Now let's turn in our Bibles to John 21. John 21, last two verses. Let's all stand together and hear the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. And everybody said, amen. You may be seated. Some of you are thinking, How are we going to draw a sermon out of these verses? Oh, there's so much here. There is so much here. Don't pass over this last little piece from John the Apostle. This, I believe, is a simple but a substantial message. And as we read through the word, let's not miss the trunk. Let's not miss the most essential, the basic, the fundamental. The message here is very, very simple, but it represents, as I see it, the heart of a personal transformation in ministry over 19 years of my ministry with this church. This is the message to which the Spirit of God directed my attention. And I believe radically transformed me. And we do have radical transformations. All of us, I think, can say there are some passages in Scripture, some truths to which God directs our attention, and they do shake us to the very core of our being. And that's what I find here in these last two verses of John 21. This is really the end of the gospel according to John. This is the end of it. After five years and 175 sermons or however many it's been, we have come to the end of the gospel according to John. So my question to you is this, what is this gospel? What is this gospel? I've heard this word again this last week several times. What is the gospel? People say we need to be teaching the gospel. What is the gospel? There is a lack of clarity with this word today, and I have sort of developed a knee-jerk reaction to it. I noticed that somebody mentioned it to me this week, and I immediately say, and what is that? I have this knee-jerk reaction because there are so many Gospels and there are so many false Gospels around and so many bad conceptions of the Gospel, I just don't assume that people know what the Gospel is. And so, immediately as they bandy the word around and they give it to me, they say it in conversation, I want to know what it is. What is this Gospel? 1 Corinthians 15 gives us the clearest presentation of it, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins according to the scriptures, and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. The gospel, number one, never separates from this word. It always is connected to the Old and the New Testaments. They speak to the gospel. But what is the gospel? Verse 24 in our text explains the gospel to us. This is the gospel, this is what the gospel is. That's why we say this is the gospel according to John. The gospel according to John, as we see here in verse 25, are the things that Jesus did. The problem I think we run into, and the thing that has impoverished my ministry over the years, And I have seen that a degree, to a degree, my ministry has lacked very, very much. It has been very impoverished. So much of my ministry that I brought into conferences and into the church and into the radio and other things I've done have been very impoverished. And so I've had to examine why the impoverishment The number one, here's the one thing I do know, that we are always, always, always dependent on the Holy Spirit of God to do the work in people's lives. So 100% reliant on the Holy Spirit of God, without that there are no resurrections, there is no life, there is no awakening, there is no reviving. There is sleep and deadness in the churches. So I understand this. But I think the problems that we run into in the Christian life, and I don't believe this is just me, that's why I preach it to you as well, I believe that it is diversion, distraction, and the wrong emphases. We are a people that tend to forget. We have amnesia, we have dementia, early onset dementia, spiritual lapses of memory, and we tend to forget the main point. And if you ever doubt that, remember what happened to the children of Israel, what was it, almost six days, seven days after the greatest miracle in the history of the world. Up to that point, the separation of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's armies, they had forgotten so quickly. And yet, 400 years later, the witch doctors in Philistia were talking about what God did at the Red Sea. But these guys, flat forehead moment, they forgot what God had done seven days earlier. Dementia, my friends, a lack of memory. We forget. Who knows, but one of us may forget this message five minutes after we say amen this afternoon. I don't know. But we are those who tend to forget. We are easily distracted, but I believe it's because the devil distracts as well. The devil does this kind of thing to us in our minds almost all the time. The devil is always engaged in the ministry of distraction, diversion, accusation, and all these other things that float through our minds all the time. Distracting us. That's what he does. He distracts us. Half the time he accuses you, the other half the time he accuses your brothers to you, and he smears the message And he tells you that you don't really believe what you believe. He confuses, he accuses, he's in the full-time business of distracting us. Just be on your guard. Be watchful. What's going on in your mind right now? Are you confused? Are you distracted right now? Tomorrow morning at 9.30 a.m., what are you thinking about? What is the devil saying to you? How is he distracting you? How is he doing this in your mind tomorrow morning at 10.30 a.m.? We are easily distracted. We lose the main points. As Christians, we lose our way in the confusion. In my experience, two mistakes are made. Number one, we lose the focal point, but number two, we fail to connect everything else to the focal point. The