Well, turn to John's Gospel and
Chapter 7. John's Gospel. I'm just going
to continue just as normal in the Scriptures, even though it's
Easter Sunday. We celebrate the Lord's resurrection
every Sunday morning, not just once a year. So, John Chapter
7. We've already seen that there's been great polarization in the
reaction of people to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is great
polarization. in terms of how you react to
the message of the gospel Paul says to the Corinthians that
it is to some the savour of death the smell of death unto death
is this gospel it's horrible how on earth do you believe that
it's vile it's repulsive to them and yet to others it's the words
of eternal life the savour of eternal life that glorious sweet
savour of eternal life and peace with God you know you can't be
neutral about this You can't say, oh, I'm just going to make
my mind up later, or it doesn't bother me at the moment, because
we're all going to die. Every single one of us, and none
of us knows when we will die. We must all face eternity. And
you know you face eternity either in your own sins or in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Just two ways, that's it. In
your own sins, you're responsible for them before the judge of
all the earth. And it is a dreadful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is acceptance. For he has accomplished all things
for the salvation of his people. And so your answer to his question. He posed a question one day to
the Pharisees. Our Lord Jesus Christ posed this
question to them. What think ye of Christ? And
your answer to that question is absolutely crucial to your
eternal state. What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of Christ? It's crucial to your eternal
state. And that's why the Lord Jesus Christ is completely unlike
any other historical character. You might be fascinated with
Alexander the Great. I think it's a fascinating story.
You might be fascinated by other aspects of history. The history
of the 20th century. Absolutely fascinating stuff.
And it all teaches us so much, but nothing speaks to us quite
like the person and the works of the Lord Jesus Christ he's
completely unlike anybody else and this is why the crowd in
Jerusalem at this feast was so focused on him they'd gone up
to the feast of the tabernacles in verse 11 then the Jews sought
him at the feast and said where is he and there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him they were talking about him he
was the topic of conversation where is this man Here we are
at the feast, where is he? He's central to it. He's central
to what, you know, we're either for him or against him, where
is he? Now all of the events of John chapter 6 had taken place
in Galilee. They'd all taken place in Galilee,
that great long chapter 6, speaking of the bread of life. All of
those events had taken place in Galilee. And obviously after
those events, the Passover that's mentioned in John chapter 6 and
verse 4, the Passover, a feast of the Jews was nigh. That had
taken place and for sure Jesus had gone up to that feast of
the Passover because to fulfill all law, he certainly went to
every Passover during his ministry. He must have done it. But John
doesn't record it for us. John says nothing about it. You
know, John says at the end of his gospel, there are loads,
many, many other things that I could have written. It would
have filled every book in the world if I'd written everything
I could have written. I couldn't possibly write it. But these
are written that you might know and believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And believing, you might
have life. And so he leaves out all that
happened at that Passover. He just leaves it out. And he
says this, that Jesus didn't walk in Jewry, in Judea, in the
land that was governed by the religious Jews. He went to that
Passover but John only records verse 1 of chapter 7 that he
returned to Galilee and he walked in Galilee. He went about his
business in Galilee. Why did he do that? Because the
Jewish leaders, because the Jewish authorities sought to kill him.
And why did they seek to kill him? You know, here comes a man
with a radical message. Why did they seek to kill him?
Why didn't they just listen to him as Nicodemus at the end of
chapter 7 says? Do we judge him before we've
heard what he says? And you will see when we get there how violently
they reacted against the idea of Nicodemus, that the man ought
to be given a fair hearing. No, they reacted against him
like this, wanting to kill him, because the message of the Lord
Jesus Christ upset their comfortable situation. And how did he upset
their comfortable situation? You see, what was their comfortable
situation? Ah, they were the Jews. They were the people of
the true God. They were the ones that were
singled out from amongst all the rest of humanity. They had
the temple. They had the absolutely authentic
gold standard religion of the world. In amongst all the paganism
all around, they, that little nation of Israel, and Judea down
in the south around Jerusalem, they had the authentic gold standard. And oh, were they proud of it.
