Thank you so much, Alan. Let's
go back to John 7 this evening, if you would take your Bibles,
and I would assume that all of you have got your Bibles, and
open, please, to John chapter 7. Our Lord Jesus, in accordance
with God's law, is now in attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles. As I said this morning, this
is the last of the Feasts of Israel, the last of the three
big Feasts of Israel. This was the grand harvest festival. And it was a a time of rejoicing,
a time of thanksgiving to God for his mercies. And of course,
they remembered the good providence of God in leading their forefathers
out of Egyptian bondage, and they dwelt in booths. And they
dwelt in booths during these eight days as they reflected
upon the goodness of God to them in all things. It's also pictures,
of course, our Lord Jesus who tabernacled in the flesh. And
so he goes up to Jerusalem about the middle of the feast. We pick
up our reading now in verse 14, John 7. Now about the midst of
the feast, Jesus went up into the temple. and he taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, how knoweth this man
letters, having never learned, that is, never learned from any
of us. And Jesus answered them and he
said, my doctrine, my instruction, my teaching, my preaching is
not mine, but his that sent me. And he said, if any man will
do his will, he shall know the doctrine. Whether it be of God, or whether
I speak of myself, he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. But he that seeketh his glory,
that seeks the glory of him that sent him, That one, that very
one, the same one is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Let's get right to it here in
verse 14, as we consider Christ's doctrine. You notice he says,
my doctrine, verse 16, my doctrine is not mine. What did he mean
by that? He meant in that statement, he's
speaking as Jehovah's faithful laborer or servant. Certainly
doctrine, Bible doctrine is his, essentially as God. Because all
truth comes from God. God is truth. Our Lord Jesus,
when He came, it was said of Him, grace and truth. He had
grace and truth. All grace and all truth was in
Him. And indeed, all the doctrine
of the Word of God, the doctrine of God's salvation. And remember,
we've spoken about this before, that usually, usually in the
scriptures, when you read of doctrines, It is false beliefs,
false teachings. The doctrine of our God is one. You addressed the subject of
oneness in your morning message last Sunday. One, the body of
truth is singular. It is the doctrine of God, our
savior. It is the doctrine of grace.
It is the doctrine of mercy. It is the doctrine of God's salvation
to unworthy sinners through the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus. It is doctrine as in only one. There's only one body of truth.
We read in Ephesians, there's one Lord, one faith. What does
that mean, one faith? That's not so much one belief
in the Lord Jesus Christ, as it means one body of truth. God's truth. God's Word. That's why our Lord Jesus, in
His high priestly prayer, in John chapter 17, He said, Thy
Word is truth. And you've got to watch preachers.
Because they'll say things like, this book contains the truth
of God. No, this doesn't contain the
truth of God. This is God's truth. This is
God's Word. We have no other foundation for
that which we believe and that which we do. This is the body
of truth that we have before us. We should prize this. And
obey this. And read this. In fact, the Savior
says, if any man will do God's will, he will know the doctrine. I want to know the doctrine of
God, don't you? I want to know the truth as God
has set it forth. I know there are lots of false
ideas that are floating around out here in different religions,
in different denominations, and in different churches. There
are all kinds of things that are set forth, but I want to
know Him who is truth. I want to know His doctrine.
