NATIONAL & PERSONAL CRISIS

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com Lesson 21 8. Some people long to have authority while others have no interest in it. The following are the different ways that people view authority a. Some can’t wait to have authority. This type usually can’t wait to start bossing people around. b. Some want to have authority because it usually pays more than being a subordinate. c. Some can take it or leave it. d. Some want to have authority in order to impress other people. e. Some don’t want any part of having authority because they don’t want the responsibility that comes with it. f. Some want authority because of the perks that are offered. Instead of driving your own car to work, some provide a company truck or car, including the gas. They may also offer paid vacations, health insurance, and tickets to sport events. 9. God has given husbands authority over their wives. Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, be submissive to your own husbands as unto the Lord. 23) For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24) Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives should be to their husbands in everything. Colossians 3:12, Titus 2:5, I Peter 3:1 & 5 11. Some husbands don’t want to be the authority over their wives, but they have it whether they like it or not, because when the husband said, “I do”, he became the head of the house. 12. God disapproves of husbands abdicating their leader- ship role. He condemned Adam for becoming the follower of Eve instead of being her leader in the first marriage. He punished him not only for eating the forbidden fruit, but also for subordinating himself to his wife’s rebellious lead. Genesis 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you… Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 13. Husbands are not put in charge because they are smarter or better than their wives. God assigned the man the leadership role because He designed him physically and emotionally to shoulder the responsibility of command as well as to initiate love towards his wife. God designed the woman to complement the man physically and emotionally and to respond to his leader- ship with love and respect. 14. Many wives usurp their husband’s position of authority, but find out that it is a hard job, so they resent their husbands for succumbing to them as they take on the responsibilities and the leadership that belongs to their husbands. 15. Husbands who submit to their wives, think their wife loves them more because they yielded to her desire to be in charge. Wrong! Wives lose respect for their husband and becomes imbittered against him. They see their husband as a mouse, not a man. Untold numbers of marriages have ended in divorce over this very issue. 16. Husbands don’t have to prove themselves to be the head of the house because God has already said that the husband has authority over his wife. Some wives may get very angry because they want to be in charge. They may throw a fit and even threaten their husband with divorce, but he must stand his ground. If she divorces him, she will find that she made a big mistake because she will respect him because she was unable to get her way by manipulating him. If she had been successful in becoming the head of the house, she wouldn’t have respected him, which means that she couldn’t love him because respect comes before love.

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com Authority is a matter of human volition. 1. All authority in life is dependent upon human volition. God has given us the freedom to accept or reject authority in life. 2. While God has delegated authority in the human race, like government, marriage, and family, but this authority is useless if it is not accepted. 3. While the husband has legitimate authority over the wife, his authority is ineffective unless the wife from her own free will recognizes and accepts it. In doing so, she obeys God’s commandment. 4. Christian wives are commanded by God to submit to their husband’s legitimate authority. They do so because they want to please the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22-24) 5. While parents have legitimate authority in the home, this authority is useless unless the children from their own free will recognize and accept it. Those who don’t, must learn by Forced Humility which will hopefully turn into Genuine Humility. Ephesians 6:1 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him. 6. Children are exceptions to the rule that we all have the freedom to accept or reject authority in life. Their parents make decisions for their children until they have been trained to make those kinds of decisions themselves. 7. All legitimate authority is delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and through the principles of freedom. All illegitimate authority is based on the function of the Cosmic System. Romans 13:1 Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no (legitimate) authority except from God, and those (legitimate authorities) which exist are established by God. a. There are many who say they have authority and there are misguided people who submit to them, but they are not legitimate authorities because they don’t submit to the authority of God. b. It should be understood that all legitimate or lawful authority comes from God, so no one can ascribe absolute authority to himself. When one assumes authority that is not from God, then it is counterfeit, illegitimate, unlawful, and therefore requires neither respect nor submission. c. Dictators, tyrants, despots, warlords, mafia heads, leaders of street gangs, etc. certainly have authority that they assert, but it is not legitimate because it has not been delegated to them from God. They do not submit to Him or His laws, but instead, act contrary to His Just and Righteous standards.

