Number 16. We'll sing this to
the tune of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Christ the Lamb was born o'er
a day, And before all time was slain In God's purpose Christ
the Lamb Stood for us and we in Him God's elect are kept secure
To the end we shall endure By His power and by His grace God
preserves His chosen race By His power and by His grace God
preserves His chosen race Though we fell with Adam's race God's
elect are kept by grace Kept alive until their call One by
one to Jesus called God's elect are kept secure To the end we
shall endure By His power and by His grace God preserves His
chosen race By His power and by His grace God preserves His
chosen race In the fullness of God's time Christ bought us by
blood divine God the Spirit calls his own and preserves them every
one God's elect are kept secure to the end we shall endure by
his power and by his grace God preserves His chosen race By
His power and by His grace God preserves His chosen race Though
trials come and Satan roar And temptations press us sore Though
we often, often sin, still God's grace remains within. God's elect are kept secure. To the end we shall endure. By his power and by his grace,
God preserves his chosen race. By his power and by his grace,
God preserves his chosen race. Blessed, blessed is the man to
whom God will not charge sin. Chosen man. by grace. This poor sinner sings God's
praise. God's elect are kept secure to
the end they shall endure by his fire and by his grace God
preserve his chosen race. Amen. Let's bow and have a word
of prayer. Father, we thank you now for
your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for his church that
he has placed here in this town. We thank you, Father, for the
ones that he has gathered into this place today. We thank you,
Lord, for salvation. We thank you for redemption for
the blood that was shed on our behalf, that we might be forgiven
of our sin, we might be reconciled to God, that we might be justified
and been imputed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Father, we're
so grateful for those things today that have been freely given
to us. We thank you, Father, that we have been added to the
number of those that you have given to Christ. And Father,
we know that we in and of ourselves are no good and wretched and
vile. and without righteousness, unworthy of your love and your
grace and your mercy. But Father, we are so thankful
that today we can stand and sing these praises unto you, preach
these words of the gospel that talk about Christ and how he
has saved his people. And Father, Lord, we just pray
today for our services. We pray, Lord, that they would
be in spirit and in truth. We pray, Father, that you would
guide us in our singing, that you would help us in our heart
to truly lift up these words because of our love for you.
We pray, Lord, that you would help us and enable us to preach
and to teach and to minister the word rightly. Father, I pray
that you just might speak and minister to everyone that's here,
that you might encourage them, that you might instruct them,
teach them by your spirit. Father, we need the spirit today.
Father, we're so helpless without it. Nothing that we can do I
would be pleasing to you, it all be dead works without the
spirit enabling us today. So we pray that he come and that
he be with us and that he might help us, encourage us, strengthen
us. And Father, Lord, again, we just
thank you so much for this time together. And we ask you to bless
and may it exalt our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. All right, turn with me now,
if you would, to hymn number 26 in that same book. In number 26, we'll sing this
to the tune of Rock of Ages. The soul that sins, it shall
die. Word from God, who cannot lie. Justice cried against my soul. Lord required eternal woe. Terrors from God's law that fell. Crushed my heart with thoughts
of hell. Righteousness I cannot give. Less than that God won't receive. How can I be just with God? Can he save and yet be God? Can he pardon all my sin? Can he cleanse my heart with
him? Yes, O blessed word of grace,
Christ brings hope to Adam's race. He obeyed the law of God
and poured out his life and blood. God in justice looks on him and
forgives his people's sin. Jesus died for sinners' sake. Now as such, my place I take. Trusting Him, I cannot die. God has sworn and cannot lie. By Your cross, O Christ the Lamb,
free from sin and guilt I am. Christ has full atonement made. Now my debt is fully paid. I will sing of grace most free,
justice satisfied for me. At the throne of God above, I
will sing redeeming love. That's a good one. Yeah. A lot
of good ones in here. Yeah, there is. A lot of them.
Just over a page, if you would, to hymn number 28. We'll sing
this, and if anyone has any requests for a song, then you can make
that. Hymn number 28, Eternal Blood, Eternal
Land. We'll sing this to the tune of
Oh Beautiful, or America the Beautiful. Behold, the Lamb of God was slain
by God's own wise decree. The blood of Christ has stood
for me from all eternity. God's wrath could not destroy
the world, though Adam fell in sin. Because the Lamb was slain
for man before the world began. Then at the time ordained by
God, the Lamb poured out His blood for all the world of Israel
and paid the denial. Dear Lamb of God, your precious
blood has ransomed me from death. And I will praise you for that
blood as long as I have breath. Though Satan rage against my
soul, though I am full of sin, I trust Christ's atoning blood. It gives me peace within. That blood is my security, Christ
must be satisfied. Not one can ever be condemned
for whom the Lamb has died. When I have dropped this robe
of flesh and entered heaven's bliss, the Lamb who has been
slain for me I shall forever bless. I owe you. All right, does anybody have
a song that you'd like to sing this morning? That was a little high. Got a
little dizzy, a little head rush there from singing up that high. All right. Turn over in your Bibles to John
chapter 5. John chapter 5, I believe that's
where we left off. John chapter 5, we are We are in our overall series
on the Ecclesia of Jesus Christ or the Church of Jesus Christ. And our subsection that we're in right
now is the gospel of the church. We looked at the nature of the
church. We looked at when did the church begin. Now we're looking
at the gospel of the church. And the gospel of the church
was the doctrine of Christ that he set down whenever he was here
during his earthly ministry. And that gospel was veiled in
the Old Testament. It was there. And those who were Christ in
the Old Testament saw those things and understood what was to come,
that the Messiah would come and he would be their salvation. There were some in the Old Testament
that didn't see that. They continued to live in idolatry
and long for the leeks and the garlics of Egypt and things such
as that. However, there was a people within
the people of God, Israel, who were true Israel. There were
people in there that were spiritually God's people. and he made those
things known to them. And so when Jesus came, he began
to preach and teach and to explain and to lay out his doctrine.
