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 to John chapter 7 as we continue here in this gospel. This sermon, last few weeks I've
noticed that I've gone over the normal time by 10 minutes or
so. in the teaching, not the hour.
And I don't know how that happened, but it did. This week, as I look
at my notes, I think this is going to be 20 minutes to talk
because I don't want to get into this Verse 25, really, because
that section there is compact, I'll refer to it this morning,
but I don't really want to get into that unless I spend an hour
and a half this morning. So, in my mind, I'm thinking,
what is going to be said today? But the Lord is sovereign and
true, so whatever He has for us to learn from this text, we
shall learn. Last week I opened the message
with the idea, with the truth that we are all burdened, we're
all labored, We're all desperate to see God do things in our lives. Beloved, we are all in a battle
even if circumstances are not stressing us out and things that
are out of our control or winding us in a different direction.
Our thoughts, our minds can plague us. We can become slaves to our
own fleshly intimacy. What I mean by that is that we
can be so absorbed with our own inner thinking that we can really
lose sight of the Gospel. We can become so enamored with
our own guilt when we sin and when we fall short of the glory
of God that we can overlook the grace of God. Where God would
say in His Word that we are not condemned because of Christ.
We should not sit and be condemned in our own minds against our
own selves. We are not the people who are
to look at our lives and say, oh, woe is me, I am worthless,
I am nothing. Though that may be true in the
economy of God's grace, we are something because God has redeemed
us through the body and the blood of His Son Jesus. We are objects
of His mercy, not because of who we are or what we are or
what we have done, but because of God's infinite wisdom. God
does not capriciously choose to save some and not save others. God, before the foundations of
the world, has elected His people to be saved through His Son.
And it's by the mere pleasure of God, not maniacally, but righteously. And as we come here to learn
this this morning, We consider what it is that we want from
the Lord. Well, God, if you could just give me this, if you could
just help me understand this, if you could just deal with this
in my life. Sometimes we want things from the Lord, but ultimately
what we want from the Lord is what will give us the greatest
joy, which is the sovereignty of His being, the exercise of
His supremacy over our lives. and that in every heartache,
in every frustration, in every fear, in every doubt, in every
minuscule moment of unbelief, we are able to withstand and
we will not fail because He is faithful and He will not deny
Himself. And beloved, we see the trials
and we come to the understanding that they are necessary. We also
come to the remembrance that they are promised. We need to
stand on the promise that they are good. That's hard. They're good. Because when we
suffer in Christ, we are driven to Him. So what we think we want
over here, when we do not get it, we think even in our wisdom,
even trying to give glory to Christ, in our desire for this,
whatever it may be, when we get what God wants for us, He drives
us to Himself, and we get what is greater than that which we
desired. Healing in the body is good, but having absolute
affection for Christ is better. Having a reconciled marriage
and desiring that is good, but being in the heartbeat of Christ
our Savior is better. Having a church that is completely
unified, it's a good desire, but having an unspeakable joy
that we cannot even comprehend in our natural mind that is found
only in Christ is better. You see? And the list could go
on and on and on. So yes, we labor. And I remember
in some of the other letters that I taught through the last
few years, people would come to me mid-season and say, why
do we speak of suffering so much? What else shall we speak of?
The bliss of the world? I mean, I could have had a V8.
That's about the closest we get to bliss. And even then, that's
a regret. What are we supposed to see if
we are to be honest about the condition of this world? And
if we're to be honest about the condition of our lives, friends,
without Christ, they are a worthless waste of nothing. But in Christ,
every amount of bliss and every amount of blight is valuable. It's valuable. It is not for
nothing. It is for something, and that
is for the glory of Christ, and most of all, for our joy. We
have joy. And we are in a place in John's
Gospel, in the narrative, where it's difficult to pick out exactly
what it is we're supposed to learn. So we have to read it
carefully. We have to read it slowly. We don't have to be brilliant. We just have to pay attention.
We have to stop going so quickly that we miss out on what's actually
being said and done. And let's don't forget, I say
this every few weeks, what we've already learned in the last 57
weeks of this teaching. Let's not forget what's on the
table here. The divine glory of Christ being
pictured and portrayed. The fact that He is from the
Father, He is the God of heaven who created all things and nothing
that exists He did not make. He is the exact imprint, I'll
steal away from Paul, of the nature of God, Hebrews. He is
the visible image of the invisible God, Colossians. He is the firstborn
of all creation and that in His humanity we are going to be like
Him in our new life. We have the promise of resurrection.
We have the promise of eternal life that is secure in Jesus
Christ. We have the promise and we have
that promise from the mouth of God Himself who is Jesus Christ,
the eternal Son of God. And in His Word, we see what
God has supremely and divinely orchestrated, that Jesus lived
in the world, being birthed through the womb that He created, into
a body that He created for Himself, humanly, a human body. He didn't
create it humanly. And then He learned and He grew
and He learned and He grew and He lived and He never sinned. He never sinned. What must it
be like to confine the ineffable, divine, glorious essence of God
to 33 years in the life that we live? You think Jesus' life was bliss?
