Jesus Christ, The Discerner of Hearts: Part 1

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Jesus Christ, The Discerner of Hearts: Part 2

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Well, I'd like to minister to your hearts this morning. Actually, this is a good follow -up to what
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Brother Ben preached last Lord's Day. I thank God for, like I said before, these men that Brother Keith has filled in before.
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And Brother Ben actually preached for us for the first time since he's been with us in five years.
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And I was so blessed. The kingdom of God suffers violence. The violent take it by force.
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Holy violence. Heavenly violence. And I can say in a sense that what the text we're looking at today is concerns the kingdom of God.
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Did not Jesus say in Matthew 6 .33, a great great verse, but seek ye first, first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things to be added unto you.
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Is there anything more important in this world than our eternal soul to enter in at the straight gate, the narrow way, into the kingdom of God?
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And everything here in our text is actually speaking about the kingdom of God.
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And this will be a part one, but part two I'd like to pick up a little bit more and go into.
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But if you notice at the end of chapter two of our text in the
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Gospel of John. So please turn and open your Bible there with me as we continue this study through the
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Gospel of John. And we're looking at chapter two in verses of verse 23, 24, and 25.
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But if you notice this is at the end, this is the context of what is about to be said in chapter three.
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And Nicodemus, it's interesting that Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the
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Jews. And as you well know in chapter three, he comes to Jesus by night and he asks the question.
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Now actually he says a comment, let me say this. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God and no one can do these, what?
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Signs, these miracles that you do unless God is with them.
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It's interesting that Nicodemus mentions signs and miracles because here is Jesus when he was in Jerusalem.
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Let's look at the text. And hear the word of the living God. Verse 23 of chapter two.
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Speaking of Jesus is the discerner of hearts, the discerner of hearts. And the text says this, now when he was in Jerusalem at the
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Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did.
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But, it's interesting that a but is there. You would think, oh wow, hallelujah, this is a tremendous statement.
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People's coming to the Lord Jesus, many are believing. But isn't it shocking? Isn't it shocking, right here in verse 24, there's a but.
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But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man for he knew what was in man.
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What a powerful, shocking verse. A shocking verse, but a powerful verse, one that we all need to hear in its context.
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And we're going to carefully look at this within this hour. Excuse me here, let me get something to clear my scratchy throat.
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But here within this text, we pick up in our study at the end of chapter two.
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And it's interesting that Nicodemus brings this up that the signs that you do unless God is with them, more than likely that here at the
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Jerusalem at the Passover, Nicodemus is there, right? And he sees these miracles that Jesus is doing.
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As a matter of fact, as John continues his account in the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem that's recorded in his gospel, we have seen so far in verse 1 to 12 how that the
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Lord turned the water into wine at the wedding at Canaan in Galilee, which was, by the way, the beginning, the beginning of signs.
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If you look at verse 11, the beginning of signs, the beginning of miracles, Jesus did in Canaan in Galilee and manifested his glory.
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And then we see Jesus, as we have seen, we saw this in two messages, in verse 13 to 22,
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Jesus is cleansing the temple in Jerusalem at the Passover, his father's house.
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He did the father's business and he cleansed his father's house. They made it into a den of thieves, he says, in another gospel, another synoptic gospel, but here they actually polluted it with merchandise and selling and buying and so forth.
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And he cleansed it, so we saw the holiness of Jesus in that text. So as he cleanses his father's house with great zeal, zeal from the
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Lord, a zeal that actually consumed him, that consumed the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Now we pick up, here it is, verse 23, and as we read to the end of the chapter to verse 25, this, folks, is a great text, a great, great text.
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And we're going to look at this today and, Lord willing, next
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Lord's Day as we come to this wonderful, marvelous text. So may
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God bless his time and as we bless him, bless our time, bless as we bless him, as we have heard his word, please bow with me in prayer as we look to him within this hour as we seek our
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Lord. Our Father and our
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God, how great and marvelous you are, high and holy, majestic, robed in majesty and holiness.
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And even now, angels bow before you, the angelic host by the armies hide their faces from your magnificence and your holiness.
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And the saints worship you perfectly in heaven. And, Lord, here we are, the church militant.
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Not yet the church triumphant, but one day we'll be. But we join in with the church triumphant, Lord, in worshipping you in your holiness and majesty.
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But yet, Lord, not only are you righteous and holy, you're merciful and good and patient and loving toward all of us.
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And we thank you for this this morning that you have showed such great patience toward us through your son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And, Father, we beseech you at this time now, as we look into this text, to help each and every one of us.
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Lord, our greatest need within this hour is yourself within the church.
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Lord, we need a vision of yourself, a vision of God, high and lifted up.
