This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at gracetruth.org and anchoringfaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. Turn with me to John chapter
10. We will close this chapter out
today. I was thinking there were going
to be a couple more weeks, but I think that I think we get the
point of what is taking place here. Last week we looked at the text
here in verses 22 through 30, so let's start reading there
to the end of the chapter, and then we'll pick up. At that time the Feast of Dedication
took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was
walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the
Jews gathered around him and said to him, How long will you
keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe.
The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but
you do not believe because you were not among my sheep. My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch
them out of my hand. My father who has given them
to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch
them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. The
Jews picked up stones again to stone him. And Jesus answered
them, Have I shown you many good works from the father for which
you are going to stone me? Or which of them are you going
to stone me? The Jews answered, It is not for a good work that
we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being
a man make himself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not
written in your law, I said you are gods? If he called them gods
to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken,
do you say of him who the father consecrated and sent into the
world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God? If
I'm not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me.
But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe
the works that you may know and understand that the father is
in me and I am in the father. Again, they sought to arrest
him, but he escaped from their hands. Let's pray. God, may your word do all that
it was intended to do this day. Father, may you take the frailty
of my heart and mind, of my body, and set it aside, Lord, and by
power through Your Spirit would You speak the truth of this text.
Lord, for our understanding, for our learning, for our intimacy,
for our joy, for the assurance of our hope in the gospel of
grace. And Father, to the praise of Your glory, to the praise
of Your great name. And You alone are worthy of all
honor, glory, praise, wealth, dominion forever and ever. In
Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We saw last week as we closed
out the sermon that Jesus gives this imperative, this absolute,
this assurance for the church. Never have we ever been in such
a time in my life where assurance has been dragged through the
mud. In some sense, people have caused
Romanism to be reborn in Evangelicalism to such a degree that people
are more worried about how they live their lives for the sake
of their soul than who Christ is and what He accomplished for
the sake of their soul. I'm not saying, as we've been going through
Romans midweek over the last 50, almost a year, I'm not saying
that we ignore our deeds, that we are to just sin, but we need
to put these things in their proper place. We need to understand
that the assurance for you and for me is found in the finished
work of Jesus Christ, not the measure of grace with which He
will mature us in time. Though we will grow and we will
mature, just by the mere pleasure of God," sounds odd and contradictory
what I'm about to say, but just by the mere pleasure of God,
we could find ourselves in sin once again. And then, and only
then, and every time in those circumstances, we will only trust
in the finished work of Christ. So that as we fight this good
fight of faith, as we make war in our lives, as we finish the
race, we do so because of the work of God in us. But most of
all, we do so because of the finished work of Christ for us.
For no one has been born again whose Christ has not satisfied
their judgment. No one who believes is someone
who is still waiting for the day when God will approve of
them. We are guaranteed life, and that's what Jesus is teaching
us here. As we review, look at them. Look
at what He says to them in verse 25. I told you, and you do not
believe. I told you, the works that I
do in My Father's name bear witness about Me, but you do not believe
because you were not of My sheep." See, religious people, just as
a way of reminder so that we can get into this text today
and close this out, religious people will utilize the Scripture,
will utilize gospel parts and gospel truths to bring together
this false gospel of works. And they will bring it to the
forefront and say, we are walking in a manner worthy of God. We
are living the way God wants us to live. We are hoping in
what God has done in us, like the Pharisee. Thank you, God,
I'm not like the Republican. Thank you, God, I'm not like
the tax collector. Thank you, God, I'm not like
the Gentile. Look at how you've made me, God. I know that I'm
yours because see my life? Well, the Mormon and the Jehovah's
Witness and the Muslim could all argue the same thing. and
many unconverted, believing, professing believers. also claim
the same assurance. But Jesus says that His work
bears witness about Him, but these people cannot believe because
they are not His sheep. Now, what's ironic about this
is, as we'll see when we close this out today, they do believe
that He is from God, as they've already confessed some three
years before. They do believe that He is the prophet of God.
