Okay. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. you don't need that. We're gonna open This morning service singing
number 489 out of the hardback 489. Glory to his name. Down at the cross where my Savior
died Down where for cleansing from sin I cried There to my
heart was the blood applied Glory to His name Glory to His name
Glory to His name There to my heart was the blood applied. Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from
sin. Jesus so sweetly abides within. There at the cross where He took
me in. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. O precious fountain that saves
from sin, I am so glad that I've entered in. There Jesus saves
me and keeps me clean. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet. Pass thy porcelain at the Savior's
feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Our second hymn will be number
235. 235, Pass Me Not. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry. On others Thou art calling, do
not pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, hear my humble cry, While
on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy merit, Would
I seek Thy face, Heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by thy
grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thank you. You may be seated. Morning everybody. I'm going
to be reading a psalms this morning. Psalm chapter 25, picking up
in verse 1. Psalm 25. Unto thee, unto thee,
O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let
me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph
over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them
be ashamed which transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. Lead me in
thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation.
On thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies and thy loving kindness, for they have been ever of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor the transgressions according
to thy mercy. Remember thou me for thy righteousness' sake,
O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he teach
sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment,
and the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord
are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his
testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What man is he that
feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way
that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease,
and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant."
Stop there. Father, we thank you once again
for bringing us together, Lord, and giving people a place to
gather, Lord, to hear Christ preach, Lord, and just Lord,
we pray this morning that you give us the hearts to simply
trust in Christ and in him alone, Lord, and clear our minds of
distractions we have throughout our heads and hearts and minds,
Lord, and anything that may impede us, Lord. We pray that for the
next hour, you give us a heart to hear your word and retain
it, Lord. We pray for those who aren't
able to make it today, who may have health ailments Anything
other Lord that you'd look after them and keep them Lord in your
name we pray amen I All right, let's turn to John
2. John 2, and we'll be looking at verses 12 through 25. Now this passage, it contains
the second miracle, a second miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ,
one that John felt important to highlight to us. And it's
the miracle of Christ purging his temple. He comes in there
and he purges the temple of the money changers and of those that
were selling stalled animals like oxen and sheep and even
doves, if you will. And the reason why it's a miracle
is because Christ accomplished what he set out to do. And the
people there that were just indifferent to the worship of God. They are
selling the animals and changing the money right there in the
temple. They heeded what Christ was saying. They heeded what
he was saying, even though they didn't like what he was saying,
and it certainly didn't put Christ in a good light in their own
dark mind. And so they listened, and that
was an exhibition of his power and glory there. But one thing
that we see is that while it had no lasting effect on religious
Israel, it didn't stick with them. They went back to it. We know they went back to it
because it's recorded again in Matthew 21. At the end of Matthew,
we see he drove them out again a few years later. And so it
had no lasting effect on them. But what we do see is that it's
a distinguishing of grace for his people who did hear it and
who were blessed by what the Lord did. So it had an effect
upon the children of God, even though it had no seeming lasting
effect on the children of the devil, those that were yet just
lost in religion, right? Just left there. The Jews, they
seem to have an understanding that what Christ was doing in
cleansing the temple, they recognized this is a work which the Christ
would do. But if he's the Christ, he should
be able to prove that he's the Christ, because not anybody can
just come in here and declare truth to us, because it was true,
right? What Christ did was true and
honest and right. But they asked him for a sign
because he was doing something that was indicative of the Christ
being able to do alone. And it says in John 2, 18, they
answer, then answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign
showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things. Right. And so they recognize
this is not, no ordinary man is able to cleanse God's temple. you must be somebody, what sign
do you show us if you're gonna do this? And
he responds by saying, well, destroy this temple, and I'll
raise it up again in three days. And they heard that word, but
it didn't profit them, right? They heard it, and I know they
heard it, because they would later charge Christ with blasphemy,
when he stood before the Sanhedrin, they would charge him with blasphemy
for saying, So they heard it, they remembered it. It stuck
with them, but not in a way that was blessed to their heart. But
for the disciples, it was a revelation, which God did bless to their
hearts. They would be blessed by the Holy Spirit to recall
this word and understand what Christ was saying all the way
back at the beginning of his ministry after his resurrection. And so one thing that we see
here is that the wicked, right, they never understand Christ.
