Search the Scriptures Daily Program #1701d:
Note: The video, 25 Messianic Signs advertised at the end of this link is no longer offered through TBC.
Gary :
If you have questions for Dave and Tom to address in a future Contending for the Faith, stay tuned. We will let you know where to send them at the end of the program. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Now our final segment:
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
And we continue our exploration of the doctrine of salvation. Here again are Dave and Tom.
T. A. McMahon:
We are going through the gospel of John and our purpose in this is to really underscore the gospel, what is the gospel, the gospel of salvation. And, we are looking at it again, through the apostle John who was inspired of the Holy Spirit and he is giving us—
Dave Hunt:
He was an eyewitness, he knew the Lord, but he couldn’t remember everything that the Lord said word for word, so he was definitely inspired of the Holy Spirit to bring that to us and the way it’s all put together and so forth.
T. A. McMahon:
We are in John 4; we’re going to pick up with verse 15. “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” Now Dave, back us up a little bit. What is she referring to?
Dave Hunt:
Well, the verse before, you know, well, a couple of verses before he says, You drink of this water and you thirst again—he’s sitting at a well now—and he asked her for a drink of the water out of the well and she says, “You’re a Jew, why do you ask me, a woman of Samaria…” and so forth, and then that opens the discussion. And, Jesus says, well, you drink of this water you will thirst again. If you knew who I am you would ask me to give you living water because the water that I give you, you drink of that you will never, ever, ever thirst again. Now, by the way, Tom, that’s a good verse for eternal security, isn’t it? You drink of Jesus, of the water that he gives and of course, this is the Holy Spirit, this is the new birth we’ve been talking about, you will never thirst again. Now, if you could lose your salvation once you’re saved and then thirst again, Jesus isn’t telling us the truth.
T. A. McMahon:
Dave, in her response here, do you think she knew what Jesus was talking about?
Dave Hunt:
No, she doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.
T. A. McMahon:
But something attracted her. Earlier in our segment we were talking about heaven, the attraction of heaven, something appealed to her about this and it may have been of the flesh but Jesus is going to direct it.
Dave Hunt:
Well, she thinks he is talking about some special H2O, maybe holy water blessed by someone or something. You drink of that water, it’s magic water, you never thirst again. And, unfortunately, I think we talked about it briefly, and again, please, anyone that’s out there listening, we’re not trying to run anyone down, we are not trying to criticize, we are trying to be biblical.
T. A. McMahon:
Yeah, hold those things up to the scriptures, that’s our purpose here.
Dave Hunt:
Right. And, there are those who believe that they can turn a little wafer into the body and blood of Christ. But the problem is, in that chapter when we get to it, Jesus says, “You eat of me you will never hunger, you will never thirst.” So, if this is really the body and blood of Christ, you would never hunger or thirst again. You wouldn’t have to have any food or any drink. Jesus is not talking about H2O and in that chapter when he says you must eat my flesh, drink my blood, he’s not talking about his literal, physical flesh and blood, he’s teaching a spiritual principle. When you believe in him, when you have faith and trust in him, you receive eternal life and you will never hunger or thirst in that sense again, although you need physical food. So—but this woman doesn’t understand. This some kind of magic water that he’s got.
T. A. McMahon:
Right, but Jesus is going to bring her along and help her understanding in this. So, “Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not they husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” Now, in the beginning she thinks she’s got magic water, now he has given her an insight that just really blows her away.
Dave Hunt:
Well, it’s beautiful to see how Jesus does this. When she walks up to him, he doesn’t say, I know that you are a very sinful woman, you have had five husbands and the man you are living with is not your husband, now let’s get down on your knees and repent.
T. A. McMahon:
Why would he ask her for something then?
Dave Hunt:
He is opening the door and he just very gently reveals something to her. She wants this water that he has talked about. She thinks it’s magic water. Well he says look, this is not just for you, it’s for your husband also, call your husband. And then, that’s when she has to say, Sir, I don’t have a husband and that’s when Jesus says, That’s right, you have five, the man you are living with now is not your husband. In that saidst thou, you are telling the truth.” Then, she says, whoa, wait a minute!
T. A. McMahon:
He’s revealing her heart here.
Dave Hunt:
Right. “I perceive you’re a prophet.” Now then, she launches, she goes on, and she’s trying to be spiritual now. She’s trying to turn the focus away from her sin and, oh I’m a religious person, too, you know. I mean, “…our fathers worshipped in this mountain,” verse 20, “…you say Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship…”—let’s get into a religious argument now about where to worship and let’s change the subject, forget about me.
T. A. McMahon:
Dave, how many times have you tried to witness to somebody and you’re moving in that direction and all of a sudden, boom—well, what about this, what about that?
