The Plan of God. God does not REVEAL His plan to us through visions, voices and dreams as He did with the OT prophets and the apostles!

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1 The Plan of God God has a plan for your life! God s plan for your life is found in the Bible! There is no other book in the world that has this plan! God only speaks to us through the Bible, i.e., the Word of God! Therefore, the Bible is our TEXTBOOK! Just like you have a math, english and history textbooks in school for learning those subjects, God also has a textbook, the Bible, for learning about Him and what He wants us to do! God does not speak to men in dreams like He did in the Old Testament! God does not REVEAL His plan to us through visions, voices and dreams as He did with the OT prophets and the apostles! Why? The Bible is COMPLETE! OT saints did not have the completed canon of Scripture as we do today! Neither did the apostles have the completed canon of Scripture as we do today! Therefore, since you and I now have the completed Bible today, God has no need to speak to us through visions, voices and dreams! God now speaks to us through His Word, the Bible! The Scriptures are the only source of information about God s plan! ALL OF GOD S REVEALED TRUTH IS FOUND IN THE BIBLE! There are 3 passages in the Bible which you should learn: The first 2 passages deal with the fact that the Scriptures or the Bible is SUFFICIENT in handling all of our problems! We can trust the Bible to solve all our problems! The last passage deals with the fact that we have a responsibility to learn the Scriptures! If we don t learn the Scriptures and the Problem Solving Devices found in them, we have only ourselves to blame! Hebrews 4:12, The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart. 1

2 2 Timothy 3:16-17, All Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God might be mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 2:15, Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. There are 6 points that we need to understand about God before we learn about His plan: 1) God EXISTS! 2) God REVEALS HIMSELF! 3) God MAKES SENSE! 4) God HAS A PLAN! 5) You are the OBJECT OF GOD S PLAN! 6) You OWE GOD A HEARING! GOD EXISTS If you are already a believer this does not apply to you, but you should listen carefully to what is about to be said so that you can deal with the unbeliever! If you are an unbeliever, let s assume that God exists! Now, don t say, I do not believe God exists, PERIOD! That s simply illogical! If you say I don t believe God exists based on the fact that you cannot see, touch, taste, hear, and smell Him, then that s a bit more logical. That would be what is called EMPERICISM! Or, if you say I don t believe God exists based on the fact that I ve thought about it and reasoned it out in my own thinking, then that s a bit more logical a statement, too. That would be what is called RATIONALISM! Both, EMPERICISM & RATIONALISM are forms of perception! Perception means to reach an understanding of something! Now, there are 3 basic systems that human beings use to perceive something: 1) Empericism: Reality based upon your senses. A) Seeing B) Touching C) Tasting D) Hearing E) Smelling 2) Rationalism: To reason something out in your thinking. 2

3 3) FAITH: Reality based upon confidence in the authority or truth of another. Whether, you re an unbeliever or a believer, everybody uses all 3 of these systems of perception! Now, your unbelieving friends might say that they never use faith! Well, ask them this, when their history teacher tells them that Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States in 1863, how do they know that the teacher is telling the truth? Did they ever see Abraham Lincoln in 1863? If they were never alive in 1863 and never saw him, how do they know that he really existed? They trusted that what the teacher was teaching them was true! You see they were TRUSTING IN THE AUTHORITY OF ANOTHER! THE TEACHER! They had FAITH that the history teacher was telling them the truth about Abraham Lincoln! They never saw Abraham Lincoln or heard him speak and they did not live in 1863, BUT, THEY BELIEVED WHAT THE TEACHER said about Abraham Lincoln! Now, when I say, God exists, I mean I BELIEVE BY FAITH THAT HE HAS ALWAYS EXISTED! I do not imagine that God exists! I believe that He is a real Person with no beginning and no end! This leads us to our 2nd proposition, Who is God?, and What is God? GOD REVEALS HIMSELF We can only know Who and what God is through what He has REVEALED ABOUT HIMSELF! If God exists and He is all-powerful and sovereign, then we can logically say that God has something to do with our being alive today on this earth! If God created man, then logically speaking He should REVEAL Himself to mankind! If God has always existed and created mankind, then He will reveal Himself and He will reveal Himself in a way that you and I can understand! God is not trying to hide Himself from us! God is trying to reveal Himself to us! He does so through the Bible! 3

