open your Bibles to John chapter
7, and I've entitled today's message, Christ Rejected and
Yet Not Discouraged. Christ Rejected and Yet Not Discouraged. If we look at this chapter, it's
a new chapter for us and really represents a transition in what
is happening in the book of John, but still pursuing the same theme
that John gave at the end of the book where he said, these
things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. pursuing that objective, the Apostle John is giving us
the whole account here of what Jesus did and said and all that
went with that. So John chapter 7 is a transition
in that, but it's by no means a departure from that main objective. It's to give us, by God's grace,
an account of what Jesus, the Lord of glory, the Son of God
in our nature has said and what he has done in order that we
might believe and in believing him have life through his name. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. And so this chapter
begins that way. If you remember back in John
chapter five, There was a man at the pool of Bethesda who couldn't
get up off his bed. An angel came down at that time
and would occasionally stir the water and he was unable to get
into the water. When Jesus saw him lying there,
he had been in that condition for 38 years, he said to him,
will thou be made whole? And it's a question the Lord
asks us, do you want to be made whole? because we can't make
ourselves whole. The man said, well, I have no
one to put me in the pool. And you remember the account,
it was a pitiful thing that he had no other thought of Christ
than that he would have to put him in the pool. He was an ordinary
man. But then Jesus said, rise, take up your bed and walk. And
now it was the Sabbath day and that raised the hackles of the
Jews because they were insistent that no one could do anything
on the Sabbath day and they boasted that they kept the Sabbath. And
this was actually the occasion of a sermon that Christ gave
to them then. And he began that sermon by saying, my father works
and I work. And of course, that raised their
anger even more because they said, if you call God your father,
then that makes you equal with God. And he reaffirmed what they
said by saying, I do the works of my father. He shows me everything
that he does. And I do all of his will and
all of his work. And so they were so angry and
he left them. And then we have the account
in John, chapter six, where the Lord Jesus is not in Jerusalem. He was when he raised up that
man at the pool of Bethesda. But now he's back in Galilee
in John, chapter six. He went to a place called Capernaum
and remembered there. He had broken the bread, had
explained to them the meaning of that, that it was He who would
be broken, and that only if we eat Him by faith, just like we
take bread and consume it, and live upon Christ by faith, can
we have life. And this whole discourse that
the Lord Jesus had in John chapter 6 was lengthy. the Jews who heard
him and many of his disciples were also angered again. Now
they were angry and the disciples that thought they were disciples
that didn't believe him but had followed him up to this point,
they were offended because he spoke so much about the fact
that they had to live and they didn't have life but had to live
only if they got that life from believing on him, coming to him. And so then the Lord, after these
disciples were offended and the Jews were offended, he says to
his 12 disciples, will you also go away? And that's when Peter
gave this memorable answer. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. now has the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God, to which Jesus said, have not I
chosen you 12, and yet one of you is a devil? And so even among
the Lord's people, there was this one who did not believe
and who was a devil, even though Christ had chosen that one to
be one of his apostles, at least for the time, that three plus
years that he was on earth. All right, and that brings us
to chapter 7. Now in chapter 7, it opens this way. It says,
after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. And the place of
Galilee was known as Galilee of the Gentiles. So when you
hear Galilee, two things should bring, it should bring two things
to your memory. One, Christ came from Galilee. Now he was born in Bethlehem,
but remember Joseph had taken him as a child, him and Mary
as a child to Galilee, to Nazareth. And there in Nazareth, he was
raised up because Herod had, intended to kill him. And so
this was all God's arrangement that he would be in Galilee.
