What a blessing to be able to turn to the Word of God. To hear and be taught by the Creator of all things. This morning we come to chapter 7 of the Gospel according to John. And we're going to be covering 32 verses this morning. So I'm not going to read the entire passage. We will be reading it as we work through the passage. Jesus is going to be coming to Jerusalem. We're going to begin just with a brief recap of where we've been here. In chapter 6, John recorded Jesus' feeding of 5,000 men with just five bread cakes and two fish. And then Jesus' walk across the Sea of Galilee and His miraculous transporting of the boat with His disciples in it to the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, three miles from where they were. And then Jesus' discourse that He is the bread of life, the source of all spiritual nourishment to men. And we continue to see in this gospel, some simply refuse to believe in Him. Some begin to follow him, but then walk away after hearing him speak of himself as the bread of life, as one sent from God. And a hearing of God's eternal plan of redemption of a people that He's given to His Son. And yes, there's a third group that ultimately believes, but John is focused on the opposition to Jesus and to those who believe in the works, believe in His power, but don't believe in Him. And we'll see more of those this morning. Jesus was revealing the mysteries of God to them. Then as now, there were many who didn't like those truths, who resisted Jesus' words, and so they rejected Him and were no longer following Him. And at the end of that passage, last Lord's Day, Jesus asked the twelve, Surely you will not also walk away from me, will you? And Simon Peter answered him in these memorable words, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And speaking for the whole group, he said, We have believed, we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Peter replied for all but one of the twelve, of course. We have believed. We know. We believe you're the Holy One of God. And of course, Jesus points out to them, I know one of you is a scoundrel. One of you is going to betray me. Speaking of Judas. So in chapter 7 now of his gospel, John recorded events of a third visit of Jesus to Jerusalem. And in each of these three visits, it was during one of the three feasts God commanded to the sons of Jacob. Chapter 7 begins with Jesus still in Galilee. He was unwilling to walk in Judea, John tells us, because the Jews were seeking to kill him, and his hour had not yet come. So I'm going to read these first couple of verses. John 7, 1, After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. Now the Feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, or Ingathering as it's sometimes called, was near. Therefore his brothers said to him, Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples also may see your works which you are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers were believing in him. Lord, again, we are so thankful to have Your Word. We're so thankful that we can hear of our Lord's reply to these things and of the things He said once He had come to Jerusalem. Lord, we're so blessed that You've given us ears to hear and that we can hear You and know You and believe in You. As had been the case in chapters 2 and 3, the occasion for Jesus traveling to Jerusalem was one of these three feasts. And these were three feasts in which all the men of Israel were required by the law of God to observe in Jerusalem. Chapter 2, Jesus came to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There we recall He had rid the temple of merchants selling animals and of money changers. He performed many signs there with result that many believed in Him but not in a saving sense. They believed in His power. And there he ended up in a conversation with a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee. He told Nicodemus, if a man is to enter the kingdom of God, he must be born again. Chapter 5 is John's account of Jesus' visit to Jerusalem for a second feast. He doesn't tell us what feast it was. But on that occasion, Jesus had healed a man who had been lame for 38 years from his birth. And He did it on a Sabbath. And of course, the Jewish religious leaders reacted with hostility to Jesus, healing this man on a Sabbath. And right away, they wanted to kill him. And he told them, John 5, 17, my father's working and I'm working. Verse 18, for this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, he was calling God his own father. He was making himself equal with God. And Jesus was speaking to them of the harmony of will and purpose that He shared with the Father. And this was not warmly received by the Jewish rulers. He told them He'd been sent by the Father, that anyone who does not honor Him doesn't honor the God they claim to worship. And He said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, John 5, 25, an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, speaking of the spiritually dead, will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He has given to the Son, in His humanity, to have life in Himself. He told them. There's four witnesses to my deity. There's John the Baptist. You were following him for a while. There's the works that I've performed. They testify to who I am. There's the testimony of Moses in the Scripture. And then there's the testimony of the Father who sent me. But they wouldn't