If I can preach this morning,
as well as they sang, as well as Doug prayed, we will have
a good service. As Doug prayed, I prayed, Lord,
answer that prayer. That's all I prayed, answer that
prayer. And I hope he does, I pray he
does. In preaching and studying the
Word of God, when I'm preaching from a portion of scripture, there's pretty much always a
verse or a phrase in a verse that defines the message for
me that I'm going to preach from. And the one in this or these
verses is verse 43 and this is the title there was a division
because of him there was a division because of him because of what
he had to say the discourse he had just finished is at the end
of the feast everybody's getting ready to go home and he uh says
there in verse 37, the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried saying, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. And after he said these
things, there was a division because
of him. And here's why. Truth, and our
Lord is the embodiment of truth. Truth is revealing. Truth is
revealing. And because it is revealing,
it divides. It'll always divide. It divides
from a lie. It divides from error. It divides
as much as light divides darkness. You see, by nature, we have our
preconceived ideas of God. of ourselves, of Christ, and
of salvation. And then truth comes along. Truth
comes along and turns our world upside down. It exposes our spiritual
ignorance of God. God's not who we thought He was.
He is who He is. It exposes our false hope and
our false faith and our false love. Truth does this. It exposes
hypocrisy. It exposes false preachers and
their message, and that divides. It makes them mad, and it'll
divide. Now it says in verse 40, Many of the people therefore
When they heard this saying, this discourse he had just given
them, they said of a truth, this is the prophet. Many believed
him to be a prophet, or maybe even that prophet Moses spoke
of in Deuteronomy 18, but they did not believe him to be the
Messiah, just the prophet. On the same level with the rest
of the prophets, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, But they did not believe him
to be the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord, the one they were looking
for. And we never read of them receiving him as that prophet
and the Messiah. We don't read of them doing that.
You see, many people believe the gospel story, but they don't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan believes the gospel story.
Oh, he believes the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, but
he's not saved. Scripture says the devil believes
and trembles, but that's not saving faith. There's an old
saying, it says, talk is cheap. You know, listen here. I can
hear the voice of Satan here in verse 41. Others said, this
is the Christ. This is the Christ, this is the
Messiah, this is the one we've been looking for. But some said,
and here Satan comes in. See, there are some saying, this
is the truth. This is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Here's the big question mark
now, put over me. And listen, and you'll notice
this here, Satan uses the scriptures. He uses the scriptures. Hath
not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David,
and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was? Yes, that's
what it says, and that's exactly where he came from. You see, he came out of Galilee,
and they saw him as a mature, fully grown man. And they said,
this can't be the Messiah, because the Messiah is not going to come
out of Galilee. He's going to come out of Bethlehem.
Well, if you do your homework, that's where he came from. That's
where he came from, out of Bethlehem. He was born in Bethlehem. But they didn't do their homework. But I can hear Satan here. He
uses the scripture. Hath not the scripture said,
hath not God said? Isn't that what he said back
in the garden? You see, he took their ignorance and used it against
them. This is the Christ. No, he can't
come out of Galilee. That's not where the Christ comes
from. My, my, my. But listen here, they were well-versed
in the Scriptures. They knew that Christ would be
of the seed of David. They knew He would come out of
Bethlehem. They knew the historical facts.
But what they did not do is mix it with faith. They didn't believe
Him. When He spoke, they didn't believe
Him. They separated Him from the Scriptures. You can't do
that. You can't separate the living
word from the written word. They are one. And this is what happens when
scripture is taken out of context. You see, you can take any scripture
and lift it out of context and make it say whatever you want
it to say. But if you leave it in its context, then it has to
say what it's saying. And this is what happens when
they take it out of context, or one is left to themselves
to interpret the Scriptures. That's dangerous. Human logic
will take the Word of God and twist it. Every time. Every time. They'll twist it. It's good to know the Scriptures.
Study the scriptures that can make you wise unto salvation.
But an intellectual knowledge, listen now, without a work of
grace in the soul just leaves you lost. But it also leaves
you with greater responsibility because you have more light now.
