PASSOVER PREPARATION # 2

Fred Coulter – March 1, 2003

This is number two in the new series we are doing – Passover Preparation. And what we are doing, we are going through, verse by verse, John 14, 15, 16, and 17 because these contain the words of the New Covenant. And we will see that the whole basis of these chapters is based upon the love of God, plus faith, plus hope, and then what we might say: the intense love of God is found in John 17 in the Lord’s prayer.

Now let’s go back and review just a few things concerning faith. Now as we saw last time in verse 1 the word “believe” is used twice. “Believe” is the verb of the noun “faith.” So “to believe” actually means “to faithize.” And we’re going to see that this belief and faith is also based upon love, as we get down a little further into it today.

Then we come down to verse 10, we find the word “believe” again. Verse 11 there are two “believe.” Verse 12 is the third one. And this is exactly as it is when we are beginning our relationship with God – we are to believe. Then we will see how this is to develop.

Now let’s look at a couple of Scriptures to help us understand this a little bit more. Let’s come to Romans 1:17, which talks about faith. Faith and belief you can just equate as the same thing. Faith is the noun, belief is the verb. Let’s pick it up here in verse 16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that [believes]…” Now you see in the King James “every one that believeth.” This means everyone who believes. It’s a preposition. As I’ve mentioned before the Greek language is full of prepositions and whenever you see that in the King James just realize that’s a present tense preposition.

“…To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein [now “therein” means “contained in the Gospel”] is the righteousness of God revealed…” Now that’s not only God’s righteousness that He is righteous, which we are to understand, but also the righteousness of God, which puts us in right standing with Him. That’s the kind of righteousness it’s talking about, which the words of the New Covenant do, as we will see – to put us in right standing with Him and renew the New Covenant.

Notice: “…Is … revealed from faith to faith…” Now the English word “to” is translated from the Greek word eis, which means “to, or into.” So what we can see here is this: faith ultimately is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We have our part to believe. But to believe unto salvation has got to be the gift of God, a faith that God gives. So it is the faith that comes from God to the individual, and from the individual back to God. So it’s faith into faith.

“…As it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17, KJV). And that’s how we are to live. We live by absolute belief in God the Father and Jesus Christ. And that’s why, as I have mentioned before, and after reading this thing on the apostolic constitution, which was written in the 300’s and how they established the Catholic Church, you can surely see that a hierarchy cuts people off from God in the most unsavory way. The just shall live by faith. That’s how we are to live our lives. And that’s how we begin our relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ – we believe.

Now Jesus also said, “If you don’t believe Me that I’m in the Father, believe the works themselves,” that He did. And we can say today if you don’t believe in the way that you feel you ought to, then what you should do is study in-depth the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and learn what Jesus taught, see the miracles that He did so that you can believe. Because belief comes by the hearing of the Word. The more you hear, the more you learn, substantiates what you believe. And the hearing by the Word of God, this is why we have the Sabbath every week. This is why we have the holy days year by year. And the Passover is a very key fundamental. As a matter of fact it is the beginning of all of our relationship with God.

Romans 10:8: “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee…” That is in answer to the question: Who’s going to go to heaven for us, who’s going to go down to the depths of the water for us to get the Word of God that we can hear it and do it? No, God has made it available in every language to almost the entirety of the whole world. “…[It is near to you], even in thy mouth, and in thy heart…” Now obviously not in carnal minded people is it there. But this has to do that it is in such a language that you can understand it. “…That is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Now this is a summary of the whole process of repenting, being baptized, receiving the Holy Spirit, walking in the way of God, and so forth. This is just a summary.

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation [that is confession of sins]. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him” (Rom. 10:8-12, KJV). So God is no respecter of persons. And even people in the world, if they call upon Christ, He’s going to hear and answer their prayers. Maybe it’s not going to be a thing for salvation for them, but at least it would be a first step. If they would go beyond that and say, “Well, I prayed in the name of Jesus and my prayer was answered. Boy, I better find out more about this.” No, people generally are relieved from their distress and get up and go on and don’t pray again until another disaster comes upon them, you see.

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” So there’s got to be preachers and teachers go out and preach and teach and explain the Word of God to people. “And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” That’s interesting. It’s not that they self-appoint themselves as too many do today. “…As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (verses 13-16). So he’s also showing here that even though there are those who are sent, even though the Word is preached, that people are out there and they don’t believe. They reject it.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (verse 17). Now this operates in two ways. Now that we have the Word of God, that is what must be preached and taught. Also now that we all have the Word of God in the Bible, whenever you read the Word of God and you read it what happens? You are talking to yourself, are you not? And when you read these words who is actually doing the teaching? God is. So it builds the faith. And that’s what Christ wants us to do with the New Covenant in what we are going forward in the Passover Ceremony booklet here.

