Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: Matt Lawson
Company: GDC

The Church of the Living God

		09-07-22.FBC08-151 /

Christian Service: Authentic Areas of Worship & Service as Human Good; Evaluation of Believers’ Works. 1 Cor 3:11-15; Cosmic 2: Hatred & Antagonism: Intro; Principles on Temptation
	In the field of worship, you don’t dedicate yourself to Bible study so you can become an expert to impress others, win sword drills, or become spiritual king of the mountain.  Bible study is for personal improvement as a person which includes the development of genuine humility so that the sophisticated problem-solving devices can function efficiently.  The Eucharist should never be performed out of fellowship for we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 that those who do get weak and sick and some even die.
	Prayers made out of fellowship accomplish nothing.  Singing hymns without concentrating on its lyrical presentation of truth is an exercise in singing, not worshipping.  Giving money to the church reluctantly or under a sense of duty is legalism, not grace.  Giving must be motivated by the Holy Spirit and the amount personally determined without any legalistic influence.  When gratitude for the Word of God motivates the believer to give, he has the privilege of contributing to the dissemination of Bible doctrine.
	Service to the church, fellow believers, or those outside the church—relatives, friends, associates—must be motivated by unconditional love and performed without any expectation of aggrandizement, reward, or blessing.  The effort must be total grace, inspired by resident doctrine, and empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit.
	Children are to be taught these things at an early age.  It is obvious that they cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit, but wheel-tracks related to functions of worship and service can be developed and, once saved, the principles of genuine humility, spirituality, grace orientation, and virtue love will properly motivate kindness, compassion, and philanthropy.
	It should be noted that all of the categories of worship and function can be practiced by both those in and out of fellowship, however, the former produce divine good while the latter produce human good and evil.
	The actions of the spiritual believer contribute to rewards in time and eternity while the cosmic believer collects fodder for the fires at the Evaluation Tribunal of Christ.  The former should expect no compensation for their efforts while the latter usually expect it but will not receive it.
	One of the clearest passages on the subject of Christian service arrogance is 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 where the gain and loss of rewards distinguish between spiritual works and cosmic works.
	Unfortunately, much of Christian service today is motivated by guilt imposed by manipulative pastors and executed at the expense of spiritual growth.  It is assumed by many that the more one is involved in Christian service the more spiritual he is.  This depends on proper motivation, the filling of the Spirit, and correct doctrinal application.
		Cosmic 2: Hatred and Antagonism: Introduction
1.	Cosmic 2 is the modus operandi of apostate believers who function from a disposition of antagonism toward the Word of God, the plan of God, and the laws of divine establishment.
2.	When a believer enters cosmic 1 he begins a process of thought inversion that causes a personality change.  This change is subtle at first but as he advances through the categories of the system the changes becomes more pronounced.
3.	The telltale factor is an increasing preoccupation with self accompanied by a growing intolerance of others.  His move into cosmic 2 occurs when intolerance is transformed into hatred and antagonism.
4.	Where previously he was preoccupied with self, he now becomes antagonistic toward others who do not share his views.  This antagonism is further expanded when his passive neglect of Bible study becomes an antagonistic rejection of all categories of truth.
5.	Cosmic-2 hatred is characterized by antagonism toward the plan of God, the Person of God, and the Word of God.
6.	Where cosmic 1 emphasizes self over God, cosmic 2 emphasizes human viewpoint over divine viewpoint.
Principles on Temptation:
1.	There are only two sources of temptation: (1) overt: those that originate from Satan and the circumstances of the devil’s world, and (2) covert: the sin nature.  These may be classified as the world, the devil, and the flesh.  The world and the devil are overt; the sin nature is covert.
2.	The sin nature is antagonistic toward anything that would deprive it of its rulership over the soul of the believer.  The Word of God therefore becomes its major adversary.
3.	This is characterized by inversion of thought in the soul of the believer: what he once viewed as truth is now false and what he once regarded as false is now truth.
4.	As an illustration of this disposition, the sin nature regards itself as the protagonist and truth as its antagonist.  The sin nature causes the believer to develop the opinion that his viewpoint will ultimately triumph.  This is the attitude of Progressivism toward the traditional worldview. 
5.	The Hegelian theory of thesis overcoming the antithesis provides an illustration.  Cosmic-2 antagonism is critical point in this process where the lie becomes the truth and truth becomes the lie.  The sin nature installs emotion as the puppet dictator over the person’s soul and rules the person’s life by means of unrealistic expectations.
6.	Emotion conjures ideas of a Utopian lifestyle and when reality intrudes upon this vision, hatred results.  The human psyche absent doctrine longs for the peace and security of millennial proportions.
7.	Desperately desiring an environment free of constraints, obligations, responsibilities, fear, dread, and death, the believer imagines such an environment is possible through human action and the sin nature capitalizes on the myth.

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