You want to turn your Bibles
to John chapter 7, please. John chapter 7. There's many things that I feel
when I'm preparing to preach and I'm sure
that if you have ever tried to express what the gospel means
to you, you have felt something of what I feel often, many times,
maybe all the time. I don't want to stretch the truth,
but it seems like it's all the time. First is that the wonder
of the gospel, that things I thought I knew I needed to be reacquainted
with as if I never knew them, as if I heard them for the first
time. Don Fortner used to say, preach as if Those hearing have
never heard the message before and never will hear it again.
And you have heard it for the first time yourself, something
like that. So I feel that. I feel this sense
of freshness and newness and as if I hadn't understood it
before. And then I also feel this great
frustration that I can't say anything like I ought to say
it. We were just singing that hymn.
Holy, holy, holy. And even today, since a child,
I always wondered, what does holy mean? My best understanding
is that holy, holy, holy, God alone is holy. He's holy as the
only one who is holy. He only is holy. And holy means
that in all of his nature and his character and his will and
his motives and his words and his works, it's all maximally
perfect. Nothing can be added to it, nothing
can be taken from it, but it all in perfect harmony with his
infinite person, And how can we express that? How can we say
that? And that song that we sang tries to capture the truth of
it, and yet it seems like it falls short, just like all of
our words fall short in expressing the truth of scripture. The frustration
that we feel in not being able to say what is really the way
things are in words that we could explain to ourselves and to others.
But know this, that these words, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
are stated but not expressed until we get to the cross. Yes,
we see it in the law of God. Yes, we see it in contrast to
our own utter failure and ruin and darkness and emptiness and
the void of all that we are spiritually having absolutely no profit in
ourselves. Until we see God make himself
known in Christ, the Lord God Almighty, the Holy, Holy, Holy
One made flesh, and in that flesh given a body to offer himself
to God in order to make propitiation for our sins and to magnify God's
grace and all that he is in his holiness. until we see that. We really don't know what we're
saying when we read these words, but I notice in this second verse
of this psalm, of this hymn, it says, cherubim and seraphim
falling down before thee. And I want you to think about
that as we look at these words in John chapter seven, cherubim
and seraphim falling down before thee. I heard a a sermon and in the
sermon a man said that he read of a Puritan or somebody in the
past who was talking about angels and this Puritan in the past
said that his favorite angel, favorite angel, I thought that's
funny that you would have a favorite angel, but he said he had a favorite
angel. It was the angel that came and
strengthened Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. And I thought
about it, yeah, that's got to be my favorite now. I think that's
my favorite angel. Sent by God to strengthen our
Lord Jesus Christ, who had so humbled himself to take our flesh
and in utter dependence upon God, needing the strengthening
of those he created as his servants. and humbling himself to that
point where he was lower than the angels that he might suffer
death and taste death for every one of his children in that garden
of Gethsemane. And there we see the angel ministering
to him, but in Isaiah chapter 6 we see the seraphim flying
above the throne where Christ was revealed in all of his glory,
having paid the price of his own blood to redeem his people
and bring us to God and reveal the glory of God in that. And
there, the seraphim flying in with six wings, two covering
the face and the feet and flying with the other two and crying,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one who is God over all, who was made flesh and suffered
in that garden for us. That's why he came. That's why
he was God manifest in the flesh. We couldn't know God until he
did that. Not really. We could know him
as creator, as almighty. We could know him in the terror
of his justice. But we couldn't know him in his
heart until he revealed himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
says in 2 Corinthians 4, the glory of God, the knowledge of
the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. He's the
brightness of God's glory. When we think about the seraphim
flying over the Lord Jesus Christ, hiding his face and hiding his
feet and crying, holy, holy, holy, and we think about the
angel helping the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden not to make
atonement or to do anything except to strengthen his physical nature
in order that he might be enabled in that physical human nature
to endure all that he had willingly submitted himself to and set
his face like a flint to perform in suffering for our sins under
the wrath of God. And then seeing that angel crying
that way in his worship of Christ, the angel's desire to look into
these things. And here we are singing about
them. We've been given, in our own language, the revelation
of the eternal mind and truth of God himself concerning his
son. That's what the gospel is. And
it just overwhelms us, doesn't it? It frustrates us, and it
delights us. It frustrates us that we cannot
cannot appropriately, because of this sinful flesh, cannot
appropriately understand or believe or love or worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. And yet here we are asking him
now, even now, to open himself to us, to speak himself to us
in these words. And maybe we think about these
words while we've read them many times and kind of getting bored
with it. But now we need to see here that
this is God's mind revealing his son and in his son revealing
himself to us. And let us now see the privilege
we've been given as those chosen by God to be His children through
the blood of His Son, through the birth of His Spirit, through
this creating power of God that there is no measure of, no equal,
no comparison to, that He would raise us from the dead and make
us holy and in His sight without fault in the presence of His
glory, in love through the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at
these words in this context as those needing grace even to know
these things, whereas the angels, they desire to look into them
and they see us here gathered and they are listening in their
attentive intent on this. They're not interested in the
election. They're not interested in tragedies and volcanoes and
those kinds of things. They're not interested in what's
going on on streaming videos. They're interested in Christ.
