Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
February 20, 2019
VineBranches = the need we have to relax and concentrate upon the “Words of our Lord” — He said some very interesting things concerning; “What the future holds and what the “Divine Solutions” are.”
We all need to be prepared for death no matter what type of death it may be, whether long term or short term, in pain or without pain, we all need to be prepared for death especially if it comes suddenly.
One of the main principles concerning the subject of death is the importance of realizing that God uses death to heal or to comfort those who are facing death in some way.
God has taken certain people out of this life who would suffer even more if God was to keep them alive.
A lot of people are very selfish when death occurs because they would rather have a person remain alive even though they may be suffering because “THEY” are the ones who are not prepared.
We should never expect others to mourn over someone who is dying or someone who has died.
GAL 6:5 For each one shall bear his own load.
The early Church that most people carry great sorrow in their soul for friends and loved ones who have died and we should not impose this sorrow on others.
God has a purpose for you being alive after the death of a loved one and that purpose is to bring us to the point where we can lean on Him no matter what.
They would rather have someone suffer and remain alive then to have them suffer and go home to be with the Lord; 2Co 5:8.
The selfish believer wants others to suffer and remain alive especially when it comes to the death of a close friend or family member.
ECC 7:1 A good name is better than a good ointment, And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
PHI 1:21 For me, living is Christ, likewise dying is profit.
Dying grace = the fact that being a mature believer, the Apostle Paul knows that he is not going to have any regrets when he faces the death of a loved one or his own death.
2TI 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith [pistis-or the doctrine];
1JO 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame or embarrassment at His coming.
Death has always presented humanity with fear and anxiety; Heb 2:14-15.
If death is still a problem for the believer, we are reminded of the fact that we have been given guardian angels to guide us and protect us.
HEB 2:15 And [He] might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
For the mature believer, death secures a great victory, and it is a reflection of the magnificent eternal benefits of the many numerous promises from God.
Our Lord handled His own death by caring for those around Him even while He knew He was about to suffer, physically, mentally and spiritually.
- Our Lord’s first statement dealt with forgiveness, even for His enemies; Luk 23:34, He prayed for those who were attacking Him and He said , “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
- The second statement dealt with salvation, in LUK 23:43, He said to one of the thieves, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
- The third statement from the cross is found in JOH 19:26-27, and it dealt with the word compassion which our Lord had for His mother Mary.
- Our Lord’s fourth statement – Mat 27:46 Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
These words, found in Matthew and Mark, as well as in Psalm 22: were literally screamed.
In this cry Jesus Christ made it clear that God the Father with whom He had eternal and unbroken fellowship had to break that fellowship at this moment.
We know immediately that this is the time when Jesus Christ “bore our sins in his own body on the tree” (1Pe 2:24).
This was the unspeakable agony of the Cross, the spiritual death prophesied in Psalm 22:1.
The fourth cry indicated that He was being judged for us.
God the Father had to pour out all of His wrath, as a matter of justice, upon God the Son, while the humanity of Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world.
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” is a tremendous statement that no man will ever be able to really understand.
- The fifth cry on the cross can be identified by the word suffering, Joh 19:28.The first great lesson from the fifth phrase is the importance of the Word of God.
This fifth Cross-utterance of the Savior, “I thirst,” followed right after the three hours of darkness, during which the light of God’s countenance had been withdrawn from the Sin-Bearer.
- The sixth saying of the cross can be described by the word victory.
When the Lord Jesus Christ uttered the words, “It is finished, He evidenced the fact that salvation was complete.
Consequently, when He said, “It is finished, He made it very clear that to add anything to the finished work of salvation is sheer blasphemy!
That is why the Scripture reiterates over and over, “He that BELIEVETH on the Son has eternal life.”
It is finished” is a single word in the original, Tetelestai!
- The seventh and final phrase can be described by the word, contentment, LUK 23:46.
LUK 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” And having said this, He breathed His last.
- First saying = Forgiveness;
2. Second saying = Salvation;
3. Third statement = Compassion;
4. Fourth statement = Anguish;
5. Fifth statement = Suffering;
6. Sixth saying = Victory;
7. Seventh saying = Contentment.
Our Lord was walking to the Garden of Gethsemane where Judas Iscariot was getting ready to betray our Lord, our Lord was occupied with the needs of others and caring for them.
Physical death cannot separate the believer from God,
ROM 8:38‑39.
