John, Pt. 38 | John 7:14-24

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June 11, 2023 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN 37388 Pastor Jeff Rice

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John, Pt. 39 | John 7:25-32

John, Pt. 39 | John 7:25-32

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Now, I realize I would be an idiot not to mention that I am competing against the smell of lasagna today.
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It has definitely taken the room.
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I hope to take it back, but I realize I'm not that great of a preacher, so I get it.
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If you will at this time open your copy of the scriptures. It will be in John chapter 7. We will consider verses 14 through 24.
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John chapter 7 verses 14 through 24. This is our 38th message in this wonderful gospel.
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Let me pray. Oh God, Lord, in the name of Jesus, your
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Son, the Christ, we come to you. We ask, Lord, for your blessings.
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Lord, we ask that you will bless the ministering of your word through this vessel.
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Lord, we pray that you use it in the hearing of your people. Lord, that they will focus on the words, the teachings of Jesus Christ.
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Lord, let me not be a stumbling stone in delivering this message.
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I believe in the Holy Spirit, and I pray this day that through your Spirit, you work through me in Christ's name.
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Amen. Our theme for this Lord's Day is teaching, which seems right because Jesus is about to begin his teaching.
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And our proposition this Lord's Day is knowledge concerning spiritual matters must come from above and not below.
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I repeat, our proposition, that which I aim to prove, is that knowledge concerning spiritual matters must come from above and not from below.
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Above meaning heaven, below meaning earth. What was true in the time of Jesus when he made this statement, my teaching is not mine, must be true for us today.
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Join me as we read this text, beginning in verse 14.
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But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.
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The Jews then were marveling, saying, how has this man become learned, having not been educated?
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So Jesus answered them and said, my teaching is not mine, but from him who sent me.
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If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God or I speak for myself.
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He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
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Do not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you does the law.
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Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answer, you have a demon.
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Who seeks to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work and you all marveled.
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Marvel, for this reason Moses has given you circumcision.
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Not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And so on the
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Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the
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Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the
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Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
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Again, knowledge concerning spiritual matters must come from above and not below.
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What was true in the time of Jesus when he made that statement, my teaching is not mine, must be true today.
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No man standing in the pulpit, in a pulpit, has the authority of Jesus.
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But every man that stands in the pulpit better have the same source of information that Jesus had.
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You're being here today, I pray, is not for a gimmick. Especially if you know this church, you know there's no gimmicks.
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You're being here today is because you want to hear the Word of God. That is why
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I'm here. Not for a gimmick, not for a puppet show, not to say look at this hand while doing a trick with this hand.
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We want to hear from God. I better turn this on. Sorry.
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We want to hear from God. I want to hear from God. I believe God is going to speak to us today through this portion where Jesus is speaking plain truth to the
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Jews. In our outline, Jesus vindicates the truth of his ministry by giving us five ways to understand his authority.
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Point number one, his wellspring of his, the wellspring of his knowledge.
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Point number two, his self -confidence. Point number three, his self -revelation.
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Point number four, his judgment. And point number five, his works. And as we transition,
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I meant to mention this last week, though I know I've mentioned it two or three times before already, but I don't want there to be any confusion.
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In verse one where it mentions the Jews, let's read verse one real quick. Chapter 7 verse 1,
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And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he was unwilling to walk in Judah, Judea, because the
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Jews were seeking to kill him. Right here where it mentions the Jews.
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In verse one, the Jews is not speaking about all Jews. It's not lumping all
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Jewish people together. In this gospel, if you remember,
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I know I spoke about it whenever the first message that we did in this book was one of the times that I've mentioned this.
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In this gospel, when John says the Jews, for the most part, he's speaking about the religious leaders.
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Like this has become, this is John's way of saying them. Right? The ones who are against us.
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The Jews. It's become a word like whenever in Acts it says,
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And they were called Christians. Right? This is, Christians were not going around saying, Hey, we're Christians.
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It was a word to make fun of us. That's them Christ -like ones.
