Introduction:

            There was a popular secular song sung by Ketty Lester when I was young. It was not a Christian song, but it makes me think of Scripture just the same. It went like this:

“Love letters straight from your heart keeps us so near while a part.

I’m not alone in the night, when I have all the love you write.

I memorize every line, and I kiss the name that you sign,

And, darling, then I read again

Right from the start love letters straight from your heart.”

That is what we have in the Bible. God has given His love letter to us.

You might say, “There are a lot of things in the Bible that are kind of scary. There are some condemnations in there, and there are some prohibitions in there. How can you say that it is a love letter?”

Those statements are true enough, but always in every single case they are for our benefit. They are not for God’s benefit, because He has no need. However, He has the desire for us to have the very best life possible, and He desires to have a personal relationship with us.

Imagine if you will, the fellow that wants to have a romantic long distance relationship with his girlfriend as he does a stint in the military overseas. He tries to communicate with his girlfriend through mental telepathy with no luck. He tries astral projection and teleportation to no avail. He tries concentration and meditation with no success.  He, finally, asks his buddy how he could communicate with his girlfriend. After observing him try these and several other ways to feel his girlfriend’s presence and try to communicate with her, his buddy finally asked him, “Why don’t you just read the letter she sent you?”

Some Christians approach their relationship with God the same way.

I talked to a girl about the Lord just before I went to Bible college, and she said, “If God would just appear to me and, speak to me, and tell me what He wants me to know, I would believe it.”

I said, “No, you wouldn’t, because if He appeared to everybody that way, then it would no longer be miraculous or even special. It would just be a commonplace thing.”

If everybody experienced the revelation from God in a physical manifestation, then it would not be a miraculous thing anymore. It would be very commonplace. After a week or so you would ask yourself, “Was it all just a dream? Did I imagine it?” After a month or so you would not know exactly what God had said; especially, if He had revealed as much as what is in the Bible. After a few years you would doubt if it ever happened. By the end of your life you probably would not even remember it at all, because you could not go back and check it out and read it.”

It is far more logical, far more reliable, and a far better way for God to communicate to mankind through the written Word than any other way.

Some might say, “Well what about a DVD that you can see on a screen?”

DVD’s are certainly interesting, and they help you visualize what is taking place, but they are extremely hard to use and they usually use an inferior translation of the Bible.

The very best means of communication is the written word. God has given us His written Word. In the past generation we got away from reading. We got lazy. We started wanting to experience God rather than to read His contract that He has put down in black and white for us. We want to experience, and visualize, and dream, but now, maybe, we are coming back to reading through the use of tablets, I Pads, and other electronic devices.

God did not really make a poor choice when He chose to reveal Himself in His Word, especially in view of the fact that He has as much as is in the Bible for us to know about Him, His will for our life, and what is best for us. We could never experience that much. By the time we experienced the third book of the Bible, we would have forgotten most of the first book, if we could not go back and check it. So, you can see God’s wisdom in revealing Himself in the written Word.

What is the Bible? Read this portion of a statement of faith:

“The Holy Scriptures, the Bible, in its original documents of both the Old and New Testament is the inspired Word of God, God’s written record of His supernatural revelation of Himself to man. It is absolute in its authority, complete in its revelation, final in its content, and without error or contradiction in its statements.”

This is what most sound churches have chosen to believe. Why? Because that is what it has proved to be. In Matthew 22:29 God shows us why we err. “Err” means to make an error. This is why we are in error. The reasons we make mistakes as far as what will make us happy, as far as what is the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do, what will please others, what will please ourselves, what will please God, and what is best for us physically, emotionally, and financially are all brought out in Matthew 22:29. “Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.’”