And he did that originally with those whom John had prepared. Those that John had gathered
together in preaching repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. Then
Christ came, the bride was given to the bridegroom, And he began
to teach, and he first gathered together the apostles, the 12
apostles. And the Bible says that he laid
within the church first apostles. And they became the foundation,
or they began to be the first layer of the church as he began
to build it. He began to teach them, to train
them in the ways of righteousness. He began to teach and train them
in the doctrine of the gospel. And then as he died and was buried
and was resurrected, after that he gave the commission to the
church and before his ascension, give them those instructions
on what they were to do in his stead as his service here on
earth. And as he left, he entrusted
the apostles to build upon what he had already began. And those
apostles within that first church began to instruct and teach and
as the church was dispersed and went out preaching the gospel,
that gospel and doctrine of Christ, disciples were being made, they
were coming in and they were being brought into the churches,
instructed in the doctrine of Christ and that perpetuation
of that faith once delivered to the saints back when Jesus
was there, has now been perpetuated from year to year to year in
every generation, has never gone underground, has never lost footing,
I say lost footing, has never disappeared. It has had to go
underground some, a little bit, but it has never disappeared.
It has had to hide in caves because of persecution, but it has still
been here. And that faith, once delivered,
has been perpetuated and will continue to perpetuate as long
as the Lord's churches are here. And the Lord said that that kind
of church, his churches, his kind of church, the gates of
hell never prevail against it. It's gonna be the witness and
the service, the place where Christ is served and the gospel
is preached and the gifts of the spirit are used to edify
the people of God. That's gonna happen from every
year to every year on. So we have confidence in that.
You know, you hear a lot of times preachers saying, you know, that
these days are dark and the church is just not what it used to be.
that it's, you know, getting lesser and lesser and things
like that. The Lord's Church is not getting lesser and lesser.
The Lord's Church is continuing in truth. Now, those witnesses
are those places where you find that truth that may become lesser
and lesser. They may be fewer and far between,
but yet they will still continue to exist. And it's not guaranteed
that they're going to exist in every nation. They will exist
upon the earth, but they're not guaranteed to exist necessarily
in every nation. But we have pretty good confidence
that there is because the Bible says that he has people in every
city. The Bible says that he has people
that is coming out of every kindred and tongue, out of every nation,
tribe, that he has people within that. there is somewhat of a
confidence that we can have that though there may not be a gathered
assembly somewhere, he has people there. And whenever we preach
the gospel, we can gather them into the church and they can
be a place of delight there in their city. And so, but what
we're talking about is what was that gospel? What is the doctrine
of Christ that we are to hold? You know, when we first started,
we looked at the, At the, on the negative aspect of this,
we looked at, and when I say negative aspect, we looked at
the harsh reality of the teaching of scripture where it says that
anybody who comes without this doctrine, that they're not to
be received among you. We're not to receive those into
our church membership who do not have this doctrine. Why?
Because a little leaven will leaven the whole lump. Why do
we not do that? Because we are not to make them
feel comfortable in their false doctrine. See, it's a two-sided
coin. One, it's good for the health
of this church that we do not have error and false teaching
here. But it's also good for that person
that professes Christ that if they truly are a child of grace,
if they have been quickened by the Holy Spirit and given spiritual
ears, that that rejection or that that seclusion from the
ministry and the service of the local church and the fellowship
of the local church can cause them to begin to evaluate their
doctrine and that they begin to search that and Lord willing
bring come to repentance and acknowledging the truth. And
so it's not only good for our health, but it's also good for
them. It's not good to give them, now
see people today, listen, People today in this ecumenical movement,
they think that we just need to be loving and accepting of
all doctrines. We're all serving the same God,
and we're all going to the same place, and we all just need to
get along, even though we might have our differences. Don't let
our differences divide us. Brethren, it's not Mike Smith,
and it's not Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. It's the word
of God that said, if there's any that come among you that
do not have this doctrine, do not receive them, that the scriptures
are telling us to be seclusive. The scriptures are telling us
to be careful on who we receive into our membership. And whenever
we call them brother and sister in Christ and we invite them
in and say, come right in and be a member of our church and
acknowledge them as a member of our church, then what we are
saying is, what you believe is all right. We're the church of
God and remember, the church has been given a place to judge
over the things of the people of God. We've been given to judge
over those things, and for us to say that would say in our
judgment on what you're preaching and what you're teaching or what
you're holding and believing, then that assessment is that's
the gospel, whenever it's totally and completely antithetical to
the gospel. And so we looked at how the Bible warned us to
not bring anybody into the membership who had not the doctrine of Christ,
not to receive them, not to wish them Godspeed. We've seen that
anybody who comes in among us and then becomes divisive and
does not have the doctrine of Christ, that we are to avoid
them. We learned where in Galatians that if anybody preaches that
other doctrine, then it's not the doctrine of Christ, it's
not the gospel, It's not just a shade gray of the gospel. It's not, you know, partially
the gospel. It's not the gospel. And that
the Bible says they need to be accursed. That's so grievous
to God, that gospel, that they are preaching that false gospel,
that he says, you know, that they're worthy to be accursed
for preaching that gospel. And so we have those warnings. And so we look at that first
and we see those warnings that we should take as the church
and that we should hold these things. And that's where all
of us need to be involved in that. It's not just the pastor. The pastor does have a great
responsibility to make sure that there is no dangerous doctrine
being brought into the church. That's why we're very careful
on who we let to preach here. We don't just bring anybody in
to preach just because they claim to be a preacher. or because
they claim to be called of God. We examine those things, and
we don't let them preach unless we know their doctrine. And if
they have the doctrine of Christ, then we bring them in. And if
they come in and they say anything that may be according to something
that we don't agree with, then that's where we can hold to account. We hold each other to account.
They hold us to account. We hold them to account. If they
don't have that gospel, if they don't have that doctrine of Christ,
then we need to be careful. And so we went from there to
looking at, well, what is that doctrine? What is it exactly
that Jesus preached? Because there are some that are
out there that say that, well, those five points, you know,
that tulip doctrine, you know, Jesus didn't preach that. That's
not part of the gospel. That's not the doctrine of Christ.
