I'd like to turn with me back
to John chapter 7 and I pray the Lord will cause His words
to be words that we hear from God. It's a very common accusation
against the Christian Church, isn't it, that if you people
were all united then there'd be a much more powerful witness. There are so many sects ways that people say that they
are worshipping God as Christians. But how on earth do you sort
it all out? The common response of so many
is, let's just throw the whole lot out because it's too confusing.
And it's just a man-made religion. And then there are those within
the church that say, within some profession churches say, wouldn't
it be wonderful if we were all just gathered together? I remember
when the drought was on, towards the end of the drought, there
were lots of people gathering together and there was a big
gathering down here at the council chambers in that park. And it
was all the churches of the Shoalhaven united together. And someone
saw me at the coffee shop and said, isn't it just a wonderful
witness when all of these Christians can get along together. What
a powerful witness it is when we all join hands together. Well,
blessed be the peacemakers and the children of God want there
to be peace in this world and they want there to be peace between
the people of this world and they want especially for there
to be peace between people and God. to visit people by nature. But nevertheless, nevertheless,
wherever the gospel has come, wherever the Lord Jesus has been,
Throughout time there is always, there has always, and there is
always, and there is now a division. But I'd like us to go back to
what our text says. There is, in verse 35, I mean
43 of John's Gospel, so there was a division among the people. is a division that is among these
people who have now witnessed the activities of the Lord Jesus
Christ in that nation for almost three years. It's just six months
before the crucifixion. And these people have witnessed
the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem, they've witnessed him in Galilee,
they've witnessed the remarkable miracles that he performed. They've
been a witness even, not personally but from the witness of others,
of remarkable things that he did. He raised the dead, he fed
5,000, he walked on the water. He went about doing good, and
yet there is a division among the people because of him. And
that division, as we read earlier when we looked at John's Gospel,
is a division that brings all sorts of confusion, isn't it? In verse 20, some say that he
has a devil. Some of these religious leaders
say that he has a devil. And they are the people who seek
to kill him, and they seek to take him, and they send their
officers to take him. And they would have taken him,
and they were taking him with the purpose of putting him to
death. And it wasn't his time. There
is a division. There is a division. Let's remember
that the Lord Jesus Christ is God over all. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this religious world. He came to this fallen and dark
world. He came as God incarnate. And people like to think that
he came to bring peace, but that's not his own testimony, is it? In Luke chapter 12, verse 51,
he says, suppose you that I've come to give peace
on earth. There'll be a whole bunch of
Christmas cards with that on it this year, won't there? Suppose you
that I've come to bring peace on earth. I tell you no, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall
be five in one house divided three against two and two against
three and father shall be divided against son and son against father
and mother against daughter, and daughter against mother,
and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. The Lord came to bring division. There is a division because of
Him. The division is not because of
us. The division is because of Him.
It's because of His being what He claimed about Himself to be. There's a division because of
him. That word division is the word we get schism from. You've
heard of that word often, haven't you? It means a tearing apart. It's the word that's used for
the tearing apart of cloth. It means a separation. There's a division because of
him. The division is always, a true
division is a division because of him. It's a division that
causes a separation and a separation too. He divides that he might
join together. As much as we desire to be peacemakers,
and as much as the children of God never desire a fight, there
will be, and there always has been, a division because of who
he is. Who he is before he came and
when he came, There's a division about him because of why he came,
the anointed prophet, priest and king. There's a division
because of him, because of what he taught. They didn't particularly
complain about his miracles, except his Sabbath breaking,
but it was his words that caused so much offence. There's a division
because of him, because of what he claimed about himself. He
says, I am God, I am God. And I, as God, have the right
to do with my own as I see fit. And everything I do is right
and good because I do it. His message is a message where
he proclaimed the sovereignty of God in salvation. His message
proclaimed that he came with a purpose to save his people
from their sins. He came to reveal the fact that
the heavens do rule. There is a division because of
him. It's a division that God makes. It's a division between all humanity
that God makes. If you go with me, I'll look
at some of the scriptures where we see this division and see
the hatred. It's extraordinary, isn't it,
when you contemplate the fact that when God Almighty came in
human flesh and revealed himself as God in the most remarkable
ways, there was a hatred of him. In Luke chapter four, he went
back to his hometown of Nazareth. He'd been with these people for
between 25 and 30 years. They had lived with a man. presence of a man who never had
a sinful thought, a sinful action, a sinful word. And he came back
and they'd seen him for 30 years in his carpenter shop. They'd
seen him caring for his mother and his brothers and sisters.
