Alright, let's take our Bibles
and turn to John 7. I want to start up here in verse
10 of John 7 and read down through verse 18. But when his brethren were gone
up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as
it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast. This is the Jewish leaders, not
the common people, but the council of the Sanhedrin, the people
in high authority of the Jews, the priests and so on. Then the
Jews sought him at the feast and said, where is he? Now if
you read back earlier in this chapter, he wouldn't go up into
what he called Jewry, up into Jerusalem. among the Jews because
they sought to kill him. That's why they were looking
for him. Verse 12, And there was much murmuring among the
people concerning him, for some said, He is a good man, others
said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people. Howbeit, no man spake
openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now, about the midst of
the feast, this was a week-long ceremony. About the midst of
the feast, Jesus went up unto the temple and taught. And the
Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never
learned? Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man
will 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." Now,
he's not talking there about a perfect righteousness, although
Christ was perfectly righteous. But he's talking about there
was no deceit in him. He was not there to deceive.
He was not hiding anything. Same thing Paul talked about
when he said that he had laid those things aside. Last week
I talked to you out of this chapter about the unbelieving relatives
of Christ, His brethren. Relatives are always caught in
the middle. A stranger who has no ties to
you will separate quickly or he will agree quickly. But he
has no ties to you whatsoever. Relatives do. We have earthly
relationships and this puts them in the middle. into a kind of
a precarious place because they were raised with you. They're
your relatives. They're your kin. And because
of that relationship, when things begin to go wrong and the division
is made, they get caught in the middle. And they don't really
want to separate from you because you are their kin, and at the
same time, they don't want to leave what they've always believed.
And so they get pressure from both sides. And these are people,
I don't, we don't want to ever dismiss this fact, these are
people who love you because of these natural ties. We're their
blood kin. And for this reason, they'll
tolerate more from you than they will from a stranger. So these
relatives were caught in the middle, and they had ties to
the Jewish religion. Therefore, they were catching
a lot of flack from the church there. These men were seriously
persecuting Christ. They wanted to kill Him. They
didn't just want to discredit Him. They wanted to kill Him.
They wanted Him out of the way, completely gone. And they had
no reason for it. The Lord said, they hated me
without a cause. They had no reason for it. He
was a good man. He did good. He went about doing
good. Everything about him was true.
They had no reason. They could find no reason. So
they invented things. Made them up. Hired false witnesses
and so on. And at the same time, he was
their kinsman. who in this particular place was a perfect man. But
he drew from them some loyalty. And what they wanted for the
Lord was for Him to reconcile Himself to the Jews. And this
is always the case. I pointed this out to you last
week. This is always the case in this world. Unbelieving relatives
always want you to be reconciled to that religion, whatever it
is. It's never the other way around. I mean, not even the
thought of it. Never. It's always one way. Here were two people at dispute,
and they knew Him, stood there and watched the miracles that
God did by Him, wondered at the truths, knew Him to be... There's
one sense of the word, and John Gill brought this out, here where
they marveled, saying, how knoweth this man's letters, having never... He was a carpenter's son. He
didn't go to their seminaries. He didn't go to their schools.
He didn't receive higher learning. And yet this man stood and just
put them to shame with his speech and his wisdom. And the people
just... I mean, they were standing there looking at a crowd, and
I know how they thought, well, boy, I preached last Sunday.
I didn't have this kind of crowd. He was communicating with the
people and the people were hearing Him and were amazed at His wisdom
and so on. And they saw that in Him. But all through these chapters,
the Lord keeps telling those who approach Him that He is sent
of God. He's sin of God. Sent down from
heaven as the bread was sin of God down in the wilderness. Sin
of God. Not to do whatever circumstance
might dictate or chance might provide, but to do the eternal
will of God. That's what he told them back
there in chapter 6. I come not to do my own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. A fixed and immutable will. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And he that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out." It's a fixed and immutable will. It's a will
with a purpose and an end. He said, this is the will of
Him that sent me, that of all which He has given me, whatever
it is, all in the purpose of God, all in the design of God,
all in the wisdom of God, all of these things that's given
to me, He said, I'm going to raise them up at the last day.