Okay, you guys are saying that a person has to believe in the
doctrines of grace to be saved, and that's not what I'm saying
at all. Matter of fact, believing the
gospel isn't what saves you. Christ is what saves you. Believing
the gospel is the evidence that you have been saved, right? So
we don't believe that whether you're believing an Arminian
gospel or believing a doctrines of grace gospel, neither one
of those are gonna save you either way you go about it, okay? What
now? And when I say saved, I mean
saved in the terms of legally saved before God. You know, believing
the gospel is going to save you from false thinking. It's going
to save you from false understanding. It's going to save you from false
security. Whenever you believe in an Arminian gospel, you're
believing in your decision and your will and your things like
that. And those can falter. Listen, man, whenever you believe
that there is something that is conditioned, that you are
conditioned to do, then there is always something that is conditioned
that you cannot do and lose it, you know? And so there is a sense
of security that can be lost. There could be wavering in our
faith whenever we look to ourselves in anything that we do. And so
we don't want to cause anybody to have thought that it's okay. And so we're looking at these
things and did Jesus teach this? If one is to bring the doctrine
of Christ, do they need to bring the election? Do they need to
bring depravity? And whenever I say depravity,
I mean spiritual inability, okay? Spiritual inability. They don't
have the ability to believe. They don't have the ability to
receive Christ. They don't have the ability to
repent. See, these are the things that men are telling other men
to do so that they can become saved. But yet they can't do
that. Anything that they do prior to
the work of the Holy Spirit quickening them are called dead works, works
of the flesh. And so Jesus taught, and we've
seen this so far up into these first five chapters, we've seen
that Jesus has taught complete and total spiritual inability. Total depravity, that'd be the
T in TULIP. We've seen that Jesus taught
unconditional election, that God has chosen the people for
himself. We'll see it even more today.
God has chosen the people and given them to Christ. We have
seen that Jesus has preached a particular or limited atonement,
a redemption. That it was for his people and
his people alone. that he has taught irresistible
grace. We'll see that again today as
well. And that he has taught preservation. You know, in John
3, 16, we've seen it, you know, right there. Almost all of the
two, look right there. You know, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
should not perish. There's preservation. There's
the ones for whom Christ died, the believing ones. And those
alone, and if that's the only ones that he's dying for, then
those were the ones who was elected before time. So there's election,
there's limited atonement, there's preservation right there in that
mess, in that deal. And you can actually say irresistible
grace because Christ died for them and he's gonna give them
eternal life whether they want it or not, so to speak, okay? He's gonna give, the result of
him dying is that group of people receiving eternal life. And so
that is an irresistible thing. He gives it according to his
will. Nobody asked for it. Nobody begged for it. Nobody
came to him for it. He'd give it to them freely.
And then they began to experience that and realize that. And so
that was irresistible. That was an irresistible thing.
So Jesus has taught these things leading up there. So we have
seen that the five points of the doctrines of grace, the doctrine
of election, the doctrine of depravity, the doctrine of atonement,
the doctrine of grace, irresistible grace, overcoming grace, preservation,
all these things are things that Jesus taught and thus make up
the doctrine of Christ. And so if these people don't
come believing the election that Jesus preached, now there's a
lot of people out there that preach election, All the Armenians
that I was around, they preached election, but they preached it
as a nation was elected. Israel was elected as the people
of God, okay? Or they talk about election being
those who are elected are the ones who God foresaw who would
believe in him. They became the elected ones.
Well, that ain't no more election than anything, is it? Election is whenever I elect
a president, what am I doing? I'm choosing him. He's not choosing
me. I'm not looking down and seeing
if he chooses to be my president. I've chosen him to make him my
president. That's what election is all about.
God, his election. And remember in Romans, it is
his election and his purpose is election. The scriptures say
that neither one of the children had done good or bad so that
the purpose of God according to election. God's purpose is
according to election. If you want to go back to before
the foundation of the world and you want to ask God, well, God,
what is your purpose? Well, his purpose is election.
I am electing the people in Christ for him to be the Redeemer so
that he might be exalted as Lord and Savior of redeeming the people
who could not do anything, who could not keep my law, who could
not keep my righteousness, who was in sin and transgression,
and yet he secured a salvation for them, gave a salvation to
them, and will conservate a salvation for them. And at the end of all
things, people will glorify Christ for his salvation of people who
was not worthy, but was able to make them worthy by his blood.
And so we see that these things are all taught by Christ. Now, in verse five, we see Look
with me down in verse 24. It says, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath, past tense, everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Okay, so we
read this last week, but I wanna go back to this and look at something
here. He that heareth my word. Now,
we've already learned up to this point that the natural man cannot
hear or see or understand the kingdom of God, right? That was
back in John 3, at the beginning of John chapter 3. Jesus said
that. And then we went to, we went
to Corinthians and we've seen in Corinthians 2.14, I believe
it was, that the natural man receiveth not the things of the
spirit of God for they are Spiritually discerned neither can or neither
can he for they are spiritually discerned Okay, so we saw that
no one can understand these things. So who is it that here? Christ word Well, it's those
who have been born again, right? That's been given spiritual life
spiritual discernment spiritual understanding He says he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. So that means everlasting life
had already been given to that person. So Jesus here is teaching
that salvation doesn't come by believing, by hearing and believing. Because those who hear and believe
have already got it. Right? I mean, am I mistaken
in that? Am I reading that wrong or misunderstanding
that? because that really seems like
it says, those who hear and believe already have everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation. That's the state of those who
are the elect in Christ. They are without condemnation
and they have been given everlasting life. That's why I love those scriptures
that say, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord hath computed
not sin. There's therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, when did we get put into
Christ Jesus? Before the world began, right?
We was put into Christ Jesus before the world began. That
beautiful illustration of Adam with his bride in his side, whenever
Adam was brought forth, you remember that study that we did a long
time ago on that? and how when God created Adam,
and before Eve was even brought forth out of Adam, he called
them them, called them Adam. He made Adam, formed him out
of the dust, breathed life into him, and called them Adam. And then after that time period,
God brought a bride or brought a wife out of Adam's side. And whenever he brought her out,
and named her Eve. That was his woman. He said,
now this is flesh in my flesh, bone in my bone. This is my wife. Well, Jesus, before we ever were
brought forth visibly to be seen, we were in Christ Jesus, just
like Eve was there. Eve was in Christ, or excuse
me, Eve was in Adam. And so whenever God blessed Adam,
whenever God talked to Adam and gave everything to Adam, Eve
received that because she was part of Adam. And thus, every
one of us who has ever came from Adam received the same thing
because of what Adam received. And so, same thing with Christ.
