Can This Be The Christ?

Redeeming Grace Church

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John chapter 7. Our text this morning is only just a few verses.

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We just looked at several verses, verse 10 to verse 24 on the heavenly scholar.

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That was a four -part series we looked at and what a blessing it was for all of us to hear of our heavenly scholar, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Now we pick up on verse 25, verse 25 and I'd like to read it to verse 31.

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To verse 31, hear the word of the living God. Now some of them from Jerusalem said, is this not he whom they seek to kill?

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But look, he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him.

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Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this man is from, but when the

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Christ comes, no one knows where he is from. Then Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple saying, you both know me and you know where I am from and I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true whom you do not know.

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But I know him for I am from him and he sent me.

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Therefore they sought to take him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

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And many of the people believed in him and said, when the

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Christ comes, will he do more signs than these which this man has done?

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Let's stop right there and let's thank the Lord for his word. Let's pray.

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Our Father, Lord, we bow before you in your greatness this morning.

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Lord, we need help of your Holy Spirit. Lord, I need help to preach your word and Lord, we all need help to receive of your word.

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Thank you for your word, Lord. There's nothing in this universe like it. Lord, we're in desperate need of grace and Lord, we just pray that you'd pour grace upon grace upon our souls this morning as we would receive your word.

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We pray, O God, that you would open our eyes, the eyes of our heart, that we may clearly see the

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Lamb of God. As Scripture says, Behold, behold the

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Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. And Lord, we thank you.

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Only in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, this is your Lamb. Our only hope, our living hope, our only

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Savior, our great Savior, and our only Lord, Lord of lords and King of kings.

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Lord, we pray that you would change our hearts this morning and transform us, O God, into more into your likeness.

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And we do pray these things and for your honor and your glory in Jesus' name, for his sake.

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Amen. Well, God bless the reading of His word this morning from our ears to our hearts.

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Jesus said, He that has ears to hear, let him hear. What a privilege it is to have this wonderful word this morning.

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Now, in John chapter 7, as we've seen, that Jesus went about in Galilee. He avoided going to Judea because of what it says in verse 1.

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Verse 1, that after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for He did not want to walk in Judea because the

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Jews sought to kill Him. His brothers made a suggestion to Him in verse 3 and 4.

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His brothers therefore said to Him, Depart from here and go into Judea, and your disciples also may see the works that you're doing.

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For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly.

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And if you do these things, show yourself to the world. Basically, they wanted

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Him to go there where He would be killed. Verse 5 tells us that they were not even believers as well, for even

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His brothers did not believe in Him. So He had family members that were not believing

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Him as the Messiah as well. So even the believers, even though they were not believers,

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I should say, and Jesus would respond by telling them that His time had not yet come to reveal

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Himself to die on the cross as was appointed by the Father's divine timetable.

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The feast of the booths, or the tabernacles, is the feast we've seen that Jesus would soon follow after they did, but Jesus would not appear publicly, but He would appear privately.

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And in verse 11, it says, Then the Jews sought Him at the feast and said,

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Where is He? Where is He? So we see that the Jews were looking for Him, there at the feast.

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They came from Jerusalem, which was where He didn't want to go because they were the ones who sought to kill

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Him. And about the middle of the feast, right in the middle of the feast, Jesus would go up to the temple where He would begin to teach.

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And that's where we are. Jesus is here at Jerusalem at the temple.

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We saw that they were astonished at His teaching and wondered how He could know so much.

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They literally marveled. And they all marveled and wondered how He could have been so learned in the

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Holy Scriptures. Supernatural knowledge, but yet a man that learned the

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Word of God as well. And he knew it. Here was the living

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Word and knowing the written Word. Jesus' response to this could be found in verse 16 through verse 19.

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And I'll read it. It says, Jesus answered to them and said,

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My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak of 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, and no unrighteousness is in him, and he's speaking of himself.

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So that's the response Jesus gives. And then

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He asked a question in verse 19, 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 crowd accused

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Him of having a demon, that He was a madman, that He was literally crazy and out of His mind.

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And the Jews wanted to kill Him for what He had done back in chapter 5, where He healed the lame man on the

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Sabbath day. And that was the deal there that they thought He broke the

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Sabbath, actually Jesus kept the Sabbath perfectly. They were the hypocrites.

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So they couldn't see or hear what He was saying about Himself, and He told them that they needed to judge correctly, according to righteous judgment.

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Verse 24, Jesus says, Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

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So basically Jesus was demanding the exercise of moral and sound judgment, according to the

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Scriptures. This is actually what He was telling the hypocrites, the leaders, the

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Jewish leaders that sought to kill Him. This was meant to point out how they were judging wrongly.

