Gospel of John (Study 15 of 24, Chap 7 Start) — G.W. North

I hope you are well drunk, I mean of coffee, just using the biblical phrase that's all. Welcome everybody that's new to me anyway. Those of us who have been gathering will know what to expect. Let us pray shall we.

Father we come to Thee. We thank Thee that the Holy Ghost is the only real teacher. He teaches our spirits and if we're not taught there we're not taught of God. So therefore Father we present ourselves to Thee.

We know what while we have breath on this life on this earth we must be taught of Thee. And unless the artist teaches a thousand lessons will not help us. So we glorify Thee. We wait before Thee to learn of God as it has been written.

Therefore we bless Thy name for this book and help us as we look into it together this morning. We're in John's Gospel as you know and you will know the chapter where we hastily drew to a conclusion on Monday leaving much unsaid.

Jesus’ Retreat to Galilee and the Hostility of His Brethren

But today we're in the great seventh chapter. Yesterday we were on the great miracle of the feeding of the 5 ,000 and the greater teaching that grew out of it. So in chapter 7 then after these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk in Jure.

Jure means in Judea that part where the strict Jews lived near to the temple. They used to call it Galilee of the Gentiles. That was their phraseology in those days. The Gentiles used to come there, do fishing, do business about fish and so on.

It was in that region where the Lord did most of his works. So he would not walk there because they had rejected him virtually and he knew what was happening. But the Jews feasts of tabernacles was at hand.

His brethren therefore said unto him depart hence and go into Judea that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest for as though there is no man that doeth anything in secret and he himself seeketh to be known openly if thou do these things show thyself to the world for neither did his brethren believe in him.

Then Jesus said unto them my time is not yet come your time is always ready the world cannot hate you but me it hateth because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast.

I go not up yet into this feast for my time is not yet full come. When he has said these words he abodes still in Galilee. Hallelujah what a wonderful wonderful truth to realize this and you must get it into your hearts very deeply that you have to live that so that you can be hated on earth.

Living Like Jesus in a Hostile World

Jesus did he wanted to be loved on earth but you have so to live like Jesus that you will call hatred forth from people's hearts. It's a tough assignment isn't it. Don't try and be a friend to everybody just live like Jesus.

If you and I live like the Lord Jesus we will be hated by many. So don't try and ingratiate yourself with everybody. He was called a friend of sinners and acquainted with grief. You see how the couplet goes.

And you and I have to know these things deep in our heart. If I went around and asked you personally are you living so that you are hated as sinners. Well uh you've got to win them. Oh yeah you've got to love them.

But you have so to live that deep down in their heart. They will hate you. You won't go with them. You won't support them. You won't take part in the things in which they take part. Think that out what that will imply in your life.

You say we've got to get among them to live them live to look to win them. When you go amongst sinners beloved and me we've got so to live and so to speak that they'll be convicted of their sin in their heart.

That's your mission not just to love them. Make sure they're convicted of sin. Nobody gets born again who isn't first convicted of sin. And to have lived and not affected that in your living. You've wasted your life so far as God is concerned.

I didn't say you ought to be loving toward them. Don't misread what I'm saying in all our doings on earth. Beloved we have to be like Jesus not like the modern approach to things even if it be misdirected talk from pulpit.

You and I have to stick up like like a sore thumb for Christ. And the ingratiating person should be heartily disliked if not hated. You and I have to live outstandingly for the Lord Jesus. Get yourself crucified if you can.

I hope I haven't shocked you. They had to get rid of Jesus because of the life he lived. They just had to all right. I want them to go into this great chapter which you will know is famous for the 38th verse.

Jesus’ Promise of Living Water

It's famous for that or the verse just preceding it or the verse following it. But that was its fame. And it's a very very wonderful thing. But the thing that has struck me more perhaps than anything else in this chapter of late indeed since I've been going over it and prepping and thinking in it in view of today is this great statement in verse 36.

Um he said it in 34. Perhaps we'll look at that one first 34. You shall seek me and shall not find me where I am. You cannot come. Tremendous thing. Tremendous thing. And they didn't understand it. They thought he meant that he was going to preach to dispersed Jews among the Gentiles what we call the lost 10 tribes.

But he never went out of the land at all. He told his disciples when they were baptized in the spirit they were to go out into all the world. But he came to concentrate on the Jews not the whole of the Israel nation because again 10 tribes were scattered.