They might be religious, they might be taught some religion,
and they may hear it in a carnal fleshly sense, but it never produces
godly fruit in them. It just produces a fruit of the
flesh, and we know that the flesh cannot please God. But believers, believers, God's
children, those who have a hope and are born of God, the Lord
reveals it to him, what he's teaching. He gives them faith
to lay hold of what's being said and to be instructed by the Lord
of what he's showing them in his word, because he's given
them a new heart. He's created in his people a
new man, a living, breathing, spiritual soul, which believes
and receives the word of God. All right, now I've titled this
message, A Miracle for Believers. It's A Miracle for Believers,
and we'll begin largely with what happens here in Jerusalem,
and then we'll have a briefer point just covering this distinction
of God's grace for his people. All right, so in John 2, 13,
let's pick up there in verse 13. It says, then the Jews' Passover
was at hand, And Jesus went up to Jerusalem, all right? Now, this is the first Passover
that Christ would attend during his earthly ministry after he
was anointed by the Holy Spirit and revealed to his disciples
that this is the Christ, right? This is the first Passover. And John, I don't have all the
verses with me, but John speaks of three other Passovers. Most
of the time they're called the Feast of the Passover of the
Jews, once it's just called the Feast of the Jews, but it's believed
to be the Passover, all right? So there's four Passovers. There's
this one here, there's one in John 5, John 6, and then John
18. John's recording those Passovers,
and that tells us that Christ's ministry on earth, as the Christ
was about three and a half years, because he was at four, four
Passovers, about three and a half years, and certainly that time
is peculiar because we know that the Antichrist, he does things
like that. He tries to supplant Christ and
do what he does. But we're shown here that this
is the Jews' Passover, right? It's called the Jews' Passover.
Now, they were doing what was described in the law, right? In the law of Moses, they were
told to observe the Lord's Passover, right? And to eat the Passover
with understanding of what the Lord was showing the people,
but it had become the Jews' Passover because for a long time now,
Israel was void of the Spirit of God. They were void of that
joy and rejoicing in serving the Lord. And Christ is taking
this opportunity, I mean, he's purposed it to reveal to his
people that what they're trusting in, right? The religion that
they were trusting in is just a dead religion. He's showing
his disciples this, right? He's gonna make it known to them
that, look, they don't even see what they're doing and the darkness
that they're worshiping me or trying to worship me in. And
it's as we saw last week where there were six water pots, right,
that were set out according to the manner of the purifying of
the Jews. The Jews had their religious
practices and there were those six water pots that were according
to the manner of the purifying of the Jews. And so Israel, they
had a form of religion. There's a form of religion throughout
our whole nation. There's a form of religion all
around the world. There's all kinds of forms. But
even especially those that are called Christian religion, especially
them, They're void of the Spirit of God, and they are like what
Mary said, they have no wine. They have no wine. There's no
joy. There's no gladness in serving the Lord. All right, so when
our Lord, he goes to the temple, he performs a miracle, and it
says in verses 14 and 15, and Christ found in the temple those
that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money
sitting, and when they had And when he had made a scourge of
small cords, right, like a whip of various cords there, he drove
them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured
out the changer's money and overthrew the tables. Now, what's amazing
is no one caught him in the act, meaning no one stopped him in
the act and said, what are you doing? Stop there, right? He
didn't just get a third of the way down and someone stopped
him and prevented him. No, he cleared the whole thing
out. He drove them all out. And that's why we see in one
sense, yeah, this is a miracle that no one forbid him. He accomplished
his will that he purposed to do because he's sovereign almighty
God who's come to do the will of his father. All right. And
so he does that. But we also see how he's drawing
attention to his disciples and showing them look at the mockery
that they're making of the worship of God, right? Just look at what
they're doing, right? And all this time, they're probably
thinking, yeah, I've never even thought about it. I've just come
up here to the temple, and this has always been going on. They've
always been doing this here, and they never even thought about
the folly in what was going on. And so the Lord draws this attention
to what these vendors and money changers were doing there, right
there where the worship of God was taking place. And so he drives
those out who were profaning the worship of God. And in doing
so, it made it obvious to everyone that these men who were the religious
people, right? These were the well-respected,
the renowned people, the ones who others looked up to, they're
the ones who are making a business out of the worship of God and
they were profiting very greatly from that worship as well. And you think about it, right? It probably was very convenient,
right? It was very convenient for those
people that were going up to worship the Lord because you
didn't have to think about much really of what you were doing.