And oh, they had their traditions, and their scholarly learning,
and their schools, and you know, it must have been a tremendous
system of of social learning and political
control that they exerted. But he upset it. And how did
he upset it? By this. With his gospel. His
gospel of the Kingdom of God. His message of sovereign grace
for a fixed multitude of sinners the world over. Not just Jews
in Jerusalem. He said God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. God so loved the world.
It was a message of sovereign grace, of particular redemption
for sinners without distinction of race, not just Jews. And he'd
upset their position and they wanted to kill him for it. You
say, how do I know that this was the message he preached?
Look at John chapter 6 and verse 37. He said, all that the Father
gives me shall come to me. Isn't that that message of particular
redemption? Who will come to him? Who will come to eternal
life? Those that the Father gave to the Son. I'm not making this
up when I preach it. This is the message of this book.
You know? You'd think, oh, you who preach
particular redemption, you're such an extreme branch of Christianity. Why can't you be reasonable and
get on with other people? Why do you have to be so hyper-Calvinistic
in your views? I'll tell you why, because Jesus
was. This is the message He preached. He preached that the Father gave
a people to the Son before the beginning of time. a people that's
a multitude that we cannot number we don't know we can't choose
we can't judge one from another but every single one is known
to the father and all that the father gave to the son will come
to him and some come some come in their last breath of life
like that thief on the cross and others come when they're
little children in faith and they live and serve him and love
him every day that they breathe on this earth Now, there's a
lesson here about Christ walking in Galilee. It's this. I'll just note it in passing.
Christ does not walk in the place of orthodox religion if that
place rejects and hates the gospel of grace and of particular, and
when I say particular redemption, I mean particular effectual redemption. Because, do you know something?
The only redemption that is properly accomplished is that which is
particular. It's impossible. If Christ died
for everybody, to give everybody the opportunity, then nobody
was effectually saved. Because the salvation comes down
to the will of man, and the scriptures teach us over and over again,
that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God
who shows mercy. And so Christ doesn't walk in
those great big places of religious orthodoxy. He doesn't walk there. And any that seek him there,
thinking that there's bound to be something in it, will be tragically
disappointed. They will not find life. They
will not find truth there. You see, the men of religion,
the rulers of religion, they despise the religious backwaters
of Galilee, don't they? The Pharisees and the scribes
in Jerusalem despised Galilee. It was just them up north, those
lot, you know, just common traders and farmers and and ignorant
people. And they despised the religious
backwaters of Galilee. But do you notice our Lord Jesus
Christ chose to walk in Galilee? That's where he ministered. And
he says in Matthew 18, 20, it's not in the big cathedrals. It's
not in the thriving huge churches, though sometimes he allows that.
It's not there. It's where two or three are gathered
in his name. That's where he's pleased to
meet with his people in humility and simplicity. So in John chapter
7 we see more polarization of people. More polarization on
the basis of this message. We see hatred, we see sitting
on the fence, but an interested sitting on the fence, and we
see those who believed him. Now the Feast of Tabernacles
was near. So this is Easter Sunday in April. Well it's like six months on.
Feast of Tabernacles is the harvest feast. It's September or thereabouts. and in verse 3 the feast of tabernacles
was hand and it says his brethren therefore said unto him to Jesus
depart hence go from here and go to Judea Jerusalem that thy
disciples that those that have followed thee there and listen
to your preaching may also see the works that you're doing you
must go out and be public seek publicity seek the limelight
you don't stay here in these backwaters if you want fame well
go and go to the place where you're going to get fame which
is Jerusalem go up to this feast and show them there who you are
these brethren these brethren these were probably cousins and
the like from the wider family of Mary and Joseph who didn't
believe they were very cynical they'd seen him they were very
skeptical about him they'd seen some of the things he did and
the character he was but because of the hardness and sinfulness
of their hearts They didn't follow him, they didn't trust him. They
were very cynical. And if they did want him to get
some fame, it was probably just because they thought that they
might profit from it. You know, in the way that a family might
wish that some family member would win a great lottery winning,
because they know that a little bit of the goodness will come
their way as a result of it. No, these weren't his immediate
brethren. These weren't James and Simon. and Judas, who were the sons
of Alphaeus. You see, Joseph and Mary, after
Jesus was born, they had a normal marriage until Joseph died, but
the brother of Joseph was a man called Alphaeus. And he had some
sons, James and Judas and Simon, who grew up in the same house.