They were not in the land been lost since Babylon when God had to disperse them. I just wonder how many of us if permit me to just diverge a bit on this may have Jewish or Israelite blood or roots somewhere way back.

I just wonder about that. But that can set off a train of thinking that I don't want to start on this morning. I just wonder. But now let's attend to what the chapter holds for us. Shall we. I did just mention this.

I think on Monday in the sixth chapter we have the bread of life and the flesh of life. In the seventh we have the water of life. The Lord had come on to this earlier. You remember with the woman the well.

There's a lot about water in John's gospel for instance he turned water into wine as soon as he got going in the first chapter. There's water there too. John the Baptist says I indeed baptize you in water and it's a some a theme for you to follow through and perhaps do some preaching about in the future if not at the present but here in a very very wonderful way.

He's not speaking of shall we say private water. The woman went to her well and the well was deep and she said it was Jacob's well. And Joseph has brought into the discussion as well. So on. But here it's not a well so much.

It is the expression of the well out of your innermost being out of your belly. If you're not one of those people that can't bear a word like belly I think it's great. But there you are. I'm so vulgar and here it is.

Here is the thing I see no reason to change the Lord's directness by doing it we blunt the statement unless we're careful. Now here you have rivers flowing and we're going to get there because mark it well beloved God isn't satisfied with you unless you are what he has said.

He says you must have the Holy Ghost flowing out of you. And that's about the only way you can prove that anything's full. Anyway people talk about being full of the spirit. Not unless there's water flowing out.

The spirit's flowing out. I you'll never persuade me. You are. You may persuade yourself. The only way you can prove is the overflow. But we'll come to it in a this is preparation for it. As we go through the chapter when the brethren verse 10 were gone up into the temple that is to the feast the feast of tabernacles you will remember which with which they had been as a nation very familiar for in Egypt they had houses and they had to sprinkle paint or what you want the blood on the two side posts and on the lintel they had to leave their precious possession which well we may have frowned upon it if we had to live in their huts or what it was they lived in in Egypt.

Uh we wouldn't have liked our dog to have lived in some of them perhaps I don't know. That is if you keep dogs then they had to go into tabernacles. And this feast of tabernacles was an occasion on the set day in the year when they had to build hutches booths or something like that on their roofs.

And they lived out for the seven days of the feast and the roof of their more would be supposed they went downstairs to cook. I don't know. And that was to remind them that they had been a nomadic nation and that they had lived in tents through the wilderness.

And I think you will agree with me carrying the thought through of the wilderness about the one thing they would have loved to have found in the wilderness were rivers of water. They drank water from the spiritual rock that followed them.

I'm going to ask the Lord a lot of questions about that. You've often heard me. So I've got a lot of questions I'm going to ask when I get to heaven unless suddenly I know them all. I don't think I will.

Um so don't come looking for me. You go around with your own questions. If you're going to be there of course um here is the thing for you to see. They wanted if they wanted anything with waters to flow in the wilderness.

And you will know that Isaiah speaks of the desert blossoming as the rose and pools of water. And I don't know what. Um but they are. We will leave that. That's not our subject. Well it would be if I was preaching but I'm just touching upon it.

The Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus’ Public Appearance

Now we go in then about the middle of the feast verse 10. But then he went up also not openly but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the feast and said where is he. And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him.

For some said he's a good man. Others said nay but he he deceives the people. How be it. No man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. What an atmosphere to live in. Uh Jew afraid of Jew. For a tremendous thing.

Think of think about. I say Jew against Jew. Because at the special feasts proselytes that is from among the gentile nations uh used to go up to the feasts from other lands. Allah the man from Ethiopia the black man that went up.

And that God directed one of his men to go and speak to him. So let's go on. Then they were afraid of each other. Great fear was in the land. Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

And the Jews marveled saying how knoweth this man let us having never learned. And among all the objections that the people had against Christ of course was this that he was an uneducated man. Uh it may be an advantageous in spiritual things to be uneducated because education can clutter your mind up with a lot of things that afterwards you wish you'd never heard or learned being made to.

Of course they've come through the wrong channels. Pretty well all the education you've ever received was believed. People who believe in the evolution theory wouldn't you say that's right. So it's in the wrong spirit and said with the wrong meanings according to scripture.

