John chapter 10, the title of the message, I and
Father are One. The Jews had asked our Lord to
tell them plainly who He was. You see back in verse 24, they
said, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. Tell us plainly. And he did. He did. And they understood. They understood
what he was saying. That's why they hated him. They
hated him because of of his message. They hated him. They hate him
because that's that is the natural enmity coming out against God. You see, lost men and women do
not hate Jesus Christ, the miracle worker. They do not hate Jesus Christ,
the man who went about doing good, wanting everyone to be
happy, healthy, wealthy. He's not hated. That one's not
hated. But the Jesus Christ, who is the sovereign God, I'm telling you the truth. He's
hated. He's hated. Christ the Sovereign, Christ
the Tradition Breaker, Christ the Holy One of Israel, is hated. You know, we by nature, naturally,
hate a sovereign. We do. Don't tell me what to
do. You see it in the home. At the
earliest ages, a child, I mean, just when a child gets to the
point where it can talk, it talks back. It talks back. We don't like
a sovereign. We don't like being told what
to do. That's just, that, honestly,
is that natural enmity coming out. against the authority of
God because the scripture says that all authority is of God
now i know i know when corrupt men when they exercise authority
even though it's legal authority after a while they corrupt then
God has to remove them because anything man touches sooner or
later he's going to corrupt he's just going to corrupt it and
God has to correct it But our Lord here in verse 30,
He identifies Himself as One with the Father. And I want you
to read it just like I titled it. Because you see here in verse
30, My was supplied by the translator. It reads like this, I and Father
are One. What's He talking about? Well,
go back here in verse 27, My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. Neither shall any pluck them,
that is devil or man, pluck them out of My hand. My Father which
gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one, in what?
Power. He's saying we are one in essence,
we are one in power. I have the same power that the
Father has, because I'm God. He's identifying His Deity here,
and they know it. They know what He's saying. They
know what He's saying. They are one in will, yes, but
that's not what He's talking about. They are one in essence. Whatever the attributes the Father
has, the Son has. There He is. Grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. He's the embodiment of truth. He's the embodiment of it. He
just didn't tell us the truth, though He did. He is the truth. Every word that came out of His
mouth, even when He was a child, was truth. It was true. I mean,
I can't comprehend this but it's so I believe it I believe it
but they are one in power they are one in all their attributes
and when he said this they understood what he was saying they understood
it then the Jews took up stones again you see there was a division
there was a division it says in verse 19 there was a division
therefore again And they took up stones. Again, one of the
writers I was reading, he said that there was no stones where
they were gathered. He said they carried them. They
were carrying their stones. And I thought, what a picture
of the law. It carries a bag of stones. But
these men were a bad picture. They were a bad picture. But
they carried stones. And they were going to stone
him to death. THEY TOOK WHAT HE SAID TO BE
BLASPHEMY! THEY TOOK TRUTH! And boy, this
is dangerous! Here s danger! When you take
truth and you call it blasphemy, you re walking on that line of
the unpardonable sin. When you attribute to Satan what
belongs to the Holy Spirit, what belongs to God, you re bordering
on that line of the unpardonable And they said, you're a blasphemer
is what you are. He told them that he's God and
they hated him for it. And what we see here is the enmity
spoken of in Genesis three. We looked at that last week.
