[0:00] So, 50 years later, guess what one of the most provocative subjects around Cedarville College is? Calvinism, predestination, foreign nation, all of that good stuff.
[0:14] We have been investigating this for the past several weeks here because it is very, very critical to our spiritual well-being and our eternal well-being.
[0:25] And just exactly how does God go about making the connection between himself and his creation? And we know it is through Jesus Christ that he has provided the answer and the redemption.
[0:40] But the great issue is precisely how does he go about that? And the Calvinist answer that goes all the way back to Augustine in the fourth century is that God does that on the basis of unconditional election.
[0:56] And I told you at the time, I am convinced that they arrived at this conclusion with the best of intentions. And from everything I've been able to read and understand about the Calvinist position, there is a very intense desire to elevate and applaud the sovereignty of God.
[1:19] And that's commendable because God is absolutely sovereign. But our Calvinist friends take that to the extent, as did I for several years, take that to the extent that God is so sovereign, that is, he so fully, completely rules and reigns, you didn't even have anything to do with your salvation, even though you may think you did.
[1:51] You may think that you received eternal life because you believed in Christ. But the Calvinist position would be, if you have believed in Christ, it was only because you were unconditional, elected, selected by Christ for eternal life.
[2:08] He chose you and ordained you to eternal life while he passed over the vast majority of the world and allowed them to go to perdition.
[2:21] Question then is, well, why did he choose you? We aren't given the answer to that. That is never disclosed. It's just that he chose some. And those some will believe.
[2:33] Now, there's no question about it. That certainly does elevate the sovereignty of God. But it also eliminates or depreciates the responsibility of human beings.
[2:47] Because God has created us with a will, with the power to make choices. Now, granted, that is a severely limited power.
[3:00] We can't choose just anything we want. I don't care how much you choose to jump ten feet high. You're not going to do it. We have limitations imposed upon our will. But we have a free moral agency in our being that allows us to make moral choices.
[3:20] We are able to make decisions between right and wrong. And we experience the consequences for our decisions.
[3:32] We are accountable. We are responsible. It is a serious thing to be a human being made in the image and likeness of God.
[3:43] That is a serious business. So he has given us a will, and that's what makes us responsible. That will and our exercise of it is going to be the basis for our accountability as we all stand before God and one day give an account.
[4:02] Whether it is at the great white throne judgment in Revelation 19 that is reserved for all of the unregenerate. Or whether it is at the award throne of Christ where every believer will be evaluated and rewards or loss of reward will be determined at that time based on how we exercised our volition and the choices we made.
[4:26] So we are responsible moral beings. And no one takes more comfort in the sovereignty of God than I do. And by God's sovereignty, let me explain this. When we say God is sovereign, that means God not only possesses the might and the power to do all that he chooses to do, he also has the perfect right to do so.
[4:55] And we have no grounds or right for questioning him any more than the pottery over the potter.
[5:06] And the illustration is used, which we will get to eventually in Romans 9 because our Calvinist friends use this as one of their support texts. Shall the thing that is made say to him that has made it, why have you made me thus?
[5:22] Can you imagine a clay pot rising up and saying to its maker, why did you make me this kind of a pot? I didn't want to be this kind of a pot. Well, the potter has complete absolute power over the clay.
[5:37] And the clay has no comeback, has no right to complain. So when we say God is sovereign, we mean God not only has the power and the ability, but he also has the perfect right to do that which he will with that which is his own.
[5:55] It is summed up in what Job said when he lost everything. Lost his children, lost his livestock, lost his health, lost everything.
[6:11] And his response was, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And he would not question God.
[6:25] So, where then does that leave us in our study? If you will turn to John's Gospel, we're going to spend remainder of the time that we have today in this Gospel.
[6:36] And those of you who were with us, and I believe that's most of you now, you will recall that I devoted the last five years of my ministry here at Grace until the time came that Barbara and I retired in the year 2005.
[6:54] The last five years of ministry here at Grace, we spent in a verse-by-verse exposition of John's Gospel. And it took five years to get through it.
[7:05] During that time, I came to a confirmation of my position regarding the subject of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
[7:15] And it was in connection with this that it just confirmed everything that I had, the new position that I had come to.
