Going back to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. I think the title
is probably evident. Taught of God. It says in verse
45, And they shall be all taught of God. He's quoting from Isaiah
54, 13. As I read there, he said, All
thy children all thy children shall be taught of the Lord."
He does not leave our instructions, our learning, He doesn't leave it to anyone
other than Himself. Now, He uses men, pastors and
teachers, but He's the instructor. Or you're not going to learn
anything. And I can assure you, if God is your teacher, you will
learn. You will learn. And every one
of his children shall be taught. He's going to teach them some
things. And the things that he teaches them, the importance of it, the value
of it, cannot be estimated. It cannot be estimated. You know,
we can put a value on a good education. You know, they do. They say a person who graduates
from college makes this X amount of dollars more than someone
from high school. And, you know, duh, duh, duh. But I tell you
what, you cannot put a value on that which God teaches. Paul
said this over in Philippians. Philippians chapter three, this
is what Paul says. He says in Philippians three,
verse eight, yea, doubtless. And I count all things, all things, but loss. For the
excellency of what? The knowledge. The excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. Of knowing Him, being
instructed by Him, being taught of God. That's what I want. That's what you want, is to be
taught of God. The lessons are invaluable. Now,
I know this. I know that religion and being
religious is common to all men. It's common to all men. But all
men are not taught of God. And just because a man is religious
does not mean he's being taught of God. Not at all. All men are religious and it's
common to all men. All men by nature have or believe
in a God. It's the God of their imaginations. He said in the psalm, you thought
I was all together like yourselves. And men imagine God to be a certain
way and they try to worship him. in the way they think he is. And it's always in a way that
suits them. It's in a way that suits them.
But it's not according to truth. But we also know that there's
only two religions in the world, out of all these religions, and
all men are religious, and no matter where you go, you're going
to find some form of worship, you're going to find some form
of of sacrifices or a temple or something that shows that
they believe in a God or they believe in something above themselves.
But there's only two religions in the world. Only two. You can narrow it down to just
two. It's the one of works and it's the one of grace. One, the
one that's of works is of Satan. And the one that's all of grace
is all of Christ. There's only two religions. Out
of all these religions, someone was saying to me here not too
long ago, I believe it was over in Kauai, a man was saying, why
is there so many churches on every corner? There's not. There's
a lot of buildings on every corner. There's a lot of buildings on
every corner, but there's not a lot of churches on every corner.
There's a lot of different religions on every corner, but not really.
Not really, there's only two religions in this town. It's
one of works and it's one of grace. That's the way it is all
over this world. It's either all of works or it's
all of grace. Let me give you some marks of religion that is
without Christ. Turn over to Matthew chapter
23. Matthew chapter 23. we are given
marks of religion that is without Christ. In Matthew 23, look in verse
5. Here we have everything they
do is to be seen of men. He says here in verse 5, but
all their works they do to be seen of men. They make broad
their palactories and enlarge the borders of their garments,
and all this they do in order to be seen of men. And they love
offices, verse 6, and they love the uppermost rooms at feast
and the chief seats in the synagogue. They're not there to worship
God. They're there to be seen of men. to sit up front to be
noticed by men, to be noticed by the congregation. These are
the marks of religion without Christ. And then they love titles
in verse 7, and greetings in the markets. And they love to
be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, or Doctor, Doctor, Doctor of
Divinity. They like this. They make long
prayers to be heard of men. Look over in verse 14. Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, for ye devour widows'
houses and for a pretense. You make long prayers, as though
the longer the prayer, the more in touch they are with God. Therefore,
you shall receive the greater damnation. And then in verse 15, there are
soul winners. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites,
For ye encompass sea and land to make one proselyte." You put
forth a lot of effort to make one proselyte, and when he's
made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. They tithe. Look at verse 23. They don't give any more than
they have to, but they give their ten percent. Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you pay tithes of mint, anise,
and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith." That's because they don't know
anything about it. They don't know anything about it. They
don't know anything truly. I mean, they don't know the truth about
judgment, mercy, and faith. And they omit these things. These
ought you to have done and not leave the others undone. And
they do good works outwardly. Look in verse 25. Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you make clean the outside
of the cup, you wash it up, you join the moral majority and of
the platter, but within you're full of extortion and excess.
