in
Jesus Christ, you can be born again; you can become a child of God and a member
of His Royal Family forever. This is yours for the taking. Jesus says, “Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt.
11: 28). “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
This is your opportunity.
You can offer a silent prayer: “Father, I am believing in Jesus Christ. I am
receiving Him as my Savior.” The alternatives are clearly defined in John 3:36:
He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him.
1.
Rebound means restoration to fellowship with God and recovery of the filling of
the Spirit (Prov. 1:23; Eph. 5:14 cf. Eph. 5:18).
2.
Rebound must be understood in the light of relationship with God (Jer. 3:13) or in the light of
positional truth (Rom. 8: 1).
3.
The frame of reference for rebound is the efficacious death of Christ on the Cross, where He paid for our sins
(2 Cor. 5:2; 2:24; I Pet 2:24; John 1:7).
4.
Eternal security is the prerequisite to understanding the rebound technique (Rom. 8:38, 39).
a. The believer sins after
salvation, but such sin is categorized as CARNALITY, not loss of salvation (I
Cor. 3:1‑3; 1 John 1:8, 10)
b. Both carnality and
reversionism are results of refusing or rejecting
the rebound technique.
5. The mechanics of the rebound technique: confess it (I John 1:9);
forget it (Phil. 3:13, 14); isolate it (Heb. 12:15).
6.
The alternative to rebound ‑ divine discipline (I Cor. 11:31; Heb. 12:6).
7. The discouragement to rebound: legalism and other Christians (Luke
15:11‑32).
8.
The grace provision for helping other believers to rebound:
a. The mechanics (Gal. 6: 1 ).
b. A mental attitude of grace (Matt. 18:23‑35).
c. Grace orientation (Col. 3:13).
d. Reward for assisting others (Jas. 5: 19,
20).
9. Biblical synonyms for rebound:
a. Confess (I John 1:9).
b. Judge self (1 Cor. 11:31).
c. Yield (Aorist tense) ‑ (Rom. 6:13;
12: 1).
d. Lay aside every weight (Heb. 12: 1).
e. Be in subjection to the Father (Heb.
12:9).
f. Lift up the hands that hang down (Heb.
12:12).
g. Make straight paths (Matt. 3:3; Heb.
12:13).
h. Arise from the dead, or
literally, “stand up again out from deaths”
‑ (Eph. 5:14).
i. Put off the old man (Eph.
4:22).
j. Acknowledge thine iniquity
(Jer. 3:13).
10. Old Testament rebound
commands (Psa. 32:5; 38:18; 51:3, 4; Prov. 28:13).
1. Divine discipline is the
sum total of punitive measures by which God corrects and judges the believer in
time (Heb. 12:5).
a. Discipline is the alternative
to blessing.
b. It is based on God's love
for the believer (Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19).
2.
Two areas of divine discipline exist in
Phase Two: carnality and reversionism.
a. Discipline for carnality
is temporary and canceled by the rebound
technique (I John 1:9).
b. Discipline for
reversionism is permanent in time and terminates in the sin unto death, unless recovery occurs.
3.
The purpose of divine discipline is to correct the believer and bring
him to the point of rebound or reversion recovery.
4.
Divine discipline, no matter how severe, does not imply loss of
salvation (Gal. 3:26; 2 Tim. 2:11‑13).
5.
Discipline is related to the grace principle of turning cursing into blessing.
a. This is accomplished through self‑judgment (I Cor. 4:30, 3
1).
b. If the believer rebounds and the suffering of
discipline is neither canceled nor diminished, then the suffering continues as
blessing rather than punishment (Job 5:17, 18).
7.
All divine discipline is confined to time, There is no discipline for the believer
in eternity (Rev. 21:4). Triple‑compound discipline combines self‑induced
misery with divine judgment.
a. Mental attitude sins motivate sins of the tongue. These mental
attitude sins are subject to discipline.
b. Sins of the tongue are the basis for further punitive action from
God (Matt. 7: 1 ).
c. Whatever discipline for sins attributed to the victim of sins of
the tongue is also added to the maligner (Matt. 7:2).
8.
There are three categories of discipline for reversionism.
a. The warning stage ‑ “knocking at the
door” (Jas. 5:9; Rev. 3:20): a general category of discipline, which may be
removed by the application of the rebound technique.
b. The intensified stage, which includes loss of
health and other extreme types of discipline: the sphere of strong delusion
(Psa. 3 8:1 ‑14); recovery requires persistent intake of doctrine.
The dying stage: the
believer is under the sin unto death (I John 5:16); continuation in the status
of reversionism results in the sin unto death (Jer. 9:16; 34:12; Phil. 3:18;
Rev. 3:16).