Now let’s come back to the Gospel of John and let’s look at belief just a little bit more here and we’ll look at a couple more Scriptures. John 20 and the very last two verses. And this tells why he wrote the Gospel. And also when you understand that in the Gospel of John (now this is quite a profound thing); in the Gospel of John the word “believe” is used 77 times, just in the Gospel of John. The word “believe not” is used 24 times. So that’s 111 times. Now also in the Epistle of I John “believe” is used seven times and “believe not” is used twice.

Now let’s come here and begin in verse 30. The last two verses. “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ [that means the Messiah, the Savior], the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (John 20:30-31, KJV). Now this may be the very place where he finished the Gospel of John the first time. So all you have to do is put an “Amen” there and it sounds like the end of it, doesn’t it? And he probably added chapter 21 later, which I explain in the commentary.

Now let’s come back to our study paper here that we’re going through and let’s look at some other Scriptures just kind of in review that we didn’t cover last time in the first one. Let’s come to John 14:6 (FV): “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life…’ ” Now you see, the truth is this: true Christianity, though the call goes out to all, many are called but few are chosen, and few are chosen because few repent. But it is an absolutely exclusive way of life. It doesn’t mean that you exclude other people, it means that God has not called them at this particular time. But those that He has called there is no ecumenism, there is no combining with Judaism, there is no combining with Protestantism, there is no combining with humanism or any of those things because the ultimate will come of it. Let me just read you this here: “…the truth is omitted, or obfuscated in most churches…” Because they don’t believe John 14:6: “ ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: and no one comes to the Father, except through Me.’ ” Therefore the Jews cannot say, “We pray to the Father,” because they don’t even have the Father and they can’t get to Him since they reject Jesus Christ.

Protestants come about half-way because they believe in Jesus and grace but they don’t believe in commandment keeping. Catholics come about 3%. They use the name of Christ but they have all the pagan nonsense that they add to it. Moslems don’t even get to 0%, neither do the Hindus. But what is happening in the Protestant churches is really quite a fantastic thing. This is an excerpt from a book entitled Can Christianity Survive the Organized Church? “Let us list why the truth is omitted or obfuscated in most churches today. Replacing Biblical absolutes are…” Now we just read an absolute, didn’t we? This is an absolute statement: “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Here’s what replaces it: “psychology, sociology, guilt manipulation, praise songs, repetition ad nauseam [and we could put in there swaying back and forth and all that sort of thing, you see], entertainment, drama, soloists, dead elders, dead pastors, over-educated pastors, ecumenical spirit, acceptance of any movement like Promise-Keepers [which is Jesuit backed, by the way], idolizing of famous preachers, modern Bible versions with their attacks on Christ, salvation message neutralized to make it palatable to the unsaved big givers in the church, pastors and elders who belong to esoteric organizations like Masons, acceptance of Roman Catholics as Christians, the unsaved Jews are God’s chosen people, the modern nation of Israel is preached from the pulpit as if we must genuflect before it for salvation, charismatic theology, signs, wonders, tongues accepted, women preachers, unqualified Sunday-school teachers. Do you get the point? I believe it’s too late to save the organized church from Satan’s deception because too many seminary trained pastors and elders are spiritual dolts and can no longer discern any more since the Bible is no longer their standard.” And I can add, nor is Christ their Savior. That’s why he made this.

Now let’s see what Peter said. Let’s come to Acts 4 and let’s understand something very profound to show that once you have repented and have been baptized and received the Holy Spirit of God you are in the way and the truth, and the only way you receive life is through Christ. Notice what he said here. I really like this account here. They arrested them, they put them in jail. Verse 5, they brought Peter and John forth and arrested the apostles: “And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John…” Now remember, these were the ones who condemned Jesus to be crucified. And remember, the high priest knew John, didn’t he? And remember, that Peter was there when he denied Christ three times, wasn’t he? So they knew the apostles.

“…And Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy [Spirit] Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Now notice: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men…” (Acts 4:5-13, KJV). That means that they didn’t go through any of their seminaries, if we could put it that way. They were not taught by any of the leading rabbis; they weren’t at any of the religious schools; and they surely weren’t ignorant, but that’s how they looked at them. So they couldn’t deny it. There he was standing right there, and they said, “What are we going to do?”

Now let’s come back here to John 14. Let’s read verse 7 and then we’ll get on with some of the other things here that we haven’t covered yet: “ ‘If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. But from this time forward, you know Him and have seen Him.’ Philip said unto Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and that will be sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; why then do you say, “Show us the Father”? ’ ” (John 14:7-9, FV).

Now let’s go back to Hebrews 1, and with what we just read in mind let’s read Hebrews the first chapter again because in God sending His Son, and God becoming a fleshly human being to bring the Gospel to show the way to the Father, to open the way of salvation, this was a fantastic and marvelous thing, which the book of Hebrews, as we have been going through, really shows what a great and marvelous undertaking that God has done.

