Turning our Bibles tonight to
John chapter 10. We're going to finish this chapter
tonight, John chapter 10, looking at verses 31 through 42. I ended the message last week
with verse 30. And I made the comment that this
verse alone refutes two heresies. Verse 30 declares, these are
the words of our Savior, I and my Father are one. The first era is an era that
was spawned by a man named Sebelius, Sebelianism. And he taught that
there's only one person in the Godhead. He was a philosopher
from Egypt. And in our country this era,
this heresy is known better by the name of modalism. And the United Pentecostal Church
and those churches that go under the name of the apostolic churches,
for the most part, they are guilty of this era. Our Lord did not
say, I and my father are the same. He said, I and my father
are one. He didn't say, I am my Father.
He didn't say, my Father is I. He said, I and my Father are
one. There's one God, and yet in the
Scriptures, He is revealed in a trinity of persons. God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And then the
other heresy that is refuted in this verse of Scripture is
that which is called Arianism. And this one was promoted by
a man named Arius in, I think, the third century A.D. And he began to teach that Christ
is a God, but he is a creature of God. The highest creature,
yes, but still a creature. We know that that, too, is not
what our Lord said. I and my Father are one of the
same essence, one being. And the Son shares all the attributes
of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. And he commanded his
church to go into all the world and preach the gospel, teaching
all nations, baptizing them in the name, the name, not the names,
but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. But tonight we want to go on,
beginning with verse 31 through the end of the chapter. And in
preparing this message, I try always to have an outline for
us. And this evening, the outline
that I'm going to use, I want to show us the testimony of three
different persons or groups. The testimony. Three testimonies
that we're going to see in these verses. The first testimony that
I want us to look at is the testimony of those who desired to stone
the Lord Jesus Christ. The testimony of those who desired
to stone the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's begin in verse 31 through
33. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered
them, many good works have I showed you for my father, for which
of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying,
for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because
that thou being a man makest thyself God. Now, We see the
reason for their question that we looked at, I believe it was
last time in verse 24, when they came to Him and they said, If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. They did not ask that question
out of a desire to believe on Him, to trust in Him. But they
ask that question, having a desire to have a witness against him,
to accuse him of blasphemy. For if he confessed to be the
Christ, then they would have this charge against him. Now, notice it says, then the
Jews took up stones again to stone him. Let's remember where
they were. They were in the temple, in Solomon's
porch. We saw this last time. Now you
wouldn't think there would be stones just laying around handy
to take up and start stoning someone. This word actually means
they were carrying these stones. They brought these stones with
them. This had been their intention from the very beginning. And
then the Apostle John tells us that they did this again. This
was not the first time, was it? If you look back to chapter 8,
we saw this several weeks ago. But in chapter 8 and verse 59,
we read, Then took they up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid
himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them,
and so passed by. On several occasions, We know
in Luke's gospel, remember in Nazareth, they would have cast
him off the cliff upon which Nazareth was built to destroy
him. On several occasions, the Jews
would have destroyed the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember at his
birth, remember when those wise men came, they'd seen that star,
and they asked that question, where is he? born that is king
of the Jews. And Herod had the religious people
look it up and they found out, sure enough, he used to be born
in Bethlehem. And so Herod sent those wise
men to Bethlehem, but he said, when you find him, come back
and let me know also, so I can come and worship him. And of
course, those wise men were warned to return back to the east in
a different way, a different route. They didn't come back
by and see Herod. So what did he do? He commanded
his armies to destroy all the male children that were three
years and younger. Satan, Satan was behind the plot
always to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. And on many occasions
we see in the Gospels, they took up stones to stone Him and would
have destroyed Him, but His hour was not yet. There was a time
fixed, an hour fixed right in eternity by God the Father in
which He would die upon the cross. And until that hour came, all
the host of hell could not destroy him. And did you know the same
is true about all of us? There's a time appointed for
each one of us, isn't there? The scripture says it is appointed
unto men once to die. We have an appointment with death,
all of us. And I'm so thankful we don't
know when that appointment is, aren't you? We couldn't live. We couldn't live a day. if we
knew when that appointment time is. But God knows, and when that
time comes, it will be the time that he will take us out of this
