This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

In our study of this paragraph that begins at verse 2 and extends down to the end of the chapter, verse 10, we have in a very real sense what we would call Paul's prayer of thanks to God for what he discerned to be the work of God in the believers, the people of God, there at Thessaloniki. And at the very top of the list of the things for which he gave thanks to God in verse 3, we have what I have called the three crowned jewels in the diadem of Christian virtue. A Christian is one to whose life God has worked many wonderful virtues by the grace and the power of His Spirit, and yet it would seem in the thinking of the Apostle Paul under inspiration that the three crowned virtues amongst all of those which God really works in His people are those mentioned here in verse 3: faith, love, and hope. The same Paul who said in 1 Corinthians 13, "but now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love."

Well, we have gone into some detail in studying each of these separately. You recall the work of faith that he mentions here. Paul was grateful that these believers had a living trust in the living Savior that made them naturally produce works of gratitude, works done not to earn salvation, but as the fruit of salvation received by faith as a gift of God. Then he was thankful for their labor of love, that they had love to the triune God that made them engage in sacrificing, arduous labor and toil for the cause of Christ, the cause of the kingdom, the cause of the gospel. And then last time we were in this epistle together, we looked together at the phrase steadfastness of hope. They had a hope, which is not a mere wishful desire as you and I use the word hope today, but rather a confident expectation of promised blessing. And that expectation produced - epimoni- , endurance, perseverance, bearing up under the pressures to which they were subjected as young Christians.

This evening we want to look at the last two phrases in verse 3, which are very, very instructive to us. This work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope, Paul says, all of these were in our Lord Jesus Christ and before our God and Father. And in these two little phrases we have what we might call in the first place, the object and the cause of these virtues. Toward what or whom is this love directed, this faith, this hope directed? Paul would tell us in this phrase that it was directed toward none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, who causes these virtues to be found? Well, also Paul tells us here as well.

And then in the little phrase, before our God and Father, we have this sincerity and the climate in which these graces and virtues were actually worked out or exercised. Were they something that the Thessalonians just put on as it were to simply impress others and impress the Apostle Paul? No, he says they were not in the sight of men, they were not before men, but they were exercised in the sight of God. They were exercised sincerely and in a climate of God-consciousness. And that is very significant. That is very sanctifying.

So these little phrases are by no means just sort of a, you know, they're thrown in there for the sake of filler. These answer a very vital question. If you have in you today these virtues, the work of faith, the labor of love, the steadfastness of hope, where do they come from? And what will sustain them? That's the question Paul answers. If you seem to have them, are they mere sham virtues or are they the real product? Are they a cheap imitation or are they the genuine issue? Well, we can find out if we understand what Paul means in the little phrase before our God and Father as well.

So let's take the two phrases in that order. First of all, the object and the cause of these virtues, these crown jewels. Now you have, we have a little problem in the structure of this in the original, in the Greek text. Notice verse 3. It could mean that Paul is saying this: "I remember without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, your steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus," and the "in the Lord Jesus" phrase referring only to their steadfastness of hope. This, then, would be a commentary on the kind of hope they had; it was in the Lord Jesus.

But in the original, the word in is not there. It's supplemented. It is not there in the original. It could very well be translated of or in. It could be both. And I believe it is both, and I'll explain why. It is so structured that it could well refer to the entire passage. And I believe it is. Let me illustrate. I might say to you tonight, I'm very thankful to the congregation for the love, the patience, and the grace which it has shown to me and my family. Well, you see, the "shown to me and my family" applies to all of those things for which I'm thankful, not just the last one. All of them.

So we could read the passage this way: "Remembering without ceasing, your work of faith of the Lord Jesus, your labor of love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and steadfastness of hope of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Lord Jesus Christ." And I really believe this is the sense that Paul really communicating here for us. And for the simple reason I say this, whenever the Apostle Paul has opportunity to trace the virtues found in a Christian back to their ultimate source, He delights to trace them back to the Lord Jesus Christ as the ultimate source. The fountainhead from which all of these virtues flow down into our lives, the lives of the people of God, He is the fountainhead and He is the source. He always does that. He traces them back.

You remember in the first chapter of Philippians, Paul prayed for these Philippian Christians that they might be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which he says are, Philippians 1:11, "through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." It is in Christ, of Christ, through Christ. Always. It's always this way. So in this passage, the Apostle Paul is attributing to the Lord Jesus Christ the fact that there was work of faith, there was labor of love, and there was steadfastness of hope. He was the source. He was the object of these virtues.

Now let's consider them together. Christ is the object of all faith. He's the object of love and the object of hope, which is commendable in the sight of God. Today, all around us, you have these inspirational spiritual gurus. They tell us that if you have faith, it doesn't matter who's the object of that faith, so long as you have faith. But if you have faith and if you have hope, it doesn't matter who's the object of that hope. And if you have love, just as long as you have love and if you have those three things, that's the way you will live successfully. You're good, good to go.

But the Bible never told you that having faith, hope, and love is the way to live successfully. For you see, the emphasis of the Bible is not upon faith itself, hope itself, and love itself as entities in themselves. But the emphasis of the Scripture is upon faith, hope, and love in terms of their object. And the thing that caused Paul to rejoice is that these beloved people had a work of faith, faith which had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. Just faith of itself is no virtue. It isn't. It's not some kind of a magical kind of potion that if you take it and have it or you have it, all will be well with you. It is not faith in faith.

You see, you could talk about faith and hope and love in any circle today and people think, isn't he nice? He's quite religious. That's lovely. This is what even politicians and heads of state do. They talk about faith and hope and love and all the rest. And you see, everybody will embrace this and love it and say, isn't that nice? You end up with a cultural type of a religion. But you see, the emphasis of the Bible is what's the object of your faith? What's the object of your faith? You see, faith in some kind of a nebulous God or faith in the God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, that makes a whole difference. Nebulous God or the God revealed in Jesus Christ? Love to something that you can see to be God or love to the God who's revealed Himself in Jesus Christ? Hope, just sort of a wishful desire that everything's going to turn out all right in the end or hope that is really rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of glory in us.

With these Thessalonians, their faith, their love, their hope had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, beloved, the Christian life is not a self-focused life. It is a Christ-focused life. It is a Christ-centered life. This life, this work of faith, this labor of love, this steadfastness of hope, where it is centered? Where is it experienced? In our Lord Jesus Christ, in Him. One of the great evidences that you've been converted is that your life is not centered on you. It's not centered on you. Faith is not centered on you. Love is not centered on you. Hope is not centered on you. It is not self-wardly focused. It is Christ-wardly focused.

Let's consider them briefly, individually.

Faith, their faith was of or in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how do we know this is true? How do we know this is true? Remember back in Acts 17? If you turn back there and find the account, the founding of the church, remember how we saw that together and considered it together? We read that when Paul came among them, he did not come with some kind of a psychological emphasis just saying, you know, well, if you just have faith in something other than yourself, then you're going to be fine. All will be well with you. You sort of needed to trust some sort of a higher power, a higher being.

Does that ring a bell? I think that's what Alcoholics Anonymous use as the term. You've got to have faith in a higher power. Now, is that what he preached? You've got to have faith in some higher power? No, no. Listen to his words. Acts 17, verses 2 and 3, “according to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and setting before them that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, 'This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is that Christ,'" and some of them were persuaded, they believed.

What did they believe? They did not have a nebulous kind of faith and a nebulous kind of a concept of a nebulous God. No, no. Their faith was rooted in the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the Christ of history, who lived, who died, who rose again, who was and is the only way by which sinners could find acceptance before a holy God. Therefore, their faith, which Paul commends, had as its object that unique person, the God-man, Christ Jesus, set forth in Scripture. That Christ, by His work upon Calvary's cross, was set before them. The open tomb and His presence at the right hand of the majesty on high. He's the only Savior of sinners. And they embraced Him.

For notice, he says it was faith of or in the Lord Jesus Christ, giving to Him His full official title, which is a beautiful summary of all that He is and all that He does for sinners. That's what He says to them. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ and He uses the full title. He is Jesus the God-man. He is the Christ, the promised Messiah, prophet, priest, and King, who would teach us by His Word, who would die for us and shed His blood for our forgiveness, and who would rise and be the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is Jesus the God-man. Christ, the promised Messiah, prophet, priest, and King, and He is Kyrios. He is the Lord who sits upon a throne.

And Paul says, we give thanks to God, remembering without ceasing your work of faith of or in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith was an intelligent theological faith, and that's the only kind of faith that God will ever commend.

And then their love. Their love was directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't directed to just Jesus. You know a lot of sentimental love to Jesus, syrupy love. We like to think of the man of Galilee. It was directed not just to Jesus. And I'm always suspicious of groups or movements who, they talk about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and don't give Him the full title. It wasn't just to Jesus, and it wasn't just to the Christ. They weren't just preoccupied with the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus, the anointed one.

Their love was directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. They loved the one who sat upon the throne, who came to that throne by way of a cradle of a cross of a tomb. They loved Him for who He was. They loved Him for what He had done as the anointed Messiah, God's Son. And Paul says he gives thanks to God for their work of faith, because it was faith which had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave thanks for the labor of love, for that love had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ, and then their hope had as its object the Lord Jesus Christ.

It wasn't a confident expectation in the betterment of humanity. It was a hope that was in and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there was that confidence that at His coming, and His triumphant coming, there would be then a full realization of all that He had purchased by His own precious shed blood. Spurgeon got this. He had a Christ-centeredness that sprung from a deep personal relationship with the Lord. He loved Christ deeply, passionately, and his sermons are filled with rapturous exaltation of Christ.

Listen to what he said so eloquently, and this is really helpful for us: "If you leave out Christ, you have left the sun out of the day and the moon out of the night. You have left the waters out of the sea and the floods out of the river. You have left the harvest out of the year, the soul out of the body. You have left joy out of heaven. You robbed all of it. There is no gospel worth thinking of, much less worth proclaiming, if Jesus be forgotten. We must have Jesus as Alpha and Omega in all our ministries." Perhaps Spurgeon never put it more succinctly than when he said, and I close with this, "If you take Christ out of Christianity, Christianity is dead." End of quote.

At the heart of his preaching was a desire to exalt Christ and proclaim Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. For Spurgeon, a sermon whose aim was not to bring the people of God to a deeper love to their Savior was a waste and a crime, he said. In fact, he said this: "A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution." End of quote.

That's what Paul does here. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the object. He is the source. He is the fountainhead. It is all about Him. And it's all directed to Him. But not only is the Lord Jesus the object of these virtues, He's the cause of them. He's the cause of them. Where did their faith come from? And literally, if you were to translate this as given in the original, it would be translated this way: your work of faith of the Lord Jesus Christ or from the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That phrase is found other places as well. He's not only the object of our faith, but He is the author of it. That's taught all throughout Scripture.

That familiar text in Hebrews 12 verse 2: "Fixing our eyes on Jesus,” who is what? “The author and perfecter." He's the author of our faith and He's the perfecter of our faith, beginning to end. He authors it. He sustains it. He perfects it all the way to glory. Do we not read in Philippians 1:29, "For to you it has been granted." To you it has been what? Granted. It's a grace gift that we don't deserve. "For Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him," you see? To believe in Him is a granted gift, gracious gift from the Lord, but also to suffer for His sake. And so the Lord Jesus is the author of our faith.

As Paul mentions the blessings that come to believers in Ephesians 1, he says that all spiritual blessings are stored up in Christ and they flow out of Christ. And even the faith by which we embrace Christ is one of those blessings that come as His gift.

And love? What about love? Of course, love has as its source the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because,” what? “He first loved us." “The fruit of the Spirit is love,” Galatians 5:22. Our love to Him is a result of the working of His Spirit in our hearts.

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing," Romans 15:13, "so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit, taking out of the fullness of Christ, works even in this matter of hope in the heart of the believer.

Oh, do you see, beloved, the emphasis of the Apostle Paul? Do you see it? As he looks at the Thessalonians and sees the virtues of faith that works, love that toils, hope that endures, he in no way is patting these people on the back. Yes, he's encouraging them, but he's not patting them on the back. What is he doing? He's simply delineating those things which were the evidence. The evidence is to him that the Lord Jesus Christ had become the great object of these virtues and not only the object of these virtues, but the very cause of them so that unto Christ and Christ alone would be ascribed all the honor and all the praise and all the credit.

Think of the application of this principle. It's very clear. Let me say a word to you this evening who are perhaps here, but not savingly joined to Christ. All Adam, human nature, unaided by the Spirit, can produce some cheap imitations of these virtues. We can produce something that may look like the work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope, but they are nothing but empty, hollow imitations if they are severed from a vital relationship to the source, Jesus Christ.

So I want to ask a very simple question of you this evening, and I trust you will listen very carefully. Strip away, strip away everything in your life, all the activity, all the religious activity and everything else until there's nothing left but that work that you do out of living faith in a living Lord, that work which springs out of a true love for the living Christ and that endurance that is rooted in a steadfast confidence that He's coming again. Now you see a Christian has got a lot left if you strip away everything but that. For He realizes, yes, I am laboring because my confidence is in Him because I love Him and because I know that He is coming, I endure, I bear under it. Because I love Him, I toil, because I trust Him, I work.

A very searching little book for the refreshing of one's own soul written by Octavius Winslow for the specific state of the declension of the soul, waning of devotion to Christ, and he says something in that little book that really struck me and I want to share it with you this evening, listen carefully, quote, "perhaps nothing forms a more certain criterion of the state of the soul than this. We would be willing to test a man's religion both as to its nature and its growth by his reply to the question, what think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Does His blood daily moisten the root of your profession? Is His righteousness that which exalts you out of and above yourself and daily give you free and near access to God? Is the sweetness of His love much in your heart and the fragrance of His name much upon your lips? Are your corruptions daily carried to His grace, your guilt to His blood, your trials to His heart? In a word, is Jesus,” now watch this, “is Jesus the substance of your life, the source of your sanctification, the one glorious object on which your eye is ever resting, the mark towards which you are ever pressing? Be not offended, reader, if we remark that a professing man may talk well of Christ and may do homage to His name and build up His cause and promote His kingdom and yet rest short of having Christ in his heart, the hope of glory. It is not the talking about religion or ministers or churches nor an outward zeal for their prosperity that either constitutes or indicates a true spiritual man and yet how much of this in our day passes current for the life of God in the soul? Oh, that among God's dear saints there were less talking of ministers and more of Jesus, less of sermons and more of the power of the truth in their souls, less of I am of Paul and I of Apollos and more of I am of Christ."

Is He the source of your joys, the object of your love, of your devotions? That's the question I had to ask myself afresh. Beloved has the work of the hand somehow weaned the heart from devotion to the person of Christ? Maybe you're busy doing different things. Has that weaned your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, Paul would never rejoice that these people were simply busy, simply loving, simply hoping. It was that their working was a work of faith in Christ, that their laboring was a labor of love to Christ. Their hope was one which caused them to endure because it was a hope of Christ. He was the central object of all of these virtues.

And oh, dear brothers and sisters, and I speak to myself as well, we must remind ourselves that these virtues thrive and develop only as they are fed by the streams of vital, vital attachment to Jesus. Am I weak in faith? Am I weak in love, weak in hope? I must go to Christ. And as I view Him as He's revealed in the Scriptures, coming from the presence of the Father, humbling Himself to become a babe in a manger, humbling Himself further to die on a tree, coming out of the tomb triumphant, going back to the right hand of the Majesty on high, as I view the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, then faith is strengthened. And when faith is strengthened, I find myself working more diligently, more earnestly, more from the heart.

As I think of Him and His love to me, my love to Him will burn with a deeper glow, and out of that there will be a more willingness to toil for His kingdom. As I think of His promise to come back again, that promise will fill me with endurance and the confidence that all will be well at the end when He comes, that the best is yet to come. But if you cut away vital heart attachment to Christ, contemplation of the person and work of Jesus Christ, you have, as it were, dried up the streams from which these virtues flow.

I confess to you this evening at times those streams were awfully, awfully low in my life and how futile it is to try to somehow pump new water into the streams. You can't do it. I can't do it. You can't correct the stream by concentrating on the stream. You've got to go back to the place from whence all this flows, vital heart attachment to Jesus.

That's why God gives us the Lord's day, one of the reasons that we might in this day as we come together pray, O Lord, O Lord, for fresh revelations of Christ, more of Christ, the worth of Christ, the value of Christ, a higher view of Christ, O Lord, for new love to Christ, new hope in Christ, new faith in Christ, more of Christ. And as God grants those, then the work, the labor, the endurance will be the blessed byproducts.

Must hurry on to the second thought and spend just a few minutes on it. In the little phrase of the Lord Jesus, or in the Lord Jesus, we have the object and the source of these virtues. And then this last phrase, what an amazing phrase, "before our God and Father”, “before our God and Father." We have what I have called the sincerity and the climate of these virtues.

Again, again, you have a problem. What does this little phrase refer to? Some say it could refer to Paul's prayer, saying in verse three, "remembering without ceasing, before God, your work of faith." They would say then that Paul just sort of stuck this on at the end to tell them that where He remembered was in the place of prayer. Others would say, well, it's just a general statement of God's omniscience. God is omniscient, He knows everything. You know, all that they did, their work of faith, labor of love, was beneath the eye of God. God sought, God took recognition of it. Psalm 139, “He knows our sitting down, He knows our rising up."

Well, there's a third possibility, and I believe this is the proper interpretation. What He's saying is that this work of faith, this labor of love, and steadfastness of hope, that only had the Lord Jesus Christ as their object and source, but the consciousness of the presence of God created in these virtues a true, genuine sincerity, and in the hearts of these people, it's what gave them that desire to continue in them—the fact that they were living in the sight of God, God and their Father, Coram Deo.

Now, these virtues were not produced for the eye of men, but rather in the sight of God, before the eye of God, before the presence of God. Remember our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, don't be like those hypocrites, the Pharisees. What do they do? Well, they do in order to be seen by men. That's why they do. They do to be seen by men. What you do, you should do for one reason, He tells them. And He tells us, remember? “Before your Father.” “Before your Father, who sees in secret”, Matthew 6. Giving, praying, fasting, our Lord emphasizes three times.

The concerns of the true Christian is what? The Father sees. The Father sees. The Father sees before God and Father. It is before God, Coram Deo. That's what concerns me. The Father sees. Well, that produces what? It produces sincerity. That produces honesty. That produces frankness. That produces authenticity. We who've been on the way a while need it. We need it desperately. You get, you see, you're walking with the Lord and it's been so many years and you're a cruise control and you get a reputation of being rather spiritual and maybe rightly so, then all you do is you keep up your reputation. You don't care about the reality of the thing just as long as your reputation is maintained.

Paul says, no, no, no. The work of faith, the labor of love, the steadfastness of hope was in the sight of God. It was in the sight of God and Father. There was a sincerity about it that carried it on even when men were not there to see. Basically, what He's driving at is that this was the climate in which they exercised them. The climate of God consciousness. God consciousness. There was this pervasive awareness of the presence of God, a pervasive consciousness of the presence of God, the eye of God upon them.

You'll notice in verse nine, it says that they turned to God from their idols. That was their conversion. And what will a true conversion produce? What will it produce? When a man truly turns to God, then He will seek to live as in the sight of God. Right? When a man truly turns to God, He then seeks to live as in the sight of God and that thought is not a burden to Him, rather it is what? A delight. A great delight. That's just another way of describing what? Let me give us a synonym. That's another way of describing the fear of God. That's what it is.

What is the fear of God? What is the fear of God? The scripture says in Acts 9:31 that "the church going on in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it continued to multiply." We're told in 2 Corinthians 7:1 to "perfect holiness in the fear of God." Hebrews 12:28, we're told to "offer to God an acceptable service with reverence in awe." 1 Peter 1:17 declares that we're to "conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our sojourn." What is the fear of God? Notice the little phrase. He says, "before our God and Father.” “Before our God and Father."

You see, that fear is not the fear that we should have if God is not our Father through Jesus Christ. If we're outside of Jesus Christ, the fear that we should have of God should be one of pure trepidation, pure dread, pure dread. Moses says in Psalm 90 verse 11, "who knows the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is due you?" He's the almighty God who's a consuming fire. And if you're here this evening not savingly joined to Jesus, you ought to fear God with a holy dread for He is a God of justice and wrath and anger. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hand of the living God. And yet, blessed be His name. He pleads, He exhorts, He entreats, flee from the wrath to come by coming to my Son.

But this is the fear that a child of God has. It is walking in the sight of God before God and our Father. He's our Father. It is that blessed godly fear which regards Him as our Father through Jesus Christ. And yet, He is still our God even though He's our Father. And with all His rights to our absolute devotion to the love of the whole heart, mind and soul and strength, He is our God. He is the end of our existence. He should be the object of our desire, the source of our delight. He is our God, but He's not a God against us in His wrath, but He is the God who is for us as our Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Now, to walk as in His sight is to walk in the fear of God. And the fear of God is that fertile soil in which holy living is produced. Where to walk in His sight and to walk in His sight is to walk in the fear of God and to have a constant regard to His demands, to His glory, to His will, to His purposes, to please Him. And that's what delighted the heart of the apostle, that these young Christians had learned to walk in the sight of our Father.

Now, that's entirely opposite to man by nature. For Romans 3:18 says that the natural man, what? "There is no fear of God before their eyes." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." If you have any thoughts of being in the sight of God, if they have any thoughts of being in the sight of God, they want to dismiss those thoughts quickly. They want to dull the conscience. They wanna get rid of it. They suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They want to stifle every remembrance that all that I am is open and naked before the eyes of Him with whom I have to do.

But to the child of God, oh, to the child of God, this is a delight. Do you find it a delight to cultivate the consciousness of God wherever you go? Do you? Wherever you are, whatever you are doing? It's like that person who said to his pastor, I just can't get out of my mind, God out of my mind everywhere I go. I just can't get Him out of my mind as if that was something negative.

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. That's wonderful if what you're doing, you want to be doing in His sight. The only time that's bad is when you try and cheat on God to get away with something. Then it's haunting. It's haunting. Isn't that right? It's a haunting thought.

You see, the child who's doing the things that pleases his father is never bothered that his father might be looking out the window. He's happy that his father cares enough to watch him. Daddy, look, look at this. Oh, look at this. Mommy, look at this. You know how children are. Now, if they're doing something that they shouldn't be doing, they look around and make sure that Daddy and Mommy aren't looking. They don't want to do that in the sight of Mom and Dad. And so the true child of God, he cherishes the thought of the presence of God, the eye of God upon him. And that becomes one of the governing principles of his life.

Like Joseph, when he was being seduced by Potiphar's wife, he said, remember, he said, "How can I do this thing and sin against God?" Well, he knew that he did what he did before God, that he lived Coram Deo. He lived in the fear of God. Oh, Potiphar may not know. My relatives, my family may not know. They're hundreds of miles away, but I am living in the sight of God. I am living before the eye of God. How can I do what is wicked? I am conscious of His eye on me. And this became one of the governing principles in the life of Joseph that kept him in that totally heathen society with no other influences external, but there was that internal influence of the fear of God within him.

Do you have that? Do you seek to exercise these virtues and live as in the sight of God and our Father? That was the thing that brought delight to the heart of the Apostle Paul, that they had this work of faith, this labor of love, this steadfastness of hope, not merely in the sight of the elders of the assembly, so that when one of the pastors was coming to visit, the wife and husband all of a sudden got all sweet and lovey, and they'd just been pouring out some words that had a lot of hostility in them, cutting words, but now all of a sudden, oh, everything's wonderful, everything's sweet.

But we want to have a work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope in the sight of others, but God sees the heart, beloved. God sees the motives. God sees the attitude. You see, that's what the Day of Judgment will reveal, that nothing mattered but what He saw, what He knows. That's basically a definition of the Day of Judgment, a revelation of the truth, that nothing matters but what He saw. Nothing matters but what He saw.

That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, verses two through five, "It is required of a steward that one be found faithful, but to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even examine myself, for I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of the hearts, and then each one's praise will come to him from God."

You know, wonderful relief comes when you're seeking to live in the sight of God and the Father, wonderful relief. You're sitting with your friend, you're sitting with your spouse, you're sitting with, you know, talk about certain things you're deciding to do, and she turns to you and she says, but honey, so and so will think, but how about so and, it doesn't matter what they think. Are you in the revealed will of God doing it? Yes. Are your motives right in doing it? Yes. Do you believe it's yes? Then who cares? You do it. God knows, you know, praise God, nothing else matters. That's wonderful freedom.

Do you know that freedom, beloved? I really pity the person who's got to all times, as it were, be playing to the crowd. Well, I've got to impress this one, and that I am this, and I've got to impress this one, that I'm not this, and I've got, oh, that's terrible bondage. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And one of the most blessed liberties with which Christ sets a person free is to live in the sight of God the Father, and if He smiles upon you, then let the world frown. Who cares? Wonderful release. Do you know that release?

And you young people in this place particularly, young people in this place, do you know that? Who cares what your peers think? Who cares what they say? Is it pleasing in the sight of God? That's what's important, isn't it? Does it please Him? That's what's important. Who cares what mere men think? Oh, what a blessed release, and I trust we know it. And if we do, then it's because God in His grace has worked the same virtues in us that He's worked in the Thessalonians.

And I trust that our somewhat detailed and lengthy study of this third verse will prove helpful to us, that we might know that which as Christians we should emulate, that which we should seek to experience by the grace of God. Thank God for this letter. A faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that will produce work, a love for the Lord Jesus Christ that will produce labor, and a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ that will produce endurance. And see them carried out in the climate of a God consciousness that will make us men and women who do not play to the crowd, who do not seek to live a role that will get us in good standing before the eyes of our peers, but that we should walk in the fear of God and in the company of the Holy Spirit.

May God bless His word to our hearts. Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

This morning, we will take a look at this passage before us. And if you have your bullets in hand, you can see the outline for the message. This message is entitled, Who Are You Living For? Who Are You Living For? The outline, as you see there, we will touch on two ways of life. And then the vital expository context for verse 36 is in the verses leading to it.

And as we go through this passage, I pray that you will give your full attention to the Word of God. When we're under the preaching and teaching of God's Word, it is not just for information. It is not just for education. It is not just for our edification, which it is, it's for our transformation. When we come under the Word of God, whether it's right now, this morning, or when you listen to preaching, when you open your Bible and read, when God's Word speaks, it's for change. It's not just information. It's not just head knowledge. It's not so that we can be delighted in knowing the God of the universe and what He’s thinking. And we love that. And these things are good. But what it's really for is change.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And He said, He spoke, and change took place. And when you see this through scripture, when God speaks, things change. He spoke reality into existence. So when you are reading your Bible, it's so that you can change. When you read your devotion, it is not just to check a box, I did my devotion for today and I go on my way. And I can say, I did my devotion. It's for change.

And in this passage, we are going to see two ways of life. Two ways of life. And my prayer, as I've been preparing, has been that all of our hearts would change today. That we would be transformed today. That our lives would be different after we leave today. Not because of me. At all. But because of Him. Christ is all. All in all.

So we're going to begin in Mark 8:36, briefly. And then we're going to go to verse 27 and work our way back to verse 36. Let's begin. Verse 36: "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" This verse is our focus today. And it reflects Jesus' point of view on one of the two ways of life. This verse, in its context, contrasts two ways of life. An existential view and an eternal view. An existential view and an eternal view.

This verse is a question, you will notice, and it's a question for the ages. It's a question that every human being who has lived, is living, or will ever live, has to answer. The implications of this question are profound and transformative. And right from the beginning of scripture to the end, underneath this question is another question. Who are you living for? Who are you living for? Implicit in the question of verse 36 is that question. Who are you living for?

Now the contrast in this verse, we can see it's a contrast because it begins with the word for. So what is the for there for? It's because it's connected to the preceding verses. It's inextricably connected to the preceding verses. The context is critical to understand this verse. Now the context is well known, but it's not always associated with this verse. This verse is often taken out of its context, and people will be talking, and maybe it's a believer speaking to an unbeliever, who says, what will it benefit you if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul? And it's thought-provoking in that context, in that conversation. But as I say, it's often wrenched out of its context.

There's a deeper meaning here than the way that it's typically used, and we're going to learn that today. But as I said, we don't want to just learn this. It's for change, change, transformation. So this question in verse 36 that has an implied question underneath it, who are you living for, is what we're going to explore today. So to begin our exploration, for your heart and mine, we want to look at the context, this vital expository context.

So let's now look at verse 27 through to verse 30, and I'll read these verses, and then we're going to go through them one by one. Verse 27: "Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He was asking His disciples, saying to them, 'Who do people say that I am?'" And they told Him, saying, "John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets." And He continued questioning them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ." And He warned them to tell no one about Him."

Now in verse 27, you see right away that Jesus and the disciples are headed for Caesarea Philippi. They're on their way, and if you look quickly at verse 22, you'll notice that they were in Bethsaida, and they're heading north within Israel. And actually, if we're honest, what we have to really say is that this is a land that is not in Israel's hands. It's dominated by Rome, it had been dominated by Greece, and before that the Persians, and before that the Babylonians, and before that the Assyrians. It's not their land. But they're moving through, and Jesus has been preaching and teaching and doing miracles in this land, and if you glance back to the prior chapters and based on the headings in your Bible, you'll see He's been doing miracles. But they're moving north towards Caesarea Philippi.

Caesarea Philippi was a region of a lush landscape at the foot of Mount Hermon. It's a lush region, but it's a region that was steeped in Baal worship, and you can see that in Joshua 11:17 and Judges 3:5. This region had been steeped in worship for millennia, for hundreds of years. Even when it was in Israel's possession, it was steeped in Baal worship, the northern part of Israel. Under Greek occupation, the area was related to the Greek god Pan, and you may have heard of this Pan, the half-god, half-goat deity, so-called, who played the pan pipe. We get our English word panic from this god, and he was a frightful god who had a thirst for carnal pleasure. It was a place of pagan worship, a lush place at the foot of Mount Hermon, but a place of idolatry.

Under the subsequent Roman occupation after the Greeks, it was named Caesarea, after Caesar. It was named by Herod's son, whose name was Philip, and he wanted to differentiate between Caesarea that's on the Mediterranean and Caesarea up north, so he called it Caesarea Philippi, to distinguish it. So this is the setting, and we see this in verse 27. The disciples are heading in this direction, Jesus is leading them, and along the way, as we see in verse 27, Jesus asks a question: "Who do the people say that I am?" Jesus is asking the disciples for the people's perspective on who He is. One commentator says, and I quote, "Often Jesus's questions were springboards for new teaching". So He's asked this question, verse 27.

Verse 28, the disciples relate the opinions of the people, so they share. They say Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets. The people believe that Jesus was John resurrected. Remember that he had been beheaded by Herod, and there's a story all pertaining to that. And so the people are wondering, is this John? Has John come back? Is that who this is? Or is He a prophet, an Old Testament prophet? And you can see a bit of this discourse in Luke 9:7 to 9. The people thought Jesus was special. Just like many people today think Jesus is special.

I was recently at an ultrasound, and I was talking with the ultrasound technician that happened to be Iranian. This was probably about five months ago, and through the discussion, it came out that I was a Christian, and she said, "Oh, I love Jesus. He's a messenger. He's a messenger." And I was lying there with gel on me, thinking, okay, I want to say something about this. But she's like, let me let her finish, then I'll bring up what I want to say, because I didn't want her hand to go all over. So afterwards, I started sharing a little bit about who Jesus really is. Well, the people in that day are thinking that Jesus is special, but they don't really know who He is.

And Jesus is now going to challenge His followers, His disciples, with the same question. Clearly, the people are wrong. Verse 29, "But who do you say that I am?" We see that question. "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus is asking the disciples, who am I? Who am I? What's my identity? And Peter answers. We can count on Peter. He's got an opinion. "You are the Christ." "You are the Christ."

Now in Matthew 16:15–19, in a parallel passage, there's more about Peter's answer and Jesus' response. But we'll simply state here and note here that Peter's right. It's been revealed to him by God who Jesus is. Jesus is the Christ, and that word Christ means anointed. He is the chosen one. He's the long-awaited Messiah. The Messiah's arrived. Jesus is here. He's the Christ. He's the anointed one. This is cause for jubilation.

The disciples, the Jews, were awaiting their conquering ruler, a leader like Moses or David, who would defeat their enemies. Just a few moments ago, I went through this litany of empires that had crushed this area of the world, one after the other. And there are prophecies concerning the coming of a Messiah. And Peter, under God's illumination, has identified that Jesus is Christ. But while this is true, this is Jesus' identity, it was not His purpose at that time.
And we see in verse 30 that Jesus admonishes and forbids the disciples from divulging His identity. He warns them. The word, the Greek word, is ‘epitimao’. It's a strong word, and it really speaks to Him restricting them from saying anything about His identity. But then He does tell them His purpose. Look at verse 31 and 32a. He tells them His purpose after strictly warning them not to say who He is.

Verse 31: "And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter openly. Isn't it interesting? Peter, under God, has indicated who Jesus is, and Jesus has said, don't tell anyone. And then He tells them His purpose openly. It's interesting. It's interesting.

Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man. And this is essential. This truth is essential. We've just read that Jesus is the Christ. The disciples know this. They heard it, even though they are not to repeat it at that time. And now they're seeing His purpose. But just consider the juxtaposition of knowing who Jesus is as the Christ, having this sense of jubilation, and then hearing this. That the Son of Man is going to suffer and be rejected and be killed, but rise on the third day.

First, Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, a title used here emphasizing His humanity and His humility. Secondly, and vitally, Jesus uses the word must. Don't miss that. Must. Not maybe. Must. Must what? Suffer. Be rejected. Be killed. The Son of Man must suffer. Be rejected and be killed. Yet after three days, rise again. And He was saying this publicly, openly, publicly.

The disciples were incredulous, incredulous, stunned. Here's the Christ. He has come, one like Moses or David, to overthrow in their context the Roman Empire. We're going to have our land back. He's going to suffer, be rejected, killed. One commentator notes, "This announcement stunned the disciples. If He is indeed the Christ of God as they had confessed, then why would He be rejected by the religious leaders? Why would these leaders crucify Him? Did not the Old Testament scriptures promise that Messiah would defeat all their enemies and establish a glorious kingdom for Israel? There was something wrong somewhere and the disciples were confused."
 
And you can imagine that. You can imagine it. They're confused. They're more than confused. They're indignant. And we'll see this. They expected a conquering Messiah. And we won't turn there, but I'll just give you a couple of passages for reference: Jeremiah 23:4-8 and Zechariah 6:12-13. If you read those passages, you will see prophecies of a coming Messiah who's going to rule. It's those types of scriptures they had in their minds.

So they understood His person, but not His work. They understood He was the Christ, but not what He came to do at that time. This was totally destabilizing. And we know this because of what happens next. We don't have to guess. We don't have to posit that they were indignant because we're going to see it. We're going to see it.

Look at verse 32b. "And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him." Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. The word for rebukes is the same word that Jesus had just used in sternly warning them, ‘epitimao’. Jesus had just sternly warned them not to say who He is. Now Peter uses the same word to rebuke Jesus.

Now turn to Matthew 16:22. Let's see Peter's rebuke. Because here in the book of Mark, it says that he rebuked Him, but it doesn't say what he said. What was the rebuke? What was the content of the rebuke? Matthew 16:22: "And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.'" Peter rebukes Jesus. And look at the language of this. He's speaking to the Christ, who is God. And he says, "God forbid it, Lord." Think about this. Here's a human being saying to God, "God forbid it, Lord." It is almost as if Peter doesn't understand the words he's saying.

God is sovereign over all things. Lord, ‘Kyrios, is supreme. He's actually saying, "God forbid, God." That's how indignant he is. He's losing his mind. That's how indignant he is. It's just not computing. It's not, it makes no sense. You're the Christ and You're going to be rejected and suffer and die? They're stunned.

Notice that language: "God forbid it, Lord." Has there ever been a stranger statement? Peter invokes God to forbid God's plan. The audacity of Peter. He's a follower of Jesus. He's been following Jesus. He has seen the miracles. He just identified that Jesus is the Christ. He just identified that Jesus is the Christ under inspiration. Jubilation turns to consternation and admonition. Jesus is admonishing—sorry, Peter is admonishing Jesus.

Can you sense and feel the tension? Can you imagine if you were one of the other disciples? And you're thinking just like Peter, but Peter's the one who says it. As you look at the language and as you study the text, there's almost a part of you that feels like Jesus should say, "Off with his head." Well, He's going to say something worse, actually.

Verse 23, But turning around and seeing His disciples, He, ‘epitimao’, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan!"..... "for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.’" "Get behind Me, Satan."
 
Peter had rebuked Jesus. Jesus now calls Peter Satan and directs him to "get behind Me." Get behind Me. And it's that same word in the rebuke, ‘epitimao’. Jesus refers to Peter's admonition. Jesus refers to Peter's admonition, right, forbid it, as influenced by Satan.
Now, we don't have time to go there. But when you read the broader account in Matthew, and I alluded to it already, Peter had just said that Jesus was the Christ. But in the other account, Jesus says, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but the Father in heaven. So here is Peter. He has just identified Jesus as the Christ, illuminated by God. Jesus tells him and them His purpose. Peter rebukes Jesus: forbid it. God forbid. Forbid it, Lord. And now Jesus says, "Get behind Me, Satan." Peter was having a day.
They were having a day, like no other day.

But do you see the two ways of life? You see it? Jesus is the Christ. This is His purpose. Don't go that way, Jesus. Get thee behind me, Satan. You see it? Now, I want you to notice this, because the juxtaposition of these two ways of life is in this verse.

Look at the text. "For you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." This is Jesus speaking. He's speaking to Peter. He's just told him to get behind Me, Satan. You are not setting your mind on the things of God, one way of life, the things of man, the other way of life.
 
God, one way of life, the things of man, the other way of life. Take note. Two ways of life.
This is a contrast for the ages. And this contrast is not just that these are two ways of life, and it's just two options. These are two contrary ways of life. They are diametrically opposed to one another. Setting your mind. Setting your mind.

Turn to Genesis, Genesis chapter 3. And as you turn, remember the title of this sermon. Who are you living for? Who are you living for? Two ways of life. In Genesis chapter 3, we see the origin of this. Look at verse 6. And what do you see in verse 6a? Eve is looking. She saw. And she coveted the fruit. And she took the fruit.

Who influenced Eve? What's in the first five verses of this chapter? In verse 1, it talks about a serpent. Two ways of life. That's where it starts. Genesis 3:6. Eve had in her mind God's direction. Don't eat of that tree. Or what? You'll die. She also had in her mind the serpent's temptation. If you eat of that tree, you will not die. But you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Two ways of life.

You will notice in verse 6, Eve is not saying anything. Where's the epicenter of her decision making? Her mind. Her mind. And you will notice Eve saw. Input to the mind. Input to her mind was the word of God. Don't eat of the tree. The word of the serpent. Go ahead. It's no problem. And that's input. But she looked. Input. Input to the mind. Input to the mind influences the mind.

As an old IT guy, garbage in, garbage out. Garbage in, garbage out. What do you put in your mind? What goes in your mind every day? If we were to pause and hand out sheets to everyone and say, I want you to write what you think about every day. And I want you to write what comes into your mind every day. What is your mind set on? What is your mind set on?
When you make decisions. When you consider your aspirations, your hopes. When you're working, you're at school, in your relationships, in your friendships. Are you setting your mind on the things of God or the things of man?

From the Garden of Eden to that lush foothills of Mount Hermon, to your heart and my heart, God's interests, man's interests. Setting your mind is the pivot point for your life. Setting your mind is three words in English. In the Greek, it's one word, ‘phroneo’. And it means to exercise the mind, to interest oneself. To put another way, self-interest. What are your interests? Because you see, you set your mind on your interests. That's what Peter was doing. But Jesus has just said, don't set your mind on the interests of men. Set your mind on God's interests. You see it? Jesus rebukes Peter for setting his mind on his own interests. God's interests, self-interest.

What's your mindset? What's your mindset? What's your mindset each day? As I mentioned, when you make decisions, what's your mindset? As you think about your life; you're raising your children; you're driving your car; you're on the TTC; you're at home; you've put your head down at night and before you fall asleep and you're thinking about many things. Are those God's interests or man's? Do you see how crucial this mindset is? What goes on in your mind?

So Jesus is now going to powerfully illustrate and exhort the disciples and the people as to the implications. He's called Peter out and He's indicated you're setting your mind on man's interests, not God's. Now, someone might say, okay, so what? Jesus is going to answer that question.

But before we look at that, I want you to turn to Romans 8. Romans 8. The Apostle Paul writing to the church at Rome. I love the way he articulates this very same motif. Romans 8, verse 5. Look at this text. Romans 8, verse 5, down to verse 8: "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds – the same word ‘phroneo’ –  on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
 
Listen carefully now in verse 6: "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God."

Peter was displeasing to God, to Jesus, so much so that He said, get behind me, Satan. And just parenthetically, the language of get behind, it's as if Jesus is saying, get behind me and go the other way. Get behind me and turn backwards. And He used that term Satan, and the Greek there is the word for accuser. In effect, Jesus was saying to Peter, you're acting like an adversary. So it's not only that you set your mind on the things of men, you're actually acting against Me.

When you and I set our minds on our own self-interest, we are not serving God, living for God, walking in His ways. Who are you living for? Who are you living for?

So now, back to Mark 8. Jesus is going to illustrate the implications of these two ways of life. In the outline, we're now at the implications of following Jesus. Mark 8:34 and 35. Verse 34: "And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.'" If anyone wants to follow Jesus, three things: deny themself, take up their cross, follow Me. God's interests.

First, Jesus' teaching continues. He summons others to listen. You notice that all of a sudden, there were disciples headed to Mount Hermon region. While there clearly were other people around, Jesus actually summons the other people. He says, come on over here. Come. He summons the crowd. He summons the crowd. He summons the crowd to listen. And it's only in this, of the parallel passages, it's only in Mark where there's this unexpected crowd mentioned. The presence of the crowd.

One commentator put it this way: "Mark alone notes the unexpected presence of a crowd up here near Caesarea Philippi in heathen territory. In the presence of this crowd, Jesus explains His philosophy of life and death" – Jesus explains His philosophy of life and death – "which is in direct contrast with that offered by Peter. And it was evidently shared by the disciples and the people. So Jesus gives this profound view of life and death to them all."  There's a crowd. Jesus is going to teach the implications.

Second, notice the word if. If. As you look at the text in verse 34. If. If anyone wishes. If. Why does Jesus say if? Because Jesus is explicating the implications of setting the mind on God's interests and man's interests. If. God's interests, man's interests. Two lines of implications are in the following verses.

Third, Jesus' next word is anyone. If. Anyone wishes to come after Me. Anyone. And it reminds us of John 3:16. Whosoever. Whosoever. Anyone. Jews. Gentiles. Doesn't matter. Anyone. Anyone.

If you're here today, you're an anyone. I'm sorry. I was just thinking all the people out there are anyone's too. Anyone. Anyone. Anyone. Not just the Jews. The Gentiles as well. Again, think of the disciples. They're Jews. Jesus has just said, "If anyone wants to come after Me." Don't miss it. Don't miss it. The Jews in that crowd would have went, what? Anyone? We're Your people. Anyone? Yes, anyone.

So already in this teaching when He says, "If anyone," this is more destabilization. Don't miss it. Don't just keep reading. If anyone. If anyone. If anyone what? What's the next phrase? Wishes to come after Me. Wishes to come after Me. The Greek here is really interesting because it's very similar to the words forget behind Me. Think about it. Someone says to get behind you, they mean get behind them. If someone says come after Me, they mean come behind Me. The language is very similar, but the nuanced difference is that this is coming behind and following Me. Not getting behind like get lost. Or go away.

The two paths of life, either one, you're going to be behind Jesus. The question is, are you going to be following Him or are you going to be going away? Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

Fourth, you see in verse 31 that Jesus, and I said it before, but just catch this, when Jesus was speaking about Himself, He said He must suffer, be rejected and killed. But note where the must is here for those who wish to follow Jesus. They must deny themselves. They must take up their cross, and they must follow Jesus. You see it? The must for Jesus is suffer, rejected, killed. The must for believers is deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. There's what Jesus must do. There's what we must do. This is not if here. The if was above that. We're now down the path of following Jesus, and that's where the must comes. Must.

Let us look briefly at each of these three elements, just briefly. Time will not permit us to really dig into each one of them. The first is to deny yourself or deny themselves. The Greek word means to utterly deny, to disown your self-interest. Deny yourself, disown your self-interest. One commentator puts it this way, and it's the same commentator I'm going to quote for this portion and the next. This commentator says, "Negatively, one must deny himself decisively, turning away from the idolatry of self-centeredness. And every attempt to orient one's life by the dictates of self-interest".

To deny yourself is to turn away from the idolatry of self-centeredness. In effect, putting yourself first. Deny that. Deny yourself. And don't orient your life towards self-interest.

Second, take up their cross represents lifting up a cross. Now, is Jesus saying that you're going to have to be crucified like Him? It says take up, it doesn't say take up My cross, it says take up your cross. Figuratively, this means self-denial. Now, you might say, deny yourself and take up your cross. Sounds like they sort of mean the same thing. Listen to the same commentator. "Negatively, the first part, deny yourself, means eschewing self-interest. Taking up your cross positively means decisively saying yes to God's will and way." So just picture this. The believer is one who is shunning self-interest, must shun self-interest. Conversely, is taking up God's interest. Gotta leave one, pick up the other. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh. Do you see that?

Believers must set aside self-interest, take up God's interest. Come what may, come what may.

The third is "follow Me." And I love the word, the Greek word means accompany, accompany Me. It's not a word we use a lot today, accompany. But it sort of gives the motif of sort of someone putting their arm around you and saying, "Let's go." Let's go together. We're together. I'm leading, you're coming with Me. Accompany.
It's a present imperative. The word for follow is a, the Greek word is a present imperative. It means keep following Me. Keep following Me. Say no to self, yes to God, follow Jesus. And keep following.

Turn to Philippians 3:7. Let's have the Apostle Paul describe this to us a little bit further. Philippians 3, verse 7: "But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." You see it? "The things that were gained to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ." Verse 8: "More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Paul understood what it meant to follow Jesus. Count all things as loss. Self-interest is gone. Took up his cross. God's will is everything. Follow Him. Do you see the self-denial in that passage in Philippians? Do you see him taking up the life of Christ and his willingness even to suffer? Do you see Paul's devotion? It’s God. And what's the benefit? Knowing Him, the power of His resurrection, and being resurrected oneself.

If you're a believer here today, if you're a follower of Jesus, can you put yourself in this passage? Can you put yourself in this passage? Look at it again in Philippians 3:7: "Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss." You have a great education, doesn't matter. You have great skills, you've got lots of money, you've got land, property, you're living your best life now, doesn't matter. That's not the purpose of life. Two ways of life. Now those things aren't bad, but they can't have your heart. Two ways of life.
Many of us are pursuing those things out of self-interest, and that is displeasing to God. We are to be pursuing God's interests. So all those things have their proper disposition in our lives. They're not the goal of life. Jesus is the goal of life. That I may know Him, adore Him, love Him, live for Him who saved your soul. Who are you living for? Where are you setting your minds?

Peter and the disciples, they were believers in Jesus Christ, but their minds were set on self-interest, not God's. Not God's. But by His grace, Jesus taught His disciples the mindset required to follow Him. It may sound strong that He says, you've got to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. But that's grace. He's actually saying, you're not stuck going away behind Me, Satan. Here's how to follow Me. Here's how to follow Me. And that same Peter, who was a fisherman, gave up his job. On the day of Pentecost, he preached and thousands were saved. Peter was incarcerated, beaten. Peter learned what these words meant. He denied himself. He took up his cross and he followed Jesus, come what may.

Look at 1 Peter 4. Let's listen to Peter. Let's listen to Peter. 1 Peter 4, verse 1: "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh," – this is Peter speaking to other Christians – "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose." Notice that. Arm yourself. Jesus suffered. Arm yourself with the same purpose. "Because He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God."

Look at verse 12: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed." – If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you're blessed. –  "Because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

You see the two ways of life? Following Jesus must include disowning your self-interest, pursuing God's interests, His will, His way, come what may, and accompany Jesus through this life to glory. Believers here today, brothers and sisters here today, how are you doing in the enabling of the Holy Spirit? How are you doing in the enabling the Holy Spirit to disown your own interest and to follow Jesus' interests in every area of your life?

Who are you living for? Can you look at your life and see the denial of your self-interest and the taking up of God's interests in every area of your life? And are you doing this continually? Are you following Him? Present imperative, continual action. Conversely, if you're a believer here today like Peter in Mark 8:32, seeking Christ to do your will, seeking God to do your will, because that's what Peter had in mind, right? He wanted Jesus, but he wanted Jesus who's a conquering Jesus. He wanted God to do his will.

If you're a believer who is always praying, God do stuff for me in one way or another, you're on the wrong track. He's God, you're not. You're setting your mind on self-interest. You're setting your mind on the interests of men. And what does that do? It puts you behind Jesus. Get behind Me. What are you setting your mind on each day? What do you read? What do you watch? What do you listen to? What goes into your mind? Remember Eve saw. What goes into your mind? What's your mindset? Do you have a mindset that honors Him? How do you process life? Do you process life biblically or based on your opinion or someone else's opinion? Or on your upbringing? When you set your mind and you do, it's not like, well, we don't. We do every day, all the time. Where are we going to go? What are we going to do? Got to decide about this, decide about that. Constantly. Our minds are going all the time. What do you set your mind on?

What happened to Peter when Jesus' plans didn't fit his plans? What happened to Peter when Jesus' plans, suffer, rejected, killed, didn't match Peter's plans? Jesus rebuked Peter. If you're a believer like the Peter of Mark 32, 8:32, your approach is displeasing to God. It's worthy of rebuke. But there's hope. There's hope. As we see in verse 34, it's a call to repentance, actually. It's a call to repentance. If you want to follow Me, you must turn away from your self-interest. Pursue His will, His interests, and follow Him. That's repentance.

As Jesus continues, He continues to express more implications. Look at verse 35, and we're coming towards the end of our time. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it." Do you see the two ways of life there? Whoever wishes to save their life, man's interests, will actually lose their life. And the one who wants, then the one who is willing to lose their life, set aside their self-interest, actually gains.

This is a word for the crowd. Look at 35a, the first part of this. Implicit in this phrasing is that those who pursue self-interest are doing so to save their lives. Self-preservation. They want to control their life. They're trying to save their life, meaning they're trying to have life go the way they want. What's the outcome of that? They actually end up losing their life. Their lives are self-directed and self-preservation is what's on their heart. Their minds are set on themselves. But Jesus teaches that this pursuit does not lead to actually saving one's life. The thing they're pursuing will not result in what they're seeking.

And the word for lose, look at the text. "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it." It's almost in the English not strong enough. The Greek word under that word lose is the same word in John 3:16 translated "perish," which means utterly destroyed. It means to destroy fully and by implication in hell. Setting your mind on your interests attracts God's rebuke, and if you're a non-believer, you're headed for hell. You will perish.

If you're a non-believer here today, this is Jesus' message to you. Seeking to live for yourself to save your life is literally a dead end. Literally a dead end. But look at 32, sorry, 35b, "but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it." This is the gospel. In fact, this whole passage is the gospel. Theological, doctrinally, Jesus is preaching the gospel.

There's two ways of life. This is good news. If you repent, turn from sin and self-interest, turn your mind to Jesus. And through believing He's the Christ, and that He suffered and sacrificed and died, which He had just said, you will save your life. Put more accurately, He will save your life. You will obtain eternal life.

John MacArthur puts it this way. "This paradoxical saying reveals an important spiritual truth. Those who pursue a life of ease, comfort, and acceptance by the world will not find eternal life. On the other hand, those who give up their lives for the sake of Christ in the gospel will find eternal life."

Who are you living for? Verse 36. We're back at verse 36. Now you've seen that vital context that helps us to understand really what verse 36 means. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" You've now seen this verse in its context. What Jesus is saying to those who set their minds on self-interest, what is Jesus saying the implication is for those who set their minds on self-interest? Even if you could have everything under the sun that you like, what good would it be if you lost your soul?

But there's a deeper meaning here in the context. The Jewish disciples were thinking He was going to take over the world. Now think about this. If Jesus doesn't suffer, be rejected, and killed, but He conquers Rome, there's no Savior. Every soul is forfeited. You see it? Did you catch that? If Jesus did what Peter said at that time and did not go to the cross, did not die, every soul is forfeited. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? That's the meaning of this verse. It has those two applications.

For the crowd and those here today that are unsaved, if you obtain everything you want, everything your heart desires, as you try to sustain and preserve your life, but you forfeit your internal soul, what benefit is that?

Alexander McLaren quoting here, "The men who live for self are dead." – Very blunt. The men and women who live for self are dead. – "As Christ has been saying, suppose their self-living had been successful to the highest point. What good would it do if they're dead?"

And if you need biblical examples of this, read the book of Ecclesiastes and watch Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, doing whatever his heart desires. Chapter after chapter. And you'll notice if you read that book as an illustration of this principle, you will see he literally says it. I set my mind to do everything I wanted to do. I went wherever I wanted to go. I did whatever I wanted to do. I built stuff. I bought lands. I did this. I did that. I had wealth beyond compare. I had everything this world had to offer. And I still had my health and I was still the king. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, says the preacher.

Read Ecclesiastes. If you want another example, in Luke 16, the rich man and Lazarus. Luke 16, you can read it there. The rich man had all that this world had to offer, ends up in hell. Lazarus was poor, took the crumbs off the table of the rich man. He ended up in heaven, Abraham’s bosom. Powerful illustrations, one from the Old Testament, one from the New.

So for the crowd, what will it profit you if you gain the whole world, you lose your soul? If you're here today and you're not saved, what good does it do you if your self-interest leads to hell? If you're here today and you're not saved, what good does it do you if your self-interest leads to hell? If you're here today and you're not saved, what good does it do you if your self-interest leads to hell? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You can do that right now, today. Your life could be transformed today.

Who are you living for? For Peter and the disciples and those here today who are seeking God, you're a believer, but you're also seeking self-interest. You want God to do your will. If Jesus did your will, if Jesus did not go to the cross, we would all lose our souls. What profit is that?

One commentator put it this way, listen carefully: "One who decides to maintain a self-centered life in this world by refusing Jesus' requirements, deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Me, will ultimately lose his life to eternal ruin. Conversely, a person who will lose or deny themself, their life, their preferences, in loyalty to Jesus and the gospel by accepting His requirements will actually preserve their lives forever. If you're a follower of Jesus, you are an heir to eternal life forever with God." So, set your mind on the things of God in every area of your life.

So, as we conclude, may we all ask ourselves this question every day. Ask yourself this question. Who am I living for? When you lay your head down at the end of the day, it's quiet. Ask yourself, who am I living for? When you wake up, ask yourself that question. Who am I living for today? God has just given me the beginning of a new day. Who am I living for today? Set your mind on the things of God, not on the things of men.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said this, "Bigotry is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you pour into it, the more it contracts." Webster's Dictionary defines a bigot as a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinion and prejudices, obstinately devoted to my prejudices, my opinions, my ways, my prejudgments. I'm so devoted to it, I don't want more light. Obstinately devoted to my prejudices, my opinions, my ways, my judgments, my prejudgments. So much so, I am devoted to all of this that I don't want more light. I don't want it.

As the saying goes, don't confuse me with the facts. I don't want more truth. More truth, more facts might persuade me to change my mind. I don't want it. So bigotry closes and shrinks away from more light, shrinks away from more truth, so as to obstinately hold on to its views and not let go.

That's exactly what we see in our text with the leaders of first century Judaism. The Sanhedrin, you remember last time, believed that they had a problem. They were annoyed. We looked at the annoyance. They were annoyed with Jesus and what was taking place. So they thought they had a problem on their hands because from their vantage point, this man, this Nazarene was winning the day.

I mean His miracles, His signs that He was performing, I mean they were so powerful, so convincing. They could not be disputed. Many were believing in Him and so the fear was that the whole nation would believe in Him. And as a result, life as they knew it under Rome would be lost forever. This is what they were talking about in the council, the Sanhedrin. This is what they were discussing. What are we going to do? What are we doing? Verse 47: "For this man is doing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

Well, there was a man present in their midst, in that council, the Sanhedrin, who believed that he had the answer. So we move from the annoyance to the answer. And that man was the high priest that year. His name was Caiaphas. And though he was thoroughly wicked, we're going to see today that he was unwittingly used as a mouthpiece by God to proclaim the truth of God, the truth concerning the gospel. This is really incredible.

Let's look at verse 49. Let's learn something about this man, this priest, this high priest. "But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is better for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation not perish.' Now he did not say this from himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad."

Now you will notice verse 49 begins this way, one of them, “But one of them, Caiaphas”. One of them. Now that seems to be a strange way to refer to the high priest, also known as the great priest. Just one of them. I think the explanation may be that even though he was the high priest that year, there was another man. There was another man, his father-in-law, a man by the name of Annas, who was still really holding sway, still held a lot of influence in this council.

And by the way, the word high priest, that title high priest, ‘archiereus’, is a compound word. ‘Archi’, first in a series, the leader or ruler, the idea of rank, degree, and then ‘ereus’ refers to priest, refers to the priest that was chief over all the other priests in Israel. Now what is interesting is originally according to Numbers 35, you will see that it seems to be that the high priest was to serve for life. But by this time, it was not uncommon for a high priest to be removed from the office and replaced by another, another person appointed, another man.

Well, the Romans, in fact, did this very often. They used it like a political office, and if they felt that one man was becoming too powerful, a little bit too dangerous, they would remove him and they would replace him by another man, replace into that office. In fact, when you read here in the New Testament of the chief priests, these chief priests, when you come across that in reading the scripture, they were former high priests that were simply removed and replaced. Even though the Romans appointed Caiaphas, by the way, he was in this office longer than most, he was appointed in 18 AD and held the office until 36 AD. That's a long stretch, considering the circumstances.

Now we'll talk about that more in a moment. And I think it speaks to the fact that he was a cunning man. He was devious and he knew the art of survival. But it seems that Annas may have been serving as the president of the Sanhedrin, because even in John's Gospel you see that Annas seems to have a lead role at that time. Annas also was a vile high priest that preceded him, and he was still living, and actually you can really say that he was really the power behind the throne, as it were.

He appears in the Gospels. Annas had five sons who were high priests and also had a son-in-law who was a high priest, and that was this man Caiaphas. He was the son-in-law of Annas. Look over, in fact, to John chapter 18 for a moment. Look at what it says in verse 12. And this is, keep in mind, this is just after the Lord Jesus is arrested. In verse 12 we read, "So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him," – now watch this, – "and led Him to Annas first." They led Him to Annas first, for He was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now Caiaphas was the one who advised the Jews that it was better for one man to die on behalf of the people.

So Jesus is led to Annas first. Now look down at verse 24. "So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest." So He's taken first to Annas, and then when you go to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 4, this is after, of course, the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 4, turn there for a moment. This is the early stages of the church, and Peter and John brought before the Sanhedrin, the council, in Acts chapter 4, look at verse 1. "Now as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly agitated because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand”.

Verse 5. "Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem." Now notice, "and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high priestly descent. And when they had placed them in their midst, they began to inquire "By what power, or in what name, have you done this?" And on the account goes. But you will notice here, Annas is mentioned first. And that tells you something about his prominence, his influence, and his power. So again, he retains a measure of power, even though he's not the high priest that year, but nonetheless, Caiaphas is the one who held that office that year, John tells us, that year, particularly John 11:49.

When he says that year, that is the year of our Lord's passion, the year of our Lord's death. So he's in this position of leadership, he's the high priest, he was a cunning man, he was a ruthless man, and he was a hypocrite as well. Go over to Matthew 26, and you get some insight into this man, Caiaphas, insight into his character, what he was like. Matthew 26 sheds light on his character. Verse 57, "Now those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death."

Now, just stop for a second and let that sink in. Let that sink in. What are they seeking? False testimony! They're actually seeking false testimony against Jesus. They're seeking anything they can find in order that they may put Him to death. But they found none. So they're seeking false testimony.

Verse 60, "And they did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two of them came forward, and said, “This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the sanctuary of God and to rebuild it in three days.” And the high priest said to Him, “Do you not answer? What are these men testifying against You?” But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You yourself said it; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his garments and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy, what do you think?" They answered and said, "He deserves death." Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, and said, "Prophesy to us, O Christ; who is the one who hit You?"

Now, realize a couple of things. First of all, the death sentence against Jesus was pronounced when? In John 11. Now keep that in mind. The council gathered together and Caiaphas, as we're going to see in a moment, and what did they say? Well, this man has to die. He has to die. And they begin to make plans to put Jesus to death. So you have these trials. These trials they go through were what? Mockery. They were a mockery. They weren't real in any way. They weren't genuine. They weren't legitimate. The verdict was already predetermined. So that's hypocrisy.

In addition to that, they're seeking false testimony against Jesus. They don't care whether or not they're true. It doesn't matter. They just want something so that they can put on Him so that they can actually justify their decision that they already made to kill Him. And so that's hypocrisy, which means they're wanting to hear something. They're wanting to hear something that would lead to the death of Jesus. And yet this man, this high priest, when he finally hears something that he thinks gives him a reason to give death to Jesus, when he finally hears it, he acts like he's troubled by it. Can you believe it? I mean, look at the hypocrisy. He tears his robes and he says, Oh, we've heard blasphemy. As if he can't stand to hear it. When what he's hearing is the exact thing he wanted to hear and seeking to hear, that's what? Hypocrisy. Ugly, sickening hypocrisy.

This man, the way that he survived with Rome as long as he did, that tells you how. He's a liar. He's a hypocrite. He's a killer. He's ruthless. And you're going to see that in just a moment in his words. So he's a wicked, wicked man.

Back to John 11. This is the man we're about to listen to, Caiaphas. Now, what does he say? Well, we read a moment ago, but let's go back to it again. First of all, after listening to the going back and forth in the council, verse 49, “Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all." Now, as we're going to see in a moment, part of what he says, I need to maintain the two hand in hand. Part of what he says, he's responsible for 100%. Part of what he says, the part that is prophecy, the part that is really the proclamation of the gospel, God is responsible for.

So let's pay attention to what he's responsible for. The first thing you notice concerning his words, you notice these are proud words. They're proud words coming out of Caiaphas' mouth. "You know nothing at all." This is how he begins his speech. "You know nothing at all." Basically, he's saying, you all can just shut your mouth. "You know nothing at all, because you don't know anything. You're ignorant. You're absolutely ignorant." That's what he's saying. If you're done expressing your mind, you can all now just be quiet, because I have here what we need to clear this whole mess up. I have the answer. I have the answer.

Kent Hughes paraphrases Caiaphas this way, roughly translated, he was saying, "you fools, if you had any intelligence at all, you would see that the answer is very simple. It is better that one die rather than a whole nation. He was a cold, calculating, capable, self-sufficient, shrewd, self-satisfied, ecclesiastical climber.” Proud man.

And by the way, this isn't out of the ordinary. This is how the Sadducees dealt with one another. Josephus, a Jewish historian, talked about the behavior of the Sadducees. Now, you have to bear in mind, Josephus was a Pharisee, so maybe it colored his view a little bit, but here's what he writes in The Wars of the Jews, "the behavior of the Sadducees, one toward another, is in some degree wild, and their conduct with those who have their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. So they treat each other roughly and rudely, and you see this come out in this man's character, you know nothing at all.” Proud words.

But you know it doesn't stop with pride. They're also hypocritical words. They're hypocritical words. Verse 50, "nor do you take into account that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." That is, he puts forward his death plan in the name of what? The greater good. He puts it forward in the name of the nation. He pretends to be a patriot. He says, in fact, you know what? It doesn't matter if a man is innocent or not. It doesn't matter if we have anything real to charge him with or not. It doesn't matter whether he's performed powerful signs or not. Don't you understand? Apparently he felt like they were being somewhat hesitant about what needs to be done. Don't you understand? It is better that one man dies, no matter how innocent he may be, than for the whole nation to perish.

So he puts forward his argument this way. Either Jesus dies or the nation perishes. And he doesn't present any other option. Either Jesus dies or the nation perishes. Now, nothing from a natural point of view could have been further from the truth. There was another option. There was another option. There was a third option. You know what that is? They could repent. They could repent. They could acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, trust God to take care of them when it came to the Romans. But that wasn't on the table. No. That wasn't about patriotism either, no matter what he says, and you know that as you understand this man's character, you get to see that this was purely selfish. This was about position. This was about position. This was a personal position which they felt was being threatened.

In fact, the discussion prior to what he says captures really what's in all of their hearts. “the Romans," – verse 48, – "will come and take away both our place and our nation." We may lose our influence. We may lose our place, our position. And so when he puts it in these terms, what he's doing is he's putting the face of nobility on what was just purely wicked. And not only does he try to make himself look better in the way he puts it, but you can see how this would be attractive to the rest who want to do the very thing that he's saying, but they also want to believe that somehow they are religious and they are God-honoring. And so they accept these words.

This puts on a good front for them too. Easy on their ears. Yeah, that's right. We're patriots. This is the point. This is the right thing to do for the nation. This is the right thing for our people, even though it's not the nation or the people in their hearts, but rather it's purely themselves.

Don't people do this today, beloved? Don't they do this today? Don't they reject Jesus with the most hypocritical lying words? They say, well, here's the reason why I'm not a Christian. Here's the reason why I reject the gospel. Here's the reason why I don't believe. And no matter what they're saying, it's not really the case. The fact is they have their little kingdom and they don't want it to be disrupted. They don't want it to be disrupted because they love their darling sin and they don't want to let it go. And they would rather hold on to their sin and lose their soul than to let go of their darling sin and have life. Things haven't changed. This is just sinful humanity. This is the wickedness of man. And this is what you see here on display. So they're proud words. They're hypocritical words.

They're also ignorant and self-destructive words. Ignorant and self-destructive words. Do you not understand? "It is better for you that one man should die for the people” not that the whole nation should perish. You see, if we get rid of Him, we won't have trouble with the Romans, with the Romans. All will be fine. If we get rid of Him, the nation won't perish.

John wrote this. God gave this to the apostle John. He wrote this after the destruction of Jerusalem. So He records this. The Holy Spirit has recorded this, and this is the height of irony. I mean, He chose the foolishness of this council that they thought that they would preserve themselves by putting Jesus, the King of Glory, to death, and yet the truth is they lost their place and they lost their nation, their freedom that they were enjoying. They lost all of that in 70 AD. The Romans seized Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed. They lost their place after they crucified the Son of God.

They were ignorant words. They weren't true from the point of view that Caiaphas spoke. He was wrong, dead wrong. How proud Caiaphas is, but how foolish. How certain he is, but how wrong. How strong he imagines himself to be, and yet he doesn'tnknow that even as he's speaking out these strong, arrogant words, "You all know nothing”. Listen to me even as he speaks like this, he doesn't know. He doesn't know it, but is being held as if by a thread in the hand of the sovereign God. As Jonathan Edwards presented the picture, “if God just lets go, he falls into hell, and yet he feels so strong and so confident.”

How influential Caiaphas is. Man, he's influential. I mean, people listen to him, but it's the blind leading the blind, and they both fall where? Into the ditch. And there are people today who reject the gospel, and how proud they are as they reject the gospel, and how certain they are that they are right, and how strong they imagine themselves to be, and how influential they are with others around them. And sometimes they're very bright people, and they have great training, and so they're intimidating if you're actually debating them or talking to them, and they are great at debating, and you would think they win the argument, they win the day, and they don't know. They don't know. But though they win an argument in their minds at least, they don't know they're going to lose their soul forever.

This is what this man is responsible for. These wicked, proud, hypocritical, ignorant, self-destructive words. But, there's a wonderful but. But in the midst of these wicked words coming from this wicked man and from his wicked heart, there was something God was doing. What a powerful God we have! They were pregnant words. Pregnant with meaning that Caiaphas himself was completely unaware of.

Do you notice how the Holy Spirit says it to us in verse 51? This is John's commentary on it under the superintending power of the Holy Spirit. "Now he did not say this from himself." See that? What does that mean, he did not say this from himself? Did he want to say what he said? Yes. Yes, he wanted to. That's not what he means. That somehow Caiaphas didn't want to utter the words that he uttered. No, no. Caiaphas is reasoning, he's thinking, speaking out of his own heart. But God guided him in such a way that the word that he chose expressed truth that he wasn't aware of. What he said had a wicked meaning from his vantage point, but what he said revealed truth from Heaven's vantage point.

Someone as well said, We not only have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we have the gospels of Christ's enemies. Because on more than one occasion you see where the enemies of Christ expressed profound truth that they weren't aware of. They were saying what they meant, they just didn't understand the full meaning of what they were saying. And this is, this is our amazing God. And this is one of the ways that God glorifies Himself, isn't it? This is one of the ways that God shows His mightiness, His wisdom, His sovereignty, His power.

There is a throne room in Heaven. And there is a throne in Heaven. And that throne is not vacant in Heaven. There's one who is seated on that throne. And He is sovereign. And He's unfolding the circumstances and decisions and details with precision towards an end in view, His goal. This is one of the ways that God demonstrates mankind's absolute need for God, and for the Savior, and for reconciliation. Because He demonstrates how foolish we are, and how in control, how sovereign He is. God will so glorify His Son that even the enemies of Christ will be used by God to unwittingly pay tribute to His Son.

Even when they don't wish to glorify the Son, they do. They do. In Matthew 27, just give you an example of this. Matthew 27. Look with me there. Verse 41. Matthew 27:41, “In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders,” – now as our Lord is hanging on the cross, this is unfolding, –”the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel. Let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe in Him."

Did you hear what they said? He saved others! I mean they're saying it in a mocking way, but indeed He did. Indeed He had. As they mock Him, they acknowledge the truth about Him. He saved others. And even as He's hanging on Calvary's cross, what is He doing on the cross? He's saving others. He's saving others. What a glorious thing to cast in, in someone's direction. He saved others. Yes He did!

And in chapter 19, look over there for a moment of John. You see another example of His enemies unwittingly giving Him praise. John 19:16, “So He then delivered Him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. And Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews." Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, "Do not write ‘The King of the Jews’, but that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’." Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

And so for there for all the world to see, three languages. What did it say on the cross? The King of the Jews. Indeed He is. And Pilate was used by God to pay this tribute to Him. Back to John 11. The Bible says now, verse 51, “Now He did not say this from himself.” That is, the Lord was at work. The Lord was at work overruling in such a way that though He was expressing His wickedness, yet He was paying tribute to the gospel. What an awesome God we have.

It ought to settle your heart, even with all that is currently transpiring in the Middle East, to settle your heart, God is in control. God is sovereign. The Lord is at work. Notice what else it says. “Now he did not say this from himself”. – verse 51, – “but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation.” That is, even though this man was unsaved, God used the office to declare His truth concerning His Son. This man is the high priest. So God used the man in that office to give forth this word of prophecy. Here's a man who doesn't know God, but is being used by God, nevertheless. He's a man who doesn't deserve to be in the office that God ordained, yet God is using the office.

What Pastor MacArthur writes here is really helpful. He explains that Caiaphas, "did not say this on his own initiative. It does not mean that he was forced to act against his will. He was no puppet. He was responsible for his own wicked words, but God providentially invested those words with a meaning that he did not intend. In his capacity as high priest, and hence technically by office, God's spokesman, God ordained an opposite meaning when Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation. He spoke cynical words of political expediency, claiming that Jesus must die to preserve the Sanhedrin's power and the nation's existence. However, Caiaphas unwittingly spoke prophetically of Christ's sacrificial death," – and I love this last part, – "God sovereignly turned his wicked blasphemous words into truth,"

Caiaphas thought he was saying, listen, we've got to sacrifice this one man, Jesus, in order that we all not go under and lose our privileges. That's what he thought, but he was unconsciously summarizing the gospel. One man should die for the people, that the whole nation should not perish. He was unconsciously telling us things that the scriptures tell us with a different sense.

You know there are people who prophesy in the name of the Lord, and who make true prophecies even though they themselves may not believe them. The Lord Jesus speaks about those who prophesy in His name. He will say to them, "I never knew you," Matthew 7, "depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."

That raises a question at this point for us, by way of implication. How do you want to be used? How do you want to be used? Do we realize that ultimately, when it's all said and done, every human being ever made will in some way be used to tell the truth about God? Do you understand that? Let that sink in. Every single human being ever made will in some way be used to tell the truth about God. Every human being, one day, those who are in hell will be used by God to demonstrate the justice of God, the righteous wrath of God, the holiness of God. We're all going to be used to tell the truth about God. The question is, how do you want to be used?

I thought about this as a servant of Christ, and what a miserable thing it would be to be used by God, to see others come to faith in Christ, and be someone who himself did not know Christ. Wouldn't it be horrible to preach to others and to see others saved and to see others brought into the joy of knowing Christ, others brought into the family, the kingdom of Christ, and yet you yourself not know Him? What a horrible thing.

You, no doubt, have shared the gospel with someone. Those of you who claim to know Christ, you share the gospel, but the question is, have you experienced the gospel? Many years ago, I had someone who asked if they could bring their friend to meet with me so that they could share the gospel with them, and I remember sitting in that coffee shop and sharing the gospel with that individual, that friend, that day. And that friend walked away, but guess what? The person who brought the friend came to saving faith, having heard the gospel.

Have you experienced the gospel? You told someone else about Christ, but do you know Christ? How do you want to be used? I want to be used while loving Him. I want to be used while belonging to Him. I want to be used in a way where I'm willing with my whole heart to serve Him, and I hope that's what you would want, too, as well. Listen, I'd much rather not be a servant of Christ and be a Christian than to be a servant of Christ and not be a Christian. I want to declare the truth of the one whom I love, I know, I serve.

And here's a man, he's in an office, and he's being used, but he doesn't even know God. And what does he say? He tells us why Christ would die. This is the prophecy. Look at it. Verse 51: "Now he did not say this from himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad." Why was Jesus going to die? He was going to die so that others would not perish. He was going to die not only for the children of God who belong to the nation of Israel, but for the children of God who did not belong to the nation of Israel, those scattered abroad, talking about Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles.

It was fitting the call to worship portion from scripture. Back in chapter 10:16, remember the Lord Jesus said, "I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice: and they will become one flock with one shepherd." That's included too. The Lord Jesus shall die and also as a result of His death, the children of God who are scattered abroad now shall be gathered together into the family of God. So He's dying for those within Israel. He's dying for those children of God outside of Israel and He's going to die a vicarious death and that is found in this prophecy as well.

That is for the people. That little word for the people. The people. This is what Caiaphas said. Do you not understand? It's better for you that one man die for the people in their place, in their stead. It's how Jesus died. That's why Jesus died. In our place. In our stead. It was a substitutionary death.

I love what S. Lewis Johnson said at this point. He writes, "Well that one man should die for the people, the whole nation should perish not, is to summarize, Caiaphas preaches elimination, but God preaches substitution.” – I love that. He says, “we will eliminate Him in order that we may have our privileges. God says, Yes, the language is the same, but the real meaning is He dies as a substitute. Caiaphas says, Substitute Jesus in order that the nation may live. God says, Substitute Jesus as the sacrifice that men who believe in Him may justly have eternal life because the Lord Jesus pays the penalty for their sins,"

That's what we celebrate today, beloved. Jesus died so that you and I wouldn't. Not only He was going to die a vicarious death, but He was going to die a particular death, a particular death for the children of God. Did you notice how that's put? Who's He dying for? For the children of God who are scattered abroad. They are not yet children of God, and yet in the heart of God they are destined for salvation. And in that sense they are children of God. Same sense in which Jesus said, "I have other sheep, not others fold, and I must bring them also, and they're going to be one fold with one shepherd." Same meaning. Not yet a believer, not yet in the family, yet in the heart and the mind of Almighty God. It has already been planned, settled, and Christ is dying for those who will be saved.

This is particular redemption. This is definite atonement. This is actual atonement. It's not really us who have the limited atonement. It is really the Armenian who has the limited atonement, because we say all those for whom Christ died will certainly absolutely be saved. No limitation in its power, no limitation in its efficacy, no limitation in its saving ability. Those for whom Christ died will be in heaven. Period. Paragraph.

Others would have us believe that Christ died in a general sort of death just hoping that someone would take advantage of it, and so you have millions and millions of souls for whom Christ died according to them, yet they're going to be in hell one day. As Spurgeon once said,"Well they can have their atonement. I don't want any part of it. I believe that the death of Jesus secured the salvation of all those for whom He died. Period."

Isaiah 53:8. You see the scripture, plethora of scripture. Verse 8: "By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And asked for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, That for the transgression of my people, striking was due to Him?" In Matthew 1:21, "she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 20:28, "just as a Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” For many. John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life” – for who? –  “for the sheep."

Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her." The church. Titus 2:14, "who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works." He gave His life for us, for the church, for those who know Him. He gave His life so that He might purify for Himself a people for His own possession.

And of course Hebrews 2:10: "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of On; for which reason He is not ashamed." – Now watch this. – "to call them brothers saying, I will recount Your name to My brothers in the midst of the assembly I will sing Your praise. And again” –  verse 13, – "I will put My trust in Him. And again" and I love this, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me." Christ is declaring, "I and the children whom God has given Me." For His brothers, for the children of God, for those that He brought to glory. He brings many sons to glory and He appears before the Father and He says, "Behold I and the children whom God has given Me." He dies for them. He saves them by His own death. He redeems them. He purchases them. He sets them free.

Caiaphas didn't know what he was saying but that's what he said. “Now he did not say this from himself,” – verse 51 in John 11 – “but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

And then God's word says, verse 53, John 11: "So from that day on they planned together to kill Him." And as we read further, we see that the word was put out: If you know where He is, you gotta let us know. We're gonna arrest Him. You gotta tell us. And Jesus retreated until He would make His entry into Jerusalem.

And He retreats because He would give Himself voluntarily at the time appointed by the Father, which leads us now to the aftermath. Back to John 11. The aftermath. Verses 53 to 57. Now the Sanhedrin makes active plans to catch and kill Jesus. In fact, Matthew 26:4 puts it this way: "and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him." You know what I find really amazing? Think about this. A resurrected Lazarus led to a crucified Jesus. Stunning.

Jesus then made sure that He was not walking in plain sight. He takes refuge in a nearby city, Ephraim. But here's the problem. It's Passover again. It's Passover again. And by the way, this is the third Passover in the Gospel of John. Remember the first? He cleansed the temple in chapter 2. The second, He feeds 5,000, chapter 6. And this is the third Passover. This is why we know Jesus' ministry was at least three years.

Passover requires men to come up to Jerusalem, you remember. So what's Jesus going to do? And you got all this speculation. Speculation is rife and is He going to come up? Will He avoid it? He has to come to obey the law of Moses. But if He does come, He's walking into a trap. Verse 57 puts it plainly: "Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him."

But you know what? We've seen this before, right? You remember? It wouldn't happen a moment before God sovereignly or God's sovereignty decreed it. Not even one moment. When it was the exact moment, the right time, God used the stubborn unbelief of the Sanhedrin to put Jesus on the cross.

And that's why in Acts chapter 2, Peter looks at the people in Jerusalem who had consented to the crucifixion of Jesus and he says this to them in Acts 2 verse 22 and 23: "just as you yourselves know– this Man, delivered over” – now watch the language – “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death." Sovereignty and unbelief.

And here as we see their plot, we see that the ways that sinful nature, wicked sinful nature, tries to sustain its unbelief. The Sanhedrin have decided Jesus is a threat regardless of whether He's the Messiah. So they set up a system to eliminate Him, to make sure they get rid of Him. Stubborn unbelief finds a way to maintain its unbelief.

Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you think, well, those were terrible, terrible people, weren't they? Well, let me tell you, they were terrible people, but let me tell you something. It's not something in the past, beloved. It's not something in the past. Think about the human heart. It does the same thing today. It does.

Remember Romans 1:18? It says people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. Now think about that. They actually actively suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That's the language of what? Censorship. Censorship. People make sure the truth doesn't get out and annoy them again. Remember too much light in the eye?

So what do we do? Want to make sure the truth doesn't get out and annoy us again, they think. So what do they do? We create ways of life that pretend God is not there. That we're not sinners. That Jesus really never came. Large-scale systems that include our educational systems from preschool up to university to adult education, our whole entertainment industry, our media, our journalism, much of our law today is going in this direction. Our political systems, our scientific establishments, they sustain unbelief and they eliminate God.  They make sure: don't mention God, don't refer to Him, don't pray to Him, don't expect Him, don't worship Him.

Why? Because we despise, we attack, and we want to maintain our independence, our autonomy. It's that self-interest that aggravates unbelief, and we will not have this man to reign over us, and we will not let Him take our place. And if you live in that system from the earliest age, that God does seem unreal, far away, mythical, harmless, but beloved, this unbelief is not something that God is unable to deal with. It's not some separate story that God is not writing. It's part of His story. Oh, it is, it is part of His story.

Every story needs protagonists and antagonists, good and bad, and antagonists, good guys, bad guys, heroes, villains. And so if you choose to continue down that path of unbelief, you become by your own stubborn choice the official opposition. To who? How absurd for a puny, tiny creature of the dust to oppose Almighty God.

Remember Psalm 2? Turn with me there as we conclude. We'll wrap up with this. Psalm 2, the very first verse is talking about this ridiculous posture of unbelief. "Why do the nation's rage and the people's meditate on a vain thing?" It's a vain, it's a vain and empty thing. Really, it's a vain, empty thing to oppose God. It says, "The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together” – just like the Sanhedrin, right? – “Against Yahweh and against His anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!" We don't want them to rule over us. We don't want them to rule us. They plot, they scheme the self-interest of men.

But here, the next, next verses in Psalm 2, here comes the sovereignty of God, the absolute sovereignty of God that accomplishes His will, no matter what. "He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord mocks them. Then He speaks to them in His anger, And terrifies them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain." – I am doing what I want. And no one can stop it. God will triumph. And He says this to His son, in spite of all this plotting, He says to the Messiah, verse 8, "Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like a potter's vessel."

So with all of that ridiculous unbelief and opposition, and with that sovereignty of God on display, what does the psalmist advise us? Look at verse 10. "So now, O kings, show insight; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He becomes angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him." In other words, believe in Him while you have opportunity, before it's too late. Give Him His place. Let Him take your place.

Don't fear that when He takes His place as Lord over your life, that it will be a bad thing or a negative thing, because we read in scripture His yoke is what? It's easy. And His burden is light. It will only, listen, it will only remove from your heart that which should have never been there in the first place. A corrupt nature usurping God's place, saying we will not have Him to reign over us. Unbelievable unbelief, driven by selfish stubbornness. But there is a staggering sovereignty offering you today life and peace.

A.W. Tozer said it well when he said this, "unbelief will destroy the best of us, but faith will save the worst of us."

 I want to finish this morning by asking you this, did Jesus die for you? Did He die for you? This is one of the real problems that people have with the idea of particular redemption, redemption or actual atonement. They say well we can't go to the world and proclaim Christ's death if He didn't die for everyone, but you know what's interesting is that when you see the preaching of the gospel in the New Testament, you don't find the Apostles and the disciples preaching Jesus died for you. You just find them preaching Christ died for sinners and He was raised from the dead and if you will repent of your sins and trust in Christ, you will be saved.

So here's the answer to the question of did Christ die for you? Here's the answer, do you want Him? Do you want Him? Are you willing to repent of your sins and run to Him in faith and trust in Him as your Lord and your Savior, giving Him your life? And if that is your desire, I've got news, good news for you, He died for you. He died for you. But if you don't want Him, why do you care? Why do you care? Why do you complain? If you don't want Him anyway, what, what does it matter? You don't have any great interest in His death anyway.

Anyone who wants Christ genuinely, wants the Lord Jesus, know this, you will not be refused. That's the good news of the gospel. That's the gospel that we proclaim. Whosoever will may come. And once you've come, you will realize He loved you before you were ever born and He gave Himself to save you from your sins. That's good news. So come to Him. Delay no more. This is the day of opportunity. His arms are wide open. Resist no more. Postpone no more. Rationalize no more. Give yourself to Him. Repent and turn to Him and be saved. And He will receive you. And He will forgive your sins. And He will embrace you as one of His own. And He will make you part of His family.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

It's really amazing, it's an amazing thing, how two human beings, both blessed with the ability to think, both blessed with the ability to reason, to contemplate, can be presented with the exact same information, the exact same situation, the exact same evidence. If a case is being made, they hear the exact same arguments, and yet these two people who are both blessed with the ability to think and to reason can come to completely, completely different conclusions. We see that around us every day, don't we? It happens every day—human beings exposed to the same information yet come to two different conclusions, opposite conclusions.

Think about all that's debated in our culture. People debate politics, they debate issues that are mentioned in the news about this and that and the other, and they talk about court decisions and what they think is right and what they think is wrong. They debate things that are important, they debate things that are completely unimportant, trivial. And what's often startling when you pay attention to these debates is the ability that people have to only accept the information that seems to agree with the position that they already hold.

How often it is that they come to a situation, they've already had a conclusion in their mind, and so the information that seems to accord with what they already believe—well, they accept that. They hold on to that. How often it is that they come to a situation and do exactly the same thing. And how easy it is for human beings to just sweep away the information that would expose their wrong thinking or that could lead them to a different conclusion. And that's something, beloved, that belongs to sinful human nature.

Do we realize today that only God can give an honest heart? Only God can give an honest heart. Do you realize that only God can give someone a heart that really wants the truth? And wants the truth in a way that we could describe as desperate—a desperate desire for the truth. That is, no matter what it means for me, no matter what I have to repent of, no matter what I have to recant, no matter how it would expose me and make evident that I thought wrongly about something, all that I want is God. All that I want is the truth. I just want the truth. That kind of desperate. Only God, only God can produce that in a human soul.

Because what has happened as a result of the fall in Genesis 3 is that we don't have an honest heart. We don't. We don't have an honest heart. "The heart is deceitful, above all else is desperately wicked. Who can understand it?" He does. Men are not born with honest hearts. In fact, men are born with a hopeless bias against light, against the truth. When you talk about spiritual truth especially, understand it. When it comes to the natural man, to man as he's born in Adam, what is right is objectionable to him. What is wrong is pleasurable to him.

In the language of Isaiah, right is wrong and wrong is right and sweet is bitter and bitter is sweet. Everything is upside down, everything is inverted. And so he takes all the spiritual evidence—man in his fallenness, in his Adamic nature—and he sees it all through the prism of a heart that doesn't want the truth. We've seen that before in the Gospel of John, didn't we? John chapter 3 verse 19 puts it this way: "And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. And everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds be exposed." A hopeless bias against the Light, against the truth, and all the information is sifted through this heart and through this mind that doesn't want to see the truth—a dishonest heart, a biased heart.