ROM 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
ROM 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This physical death is a matter of the sovereign decision of God, based on His perfect knowledge of all the facts, Psa 68:19‑20.
God also delivers the believer from death, Job 5:20; Psa 33:19.
The believer who attains spiritual maturity departs under dying grace, Psa 23:4.
Psa 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.”
- Death means no appointment with judgment, Heb 9:27.
The first appointment is physical death; the second, for the lake of fire, is cancelled.
- Death means being face to face with the Lord, 2Co 5:8; this implies an interim body.
- Death means the end of pain, Rev 21:4.
- Death means an eternal inheritance, 1Pe 1:4‑5.
- Death means a new home, Joh 14:1‑6.
- Death means that we have now begun to realize what eternal life is; Joh 11:25, 10:28.
- Death means waiting for the resurrection in an interim body, 1Th 4:13‑18; Phi 3:21.
Phi 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and dying is profit.”
However, better an end with horror than horror without end.
What do all Believers have after Death.
- We have no appointment with judgment, Rom 8:1.
- We are “face to face with the Lord,” 2Co 5:8.
- Rev 21:4 teaches there is no pain, sorrow, or embarrassment beyond the grave, (except for ashamedness at the Judgment Seat of Christ).
- We have an eternal inheritance, 1Pe 1:4‑5.
- We have a new home, Joh 14:1‑3.
- We have eternal life, 1Jo 5:11‑12.
- We receive a resurrection body, Joh 11:25; Phi 3:21; 1Jo 3:1‑2; Job 19:25‑26.One very important lesson = make sure that we do not have any regrets concerning the death of a loved one as well as our own death when the time comes.
As we study the way our Lord handled His own death as well as the death of others then we can learn how to face death no matter when or where it may come.
God is love and that His love is the main reason why we are left behind with the same impersonal unconditional love that God had to love others with.
God’s love [agapao] is a type of love that the apostle Paul commands the husband to love his wife with as Christ loved the Church, which means that true love is a system of thinking and not an emotion or feeling.
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
Here is agape love revealed by our Lord and Savior as a love that motivates the husband to love his wife just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.
This is the impersonal love of God that both believers and unbelievers can have as a system of thinking, if they desire to do so.
The first one = JOH 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
God the Father loves His people with the aorist active indicative of the Greek verb agapao = the “way” that God loves the world which is with an impersonal or unconditional love that is based upon who God is never based upon who we are.
Notice the love that God is loving others with which is a love that God loves the whole world because of who God is not who we are.
MAT 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall [agape] love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.
MAT 5:44, “But I say to you, love [agape] your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
We need to be sure that we are operating in the same type of love that God desires for all of His children to love with is the same “agape love” that we all should have but we may not!
The doctrine of agape love is a doctrine that results in the believer’s appreciation to execute the divine commands regarding love in the scripture.
One of the main reasons why God’s love is so vital for all of us to understand is because God’s love is based upon a “system of thinking” and not an “emotional feeling.”
This is why the husband is commanded to “love his wife as Christ loved His church” and this is why we, as believers, are commanded to love our enemies as we do ourselves; as Mat 5:43-44.
PHI 1:9 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,”
One of the main reasons why God’s love is so vital for all of us to understand is because God’s love is based upon a “system of thinking” and not an “emotional feeling.”
This is why the husband is commanded to “love his wife as Christ loved His church” and why while we as believers are also commanded to “love our enemies” as well.
By now, you should know that I am referring to the words impersonal or unconditional.
By impersonal, I do not mean that you are not personal as far as being sensitive toward others but I mean that there are no personal references or connections towards the ones you have contact with.
Impersonal love = “I love you because of something in me that causes me to love you not because of something in you that causes me to love you.”
Impersonal love says that God loves us because of something within Him that causes Him to love us.
On the other hand, personal love says that “we love” because of something that is in us that causes us to love a person or a thing.
In personal love there is something about the person that we are loving that causes us to love them or to appreciate them for who they are and what they have accomplished.
This can be illustrated by a simple statement such as; “I love you not because of something in you but because of something in me.”
Because as ROM 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We also know that the love that the prophet Isaiah describes us living in, is a love developed from the plan of God and the personal love that the prophet Isaiah taught as he said in Isa 1:5-6, the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint.
The prophet Jeremiah said in JER 17:9 where he wrote that “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?