world, those of us who know him, to be with him forever. But the
point I wish to make here tonight about the testimony of these
Jews, here they were, they had the stones, they were ready to
destroy him, And yet they testified, whether willingly or unwillingly,
they testified that his works, his miracles, they were good. They were good works. He demanded
of them to name which good work, which good work, which miracle
is it for which you will stone me? And then he said, many good
works have I showed you from my father. Remember the Apostle
John later writes in this gospel that if all of the miracles,
all of the works that Christ had done had been recorded, that
the world itself could not contain the books. We have just a smidgen,
rather, just a tithe, no doubt, given unto us in the gospels
of all of the miracles which the Lord wrought, all of the
good works which he worked. We see him opening the eyes of
the blind on several occasions. I like to think about Bartimaeus,
don't you? Blind Bartimaeus. What a picture. What a picture
of all of us by nature. Sitting on the roadside, begging.
And he heard. He heard. That's the way the
gospel comes to us, doesn't it? It comes by hearing. Hearing. He heard that Jesus of Nazareth
was passing by. He heard a great noise, and who
is it? What's causing all the tumult?
Well, this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is passing by. And Bartimaeus,
he could not be hushed. He could not be shut up. He began
to cry, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. And the more
they tried to get him to be quiet, the louder he cried, until he
stopped By his cry, he stopped the Son of God. And he stopped
and he commanded that they bring Bartimaeus to him with this question,
what will you that I should do unto you? Master, Lord, that
I may receive my sight. Which good work? He did so many
good works. He opened so many blind eyes.
He restored hearing to people who could not hear. And many
of them also their speech was impeded because of lack of hearing
and he restored hearing and the tongue, he unloosed the tongue
so that they could speak and men were lame. And He passed
by and gave them strength, and He fed the multitudes. On one
occasion, 5,000. On another, 4,000. Just men,
not counting the women and children. And He cast out demons. Can you
imagine having a child that was demon-possessed? Like that wand
that a man brought his son to the disciples, and the Lord and
three of His disciples were up on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And that man brought his son. He said sometimes he cast him
into the fire, sometimes he cast him into the water. What was
it? To destroy him. Always to destroy him. And the
Lord Jesus Christ cast the demon out of that man, out of that
boy. And not only that, which good work? All these good works.
Look at this good work. Look at this good work with me
in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7, beginning with verse 11. Luke chapter 7. And it came to pass
the day after that he went into a city called Nain. Many of his
disciples went with him, and much people. Now, when he came
nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man
carried out. And notice this, the only son
of his mother. And she was a widow. Now, you
read that, if you just kind of skip over that, you do not realize
this woman in that society at that time, she was totally dependent
upon that boy. He was her social security. He
was going to take care of her in old age, but he's gone. He's gone. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said unto her, weep not. And he came
and touched the bar, the coffin, You know, every time the Lord
Jesus Christ came into the presence of death, death had to go. Death had to flee. Why? He is life. He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. And death could not abide in
his presence. That young girl of Jairus, 12
years of age, he took her by the hand. And she was restored
to life. And this young man, he stopped
the funeral procession and touched the coffin and said, young man,
I say unto thee, arise. And he that was dead set up and
began to speak, and he delivered him to his mother. That's a good
work, isn't it? How many good works did our Lord
do? I've often wondered at the grave
of Lazarus. There was a dead person and the
scripture says Jesus wept. There's been a lot of preachers,
a lot of supposition as to why he wept. Let me ask you this,
and that's in the next chapter we'll come to. Could it have
been that he knew he was going to call Lazarus back to this
place of sorrow. Could that have been? There,
Lazarus had been dead four days. He was with the Lord. He was
in glory. And he called him back. He wept. Could it have been because he
was bringing him back to this place of sin and sorrow and death
and sickness and everything else that we see around us? I don't
know. But I know this, I know he did
many good works. And when he asked them for which
good work, now the point I'm wanting to make here tonight
is, they admit, they testify, yes, your works, your miracles,
they're good works. They're good miracles. They're
good miracles. They didn't deny that his works
were good. For which good work do you stone
me? In their answer, they testified,
this is their testimony, your works, your miracles, even though
we want to kill you, Even though we are your enemies, here's our
testimony. Your works are good works. And it's not for good work that
we would destroy you. It's for blasphemy. It's because
thou, being a man, makest thyself God. You know, we might just
flip those words around, and we might say, thou being God,
not made God, but being God, made Thyself man. That's what
happened, isn't it? God, the Word, became flesh. So that's the first testimony.