I bring this up this morning because we see an example of this right here in this chapter. We see the actions of Jesus, we see the attitudes of Jesus, we hear the words of Jesus, and we're going to even see Him raise Lazarus from the dead. And you have a group of people, all of whom are exposed to the same actions, the same attitudes, the same words, and the same miraculous deed. Yet what you will see in this chapter is emerging two conflicting perspectives. Some have faith, others do not. Some believe, others do not. Some, at the end of the day, are going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; others are going to leave the scene and tell on Him, report it to the Pharisees. Same information, same evidence, but two completely different, starkly different conclusions. And the way you explain the difference in conclusion is the condition of the heart, the condition of the mind.

We'll see that this morning and next week, Lord willing. But where I want us to begin this morning, I want us to begin with the indignation of Christ to set the context. The indignation of Christ (point number one), the indignation of Christ. And I want us to return to something that was mentioned last Lord's Day because we need to be clear on this, or else we will not rightly interpret the Scripture here, this text. Back in verse 33, when it says that Jesus was deeply moved: "When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying," here it is, "He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled."

There's a Greek word translated "deeply moved," and we have to figure out what it means. I mentioned it last Lord's Day; I want to come back to it because it is critical for us this morning. *embrimáomai* (ἐμβριμάομαι) is the Greek word, and this word is used in extra-biblical Greek literature to refer to the snorting of a horse preparing for a battle—the snorting of a horse preparing for a battle. Calvin views it as Jesus gearing up for the conflict as our champion in the battle against sin and death. Literally, this word means to roar, to storm with anger, to be enraged, to be indignant. It expresses indignation against someone.

And you recall last week that was mentioned concerning this verse, that I believe that has to do with indignation—that Jesus was indignant here. He was angry. There's something here that upset Him. But let me say this at this point: there are some really sound interpreters who don't agree with that—men who we greatly respect and greatly benefit from their work in the Lord. One of them is James Montgomery Boyce. He believes that the word here ought to be just understood as simply strong emotion. Here's his point, here's why he takes this position: he says there's nothing here in the context that would explain Jesus being angry. And so he sees it as just a strong emotion. Jesus is moved by the tears of Mary, moved by the tears of the mourners, he says, and so He's just feeling strong emotion here.

The problem with that is that in every other place where this Greek word is used—aside from the extra-biblical literature—but everywhere, in every place that this Greek word is used in the New Testament, you have the idea connected to it, the idea of indignation or sternness. Every other place. And I want you to see those places with me—three other places outside of John 11.

Turn with me to Matthew 9. Matthew 9:27 and following. We read there (a sweet sound to my ear, these pages being flipped, by the way, I just want to mention that, I don't think I have mentioned in a long time), verse 27: "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' And when He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' They said to Him, 'Yes, Lord.' Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'It shall be done to you according to your faith.' And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, 'See that no one knows about this.'"  The word translated "sternly warned" is the same Greek word we have in our text, *embrimaomai* (ἐμβριμάομαι).

Mark 1:40. Mark 1:40: "And a leper came to Jesus, pleading with Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, 'If You are willing, You can make me clean.' And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed."
Verse 43: "And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away."
The word "sternly warned" is the same Greek word.
Mark 14:5:  Mark 14:5, we read: "For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the people." And they were, what? "Scolding her."

The word "scolding" is the same Greek word—actually, in this case, translated "scolding" rather than "sternly warning." And so the previous verse, by the way, describes them as being indignant, and as a result of being indignant, they scolded her.

A. T. Robertson, in his Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament, he says this, speaking of this word, this Greek word. He says, and I quote: "It means to snort with anger like a horse. It occurs in the Septuagint in Daniel 11:30 for violent displeasure. The notion of indignation is present in the other examples of this word in the New Testament, so it seems best to see that sense here and in verse 38," referring to John 11.

By the way, notice the same word is used in verse 38 in our text in John 11, where it says: "So Jesus, again being deeply moved,"—same word—"within, deeply moved within, came to the tomb."

Another Greek New Testament scholar, Robertson, says this, and I quote: "Every other place that it is used," referring to this Greek word, "including the Septuagint translation of Daniel 11:30, where it means violent displeasure—in every other instance, there is this flavor of indignation or anger or sternness."

Another one, Alfred Plummer, the Cambridge Greek New Testament, says this of this word: in all cases, as in classical Greek and in the *Septuagint*, it expresses not sorrow, but indignation of severity. It means, number one, literally of animals to snort, to growl; secondly, metaphorically, to be very angry or indignant; and thirdly, to command sternly under the threat of displeasure. Zodiatis says the same things. He says it means to be enraged, indignant, to express indignation against someone. And so, when you say, we're just going to think of it as a strong emotion, understand that that doesn't really capture what is contained in the usage of this word in every other place where this word is used.

Every other place that it's used, it carries the idea of sternness, scolding, or indignation. So, when we come to this verse, really, one is compelled to say, if we're consistent with how this word is used everywhere else, we have to see indignation here. So that raises the question that Boyce dismisses, and that is, is there anything in the context that would explain the indignation of Jesus? If there's indignation here, is there something here that would explain His anger? And of course, His anger is always righteous anger, righteous indignation.

If there's indignation here, so what is it that would explain that? And I believe there is. I believe there's something in the context that would speak of the anger of Jesus, and we touched on it last Lord's Day. There are a couple of things offered as to an explanation that I don't completely agree with, but let me give them to you just so you can think about those things yourself.

Some say that Jesus is angry here, and what He's angry about is death itself, that He's just upset with what death does. B. B. Warfield compared it to a warrior on his way to do battle with a great enemy. S. Lewis Johnson, quoting Warfield, said, it is the opinion of Warfield that Jesus was not moved by uncontrollable grief, but irrepressible anger. And why? He was angry at the violent tyranny of death, and He was advancing against it as, "a champion who prepares for conflict, gazing into the skeleton face of the world. He saw the awful reign of death everywhere, and He was deeply disturbed". So they say, yeah, He was angry, and what He was angry about is the tyranny of death.

Some say—here's a second explanation—some say it had to do with the mourning of all who were weeping. So Jesus, they're saying, Jesus looked at the weeping of Mary, and Jesus looked at the weeping of the mourners, and the weeping of everyone else, and He was troubled because their weeping didn't reflect faith. That is, they were mourning as those who have no hope. Well, I like this one better than the first one because at least there's a direct connection to weeping. I want you to notice with me, if you just look closely at the verse, verse 33, you have to connect His being deeply moved with the weeping. "When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled."

So I see the deeply moved as being connected with the weeping, but the problem that I have with the second one is knowing what we know of our Savior, right? Knowing how He deals with people throughout the Gospels, I don't believe that He would have been angry with the weeping of Mary since it was a sincere weeping. She was sincere in her weeping, and this is why Beuys rejects it. Because is the Lord Jesus angry with Mary as she weeps over her brother? I don't think that's the case at all.

Which leads to the third explanation and the one that I fully embrace, and that is that this anger had to do with the mourning of the religionists, the hypocrites. There's actually a contrast in verse 33. There's the weeping of Mary, which was sincere grief, and then there's the wailing of the professional mourners, a prescribed weeping. And you remember in our studies of this chapter, right? We saw this last couple of times, and we talked about the funeral traditions in Judaism—dead Judaism at this time—how they would hire professional wailing women, the flute players. They would go through the prescribed ritual of mourning over the dead.

And I believe that Jesus saw in that the hypocrisy that really marked the entirety of this decadent Judaism at this time, embodied in the Pharisees. Plummer expresses it very well. He says, and I quote, "What was He angry at? He was indignant at seeing the hypocritical and sentimental lamentations of His enemies, the Jews, mingling with the heartfelt lamentations of His loving friend Mary. Hypocrisy ever roused His anger." And Pastor MacArthur picks up on this. He says, and I quote, "Jesus appears to have been angry not only over the painful reality of sin and death, of which Lazarus was a beloved example, but also with the mourners who were acting like the pagans who have no hope."

And I believe that's the best possibility. Let me share four reasons why.

It  fully agrees with what we know about the superficial way that Judaism handled everything, including death. Talked about last week how they, or the week before, about how they had prescribed a rending of garments for the mourners. You were to rend your outer garment a hand's breadth. And if you were mourning over a child, it would never be sewn up again. But if you were mourning over someone else, then after 30 days it was sewn up again.

You had 30 days of prescribed mourning. The first three were days of weeping. The seven were days of lamentation. So then you have 30 days of sorrow. All of it, so mechanical, so official, so prescribed, so superficial. And the professional wailing women at times would carry this out to the point where they would start pulling their hairs out. It was all prescribed. And as Jesus was angry with hypocrisy—and you will notice in the Gospel—the harshest things that He had to say, what do they always have to do with? Hypocrisy. Duplicity. The hypocritical, insincere, duplicitous external religion of the day.

This explanation connects His being moved with the weeping. It also connects His being moved in verse 38 with the same group. Look at it. Look at verse 37 first: "But some of them said, 'Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man also from dying?'" These mourners, they come out with this statement in verse 37. And I'm going to submit to you this morning that I believe there was a mocking in the statement. There was at least, at the very least, sinful questioning in the statement.

And on the heels of that, verse 38, we read: "So Jesus, again being deeply moved within,"—same word, again, angry, indignant—"came to the tomb." So just as He would have been angry with a superficial mourning in verse 33, so now He is angry again, righteously indignant with the mocking and the questioning that came out of the same group in verse 37.  This also explains, would explain, the attitude that's present in verse 37. You see, we have to determine what are they actually saying in verse 37? What is their attitude in their words? What's coming out? What is being shown to be their attitude by their words?

This also, by the way, fully accords with what we're going to see in verse 46. Verse 45—this is after He raises Lazarus from the dead—then we read in verse 46: "Therefore many of the Jews who,"—verse 45—"Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He had done believed in Him. But some of them..." I mean, think about this, and we'll get there, Lord willing. After all of this, after all of this, "some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things what Jesus had done." There's no doubt but that you have enemies of Jesus present in this setting. You have those with close relationships to the Pharisees now reporting back to the Pharisees about what had taken place.

And so to see Jesus indignant, angry with the religionists of the day, fits the picture. And so we see the indignation of Jesus. And now that leads us to, secondly—and I want us to see this morning—the insults of the Jews, the mocking of the scoffers. Verse 37: if we're right in our understanding of the passage, and I believe we are, then what you have here is a statement made to be insulting, to be undermining, to be mocking. Some of the Jews recognize that Jesus had a love for Lazarus. But others looked at the same actions of Jesus, there in Perea, and the attitude of Jesus expressed in His tears in Bethany, and they looked at the same things, but they had a different sentiment—different sentiment. They had an accusation that they wanted to hurl in His direction, that they wanted to cast aspersion on His character.

What exactly was their accusation? Well, I'm going to give you some possibilities. They may all have an element of truth, but some possibilities as to what they mean—the attitude—in verse 37. One, this may be an accusation concerning Christ's abilities. Verse 37, concerning Christ's abilities. You'll notice they reference the blind man: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man...?" Remember back in chapter 9, the blind man? This miracle must have left a lasting impression on these people. They're still talking about it: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man also from dying?"

Perhaps they were still questioning the ability of Jesus to actually perform miracles. Now, I know that seems astounding that anyone could question it, but we know without a doubt that there were people who still would not attribute the work of Jesus to God, right? They would still not admit that He was doing the works of God. And so it could be that they were saying, you know, where was His power when it came to His friend? Does He really have any? He opened the eyes of the blind, but could He have not taken care of His friend?

You say, would people mock Him that way? We know that they would mock Him that way. You know where my mind is going, right? Because what did they say when Jesus was on the cross? Matthew 27:42: "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him." What were they seeing when He was hanging upon Calvary's cross? Well, they thought they were seeing someone who is powerless, impotent. They thought they were seeing someone who supposedly could save others, but when it came to Himself—well, He can't save Himself. "If You come down from the cross, we'll repent. We'll believe," mocking Him.

That's one possibility. But there's a second possibility in terms of the meaning and the attitude of verse 37. This could be an accusation not concerning His abilities, but concerning His affections. Maybe they were saying, "Look at His tears." Remember, they say in verse 36, "Behold, see, look at the tears," one group said. "See how He loved him. How He loved him." And this other group now would be saying, "Yeah, look at the tears. If He really loved this man, why didn't He keep him from dying? That's real love. Really, real love. Why did He not keep him from dying?" Well, that could be what they were doing—accusing Christ in terms of His real affection for this man. "Could not He have kept this man from dying?"

It could also be an accusation concerning Christ's actions in the third place. Now, you remember Martha and Mary both—they talked about this, no doubt, over the four days. Their brother's dead in the tomb. So that when they come to the Lord, verse 32: "When Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, fell at His feet, saying to Him, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.'" Martha made the same statement, you remember, earlier in verse 21. And you remember, we saw together, this was not a statement of accusation on the part of Mary and Martha. They know that their brother died the same day that the messenger was sent to Jesus. And this is actually an expression of faith. A statement of regret really bound up in it. "We know if You had been here," there's a willingness. "You had a willingness to help our brother. We know that You had the ability to help our brother. If You had been here, he wouldn't be dead." That's how they mean it.

But it may be that these religionists, hypocrites, have picked up on the words of Martha and Mary and filled their words with an entirely different meaning. "Why wasn't He here? Why wasn't He here? Why didn't He come? Couldn't He have saved his friend?" So that you have two groups of people who witness the same tears, same emotions of this perfect man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are seeing the same tears, coming to two different conclusions at the end of it.

Now let me ask you this morning, how do you explain the difference? How do you explain the difference? I said it a moment ago, but let me underscore it. You explain the difference based upon the condition of the heart. You explain the difference based upon the condition of the heart. You have scoffers and you have believers. And then you have a third group. They're not yet believers, but they're not scoffing.

Scoffers. Scoffers. Are there scoffers today? Are there people who see the exact same evidence that the Holy Spirit used to bring you and I to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are there people who see the exact same evidence, hear the exact same arguments, are exposed to the same, the exact same, information, but they don't believe on the Lord Jesus? Absolutely. Absolutely.

So let me close this morning with the remaining time that we have with a word about scoffers. Let's look at the individuality of a scoffer. What marks a scoffer? A word about a scoffer. And if you are a scoffer sitting in one of those chairs here this morning—now you may not be outwardly a scoffer, but maybe you sit here week after week and in your heart you are just scoffing—if you're a scoffer, I pray to God that He would help you to see yourself. To see yourself.

Because there may be a scoffer here with us this morning. There may be someone, a young person who's been brought by their parents, and that's why they're here. That's why you're here. Maybe a husband brought by his wife. That's why you're here. Maybe a wife brought by her husband. Maybe that's why you're here. A friend brought by another friend. You're not a believer, and you scoff at the truth of Christianity. You scoff at the Gospel.

And it's not a lack of information. It's not a lack of evidence that you're not a Christian. It has to do with the condition of your heart. The condition of your mind. And if that's you this morning, I pray, I pray and plead that in the grace and mercy of God that you would be able to recognize yourself. Proverbs 14 and verse 6 puts it this way: "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none." "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none. But knowledge," and I love this, "but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding." For someone who's been given understanding by the Lord, knowledge comes easy. But for someone who doesn't want to see, they don't see.

No matter how much information, no matter how much evidence, no matter how powerful, undeniable the evidence is—I mean, is this not powerful evidence they're about to see? I mean, how could you ignore that? Is this not undeniable evidence they're about to see? Yet they still go away scoffing, reporting it to the Pharisees. What can we say this morning about a scoffer? Number one, a scoffer takes what is harmless and uses it for harm. A scoffer takes what is harmless and uses it for harm.

If the people in verse 37 are picking up on the words of Martha and Mary, when Mary and Martha said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died," their words did not contain any venom. Their words reflected an honest lack of understanding, a limited faith, an uninformed faith—not fully informed. They had no idea even after Jesus told them, and we'll see that next time, Lord willing, they had no idea what the Lord was about to do. But in their frailty, in their limitations, they were still expressing affection for the Lord Jesus and an affirmation of His ability to do what only God could do. They're still expressing faith, but it's still limited.

But those in verse 37 had picked up on the same language, yet their words were filled with something entirely different. There was an accusation. There was venom in what they were saying. And this is what scoffers do. They take what is harmless and they twist it. They use it in their minds to justify unbelief. Have you noticed in our times and days and our culture the attack all around us in the media, entertainment industry against the person, the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you noticed the attack on the idea that He was sinless? Divine? All of this in search of the "real Jesus" sort of stuff?

Do you notice one of the threads running through many of these things—the idea that Jesus had a romantic interest in Mary? They take the anointing of Jesus. They take the washing of His feet with her hair. They take her sitting at His feet, running to Him, falling down. They take all of these things that were expressions of a pure love for the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And what do they do? They twist it. They twist it to make it something impure. They take what is harmless and they want to use it for harm—to attack the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ—and that's what scoffers do. Innocent words, innocent acts, innocent deeds, and they twist it to attack the gospel.

There's a second thing that we could say about scoffers, and that is, and by the way, when you think about that, I think of Titus 1:15: "To the pure all things are pure," right? "But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." They always ascribe ill motive. But secondly, a scoffer ignores the evidence that would negate his conclusion. A scoffer would always, always ignore the evidence that would negate his conclusion. We talked about it earlier this morning. What does a scoffer do? He does what sinful humanity does. He only accepts the information that agrees with his position, the position he already holds. And he sweeps away anything else that would expose his ignorance and his error. And you see them here exactly doing the same thing. They're attacking the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're saying, why wasn't He here? Why didn't He help His friend? And we've already learned He could not have been here.

Now, let me put in parenthesis, as we know, He could have healed Lazarus with a word from a distance. We know that, but the scoffers don't believe that anyway. So they're not picking up on that. So they're saying, why wasn't He here? Well, you know what? He couldn't have been here. He couldn't have. Lazarus died on the day the messenger was sent. There was no way Jesus could have been there. But we've learned it in our own experience, haven't we? That doesn't matter to a scoffer, does it? It doesn't matter that He could have been this or could have been that. It doesn't matter whatsoever. They seize on anything that they can use and they hold on to it to justify their sinful, unbelieving position.

Let me ask you, I mean, maybe this will resonate with you. You've had discussions, no doubt, with friends, relatives, people you care about, and you make every effort prayerfully to point them to Christ, to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you notice how they will grasp at straws to hold on to their unbelieving position? They'll seize on anything reported in the media, any failure of any Christian leader, any failure of any believer they know, whether it makes sense or it doesn't make sense, whether it's valid or invalid. It doesn't matter. Looking for something to hold on to where a person can say, I'm justified in not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why are they doing it? Because they have a scoffer's heart. Because they have a scoffer's heart, a scoffer's mentality. This is what a scoffer does. He ignores the evidence that would negate his conclusion.

Could that be you today, my friend? Is that the kind of heart you have this morning? Not an honest heart, not a good heart, not the kind of soil where the seed falls, takes root, bears fruit, but rather a stony heart, a weed-infested heart, where the Word of God cannot take root because you're looking for reasons to stay in your place of unbelief.

There's a third thing we could say about a scoffer. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beauty that is spiritually appraised. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beauty that is spiritually appraised. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beautiful things of the gospel, no appreciation for the beautiful themes you find in Scripture, the beauty that's found in God, in Christ. That's why we're warned about casting our what? Pearls, precious things, before swine who have no appreciation—no appreciation for the preciousness, the beauty of the things that have to do with the beautiful gospel.

Even in our text here, isn't it a beautiful thing to behold that the Lord Jesus, the Creator of all things, God the Son, wept? Wept. And we talked about the different words here for crying, weeping. One is *klaíō* (κλαίω),it  has to do with wailing, and the other, the cruel, verse 36, the silent burst into tears of Jesus, out of His love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And some, in verse 37, were saying, "See how He loved him." They see in the tears of the Son of God something beautiful. They see in the tears of the Son of God something that speaks of His grace, His love, His sympathy, His mercy, His majesty.

And yet you have another group. They look upon the same exact expression, but they see nothing beautiful there. What they see instead is something to be bothered about. Yeah, yeah, tears, tears—why didn't He do? One group sees beauty, the other group sees something to be bothered at. That hasn't changed, has it? The things that touch our hearts for Christ, the things that move our hearts toward God—isn't it true that our people in this world are absolutely bothered by the same things that move us? I mean, it bothers them, makes them angry. In fact, that which is beautiful to us, they mock, they can't stand.

I mean earlier, just standing here and listening—listening to the voices behind me and the praise of God and the enthusiasm, the heartfelt worship. And you have people who are bothered by this. You people gather on Sunday morning and Sunday night. My goodness, once is not enough? You have to come back Sunday night? How boring is that? Then again on Wednesday, and what do you do? I mean, you come and you sing songs and spend time with each other to pray and to sit and listen to someone talk about a book. These things are beautiful to us, they're sweet. They lift us up—but not beautiful to them.

The gospel, the fact that God has given us the truth—do we have the truth? Do we have the truth? We have the truth. God has given us the truth. What is the truth? 1 Timothy 3:15, "The pillar and support of the truth in this world is the church." What is the church? The pillar and support of the truth—that God has given us the truth. The church is the people, the organism, the body, the place where if you want truth, there the Word of God is taught, there you find the truth concerning life and death and heaven and hell and sin and salvation and reality. The church, the church, the pillar and support of the truth in this world—that's why we want to come together. We want the truth. We love the truth. We follow the truth.

But the world scoffs at that idea. Truth? Like Pilate, they ask, "What is truth?" This is the heart and mind of a scoffer. He doesn't believe in truth. The only truth he believes in is his own, and so what is beautiful to the child of God annoys him, bothers him. It bothers him.

Which leads to the fourth and last thing concerning a scoffer. A scoffer—and this is very sobering—a scoffer is left with the fruit of his scoffing. A scoffer is left with the fruit of his scoffing. We're going to see that more later, but there are some people who had the privilege on this day to see something that very few people ever had the privilege to see. Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine what it was like when Jesus said, "Where have you laid him? Remove the stone," and He puts to calm the concerns of Martha, the sister, "Lord, by this time he smells."

And not as the false teachers do, not with great bravado, and not with some kind of showmanship, not singing subjective man-centered songs until our emotions get to a fever pitch—no, no—but in a very simple fashion, "Lazarus, come forth." And a dead man comes out alive.

Can you imagine being there, and having witnessed what very few people have ever witnessed? There were some who said, "We need to tell on Him. We need to go and tell the Pharisees." Still scoffing instead of believing. And you know what? If that's how they died, they are in hell right now, left with the fruit of their scoffing.

Listen carefully. By far the most terrible and just result of scoffing is a divine taste of their own medicine. Proverbs 3:34, "Though He," God, "He, though He scoffs at the scoffers." Remember Psalm 2? Remember what we read there in Psalm 2? "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord mocks them. Then He speaks to them in His anger, terrifies them in His fury." Scoffers.
My friend, where will your scoffing take you? What will your scoffing get you? Where will it get you? According to God's Word, it will get you nothing but condemnation, eternal condemnation in hell. But you're offered life this morning. You're offered life this morning. You're offered life in the One who is the resurrection and the life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

Do you see the beauty in Him? Do you see the glory of God that's in His face? Do you see here even in His attitudes here in our text, in His actions, the glory of One who is God in human flesh? Do you see the Savior of the world? Do you see the One who is Lord over all? And do you desire Him?

Do you desire Him who is the truth in a desperate way, no matter what it means, no matter what it will cost you, no matter what you have to repent of, no matter what you would have to recant? You just want the truth, and He is the truth. So you'll come running to Him. And I want you to know something. Only God can give you a heart like that. It's not natural to sinful man. Only God. But God is ready and willing to give you, to give you the hope that is all bound up in the gospel—forgiveness of sin. If you turn to Him, will you scoff today? Will you go on scoffing, or will you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? In the language of the prophet, "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come and buy wine and milk without money, without cost."

And listen, why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? You're wasting, squandering your efforts and life on that which does not satisfy by pursuing this and that and the other. There is no satisfaction apart from Him. "Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon His name while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." This is the promise available to you today. God will abundantly pardon your iniquity and your scoffing and your sins. Turn to Him and be saved. I beg you, cease and desist from scoffing and turn to the One who is truth, the truth, the life, and embrace Him as your Lord and Savior. Lest you will reap the fruit of your scoffing—eternal damnation in hell.

Why will you die in your sin? Why will you die in your sin, when you have a Savior with arms wide open, ready to embrace sinners who come to Him by faith?

Oh, and beloved child of God, you who love the truth, you who want the truth, we who love the truth and want the truth and God opened our eyes to see and behold the truth, we ought to fall on our knees and give praise to God because you could have witnessed the raising of a man from the dead and if God had not given you an honest heart, you would have never seen the truth. I would have never seen the truth. God did this for us, for you and for me.

We ought to worship God and sing again and again and again and again, "Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin, my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished." And accomplished it was, blessed be God, and He cried out, "It is finished." His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished, forever finished.  "I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer. I cannot give an answer, why? But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom."

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Last Lord's day, we began to look at verse 1, and we considered the senders being Paul the Apostle, a display of the grace of God in sovereign election towards undeserving sinners. We considered Silas, Silvanus, who is really an example where we see the display of the grace of God shown in his willful willingness to submit and to do the bidding of God's servant Paul to the glory of God, and we saw the grace of God in Timothy on display in his timidity and weakness. Having considered the senders, we want to begin to look at the recipients this evening. And Paul begins verse 1 with how he regards them, and what he writes in verse 1 really reminds us of the supernatural nature of the church.

Beloved, we are living in times where there is a very deficient view of what the church is. You'd agree with me, don't you? A deficient view of what the church is. And as we begin to look at this first verse, I want you to think about your own thoughts concerning the local church. As you sit here, as you consider this together, think about your own thoughts concerning the local church. I want you to think about how you think about the church, particularly this church, this church that you're a part of. What are your thoughts about the church? How do you regard the people of God? In what terms do you think about Christian people as they gather together, as they assemble together to carry out the will of God, to carry out the Great Commission?

How do you think about the church? And compare how you think about the church with how Paul thought about the church and how he describes the church here in verse 1. That's the standard. We don't come up with our own evaluation, right? Verse 1, "Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace." And beloved, Paul's greetings were not wasteful. They were not wasteful. Oh, well, this is a classic traditional greeting back in the day. No, no, they were not wasteful. This is under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Every word is inspired, inerrant, infallible. This is God's Word.

I don't know if you ever sometimes just fly by the greeting, but let us not do that because there's meaning here. There's a depth of meaning here. How does Paul describe the church? Well, first of all, he describes the people of God here. He describes those who assembled in the local church. How does he describe them? He describes them, first of all, as a separated group of people. This is how he views the church, a separated group of people. You say, where do you get that from? It's right within that word, translated "church." The word translated "church," this word itself, ‘ekklesia,’ is the Greek word, emphasizes the electing choice of God when it comes to His people, when it comes to His saints. What is the church? It is a group of people who are chosen by God for salvation. A church is a group of people who have been literally called out by God, ‘ekklesia.’ This word, ‘ekklesia,’ is related to the word ‘ekkaleo.’ It's a compound word, ‘ek,’ out of, ‘kaleo’ is to call, therefore, it is “to call out of.” The church is made up of called out ones, elected ones.

Notice verse 4, how he describes them, "knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election” or His choice of you. His choice of you, your election. That's the church. People who have been chosen by God, called out by God. You say called out from what? Called out of what? Well, called out of the world, called out from the kingdom of darkness, called out of the realm of the unbelieving, called out unto faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, called out from to, to be set apart. They are a separated group. That is the ‘ekklesia’ of Christ. That is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the called out ones. They are a separated group of people.

He reminds them of the true nature of salvation, that out of this international city, thousands upon thousands and thousands of people, there existed a group of people, an assembly of people, and in that large city, there existed an assembly of people who had been called out of the world and brought into the true spiritual union with God through Christ. I want you to think about the city we assemble in. I want you to think about the 353,000 people who live in the city, the largest city in York region, and then realize that gathered into local assemblies all over the city are people who do not belong to the same world system that the majority of the population belong to. But in these local assemblies, if they are indeed true churches made up of true believers, you have people who have been called out by God, elected by God, chosen by God for faith in His beloved Son. That means that the church is not simply or just a crowd. It is not just a gathering of bodies. It's not what the church is, oh, look at the crowd of people on Sunday morning. No, no. That means the goal is not just to see how many seats we can put in this room, how many chairs we can fill in. That means, in fact, if we've got a large crowd but few believers, and we refer to the large crowd as the church, and we don't think about true conversion, true salvation, true faith, then we have completely misunderstood what the church is.

If we take the common mindset about church growth movement that exists in our generation, what do you think is most rejoiced in or more rejoiced in? Do you think there's more joy over how many people showed up on Sunday or how many people are actually walking with Jesus in the midst of the crowd? What's the goal? What's the aim? Just to say we had 200 people or 300 people show up on a given Sunday, that's the goal? Because guess what, if that's the goal, if that's the aim, then let's do whatever it takes to have two or three or four or 500 people show up, and isn't that what basically has happened again and again? Let's do whatever it takes to have so many people show up, and then we'll rejoice in it and we'll call it the work of God, forgetting that there are 20,000 people who show up every time for a hockey game. They must be doing it better, right? If the goal is just how many people show up, where there are large crowds at all kinds of events, and beloved, the church is not a crowd. The church is not a crowd. The church is an assembly of the called out ones, the called out people who have been redeemed, joined to God. That's the church. And anything else, anything else is a mirage if we're calling it the church.

They were a separated group of people. But secondly, look how He thinks of them. He thinks of them as well, not only a separated group of people—He thinks of them as a strategically placed group of people. Because He notes that they are the church of the Thessalonians, right? They're the church of the Thessalonians, the assembly of God's people that are identified as existing in a particular city, in Thessaloniki. Saved out of the population of that city. Saved to exist at this particular time in that city to be a witness to that city and reverberate the gospel and their testimony throughout. There's the church that gathers in Rome, there's the church that gathers in Ephesus, there's the church that gathers in Philippi, the church here gathers in Thessaloniki. This is the people of God who are Thessalonians.

Beloved, do we understand, do we believe that we're not here by accident right now in this city, in this place, at this time, gathered together in this assembly, at this point of our lives? Do we realize there's a strategic purpose to where we're placed, where we are right now, that this is not by happenstance? We've been placed here by God for a purpose, for a reason that has to do with ministry. Do we think in those terms? Why are we here right now? What does God mean to do with us right now? He could have placed us anywhere, but He placed us right here, right here in this place, right now. It's a separated group of people—they're the church. It's a strategically placed group of people—they are the church of the Thessalonians. And thirdly, look how He regards the church, how He thinks of them: they are a supernatural group of people.

They are a supernatural group of people, and this is really the heart of the text, because He describes His church as being—look at the language—"in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

How is the church formed? The church is formed “in” God and Christ. This is the way you're separated out of the world—if you're brought into a spiritual union with God, with Christ. Wherever you find this title—excuse me—this little word translated in English "in" is the Greek word ‘en,’ with reference to Christians being in Christ, or in God, or in the Spirit.
Generally speaking, it refers to union with. This is a good way to put it. You can translate it "union with" every time you see it. In fact, you'll find it helpful to translate it that way here in our text. Let's do it in our text. Look at this: "The church of the Thessalonians —in union with— “God the Father, and —in union with — “the Lord Jesus Christ." A beautiful picture of what it means to be a Christian—to be a Christian and to be part of the church—to be in union with, in union with God, in union with Christ. Powerful ramifications.

He tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6, you're united, you’re joined to Christ, you're in union with Christ. How can you join yourself to a harlot? And you enter into that spiritual union by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit indwells those who have true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll talk more about this in a moment, but notice this is not vague. The church is not made up of people who have some vague faith in God. These are people who are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There is this biblical view of God that has been revealed by God Himself. The church is formed in God and Christ. The church exists in God and Christ. And He describes them in this way, not just to tell them or remind them of how they were formed, but also to remind them how they were now living as a result of this. The church exists in union with God, in union with the Father, in union with the Son. We live our lives with Him as the source of our life, for He is—He is our life.

It's a union that involves the whole person—the entirety of the person: the mind, the affections, and the will. All of me. To be in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ means that my mind has believed and embraced the truth about the Father and about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it also means, as well, that my affections have been drawn out to love this God and to love His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it means to be in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ means that my will has been brought subject to God and to His Son, my Lord and my Master.

To be in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is to have the totality of my being—my mind, my affections, my will, and it goes without saying, my body— to be brought captive, subject to Him, following Him, honoring Him, doing His bidding, and obeying His commands. That's what faith is. Genuine faith is the bond by which we come into this union. That's what faith is. Faith is the activity of the mind embracing the truth revealed, as well as of the affections being drawn out to the One revealed, and the will being brought subject to the Word of God who is revealed.

All three are part of coming into union with Christ. You can't have the first one. You can't have the mind embracing truth, but my affection drawn somewhere else—after something else, after other idols—and the will not being brought subject to the Word of God and being, you know, picky and choosy in terms of, I'll obey this but not that. No, no. It has to be mind, heart, and will. All three. All of me. Anything less than that is not biblical faith. Don't say you believe in Christ unless mind, affections, and will have been brought captive to Him. All of my life brought captive to Him. Anything less, anything less is a pseudo faith. It's a sham faith. It's something less than biblical faith. And will you notice that this union is with God the Father? Now, why does he use the term, the expression, "God the Father"? The concept of God as Father was hinted at in the Old Testament, but as far as its coming out into full revelation, it had to await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work. It was our Lord Jesus who taught His disciples to pray, "Our Father Who art in heaven." This is a distinctly New Testament concept—that God is our Father.

First John 3:1, "See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are." All that is bound up in the Father concept of God is that which Paul says was distinctly made known to these people so that they were in union with mind, affection, and will—subject to and drawn out towards God as Father. And we all remember Galatians 4:6, "And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" And it is the peculiar work of the Holy Spirit to unveil to the broken, penitent, believing soul that He can approach God in that filial freedom of a son to a Father.
Though He is holy, though He is just, though He is sovereign, though He is above me, transcendent, high, lifted up, blessed be God in Jesus Christ, I can come, draw near and call Him Abba, Father. Paul says that distinct position and privilege of this church in Thessaloniki is that they were in God the Father, in union with God the Father. They recognized Him as the One out of whom all good flowed and unto whom all should flow in praise, adoration, and thanksgiving.

Also in this description, this description of them as a supernatural group of people, there's this description of the true nature of Jesus also here. He's described as being one with the Father, and will you please notice with me, and the English really captures it as well, the translation, Paul uses one preposition to modify the statement. Notice how it is, God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, he uses the word in, "in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," not "in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ," but "in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," reminding us that the Son is essentially equal with the Father, one in essence in terms of nature, one God existing in three persons. And also as you walk through the chapter, he then refers to the Holy Spirit more than once. So what we have here is we have a Trinitarian view of God, and this Trinitarian view of God emerges right off the bat in this chapter. Look at verse 5 for example, "for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full assurance." Look at verse 6, "You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit." So we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and these people have been joined to God, to the Lord. They're in union with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And also in that description, the full redemptive nature and work of Jesus Christ is also described. There's so much here in this verse because He's described as the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider the name Jesus. Consider the name Jesus, Isous, Isous, Savior. He's truly human. He's the One who took to Himself a sinless humanity and lived on this earth, Jesus of Nazareth 2,000 years ago. Isous, Yahweh, saves, but not Yahweh above us, not Yahweh outside of us, but Yahweh here among us, one of us, bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh, yet sinless.

God of very God, Emmanuel, God with us, weeping, sighing, crying, bleeding, dying, standing among us, tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin. And Paul says to the Thessalonians, listen, you're in union with One who is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. They had lovingly and firmly embraced the doctrine of the two natures in the one person, Jesus of Nazareth. Not Yahweh simply up there outside of us, above us, and beyond us, but standing among us in His true humanity.

He says, you are in union, you are in union with Jesus, that Jesus is the Lord, that Jesus who lived on this earth is the Christ, the Christ, ‘Christos,’ the anointed one, the Messiah, that Jesus is the promised Messiah. He is Jesus, but He is also the Christ, the Messiah. He's the promised One who would fulfill God's redemptive plan. And Paul tells the Thessalonians, you are in union with the Christ who binds old and new revelation together. Oh, dear Thessalonians, you are in union with Christ, the anointed One, the true prophet, priest, and king. But He is not only Jesus, God with us. He's not only Christ, the anointed, promised Messiah, but He is ‘Kyrios.’ He is the Lord, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Sovereign Ruler, King over all. He is the highly exalted One, given the name which is above every name. He is the I Am. And Paul says, you Thessalonians, do you know what your position is? Do you know? Do you know concerning your supernatural nature as a church? It's not only one of loving, receiving, embracing Emmanuel—God with us—Christ, the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, but you are in union with the One who sits upon the throne, the sovereign, triumphant King, Lord of lords, and King of kings. Your minds have received that truth about Him. Your hearts have been drawn out to that kind of a Christ, and your wills have been brought subject, willingly from the heart, subject to Him—a supernatural group of people.

So their position is one of union with the Father and the Christ of Christian theology. Imagine with me, imagine what this would have meant sitting there in the assembly of God's people in Thessaloniki on the Lord's Day morning, and one of the elders stands up to read this letter that has come to them from the Apostle Paul, and it's addressed to the church of the Thessalonians. What is he going to say next? What is he going to say next? They're waiting eagerly. I mean, this is the one who had to leave, torn away from them, and now he writes them this letter to the church of the Thessalonians, and they're eager, sitting on the edge of their seat. What is he going to say next? How is he going to describe them? And he says, "In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." What a position. What a privilege. A supernatural group of people. This is the ‘ekklesia.’ This is the church. People have been called out. People have been strategically placed. People who were formed by virtue of their union with God the Father through salvation and exist in union with God the Father and the Son. Not God in some vague sense, but God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

This is the church. A separated people. A strategically placed people. A supernatural group of people. Also, we can say in verse 1, they are a specially cared-for group of people. Because what he does is he prays for them. What does he pray for them? How does he bless them? "Grace to you and peace." There's so much here, and I'm going to leave that probably for next week. But he ends the letter, by the way, the same way when he says in chapter 5, verse 28, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." And earlier in verse 23 of that chapter, he says, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely." The God of peace. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” God's grace. God's peace. Peace. What kind of peace? Peace with God and peace of God. The peace that surpasses all understanding. This is what the church is able to know and experience and live in. This is the ‘ekklesia.’ This is the called-out ones.

Now I want to move on to some of the specific implications of this at this point, beloved. First of all, there are several doctrinal implications. Doctrinal implications. And number one, number one of the several doctrinal implications: wherever there's a forsaking, wherever there is a forsaking of the revealed truth about God, you cease to have a true church. Mark it down. Wherever there's a forsaking of the revealed truth about God, you cease to have a church, a true church.

He says to the church of the Thessalonians, "In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," and you Thessalonians never forget it. The minute you begin to cast off the Father as revealed to you in Scripture and your mind no longer embraces the truth revealed concerning Him, your affections no longer go out to Him, your will is no longer subject to Him—the minute that happens, the minute you cast off what the Scripture reveals about the Lord Jesus Christ so that your mind will not embrace it, your affections will not be drawn to it, your will will not be subject to it—you're no longer the church. You can have an empty building. You can have a full building. You can have a packed building. You're not the church. You're no longer the church. And beloved, if there's anything that I would want to cry from the housetops this evening, it's that truth that there's no church, no church where we forsake the doctrine of the Father and of the Son. That's the Word of God. That's not being narrow-minded. That's the Word of God standing in judgment over the church.

Second great doctrinal implication of this, and it is this: wherever God is rightly worshipped, wherever God is rightly worshipped and served, it will always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always be as Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity, always, always. John 4:24 says, the Father seeks men to worship Him, how? "In spirit and truth," right? What does it mean to worship God according to truth? It means to worship Him as He's revealed in Scripture.

So the Thessalonians sat there that morning, and they got this letter, and they were reminded that they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and if the two are not one in the triunity of the Godhead along with the Holy Spirit, that's blasphemy, blasphemy. Imagine saying to Grace Chapel of Markham, "In God the Father and the archangel Michael." Absolute nonsense, absolutely ridiculous. So when Jehovah's Witnesses are trying to tell us that our Lord is nothing but the highest created being, sort of a chief angel, don't listen to their blasphemous words. It's just that—blasphemy. The church is a people in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and this was a people who worshiped God as God was revealed in Scripture. How? Father, Son, and Spirit—Trinity in unity, unity in Trinity—and wherever He's rightly worshiped and served, it will always be this way, always. First John 1:3, John says, "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed, our fellowship is," — where? Where, John? Tell us. —"with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." You can't have the one without the other. And so 1 John 2:22–23, "This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also."

Third doctrinal implication: wherever a church is truly born, it's always, always, always the result of the work of God, always. It's God's doing, not man's doing. To be called at once at Thessaloniki—how did that happen? How did that church get formed, get born when He says, "To the church of the Thessalonians"? How did they come to be that church? Not because a few people got together and said, you know, we ought to have a church. No, no. The very word ‘ekklesia’ forbids such an interpretation; forbids it. The town Crier, as it were, came to the city of Thessaloniki. Oh, you mean Paul? No, no. He was just the instrument through which the true town Crier did His work. And he tells them about it later on. He says in verse 5, "For our gospel did not come to you in word only,” —but as it were, the true town Crier called you together, we read, —"but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance." That's how they came together.

Have you heard the voice of the town Crier with the ears of the heart? Why are you here this evening? Some may be here because, well, it's a thing to do, to be here. Even Sunday morning or Sunday evening, it doesn't matter. Some may be here because your husband is here, your wife is here, your mom is here, your dad is here, your friends are here. Maybe because you've heard the voice of tradition, you grew up in that and you're here. Some of you are here because you've heard the call of conscience. The only ones who truly belong to the church are those who have heard the voice of God with the ears of the heart. You can say in the words of the hymn writer, "Vain world be gone from me to depart. The voice of God hath reached my heart." And the question is, has God reached your heart? Is that why you're here this evening? Because you heard God calling you out of darkness, out of sin, out of selfishness, and He brought you into a living relationship with His Son. And you're here this evening because you are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the doctrinal implications. And I want to hurry to conclude with several practical implications for us. And first, what we have here is a word of instruction. A word of instruction under the heading "several practical implications." And the first one is this: one's views of God, one's views of God are the acid test of spiritual experience. They're the acid test of spiritual experience.

Beloved, the acid test of spiritual experience is not how you feel. But it's your evaluation and judgment regarding Jesus Christ and God the Father. Chapter and verse, here it is, 1 Corinthians 12:3. Paul says, "No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit." It's our confession of Christ that is a test of the validity of our experience.

1 John 4:1–2: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." Well, how are you going to test the spirits? Notice what he says: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." You test the spirits by what? A doctrinal standard. You evaluate the professed experience by objective truths about God, about Christ. Don't forget that. You don't start with the experience and then draw a conclusion as to spiritual truth. You evaluate the experience by the biblical standard. Paul writes to them and he says, you are a church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that which makes you a true church is that you confess God as Father, you confess your Savior and Redeemer as the Lord upon the throne, the long-promised Messiah, Christ Emmanuel, God with us. And all that theology is bound up in that confession.

Second practical implication, and this is now not only a word of instruction, but there's a word of exhortation—more than a word of instruction, a word of exhortation. And I hope that we listen very carefully. Here it is: Beloved, be content with nothing less. Be content with nothing less than being in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And we must accept and receive people into this local assembly on the basis of a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But mark it down, God accepts none into that true church except on the basis of a possession of God and of Christ. If that's you here tonight, don't be content that you're in this local church if you're not in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Has your mind been opened to see the glory of that God? Has your heart been drawn to love Him? Has your will been brought subject to Him? That's the word of exhortation this evening: be content with nothing less—nothing less than being in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, how do I get into Him? How do I get into Him? It's only as the Spirit of God is pleased to unite us to Him. Well, how does He do it? By enabling us to see our sin and repent of it, turn away from it, and to see the Savior and embrace Him. Not see Him with these eyes, but see Him with the eyes of the soul. And then the last implication is a word of encouragement. And I believe there are some who need this this evening.

The practical implication of instruction may not be, perhaps, right now relevant to you. The word of exhortation, maybe. But will you listen to the word of encouragement? Put yourself back in that assembly again in Thessaloniki, persecuted. And we're going to see that later on as we read on. They were just babes in Christ, didn't know too much, didn't have too much experience in their walk with the Lord, yet they had the fires of persecution burning. They were an afflicted church. Imagine sitting there and being told that you, part of that little, despised, afflicted group whom God, the great town Crier, had called out—you're told you are in God the Father. Think of it. God the Father. You're in union with God the Father, Creator, Sustainer of the universe. I am in union with Him. "To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father." We nobodies were called out. Babes in Christ, persecuted, rejected. We're in God. I imagine they broke into some hallelujahs before Paul got to grace and peace. Beloved, we too are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about this: infinite resources. Infinite resources. Ephesians 1:3, right? "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” Jesus. Infinite resources. The mighty God, the mighty Savior. Deliver and conquer.

Oh, what word of encouragement. What word of encouragement. All that I can ever need. Every problem that I can face. Every perplexing situation. Read Philippians 4:19 back into 1 Thessalonians 1:1: "My God will fulfill all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Oh, dear child of God, if you're in that true church, if you're in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, why are you living the way you're living if you're downcast? Why are you going around destitute, downcast, defeated? Why are you going around with, as it were, holes in your pocket and with shabby shoes—going around like a spiritual pauper? You are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Infinite resources. And God have mercy on us if we don't face collectively and individually the problems, the needs that we face in these days with a holy confidence. If we don't do that, God have mercy on us. Has God called us out and called us together as a church? Has He? Are you convinced of that? Are you convinced that we are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the Lord's doing. If we're convinced that this is the Lord's doing, then let's have the spirit of a David who can look at all the Goliaths. We've got a whole regiment of them as we look at the days ahead in our culture, in our world, in this broken world.

What are we going to do? Are we going to be like Saul and his crowd, stand in the corner and shake? Or are we going to say, who are these uncircumcised Philistines to defy the armies of the living God? We're in God the Father. Do we understand that? We're in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We're joined to One whose resources are limitless, whose panoply for the battle is sufficient. Do we limit Him with regards to time and location and ability as we saw this morning?

God grant that we shall, as an assembly of God's people, be filled with that kind of encouragement that ought to be ours when we realize who we are in Christ. "Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace." A separated group of people. A strategically placed group of people. A supernatural group of people. A specifically cared for group of people.
And then we've looked at the implications theologically. Only as we maintain the doctrine of God, God the Father, of God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, are we a true church. And wherever God is rightly worshipped, always He will be worshipped as Trinity in unity, unity in Trinity. And wherever there's such a people, it is God's work, God's doing. He is the great town Crier that has called out His people, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, "So that you may proclaim the excellencies,” —not of your little puny men who made a decision, no, but— “of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." May God give us the language of the Bible. May God give us the language of the Bible. Let me say this, when we give our testimony, we don't tell what we did, we tell what He did. He calls us out of darkness into marvelous light.

And then the practical implications. A word of instruction. The test of spiritual experience is, what does it do with my understanding of God? Is it scriptural? Then the word of exhortation: be content with nothing less than being in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then a word of encouragement. If we're in God and Christ, all that we could ever need is there. May we reach out—and I say this reverently—tap into that infinite supply by faith.

Let me ask you as I finish this evening, what about that description? What about that description? A separated group of people? A strategically placed group of people? A supernatural group of people? A specifically cared for group of people? What about that description would not be true of this church, Grace Chapel? What is there in that description that would not be true of this church? You know the answer to that. The only thing not true of this church is the fact that they were in Thessaloniki, and everything else equally applies to us 2,000 years later. It applies to us here in this city and every other church that has existed throughout the church age. Is it true to say that we are called out, a called out group of people? Is it true to say that not only we are called out, but we have been formed by virtue of union with Jesus Christ and the Father? Are we a supernatural group of people in that sense? And is it true to say that though they were placed in Thessaloniki, God has saved us right where we are? Or we may have been saved some other place in times past, but He's moved us together so that right now we are the church of the Markhamians? Or however you want to put it. You see, this is still true of us, but do we think of ourselves that way? And then I wonder, what will we do with our reputation? Back to last Sunday's message, right?

Sometimes it's difficult to hear what people find wrong with this church—what they object to in this church, what bothers them about this church. And what I don't get to express as much as I really would like to and want to is what I see in this fellowship that I know for certain only the living God could produce. And, beloved, permit me a few more minutes. I see a lot of that. I see a lot of that. Through the years that God has given me here, I've seen the Lord do things in you, through you, around you that could only be explained by the living God. And sometimes, if I am away and people ask about this church, I tell them about this church. I tell them what a loving church this is, what a giving church this is, and more than anything else, what a faithful church this is. And the ways that you have loved us as undershepherds in this church, the ways that you've expressed love for one another when there are times of crisis and bereavements and challenges, the way that this church has exhibited the love of Jesus Christ—soli Deo gloria. And that ought to encourage us, but not in a way that we rest on it. In a way, rather, that stirs us up to continue in it and excel still more. I mean, that's who we've been. But what are we going to be by the grace of God moving forward?

Do we imagine we can live off of what we've been by the grace of God? Beloved, we can't. We can't live off of what we've been. Obedience is for today. Faith is for today. Walking with Christ is for today and tomorrow and the day after. You can't live off of what you were. I can't live off of what I was. And so what we have to ask is, is our reputation still up to date? We are known for these things, but are these things still true of us? Do we have a name that is different from the reality? Do we have a name that we're alive, but in fact, there are things that are dying? And what do you do if you have a name that no longer reflects where you are or who you are? Here's what you do. You brokenheartedly repent. You brokenheartedly repent. And you ask the Lord to make it as fresh today as it was yesterday. And you do that every single day you walk with Jesus.

May I ask you on a personal level, what is dying in your life right now? What is dying in your life right now? Where have you abandoned the principles that you were once known for? I'm talking to individuals now. I'm talking about your own walk with God. Beloved, we are just a corporate gathering. Though we are joined together by virtue of our union with the Lord, we are the corporate gathering of individual believers. And I'm compelled, beloved, to challenge us and say that we can't live off of what we've been. Praise God for what we've been, but we can't live off of that. In fact, what we've been is not perfected. What we've been has not been everything we could have been, should have been, want to be in Christ. So we can't live off of that. What is the Lord going to do here now? What is He going to do in the future? What are we ready to walk in?

But we also need to be protected and put on the full armor of God and be vigilant, watchful, and prayerful, because if you think that the enemy of our souls does not battle against a church that focuses on truth, we're gravely mistaken.

I read and understand it sometimes—why it is that, and I'm not talking now about anything specific, just in general—why is it that we can read the New Testament and understand and process that this was happening then, but we don't make the same connections now? You say, what do you mean? I mean this. Were there attacks on the truth then? What makes us think that there won't be attacks on the truth now? The churches had to battle through issues then. What makes us think we won't have to battle through issues now? Beloved, it hasn't changed. The ministry is the ministry, and the Word of God is the Word of God, and the salvation of souls is the salvation of souls, and the enemy of our souls, he is the devil, he has never changed and he never will until he's destroyed in hell. Are we ready, if need be, to persevere through much opposition? Be encouraged. The Lord has done good work in you, in us, but be challenged. That good work is to continue today and into the future. "To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace."

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

I know that you will join me this morning in saying that I am thankful as a child of God, very thankful, that God has not worked in my life only to the degree that I've believed in or only to the degree that I've understood in. There are times when God does that, true. There are times because of His training work in our life, growing us, His training work in our life, that He doesn't go beyond our faith, that He teaches us that we must believe Him, trust Him. And so there's a sense in which He teaches us by waiting until we believe Him, until we learn to trust Him. But there have been many other times when God works in our lives in a gracious way despite our lack of faith and despite our small understanding, our limited understanding, our fluttering hearts.

We look back and we're able to see how weak our faith was, how small. We're able to see how small our perspective was and yet God was at work doing great things. And I can't help but think about that when I look at these verses because it's obvious that Christ was working here in a way that went beyond the understanding of His disciples and that went beyond the faith of His disciples as well. When Jesus announced that they were going back to Judea, to Bethany in Judea, His disciples were afraid. They couldn't understand it. They thought it was an unwise decision. They thought it was a bad decision.

At first they misunderstood Him. You remember He said Lazarus was sleeping, and by that He meant that Lazarus was dead. Well, they thought that He meant that Lazarus was literally sleeping. And so they thought he's going to get better. While he's sleeping he's going to get better and recover. This is a good thing he's sleeping. We don't need to go and disturb him, let him rest. And after all, Lord, have You forgotten that they were trying to stone You there in Judea? We don't need to go there, do we? It's not a good idea.

And then He said to them plainly, "No, no, you don't understand. Lazarus has died, and I must go to awaken him." Lazarus has died. And even after they understood that Lazarus had died, even then, you remember Thomas' response, which was a response of faith. Nevertheless, Thomas says, "Well, let's go with Him so that we may also die." "Let's go and die with Him." So their perspective is, this is very dangerous. It's a dangerous decision. And they don't have any idea, even though Christ has taught them this right here in this text, they still don't understand that He's walking in the light as He's doing His Father's will.

He's exactly where the Father wants Him to be and that there's no reason for fear, there's no reason for trepidation, there's no stumbling as long as you're walking in the light. And they don't understand that. And so He's working in a way that goes beyond their faith, that goes beyond their understanding. They have no idea that He's going to raise Lazarus from the dead. They have no idea about how the power of God is going to be put on display to the glory of God. The glory of God, the power of Christ over death, the ability of Christ to give resurrection life. They don't have any understanding of this.

So He's not working according to their understanding. He's not working according to the limits of their faith. He's working according to the eternal purpose of God, what God had ordained to do. But not only do we see Him doing this work beyond their understanding and their faith, you also see the Lord doing this work. He's working beyond the understanding and the faith of Martha and Mary as well when He arrives on the outskirts of Bethany in Judea.

And that's what we're going to see this morning as we look at this text. Just to give you the overall picture to have it in mind before we delve into it this morning and next Lord's Day, Lord willing, and we'll see how we do with that. But if you were to look at the scene, we can break it up in this way. You see Jesus coming to Bethany. You see Martha coming to Jesus. That's the second scene. And then you see Mary coming to Jesus. That's the third scene. And finally, you see Jesus' interaction with the Jews. So that's pretty much what we have here in our text.
So this morning we're going to look at Jesus coming to Bethany, and then we're going to look at Martha coming to Jesus, by God's grace. And as we do this, I want you to recognize with me how they don't understand. And in fact, even after He explains, they don't fully grasp. They don't fully get it. Their faith is still uninformed. It is not fully informed. We could say it this way: they don't really believe in the fullness of what He's saying to them. They don't grasp it. They don't grasp it. Yet He's at work doing what He's determined to do.

Notice first of all with me in verse 17, Jesus coming to Bethany. We read, "So when Jesus came, He found that He had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother." Now let's stop here, and really it is striking, and there's so much richness in the Word of God, and sometimes we just really overlook it. We glance over it, and we miss certain things, and many things at times.

But notice the first thing that I want us to see together. It says, and there's a note here about the timing of the death of Lazarus, and we'll get to it. It says that when Jesus came, He found that He had already been in the tomb four days. Now look at this verse. A couple of things stand out here. One, there's a note here, at least in my mind, that expresses the marvelous mystery of the Incarnation. You see it? It's right here in the text, because it says that Jesus found. Wow! Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.

Now He already, and we know this, don't we? He already supernaturally knew that Lazarus had died. Nobody had informed Him, but He's able to tell His disciples, when it's time to go back to Judea, two days after He was given the message that Lazarus was sick, He's able to tell His disciples He's died. And He's able to do this because He is God omniscient. He's God the Son. So He knows this, yet the Bible says that when He came to Bethany, He found. He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

And I pause here, and I marvel at the mystery of the Incarnation. There are places in the Word of God where you recognize that something unique and amazing happened when God came to earth in the person of Jesus. He still possessed all of His divine attributes, all of them. It's a huge mistake if you think that He had laid aside any of His divine attributes. He did not. Absolutely not. He was as much God on earth in the flesh as He was when He was in Heaven. But what He did do when He was on earth is He voluntarily submitted the exercise of some of those attributes to His Father. And so it could be truly said of Him in His humanity that there were times that He learned things, that He learned things through a normal means of information.

For example, Luke chapter 2 and verse 52, speaking of the growth of Jesus as a man, it says, "And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men." How does God incarnate advance in wisdom? How does He increase in wisdom? I mean, that's a mystery, isn't it? It goes beyond our puny ability to really wrap our brains around it, to fully grasp it.

And then also, what you have in Mark 13 and verse 28 and following, it says, "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." This is Christ speaking. Verse 32, Mark 13: "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

How could Christ say that only the Father knew this, that the Son doesn't know this? And again, beloved, He's speaking of Himself in His state of humility, voluntary humility, when He was on this earth. Oh, the mystery of the incarnation. He still possessed the attribute of omniscience. Had He wanted to, had He willed to, He could have called to mind anything He wanted to, to call to mind in His humanity. And yet, in some way, He voluntarily limited Himself in order that at certain times He may not know in His humanity, as here in this case.

And I confess to you, beloved, I don't fully grasp all of that, but we do see it in the Word of God. Fully God, fully man, and in His humanness, you find Him really setting aside the use of His of certain attributes. And here it is, it says, He found that He, Lazarus, had already been in the tomb four days. In fact, notice something else that is interesting in verse 34 in our text. He said, "Where have you laid Him?" “Where have you laid Him?” Where is He? Where is His grave? Where is the tomb? "Where have you laid Him?"

And so you see the mystery of the incarnation. Something so high that's beyond us to fully grasp. And I will also add this. It is critically important, very important, and we need to underscore this, that we keep this in mind. Christ Jesus, the God-man, in His humanity, was never, ever, ever, ever in error. Ever. If someone wants to extend this to the point that they say that there were things that He was misinformed about, that He was wrong about—unequivocally, it's a no. Absolutely not.

He is God incarnate, and the only way that He selectively limited the independent use of His divine prerogatives were ways that were meant to glorify God the Father in His mission as God incarnate, as the God-sent God. He was in no way in error. His knowledge in all was perfect, but somehow in His humanity, His humanness, there was a place for learning and growth in a way that we don't fully grasp.

Well, there's a second thing, a second reason why this note about the timing of Lazarus' death is important, and it is this. It explains some things for us. It really explains some things for us. Some things that we might not understand if we just came to this passage, and we didn't know when he died, when Lazarus died. So this is important.

Remember I told you that Bethany, Judea, was a day's journey from where Jesus was, from Perea, and this is when He got the news—that's the place where He got the news that Lazarus was sick. And so they sent the messenger. If you were to go back to the account—so follow closely—they sent the messenger, that's day one. Day number one, Jesus receives the news. Jesus waits for two more days, then He travels back—that's day four. Day four. So when He arrives on the outskirts of Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.

Now what does that tell you, as you read this account? Well, it tells you that Lazarus died the day that the messenger was sent, right? In fact, Lazarus may have been dead before the message ever got to Jesus, but perhaps while the messenger was en route. It's very possible. Now why is this significant? Well, one thing it tells us is that Jesus wasn't waiting in Perea until Lazarus dies. The extra two days that He spent there, He was not waiting for Lazarus to die—Lazarus had already died. So that's not the explanation for why He waits.

Well, there are reasons that aren't told to us in God's Word. No doubt there are things that we don't know about. But one thing is certain: knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing how He viewed His mission and His time on the earth, one thing for certain we could say—whatever He was doing for those two days, He was walking in the center of His Father's will. He was doing what His Father gave Him to do. It was purposeful, and there were things accomplished in those two days that were meant to be accomplished in those two days. He was here to fulfill His Father's will.

Remember John 4:34, He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work." John 6:38, "I've come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me." We know that. But another reason this is important is to explain also the attitude of the sisters—the two sisters—when they come to Jesus. Notice what Martha says to Jesus in verse 21: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

Now, if you don't know the timing of Lazarus' death, right, so how could you take those words if you don't have that in mind—the context? Well, you could understand her to be saying, "Why weren't You here?" Right? "It's Your fault. Why weren't You here?” I mean, if You had come when we sent the messenger, if You hadn't waited two more days, our brother would still be alive." You see what I'm saying, beloved? You could understand the words that way unless you recognize that Lazarus already died. So this is not what they're saying. This is not in any way accusing Him.

Notice that Mary says the same thing. Mary comes and falls down at the feet of Jesus in verse 32, right? When she came where Jesus was, she saw Him, fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." This is in no way an accusation against the Lord Jesus. It is not an accusation. This is in no way questioning His decisions. The reason we know that is because the sisters knew that their brother had died the day the messenger was sent. So this is very important to note for us really to grasp what's going on here in this account.

Something else is given to us here in the text, and it is the location of Bethany of Judea. Look at what it says in verse 18: "Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away." That's about three and a half kilometers, about two miles off. That's important for a couple of reasons. One, it tells us that Jesus was really in a dangerous zone. He's in a dangerous area, dangerous region. It's only three and a half kilometers away from where? Jerusalem. The hub of troubles, right? It's only three and a half kilometers away from where they were ready to do what? To stone Him last time He was there. So His disciples were not wrong when they thought that this decision, humanly speaking, was a dangerous decision. It wasn't wise at all. He's in a dangerous region.

But also this note tells us that this situation presents a strategic set of circumstances as well. This is now going to be a very public miracle. When He raises Lazarus from the dead, it tells us it's going to be a very public miracle. It's going to be a miracle that the enemies of Jesus will not be able to deny and they will not be able to ignore. In fact, because it's close to Jerusalem, when Lazarus died, many of the Jews had come out from Jerusalem to comfort the sisters. This is what you see in verses 18 and 19: "Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother."

So you have present here not only some believers in Jesus, but you would also even have present there some of the enemies of Jesus as well. Some of the Jews who were not believers, no doubt, were gathered there as well. And you see this after the miracle. The response was what? They believed, some of them. The response of others was what? Well, they went back and they informed the leaders of their nation in a way that would endanger Jesus.

So this is in the providence of God, in the sovereignty of God. This is all orchestrated in such a way that this miracle, the crescendo of the acts recorded by John in this Gospel—this is the seventh sign recorded, and the greatest one yet—this is going to be done in such a way that is absolutely undeniable, unable to be ignored by the enemies of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. In fact, you see this as they gather together for counsel after He performed the miracle. Go down just for a minute to verse 47, where we read, "Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together and were saying, 'What are we doing? What are we doing? For this man is doing many signs.'" You see this? They cannot deny that something supernatural had occurred. They can't ignore the miracle. That is beyond dispute.

Verse 48: "If we let Him go on like this, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." So, the timing of Lazarus' death is given to us. It's very important that we recognize that. But also the location of Bethany in Judea, only three and a half kilometers from Jerusalem, is also important as well. It is a dangerous region. It's also a strategic place where this miracle will be really forced and thrust upon the enemies of Jesus in terms of their consciousness. They cannot ignore it. They cannot deny it.

Now there's something else that we need to be aware of as we look at these verses this morning and next Lord's Day, Lord willing. We need to know why is it that all of these people are still gathered with Mary and Martha four days after their brother died. Have you ever thought about that? Why are they still there? I mean, he's buried. He's in the tomb. Four days later, they're still there.  I mean, you know what it's like, right? In our culture, usually, you have a funeral and after the funeral, there'll be some sort of a get-together, perhaps a meal, a time to be together, and after the funeral and the meal, they'll comfort one another, but then everybody goes home. So you have the service, you have the internment, you come back, usually, for a meal together. The people comfort the grieving family, and then everyone goes home.

In fact, very often, the most difficult time for people is after the funeral because now they're left to themselves and by themselves, really, to deal with the grief, to deal with the mourning and the emptiness and the loss and all of that.

Well, that wasn't the case in the culture of Judaism. It was different, and we need to understand that because it really gives us more understanding of the context. Like everything else in Judaism, there were very specific customs for how to deal with death and funerals and sorrow and grief. It was spelled out like everything else in their lives, even down to how they ate. It's unbelievable. There were traditions and customs about how you handle death and how you handle comforting people who are in mourning, and it helps us to understand the passage. Now, I'm not going to go on forever with the Jewish customs regarding funerals, but there are a couple of things that we need to know that are helpful for us. The first thing you need to know is that mourning had an official time period in Judaism. It had an official time period. People were supposed to mourn for a certain amount of time.

The traditional mourning period was 30 days. Thirty days. And those 30 days were even broken down. I mean, the entire period was known as days of sorrow, days of sorrows. So you had 30 days of sorrow, and you had the first three days called days of weeping, and then you had the seven days called days of lamentation. So they had 30 days broken down. You're going to mourn—three days of weeping, seven days of lamentation, and then the rest, all days, days of sorrow. A funeral was a very public matter in Jewish life. In fact, it was more than a public matter. It was a community matter. The entire community really was involved. Of all the things that were important in Jewish life, how you dealt with someone who's grieving and mourning was very high on the list in terms of you expressing piety.

If you're a godly person and wanted to be a godly person, you were a person who wanted to keep the law and be a righteous person, then you were obligated to take care of those who were mourning. Alfred Ersheim, who was really an expert on these sort of things, had this to write in a book entitled, Sketches of Jewish Life in the Days of Christ. Listen to what he writes, and this is really helpful:  "As the funeral procession passed, everyone was expected, if possible, to join the convoy. Similarly, all reverence was shown toward the remains of the dead, and burying places were kept free from every kind of profanation and even from light conversation. It was held that the law of God only prescribed mourning for the first day, which was that of death and burial, while the other and longer period of mourning that followed was enjoined by the elders. So long as the dead body was actually in the house, it was forbidden to eat meat or drink wine, to put on phylacteries, or to engage in study. All necessary food had to be prepared outside the house, and was, if possible, not to be eaten in the presence of the dead. The first duty was to rend the clothes, which might be done in one or more of the inner garments, but not in the outer dress. The rent is made standing and in front, and it is generally about a hand breadth in length. In the case of parents, it is never closed up again, but in that of others, it is mended after the 30th day."

Let me just pause here. Let me just insert a thought here, and we're going to see this later in the text, and we'll see it next Sunday as well, that Christ was literally indignant over the hypocrisy that was present in the mourning. Indignant. Think about it. Can you imagine living in a culture where you were even told how to rend your garments when it came to mourning a loved one? How to tear your garment, and how some, in the case of parents, it wasn't to be mended, period. And in the case of others, it was to be mended after 30 days.

It's a really sad picture when you look at the Judaism in the day that Christ arrived on the earth—dead, decadent Judaism. Let me go on reading what Edersheim said: “Immediately after the body's carried out of the house, all chairs and couches are reversed, and the mourners sit on the ground or on a low stool except on the Sabbath. A threefold distinction was here made. Deep mourning was to last seven days, of which the first three were weeping. During these seven days, it was, among other things, forbidden to wash, to anoint oneself, to put on shoes, to study, or to engage in any business. After that followed a lighter mourning of 30 days.” End of quote.  So mourning had an official time period.

It was the obligation of those who are mourning with these sisters to remain around, especially during the first seven days of lamentation, those first three days of weeping, and the seven days of lamentation. So now you can imagine, now you understand, right? So here we are, they have a full house, four days later. But not only did the mourning have an official time period, what you also need to know is that mourning had a prescribed form. It had a prescribed form.

Let me explain. That is, along with the natural mourning, the genuine mourning of family members and friends, it was expected—it was expected, according to Jewish custom—that even the poorest family was to hire at least two flute players and a professional wailing woman. This is if you're, like, really poor. But if you're really wealthy and a family of means, then you had many more professional mourners. So present here were not just friends of the family; they were also professional mourners who were present as well.

And we can surmise from the gospel accounts that Lazarus, Martha, and Mary may have had wealth, and so we don't know how many professional mourners were present, but it may have been a significant number as well. Now, we don't know for sure, but it is true that Martha and Mary were believers, and Lazarus was a believer. But nonetheless, you can see here they were Jewish, and the way that they were going through the mourning was very, very Jewish as well.

Something else, a side note really here for us that's interesting, is that they did not, in Judaism, allow you to mourn apostates. They didn't allow you to mourn apostates. And in fact, in the case of an apostate from Judaism, people would wear white at times to convey just the opposite of mourning. Now, what that says to us is that even though Lazarus, and Martha, and Mary were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, they were not at this point at least treated as apostates because they were still going through this mourning ritual just like the rest who live in that culture.

So here we are, three and a half kilometers away from Jerusalem, a dangerous region, but a strategic location. Christ is at work. He's working in a way that His disciples don't understand, working in a way, as we're going to see in a moment, that Martha and Mary don't fully understand. But He's nevertheless at work. He's doing the work of the Father, and the stage is set as in the midst of their mourning. The house is full, for many have come from Jerusalem, and they're going through this grieving. They're grieving the way the culture grieves.
So the stage is set now that leads us to Jesus and Martha, that encounter in verses 20 through 27. We'll begin to look at it this morning very briefly. When Martha hears that Jesus has arrived—look at verse 20—"Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary was sitting in the house." Now here we come to these two sisters again, Martha and Mary. Martha and Mary. And they act really according to their personality, and you see them here acting according to their temperament.

You know, one of the things you see in the Gospel of Luke is the difference in the personalities of these two sisters. Remember—well, we talked about that already—when Jesus taught Martha a lesson about what's really important when He was visiting in their home in Luke 10. There's Martha, you remember, she's rushing around, busy, she's serving, cooking, doing all sorts of things to be hospitable. And where's Mary? She's at the feet of Jesus. And how does Martha feel about that? Well, she's not happy about it, you remember. "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone? Then tell her, tell her to help me" (Luke 10:40). And Jesus said to Martha, "Your sister has chosen the better part." She's chosen the better part. She's doing the right thing. She's fine. She's chosen the right thing.

And what you see in that picture is, here you have one sister who is what we would hear in our culture described as a type A personality. She's busy. She's a doer. She's out front. And then you have the other sister who's very contemplative. She's very pensive. She sits at the feet of Jesus. And she listens to the Word of God. In fact, you even see a difference in this passage here. You can see it carried out here. Because Martha comes to Jesus, and there's nothing in the account close to what you see really of Mary when she comes.

When Mary comes to Jesus, what does she do? Well, she does what she always does. She falls at His feet, right? She's at His feet. But she falls down at His feet. She falls down at His feet, broken in this case. She may have been the more emotional of the two sisters. This certainly appears to be the case. So here's the point. Martha may have gotten—it looks like she's gotten—the news first as the older sister. And she would be the mistress of the household. She would have gotten news that Jesus was on the outskirts of Bethany. And it looks like she didn't even tell her sister at this point. She just went out on her own. She took the lead. She went out to meet Jesus.

And that seems to be a correct explanation in light of verse 28, which seems to indicate that Mary doesn't even know Jesus is there. She doesn't find out until Martha comes back and tells her. She's just caught up in the loss of her brother, agonizing loss of this brother that she loved dearly. So Martha gets the news that Jesus is coming. She doesn't wait. She runs to meet Him. And here's what she does. Look at verse 21: "Martha then said to Jesus, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.'"

And there are two things I see in her words. One, I see a regret mingled with grief. Regret mingled with grief. The regret of Martha. We must look upon Martha's words as the expression of really poignant grief, regret. So one, I see regret—the regret of Martha. And when Mary comes in and says the exact same thing, what that says to me is that they were talking about this in these four days. They were in conversation about this, the two sisters. These two sisters had talked about this. What would it have been like if the Master had been here and not had been in Perea?

What would it have been like if You had been here, Lord? And she expresses here the confidence that if Christ had been present with them, their brother would not have died. That Jesus would have healed him. That confidence in Him. Now that speaks both of her confidence that Jesus Christ was willing to help them, her confidence that Christ had the ability to help them. And so she expresses not only regret, but also I want us to see that she also expresses faith. She expresses faith. She expresses faith not only in what He could have done had He been there in Bethany, but notice when she goes on to say in verse 22, "But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You." Even though we are where we are, I know, Lord, You can offer us help from God for the situation.

Now, here's what's interesting about this. Even though, beloved, that she expresses faith, even though she expresses faith—and here's what I meant earlier in the message when I said not only our lack of understanding, but the weakness, the smallness of our faith—Christ works beyond our faith. Christ works beyond our weak faith and the smallness of our trust.  Because even though this sounds like a great statement of faith—I mean it sounds like literally she's saying whatever You would ask for, I know God will give it to You. Your Father will hear You, Lord, and He will give it to You.

Even though that sounds like this great expression of faith, it becomes very obvious as you go on to read the verses that she did not consider that Christ would raise her brother from the dead on the spot. That was not part of her consideration. And not only did she not consider it, but there has to be some weakness in her faith here. Because even when Christ tells them—we're going to see later in the passage—to roll away the stone so that He might call her brother out of the tomb, what does Mary say? What does she say? She says, hold on, wait, wait. In a sense, that's what—hold on there, Lord. He's been dead for what? Four days. By this time there'll be an odor, right? In other words, she doesn't get it, does she? She doesn't understand what He's about to do.

Pastor MacArthur on Martha, he said this, and I quote, "Although obviously heartbroken, she was not rebuking the Lord for failing to prevent Lazarus' death. The sister's message had arrived too late, humanly speaking, for Jesus to have returned to Bethany in time to heal him. Martha's words,” he goes on to say, "were simply a poignant expression of grief mingled with the faith she expressed in her statement, 'Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.' That confidence, however, evidently did not extend to Jesus' ability to resurrect her brother, as her later hesitation when the tomb was opened makes clear (John 11:39). She seems to have had faith in the Lord's power to heal, but not in His power to raise the dead. Perhaps the possibility had not even crossed her mind," end of quote.

So even though she says, "Lord, anything You ask, whatever You ask from the Father, God will give You," there's still a limitation in her mind. And that's what I want to mention here for a moment. I want to pause here and ask the question, what do you see here in her words? What do you see here in her words? You see regret, you see grief, you see respect, but also notice you see a lack of understanding and a smallness of faith. Beloved, she has limited Christ at least in three ways. Three ways.

One, she has limited Christ in terms of time. She's limited Christ in terms of time. "Lord, if You had been here," but guess what? Guess what? He's here now, isn't He? He's here now. He's standing there in front of her now. She's living in regret. She's thinking about what might have been. In her mind, there was something He could have done back there, but He can't do right now. Back then, but He can't do right now. So she has limited Him in terms of time.

Not only has she limited Him in terms of time, but secondly, she has limited Him in terms of location. In terms of location. "Lord, if You had been where? Here. Here." Isn't it interesting? I don't know for certain that they had been informed of this, but honestly, I'd be quite shocked if they hadn't been informed already about this. Do you remember when Christ healed someone on His word, right? The Roman centurion said to Jesus in Matthew 8, "Lord, I am not good enough for You to come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to this man, 'Go,' and he goes, to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." And Christ marveled at that man's faith, that he understood that, and said, "Truly, I say to you, I've not found such great faith with anyone in Israel." Do Martha and Mary not understand that, that Christ didn't have to be present? All He had to do was to be informed. And with a word, their brother would have been healed. "If You had been here," what might have been? So they limit Him in terms of location.

But thirdly, she limits Him in terms of power. In terms of power. Because she doesn't understand or consider that He's able. Christ is able, that He has the ability right now to raise her brother from the dead. Though she says, "Whatever You ask," she doesn't think in those terms. In her own mind, there are certain things, certain ways He's able to minister to them right now. But one thing she didn't consider that He was able to do—to bring her brother out of the tomb. It's not in her mind.

How do we know this? In fact, notice another indication it's not in her mind. Verse 23—we're going to see this next week, Lord willing—Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." And where does her mind immediately go, right? Does she say, "Oh, oh, I'm so thrilled, Lord. I'm so thankful. I can't wait. I know whatever You ask from God, God will give it to You. So let's go to the tomb, Lord. Let's do it." Is that what she says? Well, what did she say? "Oh, I know that he will rise again." When? When? "In the resurrection on the last day." So she doesn't think in terms of a miracle right then. She's thinking about His words as being comfort concerning what? The future.

By way of application, I wonder, beloved, I wonder. I wonder, do we ever do this? Do we ever do this? Do we ever limit in our minds the Lord in that way? Do we? Do we think, you know what? There was a time when if I had done this or done that or been more responsive to the Lord than I was, there was a time when God might have done a great work in my life. But now the time has passed. You want to know what is a wonderful thing to realize? And as I say this, I'm not dismissing at all the fact that there are missed opportunities. There are things that we look back on even after we're saved and we regret. Anybody know that to be true? But you know what is really amazing, what is wonderful? It is never too late to do the right thing. It is never too late to do what is right. It's never too late as long as you're alive, as long as the Lord gives you opportunity. It's never too late for you, dear one. To this day, God can do a marvelous work in your life if you will turn to Him with your whole heart.

And we might limit the Lord sometimes in terms of location. We have someone we're burdened about. We know their spiritual condition, and it breaks our heart. And we say to ourselves, but I can't be there. I can't go there. I can't be there to talk to them as I want to. I can't be there to minister to them as I want to. Beloved, do you realize God is not limited by location? And your prayers—your prayers are used by God. They are means that God has chosen to work through. And your prayers have an effect half a world away. God is not limited by location. God is not limited by time. God is not limited by time. God is not limited by time. Half a world away, God is not limited by location. Do you limit God not only in terms of time? Do you limit Him in terms of location? And then do you limit Him in terms of ability? Ability.

He could do this, but He can't do this. He could have dealt with this problem, but He can't really deal with this problem. You say, well, how do I do this? Well, sometimes someone tries to encourage you with the truth in the Word of God concerning something that you are going through. And you say something like this perhaps: but you don't know my situation. But you don't know my situation. You don't know what I'm facing. You don't know what I'm going through. Beloved, I know someone who does. And the One who does know what you're at and where you're at and what you're facing and what you're going through—guess what? He is Himself unlimited power. He's all-powerful.

"The hand of the Lord is not shortened, then it can't save." Thank God this is true even when we don't believe that. Thank God this is true even when we don't understand that. Just as Christ was working beyond their understanding—the understanding and the faith of His own disciples in Perea, and beyond the understanding and the faith of Martha and Mary in Bethany—so He has worked in my life and in your life beyond my understanding, beyond my small faith so many times. But you know what? It never ever honors Him for us not to believe Him. Never. May the Lord grow us in our understanding. May He grow us in our faith to understand that He's not limited by time, not limited by location, or in any way limited in His power.

And I want to finish this morning with two questions for us. Number one, do you trust that God knows what He's doing in your life right now? Do you trust that God knows—our God knows—what He's doing in your life right now? We've talked about it all morning, how He works beyond—God works beyond, Christ works beyond—greater than our faith. Do you believe He's doing that in your life right now? And do you give Him praise? For He's done that in your life all along. Can you look back at your life and see where you faced big decisions, life-altering decisions, and even when you made the decisions you weren't certain about, you wanted to do the will of God, you sought the face of God, but you weren't certain that you had it right, and yet you can look back now and see how He was guiding you every single step of the way, and He brought you to where you are right now? Do you understand that He hasn't stopped working in your life like that, child of God? He's at work in your situation this morning, just like that. Do you trust Him? Can you rest in that truth? Do you give Him praise for it, working out His plan for His glory in your life, and you know that you don't understand it all?

And perhaps you would never have even considered all that He ends up doing in your life. It wasn't even on your radar screen. You didn't even think about it. But He's done it. He's done it. Blessed be God, He's done it. We've got to give Him praise for that, beloved. This is for the glory of God. This is God's glory that He works like that.

The second question, and we already talked about it in depth, but I just want to underscore it again by way of reminder. It's a biblical practice to remind. Are you guilty of limiting Him in your mind and heart like Martha and Mary? May we ask the Lord to enlarge us, to grow us in our understanding, in our faith. Lord, oh dear Lord, grow my faith, grow me in my trust toward You. There are going to be some times because our Lord, our Father, is disciplining us and training us that He's going to teach us. Child, I'm not going any further with you until you believe Me. There are times like this in His training of us. Not because He can't, but because it's part of His training in your life.

Will you trust Me? It's a glorious truth that all of God's children can see and say amen to. You never trust God and end up disappointed, ever. You never trust God and end up disappointed. So where is God calling you to trust this morning? Where? Do you even know that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly? Do you believe it? You see this message this morning, it hits the hearts of His people because we understand these things. And I want to remind us of Paul's words in Ephesians 3:20–21: "Now to Him who is” what? Able. Able. “Able to do far more abundantly above all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Let me summarize what Paul is saying here and that really goes by way of application to what we're learning this morning. He's saying to us, God has the power to do. And he's saying to us, God has the power to do what we ask. God has the power to do what we think or imagine. God has the power to do all that we can ask or think. God has the power to do beyond all that we ask or think. And one more. God has the power to do infinitely beyond all that we ask or think.

Far more abundantly—and Paul uses a compound Greek word you remember in our studies there in the book of Ephesians—which means surpassing, super-abundantly, surpassingly, beyond measure, exceedingly, quite beyond all measure, overwhelmingly, over and above, more than enough. It describes an extraordinary degree involving considerable excess over what would be expected. It's the highest form of comparison imaginable, this word. It means immeasurably more than, quite beyond all measure, infinitely more than.

There is no limit. There's absolutely no limit. God has the power to do beyond all that we can ask or imagine—infinitely beyond. Whatever your doubts, whatever your spiritual struggles, God can do infinitely more than you can ask or even imagine. If it is something in line with His purpose revealed in His Word, if it is something in line with His intention to make those who know and love Him into the image of His Son, there is no shortage of His power.

But maybe there's somebody here this morning that you don't know anything about this because you don't know Christ. You don't know the Lord. And maybe even you said to yourself, you know, there was a time when I heard the Gospel, there was a time when I could have come to Jesus Christ, but it's too late for me now. If that's you—if that's you, my sinner friend, my lost friend—then why are you sitting here this morning? Why? Why does the Lord have you here today, this morning? Would you this day realize that Jesus Christ came into this world, God incarnate, to live a sinless life, to die on a tree in the stead of sinners; that He was buried in the borrowed tomb; that He was raised from the dead; He ascended on high; and now the good news is being published all over the world by God's will—that there is a way for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God, and that way, His name is Jesus.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," and He will do exceedingly, abundantly beyond what you think or imagine in your life. He will breathe life into your dead soul. He will turn the light on in your heart and mind, and He will forgive your sins. And He will adopt you into His family, and He will make you joint heir with Jesus Christ. And one day, you have that glorious promised inheritance of the saints that would belong to you, and you will leave this place today forgiven, with a conscience purged and cleansed. Will you not trust Him? Will you not embrace Him? Will you not rest the weight of your soul upon Him? Will you not believe Him?
Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

1Thessalonians should stand in our memory as a reminder of the truth that God's mighty work, that God's saving work is sufficient. God's saving work is sufficient. I mean where there's real salvation, where there's real birth from above, where the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in a person's life, where there's a new creation, where there's a new nature in Christ, beloved, that work continues. God doesn't save someone only to turn them loose. We know this. And let us be reminded of it. What God begins, God finishes. What God begins, God finishes.

It's a testimony to the sufficiency of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit's operation, work, in a person's life. And this church in Thessaloniki, this beloved community of God's people, stands as a great testimony to the sufficiency of salvation. This church stands as a testimony to the sufficiency of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of the indwelling Spirit of God, God the Spirit, the reality of a new nature when the Lord really truly saves someone and transforms someone.

Because when you study, as we did last time in our introduction, how the church came to be, this beloved church, what you discover from the book of Acts, chapter 17, is that Paul did not have the opportunity to spend much time with them. You remember Paul had a witness in Thessaloniki on his second missionary journey. This was a large influential city of approximately at least 100,000 residents. So it was a large city, large Jewish population. They had their own synagogue. And from all that we can gather from the account in Acts, Paul was there for three Sabbath days, I mean three weeks preaching in the synagogue.How long he was there thereafter, we cannot be certain about, but we know that Jason had received them into his home and there was some kind of a ministry going on there during that time. But the point being, when you read the account, that he wasn't there for very long. And so when he leaves, he leaves these new believers. There they are without the benefits of, for example, the 18 months' worth of teaching and ministry that he gave to the Corinthians. They did not have that.

We learn from the book of 1 Thessalonians that after having to depart from them, he sends Timothy to them in order to find out how they're doing. He was concerned about them and the way he left so abruptly, he wanted to ascertain as to how they're doing and how they are managing. Timothy brings news to Paul at Corinth, and when Paul receives news from Timothy as to their condition, then he pens this letter under inspiration. And so that's sort of the background as you come to the book of 1 Thessalonians.

He's dealing with the people who are new in the faith. They haven't had a great amount of instruction, but he's rejoicing at what he's hearing because it is truly evident that they really did receive the Word of God with joy. It is evident that God has really done a saving work in their lives. The fruit of this church is truly an encouragement to his heart. Now that is not to say that they didn't have their issues, they didn't have their struggles. And, as we study this letter together, we're going to see that they had their struggle. Some of that came from just not a lot of instruction—simply, they were not well informed when it came to certain things. For example, one of the things they struggled with was what happens to a believer who dies before the return of Jesus Christ. What happens to a believer who dies before the coming of the Lord? If, when the Lord comes, we are alive, what will be our relationship to those who have preceded us in death? They didn't know, they didn't understand. And so he says, brethren, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, "I don't want you to be uninformed." "I don't want you to be ignorant about this." And he goes on to instruct them.

And we also learn from the letter itself that apparently they were struggling in the area of purity and sexual behavior and holiness, being sort of a pushback into the mold of their culture. And so he's going to address that in this letter. Some of them had become also idle. They weren't working, they stopped working, perhaps misunderstanding what it meant to believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. And so, not thinking about His return in the right way, in the right kind of way—the biblical way—not only caused problems when it came to those who died in the Lord, but also some of them had begun to use the return of Jesus Christ as an excuse to stop working and just waiting. So they stopped being responsible in this earthly realm. And so he had to address that. He has to address that.

So as new believers, I mean, they were struggling with issues, but the overwhelming attitude, the overwhelming atmosphere of this epistle is a positive one. So Paul receives news from Timothy as to the well-being of these believers, that he hadn't spent a lot of time with them, and he's marveling. He's rejoicing at the clear fruit that says that their salvation is indeed genuine. As I read this letter all the way through and began to prepare, there were five words that my mind really captured. They summarized the entirety of the letter, and so we're going to do a flyover this evening a little bit.

Now there's a theme you're going to find in this letter again and again, and yeah, you're right, it's the second coming of Jesus. You find in every chapter of this book some reference to the return of Jesus Christ. So that is definitely a major theme in this book. But really, if you look at the book, if you look at it as a whole and you ask, what is the attitude of this book, what is the atmosphere of this book, I want to submit to us tonight there are five words that stand out. And I'm going to give them to you briefly, and then we're going to use those five words tonight as our study, taking this flyover of 1 Thessalonians.

And the first word is ‘affection’. Affection. And not just any kind of affection. When you read this letter, you see deep, genuine affection—the kind of affection that parents have for children, the kind of affection that makes separation very difficult. And as we'll see in a moment, Paul, in fact, describes his relationship to them much like the relationship that a mother or a father would have toward their own flesh and blood. So his affection for them is real, and it is stressed throughout the letter.