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Them Christ -Christians. And we said, Okay, I'll take it. Well, this is what
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John is doing concerning the Jews. So in this gospel, for the most part, when it says the
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Jews, he is speaking about the religious leaders and not the common people. Look at verses 11 through 13.
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So the Jews were seeking him at the feast and saying,
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Where is he? So this is the religious leaders. Where is he?
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And there was some grumbling among the crowds concerning him, and some were saying,
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He is a good man. And others were saying, No, on the contrary, he leads the crowd astray.
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So here we have two groups. We have the Jews, the religious crowd,
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I mean the religious Jews, and then we have the crowd. And in this crowd, you have two separate groups of people.
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You have a group of people among the crowds that were saying, Jesus is a good man.
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Right? These are probably those that partook in the feeding of the 20 ,000.
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He gave me food. He fed me. He's a good man. And then others were saying, who also could have been a part of this crowd, he leads the crowds astray.
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So there was conflict even among the crowd of who Jesus is.
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Right? That's always the conflict. Who is Jesus? And it's still the conflict in our message today.
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So point number one, the wellspring of his knowledge.
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This is taken from verses 14 through 16. 14 through 16.
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But it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.
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The Jews then were marveling, saying,
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How has this man become learned, not having been educated?
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So Jesus answered them and said, My teaching is not mine, but him who sent me.
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First thing to notice, Jesus went up to the feast. Remember at this feast, the
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Feast of Booths, all men were to go to the feast. You cannot be a
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Jewish man and not attend the feast. So first thing to notice,
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Jesus goes to the feast. The Feast of Booths has already begun. Remember I said last week that outside of the two rest days, the
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Feast of Booths was to last seven days. This feast, this Feast of Booths was a celebration that remembered the children of Israel who lived in booths when
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God took them out of the land of Egypt. So as they're traveling through the desert, they lived in tents, booths, tabernacles.
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They were to, at this feast, they were to live in booths, tents for seven days as a way to remember what happened during the time of the wilderness.
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Right? And I pointed out that that we do something similar but greater when we partake in the
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Lord's Supper. We partake in remembering what Christ Jesus done for us.
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Right? In the gospel, we, this is my body which is broken for you.
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This is the blood of the new covenant. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
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So when we partake in the Lord's Supper, we do so in remembrance of what Christ has done for us.
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The Feast of Booths, in that way, they had to gather all the men. They were to live in tents for seven days as a way to remember what
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God did when he took them out of the land of Egypt. That's what this feast was a celebration of.
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When Jesus makes it to this feast, he goes to the temple and he begins to teach.
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Hence my theme, teaching. We're entering a portion where Jesus begins to teach to the religious
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Jews. And I would also add to anyone that was there, it could have been a great mixed crowd.
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Now it doesn't tell us what he was teaching. It just tells us he began to teach.
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But I do believe having a knowledge of Scripture after walking through this book, we can make an educated guess.
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Right? We can make an educated guess. So far in this gospel, the message has been about the divinity of Jesus, his incarnation, and belief in him for eternal life.
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By the flow of this chapter, I would say most likely these things are being taught from the old covenant.
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Jesus taught that he was God. He taught that he came down from heaven and he taught that belief in him, by believing in him, you would have eternal life.
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Right? That's been the whole message. It's been repeatable so many times. He is
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God. He has come down from heaven and eternal life is by believing in him.
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That's what it's been teaching us so far. So an educated guess would be that that's what he's teaching in the temple this day.
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I would say that he is interpreting for them by using the Scriptures this wellspring of knowledge.
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Right? Jesus, his wellspring of knowledge is his interpretation of the Scripture that he is presenting to them.
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And I would say this is because of his divinity. So let me read that again.
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Let me read that in totality. I just kind of broke it up. I would say that he is interpreting for them the
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Scriptures through this wellspring of knowledge because of his divinity.
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So this wellspring of knowledge that Jesus brings to the table, right, it has to do with his divinity.
