Taught of God

Introduction: The Apostle's Concern and Transition to Practical Exhortations

0:01 I invite you to turn with me again this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as we continue our studies through this letter of the Apostle to the Infant Church of the Thessalonians. For the benefit of the visitors who are with us, and we certainly do welcome you in the name of the Lord to our assembly this morning, perhaps just a word of explanation as to the general setting of the particular verse that we will look at this morning. In the first three chapters, the Apostle has been unburdening his heart to this young church. First of all, in the first chapter, telling him the things which cause him great joy in the presence of God in the founding of that church. And then in the second chapter, reminding them of the kind of minister through whom the Lord worked in them. And then in the third chapter, one of the strongest passages on the...

1:06 what we might almost call passionate concern of the Apostle for his converts. He just didn't spawn his eggs and go up river and forget them. When the Lord was pleased to bring people to birth through the Apostle, he had this great concern that they would go on to maturity in Christ. And in that third chapter, the Apostle, as it were, unzips his heart and lets these Thessalonians see something of that genuine holy concern.

1:36 Which he had for them, concluding with his prayer that God would bring him to them again. That he might perfect that which was lacking in their faith. Then beginning in chapter four, we have a transition of thought from these areas into some practical exhortations which will focus upon this general theme announced in verse one. How he ought to walk and to please God that he abound more and more.

2:03 The theme then of these chapters is the general subjection of the kind of a walk that pleases God and how a Christian should abound in that walk. And I would emphasize again as I have it each Sunday morning that you cannot please God by in a wooden, rather external way conforming the life to the standards of chapters four and five until you have been brought into vital union with Christ by the application of the word to your heart with Christ. As Paul describes the experience of the Thessalonians in chapter one then according to Romans 8.8 you cannot please God.

2:46 They that are in the flesh cannot, cannot. It is impossible for them to please God. But if we have been brought into the realm of the Spirit through union with Jesus Christ then we not only can but we must live a life that is pleasing unto our God. Paul dealt with the first subject of salvation.

3:06 Sexual purity under that general heading of the life that pleases God. And now we are considering the second paragraph in this chapter which begins with verse nine and ends with verse twelve. The general subject of love of the brethren. But concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia.

3:34 But we exhort you brethren that ye do not love one another but that ye abound more and more and that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your hands even as we charge you that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without and may have need of nothing. Last week I sought to define the general subject of love of the brethren and focus the principle that when God saves us though he saves us by an individual personal act of his grace he does not leave us in isolation. No sooner have we been united to his son than scripture teaches 1 Corinthians 12, 13 that we are united with the entirety of his body. We are brought into a living relationship with all the people of God and that new life that God gives us is not only developed by these vertical relationships feeding upon the word of God privately, prayer, fellowship with the Lord but spiritual life God intends should come to development in the community of the people of God. The church the body of God's people is not something extra. It is not something that you can take or leave willy nilly. God has ordained that spiritual life come to development in community and anyone who fails to recognize that principle is either deceived about his imagined growth or he does not understand

5:02 the very nature of the Christian life as outlined in the word of God. Now if providentially God cuts us off from the community of his people then certainly he is sufficient to make up for that lack which his providence dictates. But if there is any other reason other than divine providence for us not being greatly involved in the community of the saints of God then we cannot but suffer spiritually. Now I had hoped to move on to the exhortation to abound more and more but this little phrase captured me.

The Captivating Phrase: 'Taught of God'

5:37 I made reference to it last week and it's gotten hold of me and I can't get it off me until I preach on it. So we're going to look at it this morning. It's the little phrase for ye yourselves are taught of God. As I tried to just slide over that phrase and move on to the next passage I just couldn't.

5:58 That thing had hooks in it and the hooks hooked me. And so now I want to get unhooked this morning by directing myself in your thoughts to this little phrase ye yourselves are taught of God. As Paul considers this subject of the love of the brethren what he has observed in the lives of the Thessalonians has convinced him that God has taught them this truth. And the reason God taught them this truth was that they were in a relationship in which they were being taught of God many other things.