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They could not see who Jesus was. They were blind. Their hearts were hardened.

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And full of unbelief. They could not hear what

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He was saying, because they were spiritually blind. They were spiritually mute.

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They were spiritually deaf. Because of the hard, depraved hearts of unbelief.

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Now, here I am in our text. That brings us to our text today that we see

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Jesus at the temple teaching. He continues to teach. And the crowds are accusing

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Him, and also the Jews desiring to kill Him. That was their motives. So in our text, we will observe and consider three things.

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Three things, and this is my outline for this morning. First of all, we will see the questions from the people.

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The questions from the people in verse 25 to verse 27. Second, we will see

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Jesus' proclamation among the people.

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Jesus' proclamation among the people in verse 28 and verse 29. And third, and final, we will look at the division of the people.

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The division of the people in verse 30 and 31. Then we will look at, briefly, some practical application.

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But we pray that practical application will be given to us as we look at the content of this text.

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So let's begin. Questions from the people. That is found in verse 25 to verse 27.

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Verse 25 says, Now some of them from Jerusalem said, Is this not

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He whom they seek to kill?

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And here we see, once again, how divided the people are. They are divided. They are confused.

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And by this time, it had become well known in Jerusalem that the Jewish people and the leaders were plotting against the

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Savior, the Messiah. And here, some of the common people that's asking this question is if this was not the one whom the rulers were pursuing.

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Is this not He whom they seek to kill? So, now what case could they have had for a man without guilt?

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Sinless. Perfect. What case would they? Well, this is actually telling us how evil and depraved the human heart is without faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We are all born in depravity.

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And we all need a Savior. And there is a verse of Scripture that literally comes to mind from the prophet

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Jeremiah that brings this out very clearly about the hearts of all of us.

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Without the Lord Jesus Christ, we are totally, completely depraved. Total depravity.

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And chapter 17 in Jeremiah. It's a very pointed

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Scripture that you don't hear often, but it's something that since Scripture, we need to tell people more of.

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Because there are so many lies out there in our world today that people say, well, follow your heart.

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And that will lead people right into hell if we are to follow our hearts. It is the worst advice that we can give anybody.

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Is to follow your own heart's desire. But if you do that, it's bad because our hearts are deceitful and depraved.

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Listen to verse 9 and verse 10. This is the word of the Lord from the prophet

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Jeremiah. The heart, the heart is the seed of all our will and emotion.

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It is deceitful above all things, above all things. And what does he say?

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It's desperately, that means incurably wicked. It's wicked.

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Question is, who can know it? Who can know it? Notice verse 10. The answer is given.

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There's only one that really knows our hearts. And even how wicked we are because we don't know how wicked our hearts are.

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Gives us the answer and the Lord says, I, the Lord, search the heart.

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I test the mind. That means the secret parts, the secret parts.

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Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

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So here we see the evil heart is within those who refuse to believe.

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And the evil heart, they desire to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is really the heart of the problem, is the heart.

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A heart that is hard, depraved, deceitful, wicked.

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Who can know it? Only the Lord knows. We do not know our own hearts and how wicked they are.

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So it shows us what is happening within man here. It shows that the words of Jesus have found no place within them.

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They refuse to believe His words. And it's because they have a hard heart of unbelief.

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This is where the hatred for God comes from. Is our wicked hearts.

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It shows you by Adam's fall, we have all inherited an evil heart of unbelief.

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Unless the Spirit of God intervenes through His word and ignites supernaturally regeneration and gives us grace, favor to show us our sin.

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And that we would go to the cross. And by the way, the law of God is what actually shows us this.

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The law of God is really something so gracious because it's our schoolmaster that leads us to Christ.

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It cannot save us. The law of God cannot save. But it does have a great,

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I guess you could say, reason to how we can see our hearts.

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And this is why here at Redeeming Grace Church, we believe in law and grace. We believe in both.

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We believe in an entirety of the whole word of God. We believe it's critical to understand what the law says.

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It is a perfect law, right? The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The law of God, it's powerful, but it shows us our sin.

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That by that, it leads us. And then we go to God in grace and ask for grace.

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A God that we would cry out. And I really do believe this is the problem of what we're seeing today.

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We're not hearing enough of the law of God preached under the power of the Holy Spirit. That we see our sin, that we are depraved and wicked.

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We need to see this from the word of God and through the spirit of God, through God's word. And then we would behold the

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Lamb of God and cry out for mercy. It's the only way we can be saved. So here, these people have a hard heart of unbelief.

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This is where this hatred comes from. That's why I pointed out the scripture. The heart's deceitful.