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We may mention that there is only one God. Right? And in this one
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God, this one being of God, is three distinct persons. God the Father, God the
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Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And Jesus reaches into this wellspring of knowledge and he begins to teach these things,
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I believe, from the oath covenant in the temple. It seems that all the
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Jews here, both the religious Jews and those that were among the crowd, like this is a good man.
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No, he's leading the crowd astray, are marveling. They do not understand,
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I would say especially for the religious Jews, they do not understand how it is that Jesus has this knowledge without being educated.
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Right? Jesus didn't go to their schools, the school of the prophets. He didn't attend these religious meetings with them.
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You say, well, how do you know that? Well, it tells us that he was unlearned. So again, that's another educated guess we have to take.
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Jesus points out, hold on, Jesus then points to the first person of the
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Trinity and he says, speaking of the Father, my teaching is not mine but he who sent me.
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Who sent Jesus? So when Jesus says that his teaching is not his but him who sent him, he is pointing to the
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Father. Remember in the covenant of redemption, God the Father purposed to save a people.
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God the Son comes in time, accomplishes the purpose by death, burial, resurrection, ascension.
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God the Holy Spirit applies the purpose. Jesus makes clear that his teaching is not from him, it's from above.
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It's not from below. He didn't gather this information while he was on earth.
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He's saying my teaching is from above. And here we have one of the most subtle ways of Jesus speaking about his own divinity, his incarnation, pointing to the
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Father. The Father sent the Son for God's soul of the world that he gave his only begotten
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Son. Right? So let's look at a few verses that point us to this. So in John chapter 1,
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I said a few, I think there's seven. My view is off by some.
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So John chapter 1, look at verses 1 & 2. In the beginning was the Word, and the
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Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Greek structure actually has it in God was the
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Word. He was in the beginning with God. All things that came into being through him, and apart from him, nothing came into being that came into being.
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Look at verse 14. And the Word became flesh. So this Word that was in the beginning with God, was
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God, who created all things, came into flesh, became flesh.
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And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we have behold his glory, glory, as of the only begotten from the
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Father, full, see that from the Father, that has been sent, full of grace and truth.
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Verse 18. No one has seen God, I would add, this is speaking about the
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Father, at any time. The only begotten God, the
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Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has, he has explained him.
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One of the purposes of Jesus's coming was to explain to us the
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Father. Turn over a page or two to chapter 3. Look at verse 13. Verse 13.
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And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the
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Son of Man, who is in heaven. Again pointing that he was once there, and he came into time.
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He was sent. John 3 16 17. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
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Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, meaning they shall not be destroyed, but have eternal life.
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For God did not, listen, send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
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Look at verse 19. And this is the judgment, that light, the light has come into the world.
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And man loved darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. Why were these, why was this
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Jewish group of people rejecting Jesus? Because their deeds were evil.
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Light has come into the world. He's described as the Word, the
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Son, and the light. All this having to do with, with him being
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God, him coming into the world, and that belief in him was eternal life.
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Speaking to the religious leaders, Jesus says in John 6 38 through 40.
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John 6 38 through 40. He says, For I have come down from heaven.
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What's he teaching there? Incarnation. Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
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Now this is the will of him who sent me, that all that he has given to me.
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Think of the covenant of redemption. He purposed to save a people, and to save them he sends his
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Son. I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my
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Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life.
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And I myself will raise him up on the last day. Also, in John 6,
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Jesus claims that he is the bread that came down from heaven, and that eternal life was to eat of his flesh, and drink of his blood.
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In which we concluded that this was to identify yourself with the death of Christ.
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Right? He's not teaching two ways of salvation. One way, believe in him, and the other way was to eat him, and drink his blood.
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Right? There's not two ways of salvation. When someone believes in Christ, they identify themselves with the death of Christ.
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So by believing, you are eating his flesh, and drinking his blood.
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It was a way to identify yourself with him. I believe
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Jesus was once again teaching these three subjects, his divinity, his incarnation, and belief in him for eternal life.
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And all this religious group could talk about was that he was unlearned.
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They were more concerned, I mean, they wasn't concerned about challenging his interpretation.
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They were more concerned about what seminary he went to. I'm gonna leave that right there.
