G'day everyone. We're going to
start in John 1-1. So you can turn there if you like. So we're going to begin
where John began. We're gonna begin where we began
with John in this great journey we've been on for some time now. As we come to John 18, and particularly
to where we are at at the moment, it's good for us to go back and
be reminded where this all began. Let's pray first. Heavenly Father,
we pray that in your mercy, you would just move within your hearts
to show us the wonders of your goodness in our great King and
Saviour, that you would show us that he is all-powerful, Heavenly
Father, and all-sovereign, that he, in fact, is God. Please move
our hearts in that way to know this, and as we come to your
word, Heavenly Father, it may be your word that speaks to our
hearts. Just simply and clearly, and effectively, that we might
believe, Heavenly Father. We might just rest our hearts
and our hopes, all our circumstances and our souls, heavily upon Him. May we look to Him for all things,
Heavenly Father. Please work amongst us here today,
as you promised, to just shed light on your word of truth and
cause it to be effective and be powerful in our hearts and
in our lives, amongst us as a church, and in the lives and hearts and
churches you have throughout this world, Heavenly Father.
We pray your mercy on those that can't be here today and we just
thank you again for such a great blessing and privilege to come
before you in the name of your great son, our great King and
Saviour. We pray in his name and always
for your glory, say Father. Amen. So let's just read where this
all began. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehended not. So I wanna start with a question
before we move on, and the question's simple. Do you believe in the
authority of the word of God? John paints a series of pictures
throughout this book. And one particular picture is
this picture we've begun with, with the power of God's word
resting completely in his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we
see him develop this picture as he goes through the book.
We see the Lord speak to the wind, to the sea, to Satan, to
demons, to illness, and even death, and nothing resists him. Nothing refuses him. So do we
trust in his word, or do we become confused in our lives by the
things that go on in our lives, the things that pressure us externally,
the things that act upon us in our own hearts. He is the only place of repose,
and his word is fixed, and it is the only thing that we can
believe on in this world. John 17, we saw the incredible
eternal intercession of our Saviour on our behalf. How He stands
forever advocating for us by the merits of His righteousness
and His great sacrifice on behalf of God's children. So just to
go back to where we started, when we read, in the beginning
was the word, believers can say that they were there in union
with the Lord Jesus Christ because of this eternal intercession. And then we have John 18, we've
just entered it, but we've entered across a brook of Kidron. this brook that represents death
and judgment against sin. And the fact that the Lord took
his people through this brook and into this garden in the presence
of his father, it's a picture of that intercession in John
7. And it's also a picture of what
will take place in John 19. So it's good for us to keep this
in mind, because in John 19, he's going to complete this reality,
spiritually and physically, and it'll be seen to be an eternal
reality. There are many places, just turning
your Bibles to Isaiah 55, there's so many places I could pull out
of the scriptures to talk to you about the power and the effectiveness
of the word of God, but we're limited in time. And there's
some really powerful ones that if the Lord would give us grace
to embrace these things, when we come to the scriptures and
when we come to religion and when we come to the confusions
of this world, And God is the man that teaches
his people, not men in this world. He moves in their hearts, they
open their eyes, open their ears to impress his word upon their
hearts and to motivate them from within for every single thing
that he requires of them. It's his work and it's not men's
work. We've met so many people over
the years that claim to love God. They claim to believe in
his word. And yet when they meet with God's
truths, they reject them just the same way they were rejected
in Genesis 3. It's man by nature. But no matter what we think,
no matter what anyone thinks, no matter what this world throws
at us, our God's word always prospers. So that's the first
thing that I pray you impress upon your hearts, always. All
right, Isaiah 55, reading from verse eight, and this is after
a great encouragement to believe. to return and trust in the Lord
for salvation. He says, this is God, for my
thoughts are not your thoughts. Remember, come to me for salvation,
for, because, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For, again, because, as,
this is a comparison, as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. Do you see, this is a comparison.
Men's words fail. especially when it's in regard
to salvation. God's word can't fail. See, God's saying, come to me
because I'm the only security and truth that you can have in
this world. He goes on to explain why. See,
there's a purpose in God's activities. Now that's, There's a sermon in that in itself
that's spiritually deep and we don't have time for it. But then
he goes on and says, so shall my word be, these are the promises
that he's just given and gives everywhere throughout the scriptures.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it. We're told in Psalm 22 that the
Lord inhabits the praises of his people. We know that if there
is to be fruit of our lips, it's his doing. When we read the gospel,
when we declare the gospel, when we hear the gospel, every single
time every single person in this world hears this gospel, they're
confronted with God himself in our Lord Jesus Christ. They meet
him Now I just want to go back and
read verse 11, and I want to do something that Angus did with
us in 1 Corinthians 13. I want to insert something. So shall my son be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. He shall not return unto me void. But he shall accomplish that
which I please, and he shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent him. So there's a result of this as
the passage goes on. So it's a promise filled with
the shalls of the everlasting covenant. covenant built on the
finished work of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that
covenant, that place of mediation between God and men, between
sinners and God. He goes on and says, for ye shall
go out with joy and be led forth with peace. These are promises.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." See,
this is spiritual. Everything, when our eyes are
opened, brings us joy. We look and we see our Lord's
hand, our Maker's hand in all things. 13, instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree. And instead of the briar shall
come up the myrtle tree. Go back to Genesis 3, the curse,
it's reversed in Christ. And it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. we'll realise that all things
really are for our good, Romans 8, in our Lord Jesus Christ. And it'll be all God's Word,
through the power of His Word. Our God's Word is permanent,
it does prosper, it is effective in this world to the uttermost. Turning your Bibles now to Hebrews
4, we'll look at another aspect of this word. There's so many
we meet in this world, especially those in reformed, professing
Christianity, that seem to have absolutely no understanding as
to the power and the penetration of the word of God. Again, this is after an encouragement