God sees the heart. He knows what's within. And you appear beautiful on the outward
side. You're well dressed. But inwardly,
inwardly you're full of dead men's bones." Look here in verse
27, "'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You're like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful on the outside, outward, but
are within full of dead men's bones." I like this, "'but are
full of dead bones.'" You're full of dead bones. The house
is dead. and of all uncleanness. And then notice here what they
do. Look in verse 29. They brag on the dead prophets
and they crucify the living ones. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees
and hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and
you garnish the sepulchres of the righteous. And you say, if
we had been in the days of our fathers, We would not have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets, and yet they're
about to kill the greatest prophet of all, the prophet of the prophets. They're going to murder him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That is religion without Christ,
and the foundation for all natural religion is tradition Most people that go to their
assemblies on Sundays or Wednesdays, they do what they do because
that's the way it's always been done. Most of them can't tell
you why they do it. They do what they do because
that's what we do. And it's built, the foundation of their religion
is built on tradition and it's built on human logic. That's
what it's built on. But the foundation for true religion,
the foundation of it is this, thus saith the Lord. I don't
care what mom and dad did. I don't care what grandpa did.
It doesn't matter. It does not matter. It's thus saith the Lord, even
though I don't understand it. There's a lot of things I don't
understand. Yet I believe it because It's
the Word of God. It is the Word of God. God logic
and human logic can never come together. My thoughts are not
your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. Would
you do things the way God does them? The Lord giveth and the
Lord taketh. When's the last time you really
took something from your child? Really took it away. I mean,
made it hurt. He does. He does. My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and my ways are not your ways. Any sinner whom the Lord saves
will be taught of God. God will, listen, and this is
comforting. This is a blessing. God becomes
my personal, I mean, he becomes my teacher. He becomes my instructor. Everything that I endure every
day, everything that comes my way, God is teaching. There is
a lesson in every moment of our lives. God is instructing. Sometimes it takes us a little
longer to get it. You know, when I was in school,
I wasn't one of those that got it the fastest, but I get it. And sometimes it just takes a
little longer for some of us to get it. But I tell you what,
when God teaches you, you get it. You will get it. You will
come to understand what you are by nature. You will come to know
and understand and agree with what Paul said after God saved
him. O wretched man that I am. And he said that after God saved
him. And you know what? He never got
above it. He never got above it. Let me
slip through my notes here and see if I can find something.
I may not be able to find it. Yeah, here it is. Listen to this. I'm way ahead of myself on my
notes. Job said this, I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear. Have you? You have. You've heard the gospel
preached. You believe the gospel. But there
comes a time, if you're God's child, you're going to experience
what you've heard. You've heard God's sovereign.
You're going to learn it. You're going to experience it.
You're going to experience what you've heard. Job said, I've
heard thee by the hearing of the ear, but now might I seeeth
thee. I see you. And you know what
he said? Wherefore, because of this, because
of this revelation that I have been given, that God gives every
one of His children, because of this, I abhor myself. Now, in today's society, They would say, you know, you
shouldn't abhor yourself. You know, that just goes against
all of the teaching of our day. But if God instructs you, if
He teaches you, He's going to show you who you are. He's going
to show you what you are. Job said, I abhor myself and
I repent in dust and ashes. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. My sin
is ever before me. This is the king. This is the
king speaking. The king of Israel. David, the
sweet psalmist of Israel. My sin is ever before me. This is more than just doctrine. This is an experience. You know,
salvation is an experience. You know, we know that Christ
is our salvation, but I tell you what, He's an experience.