Now the second testimony is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ
to the Scriptures. Let's look in verse 34 through
39. Jesus answered them, Is it not
written in your law, I said, you are gods? If he called them
gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot
be broken, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and
sent into the world, thou blasphemest, because I said I am the Son of
God? If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not, but if I do, Though you believe not me, believe
the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is
in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to
take him, but he escaped out of their hand. The Lord Jesus
Christ testified that the Scriptures cannot be broken. The Scriptures cannot be broken. In other words, God's Word, the
Scriptures, cannot be null and void. John Gale said that this
was a Jewish way of speaking, and it's recorded quite often
in the Talmud, when two doctors, two doctors of the law, the law
of God, when they were disputing a matter, after one doctor had
made his argument, then the other doctor, he might respond It cannot
be broken. It cannot be broken. In other
words, what you said cannot be disproved. It cannot be made
null and void. Your point might say it may be
broken. Here's this doctor and he's arguing
his point and the other one says it may be broken. Your argument
may be broken, your point may be answered, but what the Lord
Jesus Christ here said is that the Scripture is true and it
cannot be contradicted, and there's no objection that can be brought
against the Word of God. This is the highest court. It's
like the Supreme Court. You can argue your case all the
way through many lesser courts, but when the Supreme Court of
our land rules, that's it. That's it. There's no higher
authority. And that's what our Lord is saying
about the Scriptures. The Scriptures cannot be broken. The Scriptures are true. Now, He quoted from a psalm,
the words of a psalm. And he calls it the law. The
Lord Jesus did. He called this verse of scripture
that he's quoting the law. Notice in verse 34 he said, Is
it not written in your law? Now sometimes the Bible, the
Old Testament rather, was divided between the law and the prophets. That is, the Pentateuch and the
Prophets. And sometimes it's divided into
three parts, including what we refer to as the Books of Wisdom,
Psalms and Proverbs and Song of Solomon. That's the way our
Lord divided it in Luke chapter 24 when he appeared unto his
disciples after his resurrection and showed them that in the law,
in the Psalms, and in the prophets, it was written concerning him.
But sometimes with this one term, it covers a whole Old Testament,
the law. It's written in your law. The
scriptures cannot be broken. Now he quoted, as I said, from
Psalm, and the Psalm is 82 and verse 6. And in this Psalm, God
called men. There were certain men who were
judges. They were ordained. Remember,
all power is of God. That's something we have a problem
with sometimes, isn't it? We forget that. that all power,
all authority is of God. Men, women, they just don't happen
to be in that office. God raises up one and puts down
another. Promotion comes neither from
the North or from the South, but from the Lord. And there
are men, and now of course we know women, also are raised to
these positions of authority. They're commissioned by God to
rule. And God referred to them as gods
in the sense that they were in those places of authority, in
those places of honor. Now our Lord asked them this
question. If men, if men who by grace are
raised to the place of honor as judges, if they are called
gods, then do you say to me whom the Father sanctified? and sent
into this world that I'm guilty of blasphemy because I say I
am the Son of God." Is that what you're saying? The Lord tells these who were
intent on his death to consider the miracles. They acknowledged
that they were good. Now our Lord says consider them. If they are not works that only
could be done by the power of God, consider the works that
they might bring you to know and to believe that I and my
Father are one. That's the reason we're given
these miracles in the New Testament, isn't it? If you're here tonight
and you do not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior, You've got miracle after miracle after miracle showing
you his, not only his ability, because they do show his ability,
but they show his willingness, his willingness. Show me one
person who ever came to Christ with a need and asking for help
that the Lord didn't help. You can't show me that, can you?