6:32 And so our subject this morning a somewhat digressionist from the main thrust here is the subject of taught of God and I want to ask you the question are you preacher taught Bible taught or God taught?

6:51 Are you preacher taught Bible taught or God taught?

7:01 Now generally you can't be God taught unless you are both preacher taught and Bible taught for the simple reason that God teaches through his word. The entrance of thy word gives life. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word. And generally the word comes by a preacher.

7:18 How shall they hear without a preacher? Ephesians 4 God hath ordained to bless the church and bring it to spiritual maturity. How? By giving to the church apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers.

7:32 Now follow my thinking. If you are God taught you are also Bible taught and generally preacher taught. But it's probably possible to be well taught by preachers and well taught by the Bible and never be God taught. So the sum and substance of your supposed Christianity is nothing but the absorption of the concepts and notions and standards and dogmas that preachers have told you when they've opened this black book from the pulpit.

8:08 So my question this morning I believe is a valid one. Are you simply preacher taught or merely Bible taught or are you God taught?

The Fact of Being Taught of God

8:23 To think our way through the subject consider with me in the first place the fact that there is such a thing as being taught of God. Some would put this in the class of downright fanaticism mysticism pietism these are some of the words that are used when anyone begins to think about a direct personal powerful communication of truth to the heart by the living God. So we must at the outset establish the fact that there is such a thing as being taught of God. We see it in our text and then we shall see it in the promise of the new covenant.

8:58 Notice Paul's declaration very simple sort of offhand ye yourselves are taught of God. If there's no such thing as being taught of God then Paul was telling a lie for he told these people you are living proofs of the fact that there is such a thing. Now the word he uses here to say God taught or taught of God is an interesting one it's the only place it occurs in the New Testament. As Paul sat there writing his letter from Corinth thinking of the Thessalonians and he wants to describe how it is that they had learned to love one another he said well the only explanation is that God has taught them now what word shall I use?

9:38 Then he went to his thesaurus couldn't find the word he went to his dictionary couldn't find the word he said well I'll make one so he made a word and what he did is he took the word God and the word to teach and he just welded them together in one word so that the way this should be translated is God dash taught it's one word in the original same thing he did with the doctrine of inspiration 2 Timothy 3.16 all scripture is given by inspiration of God that's a lot of words to describe one original word in the original he took the word for God and the word for breathe and he put them together all scripture is God breathed here he does the same thing ye yourselves are one word God taught if there is no such thing as being taught of God then the apostle conceived something that isn't and he passed it on as truth and therefore told a lie no there is such a thing as being God taught and Paul says in a very emphatic way ye even ye yourselves you Thessalonians have been the subjects of this teaching of God and so we can establish the fact that there is such a thing simply from this passage but there is abundant evidence in other portions of the word of God that there is such a thing in fact this is one of the peculiar blessings promised in the days of the new covenant or in what we might call

11:07 the days of Messiah's mission to the hearts of men in Jeremiah chapter 31 we have a record of the prophets pronouncement concerning the new covenant which according to Hebrews 8 and 10 is being fulfilled now through the redemptive work of Christ accomplished in the past and the present work of the spirit in the hearts of men Jeremiah 31 we read in verse 31 behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and then he describes what they did after he made that covenant but now he says there will be a new covenant verse 33 I will put my law into their inward parts and in their hearts will I write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin will I remember no more here God pronounces through the prophet that one of the distinctive blessings of the new covenant will not only be the full and final blotting out of sin the putting away of sin forever through the

12:36 death of his dear son but this inward work of the spirit of God so that people will not have to be giving external instruction to one another in the same way that they did under the old covenant but there shall be an inner comprehension of God and of his ways turn to the book of Isaiah a very significant passage for we'll see that our Lord quotes from this in the gospel of John Isaiah chapter 54 and verses 13 and 14 Isaiah 54 verses 13 and 14 and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children in righteousness shalt thou be established for thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come near thee if you read the context of this passage God is speaking of the brighter days to come to his covenant people and he says one of the distinctive blessings of that period of Messiah's reign and ministry will be this all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah or taught of the Lord therefore everyone who comes under the blessings of Messiah under the blessings of the new covenant

