lift up to the Lord in prayer.
Brother Buddy Iams, who will apparently get to come home this
Saturday, which is good news for him. He's excited about that. Let's remember Doretha, who went
to the doctor today, and he said her arm's looking better, looking
well. She's doing better. Miss Elizabeth
is not doing very well. She's home, not feeling very
well. And Brother Tommy Kuhn, who fell in the nursing home,
I guess Monday, was it Monday? Monday, and broke his arm and
his hip and he had surgery on his hip today. I don't know much
more than that, but let's keep him in prayer. Psalm 133, behold
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's that
went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Hermon,
and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Let's stand and sing a hymn together.
Number 228, my faith has found a resting place. Thank you. My faith has found
a resting place Not in device nor creed I trust the ever-living
One His words for me shall plead I need no other argument I need
no other It is enough that Jesus died and
that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him
He'll never cast me out I need no other argument, I need no
other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. My great physician heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me His precious blood He
shed, for me His life He gave. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. Be seated, please. Turn with me to the book of the
Psalms, number two, Psalm two. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. saying, let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sword as pleasure. Yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Our Father, we are by thy grace
thrice blessed because we have as your people, by your electing
grace, put our trust in thee. After that we heard this gospel
of truth and believed and were sealed by the Holy Spirit as
the earnest of our redemption to be. Father, we give you thanks
because all these things are by thy grace. They're not by
works or any goodness in us, for that cannot be. But these
things are by thy grace and thy mercy to us were it through the
Lord Jesus Christ, that one who came and paid our sin debt on
the tree and wrought out righteousness for us, that we might be brought
to thee, adopted sons and daughters of the king. We bless thy name
and we bless thy son's name as our redeemer, as our mediator,
our intercessor. And we seek this evening to hear
that same gospel with grace We come to worship, we come to seek
thy face and lift up the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in the
worship service. We ask thy spirit's blessing
upon this gathering this evening, Lord, that you be with us and
that you cause this gathering to bear fruit and that you give
the word power and send it forth in power to all those that might
hear. And that you bless them, bless
their hearts with it. cause us to draw closer to thee.
And those that have never heard this message before, Lord, bless
them with a desire to hear it once again. Save their souls,
if it be thy will. We ask, Father, that you be with
our pastor as he stands to deliver the message that you've laid
on his heart. Give him power and unction from on high that
he might proclaim Christ and him crucified to us. Father,
we ask for those that have been mentioned and many that we may
not know of that be under trial and tribulation of one sort or
another as you brought upon your children to accomplish your purpose.
We hold them up before thee and ask that you comfort and guide
through the trial till it's over. Father, we do ask that you bless
this ministry as it goes forth to all those that hear there
be many media that we're able to send this gospel out through. We have heard this evening that
there are those in other countries that do hear this gospel through
the internet, these various means that you've provided. We give
thanks, Lord, that you've awakened an interest in many that hear.
And we do ask, Lord, that you send a revival through this ministry
that emanates from this place, that you send it out to your
people. your sheep wherever they may
be found and that you bless them with it. Father, we ask for ourselves
that you'd be with us in the days that come, make us to be
good stewards of thy grace and to look to thee in all things
and to lift up the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and give him
glory in our daily lives. We'd ask it for his most wonderful
namesake. Amen. Let's go to John chapter 7 this
evening. Glad to see each of you here.