4 GOD MAKES SENSE If God must reveal Himself, then He must do so in a way that we can understand! This means that God will reveal Himself in a way that MAKES SENSE! God does not reveal Himself to us in RIDDLES! God clearly reveals Himself in the Bible! God not only makes sense but He is also totally organized! God MAKES SENSE because He is totally organized! Let me ask you a question to help illustrate this. Which football team will win the game, the one that has a coach who is organized and has a plan or the one that is totally disorganized and has no plan? The coach who knows exactly where each player should go and what they should do, or the one has no clue where each player should go and what they should do? Of course, it is going to be the football team with the coach that is organized and knows exactly where each player should go and what they should do! God is an ORGANIZED Coach with a PLAN for each of us! GOD HAS A PLAN God not only has a plan, but His plan is TOTALLY PERFECT! God s plan INCLUDES YOU! God s plan says that a right thing must be done in a right way! Why? God is perfect! He has only one way of doing things, the RIGHT WAY! YOU ARE THE OBJECT OF GOD S PLAN God has a personal plan for both you and I! If you belong to the human race, then you can say that God has a plan for you! Why? 4

5 Because that is why God created you! God created you and I so that we can be a member of His team! And as Coach of that team, He has an organized plan for where you should go and what you should do! Remember, God is an organized coach! God has an organized plan and He knows exactly where each of us should go and what we should do! This leads us to the final point! If there is a God, if He has revealed Himself, if He makes sense, if He has a perfect plan, and if He has a perfect plan for all of us who are members of the human race, including you, THEN YOU OWE GOD A HEARING! YOU OWE GOD A HEARING What do I mean by the word HEARING? I mean simply LISTEN to what God s Word has to say! Remember, God is only revealing Himself through the Bible! I m not asking you to believe what the Word of God has to say, but to simply LISTEN to what God says in His Word! Whether you believe what it has to say is up to you! You have the right to either accept or reject what the Bible has to say! God does not violate our volition! He lets us make our own choices! Now, you might have come from a church or denomination which taught that you have to do something to know God and to please Him! Wrong! RELIGION vs. CHRISTIANITY Christianity as taught in the Bible is totally different than RELIGION! Christianity is not a religion! 5

6 Now, you might have been taught like I was that Christianity was a religion, well they were wrong! So what is the difference between the 2! RELIGION is man s attempt to gain a relationship with God or His approval by performing some system of works or doing something! Religion HIDES the Plan of God (POG)! Religion was designed by Satan, the devil! Religion is totally against the Biblical POG! BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY says that ONLY the work of God through Jesus Christ provides the means of salvation and an eternal relationship with God! BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY is God seeking and saving man through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ! BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY declares God s way of salvation for the whole human race! Now if you accept each of these points, then you understand that God does have a plan for your life! But, please remember, that God s perfect plan has to deal with our flaws and failures! Our human righteousness falls far short of God s righteousness! Romans 3:23, For ALL HAVE SINNED and fall short of the essence of God. Romans 3:10, There is none righteous, not even one. You and I have a problem that God s plan must deal with and that is the fact that we are sinners and are spiritually dead! God must find a way to bring you to Himself! God has designed a plan with 3 parts which deals with this problem! This plan is based upon GRACE! What is Grace? GRACE IS ALL THAT GOD IS FREE TO DO FOR MANKIND ON THE BASIS OF THE SAVING WORK OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS! God s grace matches up perfectly with His perfect character and essence! This means that you and I can do nothing to earn the grace of God! You and I don t deserve anything that God does for us! 6

