Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 76 (09-24-19)
Synopsis
Bob George continues sharing from the 16th chapter of John. Jesus came to speak truth into the hearts of men. Sadly, even today, not everyone receives truth. The Jews today deny Jesus is the Messiah. They rejected him as the promised Messiah, whom the prophets told was to come into this world to take away sins. Most Jews today do not even know the bible. They hardly know anything except the Passover and things you celebrate, but nothing about Moses, yet they all agree that Jesus is not God. You have the Muslims who would rather believe Mohammad over the words of Jesus, and even think they are doing a service to God by killing Jews and Christians. You have the atheist, who is a fool, saying there is no God. You have the mystics who say that truth does not really matter. “Just love one another”, they say, yet fail to realize that it is impossible to love perfectly as God demonstrated His love to us. Then you have the Catholics, who would rather trust their traditions and what the pope has to say, who deny the finality of the cross and say that you must go through a priest to get your sins forgiven. Then you have the Protestants, as if they are their own priest, going directly to God to get their sins forgiven. As Jesus said, there is the broad way that leads to destruction and many travel on that road. But there is a narrow road that leads to eternal life and few thereof find it. So what is that narrow road, the way to God, and the truth on this matter of eternal life?
So what did Jesus say was the only way to God. Jesus, being God in the flesh, certainly knows the way. Indeed, he even said he is the way, the truth and the life and that no one goes to the Father except through him. People can quote these scriptures and say they believe the scriptures. I heard a priest quote that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, but he did not understand the meaning of what he just said. Why then will a person also say that there are many ways to God. That is double talk. You either believe what Jesus said or you do not. People will say, “There is the Protestant way and then the Catholic way.” So then they nullify the words of Jesus, who said he is the only way. You hear people say, “I have my truth and you have yours”. Is there more than one truth? No! What nonsense is that! Jesus said he is the way, the truth and the life.
Religion has nothing to do with coming to God to receive life. Sadly, many an evangelist can share truth from scripture but not explain the meaning behind what Jesus did and accomplished for man. Man has a problem according to the scriptures, not according to what I believe, or the Baptist believes, or the Presbyterians believe, or the Catholics, or the Muslims or the Mormons, or whatever other religion, there is, believes. According to the word of God, man has a problem called spiritual death that entered into the world when Adam sinned. As recorded in Genesis, God told Adam, “The day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die”. He did and he died. Death is the absence of life living in man. Did not Jesus say the truth will set you free? Yes, he did! The truth is not in religion. Truth is in Jesus Christ. Man has a problem that man cannot solve.
Man has a problem. He is devoid of God living in him. God living in the man is indispensable to the humanity of the man. Gasoline in a car is indispensable to the functioning of the car. Oil in the lamp is indispensable to the functioning of an oil lamp. Electricity in a light bulb is indispensable to the function of the light bulb. So too is God in the man indispensable to the function of the man. You cannot function properly apart from God living in you. There is the problem. That problem had to be solved. That problem cannot be solved by practicing religion. Religion cannot bring life to the dead. Politics cannot bring life to the dead. Only a life can bring life to the dead.
The only life available to the world was the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. There were men brought back from death to life. But there was only one man ever resurrected, and his name was Jesus. He was resurrected unto eternal life, not brought back from the dead to die again. Only one man resurrected and that man was Jesus. The reason he was resurrected from the dead was because that is the only kind of life that I need, His resurrected life.
Where am I going to get resurrected life? The same place I am going to get righteousness, and that is, from Him. The same place I am going to get the Holy Spirit, and that is, from Him. Every thing I possess is from Him. The only solution to spiritual death is spiritual life. The only life available to me is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. That is why he was raised from the dead. He was not resurrected from the dead to show he is God. He was not resurrected from the dead to show us that he was better than us. He was raised from the dead for a purpose, to give life to you and me.
If I am born into this world dead spiritually then the only thing I need as a dead man is life. Buddha cannot give me life. He is dead. Mohammad cannot give me life. He is dead. The pope cannot give me life. He is dead. I cannot give you life. I do not have life to give. I do not have eternal life in my name. I am not the resurrection and the life. Billy Graham cannot give you life. No one can give you life except the resurrected life of Christ Jesus.
The empty tomb is the center point of what we call Christianity. The empty tomb is what divided believers from unbelievers. The Jews brought in people to lie in regard to what happened to the empty tomb, that people stole his body away. There are many theories told about the empty tomb. There is only one explanation for the stone rolled away, the grave clothes there, and him gone, and that is the resurrection.
The purpose of the resurrection is to give life to you and me. That is not religion. That is a practical issue. If I am going to be functioning according to the way God intended for me to function, then I will have to have life in me, to have restored in me what was lost in Adam, that being the Spirit of God living in me. There is only one man who could do that, and his name is Jesus.