most damaging element to modern education, seminary, et cetera, in my experience, has been that I came out thinking in a compartmentalized way. My thinking was fragmented. Fragmented. I was losing the whole and the parts. Losing the forest and the trees. As a Trinitarian, we should see that both are equally important and we don't lose the one from the other. It's hard to be thinking about the parts, the individual trees, while we're losing a sense for the entire forest. Or put another way, we can be lost in our discussions. Now this applies to the pre-millennialists, the post-millennialists, applies to those who believe in this much amount of water to use in baptism, that much water and so forth and so on. We have all these emphases, all these arguments, but we're lost in the millennialism. Lost in the arguments and sacraments, lost in social causes. Gotta change the world, pro-life, et cetera, et cetera. 24 ways to improve your marriage this morning. We're lost in the leaves and we forget the trunk. This is what happens. Not to say that there aren't important leaves. But it's the lack of connectivity between all of these leaves that become so important and so major in our lives, they separate themselves from the main thing. And this becomes the problem in our ministries, in our thinking, in our homes. So let's look at John 21, 25. This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things. And we know that his testimony is true. That is, there were 11 disciples. They all confirmed. Everybody was there. Wasn't any debate on what happened. The other apostles, the other gospel writers had a different perspective, but they all added to this basic testimony concerning the coming of Jesus. And then verse 25, there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. So what is the gospel? What is the gospel of John all about? The things that Jesus did. That's it. the things that Jesus did. That's it. Don't make it more complicated than that. So what did Jesus do? Jesus did many things. Now when we say the things that Jesus did, we have the events, the meaning of the event, and the implications of the event. So three things, the event itself, what happens, but it's not just something that happens, some random meaningless event. There's all this meaning that surrounds the event itself and the implications that flow out of that event. For example, Jesus fed the 5,000. What does that mean? There's more where that comes from. What does that mean to you? What does that mean for your life tomorrow? What does that mean when you lose your job, for example? What does that mean when you've only got six fish and 5,000 kids in your home? What does that mean? What is all the implications and all of the depth and the importance and the significance of that one event? He walked on the water. What does that mean? Any engineers here? Any fluid mechanics guys? Fluid mechanics is one of the most complicated areas of science that there is. And they do not understand fluid mechanics, even those scientists who've penetrated into the way in which fluids work and how they flow. And, well, Jesus understands all of this. He is absolutely sovereign over the elements and holds the natural laws and absolute obeyance. That's pretty critical. Absolutely in control of the winds and the waves. He commands the microbes in the body of a man 20 miles away to go away. Now, if he's got control over the microbes in a body, what's the meaning of that? What's the implication of that for your life and for my life? Where is your faith? You're looking at this. How do you respond? What does that mean to you tomorrow and the day after? Jesus in control, calming the winds and the waves. How does He react in every situation? Watch Him as He is confronted by proud Pharisees, humble Sidonians. Watch Him. How does he respond? We don't feed the dogs. Yeah, but the dogs get the crumbs from the table. Got it, woman, you got it. What does that mean to you? What is the implication of that for any Sidonians here? What is the implication to the Pharisees here who don't need Jesus' help and will not beg Him for it? stare at the works of Jesus. How does He react in every situation? The faith-filled censurians, the Father with a little faith, just a little faith enough to look up just ever so little bit and just say, Jesus, I need some help down here. Watch Him. Watch how He reacts, the Creator of the universe, before Herod. I don't know. Are you interested in this exchange? Anybody? Would that be something you'd like a little insight on? Here is the creator of the universe standing before Herod. How is he going to react? God humbled, mocked, slapped, prodded, punched in the face, how does he react? The demons tremble in his presence, the devil has nothing on him because of the love he has for the Father. Let these truths shake you. May love, may the view of his love It would be amazing, His love for the Father able to overcome the devil himself, such that He has so much love, so much willingness to obey the Father, not like Adam in the garden, but Jesus in the garden, willing to say, not my will, but Thine be done. See, again, Jesus against the devil in the garden. Who's going to win? Will love conquer the power of evil in the garden? Watch Him. Watch Him. Watch Him. He is the Savior of the world. He healed the blind, the deaf, the lame, the lepers. He raised the dead. What does this mean? What does this mean for you? What does this mean for me? Why does He do all of this? Because He has come to save the world. As we said Christmas Eve, He is the, the super man. We're impressed when Superman flies in. I remember seeing this when I was a young man. I watched a Superman movie