Two questions on repentance.
With God, is it ever too late to
repent?
Show scriptures, please.
Answer, yes.
There are situations in life where it's too
late to repent.
Hebrews chapter 6, verse 4.
For it is impossible for those who were
once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gifts and were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost and have tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the age to
come, if they shall fall away to renew
them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh and put
him to an open shame.
Difficult passage of scripture, passage of scripture that
the devil often uses to unsettle the minds
of true believers who might be going through
nervous or emotional problems.
Maybe I can just comment on it.
All of the things that are listed here
can be true of an unsaved person.
I'll go over them.
Actually, the person described in this passage is
an apostate like Judas.
Once enlightened, can you be enlightened without being
saved?
Of course.
You can hear the message of salvation and
know all about it.
Have tasted of the heavenly gifts.
The heavenly gifts, they tasted of the gospel
message of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a difference between tasting and eating, the
difference between tasting and drinking.
These people tasted, but they didn't accept it.
Were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.
Well, we've already mentioned that unsaved people are
partakers of the ministries of the Holy Ghost.
It doesn't mean they were indwelt, but the
convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And we read too that the unbelieving husband
is sanctified by the believing wife.
The spirit of God has a pre, has
a work in the lives of unbelievers as
well as in believers.
Otherwise we never would be saved.
Have tasted the good word of God.
They've heard the gospel, the message of salvation
and the powers of the world to come.
That means the miracles, the miracles that were
performed in the early days of the church
will be performed again in the millennium.
That's what the age to come here is
the millennium, not heaven.
And the powers of the age to come
are miracles that will be performed in the
millennium.
They tasted them in the early days of
the church.
What happened?
They fall away.
They profess to be saved.
Maybe they were baptized.
Maybe they were received into fellowship in a
local church and they abandoned Christianity.
And I want to tell you when a
person does that, it's impossible to renew them
again unto repentance.
Some years ago, there was a man in
charge of Youth for Christ in Toronto.
Carried on for years Youth for Christ and
people said to him, Chuck, you're good, but
you'd be better if you went to seminary.
So he did.
He went back to Princeton seminary and when
he came out, he had nothing.
He ditched the Christian faith.
He's in television entertaining today, but wants nothing
to do with Christ or the things of
God.
He's an apostate.
I've known too many such and I've never
known one ever to be restored.
In fact, if I understand 1 John 5,
you don't even pray for a person to
be restored, you just commit them to the
Lord.
I hope that doesn't sound too harsh.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 17.
Verses showing that it's possible, that it is
possible in some cases to be too late
for repentance.
This is about Esau, verse 16.
Hebrews 12, 16.
Lest there be any fornicator or a profane
person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright.
For ye know how that afterward, when he
would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
He found no place of repentance, though he
sought it diligently with tears.
That's the answer to the question, with God
is it ever too late to repent?
The answer is yes.
And for unsaved people too, I believe there
is such a thing as redemption point.
That I believe that in some cases a
person passes redemption point.
He hears the gospel for the last time.
The Spirit of God knocks on his heart
for the last time.
That's it.
Terrible thing, isn't it?
If anybody here is unsaved, they should think
seriously about that.
Here are some other questions about repentance.
These were passed in previously, but they've been
clarified.
Having been raised in a Christian home, I
knew I was a sinner because God said
so.
I was not taught that repentance is essential
to salvation.
When I put my trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ as my savior, believing God had
raised him from the dead, was I not
and am I not born of the Spirit
of God?
Luke chapter 13, verse 3.
Luke chapter 13, verse 3, the words of
the Lord Jesus.
He says, I tell you nay, but except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
I mentioned the other day that salvation is
like a coin.
It has two sides to it.
One side is repentance.
The other side is faith.
That doesn't mean that repentance is a work.
People are afraid of repentance.
They think that you're adding works to faith.
But repentance isn't.
When we say work, we mean a meritorious
work.
We mean that there's nothing you can do
of a meritorious nature to win or earn
salvation.
