thing about Randy is that he did bring some hot dog and fries. He was able to get a half a hot dog and some french fries, which is great. He hasn't been able to eat anything, hardly. The morphine is controlling the pain a lot better than the other medication was, so we're thankful for that. Continue to remember him in your prayers, if you will.

Let's begin our worship service with hymn number 46, Old for a Thousand Years.
Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise!
The glories of my God, O King!
The triumphs of His grace!
My gracious Master, and through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy names.
Jesus, the name that charms our fears and bids our sorrows cease,
is music in the sinner's ears with life and health and peace.
He breaks the power of castle sin, He sets the prisoner free!
His blood can make the palace clean, His blood availed for me!
Hear Him, ye dead, His praise ye done, Your loosened tongues employ!
Be mine with all your savior come, and keep me lame for joy.
Glory to God and praise and love be ever, ever giv'n
by saints below and saints above.
the church in her name.

Number 52, Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned.
Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Savior's throne.
His favorite ray of glory is crowned
His lips with grace o'erflow! His lips with grace o'erflow!
No more drunken will Him compare
Among the sons of men!
Fairer is He than all the fair
Who fill the heav'nly train!
Who filled the heav'nly tray
Who saw me plunged in deep distress
And who do I revere?
For me He bore the shameful cross
And carried all my grief and carried all my grief.
To Him I owe my life and breath and all the joys I had.
He makes me triumph over death and saves me from the grave and saves me from the grave.

Every Bible's term is the seventh chapter of John. Read the first ten verses.
After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. For he would not walk in jewelry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. 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 that he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, show thyself to the world.' Or neither did his brethren believe in him. And Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is already, always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it that it works thereover evil. Go ye up to this feast. Go not up yet. I go not up yet to this feast, for my time is not yet full. Come."

When he said these words unto them, He abodes still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone up, he went also to the feast, not openly, but as it were, in secret.

Let us pray.
Our Father, we bless you and thank you for great grace. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, for the unspeakable gift you've given to us. We thank you for electing Grace. We know that there was nothing in us or about us that could recommend us to you. We're thankful that you operate in grace, for truly we have no merit, and yet you have shown us favor. We bless you and thank you that you are who you are. And you do according to your will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay your hand to say unto you what you will stow. We know you purpose it and it shall stand. You speak it and it shall come to pass. We are thankful that in the annals of eternity, you've chosen people for yourself and an immutable company to save from their sin. And by His death, He redeemed them, washed them in His blood, sanctified them, was made to be their righteousness. And these wretched sinners, born in sin and conceived in iniquity, now stand before you, robed in the pristine righteousness of Jesus Christ, welcoming to your presence, accepted in the What can we say to these things, but if God be for us, who can be against us?

We pray for those who seek us, pray for Randy, continue to minister to him. Father, if you'd please turn his eyes to Jesus Christ alone. Pray for Ethel's family, the loss of Ethel, and pray you'd be with them and comfort them in Jesus Christ. For the others who requested prayer, we ask, Lord, your help for them. For those who have lost loved ones, those who have suffered cancer and sickness, we ask, Lord, your strength to them. Help us now, Lord, as we look at your word to understand and appreciate what these things have for us. Teach us thy way, O Lord, that we might walk in thy statutes. Help us, Lord, we pray in Christ's name.

Now this is a very interesting and telling episode in our Lord's dealing with unbelievers, because that's who He's talking to. Remember that in the last lesson, several of His disciples walked with Him no more, and what's left He's talking to now, He's still in Galilee. And our Lord applies a bit of misdirection to these men as He speaks to them, because He knew their intent was to get Him in trouble, in further trouble, with those who sought to kill him. He stayed in Galilee and would not go in the company of these men to Judea or to walk in Jewry, as he said. He was a wanted man among Jewry. And going there openly with these men would be nothing but trouble. So our Lord said, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, not in Judea, where the feast was. for he would not walk in jewelry because he knew the Jews sought to kill him. Now why did they seek to kill him? They seek to kill him for the words that he spoke, the things that he said. They followed him diligently and happily and full of astonishment at the things he was able to do, to turn water into wine, to feed 5,000 with a few loaves of fish. They will see him in days to come, heal the sick, raise the dead, And people were falling for that. But when he spoke about who he was, and this is what we've studied thus far in this study, is that he continued to reveal himself to be the son of God, yea, very God. And this did not sit right with the Jews.