They're interested in why he would give himself for a people. This is Christ. May we be given
that grace around the throne, the throne
of God where Christ is seated, the mediator where his blood
is sprinkled. Now, we want to look at John
chapter 7 again. And in this chapter, we've read
it a number of times. I want to read it again. But
in this chapter, we see some prominent things. Number one,
at the outset, we see this great feast of tabernacles. And in order to understand and
to enter into the richness of this text, we have to understand
that this Feast of Tabernacles given here by the Spirit of God
and in the providence of God and in Christ's coming here at
this time is to help us understand the meaning and the significance
of the climactic point in the chapter when Jesus stands up
in the last day of the feast and cries, if any man thirst,
Let him come unto me and drink. As the scripture has said, whoever
believes on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
There's no doubt that that is the climax. of this chapter. It's what's meant to explain
it to us. But the Feast of Tabernacles
is, first of all, that time where Christ tabernacled with his people
in human nature, in our own body, in a human soul, in a mind as
a man thinks, and yet joined in nature with the Son of God
in the eternal, infinite person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
tabernacled among us that we might dwell in him and be with
him. That's the booths, the booths,
those structures that they made of branches from the trees when
they came out of Egypt and they dwelt in those booths. And God
gave them that just as they came out of Egypt having been redeemed
by the blood of the Passover lamb in order that they might
see in that foretaste that there was something to hope for, the
fulfillment of the promise God made to them and had purchased
for them at the price of blood and would bring them through
the wilderness and eventually give them that promised inheritance. And then when they had received
it, they would then dwell in these booths. And so Christ,
in order that we might be given to dwell in him, tabernacled
amongst us, he became man that we might be partakers of his
divine nature. And then this harvest was also
in the end of the year, and it was a celebration of the complete
work of God that he brought to culmination in all of his promises
that he would bring in the fulfillment of his harvest, the gathering
in of his people as harvest from the field. A harvest that was
the result of the fruit that was produced by Christ himself
being that seed fallen into the ground and bringing forth much
fruit in his death. The death of Christ is the reason
there's a harvest to God. To the glory of God and to the
great delight of God that he would save a people, this harvest.
And it is a harvest that was celebrated at the end of time,
because the culmination of time will be when God, through Christ,
brings all of his people to himself. And then it was at the last day
of that great feast when the Lord Jesus stood and cried these
words, if any man thirst, if any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. So that the entire course of
history from the cross to the end of time and even before the
cross is seen to be fulfilled in Christ calling his people
to himself in faith to have this life in themselves, this life
of God in the soul of man because of the redeeming work of Christ,
the Spirit of God given by God to us to believe on Christ. And in believing, experience
the fullness of God's grace toward us as an overflowing river of
abundance, always bringing forward to us what God has done for us. in this grace of faith to believe
it and hope to look forward to the fulfillment of it in the
consummation of it given to us in heaven when we see Christ
in all of his glory face to face looking on the one who died who
loved us and died for us and shed his blood for us in order
that he might bring us as Joseph did his brethren to himself in
love. That's what the feast is about.
