Weekly Bible Study – March 28, 2016

The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God manifested in the Life of Jesus Christ,
Judas was born a sinner but he was not born a traitor.

PLEASE READ FIRST

Scripture References, Word & Phrase descriptions: If available on the website you're viewing this on, a few links (i.e., those without an already written scripture quote or brief explanation) are hover pop-up active, meaning the scripture reference will just pop-up if you hover your cursor over it (don’t click on the link, just hover your cursor over it), they work best using the Firefox browser – pop-ups in Internet Explorer, Chrome & other browsers only appear for a few seconds at best. If you don’t have Firefox (or hover pop-ups aren’t available on the website you’re viewing this on), that’s OK, move your cursor off and on the link until it is read; or left click the link which will open the verse at the online bible; or you can always use your Bible to look up the verses.

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]; we call this REBOUND, read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. REBOUND

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, the Word of God manifested in the Life of Jesus Christ,
Judas was born a sinner but he was not born a traitor.

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, the Word of God manifested in the Life of Jesus Christ,
Judas was born a sinner but he was not born a traitor.

Continuing in JOH 13:20, after the teaching on the foot-washing passage, we read that our Lord now goes on to say “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send [in the Church-age, the evangelists and the [pastor-teachers] receives Me; and he who receives Me [the Lord Jesus Christ] receives Him [God the Father] who sent Me.”

In other words, the chain of command goes right back to God the Father. When a congregation receives their right pastor-teacher that the Lord has sent to them then they not only receive the lord Jesus Christ but also God the Father.

So we read in JOH 13:21, When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”

The phrase became troubled is the verb etarachthe which means to become disturbed, to become agitated or deeply troubled. The aorist tense speaks of the point of time of this event referring to the upper room discourse or the last supper. The passive voice, our Lord received the action of becoming disturbed, agitated and deeply troubled because of the presence of a traitor in the room which was the ultimate in hypocrisy. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact.

It says that our Lord was “troubled in spirit” which simply means that He became disturbed, agitated and deeply troubled at something, but He was still filled with the Spirit. There are times when you can become angry and still be filled with the Spirit. For example, take righteous indignation, where the Bible says, EPH 4:26, Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.

There are also times when you can hate and still be filled with Spirit. For example, look at PSA 5:4-6, For Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with Thee. The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity. Thou dost destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

MAL 1:2-3, “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How hast Thou loved us?” “{Was} not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation, and {appointed} his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.

God also has wrath and He is still spiritual, JOH 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

God also scorns and laughs and mocks in PRO 1:26, I will even laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,

To scorn means to ridicule someone. It is unkind and thoughtless, a sinful function normally but not when it is ascribed to God or the righteous believer. These passages use human frame of reference to explain divine policy. Then you can have vengeance and still be filled with the Spirit says ROM 12:19, Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

You can also be filled with the Spirit and have a godly jealousy as EXO 20:5, “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”

The point is that you and I, at times, can become disturbed, agitated and deeply troubled at something and still be filled with the Spirit.

JOH 13:21, When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”

The phrase “will betray” is a fut-act-ind of paradidomi meaning to hand over, to deliver up, to betray, or to deceive and to forsake that individual whom God has sent. Now notice in JOH 13:22, the disciples {began} looking at one another, at a loss {to know} of which one He was speaking.

This is typical, everyone is looking around at each other in a very suspicious way. They have all been arguing about who is the greatest, now they’re looking around wondering who is the worse.

JOH 13:23-24, There was reclining on Jesus’ breast one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore gestured or nodded to him [that is to John], and said to him, “Tell {us} who it is of whom He is speaking.”

Peter doesn’t feel that he is in enough trouble already after the foot washing rebuke, he’s already had his feet in hot water, now he’s sticking his head in it. Apparently, Peter has finally decided that he’s not the traitor so he wants to find out who the traitor is. You see, Peter is next to John, and John is next to the Lord. Now, Peter doesn’t want to verbalize the question to our Lord. He has just been put down once. So, Peter is not going to stick his neck out yet, so he asks John to do it. The word for gesture is interesting, it is a pres-act-ind of the verb neuei which means to gesture, to make a sign, to signal by nodding the head.

In the present tense it means that Peter kept on gesturing to John, “Ask Him who it is?”

And so he said, John (nod), ask Him who is it. John (nod), ask Him who is it. John (nod), ask Him who is it.

All John has to do his merely lean back, move his head back and around and say, “who is it Lord?” And if you know anything about Peter, you shouldn’t even wonder why Peter, the rock, not the wrestler, but he probably was, wanted to know. You see, Peter wants to take the traitor outside for a few moments. Peter wants to have a talk with him fists to fists.

JOH 13:25, He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ breast [so that his face was parallel with the chest of Jesus Christ], said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”

Notice that John was confident it was not him. John wouldn’t have asked the question if he thought he was the traitor and obviously Peter wouldn’t have either. However, the one thing about this that is rather humorous is “Who can see all of this facial gesturing”?

The answer: The Lord Himself.