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They wasn't trying to challenge his interpretation. What school did you go to?
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Where'd you get this from? If Jesus would have got it from a school, what would he have been doing?
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Repeating from the rabbis. Repeating from the rabbis.
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He would have been telling them something that they would have already known, but instead he's telling them something that they don't understand.
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Point number two, his self -confidence. We get this from verse 17. Verse 17, if anyone is willing to do his will, he will know about the teaching whether it is from God or I speak from myself.
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Here we see the self -confidence and the authority of Jesus. Jesus spoke like no one else, right?
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He spoke like no one else. The Jews recognize this in the gospel. Matthew records for us at the end of chapter 7 beginning in verse 28 through 29.
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It says this, Matthew 7 28 and 29. Now it happened that when
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Jesus had finished these words, I'm about the Sermon on the Mount, the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
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For he was teaching them as one who has authority and not as their scribes.
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Their scribes went to the schools. Their scribes quoted from other scribes.
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A repeatable information that flowed. Everyone knew the same thing.
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Jesus comes down and he's not speaking like the scribes. He's not quoting from other scribes.
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He takes his wellspring of knowledge and he interprets for them the scriptures.
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Jesus here in this chapter is challenging the
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Jewish leaders calling them to do the will of God. The will of God here is to believe.
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It's to believe. To believe that Jesus is the long -awaited
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Messiah, the Mashiach, that he came down from heaven. And I know this because that's the only way to know if the teaching that Jesus is teaching is from God.
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The only way to truly know that Jesus' teaching is from God is to believe in Jesus Christ.
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If a person isn't a believer, they will not know if the teaching comes from God.
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That person, the unbeliever, believes that the teaching of Jesus is at best from a good moral teacher.
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Meaning that it is from himself and nothing more than the teachings of a man.
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Nothing more than the teachings of a scribe. If you're not born again, you're not going to know if the teaching of Jesus is the teaching of God, if it came down from heaven, or if it came about from below on the earth.
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To have an understanding is to be a person who is doing the will of God.
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I mean that's what he says in verse 17. If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know about the teaching.
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His will is to believe in Jesus. You must be born again. Unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Unless you're born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Only those who have seen and entered the kingdom of God know for a fact that what
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Jesus is teaching is from God. Jesus taught that he is
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God, that he came down from heaven, and that believing in him was eternal life. Show me an unbeliever that will confess that.
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There is none. We're saying that a man who lived almost 2 ,000 years ago claimed to be
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God, that he was in the beginning, and he came down into time, and that you have to believe in him to have eternal life.
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If you're an unbeliever, you're not going to believe that, and you're not going to do the will of God. As we transition concerning the will of God, what is the understanding of the will?
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Let's again read verse 17, but just the first part. If anyone is willing to do his will.
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If anyone is willing to do his will. So right here we need to ask ourselves, what is this will?
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And I made mention earlier that it's to believe. So there's three ways to interpret this.
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One is, is this speaking about the decreed will of God? Meaning, is this speaking about what
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God has determined to take place before all eternity? When he says, if anyone is willing to do his will.
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Is that will speaking about his determined decree of what will happen?
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And to that I say, no. That's not what it's speaking about. Is it speaking about his effective will?
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Meaning, the things that God doesn't, I mean the things that we do that doesn't please
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God. Right? Is he telling us to do his will in the sense of an effective will?
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And I say, no. I don't think that that's what it's speaking about either. So the only other will it could be speaking about is his perceptive will.
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Is this speaking about his perceptive will? Which means what
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God has commanded for us to obey. What God has commanded and that we should obey.
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And I say yes to that. Because God has commanded that we believe in Christ.
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God has appointed a day when he's going to judge all men according to the man Christ Jesus.
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Right? For God so loved the world that whoever, he gave his only son, that whoever believes.
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His will is for us to believe. But this is not a decreed will. He hasn't decreed that all men will believe.
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It's a perceptive will. And if anyone who is willing to do his will to believe in Christ, he will know that the teaching comes from God.
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So point number three, self -revelation. Verse 18, he who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.