that enmity that's between the serpent's seed and the woman's
seed. It comes out right here. If you
really want to know and really see what men are by nature, that
natural enmity, it's their attitude toward the gospel. It's their
attitude toward Christ. What think ye of Christ? I heard one man on television
say he was just a man, he's not God, he's not a prophet. He's
neither one, he's just a good man. That's not so, that's not
so, he's God. And here's another reason they
hated him. He said in John 7, 7, the world
cannot hate you, he's talking about those Pharisees, but me
it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof
are evil. all of them all the works thereof
christ says are evil and that brings out that natural enmity
don't tell me i'm evil i don't you know i make mistakes but
don't tell me i'm evil christ said you're evil that's what
he said and jesus answered them many good works for many excellent
That's why he's talking about excellent works, because all
the works that he did were excellent. They were excellent works. Many
good works have I showed you from my Father. He said, all
these miracles you have seen, I have done them in the name
of my Father. He's holding their feet to the fire on this. Now
for which of those works, those excellent works do you stone
me? There's no sin in any of them
that I've done. Pick out an excellent work. He's got them on the spot. He's got them on the spot. He
said, you, which of those, tell me which of those you've stoned
me for. And our Lord really here, speaking of his whole ministry,
his miracles, his word, everything, everything he did, Everything
our Lord did was excellent. It was excellent. He went about,
the scripture says, doing good. In Mark 7, 37, it says, He hath
done all things well. They said that, the crowd said
that. He hath done all things well. Now, which of those things do
you stone me for? Everything our Lord did, He did
with the full authority of His Father. Which of those works
I showed you from my father? The only thing our Lord did alone
was suffer and die. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He was left alone on Calvary's
tree. And those Jews answered him,
saying, For a good work, for an excellent work, we stone thee
not. We're not like that. We don't
do that. We don't stone you for an excellent
work, but for blessing, that's why. And because that thou being
a man makest thyself God, for a good work we stone thee
not. They wanted to stone him for healing on the Sabbath. That's
a good work. They wanted to stone him because
he took his disciples and went through the field and got some
food to eat on the Sabbath. He was feeding his disciples
on the Sabbath. He fed them on the Sabbath and
they didn't realize it. He's the one who's feeding them. You see how ignorant people are?
Religious people can be without Christ, without the wisdom of
God. But here's what I think, I thought
about this, what they really wanted to stone him for was not
thou being a man makest thyself God, but thou being God makest
thyself a man. You see, here's God, and he made
himself a man, and that man offended them. They looked at that man,
this is not the kind of, this is not God. God wouldn't look
like this. They would expect him to have
a big halo over his head and a purple robe, and I mean all
decked out. And he looked like a peasant.
God, of all the things that God could have made himself look
like, he made him look like a common man. No beauty that we should
desire him. There's nothing about his outward
appearance that attracted us. That's usually, now that's usually
how we come together as husbands and wife. The first thing is
usually what? Attraction. You usually find each other attractive. He was not made attractive because
we're not attracted to him. Outward being, and I don't think
he was ugly, but he was just common. I think he was a very
common man. Nothing that would make you take
a second glance. His beauty, like the tabernacle in the wilderness,
was on the inside. That Shekinah glory was on the
inside. The fullness of God dwelt in
Him bodily. His beauty is His deity. There's
His real beauty. They couldn't see that. They
couldn't get past the tent, so to speak, the tabernacle. God
tabernacled among us in a body, a real body, a real human body,
a real human soul. God took that upon himself, and
they found it offensive. But thank God that you don't,
some of you don't. You see beyond that. I'm glad
I didn't see him in the flesh, or I haven't seen him in the
flesh as they did. Because it was a hindrance to
most of them. Wasn't it? It was a real hindrance. God
had to give them eyes of faith to see beyond that flesh and
to see the real beauty, to see His real beauty, Son of God.
God, the scripture says, was manifest in the flesh. God was
made flesh and walked among us and He was hated for it. Psalm
88, 15, listen to this, I am afflicted and ready to die from
my youth up. Throughout his whole life on
this earth, he was chased by men and Satan from youth up. When he was just a child, his
parents had to flee into Egypt because they wanted to kill him. From his youth up, he was chased
by Satan and by men, wicked men. How amazing is the grace of God
Is God's grace amazing to you? Is it really? Look how we treated His Son.
Look how God's Son was treated. And those Romans represent us,
and the Jews represent the religious world, those that rejected Him. And those Romans represent the
intellectual world. And look how they treated him.
They were just examples of us. That's all they were, examples
of us. Look how he was treated, and
we're still here. I thought this morning, how many
woke up this morning? That's the only woke I believe
in, is I woke up this morning. But how many woke up this morning
angry? How many woke up this morning?
