The more I get to know your pastor,
the more I love and appreciate him, thank the Lord for him.
I appreciate him asking me to come. It's my privilege and honor
to do so. And you need to know that the
coffees represent all of you very well with their hospitality
and generosity and just their genuine Christian care of us
while we're here. You do have to keep needles away
from Becca. Most of you may know that by
now. She checked all of our blood sugar this morning, which is
all fine and well, but she just enjoys it a little too much.
She greeted us with a needle. John chapter eight, we'll kind
of jump into the middle of a of a passage here, the Lord is dealing
with a group of people, the Jews, called the Jews. In this chapter,
the religious Jews, the Pharisees and Sadducees, we know who they
are. And in John chapter 8 and verse 21, we'll start there,
but we'll refer to several passages in the book of John. But he said
in verse 21, then said Jesus again unto them. Now he had spoken
to them quite a bit here. He said, I go my way. Aren't you glad the Lord Jesus
Christ went his way? They tried to constrain him and
hinder him, tried to kill him. But he said, I go my way. He
always does. And I'm grateful for that because
his way is my salvation. His way is the way of grace for
his people. And things didn't go their way,
and I'm grateful for that. And he said, You shall seek me
and shall die in your sins. Can you imagine the Son of God
saying that to you? You are going to die in your
sins. Where I go, you cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill
himself, because he saith, Whither I go ye cannot come? And he said
unto them, You are from beneath, aren't we? We prove it every time we open
our mouths. Every time we do anything, we prove it. We're
from beneath. I'm from above. You are of this world. I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I
am, you shall die in your sins." You notice the word he is in
italics. That means it's not there in the original. It's provided. It's not necessary here. If you
believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. Then said they
unto him, Who are you? Who are you? And Jesus saith
unto them, even the same that I said unto you from the beginning."
The Apostle Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 1, 23, is beautiful
and clear. He said, we preach Christ crucified. He said to them in chapter 2,
I determined when I came to you, I determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And we know that. We've heard that and rejoice
in that clear profession, that clear claim. But the greatest
example of that truth, as in all things, is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. Christ, they asked, who are you? And he said, I'm the same one
I said I was from the start. He declared himself to them.
And he did it over and over again. From the beginning, he said,
from the beginning of his ministry. He declared himself. He told
them, in chapter 5, you'll read that they tried to kill him.
Why? Because he said he was the son of God, making himself equal
with God. But here they said, who are you? They said, Moses gave us bread
in the wilderness. What miracle will you show? What
sign do you give to us? And he said, Moses didn't give
you that bread. My Father gave you that bread,
and I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Don't
seek the bread. Don't seek the earthly. Don't seek that which goes in
the mouth and goes away and doesn't do your soul. Seek that bread,
that spiritual bread that results in everlasting life that I'll
give to you." And then he said to them plainly, I am that bread.
And yet here they say, who are you? Who are you? He said, I am the light of the
world. The world lies in darkness, but I am the light of the world.
He's told them, he preached to them. Let me say it as clearly
as I can. Christ preached Christ. And he
did it to them. He did that from the beginning.
He said, I'm who I said I was from the start. And yet they
said, who are you? In the next chapter, John chapter
9, we read of the blind man that we all are familiar with. Blind
from his birth, it says in the beginning that Jesus passed by
and saw a man that was blind. That's my testimony, too. We couldn't see him. We couldn't
see anything except a man be born again. He cannot see. But
Jesus saw him and had compassion, had mercy on him, healed him.
And you recall in that passage there at the end of that chapter,
the Pharisees had a lot of different questions for him. You know,
is he a sinner? Who did this for you? And they
asked him all kinds of things and grilled him. And they didn't
like his answers. They kicked him out of their
fellowship. It says when they kicked him out, when they had
excommunicated him, the Lord Jesus Christ found him and had
one question for him. Do you believe? on the Son of
God. And do you know how he responded
to that? Just like these Jews did. Same
question. He said, Who are you? Who is
he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And, of course, the Lord
answered him, Thou hast both seen him. And we know why he
answered that way. Not long ago, this man hadn't
seen anything. He was blind from his birth.
But the Lord said, you're looking at him, you're seeing him, and
it is he that speaketh with thee. And do you know what that man
did? He fell on his face and worshipped
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I believe. I believe.