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But he who is seeking the glory from the one who sent him, he is true and there is no unrighteousness in him.
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So this is building off of what was stated earlier in verse 17. Here Jesus is elaborating on the teaching of himself.
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If Jesus is, if Jesus's teaching is of himself, meaning it doesn't come from God, then he is seeking his own glory.
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And this is what the things that you have to ask yourself. Was Jesus, was his teaching from above or was it from below?
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If it's from below, he's seeking his own glory. However, all throughout the ministry of Jesus, Jesus points to the
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Father. Remember verse 16, my teaching is not mine but from him who sent me.
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Again, we go back to chapter 6. We just read a portion of this earlier.
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We're going to read right in front of it, beginning in verse 37. All that the
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Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will not cast out.
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We read this part earlier, but just think about what I just said. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
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Also look at verse 44. No one can come to me unless the
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Father who sent me draws him. Verse 46. Not that anyone has seen the
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Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.
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Verse 57. As the living
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Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. Did you see that? He says that he lives, speaking about his earthly life, his humanity.
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He doesn't live because of the Father, meaning of his deity, but he's speaking of his life that he has on earth.
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He lives because of the Father, meaning that him coming into time, he was sent by the
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Father. As the living Father sent me, and I live because the
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Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me.
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He points to the Father. He's given glory to God. And look at 18b.
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Well, let's just read all of 18 again. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there's no unrighteousness in him.
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Was anything said just then where he was boasting in himself, or was he boasting in the fact that he was sent by the
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Father? Now listen to this. Jesus' self -revelation of himself is that he is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, and that they, the
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Jewish people, as well as you and I, should be able to look at the teachings of Jesus, and see that Jesus gave glory to the
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Father. And that by observing that truth, we, you and I, them, should be able to understand that Jesus, what
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Jesus is saying, is true, and that Jesus himself came down from heaven. So we should be able to look at what
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Jesus is saying, because Jesus says that if it comes from above, it's true. If it comes from below, it's not true.
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We should be able to look at what he's saying, and say to ourselves, this is what Jesus is saying is true.
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It came from above. And if we say that his teaching came from above, we should say, okay, well if his teaching came from above, then what he is saying is true.
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Then, and you and I, we should be able to take what
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Jesus has given us, and discern for ourself if it's true. Now Jesus does something here in the transition between verses 18 and 19, and it will help us to understand this point better, but as well as the next point.
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So point number four, his judgment, which is taken from verses 19 through 20.
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We're going to read 19 before we read 18. We'll come back to it. Look at verse 19.
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Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you does the law?
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Why do you seek to kill me? Now did any of you catch that?
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I'll give it to you. Remember, before I do, remember the gospel.
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We looked at it last week, the righteous for the unrighteous. It's taught in 1 Peter chapter 3, right?
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The righteous meaning the law keeper, the unrighteous meaning the law breaker, Jesus the law keeper, you and I the law breaker.
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The righteous, the law keeper, Jesus, the unrighteous, the law breaker, you and I, the great exchange.
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What he did accounts to us. We could not keep the law.
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Christ comes and keeps the law. We should be punished for breaking the law. Christ comes and he is punished for our breaking the law.
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The righteous for the unrighteous. That's the gospel message, right? Now look at verse 18 again.
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He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true right here, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
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Jesus is saying he has not broken the law. There is no unrighteousness in him.
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He has not broken the law. Look at verse 19 again. Did not Moses give you the law?
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And yet none of you does the law. Why do you seek to kill me?
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Right? If you break the law, for the most part, from what he's being accused of is death.
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It's death. Jesus is telling them that they have broken the law.
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So here we have the unrighteous trying to kill the righteous. What the gospel is, is that the unrighteous, the righteous for the unrighteous, and we have the unrighteous trying to kill the righteous.
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Jesus doesn't deserve death because he kept the law, and that is to them and to you and I, so them as well as you and I, we deserve death because they, as well as you and I, have not kept the law.
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We are the lawbreakers. Jesus doesn't deserve death. He kept the law. Them, you and I, deserve death because we have not kept the law.