And they became disciples of the Lord. They became apostles.
They were brethren who believed. But these were the wider family
who didn't. They were skeptical. And he says
to them, he says to them, it's not my time. He says, verse 6,
Jesus said to them, my time is not yet come, but your time is
always ready. You can always go up. He says,
it doesn't matter for you. What does he mean that his time
had not yet come? Well, throughout the Gospels,
he talks about his time. His time had not yet come. And
then his time did come. In one sense, it's this. It was
the time of his crucifixion. But he says now is not that time.
not to be the Passover lamb. You know, Christ our Passover,
says Paul to the Corinthians, is crucified. Christ our Passover. Christ was the Lamb of God. He
was the Passover lamb who was sacrificed for his people. But
this wasn't the time for it. It was the Feast of Tabernacles.
But not only that, it wasn't his time to do their bidding.
They couldn't play a tune and the Son of God dance to it. He
was in control of all things. Everything was ordered exactly
right. You know when he raised Lazarus
there was a panic that he ought to go there because if he didn't
it would be too late and Lazarus would be too far gone, he would
be too far decayed in death to be able to be raised from death
and so he must go. No, no, no. In his own time.
In his own timing. God always does things in his
own timing. Christ who is God always does
things in his own timing. When the fullness of the time
was come God sent forth his Son. born of a woman and every step
of that journey to redeem his people was one that was all in
the sovereign will and purpose and control of God. He providentially
ordered all events and it wasn't his time but he was going to
go up to the feast but not publicly not openly you notice that when
he did go up for the final Passover when he was crucified he did
go up publicly he went up publicly riding on a colt on a donkey
and the people strew palm branches in front of him and cried Hosanna
to the son of the highest he did go up publicly then for that
purpose but now his time had not yet come and in verse seven
he says the world cannot hate you but me it hateth because
I testify of it that the works thereof are evil he told them
that the world now what does he mean by the world He means
all humanity minus those who are his people. All humanity
except those who are his people. These brethren were comfortable
with that humanity. You know that humanity. We come
across it every day in every contact that we have in this
life. Humanity, the world, sinful flesh all around us. They're
comfortable and at ease. And his brethren were comfortable
and at ease with that. society in which they walked.
But Jesus, he says, they hate him. They hate him. Was he just
being paranoic? You know what paranoia means?
It means that you think that everybody's got it in for you.
You know, in for me, in for me, they've all got it in for me.
That's what a paranoic is. It's somebody who thinks that
everybody else is, they're suspicious of everybody else. It's a mental
condition, a feeling that everybody's out to get me or to do me down
or to do something unpleasant to me. was Jesus just being paranoid
because you see look at verse 20 the people accused him of
this he says in verse 19 why do you go about to kill me and
they said you're mad you've got a devil who's going about to
kill you don't be stupid is basically what they're saying to him don't
be silly you're being irrational nobody's going about to kill
you was he just being paranoid no he wasn't We see exactly the
same hatred for the true gospel today. You look at it all around. Look in the media. The media
absolutely hates the gospel of sovereign grace and particular
redemption. They're perfectly happy to put
on Easter from King's College Cambridge in all its nice color
and its lovely music and all the rest of it, so long as there's
no gospel of sovereign grace in it. So long as there's no
gospel of particular redemption in it, they're quite happy with
all that sort of thing. They're quite happy to put on
no end of false religion. They're perfectly happy with
that. Established religion hates the true gospel. You say, oh,
come on. You know the message I preach
here, Sunday by Sunday. You imagine the reaction I'd
get if I preached it in the parish church, or in the Catholic church,
or in the United Reformed church, or the Methodist. You imagine
the reaction. What would they say? I tell you, if they could,
they'd lynch me for it, the religious ones. They'd lynch me, because
the world hates this gospel. This gospel of God saving a particular