[7:28] The only problem was I did not have an adequate base or time to relate to you what all of that was about. So that's why I'm doing it now. And the upside of all this, and I just want to remind you, the material I'm offering now is a retraction.
[7:43] It is a retraction with apologies for what I taught 20 years ago that I no longer believe. And I regret that I taught it as I did, but I did so because I was greatly influenced by individuals whom I deeply respected and admired.
[8:02] And I still do. Just because somebody is doctrinally off in one area doesn't mean they have nothing of value in other areas.
[8:13] So I looked to some of these men whom I regarded as mentors, and I had great respect for them. And some of them are on the air today with radio and television programs.
[8:24] And I still think that R.C. Sproul represents one of the finest minds in the country. But the man is a five-point Calvinist, and I just can't go there. And I dearly love him as a teacher.
[8:36] He is a highly respected intellect. He's got a great mind. And I've never heard anybody teach a series on the subject of the holiness of God like R.C. Sproul did.
[8:47] But I just simply cannot agree with this. And the reason I came to this conclusion was the last 30 years in the Scriptures.
[8:57] So now we're going to go to John 1, and we're going to meander through John's Gospel, selecting certain verses that our Calvinist friends rely heavily upon, which convince them that this unconditional election thing is true.
[9:14] And you will recall, we pointed out to you from the outset that one of the basic premises of Calvinism and unconditional election is that life precedes belief.
[9:31] Yet the Scriptures most certainly do not attest to that. The Calvinist position is that through unconditional election, God chooses whomever He is going to choose, and He makes them alive.
[9:50] He quickens them without them doing anything or believing anything or knowing anything. He just arbitrarily selects them and makes them spiritually alive.
[10:05] And having done so, that's what then gives them an interest in spiritual matters so that when they hear the Gospel, they will believe it. The only reason they believe it is because they were quickened by God and made spiritually alive ahead of time.
[10:22] And that's why they believe when they hear the Gospel. Of course, it sometimes takes repeated hearings of the Gospel. Very few of us, myself included, ever believe the Gospel the very first time you hear it.
[10:34] It usually takes repeated hearings for you to get it, for it to really come together and gel for you and connect the dots. But that's because the Calvinist would say, because you were already made alive.
[10:46] Now, what would have happened if you were made alive and you died in the meanwhile before you heard the Gospel? Well, according to the Calvinist, you are in that elect group, and then you would therefore be a saint whether you believed or not, whether you were exposed to the Gospel or not.
[11:07] Your perseverance of the saint, which is the last item of the tulip, would be intact and you would be in heaven. So, that's their position. But I think John's Gospel just completely refutes that.
[11:23] And all through Scripture, all through Scripture, especially in John's Gospel, as we will see, life does not precede believing.
[11:35] Believing precedes life. You believe, and as a result of believing, you come into eternal life. And if it is the opposite way, as our Calvinist friends insist, God certainly should have had no problem making that clear in the Scriptures.
[11:57] But it isn't. So, look, if you will, at chapter 1 and verse 12. Here we don't have believe, but we do have receive. And, well, let's start with verse 11. This is speaking, of course, of Christ, and it says, He came to His own.
[12:12] Now, His own, the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. Here is a Jewish Messiah, and this Savior, Jesus, came to His own people, the people of Israel.
[12:25] And we are told that those who were His own did not receive Him. That means they were negative toward Him. They did not embrace Him.
[12:36] They rejected Him. However, the text goes on, And then the text goes on to say, And some take this to mean that this is a reflection of God's unconditional election, that they were born of God.
[13:16] But really all the text is saying, and we ought not to try to make it say more than it is saying, all the text is saying is that this is a picture of the new birth.
[13:29] When you are born the first time into this world, you are born of man or born of woman. That's the physical birth.
[13:40] But the birth that is involved here in verse 13 is a spiritual birth. It is the new birth. It is the making of the individual new on the inside.
[13:54] And that is something that only God can do. And He does this through the Holy Spirit. But there is no indication that He does this first, and then the belief or receiving comes next.
[14:06] And there are several other verses, but I don't want to spend too much time on any of these. Let's go to probably the most familiar one in all of the Bible, next to Genesis 1.1, and that's John 3.16.