I know we have several folks that are sick and we do miss
them. And hope that these that have
had these illnesses that have kind of taken a hold of them,
hope that they'll be better very, very soon. We're looking again,
John chapter 7. In this great chapter, it is
about six months before our Lord Jesus will be crucified. public ministry lasted about
three years, roughly. And so, with about six months
left, there's not much time. And of course, our Lord stayed
busy all the time preaching and teaching, going about to fulfill
the Father's will pertaining to his daily activities, everything,
of course, leading to that day when he would give his life a
ransom for many. At this juncture of his ministry,
the anger directed toward him by the Jews is quite deep. It is very vile. And it is totally
uncalled for. Was there ever a man who did
the kind of good deeds that our Lord Jesus did? And the answer
obviously is no, because he's the perfect man. And his life
was a life committed to exalting God. Indeed, he did love God
with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. And he loved his
neighbor as himself. And he gave evidence of loving
his neighbor as himself as he went about performing many gracious,
merciful deeds upon men and women and young people who were suffering
in the flesh. And He did these good deeds always
for the right motive, God's glory. And that's to be our motive,
isn't it? All the things that we do, we
should do, whether we eat or drink, whatever we do, we're
to do all for the glory of God. And we want to do that, but we
know that our Our sinfulness is such that everything is polluted
by this sin. So we can't do a good deed, can't
do a perfect deed, and we can't do it perfectly for the glory
of God. But Christ Jesus did. He did. Now, He has been harassed and
He has been hounded because he healed a man on the Sabbath day,
which was a great work of mercy. And this was back in chapter
5 of John, and yet still the Jews are upset about what happened. You would have thought that they
had gotten over it, and they would have kind of come to their
senses because there was a man who lay among the impotent folk. He had been lame for 38 years. He had nobody to get him into
the pool when the waters were troubled. He was just there. Pitiful case. I mean, you would
think everybody's hearts would be moved to great compassion
for this man. And then our Lord Jesus comes
along and all the impotent folk that lay there that day Our Lord
heals this man. What a wonderful day for him. And you would have thought it
had been a glorious day for everybody as they witnessed this man who
had been such an object of pity. And they witnessed him now rolling
up his mat and walking. But the Jews were upset with
the Savior. because he did this on the Sabbath
day, and then because he identified himself as being the Son of God,
he said God was his Father. And all of this just absolutely
intensified their hatred toward the Savior. And they've already
sought to kill Him. Murder is in their hearts, but
they just couldn't do it yet, because it wasn't God's will
for Him to die yet. I'll give you a couple of verses
in John chapter 7. First of all, verse 30. John 7, verse 30. Then they sought
to take Him. This was their goal. The Sanhedrin
met together and they said, let's take Him today. Here He is in
Jerusalem. He's at the Feast of the Tabernacles.
And He's in position where we could capture Him. And we'll
just do away with Him right now. But the Scripture says nobody
can lay hands on Him. The reason being because His
hour was not yet come. And then look over at verse 44. Verse 44, and some of the people
would have taken Him a little bit later. But the Scripture
says, none lay hands upon Him. The reason they couldn't lay
their hands upon Him was because it wasn't the hour for His death.
As I thought about this in preparing this message for you today, this
ought to bring great Great consolation to the hearts of the people of
God. The wicked have many designs,
they have many plans, they have many intentions. They like to
bring about some vile things in the world, more vile even
than are going on. Nothing ever comes to pass apart
from God's sovereign will and pleasure. Everything is indeed
determined by God. They couldn't take our Lord Jesus,
it wasn't the time for Him to die. Everything happens on God's
schedule. Not only the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and of course this is what is in the central focus
of this. They couldn't take Him as our
end had come. God ordained that His Son would
give His life a ransom for many. He ordained that before the world
began. But that time had not yet arrived. And they couldn't take Him. But
this also pertains to everything else. Nothing ever happens until
God's Ordained time arrives for it to happen. And this ought to help us. Let
me give you a couple of references. Look back in the book of Proverbs
chapter 16. Look at Proverbs chapter... well,
let's go to 19 first. Proverbs chapter 19. This is
something that ought to help each of the people of God. That
which our God has determined to come to pass, it will come
to pass, but it will only come to pass at exactly the time that
God has ordained. Look at Proverbs chapter 19,
verse 21. Proverbs 19, 21. There are many
devices in a man's heart. Many devices. That means many
thoughts, many plans, many determinations, many intentions in the heart
of a man that may or may not come to pass dependent upon the
will of God. Everything is ultimately and
always dependent upon God's will. If God doesn't will for something
to happen, it doesn't matter how much men may scheme and intend
to do what they want to do, if God hasn't purpose for it to
happen, it will not happen. Our God actually, He sets upon
His throne and He actually rules from His throne. Everything happens
according to His timetable and according to whether He wills
for it to happen or not. Look at the rest of verse 21.
Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, God's eternal purpose,
that shall stand. And this is so encouraging to
me. I know men want to do many things. You and I want to do many things. But what we want to do may or
may not come to pass. Maybe we will do them and maybe
we won't do them. It's all dependent upon this.
Has God ordained for it to happen? And if He hasn't ordained for
it to happen, it's just not going to happen. But everything our
God has ordained to happen, that will be reality. It will come to pass. Whatever
men may determine to do, only that which is purposed by the
Lord will ever come to pass. The Jews here in John chapter
7, they purposed that they would arrest our Lord and put Him to
death on this occasion. In fact, we noticed last week,
we'll notice again tonight, they sent the temple police to arrest
him, but that doesn't happen either. The temple police were
the Levites. They're the guards. The Sanhedrin
said, you go and arrest him. They went to arrest him and they
couldn't do it. And as we shall see in a little
bit, the reason they couldn't do it was because they were so
mesmerized by the way he set himself forth. He was such a
great teacher. They said, no man speaks like
this man. And those who sent him said,
are you deceived too? Has He so pulled the wool over
your eyes that you can't see who He is? Why didn't you arrest
Him? And the reason they couldn't
arrest Him was because God had not willed for them to arrest
Him. Everything happens according
to God's purpose. Go back to Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. Let me give you
this verse. Verse 1. Proverbs 16. Here's what Solomon says. The
preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord. Notice if you have center column,
as I do, the word preparations or disposings. The disposings
of the heart, of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue,
what you have to say is from the Lord. You see, the Lord not
only knows what you do, He knows the intention of doing it before
you ever do it. He knows the thoughts of man.
He reads our thoughts. And even there under His control,
it's all of God. I'll give you a good example
of this. Go a little further back in the
Old Testament, 2 Samuel chapter 16. This is an interesting story. 2 Samuel chapter 16. David is the king. He's done some things that have
upset some folks. Let me read a few verses to you
here. 2 Kings 16, verse 5. 2 Samuel 16, verse 5. And when King David came to Behurim,
behold, thence there came out a man of the family of the house
of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Jireh. He came forth
and cursed still as he came, still cursing David as he approached. He cast stones at David. And
then all the servants of King David and all the people and
all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Thus
said this man Shimei, when he cursed, he said, Come out, come
out, thou bloody man and thou man of Belial. The Lord hath
returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose
stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the
kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art
taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man." Here it comes out. You're a bloody
man, King David. That's why God's given you so
much trouble through your son, Absalom. Verse 9, then Abishai, the son
of Zeruiah, he said this to the king, why should this dead dog
curse my lord, the king? Let me go over there and I'll
just cut his head off. He said, you don't have to put
up with this. I'll just pull out my sword.
I just sharpened it this morning. I will take his head right off,
right now, for all the vile things he's saying about you, O king."
And the king said, verse number 10, What have I to do with you,
ye sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the
Lord hath said unto him, to curse David. "'Who shall then say,
Wherefore hast thou done so?' And David said to Abishai and
to all his servants, Behold, my son which came forth of my
bowels seeketh my life." He's talking about Absalom, of course.