Not a chance. For His birth was thrown into
the history of humanity under a sentence of death. Herod wanted
him dead. His toddler years as he played
with his mother in the house and the wise men of the Orient
found him and had followed him for years to try to follow the
star to find where he was that they may worship him. Even the
king there wanted him to report so that he might put Jesus to
death. and oh the agony of the firstborn
sons of many during that season, whom the king slaughtered and
slit their throats and threw them in the river, so that just
by chance he might kill the Christ." Christ's incarnation, His presence
on this earth has caused massive suffering by the billions. Jesus' kingdom is not of this
world, nor shall it ever be. Yet the wholeness and the fullness
of God dwelt in a life much like ours, with not even the technology,
not even the niceties, and certainly not the pleasures. From birth
He was running for His life. Then from there to Egypt, then
from Egypt to Nazareth, then from Nazareth to Jerusalem, from
Jerusalem back to the Galilean area, and then to Jerusalem to
die. to die. So when the Bible says that we
have a high priest who can sympathize with us, that is not lip service. That God Himself, Jesus Christ,
the God-man, knows what it's like to live in the world and
sin not. You know what that's like? Never
worry, never fear in unbelief, Never not obey the Lord. Never
forsake the Word. To never do anything that wasn't
in the will of God. But live in the world that hates
every breath in being, every breath in purpose, every breath
in essence of God Himself. To live as a human being in this
world, to walk perfectly before God, is to be hated by the world. So when Jesus is talking with
these people, This is what's on His shoulders. The wrath of God upon which all
humanity is due is upon the shoulders of Jesus. The weightiness for God who will
satisfy His judgment only for His elect. That wrath is poured
out on Jesus Christ. And our sins are atoned for. and our sins are propitiated. We are guiltless because Christ
became guilty. Not personally, but judicially. So when we whine
and complain about our life, woe is me! Wham! And I'm not making light of it.
I'm not talking about the cashier at the grocery store who's fussing
about her feet hurting. I'm not talking about the traffic
that's a little delayed. When we complain about real things,
about real suffering, about real fear, about real detriment, even
then, it's woe is me in the face of what Christ suffered. We have a culture that cries
out, justice, justice, we need justice. Friends, there is no
such thing as injustice in the world. For if we were to play out the
justice card from the litmus test of heaven and the righteousness
of God, if someone comes into this building and shoots me in
the face, I am so much more worthy to experience so much more suffering. But we compartmentalize that,
we put that away. We mean justice, friend, there
is always justice. The murders of the world that
get away with what they do, they have not gotten away with what
they've done. But in the same sense, though they may never
even face some small, tiny, weak, infantile, worthless justice
of man, whether it be imprisonment or death, it is still not justice. What is justice is to stand before
the Holy Creator of the universe and Him to look at you and say,
you are guilty before Me. Now, feel the everlasting punishment
of My vengeance. That's justice. Here's the beauty. How many murderers have been
forgiven all because Christ took their shame? It's funny how we consider gossip
to be such little of a sin, but yet it is the root of murder
according to God. When we gossip, we might as well
cut their throat. Sorry to be so graphic. We might as well stab them because
we're literally stabbing them in the back. When we hate someone
without ever even saying a word, we are literally murderers at
heart. We are guilty of the same sin
as Cain. Murderer. But yet it's so easy
in our system of justice to say, oh, a little hard feeling taking
someone's life. Man, these are not equal. In
God's economy of righteousness, they are. So we must always remember
what it is Christ is holding. How we would kick and scream
and cry and wail and demand our rights if we were wrongly accused
and wrongly convicted and wrongly imprisoned. It's not fair! I didn't do it! And we should
say it's not fair we didn't do it, if we didn't. but how we would feel so victimized.
Oh, we've been hurt, we've been offended. Christ was not a victim. He was born as the Lamb of God. He wasn't a victim. This was
the intention of God the Father for all eternity, to send His
Son to be the Lamb that takes away the sin of His people. Jesus did not defend Himself,
for He was doing that which was purposed by the Father. He was
obedient unto death, Philippians. Even death on a cross. Made Himself
a slave. And He was God. And He is God. And God He shall forever be. Look at the Scripture today. Starting verse 14, I'm going
to read through 24, and then I'm going to start in verse 19.
About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple
and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, How
is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So
Jesus answered them, My teaching is not mine, but his who sent
me. If anyone's will is to do God's
will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether
I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own
authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory
of Him who sent me is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.
Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, You have
a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?"
Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision,
not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcise
a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives
circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are
you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's body?
