Let's go ahead and get started
turn with me to John 7 John 7 John 7 and we'll begin in verse
37 In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he of the spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the
prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that
Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of
Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among
the people because of him, and some of them would have taken
him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to
the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, why
have ye not brought him? The officers answered, never
man spake like this man. Then answered them, the Pharisees,
are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not
the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, he
that came to Jesus by night being one of them, doth our law judge
any man before it hear him and knoweth what he doeth? They answered
and said, unto him, art thou also of Galilee? Search and look,
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet, and every man went unto
his own house." I like how John Gill said of
this account about these Pharisees in Sanhedrin, these chief priests. He said, they thirsted after
the blood of Jesus. They could not hardly contain
themselves so as to not show how much they wanted to murder
him. They did not care what he had
to say or what he did. They just wanted him gone for
good. They knew not from which he came. They, in fact, knew
nothing about him. They did not even take the time
to go out and see who he was and to hear him say anything.
You know what that is? I think you do, as all of God's
people know this once they see it, once they hear this kind
of thing. It is hardness of heart. Those who are hard-hearted, and
we all are as we are born into this world, what did Stephen
say to those who he was preaching to when Saul was standing there
holding their coat? ye uncircumcised in heart and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. We do always and
will always resist the Holy Ghost when we are in such a state as
that, that is uncircumcised in heart and ears. But we go on
and we read that these officers did not bring Jesus to them,
which is what they were sent out to do. We see here the hatred
of man against God. This same hatred, which was in
my flesh, and he is in my flesh, that manifested forth itself
in me saying in my heart, if that is who God is, I don't want
a God like that. So when these officers, which
one of these was Nicodemus, the one that came to Jesus by night,
But when these officers came to the chief priests and the
Pharisees, they did not have Christ with them. They were supposed
to get Christ and bring him back so he could be interrogated by
men. And can you imagine that? But they did not do what they
were supposed to. They came back empty, so to speak. So these
chief priests and Pharisees want to know why they did not bring
Jesus Christ with them. They knew him not as Jesus Christ. Their answer to this question
was this, and this is my title. Never a man spake like this man. We know that when Jesus Christ
spoke, it brought out anger and hatred to some. We can see it
right here in our text. But then there are others who
are impressed by his speech, not to any saving value, but
they were impressed. Then yet there are others when
he spake that loved his words and loved the one from whom it
came, these words came. And I want to simply go through
this one point, the voice of Jesus Christ. We here and at
other places sometimes have scripture reading, and this is a good practice
if you will. I'm not saying there's anything
wrong with it, and in fact, it is good to do. But there is an
account in Scripture where Christ reads the Scripture. Turn with
me to Luke 4. Luke 4, and starting in verse
17. Luke 4, 17. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all
them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. and all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is not this Joseph's son? When he is done reading, the
people respond with, what gracious words? And they were gracious
words. But then he begins to expound
the word of God and give the sense thereof. Then what do we
see, verses 23 through 28? And he said unto them, ye will
surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in
his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elias the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath." So what do we see now? We see
fierce anger. Christ told them that God is
sovereign and he saves who he pleases to save, even if it leaves
some out. At these words, they were filled
with fierce anger. That's the meaning of the word.
They were not just a little angry. I'm sure they were ready to kill
him right there. What about in John 6 when he told the multitude
that it is of God's choosing and of God's doing for someone
to come to him? What did they do? They left. They did not like what they heard.
They were only there for those things he did and mainly for
filling their bellies. Christ even turned to the 12
and said, will you also go away? Christ tells us he did not come
to send peace, but a sword. His word, his voice will divide
families. This is the Christ that someday
say things like this, This is the Christ that some today say
things like this, give your heart to Jesus. He does not want your
old, evil, wicked, hardened heart. He in fact does not want anything
from us but submission. This he will force some to do. And those he does force will
love it to be so because he does this in love. How does he do
this? His voice. John 5.25, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. To hear His voice is to have
life. Now, I want to be clear. We're
not talking about hearing an audible voice in the night. I
remember Earl told someone at some time, he said this, and
I think he was talking, his doctor was asking him this. And the
doctor asked Earl, do you hear voices? And Earl said, yes, when
someone talks to me. That's what we're talking about
here. That's what we're talking about. When someone in some way
testifies with their voice, of Jesus Christ and Christ by His
Spirit speaks to them in their heart, that new heart given by
Him, to tell them this is the one of whom the scripture speaks,
they will hear. Their heart has been circumcised. It is a new heart. I cannot circumcise
a man or a woman's heart by speaking to them. They must have a circumcised
heart in order for them to hear the truth spoken in whatever
medium it might be. What are some of the things Jesus
Christ says? The only place we're going to
know that is to go to his word. If anyone says they are hearing
or they know something and it's not in God's word, they are lying
to you. But I am interested in those
things that Christ says with his voice, and that to believers. If you're not a believer, you
neither care what I'm going to say, and neither can you love
what I'm going to say. So I'm talking to believers.