You must bear that in mind. You must pity your lecturers unless they are avowed Christians. In which case all the university will know about it. It's a tremendous thing to bear in mind. I mean unless Christ had been sent of his father and been everything planned for him everybody would have gone to the palace to think that the king was born.

I couldn't understand him being born in a stable see everything goes on that level. The expectations of the human heart. Well here is a tremendous thing for us to really grasp. They marveled at Jesus in verse 15.

How long is this man. Let us having never learned. And Jesus answered them and said my doctrine isn't mine. He's even going down. He's giving them a further reason not why he should not be accepted. I'm only telling you what my father says.

So you've got a mind of your own. Oh I am my father one. But he let his father take the initiative. He was a wonderful person. Was the Lord Jesus. You hear somebody say something. And you want to be eloquent and be accepted.

You know as well as they do and so on and so on. So it's natural in the human heart if if if you are a real human being you'll want to say something better than the other fellow has said so that people will think you're clever.

It's in the human heart beloved. It's there. That's part of the sin position. The the thing is to hardly know anything that the other fellow be right or wrong. Unless it's playing blasphemy or something like that.

Just go on with the Lord. Be simple be basic. And you know Jesus would choose you perhaps to be an apostle. I don't know whether the world will accept you is immaterial. Here is the thing beloved to see this great thing in the majority you and I have to be an offence unto people.

Humility, Persecution, and the Offense of the Cross

Not not not the church of Jesus Christ. The Lord said uh blessed are ye. When men shall you read it in Matthew 5. Persecute you for my name's sake. That's what he said. He said blessed are you. If everybody lords you up to the skies gives you a silver cup to take home and stand on your dresser or something like that.

Beloved. You know why there aren't a great lots of saints about on the earth. Don't you. Nobody's humble enough. You've got to be humble. I when I was young I once read a book and it had this in it. I quoted it several times.

God's favourites are generally scrubbing fools. He's thinking of ladies. Of course men don't scrub. They get the women to do that. Just remember what I'm saying in 10 20 years time. Remember what I'm saying when some of you will have a wife or something like that.

Be careful. Men's favourites are generally scrubbing fools. Only fools scrub. You see here is the thing if I see. And of course the whole tendency is in in our society. You don't scrub. Now you buy a washing machine and buy certain powder.

It gets black white. Didn't you know you see even the take the statements of Jesus the whole society in which is anti-christ in its ethos in in the way it's moving soon. You know if you live long enough you won't have to lift your food you to the mouth for something else something.

You put it in your mouth for you. Uh just like your mother used to put her milk into your mouth. Um drawing you away from reality drawing you away. You can't be better than be a basic human being saved by the grace of God.

Did you know that. Amen. But anyway I let's go on. Shall we. I'm not going to get very far. I had hopes of getting through seven and eight this morning. I I'm giving it up. I think as soon as I start here is the thing they thought Jesus was ignorant.

So let's go on. Uh a little lower down you'll find that they thought he was possessed of a devil too. Uh uh. And just with when we get toward the end of the century he must be apprehended and shut up in prison with a view to ultimate murder.

Reading Scripture as a Living Word

That's the thinking of people. Don't. Please take the bible as a lot of texts strung together like beads on a string. You must understand the background of it. You must think in your human terms spiritually all right.

I must understand whatever you do. Dig into this book. Dig into the background I've illustrated this way. You must never read the bible like that. You must read it like this you you must understand how the print got there.

Not just read the print. Now it's there what it's about the heart from which it came. What God is trying to get into these brains of ours. You say brains. Oh yes. You've got to think. If you don't think you'll go to hell.

Anyway you and I have to got to see this. Not that we're saved by thinking. Well you're saved in one sense. You're not redeemed by thinking. But you're saved from ignorance. I mean ignorance of truth.

Now am I talking in riddles because I said they thought Jesus wasn't educated. And now I'm saying do some thinking. But be careful. Be very careful that you start on the right premise. Don't start on what some bloke or woman says because they've had better education than you.

The holy ghost has got more brains in his little finger. If he has one. I mean than all these professors that I don't know what have. If they are not born again they haven't got enough sense to get born again.

Why. Listen to them here. You and me need to know what this book is for until what end it has been written to inform us of things. Something like I said this morning it's hallelujah. Let's go on. Jesus answered them.