The second word is the word ‘thankfulness’. Thankfulness. But a kind of thankfulness that is very specific. It is thankfulness for the clear, undeniable evidences—the clear, undeniable fruit—of genuine salvation. It is thanking God for His work in the lives of these people, and it runs throughout the entirety of this epistle–thankfulness.

Third word is the word ‘concern’. Concern. More than once, Paul emphasizes—and he does this in the strongest kind of way—he wants to see them face to face. He longs to see them face to face. Now, why does he want to see them face to face? Well, I mean, obviously, he loves them. He cares about them. But the number one reason he wants to see them face to face is to discover really firsthand how they're doing spiritually, and it's a concern for them that creates this longing to be with them. So running through this epistle is this attitude of concern, gratefulness that they're doing well, but concern that they continue to do well by the grace of God, that they continue to grow, that they continue to advance in their walk with God.

The fourth word is the word ‘instruction’. Instruction, because the letter is instruction, and what you find in this letter is both doctrinal instruction and dutiful imperatives. There are areas where he knows they are under-informed, and he says, "I don't want you to be uninformed, brothers." And so he's going to pass on information, truth, that they need to know, and getting the report from Timothy—no doubt from that report—Paul now has a knowledge where they are under-developed, under-informed. So he wants to give them instruction, the instruction that they need. At the same time, though, this letter is a letter of exhortation. Exhortation. Throughout the letter, he's saying to them, this is how you must live, this is how you must live, this is how you must think, this is how you ought to think about this, this is how you ought to feel about this, this is how you want to decide about this, here's how you must live as believers in Jesus Christ.

So he instructs them, but then also added to that—I already mentioned it—it's the fifth word, really ‘encouragement’. Encouragement. It's a letter of encouragement. I mean, throughout the letter, he tells them about the good that he sees in them and that others recognize in them. He doesn't hesitate to tell them about the power of their testimony. He's not afraid to correct them, he's not afraid to command them, but everywhere he can, he commends them as well. One of the things that you learn from the book of 1 Thessalonians is that Paul loves to be an encourager. I mean, when he can encourage, he does, he doesn't hold back. And as we study through this book, we will see it every step of the way.

Now tonight, as you're aware, we're not going to read the entire letter, but I want to encourage you—and this will help tremendously as we study through the book together—I want to encourage you, it's a short book, read it through several times, whenever you can. Just read it through. Read it through several times, make your own mental notes about it as you walk through it. And as we come together on Sunday evenings, Lord willing, we will have a more fruitful and fulfilling study together.

But what I want to do tonight is I want to take those five words that I've just mentioned, because not only do these five words represent the attitude, the atmosphere that run throughout this letter, I really believe that these five words also represent a model for what it means to have a ministry to people. They represent a model of what it means to have a ministry to people. This was Paul's ministry to them, and if we recognize these attitudes in Paul as he ministers to the church at Thessaloniki, then I want to take from that the fact that these are also attitudes that ought to be present in me as an under-shepherd, as I strive to minister to God's people in this place. But I really don't want us to think about it tonight just in terms of us as under-shepherds, as elders, our ministry to the flock of God here. I really want you to think about this tonight in terms of your ministry to others, and that is really important.

So let me begin by asking the question, where do you have a ministry? If you're a Christian, you have a ministry. Where do you have a ministry? As we sit here this evening, as we consider this book, where do you have a ministry, child of God? God didn't save you to sit and do nothing. Where do you have a ministry? Recognize that what we're going to see tonight applies wherever you are engaged in ministry, and I'm talking about a husband's ministry to his wife, a wife's ministry to her husband, a parent's ministry to their children, the ministry you have to a Sunday school class, to nursery, the ministry you have to a friend that you are seeking to disciple and bring along in the faith, and so forth and so forth in your sphere of influence.

These five attitudes are absolutely essential to any effective ministry on any level. So this is not just for Paul and Timothy and Silas. These are not attitudes for the under-shepherds of Grace Chapel. This is for every believer. So as I examine myself on many different levels, I want to call on you to examine yourself on many different levels and ask this question: have you learned this model of ministry? So we can entitle this study, Attitudes Necessary for Authentic Ministry. Attitudes Necessary for Authentic Ministry.

And the first attitude is this: genuine affection. Affection. Affection. Genuine affection. Here's an example of it. Turn to chapter 2, chapter 2 verse 8. Actually, let's go back. Let's begin at verse 6. Verse 6, Paul writes, "nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you. But we proved to be gentle among you,”--and he's taking them back now to the time when they spent with him, and he's reminding them of his ways–and he says, “we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. In this way, having fond affection for you, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become beloved to us.For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as to not to be burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and bearing witness to each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”

You see what he's saying? He says we were like a mother, we were like a father. He says, “having fond affection for you,” verse 8, “we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives.” Let's learn from that. If we don't genuinely love the people we are seeking to minister to, we will have no real ministry. No real ministry. Beloved, if we don't really care, genuinely care, if we don't have a genuine affection for the people that we are seeking to minister to, all we become is, at the best, some cold conduit through whom God is doing something, but we are not engaging those people in ministry ourselves. And that is something less than what God designed for ministry to be. We have to genuinely care for the people we're ministering to.

So husbands, let me ask you tonight, does your wife sense genuine affection from you? And do you express that? And wife, does your husband sense genuine affection from you? Do you express that? Parents, do you express to your children how much you care for them? Do they sense your relationship to them being one of duty or one of affectionate desire? Is there love that is running through everything you're carrying out toward them meant to be by God–ministry?

Now we've got to be careful. I mean, the application is, you know, there's ripple effects here. But now we've got to be careful, having said that, whenever we talk about affection in the context of ministry, we always must beware of over-sentimentalizing ministry or really emotionalizing it. Because let us remind ourselves that even while Paul says he longed to see them—and he does, he says that he has a strong desire to see them face to face—even though he says this, let us not forget he didn't go to see them. He sent Timothy at that time. And that says to us that while Paul had a genuine affection for this church, a genuine affection for this church, he still had to operate his life and ministry according to Holy Spirit-set priorities.

It's possible to have a genuine affection for someone, and yet at a particular time and season to delegate a ministry to them. You genuinely care for them by making sure that their needs are met, even if you can't see to it at that particular moment personally. There's still a place for that in ministry. But what I'm saying is this: just like, let's take the illustration that Paul uses—a mother, a father. Something's wrong, really, with parents who don't have genuine love for their children. Something is desperately wrong. Something's wrong with a parent who would not gladly sacrifice themselves for their children. But if a parent takes affection and they turn it into an excuse for not having a proper sense of priority as they raise their kids, if they make the child the center of the universe—let me say that again—if they make the child the center of the universe and their affection is not in any way bounded, regulated by Holy Spirit wisdom, they will not be helping the child, they will be destroying the child. You love your children desperately, but you still must deal with them in a way that is wise and holy and best for them. There will be times that you correct them, there'll be times that you say no to them, there'll be times that you set boundaries around them, and it is not a godly love that has no sense of priorities attached to it.

So Paul loves them, but at this particular time, it wasn't God's will for him to see them face to face. It wasn't. So he sends Timothy to minister to them. Nevertheless, it is still genuine affection. In fact, I think one of the reasons why he stresses his affection so much for them in this letter is because he did send Timothy, and he doesn't want them to think in any way, shape, or form, "Well, you know what? Paul must not really care about us." No, no. He wants them to know, "I truly, genuinely, love you." But at this time, it was God's will for Timothy to carry out this work toward you.

So I'm not talking about some over-sentimentalized or over-emotionalized kind of thing. I'm just asking the question: do you genuinely care for the people that you have a ministry to? And do you express that? Is your affection real? Is your heart in it? And if it isn't, then you're missing one of the attitudes vital to authentic ministry. And I really wish, beloved, I really wish that every person who didn't genuinely love the church, but finds himself in some position of ministry—I wish they would just step out and let someone occupy that position who does genuinely love the church.

The second attitude is thankfulness. Thankfulness. Paul stresses this in the opening verses. Verse 2, look at it: "We give thanks to God always for you”--for all of you–“making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father." In other words, he says, I thank God for you all the time. All the time.

Look down to chapter 2, verse 13. He stresses it again. He says, "And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing without ceasing that when you received the word of God which you have heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe."

Look at chapter 3, verse 6: "But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remember us kindly, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;” Verse 8, "for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God because of you, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?"

What is he saying throughout the letter? I thank God for you. I thank God for you. I thank God for what He's done in you, and I thank God for what He is doing in you. It's oozing with thankfulness to God for these people. Beloved, this is a proper attitude for ministry—the attitude of thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving to God. Ministry—ministry at home, ministry with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with your friends, with those who you are trying to disciple in the church, and in every area of ministry in the church, in every area of influence in your life—thanksgiving. I'll put it this way: wherever you're engaged in ministry, let me ask this question. Do you feel blessed, or do you feel it's become a chore? Do you feel blessed? Do you feel like it's a burden? Or do you feel like you're very blessed? Are you counting all the difficulties and rehearsing those things before your mind, and it becomes weary, wearisome? Or are you taking note of all that God is doing and remembering those things in your mind so that your heart is full of joy and your prayers are full of thanksgiving to God? Notice, he keeps using words like "without ceasing," "always," "day and night." I mean, Paul is living in a continual atmosphere of joyful thanksgiving. Child of God, is that you in your ministry?

Now again, let's not think just about the church. Let's think about your ministry at home. Could we say that your home, your house—could we say that your home is a place full of thanksgiving and affection? That in your family there's an atmosphere of genuine affection and there's an atmosphere of genuine thanksgiving? Why do we give thanks? Because, simply, we recognize who the source is for all true effectiveness in ministry.

Paul understands it, doesn't he? How is it that he could be with them such a brief time, send Timothy back to them, and get such a glowing report about how they're doing? How could that be the case? How could that be so? Because God. Because God is the one who has accomplished what has been accomplished in these people. And so he couldn't help himself. He has to give thanks. That's why you give thanks. Because He is the one who does the work. He's the one who accomplishes what gets accomplished. And wherever you see good fruit, beloved, wherever you see the Lord's blessing, do you stop and really take note? I mean, if you see it in your spouse, if you see it in your children, if you see it in your Sunday school class or nursery, if you see it in a brother or sister—wherever you see the Holy Spirit producing fruit—do you stop and understand that it is not explained by us, no matter what kind of effort we put into it? It is explained by the Lord. And do we give Him thanks for it?

I think this is something especially that parents need to be aware of and concentrate on. If you see a son or daughter walking with the Lord and in their life there's a sense of integrity, responsibility, and they're committed to a life of holiness and pursuit of Christ and living for Christ, be careful. There are far too many Christian parents who pat themselves on the back and say, "Well, honey, didn't we do a great job?" Now, they would never maybe say that out loud. Hopefully not out loud. But they sort of think that way perhaps, and they're raising their children in such a way that they hope the children will turn out to be a good testimony about them, about their methods, about the way they go about raising their kids. When instead we need to realize something: there is nothing good in any person's life except it to be the product of God's grace. God's grace. He no doubt uses means. Parental training is important. We ought to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and the fear of God. But do you understand, if your son or daughter is walking after the Lord, get on your knees and give God thanks. Give God praise. He's the One who's done that. He's the One who's done that. And in church, He's the One who's done that.

We only—I only—we as elders, as deacons, as people serving, we can only take credit for the failures, not for the success. In a Sunday school class or in a nursery or whatever it is, He's the One who's done it. And as you disciple individuals, He's the One who's done it. Now Paul understood this very clearly. 1 Corinthians 3:7–9 he says this: "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything." Reminds me of those very deep, deep words that H. P. Charles' daughter said to him: "Daddy, remember, you're nobody. You're a nobody, daddy."

"So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,"--now watch this–"but God who causes the growth.” God. “Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." You see, he doesn't diminish the fact that there are laborers and there's work. He doesn't diminish that. He doesn't diminish that at all. But what are we? What are we? Workers. We're workers. Verse 9: "For we are God's fellow workers;"--now watch this–"you are God's field, God's building." He's the One who does the building. He's the One who gives the growth. We just have the privilege of working in the field.

The same can be said of a family just as it is said of the church. We have the privilege of being workers, but God is the One who gives the growth. Give Him thanks. Give Him thanks. What do we give thanks for? We give thanks for fruit. We give thanks for spiritual growth. We give thanks for the evidences of grace, the evidences of salvation. There's a place for boasting, but it's not boasting in self. It is boasting in who? The Lord. It's glorying in what He's accomplished. You know, I said earlier, Paul is not shy about telling the good things that he sees in them, but when he tells them the good things that he sees in them, who is he boasting in? He's boasting not even in them. He's boasting in the Lord. "Oh, look what the Lord has done. Isn't God great? I look at this fruit in you. I look at your growth, and you're doing amazing. Isn't the Lord great?"

What are the attitudes of authentic ministry? You genuinely love the people you minister to, and you minister to them in an attitude of thanksgiving, and you give God thanks for every good thing that you see God is producing in them.

A third attitude for authentic ministry is concern. Concern. He's concerned about them. And so he writes in chapter 4, verse 9, because you'll see another example of it here. He says, “Now concerning love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will walk properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” Verse 13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” And he goes on to give them this teaching that we're familiar with concerning the rapture and the coming of the Lord for His church. And so in what context does he do this teaching? Well, he is very concerned that they understand correctly, that they understand right, that they believe right, that they live right. This is why even though he could not go to them face to face, he sends someone who will look after them, he sends someone who will take care of them. He's genuinely concerned. There's genuine concern here for their spiritual well-being. You see, this is the kind of genuine affection we're talking about. It's not just genuine affection in the context of friendship. It's genuine affection in the context of faith. Spiritual sibling-ship.

Do you really care about your people? Do you really care about them, not just on some friendship kind of level? Is your genuine affection for them about the condition of their soul? Not just to sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy time together and you can talk easily. No, no, no. It's beyond that. Is it in the context of faith? Is your genuine affection for them about the condition of their soul? How is their walk with God? Where is their understanding of doctrine? Is their behavior one of holiness? Are they living lives that are a testimony to the world? See, that's what it means to really have a heart for the people you minister to, no matter what realm we're talking about. Is the chief focus of your concern the condition of their soul?

How many parents spend more time concerned about their child's grades or social status or reputation than they care about their child's walk with God? When's the last time you talked to your child about their schoolwork? And when's the last time you talked to your child about their soul? How much time have you spent this last year talking about issues that have nothing to do with their walk with God compared to the time that you sat down on their bed before they went to sleep and had a face-to-face conversation about the temperature going on in their heart toward Jesus?

And I'm not just talking about information. Beloved, listen, our children can spit out information and have a heart that is so far away from God, especially if they've grown up in a Christian home, sat in a Bible-teaching church, if they go to a Christian school. I mean, they can have a lot of stored-up information that has been in their mind but has never been assimilated into their own life and their own heart. And oftentimes when you talk to your kids about sermons and they give you the main points, you know, after the service in the morning, you're driving home, you say, "Oh, kids, let's talk about the sermon. Do you remember the main points?" "Oh, yes, yes." And they give you the main points, and they give you the main points very specifically and precisely. I want to encourage you to follow up by saying, "Great, that's a good outline, but what does that mean about your walk with God?" What effect is that going to have on your walk with God today and tomorrow and the day after? Are you walking with the Lord? Are you staying close to Him? Are you spending time in prayer? Are you spending time in the Word? Are you having those conversations with your kids? And, then, expand that out to wherever you have a ministry. When was the last time you asked someone in your sphere of ministry, "How's your walk with God?" Concern, affection, thanksgiving.

Fourth, instruction. Instruction. If we have genuine affection for people, if we understand that it's God who does good work in people—thanksgiving, right?—and if we have a true concern about their spiritual condition, if all those things are true, then what do we do in ministry to them? What's the chief thing that we do? We instruct. We instruct. We instruct them. We give them the Word of God. And I don't mean apart from prayer, obviously, and all the other means. But what you find Paul doing in this letter, in the letter in which he expresses affection and thanksgiving and concern—what does he do here particularly? He teaches. He teaches. He teaches them biblical teaching. If it's from a genuine heart, it's an expression of our affection for the people of God. See, it's all interconnected. It's an expression of our belief in God working in them. It's an expression of our true concern for the well-being of their soul. How am I concerned about your soul? By giving you the Word of God. How do I give God thanks for what He does in you? By trusting in the sufficiency of Scripture. And how do I show I really love you? By bringing the truth to bear upon your life.

We can put it another way. There are many people who claim in the name of Christ to have a love for the church, but they don't labor to teach the Word of God to their people. You say, "I really love my children." Well, what have you taught them? And, if you really love your kids, wouldn't you teach them the Scripture? Listen, if you love people, if you care about their soul, if you understand God's the one who does the work—well, what instrument does He use? What instrument does He use? What is that instrument that is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, that gets down between the bone and the marrow and works in a person's heart to a depth that we could never do on our own? What instrument does He use? The Word of God. The Word of God. And yet we say we care about people and we never speak truth into their life very often or sometimes. The right attitude for authentic ministry is an attitude that says, "Beloved, I will love you, I will care about you, and I will trust God's work in your life by trusting in the sufficiency of His Word in the hand of His Holy Spirit."

I want to teach the truth of God. But we know this, don't we? To be a teacher of truth, I have to be a learner of truth. Right? I have to be a learner of truth. I can't be a teacher if I'm not a student. I can't be a teacher if I'm not under the authority of the Lord Himself and if I'm not willing to be taught by others. The kind of teaching ministry that will impact people—the people that you love—is not one where you're always the teacher, but also where they can see you, that you're also a learner. When the day ever comes that I'm studying this book just to give you a message, I will cease to have the right understanding of this book.

Before I can say anything to you as God's people, it first has to speak to my own heart. God has to deal with me. My heart has to be brought to a place of submission to the very thing that I'm about to share with God's people and teach God's people. You don't teach the Word of God standing on it; you teach the Word of God standing under it or sitting under it. So that I'm never striving to stand here and say, listen, that's what you need to do. No, no, I'm saying by God's grace, here's what all of us need to do. Even when I use sometimes the "you," it's not that I haven't also been brought under the sound of God's Word myself. Here's what the Word of God says to me first and foremost, and then to you. So every bit of Bible study we ever do ought to be, ought to be, ought to be devotional.

You know people like to talk about devotional Bible study? How's your devotion? Do you have a devotional Bible study? Study Bible? What is a devotional Bible study? Well, here's a simple definition: it is studying the Word of God while you love the Lord. That's it. It's studying the Word of God while you love the Lord. And every bit of Bible study, every bit of it, ought to be devotional even when you're digging into the nuts and bolts of difficult passages. It's not out of, If it's not out of communion with God, if it's not out of genuine communion with God, listen then, beloved, close the book. It is a waste of time. This book was never meant to be just some kind of academic study like you're studying history in a classroom. This is fellowship with God. This is where we meet with God. This is where we hear the voice of God in the Scripture.

And I wonder if we don't teach our children the Word of God because we aren't learning it ourselves. What happens when you study the Word of God while you love the Lord? Oh, let me tell you. You get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your own heart and it just spills out. It pours out. It pours out. And please allow me to say this. When this happens, when you get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your own heart, when you study the Word of God while you love the Word of God and you get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your life, it just pours out. Nobody can shut you up. It is fire in your bones. So how can we have days and weeks go by in our families, in our interactions with others, where we don't talk about the Word of God? How can that happen? It's got to be because it's not pouring in. Right? Because if it's pouring in, what happens? It pours out. Can't help it. It pours out. It overflows.

Well, I must hasten to conclude. Affection, thanksgiving, concern, instruction. The fifth attitude is encouragement. Encouragement. Ministry must include exhortation. Must include exhortation. We are called not just to teach, not just to correct, but to encourage, to exhort. Whatever Paul could encourage, whatever Paul could encourage God's people for, he did. And when he did that, he was simply following the example of Christ Himself, His Lord.

And I think of a great example of this in the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. Because there, our Lord, the living, resurrected Christ demonstrates His love for His church through correction. You remember those seven letters. He corrects the churches there, doesn't He? He tells them what He sees that isn't right, that needs to be aligned or realigned. But what is also amazing about those seven letters, even when He's correcting some very serious things in those congregations, in most of those seven letters He also, what? Has commendation. Commendation. "Here's what I see in you that is praiseworthy."

Well, just to give you one example. Revelation 2. Look at verse 1: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says, ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, you also have not grown weary.’”
How does He begin? Commendation. “I know you're doing all these things.” Well done. Wonderful. I acknowledge them. I see them. I commend you for them.

Verse 4: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.” And what do you have there? Firm, stern correction. That's love too. That's love too.

But notice how He finishes. Verse 6: “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” And what is that? Commendation. Commendation.
How much exhortation, beloved, goes on in your ministry? How much encouragement comes from your lips? Do you love those people that you serve? Do you let those people that you're seeking to minister to know that you see what God is doing in their life? We have to ask ourselves, do we see the Lord doing good things? And if the answer is yes, then we have a responsibility to encourage. If the answer is yes, then we have a responsibility to encourage, to exhort and praise and not just correct.

When was the last time you told the person that you have a ministry with—husband, wife, child, brother, sister in Christ—when was the last time you told them what you see God doing in their life? Good things that you've seen the Lord produced in them–evidences of grace, growth in areas in their lives.

And Paul is not stingy with encouragement. Read this letter and you'll see what I'm talking about. His encouragement to these people is really throughout the letter. And it has to be authentic. I'm not talking about something we put on. We're not talking about something artificial. I'm talking about something from our hearts—genuine, real.

Let our affection be real. Let our thanksgiving be real. Let our concern be real. Let our teaching be authentic. Let our encouragement be real. Beloved, make no mistake about it: if you want to be effective in ministry, those five attitudes are absolutely essential. And may the Lord, beloved, grow each and every one of us to live out those five things that we see in the apostle as he writes this letter to these believers. Take stock of your ministry.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

One of the things that is so amazing about our God, and we know about our God, is that He's multitasked. And He is a God who is doing many different things at the same time. It's not ever really as if God is doing just one thing.

I mean, we look at this account here, and we know that Lazarus is sick unto death—not ultimately unto death, as Jesus is going to raise him, ultimately unto the glory of God—but he's going to die. And his sisters sent a message to the Lord, Jesus.

Jesus is, you remember, a day's journey away. And they sent a messenger with the confidence that if the Master knows that their brother is sick, if the messenger tells Him that he whom You love is sick, that Jesus will heal him. And so they send the messenger, and Jesus receives the message, and we read here, He stays where He is for two more days.

Now, on the surface, none of this seems to make sense. You wonder, well, what is the Lord Jesus doing? What is God doing in the midst of this situation?

Well, the fact is, He was doing more than one thing—more than one thing. He's going to glorify Himself. When Jesus heads to Bethany in Judea two days later, when He arrives there on the fourth day since Lazarus died, God is going to be glorified. He's going to be exalted in the raising of Lazarus. And the disciples are going to learn something through this, that Jesus says that He's glad that He wasn't there for their sakes, for the sake of the disciples.
Look at verse 15 (John 11): "I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe." So that in the raising of Lazarus, there's something that's going to be done in the lives of the disciples. God was doing something. Our Lord was doing something.
So there's the glory of God in the raising of Lazarus, and there's a lesson for the disciples in the raising of Lazarus—more than one thing that our Lord is doing.

But there's also something else that's being accomplished that I want us to see this morning, that I want us to fix our attention to this morning. There's a lesson that He's going to pass on to His disciples that takes place before the raising of Lazarus. Look again with me at verse 7.
We read, "Then after this He said to the disciples, 'Let us go to Judea again.' The disciples said to Him, 'Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?'"

You see, this doesn't have to do with Lazarus. This doesn't have to do with Lazarus. This has to do with what? Judea. Judea. This has to do with the safety of the Lord Jesus. And by the way, this also has to do in their minds with the safety of the disciples, because when Jesus insists on their going to Judea, notice what Thomas' response is down in verse 16.
Look at it: "Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go," —now watch this—"'so that we may die with Him.'" So this isn't about Lazarus. This is about something else.

And Jesus, in the midst of all of this, has a lesson for them. He says in verse 9, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of the world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." There's the lesson.

And this morning, I want us to think about this lesson, and I want us to think about it not only in terms of what it says about the life of our Lord Jesus when He was here on earth, and what it said to His disciples. I want us, beloved, to think about it in terms of what it says to us—as a church, as believers, as individual believers, and as a church together—because there's a lesson here about time, specifically about our time on this earth. It is fitting, beginning 2026, to consider this. A lesson about the time of Jesus on this earth, yes, but also a lesson about the time of His disciples on the earth, and about our time, as well, on this earth.

And I want us to consider six things that I would like to point out this morning from this text about this lesson, and the first one is this: our time as disciples of Jesus Christ, our time as believers, our time as children of God—and this is only true of children of God—our time is a classroom. Our time is a classroom. Our time on this earth is a classroom. That is, the Lord is teaching us during our time on this earth. He's teaching us.

We face things, all of us do. We face a variety of circumstances, situations. We face decisions we have to make. We face opportunities, tests, difficulties, hardships, trials, et cetera, et cetera.

And in the midst of all of it—whatever has happened in your life this week, even, whatever is taking place right now in your life—and some of these things you weren't even expecting, some of them may even have seemed strange or extraordinary, and in the midst of all of it, you need to know, beloved, that God is in control. God is sovereign. God is faithful. He's the God of lovingkindness, the God of *hesed*, as we were reminded last week. We need to remember that God is in control, that in this world of time, God is ruling. God is reigning. That you and I can really stand with confidence on this reality and the truth.

In the midst of all of this, the Lord reigns, supreme. That there's a throne in heaven, and that throne is standing, and that throne is not vacant. In this world of time, God is ruling. He rules over time. This is a freeing truth. He rules over time. He rules over the events that are taking place in time, the events in your life that are taking place in time. And when it comes to His children, in the midst of all of those things taking place in our lives in time, well, He is teaching us. He's teaching us. It's not random. Things just don't just happen. He's teaching us.

Lazarus is sick. This is a reality. He's going to die. This is a reality. He's going to be raised. It is a reality. But that's not the only thing taking place in the midst of these circumstances. So also something for the disciples to learn, and Jesus is going to teach them. So this setting is a setting of learning. This setting turns into a classroom, and there's something that Jesus has to teach them. And I think this is a great lesson for us, beloved.

The first question that we ought to ask, you and I—train your heart to do this, as I need to train my heart to do that—when anything takes place in our lives that we notice, that gets our attention, the first thing we ought to ask is, what is God teaching me in this? Naturally, we default into, why? But we need to train our hearts. What is God teaching me in this? What does God mean for me to learn through this? Whatever that is.

Jesus makes a decision, verse seven. He says, "Let us go to Judea again." And I want to emphasize, this is teaching time. This is teaching time. Because the very way—if you look at the text, especially in the original—if you look at the text, the very way that He words this is meant to turn their minds toward the danger.

I mean, think about this. He said, "Let us go to Judea again." Now, He could have said, "Let us go to Lazarus." But He didn't. He doesn't say that. He could have said, "Let us go to Martha and Mary." Well, He doesn't say that either. You say that would have turned their minds toward compassion, if He were to say, "Let us go to Martha and Mary." That would have turned their minds to compassion in the direction of concern. But He doesn't say it that way either.

He doesn't say, "Let us go to Bethany." Because even that would have evoked thoughts that were what? Nice, pleasant, right? I mean, this is where they live—Martha, Mary, Lazarus. This is where He had stayed with His disciples. He could have said it that way. But He doesn't say it that way. He simply says, "Let us go to Judea again." And the disciples know what they just left in Judea. They know exactly what they just left.

You go back to John 10, you remember, you look at verse 31: "The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him"—in Judea. So it wasn't the first time. Also, verse 39: "They were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp"—Judea. You see, this is something that's going on again and again and again. They're seeking the life of Jesus in Judea. They wanted to put an end to Him.

So when He says, "Let us go to Judea again," notice the reaction of the disciples in verse eight. "The disciples said to Him, 'Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?'" And by the way, that is in the emphatic position: "Are You going there again?" The end of the statement there—*Kai palin*—Are You going there and again? That's where it's placed, in that emphatic position. And again, Lord, You're going there? They thought this is suicidal. They thought this is something that would literally mean that He would lose His life.

That's why in verse 16, Thomas said, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him." I will talk about that in the future, Lord willing. His bravery and courage is admirable, but you'll see his perspective of it, right? This means He's going to die. That's what he thought. Judea—death.

Now, why does Jesus put it this way? Why does He bring it up the way He does in the words that He uses? Why does He do that? Because, beloved, He's teaching them something. He's teaching them something. And I want us to realize that no matter what it is that you're going through in this world of time as a child of God, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord is at work in your life—actively at work in your life—teaching you, growing you, molding you, shaping you, conforming you into the image that pleases Him, the image of His own Son. He's committed to that end.

So before we go any further this morning, just stop and reflect on what you faced this past week or what you're facing right now in your life and ask yourself the question: What does the Lord mean to teach me through this? Because He's teaching you something.

Which leads us to the second thing I want us to see. Not only is our time a classroom, but our time is determined by God. Our time is determined by God. Jesus says something to their response. "Are You going there again?" He says in verse nine, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" Interesting statement. Now it may have been a proverbial statement. They may have said this to communicate a point in that day. But one thing is clear though: the Jews divided the day into 12 hours. And so for them, there were 12 hours of daylight. And those 12 hours were fixed. Fixed.

Man does not determine time. God long ago determined time. So Jesus is saying, listen, there are 12 fixed hours in the day, aren't there? Hasn't God fixed the time? Isn't God the One who set these 12 hours in their place? Isn't He the One who controlled all of that? Do we have any control over that? Hasn't God done that? And something you see emphasized in the Word of God is that when it comes to time, God is the Master of time. God’s the One who’s determining the time. God is the One who set the timetable. The world, beloved, is on a divine timetable. Men aren’t controlling it.

I read this week about some clock that some scientists created when atomic weapons were developed. It’s called the Doomsday Clock. Maybe you’ve heard of it before. And they move the hand ever so often to say, now we’ve got so many minutes until midnight, and so forth. But what’s amazing to me is that they keep moving it back and forth. I mean, sometimes it’s 12 minutes to midnight. At some point, it’s seven minutes to midnight. In fact, in the 1950s, it was actually two minutes to midnight. And what they’re saying is that we are now closer to some sort of a nuclear holocaust or destruction.

Listen, beloved, we know how the world is going to end. Don’t we? We know how the world’s gonna end. And where do you find that? In Scripture. You find it in God’s Word, and it’s not going to be global warming that does us in. God is in control of this world. God is in control of the times. Remember what we studied recently, Galatians 4:4, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law." When did He come to this earth? In the fullness of time, when the time arrived. Not one minute before, not one minute after.

Mark 1:15, after the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus was preaching this: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." In John 7, when His brothers were urging Him to go up to the feast and make public that He’s the Messiah, wanting Him to be more public than He had been with His claims, we read in John 7:6, "Jesus said to them, 'My time is not yet here.'" Verse 8, He said, "Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up yet to the feast because My time has not yet been fulfilled." Chapter 7, verse 30, "So they were seeking to seize Him; yet no man laid his hand on Him." —Why? —"Because His hour had not yet come."

And this is not just true of Jesus. Do you realize this is true of all of us, beloved? You know, don’t you, that all of your days and my days were written down by God before you lived one of them? Isn’t that what the Scripture tells us? Psalm 139:16, "Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance; and in Your book all of them were written, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was not one of them." Our times are determined by God. Our time on this earth is determined by the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. Just as He says there are 12 hours in a day—God determined that—so your lifespan has been determined by God.

This leads to a third thing that I want us to recognize from this text. This time that we have is a classroom. This time that we have has been determined by God, and therefore, flowing out of the second lesson that we see here, our time cannot be shortened. Our time cannot be shortened. And that seems to be the main point of the comparison. You can't shorten time. You can't.

The day lasts; it always lasts as long as God has ordained. We don't have control over that. You and I don't have control over that. And what He's dealing with here is the fear that His disciples are experiencing. He wants them to know that they don't have anything to be afraid of. He's walking according to His Father's will, and until the Father's time for the Son on this earth is done, is complete, until that time is finished, Christ is untouchable, indestructible. There's nothing that can happen to Him until His Father's time for Him is done.

Isn't that what He tells Pilate? "You have no authority over Me." John 7:30—we just read it a second ago—They sought to arrest Him, but they were not able to arrest Him. Why not? "Because His hour had not yet come." It wasn't God's time. It wasn't. The time is coming, Jesus told the disciples, when the night will arrive, when His time on the earth will finish, and the cross is looming ahead, but it's according to God's timetable. But until that time, He has nothing to be concerned about. He just walks in His Father's will, and He is safe.

This is the main point of the statement: there are twelve hours in the day. It is fixed. There's no shortening of it. And as long as He walks in the Father's will, there's nothing to fear.
A. W. Pink, commenting on the statement, he says this:
"The great lesson for us in these two verses is this. No fear of danger or unpleasant consequences must detour us from doing our duty. If the will of God clearly points in a certain direction, our responsibility is to move in that direction unhesitatingly, and we may go with a double assurance that no power of the enemy can shorten our life till the divinely appointed task is done."

Commenting on this, James Montgomery Boice—listen to what he said:
"An important conclusion follows from this. We need not fear what people can do to us, or let me say it another way. If the prolonging of our days is in our hands, then we must be extremely careful in all we do."

Did you grasp that? I mean, if your day is saying, if the number of your days is determined by you, then you better be very careful, very afraid. He goes on to say:
"We must be cautious if that is the case. For instance, are you sure that you really want to make that trip by auto that you have planned for next summer? Many die on the roadways. You may be safer at home. Or again, are you sure you want to eat the kind of food that's served often at local restaurants? Perhaps it's not good for you. You may want to get on to health foods. Or again, are you sure you've had sufficient medical checkups? Perhaps you should have a checkup each month, or better yet, perhaps you should just check into a hospital permanently. Above all, be sure that you do not anger anyone. The person you anger may be the kind that kills people. Be careful not to stand for anything. You see my point."

He goes on to say:
"If God is not in control, if you're in control, then be fearful. On the other hand, if God orders the duration of your days, and if nothing can cut them short, then you can be bold to serve Him as Jesus was."

Now, obviously, we wholeheartedly agree with what Boice  is teaching in the context of the full counsel of God, and he's making a point here. There is some wisdom, though, that has to be applied to that truth, and we know that from Scripture. But we have to apply that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to say that our times are in the hand of God, and therefore it makes no difference. For example, what we do with our health is not wise. It's unwise. To say you never have to have checkups and you don't need to watch anything—well, no. There has to be wisdom here.But the fact is that if we're walking in the will of God, there's nothing to fear. That's the point. There's nothing to fear because our days have been fixed by the Lord. No cutting them short. Our time is a classroom. Our time is determined by God. Our time cannot be shortened.

And there's a fourth thing that we see here, but before we move on to the fourth thing, let me quickly say also that this doesn't just have to do with the duration of your life. It also can apply to the duration of your service somewhere.

Sometimes people say, you know, if I take this stand at work, or maybe they work for themselves and they've got a business, and they say, you know what? If I make this decision and that decision, here are the potential ramifications. Here are all the bad things that could happen to me. Listen, don't you understand, beloved? Your life is in the hand of God. You seek first God's kingdom, you obey Him, you walk with Him, and you have nothing to fear. If you're doing His will, you have nothing to fear.

Fourth, our time is not unlimited. It is not unlimited. Just like our time cannot be shortened, our time will not be extended. There are only twelve hours in a day—not thirteen, not fourteen, not fifteen. And what we see by that is we have limited opportunity. We have limited opportunity. There's a sense of urgency about our lives. I didn't say panic—not panic, not panic—but an understanding that actually time matters. It matters. Time is important.

In fact, do you know that it's a reflection of one's spiritual maturity and wisdom, what they do with their time? Jesus pointed this out in chapter 9, verse 4. He said to His disciples, you remember, "We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." My time on this earth is—it has an end. It's limited. And we must be about the things the Father has given Me to do, He tells them.

And the psalm that was read in your hearing earlier, the call to worship, Psalm 90, verse 12, Moses wrote, "So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." What is necessary for a heart of wisdom? The understanding that you don't have forever. The understanding that you don't have forever. What is necessary for a heart of wisdom? The understanding that your days are limited. The understanding that you're to number your days, that you're to make the most of the time that you have, to redeem that time.

Why didn't Jesus leave immediately to go to Lazarus? Right away? Why did He wait two more days? Well, maybe some will say, well, He was waiting for him to die. Well, no, that's not true. We've already seen that, haven't we? Lazarus was probably dead by the time the messenger even got to Jesus. And if he wasn't, he certainly died on the same day. It was one day's travel to Jesus. Jesus waited for two days, and it was one day's travel back. And when He arrived there, Lazarus had been dead for four days. So he had to die the same day the messenger was sent.

So therefore, that's not why Jesus waited. But one reason we're learning this morning—He had a lesson for His disciples. Right? But beyond that, do you realize Jesus also had something else to do for those two days? I mean, there was something the Father had given Him to do that required Him to remain where He was.
Beloved, your time is not unlimited, and wisdom is learning to number your days and to make the most of your time, which leads us now to the fifth thing. Our time is sufficient.

Our time is sufficient. That is, God gives us enough time to do the things that He's called us to do. Our time is sufficient. Did you hear that? God gives us enough time to do the things that He , that He has called us to do. Do you believe that this morning? Do you believe that? Do you believe that God would call you to do things that He doesn't give you the time to do? Or supply the strength to do it? Or He doesn't give you sufficient time to accomplish what He has for you to do?

Luke 24:44, "Now He said to them, 'These are My words,'" —Jesus is speaking—
 "'which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,'" —here it is— "'must be fulfilled.'" The life of Jesus on earth was not going to end until everything—everything—written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, was fulfilled.

And don't you get a sense when you read the Gospels? Don't you get a sense that Jesus was on a mission? I mean, all that He's doing, all of His decisions, marching forward on a divine timetable, on a divine clock, on a divine timetable towards an ultimate end. And I love the way it is worded in John 4:4, when He went to meet the woman at the well, "And He had to pass through Samaria." He had to pass. I mean, He's on a mission.

And then you take that lesson about our Savior, and you think about us. Does the New Testament teach us that we're to have a sense of mission? That we're to have a sense of importance—the importance of time? That we're not to be wasteful when it comes to these days that the Lord gives us?

Ephesians 5:16, you remember there in our study of that book, speaking to us, the disciples of Christ, we are called to redeem the time, to make the most of the time, because the days are evil. Colossians 4:5 says, "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, redeeming the time." Make the most of the opportunity. Only so many hours in a day. Only so many days in a lifetime. And wisdom is to redeem our time, to make the best use of our time—the sufficiency of time. God gives us the time necessary to do His will. Are we using the time wisely?

Now, let me pause here, and I want to hopefully have some boots on the ground here. I want to underscore, this becomes something very practical for us, because when it seems like you have 24 hours' worth of things to do, and only 12 hours in the day, you only have two choices. And I want us to think about that. Two choices. You have either 12 hours of fluff or junk in there somewhere, or you're not managing your time wisely.

Anybody ever feel that way? You have 24 hours' worth of stuff to do, and 12 hours to do it in? Let me ask you, what in your day, what in your schedule, is not really what God is giving you to do? What is it that you're doing that God hasn't given you to do? This becomes very, very practical. This goes to church attendance even sometimes, or as well sometimes. Just to use an illustration, midweek prayer meeting rolls around, someone says, "Well, I just couldn't be there. I had something I had to do." And beloved, listen, there are cases where that happens. That happens. And you are indeed, as you hear very often from this pulpit, providentially hindered. I know there are things that come up that just cannot be avoided.

But here's the question that we want to wrestle with, each and every one of us before God. How many of the things do we sometimes elevate to the category of unavoidable tasks that are truly things that cannot be avoided? And here's the question: Was that really on God's agenda for you? That was really what He wanted you to do? And those of you perhaps in our midst who have control over your schedule, you're in business for yourself, or you have the kind of job where you have freedom with your schedule, are you making wise choices with what you're doing? Some of these things that seem so important, is it really on the same place on God's priority list for you, as you put it?

These are all questions. This is not designed to make anyone feel saddled with guilt, but really self-examination under God to really evaluate my time in my life.

Am I—and I'm not just talking about church as well. I'm talking about time with your family when I say church attendance, but also I'm not talking about only church attendance. I'm talking about time with your family. I'm talking about time with the Lord in His Word. Does the Lord really have you so busy that you feel like you can't spend time in His Word?
"Oh, I'm so busy. There's so many things. The Lord understands. I'm not going to read. I'm not going to be in prayer. I'm not going to be in the book. I'm not going to be on my face before God." You can't find time in your schedule for time alone with God? Does God really have you that busy? How much of this represents a divine assignment? How much of this represents misplaced priority? So that's one possibility when it seems like you have more to do in a day than you have time for. How much of it is stuff that you've added and it's not God's priority for you?

But there's another way to look at this as well. That is, sometimes it is due to mismanagement of our time. It's not that we don't have enough time. It's that we don't use our time wisely and we don't learn to say no to certain things or delegate.

Something you learn over the years: some of the busiest-looking people you'll ever see in your life—some, some, not all—some are the most inefficient people you'll ever meet in your life. The reason they always look busy is because they don't know how to manage their time. They don't know how to prioritize and get things done.

There are 12 hours in a day. God has something for us to do in those 12 hours. And yes, it's true, it's true to say that they won't be cut short. There's safety, but they won't be extended. So there's priority. Do we know what it is to find from the Word of God what the priorities of God are for my life so that my life is lived in such a way that reflects wisdom? See, that requires me to study the Word of God and figure that out. Lord, teach us to number our days so that we may present to You a heart that is wise, and wisdom is reflected in how we manage our time. Our time must be used wisely. God has given us enough time to do what He's called us to do.

Couldn't help but think of Jonathan Edwards. Wrote down a list of goals so that he could walk in biblical wisdom. He called them his resolutions—70 of them. He began writing his resolutions in 1722, less than a year after he came to know the Lord Jesus and when he was about 18 years of age. Eighteen. He wrote 21 of the 70 in one sitting, and he steadily refined them and wrote additional ones for about a year, completing them in August of 1723 before he was 20.

Here are some excerpts from his finished set. Quote, "Being sensible that I'm unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these resolutions so far as they are agreeable to His will for Christ's sake. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory and my own good profit, in the whole of my duration, the whole of my life." He says, "Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live. Resolved, never to do anything that I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. Resolved, to always be finding out fit objects of charity and liberality." In other words, people whom he could help financially. "Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently that I may find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same." He said, "Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be." In other words, never give up. And then there's this one: "Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it the most profitable way I possibly can."

And resolutions are a wonderful tool, but they're ineffective if you never look at them. And so Edwards, at the beginning of his list, he writes this: "Remember to read over these resolutions once a week." Elsewhere he said, he wrote, "Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month, and year wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better."
Beloved, a wise life is an examined life. It's a life in which opportunities to pursue biblical wisdom are not wasted. And by the way, that includes as well times of rest.

The last thing I would mention this morning as we close is that our time in God's will is a place of safety. Our time in God's will is a place of safety. And this is important for us to keep in mind.

Notice what He added here, our Lord, back to John 11 and verse 9: "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" And so here's the application—here's His application: "If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."

And it's pretty clear there's a double meaning here, right? There's a double meaning in His words. If you take the physical illustration, He's saying, when you walk in the daylight, that's not when you stumble around. So when you're walking around in the night, that's when you stumble. I've got to remember that we're pretty much used to streetlights. You drive around and there's streetlights everywhere, unless you go somewhere really away from the city. But we're pretty much used to streetlights. But in this day and age, there weren't any streetlights. And so if you're walking around at night, you can't see very much. The darkness is very dark. And that's when people stumble. That's when people would be injured.

And so He's saying, listen, I'm walking in the day. I'm walking. And here's the double meaning of His words: I'm walking according to My Father's timetable. I'm walking in the will of the Father. There's the daylight. When you walk in the will of God, there's the daylight. There's the daylight. And someone who walks in the day doesn't stumble. In other words, there's safety.
Though it may seem dangerous, though from a human vantage point it may seem risky, there's safety. There's really only one thing that any of us has to determine: Father, is this Your will as revealed in Your Word, with the principles that You've given me and Your Word in my hand? And if it is His will, there's no danger in it. There's no danger in it. There's safety in it.

Now, beloved, that doesn't mean there won't be persecution in the way of God. That doesn't mean there won't be martyrdom as we walk in the will of God. We've seen in church history. That's not what He means. It's not physical safety necessarily. There's nothing to fear when you are in the will of God, which is good, pleasing, and perfect. Don't fear him who can kill the body, right? But fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. But if now we have peace with God, there's nothing to fear. And you know, our time can't be shortened. No one can lay a finger on you. You are immortal until your time and your ministry and your purpose on earth is complete. Do we have to fear going back to Judea again? Not if that's the Father's will. Walk in the light. Walk in the daylight.

Now, here's what you need to fear. You need to fear life outside of the light. You see, you need to fear life outside of the light. And here's another meaning of the word. Christ is the light. Doesn't that come to mind when you read the light of the world, "the light of this world," verse 9? Don't you think of the Lord Jesus Christ? And He's ultimately that. And we've already seen that in the book of John, John chapter 8. And you see it in the book of 1 John as well.
To walk after Christ, to follow after Christ, to walk in His will—that's light. And that's a life of fulfillment. That's also a life of safety. Christ is God's light. And we're safe as followers of Christ. But then there are those people who walk outside of the light, outside of God's light. They don't have light in them. They're walking in darkness. They don't have proper understanding of the times. They don't know that their time, their life is in the hand of God. They don't know that their time is determined by God.

In fact, sadly, tragically, they foolishly think that they have some hand in how long it is they're going to live on this earth. Maybe there's even someone who thinks this way here in our midst, who thinks in themselves, "You know, I'm going to live till I'm 100. I'm going to make sure of it. I'm going to exercise, work out, eat healthy, eat the right thing. I'm not going to do certain things. I'm going to do everything that I can to live a long life." And then all of a sudden—boom. They're gone. Healthy a moment ago, but now dead. How foolish that is. How dangerous that is to think that you have your life in your hands.

But someone who's walking in the light understands just the opposite. My life is in His hand. My life is in the hand of God. My times are fixed by Him so that I can boldly serve Him without fear because He is in control.

I want to ask you this morning as we close: Are you in the light? Or are you in darkness? Are you in the light? Do you have Christ, the light of the world? Do you know God? Have your sins been forgiven, wiped away completely through the shed blood of Jesus on Calvary's cross? Do you know the resurrected Son of God? Do you know Him personally? Do you have a relationship with Him? Do you walk in His will?

Do you know God? Are you in the light? Or are you in the darkness, stumbling around trying to figure out the meaning of life, thinking that your life is in your hand, that you are the master of your own ship, the captain of your own ship? Is that you? Do you know that God fixes your times? Do you live your life boldly—not foolishly, not unwisely—but confidently, knowing that God has your life in His hand? And are you prioritizing your time according to the will of God revealed in His Word?

Do you say along with Moses, Lord, teach me to number my days so that I can present to You a heart of wisdom? It's not a waste of time to go to work. God has ordained that we work to support our families. It's not a waste of time to do many of the things that we do. But beyond those things, and even how we handle those necessary things, it ought to reflect our knowledge of God, our knowledge of His truth, our knowledge of the brevity of life, our knowledge of the eternity to come. We ought to be living our lives in light of eternity, beloved. That's wisdom. Is that how you're living your life?

Only when you walk in the light, only when you know the Lord, only when you know Christ Jesus, the Light of the world, will you ever be able to approach time the way that it really is. May God help us to do that, 2026. Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

So we have been considering this text together for the past two Lord's Days, and we have sought to open up the text by making some general observations, and three of them to be more specific. And I'm just going to mention them just to refresh our memory. And the first one is that this text really is universally extensive. It applies to everyone at all times. It is absolutely binding to everyone at all times, and it is definitively applied. It has to do with this matter of the transgression. This sin, the kind of sin, which is open rebellion. Open rebellion. High-handed rejection of God's word, disobedience, against a known precept of the living God.

Then we began an exposition under the specific explanation, an exposition of the negative statement of the text, where it divides itself into negative and positive. And the first portion is the negative: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." You remember we dealt with question number one: What does it mean to cover transgression? And it simply means, upon the discovery of sin, the knowledge of sin, upon the discovery of transgression, to refuse a full, honest confession of that sin before God. It is to refuse to seek forgiveness Godward and, where necessary, manward.

And then we dealt with the second question: What do men do to attempt to cover their sin, to conceal their sin, their transgression? And we saw biblical examples of various ways in which men attempt to cover, to conceal their transgressions. And just again, I'll mention simply the statements, the examples, the various cloaks by which men seek to conceal their transgressions: the cloak of silence in Psalm 32; the cloak of transfer of responsibility and guilt—you know, blame shifting—in Genesis 3; the cloak of rationalization in 1 Samuel 15; the covering of religious activity as in Mark 12 and Isaiah 58. And then, of course, you have the covering, the garb of misconceptions of God in Psalm 50. And then you have the covering of the framing of lies, as in the case of Cain, Joseph's brethren as well, and others.

We then considered the third question, question number three: What is the result of the concealing of transgressions? What is the result of that? And the result is stated in the simple words, "shall not prosper." End of the first part of the verse: "He who conceals his sins will not prosper," "shall not prosper." And the general meaning of the word "prosper" has to do with the concept of flourishing, faring well, succeeding, obtaining success. And so Solomon says the man who covers his transgressions, no matter what covering he uses, he shall not have success, shall not fare well, he shall not flourish, he shall not prosper. And the words have to do with those things that are spiritual blessings, without which a man cannot truly live now and without which he cannot really face the world to come.

We then consider the question: What do those words mean in relationship to the unconverted, those who are outside of Christ? And we saw from Scripture together that this meant at least a number of very frightening things. It means that they shall not prosper now, nor shall they prosper in the future. They will know nothing of a pacified conscience through the blood of Christ, nothing of the peculiar joys of the people of God. And then in the future, they shall die without the comforts of Christ and go to judgment without the protection and the advocacy of Jesus Christ. And then they will pass into the everlasting state without the presence of Christ to become an eternal exposition of the meaning of the text. And I'm talking, when I say "without the presence of Christ," I'm talking about fellowship, communion, and intimacy. "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."

And having considered how it is that the unconverted who cover their sins and their transgressions do not and cannot prosper, we began last Lord's Day to consider the application of the text to the converted, the people of God. And we just touched—really, we introduced—the first one last Lord's Day evening. It is tragic, a tragic reality, come to think of it, that the people of God, the converted, those who are bought with the precious blood of Jesus, are also involved in this dastardly work of making coverings for their sins at times.

And let me pause for a minute and underscore what I mean when I say the application of the text to the converted, the people of God. To the people of God, I mean nothing less than those who are born of God, born from above, those who, in the language of the Apostle Paul, have been made new creatures in Christ through union with Jesus Christ.

I'm not speaking of those who have merely made a profession of faith in Christ, who have merely conformed to a religious heritage that has brought them into proximity with the people of God, nor am I referring to those who simply engage in a certain number of religious duties that are connected with the church of Christ. When I use the term "converted" or "the people of God," I mean nothing more or less than those men and women, boys and girls, who by the work of the Spirit of God through the Word, have been brought to a conscious awareness of what they truly are by nature. And what are they by nature? Lost, rebel, guilty, undone sinners, who by the same Spirit, the same Word, have been brought to that glorious discovery of God's way for pardoning sins and sinners through the work of Jesus Christ.

And by the same Word and Spirit—Spirit of God—not only have they made that discovery of their desperate need and that discovery of God's remedy for their need to be found in Christ exclusively, but they have been brought, in the language of Acts 20 and verse 21, to deep inward repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been constituted new creatures in Christ. That's what I mean by the converted. That's what the Bible means by the converted, the people of God, because that's what the Scripture means when it speaks of such. Now it is to such people, those who have had that new principle implanted within that commits them to righteousness and holiness and Christ-likeness—to pursue that, to have the beginnings of God's mighty work in conforming them to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. That's who we're referring to.

It is to such people who are the recipients of such mercies, who have such glorious destiny, but—shame of shames, shame of shames—are yet guilty of covering their transgressions. And whenever they do, the people of God will find this text coming down upon them with inescapable authority: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." Even though he's a child of God, he shall not prosper. Last week we began to consider some of the ways in which a child of God does not prosper when he covers his transgression. And as I thought about this again this week, I really want to do so under the concept of forfeiture. Forfeiture.

Let me explain. As I was preparing for this week, I really sought a word that would most powerfully and clearly set forth the teaching of the Word of God. And the word that I was fixed upon is this word: forfeiture. Now when you forfeit something, you give up something, right? You relinquish something because of a crime or a fault or neglect. You're guilty. And so when the child of God covers his transgressions, his non-prospering is seen primarily in terms of—I want us to think beyond a loss to forfeiture. He forfeits it.

And the first one, so we can put it this way, that we looked at, we began to look at last Lord's Day, is that the—and this is perhaps most important—is this: that there will be the forfeiture of the enjoyment of God. There'll be the forfeiture of the enjoyment of God. Last week I said "the loss." I want to change that word "loss" to "forfeiture of the enjoyment of God." And we looked at that. We began to look at that together.

Psalm 51, verse 8. David, in this psalm of confession, this penitent psalm, "Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which You have crushed rejoice." See, there was a total loss of the enjoyment of God as long as he kept silent. This is the same psalmist who could say, "In Your presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). And if that is true, then the opposite is true. In Your absence is full—what? Misery. And for the Christian, there's nothing more tragic, more painful than the loss of the enjoyment of God. It lies at the root of most prayerlessness and most neglect of Scripture. Because you have this mirror, you don't want to be exposed, right? So you just don't have the appetite for it. You avoid it.

In the second place—and I must say, I mean, this is really closely connected—and I was wrestling whether to keep it under the same heading, but I just want to expand on it. You can see it as a double-sided coin with the first consequence for a child of God covering his transgression. So we can put it this way: there will be, as fulfillment of this text, also the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. There will be the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. And they're closely connected. But I want to elaborate a little bit. This is quite important for us.

Next to love, these are the great fruits of the Spirit. One of the great truths of Galatians 5, verse 22—we read, "The fruit of the Spirit is" what? "Love, joy, peace." You see them closely connected. See how they're put at the top of the list? You find a similar centrality of emphasis in the passage, the likes of Romans 14 and verse 17. And you remember in that context, Paul is treating the whole subject of Christian liberty and of things indifferent, and what a Christian ought to do with things that are not clearly condemned by the law of God.

And in this setting, the things were external matters. And Paul wants to inject a principle that ought to govern all such discussion. And so he says this, Romans 14:17: "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking." It doesn't consist, in other words, in these external things. But, he says, this is what it consists of: "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." “Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.

You see, the predominant characteristic of those who have been introduced to the kingdom of God is that they stand upon the ground of an imputed and alien righteousness in the favour of God. And they have the inward delight of joy and peace imparted by God the Holy Spirit. And when the child of the kingdom transgresses and does not flee to Christ for cleansing and have his conscience sprinkled afresh, sprinkled anew, what happens? What happens in that instance? There's the forfeiture of that joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.

A classic example, of course, is given to us in none other than David, King David. David, whose psalms are full of joy and peace, which are really the hallmark of those in the kingdom of righteousness. What happens? What happens to those commodities that are found again and again in psalm after psalm after psalm? When David sinned, you remember, we find in the language of Psalm 32 that they were the forfeiture of this joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Psalm 32. Notice the language of Psalm 32, one of David's great penitential psalms. In the first two verses, he speaks of the blessedness of those whose sins have been covered by God. But then he reflects upon the misery of those who cover their own sins and will not confess them and will not forsake them.

Notice how vigorous is the language. Look at verse 3: "When I kept silent about my sin." “When I kept silent”. There was not that agreeing with God about the heinous nature of his sin. There was no confession. There was no brokenness that led to confession. There was casting over the cloak of silence, of rationalization to cover it. "When I kept silent about my sin," what happened? "My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." Now watch this: "For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer."

See what he said. In place of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, there was what? Misery, disturbance, and inward disruption of the soul. There was agony, inward disruption of the soul. He describes his condition in the language of groaning all day long. Groaning. Think about this. All you need to do is hear a person groan once a day and that's enough to help you really never forget it. The groan of pain, the groan of disappointment, or the news of some tragedy.

What he said, he groaned not just once a day, but the whole day, the entire day. And it was so opposite of his state of joy that he said his vitality was changed into the drought of summer. When a man cries himself until there are no more tears to come out, he has nothing but the dry sobs of a broken spirit, shattered spirit. What happened? Oh, he sinned. He transgressed. And instead of confessing and forsaking his sin, his transgression, what did he do? He covered it. He covered it. And in covering it, God said, "He who concealed his transgressions shall not prosper." And so he forfeited joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

Mark it well, mark it well, dear child of God, no true joy and peace will ever be found but in righteousness and the true penitence that leads to righteousness. Now there's a false peace and false joy that bypasses and honours dealing with sin. The heart is deceitful. This is one of the major complaints against modern movements that claim to have a monopoly on the work of the Holy Spirit and get people all happy and joyous and excited and mushy and syrupy and all of that, you know. They do not deal with sin. They avoid dealing with sin. Replace it with an experience, seek an experience.

And as one of the writers said, it will be like having gin in your orange juice. And they talk about tingles down up your spine and when someone lays hands upon you and the feeling of what they call liquid love flowing over you. But here's the question: where is the dealing with sin? If you forfeited joy and peace because of sin, there's no way to its restoration but to go to the place where the Spirit of joy and peace was grieved and renew communication of those blessed commodities. And having dealt with those points of controversy, dealings with God, then plea that the Spirit of God will impart those graces again.

And isn't that what we find in Psalm 51? Look at the language. Psalm 51. Psalm 51. David having owned his sin, which is right after Nathan said to him, "You're the man, David," and David said, "I have sinned." Having owned his sin, and not until then, not until then, mark it, not until then. The first seven verses are preoccupied with the reality and the ugliness and the guilt of sin.

If you look at the first seven verses, what do you have? I mean, you can see him preoccupied with the reality and the ugliness and the guilt of sin. "My transgressions," he says, "my iniquity, my sin." In other words, my guilt, my wickedness, my uncleanness. Verse 7, "Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Then and only then would he pray for the restoration of joy.

Now he dares to say in verse 8, "Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have crushed rejoice." Oh Lord, it was my transgression that brought the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. David knew that to seek the restoration of joy without dealing with the occasions of its forfeiture was to try to make mockery of God. And dear one, you could try to encourage yourself—or to put it this way, to chuck yourself under the chin with a hundred verses from a promise box that is supposed to make you happy and feel good. But if you're covering sin, you shall not prosper in having true joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It'd be like a band-aid solution.

Now false peace can be conjured up by the flesh as well as promoted by false prophets. You just read the book of Jeremiah and you see that Jeremiah's great complaint was every time he tried to tell people, you've warned them concerning what is impending. I mean, you've got peace, but that's not peace, he tells them. He warns them against this false peace. He says, you've got peace—well, it's not really peace. It's not the peace that is “kissing righteousness”, to use the language of Psalm 85, the psalm that was read in your hearing earlier in verse 10.

The false prophets came along and, in the language of Jeremiah, said, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). You better fear peace and joy that are divorced from righteousness as much as you fear hell itself, because "he who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."

Child of God, may I ask you this evening, what sin is worth the broken bones of forfeited peace? If "the joy of the Lord is our strength," in the language of Nehemiah 8:10, then the absence of that joy is what? Our weakness.

What sin is worth being so weak, so crippled? I plead with us, all of us, including myself, hear the Word of God from the pen of Solomon: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive compassion."

Thirdly, the child of God shall not prosper when he covers his transgressions, because he comes to the forfeiture of access to God in prayer. The forfeiture of access to God in prayer. When the child of God sins, transgresses—particularly in the area of transgression, conscious of his area of transgression against the law of God—and he does not immediately flee for cleansing to the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and renewing, quickening by the Spirit of Christ, one of the first ways in which he no longer prospers is precisely in this area. There's the forfeiture of access to God in prayer.

No privilege, no privilege of the child of God is of greater worth to him than the liberty of access to his God in prayer in the Spirit of Sonship. Listen to the Word of God. Galatians 4:4, "And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And one of the surest marks that you are a Christian, a true Christian, is that when I say something like there's no privilege of greater worth to the Christian than the privilege of access to God in prayer, your heart leaps out and says a spontaneous, Amen. It is so.

What is wealth? What is health if there's a brassy heaven? But if there's an open heaven so that when we pray, we are conscious of having access to God, entering into the most intimate form of communion possible to the sons of men here upon the earth, we are conscious of the unspeakable privilege of that access—that God hears us, God inclines His ear. He delights to hear the prayers of His children.

But, and here we must be careful to understand the teaching of the Word of God and follow closely, beloved. This is really important. Though the ground of this access to God in prayer is outside of us, in Christ, the condition of that access is a good conscience within us. Let me say that again. Though the ground of this access is outside of us, it is in Christ. The condition of that access is a good conscience within us.

Turn please to 1 John 3:21. And I want us to see this connection. 1 John chapter 3 in verse 21. We read the following, beloved: "If our heart does not condemn us” - right?- “If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from Him because." Because. Here's a cause-effect relationship. "Because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." You see it? See what John is saying?

Now John is not saying that we have built up a certain amount of merit by our own obedience that now makes our obedience the ground of access to God in prayer. No, no. It's not what he's saying. Remember, it's John who recorded the words of Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." It is John who said, "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1–2). No, no. John has not forgotten his theology of the objective provision for sinners—being found in Christ and Christ alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

But John is saying that there's an inward personal condition if that access is to be enjoyed. And here it is: "If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." And what is the opposite of keeping His commandments? Well, surely it is covering our transgressions. For whenever sin or transgression is detected in a believer, the commandment of God comes home to his conscience that he is to confess that transgression. He is to turn from it. He is to acknowledge it before his God and seek cleansing in the blood of Jesus.

Therefore, when our text says, "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper," in its application to the child of God, it is saying this: Child of God, when you transgress, and rather than go through whatever kind of spiritual agony is necessary to come to true confession before God—and where necessary, before men—anything short of that, you're covering your sin. And you're covering your sin and covering your sin, you shall not prosper. There will be the forfeiture of access to God in prayer.

The psalmist stated it in those well-known words in Psalm 66:18, "If I see wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." The Lord will not hear. If I see—that is, if I am conscious of its presence—but I throw the blanket of rationalization over it, I throw the blanket of shifted responsibility, I throw the covering of a lie, I throw the covering of refusing to drag it out into the blazing light of the law and the gospel. If I regard iniquity, if I countenance iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

Now, I did not say that God will paralyze a Christian so that he cannot say a prayer. Many of us have gone to our closet many times to say our prayers, that prayer closet, but there's been no access. There's been no experimental communion with God. Why? Because God is going to be true to His Word: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." And because we've covered transgression, regarded iniquity, God has refused to us the blessing of access.

There's no Christian who has walked with God for any length of time at all who does not know to his bitterness how real this is. He attempts to draw near to God and do something more than say his prayers. He wants to engage God in prayer. He wants access, and every time he gets down to serious business with God, as it were, that sin that he's been covering, that transgression that he knows he's been really covering, looms before him, really just gnawing his conscience.

Perhaps you are a living monument of the text. You're covering transgression. Oh yes, there's been some clever rationalization. There's been some very, you know, delicate, fancy footwork as you've woven your lies, perhaps as you spun out that very clever shifting of responsibility, but you're covering your transgression. You're a living monument to this text: "shall not prosper." Why? For some of you, perhaps, maybe, it's been weeks and months since you've accessed God in prayer that you once knew in the past. And now you say your prayers, but you have no access. Why? Because, beloved, God's Word is true: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."

Child of God, this text is for our warning. Is anything worth the forfeiture of access to God in prayer? Is anything worth that? Not if you've tasted it. Not if you've really tasted it.

Well, that leads us to the fourth way this manifests itself or the consequence. There will be the forfeiture of usefulness in the service of God. There'll be the forfeiture of usefulness in the service of God. Psalm 51:12–13, David again in that psalm, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation. Sustain me with a willing spirit. Then"—right?—"Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You."

The Lord Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. But I have prayed earnestly for you that your faith may not fail. And you, once you have returned"—that is, when you have turned again, when you are brought to deal honestly with your sin of denial—He says, "strengthen your brothers." Usefulness. "Restore to me, then I shall teach." "Once you have returned, strengthen your brothers."

When we begin to understand the clear teaching of Scripture—that every member of the body has a distinct and special function of ministry, both to the saints and to the world—what a tragic thing it is when sin is being covered, when transgression is being concealed. For whenever there is the covering of sin, there is no prosperity. You shall not prosper, child of God. There will be loss—the loss of usefulness in the service of God. There will be inability to see needs that you, under God, are able to meet. Or, if there is ability to see it, there will be no heart to meet it. And if there is ability to see and a heart to meet, there will be no enablement from the Holy Spirit to perform. And without all three, there is no true ministry.

"He that conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." The loss of enjoyment, the loss of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, the loss of usefulness in the service of God.

Fifthly, there may be the forfeiture of assurance that one is a child of God. The forfeiture of assurance that one is a child of God. David had to pray in verse 11 and 12 in Psalm 51, "Do not cast me away from Your presence. Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."

And again, I must say this, even though we've been studying John together and marvelous truth that we've studied again and again and again, let us be crystal clear again. The Scripture never teaches that a child of God ever falls away from grace. What God begins, He completes. We're saved forever. But my assurance that I'm in a state of grace can fluctuate due to my covering of sin.

And if we know our Bible, we know that our Scripture teaches that no Christian lives under the dominion of any sin. He's fighting sin. He's engaged in a battle. He may fall into sin, but he does not live in the dominion of any sin. Sin no longer reigns in us. It remains in us. There's the remains of sin, but it doesn't reign.

For you see, when there's a sin that's been covered for a period of time, then you have reason to begin to question, is that merely the fall of a man in grace? Or is that the revelation that there's no grace to begin with? And a man's assurance will be what? Shaken. And when a man of God who's known true assurance has that assurance shaken, he's like Bunyan's pilgrim when he lost his roll. He was filled with grief and sought it with tears until he found it again and placed it in his bosom.

If you have known a well-grounded biblical assurance based upon the sure promises of God's mercy to those who believe in Christ—an assurance based not only on the objective promises, but the evidences of a transformed life and the witness of the Spirit of God— I mean you could draw very little comfort from the objective promises when your life is questionable and when a grieved Spirit withdraws His presence in terms of His favor and power upon your life.

Now, the way you're going to start back is to hold tight to His promises when you're prepared to deal and have dealings with God concerning your sin. But you're trying to suck sweetness from the promises while you're still covering your transgression, dear one. You're turning the grace of God into a license to sin. And the conscience of a Christian when he's wrestling with some concealed transgression will try to get adjusted so it may find comfort in the promises and in the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. And that, beloved, is a butchering of the intent for which God gave those promises. They were meant to encourage us in the pursuit of holiness, not in the clinging to sin.

Am I talking tonight to someone who has known the blessed assurance of his standing—grace—but who this evening, under the convicting power of the Spirit of God, sees that the whole issue is up for questions? Why? Because sin has been covered. Sin is being covered.

In the sixth place, the child of God shall not prosper in that he will not only forfeit the enjoyment of God, forfeit joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, forfeit access to God in prayer, forfeit usefulness in the service of God, forfeit his assurance that he's a child of God. I mean, you could see the consequences. Is it worth it? But also, he will provoke the rod of God. He will provoke the rod of God.

Turn to Psalm 32. Look at verse 3 and 4: "When I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For.” - See that little word For? It's really key.- “For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer."

Listen to what one commentator writes concerning this little word "for" here in this context: "'For,’ and I quote, explains why David wasted and groaned. It was retributive punishment directly from God. God's finger can crush us. What must His hand be? And pressing heavily and continuously. Under terrors of conscience, men have little rest by night, for the grim thoughts of the day dog them to their chambers and haunt their dreams, or else they lie awake in a cold sweat of dread." And he ends with this: "God's hand is very helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down. Better a world on the shoulder like Atlas than God's hand on the heart like David." End of quote.

When you're dealing with a Christian—1 Corinthians 11—God determines that he shall not continue to cover his sin, that his sin shall be brought into the open, that he shall be brought back into the way of pursuing a life of holiness. And so Paul there in 1 Corinthians 11, dealing with the specific sins of the Corinthians, he writes this in verse 30: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world."

In other words, you Corinthians, by the sins you've committed, the sins you've covered, you provoke the rod of God's chastisement, God's discipline. And some of you are afflicted physically. You're weak. You're sickly. You find yourself afflicted with physical maladies. And some are, in fact, asleep. That is, they've come to death because God is so determined that He won't let you continue down that path, no longer bring reproach to His name by the sin that you've been covering.

Child of God, do you have a healthy fear of God's rod of correction? Do you fear your Father's rod? God's spankings come with sufficient severity that the child of God has a wholesome fear of the rod of His heavenly Father—loving heavenly Father.

Now, word of caution—and we've seen this before—but again, it is important to underscore here: again, not all sickness is an expression of the rod of God due to sin covered or transgression concealed. Some sickness is evidence that a man is walking blamelessly before God, and Job is the classic example. He was afflicted not because he was covering his sin, but because of his godliness—that his love for God was not circumstantial.

And so we must not say that if we see someone constantly afflicted physically, "Aha, they must be concealing sin." No, no. You ask yourself when affliction comes, "Lord, is it because I fail to judge myself?" And God wants us to know—it's like a puzzle. It's not like a puzzle. It's not like He's trying to hide it from us. He wants us to see it and deal with it and have dealings with Him.

So we ask Him, "Is this evidence of the truth of Proverbs 28:13, that “he who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper?"” “Lord, am I weak, and am I dealing with all of this because I've covered transgression?” Let us judge ourselves before whose eyes all things are naked and open.

There are other manifestations of the fulfillment of this text, and I'll close with this tonight. "Shall not prosper" with respect to the present. And time will not permit us, but anyways, I want to close by saying that, child of God, you shall not prosper with respect to future prospect as well.

You cannot be covering sin and maintaining a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ. So we can put it this way: there will be the forfeiture of a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ.

You see, the two are utterly impossible—concealing sin and maintaining a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ. The two are impossible to maintain. Turn with me to 1 John 2:28, and we'll close with that tonight: "And now, little children,”- look at it - “Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He is manifested, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming."

You see it? You know, child of God, as well as you know your own name, that there will be no rationalization, there will be no transferal of responsibility, blame shifting, there will be no equivocation. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, you know when your eye meets the eye of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, all coverings will be consumed and you have to face your sin honestly.

If you're not living conscious that His eye is upon you—*Coram Deo*—so you can say, "Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, to the best of my knowledge, anything that Your Word and Your Spirit have revealed to me as transgression, as sin, my posture towards it is full and open confession by Your grace. My disposition is one of turning away from it by Your grace."

If you can't say that, then you have no joyful anticipation of the return of Jesus. When you know you have a controversy with the Lord Jesus, there's no joyful anticipation when He comes to take His church. Joyful anticipation of the return of Christ as the motivational life of a child of God—one of the most powerful motivating elements for faithfulness, for diligence in service—that is cut by the concealing of transgression in the life of a child of God.

How often the New Testament epistles make reference to the hope of His coming, and how often is the driving motive in the life of a Christian the fact that His Lord is coming. And dear one, you have no joyful anticipation of His coming if you're covering transgression—none whatsoever. And that's just a preview of the shame that shall be your portion when you meet Him if your sin is concealed.

There is a biblical doctrine of rewards for faithfulness, and there will be loss of rewards for unfaithfulness. And I don't think we can fully grasp all that is involved in this doctrine, but this much we know for sure: if I'm covering my sin, if I'm concealing transgression, I shall not prosper. For I cannot receive the full reward of a well-accomplished stewardship if my usefulness in the service of God is crippled because I conceal transgression.

If I carry out my service with no enjoyment of God because I'm covering sin, if I try to serve God while my own assurance is shaken, if I'm lying beneath the rod of God's righteous discipline, how can I serve with the freedom of a freshly purged conscience? No wonder Paul said, "I also do my best," Acts 24:16. "I also do my best"—this is Paul speaking—"I also do my best to maintain always a conscience without fault, both before God and before men." To maintain a conscience free of offense, without fault, both before God and before men. Oh, the blessedness of having a conscience void of offense to God and to my fellow men.

How can I have a conscience without offense toward God? Only by the blood of sprinkling. Only by bringing my sins, my transgressions, my shortcomings, my offenses out of my coverings and concealments, and honestly, and with true transparency and humility, cry out before the living God, "Oh God, I have sinned. I have sinned against You, and You only have I sinned." And how do I have a conscience without offense toward my fellow man? Well, whenever my confession must be horizontal, I'm willing to humble myself and make that confession to my spouse, to my child, to my friend, to my brother, to my work colleague. It doesn't matter. If I need to make it, I'll make it. Because "he that covers transgressions shall not prosper."

Maybe conscience is very active in some here tonight. And maybe there flashed upon the screen of your mind right now is that thing that you're attempting to cover. Maybe that thing that you have been concealing. Oh dear one, cover it no more. Cover it no longer. Is it worth it? Come to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Tell Him—will you tell Him tonight—that He's found you? Tell Him He's found you. Tell Him you're weary of living as a Christian with no conscious enjoyment of the presence of God. Tell Him you're weary of living with shaken assurance. Aren't you tired to live with a shaken assurance? Aren't you exhausted with that?
Tell Him you're weary of living with no consciousness of being used of God. Tell Him. Tell Him you're weary of dreading the coming of the Lord to take His church. And say to Him, "Oh God, grant me the promised mercy. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

What will you do with Jesus? That is the question. What will you do with Jesus? People imagine that they can ignore Jesus. People imagine that they can make no decision about Jesus—put Him on hold. People imagine that they can be confronted with the truth about Jesus, and if they choose to do so, choose to do nothing with Jesus.

There are some people, in all likelihood, who sit in our midst week after week after week after week. We imagine this. And they've been confronted with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ numerous times, but they've not trusted in Him as their Lord and Savior. Yet, they would not say that they reject Him. They would not say that they just don't believe the things that they're hearing concerning Him. They just imagine that they sit in some sort of a no-man's land and have time to do nothing with Him. That they can straddle the fence.

Some imagine that they could do this for a lifetime. I really don't know what they imagine exactly. I know they don't want to go to hell, if you talk to them. They want to go to heaven, but I guess they imagine they're going to live forever. So they can kick the can down the road a little bit more. And so for as long as they choose, they just choose to do nothing in their own mind with Jesus. Some actually have thought about it more than that. And they have consciously decided to put off the decision concerning Jesus. They say something like this: Well, you know, one day I would like to become a Christian. One day. One day I plan to trust in Christ. But it's just not right now. This is just not the right time for me.

Some even, in a sense, ignore the gospel by saying, I'm waiting for God to make the decision. It's in His court. You know, I just don't sense that He's called me yet. I just don't sense that He's called me to faith in His Son. So I'm just waiting for God to make this decision for me.
And what they ignore when they think that way is the fact that the gospel contains a command. The gospel contains a command. We're commanded to repent of our sins and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're told that "today is the day of salvation." "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." So God puts this before men in terms of a decision that they have to make, that they are to make. What will you do with Jesus?

And we know, we've studied this together, that when men do decide for the Lord Jesus, when they embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, it's only because God has been at work in His grace in a secret way by His Spirit doing the work of regeneration. That's why they desire to obey that command and to trust in Christ, to repent and believe. And yet it is still accurate to say and right to say and biblical to say that this choice is put before men.

What will you do with Jesus? Will you repent of your sins and trust in Christ as your Lord, as your Savior? Or will you reject Him? And whether you know it or not, when you do nothing with Jesus, you are doing something. Let me say that again. Whether you know it or not, when you do nothing with Jesus, you are doing something. And whether you know it or not, when you decide to do nothing, you are making a decision.

And you are being very foolish, and I say this lovingly and biblically, if you say, well, one day I would like to become a Christian. You are being foolish, according to Scripture, when you say one day, because you are not guaranteed another moment, according to Scripture. And if your life ends and you are not in Christ, you have not trusted in Him with saving faith, then you will spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell forever and ever and ever. And there are no re-do's. And there are no second chances.

The Word of God tells us that one day, every single human being who has ever lived will acknowledge the truth concerning Jesus. Isaiah 45:22 says this, Isaiah 45, 22 says this, : "Turn to Me and be saved. Turn to Me." That's a command. Turn to Me. It's a command, it's an invitation, but it's a command. "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the Word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance."

Every human being who has ever lived will acknowledge the truth about Jesus. The New Testament equivalent of this is found in Philippians 2, in verse 9: "Therefore God has also highly exalted Him," referring to Christ, "and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee, without exception, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father." You see, either you will acknowledge the truth about Jesus as His disciple, as His follower, or you will acknowledge the truth about Christ even as you are among those who are damned forever in Hell. What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Him?

Every human being will one day acknowledge the truth about Jesus. Jesus, now in verses 37 through 42—and especially 37 to 39—He brings people face to face with a decision that is set before them. In verses 37 through 39, He is addressing those who accused Him, you remember, of blasphemy. He tells them in these verses that there is a decision to be made. And that's where I want us to begin this morning—verses 37 through 39—and I want us to begin to consider this portion under this heading: the call for decision. The call for decision. What will you do with Jesus?

There are several things that I want us to see about this call for a decision. The Son of God is calling men to decision, and the question is, what do you see about this call? Verse 37, He says, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me." And so the first thing that I would note about this call is that it is a confident call. This call for decision is a confident call. You know, they wanted to focus on His words; they wanted to ignore His works. And the reason they did so is because His works confirmed the truthfulness of His words.

His works demonstrated that He was worthy of the title: the Son of God. God the Son. He was indeed the Son of God. He and the Father were indeed one. He was truly God incarnate. He was truly the God-sent God. And His works demonstrated exactly that truth. And so He says to them, if you don't want to listen to My words, then pay attention to My works. Behold My works. And He says, if I'm not doing the works of My Father, if these are not good, noble, beautiful works, wholesome works, as He described them earlier—if they're not truly that—then reject Me. Walk away from Me.

Would you honestly consider My works? That's what He's saying. Would you take an honest look at My works? It's a confident call, isn't it? It's a confident call. You know, one of the things about truth is that it never has any reason to fear examination, right? The truth has no fear of examination—no reason for that. If you're speaking the truth, then it will stand up to the examination. Always. The truth indeed will set you free.

Jesus is not afraid for His works to be examined precisely because they were of the nature that He's described them to be. To be of. They were indeed the works of God. They were noble. They were God-glorifying. Something else that stands out to me in that 37th verse—when He says, if you determine that they're not the works of the Father, then don't believe. "Don't believe Me." Something you see about the Lord Jesus is He wasn't afraid to let someone walk away from Him. You see, this is exactly the case with the rich young ruler, right? Remember that encounter? Jesus loved him, but He lets the rich young ruler walk away from Him. And this needs to affect really the way we think about evangelism. This needs to affect the way we do evangelism and share the gospel. We need to know that we have the truth, that we hold in our hands the truth, that we have in our hearts the truth, the truth of the gospel. I mean, what we have in the Scripture is the God-inspired record of the words and the works of Jesus. And then you have the New Testament commentary upon those words and the works, the application of the truths that have to do with His words and His works in the epistles.

We have nothing to be afraid of when it comes to our witness to the world. We just need to speak the truth in a straightforward way, knowing that it's the truth. God's truth. God's Word. And we need to challenge men to examine it, challenge men to give honest thought to it. And we can say to them, if you don't believe it to be true, then walk away. And then we must be willing to let them walk away.

See, I'm afraid what has happened instead is the church of our generation has become a church full of salespeople. And we think that we have to sell the gospel. We think that we have to sell the Lord Jesus. You know, we have to make a good pitch. And so we press people for a decision. A decision. Parent a prayer, raise a hand, walk an aisle. We twist arms. We bring superficial professions of faith in Jesus and the evidence is left thereafter that they were not truly His disciples. No transformed lives.

We would do better to evangelize the way that the Lord Jesus shared Himself. But not only is it a confident call, notice the second thing that we notice about this call, that it's also a decisive call. It is a decisive call. I mean, He calls for a decision right then. He says in verse 37, "If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me." What's it going to be? Are you going to believe or not? "But if I do them," verse 38, "even though you do not believe Me, believe the works." If you discover that these are indeed the works of God, then believe them, which leads, of course, to belief in Him. Because notice the next part of verse 38, "so that." That's the end in view. That's the purpose. "So that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father." In other words, if you find that My works are not what I've described them to be, then walk away from Me. But if you find them that they are indeed as I've described them to be, then believe them so that you may know something about Me and something about My Father. It's a decisive call.

Now notice a few things about this particular statement that Jesus makes. When He gives these words, when He says these words to these people, I want you to notice with me that these are gracious words. These are gracious words coming from the lips of the One who's full of grace. The One who's full of grace. Think about this. I mean, this is the Son of God. This is the Word incarnate. This is God in human flesh. This is the Son of God condescending to reach out to these rebellious men. These men, get the picture in your mind, they're standing there with stone in their hands ready to kill Him.

And what does Jesus do? He's reaching out to them with these gracious words, challenging them, calling them to believe in Him, to turn to Him and be saved. And He appeals to them in a way that is designed to clear away their unbelief, to clear away the debris of unbelief. And when I say He condescends, this is what I mean. He says, listen, if you're stumbling over the words, if the words would seem too incredible to you to believe, then believe the works. Examine the works. Behold the blind man who now can see. He's clearing away obstacles to bring them to the place of faith.

These are gracious words. But they're also humble words. They're humble words. One of the things that has to be challenged in us, beloved, one of the sinful things in us that has to be challenged when we look at the life of our Lord is His humility compared to our pride. Because there are men who would be offended if we're not willing to hear their words and would never consider saying, well, if my words are the issue, then set them aside, just examine the works. In other words, the Son of God is willing to be tested, have His word tested by His works. These are mere creatures of the dust. That's humility. If you're stumbling over My words, then look at My works. Gracious words, humble words.

But notice something else. Even though they're gracious and humble words, these words are non-negotiable words. They're non-negotiable words. Because whether you're convinced by His works or whether you're convinced by His words, there's a definite place of understanding you must be brought to. Verse 38, "But if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works so that you may know and continue knowing, continue to know that the Father is in Me and I in the Father." This is where you must arrive to be a Christian. You must recognize the truth about the person of Jesus. You must recognize the truth about His nature, who He truly is.

You must believe Him when He tells you what He tells you in verse 30, "I and the Father are one." And what does it mean when He says, "The Father is in Me and I in the Father" in verse 38? He means they are one, one in substance, one in essence, one in purpose. Very God of very God. And this is what you must believe in order to be saved. You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. You must believe that He is God in human flesh, God incarnate. You must believe that He lived the life that the Bible says that He lived. That He died the death that the Bible says that He died. And that He was raised from the dead victorious. And that He is the only way to the Father. You must believe this to be saved concerning Christ.

So whether His works lead you to this understanding or His words lead you to this understanding, this is the place that you must come to. There is no other way to be saved. You cannot be saved. You cannot come to God while rejecting the truth about the Son of God, the Christ. Mormons desire us to consider them Christians. But Mormons are not Christians, are they? And why are they not? Because they do not understand the nature of God. They do not understand the nature of Christ. They would have us to believe that there are many gods.

Jehovah's Witnesses, same thing. In fact, they are false witnesses. And they would like to use the same language that you use and have you believe that they are real. They would like to use the same language that you use and have you believe that they really don't believe that much differently than you believe and I believe. But their beliefs are so different, far different than yours and mine. Aren't they? Because they deny God being one, is a triune God. They deny that Jesus is one with the Father, co-equal, co-eternal, always existing as God along with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. They deny this. Are they Christians? Absolutely not. They are not Christians.

You see, whether by His works or by His words, this is what you must understand: that He and the Father are one. That God is one, yet He always existed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—three distinct persons, one God. The Son of God came to earth. He lived a life the Bible says that He lived and died the death the Bible says He died and was raised from the dead. He died on the third day and is the only way to the Father. He shed His blood, and His shed blood is the only way for sinners to have their sins remitted. The only way.

And so this is a confident call. Jesus says, examine My works. If they're not as I've described them to be, then walk away from Me. But if they are as I've described them to be, then you must believe the works and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father. It is a decisive call.

Which gets to the third thing. You see about this call that it was a rejected call. Sadly, it was a rejected call. Though He was gracious with them, exhibited humility toward them, what was their response? Rejection. They rejected Him. How did they respond to these words? How? Again, they sought to arrest Him. They went on seeking what they sought in the first place.

Look at verse 39: "Therefore, they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp." Now, we're not told here how He eluded their grasp, how He did this. It really doesn't matter what form it took, does it? Here's the bottom line: His hour had not yet come. God operates according to His own divine timetable, right? And so they're not able to seize Him. He leaves.

But I want us to see something very interesting—the play on words here. The contrast between that statement and the preceding statements earlier in this chapter. Go back to verse 28 and look at this with me together. Jesus said, "I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, ever, and no one is able to snatch them out of My hand." Here is the Greek word. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Verse 39: "Therefore, they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their hand." Of course, when you're in the hand of the Father, it doesn't make any difference whose hands are seeking to lay themselves upon you, does it? If you're in the hand of God, you will escape out of the hands of all of those who seek to hurt you, to lay hold of you. You're safe and secure in the hand of God, and nothing—absolutely nothing—will come into your life, child of God, without it first passing through the sacred desk of God. Absolutely nothing.

So a call to decision. And before we move on, I just want to say again today that if you are not a child of God, if you are not in Christ, if you are not a Christian, and you have sat in this place before many, many times and you've heard the gospel in this place—perhaps you heard the gospel in your home from your parents, from your husband, from your wife, from your family member, from your friend—over and over again, I want you to know that as long as you go on doing nothing with Jesus, you've done something with Jesus. There is no middle ground. If you don't believe in Him, then walk away from Him. But if you believe His works, that they are noble and beautiful and God-glorifying, then you must trust in Him, because the day is coming. You either will bow the knee and confess that Jesus is Lord as His disciple, or you will do so as one who is part of the multitudes who are damned in hell. By bowing and confessing, you will and you must.

What will you do with Jesus?

Will you please now notice with me the contrast that we see in verse 40? Now, the contrasting picture: “And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there. And many came to Him and were saying, ‘While John did no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.’ And many believed in Him there.” Now, we've talked about this before, but I want to remind us of it again. See, if John wanted to record everything that Jesus did and everything that Jesus said, there was no way for him to do it.

In fact, he says in John 21:25, “There are so many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written one after the other, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Listen also to how he put it with the purpose clause in John 20:30: “Therefore, many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.” John says, I didn't write everything that I could have, but what I've written is written with a design, with a purpose—that you may believe that He is indeed the Son of God, God the Son, that believing in Him also you may have life in His name.