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Listen, God is good. You are not. You are not good.
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You do not have moral excellence. You are liars, just like me. You're thieves.
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You're adulterers. You're disobedient to your parents. You have not loved God the way the
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Scripture commands. We have broken God's law. We deserve death, and that's what
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Jesus is saying to them. Did not Moses give you the law, and none of you do the law.
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None of you keep the law, but you seek to kill me, the one who comes from God, who speaks forth from God, who has this wellspring of knowledge that's not found on earth, and if that's true, that means there's no unrighteousness in me.
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It's backwards. The judgment of Jesus is going right to the very thing that they profess to hold to, the law of God, the law of Moses.
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They were the people under the law, and Jesus tells them that you're trying to kill me for breaking the law, and I'm the only one here that hasn't broken it.
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Look at verse 20, and the crowd answer, you have a demon who's seeking to kill you.
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I'm going to read that again, but I want to read it with verse 20. I mean, excuse me,
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I'm going to read verse 20 again, and I want to read with it verse 25, and the crowd answer, you have a demon.
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So they're telling him he has a demon because of what he's teaching, but specifically because he tells him that they haven't killed the law of Moses, and they're seeking to kill him.
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Who seeks to kill you? Look at verse 25. So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill?
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Right here you see a mixed crowd. Not everyone in this crowd were in agreement.
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Some said he was a good man. Some said, no, he's leading the crowd astray.
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You have the religious Jews, and you have the common Jews. The common
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Jews were probably the one that says, who's seeking to kill you? And the other part of the common
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Jews were pointing to the religious Jews, and were saying, is this not the man that they're seeking to kill?
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The Jews, the religious leaders, wanted Jesus dead, and some of the others believed that he was, again, he was a good man.
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No, he's leading the crowd astray. How was he leading the crowd astray? He was trying to take them from the old covenant to the new covenant.
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He came to fulfill the old covenant. He came to fulfill the old covenant in order to establish the new covenant.
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The old covenant was being done away with. The new covenant was about to be given birth to.
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All of them have broken God's law. None of them, outside of his true disciples, were doing the perceptive will of God, aiming, so here's the perceptive will, aiming, notice
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I said aiming, not doing, but aiming to keep
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God's command. And right here, we venture into the third use of the law, right?
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The third use of the law speaks about, we use the law of God as a guide.
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The Christian uses the law of God as a guide for our lives, right?
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And we use the flashlight of Jesus, knowing what Jesus has done with the law and gospel distinction, and we can read the
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Bible, and when it says, you know, for us to do something in order to live, we say, okay,
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Jesus has done the something that I was called to do in order to live. Now, that's not saying for you not to do it, but you don't do it in order to live.
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We use the law of God as a guide for our life, knowing what Jesus has done.
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That way, we're not living a life that's trying to keep the law in order to earn favor with God.
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But why do we keep the law? Because Jesus, God, Father, and the
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Lord Jesus Christ sent to us His Spirit. And if you're a believer today, you have the
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Holy Spirit in you. And according to Ezekiel chapter 36, that He has sprinkled you with clean water,
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He's removed your heart of stone, given you a heart of flesh, and He puts His Spirit in you, and that Spirit obeys the law.
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So even in your obedience, you can't pat yourself on the back. It's not you.
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It's the Spirit that's in you. When you're loving and joyful, and you're doing the things that you're supposed to do, according to the
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Spirit, guess what? That's the Spirit of God in you. When you're not loving, when you're not joyful, when you're not doing what you're called to do, guess what?
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That's you. That's me. When I'm in my flesh, it's me.
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That's not the Spirit. But God has given to us His Spirit. And He's given to us
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His law word. And we're to use it as a guide for our lives, knowing the difference between law and gospel.
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Point number five. Hopefully this will wrap everything in a bow, make it make sense. His works.
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We see this in verses 21 through 24. And Jesus answered them.
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I did one work. Remember He's talking, they just said, you have a demon who seeks to kill you. Jesus answered them.
