Let us turn tonight to John chapter
7. John chapter 7. Last time we looked at verses
37 and 38, where the Lord Jesus Christ, we're told, on the last
day of the feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, that he stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. We saw in those words of the
Lord Jesus Christ, first of all, a need, if any man thirst. I remember years ago hearing
a message by Brother Rolf Barnard, and he was preaching from that
text in the Old Testament hall. If any man thirst. And I remember
he made the comment, he said, you can just envision a man traveling
across the desert with huts and pans on his camels making all
kind of noise and he cries out, Any man thirsty? And someone
responds, I'm not thirsty. And he responded, I'm not speaking
to you. I'm not speaking to you. Is any
man thirsty? Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ, aren't they? It's so difficult and impossible
apart from the work of God the Holy Spirit to find anyone who
is thirsty. But thank God, he creates the
thirst in his elect. And then when he saw that there's
a need and a fountain, let him come unto me. And Jesus Christ,
he is that fountain of living waters. And his promise that
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now tonight,
I want us to look at verse 39, first of all. And then we'll
look at the rest of the chapter. Verse 39. But this spake he of
the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the
Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. This is peculiar to the Gospel
of John many times as we read through it. He explains. Sometimes
he gives a meaning of a Greek word or Hebrew word, tells which
feast it is, because we believe he was writing the gospel to
Gentile believers, the last of the gospels, of the four gospels
which were written. And he explains in this verse,
he explains that the emblem, that under the emblem of living
water, it is God the Holy Spirit who is man. It's God the Holy
Spirit who is presented to us here under the emblem of this
living water. Every thirsty person who comes
to Christ by faith experiences the work of the Spirit, who is
the Spirit of regeneration and sanctification. The Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of regeneration
and sanctification. Keep your places here, but let's
look at a couple of verses of Scripture tonight. In 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 and verses 13 and 14. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Verses 13 and 14, the Apostle
says, Beloved, but we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And how many times have you heard
me and other pastors tell us election is not salvation. Election
is unto salvation. The Jews, in the days when our
Lord was here in the flesh, they believed firmly in the doctrine
of election, that they were God's elect. But election, as we see
here, is unto salvation through. And this is important. through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The word sanctification, the
primary meaning, of course, is to set apart. And it is God the
Holy Spirit who sets men apart, as this scripture says, to the
belief of the truth, and then notice the next verse, which
is also all important, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes
people will ask, is it necessary that a man hear a preacher to
be saved? Is it necessary for a man to
hear the gospel? Well, a man cannot be saved apart
from the gospel, and sure a man must hear the gospel to be saved. I know it's strange, but God
has ordained through the preaching of the gospel to save them that
believe. And any church or any group which
neglects the preaching of the gospel, and I mean in the pulpit,
in the church, and sending out missionaries and other evangelical
work, will soon shrivel up and die. God has ordained the preaching
of the gospel. Election is unto salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. And
a person cannot believe the truth until he hears the truth. Now
look at another verse, Titus chapter 3. What I'm saying is that every
thirsty person who comes to Christ by faith experiences, that very
coming is experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit, sanctification
of the Spirit, the belief of the truth. In Titus chapter 3,
And verse 5, Paul writes that we're saved not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And then also, if you will, look
over in 1 Peter chapter 1. Very familiar with this verse,
I know. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. Peter is writing to God's elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the spirits. Unto obedience, obedience, that
is believing, trusting in Christ, and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now
if you look back in our text tonight, here in John chapter
7 and verse 39, what does John mean What does
John mean here when he writes the Holy Spirit was not yet given
because Jesus was not yet glorified? The first thing we see as we
read that verse of Scripture is that the translators, the
translators have added a word. And I was thinking earlier today
It was really nice years ago when everyone used the same translation. It was really nice. When every person who came to
worship brought their Bibles and they all read the same, because
we all had the same translation. And a few years back now, men,
in my opinion, have tried to make the Bible understandable
to lost men. And so we have been bombarded
with a number of translations, which many of them are not translations. I still love this translation. And when I see a word that's
in italics, I know immediately That word has been added. It's
been added by those men. And if you've never read about
the translation of the King James Version of the Bible, I'll get
you a booklet, a good booklet that tells all about that. The
process that those scholars, I'm not talking, these scholars
who knew Hebrew, who knew Greek, these scholars, how they were
divided into three different divisions and Everyone had to
check on each other to make sure that their work. Remember Brother
Cliff Heller, our missionary that was in New Guinea that translated
the scriptures into the language of the tribe there where he worked. I don't know if you remember
or if he told publicly, but the work that he had to go through
for Wycliffe to sign off on his translation. I mean, they checked
and they checked with someone who knew the language. It was
their original, their national language. I mean, it was a process
that they went on every book and no matter that they had already
printed some of the scriptures that he had translated. Remember
that last time when we had the privilege, our church, of helping
to pay for that printing? All of that new stuff, new parts
of the Old Testament, it all had to be checked and rechecked.
