If everyone can turn to John 16 that we began to read last week, I am going to read the first 15 verses. John 16:1-15 says:
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 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. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
I will stop reading there.
Some of you were here last week. You probably remember this chapter as we went over the first verse or two last week. These verses brought us to other passages in the Bible and we were seeing how they related to John 16. I will just kind of do a quick summary.
If you remember, John 16:1 says:
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
Of course, we know that the Bible is an offense. The Bible is very much an offense to the people of the world. The teaching that is derived from the Bible can be an offense to the people of the world. For instance, May 21, 2011 comes completely from the Bible. It is based on Biblical evidence; and yet when some people hear about this, they do not like it at all and can get very upset.
Someone from our fellowship has a wrap on his truck with the May 21 Judgment Day information on it. It is a beautiful truck and it really stands out wherever he goes. He travels around and people see the date, so they see this information as well as a few Bible verses. They see that this date is Judgment Day. He was just sharing with me a couple of incidents where people were very offended that this information was so prominently and boldly displayed for anybody to see.
They did not like it at all, and we know why. We know why. Actually, it could be anything. It could be a T-shirt with a Bible verse on it; this is offensive to some people. This is because Christ’s Word, the Bible, is an offense. Jesus Himself is that offense that many people just cannot get over. He is the stumblingblock. The Word of God is a stumblingblock to many, many people.
But Jesus said that He spoke these things “that ye should not be offended,” which is referring to His elect people. God’s people, of course, are not offended by the Bible or the Word of God. We love the Bible and we trust the Bible. It is not an offense for us to proclaim the Bible, because this is what Jesus would have us to do.
When He says, “These things have I spoken unto you,” we really have to understand that this is referring to the whole Bible. He is the Word who was made flesh. The whole Bible is what Christ has spoken to us. Even though it is true that historically Jesus spoke specifically to His disciples and to the apostles, this is actually a reference to the whole Word of God.
What we read in verse 2 naturally follows verse 1. In verse 1, He is implying that people will be offended by the things that He has spoken. Then John 16:2 says:
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
We have to make one correction here in this passage where we read the word “time.” This is the Greek word hora. What does that sound like, hora? It sounds like “hour.” It is very close to our English word for “hour,” and this is what the word means. Most often it is translated as “hour.” It is also sometimes translated as “time.” In one case, it is translated as “instant.” This is in Luke 2 when Anna came into the temple. It says that she was “coming in that instant” and it is the same word for “hour.”
So it is the same word where Jesus is saying in John 16:2:
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the [hour] cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
We read about being put out of the synagogue in two other places in John. One other place is in John 9. John 9 is the chapter that deals with the healing of the blind man who was born blind. He could never see and Jesus healed him, which was an offence to the Pharisees, to the spiritual leaders of Israel. They abhorred Christ and what He was doing because He was taking away their power and their authority and contradicting their teachings and their doctrines. They did not appreciate Him at all and they did not want to see any good thing attributed to Jesus.
So they called the blind man to their council where they interrogated him as if he had committed a crime. They tried to find out whether or not he truly was a blind man and, if so, how he got healed, and so they called the blind man’s parents.
Then we read in John 9:19-22:
And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
That was a big threat. That was a very big threat.
When we read Israel’s history, we find out how God had commanded at times that if an individual were not circumcised, he was to be cut off from his people—not put to death, just cut off. He was to be removed, separated. He would be an outcast of Israel. Many others were, too, who were ceremonially unclean. They were put outside the camp because they had this uncleanness. The Word of God actually commanded this to be done, which God did in order to teach us about the filthiness of sin and how unclean we are because of our sin.
But this was a horrible thing and a terrible threat to somebody to say, “You will be put out of the synagogue,” because keep in mind that Israel was the corporate body. It was not like the churches. If you are put out of one church, you can go to another church, as there are so many churches today. But Israel was the only nation who was outwardly identified with God and His kingdom; therefore, where could somebody go if they were put out of the synagogue? Could they go to Damascus? Could they go to Babylon?
