Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to John chapter 18. I've entitled the message this morning,
The Doctrine of Christ. What is the doctrine of Christ?
You remember, we looked at this. Our Savior had allowed Himself
to be taken and bound in the Garden of Gethsemane. And they'd
taken Him to the house of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that
year. And they took him there so they could try him in a religious
trial before they took him to Pilate to try him in a civil
trial. Now the Pharisees wanted to do this so they'd have some
religious excuse to turn over the Lord Jesus to the Romans.
They were afraid of all these Jews who'd been following our
Lord. Maybe they'd rise up against them and they were looking for
some religious cover, you know, to turn him over to the Romans.
So verse 19 is where this trial begins. The high priest then
asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. Now they
asked the Lord about his disciples. Maybe they were asking, where
are your disciples? So we can go arrest them too,
you know, get rid of this movement once and for all. But more than
likely, they're mocking our Lord. You had all these followers.
Where are they now? You thought you had all these
friends and they've all abandoned you. They've all deserted you.
They're mocking you. But then they also asked the
Lord about his doctrine, about his teaching. What is it that
he taught? Now they didn't want to know
what the Lord taught so that they could believe on him and
be saved. They wanted him to say something
that they could use to condemn him. They wanted to say he's
guilty of blasphemy so that he could be, you know, they give
them cover to be, they could put him to death. But when our
Lord answers, notice he doesn't answer anything at all about
his disciples. but he gives a very clear answer
about his doctrine. Look at verse 20. Jesus answered
him, I speak openly to the world. I ever taught in the synagogue
and in the temple, whether the Jews always resort and in secret,
have I said nothing? Now our Lord is telling what
he is telling him. Basically, you know exactly what
I've taught because I've taught openly the word openly. It means very clearly without
ambiguity, and with boldness. Our Lord said, you know what
I taught. I boldly, clearly taught everything I taught so that everybody
could understand it. And in secret, if I said nothing,
the word secret is hidden. I didn't hide from you the meaning
of what I was teaching. He always taught plainly and
openly. And when a man preaches openly like that, clearly and
boldly, not hiding anything, you're gonna leave understanding
exactly what he meant. Now you may or may not believe
it, but you understand what a man means when he preaches openly,
not in secret. And you men who preach, you know
this is the case. We very often stumble and bumble
around and we go home and think, oh, I didn't say this right or
I could have said that better. Our Lord never suffered that
because he never did that. He was always crystal clear in
everything that he said. Now, when a man does not preach
openly, when he's ambiguous and he's not clear about what he
means, I'm telling you, he does that on purpose. A man preaches
what he really believes. Now, you just listen to a man.
Whatever it is he really believes, that's what he preaches. And
if he leaves something out or he's vague on some particular
subject, it's because he doesn't believe it. Now, that's why.
And if a man preaches one thing in one place, and he preaches
something different someplace else, it means he doesn't believe
one of those two messages. Now he's lying in one of those
two messages. You who've gone to Mexico with
me, you know this. When I go to Mexico, I preach
exactly what I preach from this pulpit. I preach it here first,
and that's what I preach somewhere else. Because there's only one
message. If a man says one thing publicly
but he says another in private when he's in your living room,
you know, he's a false prophet. He's got no business being in
the pulpit because God's given his servants the message to preach
and they preach it no matter the cost, no matter who the audience
is. The truth doesn't change when
you change audiences. That's why I preach the same
message in Mexico as do here. The audience changes, the language
changes, but the message, the truth does not change. So our
Lord always said this very clearly, exactly what he was meaning.
He did it in private and in public every time he spoke. Well, what
is his doctrine that he spoke both in private and public? Well,
look at Matthew chapter 28. The Lord's doctrine, really,
is everything that He said. If you want to know what you
have to believe, just read God's Word. Everything He says, that's
the Word of Belief. That's His doctrine. Everything
He said. In Matthew 28, verse 19, Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I command you. And lo, I'm with
you always, even unto the end of the world. Teach them to observe
everything the Lord said." That's his doctrine. But our Lord mentions
specifically to the Pharisees there, he mentions specifically
preaching in the synagogues and in the temple. And the scriptures
give us two messages that our Lord taught in the synagogue.