Do you? I'm sure you do. The Lord Jesus
says, if any man will do his will, he'll know the doctrine,
whether it's of God, or whether I speak of myself. You'll know
the doctrine. You'll know the truth. As you
seek to know God's will, as you walk in the life that God gives
you, He will reveal to you whether that which you've embraced is
the very truth of God or you've gotten hold of a lie. He will
show you. All doctrine, the doctrine of
God our Savior, can be made evident by the fact that all true doctrine
magnifies God and always abases men. You can just condense it
down to that. All true doctrine lifts God up. It exalts God. It makes God to
be everything. And therefore, true doctrine
makes man to be nothing. Now as we make man to be a little
something, we've got to necessarily make God to be less than everything. And that's false religion right
there. It's bringing God down and raising
men up. That's not God's doctrine. That's the false doctrines of
men. We want to know the very truth
of God and it is found in the Lord Jesus. So when he says,
my doctrine is not mine, it is certainly his essentially because
he's God. But he's speaking here as that
faithful righteous servant of Jehovah. And that doctrine which he taught
was the doctrine the father gave him. The father who gave him. Now, what is the essential doctrine
of Christ? And it's necessary, I'm persuaded
to answer this in light of the religious climate in which we
live today. In a hospital bed, Not much to
do. Just wake up and get stuck every
once in a while. Take your vitals and all that
sort of thing. And kind of in the wee hours
of the morning, especially Tuesday morning, early, Tuesday night
late, I turn on the television. Sure is a lot of religion on.
Lots of religion on. A lot of men got something to
say about God. And that's when I was kind of
drawn to this passage of Scripture because this is a very religious
day we're living in, but things are getting worse. There's never
been more denominations, more churches, more religions than
there are today in America. And yet, if you look at our society,
our society is not better for all of this religion, it's worse. There's something amiss somewhere. There's something wrong. There's
something missing. And it is the very doctrine of
God. That's what's missing. There's
a lot of emotionalism. There's a lot of religious sentimentality. There's lots of that. There's
a lot of religion where preachers make you feel good about yourself.
But of all the religions, and I just kind of tuned in to several
of them, didn't have anything else to do. And I thought, Lord,
there's nobody on here speaking for you. There's nobody speaking
the truth. There's nobody who's got a grasp
on the doctrine of God. And in line of that, I was led
to study this passage in John chapter 7 and bring you a message
this morning on it and a message this evening on it. And I suspect
maybe even Wednesday evening, I'm going to deal with this very
same thing. You see, today in religion, it's
a day of universal love. It's a day of universal redemption. There's no honoring God. There's
no honoring Christ Jesus. Oh, they say a lot of good things
about Jesus, but they don't nail it down on who He is and what
He did and why He did it and where He is now. They don't know
anything about that. And Jesus to them is just a very,
very kind person who came into this world, and He healed a lot
of people, and He went about doing good, and some really bad
people in this world, they decided they'd kill Him. Listen, He came
into this world to save His people from their sins. He did heal
a lot of people. He did cast out a lot of devils,
but He said, I've come to do God's will. God's redemptive
will. He came to do something about
our dilemma. He loved the people from old
eternity, and the Father entrusted these people unto Him, and the
Son of God volunteered, and He said, I'll be their surety, I'll
be their Savior, I'll be their head. I'll rescue them, I'll
redeem them, I'll deliver them from all iniquity. And that's
exactly what He did. The message of the Word of God,
the doctrine of God our Savior, is the work that Christ Jesus
came to finish. He accomplished it to God's satisfaction. And God raised Him from the dead.
But this is a day of exalting man's will. It's man's will. That's the bell
that's being rung over and over again. Will you? Will you accept? Will you receive? Will you do
this? Will you do that? There's no
thought given considering this. Will God show you mercy? Will
God be gracious to you? And in light of all that, and
the fact that God's sovereignty is overlooked or denied, I came
up with this message. Now, as I think about Christ's
doctrine, I think it consisted primarily of five things. Number one, his doctrine honored
God. All true doctrine does that.