Well, do not judge by appearances. But judge with right judgment. Jesus purposed, God purposed
for Jesus to go to the feast and go into the temple and to
teach, knowing that His life was in danger, knowing that it
was the plan of God that He'd be arrested and killed. And after this, Jesus was forever
in hiding until the day of His arrest. being careful where he went. The Pharisees, who have always
given Jesus fits, claim to be the children of God, the seed
of Abraham, the protector of the oracles of God,
those who have the word of God, those who practice the law of
God, yet every turn that they met Jesus, Jesus told them that
they did not keep the law. According to their understanding,
according to their traditions, they kept the law. According
to the way they saw it. And Jesus did something that's
recorded over in John chapter 5, if you remember. He performed
a miracle. When the man at the pool of Bethesda
was invalid for 38 years, he went into that pool where all
those people were, and he healed this one man. on the Sabbath. Remember? And you remember that discourse,
do you want to be healed and the man was trusting in the myths and
the legends of Jewish tradition? Well, I have no one to help me
into the water when the angel touches its wings. We see that
through other historical documents. This is what these people believed.
It doesn't mean that it's true. It's garbage. It was a wives'
tale. Nobody's ever been healed by going in that water. Even
if I could get there, other people are faster than me. I'm not hoping
to be healed, maybe one day, I don't know. And Jesus commands
him to stand up and walk, and take up his mat, and go show himself to the Pharisees,
to the Jews. So Jesus performs this miracle. And the Jews see this man coming
who they've known for 38 years to be an invalid, laying at this
pool, laughing at him probably, this idiot, he's not going to
be healed. You know why they thought he wouldn't be healed?
Because they thought he was cursed because of unbelief or sin. Oh, we're
not cursed. We don't have... I heard a man
say Friday night that he can speak anything he wants into
being. That's why he's healthy. And his hair is so gray and he's
so wrinkled. If I'm going to speak, I'm going
to say, youth, youth, youth, stay where I am. But they didn't see things the
way that they were supposed to see. The Jews did not, and they
considered anyone who was physically impaired to have sin, and that
was God's punishment on them. So now here's Jesus. He heals
this man. He commands him to stand up.
He tells him and commands him to take his mat up, which was
a violation of the law according to the Jews. and then to go see
the priests and the scribes and to show Himself to them. And
He walks in. I mean, could you imagine? I've used this illustration before.
Somebody amongst us who was ill or broken or diseased. And that's all we ever knew them
as. And we loved them anyway. And all of a sudden, they walked
in here perfectly healed one day. Just miraculously. The first thing we would say
to them is, you haven't wiped your feet. Look at the mud on
your feet. I mean, you know, you didn't wipe your feet. What
are you doing? Oh, you're standing. Okay, whoop-a-doo.
That's sort of the mindset that the Jews had with this man. He
walks in and goes, ta-da! I'm healed! And they say, who
told you to pick up your mat? Why do you have your bed under
your arm? Why do you have the towel like this? The football carry, what are
you doing? You're breaking the law. We're going to kill you.
I mean, you know, that kind of thing. Of course, they couldn't
kill them for that under the rule of Rome. They'd lost their
judicial powers until Saul, he took it back. They didn't care that the work
of God had been done. They didn't care to see the glory
of God in this man's healing. They didn't care to give praise
to God for the work that He'd done. Much like the world today,
many who profess Christ, do you realize that the most wicked
thing in the world is the person who professes to be in the faith
but who's not in the faith versus the person who says, I don't
want anything to do with it? Of course, that's a comparative
that we make. But the Scripture also makes
that. Woe to these people. Woe to the scribes. Woe to the
Pharisees. Read that in Matthew's Gospel. If you don't weep, I
don't know what you're hearing. It breaks my soul to see these
people condemned. But they deserve it. They see clearly what God is
doing, yet they refuse to see and acknowledge. Jesus did this. And he's talking
to them. He's already told them in John
5 that Moses wrote of them. He would not indict them before
the Father, but Moses wrote of him, and therefore Moses would
indict them before the Father. They could not grasp this. Who
are you to think you can indict us before God? We are the children
of Abraham. We have Moses. Even the Samaritan
woman from Sychar said, do you think you're greater than Jacob?
They all had their traditions. Well, we're part of this lineage,
we're part of that lineage. Even the New Testament church
had the same problem. We have the same problem. First
Corinthians, we see Paul. They were arguing, who baptized
who, and who was my apostle, and who was that apostle, and
who did they hear preach, and who did they go see at a conference,
and what book did they just read, and who autographed their Bible?
Baloney. Don't ask me to autograph your
Bible. You won't like what I write in it. So Moses asks them a rhetorical
question, and it's also grammatically an assertion. Like if I say, are you not alive
today? I'm asking a question, it's rhetorical, it doesn't need
an answer, and I'm also asserting you have, you're alive today.