Dave Hunt:
What about the heathen in Africa , or the South Pacific and they never heard the gospel? Well, what about you, you are hearing it right now. Just leave them to God, but let’s deal with this. It’s a diversionary tactic and everybody is good at it. Well, “…our fathers worshipped in this mountain—you say Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus hadn’t said a word about that. Jesus says to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem , worship the Father.” I don’t believe he means people in Jerusalem won’t worship, people on this mountain won’t worship, we have to read on to find out what he means. What he is saying is, the place, the physical place on this earth is not what is important and yet that is one of the problems with religious people. Oh we got a church and if you’ve traveled in Europe , wow, the cathedrals that they have built, the cut stones and the artisanship that went into this. You know, I go back to Exodus 20, where God says, “You build an altar, you build it out of dirt and if the ground is too rocky you can’t scrape up enough dirt, then pile up some rocks but you will not lift your tool upon them, you will not carve them…” and so forth, because there must be nothing of man in this. It is all of God. It is not man’s efforts and so forth. And, we want to get involved in some physical sacrament and some physical place.
T. A. McMahon:
Dave, you and I walked through St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome , wow!
Dave Hunt:
One of the things that you noticed there Tom, and again, I’m not trying to offend anyone. Please! We’re just going to the Bible. God said, “…you will not go up by steps to my altar.” You go up by steps to every Catholic altar, it’s elevated. It’s a violation of what God said. There must be no human effort in this. Of course, the ultimate violation was the Tower of Babel —we’ll build a tower, climb up by our own steps into heaven. We were recently in Jerusalem at the Temple Institute and they had a beautiful layout of Herod’s temple.
T. A. McMahon:
Now, the Temple Institute, these are Jews who, their heart is to rebuild the temple, to get it back on the mountain.
Dave Hunt:
Oh yes, they’ve got the instruments, they’ve got the robes, they’ve got everything. They have the Cornerstone and they are ready to put this thing back together. But, I noticed in the schematic or whatever it was, the model, I noticed in the model of Herod’s temple, that you went up by steps to the altar. That’s an absolute abomination to God; it’s a violation of his command. So, they want to have some physical work that they have done to enhance the worship of God and now it involves a place. You remember in—you go back and read the Old Testament—how did they corrupt themselves with the gods of the heathen? The high places, it talks about. So, man wants to build something up, some part of his effort involved in his salvation and then involved in his worship. He wants to offer something, the work of his hands, whatever it is, as Cain did, the vegetables that he grew in his garden, offer that to God—
T. A. McMahon:
As opposed to what God required which was the blood sacrifice which pointed to Christ.
Dave Hunt:
Right, this has no credit to me, nothing that I can do about this. And, Jesus says, Look, it’s not this mountain, it’s not Jerusalem , it’s not some physical place but God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. It’s not just everybody does—well, I’m sincere. No, there must be truth, God’s truth involved in spirit and in truth because God is a Spirit and physical things that are offered him are of no value. And Tom, Paul tells you the same thing, as you know, Acts 17 at Mars Hill. He said, “God who made this universe, he doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he worshipped with men’s hands as though he has need of anything but he gives to us life and breath and all that we possess…” and you had better start there and recognize that and humble ourselves before this God who is a Spirit and begin to worship him in spirit and in truth. And, of course, you cannot do that until you have been born of the Spirit of God into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Because all our worship is through Christ, we can only approach God through him.
T. A. McMahon:
Right. And Jesus, with this woman—I’ll read verse 25. This is John 4:25 , “The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” Jesus has her on the track.
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. If you are a diligent student of God’s Word, our ministry makes available a wide selection of teaching materials including books, tapes, CD-ROM, our internet website and others. And, here’s exciting news about a new offering.
In ancient ages the great Hebrew prophets predicted that before the coming of their promised Messiah there would be specific fulfillments of their prophecies to signal the end of the age, but not until the Jews returned to the land in 1948 did those signs become evident. Today, after some fifty years back in the land the realized predictions are crystal clear even to the casual observer. From the mountains flowing with sweet wine to the wars of the Jews, to the rebuilding of the third Jewish temple, to the sealed eastern gate and much more, you will experience and see it all as 25 Messianic Signs presents an unfolding drama of the prophetic signs pointing to the pivotal event of our time: the return of the Messiah. Video producer, Ken Kline:
Gary , the fact that Israel is in the land today is one of the principle reasons why we should be looking for the coming of the Messiah. When you get this film it will encourage your faith and it is a resource to help you reach loved ones for Christ.
See the land, see the people, see the places, 25 Messianic Signs , a new video from The Berean Call. $20 includes shipping and handling; information on how to order in just a moment. Stay tuned, we will let you know how to order this great new video and our other materials as well as a free subscription to our monthly Newsletter. If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for Program #0511 and please mention the call letters of this station. Next week we will complete our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s latest book, An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith , and “How urgent and how serious?” “Some Pentecostals convert to mother church.” We’ll look at that story, and examine the question, “If heaven is going to be full of sinners, how can there be no sin?” We hope you can tune in. 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 joining us and invite you to tune in again next week. Until then, if you desire to know God’s truth, Search the Scriptures Daily. You’ve been listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. 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 . Join us again next week for Search the Scriptures Daily featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon.