many years ago. Not endorsing it, but here is Superman flying in to save a jumbo jet from crashing. And, you know, holding it in his hand. It's nothing. Amen? What is that? That's nothing. This is Jesus. He's come to overcome evil. He's come to backhand the devil into hell. That's bigger. That's really big. All right. There He is on the cross, and we've gone through this, you know, over the last five years. His last word on the cross, the most important word ever spoken in the history of the world. Tetelostai. Remember, we preached that message, tetelostai. Some of you have that word framed on your wall in your heart, wherever, but tetelostai is very last word. Tetelostai. You were listening. You said, what is this word? What is the word that could itself fill all of the volumes of the books to fill the entire universe? Tetelostai. Tetelostai, the last word he spoke. The word that shows up on receipts in the ancient Greek world. The payment is paid in full. The work is done. The contract has been met. Tetelostai. What does that mean for you? What does that mean in the moment of doubt? What does that mean when you face your own guilt? What does that mean when you hear the words? What implication does it have on you? It is finished, paid in full, paid in full, paid in full. What does that mean? Could fill all the books in the universe. So what is this? This is the things that Jesus did. These are the things He did. He did it. And the last words of Psalm 22. We'll visit that one more time. Let's do that again because there it is in Psalm 22. The conclusion of Psalm 22. The great picture of Jesus coming of the suffering servant. They're dividing His garments. They're selling. They're casting lots for them. And the hounds of hell are surrounding Him and all the rest. But we come down to verse 30 and 31, a posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born. What are they declaring? That He has, that He has done this. That He did it, that He did it, that He did it. He did it! He worked it. He got her done. Jesus did it. Now, this is the thing to declare to the next generation. The application this morning is going to be very simple. Did you tell your children that He did it? Did you tell your children the works of Jesus? Then we looked at Isaiah 40 this morning and the call to worship. Behold your God, that's the... That's the statement that I think has somewhat reformed churches around America. There's something there that woke up this church and has woken up other churches. I've spoken to other pastors. There's something about this film series that seemed to come alive. And people began to watch these things. Behold your God. And it struck a note in a man-centered world. And people said, Behold your God. Whoa, that's big. That's bigger than we think it is. And they began to wake up to this. Behold what? That He's coming with might, and His arm has come to rule. That is, that God is coming to do something. God is coming to accomplish something. He's going to bring about a work of might and power in His overcoming evil and ruling in heaven on the right hand of the Father. He is a God who's alive. He's a God who does things. He's not dead. He's very much alive. and He's working, He's active, and He brings about a great salvation. Behold your God, behold His works. That's what Isaiah 40 is telling us. It's not just to behold and contemplate the attributes of God. which we do. But He wants more than that. He says, Behold, your God is coming. Behold, your God in the manger. Behold, your God before Herod. Behold, your God before the Pharisees. Behold, your God on the cross. Behold, your God rising from the dead on the right hand of the Father. Behold, your God bringing His enemies under His footstool. Behold, your God getting it done. That's what He's saying here. Isaiah 63 as well describes that nightmarish condition of the Old Testament church. Much as people describe the church today, somebody was telling me, just lamenting to me, there are no good churches. None. More or less, I mean, just more or less they're all bad. They're all broken down. This is what I was hearing this week. I'm not saying that's the truth. I'm just saying people are concerned. And from time to time, we get a little bit of an Isaiah 63 vision. And we begin to see, yeah, things are kind of broken down. And we get that Isaiah 63 describes, Lord, why have you made us to stray from your ways and harden our heart from your fear? Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. Oh God, we're right there at the Red Sea. Oh God, we're standing here. Oh God, Pharaoh's army is coming down upon us. Oh God, come. Oh God, do something. God, we need you now. Come, do your work. That's the prayer in Isaiah 64. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, say you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence when you did awesome things for which we did not anticipate. Oh God, you came down the mountain, shook at your presence, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you, who acts for the one who waits for him. I only have one thing to say to people who say, we need reviving. We need the church to wake up. We need the prayer meetings full. We need spiritual aliveness in the churches. Stand and wait for God to work. And He will do things that will blow your mind. That's what it says in Isaiah 64. He will blow your mind. The work of God is fundamental, it's central, it's focus. It is the focus of our faith. We must witness first the works of God. Focus upon the works of God, be gripped by the works of God, and then believe in the one who works. Believe in Jesus who works. And so we are so overwhelmed by God, also dominated by