So it's a will with a purpose and an end. It's a will that
trusted certain things into His hand to be kept and honored and
raised up at the last day. It's a will to redeem chosen
sinners and call them to repentance and faith. This is the will of
Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on Him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at the
last day. He himself was the living water,
the bread of God. And except you eat of my flesh
and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. That's what he
told. And they found that to be a hard saying. A hard saying. It was hard because it didn't
jive with their understanding of Bible terms. You know, a lot of times we talk
to our unbelieving relatives and we start throwing out terms
and they don't know what these terms mean. They have a whole
different understanding of those terms. And so, you know, here
you've been studying these things for years. You've got to just
stop, take your time, if they're willing to listen, and go back
in the Word of God and show them those terms, how they're defined
in the Scripture. They didn't jive with their understanding
of Bible terms of sin and righteousness and judgment and sanctification
and redemption, salvation and holiness. It was a hard saying
because it was contrary to socially accepted religion. You know why a family can move
to a strange town see a sign that says, and I'm just picking
this out at random, First Baptist Church. They see that sign. First Methodist Church. They
see that sign. And that Sunday they get their
family and they get their children and they go down to that church
and they go inside in full confidence that what they're going to hear
is going to be of God. Why is that? How can a man do
that? They do it all the time. You
can go on the internet and you can punch in what town you moved
to. Let's say I moved to Magnolia, Arkansas, and I can punch in
there if I'm a Baptist. If that's my background and my
belief, I can punch up Baptist. It'll give me all the Baptist
churches in that whole area. Give me their phone number, address,
service times, anything I want to know. How can a man do that? They do that because these things
have been around a long time. A long time. Can you ever in
your lifetime remember a time when there wasn't churches on
every corner? There have been churches here and a church there
and a church over here and a church over there. They've been there
a long time. They didn't just pop up last
week. They've been there a long time. Men and women are comfortable
with traditional religion because it's been here a long time. It's
been around hundreds of years. It's been here a long time. That's where their parents went
and their grandparents went. And we did a little search on
our family and got on the internet and went way back. And if they
filled out a document that said so, it would tell you what faith
they were. But men and women feel comfortable
in traditional religion because it's been there a long time and
because notable people go there. People of stature and influence
go there. These men went up to Jerusalem
and they looked around and these were men of stature. They respected
these men. They grew up under these men. You remember over in the book
of Matthew when the Pharisees got upset, got angry at And the
people, the disciples came to them, not the people, the disciples
came to them and they said, did you know you offended those men?
See, they respected them. They didn't understand that.
They didn't understand this division and this offense. We do. We feel comfortable. We
go down there and there's somebody down there we know. There's somebody
down there whose name we recognize. And we get some comfort from
that. The mayor, the president of a company, doctors, lawyers,
men respected in the community. And we feel comfortable because
they're not made to deal with, when we go there, we're not made
to deal with vital issues. Sin, righteousness, judgment,
the true character of God, eternal issues, spiritual issues, what
happened on the cross. I went to church all my life
and nobody ever answered that question, what happened on the
cross? Did he accomplish what he came to do or did he just
make an attempt? They don't deal with those issues.
And so you can sit there and be comfortable in whatever refuge
you've chosen to hide in. And they feel comfortable because
they're made to feel good about themselves. Most of these churches
gear their services to appeal to those things that make men
feel good. Music and visual aids. And there's
nothing wrong with music. But they have music and visual
aids and architecture and location and benefits and they offer all
sorts of activities and interaction from you and from your children.
And because of these things, unbelievers always see in that
a comfort. And they want to reconcile you
to that, not that to you. You see where he's at here? Religious leaders. This is the
other side of the coin. All of these things have to do
with people, have to do with unbelieving relatives, and now
he switches over and he begins to talk about these religious
leaders. They despise those who preach the truth. They despise
them. And even though they can't really
justify their reasons, they see them as a threat. Now I'm using the Lord as the
example here, not me or not Don or not somebody else. I'm using
the Lord here in the Scripture. They despised Him and sought
to kill Him. And yet there was no reason in
Him for it. They couldn't just as true ministers
of God tell the truth. He told the truth. And if you
was a doctor of the law, He still told you the truth. And if you
was the king, He still told you the truth. He told Pilate the
truth and He told a thief on the cross the truth. He didn't
care who you were. He didn't care what your station
of life was. He was not intimidated by men.
He told the truth. In John 7 verse 18, that last
verse I read to you, He said, He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory. He worries about his social standing
in the community. He worries about it. Worries
about what men might think if he says that. My cousin came
down. He wanted me to come up and hold
what those churches up there call revivals. Y'all got revival
meetings down here? They used to have revivals up
there. He wanted me to come and hold
a revival. And I said, well, I'll come and speak for you.
So I did. After the meeting, the next day,
I seen him pull up in the driveway and I said, uh-oh, we got a problem.
