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FEAST OF TABERNACLES 2006 – DAY TWO

Fred R. Coulter, October 8, 2006

Greetings brethren, this is day two of the Feast of Tabernacles 2006, and [we] know that you had a good day yesterday for the first holy day. And this is a time for us to get together to understand God’s Word; to go through it to learn each day to search the Scriptures, to learn the meaning of it so that we can understand what God has for us – His plan for us.  And what I want you to understand as we go through this is the tremendous thing of how many people are keeping the Feast of Tabernacles in this day, which is far more than the children of Israel kept after they came out of the Babylonian captivity.  So let’s read this now.  Let’s go to Nehemiah the eighth chapter and let’s see what Ezra was doing.

Now when they got back from the Babylonian captivity, the whole thrust of teaching the people of God changed considerably; because now it became instructing and teaching all the people from the Word of God, and of course as we know, Ezra and the Great Synagogue canonized the Old Testament, and he was a priest that God selected.  Let’s come before we do that, let’s come over here to Ezra the seventh chapter, and let’s see about Ezra the priest, and let’s see what he did and let’s understand that Ezra was the grandson of Hilkiah the priest who then discovered the law when they were cleansing the temples during the days of Josiah and had a revival for twelve years before the children of Israel and Judah went into captivity into Babylon.   So it talks about Ezra and it says this of Ezra, Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” Because obviously God inspired him to understand that the only way that there is going to be a modicum of faithfulness with the children of Judah is to, number one, get the Scriptures canonized, get them set in a form, and get the scrolls of the Scriptures distributed to all the synagogues throughout all the Persian empire, and the Roman empire, and the Greek Empire all where the children of Israel were scattered so that they would be able to know and understand and be faithful because of the teachings. Because see, he fully understood, as did Daniel, that they were sent off into captivity because of their sins, because of rejecting God, because of not keeping the Sabbath, not keeping the holy days – not keeping the feasts of God.

So now let’s come to Nehemiah the eighth chapter and let’s see what Ezra was doing and Ezra was what the Jews now call the second Moses. Now you can read of that in the Passover book about the canonization of the Old Testament.  Now let’s begin here in verse one: “And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate;” Now let’s understand something – how absolutely small the number [was] of those Jews who came back, probably no more than eighteen to twenty thousand, because very few of the Jews wanted to come back to Jerusalem because they had everything so well and good in Babylon, they had everything that they needed right there. Why come back to Jerusalem and suffer, is the way that a lot of them would look at it, you see.  So they were gathered there, “and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.  And Ezra the priest brought the book” So he was a scribe and a priest. That means that he was dealing directly in the Word of God. “… Before the congregation both men and women and all could hear with understanding in the first day of the seventh month.”  So then after instructing them, they read in the law, they gathered together – let’s come down here to Nehemiah 8:13: “And on the second day” that is on the day after Trumpets “were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, and the priests and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law.”

So here’s quite a thing – here is a special council to try and understand what they were to do now that they were back. “And they found written in the law which Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:” so this is the Feast of Tabernacles. Verse 15: “And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem,” so now this is the second day of the seventh month – so then they had a period so if they would get this out, the people could prepare to come up on the fourteenth day of the month so they could start the Feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth.  “…In all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth and brought them and made themselves booths every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street by the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim” (Nehemiah 8:13).  So they made all these temporary dwellings to prepare for all the people to come in.

Now the roofs were flat so they built these on top of their flat roofs so what would happen, they would be able to go up there and dwell in these booths and then people who came from out of town could also come and live in the house and go up and dwell in a booth – so it was really quite a thing that they did. Verse 17: “And all the congregation of them that were again come out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths:”  Now notice this next sentence because this is very important. “For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so.” Now that’s amazing to understand isn’t it?  We can say, with the exception of when Solomon dedicated the temple. “And there was great gladness.” (Nehemiah 8:17).