Jesus says in verse 19, has not Moses given you the law? Reminding
them of that which they assert, which they take credit for, which
they call their own, they take possession of. We have the law
of God. He says, that's not Moses giving you the law. Then he goes,
yet none of you keeps the law. And just because, what is Jesus
saying? Just because you know the law, just because you've
memorized the law, just because you have a copy of the law, just
because you walk around knowing that you have possession of that
which Moses has written to you, does not make you a keeper of
the law. Yes, you might keep it under your arm, but you don't
keep it. You don't know. He's already
told them, you don't know the Father because My Word is not
in you. And He's going to tell them later, your Father is Satan,
the enemy, the adversary, not Abraham. One can know the law and have
the law, it does not mean they keep the law. And the law, motivation
for what Jesus does is to obey the Father. The law is what? Given in order that it might
be what? Obeyed. Is it possible? No. We break the law before we even
know how. We break the law in essence before we even know it. But then when we know it, We
want to break it more as human beings in the natural state.
Don't tell me I can't covet. Don't tell me I can't murder.
Don't tell me I can't blaspheme. Don't tell me I've got to love
my enemies. Of course we don't say it quite
that way, but we express ourselves in those ways. Jesus speaks in the will of the
Lord. Jesus acts in the will of God.
He never strays away from the will of God. He obeys the law
of God. Everything he does is for the
glory of the Father and in accordance with his will. And so the law,
by its creation, displays the perfect righteousness of God.
Paul says that very clearly. The law and the prophets display
the righteousness of God in verse 21 of chapter 3, Romans. But then he goes on to say what?
But so does the death of Christ. Because the letter kills. The
work of Christ gives life. The Spirit gives life. Christ
came to uphold and fulfill the law and He did just that. And
in Christ we have fulfilled the law by faith. Because Christ
fulfilled the law for us. So we are free from the law,
O happy condition, and that it no longer has control over us
in the sense that we are not guilty before it. It cannot condemn
us. It cannot charge us. Who can
bring a charge against God's elect? Not the law, because Christ
has fulfilled it. The law of faith. So the law
reveals the will of God in perfection, the law reveals God's holy perfection,
the fact He has set apart beyond all things, and none of them
could keep it. None of them could keep it. On
the other hand, the Jews knew the Law, and they walked in some
manner of the Law. They walked in some manner morally,
to a degree. And according to what Jesus teaches
in the Gospels and Synoptics, He says, unless your, what, righteousness,
unless the way you live, unless your morality, I'll just, I'll
put that in there to give some understanding of the actual intention,
unless your morality is greater than that of the Pharisees, you'll
never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And the people of the day were
like, well, who can enter the Kingdom of Heaven? No one can live as
holy as the Pharisees. No one can live as perfectly
as the Pharisees. Look at them. They walk around with the Bible
in their eyes. I mean, we're good in mind to even take ours
to dinner when we go out, much less pick it up at home and read
it sometimes. Aren't we guilty of that? We're
all guilty of that. Don't feel alone. I mean, imagine, you know, if
a few of us had Bibles taped to our belts all the time. We're
like, well, look at that guy. He's got Bibles everywhere. Six
translations. He's ready. You know, takes literally
the weapons of righteousness in the left and the right holster. We would think, man, I wish I
had that kind of zeal. That guy's more righteous. No, he's not.
In Christ, we're equal standing before the Lord. Here are these Jews who morally,
in some sense, walked pretty well according to the world standard
of that day, even the Jewish standard of the normal person.
But here's the point they could not remember and they could not
see because they were divinely blinded, judicially. The law
does not save you. And what's that judicial blindness
called? The natural man, by the way. It's not because they were
Jewish or Pharisees, it's because they were unregenerate. The law does not save you, the
law destroys you. It will hold you in guilt before
the Lord at all times. The law will kill you because
it demands perfection. And when we do not exercise perfection,
which we cannot and we will not, we die. For the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God is what? Eternal life in
Christ Jesus. But Jesus is saying they didn't
even want to do the will of God. They didn't care about the will
of God. They didn't care about the law of God. They didn't care
about God. They didn't care about truth. They didn't care about
righteousness. They didn't care at all. They
cared about how they were seen in front of others because they
loved their own glory. They loved to see the glory that
they received from each other. It's like a bunch of pastors
at conferences that I've seen before. And just continue to
praise and praise and praise each other. Oh, and brother so-and-so,
and he's so awesome, he's so great, and the Lord's used him
greatly. There's nothing more disturbing than a man who preaches
the Bible getting a standing ovation. Because one of two things will
happen. He'll eat it up or he'll rebuke the mess out of those
people and they'll never clap for anything. But isn't that
the way we do? But sadly, beloved, a lot of
people want that ovation. A lot of people want that praise.