Faith itself is a work, but it's not
a meritorious work.
People don't make these depictions.
The Jews came to Jesus and they said,
what good thing, what good work must we
work that we might work the works of
God?
And he said, this is the work of
God that keeps what?
Believe.
Faith is a work, but it's not a
meritorious work.
When it says we're not saved by works,
it means by something meritorious that we do.
There's nothing we can do or be to
earn or gain God's salvation.
Faith is a work.
And repentance in that sense is a work,
but it's not a meritorious work.
I don't approve merit to myself by repenting
of my sins.
John 3, 16, so often used, does not
mention repentance.
No, that's true.
And it doesn't mention the blood of Christ
either.
I mean, no one work presents every aspect
of salvation.
No one verse presents every aspect of salvation
any more than any one gospel message does.
You can't get everything in one message.
That is why I wonder if repentance is
something of which we may not be aware.
In Luke chapter 15, verse seven, I say
unto you that likewise joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repents it, more
than over ninety and nine just persons which
need no repentance.
Isn't the awareness of being lost and the
desire to be saved, knowing that he is
the way, the truth, and the life, evidence
that repentance has taken place?
Fine.
If it is, I think that's just great.
Some time ago I was out in a
meeting in Southern California and a couple came
up to me after the meeting.
It was a gospel meeting and they wanted
to be saved.
And I sat down with them and I
went over the way of salvation and I
asked them, would they like to receive the
Lord Jesus as Savior?
They said yes.
And they both bowed their heads and they
both prayed and they seemed to pray intelligently.
So I said, when they got through, I
said, now I'd like to get your names
and addresses because I want to send you
some gospel, some good literature.
I want to keep in touch with you.
So she gave me her name and address.
And when she finished, she said, his is
the same.
They didn't have the same last name.
They were living together without the formality of
marriage.
They were living in sin.
They wanted to be saved.
Can you be saved?
Can you have Christ and have sin too?
Repent.
There was no evidence of repentance in their
lives.
There was no salvation either.
They never came back.
That was it.
When they were told, it couldn't be.
In fact, isn't the need for repentance particularly
addressed to the Jewish people who had proved
they could not measure up to God's holiness
and after rejected Jesus as the Messiah?
Well, I think that's answered in Acts chapter
20, verse 21.
Acts chapter 20, verse 21, where the apostle
Paul is speaking to the elders of Ephesus
at Miletum.
He says in verse 20, and how I
kept back nothing that was profitable unto you,
but have showed you and taught you publicly
and from house to house, testifying both to
the Jews and also to the Greeks, the
Gentiles, not just to the Jews.
Repentance isn't just for the Jews.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ.
So repentance is for all people, Jews as
well as Gentiles.
Here's a different type of a question.
In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, we have
four gifts that are mentioned, apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastors and teachers.
Four or five.
On addressing these gifts are not those men
who are gifts to the whole universal church
worldwide.
Well, let's just read Ephesians chapter 4.
I really don't know what's in back of
this question.
That's one of the problems that oftentimes people
have a real problem, but it's not clear
to the person who's trying to answer it.
Ephesians 4 and 11, and he gave some
apostles, some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers.
It doesn't say that these gifts were given
to the church.
I suppose to be accurate, it's better to
say that they were gifts given to men
because this passage that's quoted from the Psalms,
notice in verse eight says, when he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men.
Why does it say unto men and not
under the church?
Well, I think, for instance, evangelists.
The evangelist's parish is the world, isn't it?
Rather than the church.
The evangelist is not sent forth into the
church, but he's sent forth to the world.
And so to be scripturally accurate, you'd say
these men that are listed here are the
gifts and they're given to men, rather than
I would say to the whole universal church.
And I mentioned before, I think these are
special service gifts that God raised up and
that we have the last three of them
still today.
Maybe whoever asked that, if it's not satisfactory,
can come ask me privately.
Could you explain Acts 19?
We went over this before, but I'll just
go over it again.
It's apparently causing trouble to people.
