 So today here we are in or tonight here. We are in chapter 7. So let's begin reading in John chapter 7 at verse 40. I'll read to verse 44 and we'll get into our study as normal What I'll do is I'll read to those verses give you some Reminders a couple of reminders and then move on into our study So beginning here in John chapter 7 at verse 40 And John writes therefore many from the crowd when they heard this saying said truly This is the prophet Others said this is the Christ But some said will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ? Comes from the seat of David and from the town of Bethlehem where David was So there was a division among the people because of him Now some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on Him now as you recall last time we're together Jesus had spoken to the people who had looked at verses 37 through 39 And he had given an invitation He had said if anyone thirst let him come to me and drink you who believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart Will flow rivers of living water, so he had invited the people to come to him to drink and This was taking place at the Feast of Tabernacles at a certain portion of of the Ceremonies and all that they would be involved in where the priest was pouring water and the people were there in anticipation of him pouring the water into the funnel that was there at the altar of sacrifice and and And Jesus was standing up at that moment and he spoke in a loud voice to them And what he was doing is he was presenting himself as the answer to the things that they had been praying for They had been praying that God would pour himself out upon them like in the book of Isaiah Isaiah 44 verse 3 where God said I will pour water on him who's thirsty floods on the dry ground I will pour my spirit on your descendants my blessings on your offspring And that's a promise that that that Israel was given to Given by the Lord and it's a promise by the way that we the church have also that God will pour water upon those who are thirsty In Isaiah 55 verse 1 come all you are thirsty come to the waters Come and drink and so that's what Jesus was saying There are a lot of Christians today who have yet to really take Jesus up on that promise They're still running around like they're thirsty for something else But Jesus said if you eat of me and you drink of my blood You're never gonna hunger again, and you're never gonna thirst again And so he's giving this promise that and even as he's doing so and presenting himself as the answer to their prayers He's saying to them you need to come and drink So there are their present at that time People who are listening to what he has to say and once again They begin to argue about who he was you see some believe him and they said truly This is the prophet and others were saying this is the Christ Now when it says in verse 40 Many from the crowd when they heard this the saint said truly this is a prophet again Others said this is the Christ. There was a third voice if you will some said will the Christ come out of Galilee? So what you have now is you have a little bit of a conflict that's developing I want you to note this I'm gonna give you a little bit of information develop it for you and then move into some other things But again, some said truly this is the prophet others said this is the Christ. So there's confusion There's confusion amongst the people as to whether Jesus Christ is the prophet or the Messiah The Christ says is actually Messiah the anointed one Now notice that Truly, this is the prophet others said this is the Christ So the prophet and the Christ were in the mind of many Two different people in the mind of many and I'm gonna show you a couple things about that in a second Well, because of the teachings of their rabbis there had been a dispute concerning the terms the prophet and Whether he was the Christ This is something that the rabbis had taught their students in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15 Moses had said the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers And you must listen to him and So we've already kind of looked at that to a degree earlier in the book Because we remember back in chapter one when Jewish authorities had sent priests and Levites to speak to John the Baptist And remember in John 1 21 how they asked him are you Elijah? He said I'm not and they they said are you the prophet and he answered no And so they wanted to know whether he was a prophet like unto Moses You see some believed this this term the prophet was only a man like Moses only a prophet like Moses When I was in Israel many years ago now I Had a at that time. We had an Orthodox Jewish Guide he actually owned the travel company that we worked with and he was an Orthodox Jew and He and I got in a conversation and I'm talking about Well over 30 years ago We got in a conversation and and he actually spoke to me in this way. He said, you know Why we Jews do not know he's speaking for himself as an Orthodox Jew in Israel I don't know that he can speak for every Jew, but he said it like that Do you know why we Jews do not believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh? And I found that interesting. I wanted to hear his perspective on that Do you know why we don't and I said well, why is that and he said because we believe he's a prophet like unto Moses and He took it right out of Deuteronomy the scripture I just quoted to you and he was using that scripture as his proof text that Messiah was a man like Moses that was not That was not a teaching or a belief originating with him. That was something that was 2,000 years old or more That was something that went all the way back to what we're looking at here in the Gospel of John and when he said that to me Like a little light bulb went off in my head and I still remember thinking hmm They're rejecting Jesus Christ because Jesus is God in the flesh and they reject