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They are deceived. They're thinking they're doing something right. And they really don't know who they're attacking.

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This is the Lord of glory. This is the Messiah. This is God from heaven in flesh.

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The second person of the Trinity. This is what Jesus pointed out in the very next chapter where he exposes their evil plans.

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Turn with me to John chapter 8. Just the next chapter. And look with me verse 37 to 40.

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And listen to what Jesus says here. He says, I know that you are of Abraham's descendants.

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They were just bragging about this. And he says, but you seek to kill me. You seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.

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You see that? My word. It's the words that they were rejecting.

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Because in his words are spirit and life. And he says, my words have no place in you.

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I speak what I have seen with my father. And you do what you have seen with your father.

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Interesting now, he's bringing up their father. Where does he go with this?

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Verse 39 says, and they answered and said to him, Abraham's our father.

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Jesus said to them, if you were of Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

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But now you seek to kill me. And a man who has told you the truth, which

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I heard from God, Abraham did not do this. Then he told them, but you do the deeds of your father.

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And then he goes on to say, then they said to him, we were not born of fornication.

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We have one father, God. And listen what Jesus says.

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Jesus said to them, take this all the way to verse 47. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me.

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You would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God.

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Nor have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech?

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Because you are not able to listen to my word.

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Did you catch that? They do not have the ability. They're not capable. They're not able to listen to his word.

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Verse 44, and then Jesus, he does not hold nothing back, folks.

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This is truth in flesh. He tells these religious leaders, assault to kill him.

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You are of your father, the devil. And the desires of your father, you want to do.

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Then Jesus goes on to explain. He was a murderer from the beginning. And does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him.

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And when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. For he is a liar and the father of it.

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And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin?

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And if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? And he who is of God, hears

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God's words. Therefore, you do not hear because you are not of God.

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Very pointed, isn't it? Jesus lays it right down. Very powerful. We head in that direction.

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We'll look at that, God willing, in the near future again. Because it's the next chapter over. But Jesus gets right to the heart of the issue, the problem.

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They are of their father, the devil. They have a hard heart of unbelief. They're not capable of even hearing the words that Jesus is speaking.

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Because his words are spirit and life. They were seeking to kill Jesus because his words find no place in them.

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And we see that they cannot even bear to hear his words.

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They're not even capable and have the ability to hear. And that's the way it is with people that's lost without Jesus, isn't it?

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They're in blindness. They're dead and trespasses in their sins.

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And unless an act of regeneration takes place, unless they're born again, born from above of the spirit of God, they will not or cannot see the light.

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But a great light has come, Jesus Christ. And he has come to set them free.

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Praise his name. So apart from faith in Jesus Christ, apart from trusting

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Christ, this is who we are. This is us. This is us.

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The people from Jerusalem continued with another question in verse 6, back to John 7, verse 26, which says this,

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But look, he speaks boldly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the

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Christ? Listen to the questions. Listen to the questions. And that's what we're looking at here.

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The questions of the people. Well, Pastor John MacArthur gives note on this.

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I've got a quote, probably the only quote I have in this message, but it's a good one.

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But he observes this, and let me quote Pastor MacArthur here from his commentary.

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He says, The question indicates the crowds and the rulers were in great confusion and uncertainty as to who

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Jesus was and what to do about him. He goes on to say,

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They did not really have any firm convictions regarding Jesus' identity, for their question reveals their doubt and their unbelief.

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They were also perplexed at the religious leaders' failure to attest and silence him if he really were a fraud.

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Such dense confusion caused the crowd to wonder if the religious authorities in private concluded that he was indeed the

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Christ. Mass confusion among all groups reigned regarding Jesus."

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So there you have the confusion, the confusion that reigned among the

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Jewish people. Verse 27 says this,

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However, we know... Here's another question. Notice question after question. However, we know where this man is from, but when the

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Christ comes, no one knows where he is from. So you see here, that basically they did not believe in who

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Jesus was, who he is, because the unbelief reigned in the hard hearts towards him.

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Hard hearts of unbelief. You know, this is something we all need to take heed of, right?

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You see this in the book of Hebrews, consistently brought out. I'd like to read just one part.

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I've read this quite often, but I believe it's a great sober warning. As you well know, the writer to the

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Hebrews is constantly giving warning, after warning, after warning, after warning against unbelief.

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And he exhorts us actually to be faithful, to be faithful. Chapter 3, and notice verse 7,

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Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and he brings this out from the latter part of Psalm 95, the writer of Hebrews is quoting the

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Old Testament Psalter of David.

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He says, Today, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, and in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my works forty years.

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Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.