And if we look at those two messages, we'll see what the doctrine of
Christ is. I don't know how many other times
he spoke in synagogues, but he always said the same thing. So
whatever he said in these two messages, he said everywhere,
and this is his doctrine. So look in Luke chapter 4. This
is the first recorded message of our Lord, public message,
and he preached it in a synagogue. So first, we're going to see
this, the doctrine of Christ is this whole book. It's all
of the scriptures. That's the doctrine of Christ
because all of the scripture, every scripture, I don't care
where you turn, every scripture speaks of Christ. Look at Luke
4, beginning at verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when he'd opened the book, and it was a scroll, he unwound
the scroll, And he found the place where it was written, the
spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down. At this time, remember,
they sat down to sit up to read and they sat down to teach. And
the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears. Now when Christ came, he fulfilled
every Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah that God promised
would come. And our Lord told them, a man
has come to fulfill all these prophecies. God became a man
so he could fulfill all these prophecies of the Savior that
would come to save God's elect. All the scriptures speak of him. And the people, they'd never
heard that before. They were amazed. Look at verse 22. And
all bearing witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's
son? They were amazed as our Lord
spoke. Why were they amazed? Because
for the first time they understood the Old Testament Scriptures.
It's not law. It's Christ. It's not ceremony. It's Christ. He told them how
He came to fulfill all these things, all the purpose of God.
They were amazed because they're starting to see. All these Old
Testament Scriptures speak of Christ. We thought this was Joseph's
son. This is the Messiah. He's come to fulfill all the
Old Testament Scriptures. Second, the doctrine of Christ
is that God is sovereign in the salvation of sinners. Now God's
sovereign in salvation. God has chosen in his mercy and
grace to save some out of Adam's fallen race. He just, he reached
down and plucked them out of Adam's fallen race and he passed
by everyone else. And that's God's right to do
because he's God. And God only saves sinners. He didn't pick out these people
because they're better than everybody else. They're the same. It's
just the same lump of Adam's fallen race. And God only saves
sinners. God doesn't save good people.
God doesn't save people who have some righteousness of their own.
God only saves sinners. That's what he says in verse
25. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But
under none of them was Elias sent, saved unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. In the time of Elijah,
there were many Jewish widows. And they were all starving to
death. They didn't have anybody to take care of them. They didn't
have a husband to go out and work and provide and bring home food.
They didn't have anybody to take care of them. And it was a time
of famine. They're starving to death. And
God didn't send his prophet to not one of those Jewish widows. He passed every one of them by.
But God sent his prophet to a widow in Sarepta. This was the widow. Remember, you know the story.
She just had enough oil and meal left to make one little cake.
She's going to make that cake for herself and her son, and
they were going to share that cake and eat it. And then they
were going to die. They're going to starve to death.
That was the end of her resources. And Elijah came by. He said,
don't do that. Make me a cake first. Then you
make you and your son a cake. You do act on faith and your
oil meal won't run out to God sends rain. Sure enough, God
provided. Elijah and that widow and her
son, they ate. There was just enough oil for
one cake, just enough meal for one cake. They ate on that little
cruise of oil, that little bit of meal for a full year. God
provided. That's God's electing grace. God chose to have mercy on this
poor widow and pass everybody else by. He provided for her.
God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy because God's
sovereign in salvation. And God sovereignly saves who? Sinners. This widow is from Sarepta. She's a Gentile. She's an alien
from the Commonwealth of Israel. God fed a Gentile widow during
this time of great famine, and all the while, Jewish widows
are starving to death. Now you see the picture? God
saves sinners. God saves people who do not deserve
the least of his mercies. That's who God saves. Now, you
know how people are. They make up excuses, right?
The old Jews, they read that passage in Old Testament Scripture.