7 GOD S 3 PART PLAN FOR OUR LIVES 1) SALVATION! 2) YOUR LIFETIME AS A BELIEVER! 3) ETERNITY! Each part of God s plan is based upon His grace! God only deals with us on the basis of His grace! PART 1 OF GOD S PLAN: SALVATION God s plan for your life begins at the cross! The cross is the key to the plan of salvation! When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, between heaven and earth, He was judged for every sin in the human race-past, present, and future! He became the SUBSTITUTE for our guilt! He received the PENALTY of sin for us! 1 Peter 2:24a, He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the cross. Now, that He has been judged for the sins of the human race, ANY MEMBER of the human race can have an eternal relationship with God simply by believing or having faith in Jesus Christ as Savior! Acts 16:31, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved. John 1:12, But as many as received Him (TLJC), to them He (GTF) gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His (TLJC) name. The 1st Part of God s Plan reconciles the total depravity of human nature with His holiness. God s holiness is made up of His perfect righteousness & justice! These characteristics are a part of His Divine Essence! God is sovereign, justice, righteousness, love, eternal life, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable & veracity! All these characteristics make up who God is! TLJC satisfied the justice of God at the cross! God s righteousness said that sin must be judged! And what the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes! 7

8 Therefore, the justice of God executed what the righteousness of God demanded at the cross. Sin must be judged and our Lord was judged for our sins so that you and I could have a relationship with God through having faith in His Son Jesus Christ! When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are declared righteous by God! Romans 3:24-26, Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption (we have purchased out of the slave market of sin) which is in Christ Jesus; whom (TLJC) God (the Father) displayed publicly as a propitiation (TLJC satisfied the justice of God) in His blood (our Lord s spiritual death on the cross) through FAITH. This was to demonstrated His RIGHTEOUSNESS, because in the forebearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed (sins in OT dispensations); for the demonstration, I say, of His RIGHTEOUSNESS at the present time, that He might be JUST and the JUSTIFIER of the one who has FAITH IN JESUS. THE ESSENCE OF MANKIND At the moment of physical birth you became a person with a soul! The human soul is the immaterial part of man! Your soul is invisible and is the real you! Your body is merely a house for this soul! The Essence of the human soul: 1) Self-consciousness: You are aware that you exist! 2) Mentality: Where you do your thinking! 3) Volition: The decision-maker of the soul! 4) Emotion: Your responder! 5) Conscience: Your norms & standards! THE OLD SIN NATURE The old sin nature (OSN) poisons mankind so that no one can approach God s perfect essence! The OSN is not a part of the human soul! But it does seek to INFLUENCE & CONTROL the human soul! What caused the OSN come into existence? The OSN came into existence as a direct result of ADAM S 1ST SIN! Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin (OSN) entered into the world, and (spiritual) death through sin, and so (spiritual) death spread to all men, because all sinned (as Adam). The OSN is passed down from our original parents, Adam and Eve! 8

9 The OSN resides in the cell structure of the body (Rom. 6:6; 7:5, 18)! It is passed down to us from your parents! Your parents are responsible for giving you your OSN, not God! God is responsible for giving you your soul! This means that you and I were born sinners before we ever did anything wrong! THE 2 AREAS OF THE OLD SIN NATURE 1) An Area of Weakness or EVIL! 2) An Area of Strength or GOOD! The Area of Weakness: 1) Mental Attitude Sins: A) Pride B) Bitterness C) Hatred D) Vindictiveness E) Implacibility F) Envy G) Guilt H) Fear I) Worry J) Anxiety K) Self-Pity Therefore, what you think can be a sin! 2) Sins of the Tongue: A) Maligning B) Judging C) Bullying D) Gossiping E) Criticizing F) Lying Therefore, what you can say can be a sin! James 3:5-6, So also THE TONGUE is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; THE TONGUE is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. One match can burn down a forest! 9