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So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And notice what he says here in verse 12,

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Beware brethren, brethren. He's speaking to God's people here. Brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living

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God. But, and here's the exhortation right here. Exhort one another daily, daily, while it is called today.

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Because we're not promised tomorrow, right? It's today. Today is the day of salvation. Today, we are to exhort one another daily.

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This is what the church is to do. And it's one of those one another's I really love.

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But lest any, and then he says, lest any of you be hardened. And what hardens us?

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Through the deceitfulness of sin. The deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceives.

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Deceives our own hearts. And then he says in verse 14, For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

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There you have the perseverance of the saints. Goes to the very end. But we must hold fast our confidence.

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And our confidence is in who? Jesus Christ. He is our confidence.

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Have no confidence in the flesh, right? Flesh has let us down every time. And while it's said, he repeats himself again, today, today, if you will hear his voice.

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Hearing God's voice. Hear God's voice. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

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That's the exhortation. And it goes on to say this from verse 16 to 19.

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For who having heard rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

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These are our examples, Paul says. These are our examples that we would learn from this.

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And then he says, Now with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

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That's questions. And then says in verse 18, And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey?

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So we see that they could not enter. And because of unbelief.

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Unbelief, beloved. And this is the reason. While they went after Jesus, sought to kill him, did not believe.

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They did not believe in who he really was, the Messiah, the son of the living God, the anointed one.

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Unbelief reigned in their hard hearts towards him. His brothers did not believe. Many disciples didn't believe.

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They defected from the truth. They defected from him. He is the truth. They forsook him.

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They went their own way because of his words. They did not like his words.

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And here we see in our text, they did not believe. So much unbelief here.

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So much unbelief. And the reason is so simple. His words found no place in them.

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They rejected his words. And is that not true today? Nothing's changed.

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Man's fallen, human, depraved nature has not changed. The words of Jesus Christ is still hated above all other words.

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Why you see so many other so -called churches or mega churches are constantly thriving because they got itching ears, right?

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That's what the scripture says. They have itching ears. And they want to hear what they want to hear. And it's actually a judgment.

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God gives them over there. And the judgment is the false teachers comes within the church, made within the church, breeded within the church.

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They know some scriptures, but they take it out of context, and wolves in sheep's clothing. And they're all about their motives, is all about the praises of men, about the love of money.

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They want to sit in the seat of Moses. They want accolades. And yet people, heaps upon heaps, and they talk about devils and demons and miracles and healings and all this, and how you can get rich today.

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God help us. This is a judgment. This is a judgment from God. And yet, if you speak anything about who

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Jesus really is, why he came, the sufferings of Christ, the cross, repentance, preach of hell, start preaching the word of God, people fly out.

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They don't want to hear it. And that's where we are today. Unbelief.

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Unbelief toward Jesus. People say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but we'll see in a minute. They say they believe, but they really didn't believe.

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And we'll look at what that actually means. So the words of Jesus Christ had no place within them.

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They could not bear to hear his words, the truth. So much they wanted, but they had a reason.

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They wanted to kill him. And I submit to you today, beloved, that if it were not for the grace of God, we would go just away, just like everyone else.

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Aren't you glad for the grace of God? I tell you, God's favor, that he keeps us.

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He keeps us. And that's why I'm saying we cannot do this ourselves, beloved. There is a part in sanctification.

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Yes, we are to trust in the spirit of God to do the work, and by the spirit of God that's within us, to work out our own salvation with fear and tremor, to mortify the deeds of the flesh, but it's all the power of God.

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It's all the graces that God has given us. It's all the gift through faith, and it's what

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Jesus has given all through him. And God has shown that grace and that favor toward us, and that actually should not cause us to strut.

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It should humble us. It should humble us because it's not of us. It's of God.

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You know, even the apostle Paul pointed this out. Even those who came to Christ, and you can read this in 1

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Corinthians, and the argument here, the church of Corinth was a worldly church, a very carnal church, and I think quite often if they were carnal, where we are today in comparison to the church of Corinth.

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But as you know, it speaks about, let me read in verse 12, chapter 1, now

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I'll say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, I am of Paulos, I am of Cephas, talking about Peter, I am of Christ, I'm of each band here.

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And is Christ divided? This is the apostle Paul, he had to set this straight. And then

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Paul says, was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

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And Paul says, I thank God I baptized none of you except Cephas and Gaius. At least anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.

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Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any.

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And then he says, for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. And then he says, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

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And then he points it out right here, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God, for it is written,

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I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

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Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not

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God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of the world through wisdom did not know

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God, it pleased God, through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

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And then he goes on, but you know, he basically points out it's not of him, it's of God.

