Jesus and Judgement - John 8..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. John chapter 8 from verse 12. Again Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, you are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh.

I judge no one, and even if I do judge, my judgment is true. But it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me bears witness about me. They said to him, therefore, where is your father?

And Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

Well, brothers and sisters, we've been working our way through the fourth gospel, the gospel according to John, for a while now. We've been in there for about two and a half years. And throughout our journey in the fourth gospel, on different occasions, I've brought to your attention about some things or some particular details that we need to keep our eyes open for as we journey through this gospel together. And one of those details is the dichotomies in this fourth gospel. These opposing truths, stark contrasting truths that are emphasized by the Apostle John in the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And there are a few in this fourth gospel, and they're scattered throughout the book. As I said, they're stark contrasting truths. On the one side, we find the truth about all that belongs to God and Christ, salvation and life that which is holy and righteous and just. And then on the other side, we find truths that are more related to the fallen world, our sinful nature, the things of unrighteousness. These are antithetical one with the other.

So Jesus himself uses these contrasts to get the point across, to give understanding to the people that he's teaching. He uses it in his discourses as we'll see. We've seen some of these truths already in our study together in the fourth gospel. We've seen some of these contrasts that you probably are starting to remember now as I speak. Truths like contrast, my apologies, like God who is contrasted with the devil.

Life is contrasted with death. Truth and lies. Slaves and those who are free. Light and darkness. That's the one that we just saw in our passage earlier.

Things of the spirit and things of the flesh. That's another one. And there's many more in this fourth gospel. But beloved, as we work our way through those dichotomies or the the dualistic opposing truths, you may call them, you'll find that in one category it's quite negative. It's quite evil.

It's unrighteous. It's despised. It's depraved. And then on the other side, you have one, as I said earlier, which is glorious. It's descriptive of our good and holy God, righteousness, holiness, all that is good.

All that is good. As we come across these stark contrasts, every one of us, I'm assuming, is left asking the question, what category do I belong to? It may be a question you ask in your own soul. Where do I belong? Where do I belong?

Am I in the light? Or am I in the darkness? Am I one of those truth tellers? Or am I a liar? Am I a slave?

Or am I free? How do I live my life? Do I live my life in the spirit or by the flesh? You see, the answer to that question in a room this size may vary, but I can tell you something that doesn't vary. And that is, every single one of us was born in the same category.

Every one of us was born in the evil category. The unrighteous category. The wrong category. It's the despised one. It's the detested category.

Because it's evil. The Bible's clear. That's the nature of sinners. They're born with darkened hearts. They're born with fleshly passions and desires.

Beloved, whether we like it or not, we're born slaves to sin. He who practices sin is a slave to sin. Verse 35 of the same chapter that is before us. But by nature, by nature, what we are is a sad state. And if over and over again our Lord makes it clear that such a sinful, unrighteous person will never enter into the kingdom of God, only the righteous get in.

It's clear. It's the teachings of our Lord. It was the teaching of our brother even this evening. Then all humanity has a diabolical problem. And that problem requires a fundamental change.

Because if by nature we're all found in that evil category, then what is required for salvation and life of our souls is to be removed from one category and then placed in another. So that means for sinners who are all born sinners and unrighteous, To be accounted with the goodness and the righteousness that God requires from His creatures in order to have a relationship with Him, a fundamental change needs to occur. You see, much of contemporary religion, and I'm very saddened to say much or at least some of modern day contemporary Christianity teaches that you need to do more. That's what's required. We need to do more things.

We need to try a little harder. We need to clean ourselves up a little bit. We need to tell less lies. We need to think and be more mindful of the needy. And we need to be more faithful in our marriages.

And the list goes on. And all of these are good and necessary. Don't get me wrong. But these minor changes in our disposition towards God and others just won't cut it. Because the problem is a nature problem.

It's a sinful nature problem. It's who we are. That's the problem. It's who we are. in Adam.