When he was a child and raised up until he started his ministry,
he was in Galilee and he was back there in that area now. just as he had been when he broke
the bread. He was in Capernaum. Now he's
in Galilee. Galilee of the Gentiles. Very
important that we understand the context here, that it's Galilee
of the Gentiles. And then he said, for he would
not walk in Juri. Juri is the land of Judea. That's
where the Jews and most especially the leaders of the Jews, the
rulers of the Jews. This was the place where the
center of Israel's worship took place in Jewry, or Judea, or
the city of Jerusalem. That's where they had their worship. That's where the feasts were
kept, and we're about to see that in John chapter seven. Now,
let me read to you just the first Ah, let's see, I'm going to read
to you the first 30 verses of this chapter, and then we're
going to come back to verse 1. All right? So in verse 1, it
says, after these things, after the account of John 5 and 6,
Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because
the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews feast of tabernacles
was at hand, his brethren, Jesus' brethren, it means not those
who were his brethren by faith, not spiritually his brethren,
but his natural brethren. His brethren therefore said to
him, depart hence and go into Judea that thy disciples also
may see the works that thou doest. It's very natural for us to these
men didn't believe him. And we're gonna talk about this
more next time, but first of all, just note that these brethren
who grew up with Christ did not believe him. You would think
of all the privileges in the world that would be great is
to grow up in the home where Jesus grew up, but these men
were unbelievers. It shows you that natural relations
and natural privileges do not bring spiritual life and grace. All right. And they also asked
him to depart. To depart? You want the Lord
Jesus Christ to leave you? And then, of course, they said,
Go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou
doest. In the next verse, verse four,
For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself
seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. So they were claiming that what
he really wanted was the world's approval and the world's applause,
which is what they wanted. And so they told him the best
way to do that is to go prove yourself to the Jews. If you
can convince them, then we're on board. It's much easier to
believe when the mob is with you, isn't it? when the crowd
is saying the same thing that you want to believe because it's
just natural to follow the crowd. Verse five, for neither did his
brethren believe in him. Then Jesus said to them, my time
is not yet come, but your time is always ready. Their time to
seek the praise and approval of men. Verse seven, the world
cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it that
the works thereof are evil. Go ye up to the feast. I go not
up to the feast, for my time is not yet full come. So it's
clear why Jesus didn't go up to the feast. It wasn't yet his
full time. It wasn't time. Verse nine, when
he had said these words to them, he abode still in Galilee. And
when his brethren were gone up, then he also went up to the feast,
not openly, but as it were in secret. He didn't do it at their
prompting. He didn't do it for their approval
or man's approval. He did it by his own will. Verse
11, then the Jews sought him at the feast and said, where
is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him,
for some said, he is a good man, and others said, no, he deceives
the people. Howbeit, no man spake openly
of him for fear of the Jews. So those who approved of him
didn't talk about him openly because the Jews were intimidating
and they would cast you out of the temple. You would have nothing
to do with the Israel of God. You would be an alien then from
Israel and for all the promises they thought were connected to
being a Jew. Now, about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and taught. Okay, so now he's
there, now he's openly teaching in the temple. And the Jews marveled,
saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. So if you want to marvel at it,
realize that I'm sent by God, the Father, and He gave me this
doctrine. It's mine, but it's His also.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Do you want
to know whether what Christ said is true? Do God's will. And what is that? Jesus told
us back in John chapter 6, this is the will of Him that sent
me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him
should have everlasting life. That's the will of God. The will
of God is what Jesus said, to believe on Him whom He has sent,
in John 6, 29. So John 7, 18, he says, he that
speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh
his glory that sent him, the same is true and no unrighteousness
is in him. Now it's true in general that
if you're an ambassador, you're only a good ambassador if you
take the message of the one who sent you and not create your
own message. And so Jesus is raising that
to the highest possible level. He's the ambassador of God the
Father, and he speaks not of himself as if he would promote
himself or to have his own agenda, but he's speaking the Father's
message. In other words, everything Jesus
said and did was God the Father's word and will and work. And that
gives us the greatest possible authority, as well as the greatest
possible comfort to know that trusting Christ, we're trusting
God the Father. Verse 19, did not Moses give
you the law, yet none of you keep the law? Why go ye about
to kill me? At this point in time, he's openly
telling them, you're trying to kill me. And they deny it. The people answered and said,
thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill thee?
They denied it. It was true, but they denied
it. Jesus answered and said to them, I have done one work, and
you all marvel. He's talking about the man back
in John 5 that he raised up from the pool at Bethesda. He says
in verse 22, 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. He's setting up the principle
here. He says, 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 everywhere whole on the Sabbath
day? Absolutely completely whole on the Sabbath, and they're offended,
and what do they want to do? Kill him. It's important to keep
the Sabbath, but it's okay to kill the one who broke it. And
their estimation, he didn't actually break it. He was doing God the
Father's will, which was the answer he gave them back in John
5. Verse 24, judge not according to appearance, what you see with
your physical natural eyes, but judge righteous judgment according
to the revealed will of God. Then said some of them at Jerusalem,
isn't this he whom they seek to kill? They just denied it.