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It is God that gets the increase. It is God. How wonderful it is. Well, outside of faith in Jesus Christ, we will not know

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God and even who He is and know Jesus. So much that there to say there.

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But they refused to believe. And worse, they wanted to kill Him. Because their hearts were full of hatred.

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Jesus referring to Himself sent by the Father is all over the Gospel of John.

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We see this time and time again as He says, The Father sent Me. I proceed from the Father. The Father sent

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Me. The Father sent Me. You can actually say that Jesus is the

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Apostle, and I believe it says that in Hebrews. That Jesus Christ is the Apostle.

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He is the sent one. He is the one that comes from heaven. The second person of the

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Trinity comes into the world and becomes flesh. He humbles Himself. Jesus constantly refers to Himself as sent by the

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Father. It's all over the Gospel. There's so many scriptures, folks. Just look at it and study that in your devotional time.

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You see this all through the Gospel of John. Again, the lack of belief in this great truth is actually the core cause of God hating hearts.

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They hated God. They hated Christ. Again, the example is given.

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I read this a couple weeks ago, but I believe it bears reading again. And we always need to keep this in mind, right?

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When we are rejected by this world, Jesus says in John 15, 18, 15,

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If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.

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Yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

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Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

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And if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they would do to you for My name's sake because they do not know

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Him. See, there's the key right there. They do not know Him. They do not know God the Father who sent

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Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin.

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But now they have no excuse for their sin. He's the revealer of hearts, folks.

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He comes to reveal our sin. And then He says this, He who hates Me hates

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My Father also. Why? He's one with the Father. He's the second person in the

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Trinity. This is God in flesh. He's one with the Father. Well, that's the reason.

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Well, secondly, let's go to the second point. Jesus' proclamation among the people. Jesus' proclamation among the people.

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What was that? Well, you see this in verse 28. Then Jesus cried out as He taught in the temple saying,

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You both know Me and you know where I am from and I have not come of Myself but He who sent

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Me is true whom you do not know. He cries out.

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Isn't that interesting? He cries out. That's true proclamation. Here He is, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He's preaching, proclaiming. You both know Me. You know where I am from and I have not come of Myself but He who sent

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Me is true whom you do not know. So now at this point, Jesus cried out to the people who had gathered and were listening to the conversation in the temple.

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They did indeed know Him, supposedly. But He said and knew where He came from.

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So here, of course, He was saying that they knew Him not as God in flesh, but they simply knew

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Him as a man. As a man. They knew Him as Jesus of Nazareth, but they did not really know

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Him as God in the flesh. If they had known

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Him, the apostle Paul says, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. They really had no true understanding of who

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He truly was. Again, if they did, they would be worshipping and falling before Him.

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But no, this is just a common man. He's from Nazareth. They knew Him in the earthly sense, but not in the spiritual sense because they really didn't know

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Him as He was the Messiah God in flesh, sent from the

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Father. But Jesus is saying this. Now keep in mind, as He says that He is sent from the

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Father, He's also equal with the Father. And eventually they killed

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Him because of this, because He claims to be equal with God. And as to His humanity,

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He lived in Nazareth, but they should have realized too that He did not come from Himself, but that He had been sent from God the

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Father, whom these people did not know. So in these words, the Lord Jesus made a direct claim again to His equality with God the

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Father. He did not come of Himself, that is, of His own authority, but He comes in the authority of God the

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Father to do His will, not His own will. Jesus, as a man, submits

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His will to the Father, but yet He has a mission to always do those things that the

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Father commanded. He had been sent into the world by the true and living

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God, and this God they did not know. This God they did not know.

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And again, in John 8, listen to verse 19.

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Then they said to Him, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered,

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You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known

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Me, you would have known My Father also. And in verse 20 it says,

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These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as He taught in the temple. And again it says,

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And no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come. Divine appointment, the sovereignty of God.

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It's powerful, isn't it? Jesus knew God the Father in a deep, intimate way.

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He dwelt with the Father from all eternity. He was equal in all respects with God the Father. And again, let me put the breaks and let me make a footnote and a comment right here.

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There are even churches out there, and be careful, they call themselves the

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Oneness Pentecostals. Oneness Pentecostals believe in modalism.

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They basically believe that Jesus is the Father and that they got the

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Trinity all confused. That's why they call it

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Jesus only. I'm sure some of you have run into them.

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I ran in my early conversion with Christ. I remember working in a grocery store.

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I was in the back of the produce. This is back when we were sacking. It was a mom and pop store and I was sacking potatoes.

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And we had this very kind gentleman that came in and he collected the leftover produce and he would take it and give it to the needy in his church.