The reason we make mistakes is because we do not know the Scriptures and we do not know the power of God. The Sadducees had come to Him at this time asking about the resurrection. They told Him a ridiculous story about a woman that married seven brothers one after another, and they asked Him to which one she would be married after the resurrection. He said, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

In John 5:39 Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures.” What is He telling us to do? Search the Scriptures! I have heard people, actually, use this verse, that commands us to search the Scriptures, to say that you do not really need to search the Scriptures, because of the rest of the verse. We must understand the first statement is still “Search the Scriptures” no matter what the rest of the verse says. He is still giving us a command. There are two things discussed there. First of all, Jesus said to “search.” He did not say, “read.” He said, “Search!” If you are searching for sunken treasure you do not simply go out and look over the top of the water. You may get some kind of satellite picture. Maybe you will use sonar. You may use dive equipment. You would put forth some effort if you were serious about finding lost treasure. It would take some investment of time and resources.

When we study God’s Word by searching the Scriptures, it takes some effort as well. You may need to buy some commentaries. You might buy a Strong’s concordance[1] or some other books to search the Scriptures. I would suggest you buy an electronic Bible. They are extremely helpful for me, because, as you memorize Scripture, you sometimes do not remember where to find that verse in the Bible.  If you remember a few words, you can enter the right words, then every verse in the Bible that uses those words will come up. So, you have to be very specific in what you enter. But it can help you find those things you have memorized. It does not give you things you have not already studied, however.

You could use a topical Bible for that. You might find Nave’s Topical Bible[2] useful. You can look up any word or subject you want, and every reference to that subject will be listed and written out for you.

There are many good commentators that are helpful. Stay away from those that are not sound, however.

Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me,”

We are supposed to search the Scriptures for two things: First, to find eternal life, and second, to know about Jesus Christ. If you do not search the Scriptures, you will not learn about eternal life; and you will not know about Jesus Christ. That was the Pharisees’ problem. They were not searching the Scriptures. They would say, “The Scriptures tell us about eternal life. It tells us about Messiah, it tells us about God,” but they did not study them. Have you ever heard of anybody like that? If you want to know about eternal life, if you want to know about this life, if you want to know about happiness, if you want to know about God and His leading; then you need to study the Bible.

How much do you read of the Bible every day? How much do you memorize? How much do you really understand and study God’s Word? If this is where our eternal benefit is explained, then we ought to look into it.

Eternal benefit is more than eternal life. Your eternal destiny is settled the moment you trust Christ as your Savior, but, as for your eternal rewards, your eternal position, your eternal crowns, your eternal body; those things are determined by the rest of the teachings in Scripture. So if you want to have eternal benefits, if you want to have happiness in this life, leadership in this life, and if you want to have the blessings of God, then you need to study God’s Word to find out what God’s formula of how to get those things is. Many people do not look in the Bible.

If you search the Scriptures you will find out about eternal life and about Jesus Christ, but if you do not search the Scriptures you will not.

In Verse 40 Jesus says, “And ye will not come to me that ye might have eternal life.” Where is eternal life? You must come to Jesus Christ.

How do we come to Jesus Christ? In John 6:35 Jesus tells us how we come to him. “Jesus said unto him ‘I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that also have seen me and believe not.” So the way we come to Christ is by believing.

How do we know which are the Scriptures and which are not? In John 21:25 God says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

There could be many books written about Jesus Christ. Have there been many books written about Jesus Christ? Yes! There are whole stores that owe their existence to things written about Jesus Christ and about the Bible. Are all those books inspired by God? No way! In fact they contradict each other.

There are, actually, some people that put more credence in what people write in books other than the Bible than what the Bible has to say. They will believe what someone dreamed or dictated in a trance. They would rather study little known writings like the Kabala, some of the mystics, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, or Joseph Smith.

Some one, actually, came up with a Gospel of Judas. How could you have a Gospel of Judas? Judas went out and hanged himself before the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since he never witnessed the resurrection, how could he possibly have written a gospel? According to I Corinthians 15:1-4[3] the gospel includes the resurrection, and is recorded by verifiable eyewitnesses to the resurrection.[4] Judas could have written something before the crucifixion, but you can bet it was not inspired of God, because God did not use unbelievers to write His Word, and Judas was not a believer[5]!