Now verse 1: “God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets…” And of course that was a tremendous thing wasn’t it, that God never left them alone. He always sent them a prophet, didn’t He? “…Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son [now it’s greater – far greater], Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory…” Now compare this to any prophet; compare this even to Moses, you see, which it does later in the book of Hebrews. “…Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person…” That’s why Jesus said to Philip, “If you’ve seen Me, you have seen the Father.” And yet most of the religions today believe in a pantheistic god, that God is in everything. God is in the wall, God is in the floor, the ceiling, all animals and so forth. And that’s why it’s so easy for a lot of people to get involved in Hinduism and reincarnation. No, God is a person. He is a being, just like Christ – the image of His person. “…And upholding all things by the word of His power…” Now you can’t get any higher authority. You cannot have any greater, as it were when we see here, “cleansing of sin.” And you cannot, when we go through the words of the New Testament, have any greater covenant to be in than the one that Christ has given. “…When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high…” (Heb. 1:1-3, KJV). Now that’s who we’re dealing with.

Now let’s come back to John 14 and we’ll make some other progress through some of the other verses here and see some of the things that God wants us to do and to understand. Let’s come down here to verse 11: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe Me because of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me shall also do the works that I do; and greater works than these shall he do because I am going to the Father” (John 14:11-12, FV). Well, as we covered last time in Acts 5, it was a phenomenal thing that people were healed even at the shadow of Peter just passed over them.

Now verse 13 is where we left off last time: “And whatever you shall ask in My name, this will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (verses 13-14, FV). Now this becomes a very important part of faith. Now we have faith coupled with prayer. Now we have faith coupled with asking Christ and asking the Father, don’t we? Yes.

Now notice, it doesn’t say: if you ask an apostle, or if you ask a pastor, or you ask a priest. “…Whatever you shall ask in My name, this will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Now there is one major thing concerning that, which is this: it must be according to the will of God. That’s the basic prayer in Matthew 6, “Your will be done in heaven as is on earth.” If you ask anything according to the will of God He will do it.

Now let’s come to Mark 11, and this is really quite an interesting section here. Now you stop and think about it for just a minute, as I mentioned on the first one. Nearly every prayer that you pray God answers in the affirmative, doesn’t He? However, please understand this: that if you are praying and asking and you get up from your knees and say, “I wonder if God will answer this prayer?” Or, “I don’t expect God to answer this prayer.” You have just destroyed the prayer because you don’t believe. Expect an answer. When and how and under what circumstances then becomes God’s timing. Now, know for sure if you don’t ask according to the will of God you’re not going to get that prayer answered because that’s based upon lust and covetousness. That’s your own will.

But let’s begin here in verse 20: “And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which Thou cursedst [which He cursed in the evening on the way out] is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God” (Mark 11:20-22, KJV). Now if you have a marginal reference it can read, “have the faith of God.” It is even more profound than that. It means “have God’s faith.” Now there are some people who say, “Well God doesn’t need faith.” Well God has faith because He can’t give a gift of faith unless He has it, right? Yes. Now this shows where we need to come to in our prayers. In other words if God has said so we can believe it, trust in it, claim it, and pray for it.

Now notice, He takes it clear to the extreme: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart [there’s the big problem that most people have – doubting in your heart], but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (verse 23). Now, God is not going to do this so people can go around and show their power and begin removing mountains here and there wherever they want to just to show off to the world. But if it’s necessary God will do that. And if it is His will He will do that, but you have to believe.

“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire [now it goes from the impossible down to the more possible], when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (verse 24). They will be answered. Now I’ve seen prayers that I’ve prayed that have taken years to answer. And then all of a sudden… Now since I do a lot of driving and so forth, many times this occurs while I’m driving. I’ll be driving down the road and I’ll say to myself, Ding “That prayer was answered.” This also helps us to, when we are praying, not to be frivolous in our prayers, but to ask for things realistic. If you are 90 years old God is not going to hear or answer, nor is it His will to make you 16 years old. It is God’s will that you die and He is going to answer that prayer even greater by giving you a spiritual body and a spiritual mind. Now wouldn’t you rather have that than going back to being a 16 year old and having to live life all over again in the flesh? See, so that’s an unrealistic, unwilled prayer of God.

Now notice there is another caveat that is here. Since we are in a love relationship with God, since we have the faith of God He wants us also to develop the character of God and be as God in this particular sense. Verse 25: “And when ye stand praying [which shows you don’t always have to be kneeling]…” Now what if you are walking along beside a well and all of a sudden something happened. You stepped into the loop in the rope and the spring was activated, it pulled you up and threw you down in the well and there you are hanging upside down by an ankle caught in the rope? And you pray and say, “God save me.” And God says, “You dummy. You’re not on your knees and you don’t have your hands in the right position.” (Laughter) Of course not, you see.