A lot of people want that glory. A lot of people want to learn
the Word of God so that they can be esteemed by men. Friends,
you're not esteemed by people when you teach the truth of Christ.
But I tell you what, the sheep of Christ know His voice and
they love you for being truthful and for God using you. But ultimately,
you don't need to love the teacher, you need to love Jesus. You need to love the word that
comes out of the mouth of a faithful teacher. And you need to recognize
that if it were not for the grace of God, the faithful teacher
would become the faithless teacher in a second. The Jews did not desire to do
the will of God. And one of the reasons that we know that is
because they did not desire to hear the words of Christ. They
did not desire to see the work of God in believing on Christ,
the work of God in visualizing, seeing with their own eyes the
work of Christ, which is the work of God the Father. Remember,
they accepted glory from each other, Jesus says in John 5 and
even here in John 7. Therefore, they could not receive
the glory that comes from God. I talked about last week, men
who seek their own glory, their own way, their own joy, they
will not receive the joy that comes from the Lord. They will
not receive the glory that comes from God, who is Jesus Christ
the righteous. They refuse it. Friends, let me tell you something,
how this looks. It really looks on the surface, We think about
these really bad people who hate Christianity. This is not who
we're talking about. We're talking about people who
supposedly believe in Christianity, but they refuse the righteousness
of Christ alone. They refuse the teaching of Scripture,
and they've compartmentalized their traditional theology to
such a degree that they believe they're safe in their own doing.
They believe they have righteousness in their own decisions. They
believe that they have followed a set of rules. that lead to
salvation, and some of them, they call it the rules of accepting
Christ. And it's by faith alone. It's
not by faith alone if there are things that you must do to believe.
If there's conditions set upon the gospel of grace, it is not
the gospel of grace. It is the gospel of, eh, hope
you take it. The grace of God saves sovereignly.
Christ has satisfied the sins of His people. and we who believe
hear it and see it by the grace and mercy of God. Why? So that
we cannot boast at all. Let our testimony be, if it were
not for the Word of the Lord coming to me and God saving me,
I would be dead in my sins. Let that same testimony ring
from us, beloved, that if it were not for the Word of God
and the grace of God in us now, as believers, we would depart
from the faith desperately and quickly. These Jews had murderous and
hateful hearts. They wanted Jesus dead because
He paved over their ability to receive glory. Here all of a
sudden, in first century Palestinian culture, was this man who claimed
to be from God, who performed miracles proving he had divine
power. And then all of a sudden, he
started telling people that it's about the grace of God, not the
glory of the Jews, that they can be right with God. It's about
the work of God through the Son, whom He has sent, that they could
find hope and life eternal. And they hated Him for it. In
contrast, as Jesus obeyed the Father, He obeyed the law, but
they did not at any point at any time at whatsoever, they
never obeyed the law. They never obeyed. Even when
it looked as though they were obeying, they never obeyed. Because if we obey this one and
do not do well in the others, we violated the whole law. So
you cannot say, I'm doing well here, but I'm not doing well
here. We are still violators of righteousness. What does he say? I did one work. And what do they say there after
he says, why do you seek to kill me? You got a demon. I mean, you know, you
don't keep the law, and they said, oh, you've got a demon.
This is the cultural attitude of anybody who opposed the Pharisees,
by the way. I said this last week. You're
crazy. He's insane. You have a demon. But Jesus did one work, and he
says they marveled at it. See, some people think, wow,
they marveled at it. Remember the work. I've already told you
what it was. It was the healing of the 38-year paralytic. And they marveled at it, nodding,
wow, what a glorious work. They marveled at it, wow, I can't
believe this man would break the law. I can't believe you
would tell, not only would you break the law, Jesus, but you
would tell someone else to break the law. You have gone too far.
And that's when Jesus says, well, I come to do the will of the
one who sent me. I come from God, my Father. Then they said
they had to kill him because he claimed that God was his Father,
as he broke the law. Blasphemous. Blasphemous. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This
man, He's doing this work." And they marveled. They were over-wondered
at how this man could do such a vile thing to heal a man and
then command him to break the law. They did not praise him. They
hated him. They saw Jesus in this light
from that point forward as a blasphemer and a lawbreaker. They could
not imagine that anything he had to say could be true. Beloved,
let me tell you something. That happens every day in our
lives. We teach the gospel. People judge
outwardly and they go, that person can't be a Christian. Look at
them. And that's the end of all this
dialogue, by the way. Look at them. They're not a Christian. Look at what they're dealing
with. They're not a Christian. You know the person that goes home
every night and goes, man, look at my life. God is so good. My
life, I am walking with the Lord in such a great way. Those people,
you know the word for that? Lost! They're lost! Because the Holy
Spirit of God continually speaks to us that we know we are not
worthy. but then our glorious praise
to His glorious grace is the outcome of knowing that Christ
is worthy. And He took our place. He purchased
us. Specifically, particularly purchased
us. People see us in a different
light, don't they? And they make stuff up. when
we walk for Christ and we stand in the gospel. They make stuff
up because they can't do anything else. It's not you have a demon,
it's just that you teach a demonic doctrine. Or you're an antinomian,
or you're a legalist, or you're this, or you're that, or you
don't believe in evangelism, or whatever it is that they might
say. But don't take offense at this, it is normative and it
is guaranteed. They saw Jesus in this light,
and everything He said from that point forward, they saw as suspect. Much like unregenerate people
who profess to be in Christ these days, instead of discerning with
judgment that is spiritual, they discern with judgment that is
fleshly and temporal, and they make hard, judgmental decisions
about people without ever caring to know the truth. When Jesus responds that He was
doing the work of His Father, they wanted Him dead, but what
they could not see is that Jesus' adherence to the law was correct.
