Enough Said (John 12:36b-50 Jeff Kliewer)

Church Announcements and Call to Worship

Thank you for joining Cornerstone Church this morning. I always want to make everyone aware if you're new here or if you've never filled out one of these connection cards, it just has the ability to get us involved with you.

Just your name and information allows us to send you a thank you card. Thank you for coming this morning if you're new. If you are in need of one of these connect cards, I can have Brad walk through and just give a quick glance if anyone raises their hand.

They can get one of these connect cards, we'll give you a pen to fill it out. You can give it to one of us up here or you can drop it in the offering box in the back. Thank you so much for doing that with us.

I know people are going to be kind of drooling in a little bit as the hallway was crowded this morning, so just make an eye out for some chairs that are open as people filter.

In.

Thank you again for being here and John Laskin has some announcements for us.

Good morning. Great to be with you again this morning. I find myself this past few weeks, I'm spending time in Proverbs now, just being more and more aware of the difference between the folly of the world and the wisdom of God.

We come here, we are privileged because we get to hear the word spoken without compromise. Because there is one truth and that's the truth of God and if you are listening to any alterations of it, it's not wisdom.

There's a verse in Proverbs 1 verse 20, wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice. I think we're almost so used to having the different messages of the world shouted aloud in the streets or taking up all the volume in the marketplace.

But this particular passage says that wisdom cries aloud in the street and in the markets she raises her voice. The reality of God's sovereignty is as much as the world tries to shout out its message and this is all coming from Satan, the father of all lies.

As much as the world tries to call out its messages, it cannot drown out truth. It will try to drown out truth, but it cannot drown out truth. It's in the noisy street, it's in the noisy marketplace where truth needs to be proclaimed.

We can't just run away from it for shyness or whatever else because that's the truth that needs to be heard. And I want to encourage you because scripture is really clear. I don't care how much, how loud, how aggressively the world proclaims its small g gospel message.

It cannot defeat the gospel message. It's the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. I think you're going to speak with that one later on, Pastor Jeff. It is the power of God. Some announcements that are coming up.

We have some great opportunities coming up. First of all, in about four weeks, maybe it's five, on the 11th of June we're going to have a baptism service right here out on the property. Probably be some food.

Rumor has it there's going to be a bounce house for the kids to jump on. And I asked Pastor Jeff and he said it doesn't count if the kids jump from the bounce house into the baptismal. That does not count.

But we are having classes to prepare you for baptism. The first one is today. If you're interested in baptism and didn't know about it, couldn't make the class, we will work with you on that. But just contact us as the classes continue and as we have the baptism and then as we all join together in fellowship, encouraging one another and hearing the beautiful testimony of hearts that have turned to the Lord.

Come back tonight. Please come back tonight. Let me try that again. Please come back tonight at 6 o 'clock. We know that our Lord has plans for us. Again, His sovereign will. We do have this land that has come and God has given it to us.

We're growing in numbers. Where do we go? How do we proceed? Do we build here? Do we build there? The cost of construction is unfortunately going high. We need the wisdom that God provides. We have identified a 24-hour period of prayer and fast.

The main focus of that is wisdom that God can give us to where we are going to go. But I think, Jeff, you mentioned in the first service, time of prayer and fast, with that as a focus, boy, just adding on to that our personal relationship with God and surrender.

To Him.

Tonight at 6 o 'clock, we come together. We normally have a prayer meeting in one of the rooms. We're going to be in here. We're going to have a time of praise, of prayer, of singing, of hearing scripture and preparing us and starting our 24-hour prayer and fast, seeking God's wisdom.

That will be tonight. Tomorrow night at 6 o 'clock, we will come together in fellowship and break our fast with food and fellowship and again, time of praise and prayer as a family together. So tonight, come together as we started.

Tomorrow night at 6, as we conclude the fast and then you can just stay here because it will be the first week of our four-week evangelism class. Very exciting stuff. So you can just be here to start right in with it.

After the first class, you'll be hooked. You'll stay for all four. So that's coming up in a week and a half, a week from this coming Saturday, not this Saturday, but next. We're going to have a cleanup day here at the church, spiffing up the building and the grounds.