Now let’s notice how the feast was conducted, and so unto this day this is exactly what we do – we follow what Ezra said, and we follow what the apostles said.  Notice “Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.” And so the Word of God has to be preached and taught. “And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according to the manner.” (Nehemiah 8:18).  So this was quite a thing that took place.

But notice, for it had not happened since the days of Joshua. Now we’re looking at a period of about eight hundred years, so when you go back and read the book of Judges, how after Joshua and the elders died, how the children of Israel went after the false gods – the gods of the nations around them, and worshipped Ashtoreth and Balaam. You know what happened: they didn’t keep the feasts, they didn’t honor God, and even when they returned, lots of times they only partially returned, and their hearts were never right with God.  So that’s quite a thing to understand.

Now let’s come to the days of Jesus.  Let’s come here to John the seventh chapter and we’re going to spend a lot of time in John 7, 8, and 9 today. And let’s understand that Jesus was doing exactly the same thing that Ezra was doing – He was teaching, teaching the people during the feast.  Now I did this about 11 years ago, and going through John 7, 8, and 9 during the Feast of Tabernacles was also suggested by Amos Robinson in the Cincinnati area.  And so his suggestion fit in just right, and was something that we need to do, and just like Ezra read through the law all during the seven days of the feast which is what we do with the Word of God – we read in the law, we read in the Psalms, we read in the Prophets, we read in the Gospels, we read in the General Epistles, the Epistles, and on into the book of Revelation, don’t we? Yes.

Now stop and think about it… how many people keep the Feast of Tabernacles today, regardless of who they are and where they are in keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, there are probably so many groups around that do keep the feasts. Now if they follow what God wants, and if they follow the Word of God, and teach the Word of God; God will bless them. God will teach them.  They will understand the Word of God, and this is what God wants, you see, and every year when we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, God wants us to be strengthened in His Spirit, strengthened in understanding.  He wants us to have the ability to love Him more, to serve Him more, to believe His Word even more, to believe in Christ even more, and have the kind of faith that God wants us to have so that we can attain to eternal life.

Now let’s begin right here in John 7. And we’re going to go through much of this verse-by-verse, and we’re going to learn an awful lot, and there are some tremendous lessons for us.  Now remember, remember when we are coming together before God during the Feast of Tabernacles, this is a special time where God then is dwelling with us, and He delights in the things that we do, especially if we follow His Word, follow the teachings of Christ, preach love, preach truth, preach grace, preach forgiveness, and also preach the things that give us understanding, and faith, and hope, and love, and conviction for the things that are right.  And stop and think about this now: of all the people in the world – which is now close to eight and one-half billion people – how many keep the feasts of God…very, very few.

Now, John 7:1: “After these things, Jesus was sojourning in Galilee, for He did not desire to travel to Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.” Now we’ll cover this a little bit later because they talk quite a bit about it here in this chapter about seeking to kill Him.  “Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was near” (John 7:1-2).

Now what we need to also understand, as we’ve covered before, the feasts of God – God clearly says in Leviticus 23 – that these are His feasts, they don’t belong to the Jews, they did not invent them, they did not designate these days. God gave them to all of Israel. So when it’s saying the Jews’ feast of tabernacles here, it’s not saying that it’s owned by the Jews, and only the Jews should keep them.  What John is doing, John is giving a significant bit of understanding in that phrase, which is this: the Jews were not keeping the feasts of God as they should,  and they were not keeping them in the way that they ought to, and especially when you consider that they were out there trying to find Jesus to kill Him.

