Alright, back here in John 12.
Now the Lord had preached the gospel that day already. He had
said in verse 31, now is the judgment of this world, now shall
the prince of this world be cast out. declaring that this is the
crisis of the world. This is now when judgment will
be settled. This is when he's saying he would
go to the cross, he would put away all the sin of his people
so that he takes all the ammunition away from the devil. Everything
the devil used to accuse him, he's taken it all away. So that
they're righteous in him and the devil has nothing else with
which to accuse them before God, casting him out thereby. He declared,
and if I be lifted up from the earth, withdraw all unto Me.
Through His death, through His life, through His burial, His
resurrection, His rising to the right hand of the Father, He
sends the Spirit, He sends the Gospel, He's drawing all His
people to Himself. He's quickening, He's making
them alive. And all of this, verse 33, He said signifying
what death He should die. He preached the gospel that He
is the gospel. That's what He declared in that
short statement, that He's the gospel. He's the good news. And here was the answer of some,
verse 34, the people answered Him. We've heard out of the law
that Christ abided forever. How sayest thou the Son of Man
must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? And when
our Lord walked this earth, He was gracious to receive sinners
continually. Sinners that came to Him seeking
mercy, He received them, and He still does. Sinners that came
to Him ignorant, who wanted to be taught of Him, He received
them and He taught them. Those that came to Him seeking
mercy, seeking Him to be all their need. He received them
and He met every need they had. This is our Lord. He's still
doing the same today. But that was not the spirit of
these people. That's not the spirit with which
they came. Verse 34, the people answered Him. He didn't ask them
anything. He didn't ask them anything. And, hey, old man, who art thou
that replies against God? And that's what they were doing.
They were replying against Him. They said, we've heard out of
the Law, out of the Scripture, that Christ abideth forever.
How sayest thou the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this
Son of Man? They're saying that they knew
the Scriptures, but He didn't know them. That's the spirit this is. we've
heard out of the Scriptures. How are you saying the Son of
Man must die? Who is this Son of Man? We saw
this morning He's the perfect man, He's the God man, He's the
last Adam by whose obedience His people are made perfectly
righteous. He's the power of God and the salvation that He's
made the power of God unto us when He gives us the Gospel and
shines a light in our heart and makes us behold Him. But these
men were not asking to be taught of Him. He received sinners. He still receives sinners. These
men weren't asking to be taught. You ever had somebody ask you
a question and you could just tell from the question that they're
not asking for information? Well, these men were not asking
for information. They listened to our Lord's message.
And the whole time they were listening, they were not listening
to hear life. They were listening to hear Him
say something that they could use against Him. That's what
they were doing. To justify themselves before
men for rejecting Him. They wanted something they could
take back to the Pharisees to tell their religious rulers to
get a pat on the back and show what good little doggies they
were. In fact, that's why they're asking
Him, who is this Son of Man? They want Him to say, He's the
Son of God. And I'm convinced this is where
he preached that message we looked at this morning in verses 44
through 50. He declared who he was. He wasn't
afraid of them to declare who he was. But they were coming
there doing what they've been doing the entire time. Listen
to these scriptures. Matthew 22.15 says, Then went
the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in
his talk. Luke 20 verse 20 says, And they
watched him, and they sent forth spies. They sent men. That's
probably some of who these people were. They sent forth spies,
which should feign themselves just men, that they might take
hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power
and the authority of the governor. In Luke 11.53, as He was preaching
one day, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge vehemently
and to provoke Him to speak of many things, laying weight for
Him, seeking to catch something out of His mouth that they might
accuse Him. But our Lord, they could poke
Him and poke Him and poke Him and poke Him, and they couldn't
make Him sin. They couldn't make Him It couldn't
rattle him. It couldn't rattle him. This
that these people were doing that day, this has been typified
in men's rejection. It was typified. When men rejected
David, when they rejected Jeremiah, it was typical of this very rejection
our Lord received. Psalm 56.5, this is what they
said to David, but this is Christ. This is prophecy of Christ. It says And this is Christ speaking. Every day they rest my words.
