The Lord poses an extraordinary
question, doesn't he, in John 7. Do you want to be saved? Do you want to know the truth?
I want us, before I turn back to John 7, to look again at 2
John 17, and there's something here that 2 John Verse nine, sorry, we looked
at verse seven earlier about the many antichrists, the many
deceivers who've come, who've entered into the world, who confess
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is the deceiver
and the antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but we receive a full
reward. Whosoever, listen to this verse,
it's remarkable, isn't it? Whosoever transgresses, And abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ has not God. He that abideth in the doctrine,
which is to stay and remain. These people heard the truth.
They heard the gospel from the lips of the apostles. And so
there was A choice that was laid before the people, wasn't it?
Examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. Do you stay
in the camp of the apostles? Do you stay under the testimony
that they brought of who the Lord Jesus Christ is? Or do you
go off and create some other way of God and some other character? Because that's really what's
happening all the time, isn't it? There's another God created.
They are defining in doctrine and teaching the very character
of God as seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
you change the character of God and you have another God altogether,
which is what we read about in Psalm 115. But we think, don't
we, we think that it's an ignorance issue. Look back at verse 9 with
me. Whosoever transgresses means to transgress and to continue
to transgress. See, abiding not in the doctrine
of Christ, remaining not in the doctrine of Christ is not an
ignorance issue, brothers and sisters, it's a sin issue. That's what he's saying, isn't
it? I know there's ignorance. But if they have heard the truth,
as these people had, as those who come under the sound of the
gospel have, and they abide not in it, it's not an ignorance
issue. It's a personal issue between
you and God. God has given a testimony of
his Son. And that's what we read in 1 John 5, isn't it? You're
actually saying that God is not telling the truth. You're calling
God a liar. You see, it's not an ignorance
issue anymore, brothers and sisters. It's a sin issue. The issue is, isn't it always,
what think you of Christ? Who do you say that I am? So let's go back into John chapter
seven and just bring our story up to these verses. Verse 12,
John chapter 7, there was much murmuring among the people concerning
him. People get in little groups.
That word murmuring, I love the origin of it. It's talks of duds
sitting together in a little group and sort of cooing to each
other. And that's exactly what was happening, isn't it? And
they had a reason for doing it, because of the fear of the Jews.
There was much murmuring among the people concerning him. Some
said, he's a good man. Others said, no, he deceives
the people. Verse 43 says what has always
been the case throughout human history. There was a division
among the people because of him. There was a division between
Cain and Abel. There's a division between Ishmael
and Isaac. There's a division between Jacob
and Esau. There's a division between the two men on the cross.
There's a division at the end of the age. There's always a
division because of him. He divides humanity. But look at the depth of this
division. Some people are saying he's a
deceiver. And others of people are saying he's a good man. Verse
13, Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. No man spoke openly of him for
fear of the Jews. It's amazing the power of religion,
isn't it? The power of the religion of
the Jews was always exercised in stopping the Word of God. That's exactly what happened
after the resurrection and after the glory of the the Holy Spirit coming on the
day of Pentecost and that glorious witness and 3,000 people being
healed and then that man at the great gate, beautiful, being
healed and remarkable testimonies. And what was the response of
the Jews? Let's lock these guys up in jail so they can't speak.
Let's shut them up, let's shut them up. The religious world
is always wanting the gospel to be silenced. The religious
world is always wanting to stop its ears and stop the word of
God being proclaimed. They walk down a road a little
way with us and then they hear, they hear the sound from heaven
and they find it. They find it offensive. They
find it too serious. They find it too grave. They find it too uncompromising. Man is always wanting to make
the road to heaven as broad as possible. And I do understand
how we feel about people that we love and care for. We don't
like to think ill of them and we don't have any need to because
we have a glorious gospel that can save the chief of sinners.