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I did one work and you marvel. I would say that this one work is speaking about chapter five, where He healed the lame man on the
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Sabbath. And one work and you marvel. For this reason,
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Moses gave, Moses has given to you, given you circumcision.
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Not because it is from Moses, but from the Father. Speaking of who did God give circumcision to?
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Abraham. And it was passed down through Abraham. And on the
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Sabbath, you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the
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Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me?
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Because I made an entire man's will on the Sabbath. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge according to righteousness.
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This means to make righteous judgment. Judge rightly is what this is saying.
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All right, so first thing I want to point out is differences in translation.
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So for this reason equals the word therefore. The ESV, which
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I love, right? I preach from the LSB, but in my own private reading,
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I read from the ESV. I read faster, that's why I do that. I got to read six chapters every night.
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And so in order for me to get that done in a timely fashion, the ESV just works better for me.
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I've been reading it for about 10 or so years. So it's just the Bible that I read from.
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I do my study, preaching and study from the LSB allows me to slow it down and walk through it.
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So for this reason equals the word therefore. The ESV and as well as other translations choose not to include any of these words.
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These words meaning for this reason, or therefore, or any other synonym that goes with that.
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Now, if you add for this reason, or therefore, when you read it in context, so if again, you go back to verse 22, for this reason,
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Moses gave to you circumcision. The King James will say, Moses therefore gave you circumcision.
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So that the word therefore, for this reason points to something. These words are not just there, they're pointing back to something that's already been said or a teaching that he's been presenting to us.
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So if you add for this reason, and you read it in the context, it seems to say that the reason, one of the reasons that circumcision was given was so that on the
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Sabbath, a needed work could be done. A needed work could be done.
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They needed to circumcise on the eighth day, even if it fell on a
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Sabbath. And so because that is true, Jesus is pointing out, that's why it was given to Moses.
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Jesus makes the point that if a child could be circumcised on the Sabbath, then he could heal a man on the
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Sabbath, and it's not breaking the Sabbath. So when they would circumcise a child, it was not breaking, they're not, you know, commandment versus commandment, right?
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I gotta break this commandment to keep this commandment, yeah. I gotta rob Peter to pay Paul, right?
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Paul is a little scarier than Peter, so if you're gonna rob one, you rob Peter and you don't mess with Paul, right?
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Paul will write a letter and it'll be over for you. Uh, sorry about that. Leviticus chapter 12 verse 3.
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Now on the, this is the, this is law word right here. Now on the eighth day, the flesh of the foreskin shall be circumcised.
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But you're not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. So when the two come together, by circumcising, they wasn't breaking the
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Sabbath. How? Because it was a needed work.
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It was a needed work. The Jews didn't let the
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Sabbath they rest interfere with circumcision. And Jesus wasn't going to let their view, their eschewed view, their wrong view of the
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Sabbath day interfere with his divine mission, his works that he was sent here to do.
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And of course, a part of his divine mission was to die for the sins of his bride.
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Now this is where it gets tricky. God uses the, remember how I pointed out that God uses the information of the
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Jews who grew up around him, who knew his earthly father and his mother.
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They grew up with them. They hung out with them. They played tag. I don't know what they play back then.
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I'm just making up stuff, right? They played your it, you know, and took off running. They played with Jesus. They knew Jesus.
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They knew his family. He used that information and causes them not to believe in order for something to happen and for the gospel to take place.
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Again, this is what's taking place here. God uses the eschewed view, their eschewed view on the
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Sabbath, the eschewed view of the Jews that they held as a way to come against Jesus.
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You cannot heal a man on the Sabbath. That's what they think.
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Circumcision? Fine. Healing a man who's been lame all of his life? No way.
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You cannot do it. He uses their view so that they would come against Jesus and that with the charge of blasphemy, blaspheming would ultimately lead to the death of Jesus.
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So I know that's kind of like a hard place to end it, but what do we do with that?