Then there is the book of Enoch that was written only about 200 years before Christ[6]. The problem there is that Enoch had been dead for at least 2500 years before the book that bore his name was written. There is no wonder that people have never seriously considered it to be inspired of God.

People will, actually, believe things like that rather than believe the inspired Word of God. I guess it is more interesting to some, but most people have enough sense to know not to waste their time on things like that. I guess that may reflect poorly on me, because I have read the book of Enoch and several of the other books, but I kept reminding myself that these were man’s concoctions. How do we know? We know, because they contradict what we know to be the inspired Word of God. However, some want to show off their ignorance by talking to you about these little known writings like they have got some inside knowledge on something of which you are ignorant. If they only knew what people say about them when they walk away, they would not be so anxious to advertise their gullibility.

I have, actually, had people tell me things that they heard on Star Trek as if those things were based on fact. Someone needs to point out to them that science fiction is f-i-c-t-i-o-n.

I heard a national wide radio program where a scientist gave a detailed account of a Disney movie called  The Flight of the Navigator as if it had happened to him. It makes you think about the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds does it not? Only this guy was serious, if not truthful. He really wanted people to think that those things had happened to him.

“Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book,” John 20:29

The disciples that witnessed the miracles that Jesus did, wrote them down[7]. That is how we know about them. He did them in the presence of his disciples. He did them in the presence of unbelievers, too, but that was not the point. It was not really so much for the unbelievers. It was for his disciples so they could write them down. Why did He want His miracles to be written down? “But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name,” John 20:30.

This all goes back to the promise of being delivered from fear of death, because, when we believe in Jesus, the Bible tells us we can know that we have eternal life. The Bible also tells us what to believe about Jesus. When we believe that, we no longer have to fear death.

“That believing ye might have life through his name.” It was not a baseless request of God to command mankind to believe. He demonstrated by doing miracles that He had done what He came to do, which was to save us from the lake of fire. What kind of miracles? He raised the dead[8]. That is pretty powerful evidence. He healed blind people that had never seen before.[9] He also healed blind people had seen before[10]. He healed deaf people[11]. He cast out demons[12]. He healed leprosy[13]. He walked on water[14], and then He was raised from the dead[15] after dying and paying for sins. So whatever miracle it would take to convince you, He did it. If you are not convinced, it is because you do not believe the record of the witnesses.

In II Timothy 3:15 God says, “From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures.” The word “holy” has a two-part meaning. Actually, it is one meaning with two parts. Holy refers to completion and perfection.

So, we see that the Word of God is holy. We find that it is complete. There is no lack. There is no need to add anything to it. It already has everything you need.

Secondly, we find that the Bible is Scripture. Notice that other revelations are not included in this statement. This statement only includes the Scripture.

How can we know what is Scripture?

Have you ever heard anyone refer to the Canon of the Bible? We need to understand about the canonization of the Scriptures.

None of the 66 books of the Bible were ever in doubt as to their inspiration or their genuineness[16]. Genuineness means they were written by whom they claimed to be written and at the time that they claimed to be written. None of the books of the Bible were ever in question. They were always accepted by the Jews and, after Christ, the church.

A few hundred years after Christ there began to be some offshoots of heretical beliefs, and those heretics began to want to have some of their writings included as Scripture. So to protect the integrity of the Scriptures from having uninspired books included among the Scriptures, the Scriptures were “canonized.”

Consider the writings of the Apocrypha. The apocrypha is good to have, because you can find a lot of good history there. However, it is not inspired of God.

On the other hand, the 66 books of the Bible were never in doubt as to their inspiration. Some people wonder why some books made it into the canon and other books did not. There are books that did not make it into the Canon that are actually older than some of the books of the Bible. The Bible refers to a book of Jasher[17], but that book was never included in the canon and was never believed to be part of the Word of God; while the 66 books of the Bible were never in any doubt.

What about the Apocrypha? The word “apocrypha” means “doubtful or hidden writings.[18]”  It stands to reason that we should agree with the title of this group of books and doubt their inspiration.