Acts chapter 19 verses one through seven.
This passage of scripture has to do with
a group of men whom we call disciples
of John the Baptist.
You remember how John the Baptist came on
the scene and preached repentance.
He was a forerunner of the Messiah.
And he was saying in effect, look, the
Messiah is coming, but he can only rule
over a repentant people.
And so people did flock out to the
Jordan river, some of them genuine and some
of them spurious to be baptized.
And this was a group of men who
had come out and were baptized of John
Baptist.
And what they were saying is, look, we
are sinful and we take our place as
sinful Israelites waiting for the Messiah to come.
We recognize that.
Now let's read it.
It came to pass that while Apollos was
at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper
coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples,
he said unto them, did you receive the
Holy Spirit when you believe?
And they said unto him, no, we did
not so much as hear whether the Holy
Spirit was given.
He said unto them, unto what were you
baptized?
They said unto John Baptist.
That was a baptism of repentance.
It was not the same as believers baptism.
It was not the same as Christian baptism.
Then said Paul, John Gurley baptized with a
baptism of repentance saying unto the people that
they should believe on him, which should come
after him.
That is on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this, they were baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid his hands upon
them, the Holy Spirit came on them and
they spoke with tongues and prophesied and all
the men were about 12.
Question, could you explain Acts 19, 1 through
7 a little further where these men, Christians
yet, are only ready to believe, having been
convicted of sin.
They were not believers as yet until you
get down to verse five.
There they accepted the Lord Jesus and were
baptized with Christian baptism.
I hope that clarifies that.
And the final question, self-esteem has been
wrongly manipulated by motivationalists.
Do you consider it wrong to encourage a
person regarding those talents given him by the
Lord in an effort to motivate him to
develop and use those talents?
Well, certainly it's not wrong, for instance, for
Christian parents to encourage their boys and girls.
I think in some ways that's what that
verse means, train up a child in the
way he should go, and when he's old
he will not depart from it.
The verse has many different applications, and one
of the applications is this, watch your child.
See, try to see what the Lord has
prepared him for and encourage him along that
line.
And while I say that, let me just
say this, that it's a very good thing
for Christian parents to hold the work of
the Lord before their children as a desirable
way to spend their lives, and not many
Christian parents do it.
I was brought up in a wonderful Christian
home, I thank God for my mother and
father.
But they were immigrants, they came over from
Scotland, and they had tremendous drive.
They wanted us to be successful in business
and have a nice home in suburbia with
hot and cold clothing, doors, and expensive cars,
and all the rest.
And I don't remember ever in our home
having the work of the Lord suggested to
me as a desirable way to spend my
life.
Which really means that a lot of Christian
parents, a lot of Christian parents, when they
hold worldly ambitions before their children, they're really
raising them for the world and for health.
Something for Christian parents to think about.
So watch your child and see what God
has done in that child and try to
encourage him along that line.
However, in encouraging him to develop his talents,
you don't want to cater to pride or
egotism either, do you?
And so there's a delicate balance there.
You want him to use his talents for
the glory of God and for the good
of others, but not in any manner of
exhibitionism or trying to attract attention to himself.
Okay, I think for the benefit of those
who've come in in the last couple of
days, we'll just review some of the material
we've been over.
If you want to pull that down just
a little, Randy, I think that's good.
We've been going over the person and work
of the Holy Spirit and we came to
his ministries and we mentioned, first of all,
that he convicts the unsaved of sin and
then he points them to the Lord Jesus
and when they receive Christ as Lord and
Savior, he regenerates them.
And then at the same time that he
regenerates them, he baptizes them into the body
of Christ.
We mentioned the baptism of the Spirit.
It takes place at the moment a person
is saved and all believers have been baptized
into the body of Christ.
He indwells believers.
All believers are indwelt by the Spirit of
God and he gives the believer a consciousness
of sonship so that he looks up into
the face of God and says, Abba, Father.
Other ministries of the Holy Spirit, the seal.
