Class Notes: 3/24/2021

Smyrna, the pivot for SPQR part 27; The faith rest drill

https://youtu.be/oDLsc-zyne4

Rom 1:20-24; For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

Rom 1:28; so since they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,

2Tim 3 12-13; Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Because evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Amos 8:11-12; "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord God, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.

12 "People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.

Romans 1:18; For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

1Thess 5:3; While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.

Eph 6:10-12; Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His omnipotent power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

James 1:19-20; You know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Rom 12:18-21; If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.

20 "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The leftists in our country say they want unity but God's word states that there cannot be any unity until everyone agrees with God. Eph 4:13; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ because God makes war against the arrogant. James 4:6;

Apart from agreeing with God there must be division, factions and war. 1Cor 11:19; For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved among you may become evident.
Matt 24:6; "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

In spite of being in this adverse environment Jesus provides us with His peace if we learn and believe His Word of truth. John 14:27; "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Phil 4:4-7; Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Because 1John 4:4; You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world and 2Cor 13:8-9; We can do nothing against the truth only for the truth and we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong and our prayer is for you to become fully prepared.

We are in a study on Smyrna, the base of the pivot power for the first gentile client nation SPQR. We are in Rev 2:10; that starts with the mandate "not to fear what you are about to suffer"

This took us to study that of the faith rest drill where last time we noted that the faith-rest drill is the function of your soul, accomplishments of the soul. It is the thinking of the spiritual life. Abraham's accomplishments were to listen to the promises of God, believe those promises, and then act upon them. God's promises were the working objects of his faith-rest.

The spiritual life is what you think, believing the promises of God. You have reached the peak of validation, vindication by accomplishments when you reach the point of occupation with Christ. The great accomplishment of the spiritual life is having divine viewpoint from thinking God's Word of truth.

The thinking of the soul will reflect itself in overt activity that is related to virtue and values and in motivation to fulfill our responsibility in witnessing and other factors related to it. Your relationships with people and circumstances must be in harmony with your spiritual life.

Because of His working objects from God's Word of truth Abraham exploited his spiritual freedom to the maximum. We are commanded to do the same. Gal 5;1;

James 2:23-24; "And the Scripture (Gen 15:6) which says, `And Abraham had already believed in the Lord (God the Son) and it was imputed to him for righteousness' was brought to completion (attained its objective). In fact, he was called the friend of God.

James 2:24; You see that a person is justified by working objects, not by faith alone."

Abraham had already become a believer before he left the third dynasty of Ur and traveled the thousand miles to the land of Canaan, Gen 12. In Gen 15:6-7, he was already a believer. He received justification by faith or validation or vindication by faith prior to God's command in Gen 12.

Salvation in the Old Testament is exactly the same as salvation in the New Testament. Salvation results from faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham was already a believer when the events of the first six verses of Gen 15; occurred.

His faith in the Lord for salvation had now expanded into the faith-rest drill, and that faith was being brought to completion by his suffering. Phil 1:29; 1Pet 1:7-9; That is how James is trying to encourage Jewish believers scattered throughout the world in 45 A.D.

Abraham failed, but eventually he learned to use his faith-rest drill and expanded it to the point where he was able to use it in the offering of Isaac. The point that James was making was that this comfort could only be given to those who were already believers in Jesus Christ.

James is telling us that we cannot solve our problems unless we are first a believer in Jesus Christ just like our mutual ancestor Abraham was.

Justification by faith precedes vindication by accomplishments from faith rest directed toward working objects. At the moment he believed in Christ, God's perfect righteousness was irrevocably imputed to Abraham for justification by faith on the basis of grace. Eph 2:8-9;

One of the results of eternal salvation was that Abraham's post-salvation spiritual life was brought to completion with the faith-rest drill in the offering of Isaac. His spiritual life was an extension of his salvation faith in the sense that now instead of simply believing in the person of Jesus Christ for salvation, he also believed in the veracity of the promises of God aka the working objects that God's Word of truth reveals.

