Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday,
June 21, 2019
One of the most powerful enemies that our Lord had to face continually was the power of religion that came from the Scribes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
- They were uses of people.
2. They were lusters after money.
3. They were turning against our Lord.
The very ones that He loved hated Him because He exposed their hypocrisy, and revealed their envy and jealousy against our Lord and His disciples.
The teachings that our Lord taught dealt with the religious leaders who were judgmental and critical toward others while they themselves were guilty of the very same thing they jugged other for.
Here lies the epitome or the quintessence of arrogance and the double standard of the carnal or self-righteous believer who accuses others for doing the same thing that they do themselves; Rom 2:1.
Country Western Song called “Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself”
Our Lord and the apostle Paul dealt with the religious leaders in their day who would do whatever they needed to do or wanted to do, as it relates to promoting the creature above the Creator.
- Rebound and Recovery, 1Jo 1:9; Eph 4:23.
2. The Filling of the Spirit; Eph 5:18.
3. The Faith Rest life; Heb 4:1-5. - Grace orientation; Eph 2:8; Col 2:6.
5. Doctrinal orientation; Heb 4:12.
6. A Personal Sense of Destiny; Eph 1:3-4. - Personal love for God the Father.
8. Impersonal unconditional love for all mankind. - Contentment and Perfect Happiness (+H).
10. The ultimate PSD = Occupation with the Lord.
PSD #11. I’m sorry
12. Yeah but.
13. I don’t know
14. I don’t care
15. Whatever.
16. Work out your own salvation, etc.
When it comes to the glory of God, on the one hand, we go through undeserved blessing, and on the other hand, we go through undeserved suffering.
There are many times that we need to apply the correct doctrine so that we can make the correct application.
We must go through prosperity as a blessing as well as prosperity as a curse or as a manifestation of divine discipline which is from the Love of God ; Phi 4:8-13.
Because God is well-pleased with us, He desires for us to enjoy the tremendous blessings that He has provided just for us in time and in eternity.
Listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church especially to you personally concerning your calling and your spiritual gift.
Is there a God?
Is there a devil.
What is the Angelic Conflict?
Why am I here?
What does God expect from me?
Why is there Suffering?
Why are there Two Kingdoms?
Where did these come from?
Why the Church?
After salvation; What?
MAT 23:3 = false religious leaders tell you what to do and observe, but “they do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them.”
In MAT 23:4, They tie up heavy loads of guilt and condemnation and they lay them on men's shoulders; but they are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.
They would put a burden on others though they would not do it themselves.
In MAT 23:5, They do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments.
In MAT 23:6, They love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in in the synagogues,
In MAT 23:7, they demand respectful greetings to them in the marketplaces, and lobe being called by title such as Rabbi!
In MAT 23:13, The Lord said that they were hypocrites and they shut off the kingdom of heaven from men; and do not enter in themselves.
In MAT 23:14, the Lord says that they devour widows' houses and pray and pretend to make long prayers because God is pleased with them…..so they think.
In MAT 23:15, they are hypocrites who travel thousands of miles by sea to make one proselyte or one individual to be just like them.
In MAT 23:25, they are Pharisees and hypocrites who clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self‑indulgence.
In MAT 23:27, these hypocrites are said to be like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
In MAT 23:28, they outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
They smile in your face;
And all the time they want to take your place;
The back stabbers.
They are not worthy of our attention, because of 1Pe 3:15, we must always be ready to defend our faith and use our faith to bring glory to our Lord.
Smiling Faces sometimes pretend to be your friend.
Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within.
Smiling faces, sometimes they don't tell the truth.
Smiling faces, tell lies and I got proof.
A smile is just a frown turned upside down my friend.
Smiling Faces, sometimes they don't tell the truth.
Smiling Faces tell lies and I got proof.
Beware of the handshake that hides the snake.
Beware of the pat on the back it just might hold you back.
As David said, Your enemy won't do you no harm, because you'll know where he's coming from.
Don't let the handshake and the smile fool you.
Take my advice I'm only trying to school you.
They seem to be loving, when in reality the only love they have is truly love for themselves.
2TI 3:1-2b But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant,
We begin in Joh 15:1, when our Lord and His disciples were learning together the doctrine of the Vine and the Branches as they were all walking together to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Here is the beginning of one of the most important doctrines that our Lord taught His disciples and that is the doctrine of the Vine and the Branches as it relates to the Doctrine of the Baptism of the Spirit.
We start with the function of the vinedresser metaphor because it reveals and refers to God the Father as the author of the Plan of God for every Dispensation.
All Three members of the Trinity have a part in human history and because of the attributes of God, especially His justice and righteousness.
God the Father = The Author of the plan
God the Son = The Executor of the plan
God the Holy Spirit = The Revealer of the plan
The True Vine metaphor refers to the humanity of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union.
Fruit through the branch is a metaphor for the Church-age believer bearing the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of the devil’s playground in the cosmic system.
No fruit or production can be any better than the vine which produces it.
Positional Sanctification we are placed in union with Christ, plus the grace provision of the three spiritual skills, it is possible for the believer to manufacture productive righteousness.
Positional Sanctification = reveals the positional truth of the believers in the Church-age.
The grace provision of the three spiritual skills are exactly the Word, the power, and the plan.
The Three Spiritual skills are:
The Word (Heb 4:12)
The Power (Act 1:8; Eph 5:18; Gal 5:16)
The Plan (PPOG for the Church-age)
The grace provision of the three spiritual skills - reveals the Word, the power, and the plan.
Productive righteousness -- reveals the good works that believers can produce through the righteousness of God and the filling of the Spirit.
Although these are three vital doctrines, we also need to have the humility to perceive, metabolize and apply those doctrines.
The vine metaphor emphasizes the fact that all precedence and all productive righteousness in the Church-age comes from the vine - our Lord Jesus Christ.
JOH 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit."
JOH 15:2 "Every branch [believer] in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [that is He disciplines]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes [suffering for blessing], that it may bear more fruit."
In Joh 15:2 "Every branch [believer] in Me"
"in Me" is a reference to the believer in union with Christ.
The disciples are being taught the doctrine of the Baptism of the Spirit just as we all have been taught that we are also the branches in union with the vine, Jesus Christ.
- Dead branches representing dead works, or production skills minus spiritual skills;
2. Live branches representing productive righteousness, or spiritual skills as the basis for production skills.
The branch in Christ that does not bear fruit refers to the believer who does not reveal productive righteousness.
Dead works is not fruit-bearing and is punishable.
What you are saying to the Lord is "I will do what I want to, not what you tell me to do, Lord!"
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole;
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning’s of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
Why? You may ask…..here's why!
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.