The whole world was heathen, so to be put outside of Israel was a frightful thing for the Jews because they associated that with not being saved. After all, of course the holy people were the Jewish people. They believed that God was working through the Jewish nation; so if they were thrust out, we can see how they would really fear that.
But, of course, this was not true. This was not true because God has saved individuals outside of Israel all throughout history. Jesus actually went out of His way to explain that there were many widows in Israel whom God did not take care of. Instead, He took care of a widow from another nation. There were also many lepers in Israel, but God did not cleanse them. He cleansed Naaman the Syrian.
The Jews were very upset when Christ told them these things, but yet these were the leaders of Israel. These were the teachers of the Law of God and they taught the people, “This is where you must remain in order to be saved, right here.”
Basically, what they were saying was, “If we put you out, if you are kicked out of the congregation of Israel, spiritually speaking, that is as good as signing your death warrant. You are killed.”
This is why in John 16, God associates being put out of the synagogues with killing, as it says in the second part of John 16:2:
…whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
So the parents of the blind man were fearful. They told the truth, “Yes, he was born blind,” but they did not want to go any further than that. But this was their own son—their own son! They did not want to support and stand up for their own son because they feared being cast out of the church of their day.
We see this same thing in John 12:42 where it says:
Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him…
Did you know this about the chief rulers and the authorities who were constantly tempting Christ and constantly trying to find fault with what He was saying? Many of them believed. These were the same people who later would deliver Him over into the hands of Pilate where He would be crucified and killed for being a false teacher who claimed that He was God. The Jews said, “By our law he ought to die,” and yet many of these people thought, “Well, this man has to be from God.” It says, “many believed on him.”
Look at what Nicodemus said in John 3:2:
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
He did not say, “I know.” He said, “We know.” They had conversations amongst themselves, whispered conversations, not out loud—but they did have conversations. “You know, I heard that He healed the blind. He gave the deaf ears. He raised the dead. He gave the lame man legs to walk. How could he do those things? How is that possible?”
So the scribes and Pharisees who came from Jerusalem came up with an official line in Mark 3 and said, “He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.” This is what they would officially say; however, even amongst the rulers of the Jews, they knew. They had never seen anybody do these things before.
We have charlatans today who claim to do these things, but they do not actually do them. Nobody who is blind is seeing or who is deaf is hearing today. Nobody is made whole of a withered hand today. This just is not happening because Satan does not have this kind of power. Even though the church world today is under his control, the only thing that he can do is to cause people to perhaps fall over backwards, which is not hardly anything—is it? What is falling over backwards compared to saying “rise up and walk” to a man who had never walked? There is no comparison.
The rulers of the Jews who knew something of the Scriptures realized, “Someone cannot do these things unless they are from God; however, there is a problem because we cannot say this out loud.” So Nicodemus had to come by night.
Again, John 12:42:
Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
We see the same thing, the same fear. It was very spiritually dangerous for them to say anything out loud because then they were going to be identified as one of His disciples and out they would go.
It was too bad that they feared this from the Jews, but can we relate this in any way to our day? Can we relate this? What do the synagogues represent if not the churches and congregations?
There are people in the churches and congregations who are very familiar with a ministry like Family Radio. They are very familiar with the fact that Family Radio is listener supported, that they do not sell advertising time, that they are not trying to make any money, that the board of directors of Family Radio are all volunteers. Well, actually, I do not know this for sure, but I do know that Mr. Camping is a volunteer and that Family Radio has been around for 50 years without advertising.
Is this not incredible? Can you think of anything that can survive for this length of time without trying to make some kind of money to support itself? How is it possible that Family Radio can be listener supported when so many of the listeners seem to be against what they are hearing on Family Radio?
You can hear the people who listen and call into the “Open Forum” and say, “You said this” or “You are teaching the end of the church age and that is a lie.” Again and again and again, many of the listeners are contrary to the truths that are coming from Family Radio.
