Scripture References, Word & Phrase descriptions: the “Logos Reftagger” scripture links 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), when finished reading, hover your cursor off the scripture reference link. If the Reftagger pop-up doesn’t show all the verses, left click on the “More” button in the Reftagger pop-up window and it will take you to the online bible. If RefTagger pop-ups don’t work on your computer, that’s OK, try right clicking the link then open in new tab or window; or if that doesn’t work, you can always use your Bible to look up the verses. Word or Phrase definition links may not have a website that opens.
Preparing yourself for the study of God’s Word
Before we begin, only 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) John 3:16, John 6:47 as a few examples; it is very important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so the Holy Spirit can teach you as to what your reading or hearing is true or false. To be taught by the Holy Spirit you must be filled with the Holy Spirit which means abiding in Christ. To place yourself in fellowship with God the Holy Spirit [also called abiding in the Christ], take a moment to simply name, cite or acknowledge [confess] your known unconfessed sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father). Why? Because you cannot grow spiritually if you’re not abiding in Christ [in fellowship with Him] when you take in bible truth.
1 John 1:9, says: “If we confess [meaning to simply name, cite or acknowledge to God the Father] our sins [known unconfessed sins], He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [known sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [all unknown and forgotten sins];” NKJV [New King James Version]; we call this REBOUND; read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. Left click the following link to learn more and fully understand the doctrine of Rebound; which answers the question, why do I need to keep confessing my sins all the time? 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 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
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:
Weekly Bible Study, August 28, 2023, Meet Enoch – Part 1
The antediluvian period is the period of time before
the great flood as related in the Book of Genesis. During this
time a few men stood out spiritually. The recorded history in
the Old Testament about these men is limited to two essential
points of doctrine:
The doctrine resident in their soul.
The acquiring or the attainment of spiritual maturity
and visible hero-ship.
This study is of one of these visible heroes, a man by the
name of Enoch, an antediluvian hero and super-grace believer. Few words are written in scripture regarding this man, but
he was a person who had a dynamic impact on the time in
which he lived, and stands as a monument throughout the ages regarding the importance of positive volition toward Bible
doctrine. Heb 11:5 is a short, but important commentary on
the power of God’s Word in our souls.
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he
would not see death; and he was not found because God took
him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. Heb 11:6 goes on to say, And
without faith [a reference to doctrine in this passage] it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
We begin an in depth look at verse Heb 11:5 with the phrase
By faith, which is the Greek noun Pistei, which means by
means of doctrine. It is understood from the general context
that this means Bible doctrine in the soul. Pistei here refers
to the daily perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine; and so, our corrected translation is, By means of
doctrine [resident in the soul] Enoch.
Enoch was the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah, who was a mature believer as well. In Gen 5:24 we read
ENOCH—Doctrines of a Visible Hero
And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took
him. Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam according to Jud 1:14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in
the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying.
Enoch had learned Bible doctrine and was a communicator of it.
Continuing in Heb 11:5, the phrase taken up is from
the Greek verb metetethe, which means to convey from one
place to another, to be transferred. Meta means to change,
the verb tithemi means to place, so it means a change of
place, to be transferred. It is in the passive voice which
means that Enoch received the action of the verb, being taken
up apart from physical death, the indicative mood is used
here and it means this is a dogmatic statement of history.
This is a transfer from earth to heaven without death. God is
sovereign and every now and then He does something a little
different. This emphasizes the fact that escrow blessings are
not only phenomenal in their content, but also are often unusual as far as this life is concerned. As far as we know, this
transference happened only to Enoch and Elijah, but it will
also be the blessing for the Rapture generation.
Heb 11:5 By means of doctrine [resident in the soul]
Enoch was transferred so that he should not see death; and
he was not found because God took him up. This was much
different than death because, as we have noted, this transfer
means that the body is missing, and this verse also indicates
that there was a lot of searching for Enoch after he was gone.
In physical death, the soul leaves the body, but the body stays
on earth, but in a transfer such as we have with Enoch, the
body goes along with the soul so there is no body, and no
sign of Enoch. The rapture will be a transfer, or a permanent
change of location, for all believers alive at that time, satanic
propaganda will attempt to explain the missing bodies in
some way.
So, for Enoch, this was dying grace, Enoch's last super-grace blessing in time. Dying grace is given to the mature believer, it is the experience of physical death under a
special provision of grace, where the mature believer experiences both blessing and happiness while dying.
Dying gracecan occur regardless of the amount of pain and suffering experienced in death. Psa 33:18-19 Behold, the eye of the Lord
is on those who fear [are occupied with] Him, on those who
hope for His lovingkindness [have confidence in His grace],
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine [depression]. Paul talked about dying grace in 2Ti 4:6-8
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and
the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the
future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that
day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His
appearing.” Psa 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His godly ones [mature believers].