They cannot deny that the works He is doing are indeed the works
of God. But yet they care more about
what he is saying than what he is doing. They care more about
how he is going to tear away their authority and their glory
than they do about the very souls of their own people that they've
been given to shepherd. They care more about their religion
than they do about the very person of God. And so as we continue
here, It unsettles readers when they hear the words, you are
not among my sheep. See, that hurts people's hearts
in our culture today. It frustrates people because
they begin to be fearful and say, well, what if I'm not the
sheep of Christ? Well, do you believe in the finished
work of Christ? Are you trusting in the absolute gospel of Christ? Are you absolutely certain and
convinced that Jesus Christ is your righteousness? Are you absolutely
certain that His death paid the penalty of your sin and that
there is no condemnation for you in this life because of what
Christ has done? Well, beloved, the only way you
can have hope, the only way you can believe those things is that
God has birthed you anew. And the only way God will birth
you anew is if Christ paid for your sins. Because God does not
make alive a people for whom Christ did not die. And the assurance
is not coming to the place of recognizing just how good we
might be in the faith, but assurance comes from the place of understanding
that Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice. My sheep hear My voice
and I know them. Now, I said this very quickly
last week. Because I dealt with it on Wednesday
night the week before. Foreknowledge in the New Testament
deals with an intimate love of God for His people. That's what
it talks about. It's not about God knowing something
about someone. It's not about the cognate of
God, because God is omniscient. That's an obvious. But in the
context where Paul and the apostles write about the foreknowledge
of God, it is always applied to a particular people that God
has loved eternally. And that those people that God
has loved eternally, He has put His Son forward, as Paul says
in Romans 3, to propitiate for them. As a matter of fact, Jesus
is propitiation. He satisfies the judgment of
God. So the death of Christ makes
your sins no more, beloved. And this is the love of God displayed. God's love is always a willful
act of His divine prerogative. It is always immutable and unchangeable
and eternal. God does not wishy-washy, flip
back in two. He doesn't do like we do out
there, we have pizza, now let's go to Burger King. We don't have
to worry about God being fickle. God is eternal, God is unchangeable,
God is impassable, and all the attributes thereof of God as
they're exposed in Scripture, no matter what label we put on
them, all of them are equally submissive to one another because
God is not a God that can be picked apart. And Jesus is God. And so the
work of Jesus Christ is a work that is for you, beloved, the
elect, those who are given to Christ, and no one else. And so when Jesus says, you are
not of my sheep, this does not even put fear in the hearts of
these men, because they don't care. They're glad that they're
not counted in the number of the disciples. As a matter of
fact, if you remember over in chapter 8 and 9, they mock Nicodemus
and say, why are you defending him? You want to be his disciple?
And then the blind man says, why are you asking me this again?
Do you want to be his disciple? To the Jews. And it infuriates
them and they throw him out of the synagogue. He's blessed that
he wasn't thrown off the Temple Mount and killed. Because they
could do that. Very well could have done that.
And so we know that God has established eternal life for His people,
and no matter the strength of your faith, if you belong to
Christ, God will keep you in the faith. God will keep you
in His grace. God will keep you in the finished
work, because that that Christ purchased cannot be thrown away.
And this is what He tells us there. My sheep hear My voice.
He's just reiterating what he said months prior. And I know
them, I love them, I gave myself for them, and they follow me.
Now let's contextualize this for just a moment. as it's given. There is no place in here, in
the hearing of these Pharisees, where Jesus is saying that they
need to change something about how they're living and make a
change in their obedience. As a matter of fact, the Pharisees,
if judged by those around them, would have a very great obedience. But they refuse to believe in
Jesus Christ. Because everything they knew
about Messiah, everything they knew about God the Father, everything
they knew about the covenant of grace and redemption, everything
they knew about who they were and about Moses was all wrong.
All of it was wrong. 100% of it was wrong. Even a stock clock is right twice
a day, correct? But not the Jews. Everything
they thought they knew, they did not know, and everything
they thought they had, they did not have. And if we couple these
things with the parables of Christ and the synoptics, we know that
what they did have was taken away from them. Why? For they
were not the sheep of God. They did not belong to Christ.
But those who do belong to Christ, this is the hope. I give them, verse 28, eternal
life. Now what part of that is hard
to grasp? I give them eternal life. Does it say I offer them
eternal life? Does it say I provide for them
the possibility of eternal life? Does it say I try to give them
eternal life? No. I give them eternal life. So the antithesis of that would
be that you who are not my sheep, I will not give you eternal life. See how backwards the gospel
has become in our culture? How many people have you ever
heard on the street preach that? How many so-called quote evangelists
have ever preached this particular explicit, awesome, sovereign,
powerful, saving gospel? No, they like to say, you know
what all you all out there? You're all brothers and sisters
in God. What God is He talking about? The God of this world? Who is Satan? And as my theological
partners say, no, that's God. Anyway, that's a debate. God
has given the enemy rule of this world. But the rule is Christ's. Some
people would say, well, you know, all you got to do is Jesus is
knocking. He's knocking. He's knocking
on the door. Are you going to open and let
him in? No, Jesus doesn't knock on the door. When a federal warrant's
being, and I, back, because of the law enforcement family, I
got really neat experiences in my life. I was able to be a bad
guy for some high risk search and seizure training with the
bureau when I was 19 years old. And my only job was to do what
they told me to do, they give you the little simunitions, at
that time it was paintball, you know. Now they use their real
guns with the orange slides. And they say, you wanna sit here,
you're gonna do this, and when this happens, you do this. But
the fun part was at the very end it said, it's whatever you
wanna do, just don't get arrested, don't get shot. I had the best
time playing cops and robbers that I've ever had in my life.