We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Christ was blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places And because of that, we who are
in him receive all those blessings. So here we see in John chapter
five, verse 24, Jesus Christ is preaching and teaching eternal
salvation, not a time salvation. He's preaching an eternal salvation,
that this salvation, this giving of everlasting life, this giving
of non-condemnation, to the elect of God is what Jesus preached. So if they don't come preaching
these things, brethren, we need to be careful, cautious of those
things. Look with me if you would, but
pay close attention to that phrase, he that heareth my word. He that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me. Okay, so
it's not just he that hears my word. There are a lot of people
here today who are hearing the word being preached. But that
doesn't mean that they hear the word. Okay, they're listening,
but they're not hearing. You can only hear the word of
God. You can only hear God and understand
if you've been born again. Not because your mom and dad's
a Christian. Not because your grandpa's a Christian. Not because
you're in a church. Okay? Look now, if you would,
over to verse... Let's jump down to verse 38. Now remember, Jesus is speaking
to the religious leaders that were here. And he says, and ye have not
his word abiding in you, for whom he has sent me, him ye believe
not. So here Jesus is telling these
religious leaders that he does not have, they do not have his
word abiding in them. So who has before, now remember
verse 24, he that heareth my word and believeth on him hath
everlasting life. And in verse 38, Jesus said,
and ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom he has sent
me, him ye believe not. So their unbelief was why? Because he had not the word abiding
in them. Now what does it mean to have
the word abiding in you? That's what we need to understand.
Who have not his word abiding in you. Well, there's a couple
of things that I think that can be taken from here. Number one,
if you don't have his word abiding in you, that means you don't
understand his word. You don't know the word. Okay? That word isn't
abiding in you. It's not something that you have
come to learn. You know, there's a lot of things
out there on the internet that you can go to that's instructional.
You know, YouTube has been a great tool over the years for people
because you can go on there and literally find out how to do
anything. You know, if I wanted to build this podium right here,
I could go on YouTube and probably find a video that will show me,
some guy building this, and he'll show you step-by-step how to
build this podium. Okay? How to fix my car. I don't
know how many times I went on YouTube to learn how to fix something
on my car, or fix something in my house, or do something like
that. At work, man, there's times I pull up on work, and there's
guys that do what I do, and they've posted things on YouTube, or
at least on the internet, you know? And so we go there, And
I can look at a lot of stuff, and it may not have much meaning
to me. And I can maybe hear it, but
it not really sink in to me, because it really doesn't have
nothing to do with me. But yet, if I hear something that has
to do that rings a bell with me, man, I listen to that. I sink that away. And I have
whatever that instruction is inside of me. And now, I can
just remember that and bring it up, use it, implement it. Those types of things. I have
that word abiding in me. We'll see God's word to the child
of grace who has been quickened and given spiritual discernment.
Whenever they read that word, that word comes into them. And
not only does it just come into their head, it comes into their
heart. They have his word abiding in
them. And so we also see that this
could be taken as talking about the spirit of God also. The Spirit
of God is also called the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is
called the Spirit of Christ. Jesus said, whenever I go away,
I will send to you a comforter. The Bible says that the Spirit
is the Spirit of Christ. That Christ had the Spirit without
measure, and that that Spirit he's given unto us. He has sent
his Spirit into us. whereby we cry, Abba, Father,
right? So it's the Spirit of Christ that's in us, and Christ
is known as the Word of God. Christ is the Word. And so we
have to have Christ abiding in us by His Spirit so that we can
believe. And that goes right back to what
it said in verse 24. So Christ here, again, is talking
about that there has to be spiritual life for anyone to believe. Look what he says, it says, search
the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.
So that was his chastisement, or that was his scolding of these
men. He said, you sit and search all
day long the scriptures. Now remember, they didn't have
the New Testament at this time, it was all the Old Testament.
You search the scriptures, the Old Testament, all day long,
thinking that in them you have eternal life, by what you see
and do. But what you don't understand
is that everything in that Old Testament is pointing to me and
what I will do, what I've done. See, it's never about what you
do. Never about what you do. Ever.
Before, during, or after. It's never about what you do.
It's about what Christ has done. Search the Scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify me. And ye will not come to me that
ye might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. So the love of God is not in
him. Now, what does the Scripture say? We love him because he what? First love us. So if there is
no love of God, in these people, then it's because God has yet
to exhibit his love to them, right? Now, his love to his elect
is eternal. It never falters, it never fails,
it never quits, it never goes on hiatus, it never takes a sabbatical
and goes away and says, okay, I'm not gonna love you until
you come back and repent to me, okay? His love never changes. It is an everlasting love. And
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And that's for God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believes in him shall not perish. The show of love of God is the
death of Christ. And the death of Christ was for
his people. And so there is that eternal
love but yet there is a period of time before we are quickened,
made spiritually alive, where we don't know those things, right?
We don't realize those things. Now, we can listen to all these
Armenians that's out there that's saying that God loves everybody,
and that Christ died for everybody, and we can have a false sense
of security believing that, okay? But yet, to actually be able
to truly biblically love God, to have a true genuineness. See,
there's a false love that we can have. There's a lot of people
that say they love God and they go about doing a lot of religious
things, but they don't really love God. If they love God, they
would love his word. They would love his people. And
where does his people gather? They gather at church for worship. That will be one of their priorities. That's why I say Brother JC has
said this before. He said, there is really no other
life for the Christian than church lives. I mean, you really in
the scriptures can't find anything outside of church life. I mean,
everything revolves around the church. The family and the church is
what we find in scripture that the child of grace is given to.
Their responsibility as a family, their responsibility in the church
as a people of God. And so we see here that to love
God, these men here, it says, but I know you that ye have not
the love of God in you. So they didn't really love God.
They were being religious. They were trying to follow the
law. They were trying to do what they thought was right under
that old system, but yet they had not been given to see Christ
in all of it. See, Abraham saw Christ in his
day and rejoiced. Moses saw Christ. And it was a wonderful thing.
All those fathers that came, Jacob, he loved Christ. He saw Christ. David saw Christ. Listen, even
back before the law, Job saw Christ. Job said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth and that I am going to see Him
in my flesh. Now, what does that mean? Well,
obviously, Job knew that he needed to be redeemed. He knew of his
depravity. He knew of his inability. He
knew of his sinfulness before God. And he knew that there was
someone who was gonna redeem him from that sinfulness. And
he knew that that person that was gonna come to redeem him
from his sinfulness was gonna be a living God. Not a martyr who would die and
stay dead. I know that my redeemer liveth
and that I shall see. So Job also believed that he
would, believed in the resurrection. I know that my Redeemer liveth
and that I shall see Him in my flesh, face to face, and we'll
see Him. Now, how can all these people
have this love? Well, it's because the love of
God is in them. See, the religious leaders didn't
have that love. They had a love for the law.