They'd seen him do all of those things. And he stood before them
and proclaimed that he was the Christ. He says, the Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, and he's anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor people. There's good news in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.
Those whose hearts are broken, he's come to heal, to heal them. and to preach deliverance to
the captives. The whole Jewish nation was captive of the Romans
at that time, but all of humanity is captive to sin and captive
to Satan, and captive to their own desires. And the recovering
of the sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are
bruised. When you hear a message like
that from someone who is proclaiming all of those things, that the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. They marvelled at the Lord Jesus
Christ. All their eyes were fastened
on him. They'd never heard anyone speak like this man. And in verse
22, they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. These people in church, minutes
later, had turned from worshippers of God, as they thought, to murderers. Listen to what they, they heard
him declaring God being God. They heard him declaring God
having the right to heal who he wishes to heal. In that Jewish
nation, in all of those years of the Prophet Elijah, he and
Elisha, he healed a Gentile woman and a Gentile man, and he didn't
heal Jews. These gracious words and this
declaration of who God is, These people have heard those gracious
words. When they were in the synagogue,
they heard these things. They were filled with wrath, and they
rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him to the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. There's a huge cliff in Nazareth. They weren't wanting him just
to be injured. They were wanting him to be destroyed.
You see how fickle man is. God revealing God to us and making
us to find him delightful to bow to the deity of God people
will go from signing up those words wonderful to let's kill
him in John chapter 5 He healed a man on the Sabbath day. And
what was the response of the Jewish people? There's not a
single mention of them caring about that man who'd been crippled
for 38 years sitting beside that pill and them not able to do
a single 38 years and not walking once. And the Lord Jesus Christ
comes along and He heals him and He heals him particularly.
And because it was done on a Sabbath day. The Jews persecuted Jesus, verse
16, and sought to slay him. The result of him healing a man
on the Sabbath day, they sought to slay him. In John chapter
eight, the next chapter, they took up stones to cast at him. He declared who he was, and he declared who they are.
He said there's a division amongst humanity. And there is a people
in this world who are the children of God and there are a people
in this world who are the children of the devil. And he declared
that he is God. He says, I am, before Abraham
was, I am. Then they took up stones to cast
at him. They weren't just going to throw
little rocks at him. The purpose of stoning him was
to crush his head and then cover him with the stones that they
all carried and use him and leave him as a monument to their hatred. There is a division among the
people because of him. There was a division among the
people. Again and again and again there
is a division revealed. And ultimately that division
and that hatred of him is revealed on the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There he is hanging between heaven and earth. bearing the
sins of all of his people, being mocked. Finally, these religious
leaders who hated him and sought to slay him in various ways,
finally they had him where he was, and there he is hanging
on Calvary's tree. because of Him. Because of Him. Both of those
men had exactly the same history, and both of those men had the
same history on that day, and both of those men were hanging
naked on a cross like the one between them, and both of those
men were going to meet And one thief looks across at
that naked, bleeding man, mocked by all that religious crowd,
and he says, Lord, remember me. Lord, remember me. He acknowledged
that man. Hanging next to him on a cross
was God Almighty. He knew, by the grace of God,
giving him new life, that that man that was hanging beside him
was going to a kingdom, and he asked to go with him. Lord, remember
me. He knew that this man was King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. And this man, one man, spent
those hours on the cross cursing the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
other man on the cross pleaded with him for mercy. Lord, remember
me. What a great prayer that is.