[14:18] We will look far and wide to find a clearer expression of this. God so loved the world, and we pointed out to you in past that that little word so that is rendered in the English, so in the Greek is the word hutos, and it means in this manner or after this fashion or in this kind.
[14:39] And it clearly sets forth the idea that God's love for the world had nothing to do with the quantity of His love. It isn't how much God loved the world, but it was in what way God loved the world.
[14:56] God's love for the world is not quantified. It is qualified. It means that His love for the world was of such a kind. God in this way, in this manner, loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
[15:13] That's the kind of love it was. It was a sacrificial love. And as a result of that, whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
[15:25] I think the obvious implication is that those who do not believe will perish and will not have eternal life, and that seems to be the only way that that can be taken. But you'll notice that, once again, we have the believing preceding the eternal life.
[15:42] And if God somehow made us alive or quickened us before we believed, I'm sure it would be very easy for Him to express that. But all the way through here, we find the same pattern.
[15:54] And the pattern is belief precedes life. There is no other way about it. And notice, if you will, in verse 18, He who believes in Him is not judged.
[16:07] Well, I'm sorry, I skipped verse 17. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged.
[16:20] Obvious implication, He who does not believe is judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because He has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
[16:32] And here, if anything is crystal clear, it puts in the position of importance what belief is all about.
[16:43] And you realize that belief is nothing more than faith. Faith and belief come from the same word. It's the same idea. When you exercise faith, you exercise belief.
[16:54] You make a mental kind of commitment to something. You rely. You depend upon. You trust in. All of those synonyms are wrapped up in the same meaning.
[17:06] And it has the idea of transferring confidence and trust from oneself to another.
[17:17] And the another is, of course, Jesus Christ. Chapter 4, verse 10. Jesus answered and said to her, this is the woman at the well, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
[17:45] What's that all about? Well, I'll tell you this much. It's not about H2O. It's not about drinking water, although that's what this dear woman was thinking about, because she's coming down to the well every day to draw up this drinking water.
[17:59] And Christ was saying, He has a kind of water that satisfies the thirst of the soul, not merely the thirst of the body.
[18:12] But notice what it is contingent upon. If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him.
[18:24] You know, when you believe on Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, whether you formulate it by way of a question or not, you are asking for His salvation.
[18:36] You are recognizing that you are insufficient in yourself, and you are reaching outside yourself for what someone else has to give you.
[18:47] You are placing yourself, as it were, at His disposal. But there is no indication that He is going to give first without being asked. And again, this just brings the human volition into play.
[19:00] And in chapter 5, we are just going to meander through John's Gospel here and show you how these things convinced me over a period of time that this is just the way it has to be.
[19:10] John chapter 5 and verse 24. Very, very familiar passage. Truly, truly, Christ says, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.
[19:32] Now, I'm sure our Calvinist friends would render this. He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me already has eternal life.
[19:43] But that's not the way the text reads and we ought not to take those kind of liberties. I think He is saying that the eternal life is a consequence of those who believe and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.
[19:59] And again, this is all about that spiritual essence inside our being. Your physical body doesn't change at all. It doesn't pass from anything until the time comes that you physically die.
[20:12] Then it passes from life unto death. But what Christ is talking about is passing from death unto life. And the death we have is the death inside.
[20:25] We are spiritually dead. That is, spiritually separated from God until the Spirit of God regenerates us and makes us a new person in Christ.
[20:38] And He does that in connection with our believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in chapter 5 and verse 37, The Father who sent me, He has borne witness of me.
[20:54] You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you.
[21:06] Now, of whom is He speaking? This is the crowd that is there before Him. And I want you to look back in the context here in chapter 5.
[21:19] We're in the same chapter. And notice that in verse 9, The man who'd become well took up his pallet and began to walk. It was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore, the Jews were saying to him who was cured, It is the Sabbath.
[21:32] It's not permissible for you to carry your pallet. This poor guy was just... He'd just been miraculously healed by Christ. And he told him to take up his bed and walk.
[21:43] And the guy's just following orders. And he picks up this like a bedroll and starts to walk away with it. And the religious establishment, this is the religious police on the corner, spotted, Hey, what are you doing there?
