The Rejecting Christ

I'm going to read for you a passage
of scripture found in the book of John, chapter 2, verse 23. If you have your Bible, I'd like
for you to follow along with me as I read. Now, I'm speaking
today on the subject, the rejecting Christ. The rejecting Christ. John, chapter 2, verse 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles which he did. Now listen to this verse,
but Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all
men, and needed not that any should testify of man, he knew
what was in man. Now one phrase that I want you
to particularly notice, verse 24, but Jesus did not commit
himself unto them. He knew what was in man. We are so accustomed to thinking
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the receiver of men that we naturally
shudder when we hear somebody talk about Christ the rejecter
of men. But my friends, in this day our
Lord is made to appear as a lovesick suitor who continually presses
his case while he's rejected with all manner of hatred. This
makes him appear cheap and unattractive. Preachers have begged the world
to do something for Jesus so long that Christ, to the average
person, appears to be a weak and powerless person, and the
gospel is the butt of humor and jokes in this generation. You
listen to the average evangelist invitation at the end of his
sermon, and it sounds like an auction sale. Listen to them.
They say, who will take Jesus on this verse? Now, we're going
to sing one more verse. They've already sung a dozen
verses. We're going to sing one more
verse. Won't somebody on this verse accept Jesus as their Savior? Who will let God save him today?
And from these invitations, we get the idea that God is desperately
in need of us, and that God Almighty is desperately trying to save
men, even on their terms. But my friend, our Lord is not
a beggar. He's the King. Our theme song
tells us that. How great thou art, my Lord and
Savior, how great thou art. Christ is not a beggar. Christ
is a king in his offices. He's prophet to reveal God, he's
priest to offer sacrifice for our sins, and he's king to reign
over us. He said himself to his disciples
before he ascended back to heaven, all authority is given unto me
in heaven and earth. All power, all authority is given
unto me. Our Lord stood before Pilate
That day he was on trial before he went to the cross of Calvary.
And Pilate had asked him several questions, and the master answered
not a word. And finally Pilate, in exasperation,
looked at him and said, Answerest thou not me, knowing that I have
the power to crucify you or release you? And our Lord did reply to
that. He said, Pilate, thou couldest
have no power over me at all. except it were given thee from
above. And then on that Calvary road,
when he was bearing his cross, going to the Golgotha mountain
where he was crucified, the scripture says in Luke chapter 23, that
many women followed him, weeping and lamenting. And Christ on
the road to Calvary, between Pilate's hall and that awful
mountain of suffering, as those women followed and wept and lamented
and mourned. Our Lord stopped, and he turned
to those women, and this is what he said, Weep not for me. Weep not for me. Weep for yourselves
and for your children. If you're going to shed any tears,
don't shed them over Christ. He is not the weak, frustrated,
defeated. disillusioned, disappointed,
reformer he's made out to be. He's a king. Now, he saves men,
but not on their terms. He saves men on his terms. Our
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world in human flesh, that's
so. He came here as our representative before the law of God, that's
so. Our Lord came here in the flesh and went to the cross of
Calvary, and there he satisfied in his death. the justice and
righteousness of the Heavenly Father. He obeyed the law perfectly,
imputing unto his people a perfect righteousness with which the
Father is well pleased. He went to the cross of Calvary,
and there he died, giving himself a ransom for many. And there
is a free and full and sincere invitation to all who will believe
on him, to all who will receive to all who are in need to come
to him, to all who are guilty sinners to receive him, and thereby
receive salvation. Yes, sir, the Scripture says,
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The word of God plainly declares,
Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them as white as snow. Though they be red as crimson,
I'll make them as white as wool. The Scripture says, out of the
mouth of our Lord, coming to me, all ye who labor and are
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Christ receiveth sinful
men, but not on their terms, on his terms. And I see that
in the word of God. There is a matchless dignity
in the operation of his grace. And it's seen in God's word.
It's seen in these cases of people who did come to him while he
was here on this earth. Now let me give you a few. First
of all, our Lord rejected some people he received and some he
rejected. I read about it right here. Many
believed on him, but he did not commit himself to them. He knew
what was in them. He knew what was in man. He needed
not that anyone should tell him what their motive was. He knew
their motive. He knew it before they ever spoke,
and therefore he rejected them. He didn't commit himself to them.
