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VISITING PROGRAM
TRAINING CLASS
Tenth
Class
January 26, 1969
FORMAT:
1. 0pen with prayer.
2. World news discussion and drill (5 - 8
minutes).
3. Difficult scripture drill (30
minutes).
4. Sermonettes and evaluations (30
minutes).
5. Recess (10 minutes).
6. Lecture (one hour).
**NOTE: There are no assignments for next
class.
DIFFICULT
SCRIPTURES
1.
Disprove: We don't have to keep
the law because we are justified by faith
without the deeds of the law
(Rom. 3:28).
A. Paul was saying that a man is justified by
faith apart from the deeds
of the law. He is not preaching that the law is done
away. Being
justified means to be brought into right
standing before God. Romans
3:20 tells us that no man shall be justified by the deeds of
the law.
"For by the law is
the knowledge of sin. The law defines
sin -- it
tells you what sin is -- but it
does not and cannot take away the
penalty for previous
violations. Obeying the law in the
future does
not pay for past
guilt. If a man commits a crime, his
obedience to
the civil law in the
future does not make him any less guilty of his
past offense.
B.
Verses 24-25 of Romans 3-explain how we are justified. We are
justified
by God's grace through the redeeming
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christ
was a propitiation (a sacrifice
that reconciles) for us to God. By
His sacrifice our past sins are
remitted.
C. Once you are reconciled to God, you must
keep the commandments if you
want to remain justified
(Rom. 2:13).
D. Being justified by faith does not mean we
do away with (make void) the
law. On the contrary, we establish the law (Rom.
3:31). Once our
sins are forgiven we are
able to receive God's Holy Spirit which He
gives to those who obey
Him (Acts 5:32). This Spirit
gives us the
love of God (Rom. 5:5) which is the keeping of His commandments (I John
5:3).
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2.
Disprove: We don't have to obey
the law because we are under grace, not
under the law (Rom. 6:14).
A. This scripture does not say we don't
have.to obey the law. It does
say we are not under the law,
but under grace. The term "under
the
law" does not refer to
being under the jurisdiction of the law.
It
means being under the penalty
of the law. This penalty is death
(Rom. 6:23).
The term "grace" as
defined in Webster's Dictionary means mercy, favor,
unmerited kindness, and exemption
or pardon as from a penalty. Grace
is God's forgiving us for our
sins, pardoning us, taking away the
penalty.
B. When we sin -- break God's law (I John
3:4) -- the law has a claim
over our lives (Rom. 6:23) We are then
under the law -- under its
penalty. It is the sinner who is under the law. On the other hand,
when we repent and receive
God's grace made possible through the
sacrifice of Christ, we are
pardoned and the penalty of death is taken
away. Then we are no longer under the law --
under the penalty of
death for having broken the
law.
C. Does this give us free license to sin
(break the law) because we are
under grace and not under the
law? Paul asks this very same question
in Verse 15 and answers it
saying, "God forbid." Verse
1 states that
we should not sin just so that grace
might abound.
It is like a condemned
murderer on death row waiting for execution.
At the last minute the
governor grants him a pardon. He is
now a free
man. But that does not mean he is at liberty to
murder again. That
would be absurd. His pardon covers only the past offense --
not future
crimes.
D. If grace did away with the law, there
would be no sin because where
there is no law,there is no
sin (Rom. 4:15) This is
obviously true
because sin is the
transgressing of the law (I John 3:4).
The law is
still in effect, and so we
need grace to remove the penalty for breaking
the law.
3.
Disprove: We don't need works
because we are saved by grace through faith --
not by works (Eph. 2:8-9).
A. This scripture does not say
Christians don't need works: It merely
states that we are not saved
by works. Of course, we are saved by
grace through faith. Salvation is God's free gift. No amount of law
keeping or works can earn anyone
salvation.
B. Even the faith that saves us is a gift
(Verse 8). It is not our own
faith but the faith of Jesus
Christ (Gal. 2:20). It is one of
the
fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). We cannot work
up this faith on our
own. It is supernaturally imparted to us by
God's Holy Spirit.
C. But Paul does say we were created to do
good works (Eph. 2:10). James
says, "Faith without
works is dead" (Jas. 2:20), and
continues to show
how Abraham was justified by
works (Verses 21-22). Then are we
saved
by works? No, we are saved by faith -- but faith
wrought with works
(obedience to God's law). By works our faith is made perfect.
LAW AND
GRACE
I.
