Great Father of glory, how rich
is thy grace! What wonderful love is displayed
in thy face! In Jesus thy image with brightness
we view, And hope to be formed in that likeness anew. Oh, wonders of wonders astonished
I gazed to see in a manger the agent of days from sin to release
us that yoke so long worn. My God, my creator of Mary was
born. ? For unworthy sinners my Lord
bowed his head ? For unworthy sinners he suffered and bled
? My spirit rejoices the work is all done ? My soul is redeemed
? My salvation is won ? Great Father of glory ? How rich is
thy grace ? What wonderful love is displayed in me In Jesus, beloved, we're washed
in his blood. With hope we appear at the throne
of our God. Please be seated. Turn with me if you will please
to Isaiah chapter 12. Isaiah chapter 12 for our call
to worship this morning. We're going to read the entire
chapter starting with verse 1. And in that day thou shalt say,
O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, Thine
anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is
my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day, shall
you say, praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings
among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing
unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known
in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou habitations
of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. O Lord, our great God, we come
before thee this morning praising thee for who you are and what
you are and what you have done for us, O Lord. Father, you are
worthy of all praise. Father, we pray that you would
join with us this morning as we gather together to worship
you and worship your name. Father, we pray that you might
be with our pastor as he opens the word of God and points us
to Christ. Father, we need to seek Christ
this morning. We need to hear from you. Father,
we don't want to hear from a man, but we want to hear from thee.
Father, we pray that you would be with each and every one of
us as we go forth. In this coming year, Father,
that we would continue to bless you and praise your name. In
Christ's name, we ask it, O Lord. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 497 from your hardback temple, 497. When I can read my title clear
to mansions in the skies, I'll bid farewell to every fear and
wipe my weeping eyes. And wipe my weeping eyes And
wipe my weeping eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear And wipe
my weeping eyes Should earth against my soul engage and fiery
darts be hurled, then I can smile at Satan's rage and face a frowning
world. And face a frowning world And
face a frowning world Then I can smile at Satan's rage And face
a frowning world Let cares like a wild deluge come and storms
of sorrow fall. May I but safely reach my home,
my God, my heaven, my all. My God, my heaven, my all. My God, my heaven, my all. May I but safely reach my home. My God, my heaven, my all. There shall I bathe my weary
soul in seas of heavenly rest, and not a wave of trouble roll
across my peaceful breast. Across my peaceful breast. Across my peaceful breast. And not a wave of trouble roll
across my peaceful breast. Please be seated. That hymn becomes more precious
with every passing year. I was thinking as we were singing
it, I'd like to have that sung at my funeral. It's such a glorious
declaration of our hope in Christ. I want to ask you this morning
to turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 5. John chapter
5. And I've titled this message,
do men hate Christ? And I realize that the unregenerate
doesn't believe that they hate Christ. But they do, according to what
God says. The unregenerate can't know that
they hate Christ until they have been brought to love him. And that which we used to hate,
we now love. Two very simple points to this
message are found in these three verses of John chapter 5. Begin reading at verse 16. And
therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him
because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. Keeping of the Sabbath was their
righteousness. And because the Lord had performed
this miracle on the Sabbath, he robbed them of their righteousness. having according to their law
violated the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father
worketh hitherto and I work. Therefore, the Jews sought the
more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath but
said also that God was his father making himself equal with God. Two reasons we hate God. He robs us of our righteousness
and robs us of our power. Nothing's changed. Now, an unregenerate person,
as I said, doesn't know that they hate God any more than they
know that they have an old man. You have to have a new nature
before you can have an old nature, before you can see your old nature. God must give us a love for Christ
before we can see that we really did hate him. The Lord Jesus said, he that
is not for me is against me. Men think they can remain neutral
when it comes to the things of God, but there is no middle ground. Most men are like Felix when
Paul was preaching the gospel to that Roman governor And Felix,
after listening to the apostle Paul said, when I have a convenient
season, I will call you again. This has been an interesting
conversation to listen to. And when it's convenient for
me, I'll call you back and we'll continue this. Or they're like Agrippa. When
Paul preached the gospel to him, Agrippa responded by saying,
almost thou hast persuaded me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God
that not almost, but altogether thou wouldst believe what I believe. The gospel is either a savor
of life or it's a savor of death. It is either a broken alabaster
jar of sweet smelling spices or is a stench to the nostrils. The Lord made that clear when
he rebuked the church at Laodicea in the book of Revelation. when
he said to them, you are neither hot nor cold. I would that you
were either hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, I spew
you out of my mouth. There can be no lukewarm position
with God. When it comes to the gospel,
you're all in or you're all out. It is the very thing that you
love with all of your heart. or you have a hatred for God. Now moderation in all things
might be a good rule of thumb when it comes to the most things
in this world and it is. But when it comes to the gospel,
there can be no moderation. There's no moderation when it
comes to the gospel. You either love it or you hate it. These Pharisees, hated it for
these two reasons and men hate Christ today for the same reason.
Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun and surely
when it comes to men's response to the gospel there's nothing
new under the sun. The Jews had the Torah, the first
five books of Moses. But then they also had another
book, the Talmud. And the Talmud was their book
of the law. Over 600 very specific laws. Most of which, or many of which,
related to the Sabbath. What you could do and not do
on the Sabbath. and healing on the Sabbath was
strictly forbidden by the Talmud. So when the Lord Jesus healed
this man on the Sabbath, they were offended because if he can break the law and be sent
of God, what does that say about our law-keeping? It's amazing how men will trust in their outward appearances. You know, men look at the outward
appearance and God looks at the heart. I remember years ago being
a part of a free will Baptist church and periodically we would
have to choose deacons to serve in that church. And of course
we went to the Bible to find out what the qualification of
a deacon was. And when everything was said and done, we interpreted not being given
to much wine and not being the husband of one wife to being
a teetotaler and never been divorced. And we ignored all the other
qualifications, rightly dividing the truth, all the things of
the heart, which we couldn't see. And so any man in the church
that had never been divorced and was a teetotaler was a candidate
for being a deacon in that church. That's how men deal with the
law. They deal with those things which
are outwardly observed. Paul said, I was alive once without
the law. But when the commandment came, which spoke to the heart, it
was the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet. Paul said concerning
the law, I was blameless in the eyes of men. He could call on
his peers to find a way to accuse him in his outward behavior concerning
the law. And no one could find a charge
against him. But when the law came, When the commandment came,
when God spoke effectually to my heart and said, thou shalt
not covet, sin revived and I died. I realized that everything in
my heart was nothing but the breaking of the law. That I'd
never been able to keep any of God's laws in my heart before
God. That everything in me fell short
of his glory. Now I need a savior. Now I need
one outside of me that's able to keep the law. The Lord had given this Old Testament
commandment of the Sabbath for the purpose of pointing his
people to Christ. And it goes all the way back
to creation, where the Bible says that God rested on the seventh
day. After completing his creation
in six days, he rested. Why did he rest? He rested not
because he was tired. That's blasphemous. He rested
because he was finished. And from then on the Sabbath
with the fourth commandment is called a sign. None of the other
commandments are called signs. It's called a sign or a token.
In other words, a sign points to something else. Thou shalt
not murder, thou shalt not steal. Those aren't signs, those are
commandments. But the Sabbath was a sign in that it pointed
to our rest in Christ who would finish the work of redemption
by himself on Calvary's cross. And so their interpretation of
the Sabbath was that you can't work on the Sabbath. And healing
someone on the Sabbath was work. And so this man's a violation
of the Sabbath. Really, they weren't concerned
about whether or not he violated the Sabbath. What they were really
concerned about was that he robbed them of the hope of their salvation
because they saw themselves as Sabbath keepers. We're keeping
the law. You say that you're a son of
God and you just broke the law. What does that say about us?
You know, it kind of reminds me of when you tell someone the
gospel and they want to point to someone else. They want to
say, well, if what you're saying is true, then that means that,
and they'll name some famous preacher or someone else, and
they'll say, well, if what you're saying is true, that means they're
not saved. That's really not their concern. That's a smokescreen.
That's a diversion. Really what they're saying is
you're calling into question my salvation. We don't know about
anyone else's salvation. This message of the gospel speaks
to the individual. And it strips off of our righteousness. It puts us where we belong. It takes away our fig leaves,
leaves us naked before God in need of a lamb's fleece. And just as God slew that lamb
in the garden and took that fleece that covered Adam's nakedness,
So the Lord Jesus says, the Lamb of God without spot and without
blemish went to Calvary's cross. He had kept the law, satisfying
all of its demands and laid down his life. Two things these Jews were very
proud of. It was their law keeping concerning
the Sabbath. Because that could be outwardly
observed by men. And the Lord Jesus said, you
love the praise of men more than the praise of God. And that's
what we'll do by nature. We hate what God says. We value
more what men say. That's the mark of a God hater. Doesn't matter what God says.
