Sunday, October 15, 2023

Weekly Bible Study, October 16, 2023 The New Things That Have Come for Every Church-age Believer

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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!

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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, October 16, 2023 The New Things That Have Come for Every Church-age Believer..

The New Things That Have Come for Every Church-age Believer.

In Romans chapter 9 we have been dealing with the new things that have come for every Church-age believer. We have noted such unique characteristics as:

1. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

2. This is the dispensation of the unique PPOG.

3. There is the Unique Equality in the PPOG - the Equal privilege and the Equal opportunity.

4. The Unique Portfolio of Invisible Assets.

5. The Two Unique Royal Commissions for every Church-Age Believer, Royal priesthood and the Royal ambassadorship.

6. The doctrine of the Church Age as the unique mystery doctrine of the new things that have come.

7. The body of the Church Age believer being indwelt by each person of the Trinity.

8. The Unique Availability of Divine Power.

9. Now, we are ready to look at the fact that because we have these new things that have come that every believer is now qualified to live as a member of the Church-age and become an invisible hero.

You have all the resources and the power needed to become a hero in the spiritual realm.

Those first nine characteristics are the basis for your SOP, your standard operating procedure to become what God has already given you the power to become, which is a winner believer. This principle was illustrated the night before our Lord’s death in such passages as John 13 where our Lord revealed how the application of these doctrinal principles would manifest themselves. The manifestation would be a reflection of grace orientation and faithfulness on the part of the believer.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father [and then we read the real result of living the spiritual life with the phrase] having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (Jn 13:1)

His hour is a reference to the plan of God, the Cross and really His hour of victory in the angelic conflict. Notice His love was not conditional and that He loved His disciples to the end. So, as always we have some opposition to the Father's plan for TLJC as well as His plan for every Church-age believer, beginning in verse 2. The chief opponent among all fallen angels and the greatest genius among creatures was there, the devil. The devil needed a temple there, and since the eleven disciples were all born again, he couldn’t possess them. So Satan was looking for someone to possess at that dinner. The only one left was Judas Iscariot. Sure enough, here is man at the last supper who is not demon possessed, worse he is Satan possessed, possessed by Satan himself. So, you can see that this is going to be quite a party.

And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, {the son} of Simon, to betray Him, (Jn 13:2)

The devil’s objective was to help the Sanhedrin accomplish their policy to stone the Lord Jesus Christ and kill Him by means of betrayal. Satan wanted to keep the Lord Jesus Christ from going to the Cross and being judged for our sins.

{Jesus,} knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God[first advent], and was going back to God [ascension], He had come forth from God [refers to the first advent], and was going back to God [refers to the ascension]. (Jn 13:3)

The first three verses are simply the background for what you are about to learn is one of the two prophecies concerning the Church-age. But they are also the background of how one can fulfill the plan of God and become an invisible hero. So beginning with verse 4, we are now ready for some of the terrible manners of the disciples. Invisible heroes are to have impeccable manners, manners manifested by the following: Truth, Love, Integrity, faithfulness, mercy, goodness, righteousness, justice, patience, kindness, and goodness.

The disciples had come into the room, as was the custom in the ancient world, bare-footed. They had taken off their sandals at the door. There’s a pool of water there and they’re supposed to go through the pool and someone is supposed to wash and dry their feet. But they came in with dirty feet and they are now sitting at the table with dirty feet. Because of the way that they use to sit in the ancient world, which was to recline at the table, this was like coming to the dinner table in our day and age with dirty hands. In the ancient world, there was no town trash removal and worse then that, there were no sewers.

Therefore, their feet would walk through sewage, garbage and dirt. The Lord Jesus Christ was not going to teach anything, especially the coming of the Church-age, the age of no prophecy, until He taught the importance of rebound before you can take in Bible doctrine.

And at the same time correct the manners of the disciples. All of this is accomplished in verses 4-20.

The Lord rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. (Jn 13:4)

Now the Lord got up because there is a tremendous problem among the disciples. Their humility is wanting. Their manners are poor. They have garbage on their feet, but more importantly they have garbage in their souls. They were so busy arguing as to which one was the greatest that no one would treat the other with more respect. But behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with Me on the table. For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed! And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing. And there arose also a dispute among them {as to} which one of them was regarded to be greatest. (Luk 22:21-24)

The disciples were so busy trying to prove that they were better than each other that they proved that it was a draw, they were all bad! Good manners demanded that they washed their feet before entering into the room but since there was no servant to do so, they extended the debate by refusing to wash each other's feet.

As far as they're concerned, you don't prove you're the greatest by serving others or drying someone else’s feet.

So, none of the disciples desire to help the other.

