* Important to understand our human make up.
* And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. <Ge 2:7>
* Living soul – Spiritual aliveness (Can communicate, respond and yield to God).
* 3 essential parts/components of a soul – Mind, Heart, Will
Key verse
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching (or: form of doctrine) that has now claimed your allegiance. <Ro 6:17>
* Obey – Will.
* Heart – Emotions, Affections, Sensibility.
* Form of Doctrine – Mind and understanding.
* Wholeness of Christian life – Mind, Heart and will.
* The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more. <Ro 5:20>
* What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. <Ro 6:1-4>
* There is danger of leaving a Christian doctrine as a standalone.
* E.g. People misapply the doctrine of Predestination easily.
* There must be a form of doctrine (with truths chain up) in understanding the Word.
* Good doctrine defends the truth and appeals to the mind of men.
1. The greatness of the gospel is one comes in full.
* The Gospel gives the whole counsel of God.
* Preachers are not teaching doctrines in its fullness nowadays.
* Hearers settle for partial truths nowadays as it sounds accommodative.
* Yet, the Gospel always gives the whole understanding of Christianity.
2. The Gospel involves the whole of a Person.
* Wholeness of a person – Mind, Heart and Will
* The imbalance way of receiving the gospel.
1) The problem with those who only use their mind.
2) The problem with those who only activate their heart.
3) The problem with those who only have their will provoked.
3. Critical order about activating our mind, heart and will in yielding to God.
* Though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching (or: form of doctrine) that has now claimed your allegiance <Ro 6:17>
* Appeal to the mind first, not the heart or the will first.
4. The importance of gathering of the Saints in balance spiritual growth.
* And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left. <Heb 10:24-26>