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And, Lord, all we have to do is turn into the word of God and you speak to us about this.
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So, Lord, we don't need another experience. We need you. Yes, we can experience you in the beauty and worship you in the beauty of your holiness.
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But, Lord, it's not experiences we live on. We live by faith. Faith of the
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Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. So, Father, we just praise you for this time that we have together.
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And, dear Lord, I pray that you would help us in this time of need through your son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask help of your blessed Holy Spirit, the
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Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness, to aid us, to guide us, to teach us, and to all truth, because the real teacher is your
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Holy Spirit, Lord. It's not this speaker here. I'm just a messenger, just bringing the meal before your people.
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So, Father, we open our mouths wide to receive of your word. And, Lord, our prayer is with the psalmist in the
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Psalter, in chapter 119 of Psalms. And he says this,
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Teach me, O Lord, teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end.
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Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
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Lord, I pray this for each and every one of us, that that will be our response to your word, not to just be hearers, but to be doers.
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We ask this for your honor and glory, in the name of the Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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Amen. Now, within this grave hour, I'd like to begin by saying this.
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I've mentioned the kingdom of God already, and I think that's paramount. I think that's probably the singular most important thing that any of us are facing today.
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Because you and I are an eternal soul. We will be living in eternity, a hundred years for eternity, from this moment in the future.
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A thousand years, a million years. And it is critical that we look at this text and know that how important it is that we have an authentic, genuine faith.
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Let me begin by saying this. Within this grave hour, this perilous hour in our history, at the church, in the light of the coming of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, that is so very, very near. We just don't look at signs.
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Jesus says, wicked and adulterous generations seek signs, don't they? We have the word of God.
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And Jesus is soon to come back, and He's going to catch people off guard and unawares, and they will not be watching, they will not be expecting it.
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The Lord Jesus Christ will come back in great power and glory with the sound of a trumpet, and He's going to take
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His bride away. We know that this is coming soon.
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The Scriptures are constantly filled, all the way from all the prophets in the
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Old Testament to the Lord Jesus Himself, and all the way through the end of the book, the last book that's within these 66 books, the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it closes with, even so, come quickly,
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Lord Jesus. So we need to be ready. But within this hour, the church, the body of Christ, there is a great need.
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There's a desperate need. Now, we can list the needs that she's in.
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Many needs of the church that Jesus, of the Lord Jesus has at this time.
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I wrote, jotted these down, and the ones that came to my mind was some of these, and I'm sure you have others that are very important, but based upon the hour in which we live, that we know that in the last days, perilous times have come.
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One of the great needs, there's no doubt, is for the church to come to true repentance.
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I believe repentance needs to be preached. The gospel needs to be preached, and actually, it seems like we've departed from the preached word of the gospel, true repentance and true belief, what the gospel is about, that it's justification by faith alone.
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We would all agree with that, no doubt, that we need to return to the basic core truths of the gospel.
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That great truth is no doubt paramount as well. That's one I jotted down, come to true repentance.
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Another great need would be to have a revival, and I speak of a revival not as good meetings, good gatherings, even for weeks.
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When I speak of a revival, I'm talking about a total change in the moral climate of a whole entire community coming to real brokenness and repentance, a conversion has taken place, and people coming to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and repenting of their sin, and we see a great revival of repentance and conversion.
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But there also needs to be a revival of the majesty and the holiness of God within the church, and this is another great need that we are very desperate of.
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We don't see much of the majesty and the holiness of God. We see too much of men. We see too much of preachers being glorified.
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We need to see the Lord Jesus Christ once again exalted in His rightful place because He is the
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Lord of the church. He's the King of glory. Also, another one
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I would like to put right in there would be for the church to have, I would say, another or a fresh reform as in the days of Luther where at that time in the dark ages, as you well know of, that Luther lived in pretty hard, dark times when the church was the authority and not the word of God, and there was abuses of indulgences.
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The people were the poor. The church was just like Jesus saw in Jerusalem that they were taking advantage of the poor and taking their money, and as Luther saw
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Tetzel, this priest, selling indulgences, and these people, very poor, giving all that they had to these indulgences and somewhat deceived because they could not read
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Latin, they bought these indulgences and spent much money for them thinking that somehow these indulgences, which were lies, that was drawn up from Pope Leo at that time deceiving people to get into eternity.
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Such a deception. And the church was doing this. The church was astray.
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God used one man by the name of Martin Luther, the reformer, and he did nothing new.
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He actually took the gospel, the word of God, the just shall live by faith alone, and God used this man to help reform the church.
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And you notice what I said. Help reform the church. The word of God reformed the church, but God used Luther as a vehicle.
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In this hour, we need a reform, folks. A reform that will change the total climate of the entire church and come back to the old paths that she has forsaken and which the church has forsaken that has caused so much grief and pain to the heart of God.