14:04 will be taught of the living God in the same way that the Thessalonians were so this is not a matter of fanaticism or pietism or something that is just for a select few but we are warranted in saying that one of the marks of a true work of grace in the heart of a man or woman is that he or she knows what it is to be taught of God not just preacher taught not just Bible taught but God taught so much then for establishing the fact of such teaching consider in the second place the substance of this teaching of God when a person is taught of God what does God teach him how does God teach him well consider with me first of all what God teaches initially and then continually turn to the sixth chapter of John for a description of the initial instruction that God gives to people when he takes them in hand to teach them John 6 beginning with verse 41 and I shall read through verse 45 the Jews therefore murmured concerning him because he said I am the bread which came down out of heaven and they said is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know how doth he now say I am come down out of heaven they couldn't understand his

The Substance of God's Initial Teaching: Sin and Grace

15:33 words they were exposed to them but they couldn't perceive them they could even quote them in that sense you see they were Bible taught they had the very words of Jesus and they're quoting them they didn't understand they didn't perceive them they couldn't receive them but they were exposed to them they knew them they could parrot them they gave his very words back to him then Jesus says in verse 44 no man can come to me except the father that sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day no man can come to me except the father that sent me draw him and that word draws a powerful word doesn't mean just a little bit of moral suasion and the word is used of physical things it speaks of one power taking hold of another and operating upon it it speaks of drawing the sword of drawing the nets this is the word that is used well how does the father draw well he tells us in verse 45 it is written in the prophets and now he quotes from that passage in Isaiah which we read just a few moments ago and they shall all be taught of God how does God draw men to his son without that drawing they cannot come they cannot because they will not well what overcomes that unwillingness what overcomes that moral inability the Lord Jesus is telling us in verse 45 it is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God every one of them notice the emphasis now

17:00 everyone that hath heard from the father and hath learned cometh unto me what is the initial teaching of the father all listen carefully if the father is taught you the first lessons he taught you were the lessons of sin and of grace he taught you such things about yourself that you came to despair of having any hope of mercy in yourself or in any other human being and then he taught you some things about Jesus Christ that he was not just someone around in the church could rally and sing hymns about whom preachers could talk he taught you something about the uniqueness of his person that he is the son of God come down from heaven that he is the sinners substitute that he did die and bear the wrath of the Lord and that he is the life of the father against human sin that he was buried that he was raised that he is alive and listen carefully he not only taught you those things in such a way that you said yeah that makes sense but notice what Jesus said everyone that hath learned and been taught of the father actually comes to me and what does it mean to come to Christ that's just another description of faith that absolute abandonment of the

18:28 entirety of my person to Jesus Christ that's what it means to be saved by him for time and eternity to be saved by him from sin on his terms utter abandonment if any man come to me and hate not father mother brother sister his own life also cannot be my disciple if any man come after me let him take up the cross Jesus said every person who's been taught of the father has learned such things of himself and of the Savior that he's been brought to the cross and brought to this glad abandonment of the entirety of his person to the Lord Jesus Christ now I want to ask you this morning are you God taught I'm not asking you believe you're a sinner and you believe Christ is the son of God I'm asking you you're God taught are you God taught has what you have learned about sin and the Savior brought you into vital union with the son of God if not you've not been taught of the father for Jesus said everyone that has learned and been taught of the father comes to me but blessed be God if you've come to him and thrown yourself upon and have entered into vital union with him and the proof that you ever have done that in the past is that that is

19:54 the attitude of your soul this morning utter rest in the Lord Jesus and his salvation no hope but in his person and work and the reason you did is that the father saw fit to be the son of God and he said the father I'm going to come to you to take you in hand and teach you or you never would have come for no man can come to me except the father dry so I ask you are you Bible taught preacher taught or God or you said I'm talking to the Bible I can quote the verse all of sin yes I know all that but if you've been taught of God how about it young people you've been taught of the Bible and thought of the preacher and thought of mum and dad but has God taught you anything yet if he has then the Bible will be taught you or God will Then this morning, you're one who's utterly without reservation committed yourself to the Lord Jesus.