Now, our Lord rejected those who approached him on the wrong
grounds. Now you stay with me now and
listen carefully. Our Lord rejected and refused
to receive those who came to him on the wrong grounds. Now let me give you some examples
of those. First of all, in John chapter
3, verses 1 through 6, there was a man named Nicodemus who
came to Christ on the grounds of his religion. Nicodemus was
a ruler of the Jews. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Nicodemus
was a student of the scriptures. Nicodemus was an orthodox theologian. And Nicodemus thought that he
would be accepted by God on the grounds of his religion, on the
grounds of his orthodoxy. But our Lord plainly declares
unto him, Nicodemus, a man's not saved because he's a preacher.
A man's not redeemed because he's religious. A man's not saved
because he's a student of the scriptures. A man is not accepted
by God because he's orthodox. He must be born again. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, whether it's religious flesh or otherwise, it's still
flesh. And marvel not that I say unto
thee, you must be born again. Here was a deeply religious,
orthodox, fundamental Pharisee. who came to our Lord and expected
to be accepted and received on the grounds of his religion and
his orthodoxy. And Christ our Lord shut him
up to this, the new birth, regeneration, the work of the Holy Spirit in
bringing a sinner to the real life of God. And then over in
Mark chapter 10, verses 17 through 22, there was a young man who
came to Christ. This young man approached our
Lord on the grounds of his morality. He came to the master and he
said, good master. And our Lord just stopped him
right there. He said, why do you call me good? If I'm not
God, I'm not good. There's none good but God. That's
the first thing the Lord was saying to him. He came there
believing he was a good man. He came there believing he was
a moral man. He came there believing that
he could be accepted by God on the basis of his morality. He
said, what good thing can I do to inherit eternal life? And
Christ, first of all, shuts him up to the fact there is none
good, no not one. There is none that seeketh after
God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All
we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. Now that's the condition of sinners.
But he went on, he said, Master, good Master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? And our Lord was going to further
show him his guilt, his sin. He said, keep the commandments. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt
not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear
false. Oh, he said, I've kept all these from the time I was
a boy, from my youth up. I've obeyed all these laws, these
commandments. And our master shuts his mouth,
he said, all right, go sell what you have, and give it to the
poor, and take up your cross and follow me. And the young
man was sad because he had great possessions. But the Lord wasn't
condemning his possessions, he was condemning his self-righteousness
and his greed. He was showing the young man
that he didn't love his neighbor as himself. And the whole law
is based on these two. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. And this
young man, when the Lord showed him his sin and showed him his
guilt, he was not willing to come on those terms. He wanted
to come on the grounds of his morality. And Christ rejected
him. What's the rejecting Christ?
He rejects those who come to him on the basis of religion
or on the grounds of morality. Now, here's another group of
people. In John 8, verse 39, these people came to him and
they said, Now, we have Abraham as our father, we have Moses
and the prophets. You see, we are Jews, and we
have this religious heritage. These people approached him on
the grounds of their denominational heritage. Why, they said, we
are Jews, we're Abraham's seed. Why, we have Moses and the prophets,
and they were the descendants of Abraham. They were telling
the truth. These people had a rich religious background. These people
had in their background the prophets. They had Moses and Abraham and
David and Jacob and Isaac and all these great men. But our
denominational heritage will never give us an entrance into
the presence of Almighty God. We're not accepted because of
what we are, or what we do, or who we spring from. It's on the
basis of what Christ has done for us. Paul said, they are not
of the circumcision who have the flesh cutting, they are of
the circumcision which have the heart cutting. And then in Luke
chapter 9, here was another young man that came to the Lord. And
this young man was willing to follow Christ someday. He said, good master, I'll follow
you. I intend to follow you, but not
now. You see, my father lives at home,
and he's an old man. And it's my responsibility to
take care of my father. Now, I'm going to follow you
someday, Lord, but not now. Suffer me first to go home and
wait till my father dies, And after my father dies, I'll follow
you." The Lord Jesus Christ looked at him and said, let the dead
bury their dead. You come right now, take up your
cross and follow me. This young man had other things
that were more important to him, and so he would not come to Christ
right then. There are people today who are
willing some day to be saved, but like this young man, They
are rejected because they come to the Lord on the wrong ground,
with the ground of promise. Promise. I promise someday I'm
going to do this. I promise someday I'm going to
do that. Let me tell you something. The
church today does what the church's master would never do. The preachers
today do what their master would never do. They make an effort
to make room in the church for anybody on any terms. You know
that's so, and I know that's so. But the master of the house,
the master of the church, rejected men on these false terms of religion,
of morality, of denominational heritage, and of someday promises. Christ turned them away. That's
the rejecting Christ. He refused those who came to
him on the wrong ground. Now watch secondly. You stay
with me and listen carefully. Our Lord rejected those who would
exploit him. Now I'm going to say something
here that may hurt your feelings, but I want you to listen to me.
