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And our Lord took the cup and gave it to his disciples, and he said to them,
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This cup is the new covenant in my blood, and drink it as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
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In the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, when you eat and drink in faith, confessing your sins, you may rejoice and be free.
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I was pleased to John chapter 7.
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You might have noticed this panel laying up here on the tables. We're in the process of closing in this archway behind us and hopefully bringing it back to the way it once was years ago, moving the pipe organ back there, and then we'll open up this and renovate it as the choir loft as it once was.
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And so a little bit of work, a little bit of time, and thank you for your patience with a little bit of clutter.
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Well, today we'll give attention to John 7, 14 through 24. John 7 records our
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Lord's appearance at the annual feast of the tabernacles that was taking place in Jerusalem.
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This event of John 7 took place about six months before his arrest and crucifixion that would take place, of course, at the time of the
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Passover in the spring after the winter months that was shortly upon them.
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Last week we considered our Lord and his interaction with his unbelieving brothers up in Galilee as they were preparing to come to this feast.
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Jesus indicated to them that he wasn't coming, but then after they went, he came alone to the feast.
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And today we'll read of our Lord's travel to Jerusalem where he once again encountered reaction and rejection of the ruling
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Jews, showing their unreasonable and sinful hostility and animus toward him.
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And in the dialogue of Jesus, and that's what we have here, this discourse of Jesus in John chapter 7, we may learn of our
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Lord more fully, of his person, and I think we can glean some lessons for our own walk and lessons for enhancing our fellowship with our
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Lord and Savior as well. Now, because all male
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Jews were required by the Jewish law, the law of Moses to travel to Jerusalem to keep the feast, everybody in Jerusalem, including the hostile
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Jewish leaders, were looking for Jesus. They knew that he must be there. And so we read last week in John 11 through 13, then the
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Jews saw him at the feast and said, where is he? And there was much complaining among the people concerning him.
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Some said he is good. Others said, no, on the contrary, he deceives the people.
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However, no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. They were all looking for him.
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They were all talking about him. But Jesus had gone up to Jerusalem alone, not in order to promote his name, but in order to teach the people the word of God.
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His brothers, you'll recall, wanted him to go up to Jerusalem to promote himself. He refused.
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And so we read of what transpired in verses 14 through 24. And this is the section that I want us to give attention to this morning.
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Now, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the
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Jews marveled, saying, how does this man know letters, having never studied? Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.
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A reference to God the Father, of course. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it's from God or whether I speak on my own authority.
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He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true.
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And no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law?
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Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The people answered and said, you have a demon who is seeking to kill you.
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And Jesus answered and said to them, I did one work and you all marvel. Moses, therefore, gave you circumcision, not that it was from Moses, but from the fathers.
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And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the
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Sabbath so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the
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Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
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In this section of our passage, this longer discourse of Jesus in John 7, we'll examine four matters.
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First, we'll consider the source and nature of our Lord's knowledge for teaching.
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That's in verses 14 through 16. And then secondly, we'll consider the manner in which we may come to understand in a measure the teaching of Jesus.
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Verse 17. Thirdly, we'll consider the test by which the
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Jews may authenticate Jesus and his teaching. Verses 18 and 19.
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And then fourthly, we'll consider our Lord's reaction in response to those who reacted and rejected him and his teaching.
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And that will fill out the time that we have, if we have time for that. And so let's first consider the source and nature of our
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Lord's knowledge for teaching. And this is not necessarily a simple matter to work through.
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Now the Feast of Tabernacles was seven days in length. And it was about in the middle of this feast that Jesus went into the courts of the temple and he began to teach the people.
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And so we read of this in verse 14. Now about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
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First, let us underscore the importance of preaching and teaching the word of God. And that's what the point of emphasis is here and elsewhere in the gospels as well.
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Preaching and teaching the word of God to the people of God was a major emphasis of our
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Lord Jesus' ministry. We might tend to think that our Lord's earthly ministry was primarily one of healing the sick and delivering the oppressed from bondage, from demonic oppression, from the devil.
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But actually our Lord's primary mission, that is apart from suffering and dying on the cross, our
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Lord's primary mission was to preach and teach the word of God to the people. And so although Jesus healed many people of their infirmities, he delivered many people from oppression, from bondage, in actuality his focus of ministry was on teaching the word of God to the people.