20:49 Are you God taught? See, that's the issue. That's the question. And the reason these Thessalonians were taught of God to love one another was that they were first of all taught these most elementary things.

20:59 That's why Paul could say, as he did in verse 5 of chapter 1, Our gospel came unto you not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord.

21:15 You don't follow someone until you come to them. He says in verse 9, Ye turned to God from your idols to serve the living and the true God. What's the first thing God taught the Thessalonians? When He took them in hand to teach them, He taught them the essential elements of sin and of grace, and brought them to the Savior.

21:35 Oh, I plead with you earnestly this morning. Don't just throw this off as another question the preacher is asking to fill up time. Are you taught of God? Ask the question with that initial instruction that brings to the Savior.

The Substance of God's Continuous Teaching: Conforming to Christ's Will

21:50 Well then, you see, when God takes you in hand to teach you, He doesn't teach you just the elements of sin and grace and then leave you. God takes you in hand to teach you. He's not only going to start His work, but He's going to carry it right on until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1.6 So, the same God that took some of these Thessalonians in hand to teach them is the God who went on from the elements, the elementary lesson of sin and grace and repentance and faith, and led them on now by putting them in community with each other, and had been teaching them that the indispensable ingredient of this newfound life as they came to Christ was that they must have love one to another. And so the Father then teaches the will of God to His children in this particular text, it was the lesson of love one to another, and will you notice what Paul says about that teaching of God? Verse 10

22:49 For indeed ye do it, present tense, toward all the brethren. How does God teach those continuous lessons to His children?

23:02 Well, He reveals the will of God in such a way that the people of God are committed to that revelation of His will as a continuous principle. For ye do it, present tense, and as a universal principle to all the brethren. You see, when God teaches the truth of love of the brethren, He doesn't teach it in such a way that all you love is the people who cut their hair the way you do, or wear their tie the way you do, or who pronounce your shibboleths. When He takes you in hand to teach you to love the brethren, He teaches you to love all the brethren, because they're brethren.

23:41 If He thought them worthy to take them in hand and teach them the lessons of sin and grace, and put them in the family of God, then He says you're to love them. And that's how He taught these Thessalonians, by producing this consistent attitude and this universal disposition of love to the brethren. And I think we see a principle there, that when God teaches us in the continuous classroom of grace, He does so in such a way as to radically affect the life in the area of consistent and universal change. So the substance of the, the teaching is a revelation of Jesus Christ that leads us to commit ourselves to Him, and then the revelation of the will of Christ and the impartation of the power of Christ that we might be conformed to the likeness of Christ. Now you see, that has very practical implications.

24:38 You say, oh yes, I've been taught of God those initial lessons. Well then, am I being taught of Him these continuous lessons? When I hear the Word of God preached, does it come home? Does it come to my heart in such a way that I then find myself doing it?

24:53 Paul says you are taught of God, for indeed you do it. He only knew the effect of the teaching of God in the fruit of their lives.

Means of God's Teaching: The Written Word of God

25:03 And the only way you have any valid grounds to say you're being taught of God is if the effect of His teaching is manifest in your life. And that brings us then into third place to consider the means God uses in this teaching. We've established the fact that there is such a thing as being taught of God, which goes beyond being merely Bible taught or preacher taught. We've considered the substance of that teaching.

25:29 Initially, a revelation of sin and grace that leads us to Christ. Continually, further revelations of the will of Christ that we might be conformed to Christ. Now what means does He use? Shall we resort to the philosophy of the Quakers where we come on a Sunday morning and we all fold our hands?