Notice, that even the traitor still has his privacy. In fact, all of the time that the traitor walked with the Lord Jesus Christ, the traitor had his privacy. The spiritual lesson is that even though our Lord knew the truth about the traitor, He still would not expose him but protected his privacy.

All of this time, since the Lord knew from eternity past who the traitor was, he gave Judas his privacy. And I want you to be sure about the fact that this does not mean that Judas was forced into doing this. It simply means that God knew in eternity past what decisions a person would make no matter what period of time in human history they would be born. This falls under the principle of Selection not Election.

What does this mean?
1. It means at the point of physical birth, every member of the human race comes under the principle of selection not election.
2. It means that God “selected” you, just as He did Judas, to be a member of the human race.
3. It means that God “selected” your gender, male or female.
4. Also, God “selected” the color of your skin and the intricate parts of your human body.
5. It means that God “selected” your nationality.
6. God also “selected” your geographical location.
7. God “selected” the dispensation you would be a part of.
8. God “selected” the time and place and date of your birth.
9. God “selected” your parents.
10. God “selected” the time and place and date of your birth.

Whether you believe it or not, God cannot make a mistake because in DEU 32:4, we read, “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. God did the best He could do for you to have the greatest privileges and opportunities than any other decisions you think He should have made.

For example, when did your life begin and who chose you to be alive? Well, what does the Bible say in JOB 33:4 “And the breath from God has created me [a human being], and the breath [soul life] of the Almighty gives me [human] life.”

The “breath of God” is life, or the source of life. The Hebrew phrase is “ruach El.”

The Hebrew word ruach is equivalent to the Greek word pneuma.
It means breath, spirit, life, and lifestyle.

And please note that this statement by Job is after the fall of man in the Garden and states the principle of the origin of human life, which is from God.

Job does not say that the copulation of a male and female gave him life. Human life comes from God not from the sperm of the male or the ovulation of the female egg. Only God has the power to create human life.

ISA 44:2 “Thus says the Lord who created you, who formed you from or literally outside [separated from] the womb,

Look at what the first book and the oldest book in the Bible says about selection and when a person becomes a human being.

First of all, in JOB 1:21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”


Notice he said that he was naked not in his mother’s womb but from his mother’s womb.

Why?

Because life begins at birth, not conception.

This is why our Lord said in JOH 3:7
“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ - not conceived again.

Why?

Because life begins at birth not conception.

This is why the KJ’s translation says in LUK 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that HOLY THING which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Now when it says that the Holy thing that shall be born from you, it is the Greek noun hagion, which is not a feminine noun which would be a female or in the masculine, it would be a male, but it is in the neuter, which means neither male or female but a thing because it was not yet a gender.

The Amplified translation says LUK 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God.


Now, back to the book of Job, look at what the first book and the oldest book in the Bible says about selection and when a person becomes a human being.

For example, in JOB 3:11, Job writes “Why did I not die at birth, Come forth from the womb and expire?

JOB 3:11, “Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I should suck? For now [if he had died at birth, he says] I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,”

Notice that he says that he would exist.....he would have lain down and been quiet; and he would have slept then, he would have been at rest,

The point is that he would exist in the eternal state if he had died at birth.

So again, as Job says in JOB 3:11-13, “Why did I not die at birth, Come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I should suck? For now I would have lain down and been quiet, I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,”


Well Job 3, answers that question, 3:14-18, With kings and with counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt ruins for themselves; Or with princes who had gold, Who were filling their houses with silver. or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light. There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary are at rest. The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

In other words, he would not have even existed. Please note that there’s a difference between the womb and the birth. Death in the womb means no existence at all, while death at birth means an individual will be alive in the eternal state.

Look at JOB 10:18-19, “Why then hast Thou brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been or not even existed, Carried from womb to tomb.”

The Hebrew prepositional phrase is “mi beten” and should be translated “out from the womb.”

God formed and gave us life out from the womb, separated from the womb, outside the womb, away from the womb, says the prepositional phrase “mi beten.”

This is why when someone dies we read in ECC 12:7, “Then the dust [biological life] will return to the earth as it was, and the breath [ruach, soul life] will return to God who gave it.”

Now, this means that every member of the human race has been selected by God to be alive and God has a purpose for their life. And this even included Judas Iscariot. He was selected but not elected. Judas was selected to be born but not elected to live the spiritual life.

Why?

Because of his own volition or free will. For no matter when he was born or selected to live, he would have chosen to betray the lord Jesus Christ in some way or in somehow. Because of the character and nature of God, he falls under the principle of LUK 12:48, to whom much has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

In effect, Judas would have said before the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgment which is the Judgment Seat for all unbelievers or those who think they were justified in living the way that they did, that if he had been given the right opportunities and privileges he would have turned out to be one of greatest of all.

However, the Lord will reveal to Judas and to others, that that is not true. This is one of the questions that have really never been answered concerning what is known as the mystery of iniquity. Why does man think the way he does, say the things he says, and do the things he does.

The principle: There’s a tremendous difference between a purpose and a destiny...just like there’s a tremendous difference between Selection and Election.

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.