Broadlands Bible Church
September 21, 2022
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Introduction: We are continuing our consideration of man's identity and the things that affect his experience while he lives in "Time". Last week we focused upon the internal impact that a person's "value system" has upon his experience in "Time" under the law of cause and effect, or, as Paul states it in Galatians 6: "The Law of Sowing unto Reaping".
- I. What We Have Already Seen.
- A. That God "loves" us.
- B. That the Bible is a "more particular revelation".
- C. That the biblical presentation of the essential reality of "man" consists of his identity in respect to God (man is a creature who will always be a creature) and in respect to "Time" (man has a very specific beginning as a creation of God, but he has no end).
- D. That, within this creation identity, the issue of "existence"/"Life" is its "quality" of experience.
- 1. Under this thesis (that it is the "quality of one's experience" that makes "existence" a gradual disintegration of "experience" until "Death" arrives as a final destination, and that makes "Life" a gradual development of "experience" until "Glory" arrives as a final destination), the most crucial reality is the inviolable principle of "Cause and Effect", or "The Law of Sowing unto Reaping".
- 2. Under the reality of this inviolable principle, there is a sub-reality: that there are two major factors involved in "Sowing and Reaping".
- a. Everyone is involved in "Sowing" (setting the principle of Cause and Effect into play).
- b. That the "experience" of "Reaping" includes what others have sown, as well as what we have sown.
- II. What We Are Going To Consider In This Study.
- A. That there are, in addition to the external "reaping" issues, also two primary internal issues.
- 1. First: the fact of the existence of a personal "value system" that rules over every other consideration in view of the issue of "sowing and reaping".
- a. The biblical term for this "value system" is "agape".
- b. This term's greatest significance is stated by Jesus in John 3:16-21.
- 1) This "significance" is that everyone, from God down to the least of men, has an "agape" (a system of values that rules over the decisions that a Person/person has made, is making, and will make).
- 2) This "ruling over" is pretty much absolute; nothing escapes its "imperatives".
- 3) The only thing that will affect this "rule" is the introduction of a new element of "value" at the very core: Jeremiah 31:31 compared with 2 Corinthians 3:6.
- c. This "personal value system" is fundamental to every choice that a person makes.
- 2. Second: the fact of the existence of a personal "faith system" that operates beneath the rule of the "agape system".
- a. The "agape system" is the dominating factor in respect to the "goals" involved.
- b. The "faith system" is the dominating factor in respect to the "methodology" involved in the pursuit of the goals.
- 1) The actions of men are always the result of the interplay between "goals" and "methods".
- 2. Therefore, the focus of the Scriptures is upon the potent necessity of "believing" that is rooted in the "more specific revelation of God" (The words of God contained in the Bible) because those actions will play a very large part in the quality of one's experience, whether of "life unto Death", or "Life unto Glory".
