Let's turn together to John chapter
7. John chapter 7. In the midst of the feast of
tabernacles, the Lord Jesus went up to the temple at Jerusalem
and taught. What was his doctrine? What did
he teach on this momentous occasion? His doctrine was decisive and
it was clear. This doctrine of our Lord Jesus,
we have reason to give thanks that he finally went up to this
feast after his brethren had tried to persuade him to go up.
He went up fulfilling the law, but this was the last time he
spoke at the Feast of Tabernacles, the last of his messages at the
Feast. And had he not gone up, we would
be deprived of this temple doctrine that it gives us in this passage.
Would to God that in every place where men and women pretend to
worship his name, the doctrine taught in the temple this day
were taught in our day. John chapter 7. Verse 14, now
about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into 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 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. Did not Moses give
you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye
about to kill me? The people answered him and said,
Thou hast a devil who goeth about to kill thee. Jesus answered
and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses, therefore, gave unto you
circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers. And ye on the Sabbath day circumcise
a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives
circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken. Are
ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit hole on
the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Then said some of them of Jerusalem,
is not this he of whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh
boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know
indeed? that this is the very Christ,
howbeit we know this man whence he is, but when Christ cometh,
no man knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple
as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye 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. Then they
sought to take him. But no man laid hands on him,
because his hour was not come. And many of the people believed
on him and said, when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles
than these which this man has done? The Pharisees heard that
the people murmured such things concerning him. And the Pharisees
and the chief priests sent officers to take him. Then said Jesus
unto them, yet a little while am I with you. Then I go unto
him that sent me. You shall seek me and shall not
find me. And where I am, thither you cannot
come. Then said the Jews among themselves,
whither will he go that we may not find him? Will he go to the
dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What
manner of saying is this that he said, you shall seek me and
shall not find me. And where I am thither, you cannot
come. Now let's look at our Lord's
doctrine here. Point by point. Here's the first thing versus
16 and 17. And I want you to hear it. If you go to hell, it'll
be your fault alone. If you go to hell. It will be
your fault alone. Man's will and man's works have
nothing to do with God's salvation. Nothing at all. Salvation is
God's work alone. It is that for which God alone
shall have the praise, that which exalts and magnifies the name
of God alone. Man's will and man's work have
nothing to do with it. The scriptures could not be more
abundantly plain. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
But if you perish, it'll be altogether because you will not believe. That's right in the pastor altogether. Look at John seven, verse 16.
Jesus said, answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine. but his that sent me. If a man
will do his will." What's he talking about? Do his will. The Jews ask about doing the
work of God and our Savior said this is his work that you believe
on him that he sent. This is the will of God that
you believe on the Son of God. If a man will do his will, if
a man will believe God He shall know the doctrine. You don't
believe God by knowing the doctrine, but you know the doctrine by
believing God. And you will know whether it
be of God or whether I speak of myself. Now, the long and
short of that is just this. Faith in Christ is the gift of
God. It's the operation of God the
Holy Spirit. It is that which God performs
in us. It is that which is the result
of life given to us. Faith in Christ is God's gift,
God's gift alone. But unbelief is a choice. Unbelief is a decision of the
will. Unbelief is a deliberate act
of obstinate rebellion to God Almighty. Our Lord Jesus here
tells us plainly, That if you will do God's will, you'll know
plainly his doctrine. But our savior said, you will
not believe. You will not believe. You will
not come to me that you might have life. Unbelief. is the deliberate choice of man's
rebellious heart. He's confronted with the claims
of Christ in the gospel and he says no. He's confronted with
the revelation of God and he says I will not believe. He's confronted with the truth
of God and he says I will not believe. And the sad fact is
that's the state and the nature of all humanity And yet it is
that which men choose to do. And God will send you to hell
for your unbelief. Number two, look at verse 18.
And I could spend a while talking about this. Brother Maurice Montgomery
and his wife are here with us this morning. And we've seen
enough of this second thing. We could talk about it a long
time. Any preacher, any preacher, who exalts and promotes himself
is not God's servant. He's just not. Listen to the
Master. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory. He that seeketh his glory that
sent him, the same is true. and no unrighteousness is in
him. Multitudes throughout the ages, multitudes in this day,
all over the world, fill pulpits in every place who are like Diotrephes. You remember Diotrephes? He's
that one John describes who loves to have the preeminence. He loves
to be honored. He loves to be applauded. He
loves to be recognized. He loves for people to call him
somebody. Loving to have the preeminence.
