Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the Book of
John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 2. And the text is actually the
last few verses. of this chapter concerning this
subject in the form of a question, what is in man? What is in man? And let me just read these last
verses, then I'm gonna just summarize the beginning of this chapter.
But it says in verse 23 of John chapter two, it says, now when
he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was in Jerusalem at the
Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name. when they
saw the miracles which he did. Now that puts it in the context
of their, what kind of faith did they have? It wasn't saving
faith or the gift of God-given faith in Christ, but it was just,
they were impressed with the miracles that he'd performed
and following him because of the miracles. And it says in
verse 24, it says, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them,
because he knew all. In the King James Version, they
added the word men, and it's in italics, which means that
wasn't in the original manuscripts. But there's no problem with that,
because he knew all people. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is God manifest in the flesh. And as he walked on this earth
as God-man, there were times that he displayed his deity in
various ways. And then there are times that
his deity was hidden from view. And he displayed his sinless
humanity, the infirmities of the flesh. And I've often said
that we need to understand that, that he is both God and man in
one person. But he did experience what we
call the infirmities of the flesh, sinless infirmities, because
he, for example, he grew weary, he needed to sleep, he got hungry,
he sorrowed, all of these things that are common to all of us
in our humanity and the weakness and the infirmities of the flesh.
But he was without sin. and we need to understand that
he's the impeccable christ impeccable meaning that he was not even
capable of sinning because he didn't have any sin principle
in him he's god manifest in the flesh when it says in verse twenty
four but jesus did not commit himself unto them because he
knew all men he knew their hearts and you know the bible says the
word of god is sharper than any two-edged sword piercing, cutting
asunder, piercing asunder to the very marrow, to the thoughts
and the intents and the goals, the motivations, and that's part
of the omniscience of God, that He knows all things. And verse
25 says, well, read verse 24 again. But Jesus did not commit
himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not
that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Christ knew what was in man. And again, that means he knew
their hearts. He knows my heart. He knows your
heart. So my question is in this message
is, well, what is in man? And that's what we're gonna talk
about. Now back here in the beginning of chapter two, here he's beginning
upon his earthly ministry. And everything that he did was
in complete fulfillment of the law of God, even up until his
obedience unto death. where he stood as the surety,
the substitute, and the redeemer of God's people, given to him
before the foundation of the world, wherein he died for their
sins imputed to him, charged to him, he died, was buried,
he arose again the third day, because in his death there was
the accomplishment of righteousness. And righteousness demands life.
And that's the righteousness that God has imputed, charged,
accounted to His elect people. And that's their justification. Justified, based upon the imputed
righteousness of Christ. That's the righteousness of God
revealed in the Gospel. And so, from that standing before
God in Christ comes life from the dead. And that's in chapter
three of John, the book of John, you must be born again. That's
the giving of spiritual life and faith, repentance. That's
the product, the fruit of the obedience unto death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I quote this verse all the time
on this program, Romans 8, 10. which says the body is dead because
of sin, that's his physical body, because the wages of sin is dead,
but the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is life because of righteousness. And what righteousness is that?
It's not any righteousness of man, not any goodness of man,
not the works of man, but it's the righteousness of God that
is found in the perfection of righteousness that can only be
found in Christ. Romans 10 4 says, Christ is the
end, the fulfillment, the perfection, the finishing, completion of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And
so this is what he's doing. He's going about his father's
business to satisfy the law in every jot and tittle. And here
in chapter two, we see him at a wedding feast, the wedding
feast of Cana. And this is where he performs
his first miracle where he changed water into wine. Now the miracles
of Christ that he performed were testimonies to his power and
his deity. They were also illustrations
of his power in salvation. his changing water into wine,
shows his power to change a dead sinner, spiritually dead sinner,
and give that sinner life from the dead. And so he did that. And then he went into the temple,
and it was on the Passover. Of course, you know the Passover
was instituted back in the book of Exodus, when Moses and the
children of Israel were going to leave Egypt, be released from
Egypt, and the Passover lamb, they had to put the blood over
the doorpost and on the side post. And God said, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. That's a picture of Christ, the
Lamb of God. We read back in John chapter
one, where John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. And the world there being the
world of his elect, the world of his people, a people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, a remnant according
to the election of grace. So here he is in Jerusalem, the
Lord is in Jerusalem at the Passover and he went to the temple and
that's where he found the money changers. And that's what they
were doing is they were exchanging foreign money for local money
and then selling doves and oxen and sheep and making a profit. So they turned it into a business,
and this is where they drew his righteous indignation. He got
angry. Now, when he got angry, he didn't
sin. You know, when we get angry,
most of the time it's a sinful anger, because it's a selfish
anger, or a vengeful anger, or a hateful anger. But Christ is
God, manifest in the flesh, the sinless Son of God, and his anger
was righteous indignation. And that's when we talk about
God's anger. We're not talking about an emotion.