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com 7. You borrow strength when you make decisions to go along with people who influence you erroneously. 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be deceived; evil companions corrupt good morals [standards].” a. You borrow strength by taking bad advice, or simply going through life being influenced by people rather than what the Word of God says. b. You never have a thought of your own, but always depend upon the counsel of others. c. You use others as a crutch rather than learning and applying doctrine for yourself. d. You use someone else’s scale of values rather than developing your own priorities through the perception of doctrine. e. Some try to borrow strength by depending on drugs or alcohol to deal with their problems. They never work; they only make matters worse. f. If you depend on others for happiness and for problem solving, you will wind up in the Cosmic System where there is no happiness nor problem solving, but there is plenty of misery. g. You cannot learn doctrine by sending someone else to Bible class. You will either recognize the importance of learning God’s Word, or you will not. That decision will determine what kind of life you have on earth, and in heaven. h. If we expect to grow in grace and knowledge, we must get our Daily Dose of Doctrine. You will live one of two ways: You will “Learn and Live”, or you will “Live and Learn.” i. To Learn and Live is much easier than to Live and Learn. Learning doctrine shows one how to Live which makes Life easier, whereas, Living by the school of hard knocks, is Learning Life the hard way. There is something important that we will never have if we have a “Hit or Miss” attitude toward abiding in the “Divine Domain” or the “Bottom Circle” where we are Filled with the Holy Spirit. By the way, we miss more than we hit when we have a “Take it or leave it” attitude. So, what is it that we lack in our spiritual life if we have a poor attitude towards growing in grace by learning Bible Doctrine? CONFIDENCE !

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com By using borrowed strength, you will be weak all your life.

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com 14. We need God and His plan for our lives. God’s plan begins when we believe in Christ and continues when we learn Bible doctrine. 15. Man is not the master of his fate; our fate and our destiny are in God’s hands. Proverbs 16:9 The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself; Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the LORD, And your plans will be established. Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, But the counsel of the LORD, it will stand. 16. Man lives in the devil’s world and is vulnerable to enslavement in the Cosmic System. 17. Man can use his own free will to become a slave of Satan, or he can use it to become a servant of God. 18. The sooner the believer realizes his need of a power greater than himself and outside of himself, the sooner he establishes the right priorities for life and a pattern of good decisions relating to God’s plan. 19. Man is not an independent power but a creature of weakness whose strength lies in the functions of his soul, especially in the function of his free will to choose God’s power system. 20. Human power, authority, ability, genius, talent, or even a dynamic personality or beauty *are no substitutes for life in the Divine Dynasphere. Yet people depend on almost anything of a creature nature rather than on the provision of their Creator, Jesus Christ. *Anything one does or has is nothing if the Lord is left out of it. 21. It often takes personal or historical disaster to bring the believer (or anyone) to an understanding of how weakness is turned into strength. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 illustrates: “And then He assured me, `My grace is sufficient for you. For the power [omnipotence of God] functions in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather demonstrate confidence toward God in my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may pitch a tent over me. Therefore, for the sake of Christ I discover contentment [+H] in weaknesses [helpless situations], in the antagonisms of arrogance [opposition from Cosmic One], in pressures [momentum testing], in persecutions [opposition from Cosmic Two], in disasters [hopeless situations]; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com L. Out of Undeserved Suffering, comes strength through positive volition toward the truth of Bible Doctrine. 1. Most teenagers are shocked when they experience Undeserved Suffering. They say what happened to them, was unfair! They haven’t learned yet, that the world is very unfair. 2. Most people think that when they are treated unfairly, they have the right to retaliate. Are they right? Romans 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. L. Out of Undeserved Suffering, comes strength through positive volition toward the truth of Bible Doctrine. 1. Most teenagers are shocked when they experience Undeserved Suffering. They say what happened to them, was unfair! They haven’t learned yet, that the world is very unfair. 2. Most people think that when they are treated unfairly, they have the right to retaliate. Are they right? Romans 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. 4. There are two types of Christian suffering: a) Disciplinary suffering, called deserved suffering; b) Suffering for blessing, called undeserved suffering. 5. The exception is divine discipline for carnal and for reversionistic believers who refuse to humble themselves nor acknowledge their sins (rebound) to God. Cursing (Divine Discipline) is turned to blessing for believers who humble themselves. Those who refuse to humble themselves, may die the Sin unto Death (1 John 5:16). 6. Read: Hebrews 12:5-11