All these things gathered together, culminating in, throughout time,
Christ gathering his people through this message, come to me, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're thirsty, come and drink. Come and drink. So that's what
we want to look at today. Now, in this chapter, what we
see here, the main issue then is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The main point here. And in this
chapter, we see that because we see the contrast between those
who did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and those who did. There's a great division, a divide
made in this chapter between those believing Christ. In verse
one, it says, the Jews sought to kill him. And in verse five,
his own brethren did not believe him. And in verse 7, the world
hates you, hates me. It can't hate you, it hates me.
They did not believe him. But in verse 26 and in 28, through
28 he says, the people said he speaks boldly. They sought to
kill him, but he's speaking boldly. Don't they know this is the Christ,
the very Christ? These believed he was the Christ.
In verse 28, then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying,
you both know me and you know whence I am. I am not come of
myself. He that sent me is true, whom
you know not. So there were some who did believe
him. In verse 41, he says, Others said, this is the Christ.
So there were some who believed he was. And then in verse 46,
listen to what the officers who the Jews sent to arrest Jesus
said, never man spake like this man. So you see that in this
chapter, there were those who understood him to be the Christ,
who believed on him. And yet there were those who
hated him and did not believe. And so we see a big division.
A big division. Those who did not believe on
the Lord hated and persecuted him. And they thought to persecute
those who would believe on him. No one was speaking about him
because of fear of the Jews. The Pharisees answered the officers,
are you deceived? They mocked them, they ridiculed
them, they reproached them because they said, these people who,
in verse 49, these people who know not the law are cursed.
And they said in verse 48, have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees
believed on him? Are you kidding? We have, we're
the ones who know what's right and wrong. We can decide what's
true or not true. We know the doctrine, whether
it's right or wrong, contrary to what Jesus said. And so they
said, you've believed on him, you're deceived. So someone in
this chapter is a deceiver and someone is deceived. And yet
there are those, someone else in this chapter is not the deceiver,
but is true. And someone else in this chapter
believe on him and they are not deceived, you see. So it's all
about the grace God has given to those here in this chapter
who are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The great difference
that's set forth here between those who do believe on the Lord
and those who do not. And this is the separation that
God makes. It's the separation of sovereign
grace, not the separation made by man's ability. Not by man's
positions or man's morality. It's made by sovereign grace.
These officers who were just doing their duty, they heard
him speak. Could you have imagined what
that was like to hear him say things? Never man spoke like
this man. And they were probably saying
that to one another. Could you hear that? We never heard that. I did not know that. That's incredible. Who would have ever thought that
to be true? Now this whole feast and all
that they were doing here as the Jews was all about trying
to keep the law of God and performing ceremonies and thinking that
by doing that they had some blessing from God, but they were completely
satisfied with just the outward show of religion. They did not
thirst. So when Jesus stood and cried,
if any man thirst, the Jews who heard him say that, it's just
more noise. More words without profit. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
not deceived. Notice in verse 18, he says,
he that speaketh of himself seeks his own glory. The Jews spoke
of themselves because they sought their own glory. But He, He says
in verse 18 still, He that seeks His glory that sent Him, the
same is true and no unrighteousness is in Him. How do you know Christ
spoke the truth? Because He sought the glory of
God the Father. That was it. He came to do the
will of God. And what was that glory? How
was that glory set forth? It was set forth in the salvation
of sinners. That was the furthest thing from
the mind of the Jewish leaders. Talk about deceived. Talk about
ignorant in their pride. It always surprises me the more
I think about my own self. Ignorance and pride are a toxic
combination, but I find them so prevalent. Proud and ignorant. Anyone who's proud is obviously
ignorant because all glory must go only to Christ, to God in
Him. So there's no room for pride
in any of us, but surprisingly, it seems like, speaking of my
own experience and my knowledge of myself, the most ignorant
of people are the most proud. And you see that in the Pharisees
too. They thought themselves to know something, they knew
nothing at all. The other thing we see in this
chapter, not only do we see this great emphasis here on faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, but we see that the entire matter
was brought to a point when the Lord Jesus healed this man who
was laying at the pool of Bethesda. It was for that reason that he
healed him on the Sabbath day that the Jews tried to kill,
wanted to kill, and looked for a way to kill the Lord Jesus
Christ. He begins this in verse 19. He
said to them, after he said that only the one who seeks the glory
of him that sent him has no unrighteousness in him. But he says in verse
19, did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keep the
law? Why do you go about to kill me? The people answered and said,
thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill thee?