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And really Mark's gospel makes this quite clear. If we were to just look at some verses from Mark's gospel, we'll not read all of these because of the time limitation we have.
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But look at the first one, Mark 1 14 and following 15. Now after John was put in prison,
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Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
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Repent and believe in the gospel. And in each one of these following verses, there's emphasis on either preaching or teaching of the
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Lord Jesus. Look down at Mark 1 35 and following. Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he,
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Jesus, went out, departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. Simon and those who were with him searched for him.
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When they found him, they said to him, everyone is looking for you. But he said to them, let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, because for this purpose
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I have come forth. And then Mark gives this summary statement. He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all
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Galilee and casting out demons. Preaching and teaching the word of God was our
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Lord's primary ministry for that three years, principally in Galilee, somewhat a little bit in Judea.
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Again, his principal mission was to die upon the cross and rise a third day.
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But while he was ministering, his chief emphasis was preaching and teaching the word of God.
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And this is so much the case for him, so much that people often referred to Jesus as the teacher.
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This is who he was described, depicted to be. And so the top of page three, we have another series of verses from Mark's gospel.
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We'll not look at all of them, but we might look at a couple of them. Mark 4, 37.
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And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.
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But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
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Now you might not think of Jesus so much as a teacher. Well, the boat, you know, is swamping from the storm.
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But when they thought of Jesus, they thought of him as the teacher. He was the one who taught the word of God.
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And then again, there's a number of verses, just from Mark's gospel alone, where Jesus is described as the teacher.
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Drop down to Mark 14, 13 and following the last verse in that collection.
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So Jesus sent out two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, and a man will meet you.
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Carry the pitcher of water, follow him. And wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is the guest room in which
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I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And so here Jesus refers to himself as the teacher.
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That was his primary mission, teaching the word of God. Now there are some, unfortunately, who diminish the role and importance of teaching the word of God, even among many so -called evangelical churches.
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They emphasize to the exclusion of teaching the need for power to work miracles, or providing a direct word from God apart from the scriptures.
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Some emphasize practical living to the diminishment of sound and substantive teaching.
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They're not following the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stood forward and taught the people the word of God, and you can just bet it was substantive.
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They were impressed at what he taught and the authority in which he taught the word of God.
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And so the ministry, according to the scripture, is largely, not exclusively, but the ministry, the gospel ministry, is largely that of teaching the word of God.
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That's what Jesus did, and that's what we're to do. His was primarily a preaching and teaching ministry.
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He had a message to proclaim to his people, and similarly he has sent us into the world with a message to proclaim to people who are ignorant and in error.
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For it's being taught the word of God, and upon believing the word of God taught, that God accomplishes his purposes in our lives.
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And so this is why, by the way, you know, in a church like this, particularly reformed churches historically, the pulpit's been in the center of the church, not an altar.
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Putting the mass or the Lord's Supper is central to worship, but rather the word of God. And that's why the pulpit is in the place it is, because that's where our focus is, hearing and learning from God in and through his written word.
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Well, let's consider the reaction of the Jews to the knowledge of Jesus that was revealed through his teaching.
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Verse 15 we read, that the Jews were amazed and impressed with the knowledge of Jesus. The Jews marveled, saying,
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How does this man know letters, having never studied? And you recall that in John's gospel, when we see this appellation, this expression, this depiction of the
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Jews, John is referring really to the religious Jews of Jerusalem. They are the primary ones who were reacting.
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They were within the crowd listening to Jesus. They marveled. And it was a derogatory question, a rhetorical question, not, you know, because they were attempting to enhance the authority of Jesus, but rather they were speaking derogatorily.
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How does this man know letters, having never studied? Now, the manner of instruction in the home, or among the
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Jews in the first century, was largely done in the home. Jewish children were taught by mom and dad.
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They homeschooled. Now, later on in the first century, there was a noted rabbi,
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Joshua ben Gamla, who developed a more formal education for Jewish children, but this wasn't really until the last half of the first century, even the last quarter of the first century.
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And he established children within a community being taught by the local rabbi.
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And so it was really a more formal education. But earlier on, it was homeschooling.
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Jesus was taught by his dad and his mom in his home, and of course, to the degree he was able to receive instruction from the leaders of the local synagogue.
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There was no remarkable education system that Jesus was a part of where he gained this knowledge.