Now hold your place and come back here to John the second chapter and as we go back there let’s understand something concerning the Gospel of John; it tells us many things about the way that God wants us to know, and to learn, and be taught of Christ. And John gives us some significant understanding in the phrases like: “the Jews’ feast of tabernacles.” Now that’s what he said here concerning the Passover.  Let’s come down here to John 2:13. Because we know the Jews were not keeping the Passover the way that they should, and so this is a signal that we are not to keep the feasts the way that the Jews do – very important for us to understand today, because you see, we’ve been assaulted from the right and from the left.  The extreme right, are those Judaizers who are coming into the church trying to get people to follow sacred names. And just think on this, in sacred names for just a minute: you read about the calling of the apostle Paul, when he was knocked to the ground, Christ spoke to him in Hebrew didn’t He?  Yes, He did.  Now in writing the New Testament Paul did not put in there the sacred names neither did the apostles because the truth is this: the sacred names today are family names – The Father, and The Son, and we are brethren.  Now think on that with sacred names.  Then they try and come in [with] you have to have prayer shawls, you have to have tassels, you have to have praise-dancing, and all of this. These are all remnants of Judaism brought in because they do not worship God in spirit and in truth, and they do not have the Spirit of God, so they have to work up all these emotional things and all of these little doodads for people to do.

So back to John 2:13: “Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money exchangers sitting there;” And He drove them all out. Why? Because they were making the house of God, a house of merchandise, and more than that, they were cheating on the exchanging.  So you see, when John says “the Jews’ Passover,” or “the Jews’ feast of tabernacles,” he’s telling us that the Jews were not keeping it correctly. And of course, if you don’t have the right attitude, and if you have the wrong practices, you are not keeping it correctly.

Now let’s come back to John the seventh chapter, and here is where a lot of people like to say, “Well, you know, Jesus didn’t go up to the feast.” But let’s analyze this a little bit. Verse 3: “For this reason, His brothers said to Him…” Now that’s His brothers, James, and Simon and Juda and one of the other brothers [Joses], He had four brothers altogether.  “Said to Him, Leave this place and go into Judea, so that Your disciples may see the works that You are doing; Because no one does anything in secret, but seeks to be seen in public.  If You do these things, reveal Yourself to the world” (John 7:3-4). So they kind of had an attitude somewhat like the scribes and Pharisees, didn’t they? Because even with Jesus as their half-brother, they still didn’t understand that He was the Messiah, that He was the Son of God. Because it says here, verse 5: “For neither did His brothers believe in Him.” That is, at that time – later when He was resurrected, they did believe because He showed Himself to James. Verse 6: “Therefore, Jesus said to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.  The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I testify concerning it, that its works are evil” (John 7:5-7).

And that’s exactly what is the comparison that we have today,  the works of the world are evil, and they won’t hear, they won’t listen, they won’t understand, but [verse 8:] “You go up to this feast.”  So if He was doing away with the feast for the New Covenant He would have said, “Well now look, you don’t need to go up to this feast now.  You don’t need to keep this because in a short while, I’m going to do away with it.”  He didn’t say that did He? Verse 8: “You go up to this feast.” So there’s a command by Christ to go to the feast, and after all, He was the Lord God of Israel who did, what, who gave the Commandments to Moses to give to the children of Israel.

He said, continuing in verse 8: “I’m not going up to this feast now for My time has not yet been fulfilled.  And after saying these things to them, He remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up, then Jesus went up to the feast not openly, but as it were in secret” (John 7:8-10).  He didn’t want to be seen, but He still kept the Feast of Tabernacles.  He still obeyed the Word of God which at that time was to go keep the feast in Jerusalem.

Today, we keep the feast wherever God shows that we can keep the feast in a way that we need to keep the feast, and He puts His Presence there because in the New Testament, Jesus said, “wherever two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst of you” [Matthew 18:20 paraphrased], so wherever we keep the feast, that’s where we keep the feast, and Christ has designated that.

So he went up in secret.  Now verse 11 – let’s see what was happening.  The Jews really knew a lot, many of them understood that He was the Messiah, and there was also a great debate. Was He the one that God had sent? Was He the Messiah? Was He not? Who was He? Was He a Rabbi?  Who taught Him? All kinds of things – so just like today people can have all kinds of opinions, people can think of all kinds of things, and because they have opinions, they think their opinions are right and good and true. But you see, the whole thrust of John 7, 8 and 9, as we are going to see, is the truth of the Word of God, the truth of the Spirit of God, the truth of the words of Jesus Christ.

