Sermon Tone Analysis

Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the Father.

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/If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins) /(1Jn 1:9)

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You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with the Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.

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/"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth."

/(John 4:24)

 

 

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*Christian Suffering*

 

CATEGORIES OF CHRISTIAN SUFFERING AND STAGES OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

 

     THE BIBLE EXPLAINS SUFFERING and reveals powerful Divine assets for coping with adversity.

No believer in Jesus Christ should remain ignorant of the causes and solutions to any difficulty in his life.

Suffering is not inexplicable.

*Every instance of suffering has a reason, an explanation, and a solution!*

Christian suffering can be most clearly understood in relation to the individual believer’s Spiritual growth.

From this perspective, adversities may be classified into five categories.

Two categories are typical of Spiritual child­hood; three characterize Spiritual adulthood.

The two categories of suffering in Spiritual childhood are punitive.

The three in Spiritual adulthood are de­signed by God for blessing.

This study will examine the problems and Divine solutions connected with self-induced misery, Divine discipline, /providential preventive suffering, mo­mentum testing, and evidence testing./

These are five categories, which will be de­fined in due course, and account for all suffering in the Christian life.

The connection between punitive suffering and Spiritual childhood and suffer­ing for a blessing with Spiritual adulthood is not a rigid distinction.

Some suffering for blessing occurs in Spiritual childhood, and punitive suffering can hit the Spiritually adult believer when he sins or makes bad decisions.

The general pattern, however, gives us a basis for understanding the pressures in our lives.

FIVE CATEGORIES OF CHRISTIAN SUFFERING 

     Adversity plays a dominant role in the lives of adult human beings.

Suffer­ing is like a parent.

What responsible parents do for their children, suffering does for adults.

The discipline and restraints of childhood imposed by parents are replaced by the discipline and restraints of adult life enforced by suffering.

As a parent, a guardian, a referee ready to blow the whistle as an authority provided by God; suffering challenges us as believers to utilize the assets God has given us.

Suffering depletes our human resources and confronts us with our total dependence on the grace of God.

Suffering impresses upon us our need to conform to His plan!

     Parents do more than discipline their children.

Likewise, suffering is not merely a warning and a restraint but a teacher and motivator as well.

Misfor­tune does not always come to injure, says a Latin maxim.

Pain not only dis­courages us from going in the wrong direction, but it can also help to propel us in the right direction.

The proper application of Truth under pres­sure produces Spiritual growth.

We see Truth working.

We experience the Reality that God is /“a very present help in trouble.”//

/(Psa 46:1-2; Psa 46:10) As a result of using His Word, our love for Him grows stronger, and we accelerate our Spiritual advance.

Whether as a guardian or as a stimulus of Spiritual growth, all suffering in the Christian life must be understood in relation to the plan of God.

Suffering, (Old sin nature, Thought, people, organization and disaster testing) is designed for our good and for His glorification.

He is glorified by sustain­ing and blessing us in any situation, whether prosperity or adversity.

It is for His Own glory, therefore, within the hardships and disasters of life God Promises, /“*I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.*”/

(Jos 1:5; Heb 13:5-6) /He will “never let the righteous [Spiritual believer] be shaken.”

[Or totter or fall] /(Psa 55:22) Rather than eliminating suffering from our lives, He gives us far greater benefits by walking with us /“through the valley of the shadow of death.”/

(Psa 23:4)

 

 TWO FUNCTIONS OF SUFFERING IN GOD’S PLAN

     Many Principles in our study of suffering will apply to unbelievers (To motivate faith in Christ; Rev 11:13) as well as to believers, (To grow to Spiritual maturity; Heb 11:37-40) but we will concentrate on Christian suffering.

We are study­ing the assets that God has graciously given to anyone who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are also identifying difficulties that arise when believers fail to utilize what God has given them.

Union with the King of Kings 

     Spiritual childhood begins at Salvation.

At the moment anyone first believes in Christ, God the Holy Spirit simultaneously accomplishes eight ministries in behalf of the new believer.

One of these ministries is the baptism of the Spirit, in which the Holy Spirit instantaneously places the believer into permanent union with Jesus Christ.