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And so it's apparent to the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem that the knowledge Jesus conveyed in the manner and content of his teaching far surpassed what was possible merely through home education in a
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Jewish home at that time, especially in Galilee and Nazareth. And so they marveled at it.
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Well, we read in verse 16 the doctrine that Jesus had been taught to him by his father,
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God the Father. Apparently, these Jews challenged Jesus directly at how he had acquired his understanding.
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And so we read Jesus' response in verse 16. Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.
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Now first, let's underscore the importance of what Jesus said. Recognize the great importance and value of sound biblical doctrine.
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That's what Jesus emphasized. We read in 1 Timothy 4 or 6 that really the test of a good minister, a good pastor, is measured by what he teaches the brethren.
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That is his doctrine. Paul wrote to Timothy, If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine, which you have carefully followed.
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If Timothy followed Paul's instruction laid out in his epistle, and he taught all that he had read in this epistle to the folks of that church, which would have been the church at Ephesus, then
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Timothy will be found to have been a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. The point is that a minister cannot be a good minister unless his doctrine is in accordance with the revealed word of God.
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That's ultimately the litmus test of whether you've got a good man of God or something otherwise.
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Paul says that Timothy had been nourished on the words of faith and of good doctrine. He had been taught and built up in this matter.
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And perhaps the words of faith and the doctrine should be regarded as the same thing, synonymous terms here in this verse.
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The word nourished carries the idea that Timothy had been well taught in the teaching of the
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Christian faith, the word of God, the doctrine of the word of God, we see is nourishing to Timothy, nourishing to a sound and solid faith.
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This is how he describes doctrine. Doctrine is not deadening, although that is the popular opinion of many who attend church.
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Doctrine is a deadening thing. If not deadening, it's certainly divisive. And so we will avoid it here, they would argue.
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But Paul argues that doctrine is nourishing to the believer. It was nourishing for Timothy.
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And so here again, we see the primary test of whether or not a minister is a good one is based on the doctrine that he holds and that he teaches.
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I do not know precisely how doctrine has come to be really a dirty word among so many who attend evangelical churches, but clearly it is.
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I suspect it's probably a reaction to what's perceived as dead formalism.
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It cannot be out of reaction to the presentation of doctrine itself, for again we read that good doctrine nourishes the believer.
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I suppose the main reason people dismiss doctrine is because they see it as irrelevant to life and deadening to worship.
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But both charges are groundless, and again Paul makes that clear here in 1 Timothy. Others decry doctrine because they regard it as divisive to the church body.
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It will drive people away, and therefore we'll not emphasize that here, they would say.
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Interestingly, I saw that the newer English Bible translation seemed to recognize the aversion of many people to the very word doctrine.
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So the translation of our New King James Version, which we read above, carried the
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English word doctrine, but when you consider the more modern English translations of John 7 ,16, they avoid the word doctrine.
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They use the word teaching instead. And so the English Standard Version, So Jesus answered them,
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My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. New American Standard Version, Jesus therefore answered them and said,
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My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. The NIV, Jesus answered,
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My teaching is not my own, it comes from the one who sent me. And then the newer Christian Standard Bible, Jesus answered them,
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My teaching isn't mine, but it's from the one who sent me. But again, here's the New King James Version, Jesus answered them and said,
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My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. And I think again, the more modern
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English translations are aware of the aversion that many people have to the very word doctrine, and so they have used the synonym teaching.
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And by the way, they are synonyms. Doctrine is nothing more than the teaching of Holy Scripture.
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And a certain teaching of Holy Scripture would be what we could call doctrine. They really are synonymous with one another.
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Some charge a pastor with his crime. Oh, he teaches too much doctrine, as though that were a bad thing.
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It's sadly a common notion among believers that you can become too doctrinal in your Christianity.
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The Bible knows nothing of that. Please understand that. This is wrong.
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The idea that one can give himself over to too much doctrine is not found in the Scriptures. Again, doctrine is nothing more or less than a statement of understanding about biblical teaching or truth.
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That's what doctrine is. Can you have too much truth? Some would say yes.
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And back in the 90s, I heard one, he was an elder of a church by the way, who said in a gathering, the problem with the
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Pharisees is they had too much truth. This was in the early days of postmodernism. And I felt,
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I was sitting there, I felt, man, that calls for a direct rebuke. And I did. Well, you can have too much truth, is that the problem with the
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Pharisees? I said, did Jesus have too much truth? He was all truth. He must have really had a problem.