If you ever experience salvation, you're going to experience Christ.
You're going to experience what it is to meet Him, to know Him,
to do business with Him. It's an experience as well as
a doctrine. Paul said this. Now listen, this
is Paul. This is Paul as he ages. As he
grows in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, oh, I count all things
as lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. This is the
man who was a chief apostle. You and I would call him the
chief apostle. But he doesn't call himself the chief apostle.
He said, I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. He persecuted
the church. He wasted it. He did what none
of the other apostles did. He consented to the death of
God's children. He consented to the death of
Stephen. I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. I am the chief
of sinners. And believe me, he's not just
saying that because it sounds good. What he's saying he experienced.
You know, I'm sure he never forgot, and I know he knew where Stephen
was, he knew Stephen was with the Lord, but I know he never
forgot standing there that day consenting to his death. He never forgot that day that
he stoned him and he watched it. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
not worthy to be called an apostle. And now listen, I am less than
the least of the saints. Listen, this is true humility.
This is true humility, because it's written here in the Word
of God. And I know when Paul is saying this, he's saying it
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and what he has experienced. And he means he's the least of
the saints. He's not worthy. He's called
an apostle, chief of sinners, and less than the least of the
saints. Thank God if He teaches you that and me that. And if
He teaches us this, it will be a lifelong lesson. It will be a lifelong lesson.
It's not something you just learn one time and then you go on to
the next one. No, this is something you learn
day by day, day by day. So this is something, every time
God saves a sinner, when He saves one of His children, brings them
to know Him, He teaches them. He personally teaches them. He's
their instructor. Natural wisdom will not help
us in this matter of salvation. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. And there was a time we felt
that same way. It was foolishness. There was
a time I had no interest in the gospel. I had no interest in
Jesus Christ in any way, shape, or form. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God through their foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them. You can talk till you're blue
in the face, and he cannot know them until God gets a hold of
him, until God becomes his instructor, until God becomes his teacher,
until God gives him light, God gives him understanding, God
gives him light, and God teaches him. And when he teaches, he
never stops. The teaching never stops. constantly instructing them. And all whom he teaches comes
to his Son. All that the Father giveth me,
he says in verse 37, comes to me. Then he says back over here
in verse 45, every man therefore that hath heard God has spoken
to him. I mean, God has spoken to him
powerfully. God has commanded light and life. And he hath learned
of the Father. The Father has taught him. It
comes to me. It comes to Christ. Our Lord
is saying that no one will come to him in a saving manner until
the Father draws him. Don't you like the way that is?
It doesn't drive him. He draws it with cords of love. Now, we don't recognize the love
in the beginning of it. I think in the beginning of it,
when a sinner is awakened, he's awakened to his wretched nature
and he learns who God is. He learns that God is holy. He
learns that God can justly condemn him. God can justly send him
to hell. He learns that. But those instructions are taught
by a loving father to his children. That's what he's doing. Call to God. There's a teaching
process in salvation. Just like these children here
growing up, they are instructed. They are taught. They're taught
at home and then sent to school, and they're taught at school,
but they're instructed. And there's a teaching process
in salvation. John says this in 1 John. How
many times does he say this? And we know. We'll read 1 John
tonight. And we know. And we know. You
know why we know? We're taught of God. The Son of God, it says over
in 1 John, I believe it's chapter 5, the Son of God has come and
given us an understanding. Before that, we thought he was
just like us, up and down. change and wink at sin like we
do? Pass by it and let it go? Or
maybe we'll deal with it, maybe we won't. He's nothing like us. That's
what you find out. God teaches His children. He
removes, listen, He removes their ignorance. You don't like to
be called ignorant, do you? Think of somebody who you think
is more ignorant than you are. Those are the ones who usually
call you ignorant. But that's what he's doing. He's
removing our ignorance. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He removes our ignorance. He
commands light. He illuminates. Your children
of light have been illuminated by God. God does not save men
apart from their understanding. He gives us an understanding.