It honors God. Number two, his doctrine set
forth the awful state of men. Number three, his doctrine revealed
the everlasting interest he had in his people. Number four, his
doctrine revealed the work that he came to do, the work of redemption. And lastly, his doctrine revealed
he's the way to God. And he came to direct sinners
unto himself. Let me just go right down and
I'll just mention these quickly. Number one, our Lord's doctrine
consisted of honoring God in all things. You know, when he
first came into the world, and I love that passage of scripture
and you do as well in Hebrews chapter 10, where the writer
of the book of Hebrews has declared in very specific words that the
blood of bulls and goats could never put away sin. Then, then
said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. That's the very
first recorded words of God the Son as He came into this world. He's on his way, as it were,
to Mary's womb. Because he said, a body thou
hast prepared me. And here's the Lord of glory,
the great creator, the great sustainer, the son of God, the
eternal savior of his people, as he makes his way from everlasting
glory, from the honor of his throne. and the majesty of his
throne. As he makes his way to Mary's
womb, he says, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. A body thou
has prepared me. That's the divine one speaking. The next time we hear him speaking
on earth is in Luke chapter two, when he's in Jerusalem. And you
can read the story, 12 years old. They find him in the temple. And he said, wished you not,
said to Joseph and Mary, wished you not that I must be about
my father's business. My father's business, that's
what was on his mind. That's what was on his heart.
He came to do the work the Father gave Him to do, and He came to
do the Father's business. He's here on business. There's
a transaction that's got to be made, a business transaction. You know what it means to have
a business transaction. You go to a bank or to somewhere,
and legal papers are involved, and there's a legal transaction
that takes place. There's an exchange of a price. Perhaps it is for a property. Well, our Lord Jesus, he came
and a legal transaction took place at Calvary. At Calvary. And here's the price
of the redemption of his people. His bloody death. That's what
it's gonna cost. These people that God gave you
in the covenant of grace, here's what it's gonna cost for you
to redeem them, to reconcile them, to make them righteous
and to forgive them of all their sins. It will cost you your blood
to your death. That's what it costs. And all
the transaction that took place in the blackness of midnight,
as it were, when our Lord Jesus hung on the cross of Calvary.
He came to transact business. And you listen to preachers today,
very, very few ever talk about that. They have no interest in
the justice of God. They have no interest in the
law of God. They have no interest in satisfying
the demands of a holy and righteous God. They have no interest in
those things. They just wanna talk about, smile,
God loves you. And Jesus died for you. And God's
got a wonderful plan for your life if you'll just let him work
it out. They have no idea. They have
no idea of God's doctrine, Christ's doctrine of salvation. Herein lies the problem. The
ignorance of the man behind the pulpit. It's no wonder people
in religion are so ignorant today. It's no wonder that they have
no knowledge of the sovereign grace of God or the redemptive
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The man behind the pulpit, he
doesn't know. And he's got a Bible. And people
say, well, he must be speaking for God. No, he's not speaking
for God because if he's speaking for God, he'd set forth the doctrine
of God. Our Lord Jesus, He honored God. He honored God. In John chapter
12, and I won't take the time to turn to all these references.
He said this, well, I'll take the time to turn to this. And
if you want to, you can too. He said this, John chapter 12. He said in verse 28, Father,
glorify thy name. Father, glorify thy name. He's facing the cross. He's facing
death. He's facing the agony of enduring
the righteous vindictive justice of God. And yet that which is
on his mind is the glory of the Father. And I'll tell you what,
if we've got the right doctrine, If we've got the Master's doctrine,
that which will be foremost in our minds and in our hearts is
this, Father, glorify thy name. That's what we want. Whatever
you do to us, whatever you do with our families, whatever you
do throughout the world, in all things, give yourself the glory. He said in his high priestly
prayer in John chapter 17, glorify thy son that thy son also may
glorify thee. And as he sought to glorify God,
notice the emphasis that he always put upon the word of God. The
word of God. He said, verily I say unto you,
until heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not
pass away from the law till it all be fulfilled. He said, heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
He said, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. He said
to His disciples in Luke chapter 24, beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them and all things in the Scriptures
concerning Himself. He's always about honoring God.