The reason the 66 books which were always accepted and were never in doubt were canonized was so spurious books would not be included with those Scriptures that were known to be inspired of God. The purpose was to eliminate all those books the cults and the mystics were trying to add to the Word of God. Eventually, some of them, actually, did gain limited acceptance by the Catholic Church and a few others. However, while the apocrypha has very limited acceptance, the 66 books of the Bible are universally accepted. Ultimately, cults were able to gain acceptance of a few of their writings in a few places such as Alexandria Egypt and Rome, but the ones that were used by Christians never included any of them, so there was never any doubt what was inspired and what was not.

How can we, who are separated from these events by 2,000 years, still be certain what is inspired today? In John 20:30-31 God said, “And many others signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ,” That is the same idea God expressed in John 5:39 where He said, “Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.” That is exactly what He is saying here. These are written so that you can know how to have eternal life[19] and you can know that Jesus is who He claimed to be.

How do we know Jesus was who He claimed He was? He proved He was who He claimed to be by His miracles[20] in general and His resurrection [21]in particular.

If there is a book that teaches contrary to believing in Jesus Christ alone for everlasting life or that raises doubts about the deity of Jesus; if it contradicts the person of Jesus Christ or the way of salvation, then you know that book is not part of the Word of God, and it is not worth study. If a book is not sound on the freeness of salvation and the security of the believer, then you need to stay away from it. Why do I say that? Because God says, “Walk not in the counsel of the ungodly.” Stay away from those books that are heretical. Those that teach that you can lose your salvation or that teach you have to work to get your salvation or keep it. Stay away from those.

So we know what is Scripture by the substance of the book. How long ago it was written is not so important as its substance.

In I John 1:1 God says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” These things which were written were written by the men that saw these things take place. They heard with their own ears and, actually, had touched or handled the Word of life.

“Wait a minute! ‘Handled’ the Word of life?” one might ask.

What did Jesus say after his resurrection? In Luke 24:39 He said, “Handle me and see.”

Then in John 20:24-29 Thomas came a week after the other disciples had handled Jesus. They said, “We’ve seen Him. He’s got the wounds in his hands and in His side, and He’s been resurrected.”

Thomas said, “I won’t believe it unless I see it myself. Unless I am able to put my finger into the holes in His hands and thrust my hand into His side, I won’t believe it.” So the next week Jesus appeared in the room where the disciples and Thomas were, and said, “Reach hither thy finger and behold My hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing!”

The disciples, apparently, handled Jesus, because that is what John and Luke said. So these men were eyewitnesses. They had heard it with there own ears. They had seen it with their own eyes, and handled him, literally, with there own hands. That is how we know that these are the right words of God. They were written by eyewitnesses.

In Hebrews 1:1 God says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.”

“At sundry times” means at different times, and diverse also means “different.” What are the next three words? “In time past.” What does that tells us? God communicated differently in the past. The Old Testament ways of receiving instruction from God is in the past. This is not present or future. That was the way God did it in the past.

How did God do it in the past? He spoke directly to the prophets in different manners. It was different than what? It was different from the way He does today. They did not have any of the New Testament, so God had to communicate to the prophets in a different way than in the New Testament written Word. A few of the prophets were able to perform miracles to verify the giving of the Word of God, as did the apostles. The performing of miracles was always to verify the coming of the Word of God and the addition to the Bible.

If someone could do the same kind of miracles today, that would mean that God is going to add to the Bible. However, now we have the completed Word of God. The Bible calls itself the “holy” Word of God. That means it is complete and perfect. So, there is no need to look for another addition to the Bible.

God does most definitely and miraculously answer prayer, but it is not the same as in the Old Testament. Jesus could speak to a person while He was in one place, and someone would jump out of bed somewhere else (Luke 7:2-10). The Old Testament prophets received the Word of God when God at “Sundry times and (by) diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (but) hath in these last days spoken unto us by the Son whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom He also made worlds,” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Now He speaks to us by Jesus. That is interesting, because Jesus is not around anymore. Actually, He is around, but He is not around physically or we could hear his voice.  Actually, He is around physically, because the church is the body of Christ, and we can hear Him speak as the Word is read in His church. But how do we know what He says? We only know what He says as believers explain the Word of God to us. We have a complete revelation of God. He has spoken. How are we going to know what He says? Hebrews 2:3 says. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord.” So the information God wanted us to have in the New Testament was first spoken by Jesus Himself, then it was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him with their own ears, and saw Him with their own eyes, and handled Him with their own hands.