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And of course, he and the others immediately saw the fallacy of the matter. No, the problem with the
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Pharisees was not that they had too much truth, but they had too much error rather than truth. You cannot have too much truth.
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The Lord Jesus himself was truth. His very words were true. Oh yes, there's a danger of ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
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We're not talking about just acquiring an intellectual conception and understanding of matters. But again, the problem is not knowing too much.
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It's a problem of not knowing the truth. Good doctrine is nothing more or less than a clear understanding.
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And it's a statement of biblical truth. Doctrine is a good thing. It's nourishing.
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In fact, it's to be the basis of unity within a local church, according to Paul in Ephesians chapter 4.
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The ascended Christ appointed evangelists, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to bring the people of the church to the unity of the faith.
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In other words, the unity that good, solid doctrine will produce within a church body, a church family.
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And so yes, doctrine will be divisive. Those who don't agree to it or reject it will react and reject the true doctrine.
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But it's supposed to do that. Doctrine builds up the body, and it also separates the wheat from the chaff, as it were.
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That's what the Lord does in the use of preaching and teaching sound doctrine.
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And so the importance of doctrine. Now secondly, let us attempt to understand how this man,
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Jesus Christ, attained his knowledge. Again, the Jewish leaders were amazed at this and impressed with the knowledge our
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Lord Jesus revealed in his teaching. They didn't embrace his teaching. We can again see this by their rather derogatory inquisition of Jesus.
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How does this man know letters having never studied? Interestingly, Henry said of Jesus, Moses was taught the learning of the
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Egyptians, but Christ was not taught so much as the learning of the Jews. How did this man get his knowledge?
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Now, you and I might speak up to answer the challenge of these Jewish leaders. How does this man know letters having never studied?
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We might respond, well, Jesus Christ is God, and therefore he has infinite knowledge of all things.
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But actually, that would not be a right or the best response to this question.
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That's not how the Lord Jesus answered the question. But rather, when they asked this question of Jesus, he responded to them.
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Jesus answered and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.
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And so Jesus attributed his knowledge to God the Father who had taught him his doctrine.
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And that's very important. This helps us to have a better understanding of Jesus Christ as the
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God -man and the nature of his earthly ministry. And so it's here in which we should attempt to understand to a degree the manner in which our
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Lord Jesus existed as God incarnate and lived in this world as a man.
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Jesus Christ, of course, is the eternal Son of God who took upon himself our human nature, which occurred in his incarnation.
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He didn't cease becoming God, become man for 30 years and go back to being God. But rather, as eternal
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Son of God, he took upon himself our human nature in the incarnation, and he continues with that human nature on to eternity.
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As such, Jesus Christ is one person. However, he has two natures. He has a divine nature and a human nature.
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When we speak of Christ's human nature, we're speaking of his physical human body as part of his human nature, and also his human soul, which includes his thinking, his mind, as well as his affections, his emotions, and his will, his choosing and making decisions.
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His divine nature is his eternal spiritual divine essence in which, to use the
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Westminster Catechism answer, in which he is infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
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And these two natures exist in one person. How his two natures relate with one another and as one person was carefully articulated in the
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Creed of Chalcedon, or some say Chalcedon, in 451
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A .D. It took a long time to sort this matter out, and really this definition arose from the churches dealing with heresy, heretical teachers that arose about the person of Jesus Christ.
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And so here is the classic historic description of the person of Jesus Christ.
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We then, following the holy fathers, talking about the church fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same son, our
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Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect and Godhead, and also perfect in manhood, truly
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God and truly man, of a reasonable, in other words rational soul and body, consubstantial, that is coessential, with the
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Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the manhood, and all things like unto us without sin, begotten before all ages of the
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Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days for us and for our salvation, born of the
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Virgin Mary, I don't like the next phrase, Mother of God according to the manhood, one and the same
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Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, and here it is, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusably, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather of the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same
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Son, the only begotten, God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the
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Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the creed of the Holy Fathers is handed down to us.
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And so Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, a human and a divine nature.
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He had two natures, has two natures. This means that he has two different minds, if we can use that term, one divine and one human, coexisting in his one person.
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He has two different sets of emotions or affections, one divine and one human.
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He has two different wills, one divine, one human. In the garden,
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I pray that this cut pass from me, not my will, but thine will be done. That was his human nature expressing its will.