that But the antichrist is going to be presenting himself as a prophet And so in rejection of Jesus Christ, they have been set up to receive the antichrist And that's what's going to take place. Why because he believes that the Messiah is a man And the antichrist is a man and so it hit me just speaking to him like that How that he is being set up You see this great prophet spoken of by Moses was actually wrongly distinguished from Christ from Messiah You see the prophet spoken of by Moses was Messiah Not simply an inspired messenger Now there are those who said though this is the Christ and part of the reason some thought that Jesus was Was was was Christ and all was because of his works Now he had fed the five thousand and when he had done so some began to question whether he might be the prophet This may be Messiah now again the term the prophet could also apply to Messiah And so in John 6 verse 14 after Jesus fed the five thousand It says those men when they had seen the sign Jesus did said this is truly the prophet Who has come into the world so there was a split between them some thought that he was just a man And others believe that Deuteronomy 1815 was speaking of the Messiah and that's where their split was You see the miracle that Jesus had performed in the feeding of the five thousand had reminded them of the manna that their fathers had eaten in the wilderness And Jesus had spoken to them of providing for them He provided for them his own flesh which is the bread that came down from heaven He also spoke to them of providing rivers of living water And so this is how they began to look at and so some people were saying this is Christ There was a rabbi by the name of Isaac who who lived around the year 300 AD And he wrote a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes and and rabbi Isaac said As the first redeemer caused manna to descend so will the last redeemer cause manna to descend As the first redeemer caused the well to gush forth so will the last redeemer bring up water And so there was a rabbinic teaching at that time that caused some to believe that one that he is a man like Moses And others to say no he's Messiah because the rabbis teachings were conflicting and contradicting one another And so when they combined the feeding of the promise of water and it was pointed and it pointed them to Moses The prophet they began to see that Jesus is Messiah he's the one written of in the Old Testament And so that's what's taken place when in verse 40 it speaks of them speaking and saying truly this is a prophet But then in verse 41 others said this is the Christ But there's another group there that began to question notice verse 41 Some said will the Christ come out of Galilee verse 42 has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seat of David And from the town of Bethlehem where David was so there was a division among the people because of him And so there's this argument starting Again others said will the Christ come out of Galilee Some remained convinced that Jesus was only a prophet others saw him as Messiah But we need to remember that only God can convince people of who Jesus really is You can argue with somebody all day long and you can give them as many scriptures as you've memorized or can point to in scripture But unless the Holy Spirit convicts that person of sin righteousness and judgment there they're going to remain blind That's what happens and I say this to those of you who share your faith and sometimes may be a bit frustrated because you've shared it And it's so obvious and yet they it's like a veil is over the rise and they they don't listen And I've had many conversations especially prior to coming into the ministry when I would speak to people from different faith groups You know Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons especially but others too And I can still remember sharing scripture with them and knowing that the scripture that was being quoted to them Was a scripture that answered the question that they had because to be honest with you because at that time I was I was going to a Bible course there was a man some of you may remember his name I don't know how many will but his name was Walter Martin and Walter Martin wrote a book called the kingdom of the cults And he was the foremost apologist in the United States for many years And I sat under his ministry for a year when he used to teach a seminary class And I every Sunday night would sit under his ministry and I read his books and materials and things like that And grew to become acquainted at that time this is in the early 70s with some of the things that Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and others would share And so I was being prepared for pastoral ministry without knowing it by spending time in apologetics And in doing so began to get some rudimentary understanding of doctrine and how to communicate certain things And that's what was taking place And so I can remember very well having conversations with people who come and knock on your door You know very often you don't even have to leave your house for somebody to come to your house And they do they ride their 10 speeds or they'll walk up or they'll stand in front of a windshields or wherever you might encounter them And you approach them and speak to them if you do and when you do you begin to ask them questions and have conversation And I did that on and off so often I actually began hunting people by driving in neighborhoods You know because I enjoyed the conversation And what happened was I became acquainted at that time and again that was many years ago I became acquainted with their beliefs and I had the biblical answer for the things that they said they believed in And I can still remember I would share the scripture with them and it was like the lights were on but nobody was home They never responded to it Nobody's answered a question with the question which