people for his own glory. No, exactly the same. Politics
hates the true gospel. You look at what's been done
in the name of politics and liberality in our society and you see what
an evil society we're living in these days. You see how wicked
it is in its fundamental immorality, its fundamental hatred of the
things of God and opposition to the laws of God. Politics
is against the gospel of grace. Sociology, our society all around
us, all hates the true gospel of sovereign grace. So on to
ask the question, why did they and why do they today hate such
a good man? Why do they hate the true Christ
of Scripture so much? And I've got four answers to
that question. First of all, he exposed their sin. Then he
preached the doctrine of God and not the ideas of man. And
then he claimed not only to preach it, but to be God proclaiming
it. And then fourthly, he didn't
fit their idea of what Christ should be. And it's just the
same today. Why did they hate such a good
man? Well, first of all, verse 7. The world cannot hate you,
but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof
are evil. He revealed religious hypocrisy. He revealed the emptiness and
self-righteousness of their religion. And they hated him for it. And
so they do today. He revealed that emptiness, that
self-righteous hypocrisy of false religion, which is outside of
Christ and outside of the gospel of His grace. That works-based
religion, or that mixture of faith and works, which totally
destroys, it poisons the purity of the faithful gospel. We read
last Sunday evening in Isaiah chapter 1, verses 10 to 15. You
can read it again. God's judgment on empty religion,
on empty outward form. You know what he said? He said,
I can't stand the language. You think, is this really the
language of God? Yes, it was. He can't stand their sacrifices
because they're so full of hypocrisy and emptiness and there's no
heart in them and there's no seeking after him. It's just
outward form and all the time They're extorting one another
and behaving sinfully. And he said, away with it. I
cannot bear it. I don't want your sacrifices. And then when
he came to this earth, Christ, we saw in John chapter 2, he
walked into the temple and the traders had turned it into a
marketplace where they were trading animals for sacrifice. And they
turned it into a den of thieves, Jesus said. And he drove them,
miraculously drove them out of the temple. He exposed their
sins. He exposed their religious hypocrisy
and emptiness. In verses 19 to 24 of this chapter,
he exposes their hypocrisy regarding the Sabbath day. Because you
see, why he kept saying they sought to kill him, do you remember
the account in John chapter 5 of the man that had been lame 38
years at the pool of Bethesda and was waiting to get down into
the water but was always beaten to it? And Jesus said to him,
rise take up your bed and walk and immediately he rose and walked
and you know what it says and it was the Sabbath day and from
that they didn't praise him for such a glorious miracle and listen
to his words but they sought to kill him from that moment
onwards they sought to kill him because as far as their religion
was concerned he'd flown in the face of what their laws said
and what their rules said He says in verse 19, Moses gave
you the law, actually it was God that gave the law via Moses
but he says Moses gave you the law but none of you keeps the
law but you go about to kill me and the people said you're
mad, nobody's going about to kill you and Jesus said I have
done one work and you're all amazed and he's referring back,
he must be referring back to that one work that one work of
healing that man at the pool of Bethesda and he says when
he did it on the Sabbath day And he said, Moses therefore
gave unto you circumcision. Not because it is of Moses, but
of the fathers, because actually it was Abraham that the right
of circumcision was given to, but Moses reinforced it in the
written law. And he says, and you on the Sabbath
day, because you know that male child was to be circumcised on
the eighth day. Eight days after being born was
to be circumcised. And if it happened to be a Sabbath
day, they said, well, this is so important for the immortal
soul of this child, Irrespective of whether it's a Sabbath day
or not, we must do the work of circumcising this child on the
Sabbath day, that it might do good for his soul. And he says,
if a man on the Sabbath day, a man-child, receives circumcision,
that the law of Moses should not be broken because this law
is so important that you must even do it on a Sabbath day.
