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.

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)

 

 

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

 

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth," (John 4:24)

 

 

 

 

 

*The Seven Circles of the Spiritual life*

 

*       *

     “How can I develop my Spiritual life?”

This is a vital question that should concern every Christian.

Since the Spiritual life is the most valuable commodity that the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ possesses, we must learn how it can be developed and strengthened so as to produce the peace, blessing, power and strength that God intended.

All the ingredients needed to develop a strong faith that produces in us the monopolies and byproducts of the Christian life are found in, (Psa 27:1-14).

All faith begins at the moment we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our Salvation.

At that point we have just a little more faith than is found in a grain of mustard seed.

The Bible says: /“But these [Thoughts] have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”/

(John 20:31) /“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”/

(John 3:36) /“...Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved...”/ (Acts 16:31)

     This Salvation, which begins at the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, results in our receiving 40 plus things.

These include the forgiveness and cleansing of all sin, the absolute righteousness of God, eternal life, Christ dwelling in us, the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit, entrance into the plan of God, the election of God, and many other wonderful things, which are a direct result of our position in Christ.

At this point every believer starts with a perfect position, but with a very weak Spiritual life experientially.

As the Spiritual life develops it broadens into ever-widening circles, until we move into the place of Spiritual maturity and production in our Christian life.

There are seven of these circles.

We will examine each of them in our study of the development of the Spiritual life.

After the first step of Salvation, the second step in the development of faith is found in, (Rom 10:17) /“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.”/

The basic and primary prerequisite for the development of the Spiritual life is the habitual, daily intake of God’s Word taught Isagogically Categorically and Exegetically.

(I.C.E.)

To communicate Divine Thoughts to the assembly by Isagogics, (Historical background) Categories (Salvation, sin, Spirituality, carnality, etc.) and Exegesis.

(Etymological and syntactical word meanings from the original languages)

     The third circle in the enlargement of the Spiritual life is the exercise of faith, or the ability to apply what you have learned.

We call this the “faith-rest technique”: understanding certain Doctrines and applying them to experience; understanding and knowing certain Promises and Thinking with Them constantly.

(Heb 4:1-3)

     The fourth circle is the Spirit-controlled life.

The fruit of God the Holy Spirit, (Gal 5:22-23) IS THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

The next step for the Christian, the fifth circle is the area of testing or suffering.

/“So that the proof of your faith, [Spiritual life] being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”/

(1Pe 1:7) When we face adversities, trials, claim Promises to utilize them and to face our problems in the light of Divine Viewpoint.

Suffering becomes a means of putting muscle on our Spiritual life and developing it to the maximum.

This leads to a sixth development, “Occupation with Christ,” which is found in, (Heb 12:2) /“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, [The Spiritual life] who for the joy [Us] set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, [Thinking little of] and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”/

Our Spiritual life is strengthened as we face suffering from the Divine Viewpoint, /“For we walk by faith, [Spiritual Thinking] not by sight.”/

(2Co 5:7) When we are able to look at everything that happens to us in the light of God’s Viewpoint, we have reached the place of Occupation with Christ.

Finally we move into the place of true Spiritual maturity and production.

When there is a day by day absorption of God’s Word and the application of it to experience, when a Spiritual life produces, when any problem, adversity, sorrow or trial in life can be faced with stability and perfect peace, when there is Occupation with the Person of Christ — it is then that the believer moves into Spiritual maturity and reaches the point of maximum production.

(MGG: Maximum glorification of God) He has the Spiritual life which can move mountains!

There is nothing in this world that can touch him.

He is always ORIENTED.

He is always HAPPY.

He always has PEACE, whether he is in a place of trial and adversity or a place of great prosperity and blessing.

These seven Principles in the progression of the Spiritual life are all contained in one Psalm.

*PSALM 27 *

 

       *Circle Number 1 — Salvation*.

In, (Psa 27:1) we read, /“The LORD is my light and my Salvation; Whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?/

The Spiritual life begins at this point: “The Lord is my Salvation.”

Circle Number 1 is personal Salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

/“The LORD” /is a reference to the second Person of the Trinity, the God-Man, who came to earth over 1900 years ago and suffered death upon the cross while bearing the sins of the entire world.

When He hung there He was taking our place.

He was removing every claim that God had against us.

HE IS SALVATION.

HE IS THE ONLY HOPE! (Acts 4:12) declares: /“And there is Salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”/

Not only is the Lord Salvation, His is also MY Salvation.

“My” is a personal pronoun.

This Salvation belongs to me personally.

But this Salvation does not avail anything for me until the day that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

All faith must originate at the Cross.

There is no “faith-rest technique” until one personally believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.

A certain prominent minister in our country has a very interesting technique by which he has been able to help many people to a limited extent.

It actually boils down to a system of auto-hypnosis, for his method is to persuade people that their trials and troubles really do not exist.

He implies that if they will repeatedly tell themselves that their troubles do not exist, that somehow these troubles will evaporate into thin air.

If the weather is bad when you arise in the morning, just stand in front of the mirror and with every stroke of the razor say to yourself, “It’s a beautiful day, it’s a beautiful day.”

If you say it often enough, you will persuade yourself that it really is a beautiful day.

When you walk out into a blowing gale and almost freeze to death, with icicles dropping off your nose, it will still be a beautiful day, because you have persuaded yourself of that fact.

Now, this man uses certain Biblical Principles, but he uses them out of context, particularly the “faith-rest technique.”

He presents it as something that the entire human race can use.

But this is absolutely impossible, because the “faith-rest technique” depends upon believing certain Promises, *which are for the believer only,* and applying these Promises to experience.

Before anyone can apply the Promises of the Bible to his life he must start where God declares all faith begins: at Calvary’s Cross.

Faith which will produce the desired effect must begin at the Cross.

You cannot have any system such as the one advocated by this preacher and by many of the cults until you have first accepted the death of Christ on the cross as payment for your sins — past, present, and future.

Man’s basic problem in time is not the discomfort that comes his way through trial, adversity or difficulty.

Rather, it is the problem of his relationship with God.

A barrier exists because it is impossible for a sinful man to have fellowship with a holy and righteous God.

Even man’s good deeds cannot measure up to God’s perfect righteousness.

No matter how you may consider man, he is incapable of having fellowship with God.

Knowing this, God devised the perfect plan — a perfect plan from a perfect person.

Jesus Christ came into this world, went to the cross, died for our sins and thereby completely removed the barrier between man and God.

Now the only barrier that stands between the human race and an eternal relationship with God is the Person of Jesus Christ.

Where you spend eternity is determined by our attitude toward the Son of God.

Whether you will ever have any peace or blessing in this life is also determined by your attitude toward Christ.

The issue of Salvation is very clear.

/     “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” /(John 3:18)

 

     David wrote many hundreds of years ago that he had accepted Christ, the promised Messiah, as his Savior, for he said, /“The Lord is my light and my Salvation.”/

In our syntactic outline, the first phrase that comes to our attention is Salvation — Circle Number 1.

The Lord is my Salvation.

Jesus Christ is Salvation.

Salvation is a Person.

If Jesus Christ alone is Salvation, whom else can I trust?

The answer is, no one.

The whole Principle of Psalm 27 is that an eternal relationship with God can only be obtained through faith in Christ.

The Cross is the only barrier that stands between you and God.

God cannot have fellowship with us because we are sinners by birth and by action.

But Christ died on the cross and paid for our sins.

God cannot have fellowship with us as a member of the human race, because we are under the penalty of sin, which is eternal death.

(Eternal separation from God) When Christ died, He paid that penalty.