So how does this work? How does it happen that the Bible is such an offence?
It is because at this time we are learning from the Bible that the church age is over, and this is being proclaimed faithfully to people who are in the churches. The doctrines that we came to know were in error are now being corrected.
In each case, many are offended. Many are offended that there is no place called “hell” where forever and ever individuals who were unsaved would be tortured eternally, and yet the ministry of Family Radio continues. Doctrine after doctrine offends this one or offends that one, and yet Family Radio continues to be broadcast. It continues to go out into all the world, and yet it has no way of making money other than maybe a few poor widows and their “two mites” who are understanding that these doctrines are from the Bible. They want to support it and so they send their money—this one here and that one there.
But how can you count on that? How can you depend on that for even a year? But then 50 years?
People know. The people in the churches know, “This is from God. It is God who is behind the scenes and who established the ministry of Family Radio.” There is no other explanation.
The churches even have cookie drives or they try to sell something just to support the financial backing of an individual church because they have expenses. They do not even rely on the members of their congregation in many cases to provide for their own church. They have to do additional things—but not Family Radio—and yet why will not some who really know the history of the teaching of Family Radio, that it is only the Bible and nothing else, why will they not say, “Well, you know what? I see what is being said. The church age is over, so I am going to step down.”
If a pastor were to do this, for one, they would be targeted by the denomination and other churches and they would be badly spoken of. Also, the church is their livelihood. They are getting their money and support through the church.
So this is not an easy thing. I think that the people who are in the churches are in much the same position as many of those in Israel who just did not want to be put out of the synagogue, because they are afraid, “Maybe there is no salvation outside of the church.”
Well, yes, there is. This is the only place where there is salvation. There is no longer any salvation within the churches, within the congregations.
It goes on in John 16:3 to say:
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
The Jews would say, “God is our Father” or “Abraham is our father; we are of God. We know God. We know the Savior. We know that He is Jehovah; of course we know who God is.” But Jesus is saying, “No, you do not.”
They did not know their God. They did not know the Father, because they did not understand that Christ was God in the flesh. He was standing right before them and they did not realize this.
In John 8:53-55, it says:
Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
Christ spoke very directly to them, which is another reason as to why the Bible is an offense. He spoke very directly.
God does not hold back the punches. He knows our hearts. He knows the truth apart from all of the outward trappings that go on in the church or did go on in the nation of Israel.
Christ was saying, “You do not know God! You do not know Him. You never have known Him. I and the Father are One. Here I am, right in the midst of you, and you do not recognize it.”
This is the same problem today. On the last day when many are crying out, “Lord, Lord, have we not…in Thy name done many wonderful works,” Jesus is going to proclaim, “I never knew you.” This is because they did not really know God. The only way that we can know God is if He first knows us or saves us. God will tell people on May 21 by the act of the earthquake and the Rapture and the taking up of His elect into Heaven, “I never knew you,” and it will be shown that they never knew God either. They did not know the Father.
Then we read in John 16:4:
But these things have I told you, that when the time [hour] shall come…
This is that same Greek word hora where it says:
…the time shall come…
This is actually better translated “hour.” It helps a lot when this is translated as “hour,” because look at Revelation 14:7 where it says:
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
This is “the hour of his judgment” that we are in right now. It is the hour of testing. It is the hour of judgment on the churches and congregations. Now is that hour.
Revelation 8:1 says:
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
This identifies with the first 2300 days of the Great Tribulation—May 1988 till September 1994. This is the hour that we are in. This is the last hour according to the parable of the workers being sent into the vineyard. If you remember, some were sent in at the third hour, some at the sixth hour, some at the ninth hour, but there were still some standing idly around at the eleventh hour. At the eleventh hour, God hires them and sends them into His vineyard just for one hour. This language is based on the Jewish day which was considered to be twelve hours. Jesus had said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?”