Matters what I think and what other people think. What is more of an expression
of our hatred for God than to choose a sinful creature over
him? But that's what the hatred of God does. They sought to slay him because
he had done these things on the Sabbath. Men violate the Sabbath in their
attempt to keep it. been talking to a man recently,
been a part of a religious organization that's very Sabbatarian, they're
very careful about what they can do and not do on the Sabbath. And he's beginning to hear the
gospel and realize, you know, there's something wrong here,
something wrong. They crack the whip of discipline
to anyone that doesn't toe the line and follow the rules and
go by the Talmud. And there's no difference between
what the Jews have as far as their book of the law and what
a lot of these organizations have in terms of their creeds
and confessions. It's something that man wrote
in addition to the word of God so that we can have something
to outwardly observe. going about trying to establish
our own righteousness. The second thing that the Jews
were very concerned about was circumcision. And again, physical
circumcision was an outward appearance that could be observed by men. But the Lord said it's the circumcision
of the heart that counts. And these two things go together
because The Sabbath pointed to the Lord Jesus as our rest who
has finished the work of redemption and we rest all the hope of our
salvation in him and in his accomplished work. And the circumcision of
the heart means that the Spirit of God has shown me that that I must rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. So the Spirit of
God has taken the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God, and he's cut from my heart not all fleshly desires and fleshly
interests. If that's what the circumcision
of the heart is, then I don't know anything about circumcision
of the heart. My flesh is drawn to fleshly things every day. But I do know something about
the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, cutting from
my heart any hope of salvation based on something that I've
done, based on the works of my flesh. I have no hope. And every time I try to look
to a work of my flesh to find hope of my salvation, I find
nothing but fear, nothing but judgment. Lord, have I done enough? You see, this is why the regenerated,
the child of God, loves what other men hate. We love the fact
that God has stripped from us that false hope, that false refuge. That lie, that thing that we
depended upon for our salvation, because now we know what the
end of that is. There is a way which seems right
unto man, but in the end, that way leads to death. Lord, it
seemed right to me at one time, but now you've shown me that
the end of that way is death. Lord, thank you. Thank you for
taking that from me. And thank you for giving me eyes
of faith so that I can set my affections on things above where
Christ, as my advocate, my sin bearer, is seated at the right
hand of God. I now have a righteousness outside
of myself. Thank you for showing me that
all of my righteousness absorbs filthy rags. I thought there
was something to them. I was proud of them. I was like
the Apostle Paul. Those things which I thought
were gain, I now count but loss. And yea, I do count them but
dung that I might win Christ. I'm not yet apprehended. That
which has apprehended me but this one thing I do, I forget
those things which are behind. I've left those things, those
hopes of salvation based on my works and my will. God has taken
them from me. And I set my affections on things
above. The prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. You
see, we love what other men hate. These men hated the Lord Jesus
to the point of wanting to put him to death. Paul said in Galatians chapter
5, if I still preach circumcision, if I preach salvation based on
something that we do in the flesh for the hope of our salvation,
A decision you make, a prayer you pray, a work you perform,
something you abstain from, something that you've done. If I still
preach circumcision, why am I then yet persecuted? For if I still preach circumcision,
the offense of the cross is ceased. There's no offense on the cross
to the unbeliever if you give them something to add to it. The offense of the cross is Christ
is all and he is in all. He's in all my salvation, he's
in all my election, he's in all my redemption, he's in all my
regeneration, he's in all my sanctification, he's in all of
my glorification, he's in all and he gets all the glory. It
all goes to him, he's done all the work, nothing's changed. In Galatians
chapter 2 verse 21 Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace
of God for if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead
in vain. If righteousness come by the
law then Christ died in vain. The offense of the cross is the
accomplished finished work of our Sabbath and our circumcision,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who did all the work and gets all the
glory, and men today by nature. And if you love Him, you know
that there was a time when you hated Him. You trusted in your
own righteousness. You trusted in something you
did, which is hatred toward God. No other way to put it. And now
you love what you hated. You love having a Savior who
did all the work and who gets all the glory. This goes all the way back to
the beginning, doesn't it? It goes back to the garden. I've
already mentioned the fig leaves and the fleece of the lamb. That's works and grace. But then right on the heels of
that, we have Cain and Abel. And Cain brought the fruits of
his labor as a sacrifice to God and offered them up. And the Bible says that God had
no respect for them. That word respect means that
he looked on it with no favor. God cannot look on anything that
you and I do with favor. And then Abel, Abel came. And the firstlings of the flock,
he slew it and he shed blood. And God had respect for Abel's
sacrifice. And what happened? Cain killed
Abel. Nothing's changed. It was the
same with Cain and Abel as it is with the Pharisees and the
Lord Jesus as it is today. Men by nature hate God because
he robs them of their righteousness. And the believer loves him for
the very same reason. The very same reason. We love being delivered from
our false hopes. We were duped into believing
a lie, but that lie gave us no rest. It gave us no comfort. We didn't have a place of Sabbath. We thought, have I done enough? Did I really mean it? Maybe there's
a little bit more I can do. That's why religion is so filled
with activity. And the leaders of religion know
that the participants are wanting to do more, so they just give
them more to do, more to do. Could never have peace. Now we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. God has made him to be our peace. Like the prodigal, the husk that the swine do eat
cannot satisfy our hunger. We gotta go home. Gotta go home. Gotta go back to our father.