There is only one man who could prepare the way for that to occur. In order to give me eternal life, the cause of spiritual death had to be taken away eternally. What is the cause of spiritual death? Sin. What caused the Spirit of God to depart from Adam? Sin. What caused the Spirit of God to depart from Jesus? Sin. Whose sin? Yours and mine. So what is the only thing that could cause the Spirit of God to depart from you and me? Sin. Why is that an impossibility? Because of the cross, where he took away the sins of the entire world. The eternal value of the cross is what enabled him to give you and me eternal life. And that is what salvation is.
Transcript
John 16:11
11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
Then he says he will convict the world wrong about judgment. In regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned. Satan has already been condemned as far as God is concerned.
John 16:12
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”
That is sometimes true in regards to our bible reading and our study. When you are a brand new Christian, you are only ready to feed on the milk of the word. But God does not intend for you to stay feeding on milk.
The apostle Paul addressed the immaturity of the believers in Corinth, who should have been teachers by now, but failed to feed on more than just milk of the word, even after they have been believers for quite some time now.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly – mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
So there is a maturity process just as a child that grows in the natural world. You cannot rush that maturity. Just as a new infant needs to feed on milk and maturity comes over time. So Jesus says, “You cannot bear any more right now.” The disciples have not even received the Holy Spirit yet.
John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Jesus is saying, “There is more I want to tell you but you cannot understand it yet”. Why? The Spirit has not come to live within you yet. You cannot comprehend it yet until that time occurs. That occurred at Pentecost. You are standing in front of the God of truth but you cannot comprehend it until the Spirit comes to live in you and then you can comprehend it.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
For you to understand the meaning of the word of God, the Spirit of God living in you has to reveal it to you. Obviously, until the Spirit of God came to live within the believers, and within the apostles, they were not prepared to understand the true meaning of the word of God. So Jesus says, “There is more I want to say to you but you are not ready for it yet because you are not yet indwelt by the source of understanding biblical truth. He will guide you into all truth when the Spirit comes.”
If you are born again, the Spirit of God indwells you. You are indwelt by God. If we cannot get excited about that then there is something wrong with our excitement button. We are indwelt by God Himself. We have the mind of Christ. We also have my mind. I am indwelt by a person. He live in me. I have the ability to participate in the divine nature that lives in me.
John 14:16-18
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
1 Corinthians 2:16
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Even though we have the ability to participate in the divine nature, that does not mean I always do so, does it? That means I have a choice. When we do not participate with that truth, we go astray. So I can choose to listen to my ugly flesh. The flesh can be convincing, teaching you error as if it is the truth and you will go astray. Recall what was shared earlier. Jesus told us these things so we would not go astray.
Galatians 5:16-18
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Or you can participate in the divine nature who lives in you and walk in paths of righteousness. He will guide us. He is there to guide us. That does not mean we will allow Him to guide us. He is there to guide us when we allow Him. He will not force Himself upon you. He guides us as we allow Him to do so. He will not speak on His own. He will only speak what He hears. From who? The Father.
John 12:49-50
49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.
John 5:19
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
Jesus said, ”I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it.” When the Holy Spirit indwells us, we do not do anything unless the Holy Spirit tells us to do it. Where did he hear what to do? From the Father. Same deal. He will tell you what is yet to come. That is why we have prophesies today.
John 16:14-15
14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
He will bring glory to Jesus. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to bring glory to the Holy Spirit. We are not to be sitting around glorifying the Spirit. We are not even to be glorifying the Father. The Spirit came to bring glory to Jesus, “taking from what is mine”, Jesus, “and making it known to you”, you and me and the disciples. Every thing that belongs to Jesus belongs to the Father and is mine. “The Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
John 16:16
16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
Jesus came to this earth to reveal truth to the lost, to reveal truth to those who do not have the truth. To this day, we sit in this country with people all over the country thinking in different ways than we were taught. On the Larry King Live show, it was supposed to be a topic on religion. They had an Evangelical, a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Muslim, a female atheist and female mystic all on the show. All of them believed they were right.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Jesus came to reveal truth to us to set us free.
What was also interesting, at the end of the program, someone asked, “Do you just believe the way you were brought up?” To the priest, his family grew up Catholic. To the atheist, her family grew up atheist. he Jew grew up in Judaism. To the one following Mohammad, he grew up in that religion. The mystic grew up in a mystic family. All were taught what they were taught in their family. Is that true that you will follow what you were brought up with? All of them thought they had some truth. The atheist claimed that there is no evidence Jesus even came. The bible calls her a fool.