And I'll tell you, this is always, it's always going to be true
when you find a man and a congregation who is, their intent, their purpose
is to glorify God. That's how you'll know it's true
doctrine. Hear him honor the deity's right
to be worshipped. He told the woman at the well,
God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. God seeks true
worshippers. There are worshippers and there
are true worshippers. There are those who really adore
and magnify and exalt God. Hear him honor the Father's sovereign
right to show mercy to whom he will. In Luke chapter four, he
preached and he said, lots of widows in the days of Elijah. God's preacher sent to one and
she wasn't even Israelite, widow of Sarepta. He said a lot of
lepers in the day of Elisha, the prophet, God's prophet. He dealt with one leper, and
he was a Syrian. He taught the sovereignty of
God, the sovereign mercy of God. He said on one occasion, Father,
you've hid these from the wise and the prudent. You've hidden
them. Listen, if he hides truth, you'll never find it. Never ever
will you find it. And he says, you've revealed
it unto babes. In other words, He reveals His
truth to whom He will. And whom He will, He hides it
from. He softens hearts and He hardens
hearts. What's He gotta do to harden
your heart? Just leave you alone. Just leave you to yourself. Just
leave you to your will. And if He does that, it's right. Hear Him honor the Father's vindictive
justice. Hear him speak of the horrors
of hell as he speaks of Lazarus who lifted up his eyes being
in torments. Hear him speak of the firmness
of divine judgment. Depart from me, I never knew
you. Hear him honor the Spirit's work of regeneration. You must
be born again. His doctrine was all about honoring
God. Is our doctrine like that? Oh,
I tell you, we better do some examination right here. And he never hesitated to speak
of the honor of the Holy Spirit, the teacher of his people. And
he said of the Holy Spirit, he shall not speak of himself. He'll
speak of me. He'll show you things of mine.
What does the Spirit of God do? He gives us life. He gives us
liberty. He gives us repentance. He gives
us faith. And He's ever revealing to us
the Lord Jesus Christ. The accusation is sometimes made
against some sovereign grace preachers that we don't preach
enough about the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the
Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ Jesus. I know that and you know
that. All you got to do is read the
Bible. The spirit is not out to magnify himself. The spirit
is like a roadside pointing to Christ Jesus. There he is. He's the one we need to know. He said of the Holy Spirit, he'll
abide with you forever. And I'll tell you something else
our Lord Jesus did in honoring God. He honored himself. He never
backed down from saying, I am, I am. You understand this, he's
divine. If he's not divine, if he's not
God, he can't save anybody. He told those Jews in John eight
before Abraham was, I am, I am. They took up stones to stone
Him. He said, I am the bread of life. I'm the bread that came
down from heaven. I existed before I came down
here. All of us, we only existed in
the mind and purpose of God. But we had no real existence. We had no literal existence,
except as I say, in the heart of God. But our Lord Jesus Christ,
He came down here from somewhere. He had a pre-existence as God
over all blessed forever. He said, I am the bread of life.
He said, I am the light of the world. He comes to a world of
darkness. He said, I am the door. By me,
if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and
find pastures. He gave good directions. I'm
the door. Want to go to glory? I'm the
door. You want to go to the Father? I'm the door. You want to go
to salvation? I'm the door. You want righteousness?
I'm the door. You want forgiveness? I'm the
door. That's pretty simple, isn't it? Oh, this is too deep for
me, preacher. No, it's not too deep for you.
It's just got to be revealed. And if it's ever revealed, you'll
say, where have I been? How come I hadn't seen this before? He said, I'm the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He said,
I'm the resurrection and the life. I'm the way, the truth
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I'm the true vine. You're the
branches. You gotta be connected to me. Disconnected from Christ, death. alienation from God, connected
to Christ, you're alive, you're alive. And then here's something
else about his doctrine quickly. He set forth the awful state
of all men. Our Lord was true and kind and
tender to sinners, but he never dulled the edge of truth about
the sinfulness of men. and the necessity of salvation.