And where did the prodigal find the father? Did he find him sleeping? Did he find him in the back room
of the house? No, he found him out at the end of the driveway
on the road, waiting for his prodigal to come home. He knew
exactly when he was coming home. And he lavished him with kisses.
And he said, put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet
and put the robe and kill the fatted calf for my son, which
was lost is now found. He was dead, but now he's alive. Oh, what a happy, happy ending
that those who hate God have when the Lord puts it in their
hearts to loathe themselves. We do. We loathe ourselves, we
hate our sin, we hate our thoughts of fleshly interest and desires. Verse 17 in our text, look with
me. But Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and
I work. Never did any of the prophets
call God their father. Therefore the Jews sought the
Moor to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
but he also but said also that God was his father making himself
equal with God. Now, if you read on in this chapter,
we won't have time to do that today. We'll continue, Lord willing,
in another time. But the Lord does not in any
way try to correct their misconception. He doesn't say to them, oh no,
you misunderstood. I wasn't equating myself with
God. To the contrary, he makes more
statements in this chapter and in the chapters to come. Matter
of fact, this is the theme of the Gospel of John. Each of the
Gospel writers have a different theme. The theme of the Gospel
of John is, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. and the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full of truth." The deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the theme of this gospel. And they
knew exactly what he meant when he said, I and my Father work. And our work is in perfect harmony
with one another. You've made yourself out to be
God. If the Lord Jesus had any other
intention than that surely he would have corrected their misconceptions. Our Savior is God. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's the very incarnation of
God. He's Emmanuel, God with us. People speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ with such lightness. They talk about him as if they're
talking about their neighbor. He's God. What a glorious, what? He's a power and authority. That
centurion, you remember the centurion that wanted the Lord to come
and heal his son? The Lord said, I'll come. His
servant, I mean. And the Lord said, oh no, I'm
not worthy that you should come into my house. Only speak the
word and my servant shall be healed. For I understand authority. I am a man of authority. A centurion
would have had authority over a hundred Roman soldiers. I say
unto this one, go. I say unto another one, come.
They do exactly what I tell them. I know that you have all authority. You only speak the word and my
servant should be healed. The disciples were on the Sea
of Galilee in a horrible storm and they, Lord cares not that
we perish and he stood and he spoke and the sea was calm. What manner of man is this that
even the winds and the seas obey his voice? The Pharisees sent
police out to arrest the Lord Jesus. They came back and said,
never a man spake like that before. We couldn't arrest him. He spoke
with authority, not like the scribes. Man by nature, all of us, come
into this world seated on the throne of God. It goes all the way back to the
garden. God does not want you to eat of that tree of the knowledge
of good and evil because he knows that the day in which you eat
it your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God. We've been wanting to be like
God ever since. Speak of certain You know, sometimes
we'll talk about a doctor or someone having a God complex.