So they were seeking him, verse 11, “Where is He?  Now there was much debating about Him among the people. Some said, He is a good man. But others said, No, but He is deceiving the people” (verse 12). Now we have everything in these conversations that is thrown against all the churches of God to keep the feasts of God, because the Protestants and Catholics say, “Oh, you're deceiving the people into keeping the feasts. Don’t you know these things were done away with?” Well, if they were done away with why didn’t Christ make it abundantly clear here?  No, they have never been done away with.

Verse 13:  “However, no one spoke publicly about Him for fear the Jews. But then, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and was teaching.”  Just like Ezra He taught day-by-day through the feast, and this is what He did all through the feast.  Now what we’re reading here is a summary from the middle of the feast to the beginning of the Last Great Day down in verse 7. So this is a summary of what went on for about three and a half or four days. Let’s see what it says here [verse 15] “And the Jews were amazed, saying, How does this man know letters, having never been schooled?” And we know for sure that if any of the rabbis had taught him any of these things, which they didn’t, because we know He was taught directly by God the Father, and you can read that in an appendix in the New Testament and also in the Passover book.  So they wanted to know where He learned these things. “Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His Who sent Me” (John 7:3-16).  And this is important for us to understand: Jesus did not teach his own words; let’s understand that they are from God the Father.

Now let’s look at that, let’s come over here to John the fifth chapter, and let’s see what He told the scribes and Pharisees at that time. John 5 and let’s pick it up here in verse 31 and this is also what he told them during one of the feasts after he healed one of the men –  the man on the Sabbath there, verse 31, John 5. Now let’s understand what He’s telling them.  Let’s understand how Jesus laid it on the line to them and it provoked them, but it was a witness to them, and there are a lot of things that we can learn from it.  Now verse 31: “If I bare witness of Myself, My testimony is not true.” Same way with anyone else, if you’re a teacher and you’re not teaching the Word of God, then you’re testifying of yourself – same thing with any of the brethren.

Now we come over here, just drop over here to verse 19, let’s see what He answered them after they accused Him of making Himself equal with God. “Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself, but only what he sees the Father do.” And of course then He saw Him on a daily basis without a doubt.  “For whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing. And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may be filled with wonder.” (John 5:19-20).

Now let’s come over here to verse 32 that’s what’s important to understand when we read the New Testament and we read the sayings of Jesus Christ, and we read the God breathed Scriptures that the apostles wrote,  what we’re doing we are reading the words of God the Father. Now keep that in mind, and that will help you understand how great that the New Testament and the Word of God really is, and this is why the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. Now let’s go on, He’s talking of John the Baptist, let’s see what He says to them.  “There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony that he witnesses concerning Me is true.  You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.  Now I do not receive witness from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved” (John 5:19, 31-34). So He wanted them to be saved.  The reason He told them these things was so that they could repent, and that’s why any correction that comes out of the Word of God is so that we can repent, that we can change, that we can be saved. Verse 35: “He was a bright and burning lamp and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.  I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works that the Father gave Me to complete, the very works that I am doing, themselves bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”  Notice how all of this is revealing the Father, and everything that Jesus did was because what the Father showed Him, Taught Him, explained to Him, gave Him the words to speak and so forth. “And the Father Himself Who sent Me, has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice nor seen His form at any time” (John 5:32-37).  So this means that when Moses saw God in the Old Testament, he saw the one Who became Jesus Christ.  You all know that so we won’t go into it in any great detail here.

Now notice verse 38, very important thing:  “And get you do not have His word dwelling in you,” so if you resist Christ, if you resist the words of the New Testament, if you reject the words of the Old Testament,  you do not have His Word dwelling in you. And after all, what is the whole key of the whole goal of the New Testament through the power of the Holy Spirit – to have written in our hearts and in our minds, the laws and commandments of God.  Is that not true? Well they didn’t have that. “You do not have His word dwelling in you, for you do not believe Him Whom He sent. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life; but they are the ones that testify of Me.  But you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (verses 39-40).  Quite a testimony isn’t it?