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Herbert Armstrong and the
leading evangelists and ministers in God's
Work were dumbfounded recently to
find that some of the leading men in
the Church -~ men in the Visiting
Program Training Class -- were not
tithing! And in recent weeks, certain sins such as
adultery, fornication
and drunkenness have been widespread throughout the Chu?ch of
God.' At a
time when we, as a Church, should
be drawing nearer to God than ever
before and getting "up"
for the job just ahead of us, we find the Church
as a whole "out of
condition" spiritually.'
God has set before this Church
the most gigantic, awesome job that has
ever been given a group to
perform in the history of man -- the job of
carrying His message as a final
warning to a sick and dying world which
is teetering on the brink of
oblivion.' This is the Work that the
Almighty
Creator God has called us to have
a part in. We have been called to
share
in the most exciting, the most
staggeringly momentous Work on the face
of the earth.'
You need to understand that this
Work is now -- and has been for the past
35 years -- laying the foundation
for the end-time Work which we will be
doing the last few months before
this Work is snuffed out! We have not
yet blasted this world with the
full force of God's warning, but rather,
we have been warning only those
who have ears to hear. Just as Christ
did not speak plainly to those
without but spoke in parables, God's Work
is deliberately waiting until the
time is ripe to tell the world clearly
and plainly just what is about to
occur.
When we begin to blast this world
-- especially Israel -- over nationwide
network television, or the
equivalent on independent stations,
and when
The PLAIN TRUTH articles all of a
sudden start plainly explaining that
Germany will conquer the United States in a few months, then this Work
will be quickly silenced -- but
not before the world hears the warning.'
The world, and especially Israel,will be dumbstruck at what they read and
hear.'
I Corinthians 1:26-27 -- To carry out this incredible commission, God has
chosen the weak of the world in
order to confound the wise. He did not
ordain that this Work be
accomplished by an elite cadre of shrewd, worldly-
wise intellectuals or
businessmen. It is being done, rather,
by a Church
which God describes in Revelation
3:8 as having but "little strength."
Zechariah 4:6 -- God
has willed that this Work be accomplished by His
Spirit! It is going to be done by a Spirit-filled,
zealous, dedicated,
loyal, wholeheartedly OBEDIENT
group which He calls the "Philadelphia"
Era of His Church . If we are going to have the faith and the
Spirit of
God which we need in order to
accomplish the gigantic job ahead of us
now, we as a Church must begin to
put God and God's Work FIRST in our
lives!
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God will not use dull, blunt
instruments to accomplish His Work. He
is
going to use "sharp
threshing instruments" (Isa. 41:15) who will humble
themselves before Him and obey Him
wholeheartedly, relying on HIS Spirit
and power to carry it out!
II.
GOD'S GRACE TURNED INTO LICENSE
What does all this have to do
with the subject of law and grace?
Everything!
Leviticus 19:2 -- Those of us
who God is going to use to finish His Work
must be holy -- we must obey God
in all things!
Isaiah 52:11 -- As the servants
of the Holy Living God we must be spiritually
clean! We must be clean in our thoughts, our
motives and our attitudes.
I John 2:1-2 -- We should be
striving with all our might NOT TO SIN -- not
to break God's law! Then, if due to our weakness as physical
human beings,
we yield to temptation and sin,
God in His tremendous mercy and love for
us has given His Son as the
propitiation for those sins -- He gave His
life to pay the penalty in our
stead -- IF we are really broken up and
repent of those sins and set
ourselves never to repeat that sin again.
But as incredible as it sounds,
God's people have been turning this grace --
this unmerited, undeserved,
fantastically generous gift of mercy and for-
giveness by God into LICENSE to
disobey'
Ecclesiastes 8:11 -- You need to understand this basic principle of how
your human nature works! Your heart really is deceitful above all
things
(Jer. 17:9). Since God does not punish us immediately
for our sins, we
subconsciously -- without
realizing it at all -- equate lack of immediate
punishment with lack of
penalty. Unless we understand how our
minds operate
in this regard, we will be
lulled into a sense of complacency toward sin
in our lives.
Romans 2:4-6 -- God often gives
us a space of time in which to repent, but
paradoxically, the longer we
persist in a sin -- whether it be breaking
the letter of the law or the
spirit of the law -- the less our conscience
bothers us. We tend to consider
-- again, without consciously thinking it
out -- that God's mercy and
longsuffering is tacit approval of what we
are doing (Ps. 50:16-23)! Whenever we allow our human nature to
deceive
us in this way, we are, in
effect, turning God's grace -- His mercy --
into license ! Any who do this and kid themselves that
they are "doing
all right" will come to see that God wasn't
overlooking or "winking at"
their sins at all (Verses 5 and
6)! They can be sure their sins will
find them out (Num. 32:23)!