to believe, to labour, to rest, to rest in Christ, in his finished
labours. His word is always powerful, always powerful
over all created beings. Again, do we believe that? We
read it simply stated. May God give us the grace to
believe it. Hebrews 4, starting from verse 12. For the word of
God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. It's spiritually discerning. And of the joints and marrow,
it's physically discerning too. It's a discerner of the thoughts
and the intents of the heart. Even our emotions are seen clearly
before God. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in His sight. But all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him to whom we have to do. And remember, this is all through
the word of God, the sword of God, the son of God. Let's read it. For the son of
God is quick and powerful, et cetera, et cetera. The son of
God, And again, there's a result, isn't there? This word is sovereignly
powerful over all creatures regarding all issues. Verse 14, seeing
then, because of that word, the power of that word, seeing then
that we have such a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our profession,
the simplicity of the gospel, the authority of God's word. Let us hold fast to our profession
for or because we have not a high priest which cannot be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. We've seen some shock and treatment
of our high God in this story we're reading, but it's gonna
get a whole lot worse, and you know that is. And yet in the midst of all this,
he's victorious in this world, and he always will be. He is touched with our infirmities,
and at all points as he travelled through this world, he was tempted
just like we are. But never once, never once we
sin. So again, let us, this is almost
a creative command, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. That's on the foundation of what
we're seeing in John 7a. See, we can't hide our innermost
thoughts from our God. His Word, His Son, judges righteously
regarding all things, no matter how hidden they are. His word is our authority. Most
people this side of eternity, religious or not, will never
ever realise the gravity of meeting God in the Now there's no need in this passage
to swap out the name Christ or Son of God, because we're told
very plainly here. Just as John told us plainly
in John 1, Revelation 19, let's read from verse 11. That's what
we've just seen out of Isaiah 55 and Hebrews 4, isn't it? Faithful and true. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was closed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God. That's our Lord Jesus Christ
right there. And the armies which are in heaven
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. Examples of his victory. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword. Again, that's Hebrews 4, isn't
it? That with it he should smite the nations There's the purpose. And he shall, another shall,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, which is the permanence
of his word. And he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. All judgment has
been given to him and everyone must answer to him, here in this
life or in eternity, when they enter
eternity. It's appointed once for men to
die and then judgment. The question is, did the Lord's
people die when they left this planet or did they die in him? and suffer judgment in him and
have passed from judgment. Now his word states those things
simply, but often men try to do a lot of cartwheels and gymnastics
to make that not quite right and require something of us. And he hath on his vesture, verse
16, and on his thigh a name written. We should be proud of this name.
This is our savior. King of all kings, king of kings,
and Lord of lords. And again, there's a result here,
isn't there? Look at verse 17. that ye may eat the flesh of
kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men,
and the flesh of horses, and the flesh of them that sit on
them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond. both great
and small. That's small and great, sorry.
All enemies, no exception, meet with God and are dealt with by
our Lord Jesus Christ, not by his people. We don't have to
combat anyone here. Not that way. We just declare
the one that does. And I saw the beast and the kings
of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war
against him that sat on the horse, our Lord Jesus Christ, and against
his army, his church. And that beast represents Satan,
the greatest foe we could ever have, you would think. And simply, the beast was taken.
And with him, the false prophet, that false church he's created
from Genesis 3 and sustains, whatever the Lord allows. the
church, the false prophet that brought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the
beast." He can't deceive the saints, but he has deceived everyone
else. And he will continue to deceive
them until they open their eyes in judgment. and them that worshipped his
image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with
brimstone. They were condemned, they were
destroyed by the power of God's word, by our Saviour, our King,
our Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a summary of it all,
isn't there, in verse 21? And the remnant was slain with
the sword of him that sat upon the horse. Which sword proceeded
out of his mouth? And all the fowls were filled
with their flesh. Again, this is a promise in a word that can't fail. So
I'll ask you again, do you trust in the authority of the word
of God as God records it for us? Do you believe that his word
is an eternal reality? And do you need any other teacher? Our Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is that incredible word that
always prospers, that's always powerful, that's always permanent. As Angus said, he is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. is the most high God. So as we come back to John 18,
which Lord willing we will be in a minute, may our gracious
God give us eyes to see and ears to hear the amazing truth that
our Lord Jesus Christ truly is our great God. May our Father in heaven give
us faith to simply believe, to believe on our great King
and may He instill fear and great reverence in our hearts and our
minds when we come to this word of His. So lastly, I guess I
just want to say that God's word is our authority here in this
church. And no matter how simple it seems,
no matter how hard it seems to be to believe, or even how contradictory
to what's going on in this world and what others would say, we
just say, so says the Lord. So I pray our great God will
instill these truths, these precious truths, in your hearts and in
your minds so that they influence your thinking as this world meets
your face on, the twists and the turns of our lives. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is the express image of our God and all communication
with our God is through him. whether it's to God or whether
it's to us, just like Jacob's ladder. God is by and through
our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us. May he give us the grace
to have that more often. Amen, let's pray. Heavenly Father,
these are things that we ask you that only you can do. Things
that we've seen you do over and over again in our lives and the
lives of others in your scriptures. So please, Father, take your
word and cause it to be truth and life to us. Cause it to activate
us and energize us and comfort us and refresh us and encourage
us. Cause it to be on our lips, in
our midst. cause it to be something that
you continually sustain amongst us here in this church. Please
strengthen us. Please strengthen us for your
glory sake, Father. And may all things, all things
asked of you be in the name of our great King and Saviour, our
Lord Jesus Christ.