They had a love for ordinances. They had a love for the Old Testament. the scriptures, and that's all
fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
We should love that. We should love those things.
But they miss Christ. So often that happens. People
love the church so much. Man, they are so dedicated to
the church, but they miss Christ. People love to serve, go out
and serve the poor or whatever, but yet sometimes they miss Christ
in them. People love the law and want to keep the law and
do the law and do everything they can, search the scriptures
to keep all the law and everything. And then they can miss Christ
in that. They can miss what Christ is
all about. And so Christ is looking at these men and he's saying,
listen, I can tell that you don't have the love of God in you because
you're looking somewhere else, the love of God will cause you
to love me. Because that's why Jesus said,
if you love God, you will love the one for whom he sent. Look
at that, he says, I am come in my father's name and you receive
me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. Who did they receive? They received John for a season. They was receiving John. They
was receiving the prophets. They was receiving all these
men in the Old Testament, but yet whenever Christ comes, they
won't receive him. How can ye believe which receive
honor of one another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There
is one that accused you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For
had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. But ye believed not his writings.
How shall you believe my words? Where did Moses write about Jesus? Anybody know? Where did Moses
write about Jesus? I'm trying to think back. Is
there any place in there where he talked about the Messiah?
Talked about the Christ who would come? Now, what did Moses write
that wrote about Jesus? He wrote all those laws. He wrote all that ceremonial
law, all that civil law, all that moral law. He wrote all
those things. He wrote about the deliverance
out of Egypt. He wrote about the bringing in
to the promised land. He wrote about the rest that
they had once they got there. You know what he was writing
about? what all of that was pointing to, and that was Christ. Every
bit of that was to point to Christ. And it was fulfilled in him.
And magnified, the Bible actually says it was magnified in him.
And that's why it says, you believe not the writing, his writings,
how shall you believe my words? And so he's saying, listen, if
you can't get past the types and the foreshadows, then you're
never gonna get to the substance. You won't believe the substance
if you can't even understand and believe what the types and
foreshadows were saying. What Moses was saying was me.
He was talking about me. And if you don't believe what
he said about me, then you're not gonna believe what I say.
But why was that? It's because they didn't have
the love of God in them. It's because they did not have
the word abiding in them. It's because they did not have
everlasting life. Jesus was preaching the doctrines
of grace here to these men. And he was saying, listen, you're
not going to believe these things. There's no way you can believe
these things. Look now with me in six, chapter six. And this is kind of, we began
to leave off around in this area last week. We looked at verse
29 and we seen that, that they asked, Verse 28, they said, then
said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the
works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. If you want to know, what are
the works that we're supposed to do? Well, preacher, we can't
just sit around doing nothing. What are we supposed to do? You
know what you're supposed to do? Believe on him. Trust him. No, I know that. Of course we're
supposed to believe on Christ. I'm talking about what are we
supposed to do? I mean, aren't we supposed to be doing something?
Believe on Christ. Live by faith. The Bible says
that we're no longer walking after the flesh, but we're walking
after the Spirit. You know what walking after the
Spirit is? Walking in faith. Trusting in Christ. That's what
walking in the Spirit is. To walk in the Spirit doesn't
mean to walk and follow all the law. To walk in the Spirit means
to walk in faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look with me, if
you would, back at the end of Galatians. Galatians chapter
5, excuse me, chapter 6. Paul spent a whole book here
to the Galatians talking to them about grace alone being the gospel,
that we are no longer under the law, that we are no longer bound
in bondage anymore, that we are no longer married to the law.
And in Galatians, we find here as he's wrapping up this letter,
he says, Let's look at, starting in, well, let's just
read that whole chapter, starting in verse one. Brethren, if a
man be overtaken in a fall, ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. You want to fulfill the law of
Christ? One of the ways to do it is to love your brothers and
bear his burdens. For if a man think himself to
be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let
every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone and not in another. For every man shall bear his
own burden. Let him that is taught in the
Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that
shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Now I wanna stop
right there and just make a mention here. Sowing to the flesh, you're
gonna reap corruption. Listen, you can sow to the flesh
in religious things. If you think by doing religious
things that you are doing the work of God and that that work
is what is making you acceptable to God, if you think that doing those
works justify you before God, make you just before God, sanctify
you before God, if you think that those works are what keeps
God pleased with you and loves you and keeps you. If you think
that your fellowship is based upon your performance in religious
things, this right here says you're sowing to the flesh. You're sowing to the flesh. Because the Spirit is faith. The law is not a faith. He says, Be not deceived, God
is not mocked, for whosoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. So he's not here saying, all
right, Just sit on your laurels and do nothing, okay? He said,
don't be weary in well-doing. Continue to do those things that
the scriptures ask for you to do in the law of Christ. Okay? In the law of Christ. As we have
therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men. That word
men there has been supplied by the translators. It's not in
the Greek. So it would say, as we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all, especially unto them who
are of the household of faith. Okay, so where's our first primary
point of doing good? It's here, right? To each other. Verse 11, you see how large a
letter I've written unto you with mine own hand? As many as
desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you
to be circumcised. only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. So here, Paul is saying,
listen, there's people that desire to be seen. They want to be able
to be seen what they're doing. They can't, the inward faith,
the inward work of faith is not enough. Why? Because people don't
really see that a lot, right? That really doesn't make a lot
of fanfare out here, does it? Whenever you're not doing, whenever
you're not following, doing all these religious things, people
can't see that. And then pat you on the back
and say, my, what a faithful servant you are. What a great
Christian man you are. What a great person you are. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. So he's saying even those who
are the strictest sect that want to follow after the law, they're
not keeping the law. They think they are, but they're
not. They're not keeping the law. But they desire to have
you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. Look at verse 14. But God forbid
that I should glory save in the law of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Torah, The 613 commands of the Old Testament. Now, what does it say? But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. Do you want to be crucified unto
the world? Then you need to walk by faith. See, those who believe that we
are kept by the law, that there is a law aspect to the Christian
life, they completely disannul what the Spirit has given for
us, in us to do. The Spirit is given to us so
that it might convict us of sin and that it might cause us to
walk in righteousness. And so whenever we have the Spirit
in us, it will teach us the right things to do. It will prompt
us whenever we have failed It will bring that conviction. It
will bring us to repentance. It will make us want to live
holy and righteous. And so we preach what? The cross
of Jesus Christ. Because if we preach something
else, then we're preaching something that's going to fall, felter.