You know what they did? They said, well, we looked back
through the census records and there weren't any Jewish widows
worthy of God's mercy at that time. So he had to go out here
to this widow. Now that's not so, that is not
so. No one, I don't care where you
find them, no one is worthy of God's mercies. It doesn't matter
who we are or where we come from, we are not worthy of God's mercy. God saves sinners. And that's
what our Lord tells them in the next example, verse 27. And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and
none of them was cleansed, saving Nahum and the Syrians. Now the
days of Elisha the prophet, there were many lepers, many Jewish
lepers. God did not send his prophet
to heal one of them, not one. God passed every one of them
by. But God did send his prophet to one leper, to Naaman the Syrian. Now this is God's sovereignty
and salvation. God will save whom he will, when
he will. And God sovereignly saves sinners. Who was Naaman? Not only was
Naaman a Gentile, Naaman was a Syrian. I mean the worst of
the Gentiles. And not only was Naaman a Syrian,
Naaman was the general of the Syrian army, second in command
in Syria. That Syrian army was out there
oppressing Israel at the time. Naaman was a captain of them
all, the general of all of them. Naaman was an enemy of Israel,
not just an alien now from the Commonwealth of Israel. Naaman
is an enemy of Israel. He's the enemy of God. Yet in
his mercy, God saved him. God healed that man, revealed
Christ to him because God saves sinners, the worst of sinners. I try to think how shocking would
that be to this shocked the Jews? How shocking would this be to
us? It'd be like the second commandment of Al-Qaeda coming through that
door, saying, God save me, I'm going to worship with you. We'd
be shocked, wouldn't we? Why? God's grace is always shocking. If it's not shocking, it's not
grace. God's grace is shocking. It's
grace for the guilty. And God saves whom He will, when
He will, and He has every right to do it. God has the right to
save this one and pass this one by because He's God. He's ruler
of heaven and earth. God has the power over this lump. He takes it. There's a lump of
Adam's fallen humanity. God can do with what He will.
He can make it a beautiful piece of pottery and God can take this
lump It's God's. He can do with it what He will.
He can make a spit tune out of it if He wants to. That's God's
right because He's God. That's what Paul tells us in
Romans chapter 9. And it's because God is God. God's not like you
and me. He's God. He's a sovereign King
of kings and Lord of lords. That's the doctrine of Christ.
God saves whom He will sovereignly. Our Lord, or Caiaphas asked our
Lord about his disciples, and our Lord really didn't give him
an answer. But I can tell you something about the disciples
of Christ. The disciples of Christ, they love the doctrine of Christ. I see y'all smiling. You know
why? You love the doctrine of Christ. Sinners love the doctrine
of Christ, because we know we can't do anything to save ourselves.
If we're gonna be saved, somebody else must do it. So we love the
doctrine of Christ. And back up here in verse 18,
this is in Luke 4 still, this is the disciples of Christ are
described. They're poor in spirit. The spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. They're poor in spirit. They're
spiritually bankrupt. They don't have any goodness
in them at all. And the only way they can be
saved, if God in his sovereignty chooses them and he saves them
in his sovereign love and grace and power. They're poor in spirit
and they're broken hearted. He sent me to heal the broken
hearted. The disciples of Christ, they know their hearts are broken
in Adam. They don't work anymore. They're
broke because we're dead in sin. And the only way they can be
saved is if God gives them a new heart in the new birth. And they're
captives to preach deliverance to the captives. They're captives
to the law because they've sold themselves under sin. Somebody's
got to come set them free. They can't set their own selves
free. Somebody's got to do it for them. And they're blind. The recovering of sight to the
blind. They're spiritually blind. And we're going to stay blind
unless somebody gives us life and light and eyes to see. Somebody's
got to give us sight. We can't see by nature. And we're
bruised. To set at liberty them that are
bruised. Not only bruised by the fall,
but dead in the fall of Adam. Bruised under the weight of sin.
And to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. All the disciples
of Christ, those who love the doctrine of Christ, they're waiting
for the year of Jubilee. That's the acceptable year of
the Lord. They're waiting for God to sovereignly set them free
by His royal command. Now in the year of Jubilee, everyone
who was a slave, if you had a debt you couldn't pay, you sold yourself
into slavery. On the year of Jubilee, every
50 years, all the slaves were set free. You know why? You know,
they weren't set free because of the goodness of the masters.
You know, I know you owe me a debt, but I'm gonna set you free anyway.