And loving to have the preeminence, these men exalt themselves. They
promote themselves. Such men are crafty, self-serving
users of men. God save us from the influence
of such. Our Lord Jesus was not such a preacher, and those who
are his servants are not such. Now judge me, judge Brother Montgomery
sitting here, any other man, every other man in the light
of what I've just told you. Any preacher who exalts himself
is not God's servant. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Hold your hands here in John 7 and turn to 2 Corinthians 4. The apostle said in 1 Corinthians
4, he said, let a man so count us as ministers, stewards of
God. Count us nothing else but that,
just stewards of God, ministers of Christ. Here in 2 Corinthians
4, verse 7, he describes what it is for a man as God's steward,
as the steward in the household of faith to be the servant of
God. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, this service, this service, we hear fellows today
talk about their ministry. And if you pay attention to anything
they say, it's anything on this earth but a service, this service,
this service to God's glory, this service to your souls. We
have this ministry as we have received mercy. This is God's
gift to us, and it is God who sustains us in it. As we have
received mercy, we faint not. We continue in it, but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully. We don't deal with the things
of God or with the souls of men or with anything else in craftiness
and deceit and in cunning. But rather, with God's servants,
everything is open and above board, particularly our doctrine,
most distinctly our doctrine. Openness, we preach. Openness,
we declare. Openness is the way we proclaim
the gospel of God's grace. I get more than a little upset
when I meet with or listen to preachers talk, and I run across
some down in Steele who will have the audacity to say to me,
well, we talk about these things, but, you know, we can't preach
them. I had a preacher sitting across the table from me at a
Bible conference just a few years ago, and he said to me, I wish
I could preach like you do. I had to go. I wish I could preach
like you do. And he wasn't talking about the
manner of my preaching. He was talking about what I was preaching.
I said, what do you mean? He said, I wish I could preach
as you preach the doctrine of God. And I said, well, I'll tell
you why you don't. He said, why is that? And I pulled
out my wallet and laid it right in front of him. And he was shocked. He was shocked. And I had to do so because there
were lots of folks around. He was shocked. I said the only
reason you can't preach like this is because you're scared
of what it'll cost you. That's the only reason. God's servants
don't handle the Word of God deceitfully. Read on. We've renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience and the sight
of God. I'm here to declare God's truth to you and I recognize
that you may or may not see what's going on. You may or may not
understand the hypocrisy or the sincerity with which I seek to
serve your souls. God Almighty does. Commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God, verse 3. If our gospel
be hid, it's not because we hid it. It's hidden from them they're
lost, in whom the God of this world had blinded the minds of
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them.
For we preach not ourselves. We don't preach from ourselves,
we don't preach about ourselves, and we don't preach for ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. in ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake. Back in chapter 7 of John, that
man who's called of God to preach the gospel is deeply sensible
of his Savior's majesty and his own infirmity. He sees himself
as nothing but sin unworthiness and insufficiency. Do you remember
how Paul spoke when he said we preach and the gospel we preach
is to everybody who hears us all the time, either a saver
of life unto life or a saver of death unto death. He said,
oh, who's sufficient for these things? Who can bear this? Who's sufficient for these things? Then in the next chapter, he
says, our sufficiency is of God. And that's all. That's all. We
recognize that we are nothing. Any faithful man does. Paul said,
unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Oh, what an honor. He's done
less than the least of all the apostles. Yet that man who knows
that he is called of God faithfully serves him. And that man who
knows that he's not, that man who knows that he is not motivated
by Christ, that man who knows that he is not led by the spirit
of God, that man who knows really that he has no regard for the
glory of God tries to cover up his own defects
by exalting his name. by making men see what all he
does. Like the scribes and Pharisees
of old, he seeks the praise of men. God's servants don't. They exalt the triune God. They uplift the name of the crucified
Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. They
don't promote themselves. They don't do it. They don't
have to do it. And they don't want to do it.
