The Gospel of John, we have reversed
the order of study. You know, we've been going through
the Old Testament. Why, I'm not sure, except that
maybe the Gospel of John, these last verses of John 11, lend
themselves more to a verse-by-verse study. That's what a Bible study
is, you know, verse-by-verse, line-upon-line preaching. At any rate, John 11, I want
to deal faithfully with all the verses. Verse 47 is where we
pick up. It says, Then gathered the chief
priests and the Pharisees a council. And he said, What do we? What
are we going to do? This man doeth many miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and
the Romans shall come and take away our place and our nation. It says the chief priests, they
were priests, as you know, in the Old Testament. And what those
men did was they served the temple. They're supposed to be serving
the Lord in and around the temple. They were just servants though.
Just wash dishes, take out the ashes, chop wood, bake bread. That was it. They're not saying
anything special. as just servants. You had chief
ones. There were chief priests in the
Old Testament that were over the work of, you know, had one
man over the bread. There were lots of it prepared.
But these fellas became high-muckety-muck, as we'd say, thinking themselves
to be something. you know, chief servant, one
who's the greatest servant, our Lord said, should be the least,
the most humble, the most serving of the people, not the Pharisee. Look at Matthew 23, real quickly,
Matthew 23. Our Lord warned people about
these Pharisees and, you know, often I, I, You know, we don't
want to spend all our time denouncing religion, but our Lord sure spent
a great deal of time in it. Prophets sure did, because there's
so much of it. And look at Matthew 23. He said,
Verse 2, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat,
whatever they bid you observe and do, but do not ye after their
works. They say and do not bind heavy
burdens, grievous to be born, lay them on men's shoulders.
They themselves will not move them with one finger. Verse 5,
all their works they do to be seen of men. and make broad their
phylacteries, enlarge the borders of their garments, love the uppermost
rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogue, greetings
in the marketplace, and be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi." He said,
don't be called Rabbi. What is your master Christ? Call
no man your father. These Pharisees, Pharisees, and
there were chief priests and there were Pharisees. Pharisee
means separatist. separate, no Pharisees in the
scripture in the Old Testament. It means a separatist. These
fellows were people thought were devout, holy, pious, men who
lived in exclusive lives, come not near me, you know. They looked
down on other people, holy men. Sounds like cardinals and priests
and monks and friars today. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. Our Lord Jesus Christ was really
and truly the only holy man by nature. The only holy man who
ever lived. And the scripture says he was
a friend of publicans and sinners. This man received the sinners.
They said it derision. One time he was in a house and
a woman was bathing his feet with her tears. And one of them
said, if he knew what manner of woman that was, he would...
Didn't he know what kind of woman? Yes, that's why he came. That's
what they were supposed to be doing. And they didn't. And they
said, they said in chapter 11, they said, what are we going
to do? This man does many miracles. But if we let Him alone, men
will believe on Him, and the wrong ones will come, and we'll
be out of a job. You know, they said, it's obvious
He does many miracles. A person and the works of the
Lord Jesus Christ cannot be denied. Though man wants to, and man
rejects Christ, though man wants to do away with Him, God, His
existence, his life, his death, his sayings are too well documented. The Bible, ancient histories,
his name, his influence, his followers continue this day after
2,000 years. He cannot be forgotten or ignored. He cannot be put away. Why? Because
he is. He's the I Am. He was, he is,
and he ever shall be the I Am. While men may be forgotten, everything
man does, everyone who's anyone will be long forgotten, not Jesus
Christ. And though men would like very
much to put Him away, they can't do it. The opposite is going
to happen. They said in verse 48, if we
let Him thus alone, if we let Him alone, That's what men thought then,
and that's what they think now. We can't let him do this. We can't let him do this. If
we let him. Let him? Do you understand? I know you do. Anyone who talks about letting
God do anything doesn't know God. Anyone that talks about
letting Jesus doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. I've said this so many times. Nobody fears Jesus.
Everybody loves Jesus. It's another Jesus. The fear
of the Lord Jesus is the beginning of wisdom. and fear of God. And this is life eternal, that
they might know that Thee, the only true God. You see, the true
God, the God of the Bible, the God who is God, He's the one
that lets us do things. We don't let God. God said, I
will work, and who will let me? It's absolutely certain that
anyone that says that, we're going to let him do that. We
can't let him do that. Let Jesus into your heart. Brothers
and sisters, it's not that men are ignorant. It's not that men
just don't have the right doctrine. They don't know God. It's another
God, another gospel, another Jesus. Nobody's saved under that.
