More of the Gospel of John

Tom:

Well, we’re rolling right along with the Gospel of John, and it’s a good roll.  Actually it’s a banquet. That’s a better metaphor here. And, we encourage our listeners, if they haven’t read the Bible before, and they want to get started, this is the book to start:  the Gospel of John.  We’re in chapter 6, and picking up with verse 45:  “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.  Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”  Dave, “every man taught of God,” some people say, “I don’t go to teachers, I don’t bother with teachers, the Holy Spirit is my teacher.”  What about that?

Dave:

Well, the Holy Spirit must be our teacher, of course, because the things of God can only be discerned and understood through the Spirit of God.  Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, he says that later in John, chapter 16, that when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come.  Now, that’s about all that an unsaved person can know.  In I Corinthians 2, Paul tells us very clearly that the things of God, of the Spirit of God, understandeth no man, except by the Spirit of God.  So, a Christian who has been born of the Spirit of God, indwelt by the Spirit of God, they can begin to understand what the Scripture calls the “deep things of God,”  that are revealed to us.  But, we couldn’t draw a breath; we couldn’t make a thought without God.  And, God himself has given us the capability of rational thought, conceptual ideas in our mind, and then the ability to form them into words and express them.  But, what Jesus is saying here, “Every man that is taught, every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father comes unto me,” and he said this on many occasions to the Pharisees, [and] to the people.  “You say Moses is your teacher, but Moses talked about me.  You search the Scriptures,” but we had that back in John 5, “but you won’t come to me.  But, the Scriptures testify of me.”  Now, how can you understand the Scriptures and how can you be taught of God—if you know God, you would know me, because I’ve come from God, I’m the Son of God, etc.  But, let’s go back a little farther to the beginning of that verse, verse 45:“It is written in the prophets.”  This is one of the things about the Bible [and] another contrast between the Bible and the Qur’an, for example, there are no prophets preceding Mohammed.He makes some references to Moses and to Adam, and so forth, but he claims they were Muslims!  Well, they couldn’t have been Muslims.Islam was a new religion that Mohammed started.  There are no prophesies for Mohammed.  There are no prophesies written by people in prior centuries that would corroborate the Qur’an.  But, the Bible, every person we’ve mentioned a number of times, there are about 40 authors. So every author, what he, says he has 39 other witnesses corroborating, backing up what he says. Men who—

Tom:

There has to be a continuity there.

Dave:

Absolutely.  And they didn’t know one another, and most of them lived at different times, different cultures, and so forth.  And, Jesus constantly refers to the prophets.  You remember the end of Luke?Those two on the road to Emmaus?He calls them fools.  He says, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,” (Luke:24:25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
See All...).  Very often when I speak at a prophesy conference, I say to the audience, “You know that the Bible is about 28 to 30% prophesy.”  People don’t like prophesy.  They don’t want to talk about it.  So many beasts, you know, in Revelation or in Daniel, and how can I straighten it all out, and so forth?  But, if you don’t deal with prophesy, you are ignoring a very large part of the Bible.  Furthermore, I say to the audience, “We’re having a prophesy conference.  You probably think we’re going to talk about the Second Coming, the Rapture, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation; future events.  Well, we might get to that, but most prophesy has all ready been fulfilled.  And the Bible is all about the prophetic utterances of previous prophets that foretell not only what is coming, but are interwoven. The teaching of Scripture is all interwoven in such a way that if we sat down with a computer we couldn’t possibly do it.”  We talked about that before.  You and I are going to write a new book to add to the Bible.  We couldn’t do it.  We’d come up with contradictions.  We would have to know this book—every word—not only the surface meanings, but the deeper underlying meanings, and somewhere we would be trapped, we would be caught.  But the Bible is all interwoven together, and Jesus refers to it over and over, as the Apostles did.

Tom:

Dave, I just want to go back to the Qur’an.  It’s interesting today because of what’s taken place on September 11^th.  We’re hearing many Islamic apologists coming forward and say, “Whoa, listen, I’ll tell you why the Qur’an is more accurate than the Bible. And the Bible’s been corrupted. Because you have all of those people contributing to it, whereas we only had the prophet Mohammed.  So you have a singular person hearing supposedly from the angel Gabriel, and laying this out for us.”