believe. They wanted to kill him. Well, Jesus, after that feast, returned to the region of Galilee, and He spent maybe six months traveling throughout the Galilean region, and even as far as Tyre and Sidon, into the east of the Jordan River, into the Decapolis. He traveled throughout the land of Galilee, healing and preaching the coming of the Kingdom of God. And as chapter 7 begins, Jesus is in Galilee still. And the Feast of Booths is approaching. And Jesus is preaching and healing. Now this feast, as I just said, it's the Feast of Booths. But if you hear Feast of Tabernacles, that's the same thing. So is Feast of Ingathering. It's just different names given to the same feast. This feast was instituted by God to commemorate Israel's passage through the wilderness. after being delivered by God from bondage in Egypt. But it also marked the ingathering of the fall harvest. So this is a fall feast. There was an earlier feast of the harvest that occurred in the spring. And the difference here is this was the grapes and the olives time of harvest. So I want you to turn to Exodus 23, 14. And if on your way there, you can put a marker in Leviticus 23. I'm going to just read a little bit about these feasts so you can see what we're talking about here. Exodus 23, 14. The Lord's speaking through Moses. Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. So that's celebrated, commemorated the deliverance from Egypt. Second, also you shall observe the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of your labors from what you sow in the field. Now that feast would come to be Pentecost. That would be the time of the celebration of that feast. And then finally, also the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the fruit from your labors from the field. So three times a year all your mails shall appear before the Lord at the place He decides, and that was the temple in Jerusalem. Now if you'll turn to Leviticus 23, and we're going to begin in verse 33. He tells us a little more about this feast. Leviticus 23, 33. Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths. It's for seven days to the Lord. First day, there's a holy convocation. You do no laborious work of any kind. This is to be a day of rest. For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord, and on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord. It's an assembly. You shall do no laborious work. And if you look down to verse 42, the command is, you shall live in booths for seven days. So during this seven-day feast, they're going to live in these little makeshift booths they're going to make or tabernacles. all the native born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." So that's what this feast is about. They're all going to live in booths now in and around Jerusalem for seven days. It was both a harvest festival and a joyful commemoration of the divine guidance granted to the fathers of Israel in their wilderness journey. And this Feast of Booths followed, it was in the 7th month, beginning on the 15th day, it was four days after the Day of Atonement, which is on the 7th month, the 10th day. So the idea of joy and celebration was kind of naturally followed. There were trumpets blown each of these eight days of the feast and over the seven days in between 70 bulls in a decreasing scale Daily were offered as well as 98 males and there'd be 12 one day 11 the next 10 the next and so on and There was a ceremonial outpouring of water during this time that commemorated the water miraculously coming forth from the rock at Meribah from Exodus 17. During this time, the inner court of the temple was illuminated, a reminder of God's presence in the pillar of fire by night as He guided them through the wilderness. Now all of these things prefigured Christ. All of these things were foreshadowings of Christ. But nobody understood that. Few understood it. According to Josephus, this was the most popular of the three feasts. The three mandatory feasts, remember, in which all Jewish males had to come to Jerusalem. So now in verses 3, 4, and 5, we meet Jesus' brothers. born to Mary and Joseph. Now these are stepbrothers. They're identified by name in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13, verse 55, as James, Joseph, Simon, or Simeon, and Judas, or Jude. Jesus' brothers were clearly, by this time, aware that He was gaining this fame and reputation for these miraculous works He was doing. It's not clear whether they had actually witnessed some of these works. They may have. But the Feast of Booths is approaching, so there are going to be hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem, and they want Him to go and show Yourself to the world. If you want to be a man of religious prominence, this is the place to go. Go where the crowd is. So He said, leave here, go to Judea, so the people can see these works you're doing. Show yourself to the world, they're saying. Now they've clearly got an earthly view of all this. And they're clearly not believers in Him. And that's what John tells us. They weren't believing in Him at this time. Here, the term disciples, by the way, here in verse 3, doesn't mean the twelve. It's anyone who was coming to Him because of the works He was doing. Anyone who was following and listening to His teaching. And it's amazing that his brothers were not believing in him yet. We're not told exactly what was in their minds. But his brothers seemed to reason