We're talking about his righteous indignation. And so he drove
the money changers out because they had turned his father's
house, the temple, into a house of merchandise. And he quoted
from the Old Testament here in Psalm 69, verse 17. Look at John
chapter two, verse 17. His disciples remembered that
it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. And what
he's talking about here has the zeal of the house of God, which
is his glory. A zeal, a fervency for the glory
of God had consumed him. And that's the way it should
be with all true believers. We should be consumed with the
glory of God so that we wouldn't compromise it. Well, look at
verse 18 of John 2. It says, Now, basically what they're asking
is, what gives you the right to do this? Drive these money
changers out to say these things. What sign do you show us? And verse 19 says, Jesus answered
and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up. That's the sign. In verse 20,
it says, then said the Jews, 40 and six years was this temple
in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? It took
46 years for this temple to be built. And you're telling us
that it's gonna be torn down and you're gonna raise it back
up, build it back up in three days? Well, they missed his point. And that's the problem with a
lot of people when they read the Bible. They miss the point. But here's the point. He says
in verse 21, but he spoke of the temple of his body. He wasn't talking about the temple,
the second temple there, that building. That was a building
that was commanded for them by God. But that's not what he was
talking about. He says in verse 22, it says
in verse 22, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his
disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and
they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
So he was talking about himself, he was talking about his death,
his burial, and his resurrection. In another place, he called that
the sign of the prophet Jonah, because Jonah was swallowed by
the fish, the great fish, which probably was a whale, and then
he was put out three, he stayed there three days and three nights,
and he was vomited out on the shore. And that was symbolizing
a resurrection, as it were, a type of Christ. And so Christ said,
this is the sign. He's going to die. He's going
to be buried in a tomb, but he's going to be raised again the
third day. What greater sign is there? Now, there were all
kinds of signs during his life. His changing water into wine,
his raising the dead, Lazarus come forth, his walking on the
water, his feeding the 5,000 with few loaves and fishes, his
calming the storm, all of these things. You could go on and on
and on. And all of these signified His
power and His deity, and mainly pointed to His power to save
His people from their sins. Matthew 121, His name shall be
called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Is
He capable of doing that? Matthew 123, His name shall be
called Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God with us. The Word made flesh and dwelling
among us. So all of these things pointed
as signs to who He is. He is the Messiah. He is the
subject of the prophecies of the Old Testament and all the
types and pictures. And so that brings us to our
text now. Verse 23, now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
In the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the
miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself
unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any
should testify of man. He didn't need anybody to tell
him about men, sinful men and women. He said, for he knew what
was in man. Now, what does this tell us? What is in man? Well, the Bible
speaks on this subject from the beginning, when Adam fell in
the garden. And we're gonna talk about that,
but let me point one thing out to you on this passage here. This shows that people can claim
to have faith in Christ, but not really have saving faith
in Christ. Now, saving faith, The faith
that the Holy Spirit gives to sinners to bring them to Christ
by the revelation of God is not natural to man. And so if anybody
has saving faith, the faith that looks to Christ and believes
in Him unto righteousness and unto salvation, that's a gift
from God. So when we consider what is in
man, Naturally, as we are naturally born into this world, faith is
not there, my friend. Now, there can be a false faith.
There can be just a mental agreement, as some people say, and a claim. But it's apparent here, it says
in verse 23, look at it again. Now, when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles which he did. They saw the miracles
and they believed that he was the Messiah because of the miracles,
not because of his testimony. The Bible says in Romans chapter
10 and verse 17, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. And that word of God there that
the spirit uses to bring faith to sinners is the gospel. The
Bible says in Romans 1.16, Paul wrote, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation,
to the Jew first, the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith, that's knowledge revealed, to faith,
that's knowledge received and believed, for it's written, the
just shall live by faith. Faith latches onto and believes
because of God's Word applied in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And it's in the gospel, the gospel that reveals the glorious person
and the powerful, finished, accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
to secure the salvation of His people because of what He accomplished
in His obedience unto death. And it's evidenced and affirmed
by His resurrection from the dead. But he knew what was in
man. Now, what is in man? Well, we've
got to look at it in a couple of different ways. First of all,
what is in man naturally? You know, over the years, there
have been many so-called theologians who have taken passages of scripture,
and some have dealt with them sincerely and rightfully, rightly
dividing the Word of truth, and others have twisted them. And
over the years, there have been many schools of thought about
the state of man by nature. What is in man by nature? And
when I say by nature, understand that I'm talking about what is
in us naturally as we are naturally born into this world. One of
the passages that I quote all the time on this program is 1
Corinthians 2 and verse 14. And that says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he