God's works. So under the realization of God in His presence, in His power, it is working in us. Now, believe me, I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's the guys who developed the Behold Your God series. I don't care who it is. There is always a competition going on between the works of God and the works of men for recognition in my mind, your mind, everybody's minds. We all need to be weaned of humanism. This is, friends, we all deal with this problem. There is this competition. There's this battle in your mind between the import of your own works, the import of the works of others, the works of man, and the works of God. And it goes on in our minds all the time. Listen to yourself. Listen to others, listen to the preachers, listen to the prayers, listen to others in the conversations, in the counseling, listen to religious music. A couple of years ago I did a calculation on the lyrics representing the top 20 contemporary Christian worship songs. Counting me, my, and I, to you, yours, and his, And I found the ratio of me, me, me, I, me, I feel, I feel, I believe, I, I, I, I, this, I, that, I, I, me, me, my, versus he and him was two to one versus the old hymns and the Psalms were one to two. It was a very simple thing to do. Now, it's not every song. So we're not condemning every song. I just took the average of the top 20. That's all I did. Just saying, friends, listen, please, I plead with you, listen to yourself. Who do you believe in? What works are central in your mind? Who is central in your mind? Ask yourself these things. I've studied my own sermons. I look at my own thoughts. I look at the talks that I give in conferences. Where are the works of God? What are we beholding? Behold you. Oh, let's do a video series on that. Behold you. Whoa. That's depressing. That's number one. Behold your feelings. Have you ever heard people say, I feel? They don't even think anymore, they're just feeling all the time. It's the saddest thing about the modern life. But no, the saddest thing is that it's about I. Or as we've said before, people say, I just can't. Two problems with that. I and can't. Right? Not just one problem. Number one, you're talking about you. You? Well, we've got to talk about you. Wow, you. Big wow, you. Can't. Yeah, so what else is new? You see what I'm saying? Where is the focus? Where is your theology, and how is it manifesting itself in your day-to-day conversation? Now you may say, I'm a Calvinist, I'm a sovereign of God, God does it, yeah, I believe that, et cetera, et cetera. But no, day to day in your prayer life, in your testimonial life, in your experiential sharing with others, is it more about your works than God's works? That's the question here. Is it all about what I am doing? Or what I should be doing? your sins and other people's sins. Listen, I am so tired of talking about other people's sins. I'll talk about my sins for a little bit, but I'm tired of talking about my sins, too. Because you know what, I wanna talk about Jesus. Is that bigger than me, is that bigger than my sins? Were sin abounded, what happened, what happened, were sin abounded? Grace did much more abound, so can we talk about grace? and how grace abounds over sin? Do we have to sit around accusing each other, pointing fingers at ourselves, pointing fingers at others, constantly without referring to the work of Jesus? It's like leaving the conversation in a moment of dissonance. It's a terrible, terrible thing. So the focus is what? What did God do? What did Jesus do? That's the focal point. Now, let me ask you this. The apostles get this. I was studying this yesterday, and I thought, wow, I got this. I wonder if the apostles got it, you know? God, I got this amazing revelation from John 21. I wonder if the epistles picked up on this. What do you think? Wild guess. Yeah, they actually did. And quickly, I'd encourage you to just read the epistles, all of them, over maybe about two, three hours. It takes a morning to do it. And so I went through the epistles, and I have them in your notes there. Let's go over this. Now remember, you've gotta read the message thoroughly. You can't pick and choose. You can't pick two verses out of it. You've gotta read the whole thing. You need to get the flow of it so you don't fragment the message like we do so often with the modern mind. But listen to Romans 6, verse 6. Knowing this, And this is where Paul is getting into some level of application, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him. Now whose work is that? That's God's work. Knowing this, our old man is crucified with him, that is Jesus, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Also reckon yourselves, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. That's our works, yes. That's our responsibility, yes, but it's all rooted in the fact that Jesus died. We were crucified with him. There is an action on God's part, there's work on God's part, identity in Jesus, and then we work out our salvation. But it's only in that order And we never present the sanctifying responsibility of the Christian in a seminar without starting with the work of Jesus. That's the root of it. We don't do 70 messages on the work of Christ. And then, 437 messages on your marriage and sanctification and all these other applications. It doesn't work that way in the history of the church except for the modern age. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, beginning with verse 2, I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There it is, that's the beginning, that's the work of Jesus, right there. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul understood that there would be no power, there would be nothing, no transforming influence in Reformation Church unless the message was Christ and Him crucified, 94% of it, the other 6% where we begin to apply these things, but if they don't get Christ and Him crucified, the rest of it is a total waste of time. It must be centered upon the work of Jesus Christ. God came, God acted, God worked, God brought about our salvation, and then we believe in it, and then we live it. That's the order of things, brothers. That's our faith. That's it. Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, there's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So there's that, once again, that crucifixion with Christ, His work, now the life I live. In the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. There we see the intertwining of Christ's working, then my working, my living it out because I'm in Christ. We have everything wrapped into one there. God's work, our identity in Christ, and then our working out and living the life of Christ all in one verse, all twisted together, impossible to separate. Ephesians 2, verses four and onwards, God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. This applies to the work of the Holy Spirit as well. He's raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. That is the basis, the foundation, the ultimate power and influence by which salvation comes and sanctification comes into the life of a believer is by the grace of God, the working of the Holy Spirit of God, based in the work of Jesus on the cross. It's all there, but you gotta believe it first. Otherwise, we're not getting to application. Now, Philippians 2 in verse 5. Again, every epistle works this way. If you would read it this way, I think you would see it. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Interesting here that we're almost drawing an illustration of sorts, but it's all entwined. Listen, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. but made himself of no reputation, taking this form of bond-servant, coming in the likeness of men, that is again the work of God, coming to save, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross, Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. This is Christ's humiliation, His work on the cross, His exaltation. Therefore what? That in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. What do we get there? Follow it through, Jesus' work, our faith and confession concerning Jesus, and then you get to 12, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God's work fundamental, God's work basic, God's work primary, then we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It's interesting, there is no epistle on marriage. Can you think of the epistle on marriage or child raising? The epistle of Paul. to the Galatians on the Christian marriage. There isn't one. There is no epistle on love languages. Baptism, child raising. The epistles are not neatly arranged and carefully outlined. Now, we impose our outlines on them. Because again, we're pressing, pressing, pressing the truth of Scripture back into a rationalistic concept and a modern way of thinking about everything, and that is, it's all compartmentalized into outlines. That's what we do. That's how we organize materials. That's how we think. But the Bible says, no, you don't do that, you don't separate these things. Do not separate them. In your mind. Colossians 1, 19, it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness shall dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. What is all that? What God did, what Jesus did. He's talking about what Jesus did. This is the focal point of your faith. This is it, this is what you are to believe. And then he says, verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. God's work. Basic foundational in order that we would work out our salvation and be holy and blameless and above reproach First Thessalonians 5 9 as well for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for a stop for a moment whose work is that and That's God's work. That's Jesus's work. He died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Now we're getting towards our work. Look at verse 11. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing. We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you to esteem them very highly and love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Get together with elders from other churches. You guys wanna know what they say? Usually there's some degree of group therapy that goes on with elders that get together, and they say things like, boy, I wish that people would submit a little bit more to the counsel of the elders in the church, and boy, it'd be nice if there'd be a little more peace and unity and forgiving each other in the church and so forth. That's what we all want. And so Paul says, go ahead and do that, but that's only gonna happen if you're in Jesus. That's only gonna happen if you believe in the work of Christ on the cross, otherwise it ain't gonna happen. You're not gonna submit to each other in the Lord. You're not gonna be unified at peace and forgiving each other in the Lord. It won't happen if there's no belief in the Lord or belief in what Jesus did on the cross for me. So you see, there's such a vital connection here. Titus 2.11, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. That is, again, God's work, teaching thus, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. So again, what's the order of things? Jesus died, God worked, now we work. Then back to verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. Whose work is that? He gave Himself for us. That's God's work, right? God's work that He