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These two natures are in his one person, and from his incarnation, they will continue in this one person onto eternity.
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The risen Lord Jesus is the God -man enthroned over the creation, serving on behalf of his
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Father. That is who Jesus Christ is. Now the issue at hand, however, in our passage, and elsewhere, is how the divine nature and the human nature was manifest when
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Jesus Christ was on earth. The Apostle Paul addressed this somewhat in Philippians 2, verses 6 through 8, which reads, have this mind among yourselves.
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In other words, you are to have this attitude. This is how you ought to view yourself and how you relate to others in the world.
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Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, and there it is in bold and italicized font, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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And so Paul wrote that Christ Jesus emptied himself. What he was not saying, that in his incarnation
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Jesus Christ became any less God than he was in eternity. That's not what it means for him to have emptied himself.
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But rather, in his incarnation, Jesus Christ voluntarily declined to call upon his divine attributes in order to assist his human nature in fulfilling his role as our
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Savior. Rather, he was born as a human baby, although having the fullness of the divine nature dwelling within him.
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And Jesus Christ was therefore as any baby, in all its weakness and helplessness, but he was, of course, born pure, innocent, and without sin.
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But as a baby, he was limited in his human nature, in his knowledge. And he had other human limitations that is true of any baby born in the world.
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He was no longer in his human nature, omniscient, no longer in his human nature, omnipresent, everywhere.
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He was in his divine nature, but not in his human nature. He had limitations in his human nature.
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But throughout his life, he never called, in my opinion, upon his divine attributes to assist him in his life as Jesus Christ.
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He never called upon his divine attributes to assist him in saving his people. We read in Luke 2, 52, that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man.
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And he did so because God the Father instructed him. Again, being taught in a
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Jewish home, hearing the scriptures read and taught in the local synagogue, and as God the
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Father illuminated his understanding through his own prayer, meditation, and reflection. And of course, however, the ability of Jesus to learn and grow in wisdom far surpassed any of us because he was without the limitation that sin places upon us.
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He was without sin. And so as he was taught, he learned readily because he was wholly open, wholly receptive, and responsive to his
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Father. His advancement in knowledge was so significant that when he was 12 years of age, the transitional age of a
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Jewish youth to a responsible manhood, Jesus amazed and confounded the teachers of Israel while asking and answering questions within the temple.
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His parents had searched for him and finally found him in the temple. And there we read of him. Now so it was that after three days they found him in the temple, 12 years of age, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
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He was learning as well. And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and teaching.
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Everything the Lord Jesus knew in his human nature was due to him having been instructed by his
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Father. Matthew Henry wrote of this, As God equal with the
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Father, he might truly have said, My doctrine is mine and his that sent me.
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But being now in his estate of humiliation and being as mediator, God's servant, it was more congruent to say,
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My doctrine is not mine, not mine only, nor mine originally as man and mediator, but his that sent me.
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It does not center in myself, nor lead ultimately to myself, but to him who sent me.
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God had promised concerning the great prophet that he would put his words in his mouth. Deuteronomy 18, 18, to which
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Christ seems here to refer. And so when they were amazed at his knowledge, it's not because his divine nature was informing his human nature, it's because he was being instructed by God his
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Father through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit in and through the scriptures which he heard and he read and he meditated upon throughout his youth.
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The point is this, when the Lord Jesus taught in the temple on this occasion, recorded in John 7, and all were amazed at the content of his teaching, so that the
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Jewish leaders asked, How does this man have letters, no letters, having never studied?
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Jesus answered, My doctrine is not mine own, he said, but his who sent me.
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Jesus did not claim that his understanding stemmed from the source of his own divine nature, but rather God his
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Father had instructed his human nature in the truth. The Father instructed him in whatever knowledge he needed in order to have a true and deep relationship with him and also to enable him to fulfill his mission as the
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Messiah. I think it's important that we understand these nuances of the person and life of the
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Lord Jesus in order for us to have our fellowship with him enhanced. As the works which he did, as one wrote, as the works he did were those which the
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Father had given him to do, John 5, 36, so the words which he spoke were those which the
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Father had given him to speak. Everything that he did and said were because the
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Heavenly Father was instructing him and he was a servant of the Father and doing exactly what his
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Father instructed him to do and teach exactly what his Father told him to teach.