There's got to be a work of grace in the soul. Listen, God must
do a work of grace in us as well as for us. He did a work of grace
for us at Calvary. He did a work of grace for us
when he kept the law on our behalf, but he's also got to do a work
of grace in us. We've got to be born of God,
got to be a new nature to receive the truth in, to understand it
and not twist it. But it says in verse 43 here,
there was a division among the people because of him. Let me
read you some scriptures. First out of Matthew 10, 34,
36. Let me read this to you. Our Lord is speaking. He says,
think not that I am come to send peace on earth. Don't think that. I came not
to send peace, but a sword. He didn't come to purposely just
make people mad at each other. He didn't do that. But what he's
saying here, I came not to send peace, but the gospel, the gospel
of peace, the gospel of reconciliation. And this gospel will divide.
It's going to divide. The truth of the gospel will
divide the sheep from the goats, the tares from the wheat. It'll
do it. Why can't you all just get along with everybody? Why
can't you just get all the churches around here and just all of you
get together? How can two walk together, the
scripture says, except they agree? Light and darkness can't walk
together. Well, why do you think you're right? Well, I tell you
what, I give you enough scriptures to let you know I'm right. You
can take the word of God that I give you and go home and study
it. Look at it. Ask God to give you
understanding. You're going to see this is the
gospel. This is the gospel we preach here. I came not to send
peace, but a sword. The gospel is the sword. It's
a two-edged sword. For I am, listen, for I am come
to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. What are they
foes about? Over the gospel, over the truth,
over how God saves sinners, over how we are justified, how God
justifies us, how we are saved. That's how we're, that's, that's
what divides the house. He says a family will be divided.
You know, back in, especially in that day, and it's probably
still the same over in Israel, they would excommunicate someone
if they believed the gospel. They'd cut them out of their
family if they believed the gospel. They would, they'd cut them out
of their family. And let's hear Luke 12, 51, 53. Suppose ye that
I am come to give peace on earth. Is that why you think I've come
into this world? I know it says peace on earth
and goodwill toward men. Not man as a whole, but peace
on earth toward men. There's a whole multitude of
men and women that's going to be saved, and there's going to
be peace. Peace with God. Peace in the heart. Christ said,
My peace I give to you. But there'll never be peace on
this ungodly earth. You can't have it where sin dwells.
It can't happen. Listen here. Suppose ye that
I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. He said, I know this is going
to divide. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house
divided, two against three, Three against two, and two against
three. The father shall be divided, saying the same thing he did
in Matthew, divided against the son, the son against the father,
the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the
mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law,
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. The gospel
is going to, the gospel divides, because it's the truth. And it
will divide the sheep from the goats every time. That's what
divides us. There will never be peace on
this earth. There's peace in Christ. There's peace with God
in Christ. There's a peace we have among
the brethren. We have peace with one another in Christ. We dwell
together in peace, don't we? Because we have the same peace
and the same peace giver, the Lord Jesus Christ. But now that the gospel itself
is going to divide, it's going to divide believers from unbelievers.
tears from the wheat. This is why our Lord tells all
who would be saved, you know what he says? Count the cost. He doesn't say, why don't you
just join up? He doesn't make Christianity
look fun. He says, count the cost, because
you're going to lose some dear friends. I mean, you'll lose
some of the dearest people to you. count the cost. At one time,
you know, Paul was revered. The apostle Paul was revered
as a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He said, I was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees. They looked up to him. I mean, when he walked
in, it was like, there's Paul. And they all gave respect to
him. That same crowd wanted to kill him. When God saved him,
they wanted to kill him. As long as he was lost like they
were, they can get along. Enemies can get along. They can
come together. Pilate and Herod can come together.
They were enemies. But when it came to Christ, they
became friends. They became friends against Christ. You know, our Lord, or Paul wrote
this in 1 Corinthians 11, 19. Our Lord said it too, because
he's speaking through Paul. He said, there must be also heresies
among you, heretics among you, tares among you. God allows this. Why? That they which are approved
may be manifest among you. God allows heretics among us
that they which are genuine may stand out. Do you know how to
really tell how crooked a stick is? You wanna know how crooked
it is? Lay a straight one down the side
of it. That's all you got to do. Just tell the truth. Just lay that straight stick
down. Now, how does the gospel divide? How can such good news
divide? How can it do that? Well, first
of all, listen, it starts, as I've already said, with truth.
