Let's go to the book of John
once again, and chapter 7. John chapter 7. Now, I'm going
to work on a statement down in verse 16 of John 7, and I'll
go ahead and give you my subject right here at the beginning,
and then we'll back up just a bit John chapter seven, look at verse
16. Jesus answered them. He answered
the Jews, and here's what he said, and here's my subject.
My doctrine is not mine, but his doctrine is mine. that sent
me. My doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. As we get to John chapter 7,
our Lord has spent about a year in Galilee. He didn't go back
into Judea. He didn't go back to Jerusalem
except to attend the feast. And the reason was because there
was such awful hostility against him by the Jewish religious leaders. He had angered them back in John
chapter five when he healed the man who had been lame 38 years,
and he did it, number one, on Sabbath day, and that made them
mad. And then he identified himself
as being that one who is the son of God, he referred to God
as his father, thereby saying he was equal with God, and that
also irritated them, and they were on the war path. They were
angry with him, they wanted to murder him, and so our Lord eased
his way over into Galilee. There he stayed for roughly a
year. It was in Galilee, specifically
in the city of Capernaum, that he brought that message on the
fact, he said, I am the bread of life. And there he dwelt throughout,
all the way to the end of chapter seven. Now, when we get to the
end of chapter six, excuse me, As we get to John chapter 7,
we find that he's going to go back into Judea. This is at the end of the harvest,
and so it's toward the end of the year. He will pretty much
remain in Judea, though he will leave to go into Galilee briefly,
But he'll stay there until he makes his triumphant entry into
Jerusalem. And then, of course, we know
he'll be put to death according to the divine ordained will of
God, because it was ordained for him to die. And so as we
get to chapter 7, we step into a new section, as it were. a new section, from Galilee into
Judea. And as you go through John chapter
seven and eight, and of course I preached through these chapters
several months ago, you see this hostility growing. There is this greater depth of
hatred for Jesus of Nazareth. Our Lord, up to this point, for
the last year or so, He didn't go into Judea because they would
have taken Him and tried to kill Him. This wasn't the time for
His death. He would die according to God's
appointment. He had a work to do, a work of
redemption, a work of reconciliation, and that work would be done when
he reached the hour that God had ordained for him to die.
This was not yet that hour. And so as we get to John chapter
7, our Lord Jesus enters He walked in Galilee, verse one says, because
he wouldn't walk in Jurian, but then the second verse, the Jews'
Feast of Passover or Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. Our Lord did go back into Jerusalem
to attend the Feast of Tabernacles. The Jews, as you know, had seven
feasts, seven feasts in all. Of those seven, three of them
were very significant, and all the males in Israel had to attend
those three, Passover, Pentecost, and then the Feast of Tabernacle.
Think of it this way, Passover was kind of in the early part
of the year, the springtime. And then 50 days after that,
specifically seven weeks and a Sabbath, there was Pentecost. That's the beginning of the harvest,
the very beginning of the harvest, called the Feast of Firstfruits. And then at the end of the season,
when all the crops had been gathered in, when everything had been
harvested, there was that last, the last feast called Feast of
Tabernacles. That's when this happens. Now
if in your mind you're trying to get a timetable here, our
Lord Jesus will go to this Feast of Tabernacles, and then he gets
into the next year, and of course the next Passover, that's when
he's going to die. So this will be his last Feast
of the Tabernacles that he's going to attend. And in fact,
the things that happen here in chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, up until
about verse 20, 21 of chapter 10, they all happen right around
the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. and our Lord being faithful to
the law of God. Remember, he was made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. And as that one
who was our representative, he came into the world to keep God's
law perfectly. He kept all the civil laws, he
kept parental law, and he kept God's law. And here we find him
going back into Jerusalem in order to keep God's law. He's
going to keep the Feast of the Tabernacles. Our Lord is our
perfect representative in everything that we ought to have done toward
God. All the obedience we should have
rendered to the Lord God of glory, He rendered it in our name and
on our behalf. We have a perfection in Him. We have obedience in Him. We read that we're the children
of disobedience even as others. But our Lord Jesus, He is our
obedience. He is the one who honored God.