So Jesus spoke. How do we know what He said? Those that heard Him, watched Him, and handled Him as first-hand witnesses of what He said and did, wrote those things down.

How do we know they recorded these things accurately? Look at verse four. “God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will.”  God proved that those men were inspired to add to the Word of God by the miracles He did through them. Why were there sign gifts in the first century? They were to prove that God had chosen those men to write the Word of God. Therefore, if someone has that same kind of miraculous sign gift, expect to see an addition to the Word of God.  However, we do not expect to see any further miraculous sign gifts, because the Bible is now complete. It is holy.

I am not saying that God does not answer prayer. What I am saying is that answered prayer is not the same as the miracles the apostles did. We do not see many people raised from the dead in this day and age. No, we do not see many people who are blind receive their sight by someone’s spoken word in this day and age. If we need a doctor to fix an eye what do we do? We pray about it! That is what God said to do in James 5:14[22]. Do we muster up faith to believe that the blind person will be healed? Do we make some kind of positive confession? Do we anoint with oil? No. The anointing with oil back in James 5:14 is not the ceremonial pouring as when David was anointed by Samuel, or Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit.  The Greek word is a totally different word. It is a different word, which means to rub or apply. It is the same word that is used of the good Samaritan when he poured oil and wine in the wounds of the man who had been beaten and left beside the road half dead. (Don’t ask me which half.) The oil was the vehicle to apply the herbs that they would put in the oil. It was their medicine, and it was, actually, a very effective form of medicine.

So, we see the Word of God was verified by eyewitnesses, and God verified the witnesses by miracles. The books of the Bible were never in doubt.

Hundreds of years later Martin Luther questioned whether or not the book of James was inspired by God. Martin Luther said it was a “right strawy epistle,[23]” because he thought it taught works for salvation. It is obvious that James is talking about justification before man and not justification before God. It is very clear there.

I find it hard to believe that so many people today understand James chapter two, yet Martin Luther missed it, too. Why? It helps us to remember that he wrote in the beginning of the reformation. Be careful of reading reformers, because of what they were doing. They were reforming the doctrines of the church. They had been under the darkness of the Catholic Church and the dark ages, and they were ignorant of the doctrines of the Word of God. Then, when they began to have an awakening, they had to reform their interpretations of church doctrine to try to make it fit God’s doctrine.

The church’s beliefs began to be reformed, but all of the reformers did not get rid of all of the heresies. Baptismal regeneration and infant baptism for salvation were heresies that remained in particular[24]. They stuck around, and are still around, today. So, many of the heresies that were brought in by the Catholic Church are still around today, because they did not all finish reforming the doctrines of the Word God to God’s standards. They were a work in progress.

However, it is important to learn from Marin Luther that the deciding factor as to whether a book should be considered inspired of God is the evidence within that book. If the facts, history, or doctrine contradict the inspired books of the Bible, they must be rejected.

In I Thessalonians 2:13 God says this: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in them that believe.” Two things that we need to consider.

The Word of God was not passed down by word of mouth from person to person. It was passed down from God to paper through man. That is called inspiration. Nothing was passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years or even for two or three generations. Nothing was passed down as far as the Word of God, but there may have been traditions passed down, but there was never any of the Word of God passed down by word-of-mouth. Those that teach that fallacy have absolutely no evidence to back them up. The evidence and proofs point to the Bible being inspired of God. It came from God to man with no middle men except the apostles and prophets.

“Which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” What does this tell us? It tells us that the Word of God does not necessarily work for those that do not believe. You have to believe it. God has chosen the plan. He has chosen to pour out His power on believers.