It was publicly known they were trying to kill him. But lo, he
speaketh boldly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers
know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know
this man whence he is. But when Christ comes, no man
knows whence he is. 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, but
he that sent me is true, whom you know not. But I know him,
for I am from him, and he has sent me. Then they sought to
take him, but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was
not yet come." All right, so you can see here the great envy,
and hatred, and murderous intent that these men had for the Lord
Jesus Christ, because they were offended at him. They were offended
at him. Now, the Jews, as it says in verse
one, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would
not walk in Jewry. The Jews sought to kill the Lord
Jesus Christ. They looked for a way that they
might kill him. And they wanted to kill him fundamentally
because they didn't believe him. And because they didn't believe
him, they envied him. And because they did not believe
and envied him, they hated him. And therefore, that hatred led
them to plot his death. They publicly pursued their plan. They publicly denied that they
were murderers, and yet they secretly met together with this
murderous intent and created this murderous plan. Secretly, they spent all their
time scheming how to catch his words and how to build a convincing
case and how to use even the Roman law to carry out their
murder. And in the end, they ended up
making false accusations and slandering him falsely because
they couldn't find any sin in him. Jesus, of course, knew their
wicked thoughts. He knew their plans. He knew
that they did not believe him. And yet it was not time. It was
not time for him to give himself, by the will of God, to be sacrificed
to God as an offering through the hands of these wicked men. And that leads me to ask this
question, why? And what does the death of Christ
mean? Why? Well, what was it? On the case of the Jews, these
unbelieving, envious, murderous men who denied their murderous
intent. I mean, if it was righteous,
why wouldn't you publicly declare it? But it wasn't righteous.
It wasn't a righteous murder. There is no righteous murder,
but they were told plainly, thou shalt not kill, and yet they
were trying to do that while they boasted in keeping the Sabbath. It's amazing how hypocritical
we can be as unbelievers and not even admit our hypocrisy. That's really what I find most
common, is I hate to admit things that put me to shame that are
true. But on the view of the Jews,
what was the death of Christ? It was a justified murder. They wanted to use the Romans
to kill Christ. And so they created this case
against him. It was a result of their disobedience. It was a result of their envy
and hatred. That's what the death of Christ
was to them. righteous, they would justify it as a righteous
death. because they did not believe
his words, they refused to believe, they envied him because his father
was with him and the people listened to him and came to him. And through
this unbelief, they disobeyed the very law they trusted and
they killed the Prince of Life, the Lord of Glory. It was out
of their self-righteousness and their self-trust and their desire,
their lust for self-glory and their self, promotion, their
pride and their hatred and envy that they killed Christ. Now
that's on the part of unbelieving world. They boasted that they
were not part of the world. They were the world. But what
was the death of Christ to the Lord Jesus? It was an offering. It was a sacrifice. It was obedience. It was offered in obedience to
God his Father because it was his Father's will. And he did
it in faith, not in unbelief, not in hatred, but in faith and
in love. Not in disobedience, but in obedience. Not in failure, but in success. Everything about the death of
Christ was perfect and holy in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ
and on the part of God. But everything in the heart and
in the words and in the actions of men was sinful and wicked. The death of Christ was simultaneously
the most heinous, cruel murder of injustice. and at the same
time, the greatest gift of love and saving grace. What amazing,
what amazing. How can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me? Amazing grace. So there are at
least four lessons I want to bring to your attention from
this one first verse of chapter seven, where it says, after these
things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry,
because the Jews sought to kill him. The first lesson is that
Christ lived to do and to declare his father's will until he died
to finish his father's will. That's the first lesson. Christ
lived to do and declare his father's will until he died to finish
his father's will. And in pursuit of that, he walked,
as he described it, in the daytime of his father's will until he
laid down his life in the nighttime of man's wickedness and God's
judgment. That's amazing, isn't it? He
lived his life in order that he might bring it to that point
where as a perfect man, he could take the sins of his people and
bear them and answer God in a holy life, bearing their sins in order
to satisfy for them. And the second lesson, the second
lesson we want to consider here is that when the Jews rejected
Jesus, he went to the Gentiles. Through the fall of the Jews,
according to Romans 11, through the fall of the Jews, salvation
has come to the Gentiles. Now that's grace, isn't it? And then the third lesson I want
you to consider here is that when men follow Christ no more,
when they reject him, it is no failure of his will. no failure
of his word and no failure of his power. He will accomplish
his will. He will save all of his elect
and he shall give eternal life to all the father has given to
him. There's no failure, even though men don't believe and
even though men reject him. And then finally, the last lesson
that I see from this verse of scripture is that as the Lord
Jesus Christ did not waste time. He didn't say, well, the Jews
aren't ready to receive me, as some commentators say that, well,
God would have done this, but since the Jews rejected him,
he had to do something else. The fourth lesson here is that
we must redeem the time while it is day. While God has given
us this life today, tomorrow, and the rest of our life, however
short or however long that is, redeem the time. Buy it up. Use it with His God-given grace
He's given to us as stewards of the gospel. All right, so
that's the four things. First, that Christ lived to do
and declare his Father's will. The Lord Jesus Christ taught.