We seek to honor God, we seek to worship God, we seek to do
the things that God would have us to do, but we all know we
fail. We're sinful people. And even
the good that we do has to be repented of. Even the prayers
that we pray have got to be wept over. Our Lord Jesus, He came
as the representative of His people and He did everything
exactly according to God's will. And He did it for us. And here
He is keeping the Feast of the Tabernacles. Now, let me just
make a few statements about these three feasts. First of all, the
Feast of Passover. Our Lord Jesus is the Lamb of
God who died to save his people from their sins. So we read in
1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Remember, God said to Israel
concerning the blood of the Lamb, that they were to put on the
door posts outside their houses in order to spare their firstborn
death. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. When I see the blood. God didn't
say, when I see good intentions. God didn't say, when I see good
desires. God didn't say, when I see you
put forth a good effort. God said, I'm looking for the
blood. I'm looking for the blood. Make no mistake about it today,
He's still looking for the blood. His eye is always on the blood.
Don't present to Him anything that you've done. All your hands
are soiled with sin, as are mine. That only which our God will
accept is that which God Himself provided. God provided the Lamb. God ordained the Lamb. God set
the Lamb aside. God killed the lamb. God shed his blood. It's the
blood of the Lord Jesus that cleanses us from all sins. God's looking for the blood,
and you should be looking for the blood. As you read through
the Word of God, look for the blood of the Lord Jesus. Look
for substitution. Look for satisfaction. Look for
that which honored God's law and God's justice. That's what
the Passover says. The Passover says, the Lord Jesus,
our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. And on the basis of His
life laid down, God sees the blood. And therefore He passes
over all those in whose stead the blood was shed. You say,
but don't we have to believe on Christ Jesus? Absolutely. But neither our faith nor our
repentance satisfied divine justice. The blood did that. The death
did that. The sacrifice did that. God's
eye is always on the blood and you keep your eye on the blood
too. And don't you ever think that God accepts you or receives
you for any other reason than this, Christ died in your stead. I'm just a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. He's the one who
died for me. He's the one who shed his blood
for me. This is the only hope we have, is that God sees the blood. And
when our faith is weak, when the eye of faith grows dim, and
the ear of faith grows somewhat deaf, when we can barely see
the blood, Here's our assurance. It isn't my sight of the blood. Though I want to see the blood
and focus on the blood and I love the blood of the Christ of Calvary,
here's my confidence. God sees the blood. God sees
the blood. And His Word is ever true. When
I see the blood, I will pass over you. God looks at the blood. He sees His Son seated at His
own right hand, who bears five wounds that He received upon
Calvary. And those five wounds, they ever
plead for us, they plead forgiveness, they plead righteousness, they
plead acceptance upon the basis of law and justice, having been
satisfied. All of this as seen in the Passover. I'll tell you this about those
firstborn children. They were all bought with the
same blood. That's right. They were all saved
by the same power. They all ate the same unleavened
bread. They all feasted on the same
roasted lamb. and we all feast on Christ Jesus. And then there was the Feast
of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover. And by the way, Passover and
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they joined together, lasted
several days. But then 50 days later, there
was the Feast of Passover or the Feast of to cause also called
the Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Weeks because it
was seven weeks and a day, thus 50. And that day was a Sabbath
day. This was a day when the very
first harvest began to come in. And the people rejoiced, giving
thanks to God. Here's the significance. Christ
died on the cross. Christ our Passover. And you
remember, after He died, He told His disciples, you stay right
here in Jerusalem. Don't go anywhere until the Spirit
has come to you. Whom He called the promise of
the Father. You wait. And they waited. And they waited till 50 days
after Passover, that is Pentecost. By the way, side note, this weekend
is Pentecost in the Jewish religion. Kind of interesting thing there.
Seven weeks and a day after Passover. But they waited for the giving
of the Spirit of God. And then the Spirit, He came.
Now, remember the feast of Pentecost is a feast of first fruits, first
fruits, first harvest, wheat harvest. And the very best of
the harvest, the first of the harvest was for God. It was for
God. And on this day in Acts chapter
two, the Spirit of God fully came and all of His power and
all of His might and all of His saving energy. And we know 3,000
people were harvested into the kingdom of God. They were harvested,
you see, because the Lord Jesus Himself had died. In fact, hold
your place here in John 7. Look at John chapter 12. Okay,
John chapter 12. Actually, Pentecost is the fulfillment
of the promise of God in the word of the Savior. John chapter
12, look at verse 23. John 12, 23, and Jesus answered
them, saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
and you know that the Savior said that lots of times. And
whenever He said that, perk up and listen. Everything He said
was vital, of course. Everything He said was necessary.