Now it was the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles. That was a Jewish feast that was celebrated every year. And it celebrated the Israel's deliverance from Egypt. After they crossed the Red Sea and entered into the wilderness to a place called Sukkah, which means tent. They pitched their tents there in the wilderness and celebrated the fact that they had been delivered from Egypt's bondage. And so this became a yearly event practiced in the early days and then in Jerusalem in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was an eight-day feast, went on for eight days, lots of food, a lot of frivolity, a lot of going on, and many, many sacrifices offered during this time. Over an eight-day period, close to 900 lambs, kids, bullocks, and goats were slain on the altar in the temple. That's a lot of blood. And these people attended every year. And none of that bloodshed ever took away a sin. But it was something they did, and I felt out of due heel, perhaps to have fun, because you know, in these huge gatherings, people can have a good time. It was well attended. Very many Jews observed it. It was the Feast of the Tabernacles, it says in verse two.

Our Lord fully intended to attend this feast, however, not at this particular time. We saw in verse 10 that He entered there secretly rather than openly. Because the feast was at hand, His brethren sought to encourage Him to join the festivities and to do it publicly, showing Himself to be the Messiah by performing miracles. when it says, his brethren, verse three, said therefore unto him, depart hence and go into Judea, that the disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself secret to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself unto the world. So their interest was to have him go there to Judea to the Feast of Tabernacles and openly display himself by doing miracles and doing wondrous things, Because they say, inside you really want to be known. That's what they were basically saying.

The use of the word brethren and disciples are points of conjecture among brethren because it's clear in verse 5 that he was talking to these brethren who were talking about his disciples, but they were unbelievers. It says in verse four, for neither did his brethren believe in him. These were unbelievers. How then were they his brethren? He calls them, the Bible calls them brethren, and that's the word used throughout scripture for brethren. Some say this title may refer to them as members of his family, for often cousins as well as uncles were called brethren in a family. The Catholic Church declares that they could not be his actual brethren because they falsely assert that Mary remained virga intacto, or a virgin, after giving birth to Jesus Christ. She was a virgin still. This went a long way to the worship of Mary. However, these men weren't his actual brothers. They were actual brothers. They were siblings born of the marital relationship between Joseph and Mary. They were half-brothers, but they were brothers in his house. These were of his household, but not of the household of faith, for they were said to be unbelievers.

Either from the beginning of the relationship or sometime later, having no spiritual understanding, they began to hate or disallow Jesus as the Christ. Matthew chapter 10. Our Lord said something along these lines. He said in Matthew 10, verse 34, It's, Think not I am come to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's foes. shall be they of his own household." That was proven here. These are of his household. They don't believe in him. And they want to set him up to go to openly confess who he is. And they know the Jews sought to kill him. They knew the Jews sought to kill him.

Not knowing him truly, they might have sought to stoke his ego if they thought he was like them, but he wasn't. They would have him openly display his power, knowing that it would be his end. His miracles were never done merely to display power. Never done. They were done to help those in desperate need. Like if they were very hungry. Like if there was no wine at the wedding feast. There had to be wine at the wedding feast. Those were in need. Or, more explicitly, to authenticate the fact that what he was saying was true, was actually a message from God, because no man can do these things except God said it. Even Nicodemus understood that he was something other than the normal man, because he was able to do miracles.

But those miracles were so when people would stop when he did a miracle, then he would tell them something. Then he would preach the gospel to them.

