Sermon Tone Analysis

HUMILITY IN LEARNING TRUTH

     God has established for believers a way to grow Spiritually, the autonomous local church, MP3 player, DVDs; and now the computer; this is a provision of logistical grace.

Like all effective organizations this one also has a purpose, a policy, and an authority.

Its purpose is the communication and inculcation of God's Thoughts.

And insists on good manners and restricts activities that would distract serious students from concentrating on the Word of God.

(2Ti 2:14-17) The pastor holds the highest authority.

(Heb 13:7-18) He oversees a system, and the pastor’s authoritative teaching and his system of delegated authority constitute enforced humility for the royal family.

Within this system of enforced humility, genuine humility is the believer’s positive volition toward Truth.

Humility, both enforced and genuine, provides teachability.

If you are emotional, if you are continually proving your­self to others, if you relate everything in life to yourself, you are arrogant and unreceptive to all categories of Truth.

As does any unbeliever, the believer re­quires genuine humility to adjust to life in general, but he also needs genuine humility to faithfully learn and apply Truth and must learn to stay in fellowship.

The believer’s humility is positive volition toward the Truth of the Bible as well as Divine establishment.

An arrogant believer may listen to Bible teaching every day, but he is un-teachable.

He may go through all the proper motions; he may be considered a pillar of the church; but he remains preoccupied with himself.

He is too subjec­tive to accept the Doctrines that expose the frailties and flaws of his sin nature.

A hypocritical eclectic, he chooses to believe only what he wishes to hear and refuses to submit to the whole realm of Truth.

As a result he never grows Spiritually despite his continual exposure.

The humble believer attends Bible teaching to /learn /God’s system, not to agree or disagree.

When a person does not know what God’s plan is, his agreement or disagreement mean nothing.

The humble believer grows because he is receptive to the Truth rather than protective of his inflated opinion of himself.

The sin nature is a direct link to demon influence */and must be overcome./*

(Jas 3:14-15) The enemy inside being rejected, is the key to learning, so do not submit to self, (Rom 6:11-12) submit to God!

A person who becomes a believer in adulthood has an advantage in the Christian life if he was authority-oriented as an unbeliever; he has a foundation.

As he learns the Thinking of the Spiritual life, he recognizes this system to be the accelerator of his freedom rather than a confining maze of  Commandments, and prohibitions, as seen by a believer who resists authority.

(This is a play book!

Not a rule book!)

But while there is life there is hope; (Eccles 9:4) God supplies him with the logistical grace to grow up Spiritually.

His environment or background is no excuse for failure to advance in the plan of God.

He can develop respect for authority and Truth, but he must enter gate three the hard way.

Under strict academic discipline and enforced humility he must persevere under the authority and teaching of his pastor.

He must avoid mental attitude sins when he is tempted to malign the pastor, resent his message, or criticize others.

He must remain constantly alert and rebound quickly when he sins.

For any believer the transition from ignorance of Truth at Salvation to cognizance at Spiritual maturity is as difficult as the transition from authority in the home to freedom in adulthood.

*Few believers succeed.*

Most lack the tenacity day after day, year after year, to make the many right decisions to learn and Think with Truth, to keep residing and functioning in Fellowship with God.

(Matt 7:13-14)

 

THE HUMILITY OF CHRIST 

SUBMISSION TO ESTABLISHMENT AUTHORITY 

    The Divine Laws of establishment embrace all mankind.

Since our Lord Jesus Christ was true humanity, He too was subject to these Laws.

Born into the organi­zational humility of a family, He grew up under the enforced humility of His parents.

In genuine humility He was always obedient to His parents until He reached physical, mental and Spiritual maturity.

(Luk 2:40; Luk 2:51-52) Christ as an adult was subject to the same system of humility that for us replaces the authority of the home.

Our Lord’s human soul was His organiza­tional humility, and His positive volition in resisting every temptation to sin was His enforced humility.

(Heb 4:15) He was always obedient to the Truth.

By His own self-discipline He perpetually resided in fellowship and developed maximum capacity for life.

His enforced humility merged into genuine humility.

Since our Lord lived during the Age of Israel, Jesus fulfilled the Principle of learning under authority.

(Luk 2:46) So diligent was He in His studies that at age twelve He surpassed the theologians in His understanding of Old Testament Scriptures.

(Luk 2:46-47)

 

SUBMISSION TO A UNIQUE DESTINY 

     The prototype Spiritual life was designed to sustain the humanity of Christ in accomplishing His unique mission, His destiny on earth.

God’s plan for the First Advent called for Christ to enter Satan’s domain as a man, to remain impeccable and thus acceptable to Divine righteousness, and to voluntarily go to the Cross as our substitute in payment for the sins of mankind.

(2Co 5:21) Christ lived under this system of humility to which believers must adhere.

The plan of God was organizational humility for Christ.

