WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.740 Amen. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 10. 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:04.820 00:00:08.940 --> 00:00:17.600 Our text for today is John chapter 10 verses 19 through 42. We will finish out the chapter today. 00:00:18.539 --> 00:00:24.920 I'll tell you though, and I already intended to keep my comments relatively brief this morning, 00:00:25.740 --> 00:00:30.340 because you may have noted I walked up here as fast as I possibly could this morning. 00:00:30.339 --> 00:00:37.340 That was not a serene pace. That was a my lower back is killing me pace. So you'll see me a little 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:41.200 uncomfortable this morning, and I don't know how long I can stand here and do this. So I already 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:48.420 intended to keep my comments brief. But also it's hot in here. You're not imagining that it would seem 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:54.799 that one of the two units that cools this room is not currently cooling anything. So it is warm in 00:00:54.799 --> 00:01:00.280 here, and I recognize that. Kids were up late last night, I'm quite sure, and now they're hot. 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:07.780 So this will be perhaps a challenge. We'll pray for God's favor here in just a moment for our time in 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:17.680 the Word. These final verses of John 10 conclude John's record of Jesus's public ministry. As we have 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:25.500 noted repeatedly, John does not leave us wondering what the driving purpose of his gospel account is. 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:32.980 He tells us in John 20, verse 30 and 31. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:39.939 which are not written in this book. But these are written, the signs that we have, these are written 00:01:39.939 --> 00:01:48.960 so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:59.599 in his name. So this text, as well as many that have preceded it, press the question, what will you do 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:09.479 with Jesus? Who do you think that he is? How do you handle the claims that he made? 00:02:09.479 --> 00:02:16.699 C.S. Lewis once said, I've shared this with you previously, quote, a man who was merely a man and said 00:02:16.699 --> 00:02:24.179 the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the 00:02:24.179 --> 00:02:31.439 level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:42.359 your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse, end quote. 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:53.319 We have to deal with the historic Jesus. He said things about himself that must be carefully considered. 00:02:54.579 --> 00:03:00.319 In the last half of chapter 10, we find two groups of people. John continues to do this to present to us 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:09.979 two groups of people, those who reject Jesus as the Christ and those who receive him. We plead with 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:16.539 you this morning, if you've yet to receive him as the Christ, that you carefully consider his claims. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:24.519 Let's pray before we read the text. Father, we ask humbly this morning as we take up your word that you 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:31.640 would help us. We never accomplish anything of any value apart from your work in our lives, certainly 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:42.219 not the study of your word. And fathers, we are likely tired and weak, frail in some way, and hot 00:03:42.219 --> 00:03:47.920 this morning. I pray that you'd make us attentive, help our minds to take in the things that your word 00:03:47.920 --> 00:03:53.760 would teach us this day. We want to believe its promises and obey its commands. We want to have 00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:03.280 affection for you, its author. So we pray to this end. Amen. John 10, beginning in verse 19. 00:04:04.959 --> 00:04:11.979 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said he has a demon and 00:04:11.979 --> 00:04:18.399 is insane. Why listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:25.779 Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? At that time, the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. 00:04:26.299 --> 00:04:32.560 It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:39.139 around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. 00:04:39.139 --> 00:04:46.560 Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name, 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:52.740 bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:59.539 and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one 00:04:59.539 --> 00:05:05.539 will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:13.340 to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. The Jews picked up stones again 00:05:13.340 --> 00:05:19.020 to stone him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the father for which of them 00:05:19.020 --> 00:05:24.780 are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him, that is not for a good work that we are going to stone 00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:32.680 you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God. Jesus answered them, is it not written 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:38.780 in your law? I said you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture 00:05:38.780 --> 00:05:44.379 cannot be broken. Do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, you are 00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:51.079 blaspheming because I said I am the son of God. If I'm not doing the works of my father, then do not 