All right, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to John chapter 16. John chapter 16. I'm going to take these verses
here, these first four verses, one at a time, and just make
some comments on them as we go. In verse 1, it says these things. Now, our Bible has chapter and
verse divisions in it. The original didn't have this. These were inserted in the Bible
to help us to study the Bible, so you have reference points.
You can go back, but this is not written like a like a story
or an article, just because you get to chapter 16 doesn't mean
that he quit talking about what he was talking about in chapter
15. It's just a division for study purposes. And so I want
you to understand that he's not changed subjects here. He still
has the same subject. We're still talking about the
same things. Now let's look here at verse 1. These things have
I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. Now, the word
offended here, it's not talking about having your feelings hurt.
That's not what he's talking about here. There'd be no need
to give them comfort if this was the only thing that was going
to take place, was their feelings going to get stepped on. Our
feelings get stepped on every day of our lives. Somebody says
something, does something, hurts our feelings, but we don't throw
in the towel. We don't quit. And what he's
talking about here in verse 1, when he talks about being offended,
the old language, this word carried with it, stumbling. He's talking about falling away
into perdition. He's talking about throwing in
the towel altogether. Just saying, well, what's the
use? What's the use? That's what he's
talking about here when he's talking about being offended.
It means that they've just fallen away into perdition. And there
were quite a few things which the disciples were not aware
of. And this is something I keep repeating to you all the time.
I want you to keep this in your mind when we're looking at the
apostles and the things that the apostles did and their reactions
to certain things and things that they said. You know, if
they If they understood, for instance, the difference between
the spiritual and natural Israel, they would never have walked
along and talked to one another about who's going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of God. They thought it was going to
be an earthly kingdom, and like David of old had certain men
of high renown that he that he had at his side at all times
and trusted in. That's what they were talking
about. Who's going to be this go-to guy that when Christ becomes
king of natural Israel, he's going to sit right here beside
his throne? That's what they was arguing about. They didn't
understand. And there was a lot of things
that they didn't understand. Now they'd been told. They'd
been told. And they'd been taught in parables,
but they did not yet understand. They didn't perceive a difference
between the natural and the spiritual. To them, there was just one Israel.
When he talked about Israel, he was talking about the nation
of Israel. To them, they didn't understand the difference. They
had not yet entered into that realm of of understanding which
only the Spirit of God can come and give you. They weren't there
yet. They didn't understand this.
To them, there was just one Israel, the nation. And isn't that the
way it is in religion today? When you talk about Israel, isn't
that their concept of it? Natural Israel says right here,
Israel's going to do this, Israel's going to do that. And you can stand and talk to
him all day long, but until a man has entered into this realm of
understanding and perception by the Spirit of God, he doesn't
yet know what he's talking about. He's still in the natural. Still
in the natural. Just one religion, that was the
law and the priesthood, that's all they knew. They didn't know
anything else. The Pharisees were corruptors
of this religion. And in their eyes, Christ came
to reform what had been corrupted. There was nothing wrong with
the religion. It's that somehow it had gotten away from them.
Somehow it had been corrupted. And they saw what Christ was
going to do was come and reform what was already there. There
was nothing wrong with what was there. It just needed reform. Well, ain't that what people
think today? Their nation was in bondage to
Rome. Their land and government had
been stolen away by these pagans. And the Lord Jesus Christ, they
truly believed that He was the Messiah and that He would come
and win over the favor of the people. The people would rally
around Him. In His own time, He would ascend
to the throne and take back what these pagans had stolen. All the glory that they perceived
was an earthly glory of Israel restored back to its former state. And these men were in for a rude
awakening and Christ knew that. He knew that. You think about this just for
a minute. Christ bore the blunt when He walked with His disciples.
He bore the blunt of the wrath of men. He was the speaker. He was the one standing up and
saying this is the way it is and this is the way it's not.