But here's something extraordinarily unusual and vital that we need
to listen to. He said, verily, Verily I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. Right there is Passover. That's
him dying. That's his death. But if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit. There is Pentecost. He brings
forth much fruit, 3,000 souls harvested. Who is the Lord Jesus
Christ? He's the Lord of the harvest.
That's who He is. He's the Lord of the harvest.
I can't bring forth the harvest and you can't bring forth the
harvest. We sow the seed of the gospel of redeeming grace. We preach about the grace of
God. We preach about Christ and Him crucified. We sow the seed,
we sow it liberally. but we cannot bring forth a harvest. Only God can do that. And here
in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, here's a great
harvest, the first fruits. And that harvest has been going
on ever since. He's still harvesting. He's still
bringing people out of spiritual death into spiritual light. He's still bringing people out
of darkness into light. He's still harvesting His fruit,
His crops. He cuts us down. He brings us
down to size. And then He builds us up in the
faith given to the fathers. Even the faith of Christ Jesus
the Lord. And so there's the Feast of Pentecost. And then we get to the Feast
of Tabernacles. That's the one in view here in
John chapter seven. This was called, and I like to
think of the Feast of Tabernacles this way, the Great Harvest Festival. The Great Harvest Festival. All
the crops have been brought in. The barns are full. The garners
are running over. It's been a good year. And all
of Israel would get together. Now, remember this, this wasn't
observed, this Feast of the Tabernacles. It was not observed until they
got into the land of Canaan. Okay? But once they got there,
they sowed their seed and they got their crops going and so
forth and so on. They had a harvest late in the
season. It's a time of rejoicing. It's
a time of thanking God. This is when all the crops have
been brought in and the Lord of the harvest has finished has
finished producing that which he ordained. And the feast of
the tabernacles, this pictures our state in everlasting glory
when the last harvest has been made and all of the saints of
God, of all of the angels have been gathered together. When
all of those that God gave to Christ Jesus in the covenant
of grace, all of those in whose stead He died, all of those who've
been entrusted to the Spirit to call them by His grace, and
they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, when they've all been
gathered in, it will be a great and magnificent harvest as we
join together to praise the Lord of the harvest. several things about this feast.
This feast was celebrated in tents or booths. Tents. And of course it properly commemorated
those 40 years that their forefathers had spent in the wilderness journey
and the Lord provided for them But especially, especially this
points to our Lord's own body, his tabernacle. I read to you to begin with in
John chapter one and verse 14, and the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And the word there is simply
tabernacled among us. It's like that tabernacle in
the wilderness. From the outside, as you observe
the tabernacle, as you looked at it, it looked like every other
tent. Now within here, these pieces
of furniture, here's all this glorious, the scenery, the tapestry,
and all the rest. But as you look from the outside,
it was rather drab looking. It was rather ordinary looking.
And if you were an observer from a high spot, and you were looking
down upon the tabernacle, and here's all the camps of Israel
around about them, here are all the tribes scattered as God ordained
that they would be scattered or spread around, and each one
of them living in tents or booths, here are all these people, you
say, I wonder which one's in the tabernacle? Well, which one is it? Well,
if you got a little closer, of course, you could see by the
brazen altar outside. But as far as the outside of
the tabernacle itself, there wasn't anything extraordinary
about it. But within, oh, it was gorgeous. Wherever you looked, look up,
look at that tapestry. Look at these vessels of gold.
Look at all of this. And you see that tabernacle pictured
the Lord Jesus, who when He walked upon the face of this earth,
looked just like any other man. He didn't walk around with some
kind of glow upon His head or a star shining over Him wherever
He went. He looked just like any other
man. That's the reason the Jews said, we know who you are. You're
the son of Joseph, you're the son of Mary. We know your brothers
and sisters. They perceived nothing about
him that was extraordinary. He looked like any other man,
but within he was full of the glory of God. He is deity. He is God incarnate. And on the
Mount of Transfiguration, He revealed to His disciples that
inward glory, that deity that He did not lay aside. He never
ceased to be all that He was when He came into the world.