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:56.560 believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:02.959 and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father. Again, they sought to arrest him, 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.480 but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:15.560 baptizing at first and there he remained. And many came to him and they said, John did no sign, but 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:24.660 everything that John said about this man was true and many believed in him there. So our text begins 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:31.800 with another division. It's a lot of arguing amongst the Jews and John uses this term to speak of those 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:38.480 religious elite. This is most likely the Pharisees could have been made up of another bit of scribes, 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:48.100 but those who are in some religious power because of what Jesus has said. In the case that you are just 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:54.100 joining us in our study of John's gospel and welcome guests. We're very glad to have you or that 00:06:54.100 --> 00:07:02.060 you like me just easily forget details. I'll remind you of where we find ourselves in the narrative of 00:07:02.060 --> 00:07:11.740 Jesus's life. In chapter nine, Jesus heals a man who was born blind. This sets off this whole narrative 00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:18.540 that goes through chapter 10. This healing causes confusion and commotion. And so this man is brought 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:26.220 before the Pharisees and he goes through a series of little miniature trials at the conclusion of this 00:07:26.220 --> 00:07:37.040 process. The man says to the Jews, John 9 33, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. 00:07:37.780 --> 00:07:44.820 This is his estimation. Clearly this Jesus is from God. And then they answer him. You were born in utter 00:07:44.819 --> 00:07:51.540 sin. And would you teach us? And they cast him out. They throw him out of the synagogue. They make him 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:59.379 unwelcome amongst God's people. Verse 35 says, Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him, 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:06.420 he said, do you believe in the son of man? This is a reference to the Christ found in the book of 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:15.360 Daniel. He answered. And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:24.300 and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Then Jesus says in 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:29.860 verse 39 for judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:36.080 become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:42.820 Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, 00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:50.960 your guilt remains. So Jesus, having healed a blind man of his physical disability, and then, 00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:59.680 and more importantly, of his spiritual disability, uses this sight language to expose the pridefulness 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:07.219 of the Pharisees. It's that they believe that they see and therefore do not need a physician. 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:17.139 He speaks here with great irony. It's the men who think they see who are truly the blind ones. And 00:09:17.139 --> 00:09:24.299 it's into that context that Jesus goes on in chapter 10. He's speaking to the Pharisees, right? He's 00:09:24.299 --> 00:09:31.299 indicting them blind men who have thrown out of the synagogue, a seeing man, and he switches from sight 00:09:31.299 --> 00:09:40.199 language to hearing language. And then this really rich shepherding metaphor. So notice verse six, 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:47.959 this figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:55.660 And then verse seven begins. So Jesus again said to them, and he continues his indictment using 00:09:55.660 --> 00:10:04.820 the shepherding metaphor. And it is here that there is once again, a division among the Jews. 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:14.620 Verse 20 of chapter 10, many of them said, he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? 00:10:14.620 --> 00:10:20.759 And others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:30.899 of the blind? And the implication is perhaps we should listen to him. Once again, this controversy set off 00:10:30.899 --> 00:10:40.720 between them. And then we get into verse 22 and 23 and beyond. Now at this point, I think it's worth 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:49.420 mentioning. You may have some subtitling in your Bible and you may think, why are we including verses 19 00:10:49.420 --> 00:10:58.139 through 21? Doesn't that make sense at the end of the text we were in last week? You can think that 00:10:58.139 --> 00:11:03.500 and you're welcome to. The translators here thought it was good to put in a subtitle, but we've been 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:09.220 following John's gospel through its literary structure. And I'm not going to talk a lot about chiasms 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:17.019 this morning, but it is built around these literary structures called chiasms. And verse 19 through 21 00:11:17.019 --> 00:11:22.519 is part of the chiastic structure of the last half of John 10. And I'll tell you where the center is 00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:32.800 here in just a moment. So it would seem that John wants us to link that together with the rest of the 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:39.899 chapter. Now take it either way. I don't think it matters terribly, but I want to point