The truth about God. You know, Scripture teaches us
that God is, and that God is sovereign. Turn over to Luke
chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. In Luke chapter 4, our Lord is
speaking here. Look in verse 24. And he said, verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you
of what? Truth. Now here's the truth I'm
going to tell you. And this group of people he's
speaking to, they believe the doctrine of election. They believe
they were in. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were
in Israel in the days of Elias, Elijah, when the heaven was shut
up, three years and six months, when great famine was throughout
all the land. Well, they know that story. But
unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow, a Gentile woman. Elijah
was sent to no one. All those widows in Israel were
passed by, and God sent His prophet to one Gentile woman to be taken
care of. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elias, Elisha, the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. All of Israel was full
of lepers, full of lepers, but God only healed one, a Gentile. a Gentile. And all they in the synagogue,"
here they are, the churchgoers, these are all the churchgoers,
"...when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath,
and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the
brow of the hill, whereon the city was built, that they might
cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." You know why they were mad? Do you know
what made them mad? Sovereign mercy. That made him
mad. That God, in his sovereign mercy,
would save a Gentile dog. And he passed by all those chosen
Israelites and saved a Gentile dog, healed a Gentile dog, Naaman,
and sent Elijah, his prophet, to a Gentile woman to be taken
care of and blessed her. Blessed her. That made a man. That divides. See, truth about
God divides. When God is set forth in His
true character, it divides. Then the truth about Jesus Christ,
His person and work, it divides. Truth about man, His nature and
condition, it divides. Look over in John chapter 8.
Let me show you something here. Here's the truth. The Lord tells
us it's nothing but truth. Here in John 8, look in verse
38, if the son therefore shall make you free, well that's 36,
in 38, I speak that which I have seen with my father, I speak
the truth. And you do that which you have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him,
Abraham's our father. Jesus said to them, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. You'd
believe me. You'd love me and believe me.
But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth,
which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Ye do the
deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be
not born of fornication? We have one father, even God. Now here comes. They said, we
have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, if God were
your father, you'd love me. Do you love Christ? You know
why you love Christ? God's your father. God's your
father. You're born in the spirit of
God. You can't keep, you can't help but love him. you would
love me if God were your father you'd love me for I proceeded
forth and came from God neither came out of myself but he sent
me why do you not understand my speech even because you cannot
hear my word you are of your father the devil hmm that religious
group And the lust of your father you'll do. He was a murderer
from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you'd believe me not." And boy, they wanted
to kill him. Why? He told them the truth. Truth divides. It divides, listen,
the doctrine of the gospel divides. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. All are dead in trespasses and
sins. All by nature are depraved. We
all died in Adam. We all sinned in Adam originally.
That's original sin. This is when we sin. Listen to this. Romans 5 19 for as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous Here is the doctrine of representation
We have representative in Washington Supposed to But we do And here's
the doctrine of representation Adam represented the whole human
race Christ represents that whole heavenly grace and Listen in
1 Corinthians 15, 21, For since by man came death, by man the
Lord Jesus Christ came also the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. I did not do one thing to make
myself a sinner. I was born one. I was born with
the nature of sin, the same nature that Adam had. When he fell,
I received my father's nature. I have the nature of my dad,
Daryl, Daryl Chapman. I have his nature. That's what
he passed on to me. And that's what his dad passed
on. And he is all the way back to Adam, all the way back. And those who are born of God,
Listen, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. You're
of the same nature of your Father. Whoever your Father is, you are
of the same nature of your Father. That's why the Lord said you're
of your Father the devil. And the works of your Father
you'll do, because that's your nature. But now, if you're born
of God, your nature is to love God, to believe God, to trust
Christ, to follow after Him. You can't help from it. That's
your nature. It's the nature of your father, you have it in
you. And then here's something else that just divides. Election. Did God choose those whom he
saves or did they do the choosing? Who did the choosing? Me or God? Our Lord said in John 15, you
have not chosen me, I've chosen you and ordained you that you
shall bring forth fruit and it'll remain. 2nd Thessalonians 2 13
but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren
beloved of the Lord because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit belief of the truth
those are the means but God's chosen you to salvation but now
you're going to be saved and you can be born of God you can
be born of the Spirit of God and he's writing this to a Gentile
Church the Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4, Knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election of God. Who did the choosing? Me or God?