You didn't have to carry you know a sheep behind you if you
were coming from you know Ephraim or somewhere farther up in the
northern part you don't have to worry about that you know
you you just knew that you could just go with enough money and
get it all taken care of and you know you'll have what you
need there just to do what the Lord said to do right and so
the sellers of The animals, well first, you know, would have been
the money changers, right? They would have been there and
they were making a nice fee for changing the money. So they were
profiting and then those that stalled up the animals and had
everything ready to go, they were making a nice profit because
people pay for convenience, right? You can go and buy a a squash
in the supermarket and pay maybe 50 cents or 75 cents for it,
or you can get it cut up and prepackaged, ready to cook, and
pay $1.50 for less. But it's convenient. So we do
that a lot. A lot of people will do pay a
pretty penny for convenience. And the people, they were happy
to pay it, perhaps. And they could just go there
at the last minute and just partake of it. But you think about the
smell and, you know, the noise, people bartering or getting angry
because they knew they were being ripped off, you know, and you
could just imagine this is going on right there where people are
trying to worship the Lord very close by. And so the priests
were allowing it, the people were accepting it, and they were
all partakers of it. And it says in verse 16, now,
and Christ said unto them that Saul does take these things hence,
or from here, make not my father's house and house of merchandise. And so he's saying plainly, he's
just making it obvious, you guys, you had no reverence for worshiping
the Lord, not even taking thought of what you're doing and bringing
this business right here into the worship of the Lord and you
know it just showed that that indifference that that man has
and and how I mean it it's we could see it in our own hearts
like I can't say what's in in your heart but in my own I I've
done things like I I align my life and do things for convenience,
right, that might be contrary to principle or something like
that, that we just do because, I don't know, we just don't give
it much attention. We prioritize certain things and that's not
all bad. Sometimes we put an emphasis
on certain things and, you know, and let other things, you know,
for convenience sake, we'll pay for those things so we could
spend more time doing these things. You know, it's a good calling
for us in the worship of the Lord that we see in ourselves,
right? I don't know exactly what you're
seeing, but we see how there's areas where we are negligent
of the Lord and our thought of Him and worship of Him, right?
We all do various things that when we think of it or when the
Lord brings it to our attention, we realize, wow, I really am
giving Him the least that I can give and I'm giving, I'm prioritizing
other things above the Lord. And so when the Lord shows us
those things, be sensitive to it because the Lord does show
us. We all have a need of seeing it. We all come to realize there's
certain things that would be more profitable for me spiritually. to give more time, right? Like just an example would be,
you know, going to bed really late on purpose or not on purpose,
but you know, like just staying up so late on a Saturday, you
know, so that you're sleepy and tired and just dull and lethargic
the next day, right? That's just one example. And
so, you know, that's, you know, I've seen that. So I have to
remember, you know, not to go to sleep late. I mean, a lot
of times I'm still preparing a message so I can't help it. I don't want
to stay up if I don't have to be up late and come in here and
not be able to declare the gospel, except in a lethargic manner.
I don't want to do that. So the religious, though, they
had no heart to change, even though the Lord confronted them
on it. And so the one sense the miracle
was done, and they couldn't even stop them, And it exposed the
deadness of that religion. It exposed the practices that
they were doing that were just absurd when light was brought
to it. Then everybody realized, huh,
yeah, it is kind of strange that they're in here selling animals
and changing money and making a business of the worship of
God and profiting very well from it. And that was revealed to
his disciples. He was making a statement there
in doing that, because the disciples realized, huh, I had so much
confidence and just trusted everything they did. I just trusted everything. But they saw now, the disciples
saw, that's dead. That's an evil work. They shouldn't
be doing that. He's right in pointing that out.