25:49 And think. Assume the posture of the thinker. And then, as it were, by throwing the mind into neutral, hope that some great thoughts will come and then we'll be taught of God. Is that how we're going to do it?

26:02 No, we say that's not the way God teaches us. For Scripture makes clear in the first place the means God uses to teach men is the written Word of God.

26:16 In the fifth chapter of John, our Lord states this principle in John chapter 5, verses 39 and 40.

26:28 He says to the Jews, Ye search the Scriptures, or it could be the imperative, search the Scriptures. The reason we don't know is that the form in the original could be either in the imperative or in the indicative. We're not sure. So it's either ye search or search the Scriptures because ye think that in them ye have eternal life.

26:50 These are they which bear the fruit of the Word. These are they which bear witness of me. And ye will not come to me that you may have life. What was their problem?

26:58 They were Bible taught without being God taught. Therefore, they never came to Christ.

27:05 Isn't that what he's saying? You're searching the Scriptures, but if the Father were teaching you, you'd come to me because I'm the central theme of the Scriptures. Oh, I tell you, this has terrible implications. You sit here listening to me preach week after week, many of you, you young people and you adults.

27:23 You search the Scriptures and when I say turn to John, you turn. When I say consider Thessalonians, you consider it.

27:31 But of a saving embrace of Christ and a warm, involved relationship with Him, there is precious little evidence that you've come to Christ. See, your Bible taught, preacher taught, but not God taught. But the means that He uses, you see here, He says, is His Word. They testify of me.

27:55 Verses 45, and following. Think not that I will accuse you to the Father. There's one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom you've set your hope. For if he believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.

28:09 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? You tell a Jew that he didn't believe Moses, what are you talking about? I believe Moses. I believe every word.

28:21 The Lord said, no you don't. You do, but you don't. There are two kinds of faith. See?

28:26 Sure, they believe, with an intellectual faith, Moses, mouthpiece of God, but Jesus said, you don't really believe Him. For if you really believed, with that faith, which is the gift of God, you'd have to embrace me, because I'm found, stamped upon the face of the writings of Moses, page after page after page.

28:50 You say you believe the Bible to be the Word of God. Every one of you here this morning, you don't believe the Bible to be the Word of God. Many of you. Why?

28:58 Because if you did, you'd be found embracing the Lord Jesus.

29:06 And if you're ever going to embrace Him, the means God will use is this Word. Is this Word. This written Word of the living God. If that's true, that God teaches us initially the lessons of sin and grace, and continually development in the school of grace, if His Word is the primary instrument, do you then see the implication for your life if you are taught of God?

29:32 Look upon anything that lowers your estimation of this book as your mortal enemy.

29:41 Look upon anything that lowers your estimation of this book as your mortal enemy.

29:50 Either in theory or in practice. In theory, you fellows in school, the first little doubt that ever begins to come, well, is it? Look upon that thing as a foul demon from hell and turn from it. Don't entertain.

30:07 Don't entertain it for a moment. If I ever have the slightest inkling of an infinitesimal speck of doubt begin to penetrate my mind as to the validity of this book, I know where it came from, and I'm not even going to analyze it. I'll send it back to the pit from whence it came. I exhort you, brothers, to do that.

30:26 But our danger is not only in the realm of theory, but in the realm of practice. Beware of any movement within the Trinity Church at any point in its history that you're connected with. If my bones are being eaten by the worms, I hope my words will rise up. Any emphasis of what the Church should be in its worship and in its service that lowers the centrality of the Word of God, run from it like your mortal enemy.

30:58 I wish I had time to have Mr. Rogers give you a little testimony. I think he got an eye-opener yesterday. Ministering to a group of college students some miles from here, Bill went along with me, and here are the students that are the salt of the earth and the light of the world on those godless campuses.

31:14 These are the Christian kids, the professing Christian kids. And the paucity of biblical knowledge amongst them would break your heart. They don't think biblically. When a problem came to be discussed, and I would share, this is what the Word of God says, you'd sense this attitude, yeah, but, well, what about psychology?