We have a glorious gospel where God will come in his power, in
his time of love to his people. But nevertheless, the religious
world is always wanting to silence things. There is one conversation
that matters most, and that's the conversation about your eternal
soul, the conversation about you meeting the Lord Jesus Christ
at the end of your days. And there's one conversation
that ought to matter most, and it's the one conversation that's
the hardest to have, and it's like pulling teeth. And I speak
to people, and I'm almost in... I almost know, and I'm not fearful,
but I'm... I get to the stage now where
someone asks me what I do, and I thought, oh, here we go. And
as soon as you say you have anything to do with shirts, for so often
there's just a shudders coming down in Australia. We don't want
to hear that. We don't want to hear that. How on earth could
someone who considers themselves a rational human being in these
modern times of ours possibly think that this story that was
so old could have any possible relevance to be relevant to me
today? No one spoke out to me. Now, verse 14, about the midst
of the feast, it was a seven day feast. that they had gone
up to, so Jesus is possibly the second or third or fourth day,
went up into the temple. I love the power of our God. He knew these people were killing,
had one intention in mind, that was to kill him, to silence him.
What was the point of killing him? To stop the word of God,
to stop the voice of God speaking to them, to stop God proclaiming
to them, as we saw last week, that their deeds are evil. But
I love the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ. He just goes
up. He doesn't ask their permission,
does he? He doesn't need the permission of the Jews. He doesn't
seek their approval. He just goes to his own place
and he takes authority. Our God reigns in the heavens,
and he just does whatsoever he wills. And he wasn't going to
be going up there at the behest of his brothers on their timetable.
He'll go when it suits him. And he goes to the temple in
the midst of these people that want to kill him, and he speaks.
And he taught. He taught. He came to deliver
a word from God. He was the message. He was the message from God.
God speaks through his son. And verse 15, and the Jews marveled,
saying, how knoweth this man letters? Having never learned,
they marveled. I do hope and pray that we marvel. We marvel when we hear the Lord
Jesus Christ speak. We marvel when we read His words.
It's a marvelous thing, isn't it, that we actually have a word
from God. We have a word from God which
is revealed to us through the gospel of His Son. There's no
understanding the word of God if you don't understand the word
of God, the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. I marvel,
I pray that God would cause me and cause you to marvel at his
word. Not marvel at this, Judas did. What was there marveling
about? This man doesn't know letters. He hasn't never had
an education. He hasn't been to our Bible college.
He hasn't sat at the feet of Gamaliel like Paul did. He doesn't
have our qualifications. He hasn't got a BTH, a Doctor
of Divinity. Isn't that a lovely word? Doctor
of Divinity, Master of Theology. Isn't that lovely? Doctors and
masters, he hasn't worn the robes that we wear. He doesn't have
the esteem of people. How dare he? Who is he? The question always, isn't it,
is who speaks for God? who was speaking on God's behalf.
These men believed with absolute passion that they were speaking
God's word and speaking on God's behalf to God's people. They
had no doubt whatsoever that they were doing God's work and
even when they put the Lord Jesus Christ to death they were rejoicing
in the fact that they had proved that they were right. We've got
him hanging on a tree and we've got him dying a bloody death.
Therefore, according to the law in Deuteronomy 21, he is cursed
of God. Therefore, he cannot be God's
Messiah. Therefore, he cannot. He must be a deceiver. And they
prepared their messages and their sermons for the next week as
they watched him hanging there. The question is, who's speaking
for God? And these people thought they did, and so there are, and
there were, and there always have been, a lot of people who
speak with extraordinary authority and with extraordinary self-belief
about the fact that they are speaking for God. They do believe
that they are. They genuinely do. They're not
insincere, these people. You look at the life of Saul
of Tarsus, there was nothing insincere about that man's life
whatsoever. And he had absolutely no idea
who God was at all. These men didn't know who God
was, but God was standing in their midst saying, I am God.