And then another thing that we see, though, is in verse 17,
which is work in the disciples. The religious didn't like it.
but his disciples who believed Christ, when his glory was manifest
to them, it says in verse 17 that his disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up, right? Now they had seen the miracle,
the disciples saw the miracle when Christ turned the water
to wine, right? They saw that, and now the Lord
is continuing to show them. A, show them the deadness of
the Jewish religion, what it'd become at that point, and he's
also working in their heart. He's stirring up their heart,
all right? They're looking at Christ, they're
watching Christ, they're seeing what he does, and they're hearing
him speak. They're hearing the voice of God, the word of God
speak, and they're hearing, all right? And we know that faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing the word of God. They were hearing
Christ himself speak and say what he was doing. And that's
something that the Lord does, right? Even for you, when you
hear the gospel and the Lord's nourishing you and feeding you
the gospel, many of you are thinking of verses that I don't even necessarily
bring up, right? But you'll come up after and
be like, you know, I was thinking of this verse, you know, and you
share that verse, just like what the Lord was doing here. He was
stirring up those disciples so that they were now recalling
scripture and saying, look, he's fulfilling that scripture too,
right? And that's the same way that
you brethren, when you're blessed by the word and the Lord brings
a verse to your attention, you're like, yeah, the Lord, he fulfills
all his word, even that word over there. I see that now, you
know, and that's because the spirit is stirring you up and
teaching you. and revealing faith in you to
see, just like these disciples, right? The religious, they didn't
see it, but they were blessed and they were stirred up and
saw how we fulfilled that word spoken of there, which is from
Psalm 69, I think verse nine, all right? And so we see this
distinction of grace, right? And this is really the miracle
is this distinction of grace that the Lord is revealing here
among the, in his people versus the religious Jews. You would
think the religious people would have heard it and rejoiced in
it, but they hated him, and they hated what he said and what he
was doing. But his disciples, they were encouraged, and they
bore witness of Christ's work. And so the Jews, though, they
were forced now to engage Christ about this. It was public. It
was loud. It called attention to everybody. They're outside. They're, you
know, trying to gather up their, you know, their sons or somebody
are trying to gather up the animals. They're picking up their coins
and whatnot off the ground. And everybody that was there
is seeing this, that Christ brought all this attention to it. And
so they have to address it. They've got to address him. And
it says, verse 18, Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What
sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? And so these men now are being
called into light. They now have to deal with this,
and the Lord's bringing them into the light. And remember
this, because we'll come to this in the next chapter, John 3,
do wicked Do we, when we're practicing wickedness, do we like to be
called out and brought into the light? Do we want someone to
call attention to it? When I was growing up, it was
called, don't get loud on me. Why are you getting loud on me,
right? Why are you calling everyone's attention to what I'm doing?
You know, you could have just said, stop doing it, but you
got loud and now everybody, you know, I'm embarrassed, right?
Well, that's what happened to these religious leaders. They
were embarrassed because they were brought into the light of
what they were doing. John 3, 19 and 20 tells us what
wicked men think about being brought into the light. It says,
and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the
world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. And so they were rebuked of Christ
But they weren't appreciative of it. They didn't thank him.
Sometimes it's hard for us to hear when we're not doing something
that we should do or that we're doing something that we shouldn't
do. It's hard, especially if someone you care about brings
your attention to it. It's not easy to take. But if
it's done faithfully and in love, after you've gotten over that
hurt of it, you can benefit from it. It can be profitable to you
because you realize, all right, you know, I, I am wrong, you
know, and you can appreciate it and, and, and grow from it. But they didn't, they were ashamed
and they were angry that he brought attention to, to it because they
were profiting from it. They were making a lot of money
and that was their interest, interest in it. All right. And
so, It reminds me, this dead religion, it reminds me of Isaiah
28. Isaiah 28, verse 15 and 16, the
Lord is bringing this attention through the prophet, and he says
to Israel, because ye have said, we have made a covenant with
death, and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. And this
is what happened. When Christ came through there
with a scourge of cords and drove them out of the temple and showed
them just the deadness of their practices, that they didn't have
a heart for the Lord, it didn't come near to them. They were
so hardened and so dead in their works, they were hard to it. And it says, for we have made
lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. And what
I believe he's saying there is that Believers are not going to just
do everything expediently, right? We're not going to just do things
for convenience sake, but the Lord will instruct us so that
we're not just, everything's not about haste and just getting
it done. Some things, especially when
it comes to the Lord, it's about slowing down and hearing what
the Lord is saying to us, right? And teaching us. It's not about
expedience, but to learn. and to hear what the Lord is
saying. And so, the religious didn't receive John's witness,
and they didn't receive Christ, but they actually stumbled over
him. And this was really another thing. They didn't receive John's
witness, and now they're hating Christ. Now they have a real
reason to hate him. Not only did he not come to them
first, but when he comes to them, he drives them out of the temple. And so, that's a good, reminder
for us as well, right, that we can be so steeped in religion