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And he was an elder and it was a Oneness Pentecostal church. And we happened somehow to get into a debate one day.

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And here I was very fresh in the kingdom. But I'm thankful that at that time

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I knew just enough and what was in the gospel record about especially when

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Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. And you know there that when

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Jesus was baptized, Jesus has suffered to be so. John forbade him because he said,

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I'm not worthy to baptize you. I'm not even worthy to stoop down and unlatch the sandal latches of your shoe.

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And then Jesus has suffered to be so to fulfill all righteousness. And then you know the story.

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As he suffered him and he basically said, let it be. He baptized him in the

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Jordan. And as he went down and he came up, you know what happened. The Father spoke from heaven.

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This is my beloved Son and whom I'm well pleased in. There was

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Jesus the Son. The Father speaks audibly. And then what else happened?

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A dove. Let me just say this. The Spirit of God descended like a dove upon Christ.

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There you have the Holy Spirit. You have the Trinity. Now we know the word Trinity isn't in the scripture, but we see it time and time again.

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You can take it back to Genesis where God says, let us make man in our image.

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The pluralism there. Very clear from scripture. I don't know how these people miss these scriptures, but the

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Trinity is all over the Bible. That was just one example. And I happened to tell this gentleman this, and he was debating me.

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And of course when I spoke about the baptism, he was trying to explain it away. But he said, oh no,

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Jesus is the Father. And of course he goes to John 14 where I believe it was

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Philip that says, show us the Father and it suffices, be sufficient for us.

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And Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He wasn't saying I am the

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Father. He says, if you've seen me, I am the image of the Father. I'm in the likeness of the image.

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But he was one with the Father. It's a mystery, isn't it? But there are enough scriptures for us to know that Jesus is not the

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Father. He comes from the Father. He was sent from the Father.

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He proceeds from the Father. And this is what this is all about here.

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But Jesus knew God the Father in a deep, intimate way because He's God.

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He's one with God the Father. And here is the Son in flesh representing man, the human race.

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He comes. He was sent from God the Father. And that He always lived with God the

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Father. He was always equal with God the Father even though He laid aside the privileges.

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He didn't lay aside His deity, did He? That would make Him cease to be God. But He laid aside the privileges, the glory.

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And He would later on after His resurrection receive that glory again. We see this in Philippians 2.

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Wonderful passage, isn't it? Don't you love the Word of God? It's so wonderful.

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It's all about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Philippians 2, verse 6, "...who

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being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made

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Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond slave, coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man,

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He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."

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And it goes on to say, "...therefore God, speaking of God the Father, also has highly exalted

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Him, God the Son, and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, to the glory of God the Father." It's coming today that this is going to happen. Another great scripture is found in Colossians.

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I think Brother Zach referred to that this morning before we sung that wonderful hymn,

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Immortal and Invisible God Only Was. Colossians 1, verse 15, "...He

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is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

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All things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

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And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things

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He may have the preeminence." And I love that. That's basically what Redeeming Grace Church is all about.

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We have that as our theme. We desire that Jesus be first place in everything.

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Everything. Well, that's just a couple of scriptures. Of course, there's another one that comes to mind

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I love. It's Hebrews chapter 1. It goes right along with that.

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It says, "...God, who at various times in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom

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He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the worlds, who being in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power, when

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He had Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels,

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He has in inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."

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Isn't it wonderful? Everything is better in Jesus. If you have Jesus, everything is better.

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You see this all the way through Hebrews. Better. Better in every way. Better. Better than the law.

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He fulfilled the law. He fulfilled all of righteousness. He represented

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His people. But Jesus is God in flesh. And we saw that in John chapter 1.

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Isn't it wonderful? In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Was God.

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And He was in the beginning with God. And all things were made through Him. And without Him, nothing was made that was made.

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And Him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness. And the darkness did not comprehend it.

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Wow. Doesn't that just bring us to worship? Who He is and His greatness.

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And here He is. He says, The Father sent Me. Stated the clearest possible way that was

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Christ God, the anointed One, whom God had sent into the world to accomplish the work of redemption.

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And He accomplished it. When He said it is finished. When He died on the cross.

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It paid in full. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Well, we come to the third.

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The third point is the division of the people. The division of people. Look at verse 30. Back to chapter 7.

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Therefore they sought to take Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

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Just like it said in chapter 8. That His hour had not yet come.

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In verse 20. By divine appointment, the sovereignty of God. This is

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God's amazing sovereignty. Jesus had an appointed time, an appointed hour, to die on that cross on Calvary.

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On God's godless hill. It was not this particular day at this point. No one laid a hand on Him.

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No one laid a hand on Him. Acts chapter 4. Listen to this.