out to you 00:11:39.899 --> 00:11:46.899 what I think John tends to want to pull our attention to at the center of this chiastic structure of the 00:11:46.899 --> 00:11:55.059 last half. Now, perhaps you go, well, wait a second though. It doesn't make sense there together with 22 00:11:55.059 --> 00:12:01.859 because clearly something else is going on, right? Some time has passed. The feast of dedication is now 00:12:01.859 --> 00:12:09.679 at place, but we don't really know how much time has gone on between one thing and another. John gives us 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:18.879 no real indicators of that. But the last indicator that he gave us was for the feast of booths. We read 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:24.820 about that in chapter seven and I argued into chapter eight and two or three months have gone by since 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:32.559 then. And we don't know exactly when all of this shepherding, blind healing things have happened in 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:39.620 between. And so at this point, I just think it's good to say, to remind you that not only is this a 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:47.200 record of things that happened truly and really happened, it's also a piece of literature. It's being 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:54.759 written and written brilliantly under the inspiration of the spirit to help us come to 00:12:54.759 --> 00:13:02.180 conclusions. So let's make sure when we take up a text, we also read it as a piece of literature. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:11.540 So therefore, I think 19 and 21 belong with the rest of the chapter. And I digress. At that time, 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:20.579 the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. This was the celebration of the dedication of the 00:13:20.579 --> 00:13:26.679 second temple. This is modern Hanukkah for those who are interested. As I mentioned, two or three 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:35.179 months since the feast of booths. And we find Jesus walking in the covered area east of the temple. 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:42.000 This is a very common place for people to gather, to teach. Rabbis would gather together, students, 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:50.299 and teach. People would stroll in it and meditate. It was an especially important place during inclement 00:13:50.299 --> 00:13:58.399 weather. And this would have been the rainy season in Israel. We see this little detail that it was 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:04.799 winter. And perhaps the reason that John includes that detail is to help us to understand why it is that 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:13.659 Jesus is walking in the colony. Who's gathered around him. And this word sounds like maybe he's there 00:14:13.659 --> 00:14:19.959 teaching and they're milling over. But the word carries a little more weight. It means surrounded 00:14:19.959 --> 00:14:27.299 or encircled. And I'm imagining a little bit at this point, but it doesn't sound to me like they have 00:14:27.299 --> 00:14:33.659 come around because they're curious. They want to demand something of him. Right? It said to him, 00:14:33.659 --> 00:14:39.839 how long will you keep us in suspense? Like they're, they're ganging up and they want to know this 00:14:39.839 --> 00:14:50.779 answer to this question. If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. And that's, that's the stage for the 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:58.699 rest of what Jesus will say in this shepherding metaphor. Jesus answered them. I told you, 00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:05.000 and you do not believe. I've already said it to you plainly. I am the Christ. 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:11.140 What he says, the works that I do in my father's name, bear witness about me, but you do not believe 00:15:11.140 --> 00:15:19.220 because you are not many places that the Bible places divine election and human responsibility 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:26.800 right next to each other with no apology or nuanced explanation. It just says it right there together. 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:34.799 Jesus does not minimize the guilt of their unbelief. This whole chapter is a judgment 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:40.939 of their unbelief. He's indicting them all along. You should believe. And yet you don't, 00:15:40.939 --> 00:15:49.379 but here he just simply explains it. How is it? These men don't believe Jesus just states because you 00:15:49.379 --> 00:15:57.740 are not among my sheep. This does not let them off the hook. He's not sympathetic to them because of 00:15:57.740 --> 00:16:07.399 this. They are entirely guilty of their unbelief. He just says it's because you're not mine. 00:16:08.899 --> 00:16:17.279 Beloved, I encourage you to take up God's word and read it plainly. Not all of its tensions are 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:25.799 resolved. In God's infinite wisdom, he decided not to resolve every tension. My best guess as to why is 00:16:25.799 --> 00:16:35.339 because our finite minds just couldn't handle it. To really understand how it is that God's sovereign 00:16:35.339 --> 00:16:43.720 work and man's responsibility function together, it's a mystery to me. And so I just want to deal 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:52.420 with the text plainly. I want to be careful not to import my logic into the text. I want to let God speak 00:16:52.420 --> 00:17:02.720 for himself and to have the final word. You do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:15.660 Which brings us to the chiastic center of the text. The thrust of it being drawn here to verses 27 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:23.519 through 30. He says, my sheep hear my voice. He's repeated this in the metaphor throughout chapter 10. 