and just not even see our offenses against the Lord, right? And
that's really what we're worried about is, you know, the Lord. Does the Lord, you know, receive
us? Are we worshiping him or do we
hate serving the Lord and hate everything about him rather than
hearing what he's showing us and revealing to us? And, you
know, John 3, 21, it shows the difference. It shows the difference
for the one who, who the Lord shows a contrast in his people
because they will hear it. They will, they'll reveal it
in you, right? We may not see it because we don't even necessarily
know what the Lord's teaching each of you, you know, but we
know in ourselves. how the Lord's instructing us
and he turns our hearts to love him and to believe him. And believers, they are chastened. And there are times when we're
chastened as severely as these men. We can be brought low and
our sin exposed and brought to see just how carnal we can be. and how evil we can be in this
flesh to know, to remind us that there's no good thing that dwells
in this flesh and how desperate we are for the grace of God and
the mercy of God. And when he does that, and when
he cleanses you and heals you, it helps you because you're more
gracious in receiving of your brethren, right? When they sin
and their sins expose, you can be more gracious in understanding
for them because, you see, Lord, you've shown me what a sinner
I am, all right? And so the Lord does that. He
does cleanse his temple. He cleanses his people, all right,
lest we should become puffed up in dead religion and become
Pharisees just like other religionists who have no love of Christ in
their heart. But when the Lord does that,
it can be hard, but we rejoice in it, like John 3, 21, but he
that doeth truth He that believes on Christ, because that's the
truth that we do by the grace of God, we do it, he that doeth
truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God. So the Lord, we see, we're brought
to see, Lord, you've done it. I was, you know, happy to do
dead religion until you shook me and drove me out, drove out
just the brought out the wickedness in the dark corners and recesses
of my own heart, and were brought to confess, Lord, you're right,
and you're just for doing what you do, thank you. He brings
us into the light, because we're children of light, and so it
can be painful to the flesh, but we're always thankful when
the Lord settles us again. and applies his love and grace
to us in Christ, all right? So these Jews, they asked for
a sign, right? Saying, what sign showest thou
unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? And that's because,
like we've been seeing in Isaiah 44, The Lord frustrates the liars,
right? Those that are not sent of him.
He takes their predictions, their signs, their flags and markers,
their signals and say, look, this is what's going to happen.
And he frustrates it. All right. He brings it to nothing.
All right. He shows that they're liars,
that he didn't send them. And then those that he did send.
what word they say, he blesses it, he brings it to come to pass
so that people know, oh, yeah, the Lord's speaking there, he
sent that one. And in Isaiah 44, I'll read it,
verse 25, and the beginning of 26 says, of God that frustrated
the tokens, the signs, right, the signals, the signs and the
flags, he frustrated the tokens of the liars and make it the
viners mad, that turneth wise men backward and make it their
knowledge foolish. But on the contrary, that confirmeth
the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his
messengers." And so these men were looking to justify themselves.
They said, what sign are you going to show us to show us you
have authority? Because ultimately, they just
wanted to go back to making money. They didn't want to hear what
he said, even though what he said was true. Anyone could say,
yeah, that was pretty silly that you're out there selling doves
and changing money for a big markup. and you're just profiting.
You don't care to help the brethren. You're just profiting in what's
happening, right? So it didn't matter that what
Christ was saying was true. And Jesus answered them, verse
19, and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up. This is the word he's given to
prove that he is sent of God. Then said the Jews, 40 and six
years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three
days? but he spake of the temple of his body. And I was thinking
about that, and some may think, boy, Christ really missed an
opportunity there. He could have just performed
some miracle. He could have shown them and demonstrated that he's
really the Christ, and they would have believed. They would have
believed and trusted him and accepted him as their Lord. But
if that had happened, one, they never would have crucified him,
if they believed he was the Christ, right? But the other thing is
Christ didn't miss any opportunity. He passed them by, but he made
his word effectual to his people, right? He hit the mark that he
was going for. He was going for his people. It was a miracle for believers,
for his children, not for the wicked of the world. He was passing
them by, leaving them in their deadness darkness and so the
miracle he performed was for his people his children that
they should be blessed and Comforted that we should have salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right. That's what he was
doing. So Those whom he loves he gives this word, and it's
for their sakes that he said what he said, exactly as he said
it, and it accomplished the very purpose for which he sent it. Because it says, verse 22, when
therefore Christ was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered
that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture
and the word which Jesus had said. See, so the Lord brought
it to pass, showing that that he is Christ and that he's sent
of God and was blessed to his people and and they were were
fed and nourished and and edified by that that word in Romans 11
verse 7 it says what then Israel hath not obtained that which
he seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest
were blinded according as it's written God hath given them the
spirit of slumber and eyes that they should not see and ears
that they should not hear unto this day. So Christ wasn't, he's
not aiming for all religious people. That's not his intent
to save all religious people. If it was, he could do it. He
could do it because he's sovereign God. He can do whatever he pleases.