10 Our tongues can destroy not only ourselves but others as well! 3) Overt Sins: A) Murder B) Adultery C) Fornication D) Drunkenness E) Stealing Just as the soul invisible, so is the OSN! Therefore, the OSN tempts your soul in private! You commit 1 of these 3 categories of sin when you give in to the OSN! You sin because you give in to the temptation of the OSN! Your volition in your soul determines whether you will give in to your OSN! You sin because you want to! The Area of Strength: Not only the does the OSN have an area of weakness but it also has an area of strength, which is called HUMAN GOOD! Good deeds can be accomplished by both the believer and unbeliever! Good deeds can be accomplished by the unbeliever through using volition and determination apart from God s grace provisions! God only accepts good deeds done through the Filling of the Spirit! The Filling of the Spirit is when GTHS controls your soul! God does not accept good deeds unless they are done while Filled with the Spirit! God not only hates our area of weakness but He also despises our area of strength! Isaiah 64:6b, All our righteous deeds (human good) are like a filthy garment! This is how God looks at our human good: A RIGHT THING DONE IN A WRONG WAY! You cannot please God with your human good! Human good is an area of our OSN! Human Good: 10

11 1) Feeding the hungry 2) Housing the homeless 3) Giving to the Poor and needy All these things are good but cannot be accepted by God because they are not performed while under the Filling of the Spirit! God only accepts good deeds while under the Filling of the Spirit! Believers who perform good deeds through their OSN and not the Filling of the Spirit will not receive rewards for these deeds (1 Cor. 3:11-15)! Now, when Christ paid for all of our sins on the cross, His sacrifice CANCELLED OUT all of our human good! Therefore, God does not save us based upon our human good or our doing good deeds! He saved us by grace through faith in Christ! Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works (human good), that no one should boast. Titus 3:5, He (God) saved us, NOT ON THE BASIS OF DEEDS WHICH WE HAVE DONE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS (HUMAN GOOD), but according to His mercy (grace), by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Since, we are saved by grace, we should also live the Christian way of life in the same way, GRACE, not our human good! Colossians 2:8, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord (grace), so walk in Him. The POG operates on divine good, and never on human good! Ephesians 2:10, For we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. God has no use for our human good! It is totally worthless to Him! God only recognizes and receives good deeds done under His power system, the Filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18)! TRENDS OF THE OLD SIN NATURE There are 2 trends to the OSN: 1) Asceticism: Self-denial leading to self-righteousness 2) Lasciviousness: Self-gratification leading to immorality. 11

12 When a person is under the control of the OSN, they are either moving in the direction of one of these 2 trends! Some people are ascetics or self-righteous and the others are hedonists or lovers of pleasure! A person who is into asceticism denies themselves pleasure. Christian s do this, thinking that God is pleased by their being OVERTLY MORAL! HE S NOT PLEASED! Individuals who are outwardly moral tend to be self-righteous like the Pharisees! They think that they are better than everyone else! A person who is into lasciviousness is someone who is OUTWARDLY IMMORAL! Both believers and unbelievers would agree that the person who is outwardly immoral is a sinner. But the person who is outwardly moral is said by most Christians to be godly! WRONG! God looks at the heart or the right lobe of your soul (1 Sam. 16:7)! God can see what we can t see, an individual s system of thinking! If you don t know how God thinks, you can t please God! Now, you can move in the direction of either asceticism or lasciousveness at any time. There is no fixed pattern to OSN! God looks at both the immoral person, and the self-righteous person as sinners! There is no distinction between the 2 in God s eyes! LUST PATTERN OF THE OLD SIN NATURE Another characteristic of the OSN is the LUST PATTERN! What is lust? Lust is an insatiable desire. Insatiable means that it can t be satisfied! Desire is an intense motivator! Lust can consume you and influence all your thoughts and actions! 12