As a grown man. And one thing that I learned
in that is that the cops don't honk the horn when they drive
up. And knock on the door and say, hello, Mr. Bad Guy. We're
gonna come in and arrest you now, do you mind? Can you tidy
up a little bit? You got your drawers on? No. As a matter of fact, there is a little
something that they did that they did a front knock and they
busted in the back at the same time. So as we're all running
to the back, there they are. Like, got us! Jesus, see they're listening,
Jesus does not knock on the door of your heart. Jesus does not
knock on the door of anyone's heart and ask them, can he come
in? in a salvific way. That imagery
is dealing with the church who has lost their first love and
he's talking to them in John's Apocalypse about having intimacy
with Him as His children, as His sheep. No, Jesus kicks the door down
and drags us to life, rescues us from the perishing of our
own demise. God the Father gives us to Christ
when we're dead and lost and an enemy. See, Christ didn't
die for His friends. He died for His sheep who were
His enemies. He laid down His life. And He
says because He's done that, I give them eternal life. And they will never perish. They
will never perish. See, it's the same thing that
we see in John 3, but it's a little more emphatic because Jesus in
all of His divine wisdom is getting to the point. When are you going
to tell us that you're the Christ? Has He not already revealed that?
Yes. But they wanted the flag. I'm
the Christ. They wanted to see it. They wanted
to have Him say He was Messiah. so that they could know for sure,
though they were certain that He was, they wanted to hear Him
say it. They wanted the masses to hear
Him say it. They wanted the people to pick up stones and they can
be the heroes. Yeah, look at this blasphemer
saying he's God. But Jesus said that none of His
sheep will perish. And you know, that's the underlying
problem with the Pharisees. They didn't want to lose their
following. They didn't want to lose their glory. They didn't
want to share the glory with anybody, much less some weird,
unwed, out-of-wedlock child. Illegitimate son. We don't even
know who the daddy is, really. Is this not the son of Joseph
whom we know, they've already asked? At least we weren't born
in sin. Remember that accusation? They didn't care about these
people. They just wanted the glory. Much like many teachers
today who would rather see somebody burn than see somebody worship. Who would rather have a destructive
ministry to get followers in order to just feel self-glory
than actually do something for the teaching of the sheep. The Pharisees are the same way.
Religious people and self-righteous people and legalist people and
Pharisaic people, they will always be this way. They will always
have this heart. They will always have this mind.
They will always be like this. And friends, they will always
be the status quo of the common religion of a culture. How many
Baptists are in this circle? Most of them. How many evangelicals are in
this circle? Most of them. Let's consider
the eternal reality of people who claim to be in Christ but
can't even articulate the gospel of grace. God will teach. They will all be taught by God.
Where is the teaching of the gospel when God brings to life
His sheep? If it's not there, what does
it tell us? So Jesus continues, He says,
they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my
hand. Now imagine for a moment in this introduction, imagine
for a moment these people hearing Jesus say that and they're thinking,
this man's going to die, we're already trying to make it happen,
who does he think he is to have the power to keep us from taking
these people from him? That's the logical, natural response
of an unregenerate mind. This guy thinks he's all that
and a slice of bread. He is really a tough talker. Nobody's going
to take our people from us. Nobody's going to give them life.
What is he talking about? They couldn't even grasp that.
And now nobody's going to snatch them out of his hands? So who
cares? And in fact, they had already said, why don't you go
be the prophet to the Gentiles, to the Samaritans? Go back to
Sychar where you had your great revival. Do that over there,
those unclean dogs. That's who you need to go to. Nobody's going to snatch them
out of my hand. Now consider the fact that when we move on
into verses 31, and they pick up stones to kill him, where
are these Jews are resting? Where are they resting in their
hope, in their bloodline? They're resting in their bloodline.
They're resting in their traditions. They're resting in their history.
They're resting in their obedience and adherence to the precepts
of Moses. They're resting in their interpretation of the Word
of God, which, by the way, when you see the word law here, it
means the Old Testament, all of it, not just the Pentateuch.
