[0:00] Before we sing again, if I had a really big picture just now of, say, I had a huge, I know that a lot of people couldn't see, so there's no point in bringing a big picture of William and Kate, and I held it up, and I would say to you, supposing there was a screen and you could see it, do you know who that is, Prince William and Kate, and I'm sure everybody, all the young people would say, oh, I know who that is, that's William and Kate, and maybe some of you know an awful lot about them.
[0:33] You might say, oh, I know, I know, I know who that is, I know them. Now, you might say to yourself, I know them, but I might be wrong, but I don't think you really know them.
[0:47] You might know loads about them. It's the same maybe with film stars and music stars and sports stars. Some of you have great favorites, and you say, I know loads about them because you've looked up about them, you've heard about them, you've read about them, but you don't really know them because you can't really know somebody till you're with that person, till you spend time with that person.
[1:19] So there's a big difference between knowing about and actually knowing a person. And it's the same with regard to Jesus, because I know that everybody in here would say, if I said, do you know Jesus?
[1:36] You'd say, oh, yes. But a lot of people, what they mean is, I know about Jesus. I know he was born in Bethlehem. I know that there was no room in the inn, and it was in a stable, in a manger he was born.
[1:54] I know he did amazing things. I know he walked on the water. I know that he actually raised people from the dead. I know he died on the cross.
[2:05] You know these things about Jesus. But you can know all these things about Jesus and still not know Jesus. And the only way, as we say, that you can get to know Jesus is to meet with him.
[2:22] And in fact, to invite Jesus to come in to your heart, to come in to you.
[2:33] And you know, Jesus loves to be invited in. And I believe that he especially likes children to invite him in, because Jesus said, suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
[2:50] And you know, if you ask Jesus to come into your life, Jesus will come, because he loves to be asked. And once he comes in, he comes to live there forever.
[3:05] It's a wonderful thought, forever. He doesn't just pay a visit. He comes, once he comes in, he's there forever. And once he's in, it's then you will come to know him.
[3:17] So if somebody said to you, when you come to believe in Jesus, do you know Jesus? You're able to say, yes, I know him. I know him really well.
[3:28] Because everybody who has Jesus in their heart knows him. I hope that all of you will ask Jesus into your heart so that you will know him well.
[3:39] I'm going to sing again in Psalm 98. This is from the Scottish Psalter. Psalm 90, no, sorry, 95. Sorry, Psalm 95 from the Scottish Psalter.
[3:57] And that's on page 357. From verse 6, Juniston Firmline. O come and let us worship him.
[4:08] Let us bow down with all. And on our knees before the Lord, our maker, let us fall. For he's our God, the people we of his own pasture are.
[4:19] And of his hand the sheep. Today of you his voice will hear. Then harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, as in the desert on the day of the temptation.
[4:31] When me, your fathers, tempt and proved, and did my working see, even for the space of forty years, this race hath grieved me. I said this people errs in heart.
[4:43] My ways they do not know. To whom I swear in wrath, that to my rest they should not go. So Psalm 95 from verse 6 on page 357.
[4:55] The Tuniston Firmline. O come and let us worship him. O come and let us worship him.
[5:09] Let us bow down with all. And on our knees before the Lord, our maker, let us fall.
[5:29] For he's our God, the people we of his own pasture are.
[5:44] And of his hand the sheep today, if he his eyes will hear.
[5:59] Then harden not cure hearts as in the provocation, as in the desert on the day of the temptation.
[6:26] When me, your fathers, tempt and proved, and did my working see, even for the space of forty years, this race hath grieved me.
[6:57] I said this people, lash in heart. My ways they do not know.
[7:12] To whom I swear in wrath, but to my rest they should not go.
[7:27] Let us turn to read in John's gospel and John chapter 7.
[7:40] Last week we looked at the first 13 verses. Today I want us to follow on to the end of verse 36.
[7:51] So we'll pick it up, although we read a little of this last week. We'll read from verse 10. John chapter 7 and at verse 10.
[8:01] Remember, it was the Feast of the Tabernacles. The Feast of Booths was on. And Jesus' brothers had been trying to persuade him to go up to Jerusalem. Verse 10. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private.
