And again we're back
to "Books of the Book."
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We're studying
the Gospel of John
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and if you have
a Bible with you,
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you can turn to chapter 9.
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We're studying the blind
man and how he was healed.
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And with us is Dr. Jon Paulien.
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Dr. Paulien, so
this man is healed,
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he's asked to tell his testimony
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but after a few
times they don't believe.
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And he keeps saying--he comes
to a conclusion and he says,
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"Do you also want to
become his disciples?"
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Almost, like saying, you know,
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do you really want
to follow Him but not?
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And it seems that Jesus
was somewhere in that area
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and He heard that
conversation, the Bible says,
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and so He pulls
him aside I suppose
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and asks him a
question and He asks.
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In verse 35, Jesus says,
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"Do you believe
in the Son of God?"
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So He asks him
this personal question.
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And apparently,
he had never heard
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of the Son of God or who He was.
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"And he says, "Who is he, Lord,
that I might believe in Him?"
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and it is He who
is talking with you."
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And so then he
says, "Lord, I believe."
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Now what's interesting
is the following, I guess,
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the Pharisees also heard that--
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Before we get to
that, let me just point out,
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here the Pharisees throw him out
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and he's excommunicated.
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He's
de-synagogued, you could say,
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so he's cut off
from the community.
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And many scholars
believed that this reflects
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a real situation at the
time the gospel was written,
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maybe 70 years after Jesus
because for most of that time
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Christians and Jews worshipped
together in the same synagogues.
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But around 80-85 AD,
Jews seemed to have introduced
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in a synagogue
service, a curse against Jesus
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and a curse against Christians.
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And so what would happen is,
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people would be
reciting their prayers
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and then you come
to this curse prayer.
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And what would the
Christians do at that moment?
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They go silent.
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They wouldn't
repeat that prayer.
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And the Jews around would say,
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"Okay, you're one
of those Christians,
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if you're not then recite
the prayer in front of us now."
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It's the way they
identified followers of Jesus
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within the
synagogue and threw them out.
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And so that appears to
be going on around the time
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that the Gospel
of John is written.
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And a story like this
would have been very encouraging
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to people at that time
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because the Pharisees
would represent the opposition
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that they were
facing in the synagogue.
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Now the man would
represent that second generation
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and their experience.
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So the man is thrown
out of the synagogue,
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he now fully
discovers who Jesus is
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and gives himself to Him.
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And I would suggest this
little scenario you just read
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introduces the good shepherd.
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Everything from
chapter 7 through chapter 10
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is all one scene,
it's all one incident.
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And Jesus tells
the good shepherd story
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in response to the story
of the man who was born blind.
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But to introduce that,
let's look at verses 39-41.
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"And Jesus said, 'For judgment
I have come into this world
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that those who
do not see may see.
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And that those who
see maybe made blind.
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Then some of the Pharisees who
were with him heard these words,
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and said to him,
'Are we blind also?'
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Jesus said to them, 'If you were
blind, you would have no sin.
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But now you say, we see.
Therefore your sin remains.'"
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Here you see the
spiritual gospel again.
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Jesus has taken a man
who is physically blind
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and given him sight, but that's
not all that happened here.
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It is clear in the story that
the man was spiritually blind,
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he didn't know Jesus, he didn't
have a relationship with God.
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But through this
encounter with Jesus,
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through the receiving
of his physical sight,
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he also came to see spiritually.
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As he was tried
by the Pharisees,
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he was talking himself
into a disciple of Jesus.
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So that when he
finally meets Jesus again
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and fully
understands the situation,
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he submits himself to Jesus.
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So Jesus says, "I came
so that the blind might see
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and that those who
see might become blind."
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The Pharisees were
not physically blind
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after encountering Jesus,
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but spiritually
they had turned away
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from the truth that they
had known up to that point,
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to reject the Messiah who had
come to them to give them light.
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What I want to point out
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special in this
text is a dynamic
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that you see often
in the Gospel of John.
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It's a dynamic between
God's previous intention
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and our choice
between some would call it
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predestination and
human responsibility.
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You'll notice in verse 39,
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it's almost like
they didn't have a choice.
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He says, "For judgment I
have come into this world,
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so that the blind will see
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and those who see
will become blind."
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So it's almost like
Jesus is on a mission.
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He was sent by God to
bring sight to the blind
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and blindness to the sighted.
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So that doesn't sound
like they had a choice,
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but then look at verse 41.
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"If you were blind, you
would not be guilty of sin.
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But now that you claim you
can see, your guilt remains."
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So here they
clearly had a choice,
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there's a tension
between those two.