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com The Source of Blessing by Association. 1. Direct blessing from God goes to the person in association with the mature believer. 2. Indirect blessing from God occurs because the mature believer provides the blessing from his own prosperity. In fulfillment of Rom 12:13, “contributes to the needs of the saints.” The mature believer gives of his time, wealth, success, love, personality, and whatever the category of his prosperity might be. Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, God provides Logistical Grace to every Church Age believer. Logistics is a military word which refers to the military science of supply and provision. It is a technical military term for sustaining troops in every form of military activity and maneuver, in the barracks, in the field, in the battle, before the battle, and after the battle. 1. He provides the things we need and we don’t have to earn or deserve them. Even carnal and reversionistic believers and winners and losers receive the logistical grace from God. 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything [including logistical grace], you may have an abundance for every good deed; Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; 2. David gives the testimony of old age to logistical grace. Palsm 37:25 “I have been young but now I am old; yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken [logistical grace given to imputed righteousness] nor His seed begging bread.” 3. This means that Logistical Grace blessing to you can extend as far as the third generation. 4. God sends Logistical Grace to the righteousness that He imputed to us when we believed the gospel. Go to the countrybiblechurch.us website homepage and click on the tab ‘Visuals” and scroll down to “Grace Pipeline”. Psalm 68:19-20 “Blessed be the God who daily bears our burdens [both physical & psychological], the God who is our deliverance. God is to us a God of deliverances, and to God belongs the escape from death.”

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com The series we have been covering is “National and Personal Crisis.” We are preparing for whatever we will face in the future. We have already covered a few terms that were not covered in the past that we need in order to be prepared: The Divine Dynasphere, The Cosmic System, Cosmic One, and Cosmic Two. Today we will add to these: Super-Grace, Blessings By Association, and Logistical Grace. Super-Grace 1. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the Cross. 2. God the Father was propitiated (satisfied) with the work of Christ on the cross which freed God to bless man under the plan of grace. 3. Grace is God’s freedom to express His love through grace to mankind without compromising His essence. 4. Under the principle of grace, God does all the work and providing, while man does all the receiving and benefitting. In the concept of grace, everything depends on God’s essence.

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com Knowledge of Absolute Truth Manufactures Freedom. 1. John 8:32 “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” 2. This is another way of saying that good decisions create options for greater decisions, while bad decisions destroy those options. 3. The Cosmic System has the power to change lives for the worse while the Divine Dynasphere has the power to change lives for the better. None of us stand still; we are getting better or worse. 4. Better or worse is the daily option of our free will functioning in the sphere of freedom. 5. Freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions based on the truth of Bible doctrine rather than on the arrogance and evil, which is Satan’s propaganda inside the Cosmic System. 6. Freedom to fail results in recognition of our human frailties and our weaknesses. Recognition of our weaknesses is neither demeaning nor degrading. Every human being has weaknesses. 7. All solutions in life begin with weakness and the recognition of our failures. Just as a person cannot be saved until he recognizes that he is lost; likewise, a person cannot have a resolution to his failures until he recognizes his weaknesses. At this point, he will try to overcome his weaknesses, and fail, or he will rely on God’s provision and power, and win. 8. Trying to overcome weaknesses is commendable, but we all have a sin nature that we succumb to. Believers have access to the power of the Holy Spirit that over- come their weaknesses which enables them to stay in fellowship with the Lord. 9. When a believer sins, he goes into carnality and becomes estranged to the Lord. The only way for him to be right again is to acknowledge his sin/sins to Him, then he is forgiven for all his sins and is cleansed from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

-----Complete notes can be downloaded from our website - www.countrybiblechurch.us -----You may contact us at countrybiblechurch.us@gmail.com or cbcbrenham@gmail.com There is another way that the Bible uses the word “weak”. Believers should recognize their weakness before God. Some believers haven’t learned that we are utterly helpless apart from the grace of God. When He commands us to do something, we cannot obey it without the power of the Holy Spirit which we receive through grace. Read: Acts 14:1-14, 19-20, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me-- to keep me from exalting myself! 8) Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9) And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10) Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. Believers who are oriented to the grace of God realize that they are exceedingly weak when they rely on themselves when facing the exigencies of life. They are strong when they are weak, because when they face the challenges that we all face, they rely in the omnipotent power of the Lord who will give us the grace we need so that we won’t be afraid, but be spiritually strong.