He gives us an understanding. You can't believe what you don't
know. You know, true faith is born of knowledge. You're instructed out of the
word of God, the gospel of the priest, and you believe what
God's taught you. You believe what you're hearing.
You believe the voice of the shepherd. He gives you an understanding. He takes his word. You know,
when you go to school, you have a textbook, don't you? Every
class has a textbook. I was never in a class that did
not have a textbook. And the teacher had the same
textbook, and the teacher taught out of the textbook. You go chapter
one, chapter two, then you go through it. We have a textbook
that God teaches us out of, and no other book. I mean, he teaches
us out of this book. Out of his word. Out of his word. Listen. To the law and to the
testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it's because there's no light in them. Christ is not in there. God is
not in there. Listen to this, Psalm 119, 130.
The entrance of thy words giveth light. Listen, it giveth understanding. The entrance of what? Thy words. It gives light, it gives understanding,
listen, unto the simple. Come to the simple. You really
don't become simple until God teaches you who you are. Then you realize what you are
by nature and how really much you don't know. We don't know
much. Einstein didn't know much. Compared to me, he did. Good
God. Can you imagine what Adam knew?
Wouldn't you like to know what Adam knew? The intelligence of
that man, that perfect man, perfect intelligence? Named all the animals? Unimaginable. Isaiah 55.11, My word shall not
return void. I wonder how many students return
home today void. The teacher tried to teach him
something and they got home and he's like, I don't remember what
it was. How many return home void? And I tell you what, none
of God's children, none of His words return home void after
teaching His children. None at all. Of His own will began He us with
the word of truth. Teaches them with His word. He
reveals himself through his word of truth, and we learn who he
is. And he sends us ministers to
teach us his word. You know, it says that when he
was over in Ephesians, I'm trying to think, when he ascended on
high, he led captivity captive and received gifts for men. You know, some of the greatest
gifts that he received for men are men. I think one of the greatest gifts
God ever gave me was my pastor Henry. Wasn't it? The greatest gift I was ever
given is to have such a faithful pastor tell me the truth. The greatest gifts God received
for men are men. He gives us pastors, teachers,
faithful servants, the Apostle Paul, Peter, and all those who
wrote the Scriptures. He sends his ministers. He sent
Philip to Eunuch. If God's going to save a man,
he's going to send him a man. And that man's going to have his
word. He sent Peter to Cornelius. He
sent Ananias to Paul. Even after he met him on the
road to Damascus, he still sent a man to him. If you and I hear
from God, it will be through His preacher. It will be through
His preacher. Now, He speaks to us through
reading His Word, but now He uses His preacher now. I don't
know how many times I sat and read the Word of God, and then
go over and sit down, and I heard Henry preach, and it just cleared
right up. I learned this. I learned if
I sat long enough and listened long enough, my questions would
be answered. If you sit long enough, you listen long enough,
sooner or later your questions will be answered through the
preaching of the gospel. God has ordained it through the
foolishness of preaching, what the world calls foolishness,
to save them that believe. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God, by the preaching of the Word of
God. He teaches us out of His Word.
He sends His preachers. But none of them would work apart
from His Spirit, apart from the Holy Spirit. Like right now,
I'm preaching. I pray. I pray that I'm not doing
this by myself. I pray that what I'm saying is
under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit of God, and
that He sends forth this gospel, His Word, in power. He takes
it, and He makes it enter. the entrance of thy word." He's
the only one who can make it enter. I can't. I can't. But he's the
one. "'Howbeit, when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak, and he will show you things to come.'" So I sent him to preach out of the
Word of God. But he's the one who makes it
effectual. He's the one who can apply it.
He's the one who does apply it. He's the one who gives life.