You know, you're my slave, but I'll set you free. That wasn't
why they were set free. They were set free because of
the commandment of God. God said they must go free, and
they went free. And spiritually, that's what
God's elect are waiting on. We're waiting on God to sovereignly,
in his royal command, say, you go free. Because Christ, our
substitute, was taken captive and he set his people free by
satisfying the law for them. Then the year of Jubilee, everyone
who had a debt was made debt free. Now they weren't made debt
free because all the merchants, you know, bankers, whoever lend
them money, you know, those fellas just don't say, you know, I'll
just write this off. It's all right. You don't have to pay
it. No, they didn't do that. The debt was canceled by the
commandment of God. God said, you've got to do this.
This is my commandment. Spiritually, God's elect are
waiting for the same thing. God's elect have a debt. We can't
pay it. We've sinned against God. We've
got an infinite sin debt. We cannot pay it. But we're waiting
on God to come in His power and sovereignly say the debt's canceled.
He didn't just write that debt off. He didn't, you know, when
I was at the warehouse, we used to have to write off debt, you know, the
bad debt. This guy, he's not going to pay it. We've got to
write it off. And it just, oh, it grieved my soul to do that.
God didn't do that with the sin debt of His people. He sent His
Son to pay that debt in full through the sacrifice of himself.
Christ must suffer and bleed and die to pay that debt. And
he did. So God sovereignly says, my people
go free. The debt's paid. It's been canceled,
paid in full under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
are the people that the father elected. Those are the people
that Christ died for. The disciples of Christ They
love that message. I can't hear enough of that.
But people who are still in the flesh, still have Adam's nature.
The only nature they have is Adam's nature. And they're not
the disciples of Christ. They hate the doctrine of Christ.
That's what happened here in Luke 4, verse 28. And all they
in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with
wrath, they understood exactly what the Lord was saying. He
spoke openly. Now they didn't believe it, but
they understood. And they rose up and thrust him out of the
city and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city
was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing
through the midst of them went his way. His hour was not yet
come. They couldn't do to him what they wanted to do, but they
understood exactly what he's saying. The doctrine of Christ
is that God sovereignly saves sinners. Now, just a second ago,
I mentioned the people the father elected and the people that Christ
died for. There's a third person in the
Trinity, isn't there? Look in John chapter 6. Here's
another message our Lord preached in the synagogue. Third, the
doctrine of Christ declares the necessity of the work of the
Holy Spirit in the new birth. This is a lengthy message. We
just won't read all of it, just part of it. But you can go read
it all this afternoon if you'd like. This is the doctrine of
Christ. We'll begin in verse 44. No man can come to me, except
the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. And here our Lord's teaching
us total depravity. All men lack the ability to come
to the Father, because we lost that ability when Adam fell.
When Adam fell, all men died in Adam. Dead men don't have
the ability to do anything. I mean, you can tell them to
get up and walk if you want to, but they can't. They don't have the
ability. They don't have the ability to
decide to do anything. I mean, you could just tell that
corpse, you know, decide not to be buried and, you know, go
back home with your family. Luke, he can't. He doesn't have
the ability. He doesn't have the capacity
to decide to do anything. He's dead. And just because our
flesh lives and breathes and talks and thinks does not mean
we have spiritual life. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. Total depravity means that men
don't have the ability to decide to accept Jesus. It's foolish
to tell them to do it. They can't. They don't have the
ability. Physically, they can walk an aisle, but they can't
make a decision to do anything once they get there because they're
dead. I just don't understand. Oh,
I do understand, but people don't get it. You know why they don't
understand we're dead? Because we're dead. The only
man who knows he's born with a nature that's dead is a man
who's been born again. Only the new man can see, oh,
that old man's dead. Only the new man can see, oh,
that old man's rotten. Only the new man can see, oh,
everything I've done trying to please God's an abomination.
Only the new man can see that because only the new man has
life. Man by nature doesn't want to come to Christ and he can't
come to Christ. So we must be born again. That's why our Lord told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. You must be given life in the
new birth before you come to Christ. Now verse 45, it's written
in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that have heard and have learned of the father cometh
unto me. Now this man, our Lord speaks
of here, How did he become taught of God? How did he hear the gospel? How did he have the ability to
learn the gospel? How did he have the ability to
believe the gospel? How did he have the ability to come to Christ?