Jesus answered and said to them, I've done one work, and that
was the work, healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, who
was lame and couldn't get into the pool, he healed him, and
he says, and I did this one work and you all marvel. Moses therefore
gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of
the fathers, and you on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man
on the Sabbath day receives circumcision that the law of Moses should
not be broken, are you angry at me because I have made a man
every whit hole on the Sabbath day? You see, what Jesus did
in that miracle making a man every whit hole. That was the
true meaning of the Sabbath. But because they only interpreted
the law as something they personally needed to do in order to keep
or gain life and God's blessings, and so they thought that by their
own personal obedience, they could be accepted by God and
please God and all these things. which is pride and ignorance,
by the way, and is disobedience because no man is justified by
the works of the law, but only shown to be a sinner and made
to appear more guilty by the law. And yet they wouldn't allow
the law to do its work to bring them to that guilty, naked, fearful
state of being helpless in the presence of God and needing a
savior so that they were ripe and ready for the Lord Jesus
Christ to come. But in their hypocrisy, like
all of us do by nature, hiding ourselves in the very light of
God's own law and pretending that we can do something to make
it all right and all better. And so these men made the Sabbath
something that they could keep. Their badge, and Jesus said they
didn't keep the law at all. Obviously, they were trying to
kill him to break the law. And they didn't understand that
when he healed that man and made him every whit hole on the Sabbath
day, that this was because he would bear his sins. He would
do the work of the salvation of his people God gave him to
do and finish that work and bring us into the eternal inheritance,
our rest in him. And so in verse 24, notice Jesus
said this, this whole matter of healing this man is the great
controversy of this chapter that arose to give this the context. He says, judge not according
to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Don't judge according to outward
appearance, we are almost without exception, unable to judge in
any other way. I am the very critical person,
and I'm most critical of others, naturally. But the gospel does
something to us, doesn't it? It causes us to think in a way
that's foreign to the way we naturally think. The gospel teaches us that all
of our confidence, misplaced confidence, in our ability to
avert God's wrath and to obtain his favor by something that we
are or something we do or think or become in ourselves, that
God would look on us and finally, I've got a good reason now to
reward you. All of that is utter sinfulness. And it's meant to discover our
sins and not to give us a way of getting ourselves right with
God. And so the cherubim were set
at the Garden of Eden to protect the tree of life, that no one
could enter that garden. The cherubim would say, no, no,
you are not allowed here. And Jesus says here, judge not
according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Now
the only righteous judgment that there is in all of Scripture
that we see is the judgment God made because of what Christ has
done. Now, we need to understand this
and really get a hold of it. The righteous judgment is that
God has justified sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ because
of His blood and righteousness. And if we have that in our mind,
by God-given grace of faith to lay hold on this. then now we
can see this is the way. This is not according to any
appearance. This is God's view from his word of the way things
are. We're sinful and utterly without
hope. We deserve the wrath of God and
it's upon us, but God in his mercy has provided in Christ
to take away our sins and to clothe us in the righteousness
of Christ and to make us holy and unblameable in his sight,
in love. That's a righteous judgment.
Of course, it is righteous of God to visit us for our sins
outside of Christ. But as sinners, we see this is
the righteous judgment of God for my salvation. And we therefore
flee to the Lord Jesus Christ as our refuge. That's a righteous
judgment. And so when Christ made this
man every whit hole on the Sabbath day, he's telling us this is
the work of God. And this is the work I must perform
and you must rest in what it takes to make a man every whit
hole on the Sabbath day. Not your cessation from work,
but Christ's work in which we stop working and trust in his. Trust in him. What a wonder that
is. Now, there's many things in this
chapter But I want you to look back with
me in verse 8. Jesus tells the brethren, his
brethren who did not believe on him, he says, you go up to
this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not
yet come. Of course, he's speaking of the
time when he would offer himself to God. willingly submitting
himself to allow them to pluck the beard off his face, and to
spit in his face, and to hit him with their hands in his face,
and to beat his back with stripes, and to crown him with thorns,
and to then make him carry his cross to the hill outside of
the city of Jerusalem, because it was such a reproach, and then
nail him to that cross, and drop him in the hole, and then watch
him suffer and die, and hear his cries, and mock him, and
pierce his side. That was the time. when he would
offer himself by the will of God for the sins of his people
to suffer the murderous, cruel death of a criminal that they
deserved, doing it for them. That was the time. So he says
in verse 9, when he had said these words to them, he abode
still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone
up, then went he up also. unto the feast, not openly, but
as it were, in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast and said, where is he? Now, the Lord, this is amazing, isn't it? He
hides himself from these men, as it were, in secret. Did he
hide himself because he was afraid of what they would do to him?