So there's much about the life of Christ that we don't have in the Gospel of John. Yet guided by the Spirit, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he sees fit to record after this conversation—this confrontation with these hard-hearted men, ready to kill Him—this portion in verse 40 to verse 42. He went back to Perea, also known as Bethabara, to the place where John was first baptizing, and the Scripture says He was staying there, He was abiding there. And then we have a brief description of what took place.

Now why? Why does John record this? Well, why is it there? I believe one reason the Holy Spirit gives us this is that it is in such contrast—stark contrast—to what we've just read. I mean, it's night and day difference, isn't it? In verse 40, notice Jesus is welcomed in Perea. “He went away again beyond the Jordan,” we read, “to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there”—*meno*, abiding, remaining there. That is to say, He was able to stay there, to abide there, to rest.

In Jerusalem, Judea, Jerusalem—they're constantly seeking for His life, but He's able to remain here for a time. See the contrast: Jerusalem and here in Perea. And notice what's going on while He's there. Verse 41: “Many came to Him.” Many came to Him. Now, they're not coming to Him because they're settled in unbelief. They're not coming to Him because they're trying to entrap Him, find something against Him, undermine Him. They're coming to Him because they're open to faith in Him. They're seeking Him. They're genuinely interested, genuinely wanting to know who He really is. It's a marked difference—a stark difference, isn't it—between the two?

In Jerusalem, there they are, spying on Him. They're trying to entrap Him. He's walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon, verse 23, and they encircle Him like sharks. They surround Him like hyenas, and they begin to pepper Him with questions. This is the atmosphere in Jerusalem. But when He goes to Perea, oh, it's completely different. Totally different. He's able to rest, He's able to stay there, and we read, "And many came to Him," and not because they're settled in their unbelief, but because they are open to believe in Him. It's different, and I always marvel at the detail of God's Word, really. It's always marvelous. It just always—it just makes me happy when I discover these things as I read the Word of God.

Because notice what verse 41 says: "And many came to Him and were saying," notice this, "While John did what? No sign." Stunning, isn't it? "While John did no sign, yet everything John," what's the next word, "said," "said about this man was true." Do you see the contrast? You catch it?

In Jerusalem, they won't believe a thing Jesus is saying, and though they've seen many signs—the last one was the man born blind receiving his sight—they don't believe what they see. But at this time here, in this place, in Perea, what they have to go on at this point is, as Jesus comes to them, what they're remembering is the witness of His forerunner, John the Baptist, what he said concerning Jesus. And they said, "John did no sign," yet even though they had no sign of John the Baptist to go on, these people believe everything now that they met Jesus. They believe everything that John said about Jesus.

The witness of John the Baptist is effectual in their case. The words have found a home in their heart. The words have found fertile soil in their heart, and the words have become effectual in them without signs. Without works, they were willing to believe the words, which gets to the 42nd verse: "And many believed in Him there."
Despite the works, despite the words of Jesus, they don't believe in Him in Jerusalem. But now, based upon no works but the words of His forerunner and what they've experienced as Jesus is in their midst, many believe in Him.

Listen to what S. Lewis Johnson said concerning this section here. It's really very helpful for us. He writes, "Now notice the last statement, and many believed on Him there. In other words, not in Judea where they had the Bible, where they had the priest, where they had the tradition, where they had the temple, where they had the knowledge, but many of them believed on Him there," referring to Perea. In the original text, there's a bit of emphasis upon the adverb, "many believed upon Him there."

He goes on to say, "One of the saddest things is to see a congregation in which the Word of God is proclaimed in truthfulness, harmony with the Scriptures, in the Holy Spirit, accurately, and the congregation is indifferent, and lethargic, and cold, and unresponsive. And then to go to another assembly where the Word of God is not preached very strongly, where there are no real depth of teaching, it's somewhat artificial, superficial, and yet there they are—hungry, spiritually hungry individuals who are responsive to the Word." He says, "That's great, but what a condemnation it was for Judea that many believed upon Him there in Perea, just as there might be no responsiveness in Believer's Chapel," referring to the church which he's serving. And we can really easily substitute this with Grace Chapel, "but some believing on Him elsewhere. But it's very possible that there's responsiveness to the Word of God in places where they don't really have the opportunity that some of us have had. It's something to thank God for, but it's something also to weep over." End of quote.

So you have a call for decision, and the Holy Spirit sets before us a contrasting picture. People who don't believe despite the works and words of the Son of God, and people who do believe, and they've been influenced, according to this text, by the words—and no works—by the words of John the Baptist, the forerunner. And the day of decision is still with us. Still here. What will you do with Jesus?

Here we are 2,000 years later, and we have the record before us, and the time of decision is still here. What will you do with this record? What will you do with this record? What will you do with the gospel? What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with the words concerning Jesus, the words of Jesus, and the works of Jesus that have been preserved for us by God in this book? What will you do? What will you do with Christ? What have you done with Him? What have you done with Him?

In light of what we've seen today in these verses, I'd like to finish and conclude this morning with five observations by way of application. Five observations. And first of all, the first one: notice that faith—first of all—faith is something worked internally, not externally.

Faith is something worked internally, not externally. That is, if external evidence alone is what brings men to Jesus, then you would be able to say wherever you have the more powerful external evidence, then you will find greater faith, right? Greater external evidence, greater faith—that's what you would expect to find if that's what brings men and women to faith in Christ. And yet, we find right here in this text that that doesn't match up, does it?

In Jerusalem, they've seen His works. "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?" (verse 32), right? They've seen much undeniable signs, and yet they don't believe. And here you have people in Perea who have been influenced by the words of John the Baptist. They've seen no sign; they just heard words concerning Christ, seen it confirmed in their midst as Jesus is abiding there with them, and they're willing to believe.

As I thought about this, I thought, isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing that after three years of public ministry, in spite of the fact that multitudes, multitudes, multitudes followed Jesus, multitudes were intrigued by Him, isn't it something else that gathered together in that upper room after His life, after His death, after His resurrection, as they were waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit—Isn't it amazing that there were, how many people? 120. Just 120. That's it. 120.
Not 20,000, not 30,000, not a stadium full of people—120 people. That's it. And that's after dead men had been raised like Lazarus. That's after blind men had been given their sight. Deaf people were able to hear. People who had bodies maimed by disease were made whole. And what do you have there in that upper room? 120 people. That's it.

Beloved, it's not external evidence, it's not the power of external evidence that produces faith in sinners. It's the work of God. It's the work of God in the heart that produces faith—not something set before their eyes, not something they hear with their physical ears on a physical, external level—but God's regenerating work in the heart, the ears of the heart. That's what produces faith. And that is not to say that God works faith apart from His Word being heard. No, no, because Romans 10 verse 17 says, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the words of Christ."

But what it is to say is that the Word of Christ and the works of Christ will be ineffectual; they will not produce faith in natural men apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner. Faith isn't produced by something external, Beloved. It's produced by the work of the Holy Spirit, and it's an internal work. It's a heart work. And again, this is important for our thinking concerning witnessing and evangelism.

Think about how some Christians approach the subject of apologetics. They act as if somehow we're going to argue someone into the Kingdom of God. Apologetics has a place, but, Beloved, you will not bring someone into the Kingdom of God by the power of argument. The only way any argument will ever be convincing to anyone is when the Holy Spirit makes someone willing. Apart from that, all your arguments will be ineffectual, won't have any impact whatsoever.

This also gets to the idea of what you are hearing today in the charismatic circles. I'm referring to the idea of what is called as power evangelism. This is the belief that the reason why we need signs and wonders—and they must still be in existence—because this is the way that God uses to bring men to faith in His Son. They call it power evangelism.

I really want to say to such people, have you read the Gospels? Have you really read the Gospels? Because who could do more than Jesus did when He was on earth? And what do you have—120 people? And even those who followed Him because of the fireworks, right? When He fed the multitudes and did all these miracles, Jesus did not actually commit Himself to them. He did not believe in their belief. He did not entrust Himself to them. The people of His day looked right in the face of those miracles, and they did not believe Him.

In fact, as we will see next time in John 11—I mean, well, actually, you'll see it at the end of John 11—look over for just a moment. At the end of John 11, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and the verse immediately following that miracle—look at verse 45—notice: "Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He had done believed in Him." And I'm amazed at verse 46. Look at verse 46: "But,” not a good one, it's not a good but, “but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done." Can you imagine that? That you could be witness to such a thing, such an incredible miracle, and the conclusion you come to is, we've got to go and turn Him in. Verse 47: "Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together and were saying, 'What are we doing? What are we going to do? For this man is doing many signs.'" You talk about self-condemning—a self-condemning comment. He's performing many signs, so what are we going to do?

Can't help but think, well, why didn't someone speak up and say, what are we to do? We're to believe in Him. We're to believe in Him. But no, that's not what they say. That's not even what they meant, because we're told what they meant in verse 48. Look at verse 48: "If we let Him go on like this, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." We're going to lose our place. We're going to lose our sway. We're going to lose our control, our authority. People are going to actually believe in Him. This is in the face of One who has raised a dead man, and he's been dead for four days, verse 39 tells us. No, that's not how men are brought to faith in Christ—not externally. It's internal. That's the first observation by way of application.

Second observation that I want us to notice: notice, however, having said that, that God uses means in bringing men to faith. God uses means. Now, the means are not salvific. They are simply instrumental. But He uses means. The means are unable by themselves to bring men to faith, but God has chosen to use means to bring men to faith in His Son.
God used here the testimony of John the Baptist to prepare the way to Christ on this occasion. Only God can bring men to faith, but God will do this through the preaching of the gospel, through the witness of His people, through the prayers of the saints, through our life's testimony, through the testimony of our words. God will use this to bring men to Himself.

Jesus, in John 17 and verse 20, praying for His people, He says this: "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word." Word. How are they going to come to believe? Through the means of the word. The word. Their word, their testimony, their evangelism.

So only God can bring men to faith, but how is He going to do it? He's going to do it through the preaching of the gospel. He's going to do it through the prayers of His people interceding on behalf of sinners. He's going to do it through the testimony of our lives.

Yet all of that—and this is where we can rejoice in God as Savior—all of that we recognize will be completely and utterly ineffective apart from the Spirit's work, working in the hearts of dead men. We can preach all day long and no one will be saved if the Holy Spirit does not do His mighty inward work. We are dependent on the Spirit of God. And you can live a testimony before somebody forever and ever, but if the Holy Spirit does not open their heart, they won't see, they won't understand, and they won't come.

And as that gets into your mind and gets into your heart, it will help you, Christian. It will help you because it will set you free in many ways. Believers are often frustrated. Why? Why don't they see? Why? Why don't they listen? Why don't they come? Can't they see the difference? Can't they see the difference that God has done in my life? Can't they see how the Lord has changed my life? They should be able to, but if the Lord doesn't open their heart, they won't be able to. They won't recognize it for what it really is, just like they don't recognize the works of Jesus for what they really were.

But there's a third observation I want us to notice. Notice that God can use a witness given a long time before. God can use a witness given a long time before. What a tremendous hope. What a tremendous hope. Instead of remembering the words of John the Baptist—he's gone, right?—"While John did no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true." Words spoken long before. Bear in mind, John is dead. John is off the scene, but he's still speaking. His words are still having an effect. He spoke the word of God, he spoke the truth of God, and God's truth goes on in its effect. It's unstoppable.

Though he was dead, he was still speaking, and this is what we read in Hebrews 11:4, testimony of Abel: "By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was approved as being righteous, God approving his gift." And then the Bible says this: "And through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks." Isn't it wonderful to know that God's word has a life of its own? Isn't it? And you know what? You can't lock it up. You can't. You can lock up the messenger, but you can't lock up the word of God.

Isn't that what Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:9, talking about the gospel? He says, concerning the gospel, "I endure hardship even to chains as a criminal, but the word of God has not been chained." The word of God has not been chained. The word of God is not chained. The word of God is not bound. It cannot be locked up.

Let me encourage you, beloved. Maybe you witness to someone, and you say, you know, I've witnessed, and I've witnessed, and I've witnessed, and I've witnessed, and there's no effect. Beloved, listen. Until the person you've been witnessing to has died, it's not over. It's not over. And God may use the words that you've spoken long after you have forgotten about it, and even long after you've gone. Even if you were to go to glory, those words can be used by God. Long after you've spoken what you spoke, long after you've shared what you've shared, God may quicken that word to their hearts many, many days, and many, many, many years after that, because God's word is not bound. God's word is not chained.

So here God is using words spoken by John the Baptist long after they were spoken.
That brings us to the fourth observation, and I want us to notice in this text—and we know this, but it rejoices our hearts to really say it. I want you to remember that the identity of Jesus is not determined by the people making the decision. The identity of Jesus is not determined by the people who are making the decision. This is really important for us to remind ourselves of.
We can ask, what is the difference between Jesus in Jerusalem and Jesus in Perea? What has changed about Him? Have His words changed? Have His works changed? No. Not at all. The difference is not in Jesus. The difference is in these two groups and what they were able to recognize. The group in Jerusalem did not recognize the truth. The group in Perea did. But He hasn't changed. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the Savior no matter what you think of Him, and He's the only Savior no matter what you decide about Him. There's only one Savior. He is the Savior.

And I pray that the church would again get this character to Her preaching and teaching and witnessing. I pray that we would send a clear message, crystal clear message, that Jesus is not a beggar in need of your approval. We are the beggars in need of His acceptance. Jesus isn't saying, oh, oh, oh, would you please accept Me in the sense that somehow He needs us. He doesn't come to us because He needs us. He doesn't come to us—whether we know it or not—because we need Him desperately. We desperately need Him.

And it's gracious and it's merciful that the Son of God would offer Himself to those people. It's not out of need. It's out of love, out of grace, out of mercy, out of compassion, out of pity. And one group decided that He wasn't worthy to be believed and followed, and the other believed in Him. But Jesus was the same. One group was saved. The other was lost.

A fifth observation that I want us to notice. It's simple and it's on the surface, but it needs to be said. Notice that Christ is offered to both groups. Christ is offered to both groups. He was genuinely offered to the group that rejected Him as well as the group that accepted Him. And this is the wonder of God's mercy and grace to our own day, to this day.

The Gospel will be preached by God's will and design and purpose and plan. It will be preached not only to those who believe and receive Him, but to those who don't believe Him and won't receive Him. And the offer in both cases is absolutely genuine. Remember the words of Christ? "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem" (Luke 13:34), "the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you did not want."

This is the truth that's hard for us to grasp in our finite mind—that though men, because of what sin has done to us, though men cannot see, cannot understand, and will not understand the things of the Spirit of God apart from the sovereign saving grace of God and the working regeneration in their soul—even though that's true, men are still responsible to believe and they're offered the Gospel freely.

Child of God, aren't you grateful today that you're found among the many who believed in Him there? In verse 42. May your heart be filled with gratitude. You were dead in sins. You were dead in trespasses until quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit and were enabled to answer the call and embrace the grace offered in Christ. And this enabling power is no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead.

What happened to you if you're a Christian? What happened to you if you're a child of God? You were made alive together with Christ. You were raised from the dead spiritually. You heard the voice of the Son of God, the language of John 11, and you lived. And you were enabled by that power to hear the call, to respond to the call. You were enabled by the power to desire Christ. And so you embraced Him.

Oh, child of God, consider afresh what your Lord God has done for your soul. He quickened you when you were dead in trespasses and sins. He gives you light and peace to your soul. He feeds you with the bread of life. He cures all your spiritual diseases. He quells all your manifold enemies and temptations. And He strengthens you with His grace day by day. He does all that is done in you by grace. And He will never cease working in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

What's the difference between these two groups that we've seen today? It's not explained externally. One group had less evidence than the other. The group that believed had less evidence than the group that didn't. No, the difference was in that secret work in the soul wrought by the Spirit of God that enabled men to see what another group could not see and understand what another group could not understand and believe what another group did not believe.

You see, this is in your own witnessing experience. You see the same thing if you just think about it for a minute. Isn't it amazing how you meet with people? You even sense the Lord working in you, in your witness to them. I mean, He brings things to mind, clear, cogent arguments are presented to them and you're able to articulate this with precision and they're not convinced. And they're not convinced. And you meet other people who are every bit as intelligent as the others, who may have even been from just external dealings with them. You thought they're more hardened to the gospel than others. And yet, as you begin to share, and you could tell the Holy Spirit has prepared the soul of the heart because it's not hard for them to see and it's not difficult for them to believe. And you don't need all these overwhelming apologetic arguments to convince them and they are receptive, responsive and you're scratching your head, it's like, how can this be? They see, they hear, they understand, they believe. And how did they come to believe? God worked in their heart. Have you believed? If you have, it's the Lord's work. If you haven't, the Lord calls you to decision today. Even today. What will you do with Jesus?

You see the words of Jesus. You see the words of Jesus. What will you do with Jesus? May your response be in the language of the words of the song: "Your word is living light upon our darkened eyes, guards us through temptations, makes the simple wise. Your word is food for famished ones, freedom for the slave, riches for the needy soul. Come speak to us today."
You see the words of Jesus and you see the works of Jesus. What will you do with them? What will you do with Jesus? The greatness of these words consisted in this. They were all outward signs. John's favorite word with reference to miracles: sign. Pointing to a spiritual truth, a spiritual reality. They were outward testimonies of the far more noble operations of His grace within the soul.

Just to remind us, when He gave sight to the blind, He gave sight to the blind that He might display to all men His sovereign power in giving light and understanding to the mind, that He's the light of the world. When He opened the deaf ear, He opened it so that men might know that by whom alone they can hear aright the good news of salvation and live forever. The lame He caused in a moment to walk that His people might learn that we can only move as well as and live and have our being in Him, and that without Him we could do absolutely nothing.

He cured the foul leprosy of the body in order to show that only by Him can men be healed of the far more deplorable leprosy of sin, which covers and defiles the soul. And all sicknesses vanished at His command that we might have hope in Him as the restorer of our souls. And He cast out unclean spirit that He might teach us that He alone delivered and can deliver His people from the powers of darkness.

The hungry multitudes were fed by His miraculous power to explain this marvelous truth: that He is not only the giver of spiritual life but the constant sustainer and the nourisher of it every single day, moment by moment. And He did it by small insignificant means that the excellencies of the power might be known to be His and not in the creatures, however sanctified, however blessed and used. And the winds and the waves were instantly obedient to His word that His beloved might rejoice in Him as the stiller of all spiritual waves and tumultuous madness of this world, and the ragings of Satan and his demons, and the confusion of all things.

These can roar and foam no longer than it pleases the Master. And when they foam and roar at all, it shall turn out in the end for the good of His people and the glory of His name. And the dead were raised to proclaim His power as our risen, exalted Lord and to declare that the issues also of spiritual life and spiritual death are altogether in His hand.

What will you do with Jesus? When is the time for decision? It's now. What must I do to be saved? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." Turn from your sins. Trust in Him, and the Lord will save you. And God is calling you this day. That's why—did you know that?—that's why you sit under this message today. God is calling you. Will you obey the call?

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Take your Bibles with me, and let us return one last time to the book of Malachi, Malachi chapter 4. We are concluding our studies in the book of Malachi, and it's been an exciting study, and I'm so thankful to the Lord for His Word here in this book. Starting next week, Lord willing, we will look at dealing with sin for a few messages, a couple of messages perhaps, and then following that, we will begin a new study in the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and I'm really excited to spend that time together in the Word of God.

And the Word of God reads, "For  behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them aflame", says Yahweh of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says Yahweh of hosts.

"Remember the law of Moses, My servant, even the statutes and judgments which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction."

Really, if you were to look at the book of Malachi, the book of Malachi is really an affirmation of the faithfulness of God. God is faithful. An affirmation of the faithfulness of God. Now, at first reading, it may not sound like what is being emphasized here is the faithfulness of God because the book ends on the note of judgment, as was read in your hearing. But make no mistake about it. This is an affirmation of the faithfulness of God. "Great is Thy faithfulness," would be a fitting hymn to sing, to proclaim.

The faithfulness of God in His holiness. The faithfulness of God in His sovereignty. In the fact that He will rule what He has made. The faithfulness of God in terms of His power, His might, His knowledge, His wisdom. All of this being put on display through the promise of justice.
God is faithful to judge. He is the Judge of all judges. God is faithful in terms of justice.

You remember, this is one of the ways that the people have sinned against Yahweh. They had claimed that His justice was in doubt. In fact, their claim was even stronger than that. They implied that God's justice is a lie.

Malachi 2, verse 17: "You have wearied Yahweh with your words. But you say, 'How have we wearied Him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and He delights in them,' or, 'Where is the God of justice?'"

Remember that, right? God, You claim to be God of justice, but we look at our world, we don't see Your justice. We don't see it. We look at how things are for us right now, we look at the surrounding nations, and we wonder, where is the God of justice? Some justice.
Well, now Malachi ends the book, this book of prophecy, with the promise that not only will Israel see the justice of God, the entire world will see the justice of God. It's a reminder that God's judgment may be delayed, but it's never in doubt. Never in doubt. Never. Never.

James Montgomery Boyce said this, and I quote: "Because God was unchanging in His holiness and justice, it follows that the inevitability of His judgment upon the wicked is unchanging also. The final chapter of Malachi virtually shouts for us to see this, for it begins, 'Surely the day is coming.' Verse 1." And he goes on to say,  "The judgment of God may be postponed. For the most part, it has been postponed for the long years of human history—postponed but not forgotten. Delay is not elimination. Judgment will come."Judgment will come.
 
And Malachi has already declared that this judgment will be delivered. It will be delivered in the presence of the Messiah. He Himself personally will judge. He is the Judge. The day of the Lord, the final day, the great day, is the day when God Himself brings justice.

Go back to chapter 3 and you'll see it. Verse 1: "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says Yahweh of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a smelter's fire and like fullers’ soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to Yahweh offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh as in the ancient days and as in former years. Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the sojourner and do not fear Me, says Yahweh of hosts. For I, Yahweh, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed."

Faithful. Faithful. Absolutely faithful in terms of the promises. You know those promises. The free grace promises that He's made concerning His people. And perfectly faithful when it comes to His promise to judge.

What we have here in chapter 4, the very end of the book, is really a restatement of those truths. It's a reaffirmation of what God has already promised.
Again and again, there's that reaffirmation here. And in fact, it would be the final word until the first coming of the Messiah would come to pass. The last word until the Elijah, who would introduce the messenger of the covenant, would come on the scene—John the Baptist.

So tonight we conclude the book of Malachi by looking at the day, the great day of Yahweh.
Verse 1: "For behold, the day is coming." Oh, the day is coming. It's coming. Delay is not a denial. It's coming. The day is coming. The great day of Yahweh is coming. Behold. And we're going to look at the day, and we're going to see this day in terms of four relationships that are associated with that day, four relationships spoken of in our text. And here's relationship number one. Again, this day in connection with these relationships.

Relationship number one: we see the day of Yahweh, the great day of Yahweh, and its relationship, first, to arrogant evildoers. The day and its relationship to arrogant evildoers. Verse 1: "For behold, the day is coming," – now watch the language –  "burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them aflame, says Yahweh of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."

So here's the question: What will the day of the Lord mean for the arrogant evildoer? What will it mean to them? The arrogant—that is, those who arrogantly defy the living God, disregard His Word, reject His offers of mercy, ultimately then rejecting His Son. What will the day hold for all those people? All the evildoers—evildoers by nature, evildoers by choice.

Well, the text declares several things that this day will mean for them. Look at it together. First of all, it's going to be, number one, a day of certain judgment. It will be a day of certain judgment for the arrogant evildoer. The verse begins with the word, "Behold." "For behold, the day is coming." Behold—in other words, take note, take note of this. Look at this. Don't miss it. Don't bypass it. The day is coming. In fact, the day is on its way.

And then He goes on to describe what that day is going to mean for those who are being mentioned. The day is coming. God's judgment is certain. And that's something that God should be worshiped for. That's something that, if men would ever admit it, it's something that humanity really longs for in some sense. Men, of course, are twisted when it comes to the idea of justice. But mankind, in general terms, cries out for justice. Mankind realizes that wrong should be punished.

Now, man gets the right wrong and the wrong right because of the fall, because of depravity. But instinctively, he knows there must be some kind of justice in the universe. And yet, when it comes to the justice spoken of concerning the God of the Bible, man does not, in general, rejoice in it because he has a guilty conscience. Because he has a guilty conscience. He knows himself to be a sinner. He knows himself to be accountable to the God of justice.
So, he either expresses doubt that this day will actually occur, or he dreads it. Or he dreads it. He may not doubt it, but he doesn't want to think about it. He may not doubt it, but he doesn't want to speak of it. He wants to just live his life acting as if it will never come. It will never arrive because he fears it through the knowledge of his sin.

And we'll see it in just a moment, but the good news for you and for me, His sheep, is that where we stand on the grace of God—if we stand on the grace of God in Christ Jesus—there is no fear of holy justice. There is no fear of holy justice. Because God, as Holy Judge, has already judged all of our sins in the body of His Son on the tree. All of them. All of them. Every single one of them. Jesus paid it all. All. All of it.

And when the Judge has justified you, when the Judge has declared you right with Himself in His Son, there is absolutely nothing left to condemn you. Therefore, now, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. There's nothing and no one left to condemn you. There's nothing left to condemn you.

Romans 8 declares this wonderful truth in verse 33: "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" Who? Who? Stand up. Stand up. Who is it? If you're there, you know, you want to bring a charge, bring a charge. Well, stand. Well, who? There's no one. No one.

And I love the way that Paul reasons here. He says, "God is the one who justifies." God is the one who justifies. It is God who justifies. Did you grasp that? I mean, this is incredible. It's the One who's going to judge that has declared you right with Himself. So, if the Judge declares you right with Himself, then who is left to condemn you? Who? The verdict is already in.

He goes on to write in verse 34, Romans 8: "Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died." The Judge of all the earth is the One who laid down His life for you, he's saying. "Yes, rather, who was raised," which is to say that His offering on behalf of wretched sinners was what? Sufficient. It was sufficient. It was accepted. It was successful. There's nothing left to condemn you.

Paul continues, "Who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." I mean, in every way, Paul was stacking up these explanations to say that if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, we know Him as Lord and Savior, you have no reason whatsoever to fear holy justice because it has been fully satisfied by God Himself, in your case, in the body of His Son on the tree. Period. Paragraph. Amazing, isn't it?

But if you don't stand in the grace of God, if you don't stand in the grace of God, you have every reason to fear that day, to be trembling, to be gripped with trepidation, to be overcome with fear and panic. Because men and women will then be judged, and everything that you've ever done in life has been recorded, and one day you will answer for every single one of those deeds and words and motivations. In fact, the Bible says here that that day for the wicked, for the arrogant, is going to be a day like the language of Malachi—like a furnace, like an oven, like a furnace. Malachi 4 verse 1: "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace." But beloved, it's not just a day of certain judgment. I want us to see also that it's going to be a day of consuming judgment.

Consuming judgment. Look at the text: "Burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be" – here it is – "chaff." Chaff. They themselves are spoken of here as being burned up. What that day will mean for them is absolute devastation. Everything they think that they've achieved, everything they think commends them—that is, they glory in it, they take pride in it—everything they place their confidence in, the strong towers as it were they built in their minds, everything that they currently enjoy and find satisfaction and pleasure in.

You know, I don't have time to think about God or His church or His Word, I'm just too busy enjoying my life and, you know, building my career and building my fortune and pursuing pleasures. So everything that they've enjoyed, everything that they worship in the place of the Creator that they dishonor, everything they think of as a legacy, as a future, as the reason for existence—it will all be consumed by the justice of God. All of it. All of it. All of it. All of it.

The verse describes them as completely consumed. There will be nothing, nothing left. And the day that is coming—verse 1—"will set them aflame, says Yahweh of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." What is under the earth, what is visible to the eye, will be consumed. It'll all be gone. It's all burned up. It's like they've been thrown into a fiery furnace.
And obviously, it's not teaching annihilationism. The Bible goes on to make clear that there is eternal torment, that the lost will know in the wrath of God—this eternal torment forever and ever and ever—and not even a drop of relief. But what it is to say is that everything that they thought they've gained in this world will be completely incinerated. It is a certain judgment. It is a consuming judgment.

And thirdly, I want us to see it's also a complete judgment—a complete judgment—because what is stressed in this verse, in the verse, is that it's every single one of them.
Do you see it? Look at verse 1 again: "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace;  – and here it is – "and all" – all, it's complete, every single one – "all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff." No one excepted. No one, no one, no one left out. No one left out. No one left out. No one, no one, no one. All of the insolence, the presumptuous, all of those who do wickedness— not one unforgiven sinner will emerge from that day without everything that they put their trust in being consumed. No one is off the hook. Not one in the whole world will escape this judgment. This is what the day means for the arrogant. This is what the day means for the evildoer.

But now we see a second relationship as we think about that day. In verses 2 and 3, we see the day now in its relationship to those who—it's a different category—who fear God, the God-fearers. And you can see the contrast. You can see the difference, the stark contrast. What will that day mean for those who fear Yahweh? What will that day mean for those who fear God's name?

Verse 2: "But"—and this is a but of distinction—"But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing, says Yahweh of hosts."

For those who fear the name of God, you see this day represents what? Vindication. It represents vindication. God will vindicate His own name. But at the same time that He vindicates His name, He will also vindicate those who have feared His name. You do realize this: that if we fear the name of God, this means we reverence the living God in this world, and we share His reputation in this world, right? So those who hate the name of God, hate you. That's what Jesus said, right? Those who revile the name of God, revile you.

And on this day, God will remember all of those who have feared His name – every single one of them  – all of those who have gladly counted it a privilege and an honor and a joy and a delight to be associated with His name—so that that day will be a vindication, not just of His name, but also of His people who are associated with His name, who are called by His name.

The judgment of God is not only certain, it is distinguishing. The judgment of God hits its target, and what is distinguished in the day is the wicked from the righteous. And what distinguishes the wicked from the righteous is, as we saw this morning, the grace of God. The grace of God. It is God's grace that has produced the difference. It is salvation that has produced the difference.

There are people who are arrogant and evildoers, and there are people who are characterized by reverencing the name of God, fearing God's name, and salvation has produced the reverence, and grace has produced salvation.

In the third chapter, as I said, this is really a repetition of what is taught earlier in the prophecy. Malachi 3:18, it says this, "So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him." That day will make a distinction. And so God gives a promise to His people that the day, that day for them will mean something quite different than for the arrogant, for the evildoer. And what will that day mean for the people of God? What will the day of judgment mean for the people of God? God-fearers? Well, first of all, it will be the dawn of righteousness for the God-fearer. It will be the dawn of righteousness.

Look at verse 2. He says, "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise." I mean like the sun rising in the morning, the darkness of the wicked world will dissipate. It will be put away, and the sun of righteousness will arise in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. The darkness will be put away by Him, and the light of God will shine upon the people of God. The breaking of the day, the breaking of sunlight, the breaking in of righteousness will take place.

Whereas this world has been under a curse, the curse will be gone, and righteousness will dwell in the earth, and the dawn of righteousness will appear.

But it will also be a day at the same time of restoration. Restoration. Look at verse 2. "The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings." Healing. Loss will be replaced by gain. Sickness will be replaced by health. Tears will be replaced with laughter. The scorn that has been heaped up upon the people of God by the wicked will be replaced with praise and reward from our good and gracious God.

And it's also going to be a day as a result of great celebration. It's going to be a day of great celebration. Look at the text. "And you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall." What an image that is. What a lovely image. Like a calf skips out of its stall, exhibiting its joy and its freedom and its liberation, so the people of God will skip about with joy. Delight. I rejoice to tell you tonight, you've never known a joy like the joy of that day. And it will be a special day.

One thing that's amazing about children is their sense of wonder. Have you ever thought about that? Everything is new. Everything is wonderful. Everything is amazing. And they have this awe, this wonder. When is the last time you were amazed at anything? Watch little kids amazed at every new thing, every new experience, every new opportunity, and then notice how wonder leaves our lives the longer we live in this sin-infected world. But on that day, on that day, you will meet with wonder again, and the wonder will never ever go away. Never. It's going to be everlasting.

It's going to be a day of celebration, a day of vindication as well, as we see. A day of vindication. Because He says in verse 3, "And you will tread down the wicked, for there will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing, says Yahweh of hosts." He first presents the image of them being burned up, like being put in a furnace—the wicked, that is—and then He pictures the righteous walking over their ashes. Those who have so often been walked on by the wicked will walk into eternity over the ashes of those who have been consumed by the judgment of God. That's the imagery. Triumph. Vindication.

This is why, beloved, Christians in this age are not to be characterized by seeking vengeance. That's why. That's why all the outcry you hear in our world right now, even by professing Christians, that it sounds like what we're after is some sort of vindication, some sort of getting even, some sort of earthly temporal justice in response to ways that people have been mistreated and all the rest—and of course there's a place for temporal justice. That falls in the realm of civil concern. But in terms of the concern of God's people, we have a gospel concern, beloved. Don't ever, ever lose sight of that. We have a gospel concern. It is the salvation of the souls of men and women. That's where our focus is, and we leave our mistreatment in the hands of the One who judges justly. We love our enemies. We pray for those who spitefully use us. We demonstrate the love of Christ by not responding in like manner, not reviling those who revile, not giving what they gave us, but rather loving them with the love of Jesus. This is our calling in this age—a gospel concern—because we can leave it to God to make the wrongs right, and He will one day. That's what He's picturing in these verses. One day the wrongs will be made right. They will be.

So this day of vindication will also be a day of deliverance. Deliverance. Look at verse 3, "And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet." That's vindication. But who vindicates? Notice: "On the day which I am preparing." Do you see who vindicates? Says Yahweh of Hosts. This will come to us from the hand of who? God. Our God. This represents the action of God. God will do this, beloved. Again, let me say this. Vengeance belongs to Him. Not to you, not to me. To Him. I referenced this earlier, but 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 23 says this, speaking of Jesus: "Who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously." That's our calling during this age. Peter says in verse 21, "For to this you have been called." That's our calling. But God announces and encourages us and comforts us with the knowledge that the day will come when He will execute justice. It's coming.

So we see the day in its relationship to the arrogant and evildoer—a day of certain judgment, a day of consuming judgment. And then we look at this day in relationship to those who fear the name of Yahweh, and it's going to be a great day of deliverance, and vindication, and celebration, and restoration.

Well, let's look at the third relationship. Third relationship. Look at verse 4: "Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and judgments which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel." The day of the Lord in its relationship to the law of Moses.
Now, the reference—this reference to the law of Moses—well, what is its purpose? What is its purpose in this context? And I want to submit to us, there are a couple of lesser things that we can point to, and then I want to mention what I think to be the primary reason we find it here. So let's begin from the lesser to the primary.

First of all, we can say this: this reference to the law of Moses reminds us that the day of the Lord has a special meaning to the people of God. Special meaning to the people of God. Think about it. Who gave revelation to Israel? Who gave them His law? Well, Yahweh did. The I Am, Yahweh. Who is now giving them information, revelation about the day that's coming? Well, God is giving them information, revelation about the day that's coming. God Himself. Once again, they're being reminded by the very fact of revelation, by the very fact of communication from Yahweh, from God. They're being reminded of His gracious relationship that God has established with His people. And the same God who's telling them about the future is the God who gave them the law, who is in this covenant relationship with them, communicated through Moses.

In other words, Israel has been loved by God, and through this message, they're being loved by God as well. Remember how this book began, right? Chapter 1: "I have loved you, says Yahweh" – right? – I've loved you. And in their sin, what did they say? Well, "how have You loved us?" Really? "How have You loved us?" Out of all the people on the face of the planet, God was giving this revelation to them. And I think about how God has communicated to us in the New Testament. Out of all the people on the face of the earth, of all the noble, all of the powerful, all of the wise, all the movers and shakers in society, as we saw this morning in the first century, to whom did God give His word? But local churches who will receive those letters—common, everyday people. Amazing grace, isn't it? So this day has special meaning to the people of God as the people of God.

But secondly, the fact of the reference—the law of God—also confirms the truthfulness of what they received in that law of Moses. It confirms the truthfulness of what they received in that law. That law contained and included promises of blessing and cursing. Faithfulness to Yahweh means blessing. Unfaithfulness to Him means what? Curses. And if anybody's in doubt about whether that's true or not, He's pointing them to the very end of the age and He's saying, it will all be proven true. All of it. All of it. Everything I've given you, it's an expression of My love for you, and everything I've given you, you can stake your eternity on it. It's going to be demonstrated to be true in the end. You wonder where the God of justice is? You wonder? Just wait, and you will see that everything I communicated to you through My servant Moses—it's all true. That would be another reason that you find this reference.

But I think the primary reason why you find this reference is because if you ask, how do you respond to this news? How? How do you respond to this news? You're telling us about the day, the great day of Yahweh. You're telling us about what it means for the arrogant evildoers. You're telling us what it means for those who fear Your name. Now, if you ask, how do we respond to this, the answer is what? To renew covenant faithfulness. That's the answer. To renew covenant faithfulness.

You have My laws. I gave them to you through My servant Moses at Horeb. So with this news in mind, believe Me, submit to Me, obey Me, follow Me. Love Me. Notice He says, "Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and judgments which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel." He says, I want you to remember all these things. I commanded you to remember.

One commentator writes this concerning this verse, and I quote, "This command can refer to A, mental acts of remembering or paying attention to something, or to B, mental acts combined with appropriate external actions, in other words, recalling and obeying, or to C, acts of reciting or repeating something verbally." He goes on to say, "In light of Malachi's insistence on obedience, meaning B seems to be the force of this command. Recall it to mind and do it. In light of the future that's coming, believe the Lord, be loyal to the Lord, listen to the Lord, obey the commands of God."

And so the relationship with God involves the right relationship to His word. Preparing for the day means receiving His words, believing His words, and walking in His words.

Well, let's look at the fourth relationship, verses five and six—the day of the Lord and its relationship to the ministry of Elijah. "Behold",  – verse five – "I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction."

I want to begin with what's in the middle of those two verses. Look at it—the idea of the hearts of the fathers being turned to their children, the hearts of the children being turned to their fathers. Isn't it interesting that out of all of the ways that Yahweh through Malachi could give voice to what repentance looks like, He describes it in those terms? The heart of fathers being turned to children, and the heart of children being turned to fathers.

The question is why? Why? Why? Well, think of the fifth commandment. It implied that the home was essentially where children are really taught. The home—begins with the home. There in the home, authority and submission, love and loyalty, obedience and trust could be learned as nowhere else. And with the word of God as guide in the home, all the ripple effects—society could be changed. We don't believe God if we don't believe Him at home. We don't really believe God if we don't believe Him in our marriages. We don't really believe God if we don't believe Him in the raising of our children. So where you find genuine faith, and genuine repentance, and genuine sorrow for sin, a genuine submission to God, where's it going to show up? Where's it going to show up? It's going to show up in what someone calls the schoolhouse of the community, which is the home. The home.

As one commentator put it, "The point is that fathers and sons would no longer live self-serving lives, but fathers will take their sons to heart, and sons will take to heart their fathers, considering the effects of their actions on one another in the course of their lives,".
So let me ask you, really, in light of this text, can you love the Lord and not love your kids? Can you love the Lord and not love your parents, kids? So where you see genuine repentance, the fruit of genuine repentance is as near to us as our nearest relationships. Don't imagine that serving God starts off way out there somewhere. It starts as near to you as your own heart, and you will know whether or not your heart is in a godly place by whether or not you care for others. And if you care for others, you're going to care for them in your own home first. This is where your ministry is first. Your first ministry is your home. Show me a society where sin is running rampant, and where selfishness reigns, and I'll show you a society where parents don't really care about their kids, and kids don't really care about their parents. And so the result of the prophet's ministry, the result that is aimed at, is a repentance that will inevitably show up at the most fundamental level—at home. And the Lord is saying that He's going to send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day comes, verse five.

Here's what makes that statement interesting. The New Testament makes clear that in some sense, John the Baptist fulfilled that promise, and we saw that together, right, studying the Gospel of John. Jesus said so. But the question is, as we look at the results of John's ministry and we ask, was there this kind of repentance? And though there were indicators of some sort of outpouring of repentance through John's ministry—there were many, many people being baptized by John—but if you ask, was that lasting? Did it prove to be genuine?
Well, then we look at what the nation did with their Messiah, and we have to conclude that in large measure, there wasn't a genuine repentance at that time in the first coming. For if there had been, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory as they did. They would not have rejected their Messiah. And Christ seemed to imply that though John did fulfill in some sense this Elijah-like prophet—he was a type of Elijah—there is still another one who comes in the future as well.

Matthew 17, verse 11, listen to what He said there: "And He answered and said, 'Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.'" Notice, that means that John's ministry was in some large ways rejected because they didn't recognize him and they did to him whatever they wished. "So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hand." Verse 13: "Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist."
So Christ clearly identifies John with Elijah. He came with the spirit and power of Elijah—John the Baptist—Luke 1:17. But do you notice He says, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things"?

Then we read in Revelation 11, in the 14 verses of Revelation 11, that there will be two powerful witnesses during the tribulation period. And as those two witnesses are described, there is an Elijah and a Moses kind of ministry described there.

In Matthew 17, after Elijah appeared with Christ in His transfiguration, the disciples asked about Elijah's future coming. Jesus, speaking after John's death (Matthew 14:1-2), affirms that "Elijah is coming and will restore all things."

This future expectation indicates, then, that Malachi 4:5–6 was not fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist. Israel did not accept John the Baptist as the Elijah-like restorer of all things. So another Elijah-like forerunner is yet to come before the day of the Lord. However, Jesus went on to say, "Elijah has already come." They did not recognize Him, and the disciples understood that He was talking about John the Baptist.

So here's the explanation to all of this. Though John did not fulfill Malachi 4, verses five and six, for Elijah is yet to come—John was like Elijah, one who had the same type of ministry. But, beloved, what Malachi 4 declares is that when the Elijah comes before the great and awesome day of Yahweh, that great day of the Lord comes, "he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers."

And then the book ends with what has been described as a dread, dreaded alternative. End of verse six: "Lest" Lest—that ought to arrest the attention of the reader and the hearer—"lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction."

Those who do not repent will be devoted to destruction. Did you read the language? Did you hear the language? "Devoted to destruction"? The entire land, all the earth, where there is not repentance—using the language of the Hebrew word ‘herem’—accurately translated, "devoted to destruction." Something abominable. The idea there of devoted for destruction, like something under the ban, like what would take place in a holy war. Wherever there hasn't been repentance, there will be that which is devoted to destruction.

The Lord will indeed come in judgment. And He will judge the wicked. And all the wicked who refuse to repent will be devoted to destruction. But those who know Him and fear His name—they'll be delivered from that awesome and final day of retribution.

Here's the bottom line: it's going to be distinguishing judgment. Some will be dealt with as sons, some will be dealt with as the sinners who have declared war on a holy God, and therefore God has declared war on them and devoted them to destruction.
And so I want to ask this evening in closing: where are you at in that divide? Where are you at in that divide? When you think of a day when justice will be done, when vengeance will be the Lord's, when the judgment that has been delayed will certainly arrive and will consume the Lord's adversaries—do you deny it? Do you not want to think about it? Do you doubt it? Do you dread it? Or do you know, as Romans 8:33 declares, for you, there is nothing to fear?

Nothing because perfect love, right, casts out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. You know—you know that you are loved by God in His Son, in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, because you have bowed the knee to Jesus and you confessed Him as your Lord, as your Savior, and all of your sins have been already judged completely, entirely, fully in the body of God's Son on the tree, so that now your focus is on declaring the good news of salvation to as many sinners as you can on your way to glory, and praying that God will save many in these days. Where are you at in that divide? Young people sitting in the back, where are you at in that divide? All of us here.

If you don't know Christ, I exhort you, even tonight, as you hear this message proclaimed, I exhort you to repent. And where there's true repentance, there's fruit, there's fruit inevitably. Just as the effect of Elijah's ministry would be the turning of the hearts of fathers to their children and the children to their fathers, so if you truly repent, you—not only you, but we—will know it, because your life will be different. Your life will be different.

You will follow the Shepherd. You will love the Shepherd. You will believe the Shepherd. You will proclaim the Shepherd. Your life will be different, and it will be as near to you as your own life and your own home. If you don't know Christ, would you repent? Would you turn from your sins, and would you put your faith in the Son of God tonight?

And if you know Christ, would you wake up? Would we wake up, beloved, all of us? Would you wake up and realize what you're here for? And how long all of this lasts? Teach us to number our days, right? And what eternity is. Would you wake up? Would you live your life in the light of that great day? And would you rejoice in the thought that the day is coming when, like a calf skipping out of the stall, the Sun of Righteousness will rise on us, all His children, and the darkness will be put away by the Son of God Himself, and it will be a day of great celebration, a day of great vindication? Will you look forward to that day and live in the light of that day now? Aren't you grateful that we can? Aren't you grateful, beloved, that we can? Oh, that day, when freed from sinning, we will see His lovely face.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Other than the golden chain of redemption that's found in Romans chapter 8—the passage that was read earlier, verses 28 to 30 particularly—I don't think there's any place in the Word of God where the eternal security of the believer is more clearly presented than in these verses that we've just read. It's as if our Lord wanted to be unmistakable, clear—unmistakable—on this issue, as He gives us in this brief statement evidence after evidence after evidence that if He has saved someone, that someone will never be lost. Ever. They're saved forever.

And that's the question that's answered here in this portion of God's Word. When someone comes to God for the forgiveness of their sins by believing Him concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and when they come to Him in faith in Christ, in Christ alone, the person who believes—are all of their sins forgiven? And are they forgiven in full? Past, present, and future? And are their sins forgiven forever? And will that person, without question, certainly be in Heaven after they die?

Is the salvation that is given in Christ something temporary or is it something permanent? Is it eternal? Is the believer secure once they have been given salvation in Christ? That's the question that Jesus answers in verses 28 through 30. And I don't think it surprises you to know that there are many people who say that salvation isn't something that is necessarily forever. There are many people who believe that a person can be given salvation in Christ and then sometime later forfeit it. Forfeited by their own sin or forfeited by their own lack of faith. You know, they fall away from the faith.

And what they do is they take the warning passages in the New Testament—passages that were given in order to stir us up unto perseverance, also given to warn us of empty profession—they take those passages and they twist them to teach that a person can actually lose salvation after the Lord Jesus Christ has saved them. What they ignore and what they dismiss is what the Lord Jesus Himself says here in this passage. I mean, He couldn't be any clearer on the subject. I mean, this is so ironclad, there's no wiggle room.

This morning and next Lord's Day, Lord willing, I want to point out six truths that are found in the statement of our Lord. Six truths that demonstrate the security of the believer, and we'll look at three of them this morning. And, Lord willing, next time we'll look at the other three. Well, let's begin. Let's delve into the passage. Look at the first one—the first truth that we find in this passage concerning the security of the believer. And the first one is this, I want you to see with me: the Provider of life. The Provider of life speaks of our security as believers. The Provider of life speaks of security.

In verse 28, Jesus says, “‘I give eternal life to them.’" One of the things that immediately stands out as you read that is that eternal life cannot be gotten. It cannot be obtained apart from Jesus.

Eternal life cannot be obtained, cannot be gotten apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who gives it. He's the one who gives eternal life. He's the one who provides it. He's the Provider. Without Jesus, no one has eternal life. He says, "‘I give.’" It's Me who gives it. I'm the One who gives it. We need to tell the world very clearly that you cannot come to God the Father directly. You have to come to God by way of the Mediator, the one and only Mediator. You must come to God by way of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

People say, well, I've always believed in God or I believe in God. And so I believe that one day I'll be in Heaven because I believe in God. Well, you cannot come to God directly. You can't. It's not possible. Your sins have made a separation between you and God, sinner and a thrice Holy God. And the only way to be brought to God is for your sins to be dealt with, your sins to be forgiven and to be put out of the way. And God has ordained the way. He's ordained the way, the only way that sins can be forgiven. And that is through the death of His own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jesus is the one who gives eternal life.

You cannot achieve eternal life on your own. Eternal life is not something that one day we'll be able to stand before God and say, well, this is what we have gotten for ourselves, God. This is something that we've achieved on our own. I worked so hard for it and here I am commending myself on my own merit before You. No, no. You didn't provide eternal life. You didn't provide eternal life. You don't provide eternal life. Eternal life is provided. It has a Provider and His name is Jesus.

John 14, verse 6. You're familiar with this verse, right? Jesus said, "‘I am the way, the truth, the life.’" And then He adds, "‘No one’"—and you know what no one means in Greek? No one. Absolutely no one — “‘comes to the Father but through Me.’" And so when Jesus says here in John 10:28, "‘I give eternal life to them,’" He's saying the same thing. And by the way, this is also a monumental statement concerning the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. What mere man could ever say, what mere man could ever say, "I give eternal life to them”? Which one of us here this morning can stand up and say, you know, "I give you eternal life. I give you eternal life"? No. Forgiveness of sin is something, and eternal life is something that only God can give. And so when Jesus says, "I give eternal life to them," let us not lose in our mind the historical reality of what we read here.

Here you have this Jewish carpenter standing before people who are questioning Him, questioning who He really is and what His identity is. And in the midst of all of this, He says, I am the one who gives My people eternal life. It's clear that He's claiming to be God. It's a clear claim to His deity. The Jews understood this, by the way. Turn with me to Luke 5 and verse 18. It was unmistakable what He was claiming to be, who He was claiming to be. Luke 5 and verse 18, we read the following: "And behold, some men were carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down before Him, before Christ. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and led him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. And seeing their faith, He said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven you.' The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies?’” — Now watch this — "‘Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’" So when Jesus says this to this man, "I forgive your sins," they clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be God. No mistake about it. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

In John chapter 4, you remember—you can go there, please—John chapter 4, you recall that exchange with the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well. In the 10th verse, “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’" Verse 11, “She said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst–ever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’"

Jesus said to this woman, "‘If you knew the gift of God,’" and then He says this, "and who it is that's saying to you, 'Give Me a drink.'" If you knew who it is that's speaking to you, “‘you would have asked Him, and He would have given you this living water.’” And she says to Him, "‘Are You greater than our father Jacob…?’" And He says to her, "‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him…’" Jesus is the Giver. Jesus is the Provider. He says they will never be thirsty again. Ever. That's eternal. Forever. Eternal. That's eternal life. It's eternal life that He gives. It's life everlasting.

So the provider of eternal life is not yourself. It's not myself. It's not something you work for. It's not something you earn. It's not something you deserve. It's not something you achieve. The provider of eternal life is Jesus. He's the one who gives eternal life. And so, think about this: so if He gives it, and if you didn't get it on your own, if He gives it, then you're not the one who sustains it. Are you? If He gives it, then you're not the one who sustains it either. The giver is the sustainer. The giver is the sustainer. And so the provider of eternal life speaks of the security of the life that we receive. But notice the second truth that we have here, that we see here. Not only do you see the security of the believer in the provider of life, but secondly, you see it in the procurement of life. The procurement of life also speaks of our security. That is to say, how it is gotten. How it is obtained. How it is received—this eternal life that Jesus gives.

Notice He says, "‘I give.’" "‘I give eternal life to them.’" He says, "‘I give it to them.’" In other words, it's a gift. It's a gift. Eternal life is not something earned. It's not something deserved. It's something given. In Acts 16 and verse 29, the Philippian jailer, you remember, was afraid for his life after the Lord opened the prison doors for Paul and Silas to leave. Turn with me there, Acts 16, and you can see that together. In Acts 16, verse 29, we read, "And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your house.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. Immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly with his whole household, because he had believed in God.”

The question he had for them, the jailer had for Paul and Silas, was this: How do I have eternal life? How can I obtain it? How can I receive it? How can I get it? What was the answer? Believe. Believe. That's all. Believe. It's a gift. It's a gift that is received by faith. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” It is by grace that we have been saved, not by works, right? Through faith. It's a gift of God. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2. In John 6:27, "Do not work for the food which perishes," —you remember that passage Jesus declared, — "but for the food which endures to eternal life…"

Now, you remember in our exposition there, at first when you read that, when you hear that, you may think in terms of works. "‘Do not work for the food that perishes,’" He says, "‘but work for the food which endures to eternal life.’" But now listen to what He goes on to say in verse 27, John 6, "‘which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, set His seal.’"
Verse 28: "Therefore they said to Him, 'What should we do so that we may work the works of God?'" You tell us. You tell us that we're to labor for food that lasts forever. You remember they were following Him because He fed the multitudes. And here they are. They want to be fed again. He says, work. What work? And they asked Him, what work must we do to have this food that endures forever? What must we do? What must we be doing?

And Jesus answered in verse 29. He said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." What is the work that brings to me eternal life? To put it in those terms, He says, here's the work of God. You want to do the work of God? Here's the work of God: "Believe in Him whom the Father has sent." Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, no work. Believe. Believe. How is eternal life received? It is received not by works, but by faith. And so Jesus makes it plain that it's a gift. You don't work for it. You don't earn it. You don't deserve it. He gives it. He gives it to you. He gives it to you. And He gives it to you through faith, which is a gift. Faith being instrumental, not salvific.

Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." Right? For the wages of sin is what? We earn sin. We work for it. We deserve it. This is the payback. Right? "The wages of sin is death" — and I love how the LSB really captures the word in the Greek — "but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The free, gracious gift of God. I mean, you can't put it any plainer than that. It's a gracious gift. Grace. We don't earn it. We cannot earn it. We don't deserve it. But it's given graciously.

Christ came into the world, we rejoice to say, to save sinners. He didn't come to save good men because there aren't any. There aren't any. He didn't come to save men by helping them be better. Reach their full potential. No, no. He didn't say, well, I'm going to come and give to them a moral example by which they can save themselves. No, no. Or I'm going to come and teach them how to love so that they can save themselves. I'm going to teach them how to live so that they can save themselves. Absolutely not. He came to save men who could not save themselves. He came to save wretched sinners. And to put it another way, God justifies ungodly, ungodly people. He didn't justify us. He didn't justify us. He didn't declare us to be right with Him when we achieved some place of godliness. I'll meet you halfway— no, no. He justified us when we were ungodly. When we were sinners, ungodly, estranged from Him, alienated from Him, by faith in His Son, God then declared us to be right in His own sight, and He gave us the gift of eternal life.

Turn with me to Romans 4. It's a magnanimous passage. Romans 4, beginning with verse 1: "What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about — but not before God! For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Now, to the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:” — Verse 7—  "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account."

And who is that man? Who is that blessed man that God doesn't take into account their sin? It's every one of us who has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are that man. We are that one. We are the blessed one. We are the one whose lawless deeds have been forgiven. We're the one whose sins covered. We're the ones who have been counted righteous before God apart from works. We're the ones who've been given this righteousness as the gift of God, the righteousness of Christ. We're the ones who've been saved by God's Son through faith in Him.

And so the way this life is received—Jesus says in verse 28 of John chapter 10—He says, "I," "I"—He's the provider—"give" — that's how it's received. It's a gift. "I give eternal life to them." "I give it to them." It's a gift. "I give eternal life to them." And let me say just briefly about this verb "give" — ‘didōmi’ is the Greek verb. And actually, it means literally to give of one's own accord and with goodwill. It means to bestow upon. It's a bestowed gift. It's a gift of God. So not only does the Provider speak of the believer's security, the procurement of life speaks of the believer's security—how it is obtained. But there's a third truth that we see in the statement that speaks of our security. We speak of the security of the life that Christ gives. And I want us to see the third truth: the people who are given life speak of security. The Provider. The procurement. And the people. The people who are given life speak of security.

Now let me explain. What does Jesus tell us here about these people to whom He's giving eternal life, who He gives eternal life? Well, let me explain. You know, He's very specific. He says in verse 28—look at the text with me—"I give eternal life to them." Now the question is, who is He talking about here? "I give to them." Who are the "them"? Well, let’s go back to verse 27. He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them." What is the distinguishing characteristic about them? What, if anything, sets them apart from other people? From those who don't have this life? From those who won't have this life? What really distinguishes them? Sets them apart?

You realize there's only a certain group of people on the face of this earth who have eternal life. Right? Those who have trusted in Christ. Those who have put their faith in Christ have eternal life. Now, what sets them apart from those who don't have this life eternal? Well, most people would say, "Well, what sets them apart is that they believed." Verse 27 says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them." And He says, "They follow Me." Those are the distinguishing characteristics. Right? Those who have eternal life are those who followed Him. They followed Jesus. They followed the true Shepherd.

And that's true. No one has eternal life who doesn't believe in the Son of God. And we need to be very clear, especially in our own day, clear about what this belief is really about. It's not just an intellectual assent. It's not just saying, "I believe the facts about Jesus." That's not saving faith. That's not belief. No, no. To believe in the Son of God is nothing less than—we studied this together—to hear His voice and to follow Him. Right? Obedience. But I want to add something else here. To believe in the Son of God is nothing less than to love Him. Than to love Him. If you believe in Him, you love Him. If you believe in Him, you love Him. Right? First Peter 1:8 “having not seen Him,” — what? — “you love Him.” You love Him.

In fact, when Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he said, "If anyone does not love the Lord, he is” — what? He is to be ‘anathema.’ He is to be damned to hell. He is to be —“accursed" (1 Corinthians 16:22). And God doesn't curse His sheep. He doesn't curse His people, His children. And that tells me then that every true child of God is someone who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Shepherd. And if anyone does not love Him, it's because they've never been saved. They've never been saved. If anyone doesn't love Him, it's because they've really never believed in Him. Because to believe in Him is to love Him. To believe in Him is to love Him. In fact, Jesus puts it in strong terms. He tells us that no one is worthy to be His disciple who doesn't love Him more than father and mother and brother and sister, and yes, even his own life and the temporal things of this world.

So it's to love Jesus above all else and to choose Him, even if it meant the loss of all else. Give me Jesus. Take the world and give me Jesus. It means you believe in Him so that you follow Him. Verse 27, you remember: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." True believers—and we saw this extensively last time together—true believers follow the Lord Jesus. They follow Him. They follow Him. This is what the Bible teaches. So this is a distinguishing characteristic of those who have eternal life. They see Him. They hear Him. They believe in Him. They follow Him. They love Him. Right? They love Him. But Jesus doesn't say that they hear His voice and follow Him as if these people are the explanation of their own following. That's the point I want to underscore.

We follow the Lord Jesus. We follow Him. We love Him. We believe in Him. We follow Him. But now we have to ask, why do we love Him? Why have we believed in Him? Why do we follow Him? Is it explained by us? Is it? Is it? Is it that we were smarter than others? We had, you know, softer hearts than others? We were more open-minded than others? We were maybe more reasonable than others when we heard the gospel? We were more spiritually sensitive than others? Is that the reason? Is it explained by the people themselves? Unequivocally, no. Absolutely not.

Notice how Jesus explains them by a previous statement that He makes in verse 25. Let's actually back up to verse 24. Let's actually back up to verse 24, The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, ‘How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us openly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me.’” —here it is— “‘But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.’” He said, “the reason you don't believe is because you're not one of My sheep." And Jesus says in verse 27 that it is His sheep who hear His voice. It's His sheep whom He knows. It's His sheep that follow Him. And He gives—verse 28—eternal life to them. To who? His sheep.

And you know what? They were His sheep before He called them out. Not in the sense that they were already saved, but in the sense that they were already destined for salvation. Do you realize this morning, beloved—and I know you do, but I want to tell you again, I rejoice to tell you—you were one of His sheep before you ever knew Him. And in this sense, that you were already destined to know Him, destined to be saved. And you may be sitting here this morning, one who's thinking, "Well, where did you get that from?"

Well, I'm glad you asked. Back up to the opening verses of chapter 10. Let's go back to it. Verse one: "‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He brings all His own out, He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice. A stranger they will never follow, but will flee from Him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.”

You remember in our studies of that passage, you remember we learned earlier there that the sheepfold being pictured here is Israel—Israel—and Jesus comes to Israel as their Messiah, and He calls them out in the sense that He makes Himself known. But not all that are in the sheepfold follow Him. Only those that are His sheep—they hear His voice, and they recognize His voice, and they follow Him. And in fact, Jesus may explain later on in this discussion that He has other sheep not belonging to the nation of Israel, and they will also hear His voice, and they will follow Him, and there will become one Shepherd over both Jews and Gentiles who are redeemed. Look at verse 16. Jesus says this: "And I have other sheep, which are not from this fold;” —And I'm so thankful for the next statement, how it's made. Notice what He says — "I must"—this is a divine necessity, "I must," “I must.” What does He say? — "bring them also." There's no ifs and buts. "I must bring them also, and they"—what's the next word?—"will," not may. “They will hear My voice." "They will hear My voice."

Do you see the certainty of salvation? Do you see that Jesus didn't come to this earth to provide a hypothetical salvation for a hypothetical people who may one day come to believe in Him? Oh no, no, no. It's not as though Jesus says, I'm going to give My life on the cross, and God the Father says, I'm going to give My Son on the cross and crush Him on the cross so that He may be available—perhaps someone will believe in Him. Maybe. No, no. Jesus had a people given to Him by the Father before time began who were destined for salvation, and Jesus is the Redeemer who came into this earth to save His people from their sins.

He came knowing that He had sheep—sheep from the house of Israel, sheep from outside of the house of Israel, Gentiles. He must, He says, He must bring them also, and He would bring them, and they would hear His voice, and He would be their Shepherd, and they would be His sheep. In fact, He makes it plain that He came to this earth to die for those sheep. Look at verse 11, "‘I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.’" That's the language of the cross. Verse 16, "‘And I have other sheep which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me,’” — why? — "‘because I lay down My life’” — for the sheep. That's Calvary — "‘No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down.’" — that's the cross — "‘I have authority to lay it down,’"—the cross—"‘and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.’" “I lay down My life for the sheep. I lay it down. I lay it down.”

You say, well, does this figure in the verses that we're looking at? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look at verse 29. Start with verse 28, "‘and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish–ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.’" Now look at verse 29, "‘My Father’"—and what's the next statement? Who has what? Who has what?—"‘given them to Me.’" —here it is— "given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.’" The ones to whom He gives eternal life—this is the text, I'm simply proclaiming the text—the ones to whom He gives eternal life are those who were given to Him as a gift by the Father.

Let's go to the high priestly prayer of Jesus, John 17. John 17. Look at verse 1. John 17, verse 1, "Jesus spoke these things, lifting up His eyes to heaven. He said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.'" Now watch the language carefully, "‘even as You gave Him authority over all flesh’” —so Christ has authority over all humanity. Now what does He do with this authority? What's next? — "‘that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.’" Right? Who does the Son of God give eternal life to? Who does He give eternal life to? All those given to Him by the Father. By the Father. Verse 3, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.’"

Look down at verse 6, "‘I have manifested Your name’"—now watch the language again, it's right there—"‘to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.’" Look at verse 9, "‘I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.’" Look at verse 20, "‘I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who also believe in Me through their word.’" Who is He praying for? He's not praying for the world. He's praying for believers. He's praying for those who have been given to Him by the Father. And He's praying for those who will come to believe through their words.

In other words, the sheep—these are His sheep. These are the ones He must bring. These are the ones who will listen to His voice. These are the ones who will be saved and receive eternal life. This fully accords with what we read in the Testament epistles, like the one in Ephesians 1, verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Now, what's the next verse? Verse 4, "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…" When were we chosen for salvation? Before the world was made. He goes on to say, "that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to"—what? Our goodness, our merit, our work's righteousness? No— "according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved."

Let me show you another passage, and this is also another magnanimous passage—Hebrews chapter 2. I'm just simply letting the Scripture interpret Scripture here. Hebrews chapter 2. Let's begin with verse 9, and this is amazing, really. We read in verse 9, "But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels–Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." What was the Father doing through the suffering of His Son? According to this text, He was bringing many sons to glory. You see it? Verse 10, "bringing"—He was bringing—"many sons to glory."

Christ's suffering is what brings many sons to glory. It is by His death on Calvary's cross, His suffering, His agony on the cross, that God's children have been brought to Him, reconciled to Him, and will be one day presented blameless before Him in glory. That's what the text says.
Look at verse 11 now, "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,"—now this is the language of the Lord Jesus, now watch out, watch what He says—" I will recount Your name to My brothers, in the midst of the assembly I will sing Your praise.’" Verse 13, "And again, ‘I will put My trust in Him.’ And again”—listen to this—"‘Behold, I and the children whom God has,’" —what? — “‘given Me.’" You see it? Father, here I am with all these children whom You have given Me. Verse 14, "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the seed of Abraham." Stop there. Isn't this amazing truth?

But think about this. Let this grip your mind. Not only do you have fallen men, you also have fallen angels. But there's never been redemption provided for angels. Never, never. Yet to the seed of Abraham, the spiritual seed of Abraham—for this people, reckoned to be in Christ before the foundation of the world, chosen in Him—for these, He offers help, the text says.
Verse 17, "Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the help those who are tempted." Not only has He saved us, but He is so identified with us that He's our faithful High Priest who gives us comfort in all of our struggles, in all of our tests, and all of our temptations.

What makes these people different? He says, "I give to them eternal life." "I give eternal life to them." What's different about them? Well, they've believed Christ. They followed Christ. That's true. But the reason why they believe, the reason why they follow, is because they were given to Him before time began. They are His sheep, and that speaks of their security. Now, here's the point—all of this leading to this. If the Lord purposed to save you before you were ever born, will He lose you now that He's given you life? If the Lord purposed to save you before you were ever born, will He lose you now that He's given you life? Did He purpose just to give you life for a moment, an hour, a week, a month, a year? Or is Jesus able to save? Hebrews 2:13, Behold, here I am with all the children You have given Me. What was Jesus doing? Bringing many sons to a moment of faith? Is that what He was doing? Or bringing many sons to what? Glory. Bringing many sons to glory. Glory. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound," right? "That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved," and the same grace will lead me safely home one day to glory.

So, this is what His suffering was all about—to bring many sons to glory. And it speaks of the security of God's children. But there's something else. And I don't want us to miss this. There's something else, another way that we speak, that we testify the security of the believer, and that is, we had to be redeemed. You say, what's the big deal? Think about this. We had to be redeemed. How do the people of God speak of security? Because there's nothing in them that explains the salvation that we've been given. Nothing. Nothing. Were we any different than any other people? Was there something special about us that would explain why we were given eternal life? As I mentioned earlier, were we smarter than others? Were we more moral than others? Were we more spiritually sensitive than others? Were we the explanation for why we're redeemed today? Oh, indeed not. No, no. In fact, from an external point of view, it almost seems to be just the opposite. In fact, God makes a point with us. God makes a point with us. He saved people in such a way that it becomes evident that the salvation that He gives, that He provides, has to be because of Him and not because of the people whom He saved.
 
Paul gave the Corinthian church this dose of reality. And we need this dose of reality, you and I, today. 1 Corinthians 1, right? Turn with me there. We need that. We need to remind ourselves of the essence of the gospel and all the implications bound up in the gospel. Think about your—he says, “Consider your calling, brothers,...” verse 26, “Consider your calling.” Think about your calling. Think about why you're a Christian, why you're a sheep. Think about why the Lord has called you. Think about who you were before you were called. He goes on to say, look at the text,  "there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may abolish the things that are, so that no flesh may boast before God. But by His doing"—not mine, not yours—"by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

Who has the Lord saved according to this text? Well, He saved fools. He saved fools. He saved weak people, anemic people. He saved people who didn't have nobility. We could put our arms around all of this. He saved nobodies, wretched nobodies, rebels. He saved us. He saved us. And if you just look at us, it ought to be evident that salvation is by grace. Each and every single one of us must say and preach it to our own heart. Remind ourselves, I am that I am by the grace of God. That's it. That's it. That's what Paul was saying to the Corinthian church. Don't we speak of the grace of God as redeemed sinners? And so the people speak of security because did God know what He was getting when He chose you? Did God choose the people who could save themselves, who didn't need Him? "‘Without Me, you can do’” —what? — “‘Nothing,’" right? Jesus said. Did God choose the people based on their works? Based on their parents, their grandparents? Based on what was seen in them or foreseen in them? No.

When God saw us in eternity, in His eternal mind, when God saw us, He saw people who were helpless, and He chose to save a helpless people. In the language of Romans 5 and verse 6, "For while we were still” — ‘asthenes’ the Greek word, powerless, without strength, helpless, weak—"at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Is salvation forever? If someone is saved, will they be saved forever? Well, in closing, consider the provider. Jesus said, "I give to them eternal life." You don't provide it for yourself—He provides it. Consider the procurement. How did you obtain it? Not by works, but by faith as a gift from God. And then consider yourself, Christian. Consider the people who are given eternal life. How are you different from anybody else? You say, well, I believe. Well, why did you believe? Why did you recognize Him and hear His voice and follow Him? It's because you were one of His sheep. And when were you given to salvation? When were you given to Him for salvation? Before you were ever born. And why were you given to Him? Well, not because of anything seen in you or foreseen in you, but for a reason found only in God, period, paragraph. That is His grace, His mercy. His love alone explains why one day you will stand with Jesus when He says, "Behold, I and the children whom You have given Me."

It all speaks of the security of salvation. Next Sunday, Lord willing, we'll come back to these verses and see three additional truths that are bound up here that speak of the security of salvation. I want to ask you as we close this morning, are you saved? Are you saved? I know you're in a church gathering. I know you are in this place, but are you in Christ? Are you saved? Are your sins forgiven? Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you follow Him? Do you love Him? Listen, the invitation is given to all. The gospel is preached and proclaimed in a general fashion. If anyone will repent of his or her sin and look to Christ for life, come to Christ as Lord and Savior, He saves you and you'll be saved. Do you hear that call? Not the external call, but do you hear that call, that effectual call? Do you believe it? Will you respond to it? Will you believe in Him, knowing that it doesn't mean to just intellectually hear, agree with the facts concerning Jesus? Will you love Him? Will you come to Him by faith? There's no one who's ever trusted in Him who's ever been disappointed. Will you come to Him?

I must give the final words to Spurgeon. I'll conclude with him, and I pray this will encourage your heart. It's an extended quote, but it blessed my own heart and I want to share the goods with you. Listen to what he says, and I quote:

"If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all. If one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be. And then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie and there's nothing in it worthy my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me forever. God has a mastermind. He arranged everything in His gigantic intellect long before He did it. And once having settled it, He never alters it. This shall be done, saith He, and the iron hand of destiny marks it down. And it is brought to pass. This is my purpose, and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. This is my decree, saith He, promulgated, yet holy angels, rend it down from the gate of heaven, ye devils. If ye can, but ye cannot alter the decree, it shall stand forever. God altereth not His plans. Why should He? He is almighty and therefore can perform His pleasure. Why should He? He is the everlasting God and therefore cannot die before His plan is accomplished. Why should He change? Ye worthless atoms of earth and ephemera of day, ye creeping insects upon this bay leaf of existence, ye may change your plans, but He shall never, never change His. Has He told me that His plan is to save me? If so, I am forever safe. I do not know how some people," he goes on to say, "who believe that a Christian can fall from grace manage to be happy. It must be a very commendable thing in them to be able to get through a day without despair. If I did not believe the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, I think I should be of all men the most miserable because I should lack any ground of comfort. I believe that the happiest of Christians and the truest of Christians are those who never dare to doubt God, but who take His word simply as it stands and believe it and ask no questions, just feeling assured that if God has said it, it will be so."

That is why Spurgeon could sing, and I hope you and I can also sing as well:

"My name from the palm of His hands,  
Eternity will not erase;  
Impressed upon His heart, it remains  
In marks of indelible grace."

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Tonight we come to the sixth oracle, the sixth oracle in the book of Malachi. And it's a message that places a special emphasis on words, words. Really, we can title this very easily, the story of man's words. So it has to do with our words. You notice the contrast in verse 13, "”Your words have been strong against Me," says Yahweh.” Verse 16, "Then those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another." Those who are marked by the fear of God, they spoke to one another. The contrast could not be clearer.

Set before us are the wicked and the righteous. And what distinguishes them in this oracle particularly are their words, words. And the distinction found in their words points to the distinction that will belong to their future. The Lord says that in that day it will be manifest who the wicked are and who the righteous are, and the difference will be clear to see between one who serves God and one who does not serve God. This is a contrast found throughout the Scriptures, not just in the book of Malachi. And to put it plainly, there is nothing more revealing when it comes to man's sinfulness than his mouth. The sinfulness of man at its core is always, always a what? A heart matter. Always.

There are sins that we commit in our bodies, there are sins that we commit by our actions, but you can always trace sins in the realm of our deeds to our hearts. And the fountain that reveals what is in man's heart is what? His speech. His words.

Remember Isaiah. Isaiah saw the Lord Yahweh high and lifted up, and he became immediately aware of his great wretchedness, his great sinfulness. And how does he express it? Very familiar with those words, right? "Then I said, Woe is me," Isaiah 6:5, "for I am ruined!” –I'm finished, I'm done. “For I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts." As he became aware of his sinfulness, he's especially acutely aware of the uncleanness, the filthiness of his mouth, speech, words.

And of course we're familiar with Matthew 12:34, where our Lord says, "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they will give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." The Lord will be able to illustrate in that day, He'll be able to illustrate the rightness, the justice of His separation of humanity, the sheep and the goats, as we saw this morning. It will be able to be demonstrated by words. Words.

Matthew 15:18, "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man." Those are the things that defile the man. Or Romans chapter 3, describing humanity in its sinfulness left to ourselves, it says this, the 13th verse: "Their throat is an open tomb." I mean, they open their mouths and death comes out. "With their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips." And so the sinfulness of man expressed in the speech of man is a theme. You find it throughout Scripture.

What is also a theme found throughout Scripture is the fact that when someone has been saved, this changes—the speech. The speech changes because the heart has been what? Changed. It's always the case. And not only is there an actual change in what comes out of the mouth, there is a new awareness about what comes out of the mouth as well. There's a new desire for what goes on in our hearts and what comes out of our mouths to please God. There's that desire.

When Paul exhorts Timothy to be an example to the church, remember what he says in 1 Timothy 4:12: "Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but show yourself as a model” – show yourself as a model, as a pattern – “to those who believe." – How? – "in word." In what comes out of your mouth. In speech. And then he says, "conduct, love, faith, and purity." Amazing, isn't it? He begins by saying, In your word, Timothy, in your word, in your speech, Timothy. Watch your mouth. Be a model in your conduct, but first, he says, in your speech.

And of course, Psalm 19, that was read earlier in your hearing, verse 14. We know this verse: "Let the words of my mouth, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer." There's that new desire. When there's radical transformation, there's new desire—the desire found in the hearts and lives of redeemed people, ransomed people. Lord, I want not only the meditations of my heart, my thoughts, to please You, but I want my words to be acceptable in Your sight.

Colossians 4:6 exhorts the believer in this way: "Let your words always be with grace." Always. Always. Your words—always at church, at home, on the way home, at work, at school, when you're on the phone talking to one of those big telephone carriers or internet carriers—let your words always be seasoned with salt, always with grace, so that you will know how you should answer each person. What a wonderful verse. It's a good verse to put on a little card and take it with you and put it on the fridge, on your computer, on the phone.

Colossians 3:8: "But now you also, lay them all aside: wrath, anger, malice," – and then He says, "slander, and abusive speech from your mouth." So at the point of the mouth, man's sinfulness is made manifest. And when one has been saved, redeemed, ransomed by the blood of Jesus, there's a transformation, and that transformation is seen in a transformation in speech that flows out of the desire to please God and please Christ with what we say. Because now we make it our ambition to what? Please Him. To live for Him. We no longer live for ourselves, unto ourselves. We live for Him, to please Him, to honor Him.

And we see that truth demonstrated here in the life of post-exilic Israel. The outline tonight is very simple. Verses 13–15, we see the words of the wicked, and then verses 16–18, we see the words of the righteous. The words of the wicked, the words of the righteous. The words of the wicked, verses 13–15. Remember what we saw in the previous section. God, do you remember, extended a hand of mercy? What a gracious God we have. He extended a hand of mercy despite their blatant disobedience—the blatant disobedience of the nation, priests, and people.

Despite them already feeling the pain of their disobedience, God is already visiting them with discipline. God has called them to repentance, and He promised to bless them if they return. If they will return, He says, "I'll forgive." If they will return to Yahweh, He will return to them. That's the promise that we saw last Lord's Day, right? It was a promise. "Return to Me, I'll return to you." The question is, what is their mindset in response to such sweet kindness, undeserved kindness?

God says that their heart condition is one of what? Arrogance. Arrogance. Their words reveal their arrogance. The Bible says that their words are strong against God, or hard against God. They're harsh words. Harsh words. The New American Standard translates it "arrogant." The reason why is this strength of words, this hardness of words—you could say stiff words. What He's describing are sinfully bold words regarding God. Words not only of complaint, words of accusation. Words not only of complaint, but words that would say that God is not what He presents Himself to be.

This is the Lord's indictment of His people: You are guilty of arrogant, prideful words. Now, not surprising, they dispute that claim as they've done throughout the book. I mean, they don't get it. Still disputing, they're pushing back. Verse 13: "But you say, 'What have we spoken against You?'" Again, they claim no knowledge of what God is charging them with.

And so what the Lord does in verse 14, He presents proof. He presents evidence. He doesn't have to give them evidence, but He does. Well, here's what you've said. You want evidence? Here are your strong words. Verse 14: "You have said, 'It is worthless to serve God; and what gain is it that we have kept His charge and that we have walked in mourning before Yahweh of hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape.'" Their arrogance is found in their claims concerning God's character. They're thinking of God in a way, they're speaking of God in a way that is in direct conflict with what God says about Himself.

And I don't want us to miss that, beloved. We need to recognize there is what God says, and then there's what we say. There's what God says, and there's what we say. And what we say with our mouths manifests what we say in our minds and what we say in our hearts. Let me put it to us this way tonight: Where in your heart have you been questioning God's version of reality? Where in your heart have you been questioning God's version of reality? Where has God said, "This is reality. This is reality. This is the way things really are," but in your heart—maybe even with your words—you have called into question God's version of reality?

Or to put it more simply: Where in your heart have you been doubting the words of God?
Commenting on this, Pastor MacArthur writes, “These sinful priests and people had not just questioned God (chapter 2:17), violated God's covenant (chapter 2:11), disobeyed His laws (chapter 2:9), defiled His altar (chapter 1:7 and 12), and despised His name (chapter 1:6), but had openly spoken against Him. In spite of what was promised (verses 10 and 12), the people complained that obedience to God's law brought no reward (verse 14). Only the proud and wicked prospered, they said (verse 15)”.

What are they doing? Well, they're claiming that when God describes Himself as one who upholds righteousness, who rewards obedience, and who punishes evil, God is not telling the truth. God is not telling the truth. This is not who He really is, because in our experience, right, in our experience, people always appear to experience—right, in our experience, they would have said—we are now in a position of recognizing that the arrogant are blessed. Evildoers are not only prospering, but they're putting God to the test, and it's costing them nothing. They escape; in fact, they get away with it.

We can summarize what's going on in their words in two ways. Number one, they claim that humble living is to no profit. They claim that humble living is to no profit. Humble living is to no profit. It's worthless. It's of no use. To humbly serve the Lord, to submit to the Lord, to believe the Lord, to trust the Lord, they say, well, it's worthless. It's vain. It's empty. It is worthless to serve God. That's what they said. There's no gain in it. There's no blessing in it.

Now remember what we saw in the previous section. God has promised to bless them if they will turn from their sins and obey His Word, His law. But they say it's just the opposite. They say to keep God's charge—look at the next statement, verse 14—"what gain is it that we have kept His charge?" To walk in God's law doesn't bring any blessing, they're saying. It doesn't. And they say to humble oneself, to repent as God has called for repentance—look at the text—"we have walked” – and that we have walked– “in mourning before Yahweh of hosts?" is to no gain, they're saying. There's no profit in it.

And in all likelihood, they had counted their superficial mourning to be repentance. Worldly sorrow. Empty tears. They've heard the preaching, preaching like Malachi gave them. And they heard calls for repentance. And they had clothed themselves in a superficial kind of mourning. And then they wondered, why things haven't changed for us? They covered the altar with their tears, and everything remains the same. Why doesn't God regard our repentance? Repentance, right?

Now here they are claiming that to repent as God calls for or to obey God's charges—this really doesn't profit at all. It is worthless. Why are we doing this? It's not working. Calling God's character really here into question.

You want a classic example of this? Here's a classic example of this in our own day. See, this hasn't ceased, has it? Still going on in our minds. Still going on in the minds and the hearts and the mouths of people. Let me give you a classic example of this. Every time someone is presented with the truth—the truth of Scripture, the truth of God, the truth of Christ—and they say something like this: "I've tried that already. I've tried that." Ever heard that? Well, here's what the Bible says you're to do in this situation. Here's what God's Word has to say. This is what God says to you—you are to do in this situation. "Well, I've tried that. I've tried that."

And what they're saying is this: I have taken God at His Word and found it to be of no avail. I tried it. It didn't work. It didn't work. I believe God. I've repented. I've done these things, but nothing changes. Nothing is made better by obedience. There's no profit that comes from listening to God.

Now, as soon as you hear something like that—"I've tried that"—there are a couple of things that you can know for sure. Number one, this person you're talking to lacks a biblical way of estimating fruit. They lack a biblical way of estimating fruit. "I've tried that, and it didn't work. It didn't pay off." However they might say it, whatever words they might use, that's really what they mean: "I've tried that, and it didn't pay off."

And I really want to ask, what do you expect payoff to look like? What do you expect payoff to look like? What is the fruit of obedience? What kind of fruit are you expecting? If today you heed the words of God, if you humble yourself before the Lord, if you take note of what He charges, and you genuinely walk in mourning before Him, humbling yourself before Him, I wonder—what do you think the reward will be? Well, what do you have in mind?

When these people say it's worthless, it's vain, well, what did they expect? What do they consider to be profit? Gain? So when someone talks like this, they reveal that they don't have a biblical way of estimating fruit. They also reveal that they lack a godly motivation that would result in fruit. They lack a godly motivation that would result in fruit.

Where is their genuine fruit? It is when people not only do, quote, the right thing, but they do it for the right reason and with the right motivation, right? True obedience is a matter of the heart. The heart. Not just the body. And so when someone truly obeys, they have the right motivation for obedience. It's obedience from the heart. And now we're enabled. If you're truly a child of God, you have a new heart that God has planted within you, and now there's that obedience that comes from the heart. It's not mechanical, shallow, and pharisaical.

But I want you to note this tonight, beloved, as we talk about this. You cannot pursue God's glory for your gain. You cannot pursue God's glory for your gain. You can only pursue God's glory for God's glory. Mark it down. Never forget it. And there's the genuine motivation for obedience. We live our lives for the glory of God. Period. Paragraph. End of story.

The New Testament tells us, whatever we do, eating, drinking, whatever you want to put on the list, do all for the glory of God. Live to the praise of the glory of God. There is the true obedience in action. And so when someone says, "I've tried that, it didn't pay off," I really want to ask them, what did you consider to be the payoff? Was it the glory of God? Is that what you were aiming at? Is that what you really desired? And is that what you really desire? What you call obedience—does it sound like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when He says, "Not My will but Yours"?

James 4:3 reminds us, "You ask and do not receive because you ask"—what?—"with wrong motives." With wrong motives – "so that you may spend it on your pleasures." You see, you're asking God for things to fulfill your own selfish desires. You're asking God for things to fulfill your selfish motivation. And when you ask like that, you're asking wrongly. You're asking with wrong motives.

And so, if you sum it up—if you sum up what they say—they say, number one, to humble oneself before God is to no profit. It's worthless, it's vain, it doesn't benefit me to listen to God's Word or to mourn before the Lord in repentance. But notice that they don't just state their problem with God on that side of the ledger; they also state it on the other side of the ledger.

Verse 15, look at it: "So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape." Humble living, they say, is to no profit. And secondly, arrogant living is to no loss.

Arrogant living is to no loss. No loss. There's no gain in serving the Lord. There's no loss in testing the Lord. The evil prosper. We call them blessed now. That is, they envy the wicked. They look at the temporal benefits of disobedience to God in the lives of some people, and they count that to be prosperity. They regard those who are truly arrogant as blessed in the moment. And then they say something very interesting when they say, they put God to the test and they escape.

Remember what the Lord said to them in the previous section? "Test Me." Remember that? "Test Me. Prove Me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Test Me. Put Me to the test and see if I won't open the windows of heaven and pour out upon you a blessing that meets all of your needs and more." Verse 10. They say, well, Your promise to live up to the testing has already failed, God. No use. There's a group of people testing You in another way, and Your words don't seem to be true. There are people testing You in sin, and they get away with it. They escape. They put You to the test, and what You say will happen doesn't happen.

I don't know about you. I'm reading this and is this not arrogant on the part of a creature? A creature of the dust? The clay? Speaking against the Potter? The Bible says you're speaking strong words when God says you're speaking hard words against Me. Are these not arrogant words? Oozing with pride? Words that ignore the grace present? The very fact that you're in a covenant relationship with God?

God has already shown grace to this people, and they don't recognize it. This ignores that God deals with His people differently than He does with unbelievers. He does. Even if they look around and they say, it seems like to me that people who are challenging God are getting away with it—and we're not. God is visiting us with discipline for our sins, and these guys are getting away with it. Do you know that God deals with His people differently than He does with unbelievers? Their words ignore the difference between what this temporal world reveals and what eternity will reveal.

That's the message of Psalm 73, right? When Asaph has a similar complaint and he goes into the temple of God, the presence of God, and all of a sudden he has a different view. He has God's view. God opens His eyes so that He sees what a slippery position the evil are actually in. These words ignore the difference between what's temporal and what's eternal. These words also ignore the sowing and reaping process that often seems slow to people who don't believe God.

Do we think that just because God exercised long-suffering, patience, and judgment hasn't come today that it's never coming? I mean, I think of my own life. All those years prior to knowing Jesus, all the long-suffering and patience of God. And do we think that just because obedient living seems to suffer in the moment that it will not be ultimately rewarded? That God doesn't see, God doesn't know, God doesn't keep record? This is what faith can see, but these people don't have faith as evidenced by their words.

This claims a knowledge and a wisdom superior to God's. God has said one thing and they're saying something else. Remember Satan in the garden? "Did God really say?" This accuses God of being someone that He isn't. Someone who actually rewards evil. These are wicked, arrogant, proud words. God brings His indictment, they dispute the indictment, God proves His charges. These are the kinds of words they've been speaking, the words of the wicked.

But now, verse 16, there's a sudden shift. A sudden change. "Then those who feared Yahweh"—I love how they're described. God-fearers, God-fearers. "Then those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another, and Yahweh gave heed and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear Yahweh and who think upon His name." Let us look at the words of the righteous. What is especially interesting about verse 16 is that it begins with an emphatic "Then." You see it?

“Then those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another”. One commentator, commenting on this, says the word "then," –, "The word “then”, as in Hebrew, is emphatic, indicating that the action described in this verse was a consequence of the preceding confrontation."

