Turning our Bibles tonight to
John chapter 7. John chapter 7. And God willing,
we will look at the first 13 verses in this chapter tonight. And we will look at them, dividing
them into four parts. four divisions, four points that
I have for us this evening. First, the Lord Jesus walked
in Galilee, verses one and two. After these things, Jesus walked
in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews
sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles
was at hand. In the previous chapter, in John
chapter 6 and verse 4, the apostle John made this statement concerning
the time. He said, And the Passover, a
feast of the Jews, was nigh. And now, beginning with chapter
7, he tells us that the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. According to the months of our
calendar, the calendar that you and I use, the Passover feast
would have been in our month of April. And then the Feast
of Tabernacles would have followed six months later in the month
of October. The month of October, our month
of October, The Day of Atonement was on the 10th day of this month. Remember, that was the only day
in all of the year that the high priest was allowed to go into
the Most Holy of Holies. When we think about the privileges
that we have tonight, the priest, the average priest of Israel,
they could go into the holy place and they went in there daily
because there was work to be done. But the high priest went
into the most holy place once a year. But through the blood
of Jesus Christ, you and I, us who believe in Christ, we have
the privilege to pass into the most holy place, into the very
presence of God through the blood of our dear Savior. We sang that
hymn just a few moments ago concerning the mercy seat. Christ, He is
the mercy seat. And we gather unto Him in the
most holy place, in the presence of God Almighty. But we see here
by observing what John wrote in John chapter 6, the Feast
of the Passover was nigh. And now the Feast of Tabernacles
was nigh. That there transpired about six
months from April to October. About six months had taken place
and John doesn't tell us anything. He only tells us that during
this time Jesus walked in Galilee, in that part of Israel known
as Galilee. The question, what was He doing? What was He doing during these
six months that John is silent about? Well, I think the best
answer to that question would be the words of the Apostle Peter. These words he spoke when he
was sent by God to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile. And
he made this statement concerning the Savior. He said, God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went
about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the
devil, for God was with him. What was he doing during these
six months? Well, as Peter said, he was going
about doing good, and he was healing all who were oppressed
of the devil. No one ever came to him, no matter
what sickness, what infirmity, what need they had, no one ever
came to him and was turned away disappointed. He healed all who
came. But two thoughts occurred to
me by John making these statements. He said concerning the Passover,
the Feast of the Jews, and again now he says the Feast of Tabernacles,
the Feast of the Jews. Two things come to my mind by
John inserting that when he wrote of the Passover, Feast of the
Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of the Jews. First of all,
it indicates that he was writing with the Gentiles in mind. Because the Jews, there would
be no need to tell them what the Passover was or what the
Feast of Tabernacles was. He was writing with Gentiles
in mind. Aren't you thankful tonight that
God sent the Gospel to the Gentiles? You know, I was reading just
before I came in here, I looked this up again, but Matthew Henry
and his comments on John chapter 1, where he said, commenting
on the verse of Scripture, which says, he came unto his own, and
his own received him not. And then, in John chapter 13,
remember we read, Jesus having loved his own, which were in
the world loved them unto the end. Both texts speak of his
own. Matthew Henry said when it refers
to the Jews coming unto his own, his own like a man's houses and
lands, his own. But when he speaks of his people,
his chosen people, his own, like a man's wife and children. What a difference, what a difference. The Jews, they had the gospel
for many years and yet now John in writing this gospel says the
feast of the Jews. First of all, it tells me he
had Gentiles in mind, but secondly, it tells me of what these feasts
had degenerated into being. Because I looked up in Leviticus
chapter 23 where the law is given concerning the Feast and this
is what I found. Speak unto the children of Israel
and say unto them concerning the Feast of the Lord. Not the
Feast of the Jews, but the Feast of the Lord. which you shall
proclaim to the holy convocations, even these are my feasts." This
is what God said, these are my feasts, feasts of the Lord. But now, the Jews had degenerated into
such a position and condition that these feasts are referred
to as the Feast of the Jews. Not the Feast of the Lord. They
had lost their understanding, their signification. We know
there were types, there were pictures. The gospel was preached
unto them through the types and through the pictures, the shadows
and the law. And all of those feasts somehow
spoke of Christ and his people, but they had lost that meaning
to the Israelites when the Lord Jesus Christ was here. And now
they were simply the feast of the Jews. What a difference. How much ceremony, how much ritualism
goes on every Sunday in this world and Saturday and other
days of the week as well, which has no meaning, no signification
whatsoever. It's just ritualism. And that's
what these feasts had become. Just a time to get together and
go through a ceremony, go through a habit, that's all. But not
to find Christ, seek Christ in the feast. Now the second thing
is, first of all, I said the Lord Jesus walked in Galilee,
verses 1 and 2. Now secondly, the Lord Jesus
had family members who did not believe in Him. Let's read this,
verses 3 through 7. His brethren therefore said unto
Him, Depart hence and go into 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 in 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. Who are these who are here called
his brethren? Verse 5 says, For neither did
his brethren believe in him. Now I'm confident tonight all
of us here who even the very youngest, the very youngest in
this auditorium tonight. I'm confident that all of us
know, according to the word of God, that there has only been
one person, one person, now hear me, only one person who has ever
lived in this world who was not polluted by sin. Only one person. And that person, that only person,
is He who is the way, the truth, and the life. Just as we know
that there's only one God, so we know there's only one mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. If Jesus is not
God, hear me now, if He's not God, then when we worship Him,
we are guilty of the sin of idolatry. A very grievous sin. A sin which
God hates. A sin which brings God's judgment
upon those who practice it. Those who worship Mary, and they
like to refer to her as the Virgin Mary, are guilty of idolatry. Now that's all that You can say,
those who worship her are guilty of idolatry. And don't, please,
please don't fall for that deception, that lie of Satan that says,
well, we don't worship Mary. Oh yes, they do. Yes, they do. Mariology has come into the visible
church centuries ago. Actually, it was in the world
before the church of the Lord Jesus Christ went out evangelistically. There's always been the worship
of a woman goddess and her son. And of course, the church just
incorporated that into their belief. I'm talking about the
visible church, the fallen church, if you please. Mary was not conceived
without sin. That so-called doctrine, the
Immaculate Conception, was spawned in hell. That's not taught in
the Word of God. In fact, it is against the Word
of God. She was not conceived without
sin. And concerning the birth of her
Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what we read,
she brought forth her firstborn son. Firstborn son. In reference to God, He is His
only begotten son. Now there's a big difference.