And the same similar way was the King James translation made. It wasn't just one man or ten
men sat down and decided they were going to translate the scriptures. No, it was a process. It was
a formal process. It took time. And now that's
extra. That's extra. But I'm glad. Let me get back to my point.
I'm glad because when I read this verse of Scripture, I see
that the translators have added the word given, and I believe
it is necessary here. It's needful. For John certainly
was not saying that the Holy Ghost was not yet. He wasn't
saying that because the Holy Spirit is eternal. The Holy Spirit
is God. The Holy Ghost is God, and one
of the clearest testimonies, I think, you'll ever find. If
you ever run into someone, they say, Well, I don't believe that
the Holy Spirit is God. I just believe that He's a person,
an influence, or something like that. Well, take them over here,
if you will, to Acts chapter 5. These words of Peter to Ananias
in Acts chapter 5. Verses 3 and 4. But Peter said to Ananias, Why
has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Who
did he lie to? He lied to the Holy Ghost, Peter
said. Why did Satan fill your heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost? Keep back part of the price of
the land? Now watch this. While it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. Oh, but I thought you said he
lied unto the Holy Spirit. He did. He lied unto God. You
know, in the first chapter of Genesis, some of the first words
that we read in God's In the beginning, God created the heaven
and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void and
darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit, the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said,
let there be light, and there was light. Well then, what do
these words mean, preacher? What is John telling us here
when he says This make ye of the Spirit, which they that believe
on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given. Notice the next words. Because that Jesus was not yet
glorified. Upon the Lord Jesus Christ finishing
the work which the Father gave him to do. And you remember in
his prayer in John 17, that's what he said, Father, I have
finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And Daniel chapter
9 and verse 24, we are told of six things that would take place
when Messiah came and Messiah was cut off. And two of those
things I would mention to us tonight. First of all, to make
an end of sin. To make an end of sin. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And secondly, to bring in an
everlasting righteousness. A righteousness that the Lord
Jesus Christ worked out as a man, the God-man, by his perfect obedience
under God's holy law, and that righteousness is imputed unto
everyone that believes. He was not yet glorified until
he had finished the work, until he had died on the cross, been
buried, rose from the dead, And then, after 50 days ascending,
after 40 days rather, ascending unto the Father, and on the 50th
day pouring out His Spirit on His church, on the day of Pentecost,
which testifies to all the world, God hath made that same Christ
Lord, or that same man rather, Lord and Christ. He was not yet
glorified. When He was glorified, when He
was exalted to the Father's right hand, that place of power, that
place of authority, that highest place, all power, all authority
both in heaven and in earth is given unto me. And as a demonstration
and a testimony to the truth that He's there tonight The Spirit
of God was given, was poured out. Now, the Holy Spirit has
always been here, as we saw from Genesis chapter 1. And no one
has ever been saved from the first person that God saved,
if he was able. The first one who was saved,
he experienced the work of the Spirit of God. It's not a matter
of the Spirit not being here and then being here. But it is
a matter of degree. The great promise of the Old
Testament was the Messiah is coming. And the great promise
of the New Testament is the Spirit of God would be poured out upon
His church. Now, let me bring two other lessons
in the remaining verses of this chapter. First, there was a division among
the people because of the Lord Jesus. Notice verses 40 through
43. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, said, of a truth, this is the
prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that
Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of
Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division among