Jesus' obedience to the law was correct. What Jesus was doing
was right, therefore it made what they did and how they taught
wrong. and made what they did wrong.
Friends, there's something to be said about that. Don't follow
in the footsteps of people who claim to be walking with Christ.
Read it for yourself. Don't mimic them. Follow Christ. Paul says to follow me as I follow
Christ. How do you do that? You look at Jesus, not at Paul. And if Paul is following Jesus,
and I'm following after Paul, and all of a sudden I see Jesus,
I'm not following Paul. You see what I mean? Because
Paul stepped out of the line and I'm just going, bye Paul.
Come back in behind me. That's what he means by that.
Don't do what I tell you to do. Judge it that it is what God
is telling you to do. I am not your authority. I'm
just a mouth that's going to give an account for how I teach
you. And I cannot command a burden that God Himself has not put
upon you. That's what the Jews had done. The Son sets us free. And they
hated it because people would be free of them, free of the
bondage, of the overbearingness, of the judgmentalism, of the
legalism. They would be free in the grace of God to walk and
give glory to Christ. And what does this have to do
with the context here? Jesus fully healed a man's body
on the Sabbath. Then He told him to break the
law of the Sabbath, to show the body that had been healed to
the spiritual leaders of that day, and it violated everything
within them. They called it evil. Verse 22,
Jesus makes this comparison. Moses gave you circumcision,
and Jesus is very clear to say it's not Moses anyway. It's from
the fathers. And you circumcised a man on
the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man received circumcision so
that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry
with me because on the Sabbath I made a whole man's body? Well,
do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
Let's unpack that. Jesus gives the example here
showing that they have a wicked disdain for the truth and for
the law of God and for the righteousness of God by teaching them that
which they already know. Same thing that Jesus did in
John 3 with Nicodemus, except he did it in a positive doctrinal
way. He taught Nicodemus to remind him of what was taught to them
in Deuteronomy about Moses lifting the serpent. And they made the
parallel. The same way Jesus is doing that
here. Jesus is saying, did not Moses give you circumcision?
But remember, Moses didn't give you the law of circumcision.
Who gave the law of circumcision? God gave the law of circumcision.
To whom? To Abraham. Thirteen years after he promised
Abraham and Sarah a son, Hagar had a child. Because, you know,
God had forgotten about them, so they took it upon themselves
to get the child. Hagar had a child and his name
was Ishmael. And at that day, at that season,
at that week, God told Abraham to circumcise Ishmael as a sign
of the covenant that God had made with him. That he would
circumcise the hearts of his people and make them who were
not his people, his people. Isn't that what he did with Abraham?
He took him out of pagan worship and made him a lover of himself. And so from that point forward,
every person who was from the lineage of Abraham, and here's
the kicker, Abraham in his old age was also circumcised that
day as a sign of the covenant. And so here's the kicker. The
covenant of God supersedes the law of Moses. So the covenant
of God supersedes the law of God! Wow! And these Jews are like, that's
Moses' law. Moses had nothing to do with
circumcision. He was just following orders.
And they missed the point of it. It's a sign. It's a shadow. It's temporal. It's just like the Holy of Holies.
It's done. It's worthless. It's just a picture
on a wall. And then the people we love are
here. Take the picture down. We see them. Abraham gave circumcision. And the law of Moses required
circumcision to be done on the eighth day without exception. And if a child was born on the
Sabbath, then on the Sabbath he would be circumcised. And
to work on the Sabbath was a violation of the law of the Sabbath. But
yet Jews would not violate the law of circumcision. to obey
the law of Moses. Because the law of circumcision
was a signed covenant given to them long before the law came.
