The Gospel of John

Faith and Knowledge

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 56- 70

Genre:

Track: 056

Dictation Name: RR197AE58

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth unto all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we thank Thee that Thou who art the maker of heaven and earth art our God, art ever mindful of us so that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Teach us so to walk day by day that in all things we know that Thy hand worketh all things for Thy sovereign purpose. That we being a part of that purpose have an eternal destiny and security in Thee. Give us grace then to trust in Thee, to wait on Thee and to rejoice in Thy ways and Thy providence. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 16:25-33. Our subject: Faith and Knowledge.

“25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.

26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.

30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?

32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

In verses twenty five and twenty nine our Lord uses the word which is translated into the English as proverbs. It can also be translated as parable and the word refers to something that is both concealed and revealed. A by the way statement for the wise and the discerning to pick up on. Our Lord’s statement in verse twenty five tells us that He would after the resurrection speak plainly, that is more openly and directly. This does not mean that parabolic sayings are not plain but they are intended for our dedicated study. The parables are simple and direct but their subtle implications are not grasped by those who will not hear. We are not always ready for a fullness of understanding, knowledge is more than information, more than facts or data, it is a moral perception. Those who see knowledge merely as data can be very learned yet unwise. The fact that knowledge has this moral dimension explains why we can encounter people who no matter how much is spelled out for them cannot understand it, because the moral dimension of knowledge they do not grasp, in fact they deny it. Then our Lord continues:

“26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”

The frame of reference is the knowledge of God, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The disciples at the moment bewildered and unable to understand the meaning of what is happening to their Lord do not follow Him up until now. From the resurrection through Pentecost the Father will grant them understanding, they will have hearts open whereas now for the present they are bewildered but their bewilderment will be replaced with knowledge. There are many statements about prayer in John’s gospel and some like this have a specific reference. Because the disciples however bewildered by the turn of events truly loved their Lord the Father who loved them would give them the grace of knowledge. Christ’s intercession here would not be necessary because God had ordained their status and their belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In verse twenty eight our Lord continues:

“28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”

I came, he says, with a mission from the Father, that mission will shortly be accomplished and so I will leave you and return to the Father. Our Lord most emphatically rules out a world of chance, all things move in terms of the design and the ordination of the Father and not a leaf falls nor a hair part from Him. The disciples are deeply troubled by the turn of events because events did not meet their human expectations. Our Lord assures them that all things are moving totally in terms of the Father’s will. In verses twenty nine and thirty He says:

“29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.

30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.”

Our Lord says do you know believe? Well the total assurance of our Lord had brought home to the disciples a clear grasp of His divine nature. This they were beginning to see very clearly. As a result they felt that they were now beyond parables into plain knowledge, Jesus clearly had the power to answer unasked questions. Ye need not wait for any man to ask Him questions, as truly divine He knew what was in men’s hearts because He came from the Godhead and so He had answered the questions of their hearts. But the disciples were assuming that information is knowledge and that learning and knowledge are identical and they are not. There is a difference between data and insight, between learning and knowledge. Modern man believes that knowledge is power, by which he means that information or learning is the same as knowledge. Solomon in Proverbs 1:3 says: The fear of the Lord is the beginning OR the principle part of wisdom. True knowledge is wisdom, again in Proverbs 4:7 Solomon says:

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

The disciples too readily equated being informed with knowledge and faith. Our Lord therefore asks do ye now believe? The word He used for believe is in the Greek a verb. It is used ninety eight times by John in his gospel. The word [unknown], a noun, is never used, it is elsewhere in the New Testament used extensively but what John does is to avoid the word belief or faith and talk about believing.

Now there is a subtle distinction there. John is stressing that faith or belief is not a thing, a noun, but an action, not a noun but a verb. A very important point that John makes. Our Lord does not say ye do not believe but rather you do not yet know what it is to believe. When your faith is tested then you will know. When you are under fire for your faith then you will know that faith is action. Faith is not just a thing but it is our life as we live it in terms of a premise. He tells them in effect ye have not been yet tested and tried or paid a price for your faith. Faith is the gift of God but it is then tried in the fire to refine and purify us. One of the things that happens to us is that our faith is very commonly earth bound. We believe in God but our sights are limited to those things that are before us, that are immediately ahead of us. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that but what God does as in action He tests that faith, to get us to see beyond the immediate, beyond the present, beyond this world. Only so can faith become not a set of beliefs merely but our very life. Every faith will be tested and no man can expect faith to be other than a gift of testing. Our Lord continues in verses thirty two and thirty three:

“32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Your peace will not be in untroubled living, in having no problems, in having everything work out as you want it to. In me ye shall have peace, in the world ye shall have much tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. And as He says again elsewhere: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid. Now as we have seen knowledge is a moral fact. The testing of the disciples would begin shortly with Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion and death, the disciples would scatter in fear although later they would face death bravely. Their faith was not yet refined by fire and they would desert Jesus. Yet Jesus was not alone because the Father is with me. In spite of this our Lord on the cross would cry out: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because as our representative in our trials by fire however much God be with us we alone undergo the testing and Christ tested to the uttermost for us expressed for us that cry of dereliction. Events would scatter them, they would be all of them fearful and afraid but they would experience tribulation because the world hates God the Father and God the Son and does not know God the Spirit and therefore it would turn on those who represent the Father and the Son in this world.

In spite of this they will have peace in Christ. For moral reasons the ungodly do not know nor want to know the trinity, but those who do know God shall have peace. Therefore they should be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, the world was and is trying to overcome, destroy and obliterate Jesus Christ yet by His victory His atoning death and resurrection He is overcome the world, creating a new human race and empowering His people to disciple all nations and make the world the kingdom of God. The knowledge they must seek is a religious and a moral knowledge and the victory that shall come is also religious and moral. But the fallen world insists on separating morality from knowledge and now it denies all who litigate a morality which is reduced to purely personal values. Knowledge is therefore falsified and denied. In commenting on the use of the verb believe we saw that John tells us that knowledge and faith go hand in hand. True faith gives moral perspective to our understanding so that instead of more information we have knowledge. It is subtle nuances in that in John’s gospel that are so telling. To strip morality from knowledge is to deny and renounce it. This is a moral universe and we can never truly know anything apart from that awareness. Elsewhere in the New Testament faith is used as a noun, it describes various related things such as trust, an aspect of God’s grace to us, and a deposit of doctrinal premises as in Jude 3 where Jude speaks of the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For John it is an action based upon knowledge of which Christ is the alpha and the omega. Let us pray.

Our Father we thank Thee for this Thy word unto us through John. We thank Thee that Thy word is truth and Thy word is powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. That by Thy word we are made strong, by Thy word we grow in grace and in knowledge of Thee and are empowered in Thy service. Make us joyful in Thy word, strong in faith, active ever in Thy service. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

I think it’s interesting to note that because in modern thinking knowledge and morality are separated there are practical consequences. We should never forget that ideas have consequences, so what has happened? Well about twenty years ago articles began to appear which are now less common although the problem is not gone away, it’s become too great for them to even talk about, namely, the amount of fraud in the area of science. All kinds of experiments which are fraudulent, all kinds of test results which prove nothing. Now if you read the papers you’ve no doubt seen again and again something or another is good for the heart and then something published a little later that denies that, these experiments, these and countless and others are performed to suit a particular requirement by those who pay for the research.

And so we have a very critical problem now because knowledge is questionable. In an important case at the other end of the country not too long ago a major fact which would have pointed clearly to murder was neglected because they were giving out so much to be tested and getting back stacks of test results that they were clipped on a clip sheet and the test that proved that there was murder involved and that there was poisoning was just one of a sheaf of papers. So we have two things, falsification and then such masses of reports and data that nobody bothers to do more than thumb through them and not read them properly. And it was years later before it was discovered, body exhumed and the murder proven. And what came out loud and clear was that with masses of data, some of which is fraudulent, some of which is poor testing, nobody bothers to wade through all the material. Are there any questions about our lesson? Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s a very important point. We have a problem in our time in that we abstract things which is because of the classical Greek and roman background of so much of modern education. And we assume things exist apart from life and action, like the many times I have heard as has almost any pastor some man or woman who messed up their lives and their marriages, insist but I love her, but I love him, when their behavior has been totally contrary to anything that is love and is closer akin to hate. But they think that the word is a thing an that’s why biblical knowledge is so important, because throughout the bible in a variety of forms, because God uses the language of the times and the writers of the times, we are told that there is an inseparable relationship between faith and life, faith and action. Things don’t exist in the abstract so we don’t have faith or love or anything apart from the way we live. It comes out in how we live. Well if there are no further questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we give thanks unto Thee for Thy clear speaking through Thy word. Thy word is truth and it tells us what we need. Grant that we grow in faith, in knowledge and that we by our actions manifest these things in our daily life. We thank Thee that all things bring us closer to Thee for it is Thy purpose that out of every trial we gain more faith and knowledge and be nearer to Thy heart. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.