the people because of him. There's a division. And let's
look at the division. First of all, many of the people
said that he is the prophet. Not everyone, but many, many
of the people here, they said, he's the prophet. Now you know
what prophet they had reference to. That prophet that God had
promised through Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 18, when
God said, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren. Now that tells us he would be
an Israelite. I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee, talking to Moses. He's going to be like you, Moses. And will put my words in his
mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. Now how would this prophet be
like unto Moses? Well, when God gave that promise,
we know that God had said, they have well said. That is, the
Israelites, they have well said what they have said. And what
was it that they said? We want you, Moses, to go up
on the mountain. We want you to be our mediator. And the word of God was given,
mediated, that's what it means, right, mediated from God through
Moses to the Israelites. That old covenant that was made
at Sinai with the nation of Israel, it was mediated by Moses. Now God says, I'm going to raise
up a prophet that will be like unto you. And how is he like
unto Moses? He is the mediator. He is the
mediator of the new covenant, that God's word is revealed or
mediated to us through him. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the prophet of the new covenant, as well as the priest
and the king. And it is through him that the
covenant was communicated. His word is mediated or communicated
unto men through Christ. The words of this prophet, that
is the prophet, these are words of truth. And their words, thank
God, my friends, the words of Christ, this mediator, their
words of peace, their words of rest, their words of eternal
life unto men and women. Remember his words, come unto
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. His words, His words are words
of rest to the weary. Now some of the people, we're
looking at a division. There's a division among the
people, we're told here, over Him, because of Him. And the
division is brought out and some of the people said, He's the
prophet. He's the prophet. But then we
see that some of the people said, He's the Christ. He's the Christ. And it must have been, it must
have been that the prophet in the mind, in the understanding
of these people at this time, the Israelites at this time,
their understanding must have been that the prophet and the
Christ would be two different persons. Two different persons. Because some said, He's the prophet,
Others said, no, he's the Christ. Their belief concerning Christ,
the Messiah, blinded them to seeing that the promised Christ
must die. Let me explain what I mean. They
believed, they did not doubt God had promised the Messiah.
But the Messiah that they were looking for was one who would
raise the nation of Israel back to its glory days as it had when
David and Solomon sat upon the throne. That's the kind of Messiah
they were looking for. And if you think about this,
at the very bottom At the very bottom of this was their belief
that because they were the descendants of Abraham, they were automatically
in the kingdom. The question of sin, the question
of sin did not concern them. Oh, you may be Sure, if you had
asked them, are the Gentiles sinners? Absolutely. Dogs. The worst of the worst. But what
about the children of Abraham? We'd be Abraham's children. They
were under the delusion that just being a child in the lineage
of Abraham meant that they were in the kingdom. They did not
see, they could not see, that they had a problem called S-I-N. Just like every other man, woman,
boy, and girl, we all have the same problem. And that must be
dealt with. And the Christ who is promised,
the Messiah who was promised, was to be a suffering Messiah. We read that in Isaiah 53. But notice some of the people,
some of the people here, thought that they knew from the Scripture
why He could not be the Christ. See what I'm saying? Some of
the people said He's the Prophet. Some of the people said He's
the Christ. Some of the people said He can't
be the Christ. He can't be the Christ because
we know that the Christ is going to be of the lineage of David
and will be born in the city of Bethlehem. Well, what they
did not know and did not take the time to investigate is that
He is the Son of David. Turn with me to Luke just a moment.