And he came up and he said, brother, he said, I can't, the church
come to me and said, if you come back, I can't. He said, no, that's
how they put it to me. And I said, well, what do you
want to do? And he said, I guess you'd be
better off if you didn't come back. Worries about his social standing
in the community. Prets about offending somebody's
friends or mother or children. Camouflages his message so that
it has no teeth, no bite. Has no cutting edge to it. He
preaches to gain your applause and gain your support and gain
a reputation. He speaks of himself. That's
what the Lord said. He's not worried about God's
name. He's worried about his. He's
not worried about God's character, he's worried about his. And so is a true minister of
God, using the Lord here as the example. He ministers in this
world. And you will always find a sharp
division between him and religion. Now there was only one religion
in this day, as far as professing Christianity, professing to know
the true and living God. And that was the Jewish religion.
And there was always a division. And this man cannot be drawn
even of his closest relatives to compromise his message. He
cannot be bought or bribed or coerced in any way to be reconciled
to what he knows to be wrong. He can't do it. He's not going
to budge. Not going to budge. And the gospel has been preached,
a line in the sand has been drawn, a sharp division among his followers,
a division even among his closest relatives, right down to his
disciples. Will you go to? And now about midway through
the Feast of the Tabernacles, the Lord goes up to Jerusalem,
and He does not make Himself the center of attention, but
He comes in quietly and discreetly, and He enters into the temple,
and He goes about this business of the ministry. He doesn't get
involved in the issues of the day. But He goes up quietly,
and He begins to teach and to preach. John chapter 7, verse
12. And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him, for some said, he is a good man.
Others said, nay, but he deceiveth the people." This is always the
effect of the gospel ministry. Some see the goodness and grace
of God in Christ, while others just write it off as a clever
deception over the people. And now the scribes and Pharisees,
the high priest and his loyal following all sought the Lord.
They all sought the Lord to entangle him in his speech, to somehow
tear him down in his person. to destroy his reputation, slander
him in his person, and intimidate him with their numbers, and with
their power, and with their authority. He was in their house. And then while those who were
still weighing matters in their mind, they were afraid to open
their mouth in fear of the Jews. Finding him in the temple teaching,
they said, how knoweth this man there? They didn't say that because
they were amazed. There might have been some amazement
in them, but they said that in a derogatory manner to pull him
down and to tear him down. They sought to discredit the
Lord by telling the people how ignorant he was. He didn't go
to our seminary. Who was his teacher? Surely a
man who wants to be taught of God and teach God's people would
sit at the feet of Gamaliel, wouldn't he? He didn't go to our seminary.
He had no private tutoring. He has no diploma. And we're
amazed that he didn't say anything. He's never been trained to do
it. You really want to hear a man who's turned his back on every
religious school we have? That's what they were saying.
Do you really want to take the word of this ignorant carpenter
over the high priest of Israel? Will you follow this man who
has no established confirmation from the High Council of Israel?
Are you going to follow him? Whose word are you going to take?
Ours or his? Now here's the dilemma. How do men and women know what
is of God and what is of man? You've got religious folks deceived. If we had time this morning,
I could take you through the Scripture. He said, you scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites and blind. These were not men of God. These
were men who were deceived. They were the blind leading the
blind into the ditch. They were right up at the head
of the whole congregation going down the broad road to hell.
Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. They were deceivers. They didn't know the truth. How
does a man... Here's the people gathered. Here's
the Lord of glory. Here is the Word made flesh. Here is what all the words are
about in this man. Perfect wisdom. He is the gospel. And over here is the deceived. Out here is the congregation.
How do they know? How do they know? This has been
here a long time. I was listening to the radio the
other day and I heard a song I ain't heard in a long, long
time singing about that old time religion. It was good enough
for daddy, good enough for me. Good enough for grandpa, it's
good enough for me. That's what they were singing.
And that's what they were thinking. This thing's been here a long
time. Now, how do I know the difference? How do men and women
know what's of God and what is of man? How do those of us who
spend our days on the job and not in schools and books of theology,
how do we know the difference? Who is of God and who is of man?