Dave:

That is just the opposite of—I mean the evidence really comes from— 

Tom:

It sounds convincing, unless you think it through.

Dave:

It does.  But their evidence comes from 40 different witnesses, written at different times in history, different cultures, never knew one another, most of them.  And yet they are all in agreement.  Furthermore, prophesies—there are no prophesies for Mohammed.  Well, we’ve already said that.  But the prophesies for Jesus?And He came to fulfill the Scriptures.  Mohammed didn’t come to fulfill any scriptures.  Buddha didn’t come to fulfill any scriptures.  Jesus comes, as the one who has been promised, like Luke said, had his two disciples go to Jesus and say, “Art thou He that should come, or look we for another?”  What do you mean, “he that should come?”  Apparently, some prophets have foretold that someone is coming.  And the prophets who foretold his coming must have laid out identifying characteristics, so that you would know this Messiah when he came.  That is not true of Mohammed; it is not true of anyone.  It is true only of Jesus Christ.  Anyway, Jesus says, “It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God.”  The prophets were referring to this time when God himself—I mean, what’s his name?  His name is Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”  The prophet Isaiah said—Isaiah:7:14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
See All..., “Behold, I give you a sign.  A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us.’”  Not, “God on our side,” or “God backing us up,” or blessing us.No, God himself, walking among men and teaching.  And, of course, Isaiah:9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
See All..., “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, (Jesus is the counselor, so go to Him, not someone else), the mighty God, the everlasting Father.”  So, the babe born in Bethlehem is actually God himself. One with the Father.  Anyway, that’s what I think Jesus is saying.  But, then He goes on, and he says, “If you’ve learned of the Father, then you’ll come to me,” because, obviously the Father draws those to Christ who are willing.  “Not that any man has seen the Father, save or accept He which is of God, He hath seen the Father.”  Again, the Scripture, you could have tripped up over something, that very point.  We are told a number of times, “No man hath seen God at any time.”  “The only begotten, whose in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him,”  or Paul writes to Timothy, “God dwells in a light that no man can approach unto, who no man hath seen, nor can see,” etc.  So, this is what Jesus is saying.  He is the one who has come from the Father to reveal the Father, and verse 47, “verily, verily, (truly, truly) I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.  I am that bread of life.”  Tom, it’s so clear.  All we must do is believe on Jesus to be saved, to be born of the Spirit of God, to have our sins forgiven, to have the promise of a home in heaven, to be with him forever.  What do we have to do?  What great thing must I do?  What good deeds must I do?  Do I turn over a new leaf?  Do I try to straighten myself out and live a better life?  No, you can’t do it.It won’t help, it won’t work.  What I must do is believe that one came from the Father, who is God himself, who became a man through the Virgin birth, who paid the penalty for my sins that His own infinite justice required, and He rose from the dead, and He’s alive.  He wants me to believe in Him.  If I will believe in Him, who He is, what He’s done [then] I receive the gift of eternal life.  It’s a free gift, you can’t earn a gift, you can’t merit a gift, you can work for it, etc.  To receive a gift, which the Bible says eternal life is a gift, I must receive it.  If I try to pay for it, I’m rejecting the gift, so—

Tom:

Dave, let me add to that. It’s a matter of justice and love.  We have no hope; we have no way that we could possibly come to God, because we’re dead in our trespasses and sins.

Dave:

We’re sinners, yes, we’re unworthy. 

Tom:

And, the penalty is separation from God forever.  And, we can’t do anything but pay that penalty.  In other words, be separated from God forever.  Or, turn to Jesus, who paid the penalty for us.  So we have God’s justice and His love.  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son— 

Dave:

Tom, it’s so wonderful.  It is so wonderful.  The gift of God is eternal life.  And the Bible is terrific.  It doesn’t say the gift of God is eternal life.  No, it says through Jesus Christ our Lord.  It is only through Him, through His payment, as you said, the penalty for our sins, that God himself can forgive us, and give us eternal life.  And there is no other hope.  So Jesus says—

Tom:

And it’s available to all, as a free gift.

Dave:

Absolutely.  So Jesus says, “He that believeth on me, hath everlasting life.”  You have it!  And, He says you will not perish.