We are in the home stretch of
this Work, yet the Church is often hindered
by disloyalty, competition and
striving, lethargy, carelessness and sin.
Some in God's Church are blind
to the great, powerful, magnificent God
we serve. Some of those we thought were leaders in
the Church are so
blind they have robbed God!
Romans 13:11-14 -- God is not
going to continue to take contempt, care-
lessness and disrespect! It is time for us as a Church to wake
up! This
Work has turned the corner! God is now cleaning away the dross for the
grand, smash climax of His
Work. He wants only those who are
totally
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committed, striving with all
their being for perfection and righteousness
in order to be like He is and
to qualify to be His instruments to warn
this world!
III.
PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE
Psalms 50:3-5 -- We are not our
own! When we were baptized, we made a
covenant with God that we would
give our entire lives to Him, but many in
God's Church do not keep that
covenant. They begin -- often
gradually --
to reclaim possession of the
self they had given to God. They begin
to
put physical things ahead of
God and His Work, and they become careless
in the way that they obey
God.
Romans 12:1-2 -- This is not an
idle hint -- this is a command! We can
do no less if we are to be a
part of the Philadelphia Era of God's Church
which will finish this
Work. This means that in practice --
not just in
theory -- we must put God and
His Work first.'
Malachi 1:13-14 -- God wants no
part of this type of sacrifice. He
doesn't
want sleepy-time prayers after
you've spent the entire day pursuing your
own personal physical
interests. This is a type of spiritual
sop to mollify
your own sense of guilt for not
having put Him first. Neither does God
want a half-hearted,
disinterested approach to Bible study while you really
get worked up about a football
game or some other physical activity that
is just so much vanity in
comparison. He doesn't want what you
have left
for an offering after you've
first made provision for material things you
want but don't really
need. He wants the very best of you in
every way --
your time, your loyalty, your
dedication, your zeal and your wholehearted
obedience!
IV.
STOP COMPROMISING With SIN.'
Set yourself to stop
compromising with sin! Our carnal
minds deceive us
in many ways to get us to
compromise with what we know to do.
After living
with our human nature for so
many years, we have become accustomed to our
vanity, our competition,
envying and jealousies. Our carnal way
of thinking
becomes "comfortable," and if we don't have our guard up, we
can begin to
tolerate and permit a
"little bit" of sin in our thoughts.
God doesn't consider any sin a
little thing or a light matter! What
if
Jesus Christ had indulged His vanity "just a little," or
what if He lost
His temper or got in a wrong
attitude toward another person just once?
God hates sin. He hates character that compromises with
sin! Don't per-
mit yourself the privilege --
the license -- to take a second look at a
shapely girl in a tight
mini-skirt. Don't permit yourself to
harbor --
even for a few seconds - -
thoughts of jealousy and competition or thoughts
of self-exaltation.
Are you one that compromises
because you look to other people for a standard?
Paul said, "Follow me even
as I follow Christ" (I Cor. 11:1).
He described
those who "compare
themselves among themselves" as not being wise (II Cor.
10:12). God's law defines sin -- not someone else's
example! Learn to weigh
examples by God's law and God's
Word, and if they stack up, then follow
them, but not before!
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Romans 14:23 -- If you even
think or suspect that something may be sin --
if you cannot do it in faith --
it IS sin! Adopt the approach of
fleeing
from sin rather than hanging
around and seeing how close you can get to
it without actually
sinning!
Acts 5:1-8 -- Two people dropped
dead as a result of sinning against the
great, all-powerful, almighty
Creator God of this universe. Those
apostles
and disciples got the point that
sin was a serious matter, and they realized
that when one sins, he is
dealing with the very power of Almighty God!
Do you comprehend the enormity
of sin -- how the great God looks at it?
Do you tremble in awe of that
power and fear to transgress His law?
Begin
to take seriously this matter of
compromising with sin! Resolve to
never
do it again!
V.
OBEDIENCE IS TOWARD GOD
Psalms 51:4 -- David recognized
the enormity of sin, and he also recognized
that sin is against God. In the same way, obedience must be toward
God.
It is a matter of our
attitude.
