Search the Scriptures Daily Program #2602d:
Gary :
Please stay tuned and at the end of the program we will let you know where to send your questions for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future “Contending for the Faith.” You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Now our final segment:
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
We continue our exploration of the doctrine of salvation. Here again are Dave and Tom.
Tom:
We are continuing in the Gospel of John. We will pick up with John 9:16 , “Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.” Now Dave, let’s pick up with “keepeth not the sabbath day.” We referred to it a little bit last week and this is something many people hold today, that we are to keep the Sabbath day and keep it on Saturday.
Dave:
Yes, well they were keeping it then and Jesus is—not out to show them up—but they are betraying their own fanaticism, legalistic fanaticism. When they say to heal someone on the Sabbath is not keeping the Sabbath. There is nothing in the Old Testament that says you can’t heal someone on the Sabbath. You can’t take a journey of more than a certain distance called a Sabbath day’s journey; you can’t do certain things—cook the meal and so forth. You prepare it ahead of time.
Tom:
Dave, there were more than 600 laws in the Old Testament, but to that the Jews—
Dave:
The rabbis.
Tom:
The rabbis, this Jewish religious system added hundreds if not thousands of other laws to that.
Dave:
Yes, but Jesus is not talking with the rabbis here, but he does on other occasions. For example he points out that you know Moses, in the law allowed you if your ox falls into a ditch on the Sabbath day, you have a right to pull it out on the Sabbath day. You have a right to do good. There is such a thing as an emergency; there is such a thing as some common sense. These men have become so legalistic—the spirit gives life, the spirit of the law gives life, the letter kills and they were killing themselves and the people under them as they sought to follow the letter and making it even worse as you said. More and more rules—
Tom:
Dave, why would people do that? We find that in every religion. There are laws, rules, and things that you have to do. You must do this, you must—you would think to throw the bonds off and of course there are people that do that as well. But why would a religious system want to have these kinds of controls? These kinds of things that people have to abide by?
Dave:
Well Jesus talked about it in Matthew 23 and we’ve gone over that a number of times. But what he basically said to the rabbis was, “Not only don’t you enter into heaven, but you prevent those who would because you stand in their way by setting up a religious system you make the rules for and they have to go through you and obey your rules in order to get to heaven.
Tom:
So is it a control?
Dave:
It is, it’s a matter of control. Yes, for example Tom and I don’t want to offend anyone out there who may be listening, but if Roman Catholics believed what the Bible says, that we come to God through Jesus Christ, that we can know we are saved by faith in Christ. That by one sacrifice on the cross Christ finished the work. We are redeemed! We don’t have to go through a priest or a pope and salvation is not in a church. If they just believed what Jesus said in John:5:24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life., “He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me,…” in other words you believe the gospel, you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe who he is…has everlasting life. It’s a gift—a free gift, “…shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life.” Well Tom, if every Catholic believed that, the church is out of business! They’ve got no more reason to sell scapulars and metals and miraculous metal, you know Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, all of the penances, and what do we have? Seventeen rules about indulgences and so forth. The church is out of business, so—
Tom:
And Dave, we can apply that to many Protestant, so-called denominations.
Dave:
Exactly, they gather their own tradition and of course like Mennonites. Menno Simon started out very good, but they’ve become very legalistic. Or you could visit Hutterite colonies as I have.
Tom:
Seventh Day Adventism in many ways is—
Dave:
Yes, it’s just legalism now. And I suppose that in a sense, well it becomes a buffer between you and God. See you don’t really have to get to know God, you don’t really have to allow him to have his way and direct your life in everything, but if you follow certain rules, then you are okay. You can follow rules and be a wicked person in your heart. You can be very legalistic, you can be just as clear as crystal on the legal rules and following them and just as cold and hard. I think that’s another reason for this because now it gives me something that I can do. If I follow these principles—another problem we have Tom, in the church—a lot of Christian leaders talk about principles, follow these principles. Now we’ve got these six principles, or these ten principles or whatever it is. Follow these principles—now it doesn’t change the heart—what about the power of the Holy Spirit? The Christian life is not a set of principles. We have been delivered from the law the Bible says. We are now under a higher standard and that is I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but I’m not the one who is living now, but Christ has come to live in me. So now what ever I say and think and do should manifest the life of Christ, not just a set of rules.
Tom:
It’s actually a higher law isn’t it Dave?
Dave:
It is.
Tom:
It’s our heart before God.