13 There are 4 basic types of lust: 1) Approbation lust: the desire to be recognized, or to promote oneself. 2) Power lust: the desire to organize people who give you attention so you can control and manipulate them. 3) Sexual lust: the desire for sex apart or as a substitute for romantic love 4) Materialism lust: the desire for possessions The OSN does not leave us once we have been born again and saved through faith in Jesus Christ! The OSN stays with us until we physically die! Parts 1 & 2 of God s plan provide a solution to the problem of our OSN! PART 2 OF GOD S PLAN: THE BELIEVER IN TIME When you believe in Jesus Christ which is Part 1 of God s Plan, you IMMEDIATELY enter into Part 2 of God s Plan! The question, AFTER SALVATION, WHAT? is answered by God in this phase of His plan! What does God want you to do after you have believed in His Son Jesus Christ? Does He want you to give up things? Does He want you to be moral? Does He want you to pray for 12 hours a day? Does He want you to feed starving people in Africa? What does God desire for you to do? 1 Timothy 2:4, Who (God) desires all men to be saved (1st Part of God s plan) and to come to the KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH (2nd Part of God s plan). 2 Peter 3:18a, But GROW IN THE GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:10, THAT I MAY KNOW HIM and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Notice, that God wants us to KNOW HIM or to have KNOWLEDGE OF HIM! You gain KNOWLEDGE of the TLJC through learning about Him! You learn about TLJC through learning Bible Doctrine which is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16)! 13

14 Therefore, after you have been born again and saved, God wants you to learn about the One who saved you, Jesus Christ! Learning BD is the most important thing we are to do after we have believed on TLJC! It is through learning BD that we come to love the One who loved us and gave Himself for us! You can t love God unless you KNOW HIM! ETERNAL SECURITY Once, you have believed on TLJC, you are saved FOREVER! YOU CANNOT LOSE YOUR SALVATION! John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him (TLJC) SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. John 6:39, And this is the will of Him (GTF) who sent Me (TLJC), that of all that He has given Me (believers in Christ) I (TLJC) lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. John 10:28-29, And I (TLJC) give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and NO ONE SHALL SNATCH THEM OUT OF MY HAND. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and NO ONE IS ABLE TO SNATCH THEM OUT OF THE FATHER S HAND. It is the POWER OF GOD which protects us! 1 Peter 1:5, Who (those who have believed in Christ) are protected by the POWER OF GOD through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The devil wants you to think you can lose your salvation! The devil wants you to think that if you sin after salvation, that you can lose your salvation! WRONG! You are still saved even if you reject Christ years after you first believed on Him! Why? You were not saved based upon what YOU DID! You were saved based upon what God did for you! Titus 3:5, He saved us, NOT ON THE BASIS OF DEEDS WHICH WE HAVE DONE IN (human) RIGHTEOUSNESS, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. All you did was to have faith in Another, TLJC! Therefore, if you were saved based upon what God did, there is nothing you can say or do that will separate you from the love of God! 14

15 Romans 8:38-39, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing (yourself included), shall be able to SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. PRINCIPLE: Whatever God does is PERMANENT! If God saved you by grace through faith in Christ, IT IS PERMANENT! Changing your mind after you have already believed cannot separate you from God! There is also no sin that you can commit that can cause you to lose your salvation! Even if you were to go out and commit some terrible sin such as murder or adultery, YOU ARE STILL SAVED! David who was a believer and the king of Israel committed both murder and adultery and yet he was still saved after he had done this! In fact, before he did these things, God says that David was a man after His own heart (1 Sam. 13:14)! After you have been born again and saved, YOU CAN STILL SIN! You and I will sin right up to the day that we die! Why? THE OSN! We don t lose our sin natures when we believe in TLJC! We will lose our sin natures when we die physically! Ecclesiastes 7:1b, And the day of one s death is BETTER THAN THE DAY OF ONE S BIRTH. Until that time when we die, we will always have the problem of sin to deal with! But never fear, God s plan has provided a solution to this problem of ours! This leads us to the question, How does God s plan deal with sin after salvation? REBOUND: The Key to fulfilling God s plan You are said to be BORN-AGAIN when you believe in Jesus Christ (John 3:7)! You become a New Spiritual Species as a result of being born-again! 15