Man by nature has none of that. It's very simple because he's
born again. So simple. And everyone who's
born again of the Spirit of God, they have life. And because the
Spirit's given them life, they hear the gospel of Christ. The
Spirit gave them ears to hear. They hear and they believe the
gospel because the Spirit gave them faith to believe. Everyone
who's been born again, they learn of the Father because now they've
got something to put it into. The Spirit's given them the mind
of Christ. Everyone who's been born again,
They come to Christ because they belong to Christ and the Spirit
draws them. This is the irresistible call
of the Spirit. That person is born again, has
spiritual life because the Spirit gave it to him in the new birth.
Verse 47, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on
me hath everlasting life. He believes because the Spirit
already gave him life. The doctrine of Christ declares
the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth.
Fourth, the doctrine of Christ declares the union of Christ
and His people. Verse 49. Well, in verse 48,
he says, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, and they're dead. Now, spiritual life cannot come
from any motions of the flesh. Spiritual life can't come from
observing religious traditions or motions of moving around.
That can't give spiritual life any more than eating manna in
the wilderness could give spiritual life to Israel. If eating that
manna could give spiritual life to Israel, they would have entered
into the promised land. Because if they had spiritual
life, they wouldn't have had a wicked heart of unbelief. That manna
kept their bodies alive, but it gave them no spiritual life.
I'll give you an illustration of that that makes it easier
for us to understand. We've never seen manna. Being
baptized won't save anybody. A believer is baptized, why?
Because the Lord's already saved them. They're confessing what
the Lord has already done for them. Well, if we're baptized
in order to be saved, you can dunk them under the water if
you want, but all you've got is a dead body. A wet, dead body. That's all
we've got. But when God saves a sinner, That sinner, just like
those folks in Mexico I told you about, they must confess
their Savior publicly. They must. They can't stay quiet. They can't not do it. I don't
care if I can't swim. Build me a pallet of sticks and
100 feet of water, I'm going to be baptized because I must
confess my Savior. That's union with Christ. We
must confess this. When God saves us, I must confess. Christ died for me. When He died,
I died in Him. When He was buried, I was buried
in Him. He was buried because He died
my death. And when He arose again, He walked
out of that tomb, I rose again too. New spiritual life. That's
union with Christ. Everything my Savior did, I did
in Him because I have union with Him. Now verse 50, this is the
bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof
and not die. I am the living bread, which
came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I'll raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, here's union, dwelleth in me, and I
in him. As a living Father sent me, and
I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live
by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. Now you know our Lord's not saying
anyone actually eats the body of Christ or actually drinks
the body of Christ. That's being a cannibal. That's
not being a new spiritual man. When we were there in Mexico,
Cody took us to the town square, center, or whatever you call
it. Of course, the big Catholic cathedral is there, and he took
us into it so we could see the inside of the building. It's
spectacular architecture. But when we walked in, they were
observing mass. In case anybody didn't know,
Cody explained to everybody, now I'll tell you what these
people are doing. They're going up there and they think. When,
because this is what they're told, when that priest prays
and waves his hands over this stuff, you know, that that bread
literally actually becomes the body of Christ. And the wine
actually becomes the blood of Christ because you've got to
eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood. They really think
that. No, we don't, we're not cannibals. We're spiritual men
and women. Our Savior is talking about a
spiritual union with Christ and His people. Now, when we eat
bread, we drink wine, and we're going to eat lunch in a minute.
Whatever it is we're going to eat, we're going to eat it. And that food
is going to become part of our body. The bread doesn't go through
all of our body and stay bread. No, it changes. Our body breaks
it down and that bread is broken down so that it becomes our flesh. It breaks it down into the cells
of our, and it actually becomes the cells of our body. So that
very soon after you eat it, you can't tell the difference between
the bread you just ate and your flesh because they become the
same. They become one. That bread has
become union with your body. That's what believing on Christ
is. It's just that simple. Christ comes into the hearts
of his people, and we become one with him. We're in him, and
he's in us. And the believer lives spiritually,
because when the father sees his people, he doesn't say, oh,
there's my son, there's the people. No. He said, there's my son,
and I love him. I'm accepted. They have life,
because when I see him, I see my son. They have his life. The
believer's union with Christ is so close and so real. We are
what he is. We are the righteousness of Christ. We're as righteous as he is.