Psalm 14:1
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
To proclaim that there is no God, then you claim you have total knowledge. If you were really smart, and say you possessed 20% knowledge, can you claim you know there is no God and that the 80% left were in error. A man to proclaim he is an atheist has committed intellectual suicide, for you are a fool to proclaim you have total knowledge. She is a fool. If I was on that panel, I would call her a fool.
The other person was a mystic. She just thought everybody was Jesus, and says it does not make much difference, as if not a big thing, or it did not matter if he was born of a virgin or not but that it is just a matter that he is. What nonsense is that? Such a person says, “All we need to do is love one another”. If you are married, I would like to meet your husband. That is a good thought, but I would like to see you pull it off. You have to understand the truth of that. Saying “God is not real just an experience“ comes from the mystics.
The follower of Mohammad, surprisingly enough, he believed in the virgin birth. I was shocked at that. They believed Jesus was sent from God but was just a good prophet and a good man, and certainly did not understand he was God. But I wonder what Jesus they had because if you say you believe in Jesus but deny what he taught when he said he is the only way to God. So all of this contradiction is there. People saying one thing but then denying what he said about Himself. He claimed Himself to be God and the only way to God and they deny that.
Then there was a Jewish man, a Jewish rabbi. When Bob was in Colorado, a person from New Jersey and one from California came. The younger sister, from California, was Jewish and came to the Lord fifteen years ago. She asked me a question to see what I thought. I said to her, “I think you will hear me say that in a lecture and you will understand that.” She came to understand the finality of the cross and got cleared up on predestination and election. All of that was cleared up.
Both of them were Jewish, but were also excited about Jesus. They both shared about their past understanding, born as a Jew. “In our Jewish home, we did not know about anything. That is the normal state of Jewish people in the world today. They do not know about their religion. They know about Passover and the atonement, the things they should celebrate, and that is about it. They did not know anything. They did not know about Moses”. They both said, ”But the one thing we did know was that we do not believe in Jesus.”
If you go over to Israel today, Jesus is taught in their schools. Unlike the atheists, they acknowledge he existed. They acknowledge he is a prophet and a good man and has done a lot of good things for the world. But they deny he is the Messiah, and certainly do not believe he is God. A Jew said, “I would not believe Moses if he said he was God either”. This is what Jesus would have said to him.
John 5:45-47
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
John 5:39-40
39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
That was the comment from the rabbi. That was a normal comment from a Jewish man, that he was a good man and a prophet but certainly he is not God.
Then next to him, you hear from the Catholic priest. He said he believes in Jesus but also that there are many ways to God, that there is the Muslim way and the Jewish way. How idiotic to say you believe in Jesus, while saying there are many ways to God, when Jesus clearly said he is the only way to God.
John 14:9
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Acts 4:12
12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And you say that is the Jesus I believe in but then you say there are many ways to God! No guts to them at all. (I, John, would say they do not know the truth, since I was raised Catholic and know what is taught in their religion. He has no guts because he does not know the way himself. He cannot speak on what he does not know.)
Then next to him was the evangelical. Jesus claimed that he is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. Many problems we run into is that we make those statements but never explain why. We never explain why that is true. We say that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but we never explain why that is true. Who can forgive sins except God alone? But religion comes in. The Larry King Live show was supposed to be a program about religion but the whole program was about Jesus, dividing religion. The divider is Jesus.
Matthew 10:34-36
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law –
36
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
So as not to get confused with the Muslim religion, who use a literal sword to chop people’s heads off, Jesus is using figurative language here. Jesus often used terms of the natural world to explain spiritual truth. We live in the natural world, and without the Spirit we cannot understand spiritual things. He is using the sword to refer to the word of God, the meaning of which is the truth that divides. Yet, a person will kill you over truth, as the Muslims do, who reject truth from Jesus. Jesus is not promoting murder here.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Jesus is saying, “I came to divide truth from error. If you follow me, you will be on the side of truth. If you do not, you will be on the side of error.” Here is the reason Jesus came to take away the sins of the world and came to do what he did. Then this is what we run into. We the people say. We, the Baptists, believe. This is what we, the Presbyterians, believe. That makes no difference. What matters is what the scriptures says, and to understand what they mean, God’s intended meaning revealed to you by the Spirit of God.
Man is born with a problem called spiritual death.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Man has a problem according to the scriptures, not according to what I believe, or the Baptist believes, or the Presbyterians believe, or the Catholics, or the Muslims or the Mormons, or whatever other religion, there is, believes. According to the word of God, man has a problem called spiritual death that entered into the world when Adam sinned. As recorded in Genesis, God told Adam, “The day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die”. He did and he died. Death is the absence of life living in man. Did not Jesus say the truth will set you free? Yes, he did! The truth is not in religion. Truth is in Jesus Christ. Man has a problem that man cannot solve.