And worshipped him. How many times did the Lord have
to tell that man who he was? You guessed it. But he spoke
to these And he told them over and over and over and over again,
I am, I am, I am, I am the light of the world. I am that bread
that came down from heaven. And yet they believe, now how
come? What's the difference? Why not? Well, the Lord answers
that in our text here. He said, I am from above, ye
are of this world. I am not of this world. unto
you that ye shall die in your sins. But for if ye believe not
that I am, ye shall die in your sins.' And then said they unto
him, Who are you? And Jesus saith unto them, Even
the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many
things to judge of you, but he that sent me is true. There will
be judgment, but right now,' he said, there's gospel. There's
gospel. I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of him, what the Father, the message the Father
gave him. They understood not that he spake to them of the
Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up
the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am, and that I do
nothing of myself. But as my Father hath taught
me, I speak these things. And he that hath sent me is with
me. The Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those
things that please Him." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't
mysterious in His proclamation to them of who He was. The Lord
Jesus Christ preached Christ to these Jews. But they could
not hear Him. They could not believe. But this
blind man believed. What's the difference? Well,
look at verse 43. He said to them, these same folks,
why do you not understand my speech? How can I say this so
clearly, so plainly, declare who I am? And they even sought
to kill him because of who he said he was. Listen, God Almighty,
the Father, spoke from heaven and said, that's my son. And
they didn't believe. And they still said, who are
you? Why don't you understand my speech? even because ye cannot."
You cannot. You cannot. Does that sound familiar? Do you remember what Paul said
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2? And remember this now. The Lord
told these same folks in chapter 6, verse 44, no man can come
to me Except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day." If the
Father draws you again, he preached himself, didn't he? No man can
come unto me. He stood on that last great day
of the feast and said, if any man thirst, let him come to me. That's what I'm preaching. Are
you thirsty? Go to Christ. Christ preached
Christ. And his preachers preached Christ.
We preach Christ. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him." And what does that
say? If the Father draws you, if God Almighty does something
for you, he'll draw you to Christ. That's what he does. That's salvation. That's life. And he said, if
he does that, I'll raise him up. I'll raise that one up at
the last day. It won't be an effort. It won't
be that he kind of draws everybody a little bit and some respond
and some don't. He said, if he draws you, I'll raise you up.
I'll give you life. You'll be with me forever. And
so it's clear, isn't it? And then in chapter 5, a little
bit before that, John chapter 5, these same folks now. We're
right here in the book of John. He's talking to these same Jews. John 5 and verse 40, what did
he say? And you will not come to me. You search the Scriptures because
in them you think you have life. Their hope was in their knowledge
of the Scriptures. But he said, they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. That word will not in the original
language is interesting. It doesn't mean that you don't
have permission to come. It doesn't even mean here that
you're not able to come. What he said in John chapter
644 means you're not able. But you know what this means
here? You will not come to me. You don't have any desire to.
You don't want to. You have no will to come to me. All right, now I asked you if
that sounded familiar. These are the exact two reasons that
the Apostle Paul gives. for the blindness of natural
man in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. If you want to turn there,
you can. I'll read it to you. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 14, the apostle said, But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Now, we're asking the
question, why did this blind man, the Lord Jesus, answer this
question? And he told him, I'm the Son of God. Do you believe
on me? And he identified himself clearly, didn't he? Couldn't
be any doubt in this man's mind. Well, there couldn't in these
Jews' mind either, if they had ears to hear. Who are you? The same that I said unto you
from the beginning. I told you time and time and
time again, and there are those probably here this morning who
have heard the truth clearly, clearly preached time and time
And time again, there are those that I love very dearly that
have heard the truth preached time and time and time again. Why don't they hear? Why don't
they respond the way that blind man in John chapter 9 did? Well,
Paul said, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God for two reasons. First of all, their foolishness
to Him. That's what the Lord Jesus said to them in John chapter
5, verse 40. You will not come to me. You
don't have any desire. It's nonsense to you. You have
no desire, no need, no will to come to me. That's what part
of their foolishness is. It's ridiculous. The gospel is
foolish. It's nonsense. It's completely
discredited by them. And then, secondly, neither can
he know them. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me drawing. You don't have the ability,
you don't have the desire, and you don't have the ability by
nature, and neither does anybody, not myself or anybody else. No
man can, and so for those two reasons, these folks, he preached
himself to them. He declared himself. He called
them to himself. He exalted himself. He revealed
himself. Why don't you understand? And
then he answered the question, and you can't. You can't. He has revealed himself from
the beginning. Now, there's a little more to
that than just that he had been telling them from the beginning
them meeting him and his ministry on this earth. Turn to Exodus
chapter 3. The Lord Jesus Christ has been
declaring from the beginning, literally the beginning, since he ever revealed himself
to anybody, he's been declaring himself. He declared himself
in the garden when he slew those animals and covered the nakedness
of our father Adam. and our mother Eve. But in Exodus
3 verse 9, Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel
is coming to me. God heard the cry of his people.
