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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 known unconfessed 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, that He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, 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 simply exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life; when you do, you will instantly receive Eternal Life: John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 20:30, 31.
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 3:14-15, 16, 17, 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 McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
STUDY TITLE:
The average unbeliever has no idea about how lost they really are and how the LORD still loves them.
Continuing with our Lord’s final message to His disciples the night before His own crucifixion, I don’t want anyone to feel guilty or condemned because of all the physical sufferings our Lord was about to go through for you and for me and the entire human race; 1Ti 2:2-4; 2Pe 3:9; John 1:29.
Our LORD’s heartbeat for those who are hurting and lost which motivates us to be compassionate and sensitive toward others because we have the mind or the very thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s interesting that even though the average unbeliever has no idea about how lost they really are, they are still loved by our Lord and His desire is for them is to prosper, to rest, to enjoy, all that the love of God provided just for us in eternity past; Eph 1:3-4.
All we need has already been provided for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who not only blesses us, but provides us the capacity to enjoy the blessings of God and have a wonderful life. Capacity for blessings bestowed upon us is the real secret behind the glorification of our Lord because it’s the capacity for happiness and contentment that our Lord seeks for in the winner believers.
What good is it, if you have the blessings of God but you do have the physical body to enjoy those blessings? What good is it, if you have a great physical body, but you in a place where the physical body is not free to function. We could even illustrate this principle doctrinally like Paul uses it to the Corinthian church.
Here’s how Paul put it.
1Co 13:1-3, What good is it if we speak with many languages, both angelic and human, but we do not function under agape-love?
What good is it if we have the gift of prophecy, and know all the mystery doctrines and knowledge; and we have great faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have virtue-love, I am nothing.
What good is it if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Why is there no profit?
Well, put your name in place of the word love in these passages: 1Co 13:4-13, Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Prov 17:9, He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
Prov 17:17-19, A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity. A man lacking in sense pledges, And becomes surety in the presence of his neighbor. He who loves transgression loves strife; He who raises his door seeks destruction.
Psa 37:4-5, Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
Not only is this a magnificent illustration of the Grace of GOD providing blessings for HIS own creation that HE loves to provide for. I know that most of you have heard what I’m about to say before, but we should all be prepared not only to give but also to forget.
Acts 20:35, “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
And I personally believe that our God not only blesses us but also provides for us the capacity to enjoy those divine blessings.
Ecc 5:13-19, There is a grievous evil {which} I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.
As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. And this also is a grievous evil exactly as a man is born, thus will he die.
So, what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Throughout his life {he} also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger. Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun {during} the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.
Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.
Later in the dispensation of the Church-age, the Apostle John tells us in 3Jo 1:2, Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
HE has blessing after blessing, both naturally and spiritually, for you and for me, so that we can enjoy all that HE has provided perfectly just for us.
Never forget how much our Father, and His Son, along with the power and the person of God the Holy Spirit has done for all of us that it is also so easy to forget.
So hard to go through but so easy to forget; Psa 103:1-5, ({A Psalm} of David.) Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, {bless} His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases [whether it is mental, physical, spiritual]; Who redeems your life from the pit; Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, {So that} your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Is it any wonder that David in Psa 139:11-13, If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,”? Even the darkness is not dark to Thee, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike {to Thee.} For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb.
“Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb” is a reference to biological life which is still precious to our Lord even though it is not soul-life.
Psa 139:14-18, I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, When I was made in secret, {And} skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.
Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained {for me}, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee.
The sad state of the ignorant believer is found in Isa 5:4, where our Lord said; “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected {it} to produce {good} grapes did it produce worthless ones?”
All of these principles add up to GOD’s attitude and desire for every member of the human race.
2Pe 3:9, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
1Ti 2:3-4, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Then a distinction is made between the Savior of all men and believers; 1Ti 4:10, For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
Probably, two of the most well-known passages concerning the identification of our Lord Jesus Christ and His purpose on earth was when John the Baptist said; “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
The second one is found in Matt 3:16-4:1; And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, {and} coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
Now, this is the same John that our Lord said this about; Luk 7:28, “I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
By the way, it’s interesting that the one called John the Baptist was not a part of the dispensation of the Church-age where water baptism was used as visual aid to represent salvation.
Luk 7:29-35, And when all the people and the tax gatherers heard {this,} they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?
They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another; and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.’”
Isa 40:3, A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”
This was just like the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the apostle John tells us; John 1:23, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
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.
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