And I find that very, very helpful. Very interesting. In other words, if indeed the emphatic "then" points to a repentance at Malachi's message, then we're reminded that truly saved people can be found guilty at times of sinning against God with hard words. But, and blessed be God for this "but," what sets them apart is when they're confronted with their sinful words. When those words are brought to their attention, there is genuine conviction. There's agreement with God. There's a turning from those sins, including the sins of speech. There's a willingness to be renewed in the realm of faith.

“Then those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another”. Notice what characterizes the speech of the righteous now. First of all, there is fear in their words. "Then those who feared Yahweh” – reverenced Yahweh, “spoke to one another." There's reverence. There's awe. They're gripped by the awesomeness of God, the holiness of God, who God is. They have a high view of God. There's reverence for God in what they say. Respect for His majesty. Respect for His authority. Reverence for His truthfulness. Respect for His promises. Respect for His goodness.

If we were to base God's reputation on what comes out of your mouth and mine regarding God, I wonder if the reputation would be accurate. Think about this. If all we had to go on is how you talk about your life and God's governance over life, over your life, and if we examine not just the words that come out of your mouth but the thoughts that go on in your mind, how you regard the world, how you regard God's governance over your life—if we were to base God's reputation on what goes on in your heart, in your mind, and sometimes out of your mouth—would we have an accurate view of God? Would we?

What characterizes the righteous is their words reflect reverence. They're God-fearers. Not only is there fear in their words, but there's also fellowship in their words. This is all the speech, right? Fear and fellowship. Who are those who fear the Lord speaking to? You see the text?

They're speaking to one another. They're speaking to one another. And “those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another." Those who feared God are speaking with one another, with others. They're speaking with others also who fear Yahweh. God-fearers are speaking to other God-fearers. These are their companions. They love to fellowship with other God-fearers. God-fearing people. Those are they that walk together with. Their fellow believers. Their fellow God-fearers. People who respond with humility and repentance to the words of Yahweh. These are those with whom they have fellowship with. They walk with. They interact with. They practice to one another with.

I wonder if we took your circle of friends by way of application. If we took the people that you have the most in common with, those that you spent the most time with—if we listen to their words, do they honor your God? Do their words reflect reverence? Is there reverential fellowship that exists in your speech with the people who are your closest companions?

Fear in their words. Fellowship in their words. And notice also faithfulness in their words. Verse 16, "and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear Yahweh and who think upon His name." Notice what's being written down has to do with the people involved. And God pays attention to them. He hears them. "a book of remembrance written before Him for those who fear Yahweh and who think upon His name." The people are those He's taking account of. And it's their words that really manifest who they truly are. So that what God is recognizing in their speech is what? Faith. Faith. Faithfulness.

God's obviously relating through Malachi to us in a way that we can understand. And what He's saying is that nothing is lost on Him. We live our lives in His presence, ‘Coram Deo”. And He pays attention to everything going on in our world, including conversations. And everything we do in this world counts. Everything.

Remember what Jesus said earlier in Matthew 12:36, "I tell you," – He said on that day, the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. God knows, and God cares, and God takes account, even down to our speech, even down to our words. And the opposite is also true. God is not only taking account of careless words, wicked words, unbelieving words, He also takes note of those who speak of Him in ways that reveal reverence and faith. And so, the Lord says, He will remember them.

These are the people who are remembered by God, which is just a way of saying God will own them, God will identify Himself with them—people who talk like this. In the book of Hebrews, turn with me to Hebrews 11.

Listen to how believers are described. We're talking about believers, genuinely saved people. And in verse 13 of Hebrews 11, we read of the faithful, men and women of faith: "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on earth. For those who” – what? – “say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been remembering that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now, they aspire to a better country, that is, a heavenly one." Now listen: "Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God." He'll remember these people. He will own these people. He will identify Himself with these people. And He goes on to say, "For He prepared a city for them," right?

So, what characterizes people of genuine faith are known by what they see—without receiving the promises, but having seen them. Seen them how? Seen them by faith, the eyes of faith. And in fact, they welcome these things from a distance, from afar. They're known by what they see, and they're known by what they seek after. They're seeking a homeland. And indeed, if they had been remembering that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they aspire to a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.

So, they're known for what they seek after, and all of this is reflected how? In what they say—their speech. For people who speak like this were strangers, exiles on earth. People who talk like this make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. They're known by their words. And so the Lord talks about the fact that He paid attention to them, He heard them. And then He says there's a book of remembrance written before Him of those who feared the Lord, esteemed His name. And then He says, in verse 17 of our text, "'And they will be Mine,' says Yahweh of hosts, 'on the day that I prepare My own treasured possession.'"

I love that scripture. What marvelous words of promise. What He's saying is, these are really My people. They're Mine, My people, My sheep, to use the language of John 10. People who talk like this, people who reverence Me, who fear Me in their words, and believe Me in their words—these are My people.

This is about who really knows God, and is known by God, and really belongs to God. They're being revealed by their perspective, and by their words. And so the Lord says He will deliver them, He will take note of them, He will remember them. And then He says, I will deliver them. Look again at verse 17: "'And they will be Mine,' says Yahweh of hosts, 'on the day...'" Now the Lord through Malachi is looking to the end of the ages– "'on the day that I prepare My own treasured possession.'" When the people of God are all gathered together, and the Lord's people are revealed, He says, "'and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him."

If you pay attention to their strong words—the strong, hard, harsh, arrogant words of the wicked—isn't it interesting how this passage, this section, ends? Because God is promising that every strong word they have said against Him will prove to be untrue.

Think about it: serving God is no profit, right? Verse 14: It's worthless to serve God, and what gain is it? What's the profit? Thinking about profit and loss, right? "What gain is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before Yahweh of hosts?" It's the arrogant who are blessed, evildoers who are prospering. Well, will we find out one day serving God has been to no profit?

When the people who have served Him in true faith will themselves be treated as His treasure. Did you notice how the Lord puts it? "on the day that I prepare My own treasured possession." Gain, profit—are you talking about this temporal treasure that goes away? Because there's coming a day when the people who have served Me, God says, I will treat them as treasure—My treasure. They will be My treasured possession. No profit, no gain, worthless? You will be My treasure. No profit? You will be My treasure.

Is it vain, worthless, to serve God? Put emphasis on that word: serve. "It's worthless to serve God," they said. Well, will eternity reveal that it was vain to serve God? When on that day, God promises He will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him?

One day what's going to be revealed is that those who have truly served God have served Him as His children. He's not going to treat them like mere slaves. He's going to treat them as sons and daughters. Was it vain to serve God when you were serving your Father? Was it vain to serve God when your Father is sovereign over all things and will rule over all things? Was it vain, worthless, to serve our Father? Because one day God is going to treat His servants as sons. I'll spare him – “I'll spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."

Is it impossible to distinguish the righteous from the wicked? I mean, this is what they were charging, right? "God, You say that You bless the righteous, You say You punish the wicked, but when I look, it seems to me that the evildoers are prospering. It seems to me they put You to the test and it doesn't cost them anything and they get away with it. They escape. We can't tell the difference looking at the way You treat people. We can't tell the difference between the righteous and the wicked."

Well, is it impossible to distinguish the righteous from the wicked, as these arrogant people have charged? Is it true? God says far from them being indistinguishable, there will come a day when they will not only be distinguished by what comes out of their mouths, they will be distinguished by how God regards them and how He treats them.

Verse 18: "So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him." So you will again “see," He says, you shall see. You will be witness to this. You'll be able to recognize this. It will be unmistakable—the distinction between the righteous and the wicked. On the day of God's wrath, no one will wonder who the righteous are and who the wicked are.

They have spoken strong, hard, arrogant words, and the wicked stand by those words. And by the way, never forget, never forget, you can be full of religion and full of self-pity and be absolutely wicked. But those who truly belong to the Lord reveal that they belong to the Lord because when they hear what they're actually saying and God brings to their attention the wickedness of their words, what do they do? "Then those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another." They turn from their sinful speech, they repent, they turn from their sinful perspectives, and they exhort each other in the renewal of faith and they serve the Lord from the heart, with a sincere heart.

Well, beloved, final thoughts as we end this section, by way of application, just a few minutes. Number one, the difference between saved and lost people is not superficial. The difference between saved and lost people is not superficial. It is not a superficial difference, is it? It extends to the very hearts of people. It extends to the hearts of people. If the Lord has saved you, then He has changed you. He has changed you. There has been a radical shift. I like to call it a tectonic shift, a radical transformation. He's not only forgiven you and changed your standing before Him in a positional way, He has changed your life experientially.

You have a new heart and as a result, you have a brand new interest in pleasing God and pleasing Christ down to the meditation of your heart and down to the words that you use that come out of your mouth. This is what characterizes saved people. Wicked people have no such concern and the evil of their heart is revealed in the fountain of their speech. The difference is not a superficial one.

Number two, the difference between saved and lost people is perfectly, perfectly known by God, perfectly. God already knows those who are His. We may at times look around this world and wonder, but God doesn't have to wonder, He doesn't wonder. He knows all things, right? And by the way, you don't determine that reality, neither do I. People are not saved by professions of faith. Matthew 7 makes it clear. There are many who say in that day, "Lord, Lord," but they don't know Jesus, as we saw this morning. Professions don't save people, God saves people. The question is, has He saved you? He knows your true spiritual condition.

And number three, the difference between saved and lost people is on display right now. It is on display right now. In words, that's the emphasis of this text. It's on display in more ways than just words, but you can know this: it's on display by words, by words. So one of the wisest things that we will all do is to pay attention to what comes out of our mouths and recognize that all that is coming out of the mouth is a reflection of what is true in our heart.

And if we really are born again, born from above, if we really do know the Savior, the Shepherd, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we hear things coming out of our mouths that we know the Word of God would condemn, then we obey those New Testament passages that tell us to put that stuff away, lay it aside, get rid of it—slander, obscene talk, and words that don't reverence God, words that aren't gracious and full of salt, words that do not build up and edify, words that do not believe God. Recognize the sinfulness of that speech and treat it as sin and confess it before God as sin and turn from it as sin. And as you do that, you will reveal that God has actually changed your heart, so that now you care about the meditations of your heart and the words of your mouth, and you want those things to be acceptable to God.

The final thought: the difference between saved and lost people will be unmistakable in the future when God reveals what is hidden by hypocrisy right now. The difference between saved and lost people will be unmistakable in the future when God reveals what is hidden by hypocrisy right now. I mean, you can hear a sermon like this and you can make your mind up to be very careful in your speech so that no one around you is really privy to how you really think. And this is what we need to examine. In my mind, in my heart, do I agree with God's presentation of reality?

This is what God says in His Word. What am I saying? This is the truth as God has revealed in His Word. What am I believing? Before the words ever come out of my mouth and what's going on in my self-talk, what's going on? What is going on in my own mind, my own heart? Do I believe God's version of reality or am I actually arrogantly taking issue with God? I know You say this, God, but I think this way is better. The application is far-reaching, right? He's saying that what God has presented about Himself—He's perfectly wise, that He's altogether good, constantly loving His children—so that even those things that seem difficult to us, all things, in fact, are being worked together by God for the good of those that are called according to His purpose.

When we read that in His Word, is He telling the truth? When He says we don't need to worry about what we put on and all the basic necessities of life because He cares for us and He takes care of us, do we believe this? Or are we actually in our hearts saying, I envy the wicked because it sure seems like they get ahead while all that happens with me is I suffer. I suffer, I'm disappointed, shut doors, shut doors, shut doors, pain, disappointment, no answers, no answers, and the wicked is prospering. Somehow God is mistreating me, somehow God is not being just with me.

It is possible, it is possible, beloved, for a saved person to think like that for a season, but if you are an asaph, God doesn't leave you in that condition, praise God. In His presence and with His Word, He reveals to you the sinfulness of your thinking, and then you have that emphatic "then" that kicks in. I love that. Where those who fear God, they wake up. You know what they do? They practice the one another's, right? They encourage each other with the truth that God has revealed about Himself.

That is why when you're going through a dark season, when you're going through a tough time, you don't pull away from the people of God. You need to be surrounded by the people of God so that those who fear Yahweh will speak to one another and encourage you to spur you on and press forward by the grace of God. God knows this, and He hears this, and He remembers this, and He rewards this, which is a way of saying God knows those who are His, and one day eternity will reveal it.

Aren't you grateful for the patience of our God that He has towards us? Don't you feel like Isaiah when he said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live amidst a people of unclean lips"? But God is patient. God is long-suffering. So thankful, so thankful.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

In this 10th chapter of the Gospel of John, we find our Lord Jesus once more, as we often do throughout the book of John, in the company of His disciples and unbelieving, hostile Jewish leaders. And the bulk of this chapter is taken up by our Lord Jesus giving a statement about Himself in the form of an analogy, a metaphor, and then one very blunt and startling assertion concerning His equality with the Father. In verse 7, verse 9 of this chapter, you remember in our studies, our Lord claims to be the true Shepherd of the sheep–the true Shepherd who is the door of His sheep.

Verse 7, "So Jesus said to them [again], 'Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.'"  Verse 9 again, "I am the door." So here's an analogy in which Christ likens Himself to the entrance into a sheepfold, and here is the emphasis. The emphasis is upon Him, His being the Shepherd, who Himself serves as the door of the sheepfold. You remember in our studies, He would, the shepherd that is, would literally put His body down in front of the opening, and He would be the door into the sheepfold. In other words, what Jesus is communicating is that if anyone is ever to be found in that sheepfold of lost humanity, rescued and redeemed and saved by the grace and the power of Christ, they must come through Jesus Christ and through Christ alone.

He makes that explicit in verse 9, "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." And then again, you remember in verse 11 and verse 14, He claims to be the good shepherd of His sheep. Verse 11, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep."  Verse 14, "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me." And we looked at that extensively.

And we, as the under shepherds, by way of application, are to imitate the chief shepherd. There are so many hired hands around us, but true under shepherds, they imitate the chief Shepherd. I was reminded this week of something that Spurgeon said concerning this. He said, "A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” How true that is.

So here, in this chapter, this personal claim with respect to this analogy, Christ says, "I am the true shepherd who is the door of the sheepfold, and I am the good shepherd. I am the shepherd, the good one." And then as you see this chapter unfold, you have this astounding, this startling claim in verse 30, "I and the Father are one."

Now, the Jews understood clearly that this claim was nothing short, nothing less than being a partaker in the very stuff of deity, for we read on in the following verse. Verse 31, "The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, 'I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?' The Jews answered Him, 'For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.'"

And, so, in this chapter here, we have our Lord Jesus setting Himself forward in this analogy—the analogy, "I am the true shepherd who is the door of the sheepfold," "I am the good shepherd"—and then you have this startling claim, "I and the Father are one." Now, in the midst of expanding upon this analogy, this metaphor, in which Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd," He speaks the words of our text to which I direct our attention this morning.

Now remember, Jesus now is in the temple during the Feast of the Dedication, commemorating the Jews retaking Jerusalem in 164 BC and rededicating the temple. The Jewish leaders, we’re told in verse 24, encircled Him like sharks, like hyenas, seeking to have something to accuse Him with. Their attitude is antagonistic, and they were accusing Him, "Jesus, stop beating around the bush, tell us who You really are. The reason we're confused is because You haven't given us enough evidence." And we looked at that last Lord's Day, and we began to consider also our Lord's answer to their accusation, where our text this morning is part of His answer.

But as we look at particularly these two verses, I want us to look at them under two simple headings. First of all, note with me what I'm calling, “our Lord's words of consolation and of promise concerning a distinct class of people whom He calls His sheep,”--words of consolation and of promise with respect to a distinct class of people whom He calls His sheep.

Look at the words of consolation and of promise–verse 27, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them," and then go to the following verse, "and I give eternal life to them." Here, our Lord says that, among the natively lost, condemned, fallen, polluted, defiled, hell-deserving sons and daughters of Adam, there is a class of people called “His sheep”, and He tells us here two things about them, two things about them.

He says, number one, "I know them"—a word of consolation—and He says, "I give eternal life to them"—a word of promise, right? Now let's just spend a few minutes parking upon those statements. Jesus says with respect to the special class of people called His sheep that He what?--knows them. He knows them. Now a literal rendering of the Greek text would be this: "I Myself know them." "I Myself know them." You see, it's not the simple statement, "I know them," in which the subject is buried in the verb, but He uses a conjunction in the Greek text, ‘kai egó’, which means, "and I Myself, even I know them."

Now why do I call this a word of consolation? Well, for the simple reason that these words, "I know them," do not mean that He simply has an awareness of who and where and what we are in His divine omniscience. That's not what it means. That's not what He's saying. You remember back in the Gospel of John, chapter 2 earlier, recorded the fact that Jesus—well, let's look at it and see just by way of reminder. Look there just for a moment, verse 23, chapter 2 of John, where John already recorded the fact of His divine omniscience.

Verse 23, "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, when they saw His signs which He was doing." Now watch this: "But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man."

Here, our Lord is given this divine attribute of total omniscience, all-knowingness. The reason Jesus did not entrust Himself to these who said they believed on Him was that He knew their hearts. He knew that this faith, whatever it was, was short of true saving faith that saw Him for what He truly was and entrusted itself to Him without reservation. He knew that. And as then so now, beloved, He is here by His Holy Spirit, and He knows you. He knows me. He knows us–utterly, thoroughly, completely, totally, in and out.

What David could say in Psalm 139 of his Lord is true of our Lord Jesus Christ: "O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar." Before my thoughts are framed in my own brain, let alone before they may be spoken with my tongue and teeth and larynx and diaphragm, God knows my thoughts–utterly, completely, totally, from afar. He knows the thoughts that have accompanied you into this place this morning. He knows the thoughts you're thinking right now as I seek to open up the Word of God. He knows whether you're thinking in your mind, “Ah, more of this stuff. I haven't recovered from the loss yesterday. I mean, more of the stuff. I've had enough of it. I can't wait till all restraints are removed and I no longer have to be dragged to a place like this and listen to more of this stuff.” If that's what you're thinking, He knows that thought–utterly, completely, totally.

So when He says, "I know My sheep," He's not referring to this knowledge of His inherent omniscience as God–very God of very God–but it is a knowing of a special, distinguishing love and affection, issuing into a saving purpose, saving provision, saving power that results in a blessed relationship. Notice verse 14 of John 10 in the shepherd-sheep imagery. Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father." I mean, you read this and it's just mind-blowing. Who can begin to conceive of that intimate, personal relationship of love and delight and affection that exists between the Father and the Son?

Really? Listen, beloved, only Deity can encompass Deity in thought as well as in power. We have no clue. We're like a little kid trying to scoop up the ocean with a little symbol. And Jesus said that He fully knows the Father and the Father fully knows Him. And it is in that sense that He says these blessed words of consolation: that among the fallen, wretched, hell-deserving sons of men, there is a people whom Christ looks upon and He says with delight, with joy and delight, "I know them. I know them. I regard them with special, distinguishing love and affection–a love and affection that frame a purpose of salvation, a love and affection that not only frames a purpose of salvation, but that actually procures, secures, obtains that salvation.”

And He says that that shepherd who knows His sheep and His sheep know Him, He lays down His life for them—the ones whom He knows He so loved that He lays down His life to the horrific torture and shame of the cross, with all of the billows of the wrath of God upon Him. And then, because there was a saving purpose growing out of that knowing and saving procurement, there's a saving power issuing an actual relationship between the good shepherd and all of these whom He calls His sheep.

Now, to be outside of the knowledge—this knowledge of Christ—is to be outside the sphere of His saving grace and mercy. If Christ cannot say to you and to me, "I know him," in this sense, “I regard him with distinguishing love and affection, with saving purpose and procurement and saving power issuing into this intimate fellowship and relationship,” if you're not in the orbit of that knowledge of Christ, then you are outside of the sphere of salvation now. And, if you remain in that condition, it will be your portion forever and ever and ever.

You may be one who's thinking, wait a minute, that's strong language. But it does not exceed the warrant of Matthew chapter 7 and verse 23, does it? Does it? Listen to the words of our Lord. To some who professed great acquaintance with Christ—they professed faith in Christ. On that day, they say, verse 22, "’Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them”--now watch these words—"I never"--what?--"knew you”--”knew you.”

Oh yes, He knows all about them, but He never knew them in the manner of knowing in our text, John 10:27–28: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them." Now He says to the many, "I never knew you," back in Matthew 7. You see, beloved, the question this morning is not, do you know the Lord? The question is, does the Lord know you? Does He know you?

He could say of a special class of people called sheep, "I know them. I know them,"--wonderful words of consolation. But then He gives this wonderful word of promise. He gives to this class of people called ‘His sheep’ eternal life. That's what the text says, doesn't it? Look at it: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them," verse 28, "and I give eternal life to them."

You see, we read these words, and we become so familiar with them. We glance over them. What is this eternal life that He gives to this special class of people whom He knows, whom He calls His sheep? What is it? Well, again, it does not mean simply eternal existence. It doesn't. That comes with the awesome reality of being made a human being. Right?

Have you ever thought, “what an awesome, what an awesome”–let me say this–what an awesome, in the truest sense of the word, not in its present cheapened sense, when burgers and rides at Wonderland are awesome. Awesome means that which legitimately creates awe, wonder, something that is majestic and beyond our conception. Think of what it means to be conceived as a human, being in the image of God—not a dog or a cat, a lion, a robin or an eagle. From that moment of conception, eternity is stamped upon the substance of your being. Everlasting existence is the part and parcel of being a human being.

So when our Lord says, "I give eternal life to them," He is not speaking of merely giving eternal existence. But rather, it is the reversal of everything that was introduced by death—the Fall. You remember God said to Adam back in Genesis 2, in verse 17, "...from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Literally, “dying, you will die.” That's exactly what happened when he sinned, and sin entered. Separation from the life of God. Separation from communion with God, fellowship with God, intimate fellowship with the Lord. And ultimately, living out life in a cursed world. "Cursed is the ground for your sake."

Eternal life—well, what is it? It is life that reinstitutes us into a heart communion and heart fellowship with the living God Himself. Jesus said in John 17:3, "this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Beloved, eternal life is living in vital, real, intimate communion with Him here and now. And, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to begin to be fashioned into the likeness, the very likeness–the moral image of God as embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then eventually, as we read in the book of Revelation, to dwell with Him, face to face. And all of the company of His redeemed in the new heavens and the new earth. That's to be ushered into eternal life in its consummate glory. And Jesus says, “there is a people. There is a special class of people whom I not only know, but I give as the free, gracious gift—free, gracious donation of My saving work–I Myself–again, that same word in the original ‘kai egó’—I Myself, not an institution that was established: My church, not gifts that I give to My church:its ministering servants, under shepherds, but I Myself give unto them eternal life. I Myself know them. I Myself give unto them eternal life.

And then, to make sure that we get it, He says in these two negatives—and we'll look at that more next Lord's Day—verse 28, "And they will”--‘ou mé’ in the Greek text, double negative—ou mé’--no, not never–“perish.” "They will never perish–ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand." And the word used for snatch, ‘arpázo’, literally means to seize in its negative aspect. To seize with force, to rob, differing from ‘kleptō’—to steal secretly. This is a different word. It means to snatch and suddenly take them away. "They will never perish–ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."

Think of what it means to have Christ say to you and to me, “I know you”--in this sense, “I know you. And I give you, I give to you eternal life,”--marvelous words of consolation. Marvelous words of promise. Surely, if you've been thinking at all, your thought is this, “Oh God, as I hear this, do I have a right to take that word of consolation and that word of promise to myself today? Is it mine? Is it mine?” Not by a form of spiritual thievery—taking that to which I have no claim—but as the valid expression of reality. Christ saying to me this morning, “I Myself know you. I Myself give to you eternal life. You shall never perish–ever. No one will snatch you out of My hand.”

So here's the question: How can we be certain that the word of consolation and that word of promise is ours? How? By right, not by a form of spiritual thievery, but by the grace of God. That's what I mean by right. We looked at our Lord's words of consolation and promise concerning this distinct class of people called sheep.

Now, secondly, to answer this question–our Lord's words of identification–I want us to note. Our Lord's words of identification concerning this special class of people called sheep. How can I claim these words to be mine? Well, He identifies what constitutes a sheep for us, and I want us to see this very carefully.

So from the word of consolation and promise, we now see, in our Lord's words, the identification of this group of people called sheep. Look at the text. Look at the text, verse 27, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them”--that is My sheep. “But Lord, how can I tell that I'm truly Your sheep? Lord, I read this, but how? I'm sitting here listening to this. How can I tell, Lord, that I'm truly Your sheep and I'm not just a goat with a sign around my neck that says sheep?”

"I'm a sheep. Believe it. Believe it. Believe it. In spite of what you see, in spite of what you smell, believe it. In spite of what you behold, believe I'm a sheep because I've got this sign around my neck. I had it placed on my neck when I was baptized, made public confession, belonging to Christ. Believe it because I remember my baptism. And people sitting here remember my baptism. Surely I must be a sheep." No. It would take more than the sign around our neck pointing to some external ritual by which we publicly identified ourselves as a sheep of Christ.

The text here says there are two discernible, distinguishing–and I will add–infallible characteristics of all of Christ's sheep–and I will add–without exception. Let me say that again. There are two discernible, distinguishing, infallible characteristics of all of Christ's sheep, without exception. Look at the text with me. Verse 27, "My sheep”--My sheep. Did you notice what He did not say? He didn't say some of My sheep. He didn't say a few of My sheep. He didn't say the majority of My sheep. What did He say? "My sheep." All of them. "My sheep." Every single one of them. Every single one of My sheep. Every single one that I own as My sheep, whom I know, and to whom I give eternal life.

Our Lord said these two things are true of every single one of them. And I pray to God that the Word will come with inescapable grip and power, because there may be some sitting here this morning who say that you're His sheep, but these discernible, distinguishing, infallible marks of His sheep are pathetically lacking in your life.

What are they? Look at them. Look at them. Number one. Distinguishing mark number one is this: all of Christ's sheep—true sheep—all of Christ's sheep are marked, they are characterized by a prevailing disposition and practice of hearing the voice of Christ. They are characterized by a prevailing disposition and practice of hearing the voice of Christ. And I said, “a prevailing, a prevailing disposition” because our Lord speaks in the present tense verb, which can well be translated, "My sheep are continually hearing My voice." Jesus said, the sheep whom I say I know, whom I regard with distinguishing love and affection, saving plan and purpose and power—all of them—they have as their distinguishing characteristic a prevailing disposition and practice of hearing the voice of Christ, the Shepherd. Now, will you please note, I did not say a perfect disposition and practice, but a prevailing disposition and practice. It is the overarching pattern of who and what they are and do.

Now, what is this "hearing My voice"? What does He mean, "hearing My voice"? What does that mean? Well, I want to start with a negative—what this does not mean—just to clear the debris and the confusion. Number one: it does not mean that the sheep hear an audible voice of Christ, as those did in the days of His flesh. It doesn’t mean that at all. That’s not the biblical teaching. For there were many, by the way, who heard His voice in the days of His flesh who were not hearing His voice in this biblical sense. Right? So it doesn’t mean to hear the voice of Christ as in the days of His flesh.

Nor, to hear His voice as John did on the island of Patmos. You remember in Revelation 1, John said, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice” “like the sound of many water”. “I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.” And then he has this vision of the glorified, exalted, resurrected Christ. No, no. It is not to hear the voice of Christ as John heard it. Or as Saul of Tarsus heard it on the road to Damascus, when there was a brightness above the brightness of the noonday sun, and out of that Shekinah glory of God came a voice: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he responds to that voice.

Nor does it mean—and hear me carefully now, beloved—to hear the voice of Christ in some mystical, subjective, mental impression. I often hear people—and you probably can identify with this— say something like this: "The Lord said to me this” and “the Lord told me.” What do you mean you had the Lord speak to you? What they really mean is that they had some subjective mental impression that they interpreted as the voice of Christ? No.

The voice of Christ, simply and fundamentally, is Christ speaking through His Word. Here. So when He says, "My sheep hear My voice," He's speaking of His voice as it is found in the gospel records. The voice of Christ is not only to be found in those gospel records, however, but when we pick up the apostolic writings or the apostolically approved writing.

Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 14—he could say, "The things that I write unto you are"—what?—"the commandments of the Lord." In other words, when you pick up Ephesians, Galatians, Timothy, and Jude, that's the voice of Christ speaking. And furthermore, all of the Old Testament is the voice of Christ. Peter could say–1 Peter 1, verse 11–“It was the Spirit of Christ in the Old Testament prophets that gave us those precious words that we now call our Old Testament.”

So, when Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice," the voice of Christ is bounded by the Scriptures—Genesis to Revelation. But what does it mean to really hear the voice of Christ? What does it mean? What does it mean?

Well, it doesn't mean to simply let your eyes glance over words on the pages of Scripture. It doesn't mean to simply thread the words of Scripture through your eyeballs. You know, they get through your eyeballs, and by the optic nerve, a signal is sent to the brain, and you could say, "Oh well, that was read publicly from the pulpit: 'My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, they follow Me. I give eternal life to them.'" Threading words through the eyes is not hearing the voice of Christ.

Nor is it simply to be able to say, I was in morning service sitting, or I was in family worship with my own family, sitting with my mom and dad. And as dad read from the Scriptures, sounds came out from his larynx and teeth and tongue, and airwaves were sent to the outer vestibule of the ear. And then they were registered on my eardrum. And then you have this: the inner mechanism sent vibrations into the cochlea, and the cochlea, with its little hair, sent vibrations into the eighth cranial nerve. And the eighth cranial nerve registered in my brain. Well, dad read from John chapter 3. That's not hearing the voice of Christ.

Nor is it hearing the voice of Christ to have earlier, Elder Philip read from Ezekiel. That's not hearing the voice of Christ. And even to pay careful attention to what is read—that's not hearing the voice of Christ in terms of what Jesus says here, particularly in John 10. Or to be very attentive as I'm preaching and trying to open up the Scriptures and let the Scripture interpret Scripture—that's not hearing the voice of Christ either, in this sense.

Well, what then is it to hear the voice of Christ? Beloved, to hear the voice of Christ begins with an eager heart disposition to know and to retain the content of our Bibles. To hear the voice of Christ begins with an eager heart disposition—an eager heart disposition to know and to retain the content of our Bibles. It is to say with David, "I opened my mouth wide and I panted, for I longed for Your commandments" (Psalm 119:131).

Or to put it in the language of Jeremiah 15 and verse 16: "Your words were found”--and I set them aside? No. "I ate them." I just ate them. Couldn't help it. I had to eat them. "Your words were found, and I did not merely taste them, but I ate them." I masticated them with the teeth of my mind and with the saliva of intense desire to know the word of Christ. I ate them. And what was the outcome? "And Your words became for me"—what?—"joy and gladness in my heart."

To hear the voice of Christ is to eagerly and increasingly desire acquaintance with the content of Scripture. But it goes beyond that. It means that there is a commitment of heart, by the power of the Spirit, to believe and to obey all that the Scriptures say to us. It means that there is a commitment of heart, by the power of the Spirit—the enablement of the Spirit—to believe and to obey all that the Scriptures say to us.

Remember, again and again, in His earthly ministry Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Seven times, you remember, in those seven letters to the seven churches, which we were expounded years ago—some years ago, some time ago—every one of them closes with these words: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Our Lord, who spoke those words, knew that among the churches were many who would hear the messenger, the elders stand and read the letters, but they did not have ears to hear. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." In other words, let him receive the words of Christ with eagerness to know them, to understand them, to respond to them in faith and obedience.

Jesus said this class of people, whom I unashamedly say I know them—this class of people to whom I give this promise, the promise of eternal life—what is their first distinguishing characteristic? The first distinguishing characteristic is that they have a pattern of a disposition to hear the words of Christ.

Now I want to ask you this morning: is that a description of you? Is that a description of you? With all due allowance that we all go through periods of dullness, and backsliding of heart, and carelessness—our hearts are prone to wander. With all due allowance to all of this, I want to ask: is that the prevailing disposition and activity of your life? Do you hear the words of Christ?

How about this past week? Just this past week—have you been hearing the words of Christ? Eagerness. Eagerness. Eagerness that pushed you beyond the daily news and the sports page to find out who won and who lost and what the stats were, pushed you beyond turning to see how your stocks are doing, pushed you beyond the smartphone, where you wanted to see if there is anything posted of likes and dislikes on your Instagram page.

What real hearing of the words of Christ marked you this past week? Can angels bear witness that they have seen you subdue all of those influences that claw for our time and our attention and our mental energy and focus? And you pushed through all of that, and you got alone with your Bible, and you said, "Lord Jesus, speak to me. I want to hear Your voice." Get honest before God. What can bear witness that this past week, that was you—somebody hearing the voice of Christ?

And then when you found a command, saying "Oh Lord Jesus, I love You." And when You said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." But, "Lord Jesus, this commandment is impossible for me. I am weak and I am wrestling." But, "Lord Jesus, You said, without Me you can do nothing. But, you said as the Apostle declared, 'I can do all things through Christ.' Lord, it's not optional. I must obey the command. Lord, help me.”

When You said, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” O Lord Jesus, this is not optional.

I must not allow the world to dictate to me what I will and will not pull off the clothes rack when I go shopping today. Lord Jesus, Your word is clear. I must not let the world dictate what is modest and what is immodest. I must not let the world dictate what I should listen to and what I shouldn't listen to. I must not allow the world to dictate who and what shall influence my soul. And so I ask you, beloved, as I had to wrestle with this myself: am I echoing words that find any resonance in your experience from last Monday to this Lord's Day morning?

What about the previous week? The previous month? The Bible is our standard to regulate our lives. Listen—either let's take our Bibles and chuck them or say, ‘when Jesus said, "My sheep are hearing My voice," either that's you or you're not one of His sheep.’ That's a distinguishing, infallible mark of one of the sheep whom He knows and to whom He gives eternal life.

Now Jesus said there's a second infallible distinguishing mark of His sheep. Look at it. Look at it with me. Verse 27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Literally, they are following Me. They are following Me. The second discernible distinguishing trait of each and every one of His sheep is this: all of Christ's sheep are characterized by a prevailing disposition and practice of following the person and word of Christ. A prevailing disposition and practice—not a perfect one–for John says in his epistle, remember, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us"--1 John 1. But this is a prevailing disposition and practice. This is the pattern, the direction. Not perfection—direction, right? This is a prevailing disposition and practice, for Jesus said, "My sheep not only are hearing My voice, but"—another present tense verb—"they are following Me."

Now, what does that mean, "they are following Me"? Well, the word used here for "following" is that word—the Greek word ‘akolouthó’—standard word for what's involved in discipleship, ‘ akolouthó’. Remember back in Matthew 16 and verse 24, Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross." And what? Same word—‘akolouthó’—"follow Me." Mark 8, similar words. Chapter 9 of Luke, verse 23—standard word of what happens when someone commits himself to a rabbi, to a teacher, to be that teacher's disciple. He would be said to follow the rabbi and follow the master—‘akolouthó’. He would be one who follows him.

And what did that following involve? Well, it involved a radical commitment to three things. A radical commitment to three things. Number one, to follow the rabbi or the master meant you're embracing the rabbi's word to regulate all of your thinking. You're embracing the rabbi's words to regulate all of your thinking. You are convinced that the rabbi, the teacher, is the learned one. And He has gone before and wrestled with the issues of life and how one is to view every single aspect of life. And when you commit yourself to follow the teacher, the rabbi, it is a radical commitment to allow your mind to be battered in demolishing thoughts that are contrary to the thoughts of the rabbi, the master, the teacher. To undergo the trauma of having your thinking on many issues totally restructured. And to say to yourself again and again, "My thinking has been off the wall." That's what it meant to follow the rabbi, the teacher.

But it meant not only that you were committed to have the teacher's word regulate your thought, but in the second place, also it meant the teacher's word will shape your conduct. The teacher's word will shape your conduct. If you are a true disciple, a true disciple of a rabbi, teacher, people would expect that the rabbi's directives were finding expression in your sandal leather. That you would let the rabbi's word not only regulate your thinking, but also shape your conduct.

And thirdly, you would commit yourself to imitate the rabbi. You remember Jesus said in Matthew 10:25, "It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher," right? Not just to think, not just embrace the teacher's teaching, but He says, "It is enough that the disciple become, that he become as his teacher, the slave as his master."

And so when Jesus said, "I have a people called My sheep, and this is the distinguishing mark of My sheep—they follow Me," what He is saying is, all of My sheep, all of them, every single one of them, are committed—radically committed—to have the totality of their thinking regulated by My word. To have the totality of their life and conduct shaped by My word, and to have My person as their example to imitate and to follow by My grace.

Beloved, listen carefully. This is Discipleship 101. This is not a discipleship master's degree program or doctor's program. What's the Great Commission? Turn with me there for a moment. What's the Great Commission in Matthew? Matthew 28—you know about it very well, I trust. I trust. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”--verse 18. "Go therefore,"--verse 19–"and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them"—not all the nations, but those from among the nations who profess to commit themselves to Christ as disciples through the preaching of the gospel with the great themes of sin and grace and repentance and faith. People will be brought to discipleship. They will then manifest it in the divine ordinance of baptism. So they get baptized. They believe and they be baptized. "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Now what's the next part? Verse 20: “teaching them”--what?--“to keep all”, “to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Now, I didn't write these words. Jesus spoke them. Matthew wrote them under inspiration.

The assumption is this: that when someone has been made a disciple, the Spirit of God has so worked in them that they have a disposition, a prevailing disposition of desire to both know and to comply with whatsoever Christ has commanded. Jesus did not say, “make disciples, baptizing them and then trying to persuade them that they ought to eventually at some point take seriously everything Christ has said about every aspect of life and begin to obey it.” That's not what He said. But He said, “teaching them”--that is, all who are His disciples–”teaching them to keep all that I commanded you.”

And Jesus assumes that if they're real disciples, they are real sheep. They hear His voice and they do what? They follow Him. They follow Him. They're ready. They're ready to have their thinking disrupted, where necessary, shattered and dismantled to be aligned with Christ's will revealed in His Word. In the language of Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, they are ready to have every single structure that rises up in opposition to Christ demolished, destroyed, and have every single thought brought captive to the obedience of Christ.

And, so, when Christ talks about money and things and possessions, they don't blow it off. When Jesus says, "Don’t lay up treasure on earth," they say, "Lord Jesus, I've got to take that seriously. What does it mean with my view of money and things and laying up for this and laying up for that? What do You mean, Lord? I'm here, I'm ready, I'm willing to align my mind and my life with what You say. Lord, help me see, help me understand."

What did Jesus mean when He said, "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things"? Lord Jesus, I'm here, I'm ready to obey.

What did Jesus mean when He said, "If your right eye makes you stumble"? in Matthew 5:29– that is, if I'm led into sin by the peculiar temptation that comes through the eye gate. Then He used the radical language. He said, "tear it out," and then don't hold it with the view that you'd pop it back in again. No, no. He said, "throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." And, "if your right hand makes you stumble,"--if there's something I touch and reach for that causes me to sin, far better to cut off my hand and throw it away.

Those are the words of Jesus, dear ones. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that you're to engage in literal physical mutilation. Because if the eye is being given to covetousness or to lust, you've still got another one, right? The Lord is using a graphic figure of speech. What He's saying is, “spare no pain.” Spare no pain. Spare no pain to get rid of that which causes you to sin. And by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit, deal with it rapidly, deal with it ruthlessly, deal with it decisively. That's what it means.

Do you take the words of Jesus seriously? "My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me." My Word regulates their thinking about the danger of sin, about money and possession and life, etc. My Word regulates their thinking and their actions in male and female relationships. They don't allow the world to dictate. Christ will shape my thinking. Christ will shape my actions. Christ, His Word, will shape every facet of my life insofar as I come to understand His Word, rightly divided.

And therefore, when I come to the reading of the Scriptures, it's with that attitude: “Oh Lord Jesus, speak. And whatever You say, no matter what present thought patterns it means have to be renewed—speak to me.” To “be transformed by the renewing of your mind," Paul says, "so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect." It covers everything. I go to the Word. I hear. I follow.

Whom shall I seek for a life partner? How should I conduct myself in my singleness, in my marriage, in my relationships, in my workplace, etc.,? Lord Jesus, speak out of Your Word. And whatever You say, by Your grace, I will let it mold my thought and shape my action. And then, Lord Jesus, I take You as my pattern. When we take the Lord Jesus as our pattern, "the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked"--1 John 2:6. I challenge you, child of God, as I challenge my own heart. Look at your Savior as He was applying Himself diligently for the work to which His Father was calling Him. Remember how He did that in His life?

This is what it means: "My sheep hear My voice, and they are following Me." My Word shapes their thinking. My Word molds their conduct. And My Person is their model. And do you notice in both of these things the interpersonal element? Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me." There is attachment of person to person.

And my fear—my fear is for some who may be here this morning who have had the truth of God from your birth. You grew up in a Christian home. Do you know anything about attachment to the person of Jesus? Yes, you have the ethical standards. You grew up in a Christian home. You went to a Christian school. You attend the church every single Sunday. You perhaps even come Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You have all of the ethical standards. You've been shaped by them. You know the doctrinal framework. And you have the decent life as far as everyone looks on the outside. But where is Jesus in all of this?

Where is the passion for Him? Can you really say, "For to me, to live is"—what? Maintaining my cultural religion with good, sound Reformed doctrine standards? Doctrines of grace? No, no. "For to me, to live is Christ." To me, to live is Christ. Life means Christ to me. Knowing Him, pleasing Him, absorbing His Word, being shaped and molded by His Word. And let my life be regulated by that Word.” "I give unto them"—My sheep, those who hear My voice, those who follow Me—"I give unto them eternal life."

And so, in closing—I must close—let me make just a couple of words of, I hope, I hope, I pray, helpful application. You may ask the question: Does hearing and following make me His sheep? Does hearing and following make me His sheep? And let me tell you quickly and absolutely: no. No. Hearing and following do not constitute me one of His sheep. Hearing and following manifest the fact that I am one of His sheep.

If you're one of His sheep, your identity as sheep is rooted in God's free loving choice of you in eternity past. Jesus said in this very chapter, verse 16, "I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also." “The Father gave them to Me.” Remember John 17:2, “to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life." We are constituted part of that vast flock in eternity by the free, sovereign, electing grace of God. Our privileges as sheep are procured by the sacrificial death of the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep"--verse 11 of chapter 10 of John. Again in verses 15, 16, and 17.

So no, we are not made sheep by our hearing, by our following. No, our identity was settled in eternity past. All the blessings of being part of His sheep were procured by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. And our possession of the characteristics of sheep are imparted in the effectual call of Christ. "I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice," verse 16, "and they will become one flock with one shepherd." They shall hear, they shall become.

When we've truly heard the voice of Christ effectually calling us through the gospel, we become. We become new creatures in Christ. We become such who are given the disposition of sheep who hear His voice and who follow Him. And, therefore, these words of our Lord should, for some of you here in this place, bring tremendous consolation, comfort, and assurance. You struggle with the question, "Am I really a Christian?" Maybe that's you this morning. "Do I have something more than what my mom and dad gave me? What the elders have given me? What my Sunday school teacher has given me? Am I real? I don’t know. I struggle. I mean, I believe these things. I've known these, but am I really real? Am I real?”

Well, ask yourself. If that's you, ask yourself this: Is the prevailing disposition of my life, is it one of hearing the voice of Christ and following Him? Simple question. If so, then stop your doubting. Stop your doubting. You're one of His sheep. You wouldn't be that way if His voice hadn't arrested you and called you and drew you in, and you need to go out of here, out of this place, absolutely elated and shouting this morning, "I'm one of His sheep! I'm one of His sheep! I can't believe this! I'm one of His sheep! He's my Shepherd! He knows me!"

If somebody asks you, "How do you know?" you simply tell them, "I hear His voice, I follow Him." That's it. And I don't know when I actually became His sheep in my own experience, and I can't sort it all out. I made so many false starts that I stopped counting them, but I know sitting here this morning, I'm one of His sheep because I have a prevailing disposition to hear His voice and follow Him. Be assured that only God could make you such a person.

But for some of you, perhaps, well, you ought to be greatly disturbed this morning. Greatly disturbed. Because you've reached a comfort zone where you've got a handle on the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, even the unique perspectives of the Reformed faith. You can recite them. And even your external life is relatively decent. Orderly. But if you're honest, if you're honest, you have to say when I press the question: Do you have a hunger to know the Word of God because it is the Word of Christ? And with that hunger, do you have a disposition that seeks to bend before the commands of Christ and embrace in faith the promises?
And do you follow Him, a person? Is it your heart's commitment, the pattern of your life, to have His words regulate your thoughts, mold and shape your conduct? And is Christ Himself the pattern after whom you seek to be patterned? I'm afraid to hear the answer.

Turn with me to Matthew chapter 25 as we close. There's a day coming when nothing will matter but this question: Am I one of His sheep? Here in the judgment of the nations—really a picture of what will happen on the day of judgment. This is prior to the ushering into the Millennial Kingdom, the judgment of the nations. But listen to what He says here in verse 31: "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left." The One who knows with divine omniscience who are His sheep and who are not will separate based on His infallible knowledge–sheep to the right, goats to the left.

Look at verse 34: "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" Look at verse 41: "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'" And upon those two words of Jesus—Come, you blessed. Depart, you accursed. Come, true sheep. Depart, you goats. Verse 46: "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

You may leave this morning and say, "Well, I mean, Habib got worked up once again. My conscience troubles me a little bit, but no need to panic. No need to be too disturbed or get too disturbed." If that's you, God help you to bring you near this day. And my prayer—my prayer was this morning—"Lord, help me to preach with the shadow of this day over my heart and over the pulpit."

A day is coming when He's going to separate—sheep here, goat there; sheep here, goat there; sheep here, goat there. Sheep. Goat. Sheep. Goat. Sheep. Goat. What will you be in that day? What will you be in that day? Will you hear those blessed words: "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom"? Or will you hear those frightening, most frightening words human ears can hear: "Depart from Me, accursed ones"? Oh, seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Words are very important. Words are very important, and they're very telling. The Pharisees here in this account were confused about what really defiled a person. They thought that what went into a man—that's what defiled him. He had to be careful about all the ceremonial washings and such, because if you didn't wash your hands the right way, then you defiled yourself. And our Lord Jesus addressed that in His ministry.

In Matthew 15, verse 18, you remember He said, "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from" – where? – "the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false witnesses, slanders. These are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."

A similar account in Mark 7, verse 20, our Lord was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, theft, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

There's nothing more telling about a person than what they say. Now think about that. There's nothing more telling about the person—a person—than what they say. What characterizes a person's speech—and here, mark it down, referring to a pattern—what characterizes a person's speech is what characterizes their heart and what characterizes their life.

Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:34, "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart."
 – What's down in the well comes out in the bucket. –
"The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment."  – And then He closes with this: – "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:25-36).

You talk about how telling a person's words are—when Jesus speaks of that final day of judgment and can say that by your words, by words men will be justified, by words they will be condemned. That speaks of the importance of words.

With that in mind, just to remind us, thus far we looked at the reality of division found in verse 19a. We've seen together where the truth is spoken in a world full of sin, in a world full of decay, in a world full of sinners. There's going to be inevitably division. There's going to be controversy. There's going to be discord. Jesus came not to bring a false kind of peace to the world. He came to be a true Peacemaker, to bring the sword of the truth of the Word of God. And as a result, He told us, there's going to be division.

We see division here more than once. There was division throughout the ministry of our Lord. Verse 19: "A division occurred" – ‘palin’, once more, more than one time, yet "again among the Jews because of these words."
So we looked at the reality of division. And also, last time we were in this text, we looked at the reason for the division. End of verse 19, we saw together that it was not—we looked at what it was not—it was not a political division. It was not because Jesus was sinning or done something wrong and just trying to cover it in the name of God. No, no, it's a peacemaking division. It's a division brought about by the truth. Look at the last few words in verse 19: "Because of these words."

Well, this morning, I want us to focus on the third heading. I want to point out from these verses the third heading: the revelation of division. The reality of division, the reason for the division. And now we will look at and consider the revelation of division. And that is in verses 20 and 21.

There's this enmity on the part of the unbelieving Jews toward Jesus. There's this battle, this war really going on, and you see it throughout His ministry, His entire ministry. But the question is, how is it again and again revealed, this enmity? How is this enmity manifested in the ministry of our Lord? We don't just need to think about the Pharisees and the Lord Jesus at this point. We need to think about lost humanity and the living God as well. It's the same thing.

The Bible teaches that there is enmity, there is hostility that exists in the heart of man, the natural man, the lost man, toward God and the things of God and the people of God. The Bible says that we're enemies of God by nature. The Bible speaks of that fact that there is in man, left to himself, hostility of mind towards God and His truth. Enmity towards God and the truth. Well, how is that hostility revealed? That's the question.

Well, there's a powerful statement about that in the book of Jude. Turn with me to Jude and look at verse 14 and following. There's this statement concerning this hostility revealed. How is it revealed, this enmity towards God? Look at verse 14: "But Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied about these men", – referring to the false teachers –  "saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’ These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lust; and their mouth speaks arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of their own benefit. But you, beloved, must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, 'In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.' These are the ones who cause” – what? – "divisions, worldly-minded, not having the Spirit."

Enoch prophesied of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the final judgment. And he sees the Lord Jesus judging all the ungodly, the wicked, not only for the ungodly deeds that they have done in such an ungodly way, but also, he says, He's going to judge all the harsh things that the ungodly, ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. And so the lost world reveals its enmity towards God by what it says—words, speech. By our words, we will be justified. By our words, we will be condemned.

And here in verses 19 to 21, you see the enmity of these unbelieving Jews toward the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do you see it? Well, you see it in what they say, right? He has spoken words of truth and now they're going to speak their words. And listen again to what they say. "And many of them," verse 20, "were saying, 'He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?'"

Let's pause there and let's think about what is revealed, what kind of enmity is revealed in these words spoken by the Pharisees. There are a few things that I want to point out concerning their words, these words that were spoken in verses 20 and 21. First of all, I want us to note that these were hateful words. They were hateful words.
To say that someone is demon-possessed, to say that they are insane, I think by any standard would be considered to be harsh. Wouldn't you agree? I think again about the book of Jude: all the harsh things that the ungodly, ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. Verse 15. These are not mild words. He's demon-possessed. He's insane. No, no. These are harsh words. These are hateful words.

And Jesus Himself acknowledged that this was the attitude of the unbelieving world toward Him. The world literally hated Jesus. John 15:18: "If the world hates you, know that it has" – what? –  "hated Me before it hated you." John 15:24: "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin, but now they both have seen and hated Me and My Father as well." John 15:25: "But this happened to fulfill the word that is written in the law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'" "They hated Me without a cause."

Beloved, listen. What is the true state of sinful man? What is the true state of sinful man? What really is his attitude toward God? What was revealed when God came to earth? When you had God incarnate, God in human flesh, walking in the midst of sinful humanity, what was the attitude toward God? It's nothing less than hatred. He came to His own, His own received Him not. This is what is in the natural man toward God. Hatred. Hatred. Hatred toward the truth. Hatred toward those who belong to the truth. And Jesus says, If they hated Me, they're going to hate you. Hatred.

I'm thoroughly convinced that many of the methods being used in ministry today are being used precisely because the church doesn't understand what the world's attitude really is toward God. And the reason I say that with confidence is because there's this philosophy at work that says this: the real reason why there's enmity between the world and our message is because we just haven't said it right. I mean, we haven't done it the right way. And if we could somehow present the message in a different way, if we could put it forth by different means or put it forth in a different dress, maybe even if we could say it more nicely. I mean, if we could just say it differently, then there wouldn't be such enmity.
And what men are really saying when they think this way is men really would be open to the truth of the gospel. I mean, naturally open to the truth of the gospel if you could just say it the right way. Just, you know, soften it a little bit. Let me ask you a question. Has there been anyone who ever walked on the face of this earth who spoke truth more perfectly than the Lord Jesus? Can anyone speak the truth more appropriately, more perfectly than God incarnate? What's the answer? Absolutely not. Of course not. And did they love Him for it? Did they love Him for it?
Now, of course, those who belong to Him, His sheep, those who were being saved, loved Him for it. But those who didn't believe, didn't love Him. In fact, they hated Him. They hated Him because of the truth.

John 17:14, "I have given them Your word;" – Our Lord is praying – "and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Matthew 10:22, "You will be hated" – hated, hated – "by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved."

Now let me stop there and ask, does that surprise you, beloved? Does it surprise you? Will it surprise you if you meet with this? This attitude, this hatred? I mean, do you realize that there really is hatred in the human heart towards the true God and toward His Son and toward His word and toward His people? Do you believe that? Are you ready for that? Are you prepared for that in your workplace, at school, wherever you are?
Do you know in your own mind, in your own heart? Are you assured of this, that you could speak the truth in the most perfect way possible and still be hated for it? Because the Lord Jesus is the proof of that. Truth incarnate. Because if you don't understand that, if you think that the real problem, the real reason for this enmity is just the way you're conveying the message—now don't misunderstand, let me insert this as a parenthesis—we ought to be workmen who don't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of God. We want to present the Word humbly and in love. We're told in Scripture to do that.
But if you think that the only reason for hatred toward the message is the way you're presenting it, you will forever be trying to change the way you present it and thinking that that really is the problem, when really that isn't the problem. And what you end up doing is you end up altering the message, tampering with the message, softening the message.

Now, the natural man hates God. And that hatred is expressed in various degrees, in various ways, but it's present in the unredeemed human heart. Hostile in mind. That's how the Bible describes lost humanity. These are hateful words. They reveal the hatred that's present, the enmity between man, lost man, and a holy God.

But there's a second thing that we could say about these words in verses 20 and 21. Not only were they hateful words, they were also hurtful words. They were hurtful words: "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?" Now, when I say they're hurtful words, I don't simply mean—exclusively mean—that they were intended to hurt the Lord Jesus in some emotional way. I mean, there's no doubt that these aren't kind words. They're hurtful in that sense, but their desire to hurt went beyond how they would impact Jesus. How they would just impact Jesus.
They were slandering the Son of God, and they were attempting to turn others away from Him. That's what they were trying to do as well. They meant, by their words, to affect the way that others looked upon Him, the way that others listened to Him. These were really malicious words, hurtful words. They were meant to hurt. They were meant to ruin. And in case you think this is just something that was directed toward the Lord Jesus, remember there were also malicious words spoken against the messenger who came to prepare the way, John the Baptist.

Remember in Luke 7:31, our Lord pointed this out: "To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, who say, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.'" In other words, you can't please them either way you come to them, because the real issue is the truth. Either way you come with the truth—whether it's in a sober way or a joyful way—either way the issue is the truth, and they're going to hate you for it either way.
He goes on to say, "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon!'" – The same accusation – "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" So they didn't just slander, they didn't just say it was the Lord Jesus who had a demon, but they also said John the Baptist had a demon.

Indeed, this is going to happen wherever the truth is spoken. Beloved, do you realize that when hurtful words are spoken against you—not just meant to hurt you, but meant to ruin your reputation, affect others who would listen to you otherwise—do you realize that you're walking in a long tradition of truth speakers? We saw it last time in Matthew, last time we were in this passage in Matthew 5:11, "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you" – and here's the key – "because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

You see, it goes even beyond, it goes even further back than the Lord Jesus and John the Baptist. This is what they did to the prophets of God. And when the truth reached its zenith, in terms of its expression—in the truth, the embodiment of the truth, the Truth Himself, the Lord Jesus—the enmity was especially intense and focused. And it was expressed not only with hateful words, but also with hurtful, malicious words. Why listen to Him? He has a demon. He's insane.

There's a third thing we recognize in these words. There were hateful words, there were hurtful words, there were also evasive words. There were evasive words. Just go through the Gospels and read these kinds of interactions that Jesus had with the unbelieving Jews, and notice this: when do the Jews usually begin to cast their insults at Jesus? When did the lid come off? It's usually when He's reduced them to a place of what? No escape.
That is, His words were so powerful, so strong, so true, so inescapable, so sound, that the only way to get around what He was saying was what? Attack the messenger. Insult Him. Insult Him. Cast scorn upon His words to mischaracterize what He was saying. It's, you know, it's an escape mechanism, isn't it? It's an evasive maneuver. If you can't deal with the truth, what do you do? You insult the speaker of the truth. This is what they did.

We saw it earlier in our studies of John, but let's go back to John 8 for a minute. I want us to see how this actually is expressed, like you see manifested—John chapter 8. You remember the whole discussion about Abraham? "Before Abraham was, I am." He tells them that their father is Satan in John 8. Notice how this is escalating, how it escalates. Look at verse 39, and we'll take it from there: "They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham's our father.' Jesus said to them, 'If you are Abraham's children, you would do the deeds of Abraham. But now you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.'"

Let's stop here for a minute. He's just spoken the truth about their attitude and their conduct, and how are they gonna deal with it? I mean, He's exposed them. How are they gonna deal with that exposure? Well, they're either going to respond in repentance—repentance on their part—or in some other way to deal with what He just said. But what did they do?
Look at verse 41. They begin with a veiled insult. See what happened here? Veiled insult. "They said to Him, 'We're not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father: God'"

Here's this veiled attempt to say that Jesus was born of sexual immorality. There's this veiled insult. And so the conversation goes on, and they go on from this veiled insult. Look at verse 48. Now they move to an open insult. "The Jews answered and said to Him, 'Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?'" This is just after He said in verse 46, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God;  for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God."
Again, He confronts them with truth, truth that they cannot escape. They cannot get around it.
And so how do they deal with it? They just now, they openly insult Him. "You are a Samaritan and You have a demon."

The conversation goes on. Verse 53, look at it. "Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" This is after Jesus said, if anyone believes in Him, they won't see death. And so they say, are You greater than Abraham? The prophets—they all died. What are You talking about?
Verse 54, "Jesus answered, 'If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, He is our God; and you have not known Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.'" Verse 57, "So the Jews said to Him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?'" Ha, ha, ha. What are they doing? They're mocking Him. They're mocking Him. They go from veiled insult to open insult to mocking.

And how does Jesus respond? "Truly, truly, I say to you," verse 58, "'before Abraham was, – ‘Ego eimi’ – "' I am’." I am God, I am Jehovah Jesus. "Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple." So they go from veiled insult to open insult, from mocking to violence to murderous violence. The hatred is expressed in a desire to hurt. It begins with words, but then it progresses into action. Those words are evasive words meant to escape the truth, and that's why they eventually lead to violence. They want to get rid of Him. They want to kill Him. They want to get rid of Him. They want to evade what He's saying.

Now let me pause here and ask, do we not deal with evasiveness in men and women when we declare the Word of God? Now think about that in your own experience. Are men still evasive when it comes to the truth? Does the natural man still seek to escape the truth? He does, doesn't He?
Sometimes by what? How do they do it? By twisting our words, right? By twisting our words. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone that involves the truth, the truth of God's Word, and they just continue to turn what you say in a way that you didn't say it? "No, no, no, that's not what I said. That's not what I mean." But the conversation goes on and they just continue to twist and twist.

Sometimes by ignoring our words, right? Not only by twisting our words, but by ignoring our words. You can say something to them and it's the truth, and they'll pick up their point as if you've never said what you just said, completely ignoring what they heard. They don't wanna hear it. Sometimes by what? Changing the subject, right? Changing the subject. You see an example of this with the woman at the well. Jesus is talking to her about her husband, and all of a sudden she has a question about worship. Changing the subject.

And of course, sometimes by straw man arguments. They raise up these arguments that have been used over and over again, have been disproven long ago, but they continue to raise them up because they're easy things to run to when you don't wanna have to deal with the truth and face the truth.

But then eventually, when the truth is inescapable, it comes to the point of what? Insult. Sometimes veiled, sometimes open, sometimes mocking. And then when man is free to do it, when society allows him to do it—and sometimes even when society doesn't allow him to do it—it progresses to what? Killing. It progresses to violence.

Well, these words spoken on this occasion in John 10 were hateful words, hurtful words. They were evasive words. They didn't wanna deal with what Jesus was saying. That's why they insulted Him.

But there's a fourth thing that we can see in these words. There were also demonic words. There were demonic words. The sad irony here—they accused Him of having a demon, but where does their speech come from? I mean, where did this idea come from that Jesus had a demon? Where does their murderous, hurtful spirit come from?

Well, they hated Him and they wanna hurt Him. They wanna get rid of the truth. Well, where is this attitude coming from? He's already identified it, by the way, hasn't He? Let's go back to John 8. John 8, verse 41—but let's back up to verse 39:
"They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham's our father.' Jesus said to them, 'If you are Abraham's children, you would do the deeds of Abraham. But now you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing" – what? – "the deeds of your father.' And they said to Him, 'We're not born of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.' Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceed forth and come from God, for I have not even come of Myself, but He, God, sent Me. Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.'" – Now watch verse 44 – "You are of your father," – and what does He say? – "the devil." The devil. Where are these thoughts coming from? That Jesus has a demon, that He's insane, that He's to be killed—where are these thoughts coming from? Jesus says, "The devil." They're coming from the devil. It's the devil who would suggest that Jesus has a demon.

In fact, when you talk about natural wisdom, when you talk about wisdom and the judgment that operates in the natural man, do you know where that wisdom comes from? Think about our world of lost humanity. Think about the wisdom that they operate with, all around us—the world system, lost humanity. By the way, we all once operated with the course of this world, the mindset of this world. Who's over the course of this world? The Bible tells us, right? Many places. One of them is in Ephesians 2. It's the prince of the power of the air who is at work in the sons of disobedience.

But let's think about this worldly, natural wisdom. James chapter three. James chapter three. In verse 14, James says, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth." This wisdom is not coming down from above, but is earthly, natural," – and then he says what? – "demonic." You see it? Demonic.
Let us really have this in our minds once and for all. What is earthly wisdom? It's demonic wisdom. What is natural wisdom? It's demonic wisdom. It's demonic. What are false doctrines? These false ideas about God, these false ideas about man, these false ideas about what's really important in life, these false ideas about salvation, the false ideas that are all introduced all over the world, all the time about Heaven and Hell and the non-existence of Hell in some cases. Where are these ideas coming from? The Bible calls them doctrines of what? Demons.

And so here, they're looking at God incarnate, God in human flesh, and they've come to the conclusion that He has a demon, that He's of the devil. And where did that thought come from? Where are these words coming from? The devil himself. The devil doesn't work against himself, but he does work against the Son of God. The devil doesn't work against himself, but he does work against His truth. So he also works against the Church, God's people.

Let me give you another example. Turn with me to Matthew 12. Matthew 12. Look at verse 22. I love the sound of the pages turning. A Bible in hand, the Word of God. Sweet sound, sweet sound. And I'm glad you're reading your Bibles also on the iPad as well, or whatever you're doing, so that's great. The Word of God is marvelous, however you read it, but there's something special when you hear this, right?
Matthew 12, verse 22: "Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus. He healed him so that the mute man spoke and saw. And all the crowds were astounded and were saying, "Can this man really be the Son of David?" But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons."

People are praising the Son of God. They say, He is potentially the Messiah, the long-awaited—Is this the Messiah? And the Pharisees hear it, and the Word of God tells us elsewhere that what was continually operating in their hearts was what? Envy. Envy. So they hated Him because He was the truth, the embodiment of truth, truth incarnate, and they were thoroughly jealous of the Son of God. They had envy.

They hated Him for the fact that He was worthy of praise and worship and directed men away from them, and so they were so insecure, and so they speak this honest conclusion. They say, He does this by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. Notice verse 25: "And knowing their thoughts, He said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?'"
Jesus says, you know what? Your thoughts and your words are absolutely absurd. Satan casting out demons? Satan casting out Satan? You have to understand, these are not false deliverances. These are not false deliverances. These are not deceptive deliverances. These are genuine, undeniable deliverances from demon possession and oppression. People were blind, all of a sudden could see. People who are mute, all of a sudden could speak. It was undeniable, and they're saying that Satan is doing it, and Jesus said, this is absolutely absurd.
Satan doesn't work against Himself, but then He points out something else.

Look at verse 27: "And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons," – by Beelzebul – "by whom do your sons cast them out?" You see, they had disciples. The Pharisees had disciples, and apparently these disciples were involved in some deliverance sessions. How real and legitimate theirs were—there's a serious doubt—but the point that Jesus is making is that they never said that their sons were doing it by Satan. They just freely accepted that those acts were of God. But when He genuinely casts out demons, now they say concerning Him, well, that's the work of Satan. In other words, their thoughts clearly reveal a prejudice against Him.
This is why He says at the end of verse 27, "For this reason, they will be your judges." The way you've spoken of them compared to the way you've spoken to Me will judge you.

And then notice verse 28: "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house? He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters." Jesus says here, I have demonstrated clearly My authority over Satan. It is impossible to plunder a man's house unless you have the strength to bind him. And so the authority of Jesus over Satan has been manifested, has been demonstrated clearly by all of these miracles, all of these healings, all of these deliverances. He has clearly demonstrated His authority over Satan.

Now, the question is, will they submit to the authority of Christ? Well, their words revealed what? Rebellion. They were absurd thoughts and absurd words. They were prejudiced thoughts and words. They never questioned their own disciples—in all likelihood, false deliverances—but they questioned His. And their words and their thoughts were rebellious in nature, refusing to submit, refusing to bow before a clear demonstration of the authority of God incarnate, which means also that their words were damning.

Look at verse 31: "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." Now, let me say this. It's possible, very possible, that you've spoken a word against the Son of God because you didn't have a clear understanding set before you of who He really is. Prior to coming to Jesus, you never really saw a clear demonstration of who Jesus is. You underestimated His person, and so at some time in your past, you've spoken against Him.

But then God does something amazing. He reveals the truth about His Son. He opens your eyes. He gives light, and you submit to Him as your Lord and your Savior, and you're forgiven, and your sin is forgiven entirely. You're adopted in the family of God.
But what do you do when there's a clear, undeniable demonstration of the Spirit of God's working in the Son of God? A clear, undeniable demonstration of the authority of God in your midst? You are now without excuse. You've seen things with your eyes that you know have never taken place in the history of the world. You know there's no other explanation but that it's God, God at work Himself, and you are settled nevertheless in your unbelief. So much so that you will call what He does as being from Satan. No hope for you. No hope for you.

You mean lost men are capable of that? Lost men are capable of knowing that this is the Son of God? And still call Him a devil? You mean lost men are capable of knowing that they're hearing the truth and still remain settled, hardened in their unbelief? Beloved, I ask today, are lost men capable of that? They are. They are. This is the depth of depravity. This is what sin has done to the human race, and this is what's being revealed in their words.

Back to John chapter 10, because you see not only their hateful words, and hurtful words, and evasive words, and demonic words. You also see these words were also dishonest words. They were dishonest words. I really believe that they knew better than what they were saying. Look at verse 20: "And many of them were saying, 'He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?'" Now watch this. Verse 21: "Others were saying, 'These are not the words of someone demon possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?'"

The dishonesty of the words of the one group, verse 20, is exposed by another group, verse 21. Now the group in verse 21, not yet believers at this time. They may become believers later. We don't know, but they're not yet believers at this time. But they were at least, you could see, they were at least fair-minded, honest about something that was really undeniable, indisputable.
That is, the only way you could ever say that Jesus was demon possessed and insane is your refusal to deal with two clear, self-evident things.

One, they're saying, have you been listening to Him? I mean, are these the words of a demon possessed man? I mean, think about it for a minute. Go through the Gospels. Go through the Gospels and read the accounts of the people who were really demon possessed. Would you say that they were eloquent? Would you say that they were in their right minds? Would you say that their reasoning was impeccable, it was sound? No, in fact, some of them were so dreadful in the way that they were living, people wouldn't even come near them.

Then you listen to the words of the Lord Jesus, and as men and women even went and listened, as they listened to Him, they marveled at what He was saying. And remember when they sent the group of soldiers to arrest Him? Remember what they said? "No man has ever spoken like this man speaks." His words were so—I mean, they are the words of God. His words were so perfect, perfect sound, powerful, penetrating, enlightening, beautiful in every respect. And you've come to the conclusion that He's speaking by a demon? How dishonest can you be with what you're hearing?
Read what He says about the Good Shepherd. Listen to the reasoning involved in what He's taught. Are these the words of a demon-possessed man? You're out of your mind. You're being dishonest.

But there's a second thing they're just not willing to deal with. And that is, you've got a man—remember the account in chapter 9? You've got a man who was blind and now he what? He sees. He sees. Is that the work of a demon? No, the reason why they say the things they say is because they just don't want to deal with the truth. So these are dishonest words.

Do you believe, beloved, that the enemies of the gospel sometimes say things that they know are not true just to avoid the truth of the gospel? Does this world that we live in say things about the church, about Christians, that they know they are not true? By and large, as a whole, they know it's not true that they say it because they don't want to deal with the truth of the gospel? I mean, there are hypocrites in the church. But you know, you often hear the statement, "Oh, all Christians are hypocrites."

Now let me ask each and every one of us. By our words, we will be justified. By our words, we will be condemned, Jesus said. Right? That's what He said. Here's the question: What do your words reveal about your relationship to the gospel? What do your words reveal about your relationship to the gospel? And when I say the gospel, I'm saying Christ. He is the gospel. As I said at the beginning, words are so important. And you know that words actually not only reveal lostness, like in this case. Words reveal also the presence of salvation. Words reveal that there's life present.
Two passages, very quickly, as we bring this to conclusion, stood in my mind. Really, these stood out in my mind, these two passages. One is found in the book of Hebrews. Turn with me there. Hebrews 11. And this is where the application—I trust that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, will bring it to bear upon our hearts.

Hebrews 11, look at verse 13. In the midst of this, description of what faith accomplishes, genuine saving faith, given by God, how it evidences itself in men and women. Look at verse 13. : "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." – Verse 14 – "For those who say such things" – you see that? Did you catch that? – "For those who say such things." In other words, for people who speak thus. Those who talk like
that.

You see? People who talk about the promises of God. People who believe the promises of God. People who look forward to the things that they will never see in their lifetime, and keep on talking about them, and believing them, and clinging to them all the way to the grave.
And people who say, "This is not my home. I'm a stranger, I'm an exile, I'm a pilgrim. I'm passing through. My one ambition in this life is to be pleasing to Him, my Master and my Lord." People who talk like that, and mean it—look at what He says about them in verse 14: "For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been remembering that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now, they aspire to a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He prepared a city for them."

Wow. Has He prepared a city just for some believers? Or has He prepared a city for all believers? All of them, beloved. All of them. So this kind of speech characterizes what? Believers. This is what really characterizes believers. Their mouth, their words say they are people of faith.

Let me give you an Old Testament example. Go to the book of Malachi, the book we're studying right now in our evening services. Go to the book of Malachi chapter 3. Look at verse 13. God bringing indictments against the sinful people.
Verse 13, we read the following. Now, watch this. Malachi 3, verse 13: "Your words have been strong against Me, says Yahweh." "Your words have been strong against Me, says Yahweh. But you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ You have said, 'It is worthless to serve God.'"

Now, are those the words of a believer or an unbeliever? It's worthless. It's vain. It's empty. It's meaningless to serve God. "And what gain is it" – he goes on to say – "that we have kept His charge, that we have walked in mourning before Yahweh of hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape."

It's vain. Worthless to serve the Lord, they say. It's vain. It's worthless to serve Him. Where does God reward the righteous? Where does He punish the wicked? But notice now in the next verse, verse 16: "Then those who feared Yahweh" – what did they do? – "spoke to one another." You see it? "They spoke to one another, and Yahweh gave heed and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear Yahweh and who think upon His name."

So what marked those people who feared Yahweh? What marked those people who esteemed His name? They spoke to one another. They spoke to one another. Words. They spoke to one another in a way that God saw as rewardable. He paid attention. He heard it. He treasured it. In a language that we can understand, He wrote a book. A book of remembrance was written before Him.
In verse 17 He says: "They will be Mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve God."

He is saying on that great day, there is going to be a clear distinction made between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who served God and the one who didn't serve God.
But if we were paying attention, there was already a distinction, and it was found in what came out of what? Their mouth. One said, It's worthless to serve God. Why serve God? And the other spoke with one another in a way that spoke of their fellowship with God, their faith in the promises of God, their trust in God.

And for those who say such things—you see, Hebrews chapter 11— "for those who say such things", who say, we are pilgrims. We are strangers. We are sojourners looking for another kind of city, God has prepared one for them, and He is not ashamed to be called their God.

So let me ask you again: What do your words say about your relationship to Jesus? What's the pattern there? To God? To His Son? Do you praise His words? Do you speak of your love for God's Word? Do you speak of the preciousness of the things found in the Scripture?
Your words came to me, and I ate them, and they were sweet. They were a delight. Oh how I love Your law. Do you talk about God's Word? Do you praise His words? Do you proclaim His Word?

There is a relationship to God's Word found in God's people. They love it. They read it. They obey it. They proclaim it. They speak it. They speak His Word. Do you prize His Word? Do you place great value upon His Word? Do you treasure His Word?

I can never forget a testimony of a Christian in one of those places where Christianity is banned. A testimony that stuck in my mind: when she was a little girl, they would take a Bible and they would tear pages out of it. Individuals would have not a Bible—they would have a page of Scripture, and they would memorize it because they weren't allowed to have the Bible. It was so scarce that the one Bible had to be shared by many, and they had to memorize one page each. Is God's Word valuable to you?
How do we know there was enmity between Jews and Jesus? All you had to do was listen to them—hateful words, hurtful words, evasive words, demonic words, dishonest words. What does your mouth say about your relationship to God?

If your sin has found you out this morning, I beg you, repent. And I plead with you, repent. Cry out to God. Ask Him for forgiveness. Turn to the Son of God and embrace Him as your Lord and Savior. Come to Him empty-handed: Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.
Lord Jesus, You have done everything for me, and You have done what I could never, ever do. You lived that perfect life that I am required to live, but I can never live—can never, ever, ever, ever live. And You died the death that I deserve to die on Calvary's cross.
And on that cross, suspended between Heaven and earth, rejected by men, rejected by a holy God—because all of the sins of all of those who belong to You were laid upon the Lamb of God—and God the Father judged God the Son, who became the sin bearer. And on that cross He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He died that you might live He drank the cup of wrath that you might drink a cup of mercy and grace believe upon Him ask Him to come into your life to give you a heart of flesh to take away the heart of stone and to write His words His law upon the tablets of your heart and He will do that come to Him empty handed, come all the way to Christ, don't be satisfied that your toes are right up to the narrow gate that leads to life, come all the way to Christ, enter through the narrow gate, give your life to Him, embrace Him as your Lord and Savior, He’s a merciful God, He’s a merciful Savior, your works the best that you do is filthy rags in the sight of God, in fact let me tell you my dear sinner friend the more you try to do to earn acceptance with God the more judgment you will heap upon yourself because the best that you do is tainted and tarnished your only hope is to rest on the doing and the dying of another the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Give your life to Him, He's a gracious Savior. You may be a great sinner today but I'm presenting you with a great Savior, He's mighty to save, able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him by faith.

 Let's pray.

Father in Heaven we give you thanks that salvation is not just a legal reality it's an experiential reality, you, you change your people from the inside out, you took out of us a heart of stone and you gave us instead a heart of flesh and because you've changed us Lord what's in our hearts is revealed by our lips, out of good treasure comes forth good things and yet Lord we must also confess as your people that because of the presence of the flesh the remaining corruption the struggle we have with sin there are many times that we have to in light of your holiness say with the prophet Isaiah woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips. Lord we say things we ought not and we don't say things many times that we ought, Lord lead us in a way that our words would reflect our love for you and our belief in what you've told us and Lord may people be able by your words to know that by our words to know that we belong to you that we would speak only that which is for edification that would impart grace to the hearers as we fellowship with one another in our homes in our families Lord may there be much talk about you about your word may you indeed Lord find in our families words that you would write down and remember as we esteem your name in that book of remembrance and Lord I pray for those in this place this morning whose words would condemn them whose words reveal the true condition of their hearts whose words reveal that they don't know you O Lord may they pay attention to their own speech and recognize today their lostness and even today repent and run to the one who is willing to forgive them and save them, willing to forgive all the harsh things that ungodly people have spoken against you, O Lord have mercy we ask you this today in Christ's name our good shepherd Amen.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

This morning’s message is entitled a thinkful gratitude. And you will understand why as we go on to understand gratitude today. Thankfulness. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers. The 19th century preacher, minister of God’s word. He was mightily used by God to proclaim Christ. He loved Christ. He served Christ and He proclaimed Christ. He preached over six-hundred times before he was twenty years old. Six-hundred times before he was twenty. His sermons sold twenty thousand copies a week and were translated into twenty languages. The collective sermons fill sixty three volumes, equivalent to the 27 volume 9th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and stands as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of the christian faith.

The story is told of him, Spurgeon, being mugged in London. Terrifying experience for him. So he came home after being mugged, having his wallet stolen on the streets of London, and told his wife what happened. She listened to him with great care. And at the end of it, he said, "But thank God, I am truly thankful." His wife responded and said, "Really? You thank the Lord that you were mugged?" And Spurgeon responded and said, "No, I am thankful for three things." He said, "Firstly, I am thankful that they took my money and not my life. Second," he said, "I'm thankful that the wallet they took had hardly any money in it." And he said, "Thirdly, I'm thankful that I was not the thief."

There was an attitude in that man of perceiving a situation completely differently from how many people would. Many people would go through that and their first response would be some form of murmuring, some form of grumbling, some form of complaint. "Why, God?" But the attitude of gratitude exhibited by Spurgeon was something that Christians—you and I—should mimic. It was his habit, in fact, when people asked him, "How are you?" he responded, "Better than I deserve. Better than I deserve." That was his habit. And if you know anything about the kind of things he struggled with, it will make the statement all the more potent.

He believed, and I quote, "It was a heavenly thing to be thankful. After all, it was gratitude which ought to teach us, the divine object of grace." He longed for his heart to burn with the sacred flame of thankfulness. The sacred flame of thankfulness. For the world, being happy was a prerequisite to being grateful, but Spurgeon knew that God's people are always happy when they are grateful to Him. In fact, Spurgeon was so certain, he said, and I quote, "We should be ten times more full of bliss if we were proportionately more full of thankfulness."

For him, living with thankfulness was an all-encompassing commitment, whether for richer or for poorer, even in sickness and in health. He would often remind his congregation that, and I quote, "You have received all that you have from God the Father through Jesus Christ.". This truth made every enjoyment an avenue for God-glorifying attitude. That very idea is what we're going to consider this morning as we try to understand what gratitude is and how we can cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

And we need this. We need this reminder. Yes, it is something we're focused on in a concentrated way, Thanksgiving weekend, but we need that realignment so that we can be thankful by the grace of God every single day of the year. As we gather together this Thanksgiving Sunday, it is appropriate that we express our gratitude to God, that we experience gratitude, yes, but also, beloved, that we grow in gratitude, that we recommit to gratitude, that we don't allow gratitude to be something simply on the periphery.

I would hope that as long as we gather together as God's people, this local body of Christ known as Grace Chapel, I would hope that as long as we gather together, that every time we walk through that door, that there is a profound sense of gratitude in our hearts. That it should never be lost, that it should never evaporate, that it should never be something that just belonged to that sweet first time that we gathered together back in 2009, January. That we're a thankful church, full of gratitude.

You know, it's hard to imagine a church filled with gratitude that is at the same time riddled with bitterness, riddled with discontent, riddled with murmuring, riddled with malice. It's hard to imagine a church filled with gratitude and at the same time riddled with divisions. You see, where gratitude exists, griping does not. Where gratitude exists, pettiness does not. Where gratitude exists, conflicts are swiftly resolved. Where gratitude exists, the church tends to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Gratitude not only chases off several sins, but like wind beneath the wings of an eagle, it gives lift to all kinds of Christ-like virtues. When you're grateful, it returns sweetness to your prayer, it returns sweetness to your praise, to your worship. When you're grateful, it really turns our very times of devotion to a great amount of adoration and praise. When you're grateful, zeal comes back to your service to God. You love to serve the Savior. You love to serve Him. You want to serve Him. You delight to serve Him.

And when you meet a grateful man, he's serving, and he's serving, serving the Lord, and you say to him, "Thank you," he almost says to you, "Don't thank me." He's found his joy in what he's doing; rather, he's found his joy in God Himself, and therefore he's found his joy in what he's doing for the Master. A servant of Christ once said, and I quote, "When gratitude dies on the altar of a man's heart, that man is well-nigh hopeless."

You see, gratitude is not an optional extra in the Christian life. It's not icing on the cake. It's not nice but not necessary. Gratitude, beloved, is not about the mood that you're in. "I'm not in the mood to be grateful." It has nothing to do with the mood that you're in. It has nothing to do with it.

As far as the Bible is concerned, gratitude is one of the signs of being born from above. It's one of the signs of being regenerate, one of the signs of having met the Savior, of still growing in grace. At least 21 times in the Bible we're commanded to be grateful, to give thanks, to offer thanksgiving. At least 21 times. In many other places, gratitude and thanksgiving are commended. They are suggested as right, as fitting, as normal for the believer. If you're a believer, you're grateful.

And to turn it around, you remember what Paul says in Romans 1:21. The indictment on mankind is what? "For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks." Give thanks. Unregenerate people are unthankful people. That's the indictment on mankind. You see, beloved, unbelief and unthankfulness always travel together. They travel as twins. And gratitude and faith, they travel together.

Those who are unthankful are as the Israelites were when they were unthankful, murmuring, and tempted God by murmuring and grumbling against Him. In other words, gratitude is not about how you're feeling today. Gratitude is about what you believe is true about life.

Gratitude rises and falls on two beliefs. Mark it down. Rises or falls on two beliefs. Number one, the belief of what you believe you deserve. And number two, what you believe you've received. Always. And those two things, depending on whether or not you're holding them correctly, is exactly why you're grateful or not grateful. The belief of what you believe you deserve and what you believe you received.

You see, an unthankful person believes that he deserves much good and thinks he's received little of it. And therefore, he's ungrateful. "It's not fair." That's how the world thinks—I noticed on the box of pizza that we enjoyed the other day, it says, "Enjoy the better taste because you deserve it." You deserve it. You deserve it. That's how the world thinks. An unthankful person believes that he deserves much good and thinks he received little of it, if any. And so they grumble.

But a thankful man believes that he deserves nothing or very little, if any, little good and believes he's received much. So much. Those two poles are exactly why a man is grateful or not. So the question this morning for us is, how do we become a people who are grateful? How? You say, I want to be grateful. I want to cultivate gratitude. How do I do this? How do we become people who are grateful, who are sustained by gratitude, who understand what we do deserve and understand what we have received?

The Bible's answer is found here—I mean, one place of many other places in Scripture—Psalm 105. And the Bible's answer here is, as in many Scripture, is a command to think, to reflect, a command to reflect. This is very important. It's not going to come upon you like some kind of this automatic thing. You go to sleep and you wake up grateful. It's the result of what? Reflection. Reflection. And so the Scripture here tells you to think on certain things.

In fact, the Anglo-Saxon origin of the word thankful comes from this word that means think-ful. That's why we have it in the title: think-ful gratitude. Think-ful. In other words, to be thankful, you have to be think-ful, and you have to be mindful, and you have to be thoughtful, and you have to reflect, and you have to muse, and you have to consider, and consider what it is that's been given to you when you didn't deserve anything at all. In fact, you deserve the opposite. That's when gratitude rises up.

Now in Psalm 105, the psalmist begins with a description of what gratitude looks like, and we're going to really take that as a matter of fact. This is what gratitude looks like. But we're going to study the psalm beginning with verse 7 on down. But look at the initial description of gratitude, what gratitude looks like in the first few verses.

Verse 1: "Oh give thanks to Yahweh, call upon His name; Make known His acts among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Muse on all His wondrous deeds. Boast in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh be glad. Inquire of Yahweh in His strength; Seek His face continually. Remember His wondrous deeds which He has done, His miracles and the judgments uttered by His mouth, O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!"

That's what gratitude looks like. That's the experience of gratitude. When we have a grateful church, we're talking often about the things of God. We're singing of it. Our times of praise are not just methodical ploddings—they're exuberance. Your heart is overflowing with gladness, with gratefulness, with gratitude, with thankfulness.

And if we have to say in our fellowship, in our, you know, getting together or fellowship lunch, or if we're to say, "Is there a testimony here?" we're at the edge of our seat. I've got lots to be thankful for, and if you're going to give me opportunity, I'm going to share and share and share. That's an attitude amongst us of awe, childlike amazement for what God has done. That's what happens in a church filled with gratitude.

The question is, how do you get it? How do you cultivate it? Well, the rest of the psalm is a model of how to give thanks. And as we consider this model, we're going to see together four actions of God, four ways that God's people could give thanks, four things that are identified here in the psalm that God does for us. And if we think on these things, if we're thinkful, we will be grateful.

So let's look at the text. In the first few verses, 7 through 11, what does it say? I'm going to take them in chunks and get the major principle, the major truth being taught, the action of God.

Verse 7: "He is Yahweh our God: His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded for a thousand generations, Which He cut with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, Saying, 'To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.'"

And the first action towards us that, if we reflect on it, if we muse on it, if we think upon it, it causes gratitude, is this: God's promises. God's promises. Reflect on God's promises, muse on God's promises, think upon the promises of God. You see, the psalmist begins by giving thanks that Israel served a promise-keeping God. You see what he's saying in these verses? He's saying there's this covenant that was between Yahweh and Abraham, the God of Israel and Abraham.

What's a covenant? Well, it's simply an agreement between two parties sealed with an oath. The specific covenant referenced here is the Abrahamic covenant, where God said to Abraham—to simplify it—He said, "I'll give you land, I'll give you seed, and I'll give you blessing  without condition”. Without condition. A promise to him. From God's side, He said He's going to do that. He's committed Himself to do that. God committed Himself to do that.

And even though Israel turned to other gods—and we know the history—Israel turned to idol worship. Even though they worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth and Moloch, God kept His word. God kept His promise. He put Israel in the land, and when they were kicked out, taken captive under the judgment of God, He restored them back to the land. Even when exiled from the land, He returned them. He promised to be their God. He promised to be faithful to them even when they weren't faithful to Him.

God is faithful to His promise, right? As we sang earlier. And the psalmist says, Israel, Israel, think about our promise-keeping God. Reflect on Him and sing. Reflect on Him and give thanks. Give thanks to Him. Make known His deeds. It's a joyous thing. It's a happy thing. It's a blessed thing. Why? You're in a world filled with truce-breakers, filled with liars, oath-breakers, perjurers. Aren't you thankful for someone who, when He promises you something, He will never fail to do it? Aren’t you?

How many times have you been the victim of a broken promise? How many times, perhaps, you have been the perpetrator of a broken promise? But to know that there is a God who is willing to make promises to His people, and to know that He cannot lie, He cannot fail to keep whatever He commits Himself to do, is a deep, deep joy—profound joy and comfort. In a world where anything can change at any time, here we have a firm foundation. Something that you can plant your life on. There is a promise-keeping God in Heaven, and what He promises, He will keep.