Life eternal is to know the living and the true God and Jesus Christ
and God sent and who He is and why He came and where He is now. Men and women are in for a dreadful
and horrible surprise when they stand before the Lord, Jesus
Christ, someday. And our Lord said that. He said,
many will say it to men. Matthew 7. Lord, Lord, we did
this and we did that. A man can do nothing unless Jesus
Christ lets him do it. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. We know what we know. We do what
we do. We have what we have. A man can receive nothing except
to be given him from above. Everything's by grace. We don't
know anything, we can't do anything, can't be anything unless God
lets us. Why do you keep doing it, saying
this, preacher? Because it's so. And God gets
the glory. He must get all the glory. But
these fellas, see, they revealed themselves, didn't they? He's
going to take away our place and our nation. We're going to
lose our jobs and our prosperity and our influence. You know, I thought about America. And I, you know, I suppose I'm
patriotic. I don't know. I'm thankful. I'm
real thankful I live in this nation. It's the best nation
on earth to live in, the freedom we have, and most of all, the
freedom to worship, and so on and so forth. But this is not
one nation under God. That's what they claim. Interestingly,
it's on money. That slogan's on money. This
is one nation under the wrath of God. And what it's all about today,
people talk about one nation under God and talk about their
love for God and Jesus and America and all that. What's it about
is materialism and power and influence. When people say, God
bless America, what they mean is, don't take away one of our
three automobiles. Don't let us lose our second
house. Right? You know what's up. And religion's
the worst. It's the worst. Billy Graham, when he died, was
worth $25 million. And that gold and that silver
rise up in the judgment against him. That's what the Scriptures
said. Joel Osteen, 50 million dollars. You tell me those men know God. God bless America. The only way
God's going to bless America is through this gospel, through
the Word. He's going to have to bring America
down, isn't he? Humble America. Proud people. Humble America. And cause America,
cause the people of America to call on God for mercy. Forgiveness
of sins. Have mercy on them. Well, the
high priest, and look at verse, let's read down to verse 52.
One of them, verse 49, named Caiaphas, the high priest, that
same year, said unto them, You know nothing at all. You don't
know what you're talking about. Or consider it expedient for us
that one man should die for the people, that the whole nation
perish not. And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation, Not for that nation only, but that also
he should gather together in one the children of God that
were scattered abroad. He's the high priest and he's
the servant of the temple. He's the chief, really. And you
know what the high priest is supposed to be doing? High priest
had one job. Offer up sacrifice. Go in and
holy of holies and offer up blood on the mercy, right? There's
no mention of blood. anywhere among the Pharisees
and scribes. Yes, you find it. Nope, nope. Not one mention of any lambs,
bullocks, even turtledoves, anything being offered unto the Lord.
Not one. Can you find it? I can't find
it. Because they weren't doing it. They weren't about that. They were going through the motions. They went through the ceremonies
and so forth, but they weren't. It was religion without blood.
Same today. Same today. Caiaphas, now go
to Proverbs 16 with me, Proverbs 16. And this is very telling,
that there were two hyparists. Caiaphas and what was it, Ananias?
Yeah. Two hyparists. That's never been
the case. There was one. Right, John? But there were two at that time.
That's how corrupt it was. And they were related. We understand that the reason
there's one high priest is because he represents one person who's
to go into the presence of God. One and only one. And no man
takes this upon himself. He's called. He's such a picture
of Christ. Proverbs 16. Toccat has said
all of this, prophesied. And it said he didn't say this
of himself. He didn't just decide to say this. He didn't know what
he was saying. They said something. He said,
you don't know what you're talking about. Did you catch that, Patrick?
He said, y'all don't know what you're talking about. He didn't
say y'all, but he said, now here's the way it is. And he didn't
know what he was saying. I laugh. God's not mocked. He mocks man. Look at Proverbs
16. The preparation of the heart
in man, the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways
of man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirit.
Commit thy works unto the Lord, thy thoughts shall be established.
The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked
for the day of evil. Caiaphas said, you all don't
know what you're saying, you need to listen to me. Oh, how highly man thinks of
himself, his words, his wisdom, his ways. When Paul, the apostle,
said, we're not sufficient to even think anything of ourselves. Think. He didn't realize what
he was saying. Nor do men today. When you consider all the words
of God's Word, the truth that men and women hear today, that
people read, they read the Bible. When you consider that, and yet
people don't understand it. Scripture is so clear to us,
so plain to us, and people are reading the same Bible, mostly,
and they don't understand it. Have you ever had somebody read
like Romans 9 and say, I don't see it that way? Well, what's
to see? Not of him that willeth or him
that runneth. What's hard about that? So this
is an absolute fact that God blinds the mind of people. It's so clear. That's why I love
Proverbs 8, verse 9 says, it's all plain to him that understandeth.