More information. It will be in the morning, like from 9 o 'clock until noon, something like that. Tim Robinson is still working with the youth, so he's asked me to continue to announce the initiation of a young adult fellowship that we're kicking off.

The first day will be the 27th of May. That's a Saturday. It will be an evening affair. Jeff, I'm sorry, I think they said you're no longer a young adult. Anyway, young adult is going to start. That doesn't mean singles.

That just means young adult. So married, single, whatever. I had just an, oh, by the way, for those who are somewhat concerned or whatever, just be aware that the elements that we do use for the Lord's table are gluten-free, for those who want to know that.

There it is. Let's go to prayer. Lord, we come to you this morning. We come to you at all times as sinners, yet as your children who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. We come to you as individuals who are attacked by the deceits of the world, yet we come to you as individuals who are blessed by your truth.

Lord, we come seeking after you, seeking after your truth. Lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts that will believe. We pray. We pray, Lord, for your wisdom. We know as the Proverbs says, wisdom cries aloud in the street.

In the markets, she raises her voice. Father, give us through the power of your Holy Spirit the desire and the courage to speak your truth in the marketplace, in a dark world that desperately needs to hear.

We come to you this morning, Lord, in worship and surrender to you, and we pray this morning, we pray that you would open our hearts, let us see, let us understand, let us grow closer.

To you.

Lord, we continue to pray for those in need. Lord, be with them and empower our Pastor Jeff with the words that come from you this morning. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Holiness, Worship, and Communion

We are here standing before him because he is holy and the earth is filled with his glory.

We can look around anywhere and everywhere and see his glory. He is worthy of our praise. Let's sing and understand about his holiness and our position to him, glorifying him through our voices.

Who can light the fires of a thousand burning suns blazing in the heavens?

For your throne, your holy throne, you are the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the mighty God of everything. We know that you are the great I Am, the Prince of Peace. We are thankful to you because of your sacrifice on the cross so that we may stand at your throne, redeemed, allowed to be among your holy.

We know that you are holy and mighty and worthy of our praise. We pray, Lord, that every day we will sing to you with every being and every part of our hearts. We love you and we worship you all the days of our life.

You are mine.

You are worth.

Let's raise our voices to him.

We're going to celebrate communion this morning. What a blessed time it is to be with all of you and to realize the oneness we have and the unity we have in Jesus Christ and it's just a joy to be here with you all.

When you think back 2 ,000 years ago and the Lord was with his disciples at the Last Supper and they were in Jerusalem and it was the time of the feast, but they didn't really have a home in Jerusalem so they needed a place to go and Jesus said that there would be somewhere to provide a room and there was and they went to that room.

Now normally what would happen is that the male, the eldest male of the household would be the officiator of the Passover meal. Well they didn't own that household but as that group was in that room, it appears that Jesus ended up being the presider of that Passover meal based upon the words we see spoken and the position of the people who were in the room.

So Jesus was the host of that meal that day and I want to talk for a second in communion because we hear the word host mentioned in the communion and there has been some teaching about the host in different churches in the communion and I want to bring to your attention a few of the things we've heard and discuss whether those things are really true about the host.

So the host many feel are this wafer or this cracker before us, the bread that is broken. The reason it's called the host to some is because they feel that there is some miraculous or mysterious thing that happens to the host where the bread actually becomes the physical body of Jesus Christ by some miraculous event.

Well is that true? Well what we see in scripture is that there are no teachings like that in the scripture at all and that teaching comes from John chapter 6 where Jesus calls himself the bread of life but why does he do that?

Jesus had just fed 5 ,000 people through a miracle of breaking bread multiplying it right before their eyes and the people were focused and enamored on the bread that Jesus supplied and Jesus said no your attention should be on me.

I am the bread of life if you believe in me you will have eternal life and he tried to get their attention off of the bread, the physical bread and onto the person of himself Jesus Christ the Lord and his teaching in that time is not that we should eat of his physical body but that we should believe in him and his words that he taught.