"'How much more shall now may this Benjamite do it? Let him
alone and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him.'" It
may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that
the Lord will requite me good for His cursing this day. And
as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on
the hillside over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw
stones at him, and cast dust. As David passed by, cursing him,
pronouncing divine curses upon him, throwing rocks at him, picking
up dust and throwing dust all over him. And the king, verse
14, and all the people that were with him came weary and refreshed
themselves there. David recognized. He recognized something that
I'm not sure we've ever we've ever grasped. And it is, nothing
ever happens apart from the will of God, either at the hand of
believers or at the hand of unbelievers. And I'll tell you, that's a really
big pill to swallow. In fact, there are some people
in this world who say, I don't believe that at all. But the fact of the matter is,
this world is governed by our God every single instance and
event. And there is no event more vile,
that expresses more hatred toward God than the crucifixion of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's the vilest act that's
ever been done. That's the most awful murder
that's ever been committed in the history of the world. And
yet, God was behind it. Men carried out God's will, and
at the same time, the men who carried it out were doing just
exactly what they wanted to do. God didn't coerce them. He used
them. He used their vileness. He used
their depravity. He used their sinfulness. He
used their hatred toward the Son of God to bring about that
act which God had ordained from before the foundation of the
world. The death of His Son in order
to bring about the salvation of His people. He knew the thoughts of the Jewish
leaders leading up to the point in time when Christ was ordained
to die. He knew them. He knew their hatred. And it's like the Lord just damned
it up. Not yet. Not yet! The Sanhedrin would meet and
say, we've got to do something about this Jesus of Nazareth. He's getting more power than
we've got. We've got to kill Him. And God
knew their thoughts, God knew their intentions, and God said,
but not yet. Not yet. Our Lord Jesus wouldn't die until
our debt of sin came due. And when our debt of sin came
due according to God's eternal purpose of grace, that's when
the debt was paid by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Luke chapter 4 this
past Sunday evening, our Lord, He proclaimed the sovereignty
of His grace and having Elijah minister to a widow, of Sarepta
while he passed over the widows of Israel. We read how he sent Elisha to
a Syrian leper, Naaman. And he didn't send his servant
Elisha to any of the lepers in Israel. These were acts of divine
sovereignty. All things happen according to
His will. And over here in John chapter
7, well, even before that, and I'll
go back and revisit that for just a brief time, that passage
in Luke chapter 4, they were ready to kill Him then. Yet the
Scripture says, He passed through their midst and they didn't lay
a hand on Him. You still hear it in Proverbs.
Look at verse 9. Proverbs 16, 9. Proverbs 16, 9. We keep hearing
this message over and over again. Proverbs 16 and verse 9. A man's
heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. and you'll get up tomorrow, if
you're like me. When I go to bed at night, I
rehash the day, think about what's happened today, and then I'm
kind of laying out in my mind what I intend to do tomorrow.
And I do make plans for what I intend to get accomplished.
I've got some things that I need to do tomorrow. Every day I've
got a schedule that I follow, some things that I need to get
done. I've got some things already on my mind that I want to accomplish
tomorrow. I've devised them. We calculate. We plan. We make our determinations. We devise our way. You do. We all do. But look at the rest of the verse.
But the Lord directeth His steps. The Lord directeth His steps. You say, well, I'm going to do
thus and so tomorrow. Well, we'll see. That's the reason James says
we ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall do this or that
or something else. Because there are lots of things
that can come up and interrupt all of our plans. But nothing
ever arises that interrupts God's plans. That's what we need to
learn. Turn to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. We know that
the death of our Lord Jesus was purposed from old eternity and
nothing could interfere with that. This is God's greatest
glory. The salvation of sinners by substitution
by our Lord Jesus, making satisfaction to God's offended justice. This
is God's greatest glory. Nothing is ever going to interfere
with that. And everything will be orchestrated
by God. It's like you put all the people,
like so many people on a chess board. The Lord's moving them
around according to His will. Just like He's still doing that
today. So I hope that God will use me. You can absolutely count
on it. He is going to use you in some
way to fulfill His purpose. Look here in Luke chapter 22.