No. No, he wasn't afraid. His time was not yet come, so
he just avoided those who were going to take him and arrest
him and kill him. There was a time coming when
he would do that, but it was not this time. Everything was
in his control, especially his own death. And he wasn't going
to do it unwillingly. He would do it willingly, but
at his own time and schedule. So when his brethren went up,
and then he went up, as it were, in secret, It's telling us something
here. It was a large feast, a large
gathering of people who were coming to do what they thought
was the religious duty, but he comes in secret. And so it is
throughout all of history until the cross. God has written the
Old Testament and he gave laws and gave ceremonies and there
were histories and there were wars and there were events and
there were people and characters and names and places and all
these things were a parable that spoke of the secret of the Lord,
which was in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Jesus came into the
world, he tells his disciples, now I'm going, he spoke in parables
to all those that heard him about sowing seed and about different
kinds of ground and about 10 virgins and five wise and five
foolish and so many things he spoke in parables because, and
the way he did this, It was consistent with what had happened since
the beginning of time and what was happening here in this verse
where he went there in secret. And the truth of it is this,
that until God makes known himself in Christ to us by his word,
revealing his word and the meaning of it to us so that we understand
and believe him, then the things of God are secret to us. And
it's a revelation that must be given by God Himself. He reveals
it, and He reveals it from His Word, but He does it in such
a way that He only gives it to His people. In Mark chapter 4
and verse 11 it says, Jesus said to His disciples, unto you it
is given to know the mystery, that's what the word means, secret,
of the kingdom of God, but to them that are without, all these
things are done in parables that seeing they may see and not perceive,
and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time
they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven
them. That sounds like a pretty serious
thing that Christ would actually hide things from people who physically
heard and saw him and hide them so that they would not be converted
and that their sins would not be forgiven them. The secret
of the Lord. The secret of the Lord. Unto
you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And the
others, it's done in parables. Now what does this say to us?
This tells us that this Word of God is so precious, unbelievably
precious, that the fact that it is spoken to us and written
and that we can hear it preached and that God would make known
to us His secret meaning in the Old Testament, in the New, and
that he would then preach the meaning of it to us in our own
language and even break it down through the gifts of the apostles
and the prophets and the preachers and the teachers from his throne
in glory, giving us that gift that we should so treasure that
this is the mystery of godliness. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
comes here in verse 11 in a way that seems like no one knew he
was there. He's secret. And so then the
Jews sought him at the feast and they said, where is he? I find that interesting. Where
is he? Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Here's another mystery. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? If we understand this, The first
thing I want to know is, where is he? Don't you? Where is he? Well, this is surprising to us.
The Jews were looking for him in several ways. And the Lord
shows us where he is in scripture. And it's the most comforting
and endearing and delightful thing in all of the word of God,
where Christ is. I would refer you back to Mark
chapter 10. It says in verse 46, Jesus and
his disciples came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples, a great number of people were with him, and
blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside
begging, and when he heard, Bartimaeus means the son of the unclean.
When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry
out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And notice in verse 49
of Mark 10, Jesus stood still. and commanded him to be called.
And they called the blind man, saying to him, Be of good comfort,
rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered him and said,
What do you want me to do? And it says in the King James,
What wilt thou that I should do to thee? The blind man said
to him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said, go
thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And he immediately
received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Where was the
Lord Jesus? He was where a sinner was crying
to him for mercy. Son of David, have mercy on me. What do you want me to do for
you? Lord, that I might receive my sight. He had to give it. It was in his power, his will
to do it. And he said, be of good cheer,
be of good cheer. Go your way, your faith has made
you whole. So you see the Lord Jesus here?