Verse 41: “I do not receive glory from men;” that’s a very important thing to understand.  Now anyone who is teaching and preaching never let anyone stroke you as to how good you are, and what you do, and how fantastic that this is or the other thing is.  Give yourself some spiritual watershed and just let it flow off to the side, because what will happen then if you get caught up in your vanity, and get caught up in yourself, then there’s going to be some correction coming.  Now whether you are a teacher or whether you are not, you see, if Christ has saved you, and has done all of these things, and brought us the words God the Father, then it all comes from God and so we have nothing that we didn’t receive.  We always need to keep that in mind. So that’s why Jesus did not receive glory from men.

Verse 42: “But I have known you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.”  So they’re missing two things, one, they didn’t have the Word of God in them; two, they didn’t have the love of God in them. Now it tells us what? Without the Word of God dwelling in you, and without the love of God, there is no salvation.  Think on that for minute.  That’s exactly what He is saying here.  Now notice to compound this and add to it He says, I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will received him” (verses 42-43).  Because you see, you complement each other, you tell each other how good you are, and you stroke each other, and build each other up, and when you do that you exclude God, you exclude Christ, you exclude the Word of God.

Now if you want to see this performed, go on the Trinity channel and watch all these preachers that just fawn over each other, and tell each other how good they are and what a great work in God they are doing.  Listen if they don’t preach the Word of God, preach the Word of Christ, there’s no truth dwelling in them, it’s just that simple.

Verse 44: “How are you able to believe,” now here’s another thing that’s important to understand in the book of John, “How are you able to believe, you who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” Now think on that.  That’s very important because this helps define what Jesus said back in Matthew 22 and Mark 12 and so forth, that you are to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your soul and with all your being, and that means to believe. See, if you don’t have the Word of God, and the love of God dwelling in you, you can’t believe.

Now notice what He says – very important – He says, [verse 45] “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.  There is one who accuses you, even Moses, in whom you have hope.” Now let’s look at this: “There is one who accuses you,” now that’s a present tense participle which means: the words of Moses being the words of God, are constantly active and defining things according to the way of God.  So in a sense, Moses’ warnings in the Old Testament are living and are accusing against them.  The laws that God gave, they are there and Moses was the one who wrote them, and every time you read it says, “The LORD spoke unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel saying” so that’s quite a thing we need to understand here.

Now verse 46 is very important because this tells us about the Old Testament in relationship to Jesus Christ.  “But if you believed Moses, you would have believed Me; for he wrote about Me.  And if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe Me?” (John 5:44-47). Now that’s something isn’t it?

Now let’s add another verse to this. Let’s come to Luke 24 and let’s see that the Old Testament and New Testament go hand-in-hand, but we also need to understand here, as we find in Luke 24, that Jesus gives the correct interpretation of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, and then the New Testament then, under the inspiration of God the Father and Jesus Christ interprets the Old Testament.  So that’s why the New Testament is greater than the Old Testament. Let’s read it, verse 44, this is after He was resurrected and came to them on the evening of the first day of the count toward Pentecost.  “And He said to them,” verse 44, “These are the words that I spoke to you when I was yet with you, that all things which were written concerning Me in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

Now that’s a key, important thing which is the dividing line between a religious person and someone that God is calling.  Now like one woman wrote recently, that she hadn’t been doing much to, even though she grew up in the church and so forth, she just kind of put it all aside and went out in the world.  But when God was beginning to call her, she had a yearning and desired to study the Word of God and what she did, because she remembered about the Sabbath, she studied every Sabbath on the Word of God, and guess what happened? God opened her mind and it just gave her all the understanding that she needed to begin to understand and come to repentance in order to be baptized. So you see, that’s quite a thing, this is what Jesus is talking about here.  When He opens our minds, we began to understand because God the Father is calling us and Christ is making it possible for us to understand.