Look at verse 21. Our Lord has just instituted
the Lord's Supper. And He says in Luke 22-21, But
behold the hand of Him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table. And he says, and it is a fact,
verily, truly, the Son of Man goeth as it was determined. That, my friend, is divine sovereignty. God had determined that He would
go to the cross. But woe unto that man by whom
He is betrayed. There is responsibility. Our God is so great and so magnificent. His ways are so past finding
out that you and I will never even begin to commence to get
started to understanding this issue of sovereignty and responsibility. If you think, well, I've got
it figured out, I'll guarantee you this. You don't. Suffice to say this, God is sovereign
in all things. His will is done. His will was
done using Judas as the betrayer. His will was done in using Simon
Peter as the denier. His will was done in using Herod,
Pontius Pilate, the Sanhedrin, The Roman soldiers? God's will
was done. And those who participated in
this awful murder, they're responsible. That's just the way it is. And
I'll tell you tonight, in this congregation, those of you who
are watching at home on the Internet, God will fulfill His eternal
purpose regarding you. and you, and you, and me, and
everybody who's watching. And we've got some responsibility
here now. We're responsible to seek the
Lord while He may be found. We're responsible to ask God
for mercy. We're responsible to look to
the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on Him, From our wicked ways to God,
to Christ Jesus, to bow at the feet of the King. We're responsible. And God's going to hold you accountable
if you don't. And at the same time, don't put
a but in there, at the same time, everybody God has purposed to
be saved, let me tell you something, they're saved already in Christ
Jesus. That's just a fact. You say,
preacher, this is too big for me. I know. It's too big for
me too. I bow at the feet of this God
and worship Him. This God who governs every single
thing that ever happens. So you get over here to John
chapter 7. Here's what we remember now.
Throughout all of this, Our God is sovereign. He is controlling
everything that happens. Now, the last day of the feast
has gone by. Look at verse 40 of John 7. Many
of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, what
saying? Back here in John 7, verse 37,
you remember the Lord Jesus, in the last day of the feast,
He stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come
unto Me and drink. And many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, they said, of a truth, this is
the prophet. This is the prophet. Now, though the Jews were dead
set against him, they couldn't lift a finger against him until
the time set in old eternity. Some of the people, after they
know the bickering of the Jews, they know how they wanted to
kill Him, and now they've listened to Jesus of Nazareth say, if
any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. Some of the
people then said, I believe this is the prophet. I believe this
is the prophet. I think this is the one Moses
was talking about. Now they should have believed
that he's not only the prophet, but he's the priest and the king
too. That which they believed was
not the full truth. It wasn't the whole truth. It's
a partial truth. And I'll tell you this, believing
a partial truth is not going to result in salvation. And yet,
while they're responsible to believe the full truth about
the Lord Jesus Christ, they can only believe what's revealed
to them. As a matter of fact, you can't
believe that which isn't revealed to you. And others look at verse
41. Others said, this is the Christ.
But some others said, this is the Messiah. But some others
said, well, I don't understand, shall Christ come out of Galilee?
The Scripture said that Christ comes of the seed of David and
out of the town of Bethlehem where David was. Now this is
Jesus of Nazareth. And the Old Testament says He's
the seed of David and He's going to come out of the town of Bethlehem.
You would think they'd investigate a little bit more because they
did state two truths, didn't they? They did state two truths.
He's of the seed of David. He will come out of the town
of Bethlehem. But He left Bethlehem with Joseph
and Mary and went into Egypt to be saved from the wrath of
the king, King Herod. And then they went back to Nazareth.
And that's where he grew up. But they didn't investigate anymore.
Were they responsible to investigate further? Well, sure they were. But it wasn't revealed to them
either. Look at verse 43. So there was
a division among the people because of him. There was a division. There's always a division. about
the Lord Jesus. Now, this division among the
people because of Christ Jesus, it wasn't a division among the
people of God. Right? You understand that? Unfortunately, from time to time,
God's people have divisions. But our division is not over
the Lord Jesus Christ. Usually, it's over something
minor. and we let it get in the way. It blows up, it gets bigger
and bigger, and there's a division. We're not divided over Christ
Jesus. We're not divided over who He
is. We're not divided over what He
did. We're not divided over the reason
that He did what He did in His work of redemption on the cross
to satisfy God so God could be just and the justifier of everybody
who believes on the Lord Jesus. We're not divided about where
the Savior is now, and what He's doing now as our advocate. All
of God's people are united in believing Christ Jesus. But you
know, sadly, sometimes there's divisions among the people of
God over other, lesser matters. And that's sad when that happens.