Are you angry at me because I have made a man every whit hole on
the Sabbath day? He says, you're judging wrongly,
immorally, hypocritically. They sought to kill him for that. He exposed their religion as
truly evil and worthy of just condemnation. And they hated
him for it. Now listen. Jesus said in John
15 verse 18, he said, don't be surprised if the world hates
you. You're my disciples, he says. John 15 And verse 18, if
the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. Don't be surprised if men reject
this doctrine, this principle of sovereign grace effectual
redemption. John writes in his letter, 1
John 3.13, marvel not, don't be amazed, my brethren, if the
world hates you, because it hated him. Don't be amazed, We think,
oh, wouldn't it be nice if everybody was nice to one another? Well,
yes, it would, but don't be under any delusion. It isn't going
to happen anytime soon. Fallen man, in his natural state,
will always hate this Gospel. Religious man, in his natural
state, without the enlightening of the Spirit of God, will hate
this doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. And hence, hence, you
can see why there are no ecumenical associations for us. because
they will hate our gospel when they hear it they will secondly
verse sixteen jesus answered them and said my doctrine is
not mine but his that sent me why did they hate such a good
man because he proclaimed the doctrine of god that's why verse
fourteen says this in the midst of the feast jesus went up into
the temple and taught having said that he wasn't gonna go
up yet, when his time was right in the midst of the feast, the
feast was about seven or eight days long, well, eight days in
total, seven nights, and in the middle of it, the middle day,
he went up into the temple and taught, and the people were amazed,
the Jews marveled, they were staggered, saying, how knoweth
this man letters, having never learned? And Jesus answered them
and said, my doctrine is not mine, but is his that sent me. They were amazed that a mere
northern carpenter, a mere tradesman, with no formal education, hadn't
been to the right university, hadn't studied the literature
and the writings of his ancestors, he hadn't come out with the right
certificates, he hadn't been to the right seminary. They were
amazed that a mere northern carpenter had such intimate knowledge of
the scripture He knew it without having learned it. Such intimate
knowledge of the scripture and how to apply it to men's souls.
And no professor, none of those Jewish professors, the Pharisees
and the scribes, not one of them could confound him. There wasn't
one of them dare go up against him. He was supreme in his knowledge
of these things. Not one of them could confound
him. They all marveled at it. Now what did he teach? What was
it that he taught? that made so many of them hate
him. Surely, it was the gospel of God's kingdom, wasn't it?
It must have been. Surely it was that. Surely, in
all of his preaching, as he preached the kingdom of God, surely he
elaborated what he'd said in John 5, 39. Search the scriptures,
for in them you think that you have eternal life. These are
they which speak of me. He showed. There in that temple,
here's all these sacrifices. What are they all about? They're
all about symbolizing, picturing the Messiah who must come to
redeem his people, to satisfy justice in the place of his people.
And I am that Messiah is what he said. I am He. And he said
this, those who believe in me have eternal life. Those who
don't are condemned because they fall foul of the judgment of
God, going into that judgment in their own strength, in their
own sins. Surely that was what he preached.
Surely, before Paul determined to know nothing other than Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, our Lord Jesus Christ, in His ministry,
preached the same things. He must have done. There, all
that symbolism, which is all the gospel in symbol, He must
have proclaimed it. The temple worship, the Messiah
coming would fulfill all of those things. I'm sure these are the
things that He preached. After His resurrection, Beginning
at Moses and the prophets, he expounded to them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself. How he, the Messiah,
had fulfilled them all. And they had various degrees
of insight into it. But afterwards they knew. Afterwards
they knew that it was the truth. John the Baptist, I often mention
this, but John the Baptist sent disciples to ask, are you the
one? And he said, all of the miracles
of Messiah are being performed. Isaiah 35, 5 and 6, the eyes
of the blind are being opened. the ears of the deaf unstopped,
the lame are walking, the dumb are singing. All of these things
are happening. All of the miracles that Messiah
would do prophetically are being done. Will anyone do more than
this? Verse 31, when Christ comes,
will He do more miracles than these which this man has done?