by the way is how they're trained That's what they do they are trained to not answer questions but to ask questions Never get caught up in that by the way I'll detour for a moment don't get caught up with that Because what I learned to do with them is because I would say well the scripture says this and they'd say well what about this And then you go down a rabbit trail with them and they lead you into where they want to take you And I learned that after a couple times that that's what they would do So I to this day still do the same thing I'll say okay I'll answer your question after you've answered mine No after you've answered mine and I'm telling you it's a technique that they're taught to answer a question with a question And what you need to do is just say I'll answer your question or try to answer your question but please first approach mine That's fair I think if I've asked you something or presented something to you please answer it If you can't I'll accept that too it's alright we're having a conversation But try to answer the question so we can discuss that then I'll answer yours And so that's what happened so I learned a long time ago that you can give the scripture But unless the Holy Spirit brings conviction they're not going to receive They're not going to receive you can point out something and they don't receive And so I've learned to leave them in the hands of the Lord In John 6 verse 44 Jesus said it like this no one can come to me unless a father who sent me draws him And so we trust the Lord to do that only God can convince people of whom Jesus truly is And so here they are arguing amongst themselves some are saying he's the prophet others are saying this is the Christ Again in verse 41 some said will the Christ come out of Galilee and then in verse 42 as thought the scripture said That the Messiah that Christ comes from the seat of David from the town of Bethlehem where David was And so they were aware of the scripture that states that You see Galilee when you're looking at a map is in the north and they knew that Jesus had been raised in Nazareth of Galilee What's interesting is is these people knew what the scripture said concerning Messiah They knew that the scripture said that for example that Messiah is Jewish Now you might want to keep that in mind he's Jewish a descendant of David now why did I emphasize that to you Okay I mentioned I used to like to talk to people from different religious backgrounds and quote unquote faiths and stuff So I was sitting in a parking lot Marie my wife had gone in to do her womanly duty she went shopping No I'm just playing as God created her to and as I was sitting there as I was sitting in my car I saw somebody walking through the parking lot and they were putting tracks on windshields And I was wondering what is I got curious and so I started my car and I drove through the parking lot to get closer to where they were So that they could come to my car and so they did it comes walking up and I'm just sitting there smiling like oh what a surprise But I had done it on purpose and I said what are you doing? What are you leaving on the windshields? Oh he says oh I'm leaving some tracks about Messiah I said oh really? He says yeah Reverend Sun Myung Moon some of you guys might remember the Moonies Reverend Sun Myung Moon he's Messiah and I said no no he's not and he says well what makes you say that? And I said well one he's Korean and he got mad at me and he called me a bigot he said you racist you bigot I said no I'm not a bigot I'm biblical you see because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is from the lineage of David And David is a Jew he's from the tribe of Judah Messiah is Jewish he's not Korean You see in 2 Samuel chapter 7 you would think we wouldn't have to say that But 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 and 13 the Lord says when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever This is a prophecy to David of the descendant who came out of David's seed Who's from the tribe of Judah who is a Jewish man Messiah would be Jewish a descendant of King David Jeremiah 23 5 says behold the days are coming says the Lord that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth So they knew things about Messiah he'd be Jewish a descendant of King David They also knew that Messiah would be from the town of Bethlehem not Nazareth Micah 5 verse 2 we sing this and recite this every Christmas You Bethlehem Ephrata though you are little among the thousands of Judah Yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from old from everlasting So they believe that Jesus was born in Galilee and that's what drew them to conclude that he could not be Messiah But had they examined the matter they would have found his birth was exactly as foretold Instead they relied on hearsay and made an improper assumption And so it's the result verse 43 there was a division among the people because of him One of the things let me share with you something practical just by looking at that now I want to emphasize something there was a division among the people because of him This upcoming Sunday I'll be teaching out of James and we'll be sharing with our church if you're with us on Sunday about unity About unity it's something that's on my heart and you see it in the book of James I'll be sharing on that But one of the things that many in the church have forgotten today guys and this is practical hopefully it'll make some sense to you Is a thing that has been forgotten is that Jesus divides I'll let that rest for a second because I have read recently in some posts in Facebook and other places That there are those who are arguing that Jesus loved everyone and never caused any problems And only person who would say that is someone who doesn't read the Bible And that's true and that isn't a sarcastic comment it's simply true They're not reading the Bible they're not reading Jesus caused a lot