if he wanted to be a big man in the religious community, he had to prove himself in Jerusalem. So clearly they didn't see in their brother the Messiah who had come to save his people from their sins. They didn't see one who would suffer and die on a cross to transform the world. As was the case with nearly all the Jews, they had a misunderstanding of who Messiah would be and what He had come to do. And so, like so many others, they didn't understand the things He was saying or the meaning of the signs He was doing. And they didn't become believers until after He had risen from the dead. Acts 114. And James and Jude became the human authors of two New Testament epistles. But at this time, they're saying, look, you better get down there to Jerusalem. And Jesus said to them, no, my time isn't here yet. Your time is always opportune. Now, sometimes we hear Jesus saying, My hour has not yet come. I don't believe that's what He's saying here. For everything, of course, that He came to do, God had appointed a time. Not only His death on the cross, but for everything. Everything that He had come to do was given a precise moment in time by God. So when Jesus spoke of His hour, He was usually speaking of the hour of His offering of Himself on the cross. And His death to atone for the sins of His people had to occur, not during the Feast of Booths, but during the Feast of Passover. So here he uses the word, not for the word hour, ora, but the word kairos, time. So most understand, and I think they're correct, that Jesus was saying here, it wasn't yet time for him to appear at the feast. He told them, you guys go ahead. So he didn't travel with them to Jerusalem. He did come to the feast later though, secretly we're told, without the usual large crowd following him. And then here's what he said to his brothers in verse 7 and 8. He said, The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it that its deeds are evil. You go up to the feast yourselves. I'm not going up to the feast, and the implication is yet, because my time has not yet fully come to go to the feast. Having said these things, he stayed in Galilee. Now, the world here, and we see this throughout John's Gospel, the world in John is all that is opposed to Christ. All that is alienated from the life of God and is openly hostile to God and to His Son. The Jewish religious leaders were of the world. And inasmuch as his brothers at this time did not believe in him, they were at that time also of the world. So the world did not hate them. That's what he says to them. The world can't hate you. The world hates Jesus because he testifies of the truth. It's an amazing thing that the world hates the one truth that will save them. He testifies of the truth, so the world hated Him. He testified that the deeds of the unbelieving were evil. And all who come to Jesus were brought out of the world. We were all of the world. We didn't earn our way into the kingdom of God. We were brought in, rescued from the darkness, the domain of darkness, as Paul called it, by the power of God. And we were brought to Him. We were of the world. We were all of the world. Well, His brothers went up to the feast. And then later, He also went up, verse 10, not publicly, but as if in secret. And the Jews, of course, He's the most famous person perhaps in all of Israel at that time. So the Jews are seeking him at the feast, verse 11, and saying, where is he? There was much grumbling or murmuring. There was much talk about him. They're all talking. Where is this miracle worker? Is he here yet? And some were saying, he's a good man. Others, though, were saying, no, on the contrary, he's leading people astray. He's the topic of conversation in Jerusalem. And yet at the same time, verse 13, yet no one was speaking openly of Him because they feared the Jews, the Jewish rulers. So we see that while Jesus was somebody of great interest to the people, they did not speak of Him openly. They were afraid. The Jewish leaders had already had their fill of Him. They were already plotting to kill Him. He was a threat to their position. He was a threat to their influence with both the people and with the Roman officials. And they wanted Him dead. They wanted Him dead and out of the way. And it wasn't time, though. Not time for that. They sought, the Jewish religious leaders sought to persuade the people that Jesus was a false prophet, someone to be shunned. And there were some in the crowd who viewed Jesus in exactly the same way as the rulers did. And so for anyone to speak positively or admiringly of Jesus in the presence of the Jewish rulers might have brought some real trouble on them. They might have been excommunicated from the synagogue. They were afraid to contradict their religious leaders. So people in the crowds are here wondering about Jesus. Is He going to come? Where is He? Is He here already? Are the things He's teaching true? Has He really done all these works? And during the middle of the feast, halfway through the feast, we're told, about three to four days into the festival, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. He appeared in the temple. Nothing about the trip. Nothing about who is or isn't with him. He goes into the temple. And he's teaching in the temple. And what do you suppose is happening? He's drawing the crowds. Jewish rulers knew he was not an educated man. And yet, no one had taught the way he did. And so, their reaction of