So at the eleventh hour, those workers were sent into the vineyard for one hour. Then the workday was over and it was time for them to receive their payment. They then received just as much as some who had labored for several hours, causing some of them to feel that it was not fair and that they did not get paid correctly. “Why should I get a penny when I worked so many hours? They only worked the last hour and they also get a penny!” The answer was, “Is it not just for the goodman of the house (which is really referring to God) to do with His money what He would do with it? He made a deal with them for a penny a day and He stuck to the deal.”
This parable is teaching us that everyone who receives the gift of God’s salvation gets the same reward, which is eternal life. Everyone is equal. No one gets more than another. It is equal portions. This is the inheritance for all of God’s people for eternity future, “Here you are; here you are. Is eternal life not enough?”
It is more than sufficient. It is abundantly more than anybody could ever imagine. We can only think about this a little bit before we get a headache! Our minds are so small and tiny. We cannot imagine living forever and ever and ever into the eternal future and there never being an end. No old age. No death that comes. No illness. It is perfect life forevermore, and it is for those of us who have maybe been a Christian for 30-40 years, and it is for someone like the thief on the cross who was saved in the last few moments of his life, or it is like someone in the world today who is going to be saved on May 20th in 2011. They will only be a child of God in this world for a very brief period of time, yet God will say, “Here you are. Here is the crown of salvation, which is eternal life.” It is the same for each one of us.
Let us also go to Revelation 17. We are still looking at this word “hour.” It says in Revelation 17:12:
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
“The beast” is Satan’s name for what period of time? The Great Tribulation. He is Satan. He is the devil. He is the adversary. He is the serpent. Satan has many names and all of them could apply to him at any point in history, but only “the beast” can be applied to Satan for the Great Tribulation. He is “the beast” in Revelation 13 who comes up out of the sea.
So when we check out this verse, we know that this has to be that period of time when Satan is loosed right at the end of the world. God, again, is referring to this as an hour, an hour; one hour is all that it is going to be—it is short. God speaks of it only as one hour (which is actually a period of 23 years), and what is 23 years? That is hardly anything. What do we have left—19 months? What is 19 months? I do not think that we are down to 18 yet. We have about 19 months and a couple of days, which is a very brief time.
This is a very short period of time for anyone, is it not? For someone who is a child of God and who is afflicted in some way—like a wife who is in a home with a brute of a husband who really has to pray throughout the day just to get through the day—is it not a great blessing that she can think, “You know, time is short. This is only a momentary affliction, which it has always been, but now there is an end in sight. I will receive that crown of glory in a short period of time”? Or if someone has a physical affliction and is infirmed and there is pain associated with the affliction or the disease, “Well, I have a short period of time.” Whatever it is in our life, knowing the time, discerning time and judgment, helps us and is a comfort to God’s people.
Keep in mind that not everyone has the best circumstances like maybe some of us have here. There are people in very impoverished countries, like India or Africa or China, who can be experiencing great trouble in their lives. Maybe they are often hungry and they do not have some of their necessities met at times, and yet it is a comfort. It is a comfort for all of God’s people to know that our days are numbered and that they are very short.
Let us go to Mark 13 and begin reading in verse 9. Before I begin reading, Mark 13 is a chapter dealing with what? It is dealing with the end of time because the disciples asked Jesus, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” This is found in Matthew 24, and Mark 13 is a parallel chapter. It says in Mark 13:9-11:
But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten…
This is not talking about Jewish synagogues. This is referring to the churches because this is dealing with the end of time.
…ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the gospel must first be published among all nations. But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
This is “that hour,” the hour of judgment.
God said to past generations, “Neither do ye premeditate” and “take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak.”
Do you know how unusual that was? How out of character, how out of the ordinary writings of Scripture that was?
That stood out like a sore thumb because the Bible says, “Meditate upon these things” and “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you.” Being prepared is what the Bible would have us do. It tells us, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.”