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:42.420 I give them eternal life. Life now and life forevermore and they will never perish and no one will snatch them 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:52.799 out of my hand. If you are Christ, you are Christ forever and no one including yourself can change that reality. 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:59.559 My father who has given them to me. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:10.799 snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. Jesus clearly declares his deity in this text, 00:18:11.399 --> 00:18:19.539 declares that he has been sent to accomplish a task, the salvation of his people, and nothing will thwart his good 00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:29.460 purpose for his people. This is the thing that we ought to revel in if we are in Christ. This is the thing 00:18:29.460 --> 00:18:35.579 if we are not in Christ that we ought to ask him to show us that we're not and then repent and believe 00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:44.079 that we might belong to him. This is a reality that should drive evangelism and missions to the very 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:51.460 ends of the earth. Jesus is calling together. He's using the church as the means and the ends to draw 00:18:51.460 --> 00:19:03.879 together his flock. Do not be like the Jews in verse 31. You don't like the things that Jesus says. 00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:13.920 Yes, they're infuriated by what he has said. They pick up stones again to stone him. The again there is 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:20.980 this is not the first time back in chapter five they sought to stone him there as well and for the 00:19:20.980 --> 00:19:25.580 same reason. Jesus says, I've shown you many good works in the father for which of them are you going 00:19:25.579 --> 00:19:32.099 to stone me? And they answer it is not for a good work that we're going to stone you but for blasphemy 00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:43.579 because you being a man make yourself God which would be a form of blasphemy if it were untrue that 00:19:43.579 --> 00:19:55.379 he is in fact himself God. And so Jesus responds with a bit of a mysterious response. Jesus answered 00:19:55.380 --> 00:20:05.160 them, is it not written in your law? I said you are gods. This is Psalm 82 and verse six. If you call 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:10.780 them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken. Do you say of him whom the father 00:20:10.780 --> 00:20:16.880 consecrated and sent into the world you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:26.720 What exactly is he doing here? And I will tell you that explanations abound about this text as well 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:35.880 as Psalm 82. Some very reasonable, some rather out there. Let's take just a moment and I'll tell you 00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:41.660 what I think he is doing. First and then undeniably everybody agrees he's making a lesser to greater 00:20:41.660 --> 00:20:49.220 argument. It goes something like your Bible, your law, he says, calls men gods. It cannot be wrong. 00:20:49.320 --> 00:20:58.900 So how can it be wrong for the son of God to be a son of God? However, I think something else is going 00:20:58.900 --> 00:21:09.759 on here. When Jesus cites the scripture to the Jewish religious leaders, he assumes they know the rest of the 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:22.099 text from which he is citing. He references a portion of the text and these men would have known Psalm 82. 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:30.920 They spent their days memorizing what we call the Old Testament. So all kinds of things are coming into 00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:42.340 their mind as he cites this verse. So as he references Psalm 82, what else is it that he's communicating? 00:21:43.660 --> 00:21:49.539 Now, earlier in our scripture reading, Jake led a reading of Psalm 82 and it's there in your 00:21:49.539 --> 00:21:54.200 bulletin. If you'd like to look at it along with me, I'd like to read it and give you a little bit of 00:21:54.200 --> 00:22:02.880 notes. Psalm 82 says, God has taken his place in the divine counsel in the midst of the gods. He holds 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:11.480 judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:17.380 weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the 00:22:17.380 --> 00:22:23.299 needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk 00:22:23.299 --> 00:22:30.980 about in darkness. All the foundation of the earth are shaken. I said, here it is. You are gods, 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:39.480 sons of the most high, all of you. Nevertheless, like men, you shall die and fall like any prince. 00:22:40.200 --> 00:22:51.159 Arise, oh God, judge the earth for you shall inherit all the nations. Do not forget that this is a piece of 00:22:51.160 --> 00:23:00.820 poetry. And Asaph, its author is picking up this picture. It's from pagan religion of a divine 00:23:00.820 --> 00:23:09.220 council of God's coming together to accomplish something. And he's stating that God is the one 00:23:09.220 --> 00:23:18.880 who comes into that and rules over those others. So what he's talking about are those who judge unjustly, 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:29.060 right? The judges of Israel who judged unjustly, right? And that God will judge them. Verse eight says, oh God, 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:42.460 judge the earth. God is the ruler over everyone and everything. And it's this context that's being brought to 00:23:42.460 --> 00:23:48.480 play in the minds of Jesus. And the minds of Jesus' listeners, those he's indicting. It's these Jewish 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:53.660 religious leaders who have gathered around him, right? Pressed on him, make it plain that you're 00:23:53.660 --> 00:23:58.980 the Christ. And his response to them is, you're these judges. 