[8:18] 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.
[8:33] Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. And it's from this verse on that we'll consider today. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
[8:47] 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.
[9:01] 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.
[9:13] 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.
[9:25] 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?
[9:38] Jesus answered them, I did one deed, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it was from Moses, but from the father.
[9:49] 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?
[10:07] Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
[10:18] 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.
[10:36] 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 through, and him you do not know.
[10:51] 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.
[11:02] 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 Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
[11:20] Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me, and you will not find me.
[11:31] Where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, Where does this man intend to go, that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
[11:45] What does he mean by saying, You will seek me, and you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. Amen, and may God bless to us this reading of his holy word.
[11:57] Go ahead and sing again from Sing Psalm, Psalm number 28. Sing Psalm 28, and at verse 3, to the end of the psalm, the tune of Saldu.
[12:10] It's on page 33. O drag me not away with those who practice wickedness and sin, who kindly to their neighbors speak, but harbor malice deep within.
[12:24] Repay them for their evil deeds and for their acts of wickedness. Bring back on them what they deserve, and punish their unrighteousness. Because the Lord's works they despise, and treat his actions with disdain.
[12:39] Injustice he will tear them down, and never build them up again. Praise to the Lord, for he has heard the plea for mercy which I made. He is my strength, he is my shield.
[12:51] I trust in him who sends me aid. And so on to the end of the psalm, Psalm 28, from verse 3. O drag me not away with those. O drag me not away with those.
[13:12] Who practice wickedness and sin. Who kindly to their neighbors speak, But harbor malice deep within.
[13:38] Repay them for their evil deeds, And for their acts of wickedness.
[13:53] Bring back on them what they deserve, And punish them their unrighteousness.
[14:10] Because the Lord's works they despise, And treat his actions with disdain.
[14:27] Injustice he will tear them down, And never build them up again.
[14:43] Praise to the Lord, for he has heard the plea for mercy which I made.
[15:01] He is my strength, he is my shield. I trust in him who sends me aid.
[15:19] My heart uplifted leaps for joy. My thanks to him might come, he sing.
[15:36] The Lord God is his people's strength, A saving fortress for his King.
[15:54] Lord save your people, your own flock. Be pleased your heritage to bless.
[16:11] Be the good shepherd. God ever in your faithfulness.
[16:29] Lord save your heart, Turn again for a little to the chapter, chapter 7.
[16:40] Looking at it from verse 14 down to verse 36. We find Jesus making his way up to the feast, And in the middle of the feast going into the temple to begin teaching.
[16:55] I was just to reflect last week, remember how we saw Jesus at the, he had been for a few months in Galilee there and there came the time for this, the Feast of the Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus' brothers were trying to encourage Jesus to go up to the feast. They were aware of the flagging support and they were saying to Jesus to go up and really to do something big. They wanted him to go up and perform some really, really big miracle so that he would whip up again the support to do something spectacular. But as we saw, his brothers at that point weren't believers and we highlighted the fact that a person could, as these men did, they grew up with Jesus, they saw his perfect life, they heard his perfect words, they saw his miraculous doings and deeds, and yet they didn't believe. And that is one of the challenging, solemn things that a person can be where the gospel is, can be in a gospel home, a home with Christians, can be regularly coming to church, coming under the Word, meeting with Christians, sharing in many ways with Christians, accepting many of the truths and being affected and touched by them, and yet not believing. And I would challenge any person in here today who finds himself in the very, in the deepest part of their heart, in that category to move from there, to take that step, as we're saying to the young people today, to ask Jesus into your heart that you might know him. It's a great thing, don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful thing to be coming to church and to be sharing and to be involved in the worship of God.
[18:55] It's the greatest way you can start the week is doing what you're doing. But you need to go further, you need to take that step, that step of faith, that where you come to, that place where you believe, believe in Jesus and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Anyway, the brothers, as we saw, went up, and Jesus, he made his own way up. He went up privately, not publicly anymore, because the Jews, the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders were out to get him. But then we find here in verse 14 that Jesus, in the middle of the feast, he comes into the temple and he begins teaching. And the very teaching and the character and the conduct of Jesus testified as to who he was. You know, people say, did the Jews, maybe they, maybe they didn't understand who he really was. Well, when you look at even just here, you see something, there is a revealing of who Jesus is. And there's nobody who is as blind as the people who are prejudiced. If you are prejudiced against somebody or against something, your starting point is all wrong, because you're not able to see. You cannot see properly.