But in addition to that those who would say that the host becomes Jesus Christ they say well when the wafer has become Jesus Christ they say well we are partaking of his crucifixion over and over and over again.

If you know the scriptures you know that Romans, Hebrews several times and first Peter chapter three said that Jesus offered himself once for all a sacrifice never to be repeated that his death was sufficient to pay for sins for all times past present and future his sacrifice is not to be repeated again.

So the host is not the cracker in Jesus becoming the physical body during this communion service but there are also those who say that it's called the host the cracker we remember because the word in Latin hostia means a sacrificial victim.

So when we are taking part of the wafer we are remembering that Jesus was a sacrificial victim that is also untrue. Jesus Christ was not a victim going to the cross helpless before evil men. Jesus Christ went to the cross because he was our high priest and he willingly offered himself and laid down his life for his people.

We need to understand that he was not a victim going to the cross in Luke chapter 23 we see Jesus with his cross on him and Simon of Cyrene was also there but as he was going the women of Jerusalem were weeping and lamenting over him and he says weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your children because he knew what was coming upon Jerusalem but he says weep not for me because he was not to be pitied but he was to be worshipped he was to be believed on he was not to be pitied as a victim and then when we see in the scriptures the bible teaching about the plan of God it says in Acts chapter 2 that this man Jesus who attested to you by many miracles and signs and wonders was delivered up by the predetermined plan and the foreknowledge of God.

The predetermined plan this is why Jesus went to the cross not because of evil men although evil men will be held responsible for it says and by evil men you nailed him to the cross. But then to show he was not a victim as well he was raised from the dead and it said that death could not possibly hold him in the grave that is how Jesus brought an end to sin death and Satan's rule over this world he is not a victim so when we think of the host this morning there are a lot of erroneous teachings about what the host is but is there a host for this communion service this morning?

Some would say well it is you because you are speaking to us and you are going to distribute or maybe it is the men who are going to come and distribute the elements so we would be hosting the communion meal.

Well I think it is Jesus himself still because Jesus has provided for this communion table for us it is called the Lord's table because he is at the table with us he is here now not in his presence taking part in the cracker but he is here through the Holy Spirit joining us all together in his church and he is with us in communion as we celebrate his life his death his resurrection and we come all together to remember these things.

So the communion is a blessed time we remember our savior and what he has done and we remember that he is not a victim but a victor through all of these things so I am going to have the guys come forward and we are going to read a little bit in 1 Corinthians 11 what Paul said about Christians celebrating the communion.

Paul was a little concerned he was very concerned really that there were divisions among the church at that time and they weren't celebrating the communion correctly that people actually had exalted themselves over one another and there was problems he said in the church celebrating communion some do it before others do it some do it and they take all the food for themselves some are left hungry there are divisions among you he says you need to consider these things don't be guilty of the body of Christ when you take so if there are divisions among us today we should pray for that if you have something against a brother we need to pray about that because we are all one in him and we need to be celebrating communion as oneness with together and oneness with our Lord Jesus so let's bow our heads just in silence for.

A moment and do that. Father we want to come before you as a body this morning we want.

To thank you Lord for the sacrifice of your son the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you Father that this was the only way and you in your love gave your son for us. We thank you for the body that was given for us.

We realize we are not worthy of receiving this gift that you have given but today we are thankful to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Lord and our King. We thank you for these things in Jesus name and I have the men pass out.

Jesus knew what he was going to go through at that last Passover meal but in the gospel.

Accounts in the book of Luke in particular it says that he had earnestly desired to have it was joyful for him to have that last Passover with his disciples and he said that he would not drink of the fruit of the vine until it would come in his kingdom.

And there's going to be another time when we get together and we have a feast of remembrance for the Lord except the Lord is going to be physically with us then when we're in his kingdom. I can't wait for that but for now we remember the Lord.

And the night he was betrayed he took the bread and he broke it and he gave thanks and he said this is my body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. To prepare this. Today we remember the cup. We realize that.