How many have, how many woke up this morning fussing? How many of us woke up this morning
fussing and yet we still breathe God's air? We still eat God's
food? Here we are. Here we are by the
grace of God, by the grace of God. The Lord answered them in
verse 34 and 35 Christ answered them It is is it not written
in your law? See he's gonna take them to a
technical point right here He don't get technical with because
they came, you know, they're technical with him. So he's gonna
meet them on the grounds. They come to him It's written
in your law Year gods God called them gods. He did if he called
them gods unto whom the Word of God came. I And the scripture
cannot be broken. Say ye of him whom the Father
has sanctified, set apart in eternity past. He set him apart
and sent him and sent into the world. God sent him, set him
apart in the covenant of grace, sent him into this world. And
you're saying he's a blasphemer. You calling me a blasphemer because
I said I'm the son of God. That's what you call yourselves.
Here's what he's saying. Boy, I mean, the Lord is, this
is the wisdom of God. They're speaking to the wisdom
of God. And he's speaking here to the Jewish leaders and magistrates. That's who he's talking to. They
were commissioned of God to act as his agents. All authority,
the scripture says, is of God. All authority is of God. All
the powers that be is of God. And they actually, now listen,
those magistrates and those judges who pass sentence on people,
you know, for crimes and whatever, they pass sentence on people,
they actually called themselves gods. Little g, little g. Because God called them that
in Psalm 82. Psalm 82 says, God said, you're
gods. In other words, you're acting
in my place. I've commissioned you to act
in my place. Right now, I'm an ambassador
of Christ. As though God did beseech you
by me, by us, be you reconciled to God. So if you really are
listening and hearing from God's man, you are hearing from God.
And Christ, He's taken them to a technical point. If you call
yourselves God's, Then why do you say I'm blaspheming
if I say I'm the son of God? That's what you call yourself.
That's why. Why? He said, boy, he just... I tell you the wisdom of God. He shut him up. He shut him up. Well, he never shut up an idiot,
but he did prove a point to us. You who see, you see what he's
saying. They never did see it. You know, you could take a flashlight
and stick it in the eye of a blind man and he still can't see it.
If you don't have eyes, you don't have eyes. If you don't have
ears, you don't have ears. A deaf man can't hear if you
set an atom bomb off beside him. He can't hear it. He might feel
it, but he can't hear it. Felix, was it Felix that trembled?
He could hear, but he couldn't see. He heard what he was saying,
but he couldn't hear the Lord's What he was saying, he didn't
have an ear to hear or a heart to receive. But he says here now, if I do
not the works of my father, then don't believe me. He's not asking
for blind faith. He's not asking for just blind
faith. He just said, if you see these
works, no man has ever done what I've done. No man has ever gave
sight to the blind. No man has ever walked up to
a blind man and gave him his sight. No man has ever walked
up to a lame man and told him to stand up and walk. No one
has ever walked up to a man whose hand is withered and said, stretch
forth thy hand. And he did it. He did it. He
said, no man's ever done that. Consider my works. He said, if
you don't believe what I'm telling you, pay attention to what I'm
doing. Isn't that, you know what the Lord's doing? Same thing
He did with Cain, as I pointed out this morning. The Lord said,
if you don't do right, if you do right, if you do right, will
you not be accepted? He's given them space to repent.
He's given them space to repent. He said, at least believe the
works that you see. Nobody's, no one has ever done
this before. If my works and message are not
consistent with the Word of God, don't believe me. What is he
saying? But if I do, now listen, if I
do, though you believe not me, believe the works that you may
know and believe. How longsuffering our Lord is. How longsuffering. Believe that
you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in
him. Now he's not saying that you
may believe he sent me, but he's in me and I am him. We're one. He's declaring his deity here.
Was it Philip or Thomas he said to there in John 14? Have I been
so long a time with you and you still haven't seen me? Show us
the Father. He said, I've been with you this
so long and you still don't know me. You see me, you see the father.
You're looking at me, you're looking at the father. The father
is in me, and I'm in the father, and they're one. And when he said this, therefore
they sought again to take him. This time they were just going
to take him and get away privately, because they feared the people.