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Now, I could say much, much more about that topic, but let me move on. All that and much, much more, and I'm sure you can give more on that list as well.
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That the church stands in great need. And yet there's another need, and I've already touched on it somewhat, and the first is that we need to come to repentance.
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The church needs to come to repentance that will cover that list that I just mentioned and that is given to us by our
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Lord and that is so easily overlooked, beloved. Turn with me very quickly, and I want you to see this.
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It's overlooked in Revelation 3. And we see that in chapter 3 that the
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Lord speaks to these churches in Asia Minor. Chapter 3, the last church that gets the letter is the lukewarm church.
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Now, he says in verse 14, and to the angel of the church, and basically the angel is speaking of the messenger.
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It's the leader, the elder, the pastor. You can actually put it that way, to the messenger or the angel of the church of the
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Laodiceans, right? These things says, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
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Jesus says this, I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot, and I could wish that you were cold or hot, so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,
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I will vomit you out of my mouth. This is the church, folks. Listen to this in this time period.
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Jesus himself is given this great warning.
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Verse 17, because you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy,
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I have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
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And then he says this, he gives counsel here. Verse 18,
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I counsel you to buy from me gold, gold from me, gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness be not revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, and that you may see.
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And as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
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Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
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I will come in to him and dine with him and eat with me. And to him who overcomes, I will grant to him,
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I will grant to sit with me on my throne. And as I have overcame, and sat down with my father on his throne.
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And then he says this, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
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Now, the great need of the church, no doubt, is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
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Rather than allowing for the common interpretation that most people give to this, of Christ knocking on your heart's door for an invitation to come and say a sinner's prayer, which is, by the way, not the context here.
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So many evangelists and preachers have used this as that context. But here is Christ speaking to the church, and actually it is a call to repentance.
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The context demands that Christ was seeking to enter into his church that bore his holy name, his own church.
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He's the Lord of the church, and here he was on the outside, knocking. Isn't it interesting?
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Everything he says here is, you say that you're rich, and you become wealthy, and have need of nothing.
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So, in other words, they don't see their need of Christ. They're blind.
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And I agree with Pastor MacArthur here. He says this, the greatest need of the church in this hour right now is the need for discernment.
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And I agree with that, because discernment helps us see what we're in need of, what is missing.
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And I tell you why there's no reason for discernment today. There's no fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord has departed. There's no fear of God before our eyes.
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I'm talking about the church, folks. Now, there was a lack of here, if you read within that church right there, a lack of a single true believer.
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Isn't that interesting? You had people that professed to be believers, but they were false believers.
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In verse 20, how do you know this? Well, it basically says, Jesus the glorified
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Lord says this, Behold, I stand at the door, and I knock. If anyone hears my voice, and opens the door,
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I will come. I will come in to him, and dine with him, and he with me. Obviously, there is no communion that was going on there.
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So how does this happen? Verse 19, the Lord gives the answer at the verse prior, before,
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I should say, before verse 20, As many as I love. Don't hear that from these churches today that preach love, do you?
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Jesus says, As many as I love. What does He say? I rebuke and chase them.
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I love them, I discipline them, that they may see. And what does
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He say? What's the exhortation here? Therefore be zealous. Be consumed.
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In other words, the original language there means be eager.
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Be eager and repent. We should be eager to repent and take the strong words of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Recognizing that one's spiritual bankruptcy to humble ourselves, to repent, that we would be broken before God, submit ourselves, trusting
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God and saving faith, and Christ would enter in, enter back into His own church, and true revival and reform would take place.
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Now, true repentance. We see true repentance in the Scriptures and we see false repentance, don't we?
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Peter and Judas is a perfect example of that. You see worldly sorrow in Judas, you see godly sorrow in Peter.
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Which one persevered? Peter. Which one did not persevere?
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Judas. It's the ones that persevere to the end, folks, that will be saved.
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That's what Jesus said. It is those who persevere to the end, not by our strength, but by God's grace and strength.
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Because we cannot hold ourselves up now, even though Paul says we're to continue.
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And Jesus said that. He said, if you love me, you continue in my word. You abide in my word. That basically means you keep pressing on.
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You keep continuing. No matter what comes our way, we continue in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And do not back away. So no doubt, the great, great need of the hour is true repentance.
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True repentance, godly sorrow. Alongside that would be the great need of recognizing our need, and that is discernment.
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So along with that need of discernment, knowing that we need to repent, that is the great need.
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To realize that we do have a need. The church of Laodicea didn't realize.
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They thought, hey, I'm rich. I'm wealthy. I have need of nothing. And what did Jesus say about it?