It means the Old Testament. Using the word law was a reference
to the Holy Scriptures. And the Bible of the first church
was what? The Old Testament. Until the letters began to be
written, the Bible of the first church, that first church, those
first few days, those first few months, when there was no letters,
the Bible was the Old Testament. The Scriptures of Israel, the
Hebrew Scriptures, to which these people were well acquainted,
but they could not see their hand in front of their face,
because they did not belong to God. They were not the sheep
of Christ. So they're thinking, we're right
with our father, whose Jesus already told them some months
before that their father was who? The devil. And they were
the sons of Satan. And they're thinking, we're right
with the father, we know the truth, we have the law, we follow
the rules, we live the way we're supposed to live, and we teach
it correctly. And these people, they already
said this about their own people at the Feast of Booths, that
none of these people keep the law. because they're ignorant. They can't read. They don't know.
None of them can keep the law. Only we keep the law. And Jesus
in that same discourse said that they're going to die in their
sins. What sins? The sin of unbelief. The sin
of self-righteousness. The sin of rejecting the very
One who has come from God. The sin of not knowing God. The
sin of being a sinner. So Jesus goes ahead and says
exactly what they're thinking. Well, the Father is greater than
this guy. And then He says, My Father. who has given them to
me." So now Jesus in this sense is blaming God the Father for
everything He's doing. That's what He's been doing the
whole time He's had a ministry, right? He's never taken it of Himself
and says, this is what I'm doing. You need to listen to me because
I got it all. I'm doing this and you need to understand that
I have the right interpretation. No, He said in John 5 that that
which the Father is doing, I now do. And they picked up stones
to kill Him there because He made Himself equal with God. Because when someone comes and
says, God sent me, and I am from heaven, and He is my Father,
and I am the begotten Son, and what I am doing is what He's
doing, and what I'm saying is what He's saying, you're basically
saying, I'm God, do what I say, and watch what I do. They got it. They saw it quickly.
And I've had people argue with me before, well, they wouldn't
have stoned Jesus for that because the Mishnah says that you can't
really stone someone unless they actually speak the unspoken name
of God. But that was how many hundreds
of years after this? The Pharisees would kill anybody
for blaspheming in any way. But my Father who gave these
people to me, He's to blame. He didn't give you to me. He
gave them to me. And no one can snatch them out
of His hand. I mentioned the phrase last week
about eternal security, perseverance. How do we persevere in the faith?
It's ebb and flow, isn't it? It's constant. Some days we feel
like, man, a tank couldn't push me away from the Lord right now.
And sometimes an ant causes us to fall off a cliff. Sometimes
we think that there is no way we could ever have more joy in
Christ. And then other days we are up and we're thinking, where
is Christ? Sometimes we can see clearly all the glory of the
Word of God and we're just walking on cloud nine or ten or eleven
or twelve. Twelve, since we're going to be perfect. We're going
to walk on cloud twelve and then tomorrow, that cloud twelve is
a fog and a swamp and a gully. So where is our hope? Our hope
is that no one can snatch us from God. No one can undo the finished
work of Christ. No one can flip time back in
some kind of science fiction warp and take Jesus out of the
picture where He won't die on the cross. No one can stop the
death of Jesus. No one can stop the advent of
Jesus. No one can stop the obedience
of Jesus. For God alone ordained it, decreed
it, and purposed it. The very reason God created the
heavens and the earth is to redeem a people for Himself. That's why we exist. So that we could be His people.
And He could be our God. Verse 30, I won't go all over
it again, I went through it last week. I and the Father are one.
Jesus is talking about the work that He's doing, which is the
Father's work, the work of redemption, the work of persevering, the
work of sealing, the work of saving. It's the Father's work
that He is doing. So I and the Father are one in
the same work. We're doing the same stuff. So
when you accuse me, you accuse God the Father, because the work
that I do is His work. That's what He means by that.
Now, oneness heresies have bloomed crazily out of that phrase. That's
why context rules. The only way we know the definition
of what's being said is by the context in which it's found.