[20:16] Prejudice puts a mist, a distortion in the eyes and certainly in the spiritual eyes. And that's how these Jewish leaders were. They couldn't see what was staring them in the face. They couldn't hear what was being said because they were prejudiced. And as it's so true, remember at the very beginning, we saw how Jesus came to his own and his own didn't receive him. But the first thing that spoke, that must have spoken to the people, it did, it challenged them, was Jesus's knowledge and his learning. This is something that baffled them. They couldn't understand it. In verse 15, the Jews, therefore, and remember, we saw last week, there's the two different sections of people.
[21:03] There are the Jews and there's the crowd. The Jews are the religious leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, those who are in authority, the leaders. John tends to term them, the Jews. And when he talks about the crowd, these are the non-religious leaders and the non, not the authorities, but just the, as it were, the ordinary people. I don't like using the word the ordinary people because everybody's just the same. But if you understand what I mean, there's this difference between the Jews and the crowd. So the Jews, this is the religious leaders, they're saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? Because these, remember, these Jewish leaders, they knew, they knew all the theological schools, the rabbinical schools, they knew who the students were of the law. They knew who had studied where.
[22:00] And this baffled them. How is it that this man has so much knowledge and so much learning, and he's never studied? He's never, he's never been to any of the rabbinical schools.
[22:15] And this, this was something that baffled them. Elsewhere, it described Jesus's teaching in this way. He taught as one, having authority, not as the scribes and Pharisees. So that the people noticed a big difference between Jesus's teaching and the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, that there was an authority about Jesus. Somebody said the scribes and the Pharisees, they taught from authorities, but Jesus was the authority. And there was, there was an authority about his teaching so that there was a reality. As people listened to Jesus, there was this sense of, of reality. And you know, when something is real, it is an amazing way of convincing people, this is real. You know, you, you know when this is the real deal or not. I know that there are many things in this world that can be very deceptive and people can pull the wool over other people's eyes.
[23:17] There's lots of that goes on. But there's something about reality when it's, when it's real. And there's an instinctiveness within. And you say, this is the truth. And when people heard Jesus, deep down they knew this was the truth. They were, they were being challenged by it.
[23:37] And that was one of the things that, that earmarked, that made Jesus special. And that spoke about who he was. So this was one of the, one of the great signs that he was who he declared himself to be. So you see their prejudice. Jesus has told them he's come from the father. He has told them previously, he is equal to the father. And they're horrified at that. But then as they listened to this extraordinary, as they listened to this, just his amazing learning and knowledge and authority, they should have said, oh, that, you know, this, this could be true. But no, that doesn't enter their thinking because they're prejudiced, they're prejudiced against him. And you know that when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you know, it's one of the things the Lord gives us is a sense of wisdom. And that wisdom, spiritual wisdom carries with it discernment so that you know instinctively whether something is right or wrong. It's an amazing thing. And when you come under, even under, you hear different things, you're able, there's an instinctive something which tells you this is right or this is wrong. And that's, that's, that's one of the, the wonderful things. And that's one of the great things that the, the Lord gives his people. Because, you know what, with this sense of the truth, you know, when the truth comes into your heart, it gives you a courage because you know this is true.
[25:18] It's a, put it just in what I'm doing just now in preaching. Although in many ways it's, I always find it a very difficult thing to do. I find very difficult to stand up and to speak. But the thing is, you lose yourself behind what you're, what you're doing. And what you're doing is you're preaching the truth. You get lost in this truth. And at no point ever am I saying, you know, I don't know if this is real. If I ever was thinking that, then I wouldn't do it. There is this total and absolute confidence that what I am saying based upon this, on, on God's word is absolutely true.
