John chapter 7. And let me read
the first few verses to you in this chapter. John chapter 7. If you want to use the Pew Bible,
you'll find it on page 1157. John's Gospel chapter 7. Verse
1. After these things, Jesus walked
in Galilee, where He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews
sought to kill Him. Jews' feast of tabernacles was
at hand. His brethren therefore said unto
him, Depart hence, and go up unto Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that
doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren
believe on him. Then Jesus said unto them, My
time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world
cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that
the works thereof are evil. Go ye up to this feast, I go
not up now, yet to this feast, for my time is not yet come. When he had said these words
unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But his brethren were
gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but
as it were in secret. The thought I wanted to leave
with you this evening is found here in verse 5. Neither did his brethren
believe on him. Unbelief in the family. Now this
is an awful charge, isn't it? To charge the Holy Spirit brought
against them. And we wonder who this is. There are several interpretations
of this and theories or whatever about who his brethren are. And
some would go as far as to say that maybe it's just his national
brethren. Paul said, you know, I have continuous
sorrow in my heart for my kinsmen, my brethren, according to the
flesh. All the seed of Abraham called themselves brethren. If
you belong to one tribe, You've called yourself brothers of all
the other tribes. That's one interpretation. Others
say, number two, that this could have been Joseph's children by
another marriage. Catholicism promotes a lot of
that. There's another one more popular interpretation of who
these brethren was. Some say it could have been his
cousins, Mary's sister or Joseph's sister. So they called them brethren. Sometimes when uncles had nephews
or cousins, they still called one another brethren. Abraham
referred to Lot as his brethren, didn't he? But he was his nephew.
Others say that this was actually Mary and Joseph's own children. It was Christ's brethren after
the flesh. Now, Catholicism doesn't like
that at all. You know, Catholicism has to
promote a Perpetual virgin. That's what they think of Mary,
that she is a perpetual virgin. She was born in innocence. She never knew a man before she
had Christ, and that's so. But they say after Christ she
remained a virgin. A perpetual virgin. The Scripture
never teaches that, does it? Listen to Matthew chapter 1.
Remember when the angel appeared to Joseph and said, Joseph, don't
be afraid to take Mary. to be your wife, because that
which is in her womb is of the Holy Ghost. And the Scripture
says this in the first chapter of Matthew, verse 24, Joseph
being raised from sleep, did as the angel bid him, and took
his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn
son, and named him Jesus. Now what does that word till
tell us? That tells us after she had Christ,
he knew her intimately. And I don't know for sure if
this was his cousins. The Bible doesn't say close enough
for us to definitely say, but I see no problem, brothers and
sisters, in saying this was his real brethren, according to the
flesh. I want you to look at Matthew's
Gospel, Chapter 13. I wonder sometime if a child
read this passage In Matthew chapter 13, here in verse 54,
if a child read this, seven or eight or ten years old, they
wouldn't come to this conclusion that these were Christ's real
brothers after the flesh. Look what he says in Matthew
chapter 13, and look in verse 54. And when he was coming to his
own country, he taught them in the synagogue insomuch that they
were astonished and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom and
these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?
And his brethren James and Joseph, Simon and Judas? And his sisters,
are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all
these things And they were offended in him, but Jesus said unto them,
A prophet is not without honor, save except in his own country
and in his own house." If you just read that, wouldn't you
come to the conclusion that this very well could be the literal
brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ? You could easily
do that, couldn't you? So I have no problem. If some
want to say it was his cousins, but you can't prove that. But
if others want to say it's his real brothers and sisters, that's
what I believe about that. That's what I think about that.
But look at three things anyway here in this passage that I just
read to you. I want you to look what a testimony
they gave to the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said,
is this not the carpenter's son? How did they know that? They
had watched him grow up, hadn't they? They said, we know his
family. We know all of his brothers.
We know all of his sisters. This man is very, very familiar
to us. Doesn't that give evidence and
testimony to his manhood? He was just like everybody else,
but all outward appearing. He had no halos about his head.
He grew up in a carpenter's shop. They were people that hired him
to do work for them. They looked at his work and they
said, man, that kid knows what he's about. He ate, he slept,
he drank, he worked, just like everybody else. They said, this
is just an ordinary man. And wasn't that him in his humanity? You'd have thought that about
him. Doesn't this tell us that even those his enemies? Those
that denied everything else about Him said, we know this much about
Him. He is a real person. And He is, isn't He? He took our humanity to Himself. And Brother Scott Richardson
used to say, it's as much a humanity sin accepted as you are and as
I am. 100% man as if he were not God. That's what they were testifying
to you. But notice the second thing that they give testimony
to. His divinity. Did you notice that? Look what
they said there in verse 54. In so much that they were astonished
and said, which hath this man this wisdom and these mighty
works? They had to acknowledge, yes,
he's a man, but look at these mighty works. When he gets up
to preach, it grips your heart. You can't get away from him.
