Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: PaulD
Company: GDC

The Church of the Living God

		09-05-03-B.FBC08-115 /

The Cogs of Carnality: Self-Justification, -Deception, & -Absorption; Confidence & Courage Eliminate Fear; Tandem Problem-Solving Devices; Knowledge, Understanding, & Wisdom

20.	Jealousy is the major sin that initiates self-justification.  It is the expression of (1) fear related to rivalry with another person which is inordinate competition, (2) fear of losing a relationship with another person which is eyes on people rather than eyes on God, or (3) fear of their unfaithfulness which is iconoclastic arrogance.
21.	In these conditions, jealousy must be justified and this moves the teeth of the first cog to interlock with self-deception: I am right; the other person is wrong.  This results in implacability, the mental attitude of irreconcilability: unrelenting, unforgiving.
22.	Implacability moves the third cog of self-absorption generating hatred, a mental-attitude sin that fosters great dislike or aversion; intense ill will; antipathy, abhorrence, detestation, and hostility.
23.	From this complex of aggressive sins there emerges malice (a desire to do harm), revenge (to punish), vituperation (to berate; to “set them straight”), vilification (to use abusive language in doing so), violence (physical attack), abuse (verbal attack), which are forms of vindictiveness (vengeance).
24.	With this sin cluster reaches this level the cogs reverse and self-absorption moves back to the self-deception of assumed innocence which intensifies the anger and, not dealt with, moves into self-justification and bitterness.
25.	This is complete inversion of thought making it impossible to apply the royal law to the circumstances that precipitated the contretemps.
26.	These are the machinations of the believer on the road to ruin, a decline that can only be halted by rebound and a return to spiritual growth.  Recovery occurs when doctrine becomes the source of problem-solving rather than the cosmic solutions contrived by the sin nature.
27.	It is only through application of divine viewpoint that the believer can manage providential preventive suffering.  Knowledge of divine essence produces confidence toward God and knowledge of His plan produces courage to eliminate fear.
28.	PRINCIPLE: The glue that links confidence and courage is security in two categories.
29.	PRINCIPLE: Knowledge of divine essence produces confidence in God.
30.	This means that confidence is unattainable without knowledge.  Knowledge of divine essence provides wisdom and confidence is based on wisdom in the soul.
31.	PRINCIPLE: Knowledge of eternal security sustains confidence toward God.
32.	When providential preventive suffering occurs the believer must have both confidence in God and knowledge of eternal security to sustain that confidence, both from the source of wisdom in the soul.
33.	In addition, this confidence must be the source of courage when under pressure.
34.	PRINCIPLE:	Knowledge of the plan of God produces courage toward life.  The believer knows that through faith alone in Christ alone he has eternal life.  He learns from Bible study that a life spent learning the Word of God and keeping its commandments will result in escrow blessings in time.
35.	Knowledge of this plan gives him absolute confidence about his temporal security and therefore courage toward life and its circumstances.
36.	PRINCIPLE: Knowledge of logistical grace support sustains courage toward life.
37.	Wisdom takes the believer to total dependence on God for his sustenance.  He knows he possesses divine righteousness and that to it will be imputed the necessities of life, or temporal security.  The guarantee of this logistical grace sustains courage toward anything that the devil’s world has to offer.
38.	With this confidence and courage the believer is freed from fear, worry, or anxiety; he is not distracted by the petty issues that are common to life in a fallen world populated with fallen people.
39.	He is oriented to the knowledge he has acquired and with cognitive self-confidence is able to apply the tandem problem-solving devices of personal love for God and unconditional love for mankind in order to resolve providential preventive suffering. 
40.	These two problem-solving devices are summed up by the royal law and are contained in the Lord’s response to the scribes’ question in Mark 12:28c, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”  The Lord’s response is recorded in the next three verses:
Mark 12:29 -	“The foremost is, ‘Hear O Israel!  The Lord our God is one Lord;
v. 30 -	and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
v. 31 -	“The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.”
41.	For the royal law to become an effective part of the believer’s inventory he must acquire the wisdom of the sophisticated spiritual life.  These and spiritual self-esteem developed at that level carry him through providential preventive suffering to spiritual autonomy.
42.	Spiritual autonomy is expressed by cognitive independence where the believer becomes comfortable with his own abilities to live the Christian way of life.
43.	Functioning as an independent thinker, the believer in spiritual autonomy has capacity for life, capacity for love, and capacity for happiness regardless of the difficulties life presents.

© 2009 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org