Here’s another quality: forgive. Everybody wants their sins forgiven, right? Yes, indeed. Everyone wants Jesus to be the advocate when they sin, don’t they? Yes, indeed. Then part of the covenant that we have with God is this: we are also to forgive. If you have anything against another and if it’s in such a way that you need to discuss it with them then you use Matthew 18, right? And go privately. And whatever Matthew 18 says you are to follow through.

Now here’s the condition: if you don’t forgive… See, it’s not “Lord, I’ll forgive him when he’s straightens up.” “Lord, I will forgive when she changes her attitude.” See, maybe your forgiveness will inspire God to help them see and to change if you have a forgiving attitude. “…Forgive, if ye have ought against any: that [it means “so that” or “in order that”] your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive [even though you pray], neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (verses 25-26). So these are some of the conditions of prayer, correct? But we are to grow to have the faith of God.

Now let’s look in the epistle of I John some other conditions for answered prayer. Let’s pick it up in I John 3:18: “My little children [when John wrote this he was pretty old, so he could say “My little children”], let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him” (I John 3:18-19, KJV). Now you see and I might mention here, if you want a very interesting word study get out the general epistle where we go through every place where it is “to know” and “to understand” in the epistle of I John and I think you will be surprised how much we are to know. This epistle, though it is very simple, is written to those who know, who understand.

“And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.” God wants you to have confidence, faith, and assurance. Not in the sense of arrogant pride of human nature, but in the sense of total belief in God. Verse 20: “For if our heart condemn us…” Now when do our hearts condemn us? When we sin and haven’t repented. And a lot of people hold back and have a guilt complex and don’t go to God. So he says to remind them: “…God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things” (verses 19-20). So therefore if you know you’ve sinned God knows you’ve sinned. So that means go repent, get rid of the condemnation, get rid of the guilty conscience, let the blood of Christ cover it through the grace of God and then you will have confidence again.

Now verse 21. This is all part of the attitude of prayer of coming to have the faith of God as Jesus said. “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him…” Now the conditions: “…because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (verses 21-22). So a person who is living in sin and doesn’t repent and doesn’t come out of sin cannot expect to have his prayers to be continually answered, correct?

Now verse 23: “And this is His commandment, That we should believe [so there we go: prayer and belief ties right in with John 14] on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” And that’s the whole beginning relationship that we need to have with each other. Not only beginning but enduring relationship. And it’s difficult at times and the reason being is this: it’s because God has called different people from different walks of life that under normal circumstances we would never meet, we would never associate with, and we all have our problems hanging out, don’t we? So therefore we are indeed of all people most difficult to love. That’s why he mentions this, you see.

Now verse 24: “And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him [and that is in Christ], and He [that is Christ] in him.” That’s by the Spirit of God, you see. “And hereby we know…” Now this is something God does not want us in doubt concerning: “…We know that He abideth [dwells or lives] in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.” In other words you come to a point in your life that you know that you have the Spirit of God, you know that it is in you, you know that Christ is in you and you have no doubt of that at all. That doesn’t mean that you’re not fighting sin. That doesn’t mean that you don’t get discouraged from time to time. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have problems and difficulties because we all do. It means that with the Spirit of God you can go through all of these things and God eventually will resolve them according to His will if we do the things that are pleasing in His sight, keep His commandments, love God and love each other.

Now let’s come over here to I John 5:14: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will [now there it is], He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him” (I John 5:14-15, KJV). So there’s the assurance that we need. Now based upon that then, that’s why Jesus said, “You believe in Me, believe also in the Father. And if you ask anything in My name this I will do that the Father may be glorified.”

Now let’s come back to John 14. We’ll come to verse 15 and there will be quite a few Scriptures that we can add to it. Keep your Bible open to I John because we’re going to go there. Here is a key absolute verse that is just an amazing verse. Now as I mentioned before as we’re going through here, circle the “ifs.” Verse 2: “…if it were otherwise, I would have told you.” Verse 3: “…If I go to prepare a place, I will come again.” Ok, we come down here to verse 11: “…if not, believe Me because of the works themselves.” Now verse 14: “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” I beg your pardon, we missed one in verse 7: “If you had known Me…”

Now I’ve never done it. I’ve done some of I, but I’ve never taken a systematic study to look up all the 1200 “ifs” in the Bible to see all the conditions that God gives. But let’s understand something: all the conditions are upon us because we are the variable factor, not God. So that’s why here in verse 15 He says: “If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments.” Which is as literal of a translation as I could get. How many people say they love the Lord, they know the Lord, and don’t keep His commandments? Which means this: if you don’t keep the commandments of God you don’t love Him.