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And do not know. They do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
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Now the reason I mention that, beloved, if you go back to our text, it's very important that here in John, when
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John is talking about, what he is talking about is so critical.
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He gives us an account that when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs, which
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He did. They saw the signs. Now, this is very interesting.
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This text helps us get the proper perspective, the biblical perspective of what belief really is.
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It's not enough to believe in Jesus intellectually. Even though it enters through the mind and goes to the heart.
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There's heart transformation. It must enter into the mind. God is in process right now of renewing our minds day by day.
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That's why we need to feed upon God's word. Renew your mind day by day by the word of God.
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But that's sanctification. Actually, what he's talking about is commitment and submission to salvation here.
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Many believed in His name when they saw the signs, which He did. It's interesting.
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But Jesus did not commit Himself to them. Isn't that shocking?
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Doesn't that shock you? It's incredibly shocking. Why didn't Jesus commit
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Himself to them? The scripture tells us. Because He knew all men.
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Verse 25, He had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
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What's in man? A deceitful heart. A heart that is so deceitful we cannot trust our heart.
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You know, beware of the people that tells you trust your heart. Stay away from that.
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That is the worst kind of counsel you can ever hear. If we trusted our own heart, we would all go to hell, folks.
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That's why we need to come and examine ourselves in the light of the scriptures.
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And I want you to notice. Notice something else in our text. Notice that Jesus had no need.
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Underscore that. No need that anyone should testify of man. No need.
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Many in that day of the feast believed in Him, but Jesus did not believe in Him. You basically can say these were unbelieving believers.
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There's two great facts I'd like for us to look at here. In verse 23. Fact number one.
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Many believed in Jesus. If you can break this up. We'll finish it up next
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Lord's Day. But number one. Many believed in Jesus. That's fact number one.
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Fact number two. Jesus did not believe in them. Jesus did not commit nor trust
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Himself to men. Break it up there. These two statements basically tell or two truths
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I should say are at the heart of understanding this text. First of all let's look at it.
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Many believed in Jesus. Verse 23 as I've said. The text says. Now when
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He was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast many believed in His name when they saw the signs.
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The signs which He did. Now John's gospel basically translates the word signs generally refers to miracles.
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They saw the miracles. But we do not find in John any record of the signs or miracles that Jesus did during the visit to Jerusalem.
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Isn't that interesting? Basically the greatest sign that He gave right there the first miracle was what?
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When He turned in Canaan He turned the water into wine. But there
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He cleansed the temple. Now that was a sign. But there are other signs that Jesus did. There are other miracles that Jesus did.
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But they're not recorded. And as you well know John tells us in chapter 20 verse 30 and 31 that the record because if He did there would not be enough books to contain all the miracles that He did.
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The books could not contain it. And yet in verse 23 many notice what it says many believed in Jesus.
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Many believed in His name. Belief. Okay there's a belief here. This verse basically gives and reveals to us in a way the true nature of belief from a biblical standpoint.
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That's what we need folks. Aren't you glad? I rejoice in this.
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That this is the word of God telling me what true belief is. And what true belief can appear to be and it becomes a false belief.
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And Martin Lloyd -Jones puts it this way. It's not a belief at all. It's false. So you basically have a true profession and a false profession.
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Many believed in His name. But Jesus did not commit Himself. Gives the same
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Greek word folks. The same Greek word for the word believe. It means that they believed once for all.
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They believed once for all. Their belief was genuine supposedly. At least the belief of some.
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Not all. However the belief of the others was not genuine. So the fact that Jesus knew all men and all those professing belief and yet He did not commit
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Himself to them shows that their faith was inadequate. Their faith and their belief was spurious.
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Verse 24 So why was their faith inadequate? When they saw the signs which
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He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them.
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Again, that is one of the most shocking verses. Many believed in His name but yet Jesus did not commit.
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The signs because of the signs they were following Him after the signs the miracles, the power the works.
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Now does that mean that John is discrediting the signs and the wonders that Jesus did?
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By no means. What he is basically saying is these people are following Jesus just for these things.
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Just for it. How many in circles of the churches today are following Jesus just for what they can get out of Jesus?
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What do we call them? Sensationalists. Sensationalists. They follow
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Jesus for the miracles. They follow Jesus for the power. They follow Jesus for the blessings.
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They follow Jesus for what they can get out of Him. As Jesus would feed them with the miracles of breaking the bread and the lunch of the little boy.
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And He fed them physically. Oh, everybody was so glad. Oh yeah, we'll keep on following Jesus.
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And actually the scripture basically says that they wanted to make Him a bread king. In other words, Oh, He can produce these miracles and we can keep following Him for this.
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What they can get out of Jesus. But when it came to the hard sayings that Jesus says, He turns to them and says basically, why are you following me?