Aren't you glad? That's us right there. If you
have the same faith that Abraham had, Paul said, you're sons of
Abraham. You're children of Israel. He
heard our cry. He said, I've seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, And
I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth
my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said
unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should
bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" And listen to
the Lord's answer here. This is interesting and instructive. Moses said, Who am I? And here's
the answer. Certainly I will be with thee.
You see that? Not, oh Moses, your speech impediment
is not as bad as you think it is. I'll tell you who you are,
Moses. You're the one that I'm with.
And that's who you want to hear, too. That's who you want to pay
attention to, is the one that the Lord is with. Isn't that
what Moses said later? He said, Lord, how will people
know us from all the other nations of the world? Is it not in this
that you're with us? What's different about this church?
Oh, well, they know some things that they don't know. That's
not it. I'm with you. There it is. That's
who you are. You're the one that the Lord
is with. And he said, this will be a token unto thee that I have
sent thee. I have sent thee. That's all
they need to know about you. That's all Pharaoh needs to know.
He doesn't need to know your qualifications, Moses, your resume. Don't bother. What he needs to
know is you're speaking for me. For me. When thou hast brought
forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this
mountain. Sounds like a foregone conclusion, doesn't it? Not if,
not, you know, if this works out. When this happens, when
my people are delivered, And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall
say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? In
effect, the same question is, Who are you? The same question. And he answered it exactly the
same way that he answered these Jews in John chapter 8. He said,
If you believe not that I am, you will die in your sins. And they said, Who are you? And
he said, I'm the one I said I was from the beginning. All right,
what shall I? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And
God said moreover unto Moses, Thou shalt say unto the children
of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. that sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and
this is my memorial unto all generations." And here stands
in John chapter 8 a generation of the Jews asking him, who are
you? And as he said to them, this
is my name and my memorial to all generations. And he answered
them the same way. If you don't believe that I am,
you'll die in your sin. I'm who I said I was when I first
spoke. to my people, Israel. And he
still is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But let's look back at the first
verse that we read there. Then said Jesus again unto them,
verse 21, I go my way and you shall seek me and shall die in
your sins. Now, here are some Christ-seekers who will not find Him. He told
them flat out, you're not going to find Me. And where I go, you're
not coming. You can't do it. Does this sound like a contradiction
to you? Are you familiar with John chapter 7, verse 34, where
it says, Matthew chapter 7, Matthew 7, verse 6, the Lord
Jesus said, "...give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast you your pearls before swine, lest they trample
them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Ask. Do you see the context there?
The ones you preach to, the ones you speak to, the ones you give
the gospel to, this is who you're looking for, the ones that ask.
And he said to them, Ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek,
and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. It shall, in no uncertain term,
it shall. For every one that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened." When you come to something like this in the scriptures
that seems to be a contradiction, and that's the key word, seems
to be. It seems to be to us because we don't know anything. Don't
shy away from it. Don't forget about it. Don't
hide from it. Don't, you know, don't let it
frighten you. Find out. Find out why it's not
a contradiction, because it's not. There are no contradictions
in the Word of God. Find out why it's not, and truth
will be taught you. You'll end up rejoicing in Christ,
I guarantee you, if you search it out. In your mind, if God
is gracious, we don't understand anything, we don't get anything
without his grace. Without me, you can do nothing.
Without him, we know nothing. Without him, we are nothing.
But if he's pleased, truth will be more clearly defined if we
seek out the meaning in these so-called seeming contradictions. What do I mean by that? Well,
Matthew 7, where we read there, verse 7, is a wonderful promise,
isn't it? Seek and you'll find. You'll
find. But unless we look into this
John chapter 7, we might not understand that there's a way
of seeking Christ that results in finding. And there's a way
that does not. There's a way that does not.
And that's what I'd like to talk about for a little while this
morning. If we pursue this apparent contradiction,
then we will, if God is pleased, understand what true spiritual
seeking is. Seeking that results in finding. And then we'll have a better
understanding of Matthew 7-7, won't we? Seek and ye shall find.
We'll know even deeper what he said there by his grace. So let's look into it. What is
this? Well, there's another promise regarding seeking that we need
to look at. Look at Proverbs chapter 8. Turn
over there for a little while. Proverbs 8, 17, one verse. The
Lord Jesus said, I love them that love me. And those that
seek me early shall find me." Oh, well, maybe this is the key
then to seeking and finding if we seek Him early. What is an
early seeking? Does that mean get up early in
the morning and seek Him? Well, that would be a good thing
to do, wouldn't it? But that's not what it says here.