[21:57] You're not allowed to carry that on the Sabbath. This is bearing a burden on the Sabbath. That's a violation of the Mosaic law. Well, so they call him on it.
[22:09] And this poor man answered in verse 11 and said, Well, he who made me well was the one who said to me, Take up your pallet and walk. This poor guy, I love him. He is just so innocent in this.
[22:21] And he's saying, Well, you know what? This guy who healed me and made me well has to really be somebody. And whoever he is, if he had the power to do that, and he tells me to take up my bed and walk, Boy, that's what I'm going to do.
[22:41] I mean, this guy knows what he's talking about. I'm going to do it. Well, that wasn't good enough for the religious police. And they asked him, Who is this man who said to you, Take up your pallet and walk?
[22:53] But he who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. And afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said, Behold, you have become well.
[23:07] Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you. We don't know what was in this guy's background, but it may have had something to do with his being in the condition he was in. So the man went away and told the Jews, He's going back to the religious police.
[23:22] I think this guy is trying to say, I don't want to get in trouble with these people. So he goes back to them and says that it was Jesus who had made him well. And I don't think he's ratting him out.
[23:34] I think he's just trying to be a loyal Jew and please everybody all the way around. And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
[23:48] You know, some of our Jewish friends today take great exception to John's gospel. Of course, they do not accept the New Testament at all.
[24:01] They believe that the entirety of the Bible is the Old Testament and that's it. From Genesis to Malachi, that is the entirety of God's revelation as far as the Jews are concerned.
[24:17] They do not accept John's gospel at all. I mean, they do not accept the New Testament at all, but particularly John's gospel. And one of the reasons is because of the language that is used here in verse 10.
[24:29] The Jews were saying to him and then down in verse 16, and for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus. Well, we understand, of course, that Jesus functioned and operated in an exclusively Jewish community.
[24:43] It's very seldom did he ever go outside it. He stayed right within the confines of Israel. So all the people with whom he had to do were mainly Jews. And whenever a Gentile came on the scene, it was, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he said to the Syrophoenician woman.
[25:01] And the woman at the well, you don't even know who or what you're worshiping. Salvation is of the Jews. She was a Samaritan. So it is the Jews exclusively to which Christ came.
[25:12] And they are the ones referred to in John 1.12. He came into his own. It's the Jewish nation, not Gentiles. It's the Jewish nation. And admittedly, it does not put the Jews in a bad light.
[25:25] I mean, in a good light. It puts them in a bad light. But the more important thing is this. Does it put them in an accurate light? That's the issue. And yes, it does.
[25:37] Not all Jews. Because there were great multitudes of Jews who embraced Jesus and accepted him as a Messiah. And then there were a number of Jews who just couldn't quite make up their mind.
[25:50] One day they thought he was the Messiah. The next day they didn't think so. And then there were those Jews who were convinced that he was nothing but a charlatan, a phony.
[26:01] He was not the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets. So you've got three different categories of Jews. And when their 5,000 were there and they ate miraculously of the loaves and fishes, of course, probably the abundance of those people probably did believe that he was the Messiah.
[26:17] Great multitudes followed him. And in every multitude there were always those who were there just to see a show, just to hear something new, just to be entertained, just to go where the crowd is.
[26:28] No matter what the crowd is doing, if there's a crowd, it's worth being there. So they would gather on those bases. So people are the same everywhere. The Jews back 2,000 years ago are no different from Gentiles today.
[26:39] They're all made of the same bolt of cloth. We all have the same kind of makeup. So when the Scriptures use these terms, the Jews here, it's usually talking about the Jewish religious establishment, those who were in charge.
[26:52] And they are the ones who are going to do the persecuting here. And it's very important because I want you to note in verse 16, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
[27:04] Now, as you come on down and stay in the context all the way over to chapter 5 and verse 38 when he says, you do not have his word abiding in you.
[27:21] To whom do you think he's speaking? Same context, same crowd. These are the people who are persecuting him, who are criticizing him for telling this man to take up his bed and walk.
[27:34] Never mind the fact that there is a miraculous healing here and who could do that? But God, never mind that, he broke the Sabbath. And that takes precedence over everything.