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He knew. It was no mystery to the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what was in their heart.
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He knew that they were following Him for the wrong motives. And then when He lays the question on the line and even says, well, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood.
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Many did not. And the scripture actually says many disciples did not follow Him from that point.
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They fell away. And even the inner circle began to question.
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These are hard sayings. And Peter, of course, said something wonderful at that time.
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Where can we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life. There's nowhere else to go. Because Jesus asked him,
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Are you going to go away also? Lord, where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life.
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Well, you know, these sensationalists, these people that followed Jesus for what they could get out of Jesus and for the works that they saw, the power of God.
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They show actually from the text why these people believed in Jesus. They believed in Jesus for the wrong reasons.
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Does not... I'm speaking of others within the church, but does not that search your own heart? Yeah, it does.
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I got an amen right there. Is that Ethan? Yeah. He's listening.
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He's listening. You know what the Greek word for the signs, the miracles is?
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Terris. You know what that means? The spectacular. The amazing.
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The staggering. The dazzling. The wonders. Oh, Jesus is doing these marvelous things in Jerusalem at the
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Passover and all these signs, and many believed in his name because they saw the signs in which he did. However, such a shallow belief, right?
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Such a shallow belief made a person only a spectator and not a participator in the kingdom of God.
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In other words, as R .C. Sproul said, and I've heard Ravenhill say the same thing, they're professors but not possessors.
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A big, big difference, isn't it? It's easy to say I'm a Christian, but what about living it?
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What about following the Lord Jesus Christ? What about when hard times come, and listen, we all...
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You know what the scripture says? The rain falls on who? The righteous and the unrighteous.
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The good and the bad. Well, all bad, of course, but what Jesus is referring to, the righteous and unrighteous.
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The rain's going to come regardless. The only difference there, and it's a huge difference between the
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Christian and the non -Christian, is Christ. Christ is everything to the
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Christian. Jesus is in the boat. So when the storm comes, Jesus is in the boat, and he's the one that can take care of the storm because he's the sovereign of the sea.
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Praise God. But many believed and followed Jesus only because it made them feel good or comfortable or secure.
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And such a faith has a shallow, shallow view. Such a faith is wrong because it's a faith that's based on wrong motives.
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This word is never used by itself to believe in Christ. It's a person to have genuine faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, he must have some basis of faith other than just the spectacular, right?
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One example I think of is Brother Keith touched on this this morning. I got it right here in my notes.
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But I want to take it to Luke's gospel. Go with me to Luke. Let's look at, we got
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Mark's view this morning, but look at Luke, chapter 8. Just a brief few verses here, chapter 8.
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So what's Jesus talking about? You know what I love about the Lord Jesus Christ in this sense of his teaching ministry?
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He was so practical in his teaching. So very practical. And you think, how could they miss this?
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But many did not have eyes to see or ears to hear. He spoke in parables.
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And here is a parable to Sower. Look at verse 4 of Luke, chapter 8 when a great multitude had gathered, a great multitude by the way at that time in his ministry, they had come to him from every city and he spoke by a parable.
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A sower went out to sow his seed and he sowed and some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down and the birds of the air devoured it.
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And notice verse 6. This is actually what John is speaking of. Some fell on the rock.
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As soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
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Stop right there. Isn't that interesting? That what fell on the rock was basically hard ground, very shallow soil.
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The soil was shallow. So what does that mean? The seed could not take root.
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This basically, the interpretation to this parable is basically this could refer to the fickle people that followed
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Jesus for only his miracles. They followed Jesus for only the signs and the wonders, the spectacular.
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What about true discipleship? Well, if you're in Luke, go with me just a couple of pages over.
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Go to chapter 9. Look very quickly. Look at chapter 9, verse 57.
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Now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.
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Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
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But then he said to another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
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Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury the dead. But you go and preach the kingdom of God. Notice what
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Jesus is putting first, the kingdom of God. And in order to get into the kingdom of God, you've got to go through the king.
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Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Verse 61,
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And another one said, Lord, Notice all of them call him Lord. Notice that? I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.
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Let me first go do this. Let me go first do that. Jesus said to them,
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This is powerful, folks. Notice verse 62. No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
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That's strong language, folks. A plowman looking back cuts a crooked furrow, doesn't he?
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He makes it, it's not straight. Jesus basically says, and this is what Brother Ben was talking about last week.
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You press into the kingdom of God with a holy violence, with everything within us by God's grace to get into the kingdom of God.
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And how can we do that? Jesus says, With men it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.
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Isn't that great? So in other words, we come bankrupt and we come before the foot of the cross and we say,
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I cannot do this, but God can. I'm so thankful that Jesus is the one.