A life had to be poured out blood had to be shed in order for our sins to be forgiven. The life of the eternal spotless lamb of God was given for our sins. Jesus said this is the new covenant my blood which is going to be poured out for you.

Do this in remembrance.

Of me all right. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father we thank you so much for this great sacrifice so great a salvation through the blood of the lamb. We pray now that we would honor that sacrifice by the directing of our minds to pay attention to every word that you speak.

We pray for a humble heart before you that each of us would humble ourselves. We all bring our own traditions and our own presuppositions with us. When we open the word and we pray Lord you would empty us of those and allow us to hear straight from your mouth speak.

False Teaching, Harvard, and the Antinomian Controversy

Your servants are listening in Jesus name amen. Remember recently I spoke about the founding of Harvard University. How Harvard began when John Harvard gave half of his wealth as a gift. And that was a great picture of what Mary of Bethany was like when she poured out that expensive perfume on Jesus's feet.

She was willing to give so much of her wealth as an act of worship but in a similar way to how Judas was coveting that wealth. And then Judas ultimately proved to be an apostate. In the same way Harvard University has turned apostate.

It has turned away from the gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of another gospel. Well Harvard was founded in the 1630s and the event that so inspired John Harvard to give so much of his wealth was that many people were being led astray by false teachers and at that time the prominent false teacher that was most gaining attention was named Anne Hutcheson.

Anne Hutcheson began Bible studies in her house but that morphed into her hearing words from the Lord. And it's always dangerous when someone speaking prophetically claims an authority behind their words equal to the word of God through direct personal connection.

She preached that behavior. Even sin did not affect whether someone would go to heaven. Now we know that you cannot be saved by works. We're only saved by grace through faith. But what Anne Hutcheson was teaching was that you don't need works as evidence one way or the other it's all a matter of faith intellectual faith.

By 1636 she was holding two meetings a week and each time we had about 80 people in attendance including men and one of the men in attendance was the governor of Massachusetts Henry Vane. Now at the outset we know that there's error because first Timothy 2 11 to 15 says I forbid a woman to teach or to exercise authority over men.

And then Paul will appeal to the creation order and the fall of man as the rationale for that. So right away we know that there is error here. But her teaching was of great ruin when she was called to account and the Massachusetts Bay Colony brought her in for a trial.

She spoke a word of prophecy in her mind declaring that this court and the entire Massachusetts Bay Colony would come to ruin as retribution because she felt so persecuted with this and with this trial she was banished from the colony and she went up to Rhode Island.

Now some of you know Roger Williams of Rhode Island was very much peaceful and wanted the separation of church and state and so he gladly welcomed her. And that by the way is how Portsmouth. How do you say Portsmouth.

Yeah no mouth in there Portsmouth Rhode Island was founded now. She was there for a period of time and then ended up needing to leave there went to New York and the end of her story is very sad. Her family was homesteading in New York in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and they were attacked by Native Americans and we're 15 of them were slaughtered including in Hutchison by the Seminole Warriors.

This was a terrible controversy and it caused great pain in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was known at that time as the antinomian controversy. Anybody know what antinomianism is. Well anti would be against the nomos.

In Greek is the law. So against the law lawlessness. This is the teaching of license to sin that a Christian as long as a Christian holds the right belief in the heart as a personal matter of faith between him or her and God that the behavior of a person's life is really irrelevant.

Essentially it's let's go on sinning so that grace can increase. I bring it up because this controversy did not end in Massachusetts Bay in the 1600s it is raging today. It came to the forefront in the 1980s with John MacArthur.

In 1988 he wrote a book called the gospel according to Jesus and in that book he is refuting what he sees as the new cultural Christianity the megachurch movement the seeker sensitive movement try to get as many people to come to church as possible and do so by minimizing sin no longer calling for repentance no longer identifying specific sins.

Preachers tended to be very feel-good and therapeutic in their preaching and as a result they did grow large churches. But John MacArthur in the gospel according to Jesus said that repentance from sin is part of the gospel.

He used some of the language of A .W. Pink from the 1950s a good theologian although always would fail as a reason he bounced around but ultimately he became a writer in England and wrote some great theology.