And he bore the brunt of it. Usually a pastor of a church,
he bears the brunt of it rather than the people. The people get
their fair share because they identify with him, but he always
bears the brunt of it. And so it was with Christ. He
bore the brunt of their hatred and enmity to God because He
was the one standing there saying, no, it's not like this, it's
like this. And so He bore the brunt of it. After the Lord ascended into
glory and the Holy Ghost was sent and they were given an understanding,
a plain, clear understanding of the will of God, their eyes
then were opened to see the truth. To see that God's kingdom was
spiritual, not natural. God's kingdom was not on this
earth or of this earth, but in the hearts of men. God's kingdom
was His rule of grace. And to see that natural Israel
was just the beginning of all anti-Christ religion. They were
just the beginning of it. Listen to how Christ reveals
these things to John on the Isle of Patmos. And I'm reading now
from Revelations chapter 3 and verse 9. He said, Behold, I will
make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews. They say they are Jews and are
not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
I'm going to take this people, and they're going to despise
you. They're going to hate you. They're going to look at you
with the same eyes they looked at me with." And he said, this
hateful, despising people, he said, I'm going to bring them
by my grace down to your feet, and they're going to realize
that I loved you and that I gave you the truth. And they're going
to receive it, and they're going to worship, and they're going
to bow. They're going to bow. That's what he's talking about,
these Jews, Jews. He come to reveal to them that
the Jewish, the natural Jewish nation was just the beginning
of all antichrist religion. I'm not going to dwell on this
point because I've already dealt with it. I dealt with it last
week. Except to say this, that when by faith these things are
first seen and understood, there is a real shock, and that's what
I'm trying to get to you. to talk to you about this morning.
There was going to be a shock in these men. Regardless of what
Christ said to these men, these men were always Do you know you
offended them? They always saw some good in
these people. They always saw something that
was corrupted, but it wasn't altogether sin. They saw something
that wasn't up to snuff, but it wasn't Satanism. It wasn't
going after Satan. It wasn't Satan's work. They
always tried to give a little good out to these people. And
they were in for a real shock when they found out what it was
all about. Watch this here in verse 2, they'll
put you out of the synagogues. Now the Jews had already made
this to be a law, a spiritual commandment from the high priest
and the high council. If any man confessed faith in
Jesus of Nazareth, he was to be excommunicated from the synagogues. Now, this wasn't talking about
just kicking them out of some local assembly over in Jerusalem
or down here, whatever town they were in. That's not what this
is talking about. There was actually three degrees,
and I don't want to get into it except just to mention it,
that there was three degrees of separations with the Jews.
The first one, they set you aside and warned you, like they did
Christ. Now, all of these three things
are all revealed in Christ. They set you aside and warned
you. The second one was a little bit more. It was a little bit
more. They set you aside and they hung
a name on you. And then they brought you in
before the council and you were warned. And then the third degree
is they put you out of the temple. It could even result in death,
like they did with Stephen. Stephen had already been warned
and warned and warned. So did all the rest of the apostles.
And every one of them died as a result of it, except John.
And even John died in exile on the Isle of Patmos. So they all
suffered, to some degree, martyrdom at the hands of these people. Turn with me to John chapter
9. Over in John chapter 9, this is a story some of you recall
our study on it. where the Lord came upon this
blind man and he kneeled down and he spit in the dust and he
made a mud from the spittle and anointed the man's eyes and he
told him, he said, now you go to the pool of Siloam and you
wash and your eyes will be opened, you'll be healed. So he did that
and he had no idea. When he left the presence of
Christ, he was still blind. He didn't know who he was, he
didn't know anything about him except the name that he heard
these other men talking about, and that was Jesus. And so when
he came seeing, the Jews found him. I mean, his testimony just,
whoo, you can imagine, a man born blind. Everybody knew him. And so these Jews come, and they
begin to question him. They said, are you that man that
they said was born blind? And how come you're able to see? And they wanted to catch Christ
in a lie. That was the whole point of it.