16 2 Corinthians 5:17a, Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a NEW SPIRITUAL SPECIES. Now, this is important for you to understand! Even though you are born-again and saved and will live with God forever and ever and are a new spiritual species, YOU CAN AND WILL SIN! Everybody sins after they have been born-again and saved! You call God a liar if you think otherwise! 1 John 1:8, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:10, If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a LIAR, and His word is not in us. You and I as believers in TLJC sin because we still have an OSN & a VOLITION! We use our volition to choose to live in the OSN even though we don t have to live in the OSN if we don t want to! Believers have: 1) The Old Man-OSN 2) The New Man-NSS The believer s volition determines which one they will live in! Your volition is like a light switch in your soul. You can turn the light ON (NSS, Filling of the Spirit), or you can flick it OFF (OSN)! You are either living in 1 or the other! You cannot be living 50% in the NSS and 50% in the OSN! When you are living in the OSN, you are out of fellowship with God! You can t have a relationship with God in the OSN! When you are living in the NSS, you are in fellowship with God! You can have a relationship with God in the NSS! Now, the problem is after we are born-again and saved, we sin! Therefore, how does God s plan deal with this most important problem? REBOUND! What is rebound? 16

17 Rebound is NAMING & CITING or ADMITTING to God your sins! Rebound is CONFESSING your sins to God in the privacy of your own soul! You don t confess your sins to a priest, a friend, or even your father or mother! You confess them to God only! 1 John 1:9, If we CONFESS (homologeo), He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why do we call this rebound? Well, if you watch a basketball game and Michael Jordan misses a shot, what does he try to do? He tries to rebound the ball! Why? So he can get another shot at making a basket! You can t win the basketball game without rebounding the ball! The same holds true in the Christian way of life after salvation! You can t be a WINNER in the Christian way of life if you don t know how to rebound! Rebound puts us back into fellowship with God! We are eternally secure, but we can lose our fellowship with God in time! REBOUND takes care of this problem! Therefore, rebound is the most important thing we need to learn as Christians after we have been born-again and saved! IMPORTANT: Once you rebound from sin, FORGET THE SIN AND MOVE ON! Don t dwell on the fact that you have just sinned, FORGET IT! Why? Because if you don t you will get guilty and that is a sin! Also, if you don t forget the sin after rebound, this will lead to more sins! So just ISOLATE THE SIN AND FORGET IT! MOVE ON! 17

18 Forget your sins because God has forgotten them! If God has forgotten your sin and forgiven you after rebound, why should you dwell on it again? Psalm 103:12, AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST, SO FAR HAS HE REMOVED OUR TRANSGRESSIONS FROM US. If you don t understand REBOUND, you can t learn Bible Doctrine! If you don t understand rebound and use it, you will always be living in the OSN with its trends of immoral degeneracy and moral degeneracy! You can t learn the things of God without 1st learning how to use rebound! If you don t use rebound, you will NEVER BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT! If you are not FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, you cannot learn Bible Doctrine and you will never be living in the New Man or the New Spiritual Species which God has designed for you and I to live in after salvation! THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT: Fellowship with God & Spirituality When you commit a mental, verbal or overt act of sin, you need to REBOUND IMMEDIATELY! Once you have rebounded, you are said to be FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT Ephesians 5:18, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, BUT KEEP ON BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. Galatians 5:16, But I say, WALK BY THE SPIRIT, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (OSN). What is the FILLING OF THE SPIRIT? The Filling of the Spirit is when GTHS controls the believer s soul! You see there is a war going on inside of the believer s soul! There is a war between the Spirit and the flesh or the OSN! Galatians 5:17, For the flesh (OSN) sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. The OSN hates the NSS which operates under the Filling of the Spirit! The Spirit hates the OSN! The OSN seeks to control the believer s soul so that it can carry out it s desires! Your volition determines whether or not you will be FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT! 18