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He's made the way because He is the way. Jesus speaks of discipleship, the cost of discipleship.
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We need to tell people about this, folks, when we give the gospel. Tell them about the cost. Yeah, but it'll run them away.
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Well, let the results be, folks, because the Bible says that many do fall by the wayside, but those that are hungry for God will want to hear it.
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And the Spirit of God will do the work within their hearts. That's why we pray, don't we? Because we can't work within those hearts, but God can.
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And that's why we come before God in dependence and humility and brokenness and saying,
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God, you're the one that can bring them into the kingdom. I can't do it.
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We're basically just channels and a means to the end that God uses us to give the gospel to them to be obedient to that, but God does the rest of it.
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Whether they come or not, right? As the great Puritan says, the same sun that hardens to clay melts the wax.
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You know, this is a great topic, folks. We need to hear this. Go with me very quickly to Hebrews 10.
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We see this here in Hebrews. Supposedly speaking to these
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Hebrew Christians. Chapter 10. Powerful chapter, folks.
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Powerful. From verse 26 to the end of the chapter it speaks basically about the just shall live by faith.
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Justification by faith alone. And let me just pick up.
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Notice. Let me go back a little bit. Look at verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
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Folks, this is the purpose of corporate worship. Not verse 25.
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Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some.
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Some were doing this. Then he says, but exhorting one another that and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
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You would think the churches would be flooded in because the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and people,
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God's people would come in together and hear the word of God and exhorting one another. You don't see that. Because there's a falling away.
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Now people's got every reason whatsoever under the sun, every excuse you could think of to stay at home and without participating and going to God's house hearing the word of God.
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But I'm with the old saints and I can back it up with scripture. If you love Jesus Christ, you're going to love his church.
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Whoever heard of a separation between the bridegroom and the bride? Not a good relationship, is it?
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But when there's a bridegroom and there's a bride, they love one another. And God's people love one another.
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And because we love the Lord Jesus Christ and we come together, not because going to church makes you a
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Christian, but because you're a Christian, you go to church. We put that in the right perspective. But there's a lack of it.
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That tells you something. But here, it talks about the just shall live by faith.
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Let me jump over just a little bit. Notice this right here. Notice verse 38 at the end of it.
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Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back... Where does he get that? From Jesus.
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The verse I just quoted from Luke. Jesus says, if anyone draws back, he's not fit for the kingdom of God.
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But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. You know, if you look in the scriptures very carefully, we're going forward or we're going backwards.
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There's no neutrality with us in this Christian life. We're on fire, we're burning hot, or we're cold as ice.
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And as we read earlier from the Laodicean church, if you're lukewarm, what does it say?
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God says, I will vomit you out of my mouth. In other words, it makes God sick. Notice what he says.
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He does it in there with that warning. My soul has no pleasure in him. Verse 39, but...
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Don't you love the buts? Any time there's a but, we've looked at this.
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It's a door hinge. It opens up revelation. There's something wonderful coming.
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But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
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Now there he's talking about genuine faith. Now I've got to hurry up on this because there's much more that could be said.
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There's another apostle that spends a great deal of time with this. It's James. Go with me to James, please.
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James. And we've already gone through the book of James. And what a study this is.
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And I would encourage anyone to study through the book of James. Because everything that these apostles are drawing from, everything that they draw from is the teachings of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. James... And I like what Pastor John MacArthur says.
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All the apostles in the New Testament is basically teaching, their commentary is on the teaching of Jesus Christ himself.
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It's basically you getting commentary of what Jesus taught. So look at James chapter 2.
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Look at verse 14. I'm going to read it very quickly to verse 26.
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James says this. What does it profit? And notice carefully. My brethren.
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Right there, he's speaking to brethren. He's speaking to those in the church. If someone says...
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Notice, there's a profession made. He says he has faith, but does not have works.
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That's a question. Can faith save him? Notice what he says.
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If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace and be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
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Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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But if someone will say you have faith and have works, show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
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You believe that there's one God. You do well. Listen to the sarcasm there.
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You do well. You believe there's God. Ha! You do well. Well, you believe that there's one
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God. You do well. Even the demons believe. And they tremble. They tremble.
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But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works, faith was made perfect?
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And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God. Notice he's quoting this. Abraham believed
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God, and it was accounted or credited to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.
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And you see then that a man is justified by works not, and not by faith only.
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Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out on another way?
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And then he says this in verse 26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
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Now, folks, there's a lot here. I want to just touch on a few things here, but first of all, verse 14 is critical because really that phrase in itself is so important because it literally governs the complete interpretation of this entire passage in which we looked at.
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James is basically speaking to believers, number one. But notice, my brethren, that's what he says.