They'd love to have, like these faith healers we have today,
all of these things that they do can be explained away. These
miracles that Christ did could not be explained away. These
were miracles. He raised the dead. But these Jews believed that
these miracles were just tricks, and they would love to have exposed
Him. Love to have caught one of them
who really wasn't blind. He was just kind of a look-alike,
and you understand what I'm saying. Now look here in John 9, verse
18. The Jews did not believe concerning
him that he'd been born blind and received his sight. And so they called the parents
of him that had received his sight, and they asked him, saying,
Is this your son whom you say was born blind? How then doth
he now see? His parents answered them and
said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
But by what means he now seeth, we know not. We don't know who's
opened his eyes. We know not. He's of age. Ask him. He'll speak for himself.
Now listen to what they said here. These words fake his parents
because they feared the Jew. For the Jews had agreed already,
they already made it a law, they already put the word out, that
if any man did confess that he was Christ, that is that Jesus
was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue, excommunicated. In John chapter 12, verse 42,
you have pretty much the same thing, only this time several
of the chief rulers, the big wigs of the Jews, Believed on
him it says, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess
him lest they should be put out of the synagogue. Here is what the Lord is saying,
when I am gone and you stand here and preach my gospel to
these Jews, they are going to put you out of the synagogue. They are going to brand you as
a pagan cult. They're going to attempt to destroy
your reputation. They're going to intimidate your
relatives and your friends. They're going to spread lies
about you. They're going to cut you off.
You couldn't worship God apart from becoming a Jew. Did you
know that in the Old Testament? You had to be circumcised to
worship God. You were forbidden to even come into the courts
or even exercise any means that God had given for salvation.
You were absolutely forbidden to do that until you were circumcised. So when he's talking about putting
them out of the synagogue, he's talking about taking their name
out of the Lamb's Book of Life is basically what they're talking
about. Separating you from God. Look at the last part of verse
2 here in John 16. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think. This is his mind. This is what's
on his mind. When Paul stood there and held
the coats of those men who stoned Stephen, this is what's on his
mind. You've got men and women right
now, right here in this area. We don't have to go back to the
days of Christ. Men and women right now in this area who despise
you. Why? Why? Here's what's on their
mind right here. Why are they separated? Why do
they refuse to talk to you? Why do they refuse to have any
sort of intermingling with you? Why do they fear to be seen with
you in public? Why don't they try to Have some kind of friendship.
Why don't they want to be close to you? Here's what's on their
mind. Because they think they're doing God a service. That's right. That's right. Whosoever killeth you will think
that he doeth God a service. In his mind and in his heart,
with the full agreement of established religion behind him, he'll put
you to death. How do men put men to death today?
We can't do that. We can't go out here and shoot
somebody because we don't agree with them. So what do they do
today? They refuse to talk to you. That's right. Do you know
that the Lord likens that unto killing somebody when you do
that? You need to think about that. Next time you climb up,
well, I ain't talking to him no more. You killed him. You
just shot him in the heart, what you did, before God. before God,
and that's what they do today. And I know what he's saying first
hand. I can tell you story after story
after story. But it goes on right here. It
goes on right here, and you know it, and I know it, and everybody
else knows it. It goes on. Been going on. This church is labeled a cult
People think it's a cult, don't they? I ain't going over there. I ain't going over there. That's
a cult. Well, that man over there, he
thinks if you don't do exactly everything he says do, you're
not saved. It's a cult. They're not of God. They don't
intermingle with these other churches. They're not of God.
It's a cult. This world tells men and women to walk down an
aisle. Come down the aisle. Have an
altar call. Call them down the aisle. Shake
the preacher's hand. Repeat some words that he tells
you to say. Repeat after me, he says. He'll tell them what
to say. Now, your name's been written in the Lamb's Book of
Life. This world tells men and women to repeat some words and
do these things. It tells them they're saved. This world tells men and women
to go into a box confess their sins unto a man and their sins
are gone. They're gone. This world tells
you to accept Jesus as your personal Savior like He was at your beck
and call. This world has you sprinkling
babies and consecrating babies and putting their names on the
church roll. They're members of the church. This world has
you to strike bargains with God. I'll do this and God you do that.