Do we need any more proof is what many of them are saying,
that He is the Messiah? But He also says this to John,
the gospel is preached to the poor that's it when Messiah comes
the gospel the good news the good news of salvation in a substitute
is preached to the poor who are the poor? the poor without much
money well they might be but he's talking about the poor in
spirit for blessed are the poor in spirit blessed the gospels
preached to them so they hated him because he showed the utter
dependence of man on the mercy and grace of God. And he showed
what Jonah said, what Jonah came to know, Jonah 2 verse 9, that
salvation is of the Lord. It's not of you being a Jew.
It's not of you doing these things. Salvation is of the Lord. Therefore,
you're at the mercy of the grace of God. It's not of the will
of man, but of God. Not of the will of the flesh,
but of God. And they hated that message.
that's the doctrine of God and he said he spoke with that doctrine
because he came down from heaven directly to proclaim it and then
thirdly verses 16 to 18 Jesus answered and said my doctrine
is not mine but his that sent me if any man will do his will
and that will there means wants to if any man wants to do his
will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory
but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true
and no unrighteousness is in him. He claimed deity. In saying those things he claimed
to be God. His words were God's words is
what he was saying. His words were God's words. They
came direct from God. He came to earth as God to speak
God's message. Look at verse 29. or verse 28 even, Jesus cried
in the temple as he taught saying you both know me and you know
whence I am and I am not come of myself but he that sent me
is true whom ye know not but I know him for I am from him
and he hath sent me he's claiming to come with the message of God
and as God with that message and they knew exactly what he
was claiming because look at verse 30 It was when he said
that, they sought to take him. They sought to take him to kill
him. For what reason? For blasphemy. Because they knew
that here was a man who was claiming to be God, speaking the words
of God. They knew what he claimed. And
except for divine restraint, because there were so many of
them, and except perhaps, because we've seen it before, because
of the countenance of him, the look of him, His time had not
yet come and therefore they couldn't take him. His time had not yet,
his hour wasn't there. They couldn't take him at that
time. There was something about him that however many of them
there were, they could not lay hands on him to take him. I don't
know what it was, but they couldn't take him. They would have lynched
him otherwise. He claimed to have his doctrine
direct from God because he was God. Now there's an echo here
of Paul's testimony. Do you remember the Apostle Paul
in Galatians and he's talking about false gospels and he's
talking about the true gospel which he preached and he says
where do you think I got my gospel from he wasn't taught it by flesh
wasn't flesh and blood but it was revealed by God he wasn't
taught in a seminary he wasn't taught by the other apostles
it was revealed to him by God Holy Spirit God took him and
revealed those things to him it was direct revelation and
in a sense in a sense all true preachers must have that message
from God himself this is what this is what preaching is it's
it's a man seeking to get God's message to deliver to God's people
that's what it's about 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 13 says this which
things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth
you can't learn it in a seminary but which the Holy Ghost teacheth
comparing spiritual with spiritual and then he goes on to say but
the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God
there must be there must be this spiritual enlightenment there
must be this message direct from God through a preacher there
must be that and Christ says he was supremely because he was
God But in a sense, every preacher that comes along must be speaking,
thus says the Lord. This is what it is. How men hate
it when a man stands up and says with God's authority, thus says
the Lord. And they hate it because their
seminaries didn't teach him what to say. Oh, you're only any good
if our seminaries taught you what to say. No, no, no. Elijah
stood up and proclaimed, Thus says the Lord. And so did the
other prophets. They stood because God picked
them out. God chose Jeremiah, that reluctant
prophet. Oh, you can't send me. I'm a
child. I can't speak. You're the one. You're going to bring my message.
Through lots of trials and lamentations and difficulties, but you are
the one. God gives his message. And people hate it. The religious
world around us hates it. It hates this idea that it doesn't
own You've heard the expression, not invented here. That's the
problem with so much established religion. They hear the truth
and they say, not invented here. It wasn't taught in our seminary,
therefore we will not hear it. But the truth comes from God,
the Holy Spirit, through his means. Then fourthly, verse 27. They're talking about Christ.