I Samuel 16:7 -- God looks on
the heart! He is concerned not only
with
what we do, but also our
attitude in doing it.
Some people in God's Church obey
God, not because they stand in awe of
God and are trying to impress
Him, but because they want to impress others.
They are more concerned about
what others think about them than what God
thinks!
These people pray, for example,
because they are afraid the minister will
ask them if they have been
praying. They study in order to avoid
the
embarrassment of someone else
finding out that they don't! It
doesn't
embarrass them for God to know
they don't study or pray, but it embarrasses
them if other people know! This kind of an attitude is an abomination
to
God! He doesn't accept this kind of
obedience!
Psalms 89:6-7 -- He wants sincere,
wholehearted obedience which is directed
toward Him in a right kind of
fear and reverence!
Isaiah 40:15-18, 26 -- Do you
comprehend the greatness and power of the
God we are worshipping? Are you truly much more concerned about
what He
thinks about you and your sins
than about what any human being or group
of human beings on this earth
think? Be honest with yourself, and if
YOU
are falling short, repent before
God of this attitude, and beseech Him to
help you fear and reverence Him
as you should!
VI.
STRIVE TO BECOME PERFECT
When Jesus Christ said,
"Become you therefore perfect" (Matt. 5:48), He
meant for us to take the
admonition seriously -- as seriously as any other
straightforward command in the
Bible! This is the challenge that we
as
human beings have been given --
to become, with the help of God's Holy
Spirit, PERFECT. This is a full-time occupation that we
should be zealously
working at every day!
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II Corinthians 10:5 -- We must
accept the full responsibility for our
thoughts and bring them into
captivity to the obedience of Christ!
This
is a struggle -- a real daily
battle -- and if you are not battling, you
are not bringing your thoughts
into captivity!
We are often too quick to
excuse ourselves because we are "human." God
wants you to develop an
attitude of never excusing any little bit of sin
because you are human! We have God's Spirit which can overcome
human
nature -- no matter how rotten
you may think yours is! There are only
a
few ways in which all human
beings are created equal. One is that
we all
have the capacity to become
God. Another is that we all have the
same
amount of human nature to
overcome.
Don't use I Corinthians 1:26 or
Revelation 3:8, which refer to our physical
strength and power, as an
excuse for not overcoming. It is the
one who
overcomes who will be in God's
Kingdom (Rev. 3:21)! To overcome means
to
conquer, subdue, defeat,
overthrow, surmount. This is precisely
what we
must do with human nature. Those who will enter God's Kingdom are the
ones who get past -~ who
overcome -- weaknesses, faults and sins -- not
those who know the arguments
about God's Way and God's Word but don't obey.
God wants us to wholeheartedly
accept the challenge of becoming perfect.
He wants us to cry out,
"Father in heaven, I want to be like You are! Help
me to overcome this nature I
have!" He wants us to cry out to
Him fervently
for more of His Holy
Spirit, and He wants to give it to us as much as a
Father wants to give his hungry
son bread (Luke 11:11-13)!
VII.
DRAW NEAR TO GOD THROUGH OBEDIENCE
Isaiah 59:1-2 -- In order for
us to finish this Work, God must hear our
~yers as individuals and as a
Church. The reason many in God's
Church
are not healed today -- is
often because their sins have cut them off from
God!
I Joh~3:2l-22 -- Our prayers
will be answered if we examine ourselves and
begin to obey! We will have confidence that He will
hear!
James 4:8 -- This is an
absolute promise. If we will repent of
our sins
and begin to obey God
zealously, wholeheartedly and sincerely, God will
draw nigh to us -- as
individuals and as a Church. He will
hear our prayers
and we will be precision
insterments He can use in giving this world their
final warning.
John 15:2 -- God is purging
those who are producing to bring forth more
fruit, and He is casting out
those who refuse to change! God WILL
finish
this Work! It is just a question of who He will
use. He will use a loyal,
dedicated, wholeheartedly
obedient group of people who are looking to Him
for the power of His
Spirit. If God is going to use you,
you are going to
have to make up your mind to stop
compromising -- to stop turning the
precious grace of God into
license to disobey. You are going to
have to
obey -- IN Everything!
Matthew 25:21 -- Will you be a
part of this Philadelphia-Era Work when it
finishes? Will you be among those who have deeply
repented of taking sin
lightly and have set yourself
to attain perfection? If so, you will
be
one to whom God says after this
Work is finished -- WELL DONE, good and
faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord!
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