00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:06.819 I think this reference to Psalm 82 is piling up the indictment on these men. 00:24:06.819 --> 00:24:13.679 That Jesus means for them to see themselves as those who have judged unjustly and shown partiality to the 00:24:13.679 --> 00:24:20.419 wicked. Those who have neglected justice, those who have neither knowledge nor understanding. 00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:30.659 I think this is what Jesus gets swimming around in their minds as he cites Psalm 82 and verse six. 00:24:30.660 --> 00:24:43.120 Notice the way Psalm 82 ends. Arise, oh God, judge the earth for you shall inherit all the nations. 00:24:44.120 --> 00:24:50.440 Now, it's been a little while since we've been in John 10, but you may remember in the shepherding 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:56.960 metaphor back in verse 16, Jesus says, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold. 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:05.579 I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:11.740 This is one of the things that he has said that has caused some of these Jewish men to say he has a 00:25:11.740 --> 00:25:19.799 demon that he would suggest that his kingdom includes those who were not of Jewish descent. 00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:31.779 Oh God, judge the earth for you shall inherit all the nations. So this, I think, is what he's doing in this text, right? 00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:39.700 First, lesser to greater, right? He's reasoning, he's logicking through, but something much more significant is happening here. 00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:48.120 He's pressing this judgment on these men for their unbelief. And then he proceeds. 00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:53.340 Note what he says next. Verse 37, I'm not doing the works of my father. Then do not believe me. 00:25:53.380 --> 00:26:01.100 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the father is in me. 00:26:01.099 --> 00:26:14.099 And I am in the father. You see what is pressing along here, right? This continuing indictment for those who will reject him as the Christ. 00:26:14.699 --> 00:26:25.659 If you reject Jesus as the Christ, you will be judged one day. And the point, the result, I should say, of that judgment will be eternal damnation. 00:26:25.660 --> 00:26:31.180 The temperature will be hotter than it is in this room right now. 00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:39.860 Their response to that verse 39 again, they sought to arrest him. 00:26:39.980 --> 00:26:47.120 They've tried to arrest him before again. They sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. 00:26:47.820 --> 00:26:52.759 And he goes away across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first. 00:26:52.759 --> 00:26:57.799 And there he remained. And many came to him and they said, John did no sign. 00:26:57.859 --> 00:27:01.940 But everything that John said about this man was true. 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:06.879 Behold, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:11.279 And many believed in him there. 00:27:12.299 --> 00:27:20.640 In the place, Solomon's Portico, the colonnade of Solomon, where the gospel should have been most readily believed. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:26.740 Like by the men who knew the Bible best, Jesus is rejected as the Christ. 00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:35.500 But in a desolate place along the Jordan, where John had been baptizing, a baptism of redemption. 00:27:37.180 --> 00:27:41.840 Jesus there ministers and many believed in him there. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:51.399 In closing, I want to read a rather long quotation from the bulletin and hear it as a plea. 00:27:51.619 --> 00:27:53.839 And then I'll pray to the same end. 00:27:55.299 --> 00:27:56.579 This is Charles Spurgeon. 00:27:56.699 --> 00:27:59.539 He once wrote of this text. 00:27:59.539 --> 00:28:03.659 Here is the matter in a nutshell. 00:28:05.059 --> 00:28:08.659 Christ appears as a shepherd to his own sheep, not to others. 00:28:09.399 --> 00:28:12.399 As soon as he appears, his own sheep perceive him. 00:28:12.500 --> 00:28:13.420 They trust him. 00:28:13.779 --> 00:28:15.259 They're prepared to follow him. 00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:18.240 He knows them and they know him. 00:28:18.379 --> 00:28:19.759 There is a mutual knowledge. 00:28:19.859 --> 00:28:22.159 There is a constant connection between them. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:30.500 And so the evidence, the infallible mark of regeneration and adoption, is a hearty faith in the appointed redeemer. 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:33.800 Reader, are you in doubt? 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:38.220 Are you uncertain about whether you are one of God's children? 00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:45.460 Then do not let an hour pass until you have said, search me, O God, and know my heart. 00:28:46.220 --> 00:28:48.400 Do not linger here, I warn you. 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:54.480 If you must linger anywhere, let it be about some secondary matter, your health if you wish, or the title deeds of your home. 00:28:55.180 --> 00:29:03.560 But about your soul, your never dying soul and its eternal destiny, I urge you to be in earnest. 00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:07.820 Make certain of this eternal issue. 00:29:08.620 --> 00:29:09.360 Let's pray.