You either love what he's saying or you hate him what he's saying.
But no man ever spake like this man. Where did he get these mighty
works? How can he speak to the dead
and raise them? How can he give legs to the man that was born
blind? To the born to cripplement, sight to the man that was born
blind? These mighty works. Even his enemies had to say that
to him. Boy, look at his humility and
his self-denial. He was 30 years old before he
ever did a miracle. The first miracles that he did
was turning the water to wine. Remember that? Can you imagine
being the son of God? having a burning heart to do
the will of your Father that he had at 12 years old, and then
denying himself and waiting all that time until he was 30 years
old? You talk about self-denial. You
talk about patience the Lord Jesus had. And why did he wait
for all these years? Why did he humble himself and
work in a carpenter's shop? Why was he there with his mom
and dad, rendering perfect obedience to them as his parents? because
his hour was not yet come. And he waited, didn't he? And
he waited. He waited. And the Lord Jesus says here
in verse 57, a prophet is not without honor except in his own
house. And I think that brings us to
my text. His brethren believed not on
him. He had no honor among some of his brethren in his own house. His own brethren dishonored Him. How did they do it? By not believing
on Him. If the Lord Jesus Christ was grieved with an unbelief
of other people, how much more His own brethren that did not
believe on Him. Have you got any brothers after
the flesh that don't believe? I have. Some of you have parents that
don't believe? Didn't believe? Children that don't believe? How do you feel about that? Does
that bother you? Sometime when I think about my
children, there's nobody in my family. There's nobody in my
immediate family, my children, my brothers and my sisters in
the flesh. I don't even know if I've got a cousin or a distant
cousin that believes the gospel. And after a while, that bothers
you, doesn't it? Do you ever speak to your children
and they won't listen to you? You talk to your brethren in
the flesh, and they won't believe what you tell them about Christ
and salvation by Him, about hell, about eternity. They won't believe
you. How does that make you feel?
After a while, that has a tendency to get to you, doesn't it? How did our Master feel about
that? I tell you, in all points, He's
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Neither did His brethren. believe on Him. And if we look
at this as His literal brethren and sisters that was raised up
with Him, then this is astounding. But what does that tell us? When
His closest of kin did not believe Him, what does that tell us?
That tells us first of all this, that flesh and blood has absolutely
nothing to do with saving faith in the heart. Here was Christ's closest kin,
and yet they didn't believe on him. If anybody had any outward
evidence that this man was who he says he was, it was his closest
kin. You knew they had heard about
his virgin birth. There's no way that his brother
could not have heard about the occasion of his birth, the angels
coming down and singing, welcoming the Son of God to this earth.
They had to hear about Anna and Simon in the temple, said, this
is your salvation. They were told that. They watched
this man grow up, their brother. They knew what a holy child he
was. He wasn't like them. And then when he got of age,
30, and he began to preach and speak and do all these miracles,
and yet in spite of all of this outward evidence that they had
to see with their own eyes, they did not believe it. And what
does that tell us, brothers and sisters? That outward evidence
alone will not bring saving faith in the heart. It must go deeper
than that. Men can have all kinds of outward
evidence now. We got Bibles, haven't we? We hear people talking about
Jesus Christ all the time. We hear them talking about His
miracles and His virgin birth and His resurrection. People
everywhere are talking about Christ. But just talking about
Him and reading about Him will not produce saving faith in the
heart. No outward evidence will do it. God uses outward evidence. But I am telling you, if He does
not take it and apply it to the heart, there is no faith produced. Faith in the heart is a mighty
work of God Himself. He must produce it. He must increase
it. And He must sustain it. And this
shows us right here with His brother that faith is not wrought
by the means of flesh and blood. It has absolutely nothing to
do with saving faith in the heart. I want you to turn over to just
a couple of Scriptures. Turn over to John chapter 6 with
me right quickly. And look in verse 29. We talk sometimes about faith
and how miraculous it is and the mighty working of its power,
but sometimes we don't understand even what we say. You know, when
the Lord was created to earth, nothing there, everything was
void, there was nothing but darkness on the face of the deep. Everything
had to be created by the Word of His power. Everything that
was created was created out of nothing. You know it's the same
way with faith. Just as sure as the old creation
lay void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, our hearts
are the same way. You say, why wouldn't anybody
receive this outward evidence? Why didn't Christ's brethren
receive it? I'll tell you where the trouble
is. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. His brethren had wicked hearts,
and outward evidence will not produce inward saving faith.
It has to come the same way it came upon the old creation. God
has to speak. He has to do a work of grace
in the heart and produce faith. It's a work of God, is it not?
He uses outward means. We know that. He uses just what
I'm doing this evening. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. But listen, a man can
sit under the preaching. They sit under Christ's preaching.
