Search the Scriptures Daily Program #1302d:
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 address 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 going through the Gospel of John and currently we are in John 8:19 , but before we get into it Dave, for all of this program my heart is that people—we present a lot of information, but I hope they take our encouragement to read God’s Word. I believe you are a gifted teacher in the Lord and God does that for many people, but it’s up to the individual. His word has to become my word. I have to take it into my heart. I have to not just be a hearer of it, but a doer of it. And then God is going to use me with the content that he’s given me through the study of his Word to minister to others. And that’s not going to happen out of a vacuum to those who are just listening and say, oh that was interesting and so on.
Dave:
Yes, Tom we emphasis it over and over again. Don’t take our word for it. Check us out, we are trying to point you to the Word of God, but we’re not the official interpreters of the Word of God. In fact the Bible itself says God’s Word is of no private interpretation. That means that no one has the exclusive right to interpret the Bible and that the mark of every cult. Joseph Smith claimed that he had that right. The first presidency of the Mormon Church today claims they have that right.
Tom:
Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, she’s on the list.
Dave:
Right, Mary Baker Eddy wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Nobody had had the key to the scriptures until she came along and there are people who believe that preposterous proposition to this day and they are the victims then of that system, or the Catholic Church—only the magisterium can interpret. So look, study the Word of God, but check it out, check us out for yourselves. That’s what this program is about.
Tom:
Yes, because every individual is going to have to stand before the Lord. And what he believes, what he acted upon in his life is either going to be according to his Word, his truth, which he’s going to be commended for, or it’s going to be his own heart, where it took him and so on. Or he was led by this organization or that organization which is really tragic.
Dave:
Jehovah Witnesses, it’s the same thing. The Watchtower Bible and Truth Society in Brooklyn , they alone can interpret the Bible and every Watchtower member has to follow that. That’s not reasonable. It’s not according to the Bible. Why should I put myself in the hands of someone else? God has given me a mind to think; he’s given me a conscience to know what is right and what is wrong and he has given me his Word. The Bible is for everyone. It is not for certain ones and then they tell everyone else. Well Tom, we’ve probably been over that a few times, but it’s worth reminding people.
Tom:
Well I think it is and let’s move this a little further down the road. Dave, we have epistles to the Ephesians, to those in Philippi—I can’t—in all of the epistles that Paul wrote or that Peter or who ever it might be—I don’t see him saying now look, I’m sending you this letter, but we want the elders to check it out. We want the certain individuals here who were given charge and they are going to explain it to you because you can’t really understand it. I don’t find that in any of the writings.
Dave:
Yes, we can go back to verses we have often quoted, Psalm 1. “Blessed is (not the rabbi, or the magisterium), blessed is the man who meditates in the law of the Lord day and night. Or Psalm:119:9Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word., “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” Or we can go to 2 Timothy:3:15And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.. Paul writes to Timothy and he says, “From a child you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus.” And he learned it from his mother and grandmother. This was home schooling way back there. They’re studying it, mother, and grandmother and son and grandson. They’re studying the Bible and he’s a child on their own, in their home and they can understand it. Tom, I get just a little bit upset, not only at the leaders who claim you’ve got to follow me, and we’ve talked about Matthew 23 where Jesus condemns the rabbis. He said, “You sent this system up and now everybody has to follow your rules in order to get to God.” This is religion as it is. But I’m not only upset at the religious leaders who make that claim, but what about the people who then abrogate their moral personal responsibility before God and think they can escape that by saying, “Well yeah, but I was just following the church.” I mean they are the experts. Well that’s what they’re supposed to do, they went to seminary and they’re supposed to study the Bible and they’re supposed to be the experts on that and I’m just going along with them.” You cannot escape your accountability to God on that basis. Furthermore, look what you miss out on! This is God’s love letter; this is God’s Word. Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found and I did eat them and they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” So that’s what we hope we can encourage people to appreciate.
Tom:
Right, absolutely. We’ll pick up with John 8:19 , “Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered; ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.”
Dave:
Well Tom, the reason they ask where’s your Father? is because of verse 18, He said, “I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. So there are two of us bearing witness. I’m not in this alone,” Jesus said. So then they say well where is your father? We don’t see him around here, who is he? In fact we believe that at this point Joseph, who they thought was his father, the carpenter has died, Mary is a widow, and of course, they don’t know that he is born of a virgin. They don’t know that he was conceived in the womb of Mary before she came together with Joseph. But “who’s your father?” And Jesus says, “You neither know me or my father.” When we get to chapter 17 in his prayer, Jesus makes a statement. He says, he’s praying to his Father and he says, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee and the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” So these people are without—these are the religious leaders—they are without life. We could go back to John 1. “In him was life and the life was the light of man. The light shined in the darkness.” And Jesus says, “You are in darkness, you are ignorant. You don’t know who I am. You don’t know who my Father is. If you had known me, you should have known my Father also.” In other words, If you really knew who I am, you would know who my Father has to be. I’m the only begotten Son of God and now he’s, as he speaks these words—there’s a price on his head. The rabbis want them to arrest him. But it says no man laid hands on him, significantly “…for his hour was not yet come.” Jesus said, “You can’t take my life from me, I lay it down myself.” It wouldn’t be proper for them to stone him. They wanted to on occasion. No, he has to be crucified. It is all going to come about exactly as the prophets foretold. So his hour has not yet come. They can’t take him, they can’t do to him what they must eventually do and fulfill the scripture. By the way, “hour not yet come,” it’s probably a long time since we talked about that, but Jesus had to be on that cross at the very time that the Passover lambs were being slain. That’s interesting because the rabbis—this is now during the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. This is Holy Week, the Passover and the highest holiday for the Jew and Jesus had just been hailed by the crowd as the Messiah, you know. His popularity seems to be at its peak and the rabbis say well we’re going to get this guy and kill him, but not during the feast day lest there be an uproar of the people. That was what they thought. In fact it had to be on the feast day. He had to be hanging on the cross when the Passover lambs were being slain. A fantastic book, the Bible—as foretold in the Bible, Exodus:12:6And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. says—speaking of a lamb now, “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” That’s the 14 th of Nissan, and this is the way it is going to be. So, they can’t take him, his hour was not yet come.
Tom:
Picking up with verse 21 : “Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.” Dave, you can just see these guys. On the one hand they are offended; on the one hand they are dismayed. They can’t grasp what, obviously he is referring to. But they are offended.
Dave:
Salvation is entirely in Jesus Christ and this is what he is saying. I go my way. You will seek me, you can’t find me. Where I go, you can’t come unless you believe that I am, that I am God. And we would just say that to anyone out there who’s listening. “Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father, but by me.” And he could say that because he alone paid the penalty for our sins. We either accept the penalty he paid for us, accept the salvation he offers, or we reject it. And it’s up to each person to do that. We’ve been trying to give you the evidence that the Bible is God’s Word and that Jesus is who he claimed to be. Why not accept him, and those of you who do know him, tell others about him.
Gary :
Dave and Tom will resume 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 :
Books, tapes, CD-ROM, our internet website, these are just some of the materials we make available for you serious students of God’s Word. If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for Program #0342 and 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, “Is the New Testament historically accurate?” “The new multi-faith religion,” we will take a look at that story and examine the question, “How secure is our eternity?” 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