What is it we are supposed to believe? In John 6:35-36 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” That is the way we come to Him.

“But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not.” They had not come to Him in faith.

In verse 37 we begin to see what to believe. What must we believe? “All that the father giveth me shall come to me.” Remember, we come to Him in faith.

“And him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” We need to believe that He will never cast us out. Once we come to him in faith, He will never cast us out.

In verse 39 God says: “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that all which he had given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day.” We find that when we come to him in faith, He will never lose us. Can we lose our salvation? No, it is impossible. Why? Because we do not have our salvation. Jesus does. He is keeping our salvation, and it is not up to us to keep it. It is up to Him to keep it. In fact He says how He keeps it. In I Peter 1:5 God says, “(We) are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” How are we kept? We are kept by the power of God, and if you believe you can lose your salvation because of your sin, you are saying in effect, “My sin is more powerful than God.” If you believe that you can become lost by rejecting Christ of your own free will after you are saved, you are saying your free will is more powerful and will of God. What does the verse say you must do? You have to have faith. “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last day.” So, when we believe, then He does the keeping.  That is what He says. That is what we are supposed to believe.

“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” He will lose nothing, and you are at least something. His will for Jesus is that He would not lose us. That is the will of God for Jesus, and Jesus always does God’s will.

In verse 40 we see God’s will for us. What is His will for us? “And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him…” To “see” means to understand. We must understand who He is and what He did. We must understand that He is God the Father who took on flesh, and that His death pays for our sins so we can know He will never cast out or lose us. Then we need to believe that. The second thing is to “believe on Him.” He said that we who “believeth on him may have everlasting life.” We must believe it. We must understand the truth and then believe it. It is easy. However, people cannot believe it, if they do not understand it. People must understand the truth, and then believe it.

Notice the result. “May have” right now, present tense.

“Have everlasting.” It is going to last you forever.

In verse 44 God says, “No man can come to Me,” (We come to Him in faith according to verse 35.) “Except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.”

In John 12:32 God tells us whom Jesus draws. Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” He draws all men. What does that tell us, since some people do not come to him in faith?

Romans 12:3[25] says that God gives faith to every man, but we have to choose to put our faith in Jesus Christ. We can choose to put our faith in our own good works. We can choose to put our faith in our water baptism. We can choose to put our faith in our public confession. We can choose to put our faith in communion. We can choose to put our faith in our works, but, if we do, we are not putting our faith in Jesus Christ. It is our choice where we place our faith, but you have to choose. It takes a decision.

John 6:45 says, “And it is written in the prophets, ‘and they shall all be all taught of God.’” How many are taught of God? All are.

Remember what He said to the Pharisees. He said, “He that hath ears to hear let him hear.” What was He telling the Pharisees? Was He telling them they could not hear, because they were deaf? Why would He tell them that? If they were deaf they could not hear Him tell them they were deaf.

Jesus was telling them, “Some of you are not going to understand this. Some of you are not going to believe that this is true. So those that have ears let them listen and understand.”

He was talking about understanding. “Everyone that has heard and understood of the Father cometh unto Me,” John 6:45.

In Isaiah 53:11 God says, “By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” Have you ever heard of faith being called the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? I used to hear that quite often. That phrase is, actually, quite Biblical. Isaiah tells us that by His knowledge-” knowledge of Him- knowing who He is and what He did “-shall My righteous servant justify many for He shall bear their iniquities.”

What is He saying? If a person hears-they understand and they learn-they will come to Christ.

How do we come to Christ? We come to Christ by believing (Verse 35). The problem is in understanding. The problem is people do not understand the truth about Christ. What does that mean?

One reason people do not understand is because of terminology. This is really important. It is extremely important that salvation to be made clear, because the reason people do not trust Christ as their Savior is because they do not understand it. Think about it.  If a person can know they are going to heaven, they realize they can be  absolutely  certain of that,  and they  realize they can never lose it, they understand that they do not have to do anything at all to get it except trust what Jesus did 2000 years ago to give eternal life in heaven to them; what fool would turn that down? The only reason anybody would turn it down is they do not understand it, or they do not really believe that it is true. Who would turn down something that is absolutely free if they knew it to be true? There is the problem. We are not making it clear to the lost. We are not convincing in our explanation of the plan of salvation.