All their thoughts are against me for evil. That's the enmity
of the heart that's against God. All their thoughts are against
me for evil. They gather themselves together,
they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my
soul. In Jeremiah 20 and verse 10,
this was Christ's word through Jeremiah. This is prophetical
of Christ. Listen to this. I heard the defaming
of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will
report it. Say something to us so we can
go back and tell the Pharisees. All my familiars watched for
my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall
prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him." They
exalted Moses. That's what they've said. We've
heard in the Scriptures, they're exalting Moses and exalting dead
preachers of the past, prophets of the past, against the Word Himself. They
put flowers on dead men's graves, rejecting the very one God sent
to them. But if they had lived in Moses'
day, they would have done the same thing to Moses. There were
men who lived in Moses' day who were doing the same thing to
Moses that these men were doing to Christ. You hear men say,
oh, if we just had some preachers today like they used to have
back then. Well, guess what? It was men sat under those preachers
back then saying, oh, if we just had some preachers today like
we had back then. They say unto Christ what Korah
and his followers said of Moses. You take too much on yourself,
we're all holy. And that truly is the heart of
what these men were saying. We're holy. We don't need you.
That's what they were saying to Christ. That's the enmity
of the natural heart. Now listen to the Lord's Word
in verse 35. Then Jesus said to them, Yet
a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light,
lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not where he goeth. Walk while ye have the light,
Believe in the light that you may be the children of light. Christ is the light. And the
gospel He sends is the light. He is the light and the gospel
He sends is the light. He said, I am the light of the
world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life. He said, I must work the works
of Him that sent Me while it is day. The night cometh when
no man can work. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. Verse 35, He said to them, yet
a little while is the light with you. He just declared, He just
said, now is my hour. I'm going to the cross. I'm going
to lay down my life. He's going back to the Father.
Very soon, Christ the light would be taken from them. He'd be gone,
in body. Verse 36, while you have the
light, believe in the light. that you may be the children
of light. You think about this. God had
sent Christ only to Israel. He sent the light only to Israel
at that time. Not to any other nation. Just
to them. Just to them. He gave this privilege
to no other nation but to them. And they're despising the light
God gave them. Now, think about this. What would
you be concerned with, what would you be concerned with, if the
Lord told you today, this is the last time you'll hear the
gospel? One of these days, it will be. One of these days will be the
last time we hear the gospel. What if you knew it was today? What would you be concerned with? Verse 26, These things spake
Jesus, and departed, and He had hid Himself from them. The Lord Jesus never closed the
door on sinners who came to Him for mercy. Our Lord Jesus never
closed the door on His people. No matter how leprous, no matter
how sinful, no matter how ignorant, He always received His own, He
always received sinners and taught them, and He still does. He still
does. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Never. Now get that, He's never
going to cast out one of His people. Never. They're all going
to be drawn to Him, keep being drawn to Him, and He will not
cast one out. Don't miss that. Don't miss that. But these Pharisees are boasting
of their wisdom. They're boasting of their goodness.
They're boasting of their good works. So when He declared there's
none righteous, when He preached that no man can do the works
God has required to come to God, the works only He could work, that's why they disputed, that's
why they rejected Him, and that's why they refused to believe on
Him. They started listening to Him
to find out how can we use the very things He has said to reject
Him. Why? Enmity against God. And because they didn't want
Christ the Light, they didn't want Him, Christ the Light departed
and He hid Himself from them. This was it. Not just for this
group of people right here, for the whole nation. Did they mourn? Did they take
off after Him? Did they seek Him and say, we've
got to find Him? We need the light, we've got
to find Him. He's life. If we can't find Him, we're doomed. Did they go after Him? Verse
37 says, but though he had done so many miracles before them,
yet they believed not on him. These are religious men, very
religious men, but they are unregenerate men, and so they didn't have
light to see. They did not see one good thing
Christ did. They didn't see Him as Christ,
they didn't see Him as God, and they didn't see one good thing
He did. They thought themselves wiser
than Christ our wisdom, they thought themselves holier than
Christ our sanctification, more righteous than Christ our righteousness,
and not in need of Him whatsoever. And even worse, They called Christ
a wine-bibber. They called Him a gluttonous
man. They called Him a friend of publicans and sinners. They
called Him a sinner, an antinomian, and a blasphemer. They accused
Him of being ignorant of the Scriptures. We've heard out of
the Word that Christ abided forever. How sayest thou? the Son of Man
must be lifted up. Who is this Son of Man? When
men object to the Gospel and try to quote Scripture and use
Scripture to condemn, they always condemn themselves. It never
fails. And they have no idea they're
doing it. Those born of the light value the light. Men say, if
I saw a miracle, I'd believe. He did all these many miracles
before them. Our Lord said if He raised a
man from hell and sent him back to warn men, they wouldn't believe
on Him. He's going to say through this gospel, the preaching of
this gospel, why? To stain the pride of proud men
that think they know it all. You're going to have to be made
a big old dummy. That's what we're going to have to be made.