Verse 16 said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me. I mean are you prepared for this. Can you remember chapter 5. I don't ask you to. I've been at it a long time. But in the fifth chapter Jesus said he couldn't do anything without his father couldn't do anything.

Father wasn't part of the makeup of the spirit that indwelt the body of Jesus of Nazareth. You've got that. You better put it down. In case you don't remember that he said I am my father one. We haven't got there yet.

But you see on this has been built many errors such as petro-passionism. That is it was the father hung on the cross to satisfy. But you'll get that in your theology. That's not my subject. It was Jesus this expression of gold.

I don't know how God manages to be God. Well if he's God he could manage it easily. But here is the thing to breathe. Three persons in one being that is in one spirit. Because you aren't anything other than one being clothes with flesh.

That's all you are. And that's what I am too. They're there. One glorious being. I love to let myself go thinking about this. But it's so glorious. You must do that. You've got to get into God. If you don't get into God you can get into any passage of the Bible you like.

But you won't get anywhere with it. This is the multitude of the truth. Here he stated the doctrine which I speak it is his for any man. Are you listening to this. Any man or woman will do his will. He shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.

Wouldn't you like to have learned the doctrine of God from the lips of Jesus. It can be hard work in the Bible school. I believe you're on the doctrine of God aren't you. And when you finish you won't know anything about it much.

Oh you have. You have to live into it. That's only sort of disciplining your mind to focus. That's all this does. But it's the entrance of yourself in. And it will bring you much mental sweat. And it'll bring you.

I don't know what to go in. Derek won't ask me next year. But here's if I'm alive I guarantee he will. But but here's the thing let's get acquainted with truth. Shall we let's see what God is saying. And he says if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine.

Or whether I speak would it be of God. Or whether I speak of myself word of here is from out of out from God. You keep that very wonderfully. His life was hid in God. So now what are you talking about.

What you mean. Paul said this. He took this up. Paul should give you some instruction on this. He said my life is hid with Christ in God. It's a tremendous thing to understand this. And you say well you'll have our minds in a spin and I hope so.

Spiders spin webs and they catch flies. I want to catch you. It's a tremendous thing for us to see. If a preacher let me tell you this fails to get your spirit when he preaches he's done you no good at all in the end will bore you.

The Word Must Capture the Soul

He's got to get your spirit. If he's a true preacher he's going to say what Jesus says in a much diminished way. Of course Christ is the wonderful Christ. Anyway he's got to say I've got to catch you.

I've got to catch you not just your attention. Jesus caught attention by doing miracles. He was you. It is you that he's after. He's got to get you. All authors who write books have failed unless they've got your soul anyway all films you might like to look at waste of time.

Unless they've caught you. That's got to happen. You've got to say where did that time go. How long did he speak. In two hours which he'd have gone on. He's got to get true. And if he doesn't get true he's failed completely.

It's been words words words. It has something of the flavor of thou shalt catch man. That was the thing that the Lord said to Peter at the beginning. It's wonderful beloved to get right into this mommy.

I've got nowhere already this morning. So far as the time is concerned he says. And he assures them in the temple right there he says if any man now if I went around and taught you all and I'm going to know you and know how far you've got.

I heard a man way back now in the days when I used to sit and listen. Unfortunately that privilege is denied me. I was listened to me. Thank you for doing so. But but here's the thing beloved. He came and he spoke about the cross.

And by the time he'd finished I realized he didn't know anything about the cross. He got all the verses right. And he believed them. You know anything about the cross. You've got to hang from it. Have I quoted this to you before.

I hope I have that great Scottish preacher Murray Machaen. Have you ever read him. Oh you read my shame. And he said men return again and again to the man who preaches as though he's hanging from the nails of the cross.

That's why they had revival at those days in Scotland. That's why it was a million miles ahead of all these poor old English people. Because they had that. I'll say it again. I would write it down if I were you.

Unless you've got a memory on which a voice can write. Men return again and again to the man who preaches as though he is hanging from the nails of the cross. Wonderful isn't it. He can only do that as though he's living like that.

Well now you will know whether I'm speaking of myself or whether it's God. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. But he that seeketh his glory that sent him. The same is true. And that no unrighteousness is in him.

This is why John Baptist was accepted as a prophet of God. Because he didn't speak of himself. He pointed all people to Jesus. That's what his ministry was about. Glory be to God. Did not Moses give you the law.