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Acts chapter 4. Verse 27 and 28.

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You can go there with me if you like. Love to hear them Bible pages. Praise God. Let me back up.

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Verse 27. For truly against Your holy servant, whom You anointed by both

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Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatever

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Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

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To be done. God determined it. His sovereign purpose.

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It was in His divine decree. And Jesus knew exactly the perfect time.

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His hour had not yet come. God was in complete control. Jesus was on God's divine timetable here.

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Jesus would die when God the Father had appointed it. And we see this is very clear in verse 30.

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They sought to take Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

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But not only did they seek to arrest Him, they couldn't. They couldn't. We also see the continued unbelief of those who believed

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Him. The unbelief of those who believed? Yeah. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but what do

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I mean by that? Well, look at verse 31. And we'll come to a conclusion here.

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Many of the people believed in Him and said, when the Christ comes, will

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He do more signs than these, which this man has done? Will He do more signs?

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Notice what they're thinking of. They're counting signs. Divided conviction, divided people, existed among the people regarding who

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Jesus really was. The question here anticipates really a negative answer that the

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Messiah could do no greater kinds of miracles than these that Jesus had done. And they said, when

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Christ appears, will He do more signs than this man has done? Well, this is where someone could have stepped in and say, wait, hold on.

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That is, is this the Christ and there is no need to wait for His appearing?

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Well, actually the apostle John by the Holy Spirit steps in. They will keep in count, these people will keep in count of the signs in which

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He did and what He is doing, but did not have saving faith in Him.

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They did not trust in Him. We have concluded again by reading through all the way from John 1 to the present chapter here that there could be a belief about Jesus, I say a belief about Jesus, a mental belief without genuine saving faith in Jesus which is a heart belief of who

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He really is, a genuine saving faith. And I don't know about you, this really convicts my heart. I constantly want to seek and examine my own heart's motives, just not to believe here, but to truly believe in Christ here.

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Because if we believe with the heart, righteousness unto righteousness, we will follow

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Christ all the way to the end no matter what the cost. No matter what comes our way, we will love

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Him. I believe it was Martin Lloyd -Jones that said this, he says, the question really isn't do you believe in Him?

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Because the devils believe and tremble. The question is, do you love Him? Do you obey

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Him? And I agree with that 100%. Do we love

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Him? Do we obey Him? Do we obey the gospel? Do we just not hold this book and say, okay,

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I got it in my head, but I have it in my heart. You see, Psalm 119 says this, and Brother Keith referred to Psalm 119 as like the peak, the mountain peak, the

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Mount Everest of the Psalms. But notice how the psalmist begins to say, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the

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Lord. He didn't say who just believes in his mind, but who walk in the law of the

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Lord. They walk. This is our daily life, in our homes, among our children, among our friends, among those we work with.

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And then he says this, blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.

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The whole heart. That's really convicting.

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May God search us out that we have our whole heart. That's why Jesus said, love the

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Lord thy God, the first and great commandment, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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And none of us has done that perfectly, have we? Let's just be honest. But Jesus asked, but do we believe in Jesus in the right way, in the sense of our hearts?

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The number one sign is this, that is the belief in the signs while not believing that Jesus was the

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Christ and was sent by the Father. We are not people, again, of signs and wonders like so many churches claim to be.

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We are a body of believers here at Redeeming Grace Church and the true church of the living

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God. And it doesn't mean that we've arrived and we've got a truth 100%. We want to reform and go towards the truth.

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I like what R .C. Sproul says. He says, hey, I'm praying, and he's with the Lord now, and when he was here teaching,

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I remember him saying this, they asked him about this, and he said, I would pray at least 80%.

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I said, wow. You know, we think we've got it all figured out, don't we? But let's humble ourselves.

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We want to go towards the truth, amen? And how do we do this?

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We sit at the feet of Jesus in prayer and meditate on His Word day by day, day by day.

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Meditate, meditate. Eat this Word. Have an appetite for this

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Word. Peter says it's like a newborn baby having an appetite for its mother's milk.

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And then you go to the meat. When you get teeth, you want to eat. I love steak, and I don't know about you. I love to get the juice and tender steak and all you can out of steak.

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I'm a meat and potatoes guy. My wife is trying to help me stay away from that. But you know what

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I'm saying. But there's meat. There's strong meat here in the Word of God. And God says like birds, we should open our mouths and God will fill it.

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How gracious and good is God. Well, I need to close this. God has provided everything in Jesus Christ.

01:00:05

To atone for the sins. Giving us the privilege to become children of the living

01:00:10

God. To be adopted by Him. But the number one sign Jesus gave, and they were talking about signs.