And you must remember that our Lord is about to die so He must take care of this hypocrisy as soon as possible.

Bad manners come from a bad mental attitude.

And that's why when we gather together in this place, or wherever a pastor-teacher is communicating doctrine, the manners there should be the best that you have.

As a believer-priest, you're under academic discipline under your pastor-teacher, and your manners should be impeccable.

You're a member of the Royal Family, you're not a peasant or a plebeian. You should have poise, concentration, self-discipline, and believe or not, this has to be mentioned, you should do your best to be clean.....

Soap is cheap, if you don't have any come here early and wash up in the men's room! Now, the greatest test of manners is not how a gentleman opens doors for a lady, or how a gentleman has good manners around the lady, it's how the believer-priest has good manners in the presence of the Lord.

So, there's no servant to wash and dry the feet and therefore we have 12 bad mental attitude's gathered around a table.

And that's what we have here, a real family dinner.....

everyone thinking, "I'm the greatest".

So, this is a very "tense" type of dinner and they're all sitting down glaring at each other and they all stink.

And this is not the first time they've been fighting about the same thing.

In Mark 9:33-34, on the way Capernaum they discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.

In Luk 9:46, after the mount of transfiguration an argument arose among them as to which of them might be the greatest.

In Mat 20:20-24, James and John got "mommy dearest" to ask Jesus to promote them and make them the greatest.

So, this is not the first time that they had this problem.

So, we have a family feud at the passover or the holiday dinner.

And their feet really tell you what is in their head.

They've got literal garbage on their feet and mental garbage in their head, M.A.S. Mental attitude sins are like excrement or dung in the mind.

So, they were so busy arguing as to which one was the greatest that o one would treat the other with respect.

Mental attitude sins are like excrement or dung in the mind!

In Luk 14:34-35, dung is used to describe the uselessness of the reversionistic believer,

Luk 14:34 "Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

Luk 14:35 "It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

So this causes our Lord to stand up in the midst of the stench of their mental attitude sins and therefore in Jn 13:4 the Lord rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.

Now I'm going to give some analogies as to what our Lord is about to do and teach.

1. The disciples had bathed before coming to the last supper....all of them had taken a bath.

But that was before their mental attitude sins had been fired up.

2. The taken of a bath is analogous to salvation and therefore you can anticipate, one bath but many washings!

3. From walking through the streets, the disciples have accumulated filth on their feet which is analogous to the believer being out of fellowship.

4. The streets represent the world or the cosmic system where inevitably we fall into from time to time.

5. The custom of foot-washing is analogous to rebound.

If you come with dirty feet what should you do before you sit down with the Lord as Rev 3:20 says "and dine with Him"?

Rev 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.

6. Before you eat the Lord's food, which is Bible doctrine. you wash your feet, rebound.

7. This dinner was fellowship with the Lord in which food was involved, our greatest fellowship with the Lord is when we meet to dine upon Bible doctrine. The believer cannot take in Bible doctrine with dirt on his feet....if you are out of fellowship you can't take it in. Like the disciples, you have bad manners.

8. The feet also represent service, it's impossible to serve the Lord with dirty feet.

9. In the last chapter, Jn 12:3, the feet of Jesus had been anointed with oil by a woman, while at the beginning of this chapter, the feet of the disciples are washed.

10. Oil on the feet of the Savior indicates the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit while water on the feet of the disciples indicates the cleansing of the rebound technique.

TLJC did not need to have His feet washed because He was impeccable. The disciples had to have their feet washed because of their perpetual carnality from their O.S.N.

11. TLJC will wash their feet which is a picture of Christ providing the basis of rebound on the cross.

And not to be ignored are such passages as Isa 52:7 quoted in Rom 10:15, "How beautiful are the feet of those who communicate glad tidings of good things!" And do you know what that means?

It doesn't mean that all preachers have beautiful feet. It means that all communicators of doctrine have to keep their feet clean or be cleansed to communicate.

And they are cleansed in the exact same manner as you are....exactly...rebound! So, the Lord rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.

This is a picture of our Lord becoming servant of all on the cross. "laying aside His garments" is analogous to our Lord in Php 2:6-8 Who, although He existed in the essence of God, He did not think equality with God a thing to be seized, but He laid aside His privileges, taking the form of a slave, having come to be in the likeness of men.

And so right now our Lord has removed His expensive garment, that the soldiers will cast lots for when he was on the cross, and He now looks like a servant. He is undressed and clean.

They all dressed up with dirty feet, He is undressed and clean. There was no servant so He is going to take the form of a servant. So, in Jn 13:4 the Lord rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel,

Now, the word for towel here is a very special word, the noun lention is like a beach towel.