It's going to cause us to have grief. For in Christ Jesus, Neither
circumcision availeth anything. Now, what is he saying when he's
saying circumcision? Is he actually talking about the removal of
flesh from a male when he's eight years old, seven years old, eight
years old? No, it's not what he's talking
about. The word circumcision is often used in scripture to
refer to those, because remember, the Bible would say those of
the circumcision. He's talking about the Jews,
those religious people who desire to follow and continue in the
law. They were called the circumcision.
And here Jesus says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision. So keeping the law or not keeping
the law doesn't make a difference to Christ. What makes the difference? But
a new creature. Now what does the Bible say about
being a new creature? It says we're a new creature
created in Christ Jesus. That's that everlasting life,
brethren. That's that seed which was from
above that's been put in us that cannot sin. That's what he's talking about.
That's what availeth. The new creation or the new creature
availeth. Not in law keeping and not in
lawlessness. But those who are born from above
That's what causes you to avail. You've been born from above.
And look what he says. And those people that do that
are the ones who walk by faith. They walk by faith. Look at verse
16. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel
of God. So those who walk according to
that rule are the ones who have peace. Now what does he mean
by peace? Well, obviously they have peace
with God because they wouldn't be quickened if they didn't have
peace with God. Christ brought peace with God. They were enemies
of God. They were wrathful against God
just like others, but God brought peace between them and God in
his body. But they themselves have peace
of mind. You want to know someone who
has a peace of mind? That's someone who knows that
in me dwelleth no good thing. And there is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, that I, with
my body, am going to serve the law of sin, but with my mind,
I'm going to serve the law of Christ. I desire the law in my
inward parts, but in my outward parts, guess what? It's not happening.
And I realize that's not gonna happen. I can't keep the law.
So what am I gonna do? I'm gonna keep the law in the
inward parts, in my mind, in my head. I'm gonna desire to
do what's good. I'm gonna try to do what's good.
I'm gonna do everything that these members will do as God
enables me to do it. I'm gonna try to do what's right.
But brethren, it's not by doing that good that anything is availing
you. You're not availing anything. And so what is it that availeth
or that brings us to the place where we want to serve God, we
want to believe Christ, that's the new creature. That's what
brings us there. Now, back to John. Why did I jump there? Because
one of the signs, one of the showing, one of the evidences
that we have the love of God, that we have these things is
that We believe. We believe on him. We don't believe
in our words. We don't believe in our law keeping.
We don't believe in our our steadfastness. We don't believe in our faithfulness. We believe on him. Whom God has
sent. And see, Jesus said that he said,
if you want to do the works of God, The works of God are not
in a list. The works of God comes from the
new creature that's in you that has been given faith to believe
on Christ. And somebody said, well, what
are you talking about, preacher? You mean that's it? We just believe
on Christ? Amen. Trust Christ to do in you what
you can't do outwardly. You want to be a great father?
It ain't going to be because you went to several meetings
that tell you how to be a better father. You want to be a better
mother? It ain't going to come by going
to some women's conference. Listen to Beth Moore preach. Shouldn't be preaching anyway. No, you want to be a better Christian? It's going to be when you look
to Christ. Trust Him. The Bible says, work out your
salvation with fear and trembling, not with excessive work, right? It doesn't say, work out your
salvation by following all these rules. It says, work out your
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in
you both to will, that's to want to, right? And do His good pleasure. So anybody that says, well, you
guys don't believe in keeping the law, You know what? The ones who have been born from
above, they want to. They'll want to keep the law
of Christ. Now, there's a lot of that stuff
in that Old Testament that we're not bound to anymore, brother. The
writing of ordinances has been nailed to the cross that was
against us. It's been nailed to the cross.
All those things that was there as types and foreshadows are
no longer for us to have to keep. Christ has fulfilled those things. And Jesus here is looking to
those men who think that they find salvation in that. And whenever
asked, what is it that God wants us to do then? If all of this
that you're telling us is wrong, then what is it that God wants
us to do? And what did Jesus say? This is the work of God
that you believe on him and God has seen. That's it. You know what else the Bible
calls that? The simplicity which is in Christ. That's pretty simple,
isn't it? Trust Christ. Trust Christ to
be your salvation. Trust Christ to be your law keeper.
Trust Christ to be your redeemer, your surety, your forgiver, your
resurrector. Trust Christ. You want to live
right? Trust Christ. For it is God who worketh in
you, both the will give you that desire to want to and to do the exercising of it
is good pleasure. And so Jesus said that, this
is the work. And by the way, look at it. It
says, this is the work of God. He didn't say works of God. Here's
the works of God. He said, this is the work, one
work. A lot of people miss that. You
can read right over that. What shall we do that we might
work the works, work being verb, works being a noun. The works
of God. The activity of God. What is
it that we should do that is the activity of God? Serving
God, doing for God. And Jesus said, it's not works,
plural, it's work, singular, one thing. Believe on him whom
he hath sent. One work. And that work is the
work of God. This is the work of God. They said, therefore unto him,
what signs showeth thou then that we may see and believe thee?
See there, they still missed it. Now they're wanting to see
something external. Okay, you want us to believe
in you, then show us a miracle. What did Jesus say in other places?
An untoward generation seeketh after a sign. Look down at verse 35. Jesus
said to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Do we believe those words? Absolutely.
Do we preach those words? Absolutely. He that cometh to
Christ shall never hunger and he that believeth on him shall
never thirst. You know, if you go to the law,
you're going to keep thirsting and hungry because it's not the
food that was sent from above. That's found on another mountain. But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me and believe not. Now Jesus is gonna get in to
some serious accusations here, some serious doctrine that is
square right in the middle of the doctrines of grace. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Who is it that come? Look at verse 35. I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me and believeth
on me shall never thirst, shall never hunger. Coming and believing. Do we believe in preaching, coming
and believing? Come unto Jesus. Believe on him. We preach and
teach those things, but yet we also teach the other side of
it. Who is it that comes and who is it that believes and how?