31:33 And what about sociology? And what? They don't even think biblically. Why?

31:38 Why?

31:39 Go to good evangelical churches. The churches where entertaining the saints has taken the place of solid, deep, consistent exposition and application of the Word of God.

31:57 So I repeat my statement. Run in horror from anything that lessens your appreciation for the Word of God, either in theory, how you looked upon it, or in how you treat it in the church, in your own personal life. If your television's robbing you of time, with the Word of God, look upon your television as something that's been placed there by the devil himself, and get rid of it if you can't master it. If it's the evening newspaper, I don't care what it is, look upon anything that lessens your appreciation for this book as your mortal enemy, and treat it like a mortal enemy.

32:32 Treat it as such.

32:36 Well, I must hurry on to the second means that God uses to teach us. The written Word, always, therefore, never regard it lightly. Treasure it. If you would be taught of God.

Means of God's Teaching: The Powerful and Present Holy Spirit

32:48 But secondly, the Spirit of God, powerfully and presently active. This is how God teaches us. How did those Thessalonians get taught the lessons of sin and grace initially? Paul told them in chapter 1, in verse 5.

33:04 He said, Our Gospel, ah, that was the Word, what to us is now the written Word. The Gospel the apostles spoke verbally is now there for us in writing. And he says, that Gospel, that Word of God that we preached unto you came not in Word only. You'll never be God taught without the Word of God.

33:26 But if all you have is the Word, you won't be God taught. He says, it came not in Word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. How does God teach men? The written Word is the instrument, but that written Word applied personally and powerfully by the Holy Spirit.

33:47 Why? Because unlike any other body of truth or knowledge that comes to us, man in a state of sin has no capacity to receive these truths. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them.

34:13 If someone were to present me with a Chinese Bible, it would be as much the Word of God as my English Bible. But I couldn't be God taught through a Chinese Bible for the simple reason I can't read Chinese. I can't know what's there. It's the Word of God, but it's Chinese.

34:34 And me no speaky Chinese, see? Can't read. Can't do. So what do I need?

34:41 I need something to happen that when I see Chinese characters, words and concepts register in my mind. Well, that's a grotesque illustration, but I believe accurate. You see, the Word of God is plain and clear, but man in a state of nature cannot read the pieces of Chinese. Verse 12.

35:02 Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. He puts the glasses on us so that the Chinese become discernible now. He must do it. A direct, personal, inward, illuminating work of the Spirit.

35:22 We find the same thing in 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul says in verse 4, the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. Well, how is that blindness to be overcome? Verse 6. But God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

35:44 Nobody is taught of the Father apart from the Word and the Spirit. In those initial lessons of sin and grace, who alone can teach them? God must teach them.

35:57 Time alone will tell if it's real or not, but because He's not here, I can say one of the precious things that happened even this morning. I was up in my study early and my son came in. He's home with the bug and he had his Bible and his Pilgrim's Progress. He's learning well under his arm.

36:14 And he said, Daddy, can I talk to you? And I said, Well, son, for a minute. He said, You know, I've been telling you, Daddy, that I feel the Lord's been working in my heart. But he said, I don't really feel He has been.

36:23 I said, Why? And then he started to cry. He said, Because Daddy, I saw my sin in a way this morning I never have before. I don't think I ever really saw my sin.

36:35 See what he's saying?

36:37 I thought I was being taught, but in the light of what God showed me this morning, I don't know. Well, I'm not building all my hopes on that, you see. Time must take its toll and the other influences of God upon the heart. But it focuses this principle that I'm trying to get across this morning.

36:56 I trust God is making it clear that unless the Spirit of God applies that word with power as much as we've gone down over many times the Ten Commandments and what sin is and gone over our catechism instruction and taken the written word and tried to teach Him what sin is until God teaches Him, you'll never see it.

37:18 But when God teaches Him and He's taught of the Father the lessons of sin and grace, He's going to come to the Savior. And so will you. But it's got to be the Word and the Spirit, but not only initially, continually. Continually.

