Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
“The Doctrine of the Substitutionary Spiritual Death of Jesus Christ.”
Point 1. Deals with the Categories of Spiritual Death.
a. Real spiritual death, which is separation from God in a state of sin which applies to all mankind with the exception of TLJC.
b. Substitutionary spiritual death, which is separation from God in a state of perfection and impeccability. This applies only to our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know this because PSA 51:5 says Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
Youth is the Hebrew noun na’uwr meaning from his childhood or as a babe.
JOB 15:14 “What is man, that he should be pure, Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?”
PSA 58:3, we read The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.
ISA 48:8 “You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.
If he truly understand and believes that in 1PE 5:3, you have been allotted to his charge, and that in ACT 20:28, the Holy Spirit has made him and overseer, then he will shepherd the church of God which God purchased with His own blood.
JOH 3:30 “The Lord must increase, but he must decrease.
2CO 12:15, even though he loves much, he knows he is going to be loved less.
MAT 10:36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
If we are ever going to understand why our Lord had to die a spiritual death upon the cross, which means separation from God, then we need to understand what spiritual death means to us.
PHI 3:4-10, even though I myself might be having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone of the same category [Judaizers] assumes to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, [born] out from the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews [an outstanding Hebrew]; with reference to the Law, a Pharisee; with reference to zeal, constantly persecuting the church; with reference to the self-righteousness which is in the Law, having become blameless. But whatever quality of things were gains to me, those things [gains] I have concluded as an expert as loss for the sake of Christ. Not only this but more than this, I conclude as an expert all things [Paul’s pre-salvation human celebrityship and achievement] to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited all things, also, I keep on concluding as an expert them to be piles of dung in order that I may win for Christ, and that I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness derived from the source of the Law, but that [righteousness] which is acquired by means of faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from the source of the God at the point of faith, that I may come to know Him, and the power of [behind] His resurrection and the participation of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
The problem with Nicodemus was not his personal sin, but just like ours, his problem was not his sins but his birth.
For remember as the apostle Paul stated in 1CO 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
The majority of us fail to see because we get so sin conscious, (the problems with our sins), that we don’t focus in on the son consciousness, (our relationship with the Son, TLJC.)
We set our minds on things below, the things of this world, rather than the things above; COL 3:1-5.
We forget that we are not to walk by sight or by what things appear to be as stated in 2CO 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
We forget that if we don’t have that faith, we can never please our God in HEB 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
HEB 11:1 that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence or conviction of things not seen.”
The problem is that so many of us allow ourselves to be taken away from the simplicity or the simple things in life that God desires us to observe and appreciate.
He is now beginning to learn that man’s problem is basically not his personal sins but his birth.
Romans 3:23 says for all have sinned and comes short of the glory of God.
The sin problem is resolved by EPH 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
The point is that man needs to change his position.
Although Nicodemus was very moral and religious, and perhaps even a sweet individual, he could not understand and integrate to spiritual information.
Without a human spirit, our friends, family and relations are incapable of understanding spiritual phenomena.
The exception to this when God the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit and makes gospel information known to the unbeliever, 1CO 2:9-14.
He knew that Nicodemus was truly searching for the truth and was not being sarcastic.
He also knew that someday Nicodemus would be a pallbearer at His funeral, John 19:39.
ISA 55:1 Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
1. Here water represented salvation and the word of God quenching the soul of the woman.
REV 22:17, the apostle John wrote, And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
2. Water also represents the Bible or the word of God in EZE 16:9; EPH 5:26.
EZE 16:9, the Lord said to the reversionistic Jews, “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you, and anointed you with oil.”
EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
The word of God provides spiritual cleansing. It makes the bitter experiences of life sweet as in EXO 15:25 and PSA 23:1-2.
EXO 15:25 Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them.
PSA 23:1-2, (A Psalm of David.) The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
Water also represents the word of God.
3. Water also represents the Holy Spirit, ISA 44:3; JOH 7:37-39.
ISA 44:3 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty {land} And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, And My blessing on your descendants;”
John 3:5, we can eliminate water meaning salvation because water and the Spirit is a reference to salvation in this passage.
We can also eliminate water referring to the Spirit because the Spirit is mentioned with water.
We must therefore conclude that water refers to the water of the word of God.
The principle of the new birth and the Gospel relating to the word of God are found in many passages such as PSA 119:50;1CO 4:15; JAM 1:18; 1PE 1:23.
John 3:5“>JOH 3:5 the Spirit refers to God the Holy Spirit as the agent of regeneration,
TIT 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
No one has ever been saved and no one has ever understood the plan of salvation apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Once a person believes in Christ, he receives a human spirit, 1TH 5:23, and the Holy Spirit takes up His residence in the body of the believer, 1CO 6:19.
One of the things we are being taught here is to beware of the danger of trying to go on with a personal relationship with God before we have started.
The type of person who has been brought up in a religious atmosphere.
It is the danger of trying to apply Christian truth before there is any Christian life.
A monk was one who took a religious vow of poverty, a religious hermit.
Then of course he came to that critical understanding that he had been taught wrongly and that the just shall live by faith.
His great problem was that of justification. He thought it was sanctification.
He was concentrating on how to live holier but he had never experienced salvation.
There are basically two types of teaching in the religious realm; one, basis our justification on our sanctification, the other basis our sanctification upon our justification.
What I’m trying to say is that there is a danger in thinking of Christianity in terms of ideas which we are to apply rather than in terms of life.
It is not an informed mind but a transformed mind.
You see the effects and the results but you don’t understand it.
It is the action of God in the souls of men.
You can’t build a building without a foundation, it will collapse. You can’t grow until you are born, you can’t run the race until you enter the race.