is to be a believer and what
it is to be an unbeliever and they're contrasted in these verses
here before us in John chapter 7. I want to say at the outset
it is absolutely impossible for a believer to ever be lost and
it's absolutely impossible for an unbeliever ever to be saved. These brethren were going up
to the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Tabernacles was
a reminder of their deliverance from Egypt by the sovereign power
and hand of God. It was a reminder of the fact
that for 40 years they lived in the wilderness, fed with the
bread of heaven, watered with the water that came from the
rock, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. 600,000 men crossed the
Red Sea. Over 600,000 men crossed the
Red Sea. How many went into the Promised
Land? 600,000 crossed the Red Sea. Able men, fighting men.
How many went into the Promised Land? Just two. Just two. Joshua, who's a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and Caleb, whose name means faithful dog.
Faithful dog. And why didn't they go in? Why
didn't the others go in? Four. He says in Hebrews 3.15,
today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in
the provocation. He called those 40 years a provocation. For some when they had heard
did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses,
but with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them
that had sinned? whose carcasses fell in the wilderness,
and to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest,
but to them that believed not. So we see, and this Feast of
the Tabernacles was a feast to remember these events, wasn't
it? So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So let's go back to John 7 and
let's pray that the Lord might be pleased to grant us faith
that he might be pleased to reveal his word to us. completely and
utterly in your hands and your sovereign will to do as you please. And we are thankful, Heavenly
Father, that you have promised to speak to the hearts of your
people through the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we pray that he would be lifted up and we pray, Heavenly Father,
that everyone that's here leaves rejoicing, having the joy and
the peace of simply believing about how you save sinners in
your dear and precious Son. We pray in Jesus name. 1. After these things Jesus walked
in Galilee. He would not walk in Jewry because
the Jews sought to kill him and the reason they sought to kill
him was back in John chapter 5 where he healed that man on
the Sabbath day. They saw him as a law-breaking,
disobedient person. They saw him as someone who,
because he so openly in their eyes broke the law, he couldn't
possibly be one that speaks from God. And they felt that they
were obligated to put him to death to rid the world of what
they saw as a false prophet. So Jesus went down at his time
The Jews feast of the tabernacles was at hand. It's interesting
how John often says it's the Jews feast of the tabernacles
and it's the Jews Passover. It was actually God's Passover
and that's how it's declared in the Old Testament. But the
Jews had so corrupted The worship of God and the praise of God
that John says is the Jews' Feast of Passover. This Feast of Tabernacles
was designed, as I said earlier, to reveal the faithfulness of
God to His promises, to reveal the faithfulness of God to protect
and deliver His people. 3 And his brethren therefore said
unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. 4 For there is no man
that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be
known openly. If you do these things, show
yourself to the world. For neither did his brethren
believe in him. As I said earlier, the brethren
could well be his immediate family, but the brethren it has a wider
reference in that time and it could mean all of those families
and it can actually mean all of the children of Israel at
times. But nevertheless, I think in
the context here and seeing that he's up in Galilee and had been
near Capernaum, these are his earthly families. And there are
some lessons for his brethren. didn't believe in him. And the first lesson that wants
to be stated again and again and again is the fall of man
and where it brings him and where it leaves him unless God gives
light, unless God gives sight, unless God sets the prison bars
open and takes the captive in darkness out. See, these brethren
had God incarnate living with them 24-7 all of their lives,
and they had no idea who He is. So let's get the lesson quickly
and easily. Natural men and women have no
notion of what true holiness looks like. Natural men and women
have no notion of what true holiness looks like. Natural men and women
have no notion of what true obedience to God's law looks like. He perfectly
obeyed God's law in heart and soul and mind strength. He loved
God with all of his heart, all of his mind, all of his strength,
and he loved his neighbours and himself and they had no idea.
They had no idea. No, natural men cannot see the
things revealed so clearly in the Scriptures. The Bible is
a closed book until God opens the eyes and gives the understanding,
and the Spirit comes and enlightens it. And when He enlightens it,
it becomes the most remarkable book that's ever been written.
It is the God's Word. There's just no question about
it. God wrote this book. God wrote it. No one other than
God could write a book like this. It's the most remarkable book
and no one other than God the Holy Spirit can take the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveal them to us and that's
what the book is about and that's what the tabernacle is about
and everything about Jerusalem and the worship of God ultimately
was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and there was the Lord
Jesus in the temple in the tabernacle saying this is all about me.
and they didn't have a clue. Natural men and women have no
notion of what true holiness looks like. Natural men and women
have no notion of what obedience to God looks like. Natural men
and women cannot see what's written in the scriptures. Natural men
and women have no notion of love to God in heart and mind and
strength. Natural men and women have no
notion of true love to them. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it doesn't matter how much evidence is given. There's a whole industry
based on apologetics isn't it, where they keep saying if we
can just get people to see and to see this evidence, then out
of all this evidence will pop The whole creation science movement
is based on so many apologetics movements, and if we can just
get them to have some understanding of these things, out will come
true and saving faith. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Those who have the gospel and
love the power of the gospel preach the gospel all the time.
