Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday,
February 22, 2019
- All of us are told to "come" or "gather" together with one another.
Notice the importance of "drawing near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith [doctrine],
The Word of God will clean our soul from all the evil we picked up in the Cosmic System.
MAL 3:16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard {it,} and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name.
There are certain prepositional phrases that God the Holy Spirit uses to say such things as He says in EPH 3:18.
EPH 3:18 "That you may be able to comprehend [not with all the saints] but [in the presence of all the saints] what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
1TH 5:11 Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
- Notice what our Lord says concerning the importance of studying Bible doctrine; they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching or doctrine; Act 1:14.
- The importance of fellowship with one another.
- In the early Church, they also celebrated some of the Love Feasts and the Sabbaths that the Lord desires for all of us to focus in on.
- They also gathered together to the breaking of bread; Act 2:46.
- They also gathered together for prayer with one another.
PSA 50:5 "Gather My godly ones to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."
In PSA 133:1, David wrote "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!"
- All of us are told or commanded to "come" or "gather" together with one another.
- We are also said to come together "as" a church not in the church.
Our Lord's last message which was about the Vine and the Branches and some very interesting things concerning; "What the future holds and what the "Divine Solutions" are."
Wednesday evening we noted that 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 the word forgiveness,
Luk 23:34, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." - The second statement dealt with salvation as LUK 23:43 says "He said to one of the thieves, Truly I say to you, today [this day] you shall be with Me in Paradise."
- The third statement; JOH 19:26-27, dealt with compassion = When Jesus therefore saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"
Then in JOH 19:27 Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.
Our Lord was occupied with the care for His mother so that she had no excuses for failing, and like the apostle John, no excuses for justification for his failures when He denied the Lord three times.
- The fourth statement was one of personal anguish; Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
- The fifth cry on the cross can be identified by the word suffering, Joh 19:28; After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty."
- The sixth saying of the cross can be described by the word victory.
JOH 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. - The seventh and final phrase can be described by the word, contentment, 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.
My main point is that even up to His last moments our Lord was dealing with the needs of others, taking care of others, and fulfilling the Father's plan.
Our Lord was walking to the Garden of Gethsemane where Judas Iscariot was waiting to betray our Lord while our Lord was occupied with the needs of others and caring for them.
Psa 22:1 = our Lord was thinking with the power of God and it caused Him to say that well-known statement "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
PSA 22:6 = our Lord recognized His limitations as a member of the human race and He was thinking what verse 6 says; "I am a worm, and not a man, A reproach of men, and despised by the people."
In PSA 22:14 I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
In PSA 22:15, our Lord was all dried up and He said My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
In PSA 22:17, our Lord literally saw His bones coming through His skin; "I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;"
In PSA 22:18, They divided our Lord's garments among them and for his clothing they cast lots --- they bet on who would win His garments.
God gives this victory to all believers through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why physical death cannot separate the believer from God,
Rom 8:38‑39.
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.
No matter how you feel, when the Lord decides to take you, that's it.
PSA 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation or our deliverance . Selah.
PSA 68:20 God is to us a God of deliverances; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.
God also delivers the believer from death, JOB 5:20; Psa 33:19; JOB 5:20 "In famine He will redeem you from death, And in war from the power of the sword.
Along with these principles, the believer who attains spiritual maturity departs under dying grace, Psa 23:4.
- Death means no appointment with judgment, Heb 9:27.
- 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 = There is no mourning, crying, or pain in the interim body.
- 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.
For the believer who spends his life in the cosmic system, death is horrible.
There is one very important lesson that we all need to be aware of and that is to 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.
There are certain questions that our Lord had which is revealed by the fact that 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 love], is a type of love that the apostle Paul literally 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.
In EPH 5:25 the apostle Paul says 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.
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 referring to the "way" that God loves the world which is with an impersonal or unconditional love.
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."
1TH 4:9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
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.
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.
One of the easiest ways to illustrate this impersonal love is found in a statement like this: "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."
ROM 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
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?
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.
Whereas Impersonal love says that we are doing the loving because of something in us that causes us to do so.
In Joh 15:1, Our Lord is teaching us how to perform good deeds through the "Vine and Branch" metaphor of John 15.
We begin with the "vinedresser" metaphor which portrays God the Father as the author of the predesigned plan of God.
As the author of a divine plan, God has a plan that He has already completed and is now observing which is the plan of God with high expectancies resulting in the Divine blessings that our Lord wants to enjoy.
God the Father as the Vinedresser or the Creator of God's plan just for you personally as you reveal "the life of God" which is found in the "souls of man."
The "vine" metaphor portrays the humanity of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of the hypostatic Union when our God revealed the principle of undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.
The Vine is the basis for the production of divine good or "fruit bearing" which is found throughout the dispensation of the hypostatic union.
The vine metaphor emphasizes the fact that all precedence and all production of divine good in the Church-age comes from the Vine, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Vine represents the life that our Lord supplies for all of us.
So, in JOH 15:1, our Lord says "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
In verse 2, we have a description of what takes place in the spiritual realm by noting and observing what takes place in the natural realm when it comes to the Vines and the branches.
Joh 15:2 "Every branch [believer] in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [discipline]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it [suffering for blessing], that it may bear more fruit."
Fruit from the branch is a metaphor for the believers who were alive when our Lord walked the face of this earth and also for those who would become Church-age believers.
No fruit means no production of divine good because the fruit cannot be any better than the vine that produces it.
Our union with Christ and the grace provision of the filling of the Spirit, it is possible for the believer to produce divine good