might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Whose works are those? Ours. Whose works come first? His, whose works come after ours. You see, the basis is right there. And if there's no connectivity, if there's this massive separation between the works of God and the works of us, if there isn't the intertwining in the mind, then we begin to get a legalistic frame of mind towards everything we have to do. Remember hearing somebody say one time, wow, I hear all these things Jesus wants us to do. I'm just so tired of it. It just seems like I can't do enough for this Jesus. Well, there's two ways to say that. You could say, I just can't do enough for this Jesus. Or, Jesus, the Son of God, gave Himself for me. There is nothing I cannot do for Him. It just seems like I can't do enough for you, Jesus, because I love you so much. Tell me what to do next. You see the difference? huge difference when you're not in Jesus, versus if you are in Jesus. Huge difference. Tremendous difference. First Peter 2, verse 21, for to this you are called because Christ also suffered for us. Leave us an example that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin, nor his deceit found his mouth, who when he was reviled, he didn't revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That's his work. In order that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed. There it's God works, We are in Him, we work out by stripes you were healed, back to His work. Therefore, next chapter, 1 Peter 3, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, back to our works. But it's all tangled up. It's all tangled up. The understanding of the work of Jesus, it just keeps coming back again and again and again and again to our minds, even as we think. about our responsibilities, our works, our obedience. It's all tangled up. It's all tangled up. There's no divisions, no outlines, just a single narrative. John does the same thing. Every one of the apostles does this. Listen to 1 John 2 too. He himself is the propitiation for our sins. That is Jesus. Himself, His blood became that thing that stands between us and the wrath of God. And not for ours only, but also for the whole world. But then in that very next verse, what does it say? Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. So let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Should I do a sermon on verse two of John two? And then, three weeks later, do a series of four sermons on verse three. What do you think? What would happen in our minds if I did that? Do you think we might forget verse two if I did a four-part series on verse three? How many of you forget stuff? And here's what's interesting, here's what's interesting. The apostles, they know that we're gonna forget, so they just wind it around and wind it around, wind it around, and that's how they teach. Now you say, well it's not an outline, it's not organized enough, I don't like it that way. It's the way that God wants you to think. his thoughts after. Well, I drew out something of a description of what this looks like on the notes. We have the works of God, the works of Christ before us. We believe, we trust. Our faith is firmly placed in the work of Jesus Christ, and then we have a new identity. Our faith is the precursor to our in Christ-ness, a unity in Christ. We believe in Christ. We are now in Christ, we grow into Christ, and then we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. So what is it? It's God's works, our faith in his works, which by the way is a gift of God, a work of God in our hearts, our identity and realizing who we are as the new man in Christ, and then we begin to work out our salvation. It's so essential in your teaching, in your homes, that you don't separate these things out, even in the little moralistic songs that you give your kids, or whatever it is, do not separate these things out. Do not teach this way. Don't compartmentalize. The message is one. Working out without faith, without a recognition of our identity is fruitless, as we know. All right, let's wrap up the gospel of John, verse 25. The apostle says, more books could be written on the things that Jesus did, and the library of all of these books would fill the whole universe to overflowing. Now, is that an exaggeration? There are, from my understanding, 130 million books in the world, of which about eight are mine. 130 million books, and generally, these books are written on what? Man. Isn't that right? What man is doing, about 124 million are romance novels. I'm kidding. But what is that all about? A woman falls in love with a man, or a man falls in love with a woman. That's pretty amazing. I think it's a wonderful thing. But it's creation. It's us. We are not as amazing as Jesus. What God does is even more impressive than his creation. than the natural world, biology, physics, the great medical volumes that speak of the human body. How many books are written on medical science, anybody? How many of the 130 million? About four million, maybe? I don't know. There's a lot of them written on the body, but the body is what? A creation. Who made this body? God did. The works of God. Watching God, watching Jesus is going to be more interesting. There's gonna be more to it than all of the great stories and narratives of man and the exploring of the depths of the hearts of men and women. I wondered, could we ever run out of exhortations for the Lord's Supper? One of the reasons why I felt at the beginning we should do the Lord's Supper every week is that we would be back to the gospel, and so at least by the end of the service, nobody would forget the gospel by the end of the service. And so I wondered, though, as every Saturday