/For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ [The baptism of the Holy Spirit at Salvation] have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, [No racial distinctions] there is neither slave nor free man, [No social classes] there is neither male nor female; [No sexual bias] for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

[In union with Christ]/ (Gal 3:26-28) 

     The Lord Jesus Christ is the /“King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”/

(Rev 19:16) He holds the most exalted of all royal titles.

He is head of a new royal dynasty, the Church, to which we belong.

The present era of history is the Church Age, in which every individual who believes in Christ as his Savior is adopted as an adult son and heir into the royal family of God.

(Rom 8:15; Gal 4:1-5; Eph 1:4-5) Our adoption occurs at the first moment of faith in Christ, when we are placed in union with Christ.

(Gal 3:26) We are royalty now and will be royalty forever.

This is our eternal position; in our current experience, however, we must learn to Think as royalty.

We must learn to conduct ourselves as royalty.

In order to Think and live as Spiritual royalty, we need royal Thoughts.

Simul­taneously with the baptism of the Spirit, therefore, God the Holy Spirit also places each new member of the royal family into a magnificent, invisible en­vironment, a system of living that can be compared to a royal palace.

Because the believer’s very own invisible palace is a sphere of Spiritual power.

In the function of the Spiritual life God has made available to each believer the exercise of Divine omnipotence.

The believer’s utilization of Divine omnipotence will be explained as our study proceeds.

The palace, or the Spiritual life, is a teaching aid that clearly explains the tremendous assets and privileges that God has given to each New Covenant Church Age believer.

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Living as royalty in the palace, (The Bottom Circle) is a synonym for living the Christian way of life.

Only in the palace can we use our Spiritual assets, develop capa­city for life, and live with Spiritual wisdom, happiness, and graciousness as the Spiritual aristocrats we are.

Furthermore, the palace is the only sphere in which Christian growth can occur.

The Protocol Plan of God

 

     Royalty lives by protocol.

The Christian way of life can be called the protocol plan of God because the system — the Spiritual life — for utilizing God’s power, is a system of protocol.

God designed the Christian life; we must THINK His way! Protocol is a rigid, long-established code; prescribing com­plete obedience to superior rank and strict adherence to due order of prece­dence and precisely correct procedure.

Each element in Webster’s definition describes the plan of God for the believer’s life.

 

1.

LONG-ESTABLISHED CODE: In eternity past God created for each Church Age believer a rich portfolio of blessings, which glorifies God, who it also designed the Spiritual life as our means of taking distribution of those blessings.

(Eph 1:3-4)

 

2.

OBEDIENCE TO SUPERIOR RANK: Sovereign and omnipotent God holds infinitely superior rank to which we must give complete obedience.

3.

DUE ORDER OF PRECEDENCE: The highest priority in our scale of values must be learning the Word of God, Divine Thinking — Truth, which teaches us what assets we possess and explains how to utilize them.

4.

PRECISELY CORRECT PROCEDURE: Only by adhering to God’s precise Thoughts for the royal family do we fulfill the conditions for receiving our blessings created in eternity past that glorify God.

Divine grace has created a royal way of life which Divine authority Com­mands the royal believer to execute.

We are responsible for fulfilling the pro­tocol plan of God, but God never issues an Order for which He has not already provided the means of execution.

To obey God’s Commands is to tap His resources.

The Gates of the Palace

 

     The Commands of God are like gates that open upon Divine assets.

(Isa 62:10) The believer passes through these gates and uses his God-given assets by consistently learning and Thinking with God’s Thoughts and by following Divine protocol.

Obedience to Divine authority puts the power of God into effect in the believer’s life.

Although hundreds of Divine Commands for the royal family are found in the New Testament, all of these Commands can be classified into ten categories.

The Spiritual life consolidates God’s Commands into ONE consistent, comprehensive system.

/The Spiritual life/ will be developed later in detail, but here a brief description of the ten gates will suffice, along with examples of Divine Commands pertinent to each gate.

This section of the book outlines the Spiritual life; the next will fill in the outline, revealing the dynamics of the believer’s palace when he faces suffering.