One can almost discern the sinister tone in the words that they speak in verses three and four. The word disciples did not refer to the 12, but to those who followed him mostly for the miracles that he did. Of the same ilk of those in the previous chapter, chapter six and verse 66, that didn't follow him anymore because of the words he spoke. They had followed him for the miracles that he did. That's what he said in the first part of the sixth chapter. You follow me for you see the miracles that I do. You follow me because I fed your bellies. That's why you follow me." But then he began to speak and they began to be filled with anger and they wanted to kill him. And from this point in verse 66, from that time in verse chapter 6, many of his disciples, there's that word disciples again, went. back and walked with him no more.

So these fellows that he's talking to here in chapter 7 are the same kind of folk. They have followed him. They have walked with him. And these are his brothers. And they probably hung around him. Verse 5 explains why they approached him in the manner that they did not believe in him. This to me is a wondrous thing. They have lived with him for decades. They have lived with him for decades. And when he was 30, he began his ministry. And when he opened his mouth and began to preach, they didn't believe him. Even jealousy or envy may have played a part in this ploy. I don't know, but they were his brethren according to the flesh. And we know what that says in scripture, that that which is born of flesh is flesh. And they that are in the flesh can never please God. That's made clear these were born of Moses and Mary and Joseph, but they were not born of Mary and God They were not born of God as Jesus Christ was They were they were born of the flesh

and right at the beginning of this chapter of this book in chapter 1 Our Lord explains how a person is born from above and how he's not It says in verse 12 of chapter 1 but as many as received him To them gave he power or authority to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name, which were born, not of blood, that's the flesh, or the ancestry, not of the will of the flesh, that is not by decision or by choosing. nor of the will of man. That is some other man assuring you that you have received the birth of God. How is a man born? God must birth him into His kingdom. God must birth him. He does it through the priest world. We know it's through the gospel that that takes place.

Now think about this. These men, these brethren, lived with Him all these years. Now who was Jesus Christ? As a young man, when he was just 12 years old, over in Luke chapter 2, in verse 41, it says, now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, now I don't know whether his brothers were born yet, but they probably were. They went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the Feast, and when he had fulfilled the days as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, And Joseph and his mother knew it not. But they supposing him to have been in the company, in a day's journey, they saw him among the kinfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him, they turned back at him to Jerusalem city camp. They came to pass that to him. They found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, the teachers, the rabbis, both hearing them and asking them questions.

Here's his 12 years old. This child from his birth, Until the day he started preaching the gospel at 30 years old, never sinned. He was perfectly righteous. He was the only holy man that ever lived. He walked upon this earth. And his brethren didn't believe him. They didn't believe him. Think about that. People think that they can look at some religious person and figure out that they're righteous. Thirty years, he walked in perfection. They didn't know. They didn't believe him. They were unbelievers. His brethren were unbelievers. Our Lord declares that He's not going to the feast yet, because His time had not yet come. That's what He says in verse 16. Jesus said, My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. Your time is always ready. Now what's He talking about? He was not speaking of His cross, as He did several times in Scripture, speaking of His time coming. He's talking about Him that this feast now and reveal himself. That's what he's saying. He would not reveal himself publicly at the feast, but he told his brethren that they could go openly. Go on up there and see. Your time's already. You can go any time you want to. Their lives were not in danger as his was. Nobody would be looking for them as men were looking for him. We'll see in our next study.

And as soon as his brethren went to Judea to the feast, people started asking, where's he? Where's your brother? Where is he? Because they wanted to kill him. They were unbelievers. They could freely obey their duty to go to the feast and have a good time. But their time was always ready because the world could not hate them. That's what it says. I don't know, it says the world cannot hate you. Cannot hate you. Those at the feast would not appreciate being called the world, I'm sure. Because that word was used to describe all infidels who were not Jewish. But our Lord's words designated these men as unbelievers. They were of the world. His people were in the world, according to John 17, but not of the world. But these men were of the world. They were Jews. They were the brothers of Jesus Christ. They were religious men because they were going to the Feast of Tabernacles. But they were of the world.