37:33 We're taught of God continually by the same means of the Word and of the Spirit. That's why John says two precious words in 1 John 2, verse 20 and 27. And I can only quote them. I can't go into any extended exposition of them, but notice he's writing to believers and he says in verse 20, Ye have, present tense, an anointing or an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things.

38:02 All things. Verse 27.

38:08 But as for you, the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you. There's permanence. And ye need not that anyone teach you. And as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things and is true and is no lie, even as it taught you, abide in Him.

38:27 Now when John says you need not that any man teach you, he's not saying you don't need teachers. If that were so, why is he writing this letter?

38:35 He's contradicting himself. He's writing a letter to teach them. But what he's saying, using that same figure of speech, the absolute for the relative that Paul uses in Thessalonians, he says you don't have any need that anyone teach you. You're taught of God.

38:48 What he's saying is you have relative little need. It isn't as though unless there's a man standing at your side continually saying, now this is the next step and this is the next step you won't know anything. No, he said you've got to teach it with you. Wherever you go, the anointing is with you to teach you.

39:04 The Word of God is the basis and you're driving along in the car and you're thinking on a verse and all of a sudden the verse breaks open. Where did that come from? Who was sitting by your side to say, hey, did you ever see this in that verse? Ah, the anointing you've received teaches you.

39:19 See? Teaches you. You're singing a hymn. Has some scriptural phrase and all of a sudden, zingo, the thing breaks wide open.

39:27 Now how'd that happen? The anointing you've received teaches you. See? The Holy Spirit who teaches the first lessons of grace, teaches all those continually lessons of grace in the heart and life of the believer.

39:42 And that anointing is the portion of every Christian. Why? Because the Lord Jesus, when He ascended to the right hand of the Father, the Scripture says, He hath received the promise of the Father. The one to whom the Spirit is given without measure, poured out in plentitude His Spirit upon His church.

40:00 And as the ointment went down from Aaron's beard to the skirts of his garments, so that anointing of the Spirit that rested upon our Lord Jesus comes down to the least member of His body. And we read in 2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22 that that anointing is the portion of all the children of God. If you and I would be God-taught, then this has tremendous implications. Just as we must beware of anything that demeans the Word of God and fight it as our mortal enemy, we must beware of anything that will grieve or quench the Spirit of God and fight it like our mortal enemy.

40:39 Take away the written Word, no teaching of God. Take away the ungrieved operation of the Spirit of God, there is no teaching of God. That's why the Scripture says, grieve not the Spirit, quench not the Spirit. That's why when the writer to the Hebrews is telling these people, I've got things in the written Word I want to give to you, but you can't learn them.

41:00 Why? He says, because you're little babies. And why are you babies? He says, not because your intellect is limited, your grace, your body matter has been shortchanged.

41:10 He said, no, no. He said, full-grown people are those who by reason of use have the senses exercised to discern good and evil. In other words, the maintenance of a sensitive conscience before the Lord is the prerequisite to experiencing the operations of the Spirit of God in His teaching ministry.

Means of God's Teaching: Full Employment of the Mind and Heart

41:34 How we should cry to God for the Spirit's operation wherever we're exposed to the written Word. Before we ever come through these doors on a Sunday morning to be exposed to the written Word, how we should be found pleading with God to send His Spirit to teach us. And the third means God uses, and I can only touch on it briefly, He uses His written Word, the Spirit applying the Word. Now follow closely.

41:59 He uses the full employment of the mind and hearts of those who are taught. He teaches by the Word, by the Spirit, but He incorporates into His teaching our own minds, our own mental, spiritual energies. Acts 17.10 speaks of those at Berea who receive the Word with all readiness of mind.

42:23 How were the Thessalonians taught? If you'll read the accounts of the evangelism in chapter 17 of Acts, it says, Paul reasoned with them. The Greek word is the English word from which we get the word dialogue. He dialogued with them in the synagogue.