while he was, before he went to the cross, he taught and he
preached and he healed all manner of sickness, he raised the dead,
and he did all this until he had fully taught and fully preached
the salvation that he would accomplish for his people. Just as in Isaiah
46, the Lord says, I have spoken it, I will also do it. I will bring it to pass. So the
Lord Jesus Christ in his life spoke what he would do. He didn't
hide it. He didn't only preach in the
closet or in an isolated part of the desert. He stood in the
temple of the Jews, his enemies, and boldly declared his father's
word and his father's will and even his own work that he would
accomplish. And then he did it. Now that's
something, isn't it? He was the prophet indeed, wasn't
he? He was that prophet. Until he had fully taught and
preached the salvation he would accomplish, he maintained his
work. He didn't stop. He didn't take
it easy, didn't go on a vacation. He spent every moment of every
day pursuing with intent what his father gave him to do. In
Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 4, it says this concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. until he has set judgment in
the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law." The isles
in Scripture in the Old Testament refer to the islands or the far
off places, not the Jews' land, but the Gentiles' land. So when
you read islands or nations, plural, in the Old Testament,
it's referring to the Gentiles, it's to us. Jesus didn't go to
Jerusalem at this time. He walked in the land of Galilee
of the Gentiles, because that was the work at that time he
was supposed to do. And so he applied himself to
it. He was always doing his father's will. And he would not fail.
And though men did not believe him, though his disciples left
and forsook him, and though the Jews plotted against him and
lied against him, against God's own law, yet he was not discouraged. He did not fail until he set
judgment in the earth and the Gentiles wait for his law. In other words, the gospel had
to be fulfilled. Jesus said this in Luke chapter
four and verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. Now,
this is the work he's doing until he goes to the cross because
he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. That's
a work. He sent me to heal the broken
hearted. That's me and you who believe
on Christ. We're broken hearted. Our heart
doesn't work. And we need God's own word to
tell us that it's all done in Christ. So that our heart can
be healed. And to preach deliverance to
the captives. Those who have no ability to
get themselves out of prison. He's going to preach the liberty
that He purchased with His own blood and set them free to know
their sonship. That they are the children of
God by His own blood. And the recovering of sight to
the blind. Jesus said, if you were blind, you should have no
sin. But because you say, we see,
therefore your sin remains. To preach, he says, recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable here of the Lord, the Jubilee. And
he closed the book and gave it to the minister and sat down.
Everyone's eyes were upon him. He began to say, this day is
this scripture fulfilled in your ears. He was doing the will of
God. It didn't matter. to him that
it cost him his life. He was going to do what God thought,
what God wanted done. And he did it by faith. The scripture,
I was thinking about this this morning on my way to church.
If I were to ask you, what is your reference point for everything
you do? You might say, well, it's whatever
time it is. I got an appointment here at
2 o'clock. I got to be somewhere. And oh,
there's someone going to meet me tomorrow. I got an appointment
here. And I got a schedule there. I got to take care of these things.
