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PATHWAY.PW9
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1992-11-02
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TO THE GLORY OF GOD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Study No. 9
RIGHT SPEAKING
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT...Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Key Thoughts: Humility and self control.
The Problems: Immature dissatisfaction with life status, envy.
Destructive tendencies towards others.
The man who fails to find his place in life, because of
selfishness, indulgence and undiscipline, can lift himself only
by pulling others down.
The Downward Path.
Ignorance...Confusion...Anxiety.
He deceives himself. He refuses the full responsibility, or ever
awareness of his own condition. Gen. 3:12. He is blind, Prov.
26:12; 14:8. In blindness is confusion. Nothing is plain to his
mind. He develops fears about the intentions of other people. 1
Sam. 18:9-11. He begins to take pleasure in their failures.
Alienation...Bitterness...Jealousy...Obsession.
Such a man becomes almost totally alone. Those that remain with
him must be watchful, careful, defensive. James 3:1-17. He
becomes obsessed with the need for a higher position in life. It
may be to protect himself but more often it is to find
satisfaction for himself. He can become convinced that others
are deliberately withholding position from him.
Malice...Slander...self fed, the fire of deceit rages (Amos 3:5-
8), continually expressing and inflaming the lack of self
control. Proverbs 26:25, 12:18; 1:29-32.
Ostracism...Self Destruction...Proverbs 22:10; 26:25-27. Anyone
who sees success as his right, unlearned, will inevitably be
recognised for what he is. Simply to survive people will have
nothing more to do with him. Consequently there no longer
remains even the possibility of a fruitful and enlarging
relationship. Without the deepest work of the Holy Spirit there
is no hope.
The Answer...The Cross, Not Only Seen, But Borne.
Only a total and continuing renunciation of self love, and
ambition can break the power of such a destructive drive within.
Conceit is always competitive and must be rooted out of the human
experience. Rom. 7:18.
1. In Christ boasting is excluding...Rom. 3:23
2. In Christ judging others is refused...Rom. 14:3-4
3. In Christ there remains no pride...1 Cor.1:23-29
4. In Christ we are called to brotherly kindness...Rom.12:10;
2 Cor. 5:14.
5. In Christ we find self control...Gal.5:23
6. In Christ we restore one another...Gal.6:1-3.
The Blessings.
Nothing can compare with the experience of being exalted by
the hand of God. James 4:10; Matt. 23:12; 1 Pet. 5:6. There is
no position given us more secure than that granted in the
election of God. It could never be gained but by the will and
intervention of God, and cannot be lost without the permission of
God. John 14:2, 15:16; Eph. 2:10. When we discover this there
is no striving, just abiding.
PATHWAY TO MATURITY
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT...Thou shalt not covet...
Key Thought: Total dependence on God for all our welfare.
Complete reconciliation with our neighbour.
Key Problem: Desiring that which another has, for the sake
of completeness.
Perhaps the greatest trial both of our faith in God and our
strength of character, is to be denied something that we feel is
our right to have, particularly when it is possessed by someone
else near us. But it is this trial that ripens and completes our
character. It enables us to live with others without striving
with them. James 1:2-5.
God's purpose in denying us our desires is to make us first
find our satisfaction in fellowship with Him, our great Father.
Our acceptance of this more precious than gold, though it be
tried by fire. 1 Peter 1:6-9; Job 1:8-12. Our being denied the
possession of "things", or of "status" in the eyes of our
neighbours tests our hearts, (Deut. 8:2-3). Submission at this
point brings about the salvation of our souls, which is maturity.
Heb.5:14, James 1:21.
Failure here causes double mindedness, and the result is
confusion.
COVETOUSNESS AND IMMATURITY.
As one's desires are fulfilled an almost spiritual quickening
can come about, Prov.13:12. Conversely to have desires
continually denied brings one's spirits low. People therefore,
who live from material or fleshly sources rather than from God,
can only feel secure and complete under certain conditions. A
person who is emotionally immature and has difficulty coping with
life, may feel that being deprived of some material thing, some
advancement or recognition by others is the cause of his sense of
inadequacy.
COVETOUSNESS AND IDOLATRY.
The desire for a completed "image", through the aquisition of
goods, is the sin of idolatry. Eph.5:5; Col.3:5. These
scriptures closely associate this sin with sensuality. We
understand this as meaning that such people live at a very
shallow and unsatisfying level, using others rather than loving
them.
COVETOUSNESS AND SELF-RIGHTEOUS.
It is simply coincidence that Paul's "Romans 7" experience
has the subject of covetousness at its root? Paul could say, in
Phil.:13 - "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me", and yet here say, "for the good that I wish I do not, but I
practise the very evil that I do not wish", Romans 7:19. It is
clear that a righteousness, achieved through the Law, was being
denied him. In fact, it was his very desire for righteousness
that "set off" a whole area of iniquity in his life, vs.8.
It is a discovery we all may need to make. "When I would do
good (of myself) then evil is present with me". This is the law
of sin and death. We discover that we cannot have righteousness
as a possession, but must rather have Jesus, who by grace, is our
righteousness. Phil.3:7-9.
THE BIRTH OF THE POSSESSIVE INSTINCT.
Where did this "law of sin and death" begin? Romans 5:12-14
teaches that it came before Moses and the Law, it came with Adam.
Since the Fall, it has been the innate tendency of every man
to desire possession rather than be dependent upon another for
supply. Gen.3:1-12. Man needed wisdom and was provided with God
and His wisdom. But man took wisdom to have for himself.
So, it was that a false concept of maturity was born. Man
discovered independence and now desires a sense of completeness
and a form of maturity that has independence from God and his
neighbour at its root. He still desires fellowship with God and
his neighbour, but on his own terms and in his own time. He
needs not to need God or his neighbour.
It follows then that he has to have what God has, or what his
neighbour has for himself. The advantages of this are two fold.
1. He does not have to trust anyone.
2. He does not need to submit to anyone.
THE ANSWER...TOTAL DEPENDENCE ON JESUS THROUGH FAITH.
We have been introduced by the Gospel to a whole new way of
life. God knows full well that it is only fellowship and
association with Himself that will cause man to find God's ways
and conform himself to them. He has made this way entirely
possible. In Romans 7:25 to 8:2, we find that god's way, his new
Law, is life that is found in Jesus Christ, Rom.5:10. In fact,
"life" is to know God and Jesus, John 17:3.
THE BLESSING...HUMILITY AND DEPENDENCE...REST.
In Rom.8:4, it is made plain that God does intend us to keep
the righteousness which is of the Law (of Moses), but that this
is to be by the power of the indwelling Christ. This fulfills
Romans 11:36, with which we started this series.
Man's greatest problem, his pride, his fear of exposure and
rejection, with its accompanying self love and self preservation
has thus been dealt a death blow by God's great love of us. He
accepted us by grace and has a great plan for us through the
ages. The need for strife is over. Jer.6:16;31:33-34;
Ezek.36:25-29.
THE PRICE OF FAILURE.
Failure at this level causes us to revert automatically to
the principles of the first and second commandments. We see how
well the Law is a way of life, for it deals with sin to the
deepest levels. God is able to see to it that we do indeed go on
to walk this way, again and again, growing more each day in a
Pathway Of Maturity.
END of STUDY NINE Amen
May God bless you as you seek to please Him