Now, if you told them that, they would probably get upset, because they thought you'd probably be talking about Gentiles, or rebels, or pagans. But our Lord said in John chapter 15, verse 19, talking to His true disciples, how they were not of the world in the way that was proven. Now remember, our Lord says, the world cannot hate you. In John 15, verse 19, He says, if you were of the world, The world would love his own. But you are not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hateth you." He said, the world can't hate you. Why? Because you are the world. The world loves you because you go right along with the word. But he said the world hates me because I tell them something, because I open my mouth. The world don't hate me because I raise the dead or heal the sick or make the blind to see or the lame to walk. They don't hate me for that. They hate me because I tell them something, because I speak to an issue. The world cannot hate you, but it hate me because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." The world could not hate them, but the world could do nothing but hate the Lord Jesus Christ because He testified that their works were evil. He told them the truth about who they were. We'll find that over and over again, and we find that the world He calls evil. It's not the Gentile world. And this may, language here may imply that he's headed to the Gentiles. He's headed to the Gentiles.

The interesting thing about this is that the context is about this feast. Now this is a very holy time. It's a remembrance. Remember as we studied our studies in the Old Testament, over and over again, the Lord said, remember you were abundant in Egypt. And I delivered you. He said that over and over again, continually in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses said it many times before they went into the promised land. He said it many times. Remember what you were in Egypt. You were slaves and God delivered you. God delivered you. This was part of that religious celebration that God had delivered in a very supposedly holy time when men ought to really consider the fact that they've been delivered from bondage. That they're no longer slaves. But that wasn't why they went. They went because it was the feast. They went because it had become tradition. It was something they did every year.

Our Lord dealt with that context of going to the feast. The feast we know, those tents, those were tabernacles. That word sukkoth means tent or tabernacle. We know that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ and the flesh, the Word was made flesh and dwelt. The Word is tabernacle. The Word made flesh and tabernacle among us and we beheld His glory as the only begotten Father. They were erected every year. Every one of those tents spoke of Jesus Christ. They didn't see Him. They didn't believe in Him. They didn't believe in Him. To the attendants of that feast, to these brethren, the attendants of the feast, our Lord is saying, that was evil works. That was evil works, though to them it was an annual affair, and they were keeping the tradition handed it down to them by the fathers. Because the prayers of the wicked, scripture says, the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. The prayers, he says, the sacrifices of the wicked or an abomination to the Lord. Remember, Jim Byrd used to say that to those people who stood outside the Walmart with their bells and barrels every year ringing that bell. And Jim would walk by and say that sacrifices are wicked or an abomination to the Lord. He just had to say things like that, and he did. Works of religion, as moral and as important to society as they may be, are evil. Jesus Christ testified that they were evil, that the works they did were evil before God.

Having said this, he sent them on their way while he remained in Galilee. It says in verse 8 and 9, Go ye up unto this feast. I go not yet, I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come. It ain't time for me to go yet, is what he's saying. When he had said these things to them, he abode in Galilee, and they went on to the feast.

When his time was come to go, he went up secretly among the crowd, walked among the crowd, because when his time would come, it would be open, it would be obvious, and it would be very public. Look at verse 37. In the last day, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Any man is thirsty. What does he say? He's saying, he that believeth on me, as the scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. He's saying, he that believes on me will never thirst.

Back to what he's been saying. eat my flesh and drink my blood. He said to the woman at the well, if you drink this water, you'll never thirst again. What is it said of these men, his brethren? They don't believe on him. He said any man that believes on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. He said I'm not ready to reveal myself yet.

So at the eighth day of the feast, the last day, and historical records are that By this time, the altar and the slough that went down to that pond was nothing but foaming blood. And it was said that on this last day of the feast, the priest would take buckets of water and pour them on the altar to wash all that blood off. Maybe it was then, as they were pouring the water, our Lord stepped up and said, anybody out there thirsty? You've been religious eight days. It's not done anything for you. You go home tomorrow and it won't mean a thing to you. You'll come back next year and it's the same thing over and over again. But if you're thirsty, come to me and drink.

When our Lord gets public, He has something to say. Father, bless this room. Stand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.