And you keep it, right? You don't let your appointments
go. You keep to them, right? That's going to drive you. I
got to be at work on Monday morning. So I show up. I gotta be at my
daughter's graduation, so I go there. My wife's having a baby,
so I go. Everything is driven by time,
right? What's the clock in heaven? What is that master timekeeper,
if you will, the thing that drives everything? It's the Word of
God. It's the revelation of the mind
of God that he will work out all of his will. And time itself
is just the unfolding of God's revealed will and that secret
will. It's the master clock of heaven
and earth, God's holy will. And so the Lord Jesus sees in
the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will,
O God. And so he comes to do that will.
In John 17, 4, at the close of his life, just before he goes
to the cross, he says, I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. He was
obedient, and it was obedience out of faith. He knew God's word. He prayed God's will and word,
and he did it in faith. And we're saved. We're justified
by the faith of Christ. He wasted no time, he did nothing
for himself, and he left nothing undone of all that his father
gave him to do. No one else ever did that. No
one else ever could. He walked in the daytime of God's
will until he finished the life of obedience his father gave
him to do, in order that he might then give himself as the perfect
sacrifice for the sins of his people to fulfill his father's
will in the night of God's judgment, when he unleashed the wickedness
that was in man's heart. to bring him to death by their
murder. And yet, at no point was he overcome
by man's wickedness. He was never overcome by it,
but he gave himself to his father. The murder that men committed
was the sacrifice of Christ. It was obedience of faith, of
love, and of saving grace. Christ must save. He must bring
his people out of the Jews and the Gentiles. Remember in John
4, when he went to the woman sitting on the well of Samaria,
it says that he must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because
the clock of heaven, the will of God, the scriptures have said
it. I have to do it. This is what
the scripture is to fulfill scripture. He said also in John 10 concerning
his people, They were looking upon him, he was telling them,
I'm the good shepherd, I'm the door of the sheep. And they thought
he was talking about his disciples. Then he says, other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold, and them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. You see, Christ
wasn't discouraged. He did not fail. As it said in
Isaiah 42, verse six, that we read just a minute ago, he shall
not fail nor be discouraged until he set judgment in the earth
and the isle shall wait for his law. His people would not be
left unsaved. He saves them all because that's
the will God gave him to do. He told The people in John chapter nine,
he said, I must work the works of him that sent me while it
is day. The night cometh when no man
can work. You see, this was the daytime
of his obedience to his father, to preach the gospel to the poor,
to bind up the brokenhearted, to heal the bruised, to set at
liberty the captives. and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord by the Spirit of God until he fulfilled it
in his own death. His death was a bloody death. It was death at the hands of
wicked men who murdered him out of the evil imagination of their
hearts in the greatest display of history, of man's cruel injustice,
that men could collectively imagine and carry out this heinous thing
that they did. It was the worst thing that ever
happened, and yet it was the best thing God ever did. It was
the lowest point in human history and yet it was the highest point
in God's glory. You see how God does these things?
He takes the wickedness of man and He turns it to set forth
the brightness of His glory. Acts chapter 2 says, you by wicked
hands have taken and crucified him, but it was by the predetermined
counsel and foreknowledge of God that you did this. And in
Psalm 22, when he cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He goes on to say, because you
are holy. You're holy, that's why. Christ
gave himself. Men thought they were doing their
own will against his weakness and against his will, but he
waited. He waited until it was his will, his own will, to lay
down his life and to offer himself freely. out of humility in obedience
of love and faith to his father for the sins of many, to give
himself out of love for his church. That's what he's about to do,
but not until it's time. Until that consummate obedience
of love and offering himself in the greatest lowliness of
willing humiliation in his death, Christ lived for his father's
glory the whole time. in order that he might present
himself to God a perfect sacrifice. If he had sin of his own, he
couldn't bear the sins of his people. And he wanted to set
forth his will and his father's will and his work in the cross.
And so he lived his life in order to declare his work. his person,
his office, God gave him. Men thought they could set the
date for his murder, but he waited and no one took his life from
him. He laid it down of himself and his father gave him this
commandment to lay it down for the sheep. But until that time
that God determined, no one could do nothing but feel in their
hearts this hardening effect of their envy and hatred because
of their unbelief against Christ. Uncontrollable rage against the
Holy One of God, Jesus said, they hated me without a cause.
That's sin, isn't it? Without a cause. I didn't provoke
them. They just hated me without a cause. It all came from them. all their fault. And so Jesus
walked in Galilee. He walked in Galilee. He worked.
