Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday,
September 6, 2019
The importance of The Doctrine of Positional Truth as well as The Doctrine of Unity.
The Vine and the branches and the intimacy that should develop and exist between our Lord as the True vine and Church-age believers as the branches.
We need to note the importance of “The Doctrine of Positional Truth” as well as “The Doctrine of Unity,” especially as it relates to believers in the Church-age.
Main purpose = to reveal to God’s children the many areas of Unity, Oneness, Intimacy, and the Union between God and man, through the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The number eight in the Bible signifies Resurrection and Regeneration. It is the number of a new beginning.
Under numerology — 8 = 7 + 1, = signifies an end to something, so eight is also associated with the beginning of a new era or that of a new order.
The following eight descriptions then refer to the beginning of a New Era or that of a New Order.
- The Last Adam and the New Creation; 2Co 5:17, Gal 6:15. According to the Word of God, there are only two Adam’s; the first Adam or the Last Adam.
The first Adam and the last Adam represent the entire human race, in which, the first Adam lost dominion over the earth resulting in Satan becoming the god of this world.
The Last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world and gained the victory back that the First Adam lost — our Lord is said to be the “Head” of the body and He will use that headship when He comes back with His saints.
Notice — The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life‑giving spirit.
Here we have a reference to only two Adam’s = The first man, Adam, and the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- The intimacy that should exist between the Head and the Body.
EPH 1:22-23, And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
COL 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first‑born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.
- The Shepherd and the Sheep analogy emphasizes the provisions and the protection from Satan and the Kingdom of darkness.
MAT 9:36 And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.
- The Vine and the branches; Joh 15:1-8, emphasizes the fruit of the Spirit that our Lord produced from the True Vine.
- The Cornerstone and the building; MAR 12:10 “Have you not even read this Scripture: #’The stone which the builders rejected; this became the chief corner {stone};
The Cornerstone and the building emphasize the unity that exists between the Jews and the Gentiles because our Lord is the chief cornerstone between them both.
- The High Priest and the Royal Priesthood.
HEB 3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
- The Groom and the Bride analogy; Eph 5:22-33.
Key Verse = EPH 5:32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
There are four meanings to this signature guarantee or the Sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit.
- A guarantee of the grace of God.
2. A guarantee of eternal life.
3. A guarantee of eternal security.
4. A guarantee of your very own portfolio of invisible assets.
The word for “sealed” is the noun sphragizo which means to set a seal upon something or to mark with a seal.
- It was used in the ancient world for business transactions or business contracts. In the ancient world, signet rings were placed over wax and the transaction was finished.
Do you remember what the father gave to the prodigal son when he came back?
Something was hindering him that he felt that he was missing something that the world could offer him and that his life was just fading away.
They are both sons as we all are in our position in Christ. They both were the father’s sons when it started, and both will still be His sons when this passage finishes.
The older religious son who was legalistic was the worse one between the two brothers.
Only his arrogant legalistic self-righteous brother said that he spent it all on “harlots or prostitutes” in verse 30.
The Bible doesn’t specify what the prodigal son did. All the Bible says is that it was just loose living and that’s it.
He spent it all. He spent everything that he had, and he was broke.
Prin: Whenever a believer goes astray, eventually he will come to a point, as the last part of this verse says, when he will begin to be in need.
Second Prin: Having forsaken his very own father who represents God, he can now find nothing but poverty, misery, and want.
The human soul is empty if God does not fill it; Ecc 3:11.
When the famine hit, he was starving, and he began to be in need and he couldn’t even find a job.
Until then, he’d never known hunger because he was always provided for by his loving father, the one he turned his back on.
He attached himself to the pigs on the farm (kollao) meaning to glue or to closely unite himself to a citizen of that foreign country which represents the devil’s children instead of God’s.
Prin: The further a believer goes away from God, the nearer he comes to being a slave to the devil.
There is no master as cruel as the Devil;
No burden so heavy as that of the old sin nature;
No slavery so nasty as slavery to the old sin nature and the carnal, shameful, passions of the flesh.
Times of distress often lead to self-examination and are used by God to bring about changes or repentance in people’s lives.
The key issue is recognizing who we are in Christ and not who we use to be in Adam or the old man.
This young man still held on to the belief that he could maintain his self-sufficiency; his separation from his father; even though it meant complete humiliation.
His emptiness was shown by the job that he had to take, tending pigs.
There could be no worse job for a Jew than feeding pigs according to Jewish history and the Works of the Jewish Historian known as Titus Flavius Josephus (Roman and Jewish Historian).
JAM 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
He’s starving while he’s working because pay day only comes after the pigs are marketed.
2PE 2:22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
This shows the humiliation the young man was now enduring especially in light of the fact that he has forgotten that once a son, always a son.
For the Prodigal Son, gone were the fine robes and the rich food, because he was occupied with the filthiest of jobs from a Jewish perspective.
His hunger was so great that he considered filling his own belly with the pig slop covered with skubula.
The food that he was feeding the pigs called pods made passable livestock food, but despicable human food.
The detestable pigs who were even demon possessed were now eating better than the prodigal son who had left his father and all that he wanted now was to become a servant or a slave.
Many times you do your best thinking on an empty stomach.
This man finally became honest with himself and looked at his life from a biblical perspective….which means to face up with the situation as it really exists.
Recognize where you failed and pick up the pieces and go on and live as the Apostle Paul says to live in Phi 3:12-15.
The point is to stop rationalizing or justifying yourself.
Stop blaming others for your failures.
This is not a parable about what happens to a believer when he sins, this is a parable about what happens to a believer when he changes his lifestyle.
He knew that the hired servants in his father’s household were even far better off than he was.
Self-realization of the hopeless and useless predicament of the sinful life is the first step towards true repentance.
The believer must see that his own actions have led him away from the loving Father.
You must realize that the seeming pleasures of the sinful life are vanishing and un-satisfying, while life with the Father is full and rich.
The believer must understand that a life of sin offers only destruction, while life with the Father offers prosperity and happiness.
Until a person can be convicted of the reality that he travels a dead-end road, true repentance cannot come to pass.
Please notice, rebound in verse 18, I have sinned.
LUK 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men., it’s ridiculous.”
Do you tell the Lord you’re not worthy?
If you do, you are not being humble but instead you are being arrogant.
His big problem now isn’t loose living, it’s arrogance.
The same problem his brother has….who isn’t living it up at all and who is still at home with his father and judging members of his own family.
The doctrine of eternal security says we are the sons of God and we will always be a son.
Whether we are worthy or unworthy doesn’t change our sonship.
Treat me like one of your servants, one of those hired hands, which by the way is an insult to his father.
His father has no character and no integrity, and He is not the forgiving type.
His father is a wonderful person and this is a magnificent way of expressing God the Father and His love, mercy and grace.
His Father saw him while he was a long way off.
The father’s not interested in some asinine speech like; “I’m no longer worthy to be called your son!”
The father was filled with compassion and his father ran to him.
”Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him”
The best robe represents restoration to full experiential righteousness.
LUK 15:22……and put a ring on his hand which was the signature to the Father’s checkbook.
This was a signet ring representing withdrawing from the Father’s resources, logistical grace.
In LUK 15:22…….and sandals on his feet; which means that once again you’re getting the opportunity of service and production.
The fattened calf represents fellowship in the word, feeding on divine truth or Bible doctrine.
The divine attitude of grace when you’re brought back into fellowship with God.
The son wanted to do some penance from leaving his father.
He wanted to make it up to the Father or to compensate for his wrong decisions.
The father had no intentions of making him a hired servant just like He has no intentions of making us anything less than perfect.