The Holy Spirit is the seal, speaking of
security and also of destination and ownership.
He's the earnest.
He's the engagement ring, the guarantee that the
whole inheritance will be ours.
He's spoken of as another comforter, another of
the same kind as the Lord Jesus himself.
He's the anointing and that's the teaching ministry
of the Holy Spirit, enabling a believer to
discern between truth and error.
And we mentioned that up to that point
in our little outline, all of that belongs
to every believer, every believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
But then when you come to the filling,
that's a command.
Be ye continually filled with the Spirit.
That's something that imposes an obligation on us.
There are conditions we must meet in order
to be filled with the Spirit.
He guides believers.
Many of us are led by the Spirit
of God.
They are the sons of God.
He prays for believers with groanings which cannot
be uttered.
He gives gifts to believers and we spent
quite a time going over that whole subject
of gifts.
And then he produces a fruit of holiness.
Maybe we can just move it up a
bit, probably quite a bit.
Yeah, will it stay?
That's good.
He produces a fruit of holiness, a fruit
of the Spirit.
Galatians chapter 5.
He glorifies Christ.
And that's the subject we ended on last
night, I think.
That wonderful ministry of the Lord Jesus by
which he hounds himself, as it were, and
glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
The true servant of the Lord wants to
be hidden behind the cross.
Okay, that brings us to the next point
and that is he gives his witness.
The witness, we read about the witness of
the Spirit.
Let me just read the passages first and
then we'll comment on them.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 16.
Romans 8 and verse 16.
The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
Hebrews chapter 10 verses 15 through 18.
Says whereof the Holy Ghost also is a
witness to us for after that he had
said before this is a covenant that I
will make with them after those days set
the Lord I will put my laws into
their hearts their minds will I write them
and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more.
Now where remission of these is there is
no more offering for sin.
Notice whereof the Holy Spirit also is a
witness to us.
First John chapter 5 verses 6 through 12.
First John chapter 5.
This is in the NASB.
Jim, do you have the NASB there?
Any brother have the NASB?
Would you read it please?
So first John 5, 6 through 12.
Thank you very much.
It says that the one who believes of
the Son of God has a witness in
himself.
Supposing I would ask you today do you
have the witness of the Spirit?
Those of you who are saved do you
have the witness of the Spirit today?
What would you say?
If you say yes I'll ask you what
is the witness of the Spirit?
I remember years ago at the end of
a gospel meeting a young lady came to
me and she was in tears and and
she wanted to be saved and she wanted
to know that she was saved and and
she was willing to trust Christ as her
Savior but every time she would go home
after the gospel meeting her mother would say
to her well Shirley do you have the
witness of the Spirit?
Shirley would look in to see whether she
had the witness of the Spirit or not
and her mother never explained to her what
the witness of the Spirit was.
How could she know was she had it
or not?
I guess a lot of people think the
witness of the Spirit is kind of a
warm fuzzy feeling that you get when you
believe in Jesus.
But I've told you already watch out for
feelings.
Only one man in the Bible trusted his
feelings and he was deceived.
What is the witness of the Spirit?
Well I would like to suggest to you
today and really I hope this sinks in.
The witness of the Spirit comes first and
foremost through the Word of God.
That's how the Spirit witnesses.
Not by feelings, God forbid.
The Spirit of God witnesses to us through
the Word of God.
Let me give you an illustration.
How does the witness, how does the Spirit
of God witness to me that I am
a believer?
First and foremost okay I turn to John
chapter 5 and verse 24 which is so
familiar to all of you.
I'm just going to turn to it anyway
because this is how the Spirit witnesses to
me.
John 5 24.
Verily verily I say unto you he that
heareth my word.
Jesus is speaking.
Jesus who cannot lie.
Jesus who cannot deceive.
Jesus who cannot be deceived.
He is the speaker.
I say unto you, you that's me.
This is the Spirit of God driving at
home to my house.
He that heareth my word.
He says to me, have you heard his
word?
And that doesn't mean just hear with the
ear.