[26:05] And that makes a world of difference. It gives any passion at any level, whether you're witnessing to somebody at work or on the street or teaching a Sunday school or speaking at a youth fellowship or a youth club, speaking to young people, whether you're preaching, doesn't matter where you are in your home or whatever. The truth has a way of giving a person a confidence that this is real. There is an authority with it that carries through. So that was the first thing that was obvious, that this was the Christ. And the second thing that separated Jesus really from all the scribes and the Pharisees was that his, he was void of ego. He wasn't doing this for himself or about himself. He was, as I'm saying, he's a messenger. Jesus is saying in verse 16, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
[27:07] And the verse 18, 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 is no falsehood. So this again was something that separated Jesus from the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees were, well, I believe, I'm sure some of them were sincere in their own eyes. But Jesus highlighted a problem, not with all of them, but with many of them. They were out for their own glory. They were seeking their own glory in what they were doing. They wanted to be spoken well of people. And that is why many of the scribes and Pharisees, particularly the Pharisees, would go the extra mile to try and keep the law so that people would see just how strict and how pious and how good, if we could use that expression, which wasn't always good, what they were doing, because they were carrying it to the very extreme.
[28:13] And you know, when you take that, when you take God's law to an extreme, where you go way beyond, it ceases to be good. And very often it becomes evil because it hurts. Rather than doing good, it begins to work in the opposite direction. And that's what was happening with these men. But they were always there for their own glory, their own good. Jesus highlighted that about prayer. He said, don't be like the Pharisees who stand at street corners and they want to be spoken of well by people. They've got the reward because people are giving them the reward. This is the difference.
[28:57] Jesus was there for the glory of his Father. The message he had was the one that was given to him by the Father. And this again was something that separated him. And I could say on this very point, if any person is ever deciding to go into full-time work for the Lord, one of the great, great deciding factors is this, am I in this for myself or am I in this for the honor and glory of God?
[29:30] If a person ever, supposing a person was to enter into the ministry and go to the ministry and say, I really, I want to go into the ministry. But deep down there is a desire, they want to parade their own knowledge or they want to have a platform for their own ideas or something like that. You'd say to yourself, hey, you've got it all wrong. You've got the wrong vocation in mind.
[29:54] That is not what the ministry is about. It is never about self. It is never parading one's own knowledge or glory or abilities or any of these things. It is seeking to honor and glorify God.
[30:08] It is to proclaim the Lord. So that was another thing that separated Jesus. But there was another thing that Jesus went on to highlight. And he was showed that by obedience to this teaching from the Father, a person would discover personally the truth of what he was saying. Verse 17, 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. You see, this is true. We've been kind of saying that already.
[30:48] There's a, if you seek to do the will of God, there is a way in which as you're, the more you're complying to keep and do God's will, there is an absolute persuasion of the rightness of all that God is proclaiming in the truth. There's a meeting together of your will and God's will, of your life and his, it's, there's a merging together so that there's a confirming in your own heart and in your own mind of this truth. But then Jesus begins to expose their hypocrisy because he knows that they're out to get him. And he says, look, you're just such hypocrites. You say, according to the law of Moses, that it's right to circumcise somebody on the eighth day, which it was always on the eighth day. So if the eighth day fell on the Sabbath, they would still go forward with the right to circumcision in order to keep to Moses' law. And yet he's saying, I on the Sabbath day healed a man.
[31:53] I made a person whole. So you're wanting to kill me. And he said, you're just such hypocrites. That's really what he's saying to them. And he goes on to say, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. And again, we can, it comes back to what we were saying. We need this spirit of discernment to know what is right and what is wrong. And we're always guilty of, of making wrong judgments and wrong assessments. We're terrible for judging people. In the days of Jesus, so many of the crowd, you see, the crowd was really divided about Jesus. Some of the crowd were saying, Jesus is a good man.
[32:37] Others of us were saying, no, he's a bad man. He's a deceiver. And some of that crowd who would be saying, Jesus is a deceiver, would be holding up some of the most, the strictest, most religious of the Pharisees and saying, now, that's a good man. Jesus, no, he's a deceiver. See, these Pharisees say, they're good men. But their judgments were all wrong. They were judging on appearances.