the Jews was, they're astonished, they're amazed at this teaching. The rulers are saying, how can this man, this fellow, that's a derogatory way of speaking in the Greek, how can he become learned and teach? He's never been educated in our ways. Just how and where did he become an authority on heavenly things? He charged Jesus with a lack of proper qualifications to be a religious leader. He charged that He was simply uttering His own private opinions about religious matters. And therefore, you people should not be listening to Him. He's just speaking for Himself. But Jesus said, look at verse 16, My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. And He'd already told them over and over again. The Father in heaven, He sent Me. He repeated words that He had told them now during a previous visit to Jerusalem. In chapter 5, verse 19, He has said, the Son does whatever He sees the Father doing. Verse 30, I don't seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Verse 37, the Father sent Me. Verse 43, I have come in My Father's name. He was making himself equal with God. This is why they wanted to kill him. Was Jesus saying he was a prophet? Well, yes and no. Yes, he was a prophet, but he wasn't only a prophet. Remember, all the prophets who were sent before were sent by God and were given words of God to speak to the people. But Jesus wasn't only a prophet. He is the eternal Son of God. He is God. His will is in perfect harmony with that of the Father and the Spirit. He's of one essence with the Father. This is what we need to know about Jesus Christ. Please never think of Him as one among many religious leaders. He didn't come merely as an emissary sent by God. He is God in human flesh. In rejecting Him and in rejecting His message, they were rejecting God Himself. And then Jesus told them, in verse 17, that all those who are truly willing and seeking to do the will of God, if you really want to serve God and do His will, you'll recognize, My teaching is from God. The person who seeks to do God's will will know and understand that Jesus' teaching is of God. That He didn't speak merely as a man, but as the Word of God. If anyone's willing to do His will, He will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak of myself." In other words, if their minds were disposed, if they were truly seeking to obey God, they would see and understand that what He was preaching was true and divine. In commenting on this verse, William Hendrickson points out something pretty interesting to me. He points out the relationship between knowledge, faith, love, and obedience. Knowledge, without a willingness to do the will of God, will not result in saving faith. It is not saving faith. It will not result in a love of God. unless and until the Holy Spirit applies this knowledge not just to the mind but to the human heart. When He creates in the heart a response of faith and love of God to the love of God, And this love expresses itself how? In obedience to Him. Our lives are the expression of what we really believe in our hearts. In each of these, knowledge of God and saving faith, a love of God and obedience to God, they can't really be separated. Each enriches and deepens the other. There's a constant interaction, each influencing the other three. Knowledge, faith, love, and obedience. They're so closely related, Hendrickson says, that none is complete in and of itself alone. So when we speak of knowledge and faith and love and obedience, we're not talking about four separate concepts, at least not in terms of Christ and our relationship to Him. We're talking about one single comprehensive experience, a lifelong experience in which all these work together. The more we know, the more we love Him. The greater our faith, the greater our desire to serve Him. The greater our desire to serve Him, the greater our desire to want to know Him. They all work together in both saving and sanctifying the sinner now made spiritually alive. Salvation of a man, in other words, it's not about intellect, it's not about emotions, it's not about the human will, it's about the sovereign grace of God working in and transforming a sinner for His glory. Now, verse 18, Jesus returned to the truth He had taught them in chapter 5 and verse 44. Here's what He says here in verse 18. He said, He who speaks from himself on his own authority, because that's what they were accusing Him of, seeks His own glory. Those who are out there just spouting their own philosophy are speaking and seeking. their own glory. But he said, he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness, no falsehood in him. Now he's speaking of himself here. But he's telling us, look, somebody who expresses his own views is seeking his own glory. Wants to be known for his views. He who seeks the glory of him who sent Christ, his teaching is reliable. In him there's nothing false. Jesus' enemies could not believe. Why? Because they sought not the glory of God, but praise from one another. This is the way of the world, to seek praise and power and wealth from the others. It's still true today. To seek one's own glory and not the glory of God will lead to unrighteousness and unbelief. So notice what Jesus is saying here. Those who divine their own teachings, their own systems, those who add their own thoughts and their own inventions, adding them to the Word of God, do so in pursuit of their own glory. That's why we must be faithfully devoted to the Word of God and the Word of God alone. Sola Scriptura. Jesus is saying that the mission of every preacher and teacher of the Word of God should never be his own glory. Raising up of himself in the eyes of his hearers, but the glory of God. Only reason to ever give regard to any preacher is not because of his own learning or of his oratorical skills, but because he has rightly presented Christ to you. That's the standard. Am I or any other preacher rightly presenting Christ to you? His only mission is to present Christ, not to demonstrate our own thinking, our own abilities. And that's what Jesus is saying to these Jewish religious leaders. Verse 19, now Jesus confronted them directly with their own wickedness. with their own wicked plans. Look at verse 19. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me? Now you can just imagine the reaction. Because there's a crowd there, and Jesus is speaking to the Jewish rulers at this point. But the crowd's going to enter into this in a moment. Jesus judged those Jewish rulers as guilty of violating the law of God. None of you keeps the law, He said. And we should understand, I hope we don't need to be reminded of this, no one is saved by keeping the law. The law does not save. The letter kills, Paul said. It was given to reveal sin in us, in every one of us, and to lead us to recognize our condition and to repent and to come to Christ. These blind men saw themselves as men who were keeping the law of God, but Jesus could see into their hearts. He can see into our hearts. And He knew that while they tried to pose as guardians of the law and keepers of the law, they had hatred and murder in their hearts. Their response should have been to reflect on their sin, to believe Jesus' words, to believe the testimonies of John and of the works He was doing, and of Moses and of the Father. Testimony of Scripture that they were truly interested Not in divine truth or in serving God, but in their own power and influence. Well, the crowd jumps in here. Why do you seek to kill me, he said. The crowd said, you have a demon. Who's seeking to kill you? They suspected that some evil spirit had taken possession of Jesus' mind. That an evil spirit had led him to believe that someone wanted to kill him. That he was paranoid, deluded. Now look, there's only three possible explanations for the claims Jesus made. Either he was delusional, a deranged madman, paranoid, as some of those in the crowd thought. Or he was a deceiver, lying to the people, as the Jewish religious leaders claimed. Or he was exactly who he claimed to be, the eternal Son of God now in human flesh, sent by God into the world to save us from our sins. Well, Jesus answered the crowd here. They say you have a demon who's seeking to kill you. And He said, I did one deed. And He's talking about, we believe, that man in chapter 5. The man lame for 38 years, who He had told, get up, take up your pallet, and walk. I did one deed, He said, and you all marvel. Moses has given you circumcision. Now, he points out, in parenthesis here, not because it was from Moses, but from the fathers. It came originally through Abraham. But he said, Moses gave you circumcision, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses won't be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? He said, don't judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Now circumcision was given through Abraham hundreds of years before Moses. It was practiced long before Moses. It was a sign of God's covenant with Abraham. Both a covenant on one hand that He would have many descendants of the flesh, that God would make Him a great nation, but also the more important covenant that in His seed people from every nation would be blessed. But the rite of circumcision became an ordinance for Israel when it was included in the Mosaic law. Leviticus chapter 12, verse 1 through 3. According to that law, every Jewish male child had to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. And if that eighth day happened to fall on the Sabbath, they were circumcising him on the Sabbath. So, you know, their claim to total rest on the Sabbath was not perfect, was it? Now in chapter 5, we read of Jesus' healing of this lame man on the Sabbath. And as far as the Jewish religious leaders were concerned, that healing was a violation of the law, and Jesus was a lawbreaker. So now He reminds them of their own practice. You're circumcising whenever the eighth day falls on the Sabbath. So according to you folks, some things could be done on the Sabbath. Why not be able to make a man healed? Is the healing of a whole man crippled for 18 or 38 years an act of lesser righteousness than the God-ordained ritual of circumcision? Here's what Jesus was saying. He was saying my healing of this man, my act of mercy was an act of true righteousness. wasn't some legalism, it was an act of true righteousness. And that the law of God was never intended to override true righteousness. You don't leave a man in the ditch on the Sabbath because it would violate some law. No, true righteousness is to extend mercy. He told them stop judging superficially according to some strict idea of legalism, but render judgment consistent with true righteousness. The controlling factor in God's eyes is not legalism, it's righteousness. What's the righteous loving thing to do here? This doesn't mean we set aside the Ten Commandments or Jesus' explanation