Who's telling the truth and who's deceived? How can I know? How
can I know? A man comes to town, he's got
no formal credentials, preaches something totally contrary to
established religion, he condemns their preaching and they condemn
his. How can I know who's of God and who's of man? Look down here at verses 16 and
17 of John chapter 7. Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. This doctrine
means teaching. This teaching is of God. It's not mine. It's not something
I invented. Now watch this. If any man will
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God or whether I speak of myself. Now in no less than seven other
versions of the Bible, I read every one of them. No less than
seven out of the ten that I have at my disposal. Seven out of
these ten versions of the Bible, this text reads this way. If
any man is willing to do his will. If any man is willing, he's not
going to do his will to perfection. But there is a willingness to
do it. If any man be willing to do his will, he shall know
of the teaching whether it be of God." Now, what's he saying?
He's saying if he has a will to do the will of God, a desire
to do it, he is convinced that God's will is holy and just and
good. That God's will must prevail
because he worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. He sees that. He understands that. There's
a reason for him to be willing to do the will of God. He sees
that God's will is going to prevail. He sees that God does everything
after the counsel of his own will. He's not going to do anything
apart from his will. Everything is determined by that
will. Christ said, I don't come to
do my own will but the will of Him that sent me. He sees that God's will is better
than his. What did my will ever do for
me? Got me in a mess. Do you know actually that the
first sin by a creature was of Satan? And I don't know how many
times he says in there, I will, I will, I will. That's the heart
of sin. But this man, he's come to see
God's will is better than his will. That God's will must prevail
because He works all things after the counsel of it. That He doeth
according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or question
His will. That God's will is not affected
by time. It's not affected by circumstance. But it's eternal, immutable,
everlasting. The man who is willing to do
his will is a man whose heart prays to the Father, pours out
his request to God, and then says, not my will, but Thy will
be done. You see what he is saying here? The man who is willing to do
God's will is a man born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Of His own will
begat he us with the Word of truth. Do you see what John is
saying here? He is willing to do the will
of God because he sees everything in the will of God. And he can't find any of it over
here. This man who is willing to do
the will of God is a man who has been brought by the power
of God's Spirit to see his own weakness and inability. He is
a man brought to see the foolishness of anything that appeals to man
to make it successful, because man is a failure. He is a sinner.
He is falling. This man is a man who fears God
and carefully and fearfully weighs each word you say. You watch
when God gets hold of a man. He'll grip at you and He'll look
at you and He'll hang on every word you say. And He'll question
what you say. And He'll look in this book to
verify what you say. He carefully weighs each word
in the light of eternity and He prays over what He hears and
He asks God to give Him an understanding. He moves with caution and sincerity
and begins to work out his own salvation in fear and trembling,
knowing this, that it is God that worketh in him both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. If any man be willing to do the
will of God. You see what he says? Psalm 110 verse 3, My people
shall be made willing. in the day of my power. He talks
there in that psalm about setting his king upon his holy hill and
puts him there. And you ain't taking him down.
And all his work is effectual. All his work is glorified. All
his work is eternal. All his work ain't going to change.
And my people, he said, my people, going to be willing in the day
of my power. What are they going to be willing
to do? They're going to be willing to do His will. They're going to be willing.
If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine. He'll know that the will of God
is provided both the gospel he hears and the man who brings
it. He'll know that it originates
with God and not man because it yields all the glory to God. It won't give one iota to man. He'll know that the will of God
has arranged the very circumstance and brought him to hear the occasion. Here they are at the Feast of
the Tabernacles. All arranged to bring him to
hear this message. If any man be willing, have a
desire to do the will of God, he will know of the teaching.
What is required of a man to distinguish the difference between
what's of God and what's of man is a true heart desire to know. That's what he's saying. Being under the oppression of
Babylon for many years, brought under the curse of the fornication
and spiritual adultery that went on in that Babylonian empire. The Lord said to Israel, I'll
cause you to return unto Me. Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Now listen to this. Then
shall you call upon Me, and you'll go and you'll pray unto Me, and
I'll hearken unto you. And you will seek Me and find
Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Huh? Well, God just won't tell me
anything. That's not what He said. He said, you don't really
want to know. You'll find me when you search
for me with all your heart. All it requires for you to tell
the difference between me and some false prophet is a desire
to know. Do you want to know? You don't
really want to know, do you? Huh? If you do, you'll know. Now that's what the Lord told
them. You can take your certificates and your diplomas and all that
mess and take it down there in your little room of self-righteousness
and self-glory and tradition, and you can sit down there and
look at it. But if you really want to know, you're going to
know. And He's going to make you willing
to know in the day of His power. He's going to arrange it and
give you the hunger and give you the thirst. You're going
to be taught of God. He said, it's written in the
Prophets, both Isaiah and John say it. It's written in the Prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto Me. Are you
willing? Are you willing? When you are,
you'll know.