Well, the Scripture says God did. God did. You can read that
in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 6. And then here's
something else that divides us. By whose will are we saved? By
whose will are we saved? Our will or God's will? Willeth
says in James 1.18, Of his own will begat he us with the word
of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
In Romans 9.16, So then it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. We trace
our salvation back to the mercy, grace, and love of God Almighty. We don't trace it back to the
day we willed to be saved. I tell you, when we are willing
to be saved in the day of His power, that's when we're willing. Until then, we're not willing.
We're not willing. We are saved by His will. Then
here's another truth that divides on the effectual redeeming work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the atonement. Did He redeem, or did He not
redeem? Did He purchase those for whom
He died, or did He just make salvation an opportunity? Is
that what it is? Or did He actually make a purchase?
Well, if He just made it an opportunity,
you can't call Him a redeemer, because if He redeemed, He purchased.
That's what it means. It means to purchase. He purchased
me. He bought me. He paid for me
from the hands of justice. He bought me and paid for me.
I'm his. And here's another one. Grace.
What, what, what is grace? What is grace? Well, it says in Romans 11, six,
and if by grace, if salvation by grace, then it's no more of
works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. You can't put the two together.
They won't fit. It's a puzzle that won't work.
It won't work. It's either all of grace or all
of works. And let's not make faith a work. It's a gift. It's a work of God. Faith is
a gift of God. It's the work of the operation
of the Spirit of God. Everyone here that believes,
you believe because you can't help it. You know that. If I were to show you a white
sheet of paper, and I ask you, what color is this paper? You
can't help but say, it's white. Because you see it, it's so plain.
And you know this, you'd have to lie and say, that's not white.
For me to say I don't believe, I'd have to lie. Because I believe. I do. I believe God. And I know that. And I know that's
the work of God. I know that. And here's another
truth that divides. How God justifies the ungodly. God does not justify anyone because
they quit doing certain things. We need to quit cataloging sin. Because sin is what we are. Now,
it may come out in one area stronger in you than in me in another
area. But we're still at the root of
the tree, it's still rotten. It's still dead. You know, as
long as we... It's like this, if you preach
on issues, You can find the crowd that agrees with those issues
you're preaching against, and they'll say amen. I was at a
place one time, and I've told you this, but I'm gonna tell
it again. Somebody said if it's worth telling
once, it's worth telling twice. But I was at a place, when I
was probably 28, 29, something like that, they wanted to talk
to me about being a pastor. They called me up there to preach
a few times. And they wanted to know if I preached against
abortion. They wanted to know if I preached against rock and
roll. Interesting they didn't say country music. But they wanted
to know if I preached against rock and roll. And I kept saying, I preach Christ.
I preach Christ. He's my message. I said, you
know, when I did, when I come across these things in the scriptures,
I deal with, you know, if you go verse by verse, you're going
to deal with all these things. You're going to deal with, uh, all these
issues, homosexuality, you know, you're going to deal with all
this, but Christ is the message, not issues, not issues. You see, when you preach issues,
you just end up getting a crowd that believes like you believe.
You know, abortion is wrong. It is wrong. But so is murder, and so is adultery,
and so is every other sin. It's wrong. It's sinful. It's
abomination. But I'll tell you what's even
wrong. I'll tell you what's at the top of all these things that
are wrong. Self-righteousness. They didn't
ask me if I preached against that. Pharisees are not going
to ask you if you preach against self-righteousness. That's their
hope. If you want to catalog sin, you've
got to put self-righteousness at the top of it. It's the worst
of all. And I'll show you this here in
a minute if I get that far. In preaching Christ crucified,
listen, when we preach Christ crucified, it's going to divide. It's going to divide. Our method divides. Our method
is just this, preaching Christ crucified. We're not entertaining
people on their way to hell. We're not trying to make being
a Christian look fun. We're preaching Christ. Paul
said to Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word, the written
word and the living word. Preach the word. And all you
know, Christ is There's many things about him we could never
exhaust. He's the high priest, the prophet, the sacrifice. I mean, you can go on and on.