The will of God — the sovereignty of the Father, the author of the Divine plan—was enforced humil­ity.

And Christ’s obedience to the Father’s plan by going to the Cross was genu­ine humility.

Shortly before He was betrayed, Jesus expressed in prayer His gen­uine humility under Divine authority.

/ Saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, [God’s sovereignty over the humanity of Christ] remove this cup [The Cross] from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

[Christ’s genu­ine humility]/ (Luk 22:42)

 Although the prospect of bearing our sins was abhorrent to Christ, He humbly submitted to Divine judgment in our place.

/Keep on Thinking this within yourself, which was also resident in Christ Jesus, who though He existed eternally in the essence of God, [Christ IS God] did not Think equality with God a profit to be seized and held, [Unlike Satan, Jesus was not arrogant] but He deprived Himself [Of the proper function of Deity, voluntari­ly limiting Himself in order to execute God’s plan] when He had received the form of a slave, when He was born in the likeness of mankind.

[Perfect man, like Adam before the Fall] In fact, although He was discovered in the outward ap­pearance as a man, [Without a sin nature] He humbled Himself [Genuine humility] by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, the death of the Cross./

(Php 2:5-8) 

     Christ’s attitude sets the example: (Matt 10:38-39) equality was unimportant to Him.

Although coequal with the Father and God the Holy Spirit, /“He did not Think equality with God a profit to be seized and held.”/

Our Lord the Creator submitted to the utter humility of becoming a creature, a man who was ignored, rejected, mis­represented, ridiculed, and ultimately crucified.

Despite abuse and injustice from people and the ignominy of exposing Himself to presumptuous, arrogant attacks from Satan, whom He had created, Christ never succumbed to approba­tion lust or selfish ambition.

He was motivated by His Personal love for God; genuine humility gave Jesus capacity to appreciate God’s faithful support.

(John 11:41) Far from being discouraged or bitter, our Lord’s Attitude was one of con­stant thanksgiving, which is the essence of true worship.

Yet without humility gratitude cannot exist.

NO SELF-GLORIFICATION, NO SELF-DEPRECATION 

     Jesus Christ had nothing to prove.

He came to pay for man’s sins, not to trumpet His own cause.

Our Lord did not exalt Himself; (John 8:50) the Father exalted Him.

(Psa 110:1) The mission of glorifying Christ on earth was assigned to the Holy Spirit.

(John 16:14) The Holy Spirit empowered the apostles to spread the Gospel of Christ and to record Church Age Doctrine in the New Testa­ment; (2Pe 1:20-21) the Spirit also empowers us to glorify Christ.

God the Father loved the humanity of Christ with *conditional,* Personal love, which hinged on our Lord’s obedience to the Father’s plan.

(John 10:17-18) Christ succeeded in every respect.

(John 15:10)/ /He relied on the Father’s power system and was sustained by the Holy Spirit throughout His life, never once utilizing His own Divine power to act independently of the Father’s plan.

(Matt 4:3-11) Christ’s submission to the plan of God resulted /in *judgment;* /our submission results in */blessing./*/

/This complete reversal of the purpose of the Spiritual life reveals the efficacy of Christ’s finished work and the scope of God’s Impersonal love for mankind.

Knowledge of Divine Thinking fuels in us the same mental dynamics that Christ possessed.

But our genuine humility orients us to blessing, not cursing, from the justice of God.

Humility generates gratitude, which results in true wor­ship and love of God.

In blind arrogance some Christians falsely claim to be humble in that they follow Christ in His sufferings, failing to recognize that Christ’s sufferings were unique.

There is no Spiritual significance or merit in our pain; only the work of Christ on the Cross was efficacious for our Salvation.

We add nothing to His finished work.

This is not what the Bible means by humility.

Christianity is not a system that glorifies believers for their legalism, sacrifice, and self-denial; Christianity is a life of multifaceted prosperity that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

(Col 1:27; Gal 4:19) Humility is orientation to Principle, to Truth, to the Reality of God’s grace.

/ /

*Gate Four, Spiritual Momentum* 

THE MOST IMPORTANT GATE 

     The fourth gate of the Spiritual life is a double gate — perception and Thinking with Truth — that opens upon the */richest treasure/* in the uni­verse.

*/Truth is the Thinking of God./**/ /*The Bible is designated as the Word of God, (Heb 4:12) the Mind of Christ, (1Co 2:16) and the Voice of the Holy Spirit.

(Heb 3:7) Truth is our door to the Reality of God and His marvelous plan.

His Word is more reliable than anything we see, hear, touch, smell, taste, or feel; more real than empirical knowledge.

(2Pe 1:15-21)

     Truth preexisted the human race, (Prov 8:7-9; Prov 8:23) so that through the gen­erosity of logistical grace, God makes available to us the wisdom of the ages.

During the Church Age God reveals His essence and plan only through His Writ­ten Word, the completed, inerrant Canon of Scripture.