Just big old dummies. that need Christ to be all our
wisdom. But those that He's shone the light in, those He's made
Himself wisdom in, this gospel is the most valuable thing in
the world to them. They see the privilege God's
given them to give them the gospel, and they have to have it. They're
not going to leave it, and they're not going to do anything to jeopardize
it leaving. God's people know what a rare
and precious gift it is to have the gospel preached to us. It's a rare and precious thing.
The gospel is just not everywhere. It is just not everywhere. But these men had plenty of teachers. They had plenty of teachers.
They had plenty of good works. It wasn't going to be any big
loss to them and their mind if Christ went away. They could
just replace Him. They already had men to replace
Him. And this too was typified in Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached
that the light would be taken away. Jeremiah was sent to preach
this, typifying Christ's day. Then said they, Come, let us
devise devices against Jeremiah. For the law shall not perish
from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from
the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the
tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words." Well, is
the Word of God of no effect? What's going on here that these
men are rejecting Christ and He's going away and hiding Himself
from them? Does He not save by His Word? No, the rejection of
Christ is what God declared in His Word that Israel would do.
It's exactly what He declared they would do. Look here in verse
38. They believed not on him that
the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake. Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed
our report? And to whom hath the arm, the
Christ, the power and wisdom of God been revealed? They heard
Christ preach the gospel, but they didn't believe the report.
They saw all the miracles, the power in His miracles, the arm
of the Lord and the miracles, but they didn't believe Him. Verse 39 says, Therefore they
could not believe, because then Isaiah said again, He hath blinded
their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see
with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them. They would not believe. And therefore,
the Lord just left them in darkness. He hid himself from them and
left them in darkness so they could not believe. It's the responsibility of every
sinner to believe on Christ. The gospel is a command. It's
not an offer. Don't ever let a man tell you
God's offering you something. That's a proud rebel trying to
put himself on a pedestal. God's not offering you anything.
This gospel is a command to believe on Christ and repent from everything
you ever thought about God and every way you ever thought you
were saved and believe Christ. Repentance toward God and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ is the command. And if we come to the
light, if we come to the light, Lord's getting all the glory.
He's getting all the glory. He shined the light. He gave
us the light to come to Him, to cast our care on Him. He gave
us every gift, everything, life, everything we needed to come
to Him. He's getting all the glory. And men will say, well, if you're
going to preach that it's man's responsibility, you have to preach
they have the ability. How dead is dead? How much ability
is in dead? D.E.A.D. dead. How much ability
was in those dry bones, in that valley of dry bones? But that does not negate the
fact we're responsible. Responsibility doesn't mean ability,
but inability doesn't negate responsibility. When the creditor comes, you
tell them, I don't have the ability to pay you, so I'm not responsible
to pay you. See how that works out? We have sinned against God. We
did the sinning. If we don't come to God, the
wages of sin is death. If we won't hear the gospel,
if we're going to reject and rebut and but, but, but everything
He says, Christ will leave us in the dark. He will leave. He
will take the light He's given us and take it from us. Don't presume. Don't presume. And His people don't presume.
His people hear this and say, Lord, please don't take the light
from us. We need the light. We need Christ. We need the gospel. It's men
like this that presume. Men like this. Reprobation is
just because sinners receive not the love of the truth, that
is Christ Jesus, that they might be saved. And it's just. It's just. The problem is twofold. What's the problem? It's twofold.
It's twofold, here it is. Number one, they thought they
were righteous and they thought they did not need Christ to take
them to God. John 12, 41, he says, these things
said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him. Now do you
remember, go to Isaiah 6, do you remember when he saw his
glory? And this is put in the Word of
God by the Spirit of God on purpose to tell us what the problem was
with these folks that rejected Christ. So we don't make the
same mistake. That's what it's there for. Now,
when did Isaiah see the Lord's glory? It says in verse 1, in
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon
a throne. King Uzziah was a good king.
He was a good king. The Lord had blessed him and
the Lord made him prosperous as a king. And when he was made
prosperous, his heart was lifted up in pride. He thought he was
needed and thought he was somebody. And so here's what he did. He
tried to bypass the priest and go into the tabernacle and burn
incense to God on his own. And when they told him, this
doesn't pertain to you, you can't do this, he got mad. And he started swinging the censer
at him. Took the thing that was used
of God the word and started going to beat people with it. And the Lord made him a leper
and he died. That's what these men were doing.