Why are we not convincing? Many times it is because we do not have a life that proves what we believe. That is not true in every case, of course, but in general the most convincing thing to the lost is the different life of a believer.

God said in I Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready.” Since God says for you to sanctify the Lord God in your heart, this is not talking about salvation. We are talking about sanctifying Him or putting Him up on a pedestal so there is no second place. There is only Jesus. “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready.” If you are going to sanctify the Lord God in your heart, you had better be ready to do something.

“Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you the reason of the hope that is in you.” If you do not sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, if there is not an observable difference in your life, if you are living the same as the lost, or maybe even worse, if the lost cannot see a change in your life, they are not going to ask you, “What happened in your life? What kind of hope do you have?” It is because of our unchanged life that we have an ineffective witness.

That is what God means in John 6:45, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be all taught of God.’ Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father save He which is of God. He has seen the Father.”

What must we believe? What did He say in verse 37? He says He will never cast us out. In Verse 39 He says He will never lose us. We need to trust Him to do that and understand who He is and what he did.

In John 6:47 Jesus said, “Verily, verily!” It was not that He had been lying until this time, and now He is going to tell them the truth. “Verily” means: “truly,” but He did not have to say “verily,” because He was going to tell the truth. He always told the truth. He said “Verily, verily,” because He was about to say something profound. So, let us see what it is.

“He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” Can you make it any clearer than that? He said, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life?” He did not say, “He that believeth on Me “will” have everlasting life.” He did not say, “He that believeth on Me ‘and.'” He said, “He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” If you believe the things He said here: that He will never cast you out, He will never lose you, and that all you have to do is believe it; you have everlasting life. It is as simple as that.

I remember when I heard what is now my favorite verse for the first time.  Fred Bishoff was teaching a Bible study in which he read I John 5:13. It says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

After I trusted Christ as my Savior, I began to wonder about some things.

I said to myself, “Whoa! Hey! I can know it! I do not have to hope so. I do not have to guess. There is no ‘maybe.’ I can know it. I do not have to wish. I can know I have eternal life, and I have it now. And it is eternal so I can never lose it! And He says the only thing I have to do is believe it. I’ll believe that!” And based upon that verse, I trusted Jesus Christ to get me to heaven.

Then I started wondering. So, I asked Bob Sprinkle, the high school Bible teacher at our church about it. I said, ”Why is it that if it’s so simple that if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior you can know you’re going to heaven and that’s all you have to do, why did God stick it way over in I John?” I mean really? I asked him that. So my Bible teacher said, “What about John 6:47? It says, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you, he did believeth on Me hath everlasting life.’” You cannot make it clearer than that.

Billy Graham had said back then that before you read any other book in the Bible, you ought to read the book of John five times. I had done that. I read the book of John five times and I missed this verse somewhere along the line.

What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

We have all got sin. We have all done things wrong. To get to heaven we cannot have any sin. We must be perfect, but we have all done things wrong. The reason we cannot take any sin into heaven is because it is sin that causes us to die and be separated from God in the first place. If even one sin were to enter heaven, then there would be death in heaven, and everyone would die, and be sick, and fuss with each other, and have all kinds of problems. God cannot allow that in heaven, because everyone that He would let into heaven would die. So, our sin must be paid for.

However, since sin causes death, the wages of sin is death, which is separation from God. So, we cannot pay for our sin.

Jesus Christ did not have any sin, yet what did He do on the cross? He died! What is the payment for sin? It is death. So, He died and paid for our sin so we can have the perfect righteousness it takes to get to heaven. What is the difference between a person who goes to heaven and a person who goes to hell?

John 6:47 tells us: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.”

I John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that He that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That is what we are supposed to believe.