Firstborn and only begotten son. If you turn to Mark with me just
a moment, Mark chapter 3. I remember something that happened
in Mérida years ago when we lived down there. My wife and Betty
Gruver were on their way to the market one day, and they came
across a lady who had fallen or who had hurt herself some
way, and she was bleeding profusely. And they stopped to help her.
She was an American lady, and helped her. They met her, and I think her
husband was with her. But anyway, they invited them
to Brother Groover's house, and they had a meal with us. They
were very thankful, very appreciative that Betty and Pat had stopped
to help this lady. And Brother Groover pulled out
his slideshow. that he showed when he was here
visiting in the States. And this couple, they were Roman
Catholics from the States. And when they saw Catholicism
there in Yucatan, they couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe
it. But Catholicism, and that word
Catholic, we believe in the Catholic Church. We do. That word Catholic is simply
the universal church. We believe there's one church,
and you must be a member of this church to be saved. Not this
local church here, but this church I'm speaking of, the Catholic
Church. But the Roman Catholic Church,
there's a contradiction in the very name. It cannot be universal
and be Roman. That's just impossible. But you
know how that all came about. But the point I'm making is these
people couldn't believe that Catholicism there, there was
so much. And there, if I remember right,
their first reaction was, well, that's just people who are ignorant,
people who are ignorant. And up comes the slide and the
priest. He's leading the procession.
He's in the very middle of the whole thing. It's idolatry. And the reason I'm saying this
is because there's always been those who have tried to say,
well, these brethren could not have been brothers, half-brothers
of Christ because Mary was a virgin and was always a virgin, died
a virgin. That's not true. The scripture
says that Joseph did not know her until she brought forth her
firstborn son. And that to know her means in
an intimate way that a husband knows his wife. Here in Mark
chapter 3 and verse 31, we read this happened in the life of
our Lord. There came then his brethren
and his mother. and standing without, sent unto
him, calling him. The multitude said about him,
and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without
seek for thee. And he answered them, saying,
Who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round about on
them which said about him, and said, Behold, my mother and my
brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother."
Back in our passage tonight, these brethren, who were they?
Well, they were half-brothers. They were children that Mary
had, no doubt, by Joseph after the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice these three things
that are told us about these people in this passage. First
of all, these brethren were not disciples. They were not disciples. And we see that from verse 3
when it says, His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence,
and go into Judea, that thy disciples... They were not His disciples.
But they told him, you go and you show yourself that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. You show your disciples. They were not disciples. They
were his brethren. Number two, these brethren, they
did not believe on him. Verse five tells us that. For
neither did his brethren believe in him. They were not His disciples. They did not believe in Him.
And number three, they were of the world, as all lost men are
of the world. We all come into this world,
born into this world, we are of the world, and God translates
us from the world, from darkness, into the kingdom of His dear
Son, those who are saved. But they did not believe, were
not disciples, and they were of the world. And that's the
reason the world hated Christ. And he
said that. They hated Christ, but they were
of the world. The world didn't hate them. In
fact, the Lord said, the world cannot hate you. Why? Because they were part of the
world. They were part of the world.
The world cannot hate you, but the world hated Him. The world hated Christ because
He testified of it. He testified of it. This is what
the verse declares unto us. Verse 7, The world cannot hate
you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works
thereof are evil. And I thought about this, the
world hating him because he testified of it. He testified that he was
the Son of God and the world hated him for that. If you look
over just a few pages into John chapter 10 and verse 32. Well, let's begin in verse 30.