We don't do word studies to such a degree that we start to impart
what's not in the text on the text. We can glean some things,
but in the end, we must see what the context is teaching. Here,
it's about the work of God in redeeming His people and giving
the sheep that He has predestined, elected, and foreknown, and loved
to the Son for whom He died. And then, keeping them, and no
one will snatch them. No wolf? What did I say last
week? No false teacher? No heresy? No ignorance? Nothing. Sickness, disease. Nothing
will snatch us from the hand of God. Nothing will take us
away. Christ has purchased us with His blood. There is no return
policy. I and the Father are one. We're
doing the same work. Everything that I do is the work
of God. The Jews. Here we are today's sermon. The
Jews. picked up stones again to stone
Him. They picked Him up. And I find
it interesting how many times in the life of Jesus that we
see recorded where they tried to arrest Him or stone Him. I
mean, they were going to throw Him off the temple, they were
going to throw Him off the cliff, rather, in the very beginning
part of Luke, the very first public appearance He has after
His baptism. They're all like, oh, it's such
a graciousness coming from his lips. And he says, I'm talking
about you. I'm like, kill him! So the Jews, though they were
run and operated and governed by the oppression of Rome, though
they had lost their ability to sacrifice, etc., they weren't scared of killing
somebody who was a blasphemer. There was no repercussion with
Saul. when he authorized the stoning
of Stephen in Acts chapter 6? None whatsoever. 7. None. Rome wasn't stupid. That's why Pilate washed his
hands. He said, there's no guilt I find in this man. I'm clean. No blood is on my hands. But
I can't kill him. I can't arrest him because I'm
full. All the judicial slots are taking
place. Well, let Barabbas go. Let Jesus
take His place in crucifying Him. That's the heart of the
self-righteous, beloved. There were no atheists trying
to kill Jesus. There were no denominational
leaders trying to kill Jesus, fighting over who's going to
baptize what, where, and how. Babies are believers. There was no group of ecclesiastical
bishops or elders that were discussing the nature of Jesus. There were
no cult leaders who were going, let's crucify Him. It was the
Jews. Crying out to Pilate, crucify. Crucify. Crucify. What shall we do with this innocent
man who's proven himself worthy of adoration? Crucify. Let's not think that everyone
who is an enemy of the cross is in a cult. Most of them could
stand with us in a crowd and we think them brothers and sisters. They picked up stones. And Jesus
says, I've shown you many good works. And what does He say again?
From the Father. From the Father. I'm showing
you the work of God the Father. For which of these works are
you going to kill Me? Now why would He say that? Because
the masses recognize the authority and the power of God in the life
of Christ. Many, not most, but many people recognize the authority
of His teaching The very temple guard we saw just a few chapters
before would not lay hands on him. They sent them in. Go arrest
him. He's running his mouth again.
Go arrest him. They go and listen. They're like, I'm not touching
this guy. They were scared to touch him. Probably in their
minds, hearing the words of the prophets, touch not thine anointed.
Touch not thine anointed. They're like, this guy's a prophet. I'm not putting my hands on him.
God has a real good history of killing folks who bother his
prophets. or touch his ark, or steal an idol. And they're thinking,
I'm not touching this. So they come back and says, why
didn't you arrest him? I'm not touching him, listen
to him. I'm not stupid. And the Pharisees, the chief
priests wouldn't go touch him. They wouldn't go and bother him. Now he's doubling down on the
reality of who he is. I'm showing you the works of
the Father. You need to tell all these people Which work of
God that they recognize are you going to kill me for? Was it
the healing of the blind man? Was it the healing of the lame
man? Was it bringing salvation to the Gentiles? Was it turning
the water into wine? You think you want to kill me
now for a work? Wait to what I'll show you in a couple of
weeks. Wait till my friend Lazarus is decomposing. Then what are
you going to think? That's when the death warrant
was issued, as you'll see. Which of these are you going
to stall me for? Which work? You know what they could not
say? They could not pick one. because they were divided even
amongst themselves. The Jews amongst themselves, some of them
would say, no, we know that this is the only God can give sight
to the blind. Only God can do what He did. But He broke the
Sabbath, so it makes Him a sinner, but He did a work that's good.
What are we doing? Oh, no. It never put in their
mind, it never came to their mind that maybe they were just
wrong. Because that's the nature of
self-righteousness. It's never wrong. Nobody is right but me,
says the self-righteous person. You want to see how you should
live? Look at my life, says the self-righteous person. You want
to see what you're doing wrong? Look at me. If you're doing different,
you're wrong. That's what they say. Something
didn't jive. They would dare not confess that,
though many times over they wanted to kill him for doing these good
works. They said, it is not for a good work that we are going
to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you being man, make yourself
God. See, what Jesus is saying to
them is far more frustrating and more important than what
He did. what He is telling them He is
accomplishing, and by whose authority, and by what power, is far more
important than what He's doing. I could talk a sermon on that. So what they did is when they
saw what He accomplished, they were in awe, and then when they
heard what He said, it's almost like it contaminated everything
He did. Friends, listen to me. Soapbox,
here it is. When we stand on the gospel of free and sovereign
grace, we are the minority. I'm going to say that again. When we stand on the gospel of
free and sovereign grace, we are the minority. The majority,
historically or otherwise, is typically always wrong. And when we stand on the words
of Christ and the gospel of grace, we pit ourselves against all
other evangelical flavors of the world to which self-righteous
people have attached themselves to such a degree that they'd
rather us disappear and go away than deal with what we say. Now I want you to keep that in mind. Because the more we learn and
grow in our knowledge of the grace of God, the more difficult
it's going to be to live in a world that hates Him. The more we see
clearer and clearer and clearer with our eyes the ineffable affection
of God for us, His people, the harder it's going to be for us
to live in a world that hates this love. And worse, creates
idol after idol after idol after idol of a false god, a false
gospel, and a false Christ to purvey to the masses who are
willing and able to join in in a social sense and say they are
the people of God. Soapbox. Jesus was clear and they grasped
perfectly the fact that He claimed for Himself equality with God. And it's not the first time.