of problems He still does he's the rock of offense he's the stone of stumbling Jesus caused a lot he caused so many problems that he was put on a cross and killed He caused the division of heart he really did but so many people are saying oh no no no no he would never say anything And I read this comment somebody just I just read it a few days ago somebody was writing Jesus would never cause problems Well I'm sorry in the minds it's always wrong to stir people up and create division But what happens is because they believe that they keep quiet and they never openly speak of their faith Because they don't want to start an argument Well obviously we should resist being belligerent God knows that we should resist being argumentative You know Paul told us in 2 Timothy that a man of God is not somebody who's always arguing and fighting You know and that's absolutely true We ought not to go out of our way to argue and cause problems you know And what I do now is if I'm talking if I should be talking to somebody and and they start wanting to argue I'll close the conversation I don't want to go further into it I leave it alone I'm not going to fight with you You know I don't I'll just say you know well be honest with you and I are at a point of disagreement And I'm really not going to accede to your point and you obviously are resisting what I'm saying Let's leave it alone well leave it alone let the Holy Spirit work and I'll just leave it alone Because I don't want to fight I don't want to argue when I was younger I loved a good fight But when I got older I said you know a man of God isn't to be arguing all the time And I want to be a man of God and therefore I'll leave it alone and that's what I do even to this day I don't I'm not one of those and I hope you're not either who likes to provoke people to argument Because because the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God We just saw that in the book of James just this last Sunday Arguing and fighting and being belligerent and all of that isn't the way the Lord would have us And therefore I don't want to start an argument myself and I do resist belligerent arguments But that doesn't mean we shouldn't speak up We need to remember that differences are normal and they're to be expected And we need to also realize that angry rejection and even persecution results when we hold fast to the truth of the gospel That's true there are going to be people who get very angry at you for what you believe in what you say Jesus in Matthew 10 verses 34 through 36 said it like this listen to this He said do not think that I came to bring peace on earth now wait a minute we sing that every Christmas But Jesus said do not think that I came to bring peace on earth I did not come to bring peace but a sword For I have come to set a man against his father a daughter against her mother a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law So that's where that began and a man's enemies will be those of his own household Have you experienced that? You have I have you know you have a family member who thinks you've gone off the deep end Who thinks you're weird and crazy and what happened to you you used to be fun And now you're all this Jesus this and Jesus that I had this specially when I got saved They got used to it after a while it's been a long time now But in the beginning my friends didn't like it my relatives didn't like it And members of my own household did get upset my brother Frank in particular I have an older ugly brother named Frank And Frankie got upset at me at all ultimately he came to faith in Christ but it took a couple of years for the Lord to work on his difficult heart and draw him You see the gospel provokes division because people are called to decide concerning Jesus Christ And that's the challenge of the gospel it calls people to make a decision If any man will come up come after me let him deny himself pick up his cross and follow me that's a call that's an invitation If you're going to if you have will to that's an invitation if any man desires to come after me it comes from inside But you have to pick up your cross daily and he said you have to follow me that's a that's an invitation And so he calls us to follow him and Jesus calls us to make a decision are you thirsty come to me and drink Are you hungry come to me and and eat you want to be set free of your burden take my yoke upon you there's invitation after invitation Challenge after challenge that you find in Scripture it's all over now all you got to do is read the Bible And you'll see that over and over again in the Gospels Jesus challenges people it provokes people it causes division We have to make a choice in Joshua in the Old Testament book of Joshua 24 verse 15 We read it if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord choose for yourselves this day whom you'll serve Whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites And whose land you dwell but as for me at my house we will serve the Lord And so there's a choice that you make there's a choice I made I heard what Christ said and I held fast to that Jesus said you're either for me or you're against me there is no neutral ground there is no pacifist in a spiritual war There's no conscientious objectors when I got saved I was also had been drafted there used to be something called the lottery It's the only thing I ever won was the draft lottery and I had to go in the lottery and I began to think about it Because I had just gotten saved I don't know about you I don't know where your background is but I'll tell you where mine was I was a hippie and the Vietnam War was not something that was popular the idea of entering into the military And fighting against people that the United States was fighting against I had already been saturated with the idea that this is an unjust war That's where I was at and now I'm saved and as I'm saved I start thinking I got drafted I have to