And I think that's what's happening among several great churches
even now. It's not a division over Christ
Jesus, it's a division over other issues. I wish people weren't so contentious. I wish people weren't so full
of strife. Why is it that some of the people
of God are divided, not over Christ now, but over some lesser
issues? Well, turn to Proverbs 13, verse 10. Why are there contentions? Why are
there strifes? Why are there divisions among
God's people? Now, we're not divided over how
God saves sinners, but divided over other things. Well, here's
the reason. Solomon puts his finger on it.
Proverbs 13, verse 10. Only by pride cometh contention,
division, strife. But with the well-advised is
wisdom. This is the underlying reason,
it's pride. And yet we have nothing for which
to be proud or boastful. Proverbs 15, 18 says, a wrathful
man stirs up strife. Sad that these things happen. And it seems to me that some
people just like to keep throwing wood on the fire fires that separate
the people of God. Some people seem to enjoy division. Well, I don't. I don't like division. And I'll tell you this, I'll
tell all of you, I'll tell those of you who are watching on the
internet, if you love the gospel of God's redeeming grace, If you love the message of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, if you love salvation by the blood
and the imputed righteousness of Christ Jesus, you won't have
any trouble out of me. Because I'm your friend. I'm your friend. Now there may
be some areas where we might disagree. But if we agree on
the gospel, if we agree on how God saves sinners, I'm for you. And I pray for you. And if you
are a preacher of the gospel, or you want to go tell your pastor
what I said in this message, Maybe he doesn't or maybe you
don't like me for whatever reason. I got news for you sometimes,
most of the time, almost all the time. I don't like myself.
So that's okay. That's okay. But if you differ
with me on some points to where you don't feel like we can have
fellowship, I'll tell you this. If you preach the gospel of God's
sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm praying for you. and I love you and I'll support
you as you preach the gospel. Now shouldn't that be the way
that we ought to be? That's the way I look at it. But there is a division that we must not and we cannot
avoid. And that's when there's a division
over Jesus Christ. If you don't believe this Gospel,
if you don't believe the message of free and sovereign grace,
we have a division for sure. And we can't cozy up together
and say, well, you know, I know you believe the sovereign will
of God and I believe in man's free will, but we can both go
together, walk together down the road. No, can two walk together
except they'd be agreed? A free willer and a free gracer
can't walk in communion together. It just can't be done. That's
when we have divisions. See, the only time it's acceptable
to have a division, and the only time there must be a division,
is when it comes to Jesus Christ, as far as those of us who believe
the gospel. We're going to divide with you.
These other things, minor things, lesser things, insignificant things, mundane
things, I don't care where you are on some of these things. But if you don't embrace this
Gospel, then we're going to have us a fuss. That's just the way
it is. And I'm not going to apologize. I'm not going to say I'm sorry
I disagree with you. No, I'm not sorry. Because this
is the truth. Because we're talking about the
glory of God here. We're talking about the message
that magnifies the Lord. So, if you divide with me over
Jesus Christ, you'll have to go your way all by yourself. Because I'm sticking with the
Gospel, aren't you? I'm sticking with Christ Jesus.
And those who believe this same message will go together. Go together. But look back over
here, and I've got to finish up here if I can, John 7. Let
me see if I can finish up this chapter real quick. But here's
this division. Here's this division. So there
was a division, verse 43. It was division among the people
because of Him. I don't want the division to be
because of me. I don't want you to divide with
me. I don't want to be the reason. You say, well, I don't like Jim's
personality. It rubs me the wrong way. I don't
want to be the reason for the division. If we must divide, let it only
be over the gospel. Right? Only over the Gospel. Well, verse 44, some of them
would have taken Him, but no man laid hands on Him. Well then,
verse 45, then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees.