In chapter 5, He says, My Father is working until now, I too am
working. So for this reason the Jews tried
all the more to kill Him. That's what they said. All the
more to kill Him because He made Himself equal with God. In chapter
8, I solemnly assure you, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham
was, I am. So they picked up stones to kill
him. I and the Father are one, same
thing. But what does Jesus say to them?
And I've said this a thousand times over. Consider the apologetics
of Christ. What does Christ do when people
debate Him in a public way? He reasserts the position of
authority by proclaiming the Word of God. Had someone say
to me Friday, I have a Bible of my own. You have not said
anything when I quoted seven passages this long of scripture
to a question they asked. You have not said anything. I
have my own Bible, he says. And I'm like, And I'm getting
text messages, don't block him yet, I want to interact. And
I'm like, okay, you got ten minutes. And then that was the end of
it. We should learn something from
Jesus. Assert the Word of God in the foolishness thereof, that
the world may marvel at our ignorance and our dumbness, that God is
glorified in the renewal of the minds of those who mock it. Now, a specific dialogue and
intriguing debate amongst brethren? Let's go for it. We love each
other in the beginning, we love each other in the end. No harm,
no foul. But friends, we cannot convince
people to see that which God has not revealed to them. And
we cannot convince them to see that through any other means
except the means through which God has designed and proclaimed
to open their eyes, and that is by the Holy Spirit, God, the
Holy Spirit alone, coupled with the giving of the Word of God
alone. I had someone ask me, tag me in
something about C.S. Lewis this week. And I get that
question more than anything in the world recently about theologians. What about C.S. Lewis? What about
C.S. Lewis? And let's just say this, he was
an atheist and he became a deist and through it all he's a philosopher.
There is no theology that C.S. Lewis has that is worthy of our
time. Just read it. If you want quotes,
I've got 600 with citations. You want quotes to show that
he doesn't believe in the atonement of Christ? It's a myth. You want
quotes to show he doesn't believe in the sufficiency of Scripture?
It's just a parabolic expression of men who are seeking something
they couldn't understand. You want to see what he says about
forgiveness? I've had people say, hey, I'll
just give mere Christianity to somebody who's struggling in
the faith. Now what are they going to do? They're going to
go down a rabbit hole of lostness. God will save His people through
the Word of God. And my preaching is worthless
and powerless and a waste of your time if it is not from the
Scripture. You don't need my commentary,
but as a pastor elder, when we come together, part of my calling
and part of the thing that I cannot get away from is the constant
gnawing burden of wondering, how can I explain this? What
can I do? What can I say that we all together
may grow intimately? And then God has reminded me,
you just teach it and watch. Teach it and watch what I can
do. And that's part of how we're supposed to shepherd the body
and each other, is to keep each other reminded about the power
of God through His Word. And I'm thankful for people who
have come before me and around me through the years who have
had good commentary. But friends, ultimately the power
rests in Christ. The power rests in the voice
and the Word of Christ. And those who do not want to
hear that, it's because they've not been granted ears to hear
that, and it could very well be they have not been given to
the Son because they are not the sheep. So Jesus answers that
little deal, whatever that was called. How does He answer this? Jesus answered them, is it not
written in your law? He's talking about your scripture.
Is it not written in your law, Psalm 82? That's where he's going. I said, you are gods, sons of
the Most High, all of you. Now, for those who like the Psalms,
depending upon the flavor of your eschatology and your soteriology,
I mean, what you think about last days and end times and second
coming and how God saves, not you, but in general, people,
depends on how they interpret this. But let me just give you a couple
of options. Some people think that he's talking
about angels. Some people think that he's talking
about the judges. But the Bible says he's talking
about the Jews. You are God's Son of the Mosiah,
all of you, in that they have been given the law of God, the
Word of God at Sinai, And for some strange reason,
this is what the Scripture calls them. But if you go and you look and
you see the totality of Psalm 82, what is it that he closes
out with there? I said, you are God's Son of
the Most High, all of you, nevertheless, Like men you shall die and fall
like any prince. So this is not anything to say
except the way people viewed the Israelites. The way people
viewed the leaders of Israel. Even God Himself illustrated
this fact. What Jesus is saying is, does
not your scripture say that you're gods? So what does he say? To whom the Word of God came,
you have the Word. That's why you were called gods.