And he said this no one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects him as Lord. Therefore those who have not bowed to Christ's scepter and enthroned him in their hearts and lives and yet imagine that they are trusting him as Savior are deceived.

And from this of course we get the title of the controversy in the 1990s which was called the lordship salvation controversy. Must you accept Christ as Lord and enthrone him in your heart and bow to the scepter and live for him in submission to his lordship.

Or is it enough that you simply ask him to save you and pray for the forgiveness of sin. MacArthur strongly asserted that one needed to repent of sin and believe in Christ a Savior and his Lord to truly submit to him.

Now the opposition to MacArthur came from my seminary where I went to school. I wouldn't go there for many. Like a decade more later but in the late 80s and in the early 90s one of the chairs of theology at Dallas Theological Seminary was named Zane Hodges.

Zane Hodges thought that the Gospel of John was the only book in the New Testament written explicitly to unbelievers to the unsaved. And then he noticed that in the Gospel of John you do not have the word repent.

You never have Jesus saying repent and believe the good news you only have believe. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing has life have life in his name.

He wrote a book called harmony with God in which Hodges says what's what much. What must I do to be saved. Where does that question come from. Acts chapter 16 Philippian Jailer. And in Acts 16 31 Paul answers this way believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

And Hodges said listen you're adding works to the Gospel by adding repentance as an element of saving faith. Do you see the controversy now. Zane Hodges was not zany. Okay. I thought that was cute. But Zane Hodges was not Zane.

He wasn't crazy. He wasn't you know some wild theologian. He actually was trying to preserve something important. And that is this. When Christ comes and preach the Gospel he says this. And it's according to the first servant song in Isaiah a wounded reed he will not break off and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

Zane Hodges said to MacArthur and to others under this lordship salvation. You're not being specific about what degree or quality or current visibility there must be to this necessary obedience. You understand Zane Hodges objection.

Look at your own life. Are you really submitted to the lordship of Christ. Then why are you still entertaining lustful thoughts. Why do you still have outbursts of anger. Why do you still disobey your parents.

And why did you just cheat on a test last week. Zane Hodges is saying well if you're saying lordship salvation what level is good enough. And what level of visibility. Don't we all have sin. And who of us in the flesh is not still falling short.

And so I sympathize with that because Christ is the gentle savior and his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And Hodges was trying to emphasize that point of truth. And so are these just ships in the night passing each other emphasizing different things.

Or is there some substance to the lordship controversy. There was substance to it. You see when Hodges said that the book of John never calls for repentance he missed the point of John at a number of places where he's doing that very thing in a different way.

Genuine faith in the book of John is presented differently. John MacArthur summarized in 1994 as a part of his saving work God will produce repentance faith sanctification yieldedness obedience and ultimately glorification since he is not dependent on human effort in producing these elements an experience that lacks any of them cannot be the saving work of God.

And MacArthur's point here is to say we're not claiming that Christians will be perfect. We're not calling for perfectionism. We are saying that a genuine work of the spirit of God that opens the eyes to see who Christ is will be accompanied by the sovereign work of sanctification and obedience and conformity to the image of Christ it will be evident there will be fruit to that tree.

And if there's none of that if you don't see that then your own conversion is suspect. He's saying it's not enough to simply identify and come to the giant church and bow your head during the prayer and sing the song or even listen to the sermon.

There has to be genuine transformation conformity to the image of Christ in the life of a believer. And where that's absent it is a false gospel. And for Hodges to say that repentance is not part of the gospel.

This is in fact the first preaching of the gospel in the new testament. Turn with me to mark quickly one verse there mark 1 15. Mark was the first of the four gospel writers more than likely. And when Jesus first begins his preaching ministry in verse 14 he comes into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God.

First sentence out of Jesus's mouth. In mark 1 15 the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repentance is a part of the gospel. If someone says that they have faith but there are no works to show it that person is deceiving himself.

One must repent and turn. You have to turn away from sin in order to genuinely turn to Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Repenting is to turn away from sin to change your mind and to now behold Christ as Lord.