Dying grace removes the fear of death, Psa 23:4,
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.” Dying grace is
the great blessing which comes at the termination of one's
life, but it is still a part of living. Physical death, plus doctrine resident in the soul, equals the greatest blessing of life:
Dying grace, and it is part of the mature believer's supergrace blessings. It is the link between temporal and eternal
escrow blessings (Rom 5:20; Heb 11:13). The mature believer has the best for time, and dying grace is also a blessing
from God. Rom 5:12-17 Therefore, just as through one man
sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the
Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is
no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses,
even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But
the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace
of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ,
abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came
ENOCH—Doctrines of a Visible Hero
through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many
transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much
more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the
gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus
Christ. This is the a fortiori rationale which says that if God
provides the greater in time, He cannot withhold the lesser in
eternity. It is easier for God to produce eternal blessing than
to produce temporal blessing for the mature believer in time.
Dying grace brings all eternal rewards into clear focus, and perception, metabolization, and application of Bible
doctrine is the only way to reach and maintain spiritual maturity and then to receive dying grace blessings (Phil
3:12-14). You must press on, maintain your momentum, and
advance to the objective of spiritual maturity. Job 5:19-24
teaches that the mature believer has no fear of death because
no believer dies until the Lord says it's time to come home.
Once God calls a believer home, nothing can keep him here,
the living must go on living while the dying are dying. A
person in dying grace never hinders others from continuing
their lives. God decides when is the perfect time for each of
us to depart from this earth. There are 3 exceptions to Dying
Grace:
First, those under the sin unto death (Phil 3:18-19).
Secondly, those who transfer to eternity without dying, Enoch
and Elijah (Heb 11:5-6; 2Ki 2:1).
Thirdly, the Rapture generation (1Co 15:51-57; 1Th 4:16-18).
The capacity for dying comes from spiritual capacity
for living, and that is attained through the three spiritual
skills: The filling of the Holy Spirit. Metabolization of doctrine. Execution of the Pre-determined Plan of God (PPOG)
through the use of the ten problem solving devices. If you
have capacity for life, then you will have that capacity for
dying. Phil 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is
gain.” There truly is great excitement for the believer in his
dying experience.
In the divine initiative of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ
has provided two categories of fantastic blessing on this
earth: The blessing related to living and the blessing related
to dying. Living grace is related to the function of the spiritual skills, but dying grace is walking through a valley where
you live doctrine. You apply doctrine in the living phase;
you live doctrine in the dying phase. Every believer has his
very own death-shadowed valley, Psa 23:4 “Even though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death [death-
shadowed valley], I fear no evil, for You are with me.” This
means that God decides the time, manner, and place of our
death. The principle is that the death of every believer is the
grace decision from the sovereignty of God. God is perfect;
therefore, his timing is perfect in our death. God knows the
exact time to transfer the believer from this earth into His
presence in heaven. No believer can be removed from this
life apart from the wise and sovereign decision of a loving
God. Until God makes that decision, no instrument of death
can remove the believer from this life on earth. Since our
death is God's personal decision it is also God's victory, but
He has transferred that victory to us. For every believer,
without exception, death is God's victory, which He has given
to each one of us. God has given to us, through the divine
initiative of antecedent grace, our very own death-shadowed
valley, which is the time, manner, and place of our death.
1Co 15:55, 57, O Death, where is your victory? O death,
where is your sting? [O death, where is your sting? O grave,
where is your victory?] ...but thanks be to God, who gives us
[to us for our benefit] the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Rom 14:8 For [not only] if we live, we live for the Lord, or
[but also] if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore, whether we
live or die, we are the Lord's.
Ecc 3:1-2 There is an appointed [a right] time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven-- A time to
give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
ENOCH—Doctrines of a Visible Hero
Job 1:21
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
In 1Th 4:13, 16-18, we are told not to be ignorant about the
subject of the death of loved ones, “But we do not want you to
be uninformed [For we do not want to be ignorant], brethren,
about those who are asleep, so that you will [may] not grieve,
as do the rest [believers ignorant of doctrine and unbelievers]
who have no hope…” “For the Lord Himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and
with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort
one another with these words.”
Heb 11:1-4 Now faith is the assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen [doctrine keeps
on being the reality from which we keep on receiving confidence, the proof of matters not being seen.] For by it
[doctrine] the men of old gained approval [that is they became spiritually mature and glorified God]. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God
[by means of doctrine we understand that the dispensations
were prepared by the Word of God], so that what is [being]
seen [that is unfolding in history] was not made [has not
come to pass] out of things which are visible [from the men
who appear to control history]. By faith [doctrine resident in
the soul] Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain,
through which [offering] he received testimony
[confirmation] that he was [kept on being] righteous, God
testifying about his gifts, and through faith [the doctrine resident in his soul], though he is dead, he still speaks
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.