He did His Father's will. He spoke His Father's word. Everything
His Father gave Him to finish, to offer Himself for the sins
of many, to save His people from their sins, to deliver them,
to set them at liberty as the sons of God. Know this, whatever
Christ accomplished in his life and death, that was the will
of God. There was no deviation. It was
perfectly in line with it all. All right, until he lived. or until he gave himself to death,
he lived. He never slacked, was never idle,
always active, always doing the will of God until he laid his
life down for his people. He gave himself to God. It was
all obedience, all as a servant. And those who envied and hated
him in willful unbelief thought they had the mastery over him
when they cruelly murdered him, but it was all by God's will.
all to God's glory, all for the salvation of his people, just
as Pharaoh. I've got these people. I got
them right where I want them. No, no, no. OK, I'll let them
go. No, no, no, no. Actually, I changed my mind.
I'm going to I'm going to make them do this, going to make them
do that. Finally, at the end, I'm going after them. I'm going to
pursue them. They've got they're caught by the Red Sea. I've got
them. Oh, this is exactly where God wants you. He's going to
get glory from this pygmy of a ruler who thought himself to
be God. God brought him down. So the
Lord brought Satan down in the death of his son, absolutely
destroyed the kingdom of Satan, like Haman, hung him on his own
gallows. And so all of God of the kingdom
of Satan. All right. The second point here
that I want to make after this one is that Through the Jews'
unbelief, through their unbelief and their hatred of Christ, guess
what's come? Salvation. Salvation to the Gentiles. Those the Jews sought, they're
lost. They're forever outside of the
kingdom of God. They have no part in Israel,
no part in the promises, no part in the law. They're lost. What did they say? Well, when
they rejected him, the Lord Jesus Christ says, after these things
Jesus walked in Galilee, he knew he would not walk in Jewry because
the Jews sought to kill him. They rejected him. They didn't
believe him. What did he do? Was he discouraged? Did he fail?
No. He just went to the Gentiles. That's where he had been. That's
where he stayed. The Jews would not believe Christ.
He left them and he carried out his purpose with the Gentiles.
Doesn't that cause you some sobriety? I think today the gospel is preached
somewhere. Maybe I hear it. Maybe we've
been blessed with the greatest possible blessing on earth that
any person could ever know is to hear the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ with God's people. Here we are, taking of His body
and of His blood into ourselves, knowing we have no life, Not
even the faith to take part of Him. And we come to Him and say,
Lord, give this to me, this life and this faith, so that I might
take of You and have You and know You and live upon You. And
this greatest of blessing, when we have it and experience it,
how lightly we treat it. And the Jews, remember the disciples,
they heard Him and they left Him. And it makes me wonder,
Lord, don't leave me You ever think about that? Don't leave
me. Many of his disciples heard him say that he must give his
life for the life of the world. That would have offended them.
The world? I thought it was just the Jews. Or that you have to
give your life? I'm not that bad. And they themselves
knew that they could only live if they ate his flesh and drank
his blood, and that offended them. And his offering to God
for the sins of his people? Well, I'm not that big of a sinner.
I have a righteousness. No, you don't. You need to come
to Christ. He's the only righteous one.
So when he told them these things that they couldn't come, they
couldn't see, they couldn't believe unless it was given to them of
their father, they were offended and they left him. because they
couldn't manipulate the thing. They couldn't control the situation. They couldn't make him to do
something. Make some bread. That's not the way it works.
Give me life. That's not the way it works.
God gives it at his will, out of his grace, because of his
son in his purpose and for his glory. Well, what does that mean? I have no control over this.
Precisely. You're the one who's the sinner,
who must come to Christ and see that only by His death, His shed
blood at the hands of murderous men, in order to satisfy God
and exalt His glory in all of His perfections, that's what
God has to do for you, to save you. You're going to have to
bow to Him and come to Him only. But what about my decision? I
mean, I'd like to analyze these things. If God is true, then
I should be able to figure it out. No, that's the problem.
When you think that your decision has to be made in order to prove
God's truth, then you've exalted your intellect and your will
above God's word. And that's a problem. That means
you're hostile against God. And so it brings us down, doesn't
it? So the Jews were, and yet God
wasn't, was no failure here. He did his will. Men love to
be in the place of judgment. They like to be able to decide
whether or not God's word is true and whether or not they're
saved or not, but that's not the way the gospel is revealed.