go in But can I go in and fight can I go and pick up a weapon can I do that and I had a real crisis of conscience a very real one Where I had to ask myself can I bear arms in defense of the United States I had to ask myself am I a conscientious objector And I began to actually pray and seek the Lord again I'm a brand new Christian and I didn't have anybody at that time to ask Can you help me with this but I began quite seriously to pray God because if I go in the military the Vietnam War is going They may send me to Vietnam I might have to pick up a weapon and fire it at somebody that they intend to do harm Can I do that can I take a person's life in defense of a country Can I do that some of you perhaps have wrestled with that in one way or another I did in a very real way And God works in funny ways I was at my aunt's house and happened to be watching Sergeant York Sergeant York was a member of the 82nd some of you may know that and I'm watching and he had a crisis of conscience He was a Christian brought into the war and there's this part in the movie where he's in a hillside seeking the Lord Asking God what to do and he reads where Jesus said render into Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that belong to God And that's what influenced me that scripture I owe things to to my God and I'm obligated to some things to my government I have obligations to God I have obligations to man and so for me and good conscience I went into the military and happened to serve in the 82nd just like Alvin York did and so that's how my story unfolded And I had to come to that point in my life to realize that there that there are there's no neutral ground that you're for him Or you're against him you serve with him totally or you don't and and that's why Jesus said in Matthew 12 30 He was not with me as against me who doesn't gather with me scatters You have to make decisions to be on the Lord's side to be part of his armed forces if you will And so this is what's happening a division is resulting from what he has been saying And again this division becomes a common theme throughout the rest of the gospel Well as this is taking place in verse 44 some of them wanted to take him but no one laid hands on him Some were so opposed that they wanted to arrest him but it wasn't his time to be taken and therefore he wasn't Verse 45 the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them why have you not brought him The officers answered no man ever spoke like this man then the Pharisees answered them How you also deceived have any other rulers of the Pharisees believed in him but this crowd that doesn't know the law is a curse And we need to remember that the Pharisees and chief priests had sent officers to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ Remember in verse 32 of this chapter it says the Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him And the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers temple officers they were like their police force to take him Well these people went and now they came back and they're saying where is he Well they were listening to what Jesus had to say and as they're standing there listening they returned but they returned empty handed They'd been watching him for days but instead of contempt they were awed by him And they say at verse 46 they said no man ever spoke like this man I was sharing in devotions with our staff yesterday Can you imagine for a moment what it would have been like to have been those officers listening to Jesus speak Can you imagine that? You know there have been speakers that I've listened to that I've said man I sense the presence of the Lord in this message And God spoke to my heart deeply in this message And that's simply a person who's been anointed by the Spirit But can you imagine what it would have been like to listen to the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth Could you imagine that? To hear the voice of God himself and to hear him articulate things about heaven that you've never heard before That no rabbi who's ever taught you in your entire life has ever unfolded to you And as they were standing there listening to Jesus with orders to arrest him They couldn't bring themselves to do it I'm sure that they kind of stirred themselves up and said okay okay we're going to get them Okay yeah we'll get them, we'll get them And then Jesus begins to speak and before you know it they've got their hands folded and they're just I've never heard anything like this And so they come back And the Pharisees, where is he? You're supposed to have him Where is he? We've never heard a man speak like this man Are you deceived also? It's another way of saying you guys are idiots You guys are idiots What's wrong with you? You see they had been sent to arrest a blasphemer, an ungodly man Somebody who was breaking Sabbath But no man had ever spoken with such grace, with such wisdom, with such mazad majesty With such authority, with such eloquence You know the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 50 verse 4 said concerning Messiah The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who was weary The Lord God has given me a tongue of the learned In Luke chapter 4 verse 22 all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips Mark chapter 6 verse 2 When the Sabbath had come he began to teach in the synagogue And many hearing him were astonished saying where did this man get these things and What wisdom is this which is given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands I mean they were listening to Christ and I get stirred by that They were listening to him and they couldn't move They couldn't take him because of the gracious words and the power of this man And so the response of the Pharisees in verse 47 they say are you also deceived They were infuriated and they began to rebuke these temple officers And they began to rebuke in an interesting way notice