[27:45] That's where they were coming. This is why Jesus said, you people, you strain out a nap and swallow a camel. You are so fastidious and so particular.
[28:00] If you were going to drink something and you saw a little tiny gnat in that, you would strain it out so you wouldn't contaminate yourself by drinking a gnat. and you turn around and swallow a camel.
[28:13] Now, nobody's really going to swallow a camel, but you get the point. How ridiculous. That was his way of saying, you people are so inconsistent and so nitpicky.
[28:25] All they knew how to do was major on minors and minor on majors. They had it all wrong. And when he says what he does here in verse 38, you, he's talking about this same crowd that is leveling the criticism and the persecution at them.
[28:42] You do not have his word that is God's word abiding in you. What word is he talking about? He's talking about the Old Testament. That's all there was.
[28:53] There was no New Testament then. He's talking about Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. This was all the word of God that Jesus referred to constantly when he was here on earth, that he appealed to constantly.
[29:06] It is written. It is written. He was always talking from the Old Testament. And now he's saying, you do not have his word in you. How could he say that to these people? They spent hours in the word.
[29:18] They immersed themselves in the word. They had committed huge portions of the word to memory. How could he say he didn't have the word in them? Because they didn't have the word in them.
[29:29] They had the word on them. They didn't have it in them. You can have something in your mind. You can memorize it and know it intellectually. And not order your life after it.
[29:43] You don't have it in your heart. You aren't ready to go with it. You don't embrace it that way. You just know it intellectually. And oh boy, did these guys ever know it intellectually.
[29:58] They knew every jot and tittle. They could quote this. They could quote that. But it wasn't in their heart. They had never really surrendered to it.
[30:08] You do not have his word abiding in you. And what's the proof positive? This is a very, very important point. And I want you to get this. John makes it crystal clear throughout his gospel.
[30:20] Very important point coming up. You do not have his word in you for you do not believe him whom he sent.
[30:36] Of whom is he speaking? He's speaking of himself in the third person. he could have as easily and perhaps it would have been plainer if he would have said, for you do not believe me whom he sent.
[30:58] But he frequently speaks in the third person. How many times does Jesus say, for the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
[31:08] And that was his favorite expression of himself. Son of man. He used it more than any other. Third person. Throughout the gospels he refers to himself in third person.
[31:20] As though the Messiah is someone in their midst, but he is really in question of the minds and hearts of the people.
[31:31] And he was. And he recognized that. He knew full well that not everyone to whom he was speaking believed in him. he presented himself as outside of himself in this third person.
[31:45] And this is such an important point. We're going to see this repeated time and time again. And it reflects the incredible solidarity between the son and the father.
[31:58] And here is a very important thing. When Christ came on the scene, John the baptizer was already functioning and operating and anticipating the arrival of the Messiah.
[32:16] He was the one who was to go before him and prepare his way. He was to be the one who announced the coming of the Messiah. And John knew that was his ministry. And he said, there is one coming whose shoes I'm not even worthy to lace or unlace.
[32:32] And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He anticipated his coming. What was the response of the people to John's message?
[32:44] The common people heard him gladly. Common people turned out in droves to listen to John out there in the wilderness.
[32:56] This strange guy with the strange diet and the strange clothing was preaching a message that was electrifying. And they came from all around to hear him. But who didn't?
[33:10] Luke makes it very clear who didn't come to hear him. It says the Sadducees, the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, who are they?
[33:24] They are the religious establishment. It says they rejected the counsel of God against themselves not being baptized by John.
[33:43] Who is this guy? Who sent him? He hasn't been to any of our rabbinical schools. Nobody knows him. He's just preaching this message about the Messiah coming and getting the people all excited.
[33:57] And they rejected him. If they rejected the person of John, what do you think they're going to do with John's message?
[34:08] When John introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and John says that for reasons of identifying him and introducing him as the Messiah to Israel, that's why I have come baptizing.
[34:24] He says that in chapter 1. Makes it very clear as to why he's doing it. The religious establishment rejected John and his message.
[34:35] What then do you think they're going to do with the Messiah himself? They're going to reject him too. Now, why did they do that? Why couldn't they see it?