Well, Jesus has taught us that. The doctrine of Christ tells
us who comes and who believes. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. All those who are burdened and
heavy laden, we preach that, come to Christ. Well, who are
the ones that are burdened and heavy laden? Those are the ones
that are given to Christ by the Father. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out, election, irresistible grace, perseverance, preservation, all
in one verse right there. Did Jesus preach the doctrines
of grace? Is that the doctrine of Christ? Is that what we ought
to be preaching as the gospel to the nations? See, there are
some that say, well, that's stuff that you teach them after you
get them in. You know, you don't preach that out there. I mean,
listen, that's the gospel. That's what Jesus preached. Look,
He's preaching this to the unbelievers out there. He's preaching the
doctrines of grace to the unbelievers. This isn't whenever He's just
there with the disciples preaching it to them, the believers already.
He's preaching that to the unbelievers. Yes, that message is for the
child of grace, but it's for the child of grace who's being
given ears to hear. We don't know who they are, so we preach
that to everybody. But it's definitely to be preached
to those who don't believe. And it'll be made manifest, just
like it was here. It was made manifest, those who
believed and those who didn't believe. Those who were given
to Christ and those who were not given to Christ. Look with me if you would at
Acts chapter 3, I believe. I'm sorry, not three, 13. Acts
13. I have a brain block there. Acts chapter
13. Look with me if you would at
verse 48. Now this is right after Paul
and Barnabas had begun to preach in Antioch. Look at verse 48. And when the
Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of
the Lord. And as many as. As many as. Were ordained to eternal life.
As many as were ordained to eternal life. So out of all those that
Paul and Barnabas preached to that day, who are the ones that
come? that would come and who are the
ones who were going to believe as many as are ordained to eternal
life. That's what Jesus preached. That's
what Paul preached. That's what Luke preached. That's
what Luke wrote in the account of Paul. But see, Jesus preached that
as many as were ordained to eternal life, believe all that the father
giveth me, that's the ones who were ordained to eternal life,
shall come to me. Coming and believing are the
same thing, right? Look at verse 35 again. I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Jesus uses come and believe interchangeably. And so to come and believe, one
must have to be given to Christ. Those who are given to Christ
are done so because they've been ordained to eternal life. They've
been given eternal life. Those who believe have everlasting
life, past tense. Actually it's a present perfect,
it's something that happened in the past and is ongoing. So, here Jesus is teaching the
doctrines of grace. Look at verse 38, for I came
down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. And this is the father's will which had sent me, that
all, not partial, not the ones that did right, not the ones
who chose, not the ones who, you know, was baptized or joined
the church. No, all that the father, all,
excuse me, I lost my place. This is the father's will which
sent me, that all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up at the last day. So there we go. They're
going to be raised up. That's preservation. That's resurrection. And he said, all that the Father
has given me is going to come here and be found here at the
resurrection. They're going to be raised up.
I'm not going to lose one. So if Christ died for anybody
and they're in hell, then Christ lied. That is particular redemption. There is as many as, that's particular,
will be raised up. As many as the Father gave me,
that's the ones for whom He died. Those are the ones who believe.
I mean, look at all this. Go back to all these things and
look. Those who believe on me, who come to me, are the ones
that the Father has given me. He said, you believe not. Why?
Because my word's not in you. It's not abided in you. You believe
not. Why? Because you don't have everlasting
life already. He told Nicodemus, unless the
person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. I mean,
all these things that Jesus is talking about, coming and believing
and receiving him and all these types of things, all come with
the fact that one has been given life already. And that is a sovereign
grace. And this is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him,
may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last
day." Again, perseverance of the saints, preservation of Christ. You know, we persevere because
He preserves, right? You know that we don't persevere
because we hold tenaciously to the things of God. You know,
we don't just hang in there. Man, I got to do some extra prayer
this week so that I can keep up keep up my good works. I got to do some extra prayer
this week or I got to read my Bible more. Boy, I got to study
more and more and more and more so that I can, you know, now
I'm not, you know, I'm not advocating not doing that. I'm not saying
don't read your Bible and don't pray for strength and guidance
and direction and enabling and all that kind of stuff. We pray
for those things, but listen, that's not what keeps us. It's
not what causes us to persevere or be preserved. We're preserved
by Christ Jesus, thus we persevere, we keep going. We don't stop,
we don't turn around. That's why we believe that whenever
someone is saved, they can't lose that salvation. Because
it didn't have nothing to do with them getting it and it don't
have nothing to do with them losing it. Because it's not about conditions. Verse 44, no man can come to
me Accept the Father which has sent me, draw him, and I'll raise
him up to the last day. We talked about that last week.
No man can except, okay, God has to do it. Sovereign grace. Verse 53, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, ye have no life in you. What is he talking about that?
Unless you're trusting in him, unless you're believing upon
him, unless you have faith in him, that's what that eating
and drinking is all about. We're feasting off of Christ.
Our nourishment, our sustenance, who we are is in Christ and what
He has done. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life already. And I will raise
him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, uh oh. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. So see, he's saying that if you
are believing upon him, those who eat my flesh and drink my
blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. And as the living Father
has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
that's talking about believing on Christ, trusting Christ, that's
what eating on him is. believing and looking to Christ. What does it say? Even he shall
live by me. You want to live the Christian
life? Look to Christ. Trust Christ. Don't trust the
law to keep you and to make you and to do for you. Trust Christ. He's doing it in you. You're
going to be as holy as God wants you to be because you have the
spirit of God in you. Whenever you sin, you know what?
God has brought you to that sin so that you might learn of Christ.
The Holy Spirit will convict you of that sin. He'll bring
you to repentance of that sin. You'll look at that and say,
I don't want to do that again. And the next time that comes
around, you're going to remember that situation and save God give you grace for
that, then you'll probably do it again and again and again
until God gives you grace to overcome those things. And that's
not to tell you to go out and live however you want. I'm not
saying that either. I'm just telling you the reality
of what it is. Listen, us keeping the law is
not going to do more than what the Holy Spirit can do for us
in us. He that eateth me, even he shall live by me. If we look
to Christ and trust in Christ, then we will live by Him. This
is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers
would eat manna and are dead. See, a lot of people want to
keep going back to eating manna. They don't want to eat Christ.