It's alright to them to find knowledge. We don't, of our own
selves, come to an understanding, do we? How do we get this understanding? What did John say? The Son of
God hath come and given us an understanding. He's opened our
understanding. The disciples on that road, He
opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.
Otherwise, they'd have been blind to it. He said, Blessed are your
eyes, they see. Blessed are your ears, they hear.
God's given you an understanding that you might know Him that
is true, and you're in Him that is true. This is the true God
in eternal life. God gets all the glory. We're
not educated in the Kingdom of God, we're born in the Kingdom
of God. You don't figure out God, He reveals Himself to you. And people, how man thinks highly
of His wisdom, His counsel. If you and I seek, we're going
to look at verse 53. From that day forth, they took
counsel together. They took counsel together. They
held a council as a Sanhedrin, but they had a meeting. They
had a gathering of all these high chief fellows. You know
there's a thing called today the American Council of Churches? I wouldn't go near that place.
And they have gatherings all the time in our county, in our
county-wide prayer meeting. I am, you're not going, we're
not going to go there. Why? Different God. I'm going
to call on the same guy. We don't believe the same thing.
All of them, Brother Steve and all of them get together and
believe the same thing. It's like there's a remnant,
there's a remnant. Now every religion, every, what's
the word, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian denomination can
get together and agree, they all agree, Catholics and Baptists,
they believe the same thing. God loves you, Jesus died for
you. That's it. But they all hate the truth. And those that
preach it. That's what Psalm 2 says. They
have their counsel together. Against the Lord. Against His
anointing. They say, let's cast our bans.
Let's get rid of this grip. And they took counsel. I was
going to turn to, well, I quoted Psalm 2, but Psalm 62, 4 says,
they only consult. That's a counsel, consultation. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. They said, what are we going
to do with him? And here's my advice to you and
me. If we seek counsel, wise counsel,
let it be from the wonderful counselor. and nobody else, because
nobody else has clarity. And their counsels, the counsels
of men, will all be brought to knowledge. All of it will be
brought to knowledge. And the counsel of the Lord,
the Scripture says, that shall stand. That shall stand. Well, look at verse 54. It says,
Lord, therefore walk no more openly among the Jews, but went thence
unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim. And
there he continued with his disciples." He went out into the country.
Where are you going to find the Lord Jesus Christ? Then and now. Where are you going to find Him? Outside the camp. He's not, he
wasn't in Jerusalem. When he went in there, he took
a whip and plaited a whip and cleaned house and he left. He went out to be with his people
in Capernaum or Bethany or out in the country. Look at Hebrews
13. If you don't know where this
is, you need to know. It goes, Hebrews 13. Our Lord is not in big-time religion. Ichabod's written over the door.
The glory at the party. Our Lord is among His people,
where His truths proclaim, where His Gospels preach, where His
people worship Him in spirit and truth, not going through
the motions. They really do worship God in
spirit and in truth, the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A people that gather and sit, that come to worship God as God.
bow before Him, to hear His Word. Lord, what do you have to say
to worship His Son? To sing His praises? To hear a man preach? Yes, preach. That's what God is pleased to
use. Preaching the Gospel. God's people
love to hear the preaching of Christ. It really is so. In Hebrews 13, look at verse 10. We have an
altar where they have no right to eat which serves the tabernacle.
An altar. Many of you were in religion
years ago, free will religion. Did you have an altar called?
Was there an altar down front? This ain't no altar. This is
just a table to put flowers on. Or the Lord's crackers and the
wine when it's time. Just a table. That's no altar. Mourner's bench. Did you ever
do that? Come down to the mourner's bench? Dedicate, rededicate.
You got to keep doing that at dawn. An altar. Come down to the altar. Lay your
all on the altar for Jesus. Anybody? Sure you did. Anybody
that does that doesn't know God. We don't come to a place, we
don't worship a thing, we worship a person. We have an altar. What is it? Where is it? It's
not a what, it's a who. Where is it? Sitting at the right
hand of God. Right hand of God. In verse 11,
he says, now the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin. See that? That's
what the high priest was supposed to be doing. Those bodies were
burned without the camp. Without the camp. They took those
bodies outside of Jerusalem and burned those bodies. Our Lord
was crucified on Calvary's tree. Where was that? Outside of Jerusalem.