The corruption in their nature runs too wide and it runs too high and it runs too deep, beloved. Everything is contaminated and God demands purity. He demands righteousness. He demands undefiled perfection. And if you and I are in the defiled pile by birth, Then, in that state, we cannot, beloved, hear me well, we cannot have a relationship with the holy, thrice holy God of the universe.

It cannot happen, for God cannot look upon sin. You see, the antithetical opposites in the book of John, between what God demands and what we are by nature, make it so clear that to be acceptable before a thrice holy God, to be received in His kingdom where unrighteousness is forbidden, there must first be a radical change. And here's the rub. The Bible tells us it's a change that you and I cannot, Him, you beloved, cannot accomplish on our own. That's why doing more things just won't cut it.

Even good things. Because it's not simply a change of mind, or doing more good, or even giving mental assent to certain truths. Hear this, even truths about Jesus Christ himself. There needs to be a radical change. And not only in our disposition alone, but a change in our nature.

taken from one pile of unrighteousness, the dirty contaminated pile, and then transferred into the pure, the holy, and the righteous. From the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the sun. that we must be loved. The only way we can have a meaningful love relationship with the pure and holy and righteous God of the universe is if He takes the initiative and transfers us from the wickedness and the sinfulness and the unrighteousness that we were born in and He unites us into His Son, Jesus Christ. And that's a divinely, purely, gracious, supernatural work from the hand of God.

It's not that we become pure and holy and righteous overnight. That's not what I'm saying. It's accounted to us because where we are now, where we have now become, where we have been placed, and it is now that we are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've come to Him by faith, you've been placed in union with Christ. And He is the one who is pure.

And He is the one who is holy. And He is the one who is righteous. And when God looks upon you, He sees His beloved Son. And you're acceptable before Him. Beloved, as we work our way through the dichotomies in the Gospel of John, I hope, I hope they'll help us understand and see more clearly that insurmountable chasm between sinful man and holy God.

And I hope we see more clearly the helplessness in our sinful nature to do anything about it. So for us Christians, this is humbling. Because in our meditations we'll see our Saviour. We'll see Him more clearly. I hope that we'll know Him and love Him more dearly.

Because we will come to see more clearly that He's the one who bridges that gap for us. He's the one who reaches over and grabs us and brings us up to his heart so that we can have a glorious relationship being reconciled with God Almighty. Beloved, that is glorious. So I pray as we work our way through the eighth chapter of the Gospel according to John, I pray that every single one of us Christians, brothers and sisters, that we will be overwhelmed with the beauty of our Savior Jesus Christ. Because there are so many of these dichotomies, there's so many of these dualistic opposites, you may call them, in this chapter.

And when we consider what side we were on by nature, as I said earlier, the wrong side of the equation, it ought to compel our hearts to praise and to worship Because he's good. He's wonderful. In this eighth chapter, we will consider many of these dichotomies. We will consider light and darkness, as I said earlier. A little further on in the chapter, we'll see how Jesus speaks of himself as being from above.

And there are those who are from above, and that is Christ. He's from above, and the rest are from the earth. They're from below. This evening, we will look at what it means to be in the flesh, and what it means to be in the spirit. A little later in this chapter also we'll see that the contrast between those who are free and those who are yet slaves.

We will see the contrast between those who belong to God and then the family of God and then those who belong to the devil and are in the family of the devil. We will see the contrast between truths and lies and life and death. All of that to come in this one chapter. Chapter 8. It's a glorious chapter.

And although these words were spoken, beloved, to an original audience, and that is the Jews of the first century, by extension, the veracity of the truthfulness that we have before us is applicable, my apologies, to all people in every generation, only as long as you're born in Adam. And looking across the room, I think that's all of us. No, I know that is all of us. About time we're done. My hope, as I said earlier, is that we appreciate our Saviour so much more and that we recognise our desperate need for His grace.

