Weekly Bible Study – February 22, 2016

The Sword of the Spirit manifested in the Life of Jesus Christ.
The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

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Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!

Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).

1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]

If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to have faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life:

John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." NKJV [italics added]

Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.

John 3:14-18 says: "¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV

Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:

Study to show yourself approved to God!

Grace Bible Church
Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries

The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings

STUDY TITLE:

The Sword of the Spirit manifested in the Life of Jesus Christ.
The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

OPTION: If you would prefer to go directly to the Grace Bible Church website to read this study message, all verse reference links are active there (but not hover active) and Enlarged Text is also an available option – right click the above link then left click “Open Link in New Window” or “New Tab”

Terms & Abbreviations used:

PPOG = Predesigned Plan of God
Human Good = Evil + Good Deeds while not in fellowship with God
OSN = Old Sin Nature
TLJC = The Lord Jesus Christ
SSE = Spiritual Self Esteem
PVTD = Positive Volition Towards Doctrine
+H - The Happiness of God
NVTD = Negative Volition Towards Doctrine
Doctrine = Bible Truth

To look up other “terms”, go to:

Alphabetical Listing

BEGIN BIBLE STUDY
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotes and references
are from the NASB – New American Standard Bible

The Sword of the Spirit manifested in the Life of Jesus Christ.
The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

JOH 6:14-15, When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

There are a lot of people in our world who want the same kind of Christ as that. One who will solve all of their problems, who will do everything for them and better yet, make no demands upon them. If that’s the Christ you want, then you don’t want the one I have spent 33 years teaching about.

The Lord I know said in LUK 14:26-27, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate [miseo - love less] his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

If you’re not willing to leave father and mother and everything in this world, if you’re not willing to take up your cross, you’re not worthy to be His disciple.

I did not say that, He did.

MAT 10:32, “Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.”

In effect, He is saying, stand up for me against the opinions of the world and I’ll stand up for you before My Father in heaven.

MAT 10:33, “But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

For Him to deny someone is two-fold: For believers, it is to deny them blessings at the bema seat or judgement seat of Christ (1CO 3:11-15; 2TI 2:11-13), for unbelievers, it is to deny them eternal salvation; MAT 7:22-23.

MAT 10:34-42, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it. He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in {the} name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. and whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.”

Well meaning family members can be your worst enemies. In reality, this is what this passage says. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to Me, you’ll find both yourself and me. To be a follower or disciple of Christ will cost you everything. But, in reality it’s a cheap price compared to what He has given to us.

2CO 8:9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

The apostle Paul said in 2CO 9:15, Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

The same one who told us in ROM 8:32 concerning God the Father that He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

The point is that it’s a cheap price to pay for all that He has done for us. For the believer who understands this, in reality, it’s not even considered a price to pay but a reponse of gratitude and thankfulness. All our Lord demands is repentance, meaning a change of our mental attitude, not about sin, but about our scale of values and our commitments.

He demands a recognition and acknowledgement of our sin, not asking Him to pay for them, because He has already paid for them once and for all, but telling Him that we acknowledge our sin and are in agreement with Him.

HEB 10:10, By His will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

HEB 10:14, For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

HEB 8:12, For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.

HEB 10:17, And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
He demands us to recognize and acknowledge our sin, not to pay for them, but to agree with how to deal with them. He wants us to acknowledge that there are times when our sins do separate us from Him, temporally, but never eternally, and then do what needs to be done to get us back in fellowship with Him.

1JO 1:6-10, If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin nature, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth or doctrine is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous, with the result that He forgives us our sins [known sins] and purifies us from all unrighteousness [unknown sins]. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word does not reside in us.

1JO 2:1-6, My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

In HAB 1:13, we read, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon sin or iniquity.

The same Lord who cannot look upon sin also said through one of His prophets, AMO 3:3, Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Therefore, the Lord wants us to homologeo (1JO 1:9 - confess or simply acknowledge), that we agree with the fact that sins separate us from our fellowship with Him.

And then we are to simply go on. Not so that we can be forgiven but so that we can recognize that we have already been forgiven of them and we know that we have. And to realize that our sins have not only been paid for, but to be in agreement of how it affects our relationship with Him.

Remember there are four basic principles involved in rebound:
a. Name it, 1JO 1:9.
b. Isolate it, HEB 12:15.
c. Forget it, PHI 3:13.
d. Keep moving, PHI 3:14.

Really, He wants us all to have and a hunger for forgiveness. He still wants this today. He didn’t get it in Israel at that time. And unfortunately, He doesn’t seem to be getting it today either. But if you’ll receive Jesus Christ on His terms by faith and repentance, you’ll know that our Lord The Soul Satisfier will meet every need of your life met because that’s the way He is.

We should be occupied with the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world and not be occupied with what other people think. There are ten notable passages in which the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world is mentioned:

GEN 4:3, So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.

The fruit of the ground was what man could produce or human good or human works.

GEN 4:4, And Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;

Why?

Because Abel’s offering contained the blood of a lamb which spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ who in JOH 1:29 was called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

GEN 4:5-6, but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fallen?

The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life:
Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.