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It was from God the Father. Now we read verse 17 and this is an important verse and here it might become a little more practical for us.
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The manner in which we may come to understand in a measure the teaching of our Lord. This is interesting.
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In verse 15 the hostile Jewish leaders challenged Jesus' ability to teach since he had no formal instruction or training.
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But here in verse 17 Jesus challenges their ability to understand truth and the relevance of what he was teaching.
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Or as one put it, the Jews challenged the ability of Jesus to teach, Jesus challenges the ability of the
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Jews to hear. And that's exactly what you have here. He's turning upon them as it were.
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The problem lied with them, not him. So how may we as Christians be assured that we will come to understand truth and to be able to distinguish it from error?
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And I would say in the last couple of months I've had at least two ladies pose that question to me.
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There's so much error. How do I know that I'm not deceiving myself?
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Well, verse 17 is the answer to that frankly. We read, if anyone will,
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Jesus said, if anyone wills to do his will, the Father's will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it's from God or whether I speak on my authority.
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And so here's the true key to coming to understand the spiritual truth of the Scriptures.
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And that is to resolve that you will live according to the truth that you learn. There must be a desire and willingness to obey what you learn.
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And if you have that desire and willingness to obey, God will see to it that you understand what's true.
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That's the point. God does not reveal truth to an individual who then makes a decision whether or not to believe it or do it.
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That person's not going to come to truth. God reveals truth to those who are resolved by his grace to do his will when he reveals it to them.
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J .C. Ryle wrote of this important principle, the difficulty of finding out what is truth in religion is a common subject of complaint among men.
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They point to the many differences which prevail among Christians on matters of doctrine and profess to be unable to decide who is right.
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In thousands of cases, this professed inability to find out truth becomes an excuse for living without any religion at all or I would say a superficial
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Christianity because they're not willing to do the work of determining what's true.
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The saying of our Lord before us is one that demands the serious attention of persons in this state of mind.
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It supplies an argument whose edge and point they will find it hard to evade. It teaches that one secret of getting the key of knowledge is to practice honestly what we know and that if we conscientiously use the light that we now have, we shall soon find more light coming down into our minds.
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In short, there is a sense in which it is true that by doing we shall come to knowing and that's what the
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Lord is teaching here. There is a mind of truth in this principle, said Ryle.
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Well would it be for men if they would act upon it instead of saying as some do, I must first know everything clearly and then
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I will act. We should say I will diligently use such knowledge as I possess and believe that in using fresh knowledge will be given to me.
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How many mysteries this simple plan would solve. How many hard things would soon become plain if men would honestly live up to their light and follow on to know the
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Lord. So there is the key to know that you're going to come to truth.
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If you are resolved by the grace of God, I'm going to do the will of God as he enables me and empowers me to do so, he is going to make known to you his truth and it will be a certainty.
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That's one reason the Lord Jesus acquired so much knowledge because he was desirous to do everything that his
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Father would have him do. And so the Father just continued to pour understanding and knowledge into the man
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Christ Jesus and this is why he attained to what he did in such a wonderful way.
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F .F. Bruce also wrote of this principle that the willingness to obey results in the ability to understand the truth of God's word.
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As then, so now it's not simply intellectual penetration that will determine truly whether Jesus' claim to impart the
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Father's teaching is well founded or not. An attitude of heart is also important.
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You know the Bible doesn't talk a lot about intelligence quota, does it? I do.
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But it's clearly there are some people who reveal a greater degree of intelligence than others in the scriptures.
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It's clear that. But there's not a great emphasis on the intelligence of a person but rather it's a compliance and a desire to do the will of God.
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A rather simple person can acquire a great deal of understanding of scripture if their desire is to do the will of God from the heart.
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This is the one the Father delights in instructing as he instructed his son
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Jesus. And so the capacity for discerning God's message will follow.
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Whoever has the readiness of heart will recognize in the teaching of Jesus a message which authenticates itself to spiritual perception and consciousness as the truth.
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Truth must ultimately be self -authenticating. It cannot appeal to any authority external to itself.
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Great is truth and mighty above all things. A faithful messenger seeks no credit for himself but for the one whose message he has been entrusted.
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Jesus' whole desire is that those who hear what he has to say should glorify God by believing it since it is
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God who has commissioned him. It is God the Father. Again, I've received questions of concern.
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Pastor, there's so much error and false teaching out there. How do I know what is true? Or may come, how do you know what's true?