The tabernacle, he's all these things. We are to preach the
word and we leave, listen, we leave the work of conversion
in the hands of the Holy Spirit. We don't try to pressure people
coming down. Now someone asked me why I didn't
give an altar call. Every time the gospel is preached,
the call goes out. And listen, Jesus Christ is the
altar, not a piece of wood. Christ is our altar. Paul said
in Hebrews, we have an altar to eat of that they have no right
to, who serve the tabernacle. And that altar, our altar is
the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to him. We come to God
through him. And we leave the the power of
salvation into the hands of the Holy Spirit. And some of them,
now listen, verse 44, and some of them would have taken him,
and that means they would have taken and killed him. But no
man laid hands on him. You see, men and devils are powerless
before the decrees of God. You can't change it. You can't
alter it. You see, God said in Isaiah 46,
10, my counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. I'll
do all my pleasure." They desired to take him and execute him,
but they were powerless. And the officers, they sent officers. Officers came from most chief
priests and the Pharisees, and they said to them, why have you
not taken them? They sent these officers, they
came back to report. Why have you not taken them?
Here's a great question. Men spend their lives asking,
why were you not able to do this or that? Why have great leaders failed?
And here's the answer. Because of the will and power
and purpose of God, that's what's going to be done. Not what we
will and purpose, but God. God. And they said to him, this
is a beautiful statement. And this shows you how our weapon
is the gospel. Our weapon is the sword of the
spirit, the gospel. Word of God. And it disarms,
truth disarms the enemy. Truth disarms them. If you stick
with the scriptures, stick with the truth, it's plain to those
who understand, but it disarms the enemy. And the officer said,
never a man spake like this man. Never a man spake like this man. And the reason why is because
his words were spirit and they were life. This is God speaking.
God speaking. And the power goes forth with
his word, and it doesn't return void. When those officers went
to take him, they heard him speak, and they couldn't move. The power of his voice and the
power of his message just stopped them in their tracks. You know
why? Because he spoke the truth, and
the truth disarmed him. And those Pharisees, they said,
were you deceived? Are you deceived? They said this
facetiously. Well, you guys are deceived. Have any of the rulers of the
Pharisees believed on him? Not if they can help it. But
these people, you see, here's what I said in verse 49, self-righteousness. Here is the spirit of self-righteousness. But these people, these common
people, these Trash of the earth. That's the way they looked at
him. These people, who knows not the law, are cursed. These lawless people that follow
him, the ones who are following him, the ones who are trusting
him. He said, they don't know anything.
They're a bunch of lawless people. Isn't that what they say, antinomians?
Don't they call you without law? If you believe that, then you
just live like you want to. And you're not. Hypocrites. You know, a hypocrite is the
one who lives a different life than he really wants to. You
live the life you want to, don't you? You're here because you
want to be here. You're here because you believe
Christ. You're here for, you know, you who believe, you're
here for that reason. I live like I want to. And if
I could, I'd live without sin. I'd live without sin if it was
possible, but it's not possible in this life. I'm here this morning
because I want to be here. I read the word of God and I
want to. Oh, these people, they're looking
down their long Pinocchio nose and they're saying, these people,
they don't know the law. They're just a bunch of cursed
people. What do they know? We're educated. Well, Nicodemus stood up and
he took up for him. He says, Our law judge any man
for it hears him. They answered and said to him,
Well, are you also a Galilee? Search and look. For out of Galilee
arises no prophet. You know, the scripture says
God will send them a strong delusion. They'll believe a lie and be
damned. Here's one of those strong delusions. He's out of Galilee. He came out of Galilee, ain't
no property ever come out of there. What's wrong with you? And verse 53, that verse stuck
with me right here. And every man went to his own
house. That's what we're getting ready to do right now. We're
getting ready to go home. Did you hear? You believe? Truth will divide us. It'll divide
a family. It'll divide a family. And every
man at the end of the feast, after they heard his discourse,
they went to their own house. The gospel, the word of truth
divides. Some will believe and some will
not. And many will hear and they'll
just go home. Lord, don't let me just go home.
Go home with me. Make my home your home.