Now I will not and cannot tell you everything that Christ says,
but I will point out a few. Matthew 11, 28, very familiar. He says, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We
all know this verse, but these are gracious words. But here's
the thing. Christ qualifies those to whom
he says, come unto me. All that labor and are heavy
laden. If you are not laboring, that
is doing, doing, doing, and because of that you are so fatigued you
have no strength and you are heavy laden with it all so that
you cannot bear the weight. that's not you, then he's not
telling you come to him. But if you are, Christ says,
come unto me. And in so coming to him, he says
he will give you rest. He will do the doing and he will
lift off the weight. In fact, you will come to find
out that he has done this from the foundation of the world.
Isaiah 53, four says, surely he hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows. Past tense. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. What's something else that Christ
says? And I have a list here because they were all together
and I want to read some of them too. Blessed are the poor in
spirit. Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed
are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
And he goes on. And that was Jesus Christ saying
these things. All of these things by nature,
I am none of these. But by his work and his voice,
I am all of these. So we're all all of those whom
God the Father chose in Christ to give to him for a bride. Because
he did bear our griefs and carried our sorrows. So when you hear
his voice, what does his voice do? Turn with me to John 11. All these very familiar, I'm
not telling you anything new this morning that you haven't
heard before. John 11, 38 through 44. Jesus therefore, again groaning
in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay
upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for
he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I
not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the
glory of God? Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And
I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face
was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let him go. We have one here who was dead. He was D-E-A-D, dead, if anyone
is a little confused. He was actually physically dead
here, but this is a picture of one who is spiritually dead. You know, this is the one thing
that those who have not been given life from the dead by Jesus
Christ, they do not know this. They just can't. They can't know
this. They cannot know they are spiritually dead because they
are spiritually dead. A dead man does not know anything.
You have to be given life before you ever know you were dead in
trespasses and in sin. So what do we see here? He was
so dead he was to the point of stinking, decaying, rotting in
the grave. We can see that Christ does not
do things on his own either. He prayed to the Father for this
thing. And guess what? The Father heard
and the Father gave him what he asked for. Then what did Christ
do? He cried with a loud voice, it
says. His words, his voice. Lazarus,
then pause. There's a comma there, pause.
Breath, life. And then he says, come forth. He is no longer dead. He can
now hear the master's voice. So what does he do? He comes
forth bound in grave clothes. And what is it that he tells
others to do now? Loose him and let him go. That's what we do by the gospel.
We loose men and women and we let them go. Those who are labor
and are heavy laden, we tell them of who Christ is and what
he has done. And those whom by his voice he
has called out, hear it. They are freed from those grave
clothes. This is something we are constantly
doing, removing the grave clothes until Christ takes us home or
he returns for us. It is he we must hear. Christ
tells us we must believe or we will die in our sins. The father
says this, Matthew 17 five, while he yet spake, behold, a bright
cloud overshadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which
said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear
ye him. The father tells us to hear him,
to hear his voice. So who do you think we should
listen to? How are you going to hear him? It will be by the
proclamation of the gospel to those who have that circumcised
heart. We are told in scripture that
it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. It does not say foolish preaching.
It says through the foolishness of preaching. It is that preaching
that is a stumbling block to some. but to others it reveals
their rock upon which they stand. There are many preachers out
there today who preach, but it's not just any preacher. It is
those who are sent of God and who preach Jesus Christ and him
crucified. Paul says, woe unto me if I preach
not the gospel. and the gospel is Jesus Christ,
that is who he is, and that is God manifest in the flesh, and
it is also him crucified, that is what he accomplished on that
tree. He said it is finished, it's
done, there's no more work. He accomplished it on that tree.