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You know, why should I take your word for it? How do I recognize what's false? And the answer is, if you desire and resolve to do the will of God from your heart you may trust the
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Lord that he will preserve you and he will lead you into truth, the truth that he will have you walk.
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But if you have reservations or qualifications of your willingness to do his will you will probably be deceived by someone sometime.
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Jesus said, if anyone wills to do his will he shall know concerning the doctrine whether it's from God or whether I speak of my own authority is what
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Jesus said. The Lord will give that one understanding and assurance that a doctrine is true to his word.
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That's a wonderful key, is it not? Well then thirdly, let's consider quickly as time is escaping us the test by which the
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Jews could authenticate for themselves Jesus and his teaching. Jesus said to them, he who speaks from himself seeks his own glory but he, referring to himself, who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true and no unrighteousness is in him.
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Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?
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In verse 18, our Lord Jesus contrasted himself as one who proclaims the truth with one who would be a promoter of error.
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The one who promotes error is actually a promoter of himself. He is seeking recognition or glory for himself.
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This is what motivates him. He wants a name. He wants a reputation. He wants to be recognized and acknowledged by others as somebody.
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But in contrast to the one who is untrue and has no righteousness in him, Jesus described himself.
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But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true and no unrighteousness is in him.
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The true one doesn't seek his own glory. And this of course is how
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Jesus lived. This is the reason he did not follow his brother's instruction up in Galilee.
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Go down to the feast, show yourself to everybody and promote yourself and your cause will take hold.
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And Jesus declared here, the guy who promotes himself is not true. It's the one who seeks to glorify
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God. He's the true one. Find him. You'll be okay. He'll lead you rightly.
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Now verse 19 at first glance might seem to be just kind of an awkward statement inserted here.
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It reads, did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?
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But actually this statement of Jesus fits quite well in the context. The Lord Jesus had just given irrefutable evidence that he was teaching the word of God.
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Both his words and works were designed to bring glory to God, not to himself. And Jesus now goes on the offensive, charging the
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Jews, again the hostile Jewish leaders that were mixed up in the crowd, that they did not have the desire to do
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God's will. And therefore they were in no condition to embrace his teaching as true. They couldn't because they were not seeking the glory of God.
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They were seeking their own glory. They were ones characterized by unrighteousness. And so Jesus called upon Moses and the law of God in order to convict them of their sin.
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Jesus declared that they were lawbreakers. They didn't desire to do the will of God or else they would purpose to obey his law.
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And he charged them specifically with violating the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill or thou shalt not murder.
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And so he asked them, why do you seek to kill me? It's because you have no desire to keep the sixth commandment is what he was charging them.
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We read earlier in John 5, 18, this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the
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Sabbath, but he was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. And then verse 1 of chapter 7 we read also, the leading
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Jews were seeking to kill him. They were transgressing the sixth commandment and Jesus was calling upon them.
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You accuse me of breaking the law by healing a man on the Sabbath day. You don't keep the law because you are filled with rage and desire to murder me.
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This is basically what his accusation was. Well now lastly we see our
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Lord's reaction in response to those who rejected him in his teaching. In verses 20 through 24.
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Jesus was standing before the crowd, but in telling forth these words he was directing his accusation to those
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Jewish leaders within the crowd. I don't know how many there were. He was making clear to them he knew what their true intentions were, and their desire was not to bring glory to God as were his intentions, but they desired to bring glory to themselves.
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And in their thinking Jesus was standing before the people, preventing them from achieving their desires to have absolute control over the people and to obtain and retain the regard of the people.
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Their concern was not for the glory of God, they desired glory for themselves and he called them upon it.
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We read of the reaction of the people when he made this accusation. Verse 20, the people answered and said, you have a demon, who is seeking to kill you?
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Again you can imagine the scene can't you? This rather large crowd, Jesus has been preaching, teaching the word of God, and then he says that you are breaking the law because you desire to kill me.
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And so the people who generally, the non -Jewish leaders react, you've got a demon, who's trying to kill you?
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And yet those Jewish leaders that were scattered in the crowd there, they knew that he knew what their true intention was.
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And I just wonder what they were thinking as they were hearing the crowd calling out that you have a demon.
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They probably saw that as a further means by which to discredit and charge
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Jesus as a criminal. And then our Lord Jesus spoke about how, hey, you circumcised babies on the eighth day, and you regard that as not breaking the law.