I . General causes for suffering.
a. Loss of health, wealth, loved ones, etc.
b. Administration of justice (imprisonment, etc.).
c. People (gossip, war, social conflict, etc.).
d. Privation (hunger, thirst, etc.).
e. Weather (heat, cold, tornado, hurricane, etc.).
f. Mental pressure (worry, fear, jealousy, etc.).
g. Isolation by society (loneliness, ostracism, etc.).
h. Mental attitude sins (self‑induced misery).
i. Reversionism (reaping what you sow).
j. Rejection of authority.
2. Categories
of suffering.
a.
Time.
(1) Unbeliever (two categories).
(a) Violation or rejection of laws of divine
establishment. (b) Self‑induced suffering.
(2) Believer (see point 4).
b. Eternity.
(1) Unbeliever ‑ Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:12‑15).
(2) Believer ‑ no more suffering (Rev. 21:4).
3.
Premise of suffering.
a. All suffering is designed for blessing in Phase
Two (I Pet. 1:7, 8; 4:14).
b. Exception is discipline (Heb. 12:6).
c. Exception is removed by rebound for carnality (1
Cor. 11: 3 1; 1 John 1:9), and recovery from reversionism.
d. Suffering follows the principle of grace, whereby
cursing is turned to blessing (Rom. 8:28; 1 Thess. 5:18).
4.
Purpose of Christian suffering.
a. Disciplinary (deserved).
(1) For carnality (Psa. 38) and reversionism (Ecclesiastes).
(2) By association (1 Sam. 21; Rom. 14:7; 1 Cor. 12:26).
(3) Because of wrong priorities (Ecclesiastes; Song of
Solomon).
(4) From a guilt complex (I Tim. 1: 5, 6, 19, 20; 3:9; 4:1, 2;
Tit. 1:15).
(5) Through national discipline (Lev. 26:14‑39; Isa. 33;
59; Hosea).
(6) From rejection of principle of right man‑right woman
(Jer. 12:7; 15:7‑12, 17, 18; Ezek. 16; 23).
(7) From failure to isolate sin (Heb. 12:15).
(8) From temporary loss of grace norms (Jer. 2:24, 25).
(9) From war or revolution.
(10)For reversionism (self‑induced misery) (Psa. 77).
b. Blessing (undeserved).
(1) Suffering to glorify God in the angelic conflict (Job; Luke
16:20, 21; 1 Pet. 1: 12; 3:17).
(2) To learn obedience and self‑discipline (Phil. 2:8;
Heb. 5:8).
(3) To demonstrate the sufficiency of grace (2 Cor. 12: 1 ‑10).
(4) To eliminate the occupational hazard of pride or arrogance
and to relate suffering to the sufficiency of grace (2 Cor. 11:24‑33; 2
Cor. 12:1‑10).
(5) To develop faith necessary for the function of the faith‑rest
technique (I Pet. 1:7, 8).
(6) To accelerate the construction of the edification complex
in the soul (characteristics of maturity) and to enter into super‑grace
status (Jas. 1: 1‑6).
(7) To help others who suffer (2 Cor. 1:3‑5).
(8) To learn the value of Bible doctrine (Psa. 119:67, 68, 7
1).
(9) For the impact and advance of doctrine (2 Tim. 1: 12‑14).
(10) As a means of witnessing for Christ (2 Cor. 3, 4).
5.
Demonstration of God's love through suffering.
a. Since there is no suffering for
believers in eternity, time is only situation God can demonstrate His love
through suffering (1 Pet. 4:14, 16).
b. There is no suffering too great for the Plan of God.
c. Divine provision for suffering is greater than any pressure
of life
d. God's love through suffering is realized to the maximum for
the mature believer.
e. Super‑grace believer is qualified through resident
doctrine to
weather any storm of life.
6.
The unique sufferings of Christ (Isa. 53).
7.
Reasons for the suffering of the pastor‑teacher.
a. To perpetuate occupation
with Christ (2 Tim. 2:8).
b. To disseminate Bible
doctrine (2 Tim. 2:9).
c. To fulfill the grace
objectives of Phase Two (2 Tim. 2:10).
8.
Principle of ultra super‑grace suffering.
a. The ultra super‑grace believer receives as the highest
decoration in time the mantle of undeserved suffering ‑ opposition from
evil and all satanic forces (PH. 3: 10; 2 Tim. 3:8‑12).
b. The sufferings of the
ultra super‑grace believer are an accolade,
the highest honor given to a believer in time.
c. The sufferings intensify
the blessing of his special blessing
paragraph.