of the Ten Commandments, deeper meaning in the Sermon on the Mount. Those are expressions of true righteousness. They have been given to us by God. Jesus came and taught us their meaning. So we cannot claim we're left in ignorance about what true righteousness is. But understand his point here, and this is really his second point in this passage. True righteousness will always override legalism. Well, verse 25. So some of the people of Jerusalem. Now we have another group that's coming forth here. We've got the pilgrims who have come down. Many are in the temple with Jesus. We've got the Jewish rulers. Now we've got some of the locals saying, Is this not the man they are seeking to kill? Wait a minute. He's speaking publicly, and they're not doing anything about it. They're saying nothing to him. Do the rulers actually know that this is the Christ? And they're not telling us? then they stop but wait we know where this man is from and the Christ whenever he comes no one will know where he's from we know this guy is from Nazareth and Galilee so here they are wondering the Jewish religious leaders are supposed to be seeking to kill him but they're allowing him to go on preaching and teaching like this if he's really deserving of death why are they allowing this to happen Is it possible, they wonder, that Jesus really is the Messiah and that the Jewish rulers know that? And where did this, when Messiah really comes, we're not going to know where he comes from. Where did this idea come from? It's not in Scripture. Well, recall Micah 5, 2. We read that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. But somehow this legend had arisen that the place from which Messiah would come was unknown. And they knew that Jesus had come from Nazareth in Galilee. So here, Calvin points out to us, we see not only how great is the blindness of men, but how quick men are to contrive things that will keep them from the knowledge of the truth. Why would they even come up with this legend? The Bible told him he'd be born in Bethlehem. So they're saying, we know where this man is from. Whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where he is from. And Jesus responded to them. He cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, you both know me? You know where I'm from? I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, and you do not know Him. I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me." He cried out in the temple. Now look at His words. You think you know Me. You think you know where I'm from. You don't. I've been sent by my Father, sent by God, and the words that I'm speaking are words of God. And what's important is that you come to know and believe that I have not come of myself, but I have come from the Father. The one you say is the God whom you worship and serve. In spite of the Scriptures which they'd had, which they'd been given by God, they did not know God. And the proof of this was when God sent His own Son, they didn't recognize Him. Jesus said here, He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. There's only one God. He sent His Son, the second person of the Godhead. And if you don't know the Son and believe in the Son, you don't know God, Jesus said. Those who don't understand who Jesus is can't possibly know God. That's what our Lord said to us. We want to be kind and be nice to people who believe in false religions. But folks, Jesus says, if you don't believe in me, you don't know God. Matthew 11, 27 and Luke 10, 22 both record the same words of our Lord. He said, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. We can only come to God through His Son. We can only know God through His Son. That's why we must call people to believe in Christ. That's our mission. Above all else in this life, serve Him and call people to Him. Because they can't come to God any other way but through Him. Well, this didn't go over very well. They were seeking to seize Him, verse 30, and no man laid his hand on Him, though. Why? Because His hour had not yet come. They were seeking to kill Him, or the Jewish rulers, but it was not the will of the Father that He should offer Himself for sins at this time. Not during the Feast of Tabernacles. It would be later, during Passover. So the hand of God restrained His enemies from carrying out their wicked plan at that time. His hour had not yet come. Calvin points out, you know, the time of every man's death has been fixed by God. And we may have trouble believing that even because we're subject to so many accidents, so many random events exposed to open and concealed attacks from men, from beasts, from other people. We're liable to catch diseases. Can God really declare the time of our death? We're safe from all risk, Jesus says, until God is pleased to call us away. Now, verse 31, many of the crowd believed in Him. Now look why they were believing though. They were saying, when the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He? We've seen this at least twice before. You see the signs. This must be Him. Was this saving faith? Well, we're only told that many believed and that they believed because of the signs again. There is as yet no indication that these people had any genuine understanding of the significance of the signs or that they truly believed in the words He spoke. Or that they truly understood and believed in Him, who He really is. They remind us of the Jews back in chapter 