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And what he's referring to here is that in the Old Testament of course, male
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Jewish children that were born were to be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth.
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Well if a male child was born on a Sabbath day, the eighth day would be the next Sabbath day, the next week.
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And so the word of God commands them to circumcise this baby on the eighth day.
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Well what do you do if it falls on a Sabbath day? Is that violating the law?
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And they determined, no, it wasn't violating the law to circumcise the baby on the Sabbath day, because God had commanded it.
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And furthermore, it was an act by which you were helping this baby, as it were, toward its relationship to God by circumcising this baby to come into covenant relationship with God.
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And so Jesus basically says this, you allow yourself to circumcise a baby boy on the
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Sabbath day, but I healed a whole man on the Sabbath day, referring to healing that man by the pool at Bethesda the last time he was in Jerusalem.
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And so he says there's one act that I do you condemn me for, and yet you've done this all along and you don't condemn yourselves.
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He's basically revealing to them their hypocrisy, and their errant thinking, and their errant belief.
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He exposes them for who they really are. Let's drop down to the bottom of page 10 as we close.
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Our Lord concluded his argument with a word of exhortation. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
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The adversaries of our Lord had been unjustly judging him, not carefully considering matters in the light of the
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Holy Scriptures. And so they were quick to condemn, having become full of rage against him, the very one that sought their good and their salvation.
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Teaching them the word of God. Here in verse 24, our
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Lord forbid one kind of judging, even when he was promoting another kind of judging.
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Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. You notice that?
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In other words, we're to think through matters, for our own prejudices and assumptions can easily lead us astray, and the result being our error and folly.
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So may the Lord grant us mercy and grace as we attempt to read and understand the will of God that's set before us in the
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Holy Scriptures. May by God's grace, may we each be resolved to do his will, and then we may be confident that he will instruct us in the truth of his word.
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I like the additional note that D. A. Carson gave on verse 24 at the end of this section in his commentary.
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In an age when Matthew 7 -1, do not judge or you too will be judged, has displaced
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John 3 -16 as the only verse in the Bible the man in the street is likely to know, it's perhaps worth adding that Matthew 7 -1 forbids judgmentalism, not moral discernment.
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And by contrast, John 7 -24 demands moral and theological discernment in the context of obedient faith, while excoriating self -righteous legalism and offering no sanction for censorious heresy hunting.
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And that's a good word about the kind of attitudes we have. And then J. C. Ryle gave some good words of counsel based on verse 24, and we can each receive this instruction,
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I think, I believe. The principle here laid down is one of vast importance. Nothing is so common as to judge too favorably or too unfavorably of characters and actions from merely looking at the outward appearance of things.
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We are apt to form hasty opinions of others, either good or evil, on very insufficient grounds.
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We pronounce some men to be good and others to be bad, some to be godly, others to be ungodly, without anything but appearance to aid our decision.
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We should do well to remember our blindness and to keep in mind this text. The bad are not always so bad, nor the good so good as they appear.
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A potsherd, broken piece of pottery, may be covered over with gilding and look bright outside. A nugget of gold may be covered with dirt and look worthless, rubbish.
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One man's work may look good at first and yet turn out, by and by, to have been done from the basest of motives.
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Another man's work may look very questionable at first and yet at last may prove
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Christlike and truly godly. From rashly judging by appearances, may the Lord deliver us.
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And that's a good word of instruction for us. You know, there are a lot of things that we're not to pass judgment on.
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Let the Lord deal with it in his time and at the final judgment, when everything will be straightened out.
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But on the other hand, there are some things that we should be very clear and forthright about. That's wrong, that's error, that's sin, that's truth, that's good, that's right.
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And we are called upon to make those kinds of determinations as the Lord enables us.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, our God, for the wisdom that we see displayed in your word.
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Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, as our Lord and Savior, who submitted to you our
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Father, holy and fully, desiring to do your will and to teach your word as you instructed him and guided him to declare.
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And we pray that you would help each of us as Christians, Lord, to be devout and dedicated to do your will from the heart.
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Help us, our God, to be resolved to do whatever you reveal in your word to us to do.
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Give us clarity of understanding, an affirmation of your truth, and then by your grace given to us by the
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Holy Spirit, enable us to walk in that. For we do pray in Jesus' name. Amen.