[33:02] Because if you looked at the life of Jesus, yes, it was a perfect life. But Jesus would go and eat with the publicans. And he would go and eat and drink with the sinners. The Pharisees would never dare do that. Oh, no. They would, they would walk out, they would cross to the other side of the street rather than do that. So the crowd, as they viewed Jesus and they viewed the Pharisees, some of them were saying, ah, he's just a deceiver. These Pharisees, oh, they're good men. But Jesus is saying, no, don't judge by appearances. And so often we do. Isn't that right? We make our judgment on things.
[33:46] Take, for example, if we had lived in Bible times, say in the Old Testament or the New Testament, we would make our judgment, supposing look at the life of David, look at Peter, two men, one in the Old, one in the New. And you see what David did. And sometimes we're bad for homing in on David's sin. And we're not in any way trying to excuse, yes, he sinned. He sinned grievously.
[34:12] And he sinned in God's sight. And he repented. Of course, we know all that Psalm 51. But it would be very easy to make that judgment and say, oh, well, David, we write David off. And yet, God's testimony of David is that he was a man after God's own heart. You look at Peter, Peter who denied Jesus. If you had stood there in that hall and heard Peter with the oaths and with the curses denying that he ever knew Jesus or that Jesus ever meant anything to him, you would have said, oh, see that, Peter? That's the end of him. I wouldn't cross the road to speak to him again.
[34:51] And yet, Peter becomes the leader of the New Testament church. We are not to judge by appearances. If you met Moses, God's testimony of Moses was that he was the meekest of men. He was the meekest of men.
[35:10] So you might say to yourself, oh, well, Moses, if I met Moses, he would obviously be this kind of very, almost a wimpy type character. Sort of a very weakling. Not at all. I'll tell you, if you met Moses, there wouldn't be the slightest sign of what we term meekness. He was tough as nails. He had an iron constitution. He was an incredible leader. He had a will that wouldn't bend. He was as strong as a horse.
[35:48] But he was meek in the sight of God. He was somebody who was always, always out for the glory of God. He was saying to the Lord, put me away. It's always, Lord, you. That's what is meek. That's what made him such a great man. His humility and his meekness made him a great man. And that's why God said, Moses was the meekest of men. Not that he was in any way meek in constitution or what we would say, a sort of just, we have a wrong understanding of the meekness that Jesus talks about. Moses was, as we say, a very, very strong, strong character. And so Jesus is warning against making the wrong kind of judgments. And then again, we find that there's this division amongst the people. Can then they begin to ask the question in verse 25 through to the end, they're asking this question, can this really be Jesus? And then they're saying, that's what we find, is not this a man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly and they're saying nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? Very interesting. The people aren't fools and they're saying, right, here's the man that the religious authorities are wanting to kill. Why aren't they going and challenging him? He's speaking openly. Very simply, why? Because the authorities were scared of Jesus.
[37:24] They knew they were no match with him. They had taken him on in debate many times and they'd lost every single time. He tied them in knots and they knew that they were no match for him, for his skill, for his learning, for his knowledge. And so they were going to bide their time. They were going to get him, they were going to kill him. But they couldn't go publicly like this in front of the people because they knew there would be an uproar. Because they knew that many other people sided with Jesus. And you see the kind of, these men, these religious, they were bullies. That's the way bullies operate. See, they won't do like man to man. They won't come out into the open. Remember when they arrested Jesus, they almost sent in an army into the garden in the darkness of night to get him. That's the way they operate. There were thugs deep down. Bullies. They wouldn't come out into the open and debate with him in front of the people. But then we find this amazing statement from the people. And they said, can this be the, do the authorities think that this is the Christ? And then verse 27, but we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. Now, this was a misconception.
[38:46] There was a school of thought, and it had become very popular at this particular time, that when the Messiah would come, he would come all of a sudden. He would just arrive, and nobody would know anything about him. Now, of course, we know that that was false teaching. But they based that teaching on a chapter in Malachi, which says, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. So they based this idea that when the Messiah would come, he would just come all of a sudden into the temple, and there would be no history about him. Of course, that wasn't true. And we know that the prophecy, if you go, for instance, if you go, for instance, to Micah, Micah tells us very clearly that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Makes it very clear. And this is what I find quite amazing. When the people say this, we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.