Let me ask you, what promises has He made to you, beloved? To us? His beloved? Do you realize that if you are a New Testament believer today, if you're in Christ, if you have believed on Jesus Christ and received Him as your Lord and Savior, if you are born from above, if you belong to the family of God, if you are His, sealed with the Holy Spirit—do you realize your whole faith is dependent on promises? Do you realize that?

Let that grip you. Your entire faith is dependent on promises. Everything you believe is a promise. Reflect on this. This is really important. You see, if you've trusted Jesus Christ, the whole of your salvation, all the package, the whole is dependent on the fact that God said, He said in His Word, "If you call on the name of My Son, I will forgive your sins, I will pardon you, I will cleanse you, and I will give you righteousness, His righteousness. I will give you eternal life, I will give you a glorious inheritance in heaven, I will adopt you as My child and make you joint heir with My beloved Son." God said it. He said, "I will give you all of these things, and I will give it to you, all of it, on the basis of calling on the name of My Son. If you turn from your sin, you turn from self, I will save you. I will save you from sin's penalty, and sin's power, and one day, sin's presence." He promises you eternal life, a future in heaven. But you know what all of this depends on? He has to keep His Word, right? He has to keep His Word. What would happen if He didn't? Or if He doesn't? Would our whole faith not fail? Everything, everything we depend on right now is a promise-keeping God.

A side note, we take His promise concerning our salvation, and we say, "Lord, thank You." When it comes to other promises related to the here and now—provision, protection, promises like, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common with man, but God is faithful, that He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able," and so forth—"Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness.” “Don't worry about what you eat, what you drink," all of these things. And all of a sudden, it's like, He's a promise-keeping God. Everything we depend on right now is a promise-keeping God.

And can I say to you today, if you're outside of Jesus Christ, if you're sitting here today, and you're outside of Jesus Christ, let me tell you this. And listen, please, very carefully. God has no pleasant promises for you. There are promises for you, but they're not pleasant. And I beg you to consider Christ today.

Ephesians 2 clearly says that at that time, outside of Christ, He said, You were without Christ, “alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise.” This is the saddest statement in the Scripture: " having no hope and without God in this world." And if you continue to be without hope and without God in this world, you will be without God and without hope in the world to come.

But once you're in Christ—in Christ—and I use that phrase deliberately, because that's the New Testament's favorite phrase to describe what a Christian is. In Christ, you are in Christ. I am in Christ. You go on in Messiah by faith. And if you do that, a wealth of promises open up.
2 Corinthians 1:20, "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes” – and “Amen to the glory of God." You see, God is under no obligation to give us even one little promise. He owes us nothing. We have no right to expect anything from Him. And yet, out of the abundance of His goodness, He has given us a book filled with hundreds and hundreds of promises. Every single promise is more wonderful than words could describe. And each one meets a critical need, a desire in our lives. There will never be a divine promise that God does not perfectly fulfill.

Somebody, in fact, counted 8,810 promises in the entire Bible. They counted, in the Old Testament, 7,706. In the New Testament, 1,104. Now, not every one of them is directed to you as a New Testament believer, but a huge portion of them are. And I would say far more than you need, than I need, to be content and grateful. Ah, beloved, if we had but three promises, five, ten from the God of all creation, should we not be joyful? Should we not be thankful? What if we have thousands from God?

In Bunyan's story of Pilgrim's Progress, the problem starts when Pilgrim leaves the main highway because he's seeking an easier path. Always, always remember that. Problems always happen when we seek the easier path, okay? But that easier path leads him into the territory of the giant—the giant named Despair. And the giant Despair takes him into the Doubting Castle, and there he's kept in a dungeon, and he's advised to kill himself. End your misery. Just kill yourself. Be done with it. And there he sits. And there he sits, looming and considering this. And for a time, it seems as if Despair has conquered Christian.

And then the text of Pilgrim's Progress says this, listen to this now. So Christian is in the dungeon. Despair seems to have conquered Christian. And now we read this:
"Now, a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, broke out into this passionate speech: What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my pocket called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle. Then said Hopeful, That is good news, good brother; pluck it out of thy pocket and try. Then Christian pulled it out of his pocket and began to try the dungeon door, whose bolt, as he turned the key, gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out."

Beloved, if you are thinkful enough about God's promises, you will be thankful. You will be thankful. Do you know how you do that? You have to be in the Word. You have to be in the Word enough so that the Word gets in you. And when you're in the Word and the Word gets in you, the promises of God will be in you, and then the Holy Spirit will bring them to your remembrance at the point of need.

Story is told of a dying saint who called his pastor to his side, and he said, "Pastor, Pastor, I'm dying now. It seems to me I cannot remember a single one of God's promises." And his pastor said to him, "But my dear brother, do you think God has forgotten His promises?" And the dying brother said, "You're right, Pastor. Even if I cannot recall them now, God will never forget them."

Israel was encouraged to reflect on God's promises, but there's a second thing they are encouraged to reflect on, a second work of God, action of God that begins in verse 12. Listen, look at verse 12 with me: "When there were only a few men in number, Of little account, and sojourners in it. And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people. He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes: 'Do not touch My anointed ones, And to My prophets do no evil.'"

The second action of God towards His people that, when reflected upon, brings gratitude is not only God's promises, but in the second place, God's protection. God's protection. The psalmist praises God here that this little band of Israelites, hardly armed with anything, a small family, could have immediately been overwhelmed by several hostile tribes that really should have been decimated. There was no reason for them to survive. They could have easily been absorbed, scattered, killed by a vindictive ruler anywhere in time.

In fact, just the history of the Jewish people, even to this day, is truly remarkable to see how God had protected that people—not because there's anything special in them, but in spite of them. It's just because of who He is, a God who keeps His promise. Sometimes they needed protection from themselves. You remember Abraham and Isaac, right? They almost gave their wives to pagan kings had God not intervened, but through it all, God protected His people.
He protected His people physically. He protected them from being mixed with other people, and He protected them spiritually. And Israel has survived, and they could thank God for His protection. It's a strange thing to think about protection, isn't it? We don't often think of how protected we are until we have a close call. We take it for granted. We wake up every day. We go about our business.

When you have a brush with danger, when you experience something that could have harmed you, suddenly you become aware of the importance of protection. When you're dwelling securely for a long time, you begin to relax and take things for granted. But after you have that close brush, you realize how many ways you could have been harmed, and you understand how many threats there are, how God truly has fenced you in, hedged you.

You know, those of us in our midst here have small kids. You realize how there really must be guardian angels. There's so many ways they should have been harmed and should have perished, and that's supposedly in a safe environment, and you could see the hand of God.

One of the American Native Indian tribes had an interesting way of training their young braves. We're told on the night of a boy's 13th birthday, they would take him out blindfolded into the forest. He would have already learned hunting and scouting and fishing, but his final test was that he had to be in a place in a dense forest and spend the entire night alone by himself. And so, though he lived under the blanket of his family's security for so long, there he was, placed in that dark forest with gripping, terrifying aloneness, the sound of animals. No doubt every crack of leaf or fall of twig made his heart freeze, jump.

But finally, when the light came again, dawned and the day broke, the boy would begin to recognize the trees, the flowers, the path, the surroundings, and then he would look over and see, not too far from him, the figure of a man standing watch, armed with bow and arrow. It was his father. He'd been there all night long, watching over him. And, beloved, that's really what's going on in your life and my life. Our Father is there all along, watching over us.

Listen how it is put in Psalm 33. In fact, turn with me there. I want your eyes to see this. This is incredible. Psalm 33, look at verse 13. You have here the omniscience of God, the omnipresence of God. But look at this: "Yahweh looks from heaven; He sees everything. He sees all the sons of man; And from the place of His habitation He gazes On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who forms the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works."

Here He is, God, who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. God sees everything. God sees everyone. Picture it, even now. I mean, even now, this minute here, God is here. He knows all about you, all about us here. And He knows and He sees every single person on this planet. He knows all about them. He sees them. He looks and He sees all the sons of man, all of them, all of them. You name a country, all of them.

But notice now the distinction. Verse 18, go down to verse 18: "Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear Him." Yeah, He sees everybody. He knows everybody. But especially God is watching over His own children: "On those who wait for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul is patient for Yahweh; He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness, O Yahweh, be upon us, As we wait for You."

God protects us from so many possible threats—physical threats, criminals, attacks, car accidents, accidents at home, at work, something going wrong fatally with our bodies. God protects us. You know what that tells you? It tells you God is watching over you. His eye is set on you. There's a, He puts a circle around you as His child. And that means nothing, absolutely nothing, will come into your life without it first passing through the sacred desk of God. He's watching over you.

But more than physical protection, He protects us spiritually. Have you ever thought of the many threats to our faith? Satan sends false teachers to divert us, confuse us, pervert the teaching of God's Word. He sends apostates to infiltrate the church who profess to know Christ in order to subvert the faith and pervert the gospel. He raises up wolves from within who pose as sheep to infiltrate the church and turn people away from true undershepherds and draw people away after themselves.

God protects you from your own faith failing. He protects me from my own faith failing, from utter despair, from unbelief. I mean, how many times have you sat there and wondered, why am I still a believer? And can I tell you, beloved, that the greatest protection that God affords you and affords me in Christ, God protects you from God. Did you hear that? That's the greatest protection that God affords you. In Christ, God protects you from God.

You know the word propitiation? It's a good word in Scripture. It's a good word. hilaskomai’ is the Greek word you find in several places, such as in Hebrews 2:17. It means, this word means the quenching of God's anger, satisfying God's holy wrath. And on the cross, Calvary's cross that day, God the Son satisfied the holy and just anger, wrath of God on behalf of all of those who put their trust in Him.

And if you're not in Christ, where do you think God's wrath, God's anger will fall? Where do you think it will fall? Where will God's holy justice fall? It falls on you. It falls on you. And my sinner friend, can I tell you, there is no enemy as fearful, as terrifying as an all-powerful God. There's no threat in all the world that you should fear more than God. There's no calamity as terrible as being the target of God's holy anger. For the Scripture is clear, "It is a” – fearful thing, – “a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God", Hebrews 10:31.

And outside of Christ, that's where you will end up unless you repent and believe in the Son of God. Because in Christ, you are protected. You are protected, you're robed with His righteousness. The wrath of God is satisfied. His anger is appeased. That's what those wonderful words mean that we read in Romans 8:38 "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Be thankful for His protection. Why should this handful of believers be here 16 years later in this place? Why? Should we not all have been scattered all over? Should we not have fallen to unbelief and despair and apostasy? Should we have not fallen into temptation that disqualified us from serving, disqualified us from service?

God has protected us. God has protected us from teaching too subtle, from adversity too difficult, the wiles of the devil. And most of all, He protected you and me from Himself. And this comes from the good hand of our protecting God, who's called in Scripture a shield, a high tower, a fortress, a refuge, a shepherd who has a rod and a staff.

And so the psalmist says, Israel, think about God's promises. Think about God's protection. But then thirdly, in a lengthy section, he gives us something else to thank God for. Look at verses 16 and following: "And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; Until the time that His word came to pass, The word of Yahweh refined him. The king sent and released him, The rulers of the people sent and set him free. He set him up as lord of his house And ruler of his possessions, To imprison his princes at will, And that he might teach his elders wisdom. Then Israel came to Egypt; And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And He caused His people to be very fruitful, And He caused them to be stronger than their adversaries. He turned their hearts to His people, To deal craftily with His slaves. He sent Moses His servant, And Aaron, whom He has chosen. They sent forth the words of His signs among them, And miracles in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made it dark; And they did not rebel against His words. He turned their waters into blood And caused their fish to die. Their land swarmed with frogs Even in the chambers of their kings. He spoke, there came a swarm of flies And gnats in all their territory. He gave them hail for rain, And flaming fire in the land. He also struck down the vines and the fig trees, and He shattered the trees of their territory. He spoke, and locusts came, And creeping locusts without number, And they ate all vegetation in their land, And they ate up the fruit of the ground. He also struck down all the firstborn in their land, The first of all their vigor. Then He brought them out with silver and gold, And there was none among His tribes who stumbled. Egypt was glad when they went out, For the dread of them had fallen upon him.”

What's this all about? A long description of the acts of God for His people. But we can summarize this by saying the third action of God is His providence. His providence, His providence. His promises, His protection, His providence.

And He rehearses here the history of Joseph. Many years ago, when we studied Genesis, it was a thrill to study the providence of God in the life of Joseph. You remember all the events that led Joseph down there, and then led Joseph to prepare the land, and then led the brothers down there, and then led them to expand, and then to cause a new Pharaoh to come in, whose hard-heartedness set up the Exodus, and then the Exodus with all of its miracles that led Israel to go out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

And what is the name of all of this? Providence, providence. Gracious providence. We can put it this way: gracious guidance and governance of all events, including the free acts of men and women, all things being directed to their appointed end for His glory.

You study the life of Joseph, you see that God is in control over the good, He's in control of the evil, He's in control of the Pharaoh that loved Joseph, control of the Pharaoh that hated Moses, and He's in control of years of plenty, control of famine. He got Israel down into Canaan, then to Egypt, then took them out of Egypt back into Canaan. So here are these movements from Canaan as a group of 120; think about that, 120, and then you have a group of 2 million from Egypt back into Canaan.

And what is the verse that we read in Genesis 50 that Joseph says to his brothers when they're trying to make amends? Genesis 50:20, he said—you know this verse very well—"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day, to keep many people alive."

You know, I think one of the most exciting things about being a Christian is being able to see God at work. The hand of God on your life. Outside of Christ, life must seem random, chaotic, disorderly. Oh, but in Christ, you realize life is a story written by a Master Author who knows exactly what goes where, what chapter goes where—the introduction, the chapters, the conclusion—everything with precision.

And when you look at the circumstances through the eyes of faith, we can have a grateful attitude for providence. And we say with faith, God rules over all and He rules for His glory. What does it say in Romans 8:28? "We know." It's not like we think, we hope, we wish, maybe—no, no. "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." All of it.

I'm reminded of what the Dutch reformer Abraham Kuyper said, "There's not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence in which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine." There's no part of our lives that's not under the lordship of Jesus. And that should give you comfort. Oh, the providence of God.

That's why, as we've said at the beginning, the heart of gratitude, beloved—the heart of gratitude is actually faith. It's submission. It's an attitude that says, life has been ordered by God. And what God has given is God's choice for me. And He's good. And it's for my good. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful. I'm grateful. I'm grateful. And I'm always grateful.

And I'm not always grateful for the pain of the circumstances, but I'm always grateful that that pain is being controlled by a good God. I rejoice in the purpose of the trial. I can bow the knee and accept it and rejoice in the God of the circumstance. When Jonathan Edwards died in his 50s because of a botched vaccine, Sarah Edwards, writing to her daughter Esther at the death of her husband, said this, and I quote: "My very dear child, what shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness that we had him so long. But my God lives and He has my heart. Oh, what a legacy my husband and your father has left us. We are all given to God. And there I am and love to be. Your ever affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards."

Remember Paul and Silas? Beaten unlawfully, in stocks, Philippian jail. What did they start doing? They begin singing praises, hymns to God. You see, if they had been reacting to their circumstances, they would have graffitied their stocks. Or they would have been calling out loudly, "Excuse me, excuse me, I'm a Roman citizen. This is illegal. I have my rights." But they chose to submit to God, saying, as it were, The God of my circumstances has ordained this. This is for our good and for His glory. And so real thankfulness rose.

If you just think, reflect back, think about the circumstances, the providence of God for this body of Christ. This body of Christ. The way this work of God began back in January 2009. The way you came to be part of this work of God. Even sitting right here today in your chair. Each of those is a story of circumstances ordered by God.

On a personal level, think of how God worked in your life, beloved. How He saved you. How God has moved you to different places and different churches and different means to get you to where you are today, sitting here in this place. Think of whom He's allowed you to come across, who influenced you and how, and various means that He used—the internet, social media, word of mouth, personal touch. Think of how He's brought different people into this church just at the right time.

Think of how He's used adversity to remove the dross, to purify us—church discipline, protection from divisive people. Think of how He's used trials, physical diseases, financial hardship, relational hardship, even the death of loved ones. And what has it done? God has woven it all together to bring about fruit. And need I say anything more than look around you in this room, this place, and think about the providence of God?

Have you ever reflected on that? Thanked Him for how He shaped you, for where He took you, people He used in your life, painful trials He's brought into your life, the so-called chance meetings, the exposure to the gospel, the exposure to Grace Chapel? May I exhort you, next time you go into your prayer closet, spend some time in prayer—will you go with the attitude, "I'm not going to ask God for anything, I'm just going to reflect back and thank God for all these various things"?

And as you do that, as you go through this, thanking God for the people of God, the various ministries, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and as you thank God for the fellowship of the saints, as you thank God for your loved ones and all the good things that God has given you, by the time you're done, your heart will be so full because the perspective will be changing. Providence—a God who is ordering everything in my life for my good and for His glory.

But I must hasten. There's a fourth reason why Israel is to give thanks. Look at the last verses of the psalm, verse 39 and on: "He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to give light by night. They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places like a river. For He remembered His holy word With Abraham His servant; And He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with a shout of joy. He gave them also the lands of the nations, That they might take possession of the fruit of the people's labor, So that they might keep His statutes And observe His laws." – And how does it end? – "Praise Yah!"

Well, God's provision—that's the fourth action. God's provision—that's the fourth reason to be thankful. God's provision, the psalmist says here. Israel, think about what God has provided. What did He provide? Oh, the text tells us: He provided light when we were in darkness. When we were in the desert, He provided water. When we were hungry, He provided food. When we needed a place to stay, He provided land. He even gave us houses we did not build, vineyards we did not plant. Provision.

Isn't it true that as parents, one of the things that we try to drill into our children's minds and hearts is gratitude? You give them something, and if they just take it and just look at you, you say, "What do you say?" And why do we do that? Because human hearts drift to taking things for granted.

Less wonder, less amazement, less awe if left to itself. And here's the horrible cycle of the human heart: left to itself, without the grace of God working, you have more and more, but then you have less and less gratitude. And the so-called spoiled child syndrome is exactly that—more and more and more and more, but less and less and less and less wonder.
That's what we said at the beginning: your gratitude is proportional to what you think you deserve. Do I deserve much? Or do I deserve little, if any, at all? Do I deserve much goodness?

Well, according to Scripture, Lamentations 3:22, it is of His mercies that we are not consumed. It's because of His ‘hased’ I'm not consumed. Because mark it down and let it be drilled into your head, child of God. Tell yourself, "I deserve hell. I deserve hell." That puts what I deserve exactly where it needs to be. I deserve hell.

What have I received in terms of God's provision? You and I will do well every single day to train our hearts as soon as we wake up to ask ourselves these two questions: What do I deserve, and what have I received? If you live with this idea of, like, I'm being cheated. I'm being cheated. I do deserve more. I've been so gypped. What a raw deal I've been given. If you live with this idea, I know exactly what your gratitude level is going to be.

And so we teach our children, be grateful, because if you're not grateful, you're proud. Proud people are unthankful people. And unthankful people are proud people, exalted in their own eyes, feeling that the whole world ought to be laying presents at my feet. And generally, feeling angry that other people are not worshipping the king ‘self’. And when people and circumstances fail to meet my proud expectations of what I deserve, what do I become? Very unhappy. I grumble. I murmur because I'm being mistreated, and I'm going to complain.

Spurgeon said, "You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' He says, 'You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.'"

Remember the account of Jesus cleansing ten lepers, of whom only one was thankful? But just before that, He gave a parable on servanthood in Luke 17. You remember that parable? He says if you have a slave—and an indentured slave at that time, somebody who works entirely for you, committed their life to serving you because of a debt they owed or whatever the case may be—and that slave's requirement, one of his duties, is to serve you, to attend to your needs. And He says, are you going to say to him, "Please, please, you sit down first, have some food"? He said, no, that's not how it works. He says, as your servant, his duty is to do that very thing of serve you.

And so when you come in, you say to him, Luke 17:8, "Prepare something for me to eat, and clothing yourself properly, serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward, you may eat and drink. Is he grateful to the slave because he did the things which were commanded? In this way, you also, when you do all things which are commanded of you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

In other words, the same way, Jesus is saying, as Christians, we don't walk around with a haughty expectation that God should be patting us on the back and saying, "Oh my, oh my, am I so blessed to have you or not? So blessed to have you." I don't need an asset to My kingdom. Rather, He says, regard yourself as an unworthy slave who is simply doing his duty for the Master.

Now, you know, according to the Word of God, that you're treasured. But you're treasured in Christ. And so if we have that attitude—"You know what? I don't have any merit. I deserve hell. God has blessed me beyond measure"—what we should then be so surprised and amazed by is the generosity and the kindness of our good Master.

And I'll let you in on a secret if you haven't come across this before. In the Scripture, Jesus says that one of the things He's going to do in the future is gird Himself and serve His servants. Luke 12:27. Let no one complain against our Lord. You see, in Christ, we're fully provided for. God is able to make every grace abound to you so that in everything at every time, having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good work. And of course, Philippians 4:19, "my God will fulfill all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Would you think of how God has provided for us as a church, as individuals? But as a church, not only has He given us His Spirit, His Word, equipped His church with gifts, gifted men, gifted women. He provided the members that were needed at every time in Grace Chapel's life—the finances to support ministry, mercy, missions, direction, wisdom.

Have you ever spent time thinking of all that God has provided you with, beloved? The Bible tells you you're supposed to be content with two things: food and clothing. But has He given you more? Think of all the advantages that He's given you—your goods, your income, your house, your car. What He's given beyond even what you need—the extras, kindnesses that fill your days. Think of how many helpers He's brought your way—teachers, advisors, counselors, encouragers, exhorters.

Think of the opportunities He's given you, opportunities to grow and learn and thrive. He's given you all things that you need for life and godliness in this book. Can anyone here honestly say, "There's been a time when I lacked what I needed to be godly?" No one can say that. Contentment is learned and obeyed. So the psalmist says to us, you want to be grateful? Be thinkful. Think about God's promises to you as a people. Think about His protection to you. Think of His providence in ordering it, and think of His provision.

I love to read hymns, old hymns especially. Just read them, even when I can't sing them. So one of them, one of my favorite hymns is by Joseph Addison, titled, When All Thy Mercies, O My God. Listen to what he writes, and I'll close with this: "When all Thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys." I love that word, surveys. Surveys. Surveys is a favorite word of the hymn writers. "When I survey the wondrous cross," right? Survey. Why? Why do they keep using that word, survey?

Well, because the expectation is that what Christians are going to do is what? Survey. They're going to think. They're going to meditate. Muse on. Reflect on. And so this hymn writer says, "When all Thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view, I'm lost in wonder, love, and praise." And then he says, "Ten thousand thousand precious gifts my daily thanks employ, nor is the least a cheerful heart that tastes those gifts with joy." May it be so in this church now and always. And all God's people say? Amen.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

This text that was read in your hearing, I trust you might have noticed that there is a word repeated throughout our text that takes us to the very heart of this passage. It takes us to the very heart of what this passage addresses. It is this Hebrew word, ‘bagod’. It is translated in the LSB and the NASB, "treacherously," "dealt treacherously." This Hebrew word is translated by words, you can say, bound up in this Hebrew word, words such as "faithless," "betrayer" or "betray," "traitor," "treacherous," ‘bagod’, "faithless," "disloyalty." It means to be faithless to a principle or to a person or to a group of people. It can mean to break faith, to prove untrustworthy, to prove untrustworthy, disloyal.

Five times, mark it down, five times in seven verses, five times in seven verses we have this word. Do you notice that? Five times in these verses just read, God speaks to His people about treacherousness, unfaithfulness, traitorous. Look at them with me. Verse 10, "Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother?" Verse 11, "Judah has dealt treacherously” – ‘bagod’ – and an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god." You go down to verse 14, "Yahweh has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have"—here's our word—"dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." And of course, end of verse 15, "let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth." And finally, verse 16, the end of it, "Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." Five times. Five times.

All of this has to do with loyalty, with faithfulness, with fidelity. To deal treacherously in this context is to prove disloyal to Yahweh, disloyal to God by being—and here specifically—to be disloyal to the covenant that God has given. But what's particularly striking about this passage is that this loyalty to God that's on display here involves acts of disloyalty towards people, and let us not miss that. This is quite important for us to make sure that we grasp this. God is being dishonored as people are being mistreated. God is being dishonored as His people are being mistreated. People are being disloyal to God by being disloyal to one another, and God takes issue with that.

There are a couple of things that come to mind when I think about this, when I consider this passage and its teaching. First of all, by way of introduction, I think about how often we misunderstand the Mosaic Covenant. I just want to say a word about this. The Mosaic Covenant was never intended to be a means by which people earned righteousness before God. The Mosaic Covenant was not given so that people could save themselves by keeping laws, and we know that.

But it's also true to say that the Mosaic Law was not given simply or exclusively to expose sin, and I think sometimes in the New Testament context, that's how we think about the Mosaic Law, the Mosaic Covenant—that it was just given to show us our sinfulness. You hear people talk about preaching the law before you preach Christ, and so they treat the Old Testament as if its only function exclusively was to expose our sinfulness. Let me say, certainly it does expose man's sinfulness, but this was a covenant that was meant to be approached by faith, nevertheless. That is, on the part of the people who truly believed in God, who were truly regenerate, who had truly been saved, the Mosaic Covenant was an administration, it was a means that God gave by which people—His people—would walk with Him.

His will was made known to them in the Mosaic Covenant, and they were to walk with God according to these laws that had application not only to one's worship, but to the nation's life, its civil life. They walked with God by faith as they walked loyally, obeying the words of Yahweh.

Paul, in fact, gives voice to this in Romans 9:30, where he says, "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law." Why? He asked in verse 32, "Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works." You see the point?

You see, they misunderstood the law of God, and anyone who's ever tried to achieve righteousness based on law-keeping has fundamentally misunderstood—completely misunderstood—why God gave His law to begin with. Verse 32, why? Paul says, "Well, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, 'Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, and the one who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.'"

So while the law served to show man's sinfulness—true, right, that's true—and it was intended by God to do that, it was never perfection that God expected of His people as He gave that law. It was rather loyalty that was required by the covenant, and that's what we need to underscore: loyalty.

That's why you see God being so patient with His people. If it was perfection that the covenant required, the nation would have been what? Destroyed immediately, gone immediately, perished immediately. The covenant would have never made any sense, and this is why their sins could be described in terms of what? Disloyalty, unfaithfulness. God gave commands. The commands could only be obeyed by faith, but they could only be obeyed by faith. We need to keep that in mind.

The law was to serve, to use the language of Paul, as a tutor. It is the way God would manage His people, that God had a special relationship with this nation, and through this nation would come the Messiah, the Christ of God. In Christ, not only God would save Jews, but the Gentiles. And until the Christ came, the believers—the Israel that existed in Israel (there was an Israel within Israel; not every Israelite was an Israelite indeed)—but genuine believers would walk with God as they believed His commands. And in this way, the law served as a tutor, pointing them to Christ, preparing them for the Messiah.

The genuine believers were loyal to God by obeying His laws, but those who were unbelieving, they revealed their unbelief through disloyalty—by disloyalty to God and to His Word. So as I think about this passage, and I think about treacherousness, what faithlessness means here, this disloyalty that's on display here, I think about how often we misunderstand the Mosaic law.

It's something else that comes to mind when we consider what we see here—not only misunderstanding the nature and the purpose of the Mosaic covenant, but also I think we woefully underestimate how our relationships with people—and follow closely—reflect our loyalty to God. Let me say that again. I think we woefully underestimate how our relationships with people reflects our loyalty to God.

Genuine faith is not only manifested in an individual relationship with God. Genuine faith is manifested when we believe God about how we have to, He would have us treat other people. That's how it is manifested—when we believe God about how He would have us treat each other. Do you love the Lord tonight? Do you love Him? Do you have genuine faith in Him? Really? Do you have genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well then, if that is the case, praise God. Praise God.

But if that is the case, then you care what He says to you and to me about how you and I are to treat other people. We do. This was true in the Old Testament as well. If they were really loyal to God and loyal to the covenant of God, then they would listen to the laws of God regarding the treatment of other people. It's as simple as that. Always the vertical has impact on the horizontal, always. It's interesting, isn't it?

Up to this point, God has been talking about how this people have dishonored Him, how they are irreverent toward Him, how they profaned His name, how they disrespected Him. There's no reverence toward Him. And everything He's talked about up to chapter 2 verse 9, has to do, has had to do with how they deal with God directly. You remember that, I trust. They dishonored God by not appreciating His love for them. "How have You loved us?" God says, "I've loved you." The people say, "What do You mean? How have You loved us?" God had to remind them of His electing purposes and how He had shown a special mercy to this people. You see, that's an individual relationship with God.

And then He went on to talk about how they were dishonoring Him by what they were offering to Him as sacrifices, and how the priest had dishonored Him by what they were receiving from the people and going on in offering it, though they knew that violated the law of God, that this was not worthy of God. He talked about their attitudes in worship. Remember that? Oh, how tiresome it is. Oh, what a weariness this is. How they disdainfully sniffed at it. It's boring. Again, we have to go to the temple and present an offering to the Lord all this time, sitting and listening to the Word of God.

Up to this point, it's all been about how they're dishonoring God directly. Perhaps we could describe it that way. But now you come to chapter 2, verse 10. They're still dishonoring God. They're still dishonoring God. They're still showing their disloyalty to God. They're still irreverent toward God. Now the question is, how are they doing it, though, at this point? How are they doing it?

You see, now they're doing it by how they're treating one another. That's what's happening here. Your loyalty to God is not just on display by how you deal with Him directly, but by how you deal with other people as well, whether you listen to Him about how you treat other people specifically, how you treat your brethren. And beloved, this is so instructive for us. This is so timeless.

How many people claim to love God when they're so clearly not loving the people around them? Do you imagine that you're loyal to God when you're not loyal to the people God has placed in your life? Do you imagine that you're loyal to God, that you love God, when you don't love the people who are in your life? Do you think somehow that God is pleased with your claim to love Him when you don't believe Him about how to treat others around you?

Our love for God is proven by our love for His people. Our loyalty to God is proven by our loyalty to covenant relationships, and to be more specific, as we find here in this text, like marriage. Don't ever imagine that you're loyal to God if you're not loving your spouse, or when you've proved treacherous, faithless to the marriage covenant. And we'll get there as we study this text.

There are people in this world who are in the act right now of divorcing their spouse on unbiblical ground, and yet they claim to love God.

So here were people called to be loyal to God, loyal to each other by faith, and the God who had related them to Himself by grace, sheer grace, and He now is going to charge them with their disloyalty. That's what we have here going on in this portion in Malachi chapter 2. How does He see? How does God see? How does God see?

Well, here's the first point that I want us to see together as we begin to dig in this text of Scripture. Verse 10, I want us to see the charge of unfaithfulness declared. The charge of unfaithfulness declared. The charge of unfaithfulness. This oracle, this third oracle we find in the book of Malachi, is different from the first two in that this one doesn't begin with a question put in the mouths of the people. No, no, here the prophet Malachi himself is the questioner under inspiration.

Look at it together: "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?" He charges them here with being faithless to one another. Faithless to one another, and in doing so profaning the covenant that God had given to their fathers, violating the covenant, proving disloyal to that covenant by their treatment of each other.

The “father” referred to here in verse 10, I believe, is God. Some commentators see the Father referred to here as one of the patriarchs, perhaps Abraham. I believe that it's God who's being referred to. Remember, in the context of this book, back in chapter 1, God says, "...if I am” – what? – “a father”,  If you're a son, if I'm a father, where is My honor? And If I am a master, where is My respect? If you're My slave, where's the fear of Me? That's sort of a mirror here in verse 10 with the idea of Father and Creator.

"Do we not all have one father?" he says. And we could also say in the second statement, "Has not one God created us?" You could also say, do we not all have one Master? But either way, whether you would say that the father here is Abraham or you say that the father here is God—I believe it is God—the fact that they have one Father and one God has created them is another way of saying this: Are we not all brothers by God's doing? That's the point. Regardless, that's the point.

Are we not all brothers and sisters by God's doing? Isn't God the one who gave birth to the nation? Isn't God the one who related us to Himself in the way that He has by covenant? Aren't we God's doing? And aren't we, as a result of what God has done, aren't we brothers? And if this is true—and it is—then how can faithlessness, how can covenant disloyalty be excused? That's the point.

Knowing that God is our Father and Creator, how can we excuse the ways that we're treating one another? How? Is this what covenant loyalty looks like? Does this honor God? Does this reverence Yahweh? Does this believe God? Does this obey God the way we're treating each other right now? Is this what obedience looks like?

Why are we sinning against each other? Why are we mistreating one another? Why are we proving faithless, disloyal toward each other? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Unfaithfulness denies spiritual sibling-ship. Unfaithfulness denies brotherhood. Unfaithfulness profanes the covenant.

When he says there in verse 10, "so as to profane the covenant of our fathers," that is defiling it. Or you can put it this way: treating it with contempt. Treating the covenant as though it is nothing. It is meaningless, void, empty, shallow—the covenant that God gave to their fathers. Yawn at it.

God has loved His people. God has formed them as a people. God has put His name on His people, and now here they were, like the majority of the people throughout their history. They are treating this covenant relationship with contempt. And in this case, they're treating it lightly. How? By disregarding the laws that God has given them about how they were to relate to each other.

It already has been proven they dishonored God by the way they're relating to God Himself, to Yahweh Himself, but they're also disregarding God's holiness and majesty by the way they're relating now to each other. Israel, as you know, was a theocracy. It's true. I said earlier, not every Israelite was an Israelite in terms of salvation, but Israel was designed to be a believing people. God gave them His words. God gave them many spiritual advantages that, in terms of human responsibility, should have led them to salvation.

Paul talks about this in the book of Romans. He's grieving over the loss of his kinsmen, according to the flesh, and he talks about all the advantages God has given him. There's so much advantage, so much light, privilege. Romans 9:4: "who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law and the temple service, and the promises." I mean, look at how privileged they were. "whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."

Of course, as Malachi writes what he writes, the Christ has not yet come, but everything else that Paul talks about there in Romans 9 was true at this very moment. To these people belongs the adoption, the glory of the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and in terms of the Christ, as Malachi writes, the promise still there that the Christ is coming, Messiah is coming from their own people. How should such people respond to God, but in faith, in trust, believing Him. And if you believe Him, then you believe Him as He commands you concerning how you treat your brothers.

They're connected. They can't be compartmentalized and disconnected, disjointed. And this first reference to being treacherous, faithless, in verse 10, I want us to notice this. It seems to be a general reference, a general reference. I mean, in just general terms, in sort of an all-encompassing terms, they had proven what? They had proven faithless, disloyal.

If you had looked at any way in which they treated each other, any way in which they lived with each other, you would have found disloyalty. You would have found faithlessness, betrayal, treacherousness—business practices, family relationships, friendships, worship context. This was a disloyal, unbelieving people, faithless people. And it was the law of God, it was the covenant that exposed them as such.

Just as a quick side note, I would remind us that just as these people were exposed by the law of God, so we don't measure how we treat each other by our own standard. Keep that in mind. The way you know whether you're loyal to God by being loyal to your brethren and by loving people the way God commands—that's how you know. The way you know whether you're doing that or not is His what? His Word. His Word. His Word is the plumb line. We measure our relationships with each other by the words of God.

Maybe you look at your life, and you say, well, I don't see that. I don't see that. I don't see that I'm doing anything wrong. May I ask you this evening, have you measured what you're doing by the Scriptures? Have you? It doesn't matter what, and I say this lovingly, it doesn't matter whether you think you're guilty of mistreating someone or not. It doesn't matter. What matters is if we measure how you're living, how I'm living by the Scriptures, are you mistreating someone? That's the issue.

There are people all over the planet who feel justified in mistreating other people. It just doesn't make them right, does it? And just like these people had questioned everything God had charged them with up to this point, you could be sure there were some listening to this who said, perhaps, well, how have we been faithless toward each other? But they had. So the first thing we see in verse 10 is the charge of faithlessness announced, proclaimed, the charge of covenant disloyalty. And the second thing I want us to see now, beginning in verse 11, and that takes us to verse 16, what God has declared in general terms, now He's going to make specific. So we'll call this the charge of faithlessness described.

So we move from the charge of this faithlessness declared to now it is described. Out of all the ways that they had proven faithless to one another, there are two specific ways, two specific ways, that the Lord is going to put His finger on. And here they are. I'm gonna share them ahead of time, and then we'll make our way through them together. Number one, two specific ways. The first one is this: they were faithless because of intermarriage. And number two, they were faithless because of divorce. They're right here in the text. Intermarriage, divorce.

Tonight, we'll only have time to deal with the first: intermarriage. We'll leave the second one next Sunday, Lord willing. We'll come back, and we're going to deal with the second issue, the second way that their unfaithfulness was proven. So if anybody wonders, well, how have we been unfaithful? How have we been disloyal? God, tell us. You say we're disloyal, we're unfaithful to You and to each other. The Lord says, well, let Me tell you. I'm gonna tell you now. I'm gonna be specific.

Look at verse 11: "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for” – tells them, the reason – “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers or who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts."

Their unfaithfulness, you see clearly, is on display through intermarriage. You say, what do you mean? Well, the law of God had made it very clear, crystal clear, that an Israelite was not to marry someone outside the nation. A heathen, a pagan, a Gentile. They were not to intermarry with the nations around them. Why? Well, because the nations around them were idolatrous. They were idol worshippers. And so, you're talking about a relationship that was a mixed relationship spiritually.

This is not about culture. Rather, this is about devotion to Yahweh. Devotion to God. It's about worship. Time and again, when the laws of God that discuss intermarriage are found in the Old Testament, time and again, idolatry is brought to the forefront. Even in our text, you see that's the case.

Look at verse 11 again. “Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. The expression, "the daughter of a foreign God," is just a way of saying a woman who worships a foreign God, an idol worshipper. A woman who was the daughter of a foreign God. And remember, Malachi is ministering at the same general time when Ezra and Nehemiah were on the scene. And when you study the book of Ezra, you get a picture of what was going on. And it is so heartbreaking. So sad. The young ladies will know what I'm talking about as they study Ezra and Nehemiah.

In fact, one of the most moving confessions of sin you will ever read is found in Ezra chapter 9. Take a moment, turn with me there, Ezra chapter 9. This is very important for us. Listen to this confession of sin. But also, as you read this, you get a sense of what's taking place in the lives of these people who have returned from exile. Temple has been rebuilt. Worship has been re-established. But the people aren't believing God. They're proven disloyal, faithless to God, treacherous, and they're dealing with God.

Listen, what's going on in Ezra 9. Look at verse 1: "Now, when these things had been completed, the princes approached me," – that's Ezra, – "saying, 'The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hand of the princes and the officials have been foremost in this.” – What's the word? – “unfaithfulness”, – disloyalty. Is that not striking? Is that not shocking?

Now, did you see it? Do you know who's leading the way in this? The leaders. The leaders. And what does Ezra do? What does Ezra do? Verse 3: "When I heard about this matter… when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard and sat down in consternation." What is Ezra doing? This is how a parent has felt sometimes, right? I can't believe this. What are you doing?

Verse 4: "Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering." I mean, Ezra doesn't speak until he's ready to speak, and he is deeply troubled. He can't even talk. He is—he's shocked. He's appalled. And those who care about the words of God have surrounded him, and they're waiting on him.

Verse 5: "But at the evening offering I rose from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; and I stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; and I said, 'O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied above our heads and our guilt has become great even to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. But now, for a brief moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves.”

Here they are, returned to their homeland that God had given them, despite what they deserve, despite the fact that they were carried into captivity because of their great guilt but he says has multiplied above their heads. In spite of all of this, God has spared them, shown them mercy and grace, and returned them to their homeland. And it may be minimal compared to what once was, but it's far more than what they deserved.

Here they are in slavery because of what they've done. “Yet” – verse nine – "in our slavery our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us before the kings of Persia, to give us reviving, to raise up the house of our God, to restore its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. So now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, which You have commanded by the hand of Your slaves the prophets, saying, "The land which you are entering to possess is an impure land with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end, and with their uncleanness." "So now do not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity."”

Not only don't take them in marriage, don't envy their ways, He's saying. "That you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as a possession to your sons forever." Listen to what Ezra says next. Verse 13: "After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape?” Oh, God, should You not completely wipe us out?"

Verse 15: "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this." What is Ezra saying? God, we have no excuse. We have no excuse. Ezra knows the clear words of God in Exodus 34, Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 7, where God's people were commanded not to intermarry. They were commanded to be separate, to insulate themselves from all the abominations of the nations around them.

And knowing that teaching, he is crushed—crushed by the audacity, the nerve of the people. After all they've suffered, after all they've suffered, they should have learned. They should have learned and received that lesson. Here they are now, back in the land, committing the very same sins. And here's Malachi, after what we read there in Ezra, and he's still having to deal with these same issues.

And what does he say about this intermarriage? Look at verse 11 in Malachi 2. He says, in effect, this is hateful to God. This is hateful to God. "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem." What is this? This is an abomination. This is to say it is a detestable thing before God. It is offensive to God. Offensive. Ezra says the same thing. It's an abomination. It's a detestable thing. It's a revulsion.

"An abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh." Verse 11, of Malachi 2. What does that mean? Now there's a back and forth about what that means in terms of profaning the sanctuary of Yahweh. As to what it refers to exactly. Does it speak of the people of God themselves? Does it speak of these foreign women coming into the sanctuary and in that way defiling the sanctuary? Does it speak of the priests who have intermarried with foreigners, then coming into the sanctuary to serve as though they've done nothing wrong? Does it speak of the people who have intermarried and now they bring their offerings to God as though they've done nothing wrong?

Well, the word "sanctuary" is the Hebrew word ‘kodesh’, and it basically means holy or holiness. And so it could refer to the place, it could refer to the people.

One commentator put it this way: "Daughter of a foreign God, refers to pagan women who worship false gods. If ‘kodesh’  refers to the sanctuary, then possibly the profanation referred to the involvement of these women in temple worship. Such marriages have been expressly forbidden because they would lead the people into idolatry, and intermarrying was a big problem.” He goes on to say, “after return from the exile, the Jews were supposed to marry within their own nation. Failures to do so were acts of unfaithfulness among themselves as well as to God. They involved both a disregard for the nation's corporate nature and disobedience to God.”

And he's right on. When these people intermarried, it was not only disregard toward God, but disregard toward the covenant community, the covenant community of God. They were inviting God's judgment upon the whole group. They didn't care. Walter Kaiser takes ‘kodesh’ to refer to the people. He says this: "As a result of entering into these forbidden marriages, Israel, from Yahweh called holy, the one chosen from all the nations to be His holy people, a royal priesthood and a special possession had profaned herself."

And Kaiser picks up on the statement in verse 11 of Malachi 2 that says, "For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves." He picks up on that and he takes that to refer to the people of God themselves. The people whom the Lord has loved, they have profaned themselves. The ones who the Lord has called holy unto Himself, taken to Himself—they have defiled themselves. Whichever is the case in specific terms, the general message is absolutely crystal clear.

What is the general message? Here it is: that intermarriage with women who worship false gods was an abomination and a profaning of what God had loved and set apart for Himself. It was an offense to God. And God hated this. When you get to verse 12, notice what else you see. And this is important. Not only is this hateful to God, this is hateful to godly people.
It's hateful to godly people. Just like Ezra hated what he saw, just like Phineas, as we saw last week, the priest, is moved by zeal for the holiness of God. God said to Phineas that he was jealous for what God was jealous for. And just like you see in Ezra, just like you see in Phineas, so you see also in Malachi. Malachi hates this, for the prophet says in verse 12, he says this: "As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers or who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts."

What was hateful to God was hateful to the servant of God, was hateful to Malachi. Can I ask you tonight, can you say the same? Can you say that what God hates, you hate? You're hating, I'm hating. Can you say that, that what God loves, you're loving, and what God hates, you're hating?

Pastor MacArthur writes, concerning "who awakes and answers," he says: "A proverbial expression referring to two classes of people, the active watcher who awakens people to reality and the passive hearer who answers. This proverb apparently came from nomadic people who had guards around their tents to stay awake and make others aware of danger. This signified judgment so that everyone who sins in this gross, idolatrous way would be exterminated.”

Anybody who does this, from the watcher to the one who answers the watcher, will be judged. What is standing behind this idiom is the thought that everybody in totality—the man and all of his descendants or anyone who would commit such an act—will be judged. Such is the abomination, such is the seriousness of the offense, that anybody who commits this should be wiped out so that his name is no longer known.

This is coming from the prophet. You see, not only does God hate sin, but godly people hate sin also. They hate sin also. We hate sin. And you know what? This is the wonder of the new birth. This is the wonder of salvation, isn't it? We hate sin in ourselves. Isn't that true? How many times do you feel sick to your stomach from yourself if you're a child of God? You feel like you almost want to vomit. In fact, listen, if you're walking with the Lord closely, you hate the sin in yourself more than you hate sin anywhere else.

Where should you begin to deal with sin? Well, begin within the confines of your own life, my own life. I always find it very interesting when someone is always, always as a pattern, pointing out the sin of everybody else. You just want to ask, what about you? That's where I want to begin—hating sin in my own life. But then, if we truly hate sin wherever it shows up, including our own lives, we're going to reflect God's love for what He loves and God's hatred for what He hates.

What are they doing? Well, they're violating God's commands concerning marriage. Let me say this. Before we think about the seriousness of divorce, we should think about the seriousness of marriage. If you think about it biblically, we really don't have a divorce problem. We have really a marriage problem. The reason why there are so many divorces is because people don't treat marriage for what it is. Your loyalty to God, your loyalty to God's people, will be expressed by your absolute commitment to marry someone with whom you are not unequally yoked.

Let's take a moment to see what's going on here in Malachi's day, remembering that these things happen to them as an example, "they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived" 1 Corinthians 10:11. The Old Testament is for the church. Let's bring it now into our context and let's ask this question as we bring this message to an end. Is God still displeased when people marry unbelievers? When His people marry idolaters?

When we don't love God, we don't love His church enough that what ought to be first and foremost on our marriage list—which is, will they love my God? Will they love the people of God?—that isn't first and foremost. That's tragic. And young people in our midst, listen to me, I beg you. The number one thing that you're looking for in marriage is not, is this someone whom I like? The number one thing you're looking for is this: is this someone who loves God, who loves Christ, who adores Jesus, and who loves His people?

And if you love God and if you love His people, you'll understand that. Now, if you feign love for God, if you pretend love for God, if you pretend love for His church, you won't care. But if you really love the Lord and really understand what the church is, you certainly care.

Is this not the New Testament teaching also? Well, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6, look at verse 14. 2 Corinthians 6:14, the Apostle Paul writes, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God" – that's who you are, the sanctuary of God, – "what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean, And I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord the Almighty."

Those verses are not just addressing marriage, by the way. In the context of 2 Corinthians 6, they address any kind of spiritual enterprise. We don't yoke ourselves up together with unbelievers and then pursue spiritual matters. We don't do that. With that being said, listen, beloved, marriage is a spiritual matter. It is. And it's true in general terms. It is especially true in the covenant relationship that pictures Christ and His church.

And again, young people, oh, dear young people, is that the number one thing on your list when you think about who do you want to marry one day? Should the Lord have that in His plan for you? This is the non-negotiable, that they love the Lord our God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and love His church. 1 Corinthians 7:39 puts it this way, "A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes." So here's a dear widow. She desires to be married again. She's not told to, you know, open your Bible, thumb through it until you get to page 475 and look for a name. Oh, okay, I'm going to marry Micaiah. No, no. It's to whom she wishes.

I mean, if you're devoted to the Lord and you meet someone, you desire to marry him or her, be married to him or her, but how does Paul end that verse? – "only in the Lord." Only in the Lord. Only if they are a believer, and not just a believer in name, but a believer who clearly demonstrates their faith, thus you know they are a believer.

So here is the issue in Malachi 2:10 and following. God is being dishonored, not only directly through their acts of worship and their attitudes in worship. God is being dishonored because they have not taken His words to heart. He has clearly instructed them how to treat each other. This is true in general terms, but God is putting His finger on two specific terms, and the first specific term is this: you have committed an abomination. You're marrying people who are idol worshipers. You are allowing marriage to daughters of foreign gods, and it is such a serious thing that the people are doing that Malachi gives voice to the hatred of God and says, anybody who does this—and get the picture that he gives—you see that again in verse 11, "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, may Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or,” – now notice this, – “who presents an offering to Yahweh of hosts.”

What an attitude. What a reckless attitude. I'm going to treat what God has said about marriage lightly with the one hand, I'm going to violate His word with the one hand, and then I'm going to bring offerings with the other hand. And God says through the prophet, if that's the bent of your heart, that someone needs to be exterminated. Someone like that, may they be cut off, may they perish.

This is so serious. This is the seriousness with which God regards the sin in the life of the nation of Israel—disloyalty, unfaithfulness. So I want to finish tonight by asking you, beloved, what about your loyalty? What about my loyalty to God? Are you loving the Lord? And how are you measuring that? How? Are you including in your measuring of that how you're treating other people in your life?

In general terms, by the words of God, measuring yourself by the words of God—how you treat other people. But in specific terms, how are you treating your brothers, your sisters? "Do we not have one Father? Did not one God create us?" Malachi is talking about God bringing Israel into existence. Obviously it's not the universal fatherhood of God. He's talking about this relationship that we know with God as a people.

So look around the church and ask then, by way of extension, as New Testament believers, am I proving loyal to God by the way I am treating my brothers and sisters in Christ? And then what about the most precious human relationship that can exist outside of our relationship with Christ, if you're married? What about marriage—your marriage? Are you proving loyal to God right there?

And young people, again, again, again, listen. When you think about dating someone or marrying someone who doesn't love your God and doesn't love His church, do you understand the weightiness of your sinful thinking? I wonder if there's somebody really listening when I think of verse 10 and the general ways that people mistreat each other. If you'll be honest, you'll recognize that you have left a trail, a historical trail of mistreating people in your life.

With your mouth you say you love the Lord, with your mouth you say you're a worshiper of God, but look at your life and there's a trail of mistreating people. I want you to remember this. Mark it down, never forget it: relational problems are devotional problems. Relational problems are devotional problems.

You say, what do you mean? I mean your relational problems only reflect your lack of devotion to God. Do you know what will transform your relationships with people? Loving God. Loving God will transform your relationships with people. Loving God is what causes someone to humble himself and be teachable. Loving God is what causes someone to keep his word. Loving God is what causes someone to have a conscience that makes integrity a reality.
Loving God is what causes someone to ask for forgiveness. Loving God is what compels someone to grant forgiveness. Loving God is what moves someone to care about others more than they care about themselves and put the interests of others before their own interests.

Beloved, relational problems are devotional problems.

So just as God, through the prophet Malachi, calls His people to repentance, I humbly say to us: if we have been disloyal to our God—measuring that question by the Word of God—may we tonight admit it and grieve over it. Oh, that we would be like Ezra and sit down appalled. After all that God has done for us, after all the ways that He spared us, after all the mercies He has shown us, how can we do it again?

To seek God's forgiveness in the only place where it can be known—Christ, in Christ, in Christ. And I will add this, because certainly I am—aren't you grateful that Jesus died for covenant breakers? Aren't you? Because if He didn't, we'd all be in hell. So I'm thankful that there's forgiveness for us even where we have not only failed but royally failed. But Christ's death on Calvary's cross is not an excuse to go on in sin; it is the reason to turn from them and to rest in Him, yes, but to follow Him. May the Lord do that in our lives.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

The peace that Christ came to bring to the earth is not a peace without division. Now, we talked about that last time and the week before—that the peace that Jesus brings is not a peace like the world defines it to be. People often define peace as the absence of any discord, the absence of any conflict, but we saw last time that true peace requires the presence of righteousness. It does. True peace is when you agree with God. True peace is when you have submitted to the Lordship of Christ. True peace is experienced where God rules and reigns, where God is acknowledged as God and submitted to as God.

And so, when you talk about the peace that Jesus came to bring, He says it Himself. He says in Luke 12:51, "Do you think that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division." These words are from the lips of Christ. And what He means by that is that even though He is the Prince of Peace and God is the God of all peace, and His people are people who love peace, wherever you have the presence of truth in a world of sin, in a world of sinful men and women, there's going to be conflict wherever there's that refusal to believe God and His Word.

This division can run even, as we saw together, as deep as family relationships—division between husbands and wives and parents and children and brothers and sisters and so forth—when you have on one part faith and on the other unbelief. And thus far we've considered together from these verses the reality of division. In verse 19, we talked about the fact that even though we're a people who belong to the God of peace and our Shepherd is the Prince of Peace and we are a people who are to pursue peace even with society at large—we're to pursue peace with all men as much as it depends on us—even though we're a peace-loving people, we will deal with the division that the truth inevitably will bring in this world.

We talked about the errors, you remember, and the sins that occur in the church when we forget that—when we forget that reality. When the church begins to fall prey to a false definition of peace and we think that it's our job to make friends with the world, even if it means putting away the truth, watering down the truth, couching it in palatable language. When we think that way, we talked about the errors and the sins that show up in the church, and many of these sins and errors are showing up in the church of our generation, of our time. And we talked about the reality of division.

The second thing that we see in these verses that we're going to consider together this morning has to do with the reason for the division. So we will move from the reality of division to the reason for division. It's also in verse 19. So the question that we have to ask and answer: Why is there division? Why? Wherever Jesus goes—I mean, beginning in chapter 5, the Gospel of John, and forward—I mean, He's constantly embroiled in controversy. Wherever He's speaking the truth, there's this division that occurs. So what is the reason for it? Why? We've already talked about the reason, but we're going to zero in on it this morning. It's important.

But as you know, it is important as well, before we talk about what the reason was, it is critically important that we note what the reason was not. It's going to be helpful, I trust. It's always helpful, especially when it comes to important themes or subjects, to really zero in first before we get to the positive to focus on the negative, what it is not. So I'm going to go back for a moment and underscore again something that the Bible treats as very important, and that is, we are to be a people who pursue peace.

And oftentimes what happens when we talk about the division that comes with the preaching of the truth, the preaching of the Gospel, the preaching of Christ, if we're not careful, the church can sort of develop a militant mindset where we're almost, we find ourselves glorying in that division. And if we're not careful, we can be instigators of division. So we have to have that biblical balance. And so I think it's very important that as we look at this division, verse 19, "A division occurred again among the Jews," again, *palin* (πάλιν), more than once. This is not the first time this division occurs. " A division occurred again, once more, among the Jews because of these words."

So not only should we recognize why there was division, but also we must recognize the things that did not bring about this division in the life of our Lord—never brought about this division in the life of our Lord. What was it about the Lord Jesus that's causing that division? Well, let's answer what wasn't. What wasn't. And that's where I want to begin this morning.
And the first thing that I want us to note under the "what wasn't," the cause of this division is this. Mark it down and don't forget about it. It was not a political division. Let me say that again. It wasn't a political division. Let me say that a third time. It was not a political division. Jesus wasn't leading a social revolution. Jesus was not leading a political revolution.

And we need to be clear, the truth of the Gospel came and has and does and will literally shake the world. I mean, we read about it in the book of Acts, don't we? Where there's a riot that occurs, one of the things that pagans say about what's going on, they say like in Acts 17:6, "These men," referring to the apostles, "who have upset the world have come also here." And that's what it's like as the Gospel begins to spread, as the Gospel is unleashed, as the Gospel begins to impact society. It's like the world is being turned upside down, right side up.

When God grants salvation in great numbers, when many people are saved and turned to Jesus, when there's a great awakening, guess what? Societies do change. And God has at times shown a special grace and preserved societies because of the presence of believers there. We have Biblical evidence for that, but we must remember, beloved, that the political and social revolutions that occur due to the Gospel occur indirectly. It's not because the church aims at some political result. It's just indirect. It's because of the saving work of God in the lives of people.

And mark this, when someone is saved indeed, their viewpoint on everything changes. That's the key. But there wasn't division here on this occasion because Jesus was leading some sort of a political revolution. There was nothing rebellious about the Son of God. Absolutely nothing. In fact, it is really incredible after Jesus was arrested and after He goes through the mock trials—really a mockery it was—and as the Jews were crying out for His death, for His crucifixion, the man who wants to release Jesus represents the government that the Jews says that Jesus was a threat to. I mean, this was the argument of the Jews. You read about it in John 19. Turn with me there for a moment, the Gospel of John 19:12. This was the argument of the Jews. John 19:12: "As a result of this, Pilate kept seeking to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, 'If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.'" I mean, wow, the Jews loved the Romans, didn't they? "We are Caesar's friends, but if you release this man, you're not Caesar's friend."

They go on to say, "Everyone who makes himself to be a king opposes Caesar," verse 15; "So they cried out, 'Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.'" You talk about self-condemning words. They weren't aware of it, but very accurate words, because God was not their King.

What were these Jews trying to sell Pilate? They were trying to say that Jesus and His followers represented a threat to Caesar, that Jesus and His followers represented a political threat, that they were potentially the leaders of a rebellion, a revolution, an insurrection against Rome, against Caesar. So you better deal with this, eliminate this problem. And yet Jesus Himself made clear that that was not His ambition.

Remember back in John 6:15, after He fed the multitude, they wanted to seize Him by force and make Him a king, He withdrew Himself. He wasn't interested. That's not why He came. Look here, John 18—actually, if you back up to John 18: 36—answering Pilate, Jesus said, listen to what He said in John 18:36: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be delivered over to the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not from here."

Did you catch this? Not only is it not of this world, it's not from this world. So the Roman governor, Pilate—the one that the Jews said would be in danger if Jesus survived—he's the one who said three times, not once, not twice, but three times, three different occasions, "I find no guilt in Him."

Look at them: John 18:38, "Pilate went out again to the Jews and said to them, 'I find no guilt in Him.'" John 19:4, "And Pilate came out again and said to them, 'Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.'" Verse 6: "And when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, 'Crucify, crucify!' Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.'"

Wow. The Jews were saying that Jesus is a political threat, but the Roman governor says, "I find no guilt in Him." It wasn't a political division.

Now what about the apostles? You go through the book of Acts and you see again controversy after controversy, division after division. And what was it about? Could they have created a political—what was it about? Was it really political? Was it really politics? Was it really social reforms? Did the apostles go out with a social agenda?

We need to recognize that when you look at first-century Rome through the eyes of God's Word, it's very easy to see there were myriads of issues that believers then and believers now would have found to be offensive, sinful, wicked. There was no lack—pardon me—of social problems in Rome. About the time of the writing of the New Testament, there were one million slaves in Rome. So slavery was an issue. There was a rampant, gross immorality. Homosexuality was widespread along with sexual immorality. In fact, in these cities, there would be temples to these false gods, and often accompanying the temple practice were temple prostitutions. You read through the book of Acts and you see corruption in government, people making deals behind the scene, arrangements, bribery. I mean, nothing new about that. It was always there.

Not only that, parenting and children—I mean, the Roman father literally had the power of death over his children, and it wasn't uncommon for the child to be sold into slavery, just like that. And some even were drowned after they were born because they were unwanted. So there was racial bigotry in the first century, injustice, oppression, to add to those things. And all these things—sinful, all these offensive things—are still offensive even today, but they were also offensive back then. And yet, what do you see the first-century church doing? What do you see the church doing, first century's church?

In the face of all of this, were they organizing for political change? Were they? Show me where in the book of Acts. Were they saying, well, here's our agenda, we need to get together, get our vote together and make our views known in the Roman world? What was their mission? They were preaching Christ. They're preaching the gospel. That's all. That's all.

Now this is instructive for us, isn't it? Because this speaks to our generation. You see, in the 80s, there was a movement to use the church as a political force south of the border, and everything spills over here. And in fact, to this day, political pundits will talk about the evangelicals and the evangelical vote as if evangelicals were a lobby group. We must distinguish, beloved, between Christians as citizens—responsible citizens, individual citizens—and Christians as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As individual citizens, we have every responsibility to conduct ourselves as responsible citizens, and that includes getting involved in appropriate ways with the processes of government. It's appropriate that Christians vote. In fact, I believe we have a responsibility to do that from Scripture. We ought to be some light in this world in moral ways, in civic ways, as individual believers before God. But as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, politics is not our work. It's not.

Because we don't believe that the world will be transformed by politics. No, no, we believe that what's wrong with the world is what the Bible says is wrong, and that is, man is a sinner estranged from God by his sin. And nothing is going to change him. Nothing. And ultimately, nothing is going to change the world other than Jesus. Salvation. Accept the saving relationship to Jesus Christ. That's the only hope for change.

We realize from God's Word, kingdoms will rise, kingdoms will fall, but the kingdom of Christ endures forever. So what we long for is not to make conservatives out of people, is not to make liberals or NDP out of people. Rather, what we long for is to see men and women and young people brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we long for. That's our mission. That is our goal.
In fact, God Himself told us about the importance of this. Turn with me to Romans 13. Romans 13:1. This is God's Word, inspired, infallible, inerrant:

"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist have been appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists that authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of that authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword in vain, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."

That is, God has instituted the idea of government in human societies in order to restrain evil. That's His purpose. This is an instrument of God to restrain evil. God is at work in the world restraining evil through various means. One of them is human government. This is one of the divinely appointed purposes of government—to restrain evil. And God has given the government the power of life and death, the power of the sword to enforce that.

And by the way, when Paul writes this, what kind of government was in charge? Would you say a government characterized by righteousness? First-century Rome, Nero, evil, wicked Nero. Not only that, he says to Christians, this is to be your attitude about government and about those who are in authority over you. Verse five: "Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of that wrath, but also because of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."

What is He saying to the church? What is He saying to believers? Is He telling them to lead a political revolution? No, no, that's not their task as the Lord's church. That's not what He's saying. Turn with me to First Peter chapter two, if you would. And I want us to see this. This is no small matter in God's Word because it is addressed more than once.

First Peter chapter two, in verse 13: look at the first two words—"Be subject"—one word in the Greek. "Be subject for the Lord's sake," for the sake of the Lord. "Be subject for the sake of the Lord to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do good. For such is the will of God that by doing good you may silence the ignorance of foolish men."

Now stop right there. Do you realize what He's telling us, beloved? He's saying one of the things that will happen with the Lord's church if we don't make clear what our mission is, if we don't make clear what the world's problem is—that is, sin and estrangement from God—and if we don't make clear what our mission is—that is, to bring men and women to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—then we're going to be guilty of the very thing that we will be accused of.

Let me explain. You see, it ought to be ignorance, it ought to be foolish men who will say that we are a rebellious people against human institutions, against government, that we're sort of some political arm that's trying to bring change, our view of what the world ought to be, through social revolution, political revolution. He says that ought to be ignorance, it ought to be foolish men who will say that. He says no, don't let that be the case. Let that be the speech of ignorant, foolish men and women. He says you be subject to these human institutions.

Now obviously—and you know what I'm about to say—be subject as long as you can remain subject to the Lord. These are the exceptions: when you're asked to do what God forbids, when you're forbidden to do what God requires. Other than that, you're to subject yourself.

If the government says we can no longer preach the gospel, then what will we do? We're going to preach the gospel, and do we have biblical examples of that? Of course we do. But as long as we're not violating God's word, we're not going to preach the gospel, And do we have biblical examples of that? Of course we do. But as long as we're not violating God's Word, we're to remain subject to the governing authorities, so that it may become plain to the world what our understanding of the world's problem really is.

What is ultimately wrong with the world? It is not political, it is not social. It is what? Spiritual. It's a spiritual problem. And the reason why the world is wrong in many places—socially, politically—is because it is darkened in its understanding and alienated from God spiritually. Where there's no fellowship with God, there are all of these evidences of no fellowship with God. That's what you find all the time.

So what is our mission? To change the world through politics and social programs? Of course not. Absolutely not. It is to preach Christ, to preach the gospel, and to see men and women come to faith in Jesus Christ. Read on, verse 16, 1 Peter chapter 2: "Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as slaves of God." You mean to live as a slave of God means that I live in subjection to governing authorities? Yes. Yes, that's part of being a slave of God.

Look at verse 17: "Honor all people, love the brethren, fear God," and what does He say next? "Honor the king." Honor the king. Verse 18: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only those who are good and considerate, but also those who are crooked. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this finds favor with God."

"For to you, for to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, who did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, who being reviled was not reviling in return, while suffering He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously."

Beloved, the answer is not political revolution, social revolution. The answer is the preaching of the gospel and the living out of the Christian life as a result of the gospel. Bible-believing, Bible-living. Remind them—He goes on—to be subject to rulers, authorities. Excuse me, that's Titus. I want us to see Titus 3:1: "Remind them," He says, "to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work." Again, you see the same thing. This is no small matter in God's Word. "Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, and to be ready for every good work."

Now watch this. “To slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, demonstrating all gentleness to all men. For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” But—that's another great “but” in the Bible—“but when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works, which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

This is clear, beloved. What should characterize believers as we live toward those in authority over us, even though they're unbelievers, even though they're wicked and evil? What should characterize us? Insulting speech? Attacks on those who are over us? Not according to this text. He's careful to tell us, slander no one, show all gentleness to all men.

Why? Because you yourselves were once foolish, that's why. That's why. He's saying, remember, they're in darkness, they're unregenerate, they're acting according to their nature. What do you expect? I often tell people when somebody is harsh at work or in the world, and they say, it's not fair, and they're shocked, and they say, what are you shocked about? You should be shocked when they're nice to you. They're acting according to their nature. They're in darkness, unregenerate.

And then he says, remember also that you yourselves were once foolish. You yourselves were disobedient, and you were deceived, and you were enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. You spent your life in malice and envy. You were hated by others, and you hated others as well. So what's different about you now? There's that “but.” The goodness, the loving kindness of your Savior appeared. That's what made the difference. The goodness, the loving kindness of your Savior.

He saved you, not because of works of righteousness which you did. You take zero credit for this, but according to His own mercy, and you've been washed and cleansed, and you've been renewed by the Holy Spirit of God who dwells you now. And the Holy Spirit has been poured out on you so richly through Jesus Christ, your Savior, so that having been justified by grace, you are now an heir of the hope of eternal life.

You see, what's wrong with this world is its lostness, its deadness, and it's in desperate need of salvation. And when the church begins to think that its mission is a political one or a social one, it has missed the message of God of what's really wrong with this world. And what's wrong is sin, and the need for forgiveness. The desperate need is to be reconciled to a holy God.

Back to John 10, so why is there division? Not because of any political ambition on the part of Jesus. No, that's not the reason, and that wasn't the reason for the apostles. And when it comes to us, that must not, beloved, be the reason why we face division in this world. It must not.

But there's another reason we could say that it wasn't. Not only it was not political division, in the second place, I want us to see that it wasn't sinful division. It wasn't sinful division. It wasn't sinful on our Lord's part. There was no sin on His part. There was sin on their part, but not on His part.

And those of us who understand who Jesus really is, this is no news to us. We know that our Savior is impeccable. There's no sin in Him. He's holy, holy, holy, pure, undefiled, righteous. In fact, 1 Peter 2, the passage that we read, lays great stress on that. But still, it is good for us to say it and to underscore it—that the reason why there was division here was not because Jesus was doing something wrong and then tried to hide behind it in the name of God.

No, no. When it came to our Lord, the world could not point a legitimate finger at Him and accuse Him of anything. Not the false religious world, not the pagan world. They couldn't do that. I mean, they could say it, and they did malign Him and falsely accuse Him, but that's the whole point—it was false accusation. He wasn't engaging in wrongdoing.

Turn to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. Look at verse 43. Jesus is speaking. You remember when we studied this account, He says, "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me."

And Jesus is able to say this next, verse 46: "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?" Jesus says, there's this division. You don't hear My word. You won't hear the truth. And then He says, "Which one of you is able to legitimately convict Me of sin?" What a challenge. They couldn't do it, could they? That wasn't the reason that there was division among them—not because Jesus was doing something wrong or sinful.

In fact, I love the way the Apostle Peter describes the ministry of our Lord. Go to the book of Acts 10. Acts 10. Look at how Peter describes our Lord's ministry. Verse 34: "And opening his mouth, Peter said, 'I most truly comprehend now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and does righteousness is welcome to Him. As for the word which He sent to the sons of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—you yourselves know the thing which happened throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.'"

He's saying, in other words, you know about the earthly ministry of Jesus. You know what happened in His ministry. So what happened? He tells them. Look at verse 38: "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. We talk about a contrast. ."

You talk about a contrast. He went about doing good and healing all of their diseases. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. What did He do to deserve to be hung on a tree? Nothing sinful. Nothing wrong. He just went about doing what? Good. Good.

Let's take a step back and talk about the apostles. Look at the division that was present where they went. Was it because they were engaging in sinful behavior? Of course not. Are we wasting our time thinking about this, this morning? Or does God make a point of this in His Word as He addresses us as His children? I mean, this is something we ought to keep in mind, beloved, because it is there in the Word of God.

Back to 1 Peter chapter 2. Back to 1 Peter chapter 2. Look at verse 9. 1 Peter chapter 2: "But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that — that's the goal, that's the end in view — so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." What is our mission? That's our mission right here, to proclaim the excellencies of Him. That's what it is.
"For you once were not a people," verse 10, "but now you are the people of God. You have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." Beloved, I urge you as sojourners, verse 11, and exiles. Stop right there. You see, we're to remind ourselves, beloved, every single day, every single day, beloved, this isn't the kingdom. This isn't heaven. Is there anything wrong in our government right now in this nation? And does it surprise us? Are we shocked by it? Do we imagine that it's going to be different than that?

Are we ever going to have a God-fearing government across the board in this nation where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven? Is that going to occur before Jesus returns to the earth? No. So what are we right now on this earth? Peter tells us: sojourners. Sojourners, exiles, pilgrims. We're citizens of this nation, but our citizenship is where? In heaven. In heaven. And so we're passing through, we're pilgrims, we're sojourners on this earth, we're exiles. This world is not our home. That's how we actually think of ourselves.

Peter is able to address believers this way. Verse 11: "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to do what?" Well, he tells us: "to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul by keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good works as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." And it's right after that statement that he says—did you notice that?—right after that statement that he says in verse 13: "Be subject for the sake of the Lord to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him," etc.

Those verses to be in subjection, they come right after the verses that tell us how we're to think of ourselves in this world. Not as social revolutionaries, not as political lobbyists, but rather citizens of the kingdom of Heaven who've been redeemed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and we have the privilege of telling forth the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. And as we go forth proclaiming Jesus, preaching the message, make sure, He says, that we abstain from the lust of the flesh that wage war against our souls, and be sure to keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles, so that—that's the end in view—even when they do malign us, even when they do speak against us, it will become evident to them that these are false accusations, and as they see our good deeds, then one day they're able to glorify God on the day when He saves them.

Isn't it true? There's been people, and maybe you know some yourselves, who spoke against Christians until they were saved, and then all of a sudden their speech changed, and they're able to give thanks to God for the believers who lived out a testimony before them. Isn't that what happened to Saul of Tarsus as he saw the witness of Stephen? And so many others. Make sure, beloved, make sure, if there's division, make sure it's not because you're sinning.
2 Corinthians 8:21—again I want to show us this—this is no small matter in God's Word. That's why I'm repeating myself, but we need this: "For we respect what is good, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." In the sight of men. Do you realize, beloved, that we were to be a people who are characterized by doing what's good in the sight of men as well? I mean, there are things that are just considered good, excellent among men. We're to be—we're to be marked by those things.

You don't have to turn there. If you want, you can, or jot them down. 1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and fear; having a good conscience, so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame."

Titus 2:7, "In all things show yourself to be a model of good works, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in word, which is irreproachable, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." One more, 1 Peter 2:18, "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously. For what credit is there if, when you sin, are harshly treated and you endure it?"

I mean, if you did something wrong and you're suffering for it, and now you're enduring it, what credit is there in that? But if you—He goes on to say—if you do good and suffer for it, you endure, He said, this finds favor with God. Beloved, this is so relevant, because there are so many examples in our world where professing believers claim to be under persecution, but in reality, they've engaged in behavior that would not be considered honorable among all men. Honorable among all men.

And they're not really suffering for the sake of Christ, and they're not really suffering for the sake of the gospel. They're suffering because of their own dishonorable actions. There are believers at their jobs who say they're being persecuted for the cause of Christ, when in reality, they do very little work and a lot of talking. You say, we're evangelizing. They do very little work. No, no, you're being punished because you're not a good worker.

You see, beloved, we've got to be sure why there is division. It's not because we're political revolutionaries. It's not because we're social revolutionaries. And it's not because we're sinning. That's not why Jesus was facing division. So what was His division over? Look back at John 10. Look at verse 19. We'll close with that this morning. "A division occurred again among the Jews." Why? Well, He gives us the reason. "Because"—here's a reason—"because of these words."

Because of these words. What words? The words of truth concerning Himself. He has represented Himself. Remember, "I am the shepherd, the good one, I am the shepherd, the good one," as the true Shepherd. And when you talk about the true Shepherd, you're talking about the divine Shepherd. Don't you love Psalm 23? "Yahweh is my shepherd." This is Jesus. This is Jehovah Jesus.

And He is the true and only way into the fold of God, the only way for sinful men to be reconciled to the living, holy God. It is through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for sinners, raised from the dead. He's the one who said, "I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." He's the gate. He's the way. He's presented Himself as the true way to satisfaction for the soul.

He leads them out. Once they're in His fold, He leads them out to green pasture. They're fed. They're taken care of. And He's the one who satisfies the soul. He's the only one who's able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him by faith.

This is what He's taught about Himself in John 10, the verses that precede the ones we're looking at this morning. He says, you remember, several times, "I lay down My life for the sheep. I lay down My life for the sheep. I lay down My life for them." They would come in and out and find pasture. "I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved" (verse 9). He's the only way to salvation.

And He has exposed the motives and the methods and the practices of those who are false, counterfeit shepherds, hired hands. And this is why He is hated—not because of political activity, not because of social activity, not because of sinful activity—but because He preaches and speaks the truth. He is the truth. He is the light. And there is the legitimate reason for division, beloved, because of the truth of the gospel.

So let me close this morning by asking us, are we peacemakers or troublemakers? Are we peacemakers or troublemakers? The division Jesus faced was a peacemaking division. It was a peacemaking division. He was being a peacemaker. He was speaking the truth that makes for peace with God and for true peace among men who are alienated from God so that they would be reconciled to God.

So the question: are you a peacemaker? Do you speak the words of God? Are you declaring the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light? Do you realize that this is the unimaginable privilege that has been entrusted to you and to me as a child of God? You and I get to tell forth these excellencies. We get to tell forth these excellencies. What a privilege! What a privilege! Are we doing that?

And if we are truly peacemakers, we're going to feel the heat. Let's go back to the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5. Have you ever noticed that there's a progression in the Beatitudes? I want us to notice toward the end of the Beatitudes what happens. Look at verse 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

"Blessed are"—what?—"the peacemakers." The peacemakers. "For they shall be called sons of God." What's the next one? "Blessed are those who have been persecuted." Facing that peacemaking division. "Blessed are those who have been persecuted." This comes right on the heels of being a peacemaker. This is what a peacemaker meets within the world, Jesus is saying.

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you," and the next word is a key word, "falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Not because of your political affiliation. Because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." If you're a peacemaker, you will face it. But it must be because you're a peacemaker, not because you're a troublemaker. It must be because of the truth. Are you a peacemaker or a troublemaker?

Then another question, if you would allow me to ask. Do we understand that the principles that we've learned this morning apply in other areas? Just a few more minutes. The principles that we've learned this morning apply in other areas. Let me give you some examples, and let the Holy Spirit—I pray the Holy Spirit—will really bring about the rest of the application.

The world will not be changed by external organizational means. Not really changed. And the world will never change, be changed by sinful means. You can't do something sinful and expect a righteous result. And do we understand that those same principles apply as near and as dear to us as our own homes?

Are there parents who imagine that they can somehow transform their kids by organizational external means? I mean, if we just have the right formula, you know, if we just have the right organization in our family, if we have the right steps that we take, surely we'll ensure that our kids will turn out the right way. I mean, the problem in our child's life, maybe it's an organizational one, maybe it's something that I can enact through a different sort of government in my home. Maybe that will change my child.

Listen, just like government restrains evil in society, so I'm not saying that our organization at home doesn't make a difference. It can restrain evil and put those guardrails, but over and over again there have been parents who have learned the heartbreaking lesson that what's really wrong in all of us cannot be changed by external means. Because the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. You see, you can have the best organization in your home that you want to, and if your son or daughter isn't visited by the Holy Spirit of God with the gospel, and if their hearts are not transformed, eventually when they leave the government of your home, you will see that they are sinners who, if they're not saved by who, if they're not saved by Christ, will pursue a life of dishonoring the Master.

And I say this because there are so many in our world, people teaching in our world, that say, well, here's the way you raise your kids, and if you just do that, then here's the outcome. And I say to you this morning, based on the Word of God, that is a lie. It's by grace that you were saved, and it's going to be by grace that they're saved. God will work through means. He'll use you as godly parents, but He alone saves. He alone transforms our children.

And also, we must remember that just like sinning doesn't bring about righteous results in the world, so sinning doesn't bring about righteous results in your home. That is, when you see that your kids are living wrongly in areas, you and I must remember that "the anger of man does not bring about the righteousness of God." To yell at your kids and lose your temper with your kids, to sinfully discipline your children, will never bring about the result that you're hoping for, longing for, aiming for, praying for.

How do we affect the world? By declaring Christ's excellencies and by living a life of righteousness before a watching world. And how do we affect those in our family? By declaring the truth of And how do we affect those in our family? By declaring the truth of God's Word while living it ourselves. Because most of what is caught is seen as well as heard.

And what I've said about children can also be true in an unequally yoked marriage. One spouse comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the other has not come to that reality. You're not going to convert your husband or wife through organizational means or through sinful means. You must seek the face of God because He alone can save your spouse. He alone can change them.

It's important that we realize there's going to be division, but it's equally important, beloved, that we realize the reason for the division—what it ought to be biblically and what it is not as well, what it should not be. And may we give heed to the Word of God, these exhortations, these warnings about what the division must not be about. And may we ask the Lord to help us toward that end.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

How do you respond to warnings? How do I respond to warnings? How do we respond to warnings? How do you respond to correction? It is sort of the great test, I believe, of our spiritual condition. It is. How do we respond when someone brings to us warnings that are truthful? How do we respond? How do we react? What do we do with them?

Do you see truthful warnings as a mercy? Do you see them as expressions of love? Are you thankful for them? Someone comes to you, they correct you, they warn you, we might even say that they call you to repentance, bringing the Word of God to bear upon your conscience, upon your heart. Are you thankful for this? Would you be thankful? Do you receive those warnings? Do you take them to heart? Do you submit to them? Do you act in obedience toward what you have received, or do you scoff at them, dismiss them, push back?

Does correction make you angry? Do you find that you stiffen your neck at correction? Do you find that you dispute with those warnings, defending yourself, regardless of how accurate those warnings are, regardless of how much danger you are actually in? Do you find yourself resisting? Proverbs 29:1, you're familiar with this verse, it is fitting to refer to it, says this: "A man who hardens his neck after much reproof"—again and again and again and again, reproof, reproof, reproof, hardens his neck—"Will suddenly be broken beyond healing." This is quite a warning, isn't it? That if you just won't be taught, if you are not teachable, if you just won't listen, one day the result is the kind of brokenness that cannot be fixed. It's without remedy.

This is one reason why I think many people have misunderstood the warning passages of the New Testament. And people wonder, they wonder why would God warn people about apostasy, about the loss of their soul? Why would He warn people whom He has saved, who are eternally secure? Aren't warnings wasted on people whom the Lord has saved? Well, of course, the answer is no. And the reason why those warnings are not wasted is precisely because God has made them, through salvation, He's made them a people, He's made us a people who heed His warnings as a result of the new birth.

That is to say, warnings are always effective in the lives of saved people. Now, we don't perfectly heed God's warnings, but if indeed you know the Lord Jesus Christ, He has made you the kind of person who consistently listens to His corrections. That's the pattern. That's the direction of your life. So we can say it this way again: the sheep hear His voice. They hear the voice of their Shepherd.

And so the warnings that God gives in the New Testament, they actually serve to preserve the people of God. They're saved, they're secure, they're kept, and part of the means is that they heed the warnings that God places in Scripture.

We listen to them so we stay out of those danger zones and we keep our feet on the pathway of peace. Not so with the unregenerate. Not so with the unbeliever. The wicked refuses God's warnings. The wicked rebel at them. The wicked rail against them, mock them, protest the justice of them. So what do you do with warnings?

The last time we were in Malachi, we saw together that Yahweh, Yahweh of hosts, brought an indictment. And His indictments are 100% accurate. The verdict is guilty. So last time we saw that Yahweh of hosts brought an indictment. He indicts the people, He indicts the priests, priests and people, for their irreverence. They do not give honor to His name, and their irreverence, you remember, is put on display in the way they're handling the sacrifices, what the people are bringing, what the priests are accepting and actually putting on the altar as an offering to Yahweh of hosts.

Offerings that clearly we saw together violated the clear instructions from the law of God. They were bringing lame animals, blind animals, defective animals, stolen animals, and offering them to God. They're offering to God what they wouldn't even offer to a human governor. And then when confronted by the indictment of God that says, "You are dishonoring My name," they had the audacity to ask, "Well, how have we dishonored You? How have we despised You? How have we defiled Your altar?" They were utterly blind to the weightiness of their disobedience, utterly oblivious.

Well, now we come to the second chapter, and there is a shift. He goes here from indictment to warning, indictment to warning. And though both people and priests were under the indictment of God, this warning zeroes in particularly on the priests as they were emphasized in the indictment because they have a greater responsibility in the sense that they were meant by God to lead the people of God in a different direction. They were supposed to give instruction to the people of God, point them in the right direction. The people's irreverence, as we saw together, is simply reflective of the priests' irreverence. The people were reflecting the priests, and the priests were misleading the people.

So now in chapter 2, Yahweh brings a warning to these priests. He warns them about what is coming if they will not repent. So this evening together, verses 1 through 9, chapter 2, what we're going to see together as we study this portion of the Word of God, we're going to see three aspects of this warning from God.

I want us to see three aspects of this warning from God, and as we look at these aspects of God's warning to the priests particularly, we're going to ask ourselves: How do we respond to God's warning, right? How do we respond to God's warnings? How do we respond to correction? How do we respond to rebuke? How do we respond when the Word of God indicts our sins? What's our reaction? What's our reaction when a Nathan is sent by God to say, "You're the man, you're the woman"?

The first thing to point out from our verses tonight is this. We see that this is, number one, a targeted warning. So this is a targeted warning. We see that in verse 1. Look at verse 1 with me: "And now this commandment is for”—you see it—”you” –And just in case they didn't get it, “O priests”, I'm talking to you priests. I mean, you just can't get more pointed than that, can you? This is not like using a shotgun. This is using a laser scope. There's precision. This is bullseye.

It's one thing to hear the warnings of God in general terms. You know, you just sit and you listen in on God's warnings and that's weighty enough. Of course it is weighty enough, but when God puts your name on it—I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you—it's a reason to pause and shudder and listen, "now this commandment is for you, O priests." Wow.

And what comes from God here carries the force of law. It's a command in the sense of a charge. God is revealing what He has purposed to do, what He has determined to do, and it's absolutely inescapable if they don't listen to Him. So they better listen. They better take heed. This charge is for you. It's a targeted warning.

Which leads us now to the second place, to this second heading. Not only is it a targeted warning, it is a terrifying warning. And that is verses 2 to 4: "If you do not listen, and if you do not set it upon your heart to give honor to My name," says Yahweh of hosts,” – having just revealed how they dishonored Him, you remember what He's calling for. What is He calling for? He's calling for repentance here. He's calling for repentance.

"If you do not listen," – verse 2 – "and if you do not set it upon your heart to give honor to My name," says Yahweh of hosts, "then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings and indeed, I have cursed them already because you're not setting it upon your heart. Behold, I am going to rebuke your seed, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts, and you will be taken away with it. Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi," says Yahweh of hosts.”

That is a terrifying word from God. A terrifying word from God. And yet, listen carefully, beloved, and yet, do you see the mercy that's present here? Do you see it? It's here. In this word of warning, this terrifying warning, it really bound up in it, you have mercy. Because this warning, beloved, is presented with contingent language. It is presented with contingent language.

“If you” – look at the text, verse 2, – "If you do not listen," well, what if they do listen? Right? What if they do listen? And, "if you do not set it upon your heart to give honor to My name," well, what if they do? What if they do set it upon their heart? The very way that God words this holds open, doesn't it? It holds open the possibility of repentance. What is God doing? Look at the goodness of God. Look at the lovingkindness of God. God is revealing to them a way of escape. He's revealing to them a way of escape.

Here's the judgment that's coming, but I want you to be aware that you can escape it. You can. You can escape it by listening, by heeding. You can escape it by setting it upon your heart, by setting upon your heart what I've been talking to you about. If you will listen to Me, then what I'm warning you about can be averted. The language concerning setting it upon the heart is really, is language used in Hebrew to determine a course of action in response to one's knowledge, awareness of something. In other words, God is giving them truth, calling them for a change of course, a change of action.

If you've been headed down one road, it's a road of destruction, it's the wrong road, it will lead you to death, I'm calling upon you now to turn around. In other words, to repent. Turn around. Change your mind, and change your heart, and change your ways. You could do that, and this can be avoided. And yet, even though repentance is possible, you can see the grace of God and the mercy of God in this, and even though repentance is possible, God here giving voice to the spiritual condition of these people, that indicates that repentance in this case, in their case, is not probable.

Why? Because they've already demonstrated where their hearts are at. "If you do not listen, and if you do not set it upon your heart to give honor to My name," says Yahweh of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings." Now notice, "and indeed, I have cursed them already because you are not setting it upon your heart." I've already cursed them, the blessings that is, taking them away.

In what sense? In what sense? Well, what is He saying? Well, it's possible that what God means here is they've already begun to feel the repercussions of their sinning and their stubbornness. He's already visited them in a way that has affected things like their crops, and their health, and their well-being. They're already feeling the weight of God's disciplining hand, the rod of God's chastening. They're already experiencing the result of their sin.

Could mean that, or it could also mean that these curses are already as good as on their way. God has already, as it were, unleashed them, sent them forth, haven't arrived yet. They're certainly going to arrive, and the reason why they've been unleashed is because the people will not lay to heart what God has been saying to them. They dug in their heels and they stiffened their neck, and they said, we won't listen. They will not repent of their sins. These priests.

Now when He says that they're cursed, it's because they violated God's covenant with His people. When God was going over the covenant with His people, as they were about to enter the promised land, He made very clear that He was giving them the land they were entering into, and there were promises of blessings and warnings, promises about curses, depending upon whether or not the people would genuinely follow Him, obey Him.