The word early here means diligently. It means earnestly seeking. And this is important. This is
important. A lackadaisical attitude toward the things of God is a
sure sign of spiritual death. Christ told the church in Revelation,
I would that you were hot or cold. Lukewarm, it makes him
sick. He said, I'll spew you out of
my mouth. It'd be better to be cold dead than warm dead. A lackadaisical,
a hit-and-miss, a, well, if I don't have anything better to do, I'll
worship the Lord Jesus. It's a sure sign of spiritual
death. Seeking him early is key now. You know what a believer will
do when he's disappointed in some way, or the flesh is somehow
discouraged, or something stands in the way of him worshiping
Christ or seeing Christ or enjoying the fellowship? You know what
a believer will do? He'll cry louder. That's what he did in
Luke 18, verse 35. Let me read you that. It came
to pass that as the Lord was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain
blind man sat by the wayside begging. And hearing the multitude
pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried. The Lord's near. The Lord said, if we gather together,
he'll meet with us. He cried, saying, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. What is a sinner grateful? Mercy. Still crying for mercy, aren't
we? And they which went before rebuked him that he should hold
his peace. Don't bother him. Don't bother
us. You're troubling us. But what did he do? He cried
so much, the more. He sought the Lord early. Early. Oh, he cried so much the
more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. You know why? Because
he needed mercy. He had to have mercy. Believers
have this same attitude. All believers seek early. There
are hindrances to attending the worship of Christ. A believer
will be all the more determined to worship him by his grace.
There are reasons to believe that our prayers may not be answered. Oh, I could never expect that
from God. But what do we do? Just pray
more for it. Pray the harder for it. Be importunate in our
prayers. Pray the more earnestly. The
more obstructions we find between ourselves and Christ and the
discovery of and the enjoyment of his fellowship and worship,
the more we see our need of him. The more we see, Matthew 11,
12, you're probably familiar with this verse. From the days
of John the Baptist until now, the Lord Jesus Christ said, the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. How do you take heaven by force? Well, I think that has something
to do with what Jacob did when he had wrestled all night with
the Lord. The Lord Jesus wrestled with Jacob. all night long, not
because Jacob was strong and was able to endure through the
night. When the Lord got ready, he touched him and it was over.
We know that. But the Lord does that, doesn't
he? He wrestles and bears with us. He told Saul, it's hard for
you to kick against the goads. And so the Lord Jesus wrestled
all night with Jacob, and as the dawn approached, the Lord
said, Jacob, let me go. The dawn is approaching, let
me go. And Jacob said to the Lord, I will not. I will not. Well, that's that's
awful bold, isn't it, to say to the Lord of glory, what's
he going to do, kill you? You're already dead unless he
blesses you. You've got to have his blessing,
got to have it. And Jacob did, and he said, I
won't let you go unless you bless me. That's seeking the Lord early
right there. That's what it means to seek
him early. That's what it means to take
heaven by force. Not presumptuously. Not that,
you know, busting in there like the Pharisees saying, I deserve
to be here. Look what I've done. That's not taking it by force.
That's taking it as payment. That's taking it as reward for,
you know, service rendered. Look at what I have prophesied
in your name and done many wonderful works. No, you won't take it
that way. He said, depart from me to those who spoke such. You
workers of iniquity. But out of a sense of urgent,
violent need, the kingdom of heaven has taken my force. And every believer, every believer
seeks early. But that's not the answer to
our dilemma here. Listen to Proverbs 128. Then
shall they call upon me, the Lord said, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. Oh, what about that? It's the
same word. They'll seek me diligently, they'll
seek me earnestly, but they will not So seeking early is important,
it's vital. You won't find him without seeking
him early. I'll tell you that right now.
But you may seek him early and not find him. Does that make
sense? How is it that a sinner can diligently
and earnestly seek Now this is the God of all grace we're talking
about. He's not the Lord, the Jesus that we're accused of preaching,
you know, that carries a big stick with Him. And if somebody
comes to Him and He doesn't, you know, not particularly want
them to come to Him, He'll just, you know, beat them off and knock
them away. No. We're talking about the one that said, Oh,
if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me. If you seek Me, you'll
find Me, He promised. So how do you seek him diligently
and earnestly and not find? Well, the answer is in the context,
as it always is, of that verse there in Proverbs chapter 1 and
verse 28. If you back up to verse 20, let
me read it to you quickly. Proverbs 1 and verse 20. Wisdom
crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the
streets. She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings
of the gates. In the city she uttereth her
words, saying, How long? You simple ones, will you love
simplicity? There's part of the reason why
we can't hear because of the way the gospel addresses