Look in Matthew chapter nine. Our Lord had passed by a tax collector's booth and he
called a man unto himself whose name was Matthew. Matthew nine, verse nine. And
as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man. He saw, oh boy. He saw a man. Reminds me of Ezekiel
chapter 16. I passed by and I saw that infant,
the Lord said. You know, he passed by your way.
He could have kept on going, but he didn't. He saw you. He saw Matthew, the old hardened
sinner. No interest in the things of
God. Looking out for himself, looking
out for number one, you know. He saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom. And he said unto me, he said
unto him, unto Matthew, and he said it in a voice of sovereign
authority, follow me. Follow me. Two words. And it arrested the heart of
Matthew. It got a hold of that man. And
he arose and did just exactly what Christ told him to do. He
followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus
said, it meet in the house. And if you read another, I think
it's Mark or Luke's version of this, it says that Matthew threw
him a feast. And many publicans and sinners
came sat down with him when Matthew gave this feast to honor his
Savior. When the Pharisees saw it, they
said unto his master, or said unto his disciples, why eateth
your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard
that, he said unto them, they that behold need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Go and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Who did he come for? Sinners.
Sinners. Did you know the Vatican has
announced the Pope is not a sinner? You know what that tells me?
Christ didn't come to save him. You see, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Are you one? Say, not me. Well, okay. He ain't come to
save you then. But I'll tell you what, when
I hear He came into the world to save sinners, I say, I'm one
right here. Lord, here I am. I'd do whatever's
necessary to try to get his attention, wouldn't you? He's the sovereign
king who gives his favors according to his will. Here I am, Lord,
and I'm just a sinner. I eat, drink, think, I'm all
about sin. I'm one, and I so wanna know
your doctrine. I so wanna be saved. He didn't hold anything back.
He said, in fact, back over in John chapter seven, he said,
the world hates me. He said, the world hates Jesus
of Nazareth. Well, wait, no, everybody, preacher,
everybody loves Jesus. Yeah, their idea of Jesus, but
they hate the Lord Jesus Christ. A Christ who does his will among
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
He said, they hate me. They hate me. And he told his
disciples, he said, listen, if they hated me, you go out and
preach me, they're gonna hate you too. You think you're gonna
receive a warm reception from this religious world? You think
they're going to cozy up to you and say, you know, we're all
brothers in the Lord, aren't we? No, they'll do to you if
they can, like Cain did to Abel, put you out of business if they
can. Our Lord never bragged on human nature. In Matthew, The Pharisees got
offended at what he said about eating with unwashed hands and
all of that. And the disciples came to the
master and said, you've hurt their feelings. These are religious
people. These are people who go to church
and you hurt them. He said, let the blind lead the
blind. He said, for from within out
of the heart proceed all this filth. Out of the heart. He put his finger right on the
problem. Our corrupt, inward corruption. That's the problem. And then
thirdly, very quickly, his doctrine was the everlasting interest
he had in his people. You know, one of his favorite
expressions, especially in the Gospel of John, those the Father has given me."
He loved to talk about those people. He has a real affection
for people that the Father gave Him. He's loved them with an
everlasting love. He said, I don't call you servants,
I call you friends. And He said, greater love hath
no man than this, and He laid down His life for His friends. This is the Lord of glory and
He takes us into Himself. And Hebrews says He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. He has an everlasting interest
in His people. These were people given to Him
in covenant love. And he says to the Jews who wouldn't
believe him, who wouldn't embrace him, who wouldn't worship him,
he said, you won't, you don't believe me, but all that the
Father giveth me, now they'll come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I'll in no wise cast out. And he affectionately spoke of
these people in John chapter 10, and he said, they're my sheep. They're my sheep. And one of
the sheep wrote in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. You know why
I shall not want? Why I shall not lack for any
good thing? Because of whom a shepherd is.