But we see, as the word testifies to, he has a people whom he loves. and whom he brings this word
to, to their hearts with power by his spirit, effecting grace
and hope in them. And so that they believe him,
that they hear his word and say, yes, Lord, you fulfill all your
word. You are the Christ sent of God. And in addition to that,
he made plain now to his disciples, This isn't your hope, this religion
that they're practicing. That's not your hope. Look to
me. Believe me, he's saying. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the same thing for
us. We don't hope that, you know, we have the right color chairs,
the right spacing, the right building, the right hymnal, you
know, doing the right things. That's not our hope is in what
we do. Our hope continues to be in the
Lord Jesus Christ, right? And he's the one who who instructs
us and teaches us. It's His blood. He died for us.
His blood covers our sins, and that's our hope, not our works,
right? Not what we do, but what He has
accomplished and done for us, all right? Now, this brings us
to the second point there, a little more on this distinction of grace. So we see that who the Lord was
ministering this to, who he was doing this miracle for, for his
people's sake. And it says, verse 23, now when
he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, so that Passover
is just called the feast day, many believed in his name when
they saw the miracles which he did. And so, Again, what we see
is Christ did more miracles than just this driving out the money
changers and the sellers of animals. He did a variety of miracles
there that weren't necessarily brought to our attention. And
it was enough for Nicodemus to be moved to say, there's something
about this man that is not like any other teacher in Israel.
And so he went to him by night, which we'll see in the next,
the next chapter there. But notice this difference here
at the end of verse 23, and we'll go down to verse 25 together.
Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles, which
he did, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he
knew all men. And he did not that any should
testify of man, for he knew what was in man. And so what is it
about these miracles that Christ is doing that it says that they
believe, but Christ didn't align himself with them. He didn't
commit himself to those that were believing on the miracles
they saw in Jerusalem. What's the difference there from
what we saw in verse 11? Look up in John 2, verse 11.
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and
manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him,
right? And we know that they stayed
with him. They're now, they went with him from Cana of Galilee
over to Capernaum and then down to Jerusalem all together. And then he was, he committed
himself to them, right? He allowed them, brought them
to follow him. And so the only thing that I
can see different there is that verse 11 says, he manifested
forth his glory, right? He targeted his sovereign grace
and mercy to effect salvation in their hearts, right? Many
read of what Christ has done. They read of his miracles. They
can see how he's fulfilled scriptures and they like going to church
or, you know, and they like that fellowship in that community.