He tells us to study the Bible and to learn the Bible and to meditate upon the Bible, and now all of a sudden in this verse we read, “Neither do ye premeditate”; “take no thought.”
What is the answer? The answer is that God sealed up the Word till the time of the end.
Theologians of the past like Calvin, like Knox—I repeat the same names all the time—like Luther, the great men of the Reformation, or go back even further to anybody whom you can think of in church history who apparently was a true child of God, and you will see that, yes, they did take thought. They did meditate upon Matthew 24. They did try to understand the book of Revelation, but it was a waste of time. It was a waste of time because they did not get it correct. Not one of them.
It is not pre-mill. It is not post-mill. It is not a-mill. It is what God will tell us it is “in that hour,” and we have learned what it is. It is the end of the church age. It is Judgment Day on May 21, 2011. It is a five-month period of torment on earth, and then it is the end of the world on October 21, 2011. And this scenario does not fit with anything in previous history.
I do not think that anyone was even close. They maybe had an element or two; but for the most part, they did not know and they wasted their time writing commentaries on the whole Bible.
Right there, they had a difficult task to get this right. They were going to write on the whole Bible and they were going to explain everything? That is very tough to do.
So Jesus was saying, “Do not bother.” If this had been listened to, it would have been a blessing and it would have saved people a lot of time and effort, “Do not bother to think about what you will say.”
Mark 13:11 continues:
…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
It is God who is speaking.
If we go to Hebrews 1, it is interesting how the Lord breaks down His revelation. It says in Hebrews 1:1:
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
This is referring to the Old Testament and it is saying that God spoke that.
Then Hebrews 1:2 says:
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son…
This is referring to the New Testament.
Even though it is true that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” we cannot really separate the Persons of the Trinity. God is One God but three Persons, and so the Holy Spirit was involved with the prophets of the Old Testament speaking and the Holy Spirit was involved with the New Testament individuals who were moved to write and bring revelation. However, here in these verses, God is saying that the Father gave the Old Testament Scripture, Christ gave the New Testament, but there is more to come.
Not here, but later on in Hebrews God found “fault with them”: the first covenant and the second covenant. The fault was that they were still too mysterious for those of us who have such thick heads—my hand is up—for those of us who have such thick heads that we just cannot see it or understand it, and also because God sealed it up and made it impossible to understand.
God developed the third method, which is finishing the covenant or completing the covenant. God spoke “by the prophets,” Christ spoke “in the last days,” and in the completion of the covenant period of time, “in that hour,” the Holy Ghost speaks. It is He who now takes center stage.
Go to Habakkuk 2. It says in Habakkuk 2:2-3:
And JEHOVAH answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
What is it? What is it? Personal pronouns in English can be translated “he,” “she,” or “it,” depending upon the context. Here the translators did not know what God was saying, because this should not be “it.” In every instance, it should be “he”; “[he] will surely come.”
Look at Hebrews 10 where we find a quote from Habakkuk. This may not be an exact quote, but it is definitely referring back to Habakkuk 2. Hebrews 10:37-38 says:
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith…
If we go to the next verse in Habakkuk 2, Habakkuk 2:4, it says:
…but the just shall live by his faith.
It is interesting that in Hebrews it leaves out the word “his” in the phrase “the just shall live by faith” in order for people to think that it is their faith when it is not—it is Christ’s faith—but it does add the correct pronoun “he”; “he that shall come will come.” In Habakkuk in the Old Testament, it reverses it and gives us the word “his”—“the just shall live by his faith”—where Hebrews 10 does not, but Habakkuk uses the word “it” instead of “he.”
So let me read Habakkuk 2:3 with the correct personal pronoun:
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end [he] shall speak, and not lie: though [he] tarry, wait for [him]; because [he] will surely come, [he] will not tarry.
You see, the Holy Ghost speaketh “in that hour,” and Habakkuk is saying, “at the end [he] shall speak.”