That's what these men were doing in Christ's day. They didn't
need Christ. They didn't need him. They could
come to God and pray. They could come to God and do
works that God would receive. They taught themselves the gospel. They didn't need him to be their
wisdom. They were trying to bypass the priest to come to God. That's
exactly what happened. That's why the Lord's quoting
what happened with Isaiah. Now look here, read on with Isaiah.
When Christ reveals His gospel, His glory, when the light shines,
there's a different spirit. Listen to this, verse 1. In the
year the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and lifted up. And His train filled the temple.
Above it stood seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
two He covered His face, with two He covered His feet, and
with two He did fly. Christ is so holy, our God is
so holy, He charges His angels with folly. They covered up their
face and their feet in His presence. You and I are going to boast
about something in us. We are going to boast about some
goodness in us that seraphims covered their feet in His presence. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. He didn't cry grace, grace, grace. He didn't cry love, love, love.
He didn't cry. He cried holy, holy, holy. His
grace, His love, His mercy, all of it is brought about in a way
that is absolutely consistent with the holiness of God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is holy,
holy, holy. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. And at this point, up to this point, you go back and
read these first five chapters, and Isaiah is crying, Woe is
you, woe is you, woe is you, woe is you, woe is you, woe is
you, woe is you, woe is you. He was a member of the first
Baptist church of the woe is you. And he saw God's glory. And then I said, I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Why were those men listening to the word that Christ preached
to accuse and say, woe is you? Why were they doing that? They
had not seen His glory. When a man sees His glory, he
stops saying, woe is you. He starts saying, woe is me. He is such a vile sinner, he
can't condemn anybody else. Are you that condemned? Are you
that vile? This is what he does. This was
the problem with those fellows. Mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he took from
the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth.
And he said, Lo, this has touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin is purged." What good news. This breaks the
heart. This melts the heart right here.
Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?
Who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. And our Lord said, Here am I,
send me. And here came the Word. This
is a hard thing to realize when you set out to be the Lord's
minister. He said, Go, tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said our
Lord, how long? How long am I going to preach
a gospel and nobody is going to listen? And He answered, until
the cities be wasted without an inhabitant, and the houses
without a man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord
have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in
the midst of the land. That's what we see happen in
our Lord's day. Christ was the one sent, and
He's preaching this word, and it's doing nothing but hardening. He hardened their heart. He's
hardening their heart. They wouldn't believe Him, they
can't believe Him. They couldn't say, woe is me.
They could not say, woe is me. There's something a man can't
do. He can't say, woe is me. He can't fake the love of God.
He can't say, I am the vilest. I shut my mouth in the dust.
He can't do it. Unless he's one of the remnant. Look here at the next word. But
yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be
eaten as a teal tree, as an oak, whose substance is in them when
they cast their leave. So the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof. The Lord is saying, this great
beautiful tree that thinks it's such a beautiful tree called
Israel, the Lord said, I'm going to chop it down and make it a
stump. I'm going to make it like a tree
that all its leaves are falling off and it's barren completely.
How are you going to do this? I'm going to send my Son. I'm
going to preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
to them. Until they get so angry, they
crucify you. But yet, my word's not going
to return to me void. There's a holy seed that's holy
in Christ the holy seed, the remnant of God's elect, and they're
going to all be drawn to me and they're going to believe on Christ.
That's what he's declaring. And that's what he did. Christ
is the root out of a dry ground. He's the root of Jesse. He's
the one when the stump, when the tree was cut down to a stump,
Christ is the one that grew up out of it, a tender plant. And
he's the one who produces the branches and the fruit in all
his people. He's the one that does it. That
was the first problem. They had some education. Isaiah
said, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We don't
need education, we need revelation. They didn't have that. And so
they didn't think they needed Christ, they didn't need His
gospel. They were some holy folks saying, woe is you, woe is you,
woe is you. And they didn't want Christ coming
to them and saying, you're the one that's undone. They weren't
going to hear that. That's the first problem. Here's
the second problem. They were scared to death of
the men that were ruling things. They were scared to death. There
were some men they were looking to that they thought were wise,
and they were following them, and that's who they were bowing
to, and they were scared to death of offending them. They were
more willing to offend Christ and reject Christ and reject
His Gospel, but they would not offend these men. They wanted
their praise. That's the second problem. Verse 42, it says, ìNevertheless,
among the chief rulers, many believed on him, but because
of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God.î The religion of grace is not
a religion of threats. The religion of grace is not
a religion of putting you on a pharisaical eye and trying
to condemn you and make you feel condemned and pointing the finger
at you and shaking the head at you and saying you're the condemned
one. That's not grace, that's pharisaism. Any way you slice
it, that's what it is. The religion of grace doesn't
motivate by fear, doesn't motivate by threat. The religion of grace
motivates by love. It motivates by the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace that sent His Son and laid down
His life for His people and made us the righteousness of God in
Him. This thing they're doing, motivation
by fear, works just what it worked right there. It made them afraid
of men. And so they rejected Christ because
they're afraid of men. Mom and Daddy was in that synagogue.