We're loved like he's loved. We're accepted to the Father
as he's accepted because of union. Now verse 59, this is these things
he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. This is
the second message that's recorded in scripture our Lord taught
in the synagogue. Now let's go back to the disciples.
Caiaphas asked our Lord about the disciples. Who are they?
Where are they? Well, first I can tell you who
they're not. People are not true disciples of Christ who go away. They go away because they don't
like the doctrine of Christ. They don't like hearing Christ
sovereignly saves sinners. If Christ sovereignly saves sinners,
they understand what that's saying. It means I can't do anything
to save myself. I can't do anything to get God to save me. They don't
like that all the scriptures point to Christ because that
means a man doesn't have any hope of saving himself. If the
law is written so that I can keep it and have eternal life,
the natural man likes that. But if the law is written to
show me Christ and to show me I don't have any hope of saving
myself, oh, I don't like that. The natural man, those who are
not the disciples of Christ, they don't like that. The natural
man doesn't like the necessity of the new birth. They don't
like the necessity of the Holy Spirit. They don't like the necessity
of union with Christ because that means I'm totally dependent
on Christ to save me. Those people who are not the
disciples of Christ, they don't like that message. Well, that's
what happened when our Lord preached. They understood clearly what
he was saying. Verse 60, Many of his disciples, those who had
been following him, following him for whatever reason, maybe
because of loaves and the fishes or miracles or whatever, when
they heard this, when they heard the doctrine of Christ, they
said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who could want
that message? Who can like that message that
glorifies Christ and makes man nothing? Wayne prayed we'd have
that. in our message this morning,
that Christ would be exalted, man be put in his place. Well,
he's a disciple of Christ. He loves that message. The natural
man doesn't. They say, oh, that's what you're
preaching? Oh, we're leaving. Verse 66, from that time, many
of his disciples, his followers, they went back and walked no
more with him. They left because they didn't want that. They did
not want that message. And that's a shame. I mean, it
breaks my heart when someone comes and hears the gospel and
says, I don't want that. I won't listen to that. I can't accept
that. No. That's a shame. It really is.
Because if that offends you, oh, if just listening to a man
preach, if that offends you, well, you ain't seen nothing
yet. Look at verse 61. When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, does this
offend you? What if you shall see the Son
of Man? You just wait till you see the Son of Man ascend up
where He was before. You wait till you see Him in
His true glory as the Redeemer and Savior. His glory as the
Son of God. You haven't seen anything yet. But the disciples
of Christ, they love the doctrine of Christ. They won't leave the
place where the doctrine of Christ is preached. because they know
Christ is my only hope of salvation. I'm not gonna leave where he's
preached. Verse 67, then said Jesus unto the 12, will you also
go away? Nobody's holding you. Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. No, we're
not going anywhere. You're our only hope. The preaching
of Christ is our only hope. Now look back in our text, John
18, verse 21. And our Lord says, Why askest thou
me? Ye want to know about my doctrine? Why ye ask me? Ask
them which heard me what I have said unto them. Behold, they
know what I said. If you want to know what a man
preaches, you ask the people who regularly listen to him preach.
They know what he preaches. Now they can tell you what he
preaches. Why do they stay? Why do you
all keep coming back? Week after week, year after year,
why do you keep coming back? Because you love the message.
It's not what he preaches, you love who is preached. That's who you love and you're
not going to leave where he is preached. If God has saved someone,
they know the gospel when they hear it, and they won't leave
it. Then they know when someone's not sounding the right note,
they know. Now, listen, these disciples of Christ, they won't
leave Christ, will they? But they're far from perfect
people, very imperfect. What's going on outside in the
cold around that fire while our Lord is saying this? My brother Peter, just like old
Frank, is denying his Lord. Denying even knows him. We're
far from perfect. But we have a substitute. We
have a sacrifice. Christ is all of our hope. So
we love the doctrine of Christ. We love the doctrine, the teaching
that declares who Christ is and what he's done for his people.