how they did this They basically are appealing to their religious authorities When it says in verse 48 have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him They're appealing to their own authority They're saying to him we didn't send you to listen to him We sent you to arrest him Instead you come back acting like cheerleaders You need to follow our orders And you need to believe what we tell you is the truth How dare you actually resist our traditions and our way of approaching God And so in verse 48 have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him And so what they do is they actually point their own spiritual dullness As proof that Christ is the deceiver Rulers are the experts of the law Possibly including Sadducees or the high priests And what they're saying is no genuinely religious people are following him And what they're appealing to and I want to develop this for just a moment Is to what we call today the herd mentality What they're saying is has any educated or religious people actually been convinced by him Have any of us, we who are well taught We are learned and eloquent people ourselves Teachers of the law holders of the traditions Have any of us and so they're using their education And their experience and their status as a club To beat these people into submission By calling them ignorant Now this kind of mentality continues to this day I was sharing on Sunday and I'll be careful with this how I say this Because I want it to be clear But I was saying on Sunday that That in first service not second service That parents responsibility Mom dad when they're married and together Together they do this But our responsibility is to pour into our kids Should we have children I was sharing that it's our responsibility to pour into our children The things of the Lord I know we all agree with that that's my job I bring them to church And somebody helps or assists in that And I'm thankful to God for our children's ministry here But it isn't the children's ministry's responsibility to raise my children right It's my job to do that I don't look to some other man to be my children's pastor I'm supposed to be their pastor And Mama Marie is the same way Doesn't look to some other lady to be the instructor of her children That's her job, that's my job What I can do as a pastor is help people to know scripture to give to their kids That's what I do But the job really is for the parent And I was sharing about that a little bit this Sunday And I said then the thing is Is when we neglect to do that We're basically handing our children over to secular minds To train their way of thinking And then they're very often The person's influencing them are not believers So the children have a steady diet of secularism from the time they're in preschool Now I also said this And I don't know if I have in my room this room right now Any teachers but I also said thank you teachers For the influence you have as Christians on the children We love and appreciate you for the work you do But the fact is not every teacher is a Christian And when you begin to look at what happens And parents listen carefully If you don't already know this I'm sure you do But if you don't There is a concerted effort And has always been one from the time Satan provoked Pharaoh to kill the children The time of Moses where Satan provoked Herod to death The children in Bethlehem There has been a concerted effort to destroy children from the beginning From the beginning And the way to destroy a child Isn't always through taking their life Is by taking their thoughts And very often what happens Is they are schooled in things that are anti-Christ So by the time these kids who have gone to school In secular schools though they've gone to church But by the time they're freshman in college at 18 or 19 There are and if you think not I'm going to read something to you in a moment to prove my point There are more secular non-believing professors By far that will influence your children And there are studies that have demonstrated That within the sophomore year Children who have been raised in Christian churches A huge percentage of them have stepped away from the faith It only takes a couple years of influence I was reading this from the Washington Times A new study confirms that A new study confirms what even the most casual observer Of higher education is long known That conservative professors are vastly outnumbered By liberal ones But it also shows that the problem is getting worse Published in Econ Journal Watch last month The study looks at faculty voter registration Of 40 leading universities And found that out of 7,243 professors Liberals outnumbered conservatives 3,623 to 314 Or by a ratio of 11.5 to 1 The disparity is highest at the most prestigious university The universities the study finds Penn State, for instance Has a comparatively balanced faculty ratio of 6 to 1 While Ohio State enjoys even closer ideological parity At 3.2 to 1 But a pair of Ivy League universities Columbia and Princeton Both weigh in at 30 to 1 I went to school a long time ago And I had nothing but liberal secular professors I don't remember a Christian Amongst all the teachers I had outside of Biola And they were 40 years ago Already adamantly opposed The thoughts of Christ and the things of the Lord It's worse now than ever before And so that's what happens Is you end up with people like this Again, let me show you this Verse 47, are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? Just transfer that to Are you also deceived as any educated intellectuals Believe in Christ? It's the same kind of argument The same kind of argument Smart people reject Jesus We don't believe in some ghost in the sky Oh, I believe in religion As long as it's appealing to me And agrees with my principles Yeah, I'm a very religious person And so that's what's taking place They're using intimidation To try and steal from them What they