He's the one who regenerates. He's the one who takes the Word
that's preached and regenerates a sinner. He's the one who puts
the seed in the ground. He's the one who does it. We should beware of any man who
comes and all he wants to speak about is the filling of the Holy
Spirit or the Holy Spirit this or the Holy Spirit that. Now,
we do speak of him, but now listen. Christ said over there in John
16, verse 14, he shall glorify me. He shall glorify me. He takes a dead sinner and regenerates
him with the word of truth through the preaching of the gospel.
That's how he does it. And you know how the tale If
he's in the message, if he's in the service, turn over to Revelations 19.
This is how you know if you drop off,
if you stop off somewhere out visiting, you go to a place,
here's how you know. If he's present, if the Lord's present,
if the gospel's present, in Revelations 19, Look in verse 10, "...and I fell
at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou
do it not? I am thy fellow servant, and
of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God.
For the testimony of Jesus, the gospel of Christ, is the spirit
of prophecy." That's how you know the Holy Spirit is present.
as if Christ is the message. If he's the message, the spirit
of God's presence, if he's getting the glory, if he's the one lifted
up, if I be lifted up, if he's the one lifted up, you can be
sure the spirit of God's in man. This is the spirit of prophecy. I've already covered some of
these notes. He teaches us. He teaches His
people. He teaches every one of His children. He teaches them
what sin is, what we are by nature, who He is, His holiness, and
He teaches us our need of Him. Those who needed healing, it
says in the gospel, written in the gospel, those who needed
healing, he healed. You know, to find out what I
am without seeing my real need of him and his sufficiency, that
would just be misery. When we learn who and what we
are, we also learn who the great physician is. We learn there
is balm in Gilead. We learn our need of Him. Mike
sings that song. I love his song. Give me Christ
or else I die. And that need never goes away. I need Him more today than ever
before. I do. I need Him more today than
ever before. He teaches us our need of Him.
He enables us to go to Him. And
then He teaches us through experience, through His
Word, always through His Word, but we do experience these things,
the nothingness of this world, the brevity of it, the sinfulness
of it, the darkness of it. As you grow older in Christ,
you really do want less and less of these things. He weans his
children from this life, from this world. I understand a little
more, not a lot more, but I understand a little more about Henry He
said, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. He said once
he prayed daily that the Lord would take him and Scott. He
said, I pray for it daily. That's what you call ripe fruit. That is ripe fruit. And that's
how, you know, fruit ripens with the sun shining down on it in
the heat of the summer. It rivals with the rain, the
hard rain and the easy rain. All this brings forth that fruit. And there's a day when it's ready
to be picked and it's time to go. And the Lord teaches us the
nothing of this. I can say, I can say that the
world I see right now is not the same way I saw it 30 years
ago. It's not the same. It's the same. Now, it is the
same. It's the same condemned world. It's the same fallen world. But it's not, I don't see it
the same. I don't look upon it the same. My desires are different
and yours are too. I'm not telling you something
you don't know. Your desires are different because the Lord
is teaching you. You're going home. This is a
journey. And sometimes it takes us a while
to learn that's exactly what it is. It's a journey. And we experience a lot of things
along this journey. But all of it is a part of the
journey home. But we're going home. And that
becomes more real to God's children now. That becomes more real as
time goes by. You experience these ups and
downs and heartaches and good days, bad days. You experience
these things. But it's the Lord teaching. Whatever
it is I'm going through, whatever it is you're going through, the
Lord's teaching. And we are learning even when we don't realize it. We are learning even when we
don't realize we are learning. He teaches. All thy children, all thy children,
shall be taught of God." Not one of them left out. Not one of them left behind because they
didn't like school. There ain't no dropouts in his
class, in his school. He didn't let his children drop
out. They're going to be taught until
he takes them out. Every last one of them shall
be taught of him." That's comforting. That's comforting. We're not
left to find and figure out this thing on our own. He's teaching.
He's instructing. Pay attention. That's what I
say to myself. Pay attention.