What about the power of God? Remember, Jesus said, “Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” What is the power of God?

Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believeth.” The Pharisees apparently were not even saved, because they did not understand the power of God, the gospel. There is no wonder that they were erring. They were erring in the most important thing in the Scriptures. They were erring in salvation.

Romans 1:3[26] points out that the power in the gospel is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, what is the gospel?

I Corinthians 15:1 says: “I declare unto you the gospel.”

In verse three God tells us what the gospel is in five words.  “How that Christ died for our sins.” Five words. “Christ” He is God. “Died” He paid for sin by death. “For” His death had a purpose which was to pay for sins. “Our” It is personal. We must make a choice. “Sin.” “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Christ died for our sins. What do we have to do? “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” What must we do? We must believe it.

I used to love to listen to a godly woman where we used to attend church in North Carolina where we were missionaries at the time, when she used to sing about when she got saved. Almost every time she sang she would praise God that, when she got saved, God gave her something she could feel.

Yes, He did. Praise God, many times you can feel it, but that is not how you know you are saved. You can feel excitement, elation, ecstasy, infatuation, anticipation, trepidation, and any number of other emotions, and still not be saved; and you can be saved and not feel a thing.

How do you know what to believe about how you can know God’s will and leading? Should you meditate? Should you listen for the voice of God?

I have heard some people say, “When I hear God tell me something, then I will know what to do.”

You do not have to hear the voice of God to know what to do. He has written detailed instructions of what to do in His Word, and you do not have to hear a voice or feel led to obey His written command. In fact if you hear an audible voice, unless it comes from your preacher or teacher as he explains the Word of God, it probably did not come from God at all. Although God can and sometimes has spoken that way, that is generally not the way He communicates with us now.

Let us study the Bible, the voice of God, and then do what God tells us in the Bible! The only way to know God’s will is exclusively through the Word of God.

What about help books? If they help you understand the Word of God, they are great.

What about commentaries? If they help you understand the Word of God, they may be helpful, but if they are not talking about the Bible, I would be very careful, because they may not be explaining Biblical principles. They may be telling you the truth, but if they do not use verses from the Bible, then there is no power there even though they may be right.

So, the only way to avoid error, know God, know you are saved, know what to believe, know God’s leading and will, and the only way to know how to be happy is exclusively through the Word of God.

Most importantly, the Bible gives the absolute certainty of going to heaven. God tells us that we can know we are going to heaven and exactly what we have to do to get there. We can know that we have eternal life by simply trusting Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as the complete payment for sin. So, if you would like to trust Jesus Christ to get you to heaven, I encourage you to do that right now.                                     Pastor Jerry

Do you know where you are going when you die? __________

On what are you depending to get to heaven? _______________

___________________________________________________________________

[1] Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

[2] Nave, Orville J., Nave’s Topical Bible.

[3] “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”

[4] Acts2:32 “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”

[5] John 6:64, 71 “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

“He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.”

[6] Schafer, Peter, The Origins of Jewish Mysticism, pp. 66, 68, & 72.

[7] Hebrews 2:3-4 “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”

[8] Mark 5:41-42 “He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose.”

[9] John 9:1 &7 “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” “And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”

[10] Mark 8:22-25 “He cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”

[11] Mark 7:32-35 “And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”

[12] Matthew 8:16 “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick.”

[13] Luke 17:10-14 “as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.”

[14] John 6:19 “When they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.”

[15] I Corinthians 15:4 “He was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

[16] Miller, H.S., General Biblical Introduction,  pp. 105 & 129.

[17] Joshua 10:13 “Is not this written in the book of Jasher?  So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.”

[18] Miller, M.A., General Biblical Introduction, p. 108.

[19] I John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

[20] John 20:30 “Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

[21] Romans 1:4 “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

[22] James 5:14 “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

[23] Hodges, Zane, The Epistle of James, p. 7.

[24] Spierling, Karin E., Infant Baptism in Reformation Geneva. pp. 4, 32-33.

[25] Romans 12:3 “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

[26] Romans 1:4 “Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”