Our desperate need for His undeserving grace that has reached out and redeemed us wicked, unworthy sinners and brought us into the beauty that is Christ. I pray that our eyes will be open to that. Now, verse 12 is the key to the whole chapter. I want us to think of verse 12 as being the backdrop, and it should remain in the back of our minds as we work through the text. In verse 12, Jesus declares a second of his great I Am statements.

I said earlier that, in previous weeks, I've said that there's seven I Am statements in the Gospel according to John. This is the second, and Jesus speaks this. He declares this I Am statement in the temple precinct in Jerusalem, just after the conclusion of the Feast of Booths. And this is how he says it. I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. A few weeks back, we spent some time, actually a whole Lord's day, we spent meditating on this verse alone, examining the beauty of this truth. But you may remember me saying back then that there's so much more that I could say about the truthfulness of Jesus being the light of the world, that those who follow after him will no longer be in darkness, but will receive or have the light of life. There's so much we can speak about, but I reserved what I said that day to the immediate context, in the original context. But as we continue to work through this chapter, more and more of the truths that are derived from the words of our Lord, derived from that great statement that he spoke in the temple precinct will come to light.

And I pray that will overflow and add light to what our Lord is saying on this day. And just to refresh your memory, I want to remind you of two things and two things only before we move on. I want to remind you of the definite article in that statement, when Jesus says, I am the, the light of the world. Christ is asserting that he is the sole, exclusive source of light for a sin-darkened world. Now, we can't reflect his light.

We know John the Baptist was a candle, was a burning candle. He's a reflection of the sole source of light, Jesus Christ. He is the only source of light. And He is the only source of life as well. Because the first 12 ends with the light of life.

The light of Christ is what brings life to a dead soul. And that means without Jesus, without Christ, without the light of Jesus Christ, One remains only in darkness. There is no other light. Apart from Christ, anywhere else is darkness. No matter what religion you believe in, no matter what methodology or ideology you live under, you will be under darkness.

Christ is the only light of the world. None others. Christ is the only life, the source and the fountain and the well of life. No other. No other.

Without Him, man just gropes in blindness, spiritual blindness, without any hope for salvation. Without Christ, one cannot be saved. That's the backdrop to the whole chapter. That's the backdrop. And although the word light is not mentioned again for the rest of the chapter.

Beloved, I want you to know that verse 12 is the interpretive grid for everything Jesus says moving forward in chapter 8. Now, as always, and we've been in the gospel according to John long enough now to make this assessment, whenever Jesus opens his mouth before the religious leaders of the day, what is he met with? Great opposition. Always. Always he's met with opposition.

They're especially bitter when Jesus makes claims of himself, and especially when he makes claims of deity, of himself. And that's what he's doing in verse 12, if you remember. Not only is he the source of light, the only source of light, which in the light is God's light, and the source of life. And life is found only in the living God. But you remember, Jesus is also identifying himself with the light of the manifest glory and the presence of Yahweh in the pillar of fire that led the people in the wilderness for some 40 years.

And if the Jews had figured that out, and I think maybe they may have, we're not sure, they would have been pretty furious and it could explain why we have the immediate opposition to our Lord in verse 13 when he utters those words. I want you to take note. It's the Pharisees who do the opposing, you realise that? It's the Pharisees who do the opposing. Now I've said over and over again that the sect of the Pharisees were not only a religious group in the first century and as such leaders of their community, but they were the most righteous and holy of them all.

God was pleased with the Pharisees. They were pious, so they thought. They were worthy to be looked up to, they were worthy to be followed, and they were worthy to be imitated as far as the lay people were concerned. So in the minds of the first century Jew, if anyone was going to make it to heaven, it was these guys. It was the Pharisees, the same guys opposing our Lord.