So it over cometh. So in verse 23, Jesus gives this
illustration. So they would circumcise on the
Sabbath, and by doing so they would violate the law of Moses,
But the law of Moses would not be broken because they were obeying
the law of circumcision, which was a greater sign of the covenant. Now, here's the beauty. Why do
you think God orchestrated that? Those laws to work coincide,
to violate each other in their interpretation. Can you imagine
a Supreme Court with this one? Oh, good gracious. They'd explode. Their heads would explode. because
they cannot judicially expound upon this. It's contrary, so
one of them would have to be ruled unjust. That's what would
happen. That's pure logic, y'all. I mean,
common sense tells you, well, this is against the law, and
to do this over here, this is legal in a law, but yet if you
do it when it's supposed to be done, you violate this law, one
of these has to go. But Jesus says that they actually
point to each other and they give the essence of the beauty
of the gospel. See, circumcision is of the gospel.
Marriage is about the gospel. The cross is about the gospel.
All of Judaism is a picture of the gospel. But the manner that they judged
Jesus to violate the Sabbath, they did not judge themselves
and their violation of the Sabbath. Because they saw the work of
the shadow of the covenant in circumcision more important than
the actual truth. Because see, the man at the Pool
of Bethesda was actually circumcised for real, spiritually. That's the point of circumcision,
to point to the circumcision of the heart. And the reason that it is done
in the manner that it is so barbaric is because the picture of circumcision
of the heart must come through the shedding of blood. Jesus
Christ's body and Jesus Christ's blood. Do you see that? It's
clear. Read Galatians if you want a
bigger picture of how that looks. The law of Moses would not be
broken to obey the law of circumcision. Jesus even says, or we see that
in Matthew 12, 5, the priests work on the Sabbath, but they're
guiltless because they work on the Sabbath. Why? Because they're
doing the work of God. So in the same way as Jesus, who was
doing the work of God on the Sabbath, He is not guilty of
breaking the law of the Sabbath because He's doing the work of
God on the Sabbath. Because the Sabbath, most of
all, is what? For us to stop making money for
ourselves, for us to stop feeling good for ourselves. It's not
a family day. It's God's day. Well, it's not
for us, it's for God. It's a picture of the gospel,
it's a picture of the covenant, of the rest that we have in Christ
Jesus to know that there is one day coming, a time where our
flesh, I'll be starting out this sermon this morning, will no
longer wrestle With the supernatural powers, we'll no longer wrestle
with our own flesh. We'll no longer wrestle with
temptation. We will be free and at peace with God forever through
the finished work of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who circumcises our
hearts, minds, and souls by the blood of His body on the cross
at Calvary. So, Jesus healing. This man is a
complete picture of the temporal picture of circumcision in its
ritual. It was just a symbol of the new
heart where the old man is cut away through the shedding of
blood and the new man is there. This man being healed at the
Pool of Bethesda. And then going to the temple to show himself
should have been an opportunity where these people fell on their
face and said, glory be to God. Who told you to break our law? See? They judged wrongly. And here's the kicker. They always
judged wrongly. Israel never judged rightly. Ever. Ever. Jesus says, rightly judge. Do not judge by appearances. Jesus says, Moses wrote of me.
I'm showing you right now how Moses wrote of me, folks. Moses
tells you to circumcise on the eighth day. And Moses wrote of
Abraham who circumcised. That's me. That's what Jesus
is saying. See, we don't have to look for
the inferences and try to find some illusion. We just see the pure
meat and potatoes of all the text of Scripture. It is Jesus
Christ. Do not judge by appearances.
This is a command that Jesus gives the Jews here. It's not
a prohibition, it's a command. Do not judge by appearances.
Jesus is rebuking and commanding them, telling them that the entire
use of the law in their hearts and minds is for the sake of
appearance. You hear that? Everything that they knew about
the law was for the sake of appearance. And they've misunderstood the
point completely of circumcision, of the law, of the Sabbath, of
everything. They didn't have a mind to see
it or comprehend it. Why? Because the natural man
hates the things of God and cannot see them because they are not
spiritually discerned. Many will come to the place of
what I call appearance living and say they're in Christ. Friends,
we've been given enough discernment to know what is moral and immoral.
We've been given enough discernment to know what is sin and not sin.
Even unbelievers know that. This is what we're talking about
here. Why do we do what we do? To what end and by what power
and by whose authority do we do what we do? Many people can look Christian
and be lost as a goat. Many people can act and speak
theologically and be condemned. Many people can weep tears of
joy over hearing about Jesus' death, and they will gnash their teeth
in the end. The point of obedience is not
to look obedient. The point of obedience is not
to look righteous. The point of obedience is not
to have the appearance of godliness. The point of obedience is to
give glory to Christ. So as the Jews circumcised on
the eighth day, they gave glory to Christ to whom it pointed.