This world preaches a gospel that compromises the very integrity
of God and has Him doing things contrary to His nature. This
world preaches a gospel that ignores the purpose of God totally. Totally. It doesn't even fit
into their scheme anywhere that God has an eternal purpose. This
world preaches a gospel that totally ignores the accomplishments
of Christ and what His life and death has satisfied and accomplished. and his intercession and glory.
It totally ignores it. They don't even talk about it.
They don't even preach about it. But I'm a cult leader, and
you're a cult. Go figure. I'm a pretender because I tell
you you're a sinner. Then Christ came and gave his
life for sinners, to save sinners. I'm a false prophet because I
refuse to go along with their lies. John 16, verse 3. These things will they do unto
you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. They have no knowledge of God. Now it doesn't say here they
got a little bit. It says they have not. Is that what that says?
This religious world does not know the living God. You cannot
know God and hate His elect. It's impossible. He tells you
that over and over and over. You cannot know God apart from
knowing the truth about the work of Christ. If you do not understand
what Christ did, brethren, you're not a believer. Believers rest
their hope on what He did. That's where their comfort comes
from. That's where their assurance comes from. That is their hope.
They hope in Him. They embrace Him. Christ crucified, I want you
to listen to me, is called in this book the wisdom of God. I'm talking about what He accomplished.
Christ crucified. Turn with me to I Corinthians
chapter 1. This is so important and here's
what he's telling these disciples. Right now you're sitting back
and I'm bearing the brunt of this thing and you don't know
what's about to come your way. I'm going to tell you some things
so when it comes to pass, you ain't going to throw up your
hands and quit. I'm going to tell you some things. And when
that time comes, I'm going to send the Spirit of God and He's
going to make you understand what I'm telling you. All these
things I'm telling you are going to come back to you. Oh, now
I know what that means. I know what he's talking about
now. Look at this over here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God." Everything that we know about
God, we know through the person and work of Christ. You don't
know anything at all about God apart from that. I wouldn't give
you two cents for an abstract knowledge of God. Listen to this, verse 30 of I
Corinthians chapter 1, But of him, of God, are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. All of those things he accomplished
in his life and death. What we call the doctrines of
grace are what John called the doctrines of Christ. In John's
2nd epistle, he said, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He doesn't have God. He doesn't know anything about
God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father
and the Son. Then in verse 10, he says this,
If there come any unto you, somebody comes to you to teach. Somebody
comes to witness. Somebody comes in here and says,
well, I know God. And they start telling you things
about God. If any man come unto you as a
preacher or a teacher and bring not this doctrine, don't let
him in your house. And don't tell him the Lord bless
you. Don't tell him God's faith. You cut him off. You just cut
him off. There are certain things that
the person and work of Christ establish. His appearance on
this earth establishes once for all that man cannot save himself. How ridiculous would it be if
man could save himself, if there was any possibility of man saving
himself. For God to condescend to become
a man, allow men to spit in his face, nail him on a cross, and
bury him in a tomb. That's totally ridiculous. If
man could redeem himself and save himself, there'd be no need
for God to come down and clothe himself in human flesh and experience
that humility that he experienced. Totally ridiculous. What happened on the cross? Think
about that. Doesn't that establish some things?
We don't even think about it. Somebody just stands up and says,
well, man has a free will, and we just swallow it up. We don't
even think about the work of Christ or His person or what
He did. What did Christ do on the cross? Why did He die? Why did He come? Did He purchase something in
His death? Did He actually satisfy something by His death? Did He
actually accomplish something? Or was this whole thing just
another martyr attempting to motivate men by giving his life
to a cause? What took place? What happened
there? Particular redemption is a doctrine derived by the
death of Christ. Has to be. Has to be. Christ died in the place of his
elect, justified them by his resurrection, sends them, the
gospel preachers, and His Holy Spirit to effectually call them
out of this world. If He died for all men, then
all men have to believe because He purchased the right of faith
through His death. Is that right? If He redeemed
all men, when He died, if His blood was shed for all men, all
men have to believe because that blood purchased that right. Say, well, I don't believe that.