19 You have to choose to rebound so that you can be FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT! You are spiritual when you are FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT! You are not spiritual because you are moral! The Filling of the Spirit has to do with your soul which only God can see! The Filling of the Spirit is INVISIBLE! Therefore, no one can tell if you are spiritual by overt appearances! Both, REBOUND & THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT are Problem Solving Devices given to us by God! REBOUND & THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT are the 2 most important and pivotal doctrines that Christian needs to understand after salvation! Without them, you will be miserable! Without them, you will never be a winner in the Christian way of life! After salvation, what?: 1) Rebound 2) Filling of the Spirit 3) Learn BD Once, you have learned REBOUND & THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT, then you can begin to execute Part 2 of God s Plan which is growing in God grace in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18)! PART 3 OF GOD S PLAN: THE BELIEVER IN ETERNITY Part 3 is GUARANTEED to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ! Everyone who has believed on the TLJC will go to heaven forever and ever when they die! The first Person you will see after you die will be the TLJC! 2 Corinthians 5:8, We (believers) are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body (physically dead) and to be at home with the Lord. You will receive a resurrection body which will have NO SIN NATURE (1 Cor. 15:35-45)! Our resurrection bodies will be like that of the resurrected Christ! It will be a body that will never get sick or tired! Not only will we get our resurrection bodies in heaven but there will also be rewards! The believers who will receive rewards are those individuals who had PVTD! 19

20 They were WILLING to learn about the Plan of God for their lives after they were saved! They learned and applied the principles of REBOUND & THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT! They grew in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as a result of learning these doctrines! They did not ignore Part 2 of God s Plan after accepting Part 1 of His Plan, salvation! PRINCIPLE: Every believer will receive a resurrection body, but not every believer will receive rewards in heaven at the Bema Seat Judgement of Christ! Why? VOLITION! Your ATTITUDE towards BD in time determines whether or not you will receive rewards in eternity! Every believer will be EVALUATED, not judged at the Bema Seat Judgement of Christ! 2 Corinthians 5:10, For we (believers) must all appear before the judgement (Greek word is bema) seat of Christ, that each one (believer) may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good (deeds done while under the Filling of the Spirit) or bad (deeds done while under the control of the OSN). The BEMA SEAT judgement is different from the GREAT WHITE THRONE judgement in Revelation 20. The Great White Throne Judgement in Revelation 20:11-15 is strictly for UNBELIEVERS! Believers can t be judged after they have believed on TLJC because they have adjusted to the justice of God! Unbelievers are judged and sent to the Lake of Fire simply because they would not believe in TLJC! Believers go to heaven simply because they did believe in TLJC! John 3:18, He who believes in Him (TLJC) 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 3:36, He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The EVALUATION of believers at the Bema Seat Judgement of Christ is made on the basis of each believer s execution of Part 2 of God s Plan or his failure to do so! 20

21 Some believers will only have a resurrection body while others will both a resurrection bodies and CROWNS! Rewards are called crowns in the Bible (1 Cor. 9:24-27; 2 Tim. 4:7-8; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 2:10, 28; 22:16)! Your ATTITUDE towards BD after salvation determines whether or not you will receive rewards in eternity! Winners will receive rewards and losers will not! 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man s work will become evident; for the day (the Bema Seat Judgement) will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man s work. If any man s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. Therefore, the most important thing you can do after believing on TLJC is to learn rebound, the filling of the Spirit & Bible Doctrine! You will not receive rewards in eternity without knowledge of BD in time! God wants you to think His viewpoint after salvation (Rom. 12:2)! Your knowledge and application of BD in time will result in rewards in eternity! BD must be your #1 priority after salvation! God will reward those believers who think like He does! You can t think like God without learning BD! 21