In the Old Testament, post-salvation spiritual life followed the same pattern with a different category of objects. The object of faith in salvation was always the Lord Jesus Christ. The object of faith in the spiritual life was a series of promises and doctrines that God provided for Abraham to believe.

You believe in the Person for salvation. You believe in what the Person provides for your spiritual life. When Abraham believed these promises, he was justified, validated, vindicated, pronounced virtuous by the accomplishments, actions, and deeds that are produced in the working objects of the faith-rest drill.

In the post-salvation spiritual life the faith-rest drill is an extension of justification by faith. The faith of justification by faith validates eternal life. The faith of justification by working objects validates the function of the spiritual life. There is pronouncement of righteousness because of the execution of the spiritual life.

God called Abraham his friend after he offered Isaac. This was an indication that Abraham had reached spiritual maturity.

2Chr 20:7; "O, our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, Your friend forever?" "

Friend of God" is the highest accolade given to an Old Testament believer; because it indicated the fulfillment of the spiritual life of the Old Testament through the maximum use of the faith-rest drill.

James 2:26, "For just as the body without breath in dead, even so faith (the faith-rest drill) without works (the working objects for the faith-rest drill) is dead."

The believer living on the earth without a spiritual life is operating in the carnal death aka OSN control of the thinking. Carnal death is compounded by cosmic death.

Carnal death is described in Eph 5:14; and Rom 7:24; This verse does not refer to faith in Christ, but failure to execute the post-salvation spiritual life.

We see from this that fear only sees the problem so it can only focus on the problem; faith sees the problem and God's solution so it focuses on the application of God's problem solving devices to the problem. Faith works to solve the problem with God's resources. That generally only requires confidently waiting on God's timing. Isa 40:31;

Problems cannot be solved with another problem. Believers occupied with their problems inevitably end up trying to solve a problem with another problem. Believers who go to problem solving devices end up actually solving the problem. Problems can only be solved with a divine solution.

Divine solutions are the only solution; human solutions are no solutions. The decisions we make today determine our future options tomorrow. Making decisions in arrogance is reactionary because it attempts to address the consequences of the problem while ignoring the cause.

The root cause of every problem in the human race is one of the categories of death starting with spiritual death for the unbeliever and carnal death and cosmic death for the believer. Gen 2:17; Rom 8:6-13; Phil 1:29; Heb 9:27;

No perception of victory won in arrogance is a victory actually won. The supreme court of heaven is always in session. We not only need to be right; we need to be right with the supreme court of heaven because a right thing done in a wrong way is wrong.

God makes war against the arrogant believer. God uses suffering from adversity to motivate arrogant believers to allow themselves to be humbled. 1Pet 5:6;

Eventually, in His time, God has to bless humble believers because of the doctrinal capacity that has been developed from their application of God's Word of truth to their experience the function of faith-rest 1Pet 5:7;

The devil's world is the pressure cooker that God uses to make believers experientially holy. Heb 10:38; God uses the adversity and suffering created by the works of the devil to defeat the devil. 1John 3:8; John 17:13-21; 2Pet 1:5-8; Rev 3:10;

This is why patient endurance and perseverance in adversity is a virtue. 2Cor 1:6; 1Pet 2:20; Rev 2:2-3;

Human I.Q. is an unequal product of physical birth that is beyond human control, but spiritual I.Q. is equal opportunity created by spiritual birth that is under the divine control of the filling of God the Holy Spirit and God's Word of truth circulating in the thinking through faith-rest application.

God is infinitely greater than His creatures. This means that God's knowledge is infinitely greater than human knowledge.

This fact escapes arrogant "woke" people because in their "woke" self absorption they are focused on the flesh that came from their first birth rather than the spirit that come from their second birth if they are believers. Rom 8:6; Phil 3:18-19; Gal 5:16;

This brings us back to Rev 2:10; in our study of the church at Smyrna that was the pivot power for SPQR where we will begin next time.

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