They didn't want to offend Mom and Daddy. They'd rather offend
God. That's the unregenerate heart
that's in all of us by nature that we've got to be saved from.
We've got to be safe from it. We've got to be made to say,
first of all, like Isaiah, take sides with God against our own
self. And say, I'm the one that's undone. You need to say of yourself,
you are the only one that's undone. Can you say that? You're the
only one that's sinned. Just you. And until you can come to
that point to realize you are the only one that is the sinner.
There is not another one but you. You are the only one. We
have got to be brought there to where it is that bad. We see
ourselves that ruined that I am the only sinner there is. Where are you going to find that when
you see Christ as the only righteousness there is? You can take the Pharisee out
of the congregation of the Pharisee, but you can't take the Pharisee
out of Him. Only the Lord can subdue the
Pharisee in us. Only the Lord can make us say,
woe is me. Only the Lord can make you to
be the sinner. Only the Lord can do this. This
is the gospel. And when He does this, It makes
you see He's redeemed you. You will take sides with Him
and stand with Him and be gracious and merciful and loving no matter
what because He's gracious and merciful and loving to you no
matter what. That's the difference. That's
the difference. Why do you think He put us with
sinners? Why do you think it's the wisest thing in the world
to put a bunch of sinner saints together? To go through this
wilderness together. To settle the gospel, support
the gospel with all the different attitudes and dispositions and
quirks and sins and everything. To let us sin and fall and offend. Why do you think He did this? He said, He teaches us what grace
is, what His grace is to us. Well, my brother sinned. You
know what the Lord's doing when you see your brother sin? He's
holding up a mirror for you and saying, look right here in this
mirror. You're looking at yourself. I hadn't done that. But look
again. Look again. And we leave and forget what
we saw in the mirror. And we go say, you need to be
doing, and you need to be doing, and you need to be doing. And
God comes back to you and shows you Christ and says, you need
to say, woe is me. And sit down and worship the
Lord. And he just might say, now I've
sinned you. When you are so ruined and so
undone and you see Christ as your only right to the point
that you will stand for Christ and preach Christ when the whole
world rejects you. That is what He is going to bring
His people to do. But listen to this now. He said,
yet a little while is the light with you. Any way we slice it, any way
you want to take that to mean, the light's with us for just
a little while. Whether you talk about the length
of a man's life, whether you talk about the Lord removing
the gospel, whether you talk about Him, whatever, however
you slice it, the light's with us for a little while. This day
of grace is going to be over before you know it. While you have light, believe
in the light that you may be the children of light. He delights
in mercy. If you come to Him ignorant,
begging Him to be your wisdom, He delights to be merciful because
He gets all the glory for being your wisdom. You come to Him
confessing all your best religious deeds that you thought were so
splendid that He couldn't reject you. Now you see they're just
a bunch of dirty, filthy, stinking menstrual cloths. He'll receive
you because He gets the glory for being your righteousness.
You come to Him saying, Lord, I need a pure heart. Create in
me a right spirit. Put a clean heart in me. Return
the spirit of the joy of your salvation to me. Mend the bones
that you've broken. He'll have mercy on you because
He gets the glory of being the one that gave you that heart.
He gets the glory of being your sanctification that separated
you from you and separated you from the evil and keeps you from
it. He gets the glory. He will receive you. If you have freedom to come to
Christ and believe on Christ, He'll receive you. Because He
redeemed His people from the curse of the law. He set us free
from our sin nature or we couldn't believe Him at all. And He keeps
doing it. And keeps us believing Him. And
He'll receive you. This message is not to terrify
sinners that He's going to somehow, because you're a believer and
one day He's going to take the light from you. That's not what
He's saying. He's showing us by these ones who did not appreciate
what He gave them. He's teaching us by this to value
Christ and the free salvation we have in Him and the gospel
He's given us and treat it like it's worth
more than anything in this world He's given us, because it is.
I pray He blessed that.