This is John chapter seven. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. for not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after this, after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, he is a good man, others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, while the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, you have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let us bow our heads once again for the proclamation of the word of God. Our God and Father in heaven, we thank you for this reading of your word and we ask that you would add your blessing onto it. That we would each have humble hearts ready to receive your word with joy and gladness. and that you would strengthen me by your spirit, that I would proclaim your word, not only what you would have me to say, but how to say it, in spirit and in truth and in all boldness, that your name and your word would be exalted above all things, as we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, it's a time of the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, and Jesus was in Galilee. And what we see here in this first part is the unbelief of his brothers. They say, go to Jerusalem so that your disciples may see your works. If you want to be known, do not continue to do your works here in the middle of nowhere. Go up to Jerusalem during this feast. Well, some argue that the brothers' words are in their unbelief, they were looking, like many of the Jews, for a military leader. They were anticipating that maybe Jesus could possibly become king and lead them to victory over Rome. I think, as well as some other authors, that his brothers were merely mocking him. They say, and the whole world will see you making claims that you are equal to God and you're the bread of life. Oh brother who was born of our mother." Notice what Jesus says in response to this. It sounds almost at first glance almost apathetic. He says, the world cannot hate you. Well, that's good, right? The world cannot hate you. It is written that no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. Well, so too the world does not hate its own, but it nourishes its own. Jesus is rebuking his brothers here. He is saying the world cannot hate you because you are of the world. You belong to the world. but it hates me," says Jesus, because I testify that its works are evil. I recently heard someone say, the problem with preachers today is no one wants to kill us. Well, that's not so with Jesus. He proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand. He proclaimed the morals of that kingdom, and he was proclaiming to the crowds before him that you do not measure up to the righteous requirements of the law of God. Not only are you failing to meet the righteousness of God, but you are so far from being righteous that as it is written in the book of Genesis, you are only evil. always. Well, who falls into this category? Who is Jesus testifying against? Well, it's the world. There are some who are angered at Christianity and at its Christ because it's exclusive, they Well, it doesn't get more inclusive than this. There ain't a single one of you who is righteous. Romans 3 says, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. This language is universal. There is not a soul living today. There is not a soul who has lived in any age past nor soul in the future who is excluded from this statement. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no righteousness. So he testified against the world that its works are evil. I think one application we have from this, brothers and sisters, is that this should embolden us. to speak the truth in an evil world, in a dark world. Jesus Christ was the one whose tongue would not be stayed by the fear of man. He did all the will of his Father. He was obedient even unto the point of death. And this is the message which the church heralds. Yes, we testify with Jesus to the world that its works are evil. But in so doing, we don't look to ourselves as though we were then the righteous ones and the world is evil. We don't look to ourselves, we point away from ourselves. to Christ, because our salvation is hetero-soteric, hetero-other, soteric salvation. Our salvation is in another. We don't go about as though we were arrogant, boasting of our own righteousness. But we point the world to Christ, for it is in His righteousness that we stand. So let us be emboldened to proclaim that gospel. Well, he then goes up to the feast privately. He's not making any grand entrance. And while the Jews were looking for him, they began to mutter amongst themselves as to who Jesus really was. And there are two conclusions which they come to. Two conclusions which the people in their unbelief arrive at. Either Jesus is a good man or he is leading the people astray. Let's think about these two for a moment. If Jesus is a good man, he has made claims which cannot be sustained by a mere man. He has made himself equal with God in John chapter 5. In other words, he has already made the claim that he is, in fact, God. And he has made the claim that he is the bread of life, the sole way to the Father, the only one who offers everlasting life. Well, if he was only a mere man, we would have no hope. No atonement could be made for our sakes if Jesus was merely a man. If we consider Moses in Exodus 32, Moses who is considered the man of God in the Old Testament, in Exodus 32, When Israel has made the golden calf and they have sinned so grievously against God, Moses says, I will go to try to make atonement for this people. And he speaks to God and says, God, let this people live, even if by means of blotting out my name from your book of life. You understand what he was doing? He was foreshadowing Christ. And God does not accept that sacrifice. Because no matter how great Moses was, he was only a man. He could not make atonement for the people. And so if he is only a man, If Jesus is only a man, then He is a liar, and thus He's not a good man. Well, if He's leading the people astray, then He's leading the people astray, and He is a false shepherd and a false teacher. And so the question before us is, how then do we discern the truth? How do we discern if he is sent from God, if his words are indeed true? Look at Jesus' response here. He says, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Well, let's understand the logic of this text here. Jesus is saying, if it is truly your will to do God's will, then you will be able to discern the truth. Why? Where do we look to to find what is the will of God? We find it in the Scriptures. We find it in the Scriptures. There are many who would claim to you today that they receive words from God, that they speak to God and He answers them. And they claim to be new prophets. I heard one minister say, if you want to hear the Word of God, it's right here. And if you want to hear the Word of God audibly, Read it out loud. Turn to Acts chapter 17 if you would. Acts 17. Beginning at verse 10 up through verse 13. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds." How do we discern what the will of God is? We examine the scriptures. Many of you have heard it before. The minister will say, be like the Bereans. Examine the Scriptures. Test these things daily to see if the words of Jesus are in fact true. Jesus' words are either in accord with the whole of Scripture or they are not. And if they are not, then Jesus would be speaking exclusively of his own authority, apart from the Father in heaven, seeking only his own glory, rather than the glory of the Father. But he says, I'm not speaking out of my own authority, but I am speaking according to the authority of my Father. Therefore, my word is true. There is no reason for me to lie concerning these things. For my whole ministry, people have sought to kill me. Why would I continue in this lie? Surely, eventually, they will be successful. But I continue in this ministry because my word is true. And in fact, there is great cost to heralding my Father's will. Jesus was obedient in proclaiming the word of God, even unto his death. Well, he then also rebukes the crowds before him when he says, has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? By this other test, we know that he is true, and he alone, because he alone has kept the law of God perfectly. There is no instance where Jesus is outside of the bounds of the law of God. But to those before him, he says, none of you keeps the law. He is attesting to the fact that they will not be able to discern the truth because the truth is not in them. They have the will of God written before their very eyes, and they have continually defied it. They have defied Him. In other words, though you've kept an outward observance of the law, your hearts are far from God. You notice this was exactly the response which Paul received by the other Jews who then went to Berea only to stir up trouble and to agitate the people there. What Jesus is saying is that your hearts are so far from God that when the truth is literally staring you in your face, you refuse to see it. Jesus Christ Himself is the way, the truth, and the life. Another application that we can take from this is that we must take caution. We hear these sorts of arguments all the time that Jesus was merely a good man, or He was a great moral example, but nothing beyond that. That is not the case. Brothers and sisters, we must combat those heresies, defend the truth. We must take care also to be as the Bereans did, to receive the Word with all eagerness, the whole Word, whether we like it or not. And I would also add that if there is some part of Scripture, some word which you oppose or you do not like, I would urge you gently but firmly, repent. We must humbly receive the word of God. Because there are many today who bear the name Christian, and yet pick and choose the different parts that they will have, and ignore all else. There's a man whom I've heard recently who said that he has studied the Word diligently for well over a decade now, and yet he denies the deity of Jesus Christ, claiming that Jesus never said he was God. And as I've thought about that, I cannot even – you have to ignore so much scripture to make that claim. It boggles my mind. But that is what the mind does, apart from the gracious work of Jesus Christ. Every doctrine that we have must be molded and formed by the Word of God. And if in any of our views we are found to be in error with Scripture, then it is our views which must change. And we submit to Scripture. Another tangential point before we get to the last part of Jesus' dialogue here is the long-suffering that we see in Jesus Christ, the patience that we see in Jesus. When the crowds respond to his words by saying, you have a demon, who is seeking to kill you? Now the crowds likely just meant you're mad or you're crazy, but what they said was you have a demon. What spirit indwells Jesus Christ? The spirit which indwells Jesus Christ is none other than the Holy Spirit of the living God. These crowds looked at Jesus and said, the spirit within you is a demon. They just blasphemed the Holy Spirit of the living God. This is an incredibly grievous sin. And Jesus completely passes over it. He does not even say a word because He did not come to condemn, but He came to give life and to give it abundantly. He came to show mercy, even to have mercy when these men looked at Him and blasphemed His Holy Spirit. The long-suffering of our Lord and Savior should never cease to astonish us. Well, Jesus ends the dialogue that we have before us by saying, do not judge by appearances, which is precisely what the crowds were doing, but he says, judge with right judgment. And the word here means righteous judgment. Judge with righteous judgment. The word has lost its force here in the English today. And so whatever else this may mean, it means that in order to judge rightly the Word of God, one must judge in righteousness, which is not possible apart from the inward working of the Holy Spirit in the renewal of our minds, as it is written in the book of Romans. He says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God yet. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. And so for us to make righteous judgment, we must have that inward working of the Holy Spirit, who transforms our minds so that we may test and discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And this only through Jesus Christ. Take your Bibles in hand once again and we will read the last portion of our passage this morning. Beginning at verse 25. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? but we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. So Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, you know me and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true and him, you do not know. I know him for I come from him and he sent me. So they were seeking to arrest him. But no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? The final point is simply this. Who will you hear? Who will you hear? It is Jesus who has come from his Father. He says, you think you know where I come from? You think I've come from Galilee? You think I've come from Bethlehem? You think you know where I've come from? I come from my Father. I come from my Father. In other words, I am the one who the Father has sent, the one and the only one. The question before us now is, if you will not hear Jesus, who will you hear? There is only one who has the words of everlasting life, and there is only one who is sent from the Father. There is only one who lived a perfectly righteous life, who died taking the sins of many upon himself, who rose again from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. There is life in none other than Jesus. Whom were you here? Will you bend the knee to Jesus, or will you, like the crowds did, out of the fear of man live not for God, but according to the world? Let us submit to the Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us bow our heads. Our God and Father in heaven, we come before you with grateful hearts. And while the world would look at the claims of Jesus Christ and would interpret your word with anger and vitriol, demanding that there be many ways to come before you, we give you our praise and our thanks that you have provided one way. that you have given us life, we who deserve only your wrath. You have taken our sins upon Jesus Christ so that he would become sin for us and that we would become the righteousness of God. This is amazing grace and we praise you and we thank you and we ask that your word would inform our lives daily. That we would go out from this place this morning encouraged by your word and praising your holy name. We ask that you would sustain us in the days to come. that we would seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, that you would watch over us, protecting us, keeping us from not only illness and troubles with this world, but keeping us from sin. Keep us from temptation, Lord, that our eyes would never turn away from the path of righteousness, but that we would seek always and only your glory. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. Amen.