Will it be another book added after Revelation, book #67? No, it is not going to be #67 because God completed the Bible. There are 66 books and He is not going to add to this or subtract from it. We have the whole Bible. He is only going to finish it. He is going to complete it by giving us more information that will help us to understand many things in the Bible—all kinds of things that we never really understood before, even though we might have thought that we did. We are in “that hour.” It is now that this is taking place.
Let me also go to a couple of other verses. If you look at the context of Matthew 10 from verse 17, you will see that it relates to Mark 13 and Matthew 24; but then it says in Matthew 10:19-22:
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Then in Matthew 10:25, we read:
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
Christ was called names. It was said that He was of Satan. We will likewise be called names because we are in His stead. If people want to rail on us or to speak evil of us, “how much more” on us, because we are nothing? This is what Jesus is saying. How much more will His people be spoken evilly of? Again, this is in the context of “that hour.”
Look also at Luke 12:8-12 where it says:
Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men…
Remember what we read earlier about being put out of the synagogue and the fear that the leaders of Israel had. They did not confess Him. They believed, but they did not confess Him. This is really related to standing up for Jesus, as that hymn says: Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! In the eyes of the world, as we share the Gospel with the people of the world, we are to stand up for Jesus.
It continues:
…Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
Do you see the context? It is in the context of what that we find this verse?
It is in the context of blaspheming the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost who is speaking in this hour. “In that hour,” the Holy Ghost speaketh.
This is God completing His salvation plan. These few verses fit perfectly in with Matthew 24 and Mark 13, and it mentions blaspheming the Holy Ghost, just like Matthew 10 also mentioned it in a context that fits right in with Matthew 24.
So what is God saying? Well, I think that we can understand what He is telling us. He is speaking of “that hour” as the time when He is going to begin to open up the Scriptures to the understanding of His people, and it is as though it is a new Book. It is as if it is a new Bible.
But we are reading this information in the Bible only. Nothing is being added to it. It was always there. It was always there, and this is why John 16:12 says:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
It was not for the church age. It was not for 33 A.D. to 1988 A.D. It was not for all of the people who were in the churches: “ye cannot bear them now.”
Then we read in John 16:13:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…
“All truth”—the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2, but there is no way that anyone can argue that the churches were guided into “all truth.” They had many errors, many false teachings on seemingly basic doctrines, such as baptism and salvation. How a person becomes saved, they were in error.
Well, the Bible teaches us that there is a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the time of the Great Tribulation, the time of the latter rain, the second Jubilee—however you want to put it. Now the Holy Spirit is teaching and opening up the Scriptures to the full measure of the cup. To the full amount of information that God would want His people to know, it is being filled up and He is revealing Himself.
Look at John 16:25:
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh…
What correction can I make here, because this is the same Greek word, hora:G5610? This is the Greek word that means “hour.”
Jesus is saying:
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the [hour] cometh…
And we know that “without a parable [proverb] spake he not unto them.” The whole Bible has hidden truth in view everywhere. Therefore, this is not just referring to the proverbs or the parables that Jesus spoke. It is all Scripture. It is all Scripture, because He is the Word. He is the embodiment of the Word of God.
So He says:
…but the [hour] cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
The hour comes, the Great Tribulation, and this is where we are and this is what He is doing. He is showing us plainly, plainly.
Go back to John 16:4:
But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them…
In order to remember, it means that we had to experience something. We read something, we saw something, we heard something, and we recall it to mind. It is brought back into our memory.
For instance, the butler forgot Joseph. He forgot that Joseph had interpreted his dream. Later when Pharaoh had a dream, the butler remembered his faults and said, “Oh, yes, that Hebrew in prison, he can interpret your dream, Pharaoh.”
Actually, when we look at what the Bible means by remembering, it has to do with recalling a Scripture or a teaching of the Bible and understanding it—understanding it.