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And the question comes up, and he says why, and basically what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
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Can faith save him? You know, this is why self -examination is so critical in the light of Scripture, that we be right with God because when we're right with God, we'll be right with our fellow man because we're going to do what's right.
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In the light of Scripture, to the truth and the context, even Peter says make your calling and election sure.
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Now, here you have living faith and dead faith. Did you know there's a faith that you can have that is dead?
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People can have faith. That's what he's talking about. He's basically speaking to people that are probably within that congregation that had dead faith.
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What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith and does not have works? Again, James is not saying that this person actually has genuine faith.
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He's not saying that, but that he claims to have it. He says he has it. He professes to have it.
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How many people you know, oh, I'm a Christian, and then you look about and they're doing things they shouldn't be doing.
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They're going places they shouldn't be going. They're speaking dirty language as they should not be talking, and yet they're mocking
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God, but yet they profess in the name of Jesus Christ that they're followers of Christ, and they know nothing about the cost of discipleship.
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There's no transformation. Doesn't the Bible say, is it 2 Corinthians 5, 17, that therefore if any man be in Christ, he's what?
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He's a new creation. Then what does it say? Old things have passed away.
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Then he says what? Behold, all things have become new.
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All things. Because he's born again. His desires are changed. His passions are changed.
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Everything is changed. He's in the world, but not of the world. He's a new creation, and because God has did a transformation on his life, he doesn't fit in.
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He's a sojourner. He's a pilgrim. And he knows his only purpose in life is communion and knowing
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God and telling others about the Lord Jesus Christ before it's everlasting too late.
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He sees his purpose. He knows where he came from. He knows why he's here, and he knows where he's going.
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Well, this person claims he has faith. He professes it. The text is best understood in the broad sense, basically speaking of any degree of acceptance of truths found in the gospel, but in other words, faith, true living faith, not dead faith, must go much deeper than just having a knowledge or an intellectual assent to who
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God is. That's why he says, you know, you believe there's one
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God, you do well. See, even the demons, Ben touched on this last
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Lord's Day, the fallen angels affirmed the oneness of God. They know there's a Trinity. They got their doctrine right.
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They tremble at the implications of it. The devil is just as orthodox.
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And by the way, the devil, Tozer said this, the devil is the greatest theologian probably there is.
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But yet he's a devil still. Doesn't that make you think a little bit? All these angels are very orthodox in their
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Christian, as a Christian would be, orthodox in their doctrine, but it's no proof of saving faith.
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No proof. Well, it must go deeper. A faith that obeys
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God's word, a faith that submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, a faith that loves God, a faith that demonstrates
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Christ -likeness, right? James is saying, verse 24, justified by works, works.
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Is he contradicting Paul? No. God forbid. He's complimenting him.
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How? Paul says you save by faith alone, and James is saying, hold on.
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You justify by works. Let me explain this in a nutshell. James is not contradicting
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Paul, because he speaks of Abraham, it was justified, he quoted, he just quoted
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Genesis, a portion of Genesis that he justified, that he clearly justified,
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Abraham was justified before God by grace alone and through faith alone. He does declare that.
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I like that the old Puritan says, Thomas Watson, he says, as a diamond sharpens diamond, so Scripture interprets
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Scripture. The Scripture is interpreting Scripture here. James is commending
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Paul, not contradicting him. So how? Well, let's look at it very quickly.
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Saving faith, there's working faith. There's saving faith, there's working faith.
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Both are the same. There's a dead faith that doesn't work. And that's what
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James is referring to. The faith that saves is the faith that works. That's what he's saying. The faith, the true faith, the authentic faith will demonstrate it.
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Paul basically took it from the standpoint to his congregation of our righteousness before God.
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That we're justified before God and by faith alone. No one can add to that.
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It's faith alone, right? But you know what James is doing? James is saying, okay, you say you have faith. There must be some demonstration externally.
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So James is taking it before men. This is the way it looks like before men.
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Paul says this is the way it looks before God. James says this is the way it will look before men.
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So we get heaven and earth, right? They complement each other. James, notice this right here.
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The faith that saves is the faith that works, folks. James has already mentioned in the letter that like I said, salvation is a gracious gift from God.
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In James 1, 16 through 18, that bears reading very quickly.
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He says, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the
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Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will,
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He brought us forth by the word of truth. This is James. In other words, it is God's will, not man's will that we come into the kingdom of God.
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God willed it. Faith is a gift from God. Of His own will,
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He brought us forth by the word of truth through the scriptures and that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.
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Now, James is basically saying that faith is a gift.
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Second, in the middle of that passage, James quotes Genesis 15, 6 which he speaks of in verse 23 that Abraham believed
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God and it was accounted for him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. Third, the work that James said justified
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Abraham was his offering up of Isaac. He offered up Isaac, an event that occurred many, many years after his first exercise of faith and was declared righteous before God.
