Let's open our Bibles to the
book of John, chapter 7. Once again, the Gospel of John,
chapter 7. Our blessed Savior is back in
Jerusalem. He is there to attend the Feast
of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, it's sometimes referred
to. And when he gets to Jerusalem,
he is in the midst of this eight-day festival. He goes immediately
to the temple, and there he begins to teach. Our Lord is going right back
into the enemy's territory. But He is no coward. He is brave
to set forth the Word of God even to these people who sought
His life. And the Lord knows He has purposed
that this isn't going to be the time of His death. But about
six months or so from this feast, at the next Passover, then His
enemies will get their wish and they will lay their hands on
the Savior. But it will be in the purpose
of God. He will die right on schedule
to save His people from their sin. So our Lord is here in Jerusalem. These leaders of Judaism, they
are filled with hatred toward Him. And they refuse to believe
Him. They refuse to believe His message.
And yet, there are some people in Jerusalem who believe Him.
And there have been some people up to this point in the Gospel
of John who believed Him, who made outstanding statements regarding
the Lord Jesus in John 1.29. We see John the Baptist, and
he says, Behold God's Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. In John 1 also, Andrew told his
brother Simon Peter, we found the Messiah, which means the
Christ. A little further in John 1, He
said to his brother Nathanael, we found that one whom Moses
in the law did write, Jesus of Nazareth. There were several
who believed him along the way, several who said good things
about him. Nicodemus said in John 3, we
know you're a great teacher come from God. No man can do the miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. In John chapter 4,
when the Savior met with the woman at the well, the Samaritan
woman, and then she went back and she told the men of the city
about the Lord Jesus, then they said, having come back with her
to see the Savior, they said, now we believe. But it's not
because of what you've said to us. We believe because we heard
him ourselves. We heard his sweet voice and
we know that he is indeed the Christ. He is the Savior. And so there was back then, even
as there is today, two groups of people. There are those who
believe him and those who won't believe him. That's what, when
the Apostle went to Rome at the end of the book of Acts, the
Apostle Paul in the book of Acts chapter 28, it says very clearly
there a statement that it's always this way. Some believed, some
believed not. Some loved the gospel, some despised
the gospel. Some worship the Lord Jesus,
some detest the Lord Jesus, and that's the way it's always been
going all the way back to Cain and Abel. One hated the message
of grace, one loved the message of grace, one thought he could
be saved by his good works, by his deeds, whereas the other
one believed that salvation is by substitution, and giving satisfaction
to God's law that says the soul that sinned it shall die. Here
are the two groups we get here in John chapter 7. We still have
these two groups. Those who believe Him, those
who don't believe Him. The Jews are ready to kill Him,
but drop down to verse 31 in John chapter 7. And many of the
people believed on Him. The leaders of Judaism, they
didn't, but many did, in fact, believe him. And that leads us
to ask this question, who makes the difference between these
two groups of people? Those who believe, those who
lay hold of Jesus Christ and what we refer to as saving faith,
and those who do not turn to the Lord Jesus. You know it is
said in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7, here's the question,
who maketh thee to differ from another? You see here in John
7, we have Jews who believe, we have Jews who don't believe. Here this evening, we have people
who believe, but it may very well be that we have people right
here who don't believe. people who are watching by the
internet, people who believe this gospel of the Lord Jesus,
this gospel of grace, and those who say, I just can't go with
you on this, I just can't see it, preacher. Who makes the difference? God makes the difference, because
you see, by nature, we are all alike. Right? We're all sinful. We're all defiled. We're all wretched. We're all
fallen in Adam. We're all dead in sin. We're
all dead set against God. We're all liars from the womb. We're all cut off from God. All
of us alike refuse to believe the Word of God. And yet, there
are those who believe Christ Jesus. There are those who bow
to Him. There are those who believe Him. having seen our awful condition,
having been made to realize we need a Savior, we need righteousness,
we need a mediator, we need a great high priest, we need a great
offering to put our sins away, to put our transgressions away,
and having been made aware of our guilt and our neediness,
we have fled by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then others don't. Who makes the difference? God
makes the difference. The difference is due to the
God of free and sovereign grace. The difference is owing to God's
everlasting purpose of mercy. He made a difference before the
world was made. He set a group apart for Himself. Look back with me to a passage
in the book of Exodus chapter 8. If you would, in Exodus chapter
8, this says, the difference is distinguishing mercy. The difference is owing to God's
eternal purpose of grace. Here next is chapter 8, and you
will recognize the context, I'm sure, very quickly. Here's Moses
speaking to Pharaoh. The Israelites are in bondage,
in captivity in Egypt. The Lord's sending all these
desolations. He's sending all these plagues
upon the Egyptians. And we get down to chapter 8
and verse 8. And Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron and said, Entreat the Lord. They take away the frogs
from me. Chapter 8, verse 8. And from
my people and I will let the people go that they may do sacrifice
unto the Lord. And Moses said unto Pharaoh,
Glory over me. When shall I entreat for thee
and for thy servants, for thy people to destroy the frogs from
thee and thy houses that they may remain in the river only?