It means hear and receive.
It means hear and accept.
It means hear and believe.
Have you heard his word?
Yes I say.
The best way I know how.
I have heard his word receptively.
And believeth on him that sent me.
Who sent the Lord?
God sent him.
Why wouldn't he send him?
To send him to be my savior.
He sent him because I was lost in
sin.
And he sent him to die on the
cross of Calvary for me.
You believe that?
Yes I believe that.
What does it say?
Have everlasting life.
The Spirit of God witnesses to me because
I have fulfilled the conditions I have everlasting
life.
What else?
Shall not come into judgment.
Never be brought before God for judgment because
Christ bore the judgment on the cross of
Calvary.
But is passed from death unto life.
Have you passed from death?
Yes I passed from death unto life.
How do you know it?
Because Jesus said it.
And when I go through that little routine,
the Spirit of God witnesses to me that
I am a child of God.
First and foremost, there are other ways in
which he witnesses.
I told you about that before.
After I was saved, I had a new
love for holiness.
I had a new hatred of sin.
I had a new love for the brethren.
I began to practice righteousness and all the
other tests of life that you have in
1 John.
But this is how the Spirit of God
witnesses, not through some mysterious feeling.
I don't deny that there is an inner
peace that the Holy Spirit gives to us.
But just remember, your feelings are variable.
They change from day to day, and we
want to base our faith on the infallible
word of God.
But I believe that's how the Spirit of
God witnesses to us.
Then the Spirit of God also restrains the
full development of evil.
2 Thessalonians 2.7. There is someone in
the world today who is restraining evil in
the world.
Let's just get it and read it.
2 Thessalonians 2.7. And I'll read it
in the revised version because some of these
words have changed their meaning over the years,
haven't they?
2 Thessalonians.
My pages are all sticking together here.
2.7. For the mystery of lawlessness doth
already work.
Only there is one that restraineth now until
he be taken out of the way.
And then shall be revealed the lawless one
whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the
breath of his mouth and bring to naught
by the manifestation of his coming.
Even he whose coming is according to the
working of Satan, with all power and signs
and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that are perishing, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved.
Now, I know it doesn't say here that
this is the Holy Spirit.
As far as I'm concerned, the Holy Spirit
is the only one that satisfactorily answers to
the description, he that restraineth now.
At the time of the rapture, he will
be taken out of the world.
He will be taken out of the world
as the permanent indweller of believers and as
the permanent indweller of the church.
And when he's taken out of the world,
corruption will spread rapidly.
All the salt will be gone, won't it?
Christians are the salt of the earth and
we dwelt by the Spirit of God, they
will be taken out.
Then the Holy Spirit is the one who
inspired the scriptures.
This is a very wonderful ministry of the
Holy Spirit.
I'd like you to turn back to 1
Corinthians chapter 2 in this regard.
1 Corinthians chapter 2.
Okay, I'm going to begin reading in verse
6 and I'm going to read through to
the end of the chapter.
Don't want to hurry over this because it's
really important.
How be it we, we here means the
apostles, we here means the apostles to whom
the New Testament revelation was given.
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.
Perfect means mature, doesn't mean sinless, does it?
If it meant sinless, they wouldn't have any
audience to speak to.
We speak wisdom among the them that are
spiritually mature, yet a wisdom not of this
world nor of the rulers of this world
which are come to not, but we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even
the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the
world unto our glory.
What does that all mean?
Is that just a holy jumble of words?
No, it's not.
When you come to that word mystery in
the New Testament, it doesn't mean what we
think it means today.
It doesn't mean a murder story with a
surprising end.
A mystery in the New Testament is a
truth never hitherto known, but now it has
been revealed by the apostles and prophets of
the New Testament to God's people.
For instance, I quoted before, behold, I show
you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed.
Now there's nothing mysterious about that.
It's just that it was a truth that
had never been known before.
Now it's revealed.
And incidentally, it's a truth that never could
have been known by man's intellect alone.