Those that don't have the gospel will do everything else. It doesn't
matter how much evidence. And the answer, of course, is
why the Lord Jesus Christ came, isn't it? Man is dead. Spiritually
dead. In the day you eat the fruit,
you shall die. And when Adam ate the fruit,
Adam and all of his posterity died. They spiritually died. They didn't die physically, but
they were spiritually dead, which meant that they had no spiritual
notion of the character of God, the character of themselves,
and the character of God's salvation. Man is dead according to God. I don't know how clearly he can
say it. You are dead, as Ephesians 2 says. You are dead in trespasses
and sins. And man continually, in religion
especially, they always want to say, well, no, he's not quite
dead. Well, God says dead. I don't see that that's a complicated
expression to get to understand. If you've seen a dead person,
they're dead. See, if man is just sick, he needs a doctor. If man is ignorant, he needs
a teacher. And if his fall has just damaged
him in some way, that particular way that he's fallen needs correcting.
People rejoice over reformed lives. And we love to see people
change. We love to see those that have
been caught in all sorts of addictions and horrible behaviors. We love
to see them transformed. But you can transform people
in remarkable ways. And they're still as dead as
they were before. They're still dead spiritually.
They might be living a perfectly fine and moral life like these
brethren did going off to a feast in Jerusalem, but they're spiritually
dead to who the Lord Jesus Christ is. If you're dead, There is
only one solution, isn't it? If you are dead, you need life.
It's as simple as that, isn't it? You need life from beyond
you because you're dead. You don't have anything in you
to engender that life or to bring it to being or to encourage it
in some way. If you're dead, you need life. You need life to come from above. You need to be raised from the
dead, which is what salvation is described as. That's why the
Lord Jesus pictured him in Lazarus, didn't he? He just says, Lazarus,
come out. And a dead man rotting there
for four days immediately came out. And that's exactly what
he says to his people, doesn't he? come out and take his grave
clothes off him, set him free. What about religious people?
The Lord Jesus Christ is not talking here to people that don't
know about religion. It's quite a journey down to
Jerusalem from Galilee. It takes some days, and if you
want to avoid some area and not be defiled by some area, it takes
even longer. And then you were down there
for at least seven days. So this involves a long trek and an expensive
trek, and at least a week and possibly 10 days or a fortnight
away from your family. And you went down there. These
men didn't believe. Sinners are a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made them
so. That's what David cried, didn't
he? David, when he had sinned against Bathsheba and Nathan
comes along and says, you're the man, you're the one that
did this, Sid. You've murdered and you've stolen
his wife. and you've murdered the child
that she's carrying. David didn't say, David didn't
say fix me, did he? David said create in me a pure
heart, a clean heart. You restore in me what was damaged. I've done this evil in your sight.
But I need a new heart. It's a new creation. A new creation
is the creation that truly believes. It's a new creation that truly
repents. It's a new creation that truly loves God. It's a
new creation that's created by God. And listen to how he describes
it. It's created in righteousness and in true holiness. It's called creation. glory. He comes to dead sinners
and because of His perfect life and His perfect death and His
washing away our sins, sinners like us can be indwelt by God
Almighty. The natural man The natural man,
man as he comes into this world, according to God, he receives
not, 1 Corinthians 2.14, he receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." Again and again,
all through the scriptures it's so clear, isn't it? You must,
to Nicodemus, you must be born again. So reformation is not
regeneration. These Jews were passionate about
people living righteous lives. They even traveled over land
and sea to get the Gentiles to leave their pagan Gentile practices
and take them back to Jerusalem and clean up their lives and
get them living under the law and polish themselves up. And
the Lord Jesus Christ says, now these people are twice the child
of hell. they are worse off in Jerusalem under that religion
of the Jews than they were in the brothels and bars of Corinth.
According to the Lord Jesus Christ, reformation is not regeneration. We're going on this long walk. We want Brothers and sisters,
we want people to see Christ in us and we want to live in
this world so that we don't bring any dishonour to him in your
eyes or anyone else's eyes. But just remember, these brethren
who have lived with him all their lives, they couldn't see Christ
in Christ. And the Jews couldn't see Christ in Christ. So forget
about trying to live in some sort of pious and holy way before
people. Let's just be real. We can be
real. We are sinners saved by the grace of a sovereign God. What is unbelief? What is unbelief? These brethren did not believe
in him. What is unbelief? What's the
answer? What is faith? What is faith? What does faith
do? Faith is believing God. It's believing God's testimony
about God. And Peter had given us a wonderful
example of it, isn't it? He says, the Lord says in John
6, 67, you can go, the door's there, you can go if you wish
to go. And Simon Peter answered him, he said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Faith goes to whom? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And listen to his confession.