I prepared another exhortation for the Lord's Supper, I got to thinking, will I ever run out of material? I've done a thousand exhortations on the Lord's Supper. And I wondered, do you ever run out of material for this? And I have been amazed, truly amazed. Here's the other thing I wondered. I wondered if the congregation would ever get bored of this gospel. Will our people ever say, I've heard the amazing work of God every Sunday for 19 years, and we don't have to go over this again? You wonder if you get to the point at which you just keep going over it and over it, and you go over the mercy of God, the justice of God, mercy overwhelming justice at the cross, the infinite love of Jesus, the infinite grace of God. And you say, I've heard of the awesomeness, the wonder, the gloriousness of all of this, but I really simply cannot relate to this. It's become a boring, irrelevant fact to which I cannot say amen. Will there be less and less enthusiasm for the work of Jesus through the years? The answer is this, not in 40 years and not in 400 billion years. Would we ever lose attention, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we tell the stories of Jesus? Never. Will we ever tire of the gospel? Never. We may be temporarily distracted by demonic accusations and diversions, but we always come back to this. Well, let me close with this. I believe there should be more said about the works of Jesus. More hymns sung on the works of Christ and the Gospels. I only know of two in the hymnal about Jesus's life. And I wanted more on Jesus's life, but I went back in the 19th century and I found that the hymns would weaken the message. There was such a weakening of the Gospel message in the 19th century in America, especially in hymnody. where they got away from the meaning of it, the full-orbed import of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it softened the impact on us. So I think we as Christians cry out for a more substantial message and content instead of a sentimentalized message which results in the weakening of faith. So here's a reworking of one of the hymns that several of us worked on. So can I read it for you? It's called, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most glorious, greatest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed His birth. Glory to God in the highest, peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most glorious, greatest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert, tell how He suffered for me, how for our sins He was tempted, how He obeyed perfectly. Tell of the years of His labor, tell of the sorrow He bore. He was despised and afflicted, homeless, rejected and poor. Tell how He cast out the demons, tell how He crushed Satan's head. Let me see more of his healings, all those he raised from the dead. Wait, let me watch as he's touching, cleansing away the leprosy, bringing new life to the millions here and for all eternity. Tell how He walked on the water, calming the winds and the waves. Help me to see His sovereign power, the One who is so mighty to save. As I watch His every motion, I see His love and mercy free, and I will gladly receive Him, a wondrous salvation for me. Let me hear His cries in the garden, yielding to His Father's will. There see the heavy blood drops falling, enduring the torments to its fill, taking the weight upon his shoulders, bearing the curse of my sin. Tell me how he loved the Father and how he loved me to the end. Tell of the cross where they nailed him, writhing in anguish and pain, shedding his blood for his people, God's holy lamb for sinners slain. What are the last words he's speaking? "'Tis finished!' so loud he cried. Stay here to watch and to wonder as the spear thrust into his side. Once more I'd walk the dark valley. All the while he lay in the grave, then bursting forth on the third day, death no more would hold the brave. And by the power of his father, he conquered death forevermore. Though we're taken to the slaughter in him, we're more than conquerors. Tell how he's taken to heaven up to the right hand of God, how he is there interceding while on this earth we still trod. Tell of the sweet Holy Spirit poured out on us from above. Tell how he's coming in glory to gather the body that he loves. I guess I just wanted more of the story. Don't you want more of the story? Don't you want to hear what Jesus did? Don't you want to tell your children this? Isn't there more to it than you thought the first time you read it? Is there more meaning to it? Are there more implications for you tomorrow? The work of Jesus, the greatest work in the world. The most glorious work in the world. So let me close with this for parents and for pastors. After 18 years of working with our children, after 18 years of ministry, I like to ask people, what did you get? And a little too often, Their responses break my heart. I've asked people, what did you get? Out of 1,000 Lord's Supper excitations and 3,000 messages, what did you get? And too often the response tears me up! It breaks me because they don't say, I heard about what Jesus did. Parents, after 18 years teaching your children, you ask them, what did you get? What did you hear? What was the focal point? By God's grace, they will say, I heard about what Jesus did. Our children may learn about manners, about dress, about hard work, maybe a little bit about lying, honoring parents. history What man did technology science and math? Maybe they studied the role models the self-help book dress for success But did they hear about what God did I If that is not the all-consuming passion of our lives, the end will be tragic. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we behold you. God, we behold you. This morning we are focused not upon our focus, not upon our works, not upon our own faith, not upon the whiteness of our knuckles as we grip to these truths, but we behold you. We behold Jesus. We behold His works and nothing else. In His Mighty, powerful, efficacious, gracious name we pray. Amen. Oh, we could sing those words over and over again. Because so much of it has to do with us understanding it. And why do we come at it from different facets? Why do we use different illustrations and such? to help us to understand and to develop in our knowledge, our faith, our response of rejoicing. when we realize the implications of these things upon ourselves. So as we come to the table again today, we understand more of the implications, that Jesus died on that cross, the blood came down, that we would be reconciled, made friends with God, that our guilt would be washed away, that the power of sin would be broken in our lives. See, all of these realities flow out of the events of Jesus on the cross. But I want to focus in just a little bit on the work of God, the work of Jesus, as described by Jesus himself in John 6. As we come to the table, Jesus says in John 6, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up the last day. See, as I hear these words, I think to myself that Jesus is a get-or-done kind of guy. He's come to get it done. He's got a plan. He's going to work the plan. Jesus has come with a definite job to do, and He's going to do it. Now, all of history is the work of God. Everything going on around us today is God's work. All of the events, not the sinfulness of the events. Sin comes from us. But the events going on around us all the time is the work of God. But the special work of God, where God works in a very special way, a very intimate way, and a very loving way, powerful way, gracious way, and the most glorious work of all, came through Jesus. That's the point at which we need to be paying special attention. And Jesus said, I came here. to do the will of my Father. And here's what he's going to do. He says, I have come to save these people, and I will raise them up at the last day, most definitely. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I'm going to get it done. I am going to get it done. That's what he says here. So several things about the work of Jesus quickly as we come to the table, because here we remember the work of Jesus on the cross. Number one, Jesus' work is intentional, very, very active. And there is eternal intentionality about His plan, made in covenant with the Father, time immemorial, back into eternity. Jesus planned to do it, intentional. That's why I don't like the phrase, the passive obedience of Jesus. I've always squirmed with it. I know theologians like it, I don't. Why? Because it gives you the impression that he's passive. Doesn't it? Is Jesus passive? No, he's intentional, he's active, he's going for it. What does he say in John 10, 17? Therefore, my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. The Romans are gonna take my life away from me. Is that what he says? No, he says, no one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. Jesus's work is active is intentional watch him on the cross. He's doing it for us He's accomplishing it for us This is his intention. He sets his face like a flint to Jerusalem. Why because I'm going to Jerusalem I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to suffer for my people. I'm going to pay for their sins. I He sets His face like a flint. He rolls up His sleeves, and you know He's going to get it done in Jerusalem. Number one, His work is intentional. Number two, His work is obedient. He says, I'm coming to do the will of my Father. He's submitting to the will of His Father, and it was a difficult work to do. I would suggest to you the most difficult element of Jesus' work was that He would submit to the will of the Father, drink the cup that His Father would have Him to drink, and submit Himself to the torment, to the torture, to that separation from God, and everything involved in that, something none of us can comprehend, He submitted Himself willingly and obediently to the Father, to the point where He cried out saying, not my will but thine be done." And the great drops of blood squeezed through his pores onto the ground. Number three, his work is efficient and effective and absolutely successful. I've only referred to that four times already so I'll stop there. But he definitely was going to get it done and there was no question in the minds of any of his believers or should not be any question in the minds of any of us that He will raise us up at the last day. Because why? He doesn't fail in what He does. And then finally, most importantly, it is a loving work. It's a work that we could not do. It was the most critical thing for us in all of the universe, in all eternity. The most critical thing in the world was that someone would come and die on that cross and take the brunt of the curse upon himself for us. And that's what Jesus did. And he did it out of sheer love for the Father and for us. That is another take. It's one more shot at it. 1001. As we come back to the work of Jesus at the cross, is anybody bored? No way. No way. Not for 400 billion years. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, oh God, we so, so, so love to come back to the cross and to go by it one more time and see the work of love, the work of a willing and obedient Savior and a servant. the work of a powerful salvation that brings about exactly what He set out to do. Father, we glory in nothing else right now than in the cross of Jesus Christ. Nothing else now. Amen.