If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is mere fight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
Martin Luther
Grace Bible Church
Gbible.org
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday,
December 18, 2022
PDF: EPHESIANS-0290-029NOTES
Grace is not held back or withdrawn because of human failure.
Grace cannot be lessened because of failure or sin.
Grace cannot incur or bring on a debt.
Grace is not something God owes the human race because of the Cross.
Grace is never the overpayment of a debt or a reward.
Grace did not appear in the immediate divine dealings with the sins of the entire world.
Grace did not judge our sins.
The justice and the righteousness of God judged our sins.
1TI 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all mankind, especially of believers.
The sinner is never forgiven, because God is big hearted enough to forget the payment for sin.
If the Lord Jesus Christ died physically for us, we would never die physically.
When the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, justice and righteousness judged Him and the sinner is forgiven, because God's justice and righteousness has been satisfied.
In true gospel teaching, sinners are told that they may now stand forever pardoned and before God, not because God is gracious enough to excuse their sins, but because their redemption is through the blood of Jesus Christ. (COL 2:13)
Judicial Forgiveness: When God forgives, absolutely, and eternally through the Cross of Christ, He is acting as a judge and not as a father with a father's heart.
For the believer, accepting this judicial forgiveness guarantees the believer an unchangeable standing and a position in what we call “Sonship”, which is covered in the Doctrine of Eternal Security.
Judicial forgiveness is not an act of grace.
Grace has nothing to do with sin and sin has nothing to do with grace.
You have to understand the relationship of justice and righteousness to grace, if you're ever going to understand what grace is all about.
The sin issue has been settled once and for all.
Forgiveness cancels every debt before God, whereas justification declares the sinner to be judicially righteous forever.
REV 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their works [ergon]. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their works [ergon].
YOU
are
FREE
to
LOVE
HIM
!!!
Don't mix sin with grace.
Grace is what God is free to do for you because the sin has been dealt with.
Forgiveness of sin is based upon the righteousness and the justice of God, not the grace of God.
The Doctrine of Grace
Point 1 was our Introduction.
Point 2. The Definition and Description of Grace.
Grace in the dying stage and now we are learning about grace in the living stage and what it means to be a witness for our Lord.
PRO 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls.
The fruit that a mature believer produces results in is the privilege of eating from the Tree of Life in time and in all eternity.
I want you to notice what the Lord put on equal basis and that is winning souls.
DAN 12:3 "And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
Why does it say not only are you wise if you win soul, you will win souls but, why are stars mentioned?
1CO 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
1CO 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body; it is raised an imperishable body.
- A fisherman must have a desire to fish.
This is the first principle in witnessing for Christ, you must be enthusiastic about the Lord and about seeing men saved.
- A fisherman must be equipped to fish. You cannot fish without some sort of equipment. To be a fisher of men you must know pertinent doctrine.
2TI 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2TI 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
- A fisherman has to go where the fish are located.
- A fisherman must know how to bait a hook.
There are many ways to approach people with the gospel.
- A fisherman has to keep out of sight because if he doesn’t, he frightens the fish.
1PE 3:1 In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.
When it comes to the frightening the fish, casting a shadow over the water can frighten them.
The principle is that the issue must be the gospel, not our personality.
- A fisherman will be rewarded.
REV 22:12 "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
- A good fisherman is patient, he never gives up.
PSA 37:7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
The importance of the three witnesses.
- The first witness is our Lord Jesus Christ; REV 1:4-6.
Notice that He is the first witness, but He also gave us the opportunity to be witnesses ourselves.
- The Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Church-age believer
3. Christian marriage with the right-man-right woman analogy.
For the second and third witnesses it means that God knows best.
Because of His perfect sovereignty, God is able to pick the right time, place, and conditions of your death.
Love (personal love between right man and right woman) is stronger than death, SOS 8:7.
Love is a motivation and is stronger than any fear of death.
This is also true of category one love for God the Father and occupation with Christ.
It is also true in the right-man-right woman relationship, especially when it comes to the third witness in the Angelic Conflict.
One witness is the Lord Jesus Christ who is called the faithful witness.