Because you have the Word of God, you have the Oracle of God,
you have the mouth of God given to you on parchment, on paper,
on stone. And Scripture cannot be broken.
Scripture cannot be broken. You were called gods. Why would
you be upset because God the Father has called me His Son? What's wrong with you? Well, Exodus 4, I believe, is
a good example of what's happening here, because Jesus says in John
12 that Isaiah 6 is fulfilled in the hearing. They won't be
able to see, understand, perceive, believe, or anything. When you
go back to Egypt, the Lord told Moses, See that you do before
Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But
I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
And you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is
My force-born son." So here's Moses, a type of Christ, doing
a type of work, not in himself, but in the power of God, to rescue
God's elect out of bondage. Why did God put Israel into bondage? As a picture of the gospel of
grace. He even called Israel His firstborn
son. But if He called them God to whom the Word of God came
and Scripture cannot be broken, what does that say about you?
What does it say about you, Pharisee? Jesus is saying. Why are you
thinking this way? It is because, as He's already
said, you are not among My sheep. But remember that Scripture cannot
be broken. What does Jesus mean by that?
It cannot be undone. Scripture can't be thwarted.
Scripture can't be abused. Hey, hey, hey, listen. Nobody's
going to snatch you out of the hand of God. No false teacher
will lead you away from life. How many false teachers have
invaded the church of Jesus Christ? Just read the New Testament epistles.
All of them. How many false teachers have
we had amongst us as Grace Truth? I don't know. We don't let them
stick around very long. They don't appreciate exposition. How many false teachers will
we see in the future? As many as God has ordained. But the Word of God cannot be
broken. Nobody's going to lead the elect astray forever. Yes, can we be ignorant? Can
we be confused? Can we be disturbed, divided,
scattered? Yes. Can we be lost? Never. You cannot be lost, beloved. The Word of God cannot be broken.
Another way of looking at that is that prophecy is fulfilled.
The decrees of God will come to pass. I have given my life
for the sheep. I gave them eternal life, and
they will not perish, and no one can snatch them out of my
hand, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand, for
I and the Father are one. Now we're going to kill you.
Oh, the Word of God? You're going to kill me because
of the Word of God? called you gods, yet you're going to die,
and you can't handle the fact that the Word of God cannot be
broken by your own nuances, by your own philosophies? You think
just because you can twist it for centuries that you're right?
You can't mess up what God has done. There's the essence. Scripture stands true in light
of your error, in light of your ignorance, in light of your erroneous
interpretation. Scripture stands true in light
of every cult and hateful, deceitful, apostate preaching that's ever
been purveyed in the world. And it will not fail. And that's
why we will put all emphasis on the Scriptures here, as a
people. All emphasis. So if the Word of God that cannot
be broken called you sons of God, yet you're going to be crushed
according to that same passage there. The prophecy is going
to be fulfilled. I'm going to save my sheep. They're
not going to be lost. You're going to kill me? Because the Father sanctified me and sent me into
the world? You are blaspheming? You say
I'm blaspheming because I am the Son of God? You see what
he's saying there? I'm not just saying these things. I am the
Son of God. The Father did send me, and His
Word testifies to that, and this work testifies to that. It doesn't
matter what you think. I don't care what you think.
This is true. What does Jesus do? He doubles
down with the apologetic of defending who He is by the Word of God. By the Old Testament, even. As
Paul would tell young Timothy, the sacred writings with which
you are well acquainted, that are able to make you wise unto
salvation. Unto salvation. God has consecrated,
has sanctified. Hagiazo is the form of the verb
there, or the word there. That means He's set apart for
Himself. That's what the word sanctified
means. That's what the word holy means. God is holy, holy, holy. I don't think it's on there.
It might be. That means He's set apart, He's
set apart, He's set apart. God is set apart far above all
things. Christ, who is also God, is set
apart by God the Father, who is eternally the Son. Jesus is
eternally the Son. God the Father has set Him apart. Because He is God and also He
has set Him apart for the work that He sent Him to accomplish,
which is His work to call His people to Himself and to secure
their salvation forever. And He's proven it. He's proven
it. God has done this, not me. He
has set me apart, not me. He has sent me. I didn't come.
He has proven it, not me. He has done the work. You see
the point? When we proclaim that which God
has said and proclaimed and people can't see it, we're off the hook.