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You're going
to die on that cross, and when you finish dying on that cross
and you've been buried, you're going to heaven, and you're going
to have a kingdom. You're coming back as a king.
You are a king now. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom." And the words the Lord Jesus spoke are just
remarkable, isn't it? Truly, verily, I say unto you,
today shalt thou be with me in Christ makes between humanity. He is the difference, isn't He?
There are just two groups of people in this world. There are
those who receive Him and those who reject Him. There are those
who love Him and those who despise Him. There are those who see
Him as all, in all of their salvation, in all of their life, in all
of their walk through this world. and those who do not see him
as all at all, there are those who trust him and those who do
not trust him. Simply, there are those who believe
and there are those who don't. The difference, the difference
is Christ. Those who trust him have been
brought by God to a place Just like Peter, I have nowhere
else to go. I see nothing in myself, nothing
in my doings, nothing in anything that I have ever done or ever
might be able to do which will recommend me to God. I need a
savior. I need a substitute. I need someone
to bear my sins. I need someone to walk before
God and create a righteousness under the law of God for me. I have my only hopes in Him. I spoke last week about a summary
of the gospel, isn't it? There is a holy God whom I cannot
please, but Christ did. There is a holy law I cannot
keep, but Christ did. There is a perfect righteousness
that I cannot earn, but Christ did. There is a convicting record
of sin in my life that I cannot erase ever. It's in the past. There's a convicting
record of sin that I cannot erase, but Christ did. There is a great
judgment that I cannot endure, but Christ did. There is an eternal death that
I cannot rise from, but Christ did. He makes himself all in all to
his people. There is a division among the
people because of him. There is a division. among the
people because of him. Again and again, we are drawn
in the scriptures to that situation, don't we, that you confront him
personally and you confront him particularly. What think you think you of him, whose son is
he? among the people of this world
is about his deity, isn't he? In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is God the Son, and he was
God the Son before he came, and he came with a purpose. What do you think of his person? He's both God You couldn't imagine him to be
human. And he's so fully man that you can't imagine him to
be God. He's bone of our bones and flesh
of our flesh. There's a division among the
people about him regarding his work. Did he actually do all that he
said he was going to do? Or did he try, and did he just
make an offer that lays on a table for you to come and pick up and
take? He said, his name is Jesus. You'll call his name Jesus, Joseph
was told, because he shall save his people from their sins. He died for his sheep and he
took away all of their sins. He actually put away all of the
sins of all of his people once for all and they no longer exist. My future sins were dealt with
2,000 years ago on Calvary Street when God the Father laid them
on His Son and He was made a curse for us and He was made sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God. That was what the cross
was all about. There is a division among the
people. There is a division among the
religious people about who the Lord Jesus Christ is, why He
came, and what He did on the cross. There's a division among the
religious people about what he achieved by his work and his
life on this earth. Did he weave a robe of perfect
righteousness under the law before God and before men that is the
robe of righteousness that every single one And does he not only weave that
robe of righteousness, does he actually clothe his people with
that righteousness? He says he did. He says that
he bore their sins in his own body on the tree, and he says
that they are made the very righteousness of God in him. There is a division
among the people about these things. When God made a division
among the people in Egypt, the division between the Egyptians
and the Israelites was a division that was marked by what? What was the difference between
every Jewish Israelite house in Egypt and all the Egyptian
houses in that whole land, in that great superpower? The division
is a division about the blood. What did the Israelites have?