There are a lot of men out there who preach a Jesus, a gospel,
but it is not another gospel. It is in fact not a gospel at
all, but a perversion. These men you should not listen
to. There are a lot of them out there,
but very few who do preach the gospel. Now you'll know these
hucksters because they preach a gospel like this. God has done
all he can do and now it's up to you. Jesus Christ has not
done all he can do. He has simply done all. They
will say, he has no hands but your hands. He has no feet but
your feet. But that's a lie. Another one
of their little cute sayings that flies right in the face
of God. He has his own hands and he has
his own feet with which he has worked the work of God to the
saving of his people's soul. So he does not need our hands
and our feet. Some will say this outright.
They will actually say these words that I just told you, but
then there are others who will not say it outright, and may,
in fact, say they do not believe that. But the gospel they proclaim
is one of God doing his part, and then now, once he has done
his part, we now have ours to do. But we, even today, cannot
do things on our own, even as believers. You all know the passage,
I've used it several times here lately. John 15, five. I am the
vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. So we do do things. For without me ye can do nothing. We can first only do something
if we are in him and he is in us. If not, You have no part
with Him. But if we are in Him and He in
us, even then we can only do it because of Him. Christ tells
us that right there. We can do nothing without Him. He must do just as He did with
Zacchaeus. He must come and abide in our
house. In Him abiding in your house,
you will hear Him. And He will enable you to do
His good pleasure. So we even now today as believers
who have been converted by the gospel have to have his hands
and his feet. But to this world, his voice
means nothing because they never hear it. In fact, what do we
read of this word and what they say about the Christ of God in
the scripture? John 10, 20 we read, and many
of them said, he hath a devil and is mad. And they're talking
about Christ. Christ just got through saying some things. And
many of them said, he hath a devil and is mad. Why hear ye him? It kind of sounds like what their
father of the devil who said this, yea, hath God said? Why are you gonna listen to God?
This world will not hear him, but we hear him. This world will
not believe, and because of that, they are condemned. God does
not condemn them, for all he says to them is to hear his son.
But they will not and cannot, and because they do not believe,
they are condemned. That's straight from scripture,
John 3.18. He that believeth on him is not condemned. But
he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. A man or
a woman is condemned of their own selves because they do not
believe God. God tells us to believe Him and
what He has said with His voice, that is, the voice of Jesus Christ. But men and women cannot and
will not believe Him, the God of Scripture. Jesus Christ who
is the voice of God? God has an elect and they will
hear his voice It will be the God of Scripture or you are hearing
another Jesus. I Don't know and you don't know
who the elect of God are But God knows them that are his he
tells us to hear him last place I want you to Turn with me to
is Hebrews 3 Hebrews 3 Hebrews 3. And verses beginning in verse
7. Hebrews 3 and verse 7. Hebrews 3 and verse 7. Wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if you will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness. When your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my works for years, wherefore I was aggrieved
with that generation and said, they do always err in their heart
and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath that they
shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. While it is said today, if ye
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. What was it that this is talking
about, the provocation? God told them to do something
and they said no. They were about to enter the
promised land is what it's talking about. And so they sent out these
spies to go in and then give them a report back. 10 went in
and come back and said, we cannot do this. They were right. They and we cannot do anything
of ourselves. But there were two who came back
with a good report. What did they say? We can do
this for God is with us. We must believe God. We must
commit all to his trust and count on him for what he has done. And Shaldu, he has fought the
battle and he has won the battle. He shall work in us both to will
and to do of His good pleasure, and it will be to our everlasting
good. He will cause us to do or to
say as Paul did in 2 Timothy 1.12, for the which cause I also
suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. The salvation of my soul is committed
to Jesus Christ. And that's where it's gonna stay,
by his grace. We must commit all to him, bow
down to him as our king. But he is more than our king.
He is our friend, he is our brother, he is our husband. We are so tied and connected
to him by his gracious mercy that for us to lose would be
for him to lose. That is not going to happen. He must and will abide in our
house. When we hear the gospel, his
spirit which dwells in us will testify of Christ. You will hear
the voice of God from the scripture and the spirit will say to you,
that's Jesus Christ the Lord. Believe him. So the spirit says
to hear him, that is Jesus Christ in the scripture. The father
says, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. Then who should
we hear? Him, his voice. When you hear
him, you will believe and you will say just as those officers
did, never man spake like this man spake, amen. Dear little God. Cause us to
always look to you, dear Lord. When we begin to look at ourself,
dear Lord, and we do, we so often do start looking at ourselves
and thinking we can do this or that. Cause us, dear Lord, to
look to you, to see that you have done all things and you
will do all things for us. Be with us, dear Lord, as we
go out and about. Comfort us with knowledge of you, dear Lord. All these things we ask in Christ's
name, amen.