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What do we do, right? Jesus presents to us his wellspring of knowledge and that it had to come from above and not below, and that we are to be able to look at the life of Jesus and what he has taught and to see that his teaching is not pointing to himself, but it's pointing to something greater and we should be able to discern, and I would say that this is being born from above, that we are able to discern that if his teaching is from God.
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So what should we do? If you are a non -Christian, again, you are to look at the criteria
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Jesus has given to you to test him. First question is, did
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Jesus speak with authority? The Jews even said it. He doesn't teach like the scribes.
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He speaks with authority. Second, in the information that was given to us to believe, is that information giving glory to himself?
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Did Jesus speak with authority and is the teaching of Jesus, does it give glory to himself or does it give glory to the father?
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If it gives glory to the father, that's the criteria, then you should believe in Jesus because there is no unrighteousness in him.
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If he's not taking glory for himself, he's saying that there's no unrighteousness in himself, right?
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When I do something, that's my wife, I love to brag, right? I love to pat myself on the back. Love it.
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I love it. Guess who I'm giving glory to? Right here, right?
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I popped a willy a couple weeks ago and fell on my butt and I hurt myself pretty bad. Why did
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I try that? Because I thank a lot of myself and my abilities.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I don't have much ability now and I'm in my 40s, right? I'm always telling people like I can rap, like there's things that I can do, like I can draw, there's so much that I can do that I'm patting myself on the back and the glory
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I'm giving it to myself. Jesus does not give glory to himself.
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He gives the glory to his father. He said, I am God and I was sent.
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I came into the world. The father sent me but believing in me is eternal life.
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Eternal life is with the father. He's pointing to the father. He's doing things that you and I don't do.
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If you are a Christian, remember the righteous for the unrighteous. But if you are a Christian, the teaching here should strengthen your faith and give you hope in him, not hope in me.
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I'll fill you. I always say this, I learned this and you know, like going to AA meetings and stuff like that.
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You can, you know, you can worship a doorknob but that thing will turn on you. And the drums go, right?
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And it's true. You can put your faith and your worship in anything. Those things will turn against you.
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Only God is who we look to. And if you're a Christian, the teachings of Jesus should strengthen your faith and hope in him.
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Why? Because he claimed to be God. He claimed to come down from heaven and that faith in him, belief in him is eternal life.
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And you can look at this criteria that he's given us. Did he give glory to himself?
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Because if he didn't, then there's no unrighteousness in him. And these religious leaders, as they kept the law, they said, look what
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I have done. They're just like me and they're just like you. I fast three times a week. I give a tenth of all that I have bragging upon their own glories.
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I'll leave you with two questions and I won't give you any answers. Is the knowledge and teaching of Christ from above?
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Is the knowledge and teaching of Christ from above? That's the first question. Second question.
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And am I, as your pastor, teaching the message of Christ?
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That's what you have to ask yourself. The teaching of Christ from above and is this man who's preaching to me is what he's saying from Christ?
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Because if I'm not teaching from above, if I'm not pulling from that same well source of knowledge that's given to us in the scriptures and interpreted to us through the
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New Testament, then I don't plan. I shouldn't see you next week.
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All right, I should. None of you should be back here. If Jesus isn't the
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Christ, if he isn't from above, and if I ain't faithfully teaching Christ, none of you should come back here next week.
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I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. Your leadership is available. Let's pray.
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Father, Lord, we love you and we thank you. Please forgive us of our sins. Lord, we need you in every way.
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Lord, we look to you. You are our only hope. Please strengthen us in the faith so that we may walk closer to you and not grieve the
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Holy Spirit. Help us to love one another, Lord. And when we fail in loving one another, help us to forgive each other for our failures.
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And Lord, now we come to the time where we partake in your supper. Lord, I pray right now that everyone is looking within themselves, that if there's any unconfessed sins,
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Lord, that you bring that to their remembrance. Lord, we know that, as Calvin says, that the supper is not for the righteous but for the broken.
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But it's also not for those that think they can live however they want and still partake in the feast.
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Lord, help us to know the difference between willful sinning and being broken.
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Lord, we love you. We just pray that you bless this supper and that you use it to conform us to the image of your beloved