But he escaped out of their hands. It was not his time to die. How
meticulous the Word of God is. They wanted to kill him. They
had surrounded him, but they couldn't lay hold of him. They
couldn't get that. You see, the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the rest thou shalt restrain. God the Father didn't let them
get a hold of him. He didn't let the oppressors
get a hold of him. It's not his time. It's not his
time. They sought to take him, but
he escaped out of their hand. You would think if God Almighty,
you would think if God Almighty spoke to anyone, spoke to anyone,
even this morning, even in this room, they would believe him. But they don't. Unless he gives
you faith. UNLESS GOD ALMIGHTY GRANTS YOU
FAITH, IF GOD ALMIGHTY LEAVES ME TO MYSELF, I WILL NEVER COME
TO HIM. I'LL NEVER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO
WITH JESUS CHRIST. I'LL GO MY OWN WAY, IS EXACTLY
WHAT I'LL DO. AND HE WENT AWAY AGAIN BEYOND
JORDAN INTO THE PLACE WHERE JOHN AT FIRST BAPTIZED, JOHN THE BAPTIST,
AND THERE HE ABODE And many resorted unto him and said, John did no
miracle. But all things that John spake
of this man were true. I pray the Lord apply that scripture
to this John. To this John. And I hope when
my ministry is over here. That one day they'll say everything
that John said to him was true. That's what you want in a ball.
Everything I said was true. Our Lord leaves Jerusalem, He
goes without the camp. They don't even realize what's
going on. His ministry there is over until He comes back to
die. He leaves them to themselves. And some heard John, they heard
John's message, and it agreed with the claims of Christ, and
they believed. Listen, they believed without
miracles. They said, show us a sign. I don't want a sign. I want grace. I want the miracle to be done
in me, not just shown to me. I don't want, I don't want to
see nobody raised from the dead. I don't want to see a lame man
stand up and walk. If he does, that's good. That's
good. I'd like to see the blind receive
their sight and the lame be able to walk. Me and Vicky took care
of a crippled man for four years. He had MS. And somebody said that they would
stand for that. He said, I'd stand for anything.
Because he couldn't stand. He was in a wheelchair. He was
just saying, and what John was saying is that, I would like
to be able to stand. Because one time he did. He was a loadmaster. An airplane
in Edinburgh, I think, over in England. He was a loadmaster.
He said, I'd stand for anything. And everybody said it to him.
They knew what he was talking about. I'd love to stand. But I tell you what, if I saw
him stand and get up out of that wheelchair, it wouldn't create
one bit of faith in me. Faith is a gift of God. It's
of the operation of the Holy Spirit. And there's two reasons
why. Number one, we're dead in trespasses
and sins. Secondly, it's too good to be
true. This is literally too good to be true. If you just leave
a natural man to himself, that's not. No, faith is a gift of God. By faith, you're going in Romans
11, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. And one day we're gonna see God.
My faith, one day we're going to leave this world. We're going
to die in faith, and that's exactly how I want to die. It doesn't
matter if I die in a car crash. It don't matter if I die of cancer.
It don't matter how I die, as long as I die in faith. As long
as I die believing God. That's how I want to die, in
faith. I want to die believing God,
and I want to stand in glory and see Him, worship Him. You
know, not like this. I've been seeing this commercial
on television. Do you want to go to heaven? Do you know you're
going to heaven? What's heaven got to do with it? Seriously,
what does heaven got to do? Here's here's salvation being
made one with God. My sins that separated me from
God are gone. And now throughout eternity,
God and I can have real fellowship with nothing between. Nothing
between. Salvation to me at one time was
going to heaven and missing hell. Who wouldn't? Although if you
went there unregenerate, you'd be as miserable as you would
be in hell. But you couldn't fulfill the lust of your flesh.
A drunk couldn't get his drink. A drug addict couldn't get his
drug addict. A self-righteous couldn't be self-righteous no
more. He couldn't do anything and get praised for it. john did no miracles but everything
he said was true and many believed on him there were there it says
many believed on him they believed him you see god's word is not
going to return void i don't know what the word of god will
accomplish this morning i promise you On God s Word, it will accomplish
what God sent it to accomplish this morning. It will accomplish it. God s
Word will not leave here void. It s accomplishing exactly what
He sent it to accomplish. God sends His preacher with His
message when He s going to save sinners And the message is going
to be Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Jesus Christ in all His glory,
in all His glory. All right.