All right, here's the third thing, verses 19 through 23. Any religion that destroys mercy, tenderness,
and compassion is a false religion. The scribes and Pharisees here
in John 7 these religious rulers of the Jews at the Feast of Jerusalem
were still stewing. They were still stewing over
the fact that back in Chapter 5, our Lord Jesus had healed
an impotent man on the Sabbath day. They couldn't let it go. They've been stewing about it
this whole time. All the time, whenever they get together, He
healed that man on Sabbath day. We've got to do something. He
healed that man on the Sabbath day. He dishonored our God and
dishonored our law, dishonored us, dishonored our religion,
desecrated our Sabbath. We got to do something. Those same men were very strict
about circumcising a child on the eighth day. If a child was
born today, Eight days later, by law, he must be circumcised. He's got to be cut. He's got
to be injured. And he's got to have a plaster
put on the injury so that he's taken care of. And they called
that worshiping God. But this man healed somebody
on the Sabbath day. Our Lord Jesus says in verse
23, I've made a man every whit hole
on the Sabbath day. In chapter 5, verse 16, our Lord
healed that man on the Sabbath day. This is what they were still
steering over. Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and
sought to slay him because he had done these things on the
Sabbath day. What's your point, Brother Don? I'm far more interested in care
than I am in a creed. I'm more concerned about helping
sinners than I am about disciplining sinners. I'm more concerned about
compassion than I am about confessions. I'm more interested in knowing
and worshiping the Lord Jesus than I am in the opinions people
have of how we go about doing it. Are you suggesting, Don,
that our doctrine is meaningless? You know better. But I'm telling
you, you can have doctrine precise and ordinances well-ordered and
religion practiced with great discipline and care and have
no knowledge of God Almighty. Any religion that destroys compassion,
mercy, and tenderness is false religion. Some years ago, Fellow
I went to school with, reformed Baptist fellow, had written me
several letters and had some correspondence. He was concerned
that I didn't properly exercise discipline in the church family.
And I told him I was far more interested in getting folks in
the kingdom of God than I was getting them out. But that didn't
satisfy him and they wanted to fuss then about communion, strict
closed communion. He said, aren't you afraid, Don,
of giving the bread and wine to someone who's unworthy? And I said, Randy, I would rather
set the table before a thousand folks who don't know God than
deprive one poor soul who does from having it. It's not my business. It's not my business to guard
the things of God. It's my business to serve the
people of God. God guards his things very well.
I helped a friend in North Carolina years ago organize a congregation. I was still in school, preached
for him a lot. And they got done organizing
the thing. And before they before they finally finished, They had
a church covenant and creed and rules and regulations almost
as thick as the Bible. When the pastor left, they called
another pastor and his family came down and they wanted to
join the church, his mother and dad. They said, well, okay, but
you'll have to let us watch you for six months first. So they watched him for six months. And then the fellas finally came
to him, Merlin said, well, y'all can come in church now. We've
been watching. Everything's all right. They said, we'll watch
you for six months now. What foolishness. Here's the
fourth thing. Our judgment concerning other
people and their actions. Should never be rash and hasty. but cautious and righteous. Verse 24. Our Lord says to these
fellows who are upset with him because he healed a man on the
Sabbath day, judge not according to the appearance, but judge
righteous judgment, that is, judge rightly. The wise man says it is not good
to have respect to persons in judgment. Judge righteously between
every man and his brother. Ye shall not have respect of
persons in judgment. James puts it this way. My brethren
have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
with respect to persons. That is, don't judge anyone the
person, his character, his faith, or his actions by what you observe
instantly, rationally, without caution. Don't do it. Don't do
it. We're all far too quick to censure
others. The eye of man seeing a little
boy circumcised on the Sabbath day. Man. Man sees that, he says,
you ought not do that. Look at the efforts involved
in that. Look at the pain inflicted on that boy. You ought not to
do that on a Sabbath day. This is a day of rest. But it
wasn't wrong to do it because God in his law required it. And to judge it just on the observance
of things, you'd say that's evil. In the same way exactly our Lord
says, you see me heal this man on the Sabbath day, and it may
be that you don't understand what's going on. It may be that
your observance is altogether outward. Don't judge rashly. Don't judge by outward appearance,
but judge righteously. What do you say, Brother Don? We ought always to seek to judge
things rightly. And these things I know are right.
Judge the actions of others with the greatest possible lenience. God teach me to practice what
I just said. Judge the actions of others with
the greatest possible lenience. Be easy on each other. Just be
easy on each other. Brother Bobby comes in here all
the time smiling, beaming from ear to ear. Got another one,
Brother Kidby. Every time he comes in, just, is this another
perfect day in Kentucky? Oh, that's so good. That's so
good. And if you see one of them acting
otherwise, oh, that's not Bobby. That's not Alan Dahl. He didn't
mean that way looked. He didn't mean that way looked.
That's not him. That's not him. So I just can't
do that. You do it with your husband and
wife or you wouldn't live together. You wouldn't live together very
long. Be lenient. Be lenient. Well, that's just
not my nature. Okay. Be severe on yourself. You want to be severe? Try it
on yourself for a while. Our Lord said, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye. Then shalt thou see clearly to
cast the boat out of thy brother's eye. And I'll stop there. What decisive doctrine. God teach
us to be merciful for Christ's sake. Amen.