Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

Being a slave is the greatest occupation in life when God is your master.

Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Virtue is the foundation on which that which is true, honorable, just, and personal love, and of proper motivation, and that which is commendable is built upon.

Phi 4:8 if there is any virtue [and there is] and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

Bond-servant - noun doulos = a slave.
Being a slave is the greatest occupation in life when you are the slave and God is the master.

Every believer starts with the same amount of faith but none of us end up that way.

We all start out with an equal amount of faith, then we are given equal privilege and equal opportunity.

Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live,

In eternity past, the sovereignty of God elected us to privilege, but we have the freedom to either accept or reject His way of doing things.

In contrast, some fail, some are winners, some are losers, some are under divine discipline, some are under the sin unto death.

God has a perfect plan to reveal His perfect will, but we all have the freedom to accept it or reject it.

Believers who advance toward spiritual maturity advance in grace, but believers who live in the cosmic system use grace.

When Bible doctrine or the word of God is not #1 priority in a believer’s life, the believer is using grace.

When a believer uses grace, he is using God, and when you use God, you are going to be a loser.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Rom 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Isa 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Isa 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

God the Holy Spirit not only provides the power, but He also provides the freedom necessary to advance in God’s plan.

Grace gives us all an equal start and sufficient provisions to go forward unto spiritual maturity.

All they will have is a resurrected body and nothing else to show for a life full of bad decisions.

Psychosis is usually the result of a matter of bad decisions hooked up with arrogance.

The only way to become a winner is to start reversing bad decisions.

Learning to take responsibility for your own decisions is the principle of human maturity and the beginning stage of developing virtue.

Righteousness - dikaiosune =
righteousness; it also means integrity.

1. There must be good decisions.
2. There must be truth.

They seek those things which gratify themselves not realizing that the greatest road to happiness is integrity.

En + instrumental of dikaiosune = this virtue, this integrity comes by means of TLJC.

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;

Luk 2:40 And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

Luk 2:52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Phi 2:5 Keep on thinking this [doctrine] within yourselves which was also resident in Christ Jesus,

“To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours or from the instrument of our Lord’s character and integrity.”

Christian service has a place, but it must be a result of virtue first.

God - Deity of Christ.
Savior - Humanity of Christ.

2Pe 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Grace - charis = the policy of God toward man.
Grace is God’s right to deal with us on the basis of the cross.

GAL 4:29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
GAL 4:30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman."

Gen 16:2 Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children through her.

Gen 16:4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived;
Gen 16:15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

Gen 17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.”
Gen 17:16 “And I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Legalism is man’s ability, man’s work intruding into the plan of God.

Grace rejects human plans, human talent, human ability, gimmicks, games, and human viewpoint.

Psa 26:3 For Thy lovingkindness [grace] is before my eyes, And I have walked in Thy doctrine.

God is waiting (tapping His foot) to be gracious unto you, Isa 30:18.

God is our host in the devil’s world; however, the host cannot pour unless we have a cup.

The cup is your very own soul and represents the capacity that comes from Bible doctrine.