It's a truth that can only be known
by divine revelation.
We have a lot of mysteries in the
New Testament, not that they're mysterious at all,
just that nobody ever knew them before.
And so that's what the apostle Paul is
saying here.
We, the apostles, are speaking the wisdom of
God in a mystery.
And what he's really referring to is the
truths that are found in the New Testament
that were never known before.
It says, verse 8, which none of the
rulers of this world know, for had they
known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory.
They did it in ignorance.
But as it is written, I have not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God
has prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by
his spirit, us, the apostles and prophets of
the New Testament period.
For the spirit search of all things, yea,
the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a
man save the spirit of man which is
in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no
man but the spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of
the world, but the spirit which is of
God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God, which
things also we speak not in the words
which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy
Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things,
yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the
Lord, that he may instruct him, but we
have the mind of Christ.
Now see if I can simplify this for
you.
There are three subjects in this passage of
scripture I have just read.
Revelation, inspiration, illumination.
Revelation, this is 6 through 12.
I'll go over this and explain.
Revelation, verses 6 through 12.
Illumination, verse 13.
No, wait a minute.
Revelation, inspiration, verse 13.
I'm sorry.
Inspiration, verse 13.
Illumination, verses 14 through 16.
Now, when we speak of revelation, that means
those verses, verses 6 through 12, are describing
how the Spirit of God revealed the truths
of the New Testament to the apostles and
prophets.
Revelation.
You have it again, for instance, in 1
Thessalonians 4.
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, and
shall be the voice of the archangel with
the trump of God.
Yet in Christ shall rise first.
We which are alive and remain shall be
product.
Nobody ever knew that before.
That was revealed to the apostle Paul.
And he's describing that revelation, the process, in
verses 6 through 12, right?
Okay.
Verse 13 has to do with inspiration.
He took a pen in his hand to
write it down.
Now, how did he write it down?
Did he say, did the Lord say to
him, now Paul, just give the gist of
what I told you?
Is that what he did?
You give your own Paul Harvey commentary on
what I've just told you.
Is that what he did?
No.
Inspiration, verse 13, I'll go over it.
And then illumination.
Illumination means, how do we understand it?
The Word of God.
The Spirit of God illuminates it to our
hearts.
Revelation, verses 6 through 12.
Inspiration, verse 13.
Illumination, verses 14 through 16.
Revelation.
In verse 9, Paul is quoting from Isaiah
64, 4.
I have not seen or ear heard neither
avenger to the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for them that love
him.
Paul is saying here, when Isaiah wrote that,
he wasn't thinking about the heavenly state, although
it's a lovely verse to apply to the
heavenly state.
Isaiah, by inspiration of the Spirit of God,
was saying, no man living in my time,
Isaiah's time, could possibly conceive of the truths
that are going to be revealed when the
Lord Jesus comes to the earth.
That's really what it means.
I have not seen, you have not.
You say, how do you know that's what
it means?
Because the next verse says, God has revealed
them unto us.
Revelation.
God has revealed them unto us by his
Spirit.
Are you with me?
They've been revealed.
It's not something you have to wait until
you get to heaven.
These are the truths of the New Testament.
And God has revealed them to us, us,
the apostles and prophets who gave us the
New Testament.
Then he goes on to elaborate on that.
What man knows the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in
him, even so the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God.
What he's saying is that only the Spirit
of God could reveal those things.
We could have gone to all the seminaries
that the world had to offer at that
time.
We never got these truths.
They were directly revealed to us, Paul says,
by the Holy Spirit of God.
We have received not the Spirit of the
world.
We'll kind of enter into that.
But the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God.
Read, don't read yourself into that.
Read the writers of the New Testament.
So much for revelation.
What he's saying in those verses is all
of those wonderful truths that Isaiah prophesied about
have now been revealed.
They were unknown in the Old Testament period,
but they've been revealed now by the Holy
Spirit of God.
Inspiration.
How did they, when they came time to
write it down, how did they write it
down?