[34:48] Why couldn't they understand? Where were they coming from? Where were they coming from when John came on the scene that caused them to reject John's message? You know, John could have said to the religious crowd the same thing that Jesus said.
[35:04] John could have said, you do not accept me or my message because you do not accept the one who sent me. And John tells us in this first chapter of this gospel, not John the Baptist, but John the beloved apostle tells us there was a man sent from God named John.
[35:25] And that was John the Baptist. God sent him. And John could have said to the crowd who rejected him, I understand you rejecting me. I understand you rejecting my message because you've already rejected the Father.
[35:41] You've already rejected the one who sent me. There's no reason why you would accept me if you reject him. them. This theme is going to be played out repeatedly regarding the person of Christ.
[35:55] And it is going to explain why they repudiated Christ. They were already in a negative mode toward God the Father when God the Son came on the scene.
[36:08] There's no way. There is no way that they could have rejected the Father without rejecting the Son. They're a package. they go together.
[36:19] Now I want to give you some verses that will support this. Verse 38. You do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe him whom he sent.
[36:33] You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. You know there is a compliment of Jews today in Israel.
[36:46] They live in Meisharim. they are the Hasidim. They are the ones that wear the black garb and they have the curls down and they are the ultra-Orthodox and for the most part they are held in contempt by most of their Jewish countrymen who have no use for them.
[37:05] They devote their entire livelihood. They do not work. They do not have an occupation. They do not have a job. They devote their entire livelihood to the study of the Torah, the scriptures, particularly the five books of Moses.
[37:23] How are they supported? They are supported by Jews all around the world who send money to them. There is a Jewish constituency in Brooklyn, New York.
[37:34] There is a huge enclave of Jewish people live in Brooklyn, New York and they are in the garment industry, the diamond industry, etc. And they are very astute in their businesses and many of them are very wealthy and very influential.
[37:50] And they send money to the Hasidim in Jerusalem who live in this, we would call it like a slum area because everything is kind of falling down around them and they just ignore it and let it go because their only object in life is to study the Torah.
[38:12] Torah. And they believe that when there are enough Jews studying the Torah, the Messiah will come. So the way to bring back the Messiah is to have more Jews studying the Torah.
[38:27] But these people have to make a living. They have families to support. They marry and have kids. So how are they going to work and support them? They don't work and support them. They spend all day just studying the scriptures and they receive most of their money from Brooklyn, New York and the Jews around the world that support them.
[38:45] And in New York there was the Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. You probably don't know the name but I follow these things. And Menachem Schneerson was believed to be by many of the Hasidim was believed to be the Messiah himself and that he was going to reveal himself.
[39:04] and you know they would ask him if he were the Messiah and he would not deny it. So if he doesn't deny it what does that mean?
[39:17] So you can imagine how disheartening it was to so many of the Jews when age 91 Menachem Schneerson died from a kidney ailment. Now some of the same people, I kid you not, some of the same people hold steadfastly to the idea that Menachem Schneerson is going to be resurrected.
[39:40] Meanwhile they keep sending them. What are they doing? They're studying the Torah. Studying the law. The Torah is the first five books of Moses and Christ is saying you search the scriptures.
[39:51] Oh yeah, you spend your time in the scriptures already. They were doing that back then. They just labored in the scriptures that way. But if you labor in the scriptures with your mind without a heart to obey, just so you can master the text, etc., that's of little value.
[40:05] You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. How could God possibly reject you when you spend so much time in His Word? Sad, isn't it?
[40:21] And it is these, these scriptures that bear witness of me. And you are unwilling to come to me. Now look at verse 40. You are unwilling to come to me that you may have life.
[40:38] And there is just no way in the world that I can invade that verse and say and the only reason you're unwilling to come is because you are not one of the elect and God has not made you alive and you, we just cannot read all of that stuff into this verse.
[40:54] I take this at face value and Christ is saying you have a volition, you have a will. And you could exercise it toward me positively or negatively.
[41:05] And so far it's only been negative. You will not come. You are unwilling to come to me that you may have life. And these people aren't going to respond and say, well the reason we're unwilling is because we're not one of the elect.
[41:19] We can't. It's beyond us. It's not in our ability. Of course not. But I know you. Christ said, I do not receive glory for men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourself, no matter how much time you spend in the word.
