Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,March 29, 2017
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In verses 4-15, a roster is given of the twelve spies – 10 of them are going to come back with a negative report and two of them are going to come back with a positive report.

Many times the names given, give us some insight into the character of the individual or the story behind the individual.

By analogy, offensive action is the only way to reach spiritual adulthood and spiritual maturity.

Offensive action brings victory, while defensive action can only avoid defeat.

The offensive increases the effectiveness of the force adopting it, raises morale, permits concentration of effort, and allows freedom of action to begin.

This has an analogy to Paul’s goal to “press on” in Phi 3:14.

Defensive action has an analogy in our spiritual lives, because we can never get away from rebound and the faith‑rest drill, a part of defensive action.

The Church-age believer must know when to use offensive action and when to use defensive action in the Christian way of life.

Against Satan and all fallen angels, the divine commands usually call for defensive action.

The 12 spies were on the offensive when they were told to go on a reconnaissance, which we have noted is a military survey of enemy territory to gain information about the enemy.
Offensive action is related to the angelic conflict and is also related to the execution of the PPOG for the church.

All angelic creatures, including demons or fallen angels, are watching every Church-age believer putting on the full armor from God.

EPH 6:12 Because our struggle is not against blood [blood comes first in the original language, and it refers to people’s souls] and flesh [their old sin nature], but against the rulers [these are the archons like Abaddon and Beelzebub],
against the powers [demon officers who have phenomenal authority], against the world forces of this darkness [kosmokratoras meaning demons who specialize in possessing or influencing the cosmos or world rulers]
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places or against the spiritual forces of evil in the atmosphere around the earth, the stellar universe and in the presence of God.

By spies I am using typology, each of them representing certain characteristics in our soul like the ones mentioned in the names of the spies.

When it comes to our spiritual warfare, elect angels observe human history while fallen angels are designed to oppose human history.

a. Elect angels rejoice over the salvation of one person, Luk 15:7,10.

The elect angels rejoice when they see restoration and not condemnation.
In the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, angels observed every part of the first advent and incarnation of our Lord, 1Ti 3:16 which says that He was “Beheld by angels”

In the dispensation of the church age, angels observe members of the royal family of God in their failure or success to execute and fulfill the PPOG, 1Co 4:9; Eph 3:10; 1Ti 5:21; 1Pe 1:12.

Spectacle = the nominative neuter singular of theatron which is where we get the word theater from and it means a theater, a place for public shows, a play, a pace for the performance of dramatic representations.

EPH 3:10 in order that the multi‑faceted or many-sides of the wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Angels even observe the believers in the Church-age receiving commands from headquarters according to our main passage in

1PE 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look.

The word long is epithumeo which means to have a desire for something, to long for, to set the heart upon.

MAT 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.

LUK 16:22 “Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom;

In 1Co 11:10 angels observe the attitude that the woman has toward her husband and the symbol of authority that it represents.

The word judge is the fut-act-ind of krino which means to make decisions for, to conclude, to approve, to decree, to rule, to govern, to preside over with the power of giving judicial decisions.

On the other hand, Satan has organized a tremendous demon army to hinder Church-age believers from fulfilling the PPOG.

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