He had no idea of the word of God when he was there fulfilling
the word of God as he alone could do. The question is, isn't it,
is whose authority? Where does this authority come
from? And that's what we see in these following verses. The
Lord Jesus' authority comes from who he is, but it ultimately
comes from heaven and comes from his Father. So there are only
two sources of authority in this world, aren't there, ultimately? and he'll speak through his witnesses
opening his word up. And these witnesses will just
say, this is what God says, thus saith the Lord. And if it's from
God, then no man's opinion is of any significance whatsoever.
It's not a matter of opinion, is it? This is what God says.
It's not a matter of man's opinion. It's not a matter of God says
it, I believe it, and that settles it, what people say. What a load
of nonsense that is. Your believing it or not believing
it makes absolutely no difference to the truth of God. God says
it. End of story. Man's opinion is
of no significance. People like to say, well I like
to think. Who cares, ultimately? I've thought a lot of things
over this life of mine and 90% of them are rubbish, aren't they?
Who cares? What impact does our opinion
have on the reality of existence in this world? John Owen, almost
400 years ago, wrote, without absolutes, revealed from without,
revealed from beyond by God himself, we are left rudderless in a sea
of conflicting ideas about manners, justice, and right and wrong. issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated
thinkers." He wouldn't have to change a word in 2022, would
he? Not a single word. I was amazed
to hear a few months ago, I don't watch the news very often, it's
very peaceful not watching the news these days, but anyway,
there was something, someone's during the COVID thing and the
opening sentence on the SBS News at 6.30, was the person in Sydney
saying, well, what's your opinion about what's happening down there
in Melbourne? I don't want to know. I can make an opinion myself.
Just give me the facts. That was the opening statement
on the news. What's your opinion? So we come
to these remarkable verses. Jesus answered, My doctrine,
my teaching, is not mine, but his that sent me. 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 seeketh the glory of him
that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in
him. No unrighteousness is in him. I love what the word glory means.
The glory is a word that means heaviness or weightiness. It speaks of majesty and splendor,
but it speaks of something that has a substance, a weightiness,
isn't it? The glory of God has a substance. The question that we'll look
at a little bit later on is who gets the glory? Who gets the
glory? Our God is glorious in holiness
and glorious in his reign. I just want to finish this session
by looking at the question that I began earlier with, who wants
to be saved? Do you want to be saved? Do you want to be saved
by this God? Do you want to be saved to be
in the presence of this God as this God is described for us
in this book? a God who is absolutely holy,
a God who is absolutely sovereign, a God who saves in such a way
that he gets all the glory and his people get all the peace
of knowing that he gets all the glory. The reality is what glorifies
God the most is the most comforting for every believer. Whatever
elevates God the most is the most comforting for every believer. Do you want to be saved? I got
these notes from Henry Mahon and I just thought I'd repeat
them to you because I think they're both very biblical and they're
very real. True, isn't it? There are five
characteristics of someone who's serious about being saved. that
wants to be saved. The first one is that he is serious,
sincere, and earnest about it. This is the one that God says
he looks to. This is the one that he esteems.
He that is of a humble and contrite heart and trembles at my word. Trembles at my word. For those
who want to be saved, they must get to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That woman with the issue of blood, for 12 years she'd wasted
all of her money and all of her resources and all of her efforts
on physicians of no value. And she said, I must get to him.
If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. All of the people that come,
all of the people that are serious about their salvation, Nothing
impedes, they must get to the Lord Jesus Christ. Blind Bartimaeus
heard the Lord Jesus coming by and he shouted out in Jericho,
didn't he? He shouted out, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. And everyone was wanting him
to shut up. Everyone was wanting him to shut
up. Jesus, have mercy on me. And God Almighty stopped on his
way to the cross. to heal Bartimaeus. He cried
out, you search the New Testament and you will find that everyone
that desperately needed the healing hand of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and they're all pictures of his salvation, everyone that needed
his salvation came to him as a beggar and went away. not knowing that they are a king.
That man in the temple, I keep repeating it, he's beat on his
breast, Lord, be propitious to me, the sinner. Be propitious. You look upon your sin bearing
sacrifice of your son that's represented in that temple. You
look on him. No point looking on me. You look
on him and be merciful to me. Beat on his heart. He wasn't
legally allowed into there. It was a crime for the Pharisees
to even look at him. And yet he went to the one place.