They want to eat manna. If you eat manna, you die. But
if you eat Christ, you'll never be hungry. You'll always be nourished. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying who can hear
it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at
it, he said unto them, does this offend you? What and if you shall
see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the
spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. So there again,
Jesus is preaching irresistible grace. There ain't nothing that
we can do in the flesh. that will profit the new birth,
only the Spirit. But there are some of you that
believe not. And then again in verse 65, therefore
I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him by my Father. So again, believing is something
that is given by sovereign grace. And Jesus says over in chapter
seven, Chapter 7. Chapter 7. Verse 16. I'll tell you what, let's back
up and read. Verse 9. When he had said these
words unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren
were gone up, They went he also unto the feast, not openly, but
as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast and said, where is he? And there was such murmuring
among the people concerning him, for some said he is a good man,
others said nay, but he deceived with the people. How be it no
man spake openly of fear of him for fear of the Jews? Now about
the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters
having never learned? Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine, that's what we're getting at, right? My doctrine,
the doctrine of Christ. What is the doctrine of Christ
that we are to make sure that anybody that comes is preaching
the doctrine of Christ, that we, if anybody comes and is contrary
and divisive and have not that doctrine, to avoid. Those who
are preaching that, do not listen to them. Let them be accursed. That's what we're trying to find
out. Jesus said unto them and said, verse 16, my doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me. So basically what Jesus is saying
there is that this doctrine that I teach is the doctrine of heaven.
It's the doctrine of God. You want to know what the doctrine
of God is? The doctrine of Christ is the doctrine of God. The doctrine
of Christ and the doctrine of God are synonymous. They're equal.
They're the same. Why? Because Christ is God, for
one, and it's his doctrine. Second of all, he was sent from
God in human flesh. He was manifested by God. Colossians
tells that, that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily. He is the exact representation
of God. He is God in the flesh. that he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. He was God. Christ was God. So to say that my doctrine and
the doctrine of God is saying the same thing, why? Because
it's coming from God. When Christ spoke it, it was
coming from God. Before he came in his earthly ministry, that
was the doctrine of God. Wait a minute, you mean that
was the doctrine before Jesus came? Absolutely, that was the doctrine
of Jesus. That was the doctrine of the Old Testament. You say,
well, where was that priest in the Old Testament? The very types
and foreshadows all preach sovereign grace. He says, if any man will do his
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that speaketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give
you the law and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about
to kill me? The people answered and said,
thou hast a devil, who goeth about to kill thee? And Jesus
answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye
all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you
circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers,
and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath
day receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be
broken, are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit
hole on the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Then said some of them of Jerusalem,
is not this he whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh
boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know
indeed that this is the very Christ? How be it we know this
man whence he is, but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence
he is. And then cried Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying,
you both know me? And ye know whence I am, and
I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom
ye know not, but I know him, for I am from him, and he hath
sent me. Then they sought to take him,
but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet
come. And many of the people believed on him and said, when
Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this
man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the
people murmured such things concerning him, Pharisees and chief priests
sent officers to take him. Then said Jesus unto them, yet
a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent
me. Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am,
thither ye cannot come. Jesus is saying to those religious
leaders there who he knew was not going to believe on him,
who knew who were his and who were not his. And he says, you're
going to try to seek me. And how were they seeking him?
They were seeking him in the scripture. They're seeking him
by keeping the law. You're not going to find me.
And where I'm going, you're not going to be able to come. Why?
Because you're seeking for righteousness of your own and not the righteousness
that comes from God. Then said the Jews among themselves,
whither will you go that we shall not find him? Will he go into
the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What
manner of saying is this that he said, you shall seek me and
not find me? See, they didn't understand what he's talking
about. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now here it is. But this fake 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. Now this is not talking about
new birth here, brethren. This is talking about Pentecost,
whenever the Holy Spirit came and empowered the church to be
the message or the vocal piece for God, for Christ, to give
them boldness. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters. They're gonna be preaching the
gospel. I mean, right now, hey, It ain't
being preached much. I'm preaching it. People are
feared to say anything, to do anything for the fear of the
Jews. You know, a lot of stuff that was happening there. You
know, Jesus was preaching boldly because he knew that nobody could
do anything until his hour would come. But a lot of those disciples,
you know, they was wondering. They were murmuring among themselves.
They were, you know, some of them left and didn't follow him
anymore. You know, all this stuff was going on. Why? Because what
Jesus was preaching was hard. It was against what they were
used to listening to and hearing. And to them, it was an egregious
thing. It was an attack against their
gospel, so to speak. And so he said, listen, those
who believe on him will receive, and he was talking about the
day of Pentecost, will receive the spirit, and out of their
belly shall flow rivers of living water. They're not gonna be able
to contain talking about this. Matter of fact, ain't that exactly
what happened later on when the disciples, they were thrown in
jail and they were told, hey, don't be speaking about him anymore.
And they said, we cannot help but speak to things that we've
seen and heard. Why? Because they had river living
water flowing out of them. 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 out of the seat of David and
out of the town of Bethlehem where David was? So there was
a division among the people because of him. Some of them would have
even 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? And the officers answered, never
man spake like this man. Then answered them the Pharisees,
are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the
Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not
the law are cursed." See, they say, they say, you know, you
don't know the law, so you're cursed because you don't know
the law. When the Bible actually teaches just the opposite. Those
who know and try to follow the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith
unto him, he that came to Jesus by night being one of them, Doth
our law judge any man before it hearth him and know 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. So see, they still went away not believing. All right,
well, we're gonna stop right there. I think we've kind of
seen what the gist of that is in the doctrines of grace. We
see that belief is a actual work of God. that it comes by the
new birth, not after you believe and receive and repent, but the
Spirit of God is given to you prior to that so that you can,
and that only those that are given to Christ are gonna have
that. And that's the doctrine of Christ. And that, as we've
seen just a few minutes ago, is the doctrine of heaven, the
doctrine of God. And so whenever asked what is
the gospel that we are to preach, what is the gospel we are to
judge by, when looking for a church, considering a church, then what
gospel should we be looking for? Well, that gospel that preaches
sovereign grace. At the very least, those five
points of sovereign grace. But anyway, we'll pick up with
starting in chapter eight, Lord willing, next week and continue
to look at what Jesus taught, what his doctrine is. All right, anybody got any questions? Our Heavenly Father once again
we come astonished at the things we find in the Word of God.