Well, listen to this. Whom he called, them he justified. Ain't
that what that said? He don't call anybody that hasn't
been justified. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. That's what Scripture said. Well,
I just believe God loves all men. He can't love all men the
same. There's no way. How do you know
that? Because I go back to the cross.
I go back to see what happened on the cross. He said, God commended
His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Is that right? Is that what the
Scripture says? God commendeth His love for us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All right, if he died
for me while I was a sinner, then my sins is not going to
keep me from his love, is it? That's how he commended his love. The Bible said God hated Esau. If
Esau, I want you to listen to me, if Esau was the only man
on the top side of God's earth from Adam to the end of time
that God hated, That's enough to refute universal love. Now, if he just hated one, then
universal love ain't so. And God says, as plain as words
can be, I hated Esau. Every doctrine, I want you to
listen to me, is born of the person and work of Christ. Start
at the cross and go backwards. Don't start with human logic
and reason and try to go forward. Go to the cross. What happened
on the cross? Did He redeem something or just
make redemption possible? Every doctrine born of the person
and work of Christ, you started to cross and work backwards.
And every doctrine of Christ is the gift of God's free and
sovereign grace, and so we call them the doctrines of grace.
Same thing. Men had no knowledge of God,
no saving knowledge of God. To know God savingly, you have
to know the gospel. You have to hear it. You have
to be born again. You must be given the mind of
Christ. You must be made willing in the
day of his power. There's a lot of things that
have to happen. And it's not a secret work, it's
one that enlightens and makes men aware. The Gospel sounds
out a clear note about the Godhead and about man's sin and about
the nature of it and the evil of it, the curse of it, the end
of it. The Gospel sounds out a clear note about false religion.
Christ publicly, publicly told those Pharisees, you're children
of the devil, your father's the devil. That's what he told them.
Beware of the living of the Pharisees, their doctrine. Calls them children
of Satan, blind leaders of the blind, false prophets and hirelings. And I'm going to tell you something,
and this is what he's telling them. When you stand and do this,
Not just stand up and say, well, I'm a preacher and we're going
to come in and I just go about the things of this world just
like all the other churches in the world do and start recognizing
the oldest and the youngest mother and how many visitors we had
and how much offering we took in and all that kind of nonsense. I'd be buddies with them. I'd
be down here preaching next door at the church next week. We'd
be having fellowship. We'd just tear one down and build
one big one. If you stand up and tell them
what I'm telling you this morning, then they'll hate you. If they
could, they'd kill you. And they'd for sure run you out
of the state, run you out, get you as far away from them as
they could get you. Because they believe you're a cult and a cult
leader and you're leading their children and leading their husbands
and leading their wives off into some kind of false doctrine.
That's what he's telling them. And he said, I'm telling you
this, when I'm gone, I'm going to send the Spirit of God to
you. And I'm going to take up my abode with you, and that's
why you're not going to be offended. That's why you're not going to
fall off into perdition. You're going to recall in that
day with a clear understanding what I'm preaching to you, and
you're going to stand in it. And when your sisters and your
mother and your brothers and your wife and all these people
that you love dearly, when they stand up and spit in your face,
you're going to understand why. And you're not going to throw
in the towel. You're going to say it's His will. You're going
to be just like, who was it? They come and told him his sons
had died. And he said, it's the Lord. It's
the Lord. Let him do what he will. Let
him do what he thinks best. That's what the Lord's telling
them. And that's what he's telling us. And I've done the best I
can do to tell you. Father, bless the lesson this
morning. Bless it to our hearts. Let us find the same comfort, comfort in that knowledge, comfort
in that ministry of God's Holy Spirit, taking the things of
Christ and showing them unto us. Give us these things for
Christ's sake. Amen.