Look at Matthew 16, which is a discussion with the apostles and Christ over bread. It says in Matthew 16:6-11:
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand…
Then we read in Matthew 16:12:
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
To understand is to remember. We can read a verse in the Bible repeatedly, again and again and again, and we do not understand it; but then when it is opened up to us, we respond, “Oh, yes.”
This happened to me with Revelation 13:8. If you remember awhile back, Mr. Camping began showing how Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” and that this was not in principle but in fact, that this actually occurred. I remember hearing this. I do not know if I thought this immediately, but I thought, “Oh, that is right. It says it plainly. He was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’ It does not say ‘in principle.’ It does not say that. This is a matter-of-fact statement.”
How about when we learned about annihilation? Once our minds were unclouded from all of our past understanding, we saw verses like “In that very day his thoughts perish” or being “cut off” or how God uses the word “hell” in relation to “the grave.” It was all right there in front of us, but then we remembered. We understood what the Bible was saying, what Christ meant when He spoke those words.
This is how it has been with many of these understandings, these teachings that have been opening up at this time as the Holy Ghost not only is speaking—yes, He is; as we compare Scripture with Scripture, “the Holy Ghost teacheth”—but He is also guiding our understanding. He is showing that He will guide us into “all truth.” He is in total control of opening it up and of bringing understanding in a correct way to what the Bible is saying.
Look also at Luke 17:32, which says:
Remember Lot’s wife.
Again, when we remember this like, “Oh, yes, I remember. That is in Genesis; I remember,” this is not remembering Lot’s wife. Lot’s wife is someone who “looked back” as she fled from Sodom, “and she became a pillar of salt.” God judged her and destroyed her at that point; and so the Lord wants us to remember her in order to teach us that if we have come out of the church, we are not to look back: “Do not go back. Do not even look back. Do not have any longings for what you left behind. Do not do that, because ‘remember Lot’s wife,’” and there is even more information involved with this.
We will wind this up in Luke 24:6-8, which says:
He is not here…
This is referring to the tomb when Christ rose from the dead that early Sunday morning.
He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you…
Remember:
…remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
This word “remember” is a different Greek word, but they are derived from the same Greek word. They are in the same family, and so we can have the same understanding of what this is trying to say.
…remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words,
“Yes, He did tell us very directly that on the third day He would rise,” but they did not get it. They did not get it, so then this is explained to them by God Himself in the form of the angels who were in the tomb.
So when we are told to remember, it is the Holy Spirit guiding us into truth. This was a small example, but this is exactly what is going on today. Christ spoke the words. There are no additional words. It is the same Bible down through the centuries, except the difference is that we are at the time of the end. He who was to come has come and is speaking in showing us what the Bible is saying and accurately teaching. He is doing this by bringing to our remembrance this Scripture and that Scripture and then another Scripture. It is all proved by the Word of God itself.
Let us close with prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your grace and for Your Word that is so far above us that there is no way that any human being could comprehend or understand what You have said in the Bible. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heaven is from the earth. Our only hope is that You would be our guide, as Philip guided the Ethiopian eunuch who had questions. When we have questions, our hope is that You would show us what these things mean. Father, this gives us great encouragement because we know that You have been doing this. We can see this and have experienced it already. This gives us encouragement that You will continue to help us with maybe a couple of verses that we are struggling with. We do thank You for Your plan of salvation and Your great mercy. Father, we pray for wisdom today. As we go our different ways, give us grace and wisdom to do Your will and to accomplish Your purpose, which is sending forth Your Word. We pray for our family members who are unsaved. We do ask that You might have mercy on them, and we pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Tonight at 9:00 P.M., we will be on Paltalk for an hour and, Lord willing, this coming week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at lunch time. It will not be a study but an open discussion on Paltalk on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 12:00 to 1:00 P.M. ET in the “May 21 2011 Judgment Day” room in the Christianity section. On Tuesday and Thursday, we will be on in the evening in the same area from 10:00 to 11:30 P.M. ET.
(There was no question/answer session pertaining to this study.)