Man has a problem. He is devoid of God living in him. God living in the man is indispensable to the humanity of the man. Gasoline in a car is indispensable to the functioning of the car. Oil in the lamp is indispensable to the functioning of an oil lamp. Electricity in a light bulb is indispensable to the function of the light bulb. So too is God in the man indispensable to the function of the man. You cannot function properly apart from God living in you. There is the problem. That problem had to be solved. That problem cannot be solved by practicing religion. Religion cannot bring life to the dead. Politics cannot bring life to the dead. Only a life can bring life to the dead.
The only life available to the world was the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. There were men brought back from death to life. But there was only one man ever resurrected, and his name was Jesus. He was resurrected unto eternal life, not brought back from the dead to die again. Only one man resurrected and that man was Jesus. The reason he was resurrected from the dead was because that is the only kind of life that I need, His resurrected life.
Where am I going to get resurrected life? The same place I am going to get righteousness, and that is, from Him. The same place I am going to get the Holy Spirit, and that is, from Him. Every thing I possess is from Him. The only solution to spiritual death is spiritual life. The only life available to me is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. That is why he was raised from the dead. He was not resurrected from the dead to show he is God. He was not resurrected from the dead to show us that he was better than us. He was raised from the dead for a purpose, to give life to you and me.
If I am born into this world dead spiritually then the only thing I need as a dead man is life. Buddha cannot give me life. He is dead. Mohammad cannot give me life. He is dead. The pope cannot give me life. He is dead. I cannot give you life. I do not have life to give. I do not have eternal life in my name. I am not the resurrection and the life. Billy Graham cannot give you life. No one can give you life except the resurrected life of Christ Jesus.
The empty tomb is the center point of what we call Christianity. The empty tomb is what divided believers from unbelievers. The Jews brought in people to lie in regard to what happened to the empty tomb, that people stole his body away. There are many theories told about the empty tomb. There is only one explanation for the stone rolled away, the grave clothes there, and him gone, and that is the resurrection.
The purpose of the resurrection is to give life to you and me. That is not religion. That is a practical issue. If I am going to be functioning according to the way God intended for me to function, then I will have to have life in me, to have restored in me what was lost in Adam, that being the Spirit of God living in me. There is only one man who could do that, and his name is Jesus.
There is only one man who could prepare the way for that to occur. In order to give me eternal life, the cause of spiritual death had to be taken away eternally. What is the cause of spiritual death? Sin. What caused the Spirit of God to depart from Adam? Sin. What caused the Spirit of God to depart from Jesus? Sin. Whose sin? Yours and mine. So what is the only thing that could cause the Spirit of God to depart from you and me? Sin. Why is that an impossibility? Because of the cross, where he took away the sins of the entire world. The eternal value of the cross is what enabled him to give you and me eternal life. And that is what salvation is.
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 11:25-26
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
The answer to that is this. Some do believe this and some do not. People say many things. “I like some of this but not all of it”. “I like the fact you say you are the way, the truth and the life, but I do not believe you are the only way.” “I think we all kind of have our own way to get there. You Protestants have your way. You Catholics have your way. You Buddhists have your way. And the Muslims have theirs. There are all kinds of ways to God.” That is utter nonsense. That is deceiving people into believing something that sends them on their way to hell.
The only question you will ever be asked by God is, “What did you do with my Son?“ Did you reject the Son of God who came to cure your problem of death by going to a religion that can do nothing for you except paralyze you? Did you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Did go to your priest to get forgiveness or did you go to Jesus to get forgiveness because you cannot go to both of them? Or did you just go direct to God to get your sins forgiven, thinking you are a priest of some kind? You have to make up your mind which way you are going to go? Are you going to believe Jesus or are you going to believe religion?
The only purpose of religion is to focus on what I am doing to please God. True Christianity is what God did to make you pleasing to God. He made you whole. You cannot make yourself whole. He gave you life. You cannot give yourself life. He took away your sins. You cannot take away your sins. It is all Him and none of us. It never has been any of us. It always has been all of Him. Both Catholics and Protestants have watered down the gospel. It is just a person that does not stand firm in what Jesus had said. Whether a Jewish person who has denied him back then and still today, saying all that we agree on is that Jesus is not God. To the Muslim who thought Mohammad had something to say as more important than what Jesus had to say. Or a mystic that just says it does not make a difference what truth is but just love one another with glassy eyes. Or the atheist who is a fool denying there is even a God. The issue is, “Will you come to truth or will you continue to live in error?”