The second witness is the believer who fulfills the plan of God for his or her life.
Then there is a third witness that is not necessarily needed in a Jewish trial but does appear as a third witness and that is the witness of Christian marriage.
1CO 7:28 But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.
This principle of love and then the three witnesses in Christian marriage definitely needs some concentration and requires an understanding of the importance of comparing scripture with scripture.
The Bible states that only two witnesses are needed concerning a legal dispute or proof for evidence.
“On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death.” Deu 17:6.
DEU 17:6 "On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed.
Next in the book of Deuteronomy there is the evidence of two or three witnesses where a matter shall be confirmed; Deu 19:15.
DEU 19:15 "A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.
Just as the Lord Jesus Christ and the winner believer are tested and interrogated separately, so too will Christian marriage be tested and interrogated separately.
MAT 28:20b I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
PSA 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;
The individual witness or invisible hero is of great importance as the second witness, but a good Christian marriage carries a strong message to Satan and the fallen angels as well.
Because in the Christian marriage both the husband and the wife loves the Church as husbands are to love their wives.
“shall cleave” has to do with both the spiritual and the sexual, the spiritual is the husband thinking with the mind of Christ and loving his wife as Christ loves the church.
Most “so-called” scholars believe that this is story about Solomon and Shulamite woman having a great relationship with each other and nothing could be further from the truth.
After going back and forth with the truth of who the Shulammite woman wants to marry, a man with all the riches in world or the poor little shepherd boy we read back in SOL 8:7.
In verse 7, the shepherd lover continues the durability of category #2 love when it says “Many waters cannot quench love.”
‘Many waters’ means the pressures, the disasters, the difficulties, the misunderstandings, nothing is going to put out the fire.
The pressures, the disasters, the difficulties, the misunderstandings, nothing is going to put out the fire of those who honor and respect God.
When you pour water on this fire it just becomes stronger, there is no way you can put it out.
We have the Hebrew word “hophal” meaning to seduce, quench,’ which is in the passive stem in the Hebrew meaning that “many waters are not able to extinguish this type of love out.
EPH 4:30 Do not griever the Holy Spirit.
1TH 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;
When you do, you may allow the intensity of attempts to produce a pressure that often becomes too intense to destroy it.
The word for love should be translated ‘the love that the right man, right woman relationship has, which is designed or assigned by God.
1CO 7:17 Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus I direct in all the churches.
Prin: There is no way to destroy what God has designed.
You can distort it, you can run from it, you can destroy capacity, you can knock out the happiness connected with it, but you can’t change it.
If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, he would utterly be despised.
The word for ‘give’ means he would give all of his substance says Qal imperfect of the Hebrew verb “Nathan” which means he would make payments.
If it was in the perfect tense, he would pay it all at once, but the qal imperfect means he would keep on giving for the rest of his life just to buy this love.
To try to buy it, “it would be utterly contemned says the Hebrew verb “buzh” and the word means to despise.
Prin: You cannot buy category #2 love.
Second prin: You cannot buy what God has designed.
Death means a new home, JOH 14:1-3.
Death means realization of eternal life, JOH 10:28; 11:13; 1JO 5:11-12.
All of a sudden, a friend of the family of Lazarus, named Mary and Martha, apparently sent word that Lazarus was sick and he died.
- Martha blamed the Lord from not being there in time.
- Mary said, “even now the Lord would hear your prayer because you are the resurrection and the life; and he who believes in You shall live even if he dies; JOH 11:25.
Mary said something to the effect that “even now God would grant the Lord whatever He asks,” including bring Lazarus back from the dead.
Because of His perfect sovereignty, God is able to pick the right time, place, and conditions of your death.
The Church Age believer’s impact will not be made known until the end of the Angelic Conflict.
What can be evaluated is the importance of eternal fame in heaven compared to the fleeting fame many obtain here in the cosmic system.
MAT 16:26 "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
In your own spiritual walk and personal sense of destiny, you have the capacity right now to have phenomenal opportunity and potential through your marriage to impact this conflict in a magnificent way.
- Problem-solving device #1, rebound (1Jo 1:9).
2. Problem-solving device #10, occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.