This is faith, isn't it? We believe and are sure They're
not saying we believe and are sure that we are elect. We're
not saying that we believe and are sure that Jesus died for
us. We're not saying that we believe and are sure that God
loves us. We're saying we believe and are sure. We believe and
we know. Clearly, we are persuaded, as
Paul says, that thou art the Christ. You see, faith is believing
what God says about his Son, the Christ. Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. is believing God, is believing
what God says. People say they believe in God.
The devil believes in God. Multitudes they say they believe
in God. And when you take them to the
testimony God gives about himself and his son as recorded in the
scriptures by the Holy Spirit, they find his character offensive. The people in the previous chapter
said these are hard sayings. They murmured and they strived
amongst themselves. This is too hard. He's just describing himself
and how he saves sinners. The story of Abraham in the Old
Testament. He's the father of the faithful.
He's the father of us all. And the first mention of the
word faith in the Old Testament is regarding Abraham. And Abraham
is a great picture of what faith is and a great picture of the
operations of God in giving him faith. And Abraham is concerned
that God keeps saying you're going to have an heir and you're
going to have a family and you're going to have a multitude of children.
And he's concerned because he can't see any evidence in himself.
He's an old, old man. nearly 100 years old and his
wife is an old, old woman and she's gone past menopause. They
are no longer able in any physical way to have babies. And yet God
says to him, he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels,
out of thine own being shall be thine heir. And he brought
him forth abroad, took him outside and said, now look up to heaven,
Abraham, and tell the stars if they'll be able to number them.
And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. He had absolutely
no evidence. What did he have? He had a word from God. He had
a word from God, and he just believed what God said. And he
believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Don't forget, brothers and sisters,
the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ is an amazing victory. There will be no way in the world
there will be any embarrassment in heaven about the number of
people who are saved. Look at the stars. Count the sand on
the seashore. God, our Savior, will have a
great victory. is believing what God says. Unbelief
is simply not believing God. It's as simple as that, isn't
it? It's not believing God. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
is the operation of God. Faith is the reliance on the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is the resting and the reclining of your eternal
soul and your life into his hands, his work in the flesh and his
work on the cross. That's what eating his bread
and drinking his blood is about, isn't it? You are living on his
life and you are living because of his death in his presence.
Unbelief ultimately is a hatred of God. Unbelief is a sin. Unbelief is a crime. It's a crime
against one who cannot lie. A crime against one who tells
the truth all the time. Unbelief has an origin. Why did these people not believe? Because of what happened in the
garden. Why does there need to be a miracle of birth? Because
of what happened to us in the garden, what you did in the garden,
in Adam. And people will say, well, how
can God charge me as being responsible for something that Adam did?
Well, you haven't done much better yourself, have you, since you
came and had your opportunity on this earth? And nevertheless,
the other glorious thing about it, if you fell in a representative
man, then you can be saved in a representative man, which is
exactly what salvation is. We're saved in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's quickly go back to Genesis 3, and I don't have
much time there, but you You will profit every time you read
and study and pray about these words in Genesis chapter 3. God
had made man upright. God had created him out of the
dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life. 2.7. And the man became a living soul. Please understand
that you are a living soul and you have a body which is dying. Don't get that the wrong way
around, which is what so many people do. Everything is about
their body. But God put them in this garden
and he promised them that they would eat. So the eating was
not a surprise to him. But listen to where unbelief
comes from. And you'll hear the word of unbelief here, in these
words, because the word of unbelief is the word... If, that's what
these brothers said, isn't it? If you do these things, show
yourself to the world. He'd just done the most remarkable
things you could possibly wish to see. Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he said unto the woman, listen to where unbelief starts. Yea, hath God said. God really
sighed? Did he really mean what he said? Did he really mean it? He was
saying to Eve, effectively, you're an intelligent young woman, We can have a discussion about
this, can't we? Let's have a discussion about what God said, and let's
ask some questions about it. And beginning at the very beginning,
he says, Yeah, as God said, you shall not eat of every tree in
the garden. The woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the
trees, the fruit of the trees in the garden, but of the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God says, you
shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you
die. God said nothing about touching it. It's probably wise if you're
going to eat it and die, is that you wouldn't touch it, but he
said nothing about touching it. And the serpent said to the woman,
See, it begins with a questioning of God's word, and now it ends
up with an open denial of God's word. You shall not surely die. And then there is a promise from
Satan to Eve. For God does know in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. You shall be as gods. That's
the action of unbelief, isn't it? Knowing good and evil. And
the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was
pleasant to the eye.