And so they say they believe Christ, but it's just, We know
that there's a lot of churches, a lot of people that confess
to believe on Christ, but it's dead, right? They're trusting
in their works, right? And they're trusting in their
goodness and their decision and that other people say they're
believers. But the Lord's people, you come not because of your
own goodness, you come and continue because your hope is fixed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know you have no righteousness
of your own. You know none of us wants another
to see what's in our hearts or our thoughts at various times. Our hope is in Christ. We continue
to believe him and trust his righteousness because we have
no righteousness of our own. Nothing sufficient to stand before
holy God and be accepted of him. Our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ
and that he has made me righteous and manifest his glory to me. so that I continue to believe
Him. We see times in our lives with
our own sin on our own flesh, we think this is it. The Lord
is just to cut me off and not grant me repentance from this
and just to let me go. And we become afraid in those
hours and in those times. But the Lord continues to turn
our heart and to keep us stayed upon Him. Keep us in that ship
of faith, right? That fellowship with Him, believing
Him and trusting Him and being kept faithful unto the end. And that's what the Lord does
for His people, right? He shows them, He manifests His
glory in the hearts of His people and bears fruits of righteousness. That faith that will be weak
and small and tiny, yet He keeps you hoping in Him. and you believe,
Lord, this is of you, it's not of me, because I'd be out of
here if it was just my flesh and me alone, but you do this
work, Lord. And so that flesh-born faith,
which we see recorded here at the end of chapter two, verses
24 and 25, that's just of the flesh, right? They believed,
they saw some cool things, and thought, wow, he's a pretty moving,
character there, you know, and they believe that, yeah, I think
this one might be it, but there was no living faith. There was no spiritual work that
turned them from the deadness of religion, right? And so when
Christ, when he manifests his glory to a sinner, his disciples
believe on him, right? You believe because he's manifested
his glory in your heart. and we're not saved by this flesh,
it's a regeneration whereby the spirit of God creates in you
the new man, whereby you believe Christ and hope in him. We're
born of his spiritual seed and we're taken out from that part
with Adam, right? We're delivered from that inheritance
with Adam and the inhabitants of the world so that we now stand
in Christ and our hope is fixed Him it's a new birth as we'll
see coming coming up in the next chapter It's you know, not by
chance that John records these things in the way that he records
them in in John. All right, and so You know we You know apart from
Christ that well those people that believe they just went right
back to their ways, right? They they just went right on
back to yeah, whatever, you know that I felt a little something
there for a bit, but they just went right back to their religion.
And so this distinguishing grace is shown by Christ to his people,
who draws them to himself, bringing us to see that don't trust in
self, don't look to yourself, don't trust your own goodness,
keep trusting Christ. And then let me just say, verse
12, since we skipped by it, I'll try and go through it quickly
here. It says, and this, after this,
after this miracle in Cana, he went down to Capernaum, he and
his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and they continued
there not many days. Right? So as the oldest Christ
led his mother, I guess Joseph must've already passed away here.
And so Christ brings his mom and his siblings back to Capernaum
where they live now in Capernaum. And he didn't stay there, right?
He left. And we know that his brethren, they didn't believe
him. John 7, 5 says they didn't believe in Christ. And Mary,
you know, a blessed among women, though she was, she didn't believe
then. I mean, she didn't continue with
him at that time. But his disciples, they went
with him. They continued with him. And
again, we see that distinguishing grace of God who draws his people
and keeps them with him, he manifests his glory to them, and so they
followed him, and they believed him, and Christ purged his people
from that dead religion, right? He gives them hope. It says in
Acts 2, 24, whom God, speaking of Christ, whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible
that he should be holden of it. And so they witnessed, they saw
that Christ was raised up the dead and they saw that death
I mean you think about that death could not hold him right none
of us with as strong of a will as we might have can overcome
death right we can't do that we're not going to just raise
ourselves up but Christ did he raised himself up from the dead
and so they saw it and they recognized he this is the Christ and they
believed on him and trusted him and so I pray the Lord that do
that for you, his people, that you see his manifest glory and
that you believe him and stay upon him and trust him because
that's who this miracle is for. It's for believers. It's for
you. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your heart. Let's close in prayer and then
brother, if you'll close us with a final hymn. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you father for your mercy. Lord, that you should
show us your miracle of grace and that you perform these things
in our hearts, that so many see and read and hear what you've
done and yet are contented to go on in dead religion, not looking
to you, not hearing that you are our salvation, that you are
the very resurrection of your people that in you and in you
alone is life and salvation, light and hope and life. Lord, we thank you for that salvation. We pray that you would minister
this gospel to our hearts and keep us ever looking to you.
We pray for our brethren that are sick, that are wounded, that
are hurting. Lord, that you would minister
to your people, that you would heal them and comfort them and
help us to be a comfort one to another. It's in the name of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray this, amen. Our closing hymn will be number
225, out of the hardback, 225. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest. Lay down, thou weary one, lay
down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. I found in Him a resting place,
and He has made me glad. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give, A living water thirsty one, stoop down
and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul
revived, and now I live in Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
be in this dark world's light. Look unto me, thy morn shall
rise, and all thy day be bright. I looked to Jesus, and I found
in him my star, my sun. And in that light of life I'll
walk till traveling days are done. That was fun.