We need life. We don't have it. We need faith.
We can't produce it. We're unable to produce and we
can't We can't acquire what we even need and we're deprived
of because of our sin. What's going to happen then?
We're going to have to come to Christ. We're going to have to
hear that it's all in him and that he gives it in his will
because of his grace. And he gives his own spirit because
of his redeeming work. And out of that great need and
out of his all sufficient supply by God's will, we come to him
and we say, Lord, give me this bread. your crucified self in
order that I might be brought to God. And that's the way faith
works. We're absolutely void of all
that we need and have to have. And it's only in Christ, and
that's what faith says. It's in him, it's not in me. Okay, so the third part here
I wanna point out is that it's no failure of God's will and
word and power when men reject Christ. You see, when the Lord Jesus
was walking on this earth, he believed his father. So everything
he did, he did out of faith, the obedience of faith and the
fruit of faith. And he did it out of love because
faith works by love. And he did it perfectly. He kept
God's holy law. Absolutely. Every jot and tittle
and fulfilled it. The Psalms, the prophets, the
law, he fulfilled it all. And so when he went, when he
stayed in Galilee, he was doing all of this by the will of God.
And so that there was no failure. There was nothing lost. Well,
what about this other opportunity? No need to worry about that.
God's going to fulfill all of his will in this one place through
the word of Christ and the work of Christ. Isn't that amazing? And so it is in our life, isn't
it? We live upon Christ by faith. And when we walk by faith, looking
to Christ only for everything, what happens? God's will is done. God is glorified. Christ is exalted. And we're conformed to the image
of his son. There's no waste. But when we live, and faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and so we're constantly
taking of Christ from the gospel. But when we live our lives in
unbelief, then we spend our time and our thoughts and continuously
seeking after those things that don't give life. But when we
live by faith, nothing is lost. So the Lord Jesus Christ, there
was no failure, no failure. There was nothing lost. The Jews
wouldn't believe him. They couldn't believe him because
it wasn't given them the grace to believe, to overcome their
sinful unbelief. But all those given to Christ
would, nothing lost. All those the Lord gave to His
Son did come to Him and will come to Him. Nothing lost. No
power of God is wasted. He shall accomplish His will.
He shall save all of His elect. He shall give them eternal life.
He made a covenant with His Father and pledged Himself for them,
and that's the covenant He fulfilled in His blood. Men reject Christ. They don't believe his word.
They don't understand Christ's life. They don't understand his
death. And they do not understand what
he accomplished in his life and in his death. And so they don't
see any glory in his work. Christ labored for our salvation. He labored in life until it was
time for Him to labor in death. But all of His life and all of
His death was a labor for our salvation. And there's no other
work but His work that is required for our salvation. No other work
but His work can save us. But our labor is to not labor. Our labor is not to think or
attempt to gain righteousness or blessings or salvation from
God by something about us that God can recognize. Well, what
about this that I did? No, it's not about you. What
about our work? We make commitments, we resolve,
we surrender. That's not the issue. The issue
is what Christ did and what God thinks of Him. So our labor is
to rest in Christ's work and His labor. You see, Jesus said, except you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have
no life in you. Unless we believe Christ, we'll
die in our sins. That's the important thing here.
It's about His work and His power, not ours, not our labor. It's
about trusting Him. Now, I want to point out a couple
of things here too. You see the huge contrast between
the fruit of unbelief and the fruit of Christ's labor? The
fruit of unbelief is what? Murder. The fruit of Christ's
labor, salvation. The fruit of unbelief is to hostility
against the Lord of glory. but the fruit of faith is to
glorify God for his work in Christ. What a contrast here. You see,
God's purpose, God's will, God's word, God's power, and all that
Christ did is a success in spite of our sin. And this is the glory
of the gospel, that when we were not only without strength, but
when we were the enemies of God, God reconciled us through the
death of His Son. We contributed nothing, had no
interest in it, no initiative, no ability, no life, no faith. God did it all. You see, the
Lord Jesus Christ is enough. He's enough. And so we look to
Him. And now, therefore, every moment of our life, this is the
fourth point here, every moment of our life, we must redeem the
time as Christ did while it is day. While it is day, while we
have this time, while the gospel is preached, it's daytime. When
the gospel is gone, it's nighttime. When we don't hear the gospel,
what do we do? If we're a believer, we're crying out to God, Lord,
don't forsake me. When we find the tendencies of
sin and unbelief in our heart, what do we say? Lord, don't let
me depart. Make me to walk in your ways.