Keep in mind in all of this, and this is something we always have to be mindful of, the issue was not perfection. It's not. Not this side of Heaven. The issue was genuineness, faithfulness, loyalty to God, loyalty to the covenant. Bottom line, the issue was their heart.

So when God says, when He speaks here about curses, He's wanting to have passages like Deuteronomy 28 ringing in their ears, calling these things to mind, reminding them of what He had told them long before. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 28 for a minute. Deuteronomy 28:1. I just want us to see the force of what God is saying here, and He wants this to really be ringing in their minds. He says:

"Now it will be, if you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you will listen to the voice of Yahweh your God: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body, and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, and the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Yahweh shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. Yahweh will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you send forth your hand to do, and He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. Yahweh will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you. And Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body in the offspring of your beasts in the produce of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. Yahweh will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today, to keep and to do, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, and to walk after other gods and to serve them."

Let's stop here for now. He's just talking about the covenant, the covenant loyalty, and what a promise. God says, I'm going to bless you in every way you can imagine. I'm going to surround you with blessings. My favor is going to be upon you. I'm going to shower My blessings upon you. God says, I'm going to bless you in every way you can imagine, if you listen to Me, if you walk with Me, if you obey My voice, if you're loyal to Me, if you're faithful to Me.

Verse 15: "But it will be, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep and to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." Now, I'm not going to read the rest of the section. You can read it in your own time, but God goes through and details those curses. He details them, and they are absolutely fearful. They are frightful.

And here in our study in chapter 2 of Malachi, God is saying that due to their dishonoring of His name, if they will not turn, if they will not heed, if they will not listen, if they will not repent, He will dispatch, He will send, He will let loose these curses. "I will send the curse upon you," – verse 2 –  "and I will curse your blessings.” I will take them away. Indeed, I have already cursed them.

Again, either they're already beginning to feel the weight of His disciplining hand—and there's some indications throughout the book that that's the case—or He's saying it's as good as it's on its way because you have not taken what I'm telling you into your heart.

What does God say they're going to experience due to the dishonoring of His name and their lack of repentance? He says, number 1—look at verse 3, Malachi 2—"I'm going to rebuke your seed." I'm going to rebuke your seed. "Behold, I am going to rebuke your seed," says the Lord. Now, some commentators understand this to refer to their crops. They take "seed" in the sense of an agricultural sense. You find that in the ESV and the NASB. They understand this in that sense of the offspring of these priests, not the crops.

The priests were then warned—one commentator put it this way—of a rebuke that would fall against their seed. Seed referred to grain or to physical descendants. The following threat of the removal of the priest from office makes the latter option more probable. So, the latter one is more probable with reference to the offspring. If indeed God is talking about their offspring, He's saying to them, I'm not going to allow the priesthood to continue along these lines. This is not what I intend priests to be. And if you don't repent, I'll clear you out, and your descendants will feel the repercussions of your sinful acts and your sinful attitudes.

But not only will He rebuke their seed—and I believe it's beyond crops—but He says He's going to dispose of these priests. Look at verse 3. Look at the language: "and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it." He's going to spread refuse on their faces, the refuse of their offerings, and He's going to lift them up. He's going to take them away with the dung of their offerings.

Do you think God is serious about the honor of His name? Do you think He takes lightly our dishonoring His name, trifling with His name? Bound up in that name is all of the attributes of God, the characteristics of God.

I mean, this is about as graphic as you can get. What He's talking about when He talks about refuse is He's talking about those parts of the animal sacrifices, including the internal organs that held undigested waste. These were the parts of the sacrifices that were to be taken away and burnt, not to be placed upon the altar. They were disposed of, taken outside so as to not to defile the worship context. And God says, I'm going to take these things that defile, and I'm going to spread them on your face. You dishonor My name, you're going to feel the weight of dishonor. I'm going to spread the dung on your face, I'm going to lift you up along with the dung of your offerings, and I'm going to dispose of you on the dung pile.

Are you listening yet, if you're a priest? As it were, God is saying, are you listening? He's going to dispose of these priests. Why? Because He's going to uphold His purpose for the priesthood, verse 4. "Then you will know that I've sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi," says Yahweh of Hosts.”

I will be faithful, in other words, to My purpose for the priesthood. I'm not going to allow you to go on in the way in which you are going. I'm not going to leave you to continue to do what you're doing. I'm not going to allow you to make a mockery of what the Levitical priesthood is to be. I'm going to cause My covenant with Levi to stand. And if that means you have to go, then you have to go.

So this is a targeted warning, but it is also a terrifying warning, which leads us in the third place, verses 5 through 9, and we need to see this is also a justified warning. A justified warning. Not only a targeted warning, but a justified warning. Not only a terrifying warning, but a justified warning. A justified warning.

Are you tempted to argue with the warnings that come from God? Are you tempted to justify yourself? Do you find yourself resisting correction? Do you want to insist that it's not really you, or you're not really guilty of what God is saying? Well, just as He did in chapter 1, God is ready to lay it out, to spell it out. What justifies these terrifying words?

Number one, this is justified, first of all, by God's history with the priests. This is justified by God's history with the priests. When you take what God meant for the priesthood to be historically, what He meant for the priesthood to be historically, then you compare it with what these men are doing and being, it becomes clear that these warnings are justified.

Verse 5, "My covenant with Him was one of life and peace," – talking about the covenant that God has set placed with Levi. "My covenant with Him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as something to be feared; so he feared Me and stood in awe of My name. Instruction of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity."

Now, what Yahweh does here, He reaches back in history and He says, of this one whom He's describing, this is what a priest was meant to be. Well, the question is, who exactly is He referring to? He mentions Levi by name, verse 4, but He talks about a covenant, and so it's difficult to know exactly what covenant Malachi is giving voice to, and the way that that is described to us makes us think that perhaps what is going on here is this.

The reference to Levi is a reference to the tribe, and the specific covenants being referred to is a covenant that God has made with Phineas, who was a Levite, and it was a covenant made at a very strategic time in Israel's history. Turn with me, if you would, to Numbers 25, and let's remember Phineas for a moment.

Numbers 25:1, we read, "And Israel remained in Shittim, and the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.” – You know, one of the ways that was really attempted to destroy Israel was through intermarriage, idolatry, and so the people are beginning to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.

Verse 2, "Indeed they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel. And Yahweh said to Moses, 'Take all who are the heads of the people and execute them in broad daylight before Yahweh, so that the burning anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.'"

I mean, their actions are calling for judgment—swift judgment, decisive judgment—to avert the plague from God.

In verse 5, "So Moses said to the judges of Israel, 'Each of you kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.' Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought near to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel.”

I mean, you talk about sinning—this is high-handed, blatant, brazen sin. Right in front of Moses, right in front of everybody, he brings this Moabite to his family. Notice the end of verse 6: "while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, so he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the men of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. Then the plague of the sons of Israel was checked.”

What a scene! To understand what is going on here—I mean, he shares, this man shares the jealousy of God. Phinehas, for His people. God hated the sin, Phinehas hated the sin. God was ready to judge, Phinehas carried out the judgment. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.

Verse 9, "So those who died by the plague were 24,000." Now it's not mentioned till right here in the text, but with this in, there was an outbreak of curses from God, and that's what the indication—I mean, the people were suffering as a result, and by Phinehas’ action that plague was stopped.

Verse 10, look at it: "Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the sons of Israel in My jealousy.' Therefore, say, 'Behold,” –  now notice –  “I give him My covenant of peace.'" Notice the language: "and it shall be for him and his seed after him, a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel."

The act was so significant—Phinehas’ act—that in Psalm 106, we have the psalmist giving voice to the confession of sin on behalf of the nation. Verse 28 of Psalm 106: "Then they joined themselves to Baal-peor, And ate sacrifices offered to the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their actions, And the plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interceded, and so the plague was checked. And it was counted to him for righteousness from generation to generation forever."

It's interesting, in Psalm 106, the word "interceded" is the Hebrew word ‘pâlal’, which means interposed or mediated. What is that? That's the work of a priest. He served in the role of a priest for the people. He acted in a way that there could be peace between a holy God and sinful man, God and Israel. This is what God intended for priests to be—men of integrity, men of holiness, men of godly jealousy.

And as our text says, look back to Malachi chapter 2. If indeed this is a reference to Phinehas, God says in verse 5, "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as something to be feared; so he feared Me and stood in awe of My name.Instruction of truth" – verse 6, –"was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity." So that's what the priest is meant to be.

But if it's not Phinehas particularly that God is speaking of—if it's Aaron—then likely this is a way of referring, when He talks about His covenant with Levi, this is a way of referring to the many times throughout the Old Testament when God sent forth His purpose for the Levitical priesthood. Either way, let me put it this way: Phinehas acted in keeping with what should have been the Levitical example. Phinehas acted in keeping with what should have been, and was in fact, the example of Aaron.

Do you know there's a history in the Old Testament of Levites intervening to put a stop to plagues? It was the tribe of Levi, you remember, that acted to intervene at the time of the golden calf incident in Exodus 32. Look over at Exodus 32:25. This is all really relevant. Moses, Exodus 32:25—Moses up on the mountain comes down, and you remember you have the golden calf incident.

Verse 25, well, Aaron failed, you remember, on that occasion. But notice what happens next. Verse 26, so Aaron failed on that occasion in verse 25. Verse 26: "so Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, 'Whoever is for Yahweh, come to me!' And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him."

Verse 27: "And he said to them, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "Every man among you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp,” – and notice now, – “kill every man his brother and every man his friend and every man his neighbor."'

What is God calling them to do? He's calling them to a loyalty to Yahweh that is stronger than your loyalty to family or friend or familiarity. God above all else. “So the sons of Levi”, – verse 28 – "did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, "Be ordained today to Yahweh –for every man has been against his son and against his brother– in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today."

Maybe then it's this sort of statement on the part of God that Malachi is referring to. So when it came to the golden calf, the Levites intervened, and the plague is put away. And of course, we can't forget Korah's rebellion, right? It was Aaron who acted, who intervened, and put a stop to the plague sent by God.

Let's go back to Numbers 16, and this is incredible. Numbers 16:46: "And Moses said to Aaron, 'Take your censer and put in it fire from the altar, and lay incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone forth from Yahweh, the plague has begun!' Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked. But those who died by the plague were 14,700, besides those who died on account of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the doorway of the tent of meeting, for the plague had been checked.”

God sends a plague at the time of the golden calf incident. The Levites intervened. The plague is checked, put away. God sends a plague. Aaron steps in at the time of Korah's rebellion, atones for the people. The plague is put away.

And what Phinehas did was in keeping with the faithful in his tribe's history. You can see the pattern. So whether this reference is to Phinehas or to Aaron, God—and here's the point—is telling us something very important here. He's telling us that the men who rightly represent Him are men of spiritual integrity, loyalty, faithfulness. This is what priests are meant to be. Men who fear His name, who fear Yahweh their God, who stand in awe of His name, whose teaching can be trusted.

Verse 6, Malachi 2: "Instruction of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity." And what a contrast. What a contrast this is, where you have these men from the tribe of Levi who are used by God to turn away the wrath of God, and here you have priests living in a way that invites the wrath of God. What a contrast. God's warnings are justified because of the history of what priests are meant to be versus what these men during Malachi's time are.

Let me ask you this evening, do you think God will allow men to make a mockery of ministry assignment? Do you think today—let's now take a step out of these lessons, that these lessons were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived, 1 Corinthians 10:11, let's take a step out of that context for a moment, and let's step into our context and ask yourself this question: will God, who has given to men today ministry assignments, leadership, responsibility, will He allow us to make a mockery of what our office is intended to be?

And by way of extension, we can talk about our role as royal priesthood, as believers. Beloved, God is patient. God is patient. He's long-suffering, and thank God He's patient, but He loves us too much to allow us to dishonor His name without repentance. Justified because of the history of the priest, but also in the second place, justified—these warnings are justified also because of His purpose for the priesthood. His purpose for the priesthood.

Look at verse 7. Now He moves from history to what He designed. Verse 7: "For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of hosts." The priest had three basic responsibilities. Three basic responsibilities.

Responsibility number one: they offered sacrifices for the people, and in that sense, they served as a mediator between God and men. Number two: they also interceded for the people in prayer. That included also announcing blessings from God upon the people, so they would give voice to God's blessings upon the people. And thirdly, they taught the people. They taught the people. They were meant to be teachers of the law of God, teachers of the Word of God, and in that way, their mouth was to keep, to preserve the knowledge that had come to the people of God.

In other words, people should be able to come to them and seek instruction, and that instruction should be true because it is in keeping with the Word of God. This is what priests were meant to do. This is what priests were meant to be.

But notice what they've become. Verse 8. Look at what they've become. This is the third reason it's justified. Justified because of priestly history. Justified because of priestly purpose. Thirdly, justified because, in this case, of priestly perversion. This is what they've become. Perverted.

"But as for you," – verse 8 – "you've turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of hosts.” This is what you've done. These priests have failed miserably.

And how did these men go so far astray? Notice the evidence here. Notice the evidence. The first way they had gone astray was on a personal level. It was on a personal level. Verse 8. They had personally defected. Personally defected. "But as for you," – and God repeats it – "you have turned aside from the way." You. You're responsible. Personally responsible. You have turned aside. You've left the pathway. Your feet. Your feet wandered, have wandered.

This is where it always, always, beloved, goes astray. If you look at the leaders of the people of God, and you, if you witness corruption in the Lord's church, and leaders are involved in that; before you ever witnessed public departure, defection—it was always private defection. Personal defection. And then that personal defection shows up in the public instruction. Don't ever imagine that you can go astray personally and stay on track in terms of what you teach.

By the grace of God, I always remind myself and exhort you to remind yourself that it was God Himself who brought the truth to us. God Himself who brought the truth to us. It was God who shined the light in our minds and our hearts. It is God who gives us the strength to keep seeing the truth. That's why we pray every time we open this book, "God, give me light." It's God who preserves our thinking.

Don't ever imagine that you can defect personally, walk away from the truth on a personal level, and somehow stay on track in terms of your doctrine and your teaching. Eventually, it will catch up. It's never surprising, is it? When you hear someone, for example, pervert the grace of God, turn the grace of God into some sort of liberty to live in dangerous ways, and then you hear about those same people suffering great personal failure in their moral life, in their marriage, in their relationships. Their teaching was simply giving you an insight into what had already been taking place in their own hearts, in their own lives.

And the Lord says in verse 8, “you have caused many to stumble by the instruction”. They've gone astray personally. Then they went astray in their proclamations. This failure began in their personal lives, the personal lives of these priests when they turned aside from the way; "you've turned aside from the way." He says, is an expression, by “the way” that shows godliness to be commitment to a total way of life.

You went off track. Once that way had been abandoned, their public ministry suffered, and instead of turning “many back from iniquity”, as verse 6 says, they “caused many to stumble” by misinterpreting the Word of God. They did the opposite of what they were required to do, called by God to do. God was misrepresented first by their unworthy lives and then by their flawed instructions.

So what do they do? They pervert. It's personal perversion, its public perversion in the form of their instruction. What do they do? They pervert the purpose, the very purpose of the office. Look at verse 8, you make a mockery of what the priesthood is meant to be, and one of the ways they do it is they pervert the ways of justice.

Verse 9, "So I also have made you despised and low before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways” – noticed – “but are showing partiality in the instruction." God's saying so I'm going to make you despised and abased before all the people in as much as you do not keep My ways noticed, “but you show partiality in the instruction”. You see, they turn their office into a way of advancing themselves. And so they show partiality to those who benefit them.

The result is that those who despise God's name—remember that. Back in chapter 1:6, "A son honors his father, and a slave his master. Then if I'm a father, then where is My honor? And if I'm a master, where is the fear of Me? says Yahweh of hosts” O priest, to you, “O priest who despise My name." So what's going on here? Those who despised God's name will now themselves be despised.

Verse 9, "So I also have made you despised and low before all the people." God is saying, What I know about you, what I know about you, I'm going to make the people know about you. I'm going to expose you. Is this a serious warning? But is this a merciful warning?

Beloved, is this a merciful warning? What is God giving these priests an opportunity to do? To be authentic. To be real. He's giving these priests an opportunity to be real. To turn from their sins. To walk in the way of truth. To turn from their mocking of the office. And to embody what is meant for the office.

He's giving them the opportunity, instead of being an instrument for the stumbling of others, they could be an instrument of the rescuing of others. He's giving them the opportunity to avert disaster. He's giving them the opportunity to repent. It was a serious warning. But it's also a merciful warning. The question is, will they hear it?

And may I humbly ask you, and may I humbly ask you, as I had to ask my own heart, will you hear it? Let me press further. In what ways, right now, are you aware that you are being warned? Be specific. It's between you and God. What is going on in your life right now that the Word of God has been addressing you particularly? You.

It may have been through sermons. It may have been through people who love you. It may have been through providential circumstances. You know, those verses that ring in your head as circumstances begin to unfold. As God begins to lay His cards out, as it were. As God begins to let the dominoes fall. And you're feeling the results of your sin and your deviation from the path. And those verses are ringing in your mind.

Where is the Lord warning you? You. And the next question is, will you hear Him? Will you respond with repentance? And obedience? To the God who is more than willing to bless His people if they will honor His name. Remember the Scripture says our God is a God who is by nature forgiving. Do you hear warnings as love? Or do you hate them? Resist them. Reject them. Argue that they don't really pertain to you.

Listen, the Bible says that if you're that kind of a person who is often reproved, that if you're that kind of a person who is often reproved, they continue to stiffen your neck, there will come a day when a brokenness will take place that you can never recover from. If that's you tonight, may you soften your heart. May you open your ears. May you and I not be, God forbid, as stiff-necked people as Israel so often was, but a people who love the Lord their God, who has shown us such marvelous grace.

Remember how this book begins? "I have loved you." Right? That's how it begins. "I have loved you." And what do the people say? "How” – what? How? – “How have You loved us?" Oh, I set My affection upon you. I chose you. I put a circle around you. Aren’t you grateful? Aren’t you grateful, beloved, that there is one priest who was and is the perfect embodiment of faithfulness?

What’s His name? The Lord Jesus Christ. Our great High Priest. And He not only was the offerer of the sacrifice that took our sins away, He Himself, He Himself was the offering. He was both offerer and offering. It’s in Him that we find the forgiveness of all of our sins. It’s in Him that we see what a priest is really meant to be.

So as we think about our own responsibilities and desire to be faithful, may we continue to look to the One who is perfectly faithful, resting in Him and pursuing Him at the same time. Not excusing our sins, because He died for them all, but realizing He died for them all that we might no longer live in them, but live for Him who died for us and gave Himself up for us. May God help us.

Let’s pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

One of the most disturbing things about what is known as the church growth movement—I'm not sure if you've heard it described this way or not—the church growth movement, it's also been described as the seeker-sensitive movement. Others would talk about it as the purpose-driven model, the purpose-driven church model, and even there are elements of this thinking contained in what is now called the emerging church movement. But when you talk about all of these movements and any other takeoff of that same basic concept, there's one thing that really is quite troubling, and it is this: if you follow their teachings, if you follow their concepts, if you follow their methods, you can't find one single example among those kinds of churches of the kind of conflict between the church and the culture that you see in the Gospels, that you see in the book of Acts.

You won't see that. You can't see any of these churches coming under attack. You can't see one of these churches being maligned and hated because of their stand for the truth of the Word of God. In fact, that kind of conflict between the church and the culture is almost viewed by the church growth movement as the problem. They say, well, that's the problem. There is the barrier to evangelism. What we have to do in order to reach lost people, they say, is get rid of the conflict, get rid of the enmity.

I want us to remember that the apostles faced conflict on two fronts. They faced conflict from those who had the Scriptures in their day. They faced conflict from Judaism, apostate Judaism, and I think there are some in the church growth movement that would sort of identify with that. They would say something like this, “You know what, we're just going through what the Lord Jesus went through. We're just going through what the apostles went through. We're new. We're different. We're innovative. We're trying new ways, pragmatic ways, and those are the sort of, you know, the people who are really religious and starchy, they don't like that.”

They try to identify with the apostles in that way, but we've got to remember something: that the apostles faced conflict not only from those who were religious legalists of the day, but they also faced conflict from the pagans around them. There was a clear recognition among the pagans that the disciples, the apostles, were preaching another God—the one true God, the living God—and they understood that to follow the Christian God was to have a completely different lifestyle, and that requires a radical, tectonic shift transformation. There was a clear recognition that if the message the apostles were preaching, if it is true, then it meant that their world would be turned upside down, and you find that language in the book of Acts.

Far from this being the case with the church growth philosophies, the Christian mission from their standpoint, from their worldview, the Christian mission is not a confrontation with the world and with its philosophies. No, no, they say. Rather, it is a communication of ‘sameness’ with a twist—sameness with a twist. This is how you reach the world, they say. This is how you reach the world of lost humanity. We have to tell them that we're basically the same, but then with a gospel twist.

We say to the world, we really like you. We like what you like. We enjoy what you enjoy. We're about fun and entertainment and excitement and activity and individuality and independence and all sorts of things. We're no different from you. We've just found something that makes it all more fulfilling. And so we're not going to preach about sin. We're not going to preach about the judgment of God, the wrath of God. We're not going to preach about hell. We're not going to preach about any of it. In fact, we're not going to preach. We're not going to preach the Scripture. We're going to stay positive. Positive all the way—fashionable, comfortable. We're going to win you with our winsomeness, and then we'll deal with the rest at some point in time later, perhaps, maybe.

That's the church growth philosophy in a nutshell. And all the while, when you look at the testimony of Scripture concerning the time when our Lord was on this earth, you don't find that He was considered very motivational, fashionable. You don't find Him avoiding the subjects that many of these church gurus avoid, and you don't find the absence of conflict or suffering. Our Lord suffered, didn't He? He was maligned, wasn't He?

And then you move from His ministry on the earth—after His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension—then you look at His disciples, you find that they face the same opposition that He did. Not just from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles, the pagan world. Last week we began to look at verse 19 by making the point that in verse 19 you see clearly the reality of division, and it wasn't something that was just a one-time thing. The Scripture says, "A division occurred, ‘palin’-again-among the Jews because of these words," and not just more than once on this occasion, but if you go through the Gospel of John, you will see it again and again, many occasions.

In fact, it's getting more and more intense, and it's going to eventually lead to His arrest and His mock trials in Calvary, Golgotha. Here you have the Prince of Peace, and yet wherever He goes, there's what? Division. And so we talked last week about what is our understanding of this peace. He's the Prince of Peace. What is our understanding of this peace? We know that the Word of God teaches that we are to be a people who make peace a priority. We are to strive after that which makes for peace, and we saw that Christians are people characterized by peace.

We're supposed to be peacemakers. And we saw that this is because our God is the God of peace, and our Savior is the Prince of Peace. In fact, the Gospel we preach is the Gospel of peace. It's the good news of peace with God. Why is it, then, that there's so much division whenever the Gospel, this Gospel, is truly and boldly proclaimed and declared? And how are we to think about our responsibility to preach the Gospel and to confront the culture with its lost condition and our responsibility to pursue that which makes for peace? How do we fit these two things together?

We saw last time that the enmity cannot be removed in some artificial way. It cannot. The reason why there's enmity between the world and the church, if the church is being what the church is meant to be, the reason why there's this enmity there is the cause of the truth. It is because of the light. Lost men do not love the light. They don't like the light. They don't love the light. In fact, lost men love sin and they hate the light because the light exposes their sin. And so they hate the light, anything associated with the light.

So we talked about the fact that the church has to come to grips with this: that if we're going to faithfully proclaim the Gospel, we have to expect that there will be opposition, division. We have to know that we have to expect opposition. We have to know that the message of the cross is a message that is hated in a world that is broken and full of sin. And we said that when we don't understand that, when we don't grasp that, and when we think that peace means that all men will love us and all men will speak well of us, when we think that we have a responsibility to remove enmity apart from conversion, the new birth, that the enmity can somehow be removed apart from men and women coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when that is the case, then all of a sudden the church begins to fall into errors and sins.

And the first error we touched on last Lord's Day, we considered last Lord's Day, is this: that the church, when it misunderstands this peace, the church misunderstands the profound nature of the problem we're addressing. What has the Lord called us to address with His Word? What has He commissioned us to go after with the Gospel? What is the real problem? It's not that the world doesn't have enough entertainment. We saw that last week, right? That's not the issue. That's not the problem. It's not that the world just needs a little, you know, psychological fix. No, no. It's not a matter of, you know, let's try a different philosophy. No. Just a little bit more positive thinking? Absolutely not. Or just a few little words of advice about how to have a good marriage or how to raise children and how to have a better job and how. No, beloved. That is not what Christ sent us to proclaim.

Rather, the problem in this world is that men and women are sinners. They are estranged from God. They are alienated from God. They do not have fellowship with God because of their sin. Because of their sin. And in their sinfulness, they are blinded. They are darkened in their understanding. And so they don't look at anything in this world the right way, not God, not themselves, not marriage, not raising kids, not work, not anything. And they're under the wrath of God. And if sinners die in that state, being estranged from God, they will perish for eternity in a place, in a real place called hell.

And so the church has been sent out not to deal with the peripheral issues that are symptomatic of the disease. The church has been sent out to declare the one and only message that gets to the root of the disease, and that is the Gospel. And the Gospel is a person: the Lord Jesus Christ, His doing and His dying on Calvary's cross. We've been sent to preach the Gospel. Now the Gospel in all of its fullness includes all that we have in God's words. Now I'm not saying that God doesn't have truth for marriage and raising children and all of that, but it all begins, beloved, with this fundamental truth: a man and a woman must be reconciled to God through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

There it must begin. It must begin at that level. Because until someone has been reconciled to God, they cannot live what the Bible teaches. They can't. They have no power to do that. They're unable to do that. Their nature is turned in the opposite direction of God's truth. They don't have the understanding of God's truth. They have no power to live God's truth. And so it all begins with reconciliation with God, conversion, new birth.

We've got to stop thinking about the world's problem as being something superficial that can be healed superficially with some sort of a superficial balm. No, the problem gets to the very root of man's nature, and only salvation in Christ can set people free to experience the Creator's purpose for mankind so that men and women can glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

But there's a second error I want to point out this morning that the church falls prey to when we misunderstand these things. Not only does the church misunderstand the profound nature of the problem we're addressing, In the second place, secondly, the church misunderstands, as a result, the weapons of its warfare, the weapons of its warfare. The church misunderstands the weapons of its warfare as a result. If we underestimate what is really wrong with the human race, if we get that wrong, then we will also find ourselves relying upon insufficient means to reach them. Mark it down. If you misunderstand the gravity of a problem, then you will also misunderstand what the solution is, what the remedy is.

Let me illustrate. If you hear that there's a fire somewhere and you run out of your house or whatever, if you run out and with your own individual little fire extinguisher and then you find out it's a three-alarm blaze—I mean, this is massive—well, the means you've chosen to try to fix the problem you'll discover is what? Totally insufficient. You won't get the job done, right? And when we forget what's really wrong with the human race, with men and women, is that they don't have fellowship with God, that they're alienated from God, they're under the wrath of God, and what they need is not just some external reformation, some external fix. What they must have is nothing less than a new creation, new birth, the *from above* birth, a transformation wrought by the Spirit of God in their soul. Nothing less will do. Nothing else will get the job done.

When we forget that, then we can imagine that we can go forth with weapons that won't get the job done, won't do it. Let me put it this way. If we think that the real key to reaching the lost for Christ is the style of our music, if we think that the thing standing between sinners and Jesus is the way the pastor dresses—I mean, just put on a Hawaiian shirt, or sneakers, or baseball cap, and then people will like him, and will be drawn to him—I mean, if that's the issue, if offering dazzling effects along with our sermonettes, if it's the elimination of expository preaching, if it's the promotion of the arts, if that's what we think is really wrong, then we don't really understand what we're dealing with, do we?

The question is: what are the God-ordained means? What are the God-ordained weapons for the spiritual work that we're to be engaged in? What has God chosen for us to use? I don't get to come up with my own weapons. What is sufficient for such tasks as reaching lost men for Christ, and for discipling those who have been saved? What has God Himself ordained? Let me put it this way. Here's the answer: righteousness and truth. Righteousness and truth.

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10. This is an incredible passage, 2 Corinthians 10. So, righteousness and truth. It says, verse 3, "For though we walk in the flesh,”-we in a battle, we're fighting, we're fighting this battle 24 hours a day, seven days a week-”we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but,"-now listen to this-"divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds." But beloved, if you're taking hold of God's weapons, then you have this assurance, this blessed assurance: those weapons that God has ordained to go into the battle with—what? They have what? Divine power.

How much power is that? Omnipotent power. Infinite power. I mean, God's power is at work when you are in the war with His weapons. When you use His weapons, God's power is at work.

God's power. An omnipotent God. An all-powerful God. "Is there anything too difficult for Me," says the Lord? "What is impossible with man is possible with God." God's power.

He says, verse 5, “as we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” What are you doing when you're engaging this culture around you? What are you doing? What am I doing? You are addressing high lofty opinions that argue against the knowledge of Jesus.

Question: what weapon has God given us that will expose the false thoughts of a world like this, where everything is turned upside down, wrong side up? Good is evil, evil is good, right is wrong, wrong is right, and bitter is sweet, sweet is bitter. What weapons has God given us to address how people think? What weapon is it? Here's the answer. It's His Word. It's His Word.

Look at 2 Corinthians 6, two chapters back. It's His Word. 2 Corinthians 6, let's start [at] verse 3. Paul says, "giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited," - now watch this - "but in everything commending ourselves as ministers of God."

What commends a minister of God? What commends a minister of God? How do you recognize a minister of God, a servant of God? What do they look like? He tells us. Look, he says, "in much perseverance"—that's what they look like—"in afflictions, in distresses, in hardships, in beatings, in imprisonments, in disturbances, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unhypocritical love, in the word of truth, in the power of God."

Now let's just stop here for a moment. And, I want to ask this question: how did these apostles get into so much trouble? How? Why did they need great endurance? Why did they experience afflictions, hardship, calamity, beatings, imprisonment, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger?

What got them into so much trouble? It was the preaching of the Word, wasn't it? It's the preaching of the Word of God, wasn't it? It wasn't because they put on a bad performance and people rebelled and want their money back. No. They were preaching the Word of God. That's what got them in trouble. And what commended them, though, was not just troubles. They were also commended—look at the text—by purity and knowledge and patience and kindness and the Holy Spirit, unhypocritical love, and the word of truth. And you know what attended their ministry? Verse 7: the power of God.

And then he says this, "by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left." The weapons of righteousness. Mark this down, beloved, this morning and never forget it. The powerful church will be the Holy Church. The powerful church will be the Holy Church. Not necessarily the most creative, ingenious, but the one, the people who walk after righteousness and make use of the weapons of righteousness.

Romans 1, verse 16. Paul put it as simply as this: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the"—what? We get the English word "dynamite" from this Greek word ’dunamis’—"the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." What is the gospel? It is the power of God unto the salvation of dead sinners.

Shy away from it, not declare it, apologize for it, make it more palatable, make it more comfortable. No, no, no. He says, "I am not ashamed." Not ashamed. "I am not ashamed of the gospel," which declares to sinful dead men that he is lost, that he is in sin under the judgment of a Holy God, the wrath of a Holy God. But there's also—that there is also—a forgiveness of sin. There's a Savior given among men by whom we can be saved.

You're dead, you're alienated, you're under the wrath of God—that's your problem. But here's the good news: there's a Savior who's able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him. And I'm not ashamed of this message, for "it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

What is sufficient for such a task? God's Word. God's Word. God did not ordain, beloved—and you will not find it in Scripture—that God ordained men and women to be brought to faith in Jesus Christ through concerts. He didn't ordain that. Through entertainment. It's not there. It's through the preaching of the Word, through the Word of God. And yet, if we look at the church of our generation, if we're being honest, where's the greatest emphasis put? Concerts, entertainments, drama.

2 Timothy 4:2. 2 Timothy 4:2: "preach the word." Timothy, preach the Word. Preach the Word. "[B]e ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and teaching." “Preach the Word, Timothy. And you don't do it, son, selectively. You do it. You preach every part of it, every part of it. Preach the Word, every part of it. The whole counsel of God. Where it calls for reproof, you reprove, Timothy. Don't shy back. Where it calls for rebuke, you rebuke, Timothy. Where it calls for exhortation, you exhort. And you do this, son, with patience, with endurance—I mean, stay at it—and you do it with careful instruction. You teach the Word.”

And here's why I'm laying this down for you, he tells Timothy, with such clear terms. Verse 3: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

Beloved, what is going on in our generation is serious, serious business. It's not a small thing. All around us. If we believe that there's to be no hatred for the church, if we believe that God has called us to a life of being loved by all men, if we believe that the real problem between the sinner and salvation is simply one of the church coming off as negative, then what happens is, we will abandon whatever is causing the problem.

And what is it that is the cause of the problem? The truth. Speaking the truth. That's what causes the problem. The light exposes sin and the wicked deeds in darkness. That's the problem. And so what have churches done? They've abandoned the truth in the name of making friendship, in order to “make” disciples. This is the very thing the Apostles refused to do. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2. Paul writes, "but we have renounced" - we've renounced - ”the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God." We have renounced -  ‘apeipon’ - we have denounced, we have disowned, we have utterly rejected, we've sworn off - what? what, Paul? - disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with the Word of God, adulterate the Word of God, water down the Word of God in order to appeal to the multitude.

Is it tampering with God's Word when you refuse to preach portions of it? Is it tampering with the Word of God when you refuse to use the very words that the Scripture uses and you want to replace them with something more palatable, friendly, soft on the ears? Paul says, "We refuse to tamper with the Word of God," verse 2. We refuse to tamper with the Word of God. “[B]ut by the manifestation”—’phanerósis’—revelation, disclosure - “by the manifestation of the truth” - disclosure of the truth, the plain manifestation of truth - "commending ourselves,” he says, "to every man's conscience in the sight of God." He says we're preaching to the conscience, and he says we're doing it with the open statement of truth.

The church forgets the profound nature of the problem she's dealing with, and the church, as a result, misunderstands the weapons of its warfare and imagines that it can get the job done with weapons never ordained by God. They come up with their own version. This leads to a third error that I want to make mention of today, and that is when this happens, the church imagines herself to be superior to her past. The church imagines herself to be superior to her past. That is, the church begins to be filled with pride. Pride.

In other words, it's leaning on the arm of the flesh. It's leaning on its own ingenuity. It's leaning on its own ideas and activities and programs to produce spiritual results that require divinely powerful means. And when the church, then, is confronted with the character of her ministry and someone says, “Well, that's not the character of the Apostles' ministry,” and when she's confronted with the fruit of her ministry and someone says, “Well, that's not the fruit of ministry seen with the Apostles of Jesus,” and when someone questions the methods and the means for her ministry and they say that it doesn't match that of the Apostles, she imagines that she's actually discovered a better way.

“Yes, it's true. That's not how the Apostles did it. We acknowledge that much, but listen, listen carefully. You see, we're living in a different time. We're facing new challenges, new culture, and a post-Christian culture, and the means of ministry used by the Apostles—well, that just won't get the job done anymore. Preaching - expository preaching - just won't do the job anymore. Preaching on subjects like the wrath of God won't do the job anymore. We've discovered a better way, and the proof that it's a better way—and I'll deal with that in a moment—is that it's working. They say it's working. That's the proof.”

Now we better define working. We better define working. Question: are the church growth experts of our generation better peacemakers than our Master was, the Prince of Peace? Where are the reproaches that fell on Him on their life and ministry? Where are they being hated because of their Master? How do they suffer for the message that they proclaim? What is in their message that would ever call for this division? Why is it that their pathway is a smooth way, all the way, when His pathway and the pathway of His disciples was a hard one? Are they smarter? Are they more congenial, just more friendly than He was? Are they more organized? Did they just do a better job of projecting a positive image and positive thinking?

Or could it be, could it be, that in reality they're like the church in Laodicea? The Lord Jesus addressed that church—you remember Revelation 3—and He said to that church in verse 17. Chapter 3 of Revelation, He said, "[Y]ou say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," He says, "and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked."

Oh beloved, when our ministry isn't becoming more and more like the ministry of our blessed Lord, like the ministry of His disciples, including opposition and division, it is not a sign that we're doing well. It is a sign that we're doing poorly. The church must avoid this error—feeling like we've discovered something new, that we're really superior to those who have come before us. “Yes, it's true they suffered, they had hardship, they were opposed, they were maligned, and people hated them, but we found a new and better way.” God forbid. God forbid. It's a lie.

It leads to a fourth error: the church misunderstands whom it's seeking to please. The church misunderstands whom she's seeking to please. You see, one of the reasons she feels superior and good about herself is that she's pleasing so many—the approbation of the crowd. So many people who find this approach to ministry, an approach - I mean, this kind of approach, is an approach that guts the preaching of anything that might hint at being controversial or confrontational. So let's gut it out.

An approach to ministry that guts the preaching of anything that might be considered overly theological or difficult or challenging so that the whole counsel of God cannot be proclaimed, cannot be declared. An approach to ministry that strives to be so inoffensive that they don't declare anything that might upset some people. So they strive to keep everyone happy. Let's hold hands and sing Kumbaya and we're a happy family. So the church glories in her positive reviews. I mean, if we believe that that is really our goal—for all men to speak well of us—then when they speak well of us, we feel what? Justified. “How could you say we're on the wrong path? I mean, look. Look around. So many people love us. We're so popular, including outside the media and everybody else.” And the church becomes content with her approval.

But Paul was very straightforward about the fact that was never, ever his ambition. It was never his ambition to be pleasing to men. Turn to Galatians 1. He never measured his ministry by the applause of the people, by the approval of the people. Galatians 1 [verse 8], right off the bat, I mean, he was dead serious. He didn't mince words, right? He said to them, "If [I], or an angel from heaven were to preach to you, to proclaim to you a gospel - an ‘heteros’ gospel - another gospel of a different kind, let him be” - what? - “Let him be damned to hell. Let him be ‘anathema’." He repeats it twice. You get to verse 10 of chapter 1. Look at what he says: "For am I now” - he says, “am I now seeking the favor of man, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ." No, no.

Look at verse 11 of chapter 5, same epistle: "But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross would have been abolished." In other words, Paul says, I know all along how to stop the persecution. Just preach the version of the gospel that the Judaizers are happy with. I'll just preach circumcision and the offense of the cross will dissipate, will go away.

Back up to chapter 4, look at verse 29. He puts it this way: "But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh was persecuting him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also." I know we're flipping back and forth. Fast-forward to chapter 6 and look at verse 12. Galatians 6:12: "As many as are wanting to make a good showing in the flesh, these are trying to compel you to be circumcised,”—now watch this—”simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ."

Do you know why some of these Judaizers teachers, why they were teaching what they were teaching? Paul says they knew that if they taught otherwise, they would be persecuted, and they wanted to avoid that. So, they caved in. They don't want their boat to be rocked. They wanted to stay positive.

What happens when we misunderstand these issues? We forget that the church exists not to get positive reviews from the world, but to hear one day, "Well done, good and faithful servant," from our Lord and Savior and Master and our Chief Shepherd. To do His will, to do His will—that's our goal. Beloved, mark it down and never forget it. We have one ambition, one towering ambition, one overarching ambition. What is it? To please Him. To please Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9, "Therefore we also have as our ambition,"—that is the towering ambition—"whether at home or absent," whether in life or death, what is it, Paul? "[T]o be pleasing to Him." That's all. That's all. To live your life and my life with this ambition: to be pleasing to Him.

This leads to another error. When the church forgets these things, the church also misunderstands that her ministry—now follow closely—her ministry is for the elect. Whoa! Her ministry is for the elect. Do we realize that today? Do we realize that all that we do in ministry, in the ministries, is ultimately for the glory of God and for the sake of His chosen people? You say everything? Everything.

On behalf of the maturity of those who have already been saved, Colossians 1:28—I love that. Paul concentrated his effort as he ministered to these churches. He says, "Him we proclaim," referring to Christ. We proclaim Him. We proclaim Jesus. "Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that"—this is the end in view—"we may present every man complete in Christ." That's the aim. That's the goal. To present those who belong to Him complete in Christ. That's the goal of pastors, elders.

What was Paul's goal regarding believers? Not just to gather more and more into the building, but that he might see every single one brought into maturity in Christ. Christ-likeness. Is that the goal of our churches? To see people brought to maturity in Christ? Beloved, if this is the case, then you'll have a discipling pulpit. You'll have a discipling pulpit. The Word of God will be taught because that's how people come to maturity in Christ. "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth." And, so, regarding the saved, what's our goal? To see them come to maturity. To see them come to Christ-likeness more and more and more, progressively.

But now listen to how Paul describes his ministry regarding the lost. You say, what about the lost? Maybe you're sitting here and saying, “what about the lost though? You're talking about the saved. What about the lost?” Well, listen to what he writes. I'm going to give you a chapter and verse—2 Timothy 2:10. Please turn there and read it. Let your eyes see the words, inspired Word of God. This is the inspired Word of God. It's not my opinion. This is God's Word.

2 Timothy 2:10, Paul writes, "For this reason I endure. I endure all things." Stop right there first. "For this reason I endure all things." Think about what he endured. We read a little bit of it a moment ago—the beatings, the imprisonments, the persecution, all that he went through, you know, right? All of it. Why would he go through all of this? Why would he endure all of it? Paul, tell us why.

Listen to what he says: "For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect." Why? Why, Paul? "[S]o that they also may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." You see that? Paul says, “I know this: out in the world there are people chosen before time by God the Father, given as a love gift to His Son for redemption, and I know this—that through the preaching of the gospel they will come to faith in Christ.” That's why I go through all that I go through, because I know this: that as I preach the Word—God's means—the elect of God will be gathered in. I endure it all for the sake of the elect. All of it. That they too may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

We must never forget that when we preach the Word of God, when we proclaim the gospel, when we preach the Word of God, the voice of the Shepherd is going forth. "My sheep hear My voice. They follow Me." What is this book that you hold in your hand today? What is this book that you hold in your hand? It is the very Word of God, breathed out by God, penned by men who were moved along by the Holy Spirit in such a way that while they recorded their thoughts, they were recording the very words of God—the inerrant, infallible, inspired, all-sufficient Word of God.

And when this Word is declared faithfully, studied accurately, read reverently, the voice of the Shepherd, Almighty God our Savior, His voice goes out. And we know this: the sheep will hear His voice, as our Lord taught us earlier in this chapter, and will follow Him. They follow Him. They know His voice. They don't know the voice of a stranger. They won't follow a stranger, but they know the voice of their Shepherd.

And when men say things like this—"You know, did you really have to highlight sin and wrath? People won't listen to it. People won't listen to that. You can't preach that. That's hard. I mean, election? Sovereign election? You can't preach that. You shouldn't preach that, because people won't listen to that.” When people say this, we need to immediately ask the question: which people won't listen to that? Which people won't listen to it? Are you telling me that the elect won't listen to it? Or are you telling me that the goats won't listen to it?

You see, you and I haven't been called to offer goat food. We've been called to offer sheep food. We've been called to offer the Shepherd's food. And when the Shepherd, the Good One, calls His sheep to pasture, they hear His voice and they follow Him. Who's our ministry for? Did God leave us here on earth after He saved us to entertain goats? Or did He leave us here on earth to preach the Shepherd's message so that all of the elect of God might be gathered in, then be brought to maturity and become complete in Christ?

And has the church forgotten what we're here for, tragically? Well, this gets to the last thing that I'll share this morning. We'll close with that. When we forget that there's going to be a division and we forget that God's peace is not a peace that has no conflict, but rather the presence of righteousness, then something else happens. We'll close with this. We'll pick up where we left off next Lord's Day on this really important passage.

Something else happens, and that is this: the church misunderstands what is success and what is failure. That's what happens. The church misunderstands what is success and what is failure. See, we're living in an age—this is undeniable—even among many who would say otherwise, we are living in a time when success in the church is measured simply by the size of the crowd that gathers. How many people come?

I can't tell you how many times I see people I haven't seen maybe for ten years or five years or three years. They ask first, "How many people, now, come to your church?" It's the mentality that says, “These are the men we ought to listen to—you know, mega church pastors across the board without any distinction or qualification—because after all, they have the measure of success.” You know the three Bs: the budget—how much is your budget, how big is your budget—how many buses you have, and how big is your building. Budget, buses, and buildings.

What is the measure of success? How many people show up? Is that really the measure of a church? Beloved, I ask you this morning, is that how you measure a church? What's the answer? No, of course not.

Turn with me to Revelation 2. Revelation 2. I'm going to read a couple of portions here. I want you to see something. Revelation 2, beginning with verse 8. This is Smyrna, the church in Smyrna. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Head of the Church, instructs John to write this:
"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: This is what the First and the Last, who was dead, and has come to life, says: 'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will never be hurt by the second death.'"

Fast forward to the next chapter. Pick it up, verse 7: "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: This is what He who is holy, who is true, and who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says: 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have given before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Behold, I am giving up those of the synagogue of Satan, those who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and he will never go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"

Now, here's the question that I want to ask. Do you notice something about these two churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia? These two churches, contrary to the others, did not receive one word of correction, rebuke, or condemnation. They both received nothing but commendation. Commendation.

Do you notice something else these churches have in common? They both were little. And here's what I mean. The church of Smyrna had little money—poverty. Little money. The church in Philadelphia is described as having little power. Little power. Little strength. And what they also have in common is that they were both suffering from those who claim to be the people of God, but were not. And they both were going to be rewarded.

Two churches—characterized by little money, the other little power—and both received nothing but commendation from the Son of God, the living Head of the Church, because they were faithful to His truth. They had not denied His name. They had not denied His word. They were faithful to the end.

And I wonder, beloved, I wonder what the great day is going to reveal one day. I wonder how many successes will be revealed as failures. In fact, beloved, I wonder how many successes will be revealed as not even believers sitting in the pews. And I wonder how many failures, by worldly church's estimation, will be revealed one day as having been faithful to Christ.

Where do you want your praise to come from? From men? Or from God? What kind of success do you really want? What does it mean to be successful? What kind of success do you really want? Success measured by a superficial, false standard? How many people show up? How big is the budget? How many activities do we have? Or success as it is pronounced by God?

Beloved, where there is truth, there will be peace. Where there is truth, there will be peace. But it won't be a false peace. It will be a righteous peace. And, until the Prince of Peace returns, it's also going to be a divisive peace. Jesus came to bring a sword, and that sword is the truth, and it divides. But blessed be God, praise God, it also saves. It saves.

Do you know Him today? Do you know Christ? Do you love Him? Is the bend of your heart that you really want to please Him above all else? Above all others? Is that the one towering ambition of your life? Who have you been living your life to please? Whose praise have you been seeking? Whose praise have you been satisfied with? Is it enough for you that people speak well of you? Is that it? Or do you desire the praise that comes not from men, but from Him?

Spurgeon - and I'll close with this - said, "To please God even a little is infinitely greater than to have the praise of all mankind."

Let's pray. 

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

In our justice system, the Crown Prosecutor's Office can issue an indictment, can issue indictments. They can issue an indictment against an accuser, but you need to know that indictments in the human realm do not necessarily equal convictions. You can get an indictment that doesn't necessarily mean that the person is guilty indeed, nor does it necessarily mean that you have sufficient evidence to convict even if they are guilty indeed. An indictment is one thing, a conviction is something else. That's true when it comes to the human justice system in this world in which we live.

But you can be sure of this, beloved, you can be sure of this. When God brings an indictment, there's a hundred percent conviction rate, a hundred percent. Every time. He never brings an indictment that is misinformed. When God indicts, you are guilty, you're guilty. His indictments never rest on insufficient evidence. His indictments never include innocent people. It's good to remember also, He's not just the prosecuting attorney, He is also the judge. He is the judge.
And what we have in the book of Malachi, what we have here specifically in the first chapter that we're studying together is God Almighty Himself bringing indictments against His people. The people who returned, you remember, from exile to Jerusalem and now they're worshiping through the activities of the second temple priestly service, and God is indicting their spiritual condition. He began at the point of their ungratefulness. You remember the first indictment in verses 1 through 5, He charged the people with not recognizing how God has loved them. "I have loved you," says Yahweh of Hosts, verse 2.

And He's speaking specifically about the fact that He had chosen them, He had set His affection upon them, the nation as a people in whom He would work and through whom He would work. But they did not feel blessed. They did not feel the weight of His grace and mercy. They were blind to His love. They were blind to His favor. "How have You loved us?" they asked. They pushed back. What an audacious question. So God answers, “Here's how I loved you. I set My affection on you. I chose you, Jacob. I rejected Esau”.

So God brings to their attention just how ungrateful they are, how blind they are to His grace. But it doesn't stop there. The problem with these people is not just ungratefulness. Now when we come to verse 6, all the way to the end of the chapter, God brings another charge. He brings another charge. Not only are they ungrateful, but they also positively dishonor Yahweh. They positively dishonor Yahweh.

Not only do they not recognize His love, they don't recognize His worth. They don't recognize His majesty. They don't recognize His glorious person. They don't recognize the gravity of His person. Not only do they not love Him as they should, they don't fear Him as they should. They don't respect Him as they should. They don't reverence Him as they should. This is the charge we see in verse 6. This is our first point tonight. I want us to see the charge of dishonor, the charge of dishonor.

Verse 6: "A son honors his father, a slave his master. Then if I’m a father, where is My honor? And if I’m a master, where is the fear of Me?" says Yahweh of Hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, "How have we despised Your name?" The people, especially represented in the priests, are guilty of despising the name of God, dishonoring the living God, the true and living God.

They've dishonored Him in every way. And God drives this home by mentioning here two specific ways that He is dishonored. He underscores two specific ways. The first one, He tells them, they dishonored Him relationally. They dishonored Him relationally. A son honors his father. Israel is God's son. God chose to relate Himself to His people, to this people, the chosen ones, as a Father.

In fact, you remember the language, I trust, from Exodus chapter 4 and verse 21 and following. Listen to the language: "And Yahweh said to Moses, 'When you go to return to Egypt, see to it that all of the miraculous wonders which I put in your hand, that you do them before Pharaoh. But as for Me, I will harden his heart with strength so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, let My son go, that he may serve Me, but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"'

When you have more time—and I'm not going to read it tonight—but you just can read Isaiah chapters 63 and 64. God just drives this truth home, how in His great grace and mercy He has related Himself to Israel like a Father. The book of Hosea; turn with me. I love that chapter. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible concerning who God is and His love. Hosea chapter 11, beginning with verse 1, just listen to the language: "When Israel was a youth, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, the more they went from them. They kept sacrificing to the boughs and burning incense to graven images. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them in My arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love. And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws, and I bent down and fed them."

What an imagery. I bent down and fed them. "They will not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria—He will be their king. As they refuse to return to Me, and the sword will whirl against their cities and will consume their gate bars and devour them because of their counsels. So My people are hung up on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him."

Wow. Now watch this. In spite of this blatant disobedience, stubborn rebellion, listen to what God says next. Verse 8: "How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I give you over to be like Edmah? How can I make you like Ziboim? My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are stirred. I will not execute My burning anger, I will not make Ephraim a ruin again, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They will walk after Yahweh. He will roar like a lion, indeed He will roar, and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will settle them in their houses," declares Yahweh.

Oh, they're going to suffer—the rod of God, the disciplining rod of God, the disciplining hand of God—but He's not done with them. He's not finished. He won't utterly give them up. He will call His children and eventually establish them in their homeland. God has related Himself to them like a Father, and yet the question is here: "A son honors his father. If I'm a Father, where's My honor? Where's My honor?"

So they have dishonored God relationally. But secondly, they dishonored God reverentially. They've dishonored God reverentially also. That is, if you were even to forget all that God has done for Israel from a relational point of view, if we just think of the honor that God deserves as God, as Creator, as Sustainer, as Sovereign, they don't even give Him that. They don't even give Him that. Not only do they not relate to Him as a Father, they don't tremble before Him as a Master.

"A son honors his father and a slave his master. Then if I'm a Father, where's My honor? And if I'm a Master, where is the fear of Me?" says Yahweh of Hosea. If you consider the kind of honor and fear that's given in the human realm, and then you compare what Israel is doing toward God, it is absolutely astounding. Sons honor fathers, slaves respect masters, tremble before masters. God is the perfect Father. He is the perfect Master. And yet men will give honor to fathers and not honor God, and men will give fear to the masters—earthly masters—but not tremble before Almighty God, the Sovereign One of heaven and earth.

In fact, the priests are despising Him. This is His charge: You dishonor Me. You don't reverence Me. You don't fear Me. You don't respect Me, as you should. But notice the second point. First, you have the charge, but secondly, notice the challenge—the challenge to the charge. And verse 6 says, "Yahweh of Hosea, O priest who despised My name." But you say, "How have we despised Your name?"

"You are presenting defiled food upon My altar." But you say, "How have we defiled You?" God is revealing, as He puts what is in their minds and hearts into their mouths, into words in the text here. What God is demonstrating is that the priests don't feel the weight of their dishonor towards God. They don't see it. They're blind to it. They have no concept whatsoever how offensive their lives have become before God. They have no real sense of how inappropriate and wicked their attitudes; their behaviors are.

But do you notice how God describes it in verse 8 when He says, "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil?" This isn't just inappropriate. He says flat out—He's right flat out—He says it is wicked. It's pure evil. But they're blind to it. These are the priests. They're blind to it. They say, "Oh, how have we dishonored You? What are You talking about? Are You serious? Are You for real, God? How have we despised You? How have we defiled You?"

And God responds. He answers: by your attitude and by your actions concerning the entire sacrificial system that I ordained, that I Myself have commanded. But you say, "How have we despised Your name?" "You are presenting defiled food upon My altar." But you say, "How have we defiled You?" "In that you say the table of Yahweh is to be despised."

And this gets to our third point. So you have the charge. You have the charge disputed—the challenge, the charge refused on the part of the people. They're arguing with God. The third thing I want us to see is the evidence for the charge—the evidence. The charge, the challenge, and then the evidence. Let's begin to get to the details of it. You don't see it, He says. You're blind to it. So let Me bring it to your attention. Let Me underscore that. Let Me highlight. Let Me make it clear to you—plain.

Number one, He says, you are dishonoring Me, first of all, by what you bring. By what you bring. What you bring to sacrifice, to offer in My temple. Verse 8, "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? When you present the lame and the sick, is it not evil?" Putting it in the human realm, talking about what they might be ashamed to bring to a governor, He goes on to say, "Please, bring it near to your governor. Go ahead, bring it. Would he accept you? Would he accept you? Would he lift up any of your faces?" says Yahweh of hosts. I mean, if your governor would not receive such an offering or such offerings, do you think I will?

The people were to bring the cream of the crop. They were to bring their best. They were to bring what was unblemished. They were to bring that which was without defect. This is what the law of God taught. The reason why God's law required such a thing was to drive home the message of the holiness of God, that I am God and I am holy, holy, holy. Again and again, the book of Leviticus, He gives the law, He gives the commands, He gives the stipulation, the priesthood, and He says, "For I, the Lord, am holy. I'm holy”. Drive home the message of the holiness of God, what God is worthy of, and also the picture of the One in whom God would grant deliverance to His people.

And keep in mind in all of this, beloved, that all of the sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to that one and only sacrifice, THE sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice for our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb unspotted. He's the Lamb unblemished, perfect, and this is what would be required for the forgiveness of our sins and for our worship to be made acceptable to God. And you and I, beloved, we worship through Jesus Christ, the one and only Mediator. It is in Christ's perfect righteousness and only in His righteousness that whatever we offer, whatever we bring to God could ever be acceptable to Him. It is through Christ, only through Him.

Will you turn with me to Leviticus 22? Leviticus 22, look at verse 17. "Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel, and say to them, "Any man of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel who bring near his offering, whether it is any of their votive,"'—like a vow made—'"or any of their freewill offerings which they bring near to Yahweh for a burnt offering, for you to be accepted,"'—God is giving now the—He's setting the ordained means and rules and all of that—'"it must be a male without blemish from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not"—listen to this, beloved, God made it very specific, unmistakable—'"you shall not bring it near, for it will not be accepted for you. And when a man brings a sacrifice of peace offerings near to Yahweh to fulfill a special vow or for freewill offering of the herd or of the flock, here it is, it must be without blemish to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it."'"

Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or have a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not bring near to Yahweh or make them an offering by fire on the altar of Yahweh. Verse 23, now in respect to an ox or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member, you may offer it for a freewill offering, but for a votive offering it will not be accepted. Also anything with its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not bring it near to Yahweh, and you shall not do thus in your land, nor shall you bring near any such thing from the hand of a foreigner for offering as the food of your God, for their corruption is in them, they have a defect, they shall not be accepted for you.

You see it? It was clear. It was unmistakable. Do not bring such things. And yet, what are they bringing? Unbelievable. What are they bringing? They're bringing the blind. They're bringing the lame. They're bringing the sick. The blemished. Verse 13, they're even bringing that which has been taken by how? Robbery. By robbery. "You bring what was taken by robbery, what is lame or sick, and you bring the offering. Should I accept that from your hands," says Yahweh?
The law of God was clear, crystal clear, and they're bringing substitutes in the place of what was their best. They have better to offer. Better to offer. The problem is not that they don't have anything else to offer. Verse 14: "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord." You keep the best for yourself, and you give God your leftovers. You bring Me what you don't want. You wouldn't do that for a human governor, would you? But you do that for Me. You do that to Me, says God.

Why do you say we're dishonoring You? Why do you say we're defiling You? Well, look at what you're bringing Me, God says. What they bring is the problem, but also what is revealed by what they bring also is the problem. What is revealed by what they bring. Do you notice how God is driving home His greatness in this text? How He's underscoring it, highlighting it, making it clear. Verse 14 makes it so clear: "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord." Why? He gives a reason: "For I am a great King," that's the reason, says Yahweh of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations."

What they're revealing by what they're bringing—don't miss this, beloved—what they're revealing by what they're bringing is their low view of God. They dishonor Him in their minds and in their hearts before they dishonor Him by their behavior, by their actions. What they bring reveals what they think of God, what they carry in their hearts and their minds towards God.

And I want us to notice that while the people are guilty because they're the ones who are bringing the offerings, God is addressing the priests because they're accepting these offerings from the people. The guardians of the temple, the law—like people are the priests. They're no different. The priests can't call the people to a higher standard. Why? Because the priests have a low view of God themselves. That's why I entitled the message, Polluted People, Polluted Priests. Because the defiled table is just a reflection of the defiled priest. So God is taking issue with the leaders, and the reason is you're not calling the people to a higher standard because this is your attitude towards Me, God would say. This is your attitude, and what God makes clear is that their worship was corrupt because their perspectives were corrupt.

Notice with me, beloved, and this is important, the absence of weightiness in their worship. The absence of weightiness in their worship. God is not weighty as they approach Him. The absence of weightiness in their worship—there is no sense of reverence in it. Verse 12: "But you are profaning it in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.'"

Now what does that mean when you read, "In that you say the table of the Lord is defiled"? Well, that's just a way of saying it's unclean. The altar—it's unclean, or to say it a different way, it's not really set apart. It's not really holy. Nothing holy about the altar. Holiness is not required here, really. That's an overkill. The altar is common, which means that the fruit of the altar, which is put on the altar, can be despised. It can be thought of lightly. To be despised here, in this case, it really means to really view it as light, to view it lightly, not as weighty.

They view their approach to God as though it were common. Nothing holy about the altar. Therefore, nothing weighty about the offerings. And so we can bring our blind. No big deal. We can bring our lame. We can bring our blemished, blemished animals because this really isn't a really big of a deal. We're doing what we've been told to do, but it's not really that weighty. I mean, we're doing it after all. We're taking time, and we're giving of what we have, so that should be enough.

There's the absence of weightiness in their worship. But what is equally disturbing as what is missing from their worship—that sense of reverence for God—what is equally disturbing, beloved, is what is present in their worship. Equally disturbing. And God gives voice to that. God gives voice—something very offensive that is present in their worship—and look at it in the text in verse 13. You know what it is? Weariness. Weariness. "You also say, 'Behold, how tiresome it is!' and you disdainfully sniff at it," says Yahweh of hosts. This is tiresome. We're tired of this. Here they're bringing what was offensive to God, and if that weren't enough, they're bringing it with an attitude that said, we would rather be doing something else. We would rather be somewhere else doing something else.

One commentator put it this way, and I quote: "Even their performance of temple duties is a bother to these priests who clearly would rather be doing something else. They consider their ministry to be a wearisome thing. Its responsibility, something to brush off as hardly worth their time. They go through the motions because it's expected of them, but there's no joy, no satisfaction in it. Rather than take the trouble to ensure that the work of the temple is carried out properly in every detail, the officiants at worship accept any kind of animal from the people, whether it be stolen, lame, or sick, all of which sorts of offerings are strictly forbidden in the law."

And he goes on to say, "No wonder the Lord asked, 'Should I accept them from your hands?' Implicit in the question is whether not only the sacrifices, but also the priests in their service are worthy of His approbation."

The absence of weightiness, the presence of weariness—but there's something more disturbing: the presence of deception. Verse 14, look at it. The presence of deception . "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord." The kind of worshipper here described in verse 14 is described as a cheat, a spiritual cheat, a fraud—a fraud. This person purposes one thing at some point in time, but then when he sits and thinks about it more, and when it actually comes time to perform what he vowed, he now counts the performance of it to be, well, too costly for him. It's too much. It's too much.

So what he does—he substitutes something in its place. You know, God, You understand, I would have given You this. That's what I've considered from afar, but now that it comes right down to it, it's just too costly, too much. So here You go. This is what I think You're worth. And they give God the leftovers. And it seems that what God is describing here was something publicly committed to, and so this amounts to a spiritual sleight of hand. You make a promise in the presence of others that you're going to give this, but then you count it to be too costly, so you give something else in its place.

Do you realize that you can sin against God in something that was purely voluntary in the first place? That is, you weren't commanded to do it in the beginning, to begin with. You didn't have to do it. You volunteered to do it, but then you sin against God in the way that you execute it because you're a spiritual hypocrite. To use the language here of Malachi,  you're a spiritual cheat. You will leave the impression in the eyes of others that you're one kind of a person, when in reality, you're another kind of person.

And this was repeated later on, has been repeated many times throughout the history of redemption, but there's one glaring case that we can all remember very well, and that is the case of Malachi. A glaring case that we can all remember very vividly, right? A couple who promised one thing publicly when they were not required to, but they did, and then they came bringing something completely different. God taught an unforgettable lesson to an infant church in the way that He dealt with that first couple, because if God dealt with everyone who did this in the same way, there would be a lot of funerals.

Turn to Acts 5. Acts 5:1: "A man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge." There's no misunderstanding here. She was completely on board. "And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet." Apparently, they had made a public commitment that they were going to sell this piece of property and bring the whole amount, and they came representing that they were bringing the whole amount. But in fact, they were really keeping a part of this to themselves, back for themselves, and now they bring the rest and lay it before the apostles. Verse 3- “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your authority? Why is it that you laid this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God’. And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last, and a great fear came over all who heard. And the young men rose up and wrapped him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now, there was an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

And Peter responded to her, ‘Tell me whether you were paid this much for the land?’ And she said, ‘Yes, that much.’ Then Peter said to her, ‘Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.’ And immediately she fell at the feet, at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And a great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard these things.”

Wow. God is waiting. So the charge is, where's My honor? Where's My respect? Where's My fear? The challenge, the challenge, the charge: How? How have we dishonored You? You can't be serious, God. How did we despise Your name?

Here's the evidence: by what you bring and by how you bring it. By what you bring and how you bring it. You have violated My law. You have disregarded My commands. You wouldn't even bring to a human governor what you're bringing to Me, which leads to the fourth heading we see in this text: the verdict, the verdict.

Now the prosecuting attorney serves as the judge. He is the Judge of judges. He has indicted His people for their sins. Now He pronounces the verdict. Verse 10, God says, I want you to stop. Just stop. Just stop. Stop it. “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates," talking about the temple activity, "just shut the doors enough that you might not light fire on My altar in vain." Your offerings are in vain. They're worthless. They need to stop. Just stop. Stop.

Secondly, He tells them not only to stop, but He tells them something else. "I have no delight in you." These are cutting words. Piercing words. "I have no delight in you," says Yahweh of hosts. You know, I find it interesting. Very interesting. He doesn't say, "I have no pleasure in these things." He doesn't say, "I have no delight in these things," in your offerings. No, no. Though obviously He didn't. But rather, look how He puts it: "I have no delight in you."

The offering simply reflects the offerer—the heart—your heart. "I see your heart," He says, "and I have no delight in you," says Yahweh our host, so that God refuses what they offer. "Nor will I accept an offering from your hand." He starts with the heart and He goes to the hand. It's always with God that way. I don't care what you bring, you must repent. You are the problem. The heart is the problem. And until there's a change in you, there's nothing that I will receive from your hand. Shut the doors. Stop playing church.

In fact, God curses the one who offers like these people do, like these priests do. "But cursed," verse 14, "be the swindler who has a male flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord." You are under a curse. Not only will I not receive it, but I will judge such behavior and offerings.

Walter Kaiser said this, and I quote: "Malachi took dead aim at the priest of his day and delivered a stinging indictment of their careless, haphazard, and profane service to the living God. He then enlarges the scope of his message to include all who worship God in a similarly unacceptable way, saying, 'But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.'"

He goes on to say, "Suddenly in a context primarily addressed to priest or the clergy, the focus was extended to include any and all who are indulging in the same kind of practices. While the priests were wrong for accepting it, the people were wrong for bringing it." End of quote.
And then God does something that really ought to weigh down upon our conscience. God does something that really ought to really rest on us. He promises that His name will be honored. God promises that His name will be honored. "You dishonor My name, but My name will be honored. You don't give Me respect, but I will be respected. I'll get it."

Verse 11, "For from the rising of the sun even to its setting"—and you get the picture, from the rising to the setting, from where the sun comes up to where the sun goes down, the whole globe, the whole planet—"My name will be great among the nations. In every place incense is going to be presented to My name as well as a grain offering that is clean, for My name will be great among the nations," says Yahweh of hosts. His name is really wrapped up—in that name is all of His characteristics, His glory, His attributes.

Then He repeats it in verse 14, "For I’m a great King," says Yahweh of hosts. "My name is feared among the nations." So here's what you and I need to get, beloved. This is what ought to rest on us. It ought to. Let us not miss this. Let us not leave this place without really having this really resting upon us.

The question is not whether the day will come when God's name will be properly acknowledged, when people will sense and know the worth of God, when people recognize His majesty and respond to Him as is appropriate. That day is coming. It's inevitable. But the question is: where do we stand in relationship to that day? "I will be honored," God says. Now you dishonor Me. The problem is not for God. It's not. You see, God is worthy whether we ever acknowledge it or not. He is worthy whether we acknowledge it or not, and one day the whole world will acknowledge it.

The question is: will you be among those who acknowledge it in love and acceptance and worship and reverence, or will you be one who acknowledges it on a bended knee that lived out its lifespan in rebellion towards God? Where will you stand? Where will you stand? The other question is: is His worth being realized by you right now?

The sins that are on display here—let me ask this evening as I'm trying to bring this to a close—the sins that are on display here, were these things written down here in Malachi? Here's the question: were they just written down for Malachi and Malachi's generation? Or did God know of a congregation sitting in Markham, Ontario in 2025 when these words were penned? Is it just for them, or does this instruct us about our worship?

1 Corinthians 10:11 settles it, right? It just settles it. It's one place; there are many others. "These things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived." Makes it clear, doesn't it? So it's not just for them, it's also for us.

And so I'll finish tonight by asking us some questions. And I pray to God that the Holy Spirit will bring those questions to bear upon your conscience and mine this evening. Are we dishonoring God in our worship? Are we refusing Him what should be His from the standpoint of relationship and reverence? If you say Christ is your Lord, then God is your Father. And if you know that you're to honor a human father, shouldn't you honor your perfect Heavenly Father also? If God has loved you, if in His great grace He chose you for salvation and brought you to Himself and rescued your life, should you not honor Him?

And consider our God from the standpoint of His sovereignty, His Lordship—Creator, Sustainer, *El Gibborr* ( אֵל גִּבּוֹר), Almighty God. Just consider Him now as a Master—*Kyrios* (κύριος) Despot. Should you not fear Him? Should you not reverence Him? Take an account of your life and ask yourself, as I had to ask my own self: does this look like love in my life? How I'm living right now, does this look like loving God? Is this what reverence for God looks like in a life?

And then I would ask us to examine what we're presenting to God, what we call worship. We came tonight to worship, didn't we? We came tonight to worship God. We came this morning to worship God together corporately, to do corporately what you and I are called to do every single day. So we bring to God, we give to God worship. Consider what we call worship, and then ask this question: is my heart in it? Is your heart in it? Do you bring out your best?

How many times we've heard this? Maybe you've said it yourself. Oh, I've got this big meeting Tuesday morning. I mean, it's huge. It's a big meeting. You know what? Because it's a huge meeting; critical meeting, Tuesday morning, I'm just going to make sure that I am rested, prepared for the meeting the next day. My mind needs to be sharp. I need to be at my best. I wonder how many of those conversations have taken place in households in our midst over the years. I've got a big meeting tomorrow. I've got a big deal going on. I've got this big thing going on and, you know, I've got to make sure that I'm ready for this.

I wonder how we prepare for Sunday morning. How we approach our time in the Word, prayer. What do you occupy your mind and heart with as you prepare for the Lord's Day? As you come into this place to meet with the living God, for the reading of Scripture, the singing of songs, and the hearing of sermons, how much real thought do you even give to being ready for such meetings? And what are you presenting that you're calling worship? What am I presenting that I'm calling worship? Could it be that you wouldn't even give that kind of preparation to your boss? To a job interview? But you'll give it to God.

And then I wonder if the truth be known, how many of us are just like those priests in that we continue to do what we do because we know we should. We do what we do because we know it's expected of us, but if our hearts could be unveiled, there's weariness in it. It's tiresome. I mean, it's really something else we would rather be doing. Somewhere else. Listen to Walter Kaiser again. And I quote, "They complain too if the Word of God is still being expounded upon for more than the anticipated half an hour." End of quote.

Do you realize that the things we gather to do, that we didn't invent? The gathering together of the saints for the reading of Scripture, for the singing of songs, spiritual songs, and Scripture songs, and for the declaration of the Word of God, and for the mutual exhortation of the saints, for prayer. Do you realize we didn't invent this? God gave us these things. And He said, now this is how I want you to worship Me. In fact, I don't want you to neglect these things. It's the manner of some, but you don't let it be your manner also. When the church gathers, be present. "Hebrews 10:25."

And yet how many find two services a week to be wearisome? Considering the drive here, the drive home, the length of the worship services, and let's not include corporate prayer meeting. I mean, two and a half hours in a week. It's just too much. How wearisome. And so we come and say, here's my worship. Ah, but where's your heart? Where's your desire? Where's your zeal? Do you understand the worth of God?  Do you understand that you and I didn't invent this? God gave us these things, and we honor Him by believing Him regarding the means that He uses, not only to save us, but to transform us into the image of His Son—means of sanctification. Do you want to honor the One who will be honored? He's going to be honored. Do you want to honor Him?

I find it really interesting how many times you find this description of God in the verses we just read. Those words again and again and again—Yahweh of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, Yahweh of hosts. Isn't that amazing? He's the Lord of the armies of heaven. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. Holy angels cover their face, cover their feet in His presence, and cry out, "Holy, Holy, Holy." He's honored in heaven, and here they were on earth, bringing blind, lame, blemished, second best to Him. What blindness. How sad.

One day we're going to meet Yahweh of hosts face to face. Yahweh is the Lord of hosts, and Jesus is one with the Father. He commands the armies of heaven. Listen to the words found in Revelation 19:11: "His name is also called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. And He treads the winepress of the wrath of the rage of God the Almighty. And He has on His garment and on His tie a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." Jesus, Jehovah Jesus, is Yahweh of hosts. The One who is coming, the Lord Jesus Christ—He's honored in heaven. He will be honored on earth.

Do you want to honor Him? Does your worship, my worship, honor Him? Did today honor Him? John 5:22, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." Our worship, beloved, must acknowledge the worth of God to be worshiped. Worship is acknowledging God's worth, and that means that we bring to Him our very best. Our very best.

 It means that we recognize His majesty, His greatness. It means that we honor Him as the perfect Father, that we reverence Him as the perfect Lord. It means that we obey His Word. We don't bring what He expressly commands us not to bring, and it means that we worship Him. We don't count it when we worship Him as a weariness, tiresome. We count it a privilege. We count it a delight. We count it joy, exceeding joy. Do we battle with our weariness, with the remaining corruption? Of course we do, but we press on by the grace of God. Oh, God, help my heart catch up with my head. This is, beloved, the best day of the week. We worship Him every day, and then we get to come together and give worship to our great King. He will be honored all over this planet. Let Him be honored here in this place.

You know, I couldn't help this week in preparation but think about the fact that what we see here—it was very convicting. What we see here is like the priests were the people, like the people were the priests. See, if you're the one calling, you can't call them to a higher standard than you yourself are committed to. And so I want to address my fellow elders this evening before God's people. If we desire for this church to be a worshiping church, then we must be worshiping elders. If we desire for this church to acknowledge the worth of God, then, my fellow brothers, we must acknowledge ourselves the worth of God.

And if we desire for this church to be zealous for God, not counting it weariness to serve Him, then we must be men who clearly reflect the fact that we wouldn't rather be somewhere else doing something else. That we will gladly spend and be spent. And as for us and as for our families, we resolve that we're going to serve the Lord. That is the standard. May God help us.

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Peace. Peace is something that is very highly valued. It is to be highly valued by Christians. Peace. And it's something that we're to pursue, that we're to work to preserve. And that's no small matter in the New Testament. There are many verses where the believers are exhorted, commanded to pursue that which makes for peace. It's all over the New Testament, particularly.

Just a sampling. I'm going to be quick with this. You can follow, you can flip if you want, or you can listen, or you can just jot them down for later reference. Mark 9:50, our Lord says, "Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another."   1 Thessalonians 5:13, "Live in peace with one another."   Romans 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men."   Ephesians 4:3, we're told to be "diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And in that context, you remember, we're told, "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love."   1 Peter 3:11, "He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it."   2 Timothy 2:22, "Now flee from youthful lust and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."  

In Colossians 3:15, we're told that God's peace is to serve as an umpire in our lives: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts."   2 Corinthians 13:11 says, "Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you."   Romans 14:19, "So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another."

And of course, recently, we studied the letter of James. James 3:17, you remember, it tells us that "the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, without doubting, without hypocrisy." In verse 18, "And the fruit of righteousness is sown how? In peace, by those who make peace."

Peace. All of those verses and others speak to us about the importance of peace. They speak to us about the priority of peace, the priority of peace. The priority that peace is to hold in our hearts, in our lives, beloved. Peace.

Not only is it something that we're to make a priority, but also we're told in God's Word that this peace, being peaceable, will characterize Christians. Christians. Christians are marked by this—that if you're really saved, if you really know the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're really a Christian, you're someone who counts peace to be something very, very important.
We saw just a moment ago that the wisdom from above is what? Peaceable. In Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." What is He saying to us? Those who will see the Lord one day are those who will be characterized by holiness because of God's saving work in their lives. They'll be marked, characterized by holiness, and it's in that context—in the context of a holy people—that we're told that we're to pursue peace with all men. Pursue it. This is not a passive thing. This is an active thing. Pursue it.

This is something Christ accomplished in His family, His body. Ephesians 2:14, "For He Himself," referring to Jesus Christ, "He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one." He made them both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in His flesh the enmity. That is, He brought Jews and Gentiles into the same body through His death on the cross and broke down the dividing wall of partition. He tore it down.

In fact, this is one of the qualifications for a pastor—that he is to be a man characterized by being peaceable. 1 Timothy 3:3, "Not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but considerate," and the next word is "peaceable." This is so serious that when we're dealing with a divisive person—however we want to pronounce it—and he's being warned more than once, we're to do what? Reject such a man. Titus 3:10, "Reject a factious man after a first and second warning." A divisive man.

And the reason why this characterizes Christians—this desire for peace and this striving, this pursuing for peace—is because this is what actually characterizes God Himself. Five times, five times in the New Testament, God is called the God of peace. Let me give you the references. Romans 15:33, "Now may the God of peace be with you all. Amen." Romans 16:20, "And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Philippians 4:9, "The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely." And Hebrews 13:20, that wonderful benediction, "Now the God of peace, now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever."

Peace is a priority. Peace is a priority. It is a priority. It characterizes people who are truly born again, born from above, because this is what really characterizes God Himself. And Jesus Christ, being God Himself, God incarnate in human flesh—this is what really characterizes our Savior. This is why in Isaiah 9, when it speaks of Messiah coming, the prophet says in Isaiah 9:6, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father." And here it is: Prince of what? Peace. Prince of Peace. He's Prince of Peace.

And in Matthew 12:19, "He will not quarrel," referring to the Messiah. "He will not quarrel, nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory." The words there in verse 19, "He will not quarrel, nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets." In other words, Messiah will not come on the scene as a revolutionary. He's not coming to lead a rebellion. He's not coming as an insurrectionist. No, no. He's coming to bring a different kind of kingdom. One day He will rule and reign on this earth, true enough, but it's going to be a kingdom of righteousness, brought about through salvation, brought about by the One who died and was raised from the dead to save sinners from their sins—the likes of you and me. So peace is a priority. It is that which characterizes Christians, because it is that which characterizes God, and it is that which characterizes our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Peace.

Now, why do I bring this up as an introduction? Why do I bring this up in this context? Because, again, in these verses that we've just read and throughout the Gospels, you see Jesus as the focal point, as the flashpoint for controversy—hence the title of this message, The Controversial Christ. I mean, wherever He goes, it seems there's no peace. No peace. Wherever He goes, there's what? Division. Division.

He's hated by the Jewish leaders. They're seeking to kill Him. Even right now, they're seeking to lay hold of Him, seeking His life. Right now, where we are in the Gospel of John chapter 10, they're seeking His life. Eventually, as we know, they will arrest Him, lead Him through mock trials, crucify Him on Calvary's cross. Wherever He goes, there's conflict. Wherever He goes, there's conflict. And not only is there division where you see Jesus on the earth, but after He's crucified, raised from the dead, ascended back to Heaven in glory, and sends the Holy Spirit, and then you see the birth of the church in the book of Acts, and you study the book of Acts, and what you find is what? The same pattern seen with His disciples. The same pattern. Wherever they go, there seems to be controversy, division.

You're not very far in the book of Acts when you see John and Peter arrested for proclaiming Christ. When Paul is arrested and put on trial—turn with me, in fact, to Acts 24—listen to how, or read with me, how his accusers describe his ministry. Verse 1: "Now, after five days, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and with an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought charges to the governor against Paul. And after Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, 'As we have attained much peace through you, and because by your provision reforms are being carried out for this nation, we welcome this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness. But that I may not weary you any further, I plead with you by your forbearance to hear us briefly. Now watch this. For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.'"

Did you hear that? Oh, most excellent Felix. I mean, you're great. You're amazing. You brought us this peace. And we know that you're a governor who has promoted peace. And now here's a man before you who is a pest. He's an instigator of division. He's a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. And everywhere he goes, there are problems, riots. Riots break out.

Now, while their words are twisted and skewed, a misrepresentation, the fact is that there's an element of truth in their words. Because as you study the book of Acts, indeed, you find it seems one riot after another. Acts 17, verse 6, it says, "And when they did not find them," referring to Paul and Silas, "they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, 'These men have upset the world. These men who have upset the world have come here also.'"

What did it seem like was happening through the church? What did it seem like was happening through the disciples? What did it seem like to the world, at least, was happening through the preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? It was like the world was being turned upside down. Upside down.And Jesus Himself foretold these controversies.

The Prince of Peace Himself made this statement back in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, and verse 34: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a"—what?—"sword." A sword.He wasn't talking about the sword of a militant. He wasn't talking about a physical battle. He was talking about the dividing instrument of God's truth. He was talking about the sword of the Word of God, that it brings division. It brings that kind of division.

John 16, Jesus warned His disciples about it in verse 1: "These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling." I'm warning you so that—here's the purpose—so that you're forearmed, you're kept from stumbling. What's the warning? "They will put you out of the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he’s offering a service to God." Jesus says, there will come a time because you are faithful to Me, faithful to proclaim the Word, faithful to the proclamation of the gospel, they're going to kick you out of the synagogue, and they're going to put some of you to death. And when they put you to death, they're going to think actually they're doing a service to God. And so, when you read verse 19, John 10: "A division occurred again among the Jews." When I read those words, when I consider that we're to pursue peace, reading those words and consider that we're to pursue peace, that God is the God of peace, that Christ is the Prince of Peace, when I take these two things—the division, and we're to pursue peace—I have to ask the question: when I hold them together, if peace is something we're to pursue, if peace is something we're to work for, and endeavor to achieve and attain, and if God is the God of peace, and if Christ is the Prince of Peace, and if His people are people who love peace, then why is there so much controversy that surrounds the gospel?

Why is there so much division whenever there's true Christianity? And how are believers supposed to think about that controversy? How are we supposed to respond to it, and how does it fit with our commitment to peace? That's what I would like us to think about this morning and next week, Lord willing. Maybe more than two weeks—we'll see. But look at verse 19 with me, and the first point that I want to underscore this morning is the reality of division. Please consider with me the reality of division—a division of the gospel.

Consider with me the reality of division. "A division," verse 19, "occurred palin, again, among the Jews, because of these words." ‘Palin’—once more. This is not the first time. This isn't the first time that the message of Christ had caused division, and it wouldn't be the last. This was a pattern. It was a pattern. From the time that the words and the works of Jesus began to expose the false religious leaders of the Jews, and began to expose false religion of the day, from that time that He healed the lame man—you remember—on the Sabbath forward, it was just one series of controversy, one thing after another.

The Jewish leaders hated Him for that, and they wouldn't let it go. They wouldn't. And this has never changed, has it? It hasn't. The Christian church must realize that we're going to be in opposition. The church of Jesus Christ must recognize that there's going to be opposition to the gospel. The Christian church must realize that the message of the cross in a world full of sin, in a cursed world, in a broken world—that message is hated. It is a hated message, and it is a controversial message.

And the reason why it is controversial is because it is true, and because it confronts the world face-to-face with its real problem. In John 3:20, you remember, Jesus said: "For everyone who does evil hates the Light." That's it. "Everyone who does evil, everyone who lives perpetually doing evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light." Why? "Lest his deeds be exposed."
The person who's engaged in wicked things, who does wicked deeds, and they enjoy it—for that person, these wicked deeds are his darlings. And they want to remain in it, they want to let go of it. Those people, Jesus says, they hate the light. They hate the light. People who live in darkness don't want the light to shine; they don't want to come to the light. Why? Lest their deeds be revealed for what they truly are.

That includes, by the way, religious deeds. They want to imagine it to be good, their so-called religious deeds, but the Word of God would expose all of it as being what? Empty, shallow, external, meaningless, ritualistic. This is what Jesus was doing to the religious leaders of the day . He was revealing their deeds for what they really were. You remember how He confronted them again and again. "You fast to be seen by men. You give to be seen by men. You pray in public to be seen by men." You make all these little rules that are not found in the Word of God, you make up the rules so that you could hold sway over the people of God. It's wickedness, Jesus says."You would save a sheep on the Sabbath, but you wouldn't even try to lift a finger to help a man in need." It's wickedness. And they hated Him for it—for saying it, for exposing it. Matthew 10:22, "You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." And our Lord says in Matthew 10:25, "It is enough for a disciple that he becomes like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul," called Him a devil, "how much more the members of His household?"

And these divisions, according to Jesus, these divisions are going to run sometimes as deep and as personal as your own family. There could be division between husband and wife, division between parents and children, siblings, because of faith in Jesus Christ. Matthew 10:34, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household."

Does the Christian church understand this? Does she understand this? Does the church of our time, of our generation, understand that there will be opposition inevitably if we preach the gospel faithfully? And does the Christian church understand that it is not within our power, nor is it within our mission to remove that enmity except through the preaching of the gospel? That is the only way that this enmity can be removed. The only way that you can go from war to peace—how? Through faith in Jesus. The only way you can go from hatred of the light to loving the light, hatred for those who are in the light to loving those who are in the light—the only way, the only way is through conversion, salvation, new birth.

Beloved, the peace that you and I are called to is the peace that exists where there's love for God, where there's love for God. The peace that we're called to is the peace that exists where there's the presence of righteousness. Remember this, remember this: God's kind of peace is not just an absence of conflict. God's kind of peace always, always requires and includes the presence of righteousness. Never forget that. Peace is not just two people agreeing to split the difference. No. You know, like, if we could just kind of call a ceasefire, then we have peace right now. I mean, if we could just bring the right government structure, then there will be peace in such and such country. I mean, isn't that the real issue, just the government structure? No. That's not peace. There's no peace, not real peace, where there's enmity with God. Try your hardest. It doesn't matter. It makes no difference.

And so the peace that we're called to pursue is the peace between brothers. It is the peace of God. It's the peace where there's the presence of righteousness. And also we could say that there's a general kind of peace, a peace with society, a peace with culture that we are to pursue as God's people. But listen carefully. But only so far as we can be faithful to His truth. And only so far as we can remain submitted to His Lordship.

In other words, we're to pursue peace with all men, with all men, the Scripture says—not just believers—all men, including unbelievers, as much as it depends on us. And you know what? When you go through the book of Acts, why were there all those riots? Was it because the disciples were engaging in those, you know, sit-down strikes, civil disobedience? They were picketing places and marching on places. Is that what they were doing? Is that what was going on? No. No, no. None of that.

What were they doing? What were they doing? They were simply preaching the gospel of Jesus. And they wouldn't budge. They wouldn't budge from that. That was the reason for the upset. They were just preaching God's truth. They were preaching God's Word. This is why believers are taught in the book of Romans, Romans 13, that we're to be submissive to the governing authorities. Beloved, in every way, a Christian ought to be a model citizen.
But the one thing, among many others, but the one thing we cannot do is agree not to preach the gospel. The one thing we cannot do is to say that we will pay allegiance to the government if it means that we will not be loyal to King Jesus. No. We must be His disciples first and foremost, citizens of Heaven. And we carry out the commission that has been given to us, which is what? We proclaim Him. We go and make disciples of all nations. And then in every other way, we're to pursue peace with all men as much as it depends on us.

But what we're never to be is a people who operate in this broken world with the mistaken notion that we're going to be loved by everybody, that we're going to be spoken well of by everybody, or that this is a condition to which we're to aspire—that what we're to aim at as the church of Jesus Christ is to have everybody love us. That what we're to aim at as the church is to have everyone understand us and have everyone applaud us and have everyone agree with us. In fact, it's just the opposite.