[41:38] This is what he's saying. It's the same principle as when he said, these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
[41:53] There are lots of people out there walking around that talk a good religion, but the doing doesn't back it up.
[42:10] Verse 46, if you believe Moses, oh I know Moses, they've got Moses down pat, yes sir, read chapter, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[42:21] You don't know Moses at all. You don't know him at all. You've just got a superficial head knowledge, you've got the verses memorized. If you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
[42:36] But if you do not believe his right, how can you say we don't believe his right? We spend all this, yeah, but how will you believe my word?
[42:47] Sometimes, sometimes people carrying the biggest Bibles can be the biggest hypocrites. sometimes it works that way, you know? Well, I've got to quit, but I want you to look at verse 38.
[43:07] Well, let me see where I'm at. Verse 47, if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
[43:23] You know what the point is there? Same source. If you don't believe the one, you're not going to believe the other. And they didn't, and that was their problem.
[43:36] Now, in chapter six, over just one page, chapter six, and verse 36.
[43:52] Well, verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger. He who believes in me shall not never thirst. But I say to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
[44:08] All that the Father gives me shall come to me. And our Calvinist friends say, aha, this is election.
[44:20] They were chosen by God, and because they were, they come to Christ. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. But that too is reading something into the text that is not there.
[44:35] Let me ask you this question. Jesus said, all that the Father gives me, how could the Father give them if the Father did not have them?
[44:55] All Jesus is saying is this, those who were rightly related to my Father before I ever came on the scene are the ones whom the Father is giving to me.
[45:13] The Father and I own them in tandem. We are a pair. We are a team. Those who belong to the Father will automatically embrace the Son.
[45:30] You cannot accept one and reject the other. what Jesus is doing here is revealing their true spiritual position before he ever came on the scene.
[45:43] And he's saying you were on the outs with my father before I ever showed up. So it would be automatic that you're on the outs with me too and with John the Baptist because we're all three on the same page.
[45:58] You're not. That's precisely what he's saying. And as you go in the gospel you're going to insist on between himself and the father.
[46:11] And he's going to say things like he who honors the son honors the father also and vice versa. The world today has a great deal of difficulty with this.
[46:25] And I don't know if you are aware of it or not. You probably are. But in some venues particularly in public venues or invocations and things like that are offered. It's okay to talk in vague general terms about God.
[46:44] Just keep Jesus out of it. Hmm? That's the attitude. And you know something? You can't have one without the other.
[46:56] They are a pair. God God higher power greater cause Nobody's offended.
[47:28] Well, you're going to have a few atheists. You can't get away without offending somebody. You're going to have some atheists who are upset because they don't even like God. But the thing that really rankles them is when you invoke the name of Jesus Christ.
[47:45] But if there's anything the Scriptures make clear, it is this. There is one God and one mediator through God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
[47:57] There it is. Take it or leave it. That's the way it is. Would you pray with me? Father, we see these repeated references to the order that is given here, how that when people come to receive Christ and believe on him, put their trust in him, make the transfer of confidence and reliance from themselves, their religion, their church, their good intentions, whatever it may be, and they place it squarely on the person of Jesus Christ who alone is worthy.
[48:35] It is then that you regenerate that soul and make them alive and a new creation in Christ. And the cry of our heart is for anyone who has never done that to understand the solemnity and the great seriousness of it so that they may flee to him whom to know aright is life eternal.
[48:58] In this closing moment, dear friend, if you are here today and you've never made that decision, God has given you a will and he's presented you with right and wrong, truth and fiction, you are to use that will to choose what you know is right.
[49:18] And Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. I'd commend him to you. You can trust him right where you are. It is simply a simple decision of your will.
[49:31] You surrender your will to Jesus Christ and you trust him rather than anything else. And if you make that your prayer and that's your desire, you let somebody know about it because they'll want to help you and encourage you.
[49:46] Let me know. I've got some literature that would be very helpful for you. Thank you, Father, for this time to share together. Thank you for the great clarity with which you've set forth the word so that we need not stumble over it, but we can revel and rejoice in it.
[50:04] In Christ's name, amen.