know them, for they're spiritually discerned, they're spiritually
understood. You see, if you understood in
a right way the things of the Spirit, and that's the Holy Spirit
who convicts sinners and drives us to Christ, we would receive
those things because He would convince us, we would know by
revelation how important they are. But the natural man won't
do it. It's not in man to do that. And so I'll show you some passages
back over in Jeremiah 17, verse nine. Jeremiah exposes what is
in man by nature. Now, the Bible teaches that we
are fallen in Adam. We fell in Adam into a state
of sin, spiritual death, and total depravity. Now that's what
we are by nature. That's why we need salvation
by the grace of God. Salvation cannot be by our works,
because our works are not good enough to remove God's wrath
and make us righteous. We need salvation by God's grace. That's why we need to be born
again by the Spirit. You must be born again or you
cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. Man by nature is spiritually
dead and total depravity. Now, when you hear the word totally
depraved, you might think of the worst individuals on earth
according to man's standard of goodness. And you think about
the thieves and the robbers and the drug pushers and the whoremongers,
and they are sinners. And they deserve death and hell
just like we all do by nature. But the total depravity of man
can only be really seen in how a sinner responds to the gospel
of God's grace in Christ. And that's why in 1 Corinthians
2, 14, it says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. Now he can be religious. He can
be moral in the eyes of men and women. But you see, goodness,
goodness has to be measured. When it comes to salvation, when
it comes to a right relationship with God, when it comes to the
forgiveness of sins and righteousness, goodness and righteousness have
to be measured according to God's standards. And in those issues,
man is naturally deceived. Look at Jeremiah chapter 17 and
verse nine. It says, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now that's talking about the
heart of natural man. As we are born naturally into
this world, the heart there is the mind, the affections and
the will. and that they are deceived and
in darkness spiritually dead. But let me show you another passage
over here that kind of sums it all up. And it's in the book
of Romans chapter 3 and verse 10, beginning at verse 10. Romans
3 and verse 10. And here's what he says, as it
is written, there is none righteous, no not one. Now among men and
women naturally, There's none righteous. As we're born into
this world in a state of sin and death and depravity, we do
not have a righteousness that equals God's requirement. You
understand that? And we cannot work our way into
a righteousness that equals God's requirement. In fact, our efforts
to do so in order to attain or maintain salvation are called
in the Bible wicked and evil. Now it doesn't say here there's
none religious, no not one. It doesn't say there's none who
are moral in the eyes of men and women. It says there's none
righteous. That is according to God's standard
of righteousness and goodness. In the book of Matthew, I believe
it's chapter 19, a rich young man approached Christ one time.
And he did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.
He did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was God manifest
in the flesh. And so when he approached Christ,
Jesus, he said, good master, what good thing must I do to
inherit or attain eternal life? And Christ responded to him based
upon his ignorance, the man's ignorance. And he said, why do
you call me good? There's none good but God. You
see, what he's teaching that man is you're measuring goodness
by a wrong standard. You're measuring goodness by
the works and the efforts of men and women. But goodness has
to be measured by God. Righteousness has to be measured
by God. And if you want to think about
God's measure of the perfection of righteousness, it's a righteousness
and a goodness that can only be found in Christ. It cannot
be found among men. If we go by God's standard, and
my friend, in order to understand salvation and forgiveness and
righteousness, we must go by God's standard. The Bible says
in Acts 17 and verse 31 that God has appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. So righteousness
has to be measured by the perfection of the law that can only be found
in Christ. In other words, if I'm going
to be accepted with God based upon my works, my works have
to equal the righteousness of the law, the perfection of the
law that can only be found in Christ. And so, therefore, my
efforts to be saved by my works is a denial of Christ. Paul wrote
in Galatians chapter two verse 21, if righteousness come by
the law, that is by our works, Christ is dead in vain. So look
at Romans three, there's none righteous, no not one, verse
10. Look at verse 11, there's none that understandeth. Now
what is it we don't understand? Man by nature can understand
a lot of things, a lot of complicated things, math and science and
all of that. But what he does not naturally
understand is how God saves sinners, by his grace, based upon the
righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't
understand how God can be both a just God and a savior, because
the only way that God can do that is through the righteousness
of his son, as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his
people. So there's none that understand
it. Now, if we do understand the gospel, that's by revelation
from God. That didn't come naturally. And
then he says, there's none that seeketh after God in verse 11. Now, that doesn't say there's
none that seeketh after a God. Man is by nature religious, but
he doesn't seek after the true and living God. And when men
and women, of their own nature, read things in the Bible about
God, they either just ignore it or reject it, but to seek
the true and living God. Verse 12 says, they are all gone
out of the way, the way of Christ, the way of grace, and they're
altogether become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. That's what is in man by nature. And he says, all of these things
apply to every individual. human being born of, fallen in
Adam and born into this world as sinners. We've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God, he says in verse 23. We'll
pick up there next week. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.