It's the truth. How many preachers have you heard
promise people that God will bless them materially if they
tithe? How many preachers have you heard
from the poor television, the radio, promised people that if
you'll send one-tenth of your income, if you'll send an offering,
if you'll send a tithe, God will bless you materially and God
will bless you physically. My dear friends, let me tell
you something. True believers will give whether
they prosper or whether they do not prosper. They are not
believing on Christ, they are not receiving Christ, They're
not professing Christ, they're not confessing Christ on the
basis of what he'll do for them physically or materially. They
believe on him, though he slay them. They believe on him, though
they live in poverty. They believe on him, though they
have nothing of this world's good. And you're not going to
drive a bargain with God Almighty. You're not going to say, Lord,
I'll do this if you do this. Right here, I'm going to give
you some examples of some people who tried that, and Christ rejected
them. He rebuked them. How many preachers
have you heard promise people that God will give them good
health and healing in return for service, in return for faith? My friends, this is just not
so. It's just not so. Job said, as
he sat on the ash heap, broke out with boils all over, All
of his wealth gone, his family dead, everything swept away,
his friends turned against him, and he cried out, though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. You know, our Lord received a
message one day. It came from the little town
of Bethany. There was a man down there whom he loved, named Lazarus,
whose sisters were Mary and Martha. And a messenger came to him one
day and said, He whom thou lovest is sick. And that might be said
of you, too, and of me someday. The Lord loves you in Christ. And God loves you like he loved
Lazarus. But that won't keep you from
getting sick. I'm telling you this, if you'll go back and look
over church history, David Brainerd, one of the greatest missionaries
this American continent has ever listened to, died when he was
29 years old of TB. and he had it for years before
he ever died. He used to ride for miles up
in Pennsylvania and New York on a horse until he nearly passed
out, and spit up blood preaching to those Indians. He was a sick
man, but God loved him. Robert Murray McShane, one of
Scotland's greatest preachers, died when he was thirty years
old. The man who wrote Rock of Ages, Augustus Toplady, died
when he was only thirty-five years of Charles Sturgeon, the
greatest preacher London ever produced, he preached to more
people than any preacher London ever produced, died when he was
58 years of age and he was sick for 30 years of his life. He
spent months out of his pulpit because of illness. And so for
a preacher to stand and tell you, if you believe on Christ,
I guarantee you God will give you good health and healing,
he's not telling you the truth. You're not going to exploit the
Lord. He'll reject you coming to him on those terms. Now, Lord,
if you'll heal me, I'll serve you. And Lord, if you'll bless
me financially, I'll tithe. And Lord, if you'll save me,
I'll serve you, and so forth. In Luke 10, there was a woman
who came to Christ. Her name was Martha. Christ loved
her. But she came to him one day,
and her sister Mary was sitting at Christ's feet. And she said,
Lord, I'm in here in the kitchen, fixing supper, washing dishes. doing all these things, serving
you and these disciples, and Mary sits there at your feet
and does nothing. Make her get up and come help
me." This woman was trying to get Christ to settle her domestic
affairs, and you know what he did? He rebuked her. He said,
Martha, Martha, you're cumbered about with much care. Mary had
chosen the good thing. You're headed in the wrong direction,
but this is the best thing, to sit at my feet and listen to
me. Man's life is more than meat
and drink and bread. And then in Luke chapter 12,
there was a man who came to Christ and said, Master, my father died
and left a lot of money, and my brother's got it all, my older
brother. I want you to settle these economic
problems for me, and I want you to make my brother share the
inheritance with me. And Christ reduced him. This
man was exploiting the Master. He wanted Christ to settle his
domestic affairs, and Christ said, a man's life consisteth
more than the things that he possesses. And then in John chapter
8, these religious Pharisees, they were exploiting Christ.
They wanted him to settle their moral questions and their moral
rules of conduct for other people, and they brought him a woman
found in adultery. They said, Lord, we found her
under the act of adultery, and they cast her at his feet. And
they said, now the Lord Moses says, stone her, what do you
say? Let's have a discipline committee meeting here and decide
what we're going to do with this woman. You know who got rebuked?