He was sincere, isn't it? They took every opportunity that
was available to them. The Lord encourages sincere seekers. And everyone who made a show
of religion and everyone came with their own righteousness
to him, he sent them away. He was honest with them and he
sent them away. So firstly, those who want to be saved, they're
always serious about, they'll be made serious by God. The circumstances
of life and the time of love will cause them to cry out to
Him and they'll keep on crying out to Him. The other mark of
those who want to be saved is that there is always before them
the value of their eternal soul. The things of this earth are
not going to compare to the things of eternity. What shall it profit
a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? So many of
us in this world, aren't we, are like that man who built the
barns and had this amazing crop so he built a bigger barn. And
now I can rest and take it easy. I can sit back and rest in the
luxury of my retirement with all of my possessions. And God
says to him, this day your soul will be taken from you. All of
that matters little. So firstly, God causes a seriousness,
a sincerity in those seeking and it causes, in a sense, a
desperation. They must get to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing else satisfies them and
that's partly because they've been made to be aware that they
are an eternal being. I do like saying what Genesis
describes us as, isn't it? We are a soul that has a body. We are an eternal soul that came
from God, and we have a body and we have this earthly world
that we live in. But eternal things are far, far
more important. They are sincere and earnest.
They know the value of their soul. Thirdly, they never lose
sight of the Lord in his attributes, his majesty, his holiness, his
glory. The one that we have to meet
is glorious in holiness. It's in the beauties of holiness.
We will stand before God. Isaiah stood in that temple. In the first five chapters of
Isaiah, he's wowing all the world around him. All of a sudden,
he sees the Lord Jesus Christ in that temple. He's like Saul
on Damascus Road. Wow. of unclean lips. Holy, holy,
holy. If we see God, we get a glimpse
of God, we'll see him as holy and just and righteous and one
that will in no wise clear the guilty. Who shall stand on his
holy hill? You have to have pure hands and
a clean heart, brothers and sisters. Thank God for the Lord Jesus
Christ. God creates a sincerity in people's
hearts. He creates an understanding that
they have eternal souls. He creates in their hearts an
understanding of the absolute holiness of God and that God,
if He's ever going to deal with us, it will be on the basis of
His perfect holiness. And therefore they are aware
of their inability and their unworthiness and that wickedness
of their hearts, and so they have nothing, nothing to bring
to God. David described it in that remarkable
psalm after he was confronted about his sin. He says, Have
mercy on me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions,
wash me thoroughly from my iniquities. and cleanse me from my sin. For
I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before thee. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou might
be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest."
Then he says in verse 5, describes himself, doesn't he? Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. He's not talking about the act
of his conception. He's talking about the reality
of his original sin in Adam, that he comes forth from his
mother's womb like the rest of us, speaking lies. They go astray,
children. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward paths. He says, make me to know thy
wisdom. So David is acknowledging that
he's a sinner by birth and by nature and by practice. And there's absolutely nothing
that he can bring in his hands and nothing he can do of himself. A man that wants to be saved
is serious. A man that wants to be saved
is made to know the value of his soul. He never loses sight
of who God is, and he never loses sight of who he is. And therefore,
he'll have to look to another to do everything for him. He needs God to do it all. Man can't help him. Other men
are just as bad as he is. He can't help himself. His help
must come from God. God must save 100% and God must
do it all and he does. It's the glory of the substitutionary
atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took our place. He bore our
sins in his own body on the tree and he bore them away and all
of his people are now robed in the very righteousness of God.
What did Bartimaeus do after he was healed? After he was made
to see He followed the Lord Jesus Christ
on his way to Calvary, rejoicing, rejoicing in the salvation of
our great and glorious God. He was about to see it pictured
just days later. May the Lord bless those words
to our hearts. Let's stop and have a cup of
coffee.