[39:51] We know where this man comes from. Now, it's here, I would say, that we have one of the most extraordinary areas of the prejudice of the people. Both the Jews and the crowd thought the same way about Jesus. We know who he is. We know where he has come from. They thought they knew. Now, this is where I find it quite extraordinary. There are probably no nation or group of people in this world who are more, I don't like using the word obsessed, but they're more obsessed about their ancestry. The Jews were really, really into their lineage, their genealogy. It was something that they examined with a fine-tooth comb, who they belonged to, where they came from, who their people were.
[40:45] They loved to trace all the way back. It was rooted in their way, in their culture. And I don't, this is what baffles me. All it would take for the religious authorities to go to Mary and to say, excuse me, I want to ask you one question. Where was your son Jesus born?
[41:10] Mary would say in Bethlehem. It doesn't appear that at any point, any of the religious authorities made it their business ever to go and investigate where Jesus Christ was actually born. And if they had made the slightest investigation, they would have found that he was born at the time when that census was taken and all the people had to go up to where they originally came from. And both Joseph and Mary, both were of the lineage of David from the town of Bethlehem. And that they, of course, went there when that decree went out from Caesar Augustus. They went to Bethlehem and that's where Jesus was born. A little bit of investigation, just a couple of questions. And they would have found all their answers, which would have confirmed that Jesus, they would say, this is the Messiah.
[42:12] He is to be born in Bethlehem because they knew it, that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. It tells us that. But they didn't. And that's what prejudice does. Prejudice does not want to know the truth.
[42:25] It's got this inbuilt against the truth. And you know, nothing has changed. It's the exact same today. People are still absolutely prejudiced against the gospel and they will not bother to investigate the truth. They don't want to know. They don't want to be challenged. There is this straightaway, there's this inbuilt argument against. And it's nothing new. It's exactly the same in the days of Jesus as it is today.
[42:58] It's really quite extraordinary. But then it shows us, and with this we finish very briefly, it finds, we see that verse 32, the Pharisees heard the crowd muttering and so on. So they actually then sent officers to go and arrest Jesus. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one, this is what we find in this particular, it's later on we find that, no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come.
[43:29] The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. And then Jesus makes this great statement, I will be with you a little longer and then I'm going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come. Where I am you cannot come. Jesus is saying to them, look, you have limited opportunity. A day is going to come and I'm not going to be here anymore. And you know, the Bible says to us, my spirit shall not always strive with man. I find that a really, really challenging statement.
[44:16] God is saying there are periods and there are times when I am speaking to people. My spirit is speaking. My spirit is convincing people, touching people, gently prompting people in the right direction.
[44:31] But there will come a day when that won't be. And that is why it is so dangerous to resist God's spirit. When God is speaking to you in the gospel, don't close your ears, harden your heart. That's the worst thing you could do. But it's what we're prone to do. But rather say, Lord, please come into my heart.
[44:54] Because Jesus is saying, you're going to seek me and you won't find me. But then he makes these incredibly telling words where he says, where I am, you cannot come. You know, this is almost the very opposite to what he says to his own people. Where I am going, you cannot come. But then he says to his disciples later on in John 14, that where I am, you may be also. Isn't that amazing? Two different statements.
[45:26] Where I am, you cannot come. That's what he says to the unbeliever. To the believer, he says the very opposite. Where I am, you will be also. That's what he says. That where I am, you may be also. Where I am, you may be also. Is that your desire today? That you will say, Lord Jesus, where you are, I want to be as well. Or are you still in the place where Jesus is saying, where I am, as things stand, you cannot come.
[46:03] I would hate that anybody in here would be excluded from the never-ending celebration that will be glory. To be in the presence of Jesus, the Savior. I hope he becomes your Savior and that we will all be together with him in glory. Let us pray.
[46:30] O Lord, our God, we give thanks for this word and how relevant it is even to where we are today. Nothing changes. There's still the same opposition to Jesus. But we give thanks that we live in a day of gospel influence and gospel power. And we ask, O Lord, to come in power into our hearts and into our lives. Stir us up, we pray. We ask, O Lord, for your grace and strength and guidance throughout our lives.
[47:02] Keep us in the way of truth. Have mercy upon us, forgiving us of sin in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.