He was God of very God overall, blessed forever. But He became
what He was not before, a man. A man. The Feast of the Tabernacles
pictured our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus. Little did these
people in Judea and in Jerusalem when He arrived there, little
did they know there was in their very midst that one for whom the feast of tabernacles
existed, because he's the Lord of the harvest. Now, it is noteworthy that this
feast lasted eight days. And every day, what began with
blood. On the eighth day, or the first
day, I should say, on the first day, they offered 13 sacrifices
to God. The second day they offered 12
sacrifices to God. Keep on going down to the seventh
day, they offered seven sacrifices to God. And on the eighth day,
they offered one. This was a bloody place. Listen,
the religion of God is a religion of substitution. It's a religion
of sacrifice. It's a religion of blood. It's
a religion of satisfying the justice of God. All sin demands and deserves
and will receive death. That's what it's all about. And
every day, here are eight days commemorating the Feast of Tabernacles. Every day, every day began with
blood being shed, blood being shed. It's always before the
eyes of Israel, the blood, because it's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. On the eighth day, one sacrifice. On the eighth day of the Feast
of Tabernacles, the high priest, before all the eyes of the people
in the outer court of the temple, He would take a pitcher of water
and he would pour it out on the ground. What did that signify? How God provided water for them
throughout their wilderness journey. Water from a rock. Well, you
know about that. Moses said, Moses said, Lord,
the people are thirsty. Take the rod, smite the rock. He hit the rock, water came out,
water too. to nourish, water to wash in,
water to drink, water for all the animals, water for people
to bathe in, water for the women to cook with, water for people
to drink, water. That rock followed them all the
way through the world. That rock was Christ Jesus. and
the water of life. It comes forth from Him. With
joy shall we draw water from the wells of salvation. And I
say, come to Christ Jesus and bring your empty cup. Don't bring
anything in it, but bring your empty cup and draw forth the
water of salvation and the water of righteousness and the water
of forgiveness. He is the water of life. And
there's that high priest. He poured out that vessel of
water. And on that last day, the great day of the feast, after
that happened, Jesus stood and he cried saying, and it's set
forth here in the end of John chapter seven, if any man thirst,
if any man thirst, you thirst for God, you thirst for salvation,
you thirst for reconciliation, you thirst for mercy, you thirst
for righteousness, if any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink. That's what he said. He's the water of life. All of these things happen at
the Feast of Tabernacles. And so our Lord Jesus, He goes
and He's with His brethren, He's with His earthly family, His
half-brothers and sisters. And they said to Him, and you
can read this in John 7, they said to Him, Why don't you go
on down to Jerusalem and do some great works? And as you do the
great works, they'll recognize you for being Messiah. Well,
our Lord Jesus said, you fellows go ahead and go. I'll come later. The scripture says here in chapter
7 verse 5, neither did his brethren believe him. Listen, folks, I believe in being
a good example to others, don't you? I believe, and I'm conscious
of the fact, a good bit of the time that I'm God's. And I try
to walk in this world in a manner befitting my Lord. I fail. I fail a good bit of the time.
But I'm always the Lord's. What I do does matter. What you
do does, what you say does matter. Don't tell me it doesn't, it
does matter. The Bible talks about the behavior of the people
of God. Be on your best behavior. Be a good example. But let me
tell you something, I don't care how good of an example you are,
your life, lived before others, even in a manner of integrity
and morality and a life of kindness, a life of mercy, your life is
not going to change the heart of anybody. It never will. And I've heard stupid statements
like this, I'd rather see a sermon than hear a sermon any day. Well,
you're a fool. Because faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I don't want to see
a sermon. I want to hear a sermon. I want
to hear a man preach about Christ and Him crucified. And that's
what you want to hear too. And then I hear people say, let
others see Jesus in you. Listen, listen. Here's our Lord's
half-brothers and sisters who had lived with Him for years
and years and years. They couldn't see Jesus in Jesus. How are they going to see Jesus
in you and me? Does that make any sense? I wish
people would stop making such stupid religious statements.
I wish they'd think through what they say. Our Lord Jesus, he lived before
them, not a good life, but a perfect life. You talking about the ideal,
ideal son to his mother? He was the perfect child. And
here are these half brothers and sisters, and they beheld
his life, but they didn't believe him. Because nobody, no man can
come to the Lord, except the Father who sent Christ draw him. Some's gotta be done in the heart.