He's the Lord of glory. My sheep. He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. Oh, and the Jews, they hounded
him and said, show us a sign. If you're really him, if you're
really Messiah, do something extraordinary. Tell us again. He said, I've told you, but you
didn't believe me. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. That's exactly why you don't
believe. You're a hard-hearted bunch of religionists. Our Lord,
he, I tell you what, no wonder they got angry at him. He cut
them. He cut them down to size. He
exposed their hypocrisy over and over again. He said, woe
on you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, over and over again. He denounced
him. He just whittling them down to
take them down to nothing. And he did it in front of witnesses. And they said, we'll kill you
for that. And they did. according to the
purpose of God. But he always had his children's
welfare at heart. John chapters 14 through 16,
troubled saints of God. Boy, listen to how the master
speaks to us. Here he has the weight of salvation,
the work that he's facing, and in his last hours, it's the care
of his children that weighs upon his heart. And then fourthly, his doctrine
is the work of redemption he came to accomplish. Always marveled
that passage in John chapter three, when the Savior is speaking to
Nicodemus, And he speaks of his own death
then with a certain degree of calmness. He just kind of transitions
into it. And he said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. I mean, He just speaks of it
as that which He knows it's ordained to happen, and He wants it to
happen. It's just like at the last Passover,
He told His disciples, I've wanted to eat this with you for so long,
because I'm anxious to give my life for you. He spoke to His disciples and
He said, The son of man came not to be ministered to, but
to minister and give his life a ransom for many. That's the
ransom Job spoke of in the book of Job, delivering him from going
down to the pit. I found a ransom. He says of
his people, I've come that they might have life and have it more
abundantly. And he says in Isaiah 63, I've
trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none
with me. He speaks of, and quotes Zechariah
who said, a Waco sword against my shepherd? And against the
man who is my fellow, my associate, saith the Lord of hosts, smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. Our Lord's own
testimony was that his blood was the blood of a covenant,
a covenant made between the Trinity in old eternity. He said, this
is the blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. for the remission of sins. Oh,
no wonder we love to talk about that covenant. It's the blood
of the covenant. He's the Savior of the covenant. He's the surety of the people
of God who were chosen in that covenant, that covenant which
is sure, that covenant which cannot fail, that covenant which
all of our salvation's in that covenant. And His blood is the
seal of that covenant. And He says in John 17, I finished
the work you gave me to do. And then He says on the cross,
it is finished. It is finished. And He made His
soul an offering for sin. Lastly, He directs sinners to
Himself. What did he preach? I read to
you in Psalm 40, he said, I preach righteousness to the great congregation. I've not hid it, he said. I've
not hid it. And he says, seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things will be
added to you. You're worried about your health
and you're worried about daily provisions and you're worried
about this and you're worried about that. I tell you what you
better be worried about, are you righteous? Huh, yeah. Well, how are sinners made righteous?
In exactly the same way we became sinful. By the disobedience of
one, we became sinful. By the obedience unto death,
we became righteous. And we're made aware of that
by the power of the Holy Spirit. and we received that blessed
truth. He told the need of repentance. He said, except you repent, you
shall all likewise perish. He warned us concerning materialism. He said to the man who tore down
his barns and built bigger barns, he said, you fool, you fool. Your soul's gonna be required
of you tonight. And then who shall these things
be? And he is a fool whom God calls a fool. You better be interested in the
things of God. I better be too. And he says with great tenderness, come unto me, all you that labor. And they're heavy laden. I'll
give you rest. And I say, I'm coming, Lord. Here I come. I may be crawling. I may be just ever slowly nudging
my way toward Him. But I'm coming. Aren't you? I'm
coming. I came to Him back in 1973. I'm persuaded the very first
time. I've been coming to Him ever since. Because faith is
not an isolated act. Faith is a persuasion. It's a
persuasion. And I'm looking to Christ, coming
to Him every day. This is His doctrine. And we
judge whether our doctrine is right by setting it up against
His doctrine. Better match up. And I believe
it does. Don't you? I believe it does. Well, let's sing a closing song.