It is an article belonging to a servant in which he uses one end of the towel to wash the feet and the other end of the towel to dry and he strings it around his neck and that's why He didn't wear anything because He gets dirty in the process. In Jn 13:4 the Lord rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about or He tied it around Himself.

Jn 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Now, we come to a problem.

There is one person who didn't want his feet washed, he had been watching in shock. And although he didn't want his feet in cold water, he's about to get his feet in hot water.

Now, in this particular passage, TLJC is not teaching humility as most of the commentators, who really do not know the original language, say that He is. Actually our Lord is showing eleven disciples, who are all going to have the gift of communication, that in order to be a communicator you have to study and teach, study and teach.

So, beginning with verse 6, we always seem to have a little help in illustrating whatever the point is from the apostle Peter.

Whenever the Lord needed to drive home a point, Peter was always there with his mouth open.

He always seem to make the right noises from human viewpoint. You recall in Mat 16:22, after the Lord said that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things that Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You."

And our Lord didn't say, "Thanks Pete, I guess I didn't know what I was saying." No, in Mat 16:23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." So, in verse 6, Peter once again makes an ass of himself.

The Lord has already washed some feet, let's say six disciples and therefore 12 feet, now it's Peter's turn.

Jn 13:6 And so He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" In other words, "you're not going to wash my feet Lord!" Well, if that were the case, then why didn't he wash his own feet when he came in? Peter is saying in effect, Lord you're greater than me but I'm greater than them. Jn 13:6 And so He came to Simon Peter. He [Peter] said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"

Jn 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter." Unfortunately, many believers still do not realize what He did. Most believers, and even commentators, comment on this passage by saying that our Lord was teaching humility, so much so, that there is a weird group in California, [by the way all weird groups seem to originate in California]....

But, there's a group in California who actually practice the literal washing of each other's feet every time they gather together as a sign of their humility.... And it's nothing more than what Paul called in Galatians Gal 6:12 "Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh" Jn 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand or learn about hereafter."

Jn 13:8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Now, notice that Peter's statement would be commended by many because it's a statement of sincerity, but he was sincerely wrong. Like many sincere people, Peter was ignorant and wrong. Sincerity is not a part of the Christian way of life. Sincerity is a facade of human viewpoint.

There is no virtue in sincerity, Bible doctrine produces something far far greater than the hypocrisy of sincerity. So, Peter is very sincere. He wants to do the correct thing. However, sincerity is no substitute for a knowledge of doctrine or for perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine.

phoney out of you every time. Let me illustrate it.

Many believers think that if you're sincere, then it doesn't matter how you pray, God sees that you're sincere and He hears your prayers. And nothing could be further from the truth. One day the Lord was praying and the disciples came up to Him and asked a question in Luk 11:1.

Luk 11:1 And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples." ow, our Lord didn't say, "well, as long as you are sincere, my Father will hear your prayer"!

No, He said, "when you pray address the Father", and then He taught them to pray in a specific way! So, in Jn 13:8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" [He absolutely refuses, you will never ever wash my feet] Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you [maybe I will, maybe I will not], you have no part with Me." The word "part" is the noun meros which means fortune, share, destiny, partnership, or business.

So, the Lord says you'll have no business with Me. The principle that He is emphasizing is that rebound precedes the correct function of perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine. And before the Lord can make the first prophecy concerning the Church-age and the dispensation of no prophecy, He must teach the disciples to rebound from the filth of competing and comparing so that they can recover and learn doctrine. So in verse 9, Peter comes up with a new one now....

Jn 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." Peter figures, "if it's good to wash the feet then maybe I should get triple blessing....wash me all over!" Wash my hands and my head! You see, Peter was always trying to out-think the other disciples, he was always trying to get ahead!

So, in verse 10, TLJC uses foot-washing to make a distinction between regeneration and rebound. Jn 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; "has bathed" -is a perf-pass--part, leloumenos which means to be washed all over or to take a bath.

The perfect tense, once saved always saved. The passive voice, the believer receives this washing or receives salvation. The participle is a circumstantial participle setting up a contrast that the entire body is washed once.

The issue here is one bath but many foot-washings or saved once, rebound many times. You see, Peter wants to take a bath again. He is like a believer who doesn't believe in eternal security. Jn 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, "wash his feet" is an aor, mid-inf, nips-thai meaning to wash or to cleanse. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist which gathers into one ball of wax every time rebound is necessary.

The middle voice benefits the subject and indicates that every believer-priest must rebound for himself but that ultimately God does the cleansing. "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The infinitive expresses the purpose that rebound is a part of the plan of God. Jn 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet,

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