2, in the Passover. who believed because of the signs. They were responding to miracles rather than to his teaching. Do you see the difference? Yes, of course God is all-powerful and of course He's God. But do you believe that He's the only way to eternal life and glory with God? Do you believe that He atoned for your sins on the cross? Do you believe that He was raised on the third day bodily? Do you believe He's coming back to raise us all? At this time, they're responding to miracles, but they were prepared to listen to Him, and they showed themselves willing to receive instruction from Him as a teacher. Perhaps there were some seeds being planted. Perhaps there was some watering going on. We're not told. We are told what the Pharisees and some among the chief priests were saying. They heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him. When he said, the world hates me, here's the evidence. Evidence on the cross at Calvary. We can't be sure, based upon the information we're given by John here, whether anyone had come to saving faith here. But what we see, again, are three differing reactions to Jesus, both then and now. We see this hostility and rejection of the Jewish rulers, and that we see throughout the world today. We see a kind of superficial belief that's based on the fulfillment of earthly desires. Remember, the people who he fed, the 5,000, he said, you believe because you had your bellies felt. And then we have genuine saving faith. That second group, you know, people receive a blessing. They say, oh, God is good. Well, the question isn't whether God's good. Yes, God's good. But do you believe that he paid for your sins on the cross? If you believe because of a material blessing, you believe because you understand you're a sinner saved by His grace, saved by His death. So how do we know if our faith is genuine saving faith? How do we know if we've been truly born again? This is the question that seems to arise as we work through this passage again this morning. There's some easily recognizable marks of true saving faith. We've been drawn to Jesus. We're hungry to seek Him in His Word. We look to Him and to Him alone in His Word for our instruction. When the people of God gather together, we gather together with them to worship Him, to hear from Him. We seek to serve Him. in our lives, in His church. These are signs that one is truly a believer in Christ, that one has been born again. Do we have a heart for Him? Do we have a heart for His people, for His church? Or are we more focused on other things, including the filling of our own bellies, our own bank account, like the Galileans of chapter 6? And I think the question boils down to this for us. What is it that matters most to us? What is it that is, and who is it that is first in our lives? If the answer to that question is Christ, That's a good sign that you have been born again, that you have genuine saving faith. If the answer to that question is anything other than Christ, you have to question what kind of faith you really have. Here's what Jesus said, and it's a hard saying. Matthew 10, 37, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Think about these words. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Luke 9, 23, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life in this life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, whoever gives himself to him, he's the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Christ wants our devotion. He wants our love. He wants our obedience. He said it's a narrow road. Narrow road. And this is now the third time in this gospel. Where we've seen people who were said to believe, but who we find were not true believers. Who Jesus said were not true believers. Chapter after chapter, John shows us false disciples. Some who walk away. But you know, our Lord can see inside our hearts. He knows if there's something, someone who holds first place ahead of Him. That doesn't mean we don't love and serve our families and those around us. No one's suggesting that. But the devotion and the love that we give to those closest to us, we should give that and more to Him. I obviously can't see inside people's hearts. I don't know who's like those people in Galilee or Jerusalem and who isn't. But we can see they had merely a superficial devotion to Christ, and that wasn't saving faith. So, if you suspect that you fall into that category, let this be the hour of your repentance. If you're holding back anything from Him, hold it back no longer. The world hates Jesus, remember. He said so. And He told us that the world hates His people because it hates Him. There's no middle road. And it's easy for most to stand with a crowd. But Jesus calls us to stand with Him. To believe in Him. To trust in Him. To live for Him. To obey Him. No matter the cost. And He's told us the cost will be great. He calls us to worship Him as our Savior and to serve Him as our Lord. You're thinking maybe there's some other, some better way to live. What did Peter say in our passage last Lord's Day when Jesus asked him if they would leave Him? He said these glorious and blessed words, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And He does. And I pray that every one of us will hear His voice this morning. Let's take a moment, meditate on this word that our Lord Himself has spoken to us this morning. And then let us examine ourselves, and then we will gather at His table.