When we try to argue with them philosophically or through evidence,
we are still tangled up in the humanism of trying to win people
into a place of understanding and sight that only God can do,
only Christ can give sight to the blind. Verse 37, if I am not doing the
works of my Father, then do not believe me. You see what He does
for them? If I'm not doing the works of
my Father, just don't believe me. But what can they say? Even in their
lost, unregenerate, delusional state, they cannot confess that
these are the works of God. But they know full well they
are. If I'm not doing the works of
my Father, then do not believe me. It's like I try to tell people
sometimes, I just don't believe in that Jesus, I don't believe
in that God, and I go straight to John, or I go straight to
Paul's writing, or I go straight to the New Testament, or wherever,
and I say, well, look at what the Bible says, and then I just
can't... I have to get them to confess. You know what? You must
say, I don't agree with what I just saw. Don't say that's not true. Just
go ahead and confess, I don't like God's Word and I don't like
who He is as He's revealed Himself there. Especially John 6. In a sort of a way, Jesus is
saying, don't believe in Me. But if I do them, even though
you do not trust in Me, believe the works. Even though you can't believe
in Me, you're not the sheep, you can believe in the works,
you know they're from God. So now look at the conundrum.
Now look at this. What are we to do here? Believe
in the works that I've done. What does that look like? He says it there. Believe in
the works, you know they're true, that you may know And that you
may understand that the Father is in me, and that I am in the
Father. See, Jesus displays the fullness of the Father. That's
what John started out, one of his introductory outlines. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through Him. The Word became flesh, and
so forth, and so on, and so forth, and so on, and so forth. Jesus
is just explaining this very clearly. They do not negate it. They cannot negate it, but they
will not believe Him. They will not trust in Him. They
will not put their faith in Him. But the reality is that there
is no other way anyone can know God except through Jesus Christ
and His work. Say that again. There is no other
way that anyone can know God except through Jesus Christ and
His work. Parents, teach your children
that Jesus is God and that He died to save His people from
their sins. Read them the Word of God. Read them the Word of God. Many claim to know God, but they
don't recognize Jesus Christ. Many claim to recognize Christ,
but they don't agree with His work. Thus they do not know God. Exclusive revelation by God through
the Spirit, through the Word, is the only way to eternal life.
There is no other way. There is no plan that I can give
you. There's no list. There's no activity. There is
no action of believing except to hear the words that I have
preached And by the mercy of God the Father, He reveals to
you that this is your only hope for life, and you hold fast to
it in a way that you can't explain as your only living bread. If you can't explain what faith
is, what it feels like, and how it operates, you don't have it. Let's quit trying to be scientists
when it comes to faith in Christ. Rest. And again, they sought to arrest
Him. But it was not His time, so He
escaped from their hands. So He went away across the Jordan
to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and He remained
there. And many came to Him, and they
said, John did no sign. But everything that John said
about this man was true, and many believed in him there. He came to his own, but his own
did not receive him. But all who did receive him,
who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the
children of God, not because of blood or the will of man,
or by choice, or by decision, but by the will of God. This
is the gospel of grace. This is the reality where Jesus
says He is sovereign in every step of His life. In John chapter
4, the scripture says, and He had to pass through Samaria.
It was ordained that He go to Samaria, that He call the people
of Sychar who belong to Him to faith. It was ordained that he
would lose nothing of all that was given him, but would raise
it up on the last day as he proclaimed in John 6. And it was ordained
even in that some verses later where he says, no one can come
to me unless the Father who sent me snatches him to me. I'm just going to change that
word because that's what it means. To pull with irresistible force,
draw. I think I used the illustration
back when I was 20, working construction with my uncle, and the grout
pump failed. And we were gonna pour grout
in those 15-foot walls. Climbing ladders on scaffolds
with five-gallon buckets of grout, five gallons of grout in this
hand, and five gallons of grout in this hand, and it's his fault
that 25 years ago I did that. Now I have arthritis in both
shoulders. There was no wooing, coercing, coaxing, asking, drawing
along. It was work and there was no
way I wasn't going to pour it in there. And all the while gravity
put that stuff straight down. God draws by force and power. And if He doesn't draw, you will
not come. But if He does draw, you will. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for just the glory of Your name, the glory of the hope that we
have in Christ Jesus. the majesty of Your love and
mercy, and every other adjective we could consider. Father, we
are overwhelmed and thankful that You love us with an everlasting
love in Christ Jesus. You loved us, so You sent Your
Son to die for us, and He has paid our way to life. He has bought us and snatched
us and drawn us out of life into the light of His kingdom. And
in that hope, we await, we rest, and we glory. In His name we
pray, Amen.