Now you'll notice our Lord speaks here of doctrine singular. The
only time the word doctrines plural is used in scripture is
referring to false doctrines of false prophets. But when the
scriptures speak of the truth, when the scriptures speak of
the gospel, it always uses the word doctrine singular. We refer
to the doctrines of grace, you know, tulip, total depravity,
unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible call
of the spirit, perseverance of the saint. We refer to those
things as the doctrines of grace. But you know, that's all one
doctrine. That's all one doctrine declaring one truth. I started
preparing my notes before I left and we were driving along and
Cody Groover said, the exact same thing I have in my notes.
You can't be a four-point Calvinist. You take away one of those truths,
and the rest of them are meaningless. You take away total depravity,
well that eliminates the need for all the rest of it, doesn't
it? The man's able to save himself, he's got some goodness, he can
keep himself, he doesn't need God to choose him, but he can
choose God. You take away one of those things, and the rest
of them are meaningless. It's one doctrine declaring one
truth, that salvation is Christ alone. That's the truth of the
doctrine of Christ. And when our Lord declared this
truth, even here in this trial, He did it openly, plainly, boldly. They understood exactly what
He was saying. And this is when the physical
sufferings of our Lord began. The sufferings that must take
place if God's elect will be redeemed. Verse 22, we had thus
spoken. One of the officers which stood
by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, and really that's
with a rod, took a rod, and here's the man with his hands tied behind
his back, hit him with the rod on the side of the head, saying,
Answerest thou the high priest so? He understood what the Lord
was saying, didn't he? Jesus answered him, If I have
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why smitest
thou me? See, this is a demonstration
of how much natural man despises the doctrine of Christ. Because
the doctrine of Christ is condemning it. The doctrine of Christ condemns
the natural man and makes Christ our only hope. Well then why
was this man allowed to smite our Lord? Took a rod and hit
him in the side of the head. The sinless son of God smitten?
Yes. Because he was made sin for his
people. So their sin could be put away with his sacrifice.
The only way, this is the only way a sinner can be saved and
that's what the doctrine of Christ declares. That salvation is in
Him, in His sacrifice for the sins of His people. And who are
the disciples of Christ? They're the people who by God's
grace, they love this message. They believe this message because
this message, this doctrine, declares their Savior. That's
why they love it. It's not the man that preaches,
it's not how well he can speak, it's who's declared. And if we
declare Christ openly, not hidden, openly, plainly, plainly so our
children can understand it, God's people will hear it and they'll
love it and believe it because we love our Savior. All right,
I hope the Lord will bless that to his glory and to our good. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
humbly and gratefully, how thankful we are for the doctrine of Christ. How thankful we are that you,
in your mercy and grace, sent your gospel to us. Here in this
place, in Ashland, Kentucky, you sent your gospel to us and
gave us life, faith by the power of your spirit to believe, to
look to Christ, to find in Him everything we need. Forgiveness
of sins, a sacrifice that puts our sin away, the righteousness
of God that makes us accepted. Father, we're thankful. And we
pray that you bless your words as it's been preached, the doctrine
of Christ as it's been preached. Father, I pray that it not been
preached in the power of the flesh or the wisdom of the flesh,
but in the power of the Spirit and the wisdom of God that your
name would be glorified, that your people would be comforted,
that they'd be thrilled, their hearts would be thrilled at hearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. And Father,
we pray that you'd use this gospel to go forth and call out your
sheep, that in your mercy and your grace, you'd find one of
your sheep. You'd reveal Christ to them,
draw them to Christ, have this union with him to enjoy the communion
and fellowship that's found in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
it's for his sake, the glory of Christ that we pray. We're
thankful for this food that we're about to eat. We're thankful
for this time of fellowship. this time we have together. Father,
I'm thankful for all this family of believers that you've called
out, and I pray that you'd give us a good time together of fellowship,
so we enjoy time together. It's in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks. Amen.