Turn from sin and bow to him and begin to follow after him to heed his word to abide and continue in the word. This is the point. So go with me now to John 12 where we come to the end of Jesus's public preaching ministry.

He began first sentence to preach in mark 1 15 declaring repent. It is a command to repent. But now in John 12 we come to the end of his public preaching ministry. Chapters 13 to 17 will be Jesus with his disciples and he will wash their feet and he will teach them of the Holy Spirit and the deep things of God.

He will offer his high priestly prayer in John 17 for the unity of the church. And then in 18 and following he will be crucified and will rise from the dead. So here in 12 we have the end of his public preaching ministry as we turn to it.

Remember remember what John has been teaching us this far about the nature of genuine faith. It is not enough to simply agree intellectually about a set of facts concerning Jesus Christ that he is the son of God that he died that he rose.

There must be a subjective element meaning not just objectively the facts but subjectively in the person in the turning away from sin to follow and become a true disciple. This was first brought to us in chapter 2 verses 23 to 25 when many believed in him but Jesus says he did not entrust himself to them.

Time will tell if this is a genuine conversion he's not yet trusting their quote-unquote belief. And then the key verse that is easy to remember because of the number given it in the 1500s by I think Stephanas in the numbering system John 666 turn there quickly 666 providentially it arrives here in John 6 you have 5 ,000 men besides women and children following him because he's multiplied bread and he's fed the multitude and they wanted that physical bread.

They wanted the miracles. But then he began to say some things that were hard to accept in John 666 says after this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. This is apostasy turning away after being identified as disciples they were followers and then they were not followers.

And so that initial following maybe somebody raises their hand at a tent meeting or they sign their name on a decision card. They pray the sinner's prayer. It's possible they're not disciples because if they later turn away and no longer follow him it was never genuine indeed.

Also in John 8 verses 30 and 31 last one as he was saying these things many believed in him and Hodges might say see belief is all it takes. But Hodges would be missing John's point here in verse 31 Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples.

That means it is possible to have an outward appearance of being believing when truly the person is not a disciple. So there's a difference here in John 8 30 and 31 between an outward show of belief or even a superficial kind of belief and the genuine thing the real thing saving faith.

That's what John is concerned about that those listening to the word of God would come to the genuine saving faith. It is no service to someone who's recently come to faith to assure them without a doubt that they're born again.

It is a service to them to point them to first John to the tests of genuineness and to teach them of the perseverance of the saints the preservation of the saints that if you're genuinely believing you will remain and you must remain continue in the faith abide in him and abide in his word.

Let's begin reading in John 12. With this in mind John's view of saving faith and that there's a distinction between false conversion and genuine saving faith. We come to the last words of Jesus's public preaching ministry verse 36.

While you have the light believe in the light that you may become sons of light. When Jesus had said these things he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them they still did not believe in him so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

Lord who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn.

And I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. We'll pause there and then continue on here. You have those who had seen the signs physically. They'd seen miracles.

They have the prophecies of Isaiah. And yet they still don't believe. They still don't believe objectively the facts of who Jesus is as the son of God as the Messiah. They're just saying no. Don't see it don't believe it.

They're just not there. Although they'd seen the signs the problem is the revelation of the arm of the Lord. The power of the truth. Opening the eyes of the blind has not happened to them. They're still blind now.

Notice in the last verse that we studied here verse 41 that Isaiah had eyes to see. These were not physical eyes. He wasn't just looking at things as I'm looking at you right now. These were spiritual eyes to see a vision of Jesus Christ 700 years before he came now.

This is amazing. Because if you turn back with me to Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 Isaiah 6 1 we just learned something from John 12 verse 41 that we might not have known back in Isaiah 6 1. In Isaiah 6 1 it says.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. Question. Which member of the trinity did Isaiah see. Did he see the father. According to John 12 41 he saw the second member of the trinity.

He saw Jesus. Follow the pronouns from John 12 41 to the words that preceded it. It's the Lord Jesus that Isaiah saw. Amazing. Jesus made himself visible pre-incarnate to Isaiah. He says I saw the Lord.