You can't find that. You have not because you ask
not. That's what our Lord said. Their reaction in verse 39, it
says, therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out
of their hand. Now we're not told how he escaped,
how he went through their midst. It would have been easy for him,
for all of them to be struck blind. But somehow, miraculously, he
went through their midst. Now the last, so we have the
testimony of the Jews. They testified that his works
were good works. We have the testimony of Christ
to the scriptures. The scriptures cannot be broken. And now notice the third testimony
we have is that of John the Baptist. Look in the last verses here,
verses 39 through 42. Therefore they sought again to
take him, but he escaped out of their hand and went away again
beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized,
and there he abode. And many resorted unto him and
said, John, John did no miracle. But all things that John spake
of this man were true, and many believed on him there. The Lord
Jesus Christ we saw, and I mentioned a moment ago, He was in the temple
in Jerusalem, but now He leaves Jerusalem. And it would be about
three months until the Passover would come, the Passover in which
He would give His life. And He goes beyond Jordan to
the place where John at first baptized and preached. Now John
had been dead. Here's the point I want to make.
John had been dead by this time for several months, if not years. But his message was remembered. What an encouragement to preachers.
What an encouragement to parents. After these had been, after John
had been laid in the grave, his message was still remembered. It was still remembered. And
what they remembered about John's message, it wasn't, he did no
miracle, but everything he said about this man is true. This is John's testimony. Everything
he said about this man is true. Let me mention, I think, four
things that John said about this man. First of all, John said,
he that cometh from above is above all. This is the one who
came from above, the Lord Jesus, and he is above all. He is King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. He rules over all of God's creation. He said, all authority, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Today, tonight, there's
a man in glory that has the reins of the world in his hands. That
man is the Lord Jesus Christ. who reigns and rules over all
things, all people, all events. He that cometh from above, John
said, is above all. Amen. What he said about him
is true. He is above all. The second thing
John said about him, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. The Word taketh away, beareth
away. He bore in His own body, the
Scripture says, on the tree our sins. And thank God He took them
away. Just like that scapegoat. Just
like that scapegoat pictured in the Old Testament. He took
them away. My sins are gone. Yours are too,
aren't they? If you know Christ as your Lord
and Savior. What John said about this man
is true. He's the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world. The third thing John said, he
said, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
And we know on the day of Pentecost, Showing that Christ is upon the
throne, exalted to the Father's right hand, He poured out His
Spirit upon His church, baptized them in the Holy Spirit and fire,
because there were cloven tongues of fire which set upon their
shoulders. What He said of this man is true. John said, I baptize you with
water, but He's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. And the fourth thing that John
said about this man, there's other things, but I looked here
in the Gospel of John. The fourth thing I want to mention
is, John said, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. Now who has the bride? The bride
is his church, right? Who has the bride? Who has the
heart of the bride? the bridegroom, Christ. His church is his bride, and
he has her. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom, and he has the bride, his church, and he has us in
his hand. And we're safe, and we're secure
throughout all eternity. he that hath the bride. She is
his, and is wedded to him by the cards of love. And what God
has joined together, no man can put asunder. Amen? What John said of him is true. Oh, I'm so thankful, aren't you?
Tonight, that we can hear these things and rejoice in them. Let
us sing a hymn before we're dismissed.