Luke chapter 1. When the angel announced to Mary
that she should bring forth the child, in Luke chapter 1, verses
31 and 32, he said, And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall
be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of What? His father. This tells us that
Mary was in the lineage of David. We know that Joseph, who was
supposed to be the father of Jesus, the man to whom Mary was
his spouse, that he was in the lineage of David. If you look at the lineage in
Matthew, and that in Luke chapter 3. You see, they go together
until they come up to Solomon and Nathan. David had a son named
Solomon. We all are aware of him. And
Joseph's lineage, we believe, in Matthew is traced up through
Solomon to David. But he also, he had other sons,
and he had one son named Nathan. You see that in the lineage as
it's recorded in Luke chapter 3. And we know that he was born
in Bethlehem, do we not? Look with me in Luke chapter
2, verses 4 through 7. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea unto the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem. because he was of the house and
lineage of David to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife being
great with child and so it was that while they were there the
days were accomplished that she should be delivered and she brought
forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and
laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in
the inn. Isn't it wonderful that the town
Bethlehem, you know what it means? The house of bread. The house
of bread. That he who is the bread of life
was born in Bethlehem. There was a division. That's
what we see here in our text. There was a division because
of him. In Luke chapter 12 we read our
Lord saying, Suppose you that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you no, but rather division. And this is the first time of
three times in the Gospel of John where we are told there
was a division because of Christ. And you and I, of course, we
know that He is the great divider of all mankind. Those who know Him as their Lord
and Savior are His sheep, and those who do not know Him are
goats. Now let me show us one other
thing here. Bear with me just a moment. Second, the work of
the Holy Spirit in a heart is not always carried on at the
same speed. I think we see that here. I think
this is a lesson for us here as we read the rest of this chapter,
beginning with verse 44. And some of them would have taken
him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to
the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why
have you not brought him? The officers answered, never
man spake like this man. Remember, we saw that a few weeks
ago. They sent the temple police to
arrest the Lord Jesus Christ. Now they come back. He's not
with them. Why is he? Why didn't you bring
him? And their answer is, never man spake like this man. Now
these men, you better believe, they had heard a lot of people
preach. They had heard a lot of men. A lot of those Pharisees,
no doubt, they'd heard them teach and preach. But their testimony
was, we've never heard any man like this. And one of the things
that distinguished the Lord Jesus Christ was, he spoke with authority. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, never man spake like this man. But notice how they answered
that. How these Pharisees, these religious, self-righteous rulers
answered this. Have any of the rulers or the
Pharisees believed on him? In other words, when they heard
the police say, never a man speak like this man, they answered,
and I'm paraphrasing, don't you see that none of us, don't you
see that none of us learned holy people that we have believed
on Him. The only people who have believed
on Him are these who do not know the law, those who are cursed. Don't you see? Isn't that proof
enough that He's not the Christ? Because none of us have believed
on Him. Well, they were not Correct in
that, as we see here. Because there was one man in
their midst by the name of Nicodemus. Let's read on. Nicodemus, verse 50. Nicodemus
saith unto them, He that came to Jesus by night being one of
them, Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know
what he doeth? They answered and said unto him,
Art thou also of Galilee? Search and see, or search and
look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. Now they were wrong
in that. That's not true. Elijah, one
of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, was from Galilee. But he was from the southern
kingdom. And these people, but they were not even right about
that because there were prophets that came out of Galilee that
prophesied to the kingdom of Judah. But let me say this, this is
the second time that we read about Nicodemus. But we'll read about him again
in John chapter 20. We read about him in John chapter
3. And the point I want to make
is that all of those whom God saves are led by the same Holy
Spirit to the same Savior, that is to Christ, but all are not
led in the precise same way. How many times has a person,
a child of God, heard someone stand up and give a testimony,
and that child of God say, well, I must not be saved. That's not
the way I came to Christ. Don't base your faith upon someone
else's testimony. Base your faith upon the word
of God. In our group here tonight, I
would imagine if everyone gave a response the best we can of
how we came to Christ, how we were brought to Christ, I should
say. Our testimonies would vary. But
one thing would be the same. We both, we all look to Jesus
Christ as our Lord and Savior. That's not going to change. That's
not going to vary. And we see Nicodemus the first
time. He came by night, most people
believe, out of fear. But now we see in this council
that he speaks up. He only says one thing, that's
true. But then later in John chapter
20, when Joseph of Arimathea begged the body from Pilate to
be buried, Here comes Nicodemus with a whole load of spices to
anoint the body of Jesus for his burial. In Mark chapter 4
we read, For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first
the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. When I plant seed in my little
garden, I like to go out and see if it's come up. And let
me tell you something, sometimes it doesn't come up. And sometimes
some of it comes up. And sometimes some of it comes
up today, and some breaks through the earth tomorrow. And then
after it's up, it grows at a different speed. The same is true in our
relationship to Christ. The seed is the Word of God,
the incorruptible seed. But the Spirit of God, He brings
us along in His time. And I bring this out to us because
we should not be quick to pass opinions upon other believers. God's time. God's time. He'll bring us all to be conformed
to the image of his son. But none of us have got there
yet. Thank God we have his word. We've been predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his son. And by His grace, one day
we'll grow. And giving all diligence, Peter
said, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to
virtue knowledge, and so forth and so on. But we'll grow if
we are born of the Spirit of God. Well, I pray the Lord would
bless this word to us here tonight. We'll sing a couple of verses
before we're dismissed.