01:00:18

They were talking about signs. Matthew, go with me to Matthew 12, 39. And I want to close with this.

01:00:25

So many other scriptures I got wrote down here, but don't have time. But this is really an important one.

01:00:30

All of it's important. But in context of what is being said there, listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 12, verse 39.

01:00:42

And I'd like to also read to verse 42.

01:00:49

But He answered and said... Oh, let me back up. The question was this. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying,

01:00:56

Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. Jews requested a sign, like Paul said.

01:01:04

But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.

01:01:12

And no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet

01:01:17

Jonah. Hey, this is the sign right here. Jesus said, I'll give you one sign.

01:01:26

And He says in verse 40, As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the

01:01:33

Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented of the preaching of Jonah.

01:01:45

And then He says, And indeed a greater than Jonah is there. You know what He's saying? A greater light is going to be given to this generation.

01:01:53

And folks, it makes me think. This literally really hits me hard.

01:01:59

How much light have we had? How much light have you had?

01:02:08

Greater light, greater responsibility, greater judgment. Remember that.

01:02:14

Jesus said in verse 42, The Queen of the South will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it.

01:02:21

For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And Jesus said, Indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

01:02:30

Hallelujah. All in Christ, folks, the question is this.

01:02:36

Do you truly, truly believe that Jesus knew the

01:02:43

Father intimately? Do you truly believe that He came from the Father? Do you believe that He was sent by the

01:02:50

Father? And I'll leave you with this and complete this application.

01:03:00

John 17. And this is the one verse of Scripture that the

01:03:07

Puritans preach more than any other verse in the New Testament or in the Bible itself. And this is really what it comes down to, folks.

01:03:20

Jesus said, in verse 3, and He's praying to the Father, and this is eternal life, that they, and He's praying for the apostles, that they may know you the only true

01:03:34

God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

01:03:41

Whom you have sent. You see, He prays for the apostles in verse 1 all the way to verse 19.

01:03:50

19, then He prays for us, the believers, in verse 20 to 26.

01:03:57

Wonderful. High priestly prayer. Scripture says this.

01:04:04

Isaiah 55. Ho, everyone who is thirst, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come and buy and eat.

01:04:12

And yet, come, buy wine and milk without money, without price that's been paid for, folks. Jesus Christ has paid it all.

01:04:18

Come to Him. Today is the day of salvation. Don't put it off if you don't know Christ.

01:04:25

If you know about Him, that's not enough. The demons... No, Tozer said this.

01:04:30

A .W. Tozer said this. The devil is a greater theologian than all of us. And still a devil.

01:04:38

We must believe. We must obey Him. We must love Him. Let me put that in right order. We must love

01:04:44

Him and obey Him. And if you do love Him, you obey Him. Jesus said,

01:04:51

Come unto Me, all you labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Learn from Me.

01:04:57

He said, For I am gentle. I'm meek and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls.

01:05:03

You want soul rest? Come to Jesus. For My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Hallelujah.

01:05:10

What a Savior. Do you know Him today? Please don't turn Him away.

01:05:16

While breath is in your body. Let's pray. Oh Father.

01:05:24

Our great God. We thank You for the word of truth. The word of life.

01:05:31

We thank You for this scripture. We thank You for the Bible. We thank You for Your word that sanctifies us wholly through and through.

01:05:41

Your word is truth. Sanctified. Lord, sanctify us even now. Lord, we in our hearts have so many times astrayed.

01:05:51

We've gone astray from You. But Lord, forgive us. May we come to You.

01:05:57

Desperately just throw ourselves upon You. And believe in who You are. And all that You are.

01:06:04

And all that You say that You are. And to love You. And to adore You. And to obey You. And to obey

01:06:10

Your commands. Lord, we thank You that You're such a wonderful God of mercy and compassion and grace.

01:06:17

Even though You're a God of justice and wrath. But You have showed truth and grace through Jesus Christ.

01:06:24

Grace and truth. Through our Lord. A great salvation that does not need to be neglected.

01:06:32

How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And that You have provided all by the

01:06:41

Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb of Glory. Who has taken away the sin of the world.

01:06:46

Thank You for this, Lord. Thank You for providing redemption, forgiveness, and inheritance forever.

01:06:54

Perfect righteousness that You dress us with by faith alone. Lord, we come to You now,

01:07:03

Lord. And we just ask, there's anyone out here that's outside of You. Lord, I would pray that You bring

01:07:09

Your sheep in. We know that that will happen. So we thank You and we praise You. Praise You for the precious blood of the

01:07:17

Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, what a Savior. You be the glory. And we pray this in Your name.