Do you realize that we're warned against that? We are actually warned against that. God's people have been warned against that. Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers were doing the same things through the false prophets." "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." Find a man who claims to speak for God and everyone loves him without exception—there's a man who doesn't really speak for God. You can mark it down: he's in some way taking the edge off of the truth of God, he's twisting the Word of God, he's holding back a portion of the Word of God, not proclaiming the full counsel of God. If he speaks for God and everyone loves him, beware of that man.

Beloved, if everyone didn't love Jesus, they're not going to love His servants. They're not. Nor should we imagine that we have permission from God or that it would be pleasing to God for us to try and afford some sort of a false peace or false terms with false religion, with a world that operates according to false ideas. That is not our task as the bride of Christ. Our task in this world is not to forge a kind of false peace with the world. Our task, given to us by God, is to be true, true peacemakers, which is, according to Scripture, we bring the gospel of peace forward.

We preach the gospel of peace. We bring the message to men that can bring men into peace with God. That's what it means to be a peacemaker. In fact, we're warned about friendship with the world. Remember James 4:4, "You adulterous, as he says, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God," an enemy of the All-Powerful One. What a foolish thing to do.

You have a lost and dying world that is not in friendship with God. It's at enmity with God. It's running directly opposite of the way it should run spiritually. And as a result of that spiritual enmity, it runs in the wrong direction intellectually, philosophically, and morally, and in many other ways—running on the wrong road, on the wrong path.

Now what is our task as the people of God? What is our task as believers? What is our task as Christians? To be in agreement with that world? To find friendship with the world? Or to declare to the world the one message and the one man, the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who can bring this lost, dying world into a right relationship with God? That's what it means to be a peacemaker, beloved. It means to bring Christ's message to the world so that in Christ there can be true peace made between sinful man and holy God.

When we don't understand this, when we don't understand this, when the church doesn't understand what we just talked about right now, when the church imagines that our task is to make friends with the world, then there are many, many errors and many, many sins that flow out of that misunderstanding. And I can't help it to spend some time on this. And that's what I want us to consider at this point—the errors, the sins that flow out of a misunderstanding of the peace that we're to pursue.

We're to pursue peace. But if we misunderstand what it means, if we think that it means friendship with the world, we're going to run straight into a ditch. And I want to point out some ways the church will do this as a forewarning to forearm us and to strengthen our resolve, to recalibrate us, and once again bring us back to center. We need realignment sometimes.

The first thing that happens, to name some of the errors—the first one, the errors and sins that flow out of misunderstanding of the peace that we're to pursue—the first thing that happens is this: the church misunderstands the profound nature of the problem it's addressing. The church misunderstands the profound, the profound nature of the problem it's addressing. When the church thinks that peace means making friendship with the world, then the church has lost sight of the profound nature of the problem that Christ has sent us to address.

What problem, let me ask, has Christ sent us as His ambassadors, as His people, the people whom He saved from their sin? If you're indeed a child of God, a Christian, what problem has now Christ sent you out into the world to address? It's nothing superficial, beloved. It's nothing superficial and it cannot be superficially healed. It is something profoundly deep.

Let me begin with some negatives. What is it that Christ has sent us to proclaim? What is it that we're to proclaim to the world around us? Has He sent us to tell the world how to feel better? Is that why He sent us? I mean, is that really our task as a church, as believers?

You know, there are so many people around us struggling with discouragement, struggling with tough times and difficult—you know, you know what? Here's what the church must do. The church must bring to the world some positive message, positive message. You know, we're going to lift these people up. We're going to lift them up and make them feel better about themselves. That's sort of what you're hearing in our generation, isn't it? That's the kind of path the church has taken, sadly.

Of course, when I say the church, I'm speaking generically, but many so-called evangelical churches—I mean, this is the road that they have taken. We proclaim, they say, a positive message to encourage people. We don't tell them they're sinners. We don't tell them of the judgment to come. That's not our task. Our task is just simply to give people a feel-good, positive message. It's our task.

Is that what Christ has sent us to do? Is it to make the people feel better, the world feel better? Has He sent us to tell the world of humanity how to get a better job, how to have a better marriage, and how to have a better life? Has He commissioned us to provide—how about this one? Has He commissioned us to provide entertainment for the world? Is that really what the world needs? More entertainment, you know? Laugh a little. I mean, did Jesus Christ die on a tree to send someone out to do stand-up routines? Is that why He died on the tree? To send forth ambassadors to make people laugh? Or did He die on a tree to send people out and, you know, perform? Perform, you know? Put on a performance. Put on a show. To dazzle the multitude with something spectacular.

Or to stand before people and give them the same message that they could receive from any positive-thinking guru or, you know, to be with the times, you know, just a life coach. Can we be honest and ask the question? Can we just be straight with one another and ask the question? What is really—just to use an example—what is really that much different between Joel Osteen and Tony Robbins? I mean, what is really that much different except that Osteen uses gospel terms sometimes to talk about making people feel better? How to achieve their goals, how to feel good, how to have a good life—in fact, your best life now. Isn't there something more profoundly wrong with this world than simply that it isn't thinking positively enough? It just hasn't found the right philosophy yet, maybe?

Let's talk about the church and the world. Is the problem, is the real barrier between this world and the church, simply one of perception? Is that the problem? I mean, the world just doesn't understand us. The real reason why people aren't coming into the church, aren't interested in the gospel is— is it really a PR problem? Is this it? You know, we're not making the gospel interesting enough, it's just too boring. We need to spice it up a little bit. That's it. If we can just spice up the gospel, then people will come. Is that the issue? Or isn't it the truth? That if we really speak the truth, the whole truth, and if we live the truth, that that's the issue. That the truth is what the world really has a problem with, what we all had a problem with before we came to know the Lord, before the Lord saved us. What sinful man really has a problem with is the truth.

To put it in the language of John 3, the light. The Word of God says, "Men hate the light and they won't come to the light because it will expose their evil deeds." And men can try to avoid the light with intellectual arguments and try to avoid the light by pointing out all the deficiencies that they can see in the Lord's church and in professing believers and in many other ways trying to avoid the real issue. But the real issue, where the enmity really is, is that if Christ is the truth, if the gospel is the truth, I'm being called to a faith and to a life then that I don't want because I don't want it to expose my evil deeds. I don't want to let go of it.

 Do we understand that the real problem, beloved, that we've been commissioned to address? What is it that Jesus has sent us to address? The real problem, beloved, the real problem is the problem of sin. Sin. The heart. It's lostness. It's estrangement from God. It is alienation from God. Enmity with God. And the fact that judgment is coming. It's coming. There it is. There it is, plain and simple. That's the issue.

The world of mankind is the world of sinners. And in our sinfulness, we're lost. That is, we are cut off from God, estranged from God, alienated from God. And if we die in that condition, we will spend eternity separated from God in a very real place of suffering and torment called hell. There's the issue. Judgment is coming. Wrath is coming upon sinners, upon the wicked. And we're all born sinners. Nothing superficial about that problem, beloved. In other words, beloved, we haven't been called to occupy ourselves with the symptoms of all of the world's sicknesses. We've been called to declare the message that gets to the root of the issue, that gets to the root of the disease.

Why are families out of order? Why are there problems in marriages? Why are there so many divorces? Why are there so many young people that have gone astray and are going astray? What's wrong with the family? Sin. That's what's wrong. Sin. Sin. Why are people unhappy, discouraged, depressed, empty, without a sense of direction and purpose in their life? Sin. Sin is what does that to human beings. And why? Why are there wars? Why is there stealing and cruelty? Doesn't it grieve your heart that it seems like every time you turn on the news, there's someone who's being murdered, who's been murdered, kidnapped, assaulted, and it's all over the place? And it's not new, is it? Why all of that stuff? Why does it happen? Sin. Sin.

Why is it that people need constant entertainment? Why is it that there's this constant need for distraction, entertainment without end? Why? Sin. That's why people aren't satisfied. Why? It's because of sin. They're always, always looking for the next thrill. When they get to the next thrill, they discover it's empty. It's like chasing a mirage in the desert, and so they will chase after the next thrill, and the next one, and the next one. Or we could say it another way. Not only it's because of sin, it's because they're estranged from God. They're estranged from Him.

You see, men have been made by the Creator in such a way that there will always be an emptiness in your life, always. Mark it down. Always be an emptiness in your life until you've been reconciled to Him. And there will always be problems in your life of this kind of nature. Emptiness, void, purposeless, living. If you're not walking with Him. And so what the world tries to avoid at every turn is its real problem. And its real problem is not a philosophy problem. It is not an entertainment problem or issue. Its real problem is a sin problem that alienated, estranged, lost men from a holy God. And the only way for the sins to be forgiven and for man to be reconciled to God is through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, who came to this earth, lived a sinless life, that He might die for sinners upon Calvary's cross, and He died in their stead to pay for all their sins, and He was raised from the dead, and He's able to save forever all those who come to Him by faith, repenting of their sins, recognizing that the real problem is turning from the way that leads to death and looking unto the Son of God for life. And only then are sins forgiven, and a sinner is made right with God, and only then is the nature transformed radically so that you're given a new heart with new loves, new ambitions, new desires. And only then does the Father and the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit take up residence in a person's life, and they're filled with God and become the dwelling place of God, the temple of God.

Only then you will know the truth and understand the truth and love the truth and long to walk in the truth. Only then. And yet, when the church does its true task, which is to declare the message, that message, the church needs to know, must know in advance that everyone will not love her for it. Will not love her for it. To some, you and I will be the aroma of life that leads to life, but to others, we will be the aroma of death that leads to death. There will be division, just like there was with Jesus, just like there was with the disciples, and just like there will be where the truth is faithfully proclaimed.

We need to be reminded, we need to be called to remember that God has called the church to address the most profound issues in the universe—so serious that have to do with life and death and Heaven and Hell and eternity—not something so superficial, so silly, so empty as trying to entertain people. "Oh, I went to church today, that guy is so funny. I mean, I just laughed, I couldn't help myself. It was so funny." See, when the church rightly understands that truth, there will be no true peace without salvation. Maybe we'll stop trying to bring superficial healing.

In the Old Testament, God rebuked priests and prophets who were dealing with people in a superficial way. Listen, in fact, turn with me to Jeremiah 6. Jeremiah 6, let's start with verse 10. Listen to what He says. Jeremiah 6:10: "To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it. But I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out on the infants in the streets and on the gathering of choice men together; for both husband and wife shall be captured, the aged with the one full of days. Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land," declares Yahweh. "For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone practices lying." Now watch this. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.” Did you notice? The leaders—they didn’t deny that there was a wound. They didn’t deny the wound. They just dealt with it how? Superficially. Superficially. Superficially. Saying, ‘shalom, shalom’, when there is no ‘shalom’.

Beloved, to tell people they’re at peace with God when their sins have not been dealt with is to lie to them. To tell people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives and stop there—not tell them that their sins must be forgiven and only can be forgiven in Christ, or that they’re going to spend eternity under the wrath of God unless they repent and believe—is to lie to them. Maybe the reason that false teachers and preachers lie to them today is the same as it was in Jeremiah chapter 6. Maybe because the prophets know that if they tell the truth, they may have to suffer for it. There may be division. There may be hatred.

I must conclude. We’ll leave the rest until next time, Lord willing. But let me conclude this morning—and we’ll come back, we’ll come back next time, Lord willing—to talk about some of the errors that spring from a misunderstanding of peace. But let me just finish this morning by asking four simple questions. Four simple questions. And I pray they’ll be etched in our hearts and our minds.

The first one is this. They’re simple. What’s really, really wrong with the world? Hmm? What’s wrong with the world, really? We all know there’s something wrong with the world. Just read the news. Look around you. Look at your own surroundings, your own life. We all know there’s something wrong with the world. What’s wrong with it? Beloved, do you recognize it’s sin?
What’s really wrong with a sinner? Do you recognize it is sin?

What’s wrong with you, my sinner friend today? Perhaps sitting here, in our midst. Maybe there’s some here in this room who’s not a Christian. And if you’re to be honest with yourself, that emptiness we’ve talked about this morning, that void, that lack of satisfaction, constantly reaching for something more, for the next thrill—it’s there in your life. Let me ask you, why is it there? Let me tell you. It’s because you’re not experiencing what you were made for: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

My next question is this. On what basis can the sinner enter into a friendship with God? On what basis can a sinner enter into a friendship with God? How can this enmity between a holy God and sinful man go away? How can a man be right with God? How can a man be reconciled to God? A sinner be reconciled to God? Do you realize there’s only one way? Only one.

Jesus said, John 14, 6, , “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus isn’t a good way to God. He isn’t even a way to God. He is the only way to God. Come to the Son and you will be received by the Father. Reject the Son and you will be rejected by the Father.

Third question: on what basis will the world love us? On what basis will the world love us? On what basis will the world love us? What will it take for the world to love us? What will it take for your lost friends that you've been reaching out to and that they have a real problem with you—what will it take for them to love you? Maybe for some of you it's in your own family. There's division in your own family. What's it going to take for them to really love you?

Do you realize there are only two ways to be loved by the world? Do you realize that? Only two ways. Only two ways: conversion or compromise. And there is no middle ground. Conversion or compromise. Either you will preach the Word of God, you will tell the truth, and by God's grace and mercy they will be converted—they will come to Jesus—and God will tell you this when that takes place. Have someone get saved and they will go from having hated you to loving you just like that. Or you can compromise and try to make friendship with the world on its terms, but realize that people who do that are what? Enemies of God. And you don't want that.

And the last question I ask this morning is: do you long for the world to love you? Do you long for the world to love you? Is that why perhaps some in this room—you've been compromising? Could that be the case? Because you'd rather have the love of the world than have the pleasure of the Father? Are you salty? Are you any different than the people around you who don't know Jesus? Are you notably different? Are you publicly different? Are you shining? "Blameless, innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked scoliosis, crooked and perverse generation who shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15).

You are light in the Lord. You're meant to shine. You're meant to shine. Are you shining? Are you shining? Is the Lord's pleasure enough for you? Is it enough for you? Take the world but give me Jesus. It's enough for me. It's enough to know that the smile of God is upon me. I don't care who's against me. I don't care who's frowning on me. Is the Lord's pleasure enough for you?

If you know from God's Word that you're pleasing the Father but you're hated on account of it, will it be enough for you to know that you please Him? Concerning Moses, I love those words. Hebrews 11.25 and 26 : "Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, regarding the reproach of Christ greater riches than he was looking to the reward.” May the Lord's church be revived to only care about pleasing one—pleasing our God. And all of God's people would say together, let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Here we come to the 17th verse in John chapter 10, and what we find in this 17th verse is a unique statement from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Shepherd, the Good One. It's really unique. You don't find much else like it when He says in verse 17, "For this reason the Father loves Me". What a statement. "For this reason the Father loves Me." We can put it this way. We can state it this way: The Father loves Me, and here's one reason that He does. The Father loves Me, and here's a reason that He does.

This morning I want us to meditate on that statement: "For this reason the Father loves Me". What does that statement say to us? The first thing I want us to see, I want to point out this morning, is that this statement says, first of all, in the simplest terms that we can employ, that Jesus is lovely. That's it. Jesus is lovely. We have a lovely Savior, and I prayed to God this morning that you and I would be so enraptured with the loveliness of our Savior. He's lovely. He's lovely.

That is, this statement speaks of the reality of a reason for love. There's a reason why the Father loves the Son. The first thing that stands out to me from this statement is that in the case of the Lord Jesus, in the case of the only begotten of the Father, the only begotten Son of God, in the case of the only begotten of the Father, the incarnate Deity, the eternal Son of God, the Beloved of God—in His case, there was and is a reason for His Father to love Him. And that thought occurs to me because of the obvious contrast between the Lord Jesus and the children of Adam.

Contrast this statement about the Father's love for His Son with the statements in God's Word about God's love for us. Think about that. Why does the Father love us? Why does He love us? It's not because of anything that He saw in us, is it? No. It's not because of anything found in us. It's not because of anything that you and I did. If that was the case, then we would be doomed. God's love for us is not explained by anything in us. God's love for us is a matter of what? Free grace. Free grace. It's a matter of amazing mercy. Just let that sink in. Let that marinate.

But God's love for His Son, His Beloved Son, His only begotten Son, is explained by what He sees in His Son. It is explained by what is found in His Son. And when you say that, what you're really saying is when God loves His Son, it's really a matter of God being God. Because for God to be God, He must set His admiration, He must set His affection, He must set His approval only on that which is what? Perfectly holy. Something, someone who's worthy of it.

Let me put it this way. Someone's character can be judged by what they're drawn to, right? Someone's character can be judged by what they're drawn to. You know what? That's a great way to test the reality of your claim to be saved, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it a great way to test the reality of your claim and my claim to be saved? Have you really been given a new nature? Have you really been given a new heart? Has the Lord really, truly transformed your heart, taken the heart of stone and put a heart of flesh? Well, one of the ways you know is by what you're drawn to, right? One of the ways you know is by what you're drawn to.
I'm not talking about human weakness and the failures that we all experience. For all of us, we stumble in many ways, right? James 3, verse 2. But as a pattern, if you say that you're saved, isn't it true, if you've been truly saved, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, that now your heart is drawn toward things that pleased the One who saved you? Isn't that true?

What draws out someone's affection? What calls for their admiration, what calls for their attention, for their desires—this is a test of, really, of someone's character. And in the case of God, He does not admire what is sinful. He does not admire what is wicked. He doesn't love sin. He loves that which is what? Perfectly holy. He's drawn to that. That which is perfectly holy, pure, worthy. That's why God could not accept us apart from the redemptive work of His Son. Absolutely not.

Apart from the redemptive work of His Son, apart from the death of Jesus on Calvary's cross, apart from the payment, His payment for our sins, you and I could not have been received by Christ. We couldn't be accepted by the Beloved or in the Beloved by God. Jesus had to die in our place, in our stead. He had to die for us to be reconciled to God. Why? Because God hates sin. Nothing lovely in sin. There's nothing lovely in sin. God has a pitying love for sinners. But God does not have an admiring love, an accepting love for sinners apart from His Son. He may pity you in your sins, but He won't accept you apart from the work of His Son. Same for me.

And so when God loved you and God loved me, it was a matter of what? Free grace. All of grace. A matter of mercy, amazing grace and mercy. There was nothing in us that called out to Him to love us. Absolutely nothing. In fact, it was the opposite. But in His Son, oh, in His Son, in His Beloved Son, there's a reason. There's a reason. There's something that draws out His love toward His Son.

You cannot say, can you? The Father's love toward the Son is a gracious love or a merciful love. What is it? It's a meritorious love. There's a reason for it. There's something there that draws His love forth. Something what? Something lovely. Jesus is lovely. There's a reason for it. And so when Jesus says, "For this reason the Father loves Me", there's a reason in the Son that the Father loves Him. That says that Jesus is lovely. It says something else as well. It speaks of the reality that is the reason for God's love to His Son.

So there's a reason for the Father's love toward the Son. And what is the reason? Well, there are many, but the one mentioned here by our blessed Lord—look at it in verse 17—"Because I lay down My life so that I may take it again." The Father looked upon the passion of His Son, the suffering of His Son, the sacrifice of His Son, the redemptive work of His Son on behalf of sinners here, particularly on behalf of His sheep, to use the language of the text, and the Father loved Him for it. Loved Him for it.

The Father's love for the Son is drawn out by the voluntary offering of the Son for the sin of the world, one commentator said. There is in that passion, that redemptive work of Jesus, that which merits the love of the Father. His humility is lovely as well. His redemptive work, His humility—Philippians 2 describes it, right? You remember that passage?
When He stepped out of Heaven in the incarnation, took to Himself the form of a slave in order to redeem us.

His humility was lovely. His obedience was lovely, lovely. He did only that which pleases the Father always, right? John 8:29, only that which pleases the Father. Even as He talks about His death here in verse 18, He says what at the end? He says, "This commandment I received from My Father." In other words, I am completely, totally submitted to My Father. I'm obeying My Father. That's lovely. It's part of His saving us. He's lovely. His obedience is lovely.

Also His fidelity, His loyalty, His faithfulness—lovely, lovely. He's able to say about Himself, "I am the shepherd, the good one." Now there are hired hands, they run away. They run away when the sheep are in danger, but not Him, not Him. He loved His own to the end. He loved His own to the death, John tells us, chapter 13, verse 1. What a faithful Shepherd. Faithful to His sheep, loyal to the cause given Him by the Father—that's lovely.

And His sacrifice is lovely. His sacrifice is lovely, and this is love: "Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Romans 5, verse 8: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners," what did Christ do? The Shepherd. He died for us. His sacrifice is lovely. That's love. You see it in the sacrifice of Jesus.

So all that is encompassed in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ called forth from the Father His love toward His Son. "For this reason the Father loves Me." You can look at the coming of Christ into the world in His incarnation. You can look at the perfection of His life in spite of all of the difficulties and challenges and all of the opposition. You can look to His faithfulness to His sheep and the Father's redemptive plan. You can look at all of this. You can look at His voluntary, vicarious suffering on Calvary's cross. You can look at the triumph over the grave on Resurrection Sunday, and in all of it, that which calls forth is what? The love of God, the Father. There's a reason why the Father loves the Son.

The second thing I want us to see and I want to point out—not only there's a reason for the Father to love the Son, being that reason being that Jesus is lovely—but also I want us to see that Jesus is loved. Jesus is loved. "For this reason the Father loves Me." He's loved. He's loved by the Father. And what a comfort that was to the Lord Jesus Christ in His incarnate state when He was here on earth, that the Father loved Him in His humanity while accomplishing the mission of redemption. What an encouragement that was. What a comfort that was. What a strength that was. The knowledge of His Father's love for Him. The knowledge of the Father's love abiding with Him.

John 16:32, Jesus says, "Behold, an hour is coming and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone." What a sad statement. Notice how He finishes the verse: "and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." You will scatter. You will leave Me. You will abandon Me. You'll leave Me alone. But I want you to know I'm never alone, for the Father is with Me.

In John 8:29, Jesus says, "He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." The Father not only made known to the Son that He loved His Son, the Father was pleased to make known to the world that He loved His Son. He not only wanted His Son to know it, He wanted the whole world to know it—that He loved the Son. Old Testament prophecies that foretold the coming of Messiah—in those prophecies you find what? You find the message that the Father loves the Son. He loves the Son.

Turn with me to Matthew 12, Matthew chapter 12, beginning with verse 14. We read, "But going out, the Pharisees took counsel together against Him as to how they might destroy Him. But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all, and warned them not to make Him known, in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled, saying," – now watch this, – "Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen;". Now listen carefully to this: "My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased." "My Beloved", "Behold, My Servant, whom I have chosen." Behold, look, pay close attention. He says, "My Servant whom I have chosen", My ‘agapētos’, the One whom I love dearly, intimately. This is how the Father speaks of His Son through the prophet Isaiah.

And then the Father made it known to the world at His baptism, you remember, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:17: "Behold, there was a voice out of the heavens, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Not just that this is My Son, but rather, "This is My beloved Son." This is the Son of My love, the Son upon whom I've set My affection.

And according to Mark, this was also a comforting word to Jesus. Mark 1:11: "and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.'" So the Son is made to know the love of His Father, and the world is made to know the love of the Father towards the Son, and the prophecies concerning Him at His baptism.

Then also at the transfiguration, when He was transfigured in the presence of some of His disciples in Matthew 17:5, where we read, "While He" – Peter – "was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, 'This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.'"

So before He comes, the Father says, "I love Him." At His baptism, the Father says, "I love Him." When He is transfigured before them—a glimpse of the glorious Christ—the Father says, "I love Him. I love Him." And even though the words were not heard, there's evidence of the Father's love for His Son at the crucifixion.

 In Luke 23:44, it says, "And it was now about the sixth hour, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured. And the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.' And having said this, breathed His last." Yes, the Father loved His Son.

And so you see a reason in Jesus for the love of the Father, and it's different from us. It's different. There's no reason for the Father to love us other than His own glory. But there was a reason in His Son to be loved by the Father, and He was loved by the Father. But Jesus is also loved by the redeemed. He's loved by the sheep. Not only is there reason for the Father to love Him, but there's a reason for us—the sheep, God's people, God's children—for us to love Him.

And in fact, this is a great biblical definition for a Christian. It's a great biblical definition for a Christian. Do you know what it means to be a Christian? Do you? Simply put, it means that you love Jesus. That's it. It means that you love Jesus—the Jesus of Scripture.
I can say it this way based on the Word of God: anyone who does not love Jesus is not a Christian. He's not, she's not a Christian. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 22, "If anyone does not love the Lord," – he is what? Anathema. He's accursed. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, we're told they're still under the curse of God, the anathema of God, dedicated to destruction.

And the heart of Christ's people is, Our Lord, come. Come, Lord. We long for You. And the reason we long for You is because we love You. We want to be in Your presence. We want to be with You. We can't wait to be with You. Each and every one of us, God's people, can say, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Phillipians 1:21) What is the gain? The gain, later on, Paul says in the following verses, chapter 1 of Philippians, he says the reason it is gain is because to depart is to be with the Lord, which is far greater. That's why it's gain. It's gain because I'll be with Jesus, whom I love. And so a Christian is someone who loves Jesus.

But here's the question. Here's the question. It's easy to understand how Holy God loves His Holy Son because, as I said earlier, a person's character is known by what they're drawn to. For Holy God to love His Holy Son is no wonder. But, but, how is it? How is it that sinful rebels, sinful men, who have no love naturally for what's holy, who have no love naturally for what is really lovely—let's face it—I mean, sinners love what's ugly, don't they? What's twisted. What's perverse. What's anti-God. Don't we, by nature, love what's ugly?

And if that's true—and it is—how did we ever come to love the Lord Jesus? How? How did we ever come to love the Lord Jesus? Christians are people who love Jesus. They love Jesus. And He's holy. And He's pure. And He's righteous. And He is perfect. How did we, who were sinners, come to love that which is holy and pure and perfect and righteous?

And the answer, as you know, is the Father had to teach us about Him. The Father had to teach us about Him. The only way anybody ever loves Jesus is that they have to see Jesus through the eyes of His Father. Really. That's how you came to know Jesus. That is how you came to know Jesus. Do you know what happened in your life? You came to see Jesus through the eyes of God. The Father taught you about His Son.

Turn with me to Matthew 16. The Father taught you about His Son. Matthew 16, verse 13 and following. You remember that scene. We read, "When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, saying, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Well, some say John the Baptist, and others, Elijah, but still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' And Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ." – You are the Messiah, – "’the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you." – And how does He finish it? – "But My Father, who is in heaven." My Father, who is in heaven. How did Peter come to make this confession concerning the Lord Jesus? How was he able to see Jesus, that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the Son of the living God?

Well, flesh and blood didn't teach him that. He wasn't taught that by flesh and blood. He didn't teach himself that. No man, no flesh, no blood taught him that. He came to see Jesus and His loveliness and His glory and His beauty and His majesty. He came to love the Lord Jesus because the Father taught Him. The Father taught Him. My Father revealed this to you. "My Father who is in heaven", He made that known to you.

This is not the only evidence that we have for that. In John 6:45, our Lord says, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'" "They shall all be taught by God." And now you remember in our study in that passage, that the "all" there cannot be referring to every single human being. Every human being is not taught by God in this sense. How do we know that? Read the rest of the verse: "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'" And here's the qualification: "Everyone", – everyone – "who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me."

Who's the "all"? All those who are what? Saved. All those who come to faith in Christ. What's true of everybody in this place who is a Christian? If you're a Christian, do you know what's true of you? What's true of me? You were taught by the Father about His Son. And that's why you came to Him. That's why I came to Him. That's how you saw His loveliness. Because you saw Him through the eyes of His Father. The eyes of God.

Galatians 1:15. And what a testimony. Turn with me there. Galatians 1:15. Well, back up actually with me to verse 11. Paul is speaking in that famous passage. And he says, "For I make known to you, brothers, that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and try to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my father. But when God" – I love that – "But when God, who had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,"  – now notice – "was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might proclaim Him as good news among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood."

Do you notice what he says here? He says that the One who had set him apart before he was born for salvation—what did He do? He revealed His Son to Paul. He revealed His Son in Paul. Reveal His Son in—the Greek word—in me. In my inner man. In my understanding. How did he come to really understand who Jesus is? Through the teaching of the Father.

Look at 2 Corinthians 4. This is a verse that you know very well. 2 Corinthians 4. But I really rejoice to look at it. Every time I look at it, it brings joy to my heart. 2 Corinthians 4.
"Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart." Stop right there for a second. That's amazing. Do you know that you and I are vessels of mercy, child of God? You and I are vessels of mercy. Are we not? We're vessels of mercy, so we're not discouraged, he says. We're not discouraged when it appears that people are not responding to the message that we're proclaiming.

Have you ever had that happen to you? Do you ever share the gospel and it's just like nobody's listening? Nobody's coming? In fact, they're reacting the opposite way? Paul says we do not lose heart. We do not lose heart. As recipients of mercy, as vessels of mercy, we do not lose heart.

Verse 2: "But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness." You see, when you think that it depends on you and you begin to lose heart, you run the danger of resorting to what? Manipulation. But when you realize that salvation is all a matter of grace, of mercy, that it is in the hands of God, then not only do you not lose heart, but you renounce every shameful, underhanded way. You stay the course. You stick with the gospel message faithfully.

We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. He goes on to say, "or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." We're just going to go on preaching the truth and not waver, not look to the left, not look to the right. It's not based on who responds and how they respond. We just proclaim the Word. We sow the seed.

Verse 3: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

What is the gospel? Did you notice that, by the way, in that verse? What is the gospel? He defines it here. It is the message of the glory of Christ. It is the message of the glory of Christ, the message of the beauty of Christ, the loveliness of Christ. He's a glorious person. He's a glorious character, glorious nature, glorious work accomplished to save sinners the likes of you and me. He's the amazing Christ. He's the lovely Savior. We declare Him, Paul says. We preach Him who is lovely, who is glorious. And if people can't see His glory, we're not ignorant. We're not left in the dark. We know what's going on. They're blind. They're blind in the sinfulness, and on top of that, the god of this world is actively at work blinding their minds as well to this glorious light—Jesus Christ.

Which begs the question: if men are born blind, and if the devil is at work blinding the minds, how does anyone ever come to see? How? How does anyone ever come to see? Well, the next verses tell us. Look at verse 5: "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as" – ‘Kyrios’ – "Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Christ. For God, who said," – and God said, Let there be light, right? Creative power of God out of nothing – "For God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One, the same God who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
There it is. What did God do in our case? He said, Let there be light. Let there be light. Let there be light. And there was light. He shined His light into our hearts. And what did that light consist of? It consisted of a knowledge. And what was that knowledge that we have been given, that we were given? We were given the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, His Son.

And for the first time ever, we saw the beauty of Jesus. And we were drawn to Him. We loved Him whom we did not love before. We admired Him whom we did not admire before. And we were drawn to Him whom we were not drawn to before. How did that happen? How did that happen? Was it because of you or me? No. The Father taught you about His Son. He gave you His vision about His Son. He gave you His knowledge of His Son. And this is how we came to love Him.This is how people who didn't love loveliness came to love the One who is lovely because God worked the new birth in us. He regenerated us, so now we have a desire for someone whom we would have never desired in our own natural condition. This is the "But God" of Ephesians 2, verse 4.

Let me share an illustration. Hopefully this will be helpful. This thought that the doctrine of election means that somehow God drags sinners kicking and screaming against their will to His Son—that's a common criticism. Have you ever heard of that?You know, "I don't believe that God is going to force." That's the language. That's the sort of mentality.

But here's the illustration. If you were to take a piece of meat and you were to bring that meat and present it and put it before a cow, physically, is it possible the cow could eat it? I mean, you could push this and say, well, I suppose so, but is that what cows eat? Is a cow drawn to eat meat? No. Why not? It's not their nature. What do they eat? Well, grass. Stuff like grass. But they don't eat meat. That much we know.

Now, what if I had the power in an instant to change that cow into a lion? Would I have to beg the lion to eat the meat? Do I have to manipulate the lion somehow to come and eat the meat? No. You see, the meat hasn't changed, has it? What would have changed is the nature of the animal. And you could take the beautiful, glorious Son of God and set Him before dead sinners all day long and they want nothing to do with Him. They don't want Him. Why? It's not in their nature. It's not in their nature.

So what God did to save us is that He gave us a new birth. And in an instant, He gave us life and light. And then, nobody had to drag us to Jesus. We ran. We ran. That's called the drawing work of God, but He draws us through this work of regeneration and that's how we're drawn. It's as powerful as if He dragged us, but we didn't have to be dragged. He made us willing in the day of His power, so we came running. Eager.

So Jesus says, there's a reason why the Father loves His Son. The reality of a reason which speaks of His glory. There's no reason other than God's free grace for God to love you and to love me. But there was a reason He loved His Son. And Jesus is loved. He's loved by the Father. And we came to love Him when the Father taught us His view of His Son.

Back to John 10. Back to John 10. "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."This is God the Son, the source of life, laying down His life voluntarily for us.

I want us to see the third heading: Jesus is the author of love. Not only is He lovely, not only is He loved, but He is the author of love. In this statement of Jesus about the Father's love for Him, you see the evidence of the Son's love for the Father. You hear His perfect submission: "This commandment I received from My Father." There's love submitted to His Father.
You hear His delight in His Father's love. Why would He even mention that His Father loves Him? Because He delights in Him. He loves His Father. And just as the Father had to teach us about the loveliness of His Son, so it is the Son of God who teaches us about the loveliness of His Father, and who is now our Father if we know the Son. In Jesus, we see that the Father is worthy of obedience: "This commandment I received from My Father." I always do the things that please Him.

In Jesus, we see that the Father is worthy of obedience. The Son obeyed the Father. He thought His Father to be worthy of His obedience. Let me ask you, as I had to ask my own heart: Is the Father worthy of our obedience? The Son thought that the Father is worthy of His affection. Is the Father worthy of your affection? The Son thought the Father to be worthy of His allegiance, His faithfulness, His loyalty. Is the Father worthy of our loyalty, our allegiance, our faithfulness?Do we love our Heavenly Father the way our Savior, Lord, God, elder Brother loves the Father? Do we love God that way? This is what the Son of God teaches us—all of us, His disciples—the glory of the Father so that they love God and love His Son.

Listen to Matthew 11:27: "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." How did you and I come to know the Father? Through the Son's revelation of Him to us.

Galatians 4:6 says – and I love this – "And because you are sons, God sent forth," – now watch the language, – "the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father.'" The Holy Spirit here, it's interesting, is referred to as the Spirit of His Son. The Spirit of His Son—that is, the Holy Spirit—teaches us a relationship to the Father like that found in the Son of God. How should we love the Father? Even as the Son loved Him. Even as the Son loved Him.
It's the Son who reveals the Father to us. It's the Spirit of His Son that cries out in our hearts, "Abba, Father." In fact, when we enter into fellowship with the Father and with the Son, we enter into the love—the love that exists between Them, has always existed between Them. We come into that fellowship. We come into that love.

I can't wait until we get there. I don't want to rush, but I mean, what a statement we read in John 14:23. Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me, if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word."  – Obedience, right? –  "He will keep My word." – Now watch this: – "and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him." Isn't that glorious? Isn't that amazing?

If you love the Son, He says His Father will love you. What must I do to have God love me? Love His Son. Just love His Son. And if you love His Son, the Father will love you, and They—they will come to you and make Their home with you. Isn't that beautiful?

Romans 5:5 says, "Hope does not put to shame because" – what? – "the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." What did the Lord do when He gave us His Spirit? He poured out His love in our hearts, which is why you could say a Christian is someone who loves Jesus. A Christian is someone who loves God because His Spirit has poured out His love into our hearts.

What is this love that's been poured out in our hearts? What is it? Well, certainly it is the knowledge of God's love for us, right, that we read earlier, heard earlier in Romans 8. It's, it's, it's love for the Son of God. It's also love for God, love for the Father, love for the Son. It's love for your brothers, love for your sisters in Christ. You see, you don't have to teach a Christian to love the brethren. It is supernaturally natural. Salvation teaches us to love each other, love for the lost.

You don't have to teach a Christian to love the lost. It's supernaturally natural to him or her because we realize we're vessels of mercy. We know who we were, and we know by God's grace and mercy who we are now in Christ. And we realize that the only distinction between us and the lost is Jesus, our lovely Savior, the grace of God. And so we have this incredible treasure called the Gospel and a world of sinful men and women who are in dire, desperate need. And we are Christ's ambassadors, and we've been given a ministry of what? Do you use 2 Corinthians 5? Reconciliation! And nobody has to teach us to care about that.

One of the first things that you'll see in someone who gets saved is you have this awareness of the lost people whom they want to reach with the good news right away. You read that in Scripture. They just have to go and tell their family members, their neighbors, all those around them. What about my dad? What about my mom? What about my wife? What about my children? What about my husband? What about my brothers and sisters? What about my coworkers? What about the people I go to school with? What about them? Do you care? The Lord saved you. Do you care about them? Yes. Yes, you care. If you're born again, you care.

What a statement Jesus makes: "For this reason the Father loves Me." There's a reason. It speaks of His loveliness. And He is loved by the Father. The love between the Father and the Son is eternal. And He's loved not only by the Father. He's loved by us, the sheep. And we didn't naturally love Him. The reason we've come to love Him is because the Father taught us about Him. He gave us His view of His Son. He shined His light into our hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of His Son. And we love the Father because the Son revealed Him to us. And He gave us His Spirit. And the Spirit of His Son now cries out from our hearts, "Abba, Father." And He poured out His love into our hearts. The knowledge of His love and also the experience of His love. So now we love the Father and we love the Son and we love the brethren and we love the Lord.

Have you come to know this love? Have you ever come to see the Son of God through the eyes of the Father? Let me ask one more question. Do you see Jesus as altogether lovely? Do you? Do you see Him as the chief treasure? I marvel at the providence of God, how things line up this evening, talking about sins against the love of God. But do you see Jesus as altogether lovely? Do you see Him as the chief treasure? The one to be pursued even at the loss of everything else?

I love those parables. The parables of the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in a field. Because what an illustration, Matthew 13. You have a pearl merchant, someone who goes and buys pearls, but he sees this one pearl and he's willing to go and liquidate everything he has in order to have that one pearl. And you've got the man who finds this treasure buried in a field, and he's going to go and part with everything he has – everything – to buy the field because of the treasure that's there.

And that's what it is to come to Jesus. You see for the first time, you see, your eyes are open. You're no longer blind, and you realize for the very first time there's absolutely nothing and no one compares to Him. And if it meant – and in a sense it does mean—that you lose everything, everything, everything to have Him, you look at it all and it's not loss. It's the greatest gain in the universe.

In fact, Paul described it this way, didn't he? In Philippians 3, "But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that." – More than that – "I count all things to be loss" – Why? Why, Paul? – "because of the surpassing" – not great – "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but" – ‘skybalon’, dung, excrements, – "rubbish" – , filthy, trash, –  "so that I may gain Christ." The surpassing value, the surpassing worth of knowing the most lovely One, Jesus.

 Do you love Him? Do you love Him? It's the only question I ask. I ask you to find out this morning if you're a Christian or not. That's the only question I would ask. Do you really love Jesus? Can you say you do and be truthful? I pray you do. I pray you do, that you're able to leave this place saying with the words of the hymn by William Caldwell:

"He saw me ruined in the fall,  
Yet loved me notwithstanding all.  
He saved me from my lost estate,  
His loving kindness, oh, how great."

The Shepherd, the Good One, He saw the sheep in peril, and He has, in atonement on Calvary's cross, given them eternal hope by laying down His life for the sheep. And this Shepherd, the Good One – if you look at John 10, I'm just going to point them out—four times, listen to the four, really four, fourfold refrain in this hymn, if you will. Verse 11: I lay down My life for the sheep. Verse 15: "I lay down My life." Verse 17: "I lay down My life." Verse 18: I lay down My life. Not ashamed to sing, as it were, this pastoral song with the fourfold refrain: I lay down My life.

We might say this morning and ask, "Oh, great Shepherd of the sheep, do You mean to say that You've died for such as these sheep? What, for these dumb, lost, wandering, fearful sheep? You died for sheep? Died for sheep, divine Shepherd? You died for sheep? Don't You have other things to do than to die for lost, wandering sheep? Don't You have an interest? Don't You have other loves? Don't You have any other more significant purposes than to give Yourself a sacrifice for these poor, miserable, wandering sheep?"
And here the Shepherd replies, "No".

I am the Shepherd, the Good One. The Good One. The Excellent One. And I give My life for the sheep. I lay down My life for the sheep. I lay down My life for the sheep. And in case you missed it, I lay down My life for the sheep. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down for Myself. I have authority to lay it down, authority to take it up again. And I have received this commandment from My Father.

Oh, beloved. Oh, beloved. You and I have every reason to sing from the heart:
"When I survey the wondrous cross  
On which the Prince of Glory died,  
My richest gain I count but ‘skybalon’,  
And pour contempt on all my pride.  
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,  
Save in the death of Christ my God.  
All the vain things that charm me most,  
I sacrifice them through His blood.  
And were the whole realm of nature mine,  
That were a present far too small.  
Love so amazing, so divine,  
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
And I would add, and I would gladly give it from the heart.

Let us pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Throughout this allegory, there's been a distinct theme, and the theme is that Jesus Christ is the true Shepherd. He's a true Shepherd. In verses 1 through 6 of this chapter, He demonstrated already for us the fact that He's the true Shepherd by comparing the way He came to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel and the way He relates to the lost sheep of Israel as compared with false shepherds, counterfeit shepherds. He says in verses 1 through 6, you know a false shepherd because, or you know a thief or a robber, which is used to describe the false shepherd here in this case, He says, you know them because they don't enter through the door, but they climb up some other way.

"But He who enters by the door," —verse 2, — "is the shepherd of the sheep." Verse 3, "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." And we talked about this picture of this community sheepfold. The Shepherd, the true Shepherd, comes in, in the morning. He comes in to gather out His sheep to Himself. He calls them out, and He calls them out by name. And, you remember they were told that He recognizes, sorry, they recognize His voice, and they follow Him.

And Jesus is the true Shepherd, and He has sheep among the nation of Israel belonging to Judaism, but He's going to call them out unto salvation, unto Himself, unto the Father. And He knows His sheep, and they're going to know Him, and they're going to recognize His voice, and as a result, they're going to follow Him. And He comes legitimately. He's not ruling by means of deception. He's not ruling by means of violence, thievery, and robbery. No, He comes in truth. He's the true Shepherd of the sheep.

And then in verses 7 through 10, He changes the picture a little bit. They don't understand what He's saying. Verse 6 says, "This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but” —they did not get it — “they did not understand.” And so Jesus, moved with compassion, caring for them, He changes the imagery a little bit. Now you're not looking at the community sheepfold, now you're out in the field. And there is this sort of a temporary sheepfold. That is the picture where the sheep would go in at night, and they would go in for rest, and the shepherd himself would function as the door. He would literally put his body down in front of the opening, and he would be the gate, the door. He's the protector. He is the guardian of the sheep.

And so in verses 7 through 10, now Jesus says, “I am the door.” “I am the door of the sheep." Notice now the sheep aren't being brought out of this community sheepfold. Now He is the way in. He's the gate in. "I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me" —verse 8, — "are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me," —verse 9, — "he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

So again, what is He saying? He's the true Shepherd. The way that He came to gather His sheep speaks of Him as the true Shepherd. And He's now the one who provides for the sheep. He's now the one who cares for the sheep. He's now the one who protects the sheep. He's the way into the sheepfold, and He's going to make sure they're taken care of and they're fed and well cared for. He is the true shepherd.

Now you come to verse 11, and He uses another descriptive title here—another descriptive title to speak of Himself. In verse 11, He says, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." Verse 14, "I'm the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep." A third picture in this continuing comparison—He's now declaring Himself to be the good Shepherd, the good Shepherd.

This morning, as we listen to Him, and as we pay attention to this comparison that He's using, there are two things that I want us to notice. First of all, we're going to look at the claim—the claim of the good Shepherd. This title that He uses for Himself, the good Shepherd. I mean, He's making a very important claim about Himself. What He's claiming when He says, "I am the good shepherd," He's making a significant claim. And we want to deal with the question: what is He claiming when He claims to be the good Shepherd? So we're going to look at the claim of the good Shepherd. And then following that, we will look at the characteristics of the good shepherd. Because not only is He going to claim to be the good shepherd, He's going to tell us what really characterizes Him as the good Shepherd. And what characterizes Him—and this is the foundation for His claim to be the good Shepherd—we will look at that in detail. So the claim of the good Shepherd, and then the characteristics. What characterizes the good Shepherd? Two main headings.

So let's begin together with the claim—the claim itself. He says in verse 11, "I am the good shepherd." Especially in the Greek text, and I love the way it is put, and it is very significant. It reads this way: "I am the shepherd, the good one." "I am the shepherd, the good one." And there are two articles—one before the word shepherd, and one before the word good. Two articles: "I am the shepherd, the good one." So what He's claiming, again, is to be the true Shepherd. Again, once again, He is the Shepherd: "I am the shepherd, the good one."

And as He's done throughout this allegory, He again is speaking of Himself in comparison with all the other false shepherds. He's described the false shepherds—all the shepherds, the false shepherds—as thieves, as robbers. But now in comparing Himself to all others, He compares Himself by saying that all others are hireling. They're hired hand—verse 12. They're hired hands. He does not own the sheep. The hired hand doesn't own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming. What does he do? He takes off. He leaves the sheep, flees. And what's the result? The sheep are snatched and scattered.

Why does he run? Why does he flee? Why does he run away? Verse 13 tells us: because he is a hired hand. Simple. He's a hired hand. He's not concerned for the sheep. And again, Jesus is casting an eye toward the Pharisees who are listening to Him. In this group—the religious rulers of the nation—they are thieves, they are robbers. And they are in it not for the sake of the sheep, but they're in it for their own sake, for their own benefit. It's just a way for them to make a living. They're hirelings. They're hired hands. But in contrast to them, He Himself is the shepherd. He's the real shepherd. He's the genuine Shepherd. He's, in fact, the good One.

Now, what is He claiming in that title beyond the fact that He's the true Shepherd? Well, first of all, when He claims to be the good Shepherd—in that claim, in that title—it's a claim of, number one, excellence. It's a claim of excellence. The Greek word here is a significant word. It's an interesting word. It's the Greek word ‘kalos’—good, ‘kalos.’ Now, there is another word in the Greek language for the word good. It's the word ‘agathos.’ So, you have two words. You have ‘kalos,’ ‘agathos.’

And in fact, outside of the Bible, you find those two words together a lot in the Greek writings around that time period: ‘kalos,’ ‘agathos,’ used together. In fact, in the Bible, you'll find them used together once. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8, verse 15, you're familiar with that account. We read there, "But the seed in the good soil," —and the word translated good is the word ‘kalos,’ good, ‘kalos’ — "these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart," —that word there is ‘agathos,’ in English, you can't tell the difference— "and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance."

So what is the difference between those two words, ‘kalos’ and ‘agathos?’ And why does Jesus use the word ‘kalos’ here in the text when He describes Himself? "I am the shepherd,” — the ‘kalos’ one, — “the good one." What the words have in common first—first of all, let's begin with what they have in common. What they have in common is they both describe that which is noble, that which is upright, that which is good in terms of morality or good in terms of outcome, result. So both words mean good, but the word ‘kalos’ carries an additional meaning to it. It has to do with intrinsic goodness, intrinsic goodness. It has to do with something that is beautiful. It carries the idea of pleasantness, beauty, beautiful, sound, whole. In fact, the word symmetry is wrapped up in this word. It's a good word, symmetry. In other words, you could look at Jesus from any angle and there is perfect symmetry. There's symmetry. He is good from every angle. However you want to look at Jesus, He's good. He's good. He's demonstrated to be the good Shepherd. No matter how you look at Him, He's the good Shepherd. He's good. He's always good. He does good.

In Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, there's a lengthy discussion about the origin of this word and the words that are used to describe this word ‘kalos.’ Listen to these words used to describe this one word ‘kalos:’ sound, powerful, vigorous, excellent, organically healthy, fit, useful, sensible, genuine, sterling, flawless, beautiful, pleasant, attractive, lovely. There are many more words. Jesus says, I am the ‘kalos,’ the good One. I am the Shepherd, the good One. So He's claiming excellence.

Commenting on this word, Kittel says, "‘Kalos,’ the word has nothing to do with a romantic conception of the good Shepherd. It expresses the absolute claim of Jesus to His uniqueness. The Shepherd, the good, is the true Shepherd who really has a right to the title." “The primary point of the passage,” — he goes on, —  “is the contrast of this right with the many contemporary claims to be shepherds on the one side and those of the leaders of the people who were regarded as shepherds on the other.” In other words, people claiming all the time, saying, I'm a shepherd, and these religious leaders being regarded by the people as being shepherds—and in contrast to all those, Jesus comes and says, no, I am the shepherd, the good one, the true one.

He is, beloved, He is sterling. He's genuine. He's genuine. He is authentic. He is sound. He's not a shepherd in superficial terms. Jesus is the true Shepherd. He is the good One. And so the excellence of His person in that He's genuine, He's authentic, it also speaks to the fact that He is the perfect Shepherd. The perfect Shepherd. He's not only the genuine One, but He's the perfect One. In fact, He's the model Shepherd. As mentioned a moment ago, the idea of symmetry—no matter how you look at Jesus, He's perfect—and that means something. You know what it means? It means He has no peer. He has no peer. There is no one, no one to compare with Him. Absolutely no one, not even close. I'll talk more about that in a moment.

This also says He's the beautiful Shepherd. He's a beautiful shepherd. Now let me stop here and say, if you're sitting here and say, well, the application—listen, you're missing the point. Just be taken up with the person of Christ. He's beautiful. He's perfect. He's the good One. There's no one to compare with Him. No one. He's the beautiful Shepherd. You look at Jesus and you're going to see the beauty of God. He's the Shepherd worthy of admiration. He is the Shepherd who's worthy of adoration. He's worthy of submission. He's worthy of our worship.

And so when He says here, He is the good One, the good, He's claiming this lofty excellence. He is true. He is perfect. He is beautiful. And because of that, He is worthy. He is worthy of admiration. He is worthy of adoration. He is worthy of submission, and He's worthy of worship. But not only is it a claim of excellence, I want us to see in the second place, it's also a claim of exclusivity—exclusivity. That is, when He says He is the shepherd, the definite article before the word shepherd, the good one as well, He's claiming something exclusively for Himself. He did not say, I am a shepherd, a good one. No, no. He is the Shepherd. He is the good One.

Not only Jesus is to be distinguished from false shepherds, we realize this morning that He is to be distinguished even from under-shepherds who are good in their own right. That is, the Lord has given under-shepherds to His people. Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, you find that God has given shepherds. He calls men, gives men to watch over His people, His own flock. And so you have good, godly under-shepherds—good under-shepherds who were talked about in Scripture.

Just to give you an example, you go back to the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 3:14, it says, "Return, O faithless sons, declares Yahweh; for I am a master to you, and I will take you one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds,"—plural—"after My own heart, who will shepherd you on knowledge and understanding." You fast forward to Jeremiah 23:4, "I will also raise shepherds over them, and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be left unattended, declares Yahweh.” That is, I'm going to really give you shepherds who will watch out for the sheep so that no one is left out and no one is lost. And you come to the New Testament, Ephesians 4:11, "And He Himself,"—the living head of the church, Jesus Christ—"He Himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists," —and here it is, —-"and some as pastors,"—literally shepherds—"and teachers." “Poimen” is the Greek word for pastors; it's the word for shepherds. What is a pastor? A shepherd. Not a CEO, by the way. Not a business manager, but a shepherd. An under-shepherd.

In Acts 20:28, Paul meets with the Ephesian elders—the Ephesian shepherds, under-shepherds—and he says to them, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock,"—there's that imagery again—"among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers," —and notice what the next word is, — "to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." What do pastors do? Well, they shepherd the flock, realizing that they shepherd a blood-bought people—people who have been purchased with the blood of Jesus.
First Peter chapter 5, verse 1: "Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing, not under compulsion but willingly, according to God, and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock." And now watch this, verse 4: "And when the Chief Shepherd” — the Chief Shepherd — “appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory." There it is. There's the difference. There's the difference. You have shepherds given to watch over the souls of the people, but all they are is what? Undershepherds, undershepherds, because there's only one chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the Shepherd, the good One, the perfect One, and all others are incomparable to Him. In fact, all the undershepherds, even the best one you could imagine, the best undershepherd you could imagine, the best undershepherd God could ever give to us—do you realize, beloved, the best undershepherd doesn't even seem like a shepherd compared with the Shepherd? Jesus is not only claiming excellence, He's claiming exclusivity. He is the Shepherd, the good One.

Ezekiel 34, verses 11 through 15: We read those words, "For thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I Myself will seek My sheep,’” — “‘I Myself,’” “‘I Myself,’” He says, “‘will seek My sheep’” — “‘and care for them, as a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his sheep, which are spread out, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will shepherd on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will shepherd them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. They will lie down on good grazing ground and be shepherded in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will shepherd My flock, and I will make them lie down,' declares the Lord Yahweh. ‘'‘I will search for the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick.'" Isn't it amazing? Ezekiel says there's one Shepherd, Yahweh Himself, and what does Jesus say here in John 10, verse 11? "I am He." That's Me. That's Me. I am the Shepherd, the good, the ‘kalos.’ So you have the claim of the good Shepherd, and it is a lofty claim. Jesus says He is the One, He is the promised One, He is the Shepherd of God's people.

But then He begins to talk about what characterizes the good Shepherd. So let's move to the characteristics of the good Shepherd, the characteristics. So in what sense is He perfect? In what sense is He good? And the first thing that He mentions, the thing that is most prominent as He describes His character here in this portion of God's Word, the thing that He wants to stand out above all else—I mean, here it is, you can see this by means of repetition because He repeats it—and it is this: that He is the One who gives His life for the sheep. He's the One who gives His life for the sheep. Look at how often He says this. Verse 11: "I am the good Shepherd; The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." Verse 15: "Even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep." Verse 17: "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it up again." Verse 18: "No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down."

What is true of the perfect Shepherd, of the Good Shepherd, is that He loves His sheep sacrificially. He loves His sheep sacrificially. He loves His sheep to the end. He loves His sheep to the death. In fact, He's going to give His life to save them, and in each place here, by the way, where He says, "I lay it down," the picture is like laying aside clothing, and it always speaks of a voluntary laying down. And here's the first thing that we could say about His death: He gives His life voluntarily, voluntarily. "No one," —verse 18, — "no one takes it away from Me." Jesus, beloved, was not a victim. Jesus was not some great story of tragedy when men overcame Him, overpowered Him, took His life from Him. No, no. No one could do a single thing to Him that the Father did not allow. In fact, not only that the Father did not allow, but that the Father had not planned from before time. He's the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Jesus died according to the predetermined plan of God.

In fact, notice what He says in verse 18: "I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." He gives His life voluntarily. But secondly, He gives His life vicariously, vicariously. That is, He gave His life in the place of, in the stead of sinners. "I lay down My life” ‘huper,’ the Greek word: for. "I lay down My life” ‘huper,’ in the place of, in the stead of. "I lay down My life for the sheep," in the place of the sheep, on behalf of the sheep, instead of the sheep (verse 11). He says that more than once—verse 11, verse 15—on behalf of, in the place of, in other words, as a substitute. The sheep should have died, but the Shepherd is going to die in their place. He takes their place.

But He also gives His life not only vicariously, but He gives His life victoriously, victoriously. Now, this is incredible—in their place, voluntarily, vicariously—and He gives His life knowing before He ever gives His life that He's going to take it up again. In other words, the resurrection was in view long before He ever died. Where do we see that? Well, we see that in the end of verse 17: "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that,” —in order that, — “I may take it again.” And He says in verse 18, "I have authority to lay it down," and guess what else He has? I have authority to do what? “to take it up again." He knows before He dies that He's going to be raised from the dead. Again, not a victim—a victor—someone who came to win redemption, someone who came to win victory on behalf of God's sheep, and He's going to accomplish that purpose. Period.

But also, He gives His life submissively, submissively—sacrificially, vicariously, victoriously, submissively—submissively, because at the end of verse 18, He describes the commandment that He received from His Father. He dies according to the commandment of God, and we'll see that when we get there, and He's going to be raised according to this commandment that has been given to Him. What characterizes the Good Shepherd? He is the true Shepherd because He's the one who's going to purchase the sheep with His own blood.

We are blood-bought people, aren't we? This church is the blood-bought possession of Christ. That's why all under-shepherds cannot be compared with the Shepherd, because all we do is we serve the Chief Shepherd, shepherding people who belong not to us, but to Him—to Him. We're all His sheep. We belong to Him. He bought us with His own blood, and this is what characterizes Him above all else in this discussion: the fact that He's going to love His sheep to the death.

And He contrasts that with the hired hands. He says in verse 12, "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees - and the wolf snatches and scatters them." What happens because of false shepherds? Well, sheep are devoured, they're injured, they're damaged, they're hurt badly. And even as we take what we see now in our Savior and apply it now to men—true under-shepherds and false under-shepherds—you see this characteristic: that the true under-shepherds love the sheep. The false under-shepherds don't give a care about the sheep. All they care about and all they love is themselves, their own interests. And if it comes between rescuing sheep and saving their own skin, well, they save their skin, they run, they flee, they take off.

Notice this contrast down in verses 27 and 28. Remember what He says happens to the sheep because of the false shepherds—they're snatched in verse 12. But look at verse 27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish- ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand." Jesus died to be raised from the dead to save forever His sheep. Because of His death and His resurrection, we are now in the hand of the Savior and in the hand of the Father, if indeed we've trusted in Christ. And because of our Good Shepherd, we will never, ever be snatched away. We'll never be devoured. He died to save us and to keep us safe forever.

So what characterizes the good Shepherd? He gives His life for the sheep. He gives His life for the sheep. Something else characterizes Him, the Bible tells us: He knows His sheep. He knows His sheep. Look at verse 14: "I am the good shepherd," He repeats it. Here's another characteristic of the Shepherd, the good One: "And I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep."
Did you notice? He puts this knowledge in the context of His dying. He puts this knowledge in the context of His dying, and this is very significant. Don't miss it. He says, "I know My sheep, My sheep know Me, just as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep." So this knowledge is being discussed in the context of the cross—His death.
What is this knowledge that He's talking about? Now here's the significance of this—the context of His death—here's the significance: it's not just a knowledge that His sheep exist. He's not just saying, Well, I know you're there. It's not what He's doing. This is the knowledge of love, beloved—the knowledge of love. This is the knowledge of a relationship. This is a pre-planned love relationship.

And this word "know," translated “know,” is a significant word, ‘ginosko,’ used that way many times in God's Word, not just to speak of awareness, but to speak of affection, to speak of intimate relationship. For example, God said to the nation of Israel back in the Old Testament in Amos 3 and verse 2, "You only have I known," and the Septuagint uses the same word. "You only have I known"—now this is very significant—"among all the families of the earth." And we need to let that sink in. He said to Israel, out of all the families of the earth, only you have I known."

Now here's the question: does that mean God was only aware of one nation? It can't mean that, can it? Is God aware of all nations? Of course He is. So what does the word "know" mean there? It can't just mean, I know about you. He says, I have a relationship with you, an intimate relationship with you. Out of all the nations, I have a special relationship—in other words, a saving, redemptive relationship, a revelatory relationship—with you and you only, out of the whole. In fact, that gave them a heavy responsibility. He goes on to say in that verse, "Therefore"—that's the outcome, right? That's the "in light of this"—"therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Why do I deal with you in a disciplining way? Because “you only have I known." That's why a father disciplines his own children, not illegitimate children. Hebrews 12 talks about that.

And think about what Jesus is going to say one day when people appear before Him and find out from His own mouth that they are condemned forever. What does He say to them in the Sermon on the Mount? You remember? Matthew 7:23: "And then I will declare to them, I never knew you;” — I never knew you — “depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." Does it mean that, does it mean that I didn't know about you whatsoever? I wasn't aware of you"? Is that what He means? Is Jesus aware of everybody? Of course He is. But what does He mean? I didn't have a saving relationship with you. I never had it. In other words, you were never Mine. You were never Mine. I did not save you, you didn't know Me, and I don't know you.

Galatians 4:9 says, "But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God..." What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be saved? Simply put, to use the language of Paul, it means to be” known by God,” to have a relationship with God. “How is it that you turn back again?" —He goes on to say in Galatians 4:9, — "How is it that you turn back again,” “now having been known by God, rather having known God,” “or rather having been made known by God?" Let's start this again: "But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God, how is it that you now turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you want to be enslaved all over again?"

How do you come to know God and be known by God? Do you want to be enslaved again to the sins that really marked your life before you knew Him, before He knew you, before your relationship with God? That's how He uses the word "known" in that context. So when Jesus speaks of the fact that He knows His sheep, His sheep know Him, He's talking about a special relationship with His people—the people for whom He's going to die. He's going to lay down His life for these people, His sheep.

In fact, in John 14:21, you see, He's going to disclose Himself to these people: "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him” — what is he going to do? — “and will disclose Myself to him." I'm going to make Myself known to him all the more. Jesus knows His sheep, His sheep know Him, and they recognize His voice, and they follow Him. In fact, do you notice what Jesus compares it to in John 10? Look at John 10 again. Verse 14, "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me," notice, “even as.” You see the comparison? Here's a comparison: "Even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father." Now obviously, obviously, Jesus is not saying that we're going to know Him right now on this side of glory, or ever for that matter, that we're going to know Him to the same degree that the Father knows Him or know the Father to the same degree that He knows the Father.

But what He's talking about here is this: just as the Father and the Son have a love relationship, so He and His sheep have a love relationship. Just as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have, or ever in the Godhead, in the one God, there's been this love, this mutual knowledge among the persons of the Godhead, He says in the same way, so the sheep know the Shepherd, and the Shepherd knows the sheep. I love what John Calvin said concerning this. He said this, and I quote, "It's as if He said that it's no more possible for Him to be oblivious of us than for the Father to reject or neglect Him." I love that. Could the Father ever neglect or reject the Son? No, never. Nor is it possible for the Shepherd to reject or neglect His own sheep. He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him.

A couple of things to note from this, by way of conclusion. One is, isn't it wonderful, isn't it a wonderful thing to know that we are known by Christ individually? Isn't it? We are known by Christ individually. All sheep are not the same. That's what I'm told—they're not the same. Sheep are all different, and you see that even in the text, because in the first picture, verses 1 through 6, the shepherd, when He comes to the sheepfold to call out His sheep, how does He call them out? By name. By name. Isn't that comforting? Isn't that wonderful? Do you mean He assigns a different name to each and every single one of His sheep? Yes, because they're all different. Look around you—they're all different. Isn't it wonderful that our Shepherd knows us individually? He didn't just look down and say, okay, here's a group of people I'm going to redeem, and there's no individuality to it, and there's no distinction among them. No, no. He knows His sheep individually, and He's going to lay down His life for them.

All sheep are not the same. We’re different, aren't we? We believers have everything in common in terms of our salvation—one Father, one Savior, one Holy Spirit, one faith, one baptism. We have all of that in common, yet we're still different. And let me say this: the Shepherd, the good Shepherd, the good One, doesn't shepherd us all exactly the same. Did you know that? He doesn't. He doesn't shepherd us all exactly the same. He's doing something in your life today, and He's doing something in my life today, and He's doing something in the life of the person sitting in front of you or next to you or behind you if they're believers. And He's dealing with us, all of His sheep, as His sheep, and He knows what we need—each and every single one of us.

James Montgomery Boyce said it well. He said, and I quote, "I sometimes think that half our problems in the Christian church come from our trying to be exactly like another person or from other people trying to make us to be like them." Isn't he right? If you really love the Lord, you'll be exactly like me. And that's how some people treat other believers sometimes.
But you know what it is really, fundamentally? I'll be honest. It's pride and selfishness. Because if everybody has to be exactly like you, guess what? Then you don't have any adjustments you need to make. Then you've got it all figured out. Everybody else has to adjust. But if you realize that we're all different and the good Shepherd is shepherding differently, now we all have to grow, don't we? All of us. Because the image that we're being conformed to is not our own. It's not my own. It is His. We're all being conformed to the image of the Chief Shepherd, and we all have to change. We all have to grow.

So not only do we learn that He knows us individually, but in the second place, we were known by Him individually when He died. When He died. Because He lays down His life for the sheep. It's not just some sentimental line for a song, "When He was on the cross, I was on His mind," that we sing. Beloved, it is true. It is true. When He was on the cross, He was dying for His sheep. He knows you by name. What's sad is that there are so many who sing that, but they don't really believe that. They sing that, but then they deny the doctrine of sovereign election. No, no, no. You really were on His mind when He gave His life. He really knew who He was dying for when He died. And we can sing with the veracity of the words, "My name is graven on His hands. My name is written on His heart."

You know, people who deny that truth, it really amazes me, because every Christian should be able to acknowledge—at bare minimum—should be able to acknowledge that God is omniscient. What does that mean? He knows everything, right? He isn't discovering things today at all, is He? He knows. He knows everything. He knows it before time. He's always known, always. There was never a time when God didn't know. Has there ever been a time when God didn't know all that He knows right now, this minute, this moment? He knows it from before time began. So even if you go at it from that angle, from that standpoint—the standpoint of God's omniscience—didn't Jesus know who He was dying for when He came to this earth? He did. And He died for His sheep. And so His claim is that He died for His sheep. His claim is that He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him.

There is this relationship established between the Shepherd and the sheep, and it's a saving relationship. It's a forever relationship. It's one that He brought to pass by His own death and resurrection. And thirdly, He cares for His sheep. He cares for His sheep. Verse 13 emphasizes this. Back up to the end of verse 12: the hired hand “sees the wolves coming, and leaves the sheep and flees.” Verse 13, "because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep."

In fact, in verse 12, He puts it this way: the hired hand “is not the owner of the sheep." You know, it's a sad truth about sinful humanity, but isn't it true among human beings that people tend to take better care of their own things than other people's things? This speaks of the sinfulness or selfishness of the human heart. Men in general—not everyone, of course—but in general, that's true. If it's theirs, they'll take good care of it.

This hired hand doesn't own the sheep, and so when the wolf is coming, he doesn't love the sheep, he doesn't care about the sheep as if they were his own. He didn't name them. He doesn't know them by name, you see, so he runs, he flees. Not our Shepherd. Not the good Shepherd. Not the true Shepherd. Our Shepherd. Our Shepherd saw the wolf coming. The wolf of sin, the wolf of death, the wolf of judgment, which would have devoured us. Sin would have devoured us. Death would have been for eternity. Judgment would have been our end forever. And Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, the good Shepherd—He saw the wolves and He faced them head on, and He gave His life to rescue us from them. He cares for us.

This is the word used—cares. He's concerned, cares. Verse 13, ‘meli’ is the Greek word. That's such a sweet word to our hearts, to our minds, especially when we go through hard times. He really does care for you, child of God. He does. If you're His, if you're His, if you know Him, if you're known by Him, He knows you. You know He cares for you. And by the way, it's the same Greek word used in 1 Peter 5:7—"He cares for you."

So when you face that health issue, when you find out that you have a serious illness, something that's going to change your life for as long as you're facing it, and may in fact be your doorway even at times into the presence of your Shepherd, you know one thing for sure: it is not an expression of God not caring about you when you face the suffering. And when you have financial hardship, and things are tough and tight, and you don't know how you're going to make it, one thing you never have to doubt is that God cares for you. He cares. And if He hasn't supplied what you think you should have supplied, it's not because He lacks the ability to do it, which means He has another plan. There's something, something else, something He's teaching you through it, you see. There's something more valuable than money that He's working in your life because of what you're facing. There's something more valuable than temporary health. Beloved, there's an eternal weight of glory that can't be compared to the things, the flipsies, the tribulations, the afflictions that we go through in this life.

There's an incomparable treasure that He's working that you will see one day, that you will realize it one day. He was doing this all along. Yes, this is what He's doing all along. Yes. He loved me all along. Yes, you will see it. He loved you beyond what you can imagine all along. And He's working in your life. And He cares. 1 Peter 5:6, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” In other words, stop grumbling. Stop complaining. Oh, if God really loved me… "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time." How? "Casting..." —How do you do this? — "Casting all your anxiety on Him." — Why? — "Because He"—the same word used in John 10—"cares for you."

What do you do with all your worries? What do you do with all your troubles? What do you do with all your anxieties? What do you do with all your fears? You throw them, you cast them upon the Chief Shepherd—your Shepherd, your good Shepherd, the good One—knowing, He really, really, really does care for me. And you cry out to Him, Lord, I don't understand it. I don't understand it. I don't get it. I don't see it. It doesn't make sense. I can't make sense of this, Lord. And if it were within my power, I would change it. But I'm so thankful that I don't have the power to dictate my own life, because I would have taken so many wrong turns. Lord, You know my heart is troubled. I want to take all those troubles and roll them on You. All of them, Lord. All of them.

And if I don't know anything else in this situation, I can be assured of this: You care for me. That's what Your Word says. You cared enough for me to die in my place. You bought me with Your own blood, Lord Jesus. You'll take care of me right now in my suffering, in my need, in my trouble. “For we,” — beloved, —- “do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin” Hebrews 4:15. Listen, beloved, just because Jesus was sinless on this earth and He was perfect, spotless, doesn't mean that He was anything less than a real human being who's fully God. And so He's able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He's gone before us, hasn't He?

We don't have a shepherd who drives us from the rear. We have a Shepherd who leads the way. He's gone before us. He knows us. He knows what our struggles are. He knows how we experience the weakness of humanity, and He is your Helper. He cares for you.
And so “we confidently say”—”we confidently say”—this is the Word of God, “we confidently say,” Hebrews 13:6, “the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will men do to me?” And this is where many of men's fears lie. We're afraid of other men. We're afraid of what might happen. We're afraid of what someone else has. We think that they have control over us. My boss has control over my future. No, he doesn't. No, she doesn't. What can men do to you? Don't you know the Lord is your helper? Who's your helper? What's His name? The Lord. What does that mean? ‘Kyrios.’ You know what it means? He rules. It means He reigns. Who's your Helper? The sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth is your helper. I am the Shepherd, the good One, the perfect One, the true One, the model Shepherd.

Let me ask you, do you know Him today? Does He know you? How do you know if you're known by Jesus? How do you know today if you're known by Christ? Here's how you know: you repent of your sin and you believe in Him. That's how you know. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. We preach the gospel to all men knowing that Christ died for His own sheep, knowing that the Holy Spirit will draw them to the Savior and they will repent of their sins and believe in the Son of God. So the question for you today is not whether you're elect or not. The question for you is, will you repent and believe in the Son of God? We sow the seed indiscriminately. Will you turn from your sins even this morning and trust in God's Son for eternal life? And when you come to Him truly with an honest, sincere heart produced by the Holy Spirit, you won't be coming just for fire insurance. You'll be coming to Him because you love Him. You see your need of Him and you will count Him to be the greatest treasure, the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, and willing to lose all if need be just to have Him. Do you know Him? Are you known by Him?

Let's pray.

This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.

Last week we began to look at this wonderful chapter in Romans chapter 5, considering the blessings that accompany justification. That word "justification" appears—it's the last word of chapter 4 and this chapter continues to enumerate the blessings that flow out of our salvation, that Christ was delivered on account of our transgressions and was raised on account of our justification, and we who believe in Christ have been justified. We've been brought into a right standing with God, and what we find here, as we noted last time, in these first 11 verses are the blessings which accompany justification, the wonderful benefits that flow down to us because of Christ's death on our behalf.

And Paul mentions them: the free access that we have as believers. We enjoy this free access into the very presence of God. We have this standing in grace, an introduction, an entrance into this standing—a standing in grace before God. We have access, we have acceptance with God as those who are now reconciled through the death of His Son, and we have this assured hope of glory, the joy, the hope that is ours as believers in Christ Jesus: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." And we traced last time the things that we have as believers. There are certain things that Paul says we possess.

We enjoy this acceptance, we have this access, we have peace with God, we have obtained a standing in grace, and because of what we have, we rejoice. We boast, he says in verse 2, verse 3, and verse 11. We boast, we rejoice, we glory in the hope of the glory of God. And we can even rejoice and boast in our afflictions, because God is working through it all. And because of what we have, and because of what we rejoice in, he says we shall be—verse 9 and 10—we shall be saved. We're saved from wrath through Christ, and we'll be saved by His life. And it's as if we have this hope of glory presently. It's so sure, it's so guaranteed. As the children of God, we have it now—verse 11: "And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

So we trace these blessings that we enjoy as the people of God through these verses by what we have, what we rejoice in, what we shall be, what we look forward to—and it's guaranteed even to us presently. We have an assured hope as the sons of God of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. And we were thinking about that this morning in Jude. We're looking with eager anticipation to that day when Christ will return and call His people home. We will be with Him, which is far better.

Here we struggle, as He tells us about those afflictions, those trials that come our way, but we're not without hope. We have this definite, this certain hope, and it's ours. These blessings flow to us because we are justified—God looking upon His people as just and righteous, perfectly righteous in His sight, accepted by the Father just as Christ is accepted.

We are justified. We are declared to be, or declared or pronounced to be, righteous in the sight of God, and because of that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an entrance by faith into this gracious standing before God, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have confidence based on our justification. But he says more than that—we have something else. We have an assurance. We have an assured hope, but we have this assurance of God's love as we travel through this world presently, as we deal with afflictions and trials.

We have this assurance that God is with us, God is for us, God is on our side, and God loves us, and He will see us through. He will fulfill His word. We have Christ in us, the hope of glory. And so we have here a further blessing that flows out of our justification. It's the assurance of God's love. "the love of God," he says in verse 5, "has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us." And in verse 8, "God demonstrates” – God shows– “His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

The assurance of God's love—”the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us”. This assurance of God's love for sinners like us, Paul says, it comes through the death of Christ. How do you know you are loved of God? How do you know you are a child of God? He tells us in verse 8, "God demonstrated His own love to us… Christ died for us."

You want proof of God's love for you? The greatest expression and the greatest proof of God's love for sinners is found in the cross. God shows, “He demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The supreme proof of God's love is this: He gave His Son to be our substitute. He gave His Son for sinners like us.

Christ died for us. And who is the "us" here? We're described as the weak, powerless, helpless, morally incapable of saving ourselves. We are ungodly, irreverent, rebellious, sinners, enemies even. Those who could not save themselves. We were helpless. We were hopeless. We were without God in this world. We were far from God. We were aliens to God, strangers to His grace. We were without God. We were without strength, he says. We were without help. We were without hope in ourselves.

And Paul says, to such God has shown His love. Christ died for us. Verse 25 of chapter 4, Jesus “was delivered on account of our transgressions"—transgressions not His own, but for our transgressions—"and He was raised again on account of our justification."

So here you have this wonderful doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, that our sins were laid to His account, put to His charge. He was put to death on account of our transgressions, but He was raised again on account of our justification—our sins being laid on Him, Christ's righteousness being put to our account—so that we now are reckoned to be perfectly righteous in the sight of God, clothed in the garments of salvation, as Isaiah tells us, clothed in the perfect robes of Christ's righteousness.

So that when God the Father in Heaven looks down upon me, He sees me as covered in the umbrella of God's perfect righteousness, and I'm shielded from the wrath of God. I'm accepted in the beloved Son. He was delivered on account of our transgressions and raised on account of our justification.

At the cross, our sin was credited to Jesus Christ, and His righteousness was credited to us, and now God sees us in Christ, clothed in that perfect righteousness. He's satisfied, and the fact that God raised up Christ from the dead, that's a very receipt that His justice has been vindicated. It's a guarantee that He is satisfied with the finished work of Christ on our behalf, and there is therefore no condemnation now. Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That wrath has been turned away. We've been reconciled to God.

We who were afar off have been brought near and joined to God in Christ, and now we find approval. We're commended to God on account of Christ's finished work on our behalf. Christ died for us. How does God show His love? How does He put it on display? How does He do that? He proves and He demonstrates His love by pointing us to the death of His own Son at Calvary. When God wants to show us His love, He leads us to Calvary's cross, to Christ's death on our behalf, on behalf of sinners like us.

And every believer, every child of God who has put their faith in Jesus Christ has tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. We have tasted the sweetness of His salvation. We have tasted by experience the love of God. It has been made known to us. All true Christians know the love of God, having tasted the outpouring of God's love in our heart by the Spirit who is given to us. And that's another reason we can know God's love for us, be assured of God's love.

Not only did God give His only begotten Son, but God has given to us His Holy Spirit. His Spirit now dwells in us, resides in us as a seal, as a guarantee that what we have in Christ will be fulfilled. The love of God has washed over our soul by the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. We could say the love of God that we have come to know and experience, it's something real to us. It's real in our experience. We can testify of its truth.

We acknowledge the power of the gospel. This is not something that is distant and unknown, but this is something that is real in our experience. We have come to know personally, genuinely, intimately the love of God for us. The love God demonstrates to us in Christ and gives by His Spirit we have experienced. We have come to know by experience the love of God in Christ Jesus. The love of God has been poured out in our souls. It floods our souls. There's a fullness about this.

There's something real and true about the fact that God has poured it out. It's gushed out. It is lavish. It is free. It is something that we have come to know personally and intimately. The love of God poured out in our hearts is the knowledge that is conveyed there by the Holy Spirit of our new relationship, our new standing. God assures us of His love that we are children of the Father. We have a new standing now in grace as sons before the Father with this free access into His presence, this acceptance in Christ, and this assurance that we have a joy and a hope laid up for us in glory.

It's this knowledge that is connected to our position, to our standing before God as those who are justified in His sight. And how do we now stand before God? We stand in His grace, but we stand as those who are justified. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. This is something that we have come to know by personal experience, and that's what the Holy Spirit gives to our hearts. It is a love that is poured out within our hearts.

The Holy Spirit, who is the dispenser of God's gifts and blessings to us, is also Himself God's gift to the church. God has given His Holy Spirit to us. The Spirit of God resides within us, and in grace the Holy Spirit pours out on us God's love freely, lavishly, abundantly. He gives grace upon grace upon grace, and that's the work of God in the regenerated soul. And it's through the Holy Spirit who is given to us, it says there in verse 5.

This is a work of God in the soul of man, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as God's gift to His people, to continue on that work of Christ in us, to sanctify us and lead us on to glory. And to think, as it says in Galatians 4:6, God sent forth His Son so that He might redeem us, those who are under the law, so that we might receive this adoption as sons. And because you are sons, “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’." We have a Father in Heaven who loves us. And how do we know His love? He sent His Son to die for us, and He has given us His Holy Spirit who now dwells in us.

We have come to know and experience and to receive the Spirit of adoption as sons. God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And so we cry, Abba, Father. God, by His Spirit, works in our hearts the miracle of the new birth. Being born of God, we are now His children. And God, by His Spirit, dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is sent forth by God the Father into our hearts. He makes known to us the wondrous fact of our relationship to the Father as children, as sons.

The Spirit Himself bears witness, bears testimony to the fact that we are now the children of God. And so we have this wonderful proof, this wonderful demonstration of God's love for us. God sent His Son to die in our place. God has given us of His Spirit.

The Bible commentator Stuart Elliot said, "The proof and the measure of God's love is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We were unrighteous, deliberately and inexcusably wicked, perverted within and without. We were God's enemies, yet Christ died for us.” Isn't that amazing? He died, not for His friends as we read here, you know. "For one will hardly die for a righteous man” – some may even dare to die for a good man – “But God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners,” – enemies. He “died for us."

Christ died for us, and the cross is a demonstration of love which is without parallel. It's the overwhelming evidence that God loves us. And so in the death of Christ for us, we have such proof of God's love that we know He will never forsake us.

We have this hope in Christ that come what may, He will see us through. We are His. We are His children. He gave His Son for us. He has given us His Spirit who now dwells in us as a seal and pledge of our acceptance and our inheritance. And He will see us through. And we have this definite hope even now. It says in verse 3, "And not only this, but we also boast" –we can boast and rejoice even – “in our afflictions”.

You know, as James said, "Count it all joy."
How can you count it all joy in a day of trial and affliction? You can boast in your afflictions knowing that affliction brings about perseverance. Perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope. God is putting you to the test. He's proving you. He's preparing you. He's refining you. He's working in you. He's proving that character, that what you have is real. And so these afflictions test you, prove you. And in it all, you have hope, the hope. It's a definite hope. It's a certain hope.

Hope does not put to shame. In the death of Christ, we have such proof of God's love that we know that He will never put us to shame. He will never disappoint us. He will never forsake us, come what may, whatever we're facing here. Right now, in this day, He will see us through, and He's working. It's an evidence of His grace, if you like. It's an evidence that God hasn't forsaken us. He's still working with us. He's still refining us. He's still shaping us. He's still sanctifying us, and He's using even these afflictions to do that.

And the Holy Spirit is the one who gives you this assured hope of the love of God. Because, He says, "hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." The assured hope, He will see us through to the very end. He will lose none of those who belong to Him. None of His sheep will be lost. And here Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. If this is what God has done for you in Christ, when you were an enemy, when you were an alien, a stranger to grace in God, when you were a rebel to God, when you were ungodly, weak, without hope, without God, without strength, unable to save yourself or do anything to merit the favor of God—if God would go to such extreme lengths to rescue you and to save you.

If God has loved you so much when you were a sinner, an enemy—much more then, being now reconciled as His friend. No longer an enemy, but a friend. Reconciled, at peace with God. One with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Having this access through the Spirit into His presence. This assurance of His love. Here Paul argues, this is the logic: if God so loved you when you were His enemy—verse 9—"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God, we shall be saved by His life." Much more then, we shall be saved by His life.

If God went to such great lengths to rescue me, to save me, His enemy, what will He not do for me now that I am His friend? Much more than I could ever imagine or anticipate. He's the God of the much more, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all, beyond all that we ask or even imagine. The experience of the love of God enjoyed by believers is the work of God in the soul. It's the result of the supernatural, regenerating, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit within us. It's through the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.

"But as many as received Him,” – Christ, – “to them gave He the right the power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His name.” You're born again, not of the will of man, not of the flesh, but of God. It's the work of God in the soul of man. It's that gracious, sweet, transforming, powerful work of God the Holy Spirit that raises dead sinners to life, to walk in newness of life, to know and experience the love of God. The Holy Spirit brings us to an understanding of certain facts.

The natural man receives not the things of God. They're spiritually discerned. And God, by His Spirit, has brought us to this place where we see ourselves as we really are before God, as we stand before Him in our sin, in our rebellion, worthy of wrath. But we see also Christ died for us. Christ took our place. The Spirit of God makes the things of Christ real to us, a reality in our lives, so that we, by faith, look to Christ, believe in Him, accept His finished work on our behalf.

And we enjoy this real heart experience and assurance of being loved by God because of the outpouring of the love of God into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And we know by experience we are loved by God. Knowing by experience you are loved of God is, Paul says here, a Holy Spirit-given reality. It is a Holy Spirit-given experience of God's love. And so much so, even as we walk through the trials here, the afflictions that he mentions, those things that test us, that threaten our faith, we can know for certain that God is with us. God is for us. He is on our side because He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us.

He's our Helper. He is our Comforter, the One who comes alongside to aid us, the One who ever lives to make intercession for us, who is always pleading our case before the Father, who is one with the Father and prays and intercedes on our behalf as One who is in line with the Father's will. The Father knows the mind of the Spirit, and the Spirit knows the will of the Father. They're one. And so He ever lives. When we are without strength and weak and hardly know how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us in chapter 8, “intercedes for us”. And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, “but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

The Holy Spirit is interceding for us according to the will of God because He knows the mind of God. He is one with the Father. And as we go through these trials, Paul says, we have this help, this assistance, this Comforter—comfort in our suffering—One who is continuing to do the work of Christ and is One who is continuing to sanctify us and conform us to the image of our Savior, and One who is proving to us that our hope really is in God and not in the things of this world.

And the hope that we have in God is a genuine hope, is a certain hope, is a definite hope that will be realized. It's not a hope that will disappoint, of which we will be ashamed.
We will come through with confidence in the grace of God, in Christ, realizing that what we have is real and what God has said is true, and we can hold on to our Lord. He will never let us go. He will see us through.

And so because God's love has washed over our souls, has been poured in, has flooded our souls, you know, child of God, He will never let you down. He will never disappoint you. You will never be put to shame because your hope will not be disappointed. It will not fail. It will not prove to be an empty hope because of God's love for you.

There is a warrant for your hope in God. That's the work of God, the Holy Spirit, in our souls—the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And the reality of your salvation rests in this: Christ died for us. God shows to me now, presently, that truth. And by looking to the cross of Christ, we come to know the love of God for us. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit in us. A greater sense of God's love for me comes when I look to the cross, when I contemplate the work of Christ on my behalf, when I consider Him, and how we need to keep ourselves in the love of God, in the center of God's love, motivated by God's love for us.

Looking to the God who loves us. Trusting the God who loves us. Looking to Him for strength. What a blessing. What blessings are ours in Christ. We have peace with God. Acceptance. No longer enemies. God is no more angry with us. We're not under wrath. We'll never be condemned. We will not be in hell. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Acceptance.

And we have this access, verse 2, "through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace." We have a standing in grace. We can come before our King any time, any day. We will worship Him. We will love Him. Seek Him. And He will never turn us away. We find acceptance because of our standing in grace as those who are justified. And we have this assurance. We boast. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Blessed results. Things that we have. Things that we enjoy. Things that we shall be. And we rejoice in all that God has done for these souls of ours in Christ. Peace with God. A standing in grace. Divine favor and fellowship. Assured hope. We rejoice that God will be completely glorified in that day. It's living with an eye to the glory of God. Yes, it'll be a wonderful day. The hope of glory—Christ in us. The hope of glory. We will be glorified. But more than that, God will be glorified.

The hope of glory is the certain hope that God will be glorified through it all. Through the salvation of sinners like us. As He sees us through and brings us into His presence. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." God is glorified through it all. It's His glory. That's the end. We can know this assurance of His love, joy, and trials. The knowledge and experience of God's love flooding our souls. We, who were once enemies, now friends. We, who were previously condemned, now reconciled.

We are no longer condemned, but we're in full possession of an eternally secure hope. And Paul says, in this we rejoice. We rejoice. "And not only this," – verse 11, – "but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We glory. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ to Whom now we have received reconciliation. We rejoice in the rich blessings we enjoy upon the basis and the grounds of our justification. A justification that God in Christ has provided for us.

We boast in that. That's our only boast. "God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of Christ." That's my only plea. My only argument. I boast. I exalt triumphantly in the cross of Christ. And the fact that God in love gave His Son to die for me. His Spirit resides within me. And He will see me through to the very end. Through every present difficulty, every toil and danger and snare. He will refine us. He will remove the dross. He's preparing us for glory. And He will bring us home. We boast in the hope and the glory of God. The glory of God.

Let's pray.