It will be tomorrow. And he said, Be it according
to thy word, that thou mayest know that there is none like
the Lord our God. The frogs shall depart from thee,
and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people,
and they shall remain in the river only. And Moses and Aaron
went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried unto the Lord, because
of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. And the Lord
did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died. out
of the houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields.
God sends, He's sending all these plagues to the people. Look at
verse, still not exactly the verse I want. I want verse 20. The Lord said unto Moses, Rise
up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh. For lo,
he cometh forth to the water, and saith unto him, Thus saith
the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. There's one
group here that's the Lord's people. God says, they're my
people. There's another group, they're
not the Lord's people. Else if thou wilt not let my
people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and
upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses,
and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies,
and also the ground whereon they are, Then I will sever in that
day the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms
of flies shall be there. To the end thou mayest know that
I am the Lord in the midst of the earth." And I will put a
division. And I will put a division between My people and thy people. They're two groups of people.
And listen, there's always been just two groups of people. They're
God's people and everybody else. There's the elect and there's
the rest. And God says, I'm doing these
things that you might know. That I put a division between
my people and thy people. This shall be the sign tomorrow. Notice over in the margin, if
you have a margin. I have a center margin here under
verse 23. It says in the Hebrew, a redemption. A redemption. God is saying,
I will put a redemption. I'm going to redeem the people.
I'm going to redeem my people. I'm not going to redeem the Egyptians. I'm going to redeem those that
I set apart for myself. I have made a distinction. I
have made a division, God says. I have made a difference. There's
my people, There's everybody else. Hold your place here in
Exodus and look over real quick to Psalm 111. Let me read a verse
over here and then I'm going to go back to the book of Exodus
and show you something else. Look at Psalm 111 and verse number
9. Psalm 111 verse 9. sent redemption unto His people,
not to everybody. There is no such thing as a general
redemption. There is no such thing as a universal
redemption. The Lord Jesus did not die for
everybody. He died for God's people. This
is a specific redemption. As illustrated in the book in
Exodus and in the events that happened in the land of Egypt,
God said He sent redemption unto His people. He commanded His
covenant forever. The reason He redeemed His people
was according to the covenant, the covenant of grace. Well,
who did this? This one whose name is holy and
reverend. He made a distinction. Go back
to the book of Exodus. The Lord redeemed His people.
He redeemed them by price from the law of God and He redeemed
His people by power out of the hand of Satan. Look at Exodus
11 and verse 7. Exodus 11 and verse 7. Now the Lord is beginning to
tell them about the Passover lamb. He'll get into that more
fully in the next chapter. Now He's talking about the death
of the firstborn. And in verse 7, "...and against
any of the children of Israel there shall not a dog move his
tongue, neither man nor beast, that ye may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptian and Israel." God
has made a difference. And over in the book of John
chapter 7, God made a difference. There were some who believed,
the rest were left as they were. And God is still making that
difference. That difference is still being
made known today. The gospel of free grace is revealed
to some people, and other people are left in their blindness.
left in their deadness, left to the death that they deserve,
left to the wrath of God that they merit. The wages of sin
is death, is death. And all men deserve death. And God is going to get death
from all men because He got death of His Son for His people. God's going to get death. It's
just like in Exodus chapter 12, the Passover lamb. God going
through and says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
He got blood at every house. He's got the blood of a Passover
lamb, or He got the blood of a firstborn child. His law is
going to be satisfied. Justice is going to be executed. It's going to be executed. So
go back here to John chapter 7 then. The Lord has made a distinction
between the sons of men. This distinction was made before
the world began, when God chose a people in Christ Jesus unto
salvation. This distinction was evidenced
at the cross, when the Lord Jesus died for His elect, when the
Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep, and this distinction
is made known sometime during our life, because many are called,
but few are chosen. This call of grace, it doesn't
go out to everybody. It goes out to somebody, though.