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So, instead of Abraham's offering up Isaac, his son, the promise from God demonstrated the genuineness of his faith and the reality of his justification before God.
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So what is he saying? Paul basically, again, presents the truth and the light before God. James presents the truth and the light before men.
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Both is necessary. We should study both. Faith that justifies before God works before men.
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Faith that works. Faith that works. What is he drawing upon? I'm going to close with this.
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Go with me to Matthew chapter 7. You know where I'm going?
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Sermon on the Mount, right? Look at how the Lord Jesus Christ concluded a sermon, the greatest sermon that actually ever preached.
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These verses basically in the conclusion of the Lord's sermon, he gives a very strong, strong conclusion.
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I would actually be apt to say this is probably the most powerful, not only the greatest sermon ever preached, he gives the greatest conclusion ever.
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His application is so powerful, folks. The apostles draw upon this.
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Now I want you to notice, look at how he closes, how the Lord closes his sermon.
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Read chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and Jesus says this.
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I want you to notice verse 13. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
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There are many who go in by it. The cause narrows the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
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Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. This is basically his conclusion, folks.
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But inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
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Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
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A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Speaking of false prophets, right? Verse 21.
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Now he changes it from earth, and he goes to heaven and speaks about the judgment.
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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my
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Father in heaven, many, notice that, many will say to me in that day,
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Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name?
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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And then he says this,
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Therefore, everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
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There is authentic faith, folks. And then he says about the false faith. But everyone who comes,
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I'm sorry, hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was the fall, its fall.
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Right there he ended it. Application, folks. And so it was when
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Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
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Notice what Jesus is preaching here. There are two gates.
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There are two ways. There are two destinations. There are two groups of people.
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In verse 13 and 14. Then he gives two kinds of trees, two kinds of fruit. In verse 17 through 20.
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Then he gives two groups at the judgment, at verse 21 through 23. Then he gives two kinds of builders, building on two kinds of foundations.
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Two. Why? Why does he do this? Why is he saying it?
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Why is he giving an application like this? Because our
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Lord is drawing a straight line, folks, of demarcation.
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You will not find any other sermon on the face of this entire planet that has more clarity than this text right here.
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Jesus is bringing clarity. And he is making it clear that there is a line of demarcation drawn, folks.
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There is not three, four. There is only two ways. That's it. A line of demarcation as clearly as possible between the way that leads to destruction, that he says that many are going there, and the way that leads to life, and he says few.
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Folks, that is so sobering. But there's so many people and we need to examine our own hearts so we can be self -deceived here.
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So many people thinking they're on the right road, but they're on the way to hell. One who knows us most tells us the truth.
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And Jesus loves us the most and he tells us the truth. Proverbs 14, 12,
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I quote it quite often here. There is a way that seems right to man, but the end is the way of death.
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But beloved, you and I can know that there is a way, yes, it may seem right to man, but Jesus said this,
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I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.
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That's absolute. No one comes to the Father but by me, he says.
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Folks, we can count on that. We can count that the way of the cross leads home.
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Let me quote this and I'm going to close with prayer and then we're going to go right into communion.
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I love this old hymn. We're not going to sing it, but Lord willing we will one day. But listen to it.
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It only has three stanzas and it's called the way of the cross leads home.
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697. I'll get there. Listen to this. I must needs go home by the way of the cross.
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There's no other way but this. I shall never get sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross
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I miss. I must needs go on the blood -sprinkled way, the path that the
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Savior trod. If I ever climb to the height sublime where the soul is at home with God, then
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I bid farewell to the way of the world, to walk in it nevermore.
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For my Lord says come and I seek my home where He waits at the open door.
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The way of the cross leads home. The way of the cross leads home. Aren't you glad?
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Folks, this makes me tear up. Aren't you glad there's a way? Jesus is that way.
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It is so sweet to know as I onward go, the way of the cross leads home.
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Let's pray. Our Father and our
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God, we thank You for this time we can come.
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Lord, these are strong words. But Lord, You made it so clear.
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You drew a line of demarcation. The one that loves
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You obeys You. You made that absolutely clear,
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Lord. One's foolish, one's wise. May we be the wise man, like that wise man who built his house on the rock.
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When the rain does descend and the floods come, the winds blow, the storms come, that building will not fall.
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It perseveres. Why? Because it's founded on the rock. The rock of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Lord, You're our rock, our fortress, our
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God in whom we can trust. We thank You, Father, for the way of the cross.
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We thank You now, Lord, bless this time as we look and remember and commemorate our
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Lord's death and remember His sufferings and obedience,
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His perfect obedience for our salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name.