Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 53 – The essence of God – Truth. Act 17:27; Luke 24:39; Gen 3:13; Joh 8:44; 1Co 6:9; 15:33
length: 64:59 - taught on Mar, 7 2013
Class Outline:
Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 53 - The essence of God - Truth. ACT 17:27; Luke 24:39; GEN 3:13; JOH 8:44; 1CO 6:9; 15:33
I: Veracity - Being self-existent and eternal God is the only source of absolute truth. God can never be in error.
Man’s reasoning and experimenting abilities take him only so far and so he gropes for more truth, ACT 17:26-27.
ACT 17:26 and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation,
ACT 17:27 that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
We say rightly that no man searches for God and that God calls to him, but we fail to distinguish between searching for the possibility of God from searching for the true God. No one can come to the knowledge of the existence of the true God through rationality or empiricism, but one can come to a God consciousness through these same gifts that God gave when He made man in His image.
“they might grope” - aorist active optative of yhlafa,w[pselaphao] = to feel or grope about with the hands in the hope of finding something.
The optative, rare, shows there is a wish or hope to find what one is looking for, but the word reveals that it’s a blind groping. I liken this to God consciousness or the age of accountability as well as the times in every person’s life when that eternal hole in their heart is aching to be filled. When they grope God the HS is at the ready with the Gospel.
The word can also apply to the believer’s life when his curiosity sends him groping blindly for answers and in the timing of God those answers come.
LUK 24:36 And while they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst.
LUK 24:37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.
LUK 24:38 And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
LUK 24:39 "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me [pselaphao] and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
He wasn’t some phantom during the incarnation nor was He one after His resurrection. This is another one of a million truths that God has given to mankind that he cannot find himself - that there is a real, physical, bodily resurrection for the regenerate in Christ.
LUK 24:40 [And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.]
God brought the proof or truth of the resurrection right to them. Believer, be patient, and the answers will be brought to you if you remain a student of the word of God.
LUK 24:41 And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
LUK 24:42 And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish;
LUK 24:43 and He took it and ate it before them.
I love this. First, this further reveals that He is real and physical, for a ghost or phantom doesn’t eat solid matter. Also, after an amazing supernatural event there directly follows a very common event - let’s eat! After a revealed truth that just blows you away, God says calm down and get back to life, using these truths to conquer the details of life first.
Only God can reveal truth since He is the only source of it, and it is found in His inspired, holy scripture. Satan attempts to fulfil with falsehood what he has come to see as man’s insatiable curiosity and therefore keep the truth concealed from man. Yet the Bible states that there is no truth in satan.
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth [aletheia], because there is no truth [aletheia] in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
There is a truth behind everything. As we see with the word aletheia it is a revealed truth from the source of God. Satan has no truth, so he does what God’s word undoes - he deceives - and we all susceptible to it if we don’t put ourselves under the inculcation of doctrine. To think that you cannot be deceived is to be fully deceived.
The deception of satan, his demon army, and his world system oppose the truth by concealing it or replacing it with lies.
GEN 3:13 And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
He deceived her with lies about the character of God.
GEN 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
There are perhaps thousands of trees that God had given her that were delicious to eat from (God provided for the body), intoxicating to look at (God provided for the soul through stimulation), and the Tree of Life (God provided for the spirit) but she is now deceived into focusing on the one thing she doesn’t have.
It’s so easy to forget the truth that God gives us everything we need and that all things will work together for good to those that love God and get our eyes on the things that we don’t have. Whatever I don’t have is a righteous and just decision by God, therefore to have it would be opposition to God and therefore it would hurt me more than any momentary pleasure or stimulation or fulfillment that I get out of it.
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate [he was not deceived but wilfully chose his wife over God.]
The error of the man Adam is not one of falsehood or hidden truth but one of stupid arrogance in choosing independence from God. Unfortunately all of us are at times guilty of both.
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Satan added to the simplicity and the purity of the word of God. Beware of the latest and greatest doctrines that are not found in the word of God.
MAT 4:6 And said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down [500 feet above the Kidron Valley]; for it is written, 'He will give His angels charge concerning You'; and 'On their hands they will bear You up,
Lest You strike Your foot against a stone.'"
For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways. [omitted]
They will bear you up in their hands,
Lest you strike your foot against a stone.
Many commentators think the omission is inconsequential since, they argue, the verse would mean the same thing, but I don’t think it means the same thing when satan is tempting the Lord on the pinnacle of the Temple. Guard you in all your ways, along with the context of the entire Psalm, reveals that God will protect the faithful believer in life, but that in no way means that I should act independently to test this protection by doing something suicidal. The laws of gravity and inertia apply to all of us as it did to the humanity of Christ. Can you imagine millions of believers showing off by jumping off bridges, and jumping in front of speeding buses, and drinking poison and handling poisonous snakes? This is a false application of a true doctrine. Now if someone pushed Jesus off the top of the temple then PSA 91:11-12 might apply.
The point is that satan attempts to bury or hide truths with falsehood, distortion, deception, and lies - often using scripture to do it.
And so, the opposition to God’s truth in time is the deception of satan and the KOD manifested in the cosmos system as well as the deception of the OSN.
The deception of the OSN is in offering happiness or fulfillment outside of the grace of God.
for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
1CO 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters [form or semblance of godliness], nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
1CO 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1CO 6:11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
This would seem to state that sinners can’t get into heaven. If that’s true we might as well all go home. I started in verse 9 to show you how verses can be taken out of context.
1CO 6:1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor [another believer], dare to go to law before the unrighteous [unbelieving judge], and not before the saints?
This is obviously a civil case and not a criminal one. If a believer commits a crime then he will end up before the authorities anyway. I cannot accuse someone of a crime without proof, nor could you in first century Rome. The civil issues Paul has heard about between believers in Corinth were issues that are to be forgiven, but some Corinthian believers were harboring grudges against other believers within their church and dragging them to court for it.
1CO 6:2 Or do you not know that the saints [believers] will judge the world? [Every believer in resurrection body will be a visual judgment against the world system that said salvation is in someone or something else than JC] And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?
1CO 6:3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?
1CO 6:4 If then you have law courts [not law courts, but judgments amongst each other] dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church [unbelievers who know nothing of the spiritual life]?
1CO 6:5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
1CO 6:6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
1CO 6:7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
Why not lose out and operate in love while also preserving the integrity of the church?
1CO 6:8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.
1CO 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? [He’s referring to worldly judges and each of them will fall into one or more of these categories] Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters [form or semblance of godliness], nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
1CO 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God [all referring to unbelieving judges who operate in their area of weakness - as we all did].
1CO 6:11 And such were some of you [unbelievers with no hope of any success against our weaknesses]; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
So what is the deception here?
Deception of 1CO 6:9: “I have a right to fight against a fellow believer over the loss of something or a wrong that he has done to me. I have a right to demand justice!”
This is a real deception because the world system is all for it - get justice and vengeance. [movie after movie is cheered for it] Why not rather be wronged and defrauded?
Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.
Truth tells you that God is patient and desires you to repent by means of the word, from falsehood to truth, and truth also tells you that if you don’t, it’s coming!
But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.
Don’t be deceived into thinking that you have to work and scheme and plan in order to find good things and perfect gifts.
And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Without divine revelation of the truth from the Scripture by means of God the Holy Spirit then we will be deceived.
Connect
Subscribe to our mailing list |
Grace and Truth Ministries 1900 Hines S.E. Salem, Oregon 97302 |
 |
letters@cgtruth.org |
|
© Grace and Truth Ministries All Rights Reserved. |