Where else is the Lord Jesus Christ? The same thing, really.
In Luke chapter 18, let me take you to this one. Here he is.
We see him again. In fact, this is his parable
spoken to plainly show us how we are justified. My God, in
Luke 18 and verse 9, Jesus spake this parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others,
which was everyone who wasn't born of God. Two men went up
into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Republican,
and the Pharisee stood and prayed with himself. Notice, he's thanking
God and calling attention and for recognition and praise. He
says, God, I thank thee that I am not, as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. No doubt he was
truly thankful. He wasn't, but he was thanking
himself, even though he had his eyes toward God. I fast twice
in the week. Recognize that, please. I give
tithes of all that I possess. Make sure you note that. And
the publican, notice this man, standing afar off, would not
lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. He wouldn't even look. Not only come forward in the
standing in the front, he wouldn't stand, but he standing far off,
staying way back, not lifting up his eyes, but smote upon his
breast. This is the problem right here. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Now, this word here, merciful,
means to be propitious. And it's used in Hebrews chapter
9. And the word in Hebrews 9 is mercy seat. And mercy seat brings
us all the way back to the Old Testament. And look at Psalm
80, if you would. Psalm 80, where is the Lord Jesus
Christ? Here he is. Notice. I want you
to see this. And who's there in Psalm 80? He says in verse one, give ear,
O shepherd of Israel, that would be our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest
between the cherubims, shine forth. Where are the cherubims? They're on the mercy seat. What are they doing? They're
looking down. Their wings are stretched out. filling the space
above it, and they're looking down, and what do they see? They
see the sprinkled blood, the blood of the Lamb sprinkled on
the mercy seat, and God propitiated the removal of our sins, the
removal of any cause for wrath from God against us. All of our
sins dealt with before God and the cherubim are looking at that.
The seraphim flying above Christ in his glory, the cherubim looking
at the blood sprinkled, and there a sinner by faith coming to God
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's where Christ
is. Where is he? He's in the cry
of a sinner. He's in the faith of a sinner
looking to the blood sprinkled in heaven, the blood of Christ.
That's where Christ is. He's in the gospel. He's where
he's preached. He's with his people when they
hear him preached and gather together in his name. And he
is in every believer. Where is Christ? You see, we
don't know until God reveals it. And then we come to Him in
this way and we say, I am desperate and I need the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have nothing. I'm a sinful
man. My heart is perverse. I have
nothing to bring. I can't boast in anything. I
want no recognition because any recognition to me would damn
me only further. And I lack everything God requires. But God has said and God has
provided a propitiation. May he look upon him and look
upon me and consider him for me. That's where Christ is. Amazing grace. Now, I don't want
to be too keep you too long here because
I really wanted to get to verses 37 and 39, but I'm afraid that
if I do, I'll far exceed our time. And also, we won't keep
all these things in as close as we would understand them.
So I'm gonna stop here and we'll pick this up next time with what
the Lord Jesus said in verses 37 and 39. If any man thirst,
let him come to me and drink. Think about those words and think
about what it means to thirst. And maybe if God is gracious
to us, next week we will be enabled to look at this. And I hope that
we would be so, find ourselves in such a condition and Christ
to be such a provision, an all sufficient provision. by the
grace of God that we would be enabled now and every day until
we see him in glory to take of him because there is no one else
who can satisfy our thirst. But we'll look at that more next
time. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word. We pray, Lord, that we would be those Given to you,
you would be pleased to make yourself known that you would
explain the parables of your word so that we would see you
and you crucified for our salvation to the glory of God. We would
see the heart and glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We would find ourselves to be
no different than those who did not believe. And yet you had
mercy upon us. and made yourself known so that
with the officers we would say, never man spake like this man. Is this not the Christ? And though
the world would reproach us and say, have any of us believed? And we would say, oh, by God's
grace, we have been given to be undeceived and see our sin
and Christ as everything in our salvation so that we might glorify
God that you would give us this grace to know and take and receive
from the Lord Jesus everything God is in himself. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.