As Jesus healed the man on the eighth day and violated the law
of the Sabbath, He gave glory to God. Look at the picture there. A true circumcision of a new
life and then a true freedom from the law. Instant. I should go back and
preach that again for my own sake. We walk as we are to walk by
the mercy of God for the sake of giving glory to God. We obey to glorify God. So as we obey, we do so by walking
by faith. And in a manner of answering
the call and the commands of Scripture, we do so to give glory
to Christ. That is the source. That is the power. That is the
purpose of our walking. And we do so, we glorify God
in our walking, and when we do this, we catch the eyes of Pharisees,
don't we? We catch the eyes of people who
are judgmental. And they say, oh, don't do this,
don't do that, what are you doing here? And they make accusation
based on their observation of the appearance of what they believe
God requires, that God's Word is not said He requires. And
in doing so, they pass judgment on a brother or sister, thereby
condemning themselves to be held to the letter of the law, thus
equals death. The wages of sin is death. You
see, sorry, that's loud. Death. And the Pharisees go, oh, look
at you, you wicked lawbreaker. And the whole time they hate
us and they're breaking the law too, you see. I'm better than you
because I don't do this. But the Bible doesn't say, don't
do that, so we die, you know. Somebody's going to want to tear
my Bible up and eat it. Maybe I'll digest it a little
more. Ultimately, if the Jews had had
faith, they would have seen it. They would have had the lens
to see the law, and to whom it pointed, and to see Christ, and
to what He intended, and what He perfected. And proof that
they do not have faith is that they accuse Jesus of being a
lawbreaker. That's what Jesus is trying to show them. And they
were not spiritually discerned. The outcome of that is that they
were judgmental. And there's a difference. We know what's
right, we know what's wrong, but at times our flesh will make
wrong what is not wrong, and at times we do that for appearance
sake, and I believe, beloved, that can be a sin in itself of
bondage. But in all these things, it takes
wisdom, and it takes affection for each other that we do not
fall prey of thinking, well, golly, I'm not like them. Yes,
we are. We're like each other. We're
all just like each other. Wisdom is the key, and ultimately
giving glory to Christ is the outcome. The word of the Lord. Well, the Lord Himself said to
Samuel, what does He say in the second part of 16.7? Do not look on appearance or
height or stature, because I have rejected Him. For the Lord sees
not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks on the heart. So some questions. What are our
motivations? What causes us to speak the way
we speak? What causes us to act the way
we act? What drives us in this way? What is the root of our
heart and mind in any particular circumstance? What is the root of those same
places in our subconscious or our conscious mind in certain
aspects of how we make judgment? How about our desires? What is the cause of it? To what
end is it for? Desire is to give glory to Christ,
that we may do all things to the glory of God, for He is infinitely
worth all glory, all honor, all praise. It is His, so that we
do not live for ourselves, but for each other, for the Lord. So in that sense, as it closes
in context, in what sense do we make judgments? About our
Christian faith, about each other, about the world, about other
people, about our brothers, about others who profess to be, quote,
believers. Here's the ultimate point. We better be watchful. We better be careful to make
sure that we make these judgments by faith and not by what we can
observe with our eyes. Certainly that we do not pass
judgment in our heart. It was woe be unto us that God would
take His hand of mercy away that we might fall into sin for a
season. That we might misspeak for a season. That we might be
confused. Just a snap of God's proverbial
finger and he could stupefy us all as he can make a king to
think he's a cow and to eat in the field naked. Is that the
king? How far we can come without the
grace of God to come from the throne of men to all four eating and chewing
cud. Much like Jesus would teach in
the It's a perfect example. Luke 15. The prodigal son. Those Gentiles who squandered
the very things of God. And those Jews who stayed at
home and obeyed the Father and took over everything. Boy, they
hated it when the brother was saved. That's what that's about. Who do you want to be in that
picture? the boy that lived in a pen and ate slop with the pigs.
For it is only when we see ourselves there has God pulled us out of
there by His grace. Believe on Christ. Let's pray. We love you. Father, we love
you. This text is so rich for us to
be reminded of what you've done. May we worship with every place
in our inner being. Father, I pray for our brothers
and sisters, those of this church. God, I pray that Your will be
done, that You would protect us and keep us. I pray for those
who are straying, those who feel damaged. Father, I pray I pray that You would work mightily
in us to give us right judgment. Father, that we would turn a
prayerful ear, that we would turn away from all of the hatred
and the naysayers and the accusers, and just walk away. Lord, protect our own minds from
themselves, that not hear the accusations of the enemy. For
we are in You and are in Christ, He is in us, so we are secure. Thank You for giving us faith,
for granting us a new mind to see. Help us to walk in a manner
worthy, so worthy, that all that we are and do gives glory to
You, and that we remind ourselves and each other every day of the
cost of that. Jesus Christ who died, to set
us free and to give us life. Father, that He has been raised
to life, we are certain of this purpose. And we pray these things
in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for listening. We hope that this message has
encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to these messages and
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