Dave:
Yes, so we’ve spent a lot of time on John:9:16Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them., but these men, what did they go by? He can’t be of God because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath. That is according to their way of keeping it according to their rules. Jesus, you remember in Matthew 15 said to the rabbis, “By your tradition you have voided the Word of God. You contradict the Bible, and again, I have to say the same for the Catholic Church. They’ve come up with so many traditions that contradict the Bible, so they are overlooking the fact—how can a man do a miracle? How can he heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead and so forth and be of the devil? And Jesus of course, he’s not here in this discussion. He comes to the man later, but Jesus of course, raises the logical objection to their accusation. He said, “If Satan is divided against Satan his kingdom won’t stand. You say that I am of Satan, that I am destroying the kingdom of Satan .” So they ought to know as Nicodemus, you remember we had that way back in John 3. We’ve really made some progress Tom. That Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him.” He was obviously in contrast to the rest of the rabbis who recognized the miracles, but sought occasion against Christ. How can they criticize him? Well, he does it on the Sabbath.
Tom:
Yes, but Dave in our earlier segment, we were talking about Padre Pio. Now most people would look upon him and say, now wait a minute, how can you deny that this is a man of God? Look at all he did. Look at the miracles, the healings, and so on and so forth, so there is an exhortation here to discernment about what miracles line up with God’s Word. Exactly. I can deny it very quickly as we already did. The man claims to be suffering for the sins of the world, when Jesus cried on the cross as he gave his spirit into his Father’s hands, “It is finished, Tetelasti, the debt is paid!” And Padre Pio says no, no, the debt’s not paid, I am going to pay part of that debt. Jesus didn’t finish the work. His payment was not sufficient and now I’m going to deceive people into trusting in me instead of Christ? So miracles or not, seeming miracles. In fact, the Bible does say in Deuteronomy 13, the first mark of a false prophet—there are seven marks of false prophets, I think in the Bible it says. I’m trying to remember. But the first one is in Deuteronomy 13, a prophet arises and he shows you a sign or a wonder and it comes to pass, he really does something spectacular, but he leads you astray, away from the true God. He is not of God and don’t follow him. The man is supposed to be stoned! So Padre Pio, yes, maybe Satan did some miracles through him as the antichrist will be able to do lying signs and wonders the scripture says. But he led people into a lie, trusting him to suffer for their sins instead of trusting in Christ who had finished the work.
Tom:
Well Dave as we go through the Scriptures maybe some people get a little frustrated because we pick a part of a verse and then we launch off on this or that. Now we do want to stay here with the context of what we are reading, but I think application and understanding of these things is very important. We need insights from God’s Word. We are trying to go from scripture to scripture to support what we are saying and our encouragement. We are going through God’s Word, through the Gospel of John verse by verse.
Dave:
Yes, that’s what the Bible is for. It’s supposed to teach us something that applies to our daily lives.
Gary :
Dave and Tom will take up their discussion on the topic of salvation next week; we hope you can join us. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. And now, to tell you more about our ministry, here’s TBC Executive Director, Tom McMahon:
Tom:
The name The Berean Call is taken from the Book of Acts:17:10-11 [10] And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
[11] These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
, where we find the Apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea , after he had just come from Thessalonica. To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah sent from God. They were commended for being noble or fair minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the matter, but more specifically, because they “searched the scriptures daily” to find out whether or not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word. That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry. Our mission is to alert believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church. We want to exhort believers to give greater heed to biblical discernment and truth regarding what they are accepting as spiritual. We hope to supply those who profess to be biblical Christians with information and materials that will encourage the love of God’s truth. Hopefully, we can help mobilize believers in Christ to action and obedience to the scriptural command to “earnestly contend for the faith,” found in Jude 3. And finally, our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone as their rule of faith, authority, and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Savior.
Gary :
If you are a serious student of God’s Word, we offer many materials that you’ll find helpful. From books and tracts to video and audio tapes, CD-ROM, our internet website, and much more. Don’t forget about our special offer: A free copy of our new video “Should Christians be concerned about Harry Potter?” (no longer available) to all new subscribers to our free monthly newsletter. Just mention Search the Scriptures Daily when you call or write. If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for Program #0622 and please be sure to mention the call letters of this station. Next week, Dave and Tom will continue their series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s book In Defense of the Faith . And, “If we are all less than God are we all evil?” In Religion in the News, “Islam recruiting in America ’s prisons,” we will take a look at that story and examine the question “Does God hate sinners?” We hope you can join us. If you have questions or comments about this program, we urge you to contact our offices. Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers, and your financial support. I’m Gary Carmichael and for Dave, Tom, and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in and invite you to join us again next week. In the meantime, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily. For more information about The Berean Call and a free subscription to our monthly newsletter, contact us at PO Box 7019 , Bend , Oregon 97708 , call us at 800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org .