It goes out to all of God's elect. goes out to His people because
God says, I will put a redemption between My people and your people. So back here in our text in John
7, we see a division among the people. Some believe Him and
some don't believe Him. Some worship Him, some love Him.
Some rest in Him. Some adore Him. Others mock Him. Others hate Him. Others are furious
toward Him. And they're violent toward Him.
They're just left alone. And that's what you don't want
God to do to you. Don't leave me alone, oh God. Don't leave me to my will. Don't
leave me to my ways. Don't leave me to my thoughts.
Don't leave me to my inclinations. My foolish heart is darkened. Oh God, do something for me,
because I can't do something for myself. Lord, save me by
your grace. Well, we pick up our study tonight
in verse 19. In verse 19. Our Lord says to these people,
to the Jewish leaders now, He says, did not Moses give you
the law? And yet none of you keepeth the
law. Why do you go about to kill Me? Why do you go about to kill
Me? These men bragged on Moses. They
said they loved Moses who gave them the Law. They professed
to be saved by obedience to the Law of Moses. And here they come. They rise up against Jesus of
Nazareth and they say, you are opposed to the Law of Moses because
you have broken the Law by healing a man on the Sabbath day. Now
this is still, they are still carrying this around. And that's
something that happened back in chapter 5. This is several
months ago. But they hadn't got over it.
They've not got past that. They still hate him for that.
They hate him because he did that work on the Sabbath day.
And they hate him because then when they confronted him, he
said, my father worketh hitherto and I work. And then they picked
up stones to stone him because he said he was equal with God.
And this still sticks in their crawl after months and months
have gone by. They accuse him of violating
the law of Moses. So the Savior announces to them
the fact that they're the real lawbreakers. He said, you're
the lawbreakers. He says, why do you go about
to kill me? Our Lord just turns the tables
on them. You see, these people, they wanted to murder Him. And
that is a violation of the law. The sixth law. Thou shalt not
kill." And we know they wanted to kill Him. It says in verse
1, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for He would
not walk in Jerusalem because the Jews sought to kill Him.
Look at verse 25. Then some of them of Jerusalem,
they said, is not this the one whom they seek to kill? Everybody
knew. They knew these Jewish leaders
were bloodthirsty. They knew they had murder in
their hearts. And our Lord goes to these leaders
and said, you accuse me of breaking the law of Moses? You want to
violate the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. If you go
back to the book of Matthew, he gives a real understanding
of that, a spiritual understanding of breaking that law if you look
on somebody and you hate them, you despise them, you've killed
them in your heart, you've broken this law. He said, why did you go about
to kill me? They sought to kill him because
his message of grace offended them. They sought to kill Him
because He said God was His Father, thereby making Himself equal
with God. They sought to kill Him because
He said you can't be saved by your works. Only people who are
absolutely perfect are going to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
And you're not perfect. Well, look at verse 20, the people
answered and said, you've got a devil. Who goes about to kill
you? You know, whenever men refuse
to believe the truth, when they can no longer defend their error,
you know what they resort to? Name-calling. And it's still true today. You
get into a debate with somebody and they can't argue with the
facts, then they'll call you a name. They're going to try
to put you down that way. So that's what they did to ISA.
You've got a devil! You've got a devil. Look at verse
21, Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, I have done one work, and ye
all marvel. He says, Moses therefore gave
unto you circumcision. Not because it's of Moses, but
of the fathers. This goes all the way back to
Abraham, when God commanded him to circumcise the little boys. And ye on the Sabbath day circumcised
a man, that is a man child. If a man on the Sabbath day received
circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken. Are
you angry with me? Because I made a man every way
to hold on the Sabbath day? Are you mad at me because I did
a work of mercy on the Sabbath day? Here's what he said, you violate
the law because a little baby boy on the 8th day, that's when
he was named officially, that's when he was circumcised, and
if that 8th day happened to fall on the Sabbath, they went ahead
and had that ceremony. And you're angry with me because
I did a work of mercy on the Sabbath day? So here's his question. Why do
you go about to kill me when not a single one of you keeps
the Law of Moses? Nobody keeps the Law of Moses. And we know they didn't keep
the Law. Even though they hugged up to the Law. And they rested
in the Law. And they said, we love Moses.