encountered when they heard Jesus Christ That happens to this day And then they go on And they say in verse 49 This crowd that does not know the law is accursed You're ignorant And only an ignorant person would follow such a man This crowd, that word crowd By the way, when you look at what that word means In the original language It speaks of rabble The people of the earth, literally These rabble, they don't know They're ignorant They're too stupid is what they're saying They're too stupid to understand The depth of true religion But a great part of the responsibility For their so-called religion And a great part of the responsibility For their so-called dullness Was due to the religious leaders God had already made it clear That those who would come to him would be humble And as I say at 2919 It says, the humble also shall Increase the joy in the Lord The poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel In Mark 1237 Mark said something beautiful He said, the common people heard him gladly You know, 1 Corinthians 126 Not many wise according to the flesh Not many mighty, not many noble are called And that's true to this day And so the common people Have always heard him gladly Because the common people, we Are able to see the truth of what he says You can be very sophisticated And find yourself Lost in so many Weird Rabbit trails that you'll get And I'll say this very quickly I've never said this before And I'm probably going to mess it up But I've thought it, so here we go My mama used to speak to me And she used to say, son, do you ever give An answer to a question With just a few words? How come you always give such long answers? And I said, because mama, because truth Is very, it's developed and very deep And I want to make sure that I touch on the things That really answer the question you're asking And so it's going to take a while to answer If you ask me a question, it's going to take a while And I don't know how to give a short answer Some of you have discovered that, it's true I don't But the bottom line is And it's a very simple thing Is that there are common sensical things That we do see And Sometimes people can become So complex That it creates confusion When you have children And they used to use, they used to tie Their shoelaces I'll give you a study In ancient shoelogy You had to teach a kid to tie shoes It's nice that you have other kinds now I'm glad for those But remember when you learned how to tie Your shoelaces? How did you learn to tie your shoelaces If you did? Well, did your mom or your dad Tell you how to do it? Did they say take this string here Take this string here Did they The rabbit is chasing or whatever Did they go that route with you? No, what my mom did Is my mom put her hands on my hands And my mom with her hands Showed me how to do it By instructing me With a hands-on approach So that's how I learned how to tie Because I discovered That if you try to describe Even the simplest thing A shoelace It gets very detailed and complex Have you discovered that? Think about it Try and explain how to tie a shoelace The simplest thing And before you know it It becomes very complex And I discovered in college A long time ago That simple things Can be made very complex To the point of absurdity And the lack of ability to understand By just using enough words I found that out Even the smallest things Jesus gave simple things Because we're simple Are you hungry? Come to me Are you thirsty? I'll give you water Are you lost? I'm a shepherd That's how he did it That's why the common people Heard him gladly That's how it works And so this is an insult here This crowd That doesn't know the law is a curse Well, we'll move on to conclusion Verse 50, Nicodemus He who came to Jesus by night We saw him in chapter 3 Being one of them, being a Pharisee Said to them, does our law judge a man Before it hears him and knows what he's doing? They answered and said to him Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet Has arisen out of Galilee So they don't answer his question They just insult him too Well Nicodemus knew the law He wasn't one of these Crowd And he protested And he says, why are you condemning Jesus In his absence? You're condemning Jesus But you haven't even given him an opportunity To defend himself And so they answer in verse 52 By simply saying, are you also from Galilee? And then they say, no prophet Comes from Galilee, examine the Scripture And you're going to see that out of Galilee There arises no prophet Well in this, and so much pertain Into Jesus, they were wrong Because there were prophets who came out of Galilee Second Kings chapter 14 verse 25 Points out that Jonah was from Gath-Heper, which is in Galilee And Bible commentators point out that The prophet Neum was also a Galilean So they were scripturally wrong In their rebuke A moment ago, they're saying this crowd Doesn't know the law and therefore it's a curse But in fact, they didn't know it And that's why Nicodemus could say that to them Does our law, speaking of the word Does our law judge a man And then they said, search Search and look, no prophet has arisen out of Galilee The fact is, yes Yes, there has And that's how they close their arguments If you really knew the Bible You would agree with us That's how they're saying it They didn't even answer his statement Which is, again, a very common tactic Instead of answering questions Just attack the person Just attack them Make them look bad, make them look stupid Find something about them you don't like And point it out and point it out And before you know it, you've got everybody Agreeing with you and people aren't listening anymore They used that tactic on These common people They also used it on one of their own Because they were ignorant of Scripture And they were so adamantly Opposed to Jesus Christ They would believe anything about him That was bad That's how it worked We'll pick up next time at verse 53