Now let’s come back here to John the seventh chapter.  John 7 again, so you see, verse 17: “If anyone desires to do His will,” after He says, “My doctrine is not Mine but His Who sent Me.” “If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak of Myself” (John 7:16-17).

Now let’s see another part here in the Gospel of John.  John is literally full of fantastic, simple, easy-to-understand words.  It’s not written in complicated Greek and it’s not that difficult to really understand because the translation of the Gospel of John, cannot be as we will say, cannot hinge on technicalities of difficult words because God inspired him to write in a very plain and straightforward way in what is called Koine Greek.

Now let’s see what else Jesus said. Let’s come back here to verse 37 of John 12 and let’s see what Jesus said concerning how He taught, the words – Who they came from –  what they are, what they were, what we need to do with them.  Now verse 37: “Although He had done many miracles in their presence, they did not believe in Him,” that’s why Christ would not do a sign or a miracle to prove that He was the Messiah, see, even though they saw all of that; now verse 38: “So that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled who said, Lord who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? And for this very reason they could not believe because again Isaiah said,” Now here’s something that happens, if people don’t believe, automatically, there’s a curtain that comes over the mind, and they are blinded.  Verse 40: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and be converted and I would heal them.”

Now if you want to understand a little more fully about this, read Chapter Twelve in the Occult Holiday or God’s Holy Days – Which? book which explains about the blindness and the hardening of them.  Now [go to] verse 41: “Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory and spoke concerning Him. But even so, many among the rulers believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God” (John 12:37-43).  Now here’s another profound lesson we need to learn: we cannot put any man between us and God.  We cannot refuse to repent and come to Christ because of men, because of politics, because of relatives, or anything like that.

Now hold your place and let’s come to Luke 14 and this tells us what we have to do, and when we read this we’re also going to understand that this is what Jesus also required of Abraham.  Now Luke 14:25: “And great multitudes were with Him and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and, in addition, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Now this means to love God more in comparison to.  Now what did God require of Abraham? He said, “Abraham, I want you to get up, I want you to leave your father’s home, I want you to leave your father’s country and I want you to go into a country that I will tell you.  And I will bless you and make your name great, and I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  And that was a prophecy of Christ so he had the same requirement that Christ is giving to any who would follow Him. “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple;” So the teachings of Jesus, we need to understand is this: we cannot have any person, any thing, any idea, any position, any doctrine between us and God. If we repent and respond to God’s calling then it’s a total death in the burial of baptism, and a total dedication to God.  That’s what it’s all about.  Now notice, He says, “And whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple;” (Luke 14:25-27).

Now this is exactly what He’s telling them back here in John the twelfth chapter.  Let’s see that. Even though they believed, they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. So they were willing to be political, they were willing to compromise, they were willing to not come to Christ because the thing for them was too much – they didn’t want to loose face to the other people. Now let’s come back to John 12 and verse 44: “Then Jesus called out and said, The one who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him Who sent Me.” You have to believe in God the Father. “And the one who sees Me sees Him Who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness.  But if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” So that was His mission at that time. Judgment then began after He was resurrected.

Now notice, verse 48 is very important, “The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him; the word which I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day.” That’s why Jesus didn’t teach His own words, that’s why Jesus didn’t teach His own ideas, that’s why He spoke the words that God the Father gave Him to speak, and that’s why He did the things that God the Father did, as He said. Now verse 49 verifies this, “For I have not spoken from Myself;” in other words, it didn’t originate by Him walking down the road one day and, BING, all of a sudden He’s got this idea “Oh, this is a great thing. Oh, I'm so glad I thought of that.” Like one vain preacher, he was reading in the Gospel of John about “that Prophet” and, BING, the idea came into his head, “I am that prophet.” That was not from God because “that Prophet” refers to Christ, not to any other human being. “I have not spoken from Myself;” didn’t come from His own ideas or just from His own human nature, “But the Father who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I speak, I speak exactly as the Father has told Me” (John 12: 44-50).