We love the Law of Moses. Our brother read to us to open
the service tonight. He said, the law of Moses is
going to judge you someday. That one you trust in, you say
you love His law, you love Moses, is going to kill you one day.
Because you see, God's law can't give you life. God's law kills. It kills offenders. For by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight." And then he makes this statement. He says to all these people,
remember he's in the midst of the Feast of Tabernacles in the
temple, and he says to everybody, judge not according to appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Judge a righteous judgment. There are a lot of people who
take that passage over in Matthew 7 which is much like this. Judge not that you be not judged. And they say to us and to others,
well you're not the judge and you're not supposed to judge. You know that passage in Matthew
7 verse 1, judge not that you be not judged. It's one of the
most misused and misinterpreted verses in all the Bible. People
who have no knowledge of the Gospel will use this verse against
those who do believe the message of God's free and sovereign grace,
and insist we should not be dogmatic about Bible doctrines, and we
should never say anything negative about what anybody believes,
because if you do, you're in violation of the verse of Scripture
that says, judge not that you be not judged. Well, in that
passage, in Matthew chapter 7, our Lord is condemning a spirit
of criticism and fault finding. So we should remember that to
the degree we judge others, they will do the same to us. But as
to making judgments about right and wrong, what is scriptural,
what is not scriptural, what is moral and what is immoral,
what is accepted behavior and what is unaccepted behavior,
what is honoring to our Lord and that which is not honoring
to our Lord, we have to make judgments. Don't we? Our Lord says, make a righteous
judgment. You've got to make a judgment
about these things. Make sure it's a righteous judgment. A judgment that is correct based
on God's Word. That's what you've got to base
these judgments on. God's Word. Look at a couple
of verses. Go over to 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Judge righteous judgment. He doesn't say don't make any
judgments. We have to make judgments every
day. We tell our children, be careful
what kids you hang around with. You got to make good judgments.
Wise judgments in this world. Especially in the things in the
religious realm. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, look
at verse 21. 1 Thessalonians 5.21, he says,
prove all things. What does it mean to prove all
things? Put all things to the test. Literally
evaluate everything. Well, what things specifically
is he speaking about? Well, go back up to the verse
before it. Despise not prophesying. That is, don't treat with contempt
exposition of Scripture. When a passage of Scripture is
set forth, when doctrine like the doctrine of God's grace is
illustrated and put before you, don't treat it in a shameful
or despicable way. But here's what you've got to
do. You've got to prove all things. When you hear religious teaching,
when you hear doctrines set forth, you've got to put everything
to the test. Well, that begs the question,
what test? To the test of Scripture. To
the test of Scripture. Judge a righteous judgment. Isn't this what the Bereans did?
They listened to the apostle Paul preach. He is an apostle. And it says they searched the
Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. What did they
do? They judged a righteous judgment. They took what they heard the
preacher say, they went to the Word of God to make sure that
these things are so. Look at the rest of verse 21.
After He says to prove all things, He says, hold fast to that which
is good. That is, after you've proved
all things, you've put this to the test, you've examined this
doctrine, this Gospel of Jesus Christ, this Gospel of God's
saving grace, you've examined it under the searchlight of the
Word of God, and you've found out that it is correct, then
hold fast To that which is good, you grab hold of it and don't
let it go. But now, if you hear some error,
you hear something, you put it to the test and it don't stand
up, push that away from you. But you hear the gospel, you
hear that which is honoring to God, that which magnifies the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's everlasting Son, The only
savior of sinners, you're something that magnifies the grace of God,
and you go to the scriptures and say, yes, this is true, this
is true, then you take hold of it, hold it fast and don't let
it go. I don't care who tries to talk
you out of it. I don't care who tries to say,
now you ought not be so dogmatic. You know, the Bible says, judge
not that ye be not judged. And just say to them, well, the
Bible also says judge of righteous judgment. And I've judged at
what you believe is absolutely contrary to the Word of God because
it doesn't teach salvation by baptism or salvation by works. And this message of grace, pure
grace, through the doing and the dying of God's darling Son,
it is according to the Word of God. And I tell you, I take hold
of it and you're not going to talk me out of it. I'm going
to hold it fast. To hold fast upon something is
to seize it. Keep it in your memory. Keep
it in your heart. That's making a righteous judgment. The amplified version reads verse
21 this way, but test and prove all things until you can recognize
what is good and true. To that, hold fast. To that, hold fast. Upon searching the Word of God,
taking the Scripture in its context. If what you're hearing is in
fact consistent with the very Scriptures of the Lord God of
glory, embrace that truth and don't let it go. I'll give you
another verse. Our brother read this earlier,
1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 1. 1 John 4 verse 1, Beloved, don't believe every spirit, don't
believe every doctrine, and don't believe every preacher. What
should we do? Try the spirits, whether they are of God. Why is that? Can't we just trust
a man if he brings a Bible behind the pulpit? You know, he says,
I represent the Lord and I've got my credentials because I
went to such and such a seminary or whatever. Can't we just believe
him? No. And here's the reason, because
many false prophets, many of them, they've gone out into the
world. Lots of false prophets have gone
out. put them to the test. We've got to evaluate every message.
