Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
September 11, 2019
One of the passages I mentioned concerning unity and oneness and the importance of the three different sections found in JOH 17 which is known Theologically as “Our Lord’s Prayer for the Church.
JOH 17 is our Lord’s prayer for the Church.
Mat 5-7, is the Sermon on the Mount; (Two different passages and prayers).
The main message and request in the entire prayer of JOH 17, was a prayer for unity and oneness found in the entire chapter, JOH 17 in three basic areas where unity and oneness must exists and does.
- Joh 17:1-5; is the first of three parts in “The Lord’s Prayer” —Here Jesus prays for Himself and for the oneness and the unity that exist between God the Father and God the Son.
JOH 17 — “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
- In Joh 17:6-19, Jesus prays for the apostles because they would be our Lord’s main instruments in beginning the Church-age.
The Doctrine of Unity;
The Doctrine of Oneness;
The Doctrine of Positional Truth;
The Baptism of The Spirit.
The Mystery Doctrine of the Church-age; etc.
- Joh 17:20-26, Jesus prays for the Church. The Church will complete the work of God’s plan for this dispensation.
When Jesus prayed for Himself, He had in view not His own will or person but the plan of God the Father for the Son in the First Advent.
We are still studying our Lord’s teachings for His apostles to learn, to believe, to metabolize, and apply, as they are being trained to be prepared for anything at any time.
The Doctrine of Positional Truth;
The Doctrine of Unity;
The Doctrine of the Baptism of the Spirit;
The Doctrine of the Royal Family of God;
The Doctrine of The Hypostatic Union
The Doctrine of The Royal Ambassadorship
The Doctrine of the Indwelling of Christ.
The Doctrine of the Mystery in the Church-age.
The main purpose behind these doctrines and others is to reveal to God’s children the many areas of Unity, Oneness, intimacy, and the Union that exists between God and man, through the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the most magnificent manifestations of these promises are the doctrines that are found in the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.
I gave you eight different expressions that should exist among our Lord’s people, especially when it comes to Positional Truth and Union with Christ.
We have been noting 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.
They were both the father’s sons when it started, and both will still be His sons when this passage finishes.
Only his arrogant legalistic self-righteous brother said that he spent it all on “harlots or prostitutes” in verse 30.
Under the principle of what is known as transference arrogance, in which the individual assigns certain sins to others that they desire themselves.
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.
The point is that he spent it all. He spent everything that he had, and he was broke.
He attached himself to the pigs on the farm which is the Greek verb 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.
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.
This parable describes the depths to which the Prodigal Son had sunk.
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.
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; 2Pe 2:22.
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 on the estate of the family.
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 (God).
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.
Our Lord would have none of that!
Nor would our Father.
Or the Holy Spirit.
LUK 15:19 he said; “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”
None of us should ever think = “We are no longer worthy to be called our father’s son, or in context, God’s son; which is really a manifestation of the arrogance in the prodigal son.
The prodigal son was arrogant in the sense that he is insinuating that there was a time that he said he “was worthy” to be called the father’s son.
Legalistic to the core;
Motivated by evil;
Deceived by false doctrine;
Bragging about self-righteousness.
2TI 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.
ISA 29:13 “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned {by rote,}
Rote is mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned but it is repetition or a ritual but misses the reality.
All of this is just sheer unadulterated asininity and exactly the way people think in the cosmic system, whether C1 or C2.
Please notice, he rebounded back in Luk 15:18, when he said I have sinned.
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.
He is saying in effect treat me like one of your servants, one of those hired hands, which by the way is an insult to his father.
That’s like saying that his father has no character and no integrity, and He is not the forgiving type.
Now, notice 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.
And notice the grace orientation…..LUK 15:20…….his Father saw him, and felt compassion {for him,} and ran and embraced him, and kissed him.
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.
That is 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.