The officers, just think of them as officers of law. Here come
the police officers. They come to the chief priests
and the Pharisees, here the temple police, the Levites. They come
to the chief priests and the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin. It's the highest religious court
in all of Israel. And these judges, these chief
priests and elders and so forth, they said to these policemen,
why haven't you brought him? And the police officers answered,
Never a man spake like this man. We never heard anybody teach
like this. He speaks with such authority. He opens up the Old
Testament. He shows us how this speaks of
Himself. He has such a grasp of the doctrine
of God. He sets forth, He tells us about
Himself from the Old Testament. Never a man spake like this man.
And verse 47, Then answered the Pharisees, Are you deceived too? They said, have any of the rulers
of the Pharisees believed on Him? In the roll call of who's
who in religion, who among any of them ever believed on Jesus
of Nazareth? That's what they said. And you
guys have been duped into following Him and believing Him and being
tender toward Him? Nobody in the hierarchy of religion
believes Him! And then they said in verse 49,
but this people who knoweth not the law, they're cursed. In other
words, he said, these people who are saying he's the Christ,
these people who are even saying he's the prophet, they're just
a bunch of ignorant people. They don't know anything. And
they're under the curse of God. God-blind. Verse 50, Nicodemus. saith unto them, he that came
to Jesus by night, being one of them, he said, doth our law
judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" Nicodemus. Boy, he's an interesting
guy, isn't he? One that came to Jesus by night.
Whenever his name is mentioned, the Spirit of God always puts
that in there. He who came to Jesus by night. Kind of a cowardly fellow. But
he does speak up a little bit here. And we can, I think we can kind
of glean this tonight, learn this. God doesn't deal with,
when God's saving sinners, He doesn't deal with any two sinners
just alike. I mean, it's saved with the same
grace and washed in the same blood, robed in the same righteousness,
but it doesn't deal in the same way. The thief on the cross,
the believing thief, he heard of Jesus Christ right there and
he believed just right then. This man is more of a protracted
conversion almost. You can't say, Exactly when it
is that he believes. Except that in the end, we find
him believing, I think. And here's what they said to
him when they saw him being kind of soft toward Jesus of Nazareth. They said in verse 52, they answered
and said unto him, Are you also of Galilee? Boy, that was a put
down. You see, the Judeans didn't have
any love for the Galileans, because the Galileans were Jews who intermarried
with Gentiles. And according to Josephus, who
was a Jewish historian, he said, only the poor people lived in
Galilee. With us, it's like they were
the folks on the other side of the railroad tracks. You live
in Galilee, well, you're poor. You don't have anything. And
so this is how they put down Nicodemus. Are you from Galilee
too? Are you ignorant? Are you uneducated? Now remember, this Nicodemus,
he is a master teacher in Israel. And he stands up for the Lord
Jesus here a little bit, and boy, I tell you, they put him
right down. And then they said, search and
look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. Wrong. They weren't as smart
as they thought they were. Jonah was from Galilee. So also
was Hosea. Most likely, who was the other
one? Nahum. Nahum. And let me give you this. And
we'll sing. Verse 53, and every man went
unto his own house. They went away from him. And don't miss this, I give you
this. In verse 37, if any man thirsts,
let him come. Let him come unto me. Here's the sad thing. Wasn't
anybody thirsty? Because that didn't come to Him.
They went. They went. It's not the Savior
for them. Is this the Savior you need?
Will you go away? See, this is kind of a parallel
to that passage back in John chapter 6. When the Savior said
to His disciples, all the rest of the people had gone away.
He said, will you also go away? He said, come to me! Come to
me! And nobody came to him. They
went away. But we're like Simon Peter by
God's grace. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. We're coming to you. We're coming
to you. We believe we're sure you're
the Son of God. And life's in your name. He is
indeed the Rock of Ages. Let's sing 126. The Rock of Ages. One of Brother Augustus' top
ladies. Great hymns. Pity we don't have
more of the verses, but at least we've got three of them. Let's
stand and sing 126, Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which bloom be of sin a double cure. and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These four sins could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring Simply
to the cross I cling While I draw this fleeting breath When my
eyes shall close in death When I rise to worlds unknown And
behold thee on thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me
hide myself in thee.