It wasn't the woman. It was the folks that brought
her to him. Our Lord will not be exploited. And then in Luke
chapter 20, another group tried to get him to settle their political
issues. They came to him and they said,
now, you think a Christian ought to pay taxes? You think it's
lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar? And our Lord Jesus Christ
refused to be exploited. He said, let me see a penny.
They showed him a penny. He said, whose picture's on there?
They said Caesar. He gave it back to him and said,
you pay Caesar what he's due and you pay God what he's due.
People who try to exploit the Lord. I saw many of them in the
Navy during the war. Marines and Army soldiers and
Navy men who tried to drive a bargain with God. Now, God, if you get
me out of this foxhole, I'll serve you. If you get me back
home safely with my family, I'll serve you. Lord, if you do this,
if you do that, Christ will not be exploited. You come to him
empty-handed, or you don't come at all. And then I'll tell you
something else here in John chapter 2. These people followed him
because of outward miracles. Now, I'm going to hit where we're
living right now. Ninety percent of the religious
hucksters in the nation today are making a tremendous amount
of money playing on this theme right here, the miracle of healing. Now these people here in John
chapter 2, it says they believed on him because of the miracles
which he did. They saw the blind see and the
lame walk. We're not seeing that. I don't
see any blind men receiving sight. I don't see any folks without
any arms blowing new ones. I don't see folks that hadn't
walked from their Infancy, walking, I don't see the dead raised.
What they're doing is mind over matter, healing diseases that
can't be seen or can be verified. But these people saw some real
miracles. Christ healed the sick. Christ
made the lame to walk. Christ made the blind to see.
Christ raised the dead. And when they saw these miracles,
they believed on him. But listen to the next verse.
He did not commit himself to them. He knew that these people
were only following him because of these miracles. And when the
miracles stopped, they had stopped. And their faith was not heart
faith, it was a false interest created by these so-called signs
that they had seen. And you find me a man whose faith
in Christ is based on a miracle of healing, and I'll find you
a man that does not know the Lord. Our faith is based on his
sacrifice and his blood and his word. And if he never shows a
sign and if he never works a miracle, we still believe on it. And then
I'll tell you something else. There were some folks in John
6. He said, you followed me because you ate the loaves and were filled.
These people were following him because they got their stomachs
full. If we have this man as our king, we won't have any more
depressions, we won't have any hospitals, we won't have any
cemeteries, let's make him king. And Christ refused them, he rebuked
them, he rejected them. Now in the next two or three
minutes, I want to show you those whom he received. He rejected
those who came to him on the wrong grounds, the grounds of
religion, morality, and the grounds of denominational heritage and
the ground of promises. He rejected those who would exploit
him and drive a bargain with him. He rejected those who followed
him because they wanted to see some healing, they wanted to
see some miracles and some signs, and they wanted some food from
his hand. Who did he receive? In Luke 18,
there was a publican in the temple who would not so much as lift
his eyes to But he smote on his breast and he said, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
All whom he received have two things in common. Number one,
they recognize their need, their sinnerhood, their guilt. Number
two, they recognize his lordship. Lord, be merciful to me. Peter, when he was sinking beneath
the waves, cried, Lord, save me or I perish." In Matthew chapter
8, a leper came and fell at his feet and worshiped him, and said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The Lordship of Christ
to a needy sinner. The Syrophoenician woman came
and fell at his feet and cried, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy on me. The thief
on the cross. There were two thieves, and both
of them cast the same in his teeth, but finally one of them
stopped, and he said to the other, Don't you fear God? He recognized
the Lordship of Christ. Seeing you're in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly, he recognized his condition, his condemnation,
and he recognized he deserved it. And he turned to the Master,
and he said, Lord, you're not going to stay dead, you're coming
into a kingdom. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom.' And the Master said, Today thou shalt be with
me in paradise." The publican went home justified. The Syrophoenician
woman went home blessed. The leper went home healed. The
thief on the cross went to paradise with the Lord. But these were
empty-handed sinners. These were beggars. These were
broken sinners. These were guilty sinners. Christ
received them. Christ receiveth sinful men. That's what the scripture says.
Christ died for the ungodly. Paul said this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. And if you come to him on the
grounds of your religion, your fundamental orthodoxy, your morality,
looking for signs and miracles and wonders, you'll be turned
away. How can you come so as to be received? come as a needy
sinner and recognize his Lordship and believe on him. These messages
that I preach each Lord's Day on this television station will
be made available on cassette recordings. If you would like
to have them, we don't have the messages in print, but we have
them on cassette tapes. If you want one, write to us. The address will be given to
you by the announcer. May God bless you, everyone.

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