And I'm not saying be critical. Criticize every message. I don't
want you to do that. You don't want to sit there with
a critical ear, but with a discerning ear. And you take everything. I don't care who's... Me? You
listen to the tape by Henry Mahan? Brother Parker? Brother Tim,
James, whoever it is, if you're watching somebody on television,
you better take whatever is said and take it to the Scriptures
to see if these things are so. Let me show you this first. Look
at Revelation chapter 2. This is to the church at Ephesus. So this idea that, well, judge
not that you be not judged, people take that out of context. It
doesn't mean what they think it means. For your soul's sake, you've
got to judge your righteous judgment. Look at Revelation chapter 2,
the second verse. The Lord Jesus, and He is the
Speaker, He says, I know thy works, Thy labor, thy patience,
and how you can't bear with them that are evil. And thou hast..."
What have you done? "...tried them, which say they
are apostles, and they are not. You found them to be liars."
How do you think they tried them? Take them to the Scriptures.
These men preaching and they said, no, wait a minute. That
doesn't line up with the Word of God. You men are lying to
us. And our Lord Jesus commends them.
He said, you've judged a righteous judgment. And I tell you, we need to exercise
righteous judgments all the time. I hear people arguing about abortion. debating abortion. And these
women, you know, saying, nobody can tell me what I can do with
my body. And the gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender people. Well, it's wrong for you to judge
us. If you believe the Word of God,
these issues have already been settled. There's no decision for a child
of God to make on this. Judge a righteous judgment. What
does God say about these things? It isn't even up for debate.
It isn't up for debate. I don't have a choice. I know
what I'm to believe. I'm to believe what God says.
And all of that is perversion. It's perverse what it is. It's
ungodly. God says that kind of behavior
is wrong. End of discussion. Well, I think we ought to debate
it. There is no debate. Judge your righteous judgment.
Take everything to the Word of God. And that settles it. I used to hear preachers say,
God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Well, you can
take that middle one out. God said it, and that settles
it, whether I believe it or not. God has the final word. And I'd
talk about all these rights and stuff, and boy, I'd get caught
up on this. What's right is right, and what's
wrong is wrong, and what's ungodly is ungodly. And in the religious realm, we've
got to make a righteous judgment. God sits before us the truth.
And He says concerning preachers, if they speak not according to
this book, it's because there's no light in them. So here's the theme for the evening. Judge, righteous, judgment. You've got to do that. You've
got to judge a righteous judgment. And the Lord Jesus told those
people, He said, don't judge by appearance. Don't judge by appearance. There are those Pharisees and
Sadducees, scribes and chief priests, they're all members
of the Sanhedrin. decked out in their religious
garb, and here's one Galilean man, and he's teaching, and he
appears to be a poverty-stricken man. He's very plain-clothed. There they are, they're the hierarchy,
and here's one man with a few followers. And the world says, well, they
must be right, because look how many of them there are. And the
Lord Jesus says, don't judge according to appearance. Can't
do that. Judge your righteous judgment.
You take the Word of God and whatever a man says, take it
to this book. If it's consistent with this
book, wonderful. If not, say goodbye and don't
look back. Best you be turned to a pillar
of salt, like Lot's wife. Judge, righteous judgment. Well,
let's sing, we're marching to Zion. Those of us who believe
the truth, we are.