It says, "...I," the Lord Jesus said, And my father won. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. Jesus answered them, many good
works have I showed you from my father. For which of those
works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,
For good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy. Why did the
world hate him? Because he testified of it. And
first of all, he testified of his being the Son of God. I and
my Father are one. And they clearly said, we're
not, we don't have these stones because of the good works which
you have done, but rather because you being a man are guilty of
blasphemy because you say that you are equal with the Father. You are God. But then also this
text tells us, our Lord said to them, that He testified of
it. He testified that their religious
works were evil. They were evil. They were not
done in obedience to the Word of God, but they were done according
to their traditions. Remember when He ate, the scripture says, without
washing his hands. And you know what that means.
It doesn't mean that he didn't wash his hands to clean his hands,
but he didn't go through the ceremony that they had devised. And by their devising that ceremony,
their tradition, our Lord said, they set apart the word of God. They followed their traditions,
but in doing so, they set aside the word of God. And he testified
that their works were evil. You read sometimes, again, Matthew
chapter 23. And you see the scathing, the
scathing rebukes of the Lord Jesus Christ against the religious
leaders. The religious leaders. He said,
you make clean the outside of the cup and platter. You really
do. You dress up. You've got your
robes, your phylacteries, all of the symbols of religiosity. You make the outside of the cup
ever so clean. But inside, inside, he said,
is full of ravening and wickedness. They devoured widows' houses.
They were covetous and on and on and on. They did what they
did in religion to be seen of men. But here's my point. The Lord Jesus had family members
who did not believe in him. And there are two lessons for
us to take from this truth. Number one, Nothing, nothing
but the saving grace of God can bring salvation to men. These brethren, they saw Christ's
miracles, they heard His teaching, they lived in His company, but
they did not believe in Him. Bishop J.C. had this comment
on this point. He said, the true servants of
Christ in every age will do well to remember this. They are often
surprised and troubled to find that in religion they stand alone. They are apt to fancy that it
must be their own fault that all around them are not converted
like themselves. They are ready to blame themselves
because their families remain worldly and unbelieving. But let them look at the verse
before us. In our Lord Jesus Christ there
was no fault either in temper, word, or deed. Yet even Christ's
own brethren did not believe in him. Number two, the Lord
Jesus learned by experience. He learned by experience. We
know as God He knows all things. He is omniscient. But yet in
being made flesh, being made lower than the angels, He learned
by experience. And that qualifies Him and makes
Him the perfect Savior that His people need. No matter what you
go through, no matter what you experience in this world, he
can sympathize and empathize with you. The hymn writer said,
there's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. He too had brethren who did not
believe in him. The third lesson, verses 8 through
10, 8 through 11. We're told the Lord Jesus' time
had not yet come. Go you up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast,
for my time is not yet full come. When He had said these words
unto them, He abodes still in Galilee. But when his brethren
were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly,
but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast and said, where is he? In John's gospel, the time of
our Lord's death is mentioned several times as his hour, as
his hour. But here we see the Lord Jesus
Christ says, my time has not yet come. For my time is not yet full come. The writer of Ecclesiastes, remember,
he said there's a time to every purpose under heaven. And his
time had not yet come to go up to Jerusalem. God's purpose Because
remember, he was born under the law and the law commanded every
male Israelite to attend this feast in Jerusalem where God
had placed his name each year. And he obeyed the law. He said,
I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. He kept
God's law perfectly. And it was God's purpose that
he go up to this feast, yes, But not at that time. Not when his brethren here, when
they were going up. The law commanded him to go up,
but what the law did not command was for him to go up in a caravan
of people. And that's the way the Israelites
at this time would go. They would go from town to town
and make their journey, their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And they would pick up family
members in different towns as they went along. Remember when
he was taken at 12 years of age to Jerusalem, that when they
left, his parents had gone a day's journey, or Mary and Joseph,
rather, had gone a day's journey before they realized he was not
in the midst, in the crowd. God's law commanded him to go
up to this feast, but not to go up in this party spirit, this
caravan, that the Jews usually, by now, were doing. He went up
alone. He went up alone. Just as he
had to trod the winepress of God's wrath alone. So he went up to this feast alone. And we're told the Jews sought
him at the feast. They knew, they believed, he
would come. The law commanded that he be
there. They knew that he would be there.
And so they began to seek him. But here's the last, the final
point. The Lord Jesus is the divider of all men. verses 12
and 13. And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him. And some said, He's a good man. Others said, No, but he deceiveth
the people. Albeit no man spake openly of
him for fear of the Jews. Some said one thing, some said
another. And I ask you, and I ask myself
tonight, but what say ye? But what say ye? Turn with me
to Matthew 16. Some say one thing, some say
another. But what say ye? Matthew chapter
16. Beginning with verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist. Some, Elias, and others, Jeremias,
are one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? What say ye? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. What say ye? Jesus Christ is
the divider of all men. Simon Peter answered, Thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. Is that your answer tonight? What say ye? Who is the son of
man? He is the Christ. Oh, aren't
you so thankful tonight if you can answer like Peter did, without
a shadow of doubt. Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's son. He's the Christ. He's the long-promised,
long-awaited Christ, the Messiah. He's the Son of God. Blessed
art thou. Let us sing a couple of verses
of a hymn.