But it must go farther than that. God Himself must speak to the
heart. He must bring faith to the heart.
He must begin it, produce it there in the heart. And that's
what He tells us here in John chapter 6. And look in verse
29. And Jesus said unto them, This
is the work of God. This is God's work, that you
believe on Him whom He hath sent. We believe, but how do we believe? God's work, isn't it? God's work. Let me show you one
more passage, a marvelous passage in Ephesians chapter 1. I've
often read this to you and quoted it to you, but look here about
faith. Faith is a miraculous thing. It's a miracle. when the
Lord Jesus Christ was laying lifeless in that grave. We know
there is a sense in which He raised Himself. Brother Wayne
taught us on that in Romans chapter 1. It shows that He was indeed
the Son of God. No man takes my life from me.
I lay it down on myself and I take it up of myself. He had the power
to do that. In another sense, it said the
Father raised Him by His own power. Now what kind of power
did it take to raise a dead man from the grave? What kind of
power does that take? It takes the same power to bring
faith to your heart as it did to raise Christ from the dead.
It goes beyond flesh and blood, doesn't it? Look what he said
in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul was praying for them in
verse 19. That they might know the exceeding greatness of His
power to usward who believe. How do we believe? According
to the working of His mighty power which he wrought in Christ,
when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places." See, we're not born with saving
faith. We can't produce saving faith.
We only have faith when it's granted us by His grace to believe,
but listen, not just given to us, but worked in us. That's
why this faith, if it's real, if God works it in, you'll never
lose it. It'll never be overcome by this
world or by the God of this world. Because the same God who began
to work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
But it has nothing to do. Why didn't his brother believe
on him? They had all this evidence, didn't they? But it was all outward. It's what they saw with the natural
eye. It's what they heard with the ear. There takes an inward
working of grace in the heart to believe. That's why when Newton
said how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. It's a miracle, isn't it? Great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
What a miracle that is. And believed on in the world. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. Sometimes I hear these fundamentalist
preachers You'll see somebody interviewing one of the pastors
and they'll ask them a question. Are your children saved? And
they almost act surprised that you would ask them that. How
many children have you got? I've got five. Are they saved?
Well, of course. Of course. Sally was saved when
she was three. Tommy when he was five. Margaret
when she was seven. And Timmy when he was eight.
And we baptized all of them. All of them are saved. I think
sometimes it's required of some of these pastors who have children
that all of them have to be saved. Well, I hope they are. But I
tell you, brothers and sisters, if they are, it had nothing to
do with Him. There was a mighty work of God's
grace that took place in the heart, bringing faith. That's
what it takes to bring faith. Even though outward miracles
that Christ did in His preaching will not do it apart from the
Holy Spirit working it in the heart. What can we conclude from this?
Well, this, and I'll close. It's better to be in the spiritual
family of Christ than to be in His natural family. I'd much
rather be in his spiritual family than to be in his natural family.
There was a woman that came up to the Lord Jesus one time, and
she was the first Catholic that we find in the Scripture. Catholicism
goes all the way back to the Bible. And here's what this woman
said. Blessed be the womb that bare
thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. That's a Catholic,
ain't it? Blessed be the Virgin Mary. That's
what they were saying. And what did the Master say?
Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it. Blessed are they that have heard
in their hearts. And it's come with power and
bringing faith in myself. That's the blessed man. The Lord
Jesus had a few brethren after the flesh. And you know something? That would eliminate me and you,
wouldn't it? He only had a few brethren. But he has an untold number of
spiritual brothers and spiritual sisters. He stood up one day
when they came in and said, your brother, your mother is seeking
after you. And he stretched out his hands
over the crowd and he said, who is my brother? Who are they? And oh, I can almost imagine
Mary Magdalene sitting down there, out of whom he cast seven devils.
And he said, there's my sister. Over here is that old Gadarean
maniac that he clothed and cast the devils. He said, there's
my brother. There's old blind Barnabas. There's another one
of my brethren. They that know the will of my
Father and do it. And what is that? Believing on
Him whom He has sent. These are my brethren and these
are my sisters. Behold, I and the children which
God hath given me." You must rather be one of his spiritual
brother than his natural brother. All earthly relationships will
be dissolved. In heaven there will be no husbands
and no wives. There will be no children, kinfolks,
nationalities, but this spiritual relationship, this unity, this
oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ will never be dissolved. Listen, brothers and sisters,
there is a spiritual house that will never be taken down. There is a wife, a spiritual
wife, that will abide with her husband forever. And throughout eternal ages,
the Lord Jesus will look out over the redeemed ones, and He
will always say, There's my brethren. Behold, I am the children which
God hath given me. Aren't you glad He's worked faith
in your heart? Aren't you glad you believe Him? Oh, thank God
for grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.