They said in verse 26, do the rulers know indeed that this
is the very Christ? What's going on here? how be
it we know this man where he's from we know he's from Nazareth
and when Christ comes no man knows where he comes from Jesus
cried in the temple you both know me and you know where I'm
from and I'm not come of myself you see he wasn't their idea
of the Christ not at all they knew from the scriptures Micah
chapter 5 verse 2 Bethlehem in Judea he would be born in Bethlehem
in Judea Not Nazareth. They knew he came from Nazareth
in the north. He probably spoke with a Galilean accent. They
knew where he was from. No, not Bethlehem. He didn't
fit their bill for who the Christ was. They knew he would have
a mystical parentage. Isaiah 7, 14. The virgin shall
be with child and shall bear... and his name shall be called
Emmanuel. They knew there would be a mystical
parentage to him. But they knew him. He was Joseph
and Mary's son from Nazareth. So no, he didn't fit the bill.
He wasn't their idea of Christ. What was their idea of what the
Messiah would be? They were looking for a political
leader to re-establish Israel as a strong and independent nation
and to get rid of Roman rule. That's what they were looking
for. They weren't looking for a Christ who would be a pitiful
victim on a cross of wood. That wasn't what they were looking
for. So they hated him as a fraudster. And it's the same today. The
religious Christian world, with a small c, it wants a Christ
of its own invention. What's the Christ that it wants?
It wants an example of human goodness, isn't that right? We
were watching a program on great works of art the other night,
and there was a Catholic nun with the very sticky out teeth.
Very sweet lady, but she was talking about what was the crucifixion
about. And do you know all she could
say it was about? We live in a world of suffering
and we can't do anything about it and it's God effectively saying
to us that He can't do anything about it either so He sends His
Son to suffer and show us that He can't do anything about it
either and it's just the lot that we've got to live with.
And that was it, you know? Oh, revere this lady! She dresses
up in a nun's habit and she must have something good to say and
that's all she's got to say to us about the Christ and the cross
of Christ and why He did those things. All she can see is that
it's God sympathizing with us in our human suffering and showing
us that He suffers too and doesn't retaliate. But not a word about
Him justifying His elect as the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of people from all over the world who are His elect in
Him. Not a word of that. No, the Jews
had made true religion, which is God's, Sovereign Grace, which
is what their scriptures revealed from Genesis right the way through,
go right back to the Garden of Eden. We're talking about it
in the car, won't we, Marguerite? How God killed an animal to clothe
Adam and Eve after the fall. There's the gospel, right there.
Genesis chapter 3. And they had that message in
their scriptures, but they turned it into the religion of Babylon,
the religion of the world, false religion. The religion of the
Tower of Babel. What was the Tower of Babel?
It was where man thought he could rise up and be strong enough
and big enough to reach to heaven himself without any intermediary. And it's exactly the same today.
It's the religion of Cain that hates the religion of Abel. Cain
brought his own works. Abel brought a lamb as a substitute. You must bring a lamb, the Lamb
of God. But not all hated him. Not all. some were undecided, verse 12,
they're saying he's a good man I don't know what their true
position was, in interested belief I would say he's a good man don't
know whether they had seen the truth yet but verse 31 many of
the people believed on him and said when Christ comes will he
do more miracles than these which this man does why did they believe? why did so many hate him and
yet some believe? Look at verse 17. If any man
will, if any man wants to do his will he shall know of the
doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.
Do you want to know the will of God? Do you want to know the
doctrine of God? Well if you want to there's a
reason why. Psalm 110 verse 3 it says that
God makes his people willing in the day of his power. God
made some of them willing in the day of His power, in His
sovereign grace, to do His will. And what is His will? We saw
it in John chapter 6 verse 29. This is the will of Him who sent
me, that you believe on the Son of God. You believe on Christ.
This is His will, that you believe. And they know the doctrine, that
it is true, that it is from God. What about you? What about you? God is merciful. The Scriptures
tell us this. God is merciful. God is a God
of salvation. God is the God who welcomes sinners. This was the accusation they
brought against Christ. This man welcomes sinners. Oh,
bless his name. This man welcomes sinners and
promises this, that he won't turn any away who seek him. Amen. Well, let's sing our final hymn for
this bit, number 271. He dies, he dies, the lowly man
of sin.