Wednesday Bible Study – 08/07/2013

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Speakers:

• Robin Atherton
• Megan Atherton

Scriptures used:

• 1 John 3
• Hebrews 2:10
• John 17
• James 1:2-4
• Hebrews 11:6
• Genesis 4

Subject:

• Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
• Behold the enormity of the sufficiency of what the blood of Jesus did for us.
• Bestowed means given.  An act of kindness to the undeserving.
• He gave it, if you don’t receive it you do not receive the benefit of what He gave.
• We have to pass through not being moved by the fact that we are no longer accepted either in fellowship with or understood by the world and in fact they hate us.
• John is writing to those who have received the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• As we are housed in this cursed flesh, we do not see what we will be, but when we see Him if we hold onto our faith and believe God in the sufficiency of Christ’s gift to us we purify ourselves because we have a hope and look for the mark.
• All the testimonies we experience, many from our own flesh, no longer have hold on us if we have faith.
• We cannot love in the flesh, but we can love in the spirit.
• We cannot obey Christ in the flesh, but we can obey Christ in the spirit.
• Let your eye be single as Christs eye was single … He only did what the Father told Him to do.
• Sin is unbelief.  When we walk in unbelief (in the flesh) there are fruits of that.  When we walk in faith (in the spirit) there are fruits of that:  love.
• If you do not enter in under the blood of the Lamb (Jesus), you can still be in sin.  An example is Hagar who went back and went under Sarah but she did not submit.
• Obedience without submission is a high mindedness.  Submit and like it means you are truly submitting!
• Our flesh is always at enmity with submission, obedience and choosing to like those things.
• If you have hope, it purifies you and allows separation from the flesh and death from the flesh, even while we live, to occur.
• The devil wanted to be God.  It was not good enough for him to be the most beautiful being.
• The devil had us in bondage, but Jesus Christs’ death sets us free, if we will let it.  That is the destroying of the works of the devil.
• What a wonderful thing, what manner of love, that we have a choice to follow Him and walk with Him.
• We abide in Him by faith, not by works.
• We sin, but that is when our faith is tried.  If we are successful and think we do only good, we are not walking in faith and do not abide in Him.
• Count it all joy when ye fall.  Your faith is tried.
• There are examples of falling:  Judas, Peter, David  The big difference between these men is that David and Peter confessed their sins before God and God cleansed them from all unrighteousness, as promised in the Word.
• Unbelief is manifested in many different ways.  When a light is shone on it are you going to try and make it right or are you going to get on your knees before the Lord and repent and abide in Him again?
• The children of God are no better than anybody else, they are saved by the blood of the Lamb not themselves or their own doings.
• If you are a Christian and think your works make you somehow better or acceptable to God, you are not saved and it is manifest that you aren’t saved.  Every ‘faith’ is based on works righteousness.  The Gospel is based on God’s righteousness and His provision to reconcile an unrighteous people, who are only continually evil, to Him.  This is what manifests the children of God.
• There is no work in the flesh that we can do that can save us or make us worthy of entering into the Kingdom of God.
• It takes discernment and the Spirit of God to discern a man in unrighteousness vs a man in righteousness.  Two people doing the same thing having different motives and one pointing to God and one pointing to themselves.
• Be thankful when a brother or sister stands in the Gospel, do not begrudge them that.
• We are members of His body, not our own.
• Read the story of Cain and Abel – Genesis 4.
• Cain and Abel had the Gospel preached to them and they knew about the promise of the blood of the lamb and they knew about the curse on the earth.  Cain knew about the curse on the earth and when God told him to go and bring a right sacrifice, he wouldn’t and he killed his brother.  When Abel brought the right sacrifice, his brother hated him and killed him.  This has never changed, the world hates the light.
• They saw Steven as an angel and yet they gnashed on him with their teeth, but they would not receive the Gospel from him and they killed him.
• Do not marvel that the world hates you … do not be surprised.  If you choose to serve the Lord, those who hate the light will hate you.
• We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  How do we do this?  Rejoice in the salvation of another;  Build one another up in the most holy faith;  Bring correction to those who may not like you for it.
• Hate desires evil things, judgment and damnation for your brethren.  Love desires only good and has a hope of good things for your brethren.
• The Gospel says He laid down His life for us and we ought to do the same.  This means not loving in word and deed, but in truth (by your conversation).  The truth being Jesus, he is the way, the truth and the light.
• There is a place for doing things for the world that could draw the world unto Christ, but this talks about how you treat those who are in Christ.
• If our heart condemn us, which it does regularly, we need to rest in the sufficiency of Christ.  If we dwell in our heart condemning us, that is unbelief and lack of faith.  If our heart condemn us not, then we can have a confidence in Christ.
• But without faith it is impossible to please him:  for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder to them that diligently seek him.
• This is the commandment, “That we should believe ON the name of his Son Jesus Christ”.
• Abraham believed on Jesus Christ.  Abraham said God will provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice.  He knew God would resurrect Isaac because he was a child of promise.  This is the same promise whereof we can partake.
• Baptism by blood to forgive us of our sins.  Baptism by water we die to ourselves and rise in Him by faith in Christ Jesus.
• Because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight, whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him.
• We need to stay in fellowship, because we tend to complicate things.