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This happens over and over
again in the Gospel of John.
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Another example is
in chapter 12:38-43.
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John 12:38.
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It says verse 38,
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"This was to fulfill the
word of Isaiah the prophet.
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Lord, who has
believed our message
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and to whom is the arm
of the Lord been revealed.
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For this reason,
they could not believe."
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Because as
Isaiah says elsewhere.
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"He has blinded their
eyes, and deadened their hearts,
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so they can
neither see with their eyes
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nor understand
with their hearts,
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nor turn and I would heal them."
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So Jesus is here saying that,
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in this blindness
that is taking place,
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the will of God
is being worked out.
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So that sounds
like God's sovereign
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presetting of the situation.
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But then, go to
verses 42 and 43.
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"At the same time many
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even among the
leaders believed in Him.
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But because of the Pharisees
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they would not
confess their faith,
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for fear they would be
put out of the synagogue.
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For they loved praise from men
more than the praise from God."
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So here you see on the one side,
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you know, God is
acting in the situation
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and the result will
be people become blind,
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their hearts become hardened.
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But then we see those
same people are blinded
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and hardened
through their own choice.
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So there's a dynamic in here.
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On the one hand, God is
in control of the situation.
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On the other hand,
people still have a choice.
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And I think Christians have
argued through the ages here,
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"Do we have choice
or is God sovereign?"
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And John's answer is, yes.
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He doesn't say one or the other,
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he says both are
true. Go to chapter 6.
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I wish we had a
little more time.
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But we can get a
taste of this at least.
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Chapter 6:36-47.
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"As I told you,
you will have seen me,
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and still you do not believe.
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All that the Father
gives me will come to me,
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and whoever comes to me
I will never drive away."
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There you see its God's action.
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All right.
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"For I have come down
from heaven not to do my will
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but to do the will
of him who sent me.
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And this is the
will of him who sent me
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that I shall lose none
of all he has given me,
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but raise them
up on the last day."
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Yeah, it looks like God's
completely in control here.
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"For my Father's
will is that everyone
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who looks to the
Son and believes in Him
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shall have eternal life,
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and I will raise
them up at the last day."
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All right, there is a choice.
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Those who believe in
Him will be raised up.
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"At this the Jews
began to grumble about him
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because he said, 'I am the bread
that came down from heaven.'
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They said, 'Is this not
Jesus, the Son of Joseph,
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whose father and mother we know?
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How can he now say,
'I came down from heaven?
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Stop grumbling among
yourselves," Jesus answered.
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"No one can come to me
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unless the Father
who sent me draws him.'"
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You see that's the
sovereignty of God.
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Nobody comes to God unless
God is engaged in that process.
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"And I will raise
them up at the last day.
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It's written in the prophets,
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'They will all
be taught by God.'
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Everyone who listens
to the Father and learns
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from Him comes to me."
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You notice that?
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It isn't just a
prejudgment on God's part,
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but people need to
listen and they need to respond.
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"No one has seen the Father
except the one who is from God,
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only he has seen the Father.
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I tell you the truth, He who
believes has everlasting life."
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So these two truths
are placed side by side,
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nobody comes to God,
unless God has drawn him.
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At the same time, nobody
is forced to come to God.
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We still have a choice.
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And how do you put
those two together?
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You know, without God's
drawing, nobody comes to Jesus.
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But in the end we
still make our own decision.
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So I have put these
two together in this way.
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As I look to the past,
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it's clear that God
has intervened in my life.
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Amazing things would happen.
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If God were not doing
stuff, I had no control over.
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I wouldn't be where I am today.
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So as I look to the
past, it's clear that God
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has brought me where I am,
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that He is sovereign
and He has done this.
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But as I look to the future,
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it's clear that there
are choices still to make.
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I have
decisions to make as well.
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So we live in this
tension that on the one side God
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is everything to us without God
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nothing good
would possibly happen.
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Without the cross of
Jesus Christ which happened
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before I ever knew
Him, I couldn't come to Him.
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I couldn't be reconciled to God.
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The problem between
me and God is on my part.
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God has built the bridge
across to me without that bridge
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I couldn't make it back to Him.
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But now that He
has built that bridge,
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He gives me the choice
whether I will cross it or not,
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and the two work together.
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And so living in spiritual
darkness is one's decision. Yes.
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And that's when
we harden our hearts
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to that light that we receive.
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And, well, friends, I pray that
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you too cannot
harden your hearts
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on what the light that
God has shed on your lives.
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And I thank you for
joining us in this Bible study
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and we hope that you
can join us next time
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on "Books of Book." God bless.
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