Which things also we speak, not in words
which man's wisdom teacheth.
They say, we didn't depend on our own
wisdom when we wrote it down, but words
which the Holy Spirit teacheth.
You have to supply the word words, but
words is the antecedent of that word which
has to be.
So it's really not doing any violence to
the verse at all to say, not in
words which man's wisdom teacheth, but words which
the Holy Spirit teacheth.
And that's what we mean when we say
that we believe in the verbal inspiration of
the scriptures.
We believe that the very words that Paul
wrote were the words of God.
Not the general idea.
Not Paul using his best judgment on the
matter.
No, sir.
The words which the Holy Spirit teacheth.
The verbal inspiration of scripture.
People don't like that.
They say, oh, mechanical dictation, you know.
And the scholars and the intellectuals all go
into a tizzy over mechanical dictation.
Why?
Well, they say, they say, Paul has his
personality in the Pauline writings, and Peter has
his personality.
Their personalities come through in the writing.
And I grant that.
I grant there's a style with Paul and
Peter.
But God harnessed those styles.
I don't have any trouble with that.
I don't have any trouble with mechanical dictation.
If you have a secretary, you dictate a
letter, what do you want her to do?
Just use her own best judgment?
I don't think so.
I think you want her to type it
the way you give it to her, don't
you?
Especially if it's a legal letter that Jim's
going to put out.
You don't want her to use her judgment.
You could really foul it up.
So I don't think it's mechanical dictation.
Or even if it was, I wouldn't object
to it.
But what it means is that when the
word of God, and here especially the New
Testament was written, it was written in the
very words of God.
Words which the Holy Spirit teaches.
Compare, it says comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
That's a very difficult expression, and it's capable
of many different interpretations.
I think it means conveying spiritual truth with
spiritual means.
Because it is the conveying of spiritual truth,
and the words that were used were spiritual
words.
Then we come to illumination.
We know how the Bible, we know how
the New Testament was revealed to Paul and
the others.
We know how they were, the words that
they wrote were God-breathed inspired.
That's what inspired means.
God-breathed verbally inspired.
Yeah, but how do you understand the Bible
after you get it?
It's not like any other book in the
world, is it?
It really isn't.
I've read Shakespeare and a lot of other
books, but I've never read any book like
the Bible.
It's different.
It stands out alone.
He says, but the natural man, now the
natural man, receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God.
In other words, this book is written in
such a way that an unsaved man, apart
from the illumination of the Holy Spirit, he
can't understand it.
And I'd like to emphasize that to our
beloved young people who are here, because you
go off to colleges, you go off to
graduate schools, and you hear these professors get
up, and you hear them rail against the
Bible.
You hear them talk about all the discrepancies
in the Bible and all the rest.
And sometimes you get shaken by it, you
know.
You think, well, these guys wouldn't be where
they are if they didn't know what they
were talking about.
Let me tell you, when they stay in
biology, it's okay.
When they stay in anthropology, it's okay.
But when they get into the Bible, they
don't know what they're talking about.
It's not that they don't want to know,
it's that they can't know.
Don't ever forget that.
When you sit in front of those professors
and they talk like that against the Lord
and against the Lord's Word, just sit there
and say, well, I understand.
I understand you.
You do not have the ability to understand
the Word of God.
Why?
Because they don't have the Spirit of God.
Where does it say that?
It says that right here.
The natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him.
Notice, underline this.
If you underline your Bible, underline this.
Neither can he know them.
That's it.
Neither can he know.
I don't care how many degrees he has
after his name.
If he doesn't have the Spirit of God,
he can't understand the Bible.
My father came over from Scotland.
I doubt, I wish he were alive, I
could ask him some questions, but I doubt
he went through eight grades of school.
But he brought me up with the Word
of God.
And I went off to a very liberal
college.
It was what you call a modernistic college.
They had compulsory chapel and all the rest,
and all the great modernists were brought to
speak to us.
Reinhold Niebuhr.
I'm sorry to say that that is all
there is of this recording.