It's too gory, it's too bloody for people, good moral, upstanding
citizens of Jerusalem. We don't know what's that. So
they took him out there and hung him on a tree and he went through
hell as a burnt sacrament. Verse 12, so Jesus also that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. See that was a picture of Christ.
So it says here. Here's what it is. Where are
you going to find Him? Where are you going to go? Verse 13.
You're going to go forth unto Him. Why do you come to church? Why do we come to church? We
come to worship Him, don't we? Yeah, a few people really do
that. Do you? The Lord seeketh such to worship
Him. Do you? Not like we want to,
but we do. We really do. Let us go therefore
unto him without the camp, outside of modern religion, outside of
the accepted belief of the day, bearing his reproach. Our Lord said, you're going to
be hated for the truth said. Did you read the article in the
Bulletin this morning? Marvin, the last article. Our
Lord said, marvel not at brethren as the world hates you. They
hated me. They hated the Jesus Christ of Scripture. They hated
the truth. They didn't believe the truth.
They hated it. And man hadn't changed. The truth hadn't changed.
God hadn't changed. And men don't love truth. I don't. So, our Lord went outside of
Jerusalem. Go back to our text now. And
this is all significant because here's what the world is saying.
Here's what the world says. You can't be of God. You've just
got a little handful down there. This has to be of God. See how
many people are following? This has to be of God. It's the
other way around. It's exactly the other way around.
Now, I know these little cults and all that are not of God,
but the fact of the matter is the truth has always been in
the minority. When the Lord flooded this world
and destroyed man, woman, and beast on this earth with Noah's
flood, how many people were in that ark? Eight. I rest my case. No, people don't believe the
truth. No, people don't love the truth. Whatever the majority
of the world believes is wrong. There is a way that seems right
to man. All mankind thinks the same thing. You know, the same thing is about
God. He's just a loving old fellow
that wants to save you. If there is a God, He's just
a loving old fellow. We've got to let Him, you know,
be God and accept Him. You've got to quit your meanness
and, you know, turn over a new leaf. And if you, you know, start
being good, you'll go to heaven. No, hold on. It takes one thing
for us to go to heaven. It's for God to kill His Son.
Like a bloody offering at His Son. To put His Son through hell. Why? Because that's what I deserve.
That's severe, isn't it? Our Lord said, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee fell on thee. Man has reproached God. Man is everything man does is
an abomination to God. So Christ became sin. Who realizes that? God's people. And that's why they keep worshiping
Christ every service. That's why we keep worshiping
Christ. You understand that? We're not about Anything but
the worship of God's Son. So he went out into the country. And the Jews, verse 55, the Jews
Passover. There it is. It's supposed to
be the Lord's Passover. The Lord's Passover. His blood. It's all about blood.
It's all about lamb. The Lord's Passover. The Lord's
table is all about Christ. The Jews pass over, there's no
blood there. And many went out of the country
up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. Why are you going there? What
do you mean purify yourself? Well, dedicate, rededicate, consecrate,
and so on and so forth. They sought for Jesus, verse
56, spake among themselves as they stood in the temple. See,
they were in the temple. This is where God is. Oh, this
is where God is to be worshipped. This is where, no, God doesn't
dwell and build His name's hands. Oh, God's with us. Oh, is He?
Everybody believes that. Romans 8.31. God be for us who
can be against us. It's on the back of trailers,
isn't it? Eighteen wheel trailers, isn't
it? Just see it all the time. God be for us. God's for those
who love His Son, who worship His Son. That's who God's for. And they were stood in the temple
and they were looking for Him. He wasn't there. He's not there. They said, what do you think?
You think you've come to the peace? I don't know. It's anybody's
guess. Our Lord said this. He said,
where two or three are really gathered in my name, I will be
there. Where the blood is, that's where
He is. Where the true worshippers of God are, that's where He is. It's not what we think, is it?
It's what God said. What do you think? They were looking for Him, weren't
they? Now, both the chief priests and the Pharisees have given
a commandment. If any man knew where He were,
they should show it, that they might take Him. You know, as I said to begin
this study, he read it with me. And being faithful to the Word,
I don't like to spend too much time denouncing religion, but
preaching Christ. That's what that's all about.
All those verses, they all thought, you know, we're of God. Christ
wasn't around. He wasn't in that midst then.
And they only consulted to cast him down. Man gets together and
talks about and worships man's free will. Anybody that believes
free will is bringing him down, bringing God down from his nation.
Anybody says, what will you do with Jesus? It's just bringing
Him down and casting Him down from His excellency. The truth
and true religion and those who believe the truth and worship
God are all about His glory. To God be the glory. Great things
He hath done.