We've all got God complexes. Every one of us. And so we hate one who robs us
of our authority. That's why these Jews hated Christ. He said he was God. Well, if
he's God, then I have to submit to him. I have to bow to Him. I have to believe on Him. And that's going to take from
me my power and my authority. Oh, we love power, don't we? I mean, we see it most clearly
in our own lives, but it's almost humorous to watch it in politicians,
isn't it? I mean, the hypocrisy of one
politician being threatened by someone else trying to take their
power away from them. But we're all that way. No. The devils were subject unto
him. A legion of devils came out of
a man. and said, Jesus, our son of God,
we know who thou art. Have you come here to punish
us before our appointed time? Have you come here to send us
to hell now? And this legion of angels was
afraid of him and he cast them into a herd of swine and they
went off a cliff into the sea. Who is this man? He's God. He's God. And we love that he's
God. We rejoice that he's God. We
need a God that loves us and a God that can save us and a
God that can help us in every way. We put down the weapons of our warfare. You have your Babas open to John
chapter five, look over in verses 25. Verse 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. For as a father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. I need a God who can give me
life, and only God can do that. With man, it is impossible. But
with God, all things are possible. And the father, verse 27, hath
given the son authority to execute judgment also because he is the
son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice
and shall come forth They that have done good unto the resurrection
of life. And they that have done evil
unto the resurrection of damnation. How can I stand before a holy
God? Having been dead in my trespasses and sins, but now raised from
the dead by the very voice of God, how can I stand in the presence
of a holy God and have him judge me on what I've done good or
what I've done bad? This is our hope in the day of
judgment. As he is, so are we in this world. God made him sin
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And we love, we love the fact
that the Lord's taken away our righteousness, that we love the
fact that he's given us the faith to believe on him for who he
is, God almighty, God almighty. We'll put down our fist and we
bowed before him on our knees and we're like Thomas who doubted. And now said, oh, my Lord and
my God. My Lord and my God. In John chapter
11, we have the story of the resurrection, the resuscitation,
I should say, of Lazarus, because Lazarus is going to die again.
The Lord goes, you remember the story of Martha and Mary. He
goes to the tomb, tells them to roll the stone away. Lazarus,
come forth. When the dead shall hear the
voice of God and those that are in the grave shall come forth.
It's a spiritual picture of what God has done for those of us
who are dead in our trespasses and sins. He spoke effectually,
powerfully, and come forth. And there were Jews there that
watched that miracle. But you wonder, were these Jews
used to seeing miracles before the Lord Jesus came? Was it just
a common day thing where you saw a dead man come out of the
grave or a man who's born blind, all of a sudden he sees? Or a
cripple, all of a sudden he's walking? Or a leper, all of a
sudden he's made clean? Was this an age of miracles that
people were just accustomed to them? No. There's no evidence
that anybody performed miracles till the Lord Jesus did. And
yet these people who watched these miracles happen still hated
him. And there were those in John
chapter 11, at the end of John chapter 11, they ran back down
into Jerusalem and they reported what they had seen to the Pharisees. And the Pharisees got together.
And they got the Sanhedrin, that was the 70 Pharisees that ruled
Judaism. And they called a council and
they all got together. And here's what they said, this
man doeth many miracles. What are we gonna do? If we leave
him alone, all men will believe on him. And the Romans, and the
word Roman means strength, and the Romans will come and take
away both our place, our position of power, and our nation, our
followers. And from that day forward, they
took counsel together how they might put him to death. Why do men hate Christ? Same
reason these Pharisees hated him. He's going to take away
my place. He's going to take away my power. Can't have that. And when he does, we rejoice. Lord, thank you for taking away
my place, my position, of what I thought was righteousness before
God, you stripped me of it and you gave me a true righteousness.
Thank you for taking away my pretended power, my presumed
power which was no power at all and you've given me real power. So that now I have the promise
of God who said, all authority has been given unto me in heaven
and in earth. Go ye therefore into all the
world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever commanded you. And lo, I am with
you always. even until when you draw your
last breath and I'm there in the power of God to usher you
into glory. That's the power we need. We love what we once hated. Thank God. Our Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for Christ. Thank you for taking us down off our high horse. For Lord, we know that you resist
the proud and you give grace to the humble. Lord, humble us for Christ's
sake. Amen. Number three in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together, number three. A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant
mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness on my person and
offering to bring. The terrors of law and of God
with me can have nothing to do, ? My Savior's obedience and blood
? Hide all my transgressions from view ? The work which His
goodness began ? The arm of His strength will complete ? His
promises yea and amen ? And never was forfeited yet Things future
nor things that are now, not all things below nor above, can
make him his purpose forego or sever my soul from his love. ? My name from the palm of his
hands ? ? Eternity will not erase ? ? Impressed on his heart it
remains ? ? In marks of indelible grace ? ? Yes, I to the end shall
endure ? ? As sure as the earnest is given ? ? More happy but not
more secure ? the glorified spirits in hand.