The Mosaic Law Fulfilled in Christ

And yet none of you keepeth the law. Why go ye about to kill me. They thought he was ignorant. They thought he should be killed. It's all being adduced from the scripture. Here it is the people who answered and said I said devil.

You're devil possessed. Who goeth about to kill thee. Jesus answered and said I've done one work. And ye all know now you would have thought he must have done thousands upon thousands of works. By now why did he say one word.

Perhaps I too much put too much emphasis on the word one. But there really the way you read the scripture or alter your life and your preaching. I have done one work. That was the one the one he'd done thousands as well one work.

For instance in chapter 16 he fed six thousand people. Well it says five thousand besides women and children. You'll find in Matthew's gospel. And and and when he said that what was he talking about. He says what he's saying is the thing that's really turned you against me.

Is this this one work. And he explains what he's talking about here. It is Moses. Therefore now notice because of what came out of the one work that Jesus did at this time of his life Moses gave you circumcision.

Now circumcision is a work. It brings you into a state of circumcision of heart. This particular one I've had in mind. But in the actual thing of circumcision when the child is circumcised on the eighth day after it he must be presented to God all right after the child is born.

I'm sorry I've got this wrong. The eighth day after the child was born it had to be circumcised. And if the eighth day fell on the Saturday they had to work and do it. It was greater than the Sabbath.

Keep that in mind. And that was the thing he's referring to. It was the Sabbath day when Jesus went as we know I hope to that pool in the marketplace. It was a Sabbath day where the impotent man lay there waiting for somebody to put him in the pool.

He did that and he said rise rise up take up your bed and walk. Oh boy that did it that did it. That was the one work that called their wrath. They dared to go against him on that. And he had dared to go against them all the law in the land the law they had attached to Moses and so on and so on.

That was the thing he knew what he was doing when he just went into that company chose one man and left the rest. He wanted to be the outstanding thing he knew it would draw the wrath of the Jews upon him.

Dare to go against what we believe our tradition and everything and everything else you can think about it. No wonder Jesus said in that same fifth chapter you have one that accuses you to the father.

Even Moses in whom you trust they had no clue about it. All they had words words words beliefs beliefs beliefs. They were miles away to them. Jesus was talking polemics. They were as far from the north pole as the south pole.

They did not understand at all. Now God wants us to see this he says. And Moses gave you verse 22. Because of that I've done this one work. So I thought Moses gave the law to this. No when Jesus gave this law you get this into your hearts.

It was looking unto Jesus only. He didn't know that. They were waiting for Messiah to appear from the very beginning. Now Moses said all these sins waiting for me to appear and I'm going to abolish them all except the moral and ethical truth of thou shalt not kill and thou shalt covet not covet thy neighbor's wife and thou shalt not have any other god beside me.

That's right. The ethical the moral and of course the spiritual truth that is fundamental to it. You and I have to know when we read this gospel beloved we are reading the fulfillment of the Mosaic law and the doing away with it.

Except if you're ever going to approach God it's by blood through prayer or what you want. Okay let's move on. Oh I'm having a wonderful time here. I don't want to stop. I'm supposed to stop in about two minutes just to alert my tea lady at the back.

And here I get involved in things. Time goes away with me. I'm so weak I get carried away. But here is the great truth for us to see beloved. Why are you going about to kill me. I've just done this one work and in his heart his father had instructed him to do it.

Now there's a doctrine for you to observe. You be sure you only do the will and work of the father and don't do anything else. If you want to be like Jesus. How wonderful it is. Then if a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision that the law of Moses should not be broken.

Are you angry at me. Because I have made a man everywhere whole on the Sabbath day judged not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment. They haven't said some of them of Jerusalem. Is not this he who may seek to kill.

No he speaks boldly and they say nothing unto him. Wonderful to the rulers though. Indeed it is is the very Christ harbinger. We know this man whence he is. When Christ cometh. No man knoweth whence he is.

Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught saying you both know me and ye know whence I am and I am not come of myself. But he that sent me is true. Whom ye know not. Wonderful thing isn't it. They refused to believe what they knew.

That's a tremendous thing. Isn't it. They refused to believe what they knew because their knowledge was tainted by their own thoughts what they believed things they construed instead of moving in reality all right.

We're breaking for reasons. We need to break for.