Cause me, incline my heart unto your testimonies and not to wickedness. Not to unbelief, Lord, but to
faith. Give me this grace. So we're
constantly applying, we're constantly coming to Christ in our hearts.
And that's redeeming the time. That's redeeming the time. We're
continuously applying to Christ by his word in the gospel and
through prayer in our hearts to him in order that we might
live and by his grace and saving power know him and to love him. Isn't that the pursuit? And when
you feel the most cold and hard-hearted in yourselves, the flicker of
the light of the gospel by God's grace shines through and you
say, Lord, don't let me leave you. I don't want to be amongst
those who do not believe and depart from you. Life is knowing. Life is knowing Christ. And we
know him from his word. And we know him by the power
of his Holy Spirit. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ
was an idol, we should continually strive to give attention to the
gospel and apply it to our hearts and ask Him to apply it and be
ready that we might always be ready to give a reason for the
hope that lies within us. To identify with the Lord's people
who know themselves to be sinners and need God's grace and saving
work in Christ. Every hour of our life, is given
to us that we might honor Christ by faith in him and then give
ourselves again to him through the grace he's given. The one
who gave himself for us and gives himself to us that we might have
to give to him again. How can we come to him in prayer
unless he gives us his word? How can we think on Him unless
He gives us His Word? How can we know Him unless He
reveals Himself to us from His Word by His Spirit? So we're
dependent upon Him and we apply ourselves, Lord, give me the
Gospel. We pick up His Word. We read
it. We tune it in. We listen to it. We come together
and we talk about Him. We're redeemed the time and may
the Lord compel us by his work for us and his spirit in us to
know and receive those things freely given to us by God and
so redeem the time. Ephesians chapter 5 says it this
way, Be ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love
as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor, redeeming the time because
the days are evil. You can read that in Ephesians
chapter 5 verses 1 through 16. Just as Christ loved and gave
himself for us, may we have grace from him to believe and declare
his goodness and give ourselves to walk in love as God's dear
children. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
comes by the word of God and the word of God is preached to
us by the gospel. We know what to do then, don't
we? Let us therefore give ourselves
to the word of God and to prayer for the love of the brethren,
to build up his people, the salvation of God's elect, and all for the
glory of Christ. Ephesians chapter four, verse
16 says this. Speaking the truth in love, the
gospel. Speaking the truth of the gospel
in love may grow up unto him in all things which is the head,
even Christ, from whom, from Christ, the whole body, fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,
makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
That's redeeming the time. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. While you have light, Jesus said,
believe in the light. It's amazing that the Lord didn't
plead with those disciples who left him. He didn't go back to
plead with the Jews. He stood in the temple and he
proclaimed himself and his saving work. They would take him, they
would murder him, and he would be silent throughout. But then
they would see his work. that he had told them by his
word, and he fulfilled that work, he accomplished our salvation.
May God give us grace to so believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
pray. Father, we pray for your grace that is ours only by your
goodwill and your goodness on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his redeeming blood, that we might be given your spirit
to know these things and live by spiritual life in our souls,
you yourself living in us, enabling us to live upon you by faith,
and in that faith to hear your word and believe it, and to love
the Lord Jesus Christ in our heart and his people for whom
he died. Help us to identify with them
and declare your gospel during this time, to redeem the time,
by this grace you've given to us. Help us to be good stewards
of the life you've given, the grace you've given, so that in
going to you for the very life we need to live, you would be
magnified. To give you Out of the grace
you've given to us, it's all yours, Lord. And we do what we
do, and think what we think, and are enabled by what we are
enabled, all because it's your grace. Help us to not think that
what we need comes from us, but find it always in Christ. And
help us to glorify Him, trusting Him, and giving thanks from our
heart, and accept and receive us, Lord, for His sake. We have
no other Savior, no other one who can represent us in a holy
way except the Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of God. We pray
that you would do your word, that you would fulfill your will
and save your people to the uttermost in his name, our savior's name
we pray, amen.