And up to this point, the Lord has not been pleased to do a
work of grace in their hearts. Now thankfully, after his resurrection,
they were brought to belief. But it wasn't due to a good life
being lived before them, though we would never say Don't be a
good example to anybody else. You want to be a good example
to your children, to your grandchildren, to your neighbors? Well, we have
that responsibility, but don't think that your life, your life
lived before others, a life of integrity and honesty, that it's
going to make any eternal difference. It won't. You're not that big. The only one who can save, the
only one who can regenerate, the only one who can give new
life, the only one who can reveal the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ is God himself. And so our Lord tells his brothers,
his half brothers and sisters, you go ahead and go. And then
he went up as it were secretly, secretly. And then when, He arrived,
people began to ask some questions. The Jews did. Now look at verse
14. And lest you think I'm not gonna
get to my text, I'm actually gonna get to it tonight. I'm
just trying to whet your appetite just a little bit. We'll get
to it this evening. But about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and taught. Now, a couple of
interesting things here. This is only the third time in
the gospel of John it says he's been to the temple. Back in chapter
two, he went to the temple to cleanse it. He drove out the
money changers. You remember that back in John
chapter two? And then in John chapter five,
he went to the temple and he healed a man who had been lame
38 years. Here he goes back to the temple
In the midst of the feast, and here's what he did, verse 14,
he taught, he preached. What do you reckon he preached? The Spirit of God doesn't tell
us. I would think, maybe incorrectly, but I would think, keeping it
in the context, he'd preach about the feasts. specifically this
feast. And how that all that God was
to Israel during their wilderness journeys from their exodus out
of Egyptian bondage all the way to the promised land, everything
that God was to them, Christ is to his people. That's what
I think he would have taught. He would just expound it upon
this day. After all, He could break open
the Scriptures. And I think this is going to
be part of glory. The Lord, our
Savior, the Lord of the harvest, having gathered all of His people
together, He will take the Word of God and He'll break it open
for us. And we'll just sit there and
just take it all in. And just feed on the gospel as
our Lord Jesus sets it forth. So about the middle of the feast,
he goes up to the temple and talks. And Jesus marveled, or
the Jews marveled. They were astonished, the Jews.
And we know this, usually in the gospel of John, when he talks
about the Jews, he's talking about the religious leaders,
people who hated him. When you see the Jews, that's
kind of John's code word for enemies. The Jews marveled saying,
how knoweth this man letters? And the word letters there is
literally scriptures. The same word is found in 2 Timothy
3 15. that from a little child thou
hast known the Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation." How does this man know Scriptures having never
learned? That is, he never went to our
seminaries, he was never instructed the feet of any of our approved
rabbis. How does he have this knowledge?
Here he is, he's talking about the Word of God and he's doing
so at ease. He has such liberty, he has freedom
of thought and freedom of expression. And he has such a depth of knowledge
of the Old Testament. Where did he get that knowledge
from? He didn't get it from our schools.
No, he didn't. Because your schools didn't teach
that. Your schools don't teach sovereign grace. Your schools
don't teach effectual redemption. Neither their schools nor our
schools today. No, no. So they say, where'd
he get this from? And he says this in verse 16.
My doctrine, my doctrine, my teaching. Somebody says, I don't
like doctrine. That's your problem. I can't
help you with that. Only God can cause you to like
and love doctrine. I love His doctrine. His doctrine. Our Lord Jesus said, my doctrine,
my teaching, my beliefs, my doctrine is not mine. It is not mine. It sounds almost
contradictory. My doctrine is not mine. Upon what basis does he say this? He says this as the servant of
Jehovah. The words that he received, the
words that he spoke, he received them from God. And he says, my
doctrine is not mine, but he is that sent me. And that's one
of the things that so aggravated the Jews that he kept on talking
about the fact he was sent. He was sent. The father sent
him. And that angered them so much. He's the one who was sent by
the father. on a mission of mercy. And he says, my doctrine, and
we'll go into this tonight. My subject tonight is Christ's
doctrine. Christ's doctrine. He said, my
doctrine is not mine. That is, it didn't originate
with me, though it was essentially His as God. But as man, he received it. The words that I speak, he said,
they're from the Father. And I'll tell you this and then
I'll quit. That which so irritated the Jews
was not really his works. He would say in John chapter
10, for which of my works do you stone me? And they said,
for a good work, we stone you not. It's what you said. It's what you said. People talk
about Jesus of Nazareth. Oh, he went about doing good.
He sure did. He healed the sick. He raised
the dead. He cast out demons. All of these
things He did. He did many wonderful works.
But I'll tell you this. Here's the saving power. It's
not in His works. Not in the miracles that He did.
In His words. He said, My words, their spirit. My words, their life. And he said to the Jews, you
don't have the words in you. The words are my doctrine, not
mine, he said. It's his that sent me. Let's sing a song.