What did the Jews have on their doorpost? They had blood on the
into their house and they consumed that lamb. And they marked the
outside of the door of all their houses with the blood of that
lamb. And what did God say? He says, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. When I see the blood, not when
you see the blood, you're on the inside of the house and the
blood's on the outside of the house. You might, inside that
house, have had a shocking day and sinned grievously. What was
God looking for? Was he looking for something
good that you had done? Or was he looking to what his
son had done? He's always looking to what his
son has done. He says, the Lord doth put a
difference between the Egyptians and Israel, and the difference
is a difference that God puts, and the difference is a difference
in his blood. There is a division among the
people because of him. See, when Peter is declaring
that you are the son of God, You are the Christ, you are that
Christ, the Son of God. He's declaring that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the anointed one. That's what the word Christ,
that's what the word Messiah means. He's the anointed and
there were three officers in Israel in that religion. Three officers where the person
was anointed. There was the prophet. What do
you think of the Lord Jesus Christ as the anointed one? See, he is the prophet. A prophet
brings the word of God to the people. He's the one who faithfully
expresses the mind of God and brings God's word to you. He
is the word made flesh and dwelt among us. He is the prophet. Are his words the words of God?
He is the anointed priest. Do you believe Before the Father, you must be
accepted as His Son is accepted. The anointed high priest in the
Old Testament went into the Holy of Holies and he went into the
very presence of God and he went in with blood, but also he went
in with something else, as well as all are the names of all the children
of God, and written on his shoulders are all the names of the children
of God. How do you get into the presence
of God through the anointed priest? You are carried there with blood
by the high priest into the presence of God. This is what it is to
believe that he is the Christ, he is that priest. He entered
into the holy of holies, not just the one in this world, he
entered into the holy of holies of heaven. And he takes his people
into the very presence of God, perfectly washed in his blood
and made white. Their garments made white in
the blood of the Lamb. He's the anointed King. Do you
believe that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which he claims
to be? That he rules and reigns over everything, everywhere,
all the time? That he spoke and this universe
comes into existence. He spoke and creation existed. He upholds this creation now. And everything in this creation,
He is working for the good of His people and for the glory
of His name. That's what it is for Him to
be King. His will is done. Do you believe that? That's what
it is to believe. all places, at all times, over
all people. Why are you here this morning? His will is done. We are in the
hands of a God who reigns and rules all things. See, not only does He separate
and cause a division among people. He separates his people from
the religion of this world. I was told by a pastor some years
ago that you can go anywhere and worship God. And he said,
I have fellowship in all of these churches around here and you
can go anywhere you like and worship God. And I said to him, when I stay there and worship
God in that place? Do you want me to go to a place
where I deny his deity? Do you want me to go to a place
where I deny the fact that what happened on the cross and when
he shed his life's blood, he said he saved his people from
their sins, And these other churches are saying he tried to save his
people from their sins and he can save them if they add something
of their activities to it. Or do you want me to go to a
church where they say that he has begun a work of righteousness
in you, but that work of righteousness is only acceptable to God if
you continue good doings and your righteousness
to his righteousness, then his righteousness is acceptable to
you. And the list goes on and on.
You've heard them many, many times. You go on their websites. He looked across the table at
me and didn't have an answer. He didn't have an answer because
there is no Church within six months of that,
so he no longer has the opportunity to lead so many people astray.
There is a division, but it's a glorious division. It's a glorious
division because it's a division that he makes, but it's a division
that draws his people to see how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ
is. It's a division that his people
rejoice in because they rejoice in a God They rejoice in a God who is
successful. They rejoice in a God who declares
in the Old Testament, he shall not fail nor be discouraged. We rejoice in a God who went
to the law of God and he magnified the law of God and he made it
honourable so that all of his children are perfectly free from
the law of God. All of my obedience before God
was lived out 2,000 years ago on this earth. 2,000 years ago someone walked on this
earth and he loved God with all of his heart, all of his soul,
all of his mind, and all of his strength. And I was in him and
I did it as well. Someone walked on this earth
and he loved his neighbor as himself. And I have done it. I am, and all believers are, the very righteousness
of God in him. And brothers and sisters in Christ,
we are in a marriage union with Him. It's all to do with being
united to Him, being one with Him. All that He did, the Lord
Jesus Christ did,