42:37 And as they thought, and they looked at a verse, and they compared it over here, what happened? As the written Word was in their hands, as their minds were thinking, the Spirit of God was after them, and they would talk. They didn't sit back and say, oh, there's the Word, now the Lord will send the Spirit, I'll see everything, so I'll just get in the neutral and think, light's going to come. No.

42:57 They thought, they reasoned, they compared, and the Spirit of God and the Word of God operated. I commend for your serious reading Proverbs 2, the first seven verses along this line, where God says, if thou cry after knowledge, search for knowledge like hid treasure. Do you remember when you were kids and you actually thought, maybe you didn't, but we did, we actually thought there's some treasures buried because we lived right by Long Island Shore and Long Island Sound in Connecticut. And I can remember if we ever thought we were somewhere where something was buried.

43:27 Man, we went at it like crazy. And we'd overturn every rock and we'd dig. God says, when you start hunting for the truth like hid treasure,

43:37 you know, you ought to stand up here some Sunday mornings and you really wonder if somebody is some people are looking for treasures.

43:47 Maybe they hope they're going to discover them in their dreams. I don't know. And then there are others you sense they're hanging on every word. Hanging on every word.

43:56 Why? The full employment of the mind. They're hunting after truth is for hid treasure. Seeking it as gold.

44:03 Then he says, then shalt thou find the knowledge of the Lord.

44:08 The person who's God taught is the one who has the full employment of the mind and heart. Read the 119th Psalm. That's a whole psalm involved with it. The time won't permit you enlarge.

Application: Are You God Taught?

44:19 I must close with this brief application bringing us full circle to where we started. Are you preacher taught? Bible taught? Or God taught?

44:31 Are you? You better answer in your own conscience.

44:35 And I trust if you can't answer yes that you'll start searching the scriptures diligently. Even as an unconverted person. You search the scriptures. Jesus told those unconverted Jews search the scriptures.

44:46 And he tells you search the scriptures. Cry to God that he'd open your eyes. And pour your mind upon the truth. But I'm more particularly concerned with you who are initially God taught and in some measure have gone on in the school of grace.

45:05 Wouldn't it be wonderful if you had as your ambition every Lord's day God this day. I don't want to be preacher taught or Bible taught. I want to be God taught. And you came with that high regard for the written word.

45:17 Utter dependence upon the spirit. Full employment of the mind. What would happen in this place and in our homes and lives throughout the week if all the truth we hear somehow was more than Bible truth and preacher truth. It was God taught.

45:38 I had someone call me last week the only professors who had been saved a very short time. Matter of months. And this individual was greatly disturbed. Didn't know what was wrong.

45:49 Didn't know what their problem was. And I hope it will smite conviction to the heart of many of us. And they said Pastor something's wrong. Last Sunday morning God didn't convict me about something specifically in my life.

46:03 Every time I've come to church over the past three, four months without fail God has spoken about specific issues and I've dealt with those issues. But God didn't speak last Sunday. What's wrong? What's wrong?

46:19 One Sunday they felt they weren't God taught and it broke them up. Some of you have been sitting right here for six months. Years at the exposition of my ministry and God knows how many years of somebody else seldom wounded seldom pricked seldom broken seldom blessed.

46:43 Does it send an arrow of conviction to you? I hope it does. And if it sends an arrow of conviction let it drive you to the Lord.

46:50 And then the word of comfort.

46:54 You see the person who comes longing to be convicted if so God so desires to speak a word of conviction is the one who will also be be comforted because the heart that's open to hear the voice of God will be taught of God that word and lesson that he wants to teach. But see if you come dickling saying well Lord I'm willing to be taught if it's the sweet things and if I see sweet things coming my way I'll hold up my bucket. No, no. You can't play with the Lord that way.

47:26 Speak Lord for thy servant heareth. Sweet things bitter things speak Lord. Are you Bible taught? Preacher taught or God taught?

47:40 May God grant that you can answer by his grace I'm taught of God. Let us pray.

47:51 Oh Lord