Jesus knew. He knew how well esteemed the Pharisees were in the eyes of the Jews. And that's why he utters the words in Matthew chapter 5, which would have been absolutely shocking to the people. This is what he says. He says, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Beloved, I know we're far removed from the first century Jew, but can you imagine the shock and horror in the heart of these people who look up to the Pharisees? The ones who look so holy and noble. They teach us religion. We want to be like them. And for Jesus to say, you have no hope unless your righteousness exceeds of these men that you revere, that you esteem so highly.

Imagine what they would have been experiencing during these engagements with our Lord, one with the other. And the Pharisees were just breaking apart. They couldn't respond to the wisdom and the knowledge and the grace and the stature of our Lord. Imagine how their hearts sank. And there would have been a few people here.

The context of chapter 8 is taking place, we're told, in the treasury temple. It's an interesting fact that John, in the treasury in the temple, John tells us this in verse 20. It's interesting he tells us that. Now there's disagreement exactly where the treasury was in the first century temple. But we know the treasury is the place where the offering boxes were, so the worshipper can come and give their gifts and offerings, financial gifts and offerings, in the temple precinct.

Now although we can't be 100% sure where this was, in Mark chapter 12 you might remember the story. We know that Jesus was sitting there opposite the treasury and he sees this old widower, poor widower, and she puts her last two coins in. You remember the story in Mark chapter 12. So that tells us that both Jewish men and Jewish women at the very least had full access to this place. Right?

They could all be there. I think it's added for us so John can let us know that this discussion, the proclamation of our Lord wasn't happening in a conspicuous corner somewhere in the temple, but rather where everyone can hear. This discussion that's taking place, there would have been an audience before our Lord. And so when the audience that were listening, Hearing the discussions between our Lord and the Pharisees, it's hard to know what they were thinking. But I think, I think they're thinking if these men who are so highly esteemed with all this knowledge, so pious, if they don't get it, what chance do we have?

If they don't get what Jesus is speaking, he's speaking about things that pertain to eternal life and salvation and God. So if they don't get it, then what chance, what chance do we have? How can we ever know what to do to please God? And beloved, if that's what they were thinking, and we don't know, this is conjecture, we don't know. But if it was, that's good news.

It goes quite antithetical to the common religious view of the day. To recognize one's own inability in matters of faith is the best starting point to truly understand the words of our Lord. Because His message is never try harder. Jesus' message is consistent throughout the Gospels. His message is consistent through his apostles.

And it's never, try harder. It's never be more diligent. It's never do more work. His message to his people, of these people at least, who are so accustomed to think that salvation is by their own efforts. The message of Christ was so freeing.

You know why? Because his message was simply, come and believe in me. Come and trust in me. He's not saying do more, try harder. He's not saying any of that because he knows you can't in and of yourself.

His message is just come. Come, come and believe. Come and believe. It's a beautiful message. And it's consistent wherever he went.

He so beautifully said something that was glorious to the Galileans. If you remember back in chapter 6, the Galileans had asked Jesus, what work does God require us to do? In other words, Jesus, what should we do to receive eternal life? What is the work that God requires us to do? And listen to the beautiful response of our Lord.

This is the work of God that you believe in him he has sent. That's it. That's it. Believe in Christ. That category of filth and unrighteousness and evil and wickedness that we're all born into.

How do we make it over into the glorious righteousness? Believe in Jesus Christ. He's the righteous one. Believe in Christ. Now the Pharisees before our Lord in chapter 8 were unable to believe.

They rejected his testimony. Firstly, in verse 13, we're told, in an attempt to look all righteous, they declared to our Lord that we can't believe you. And the reason they give is because there is no testifiers. There are no witnesses. Are you the sole testifier, Jesus?

Sorry, we can't believe. We know the Lord Christ, and you need two or three witnesses. We know that. And therefore, we can't confirm your testimony. We can't believe.

Now they did refer to a passage or a couple at least in the Old Testament speaks about the need of having two or three witnesses but that is in the case of adjudicating a crime because as our brother said earlier on our God is a just God and he will not allow his covenant people to sit under injustice and he will not allow someone receive the penalty by stoning if he's done nothing wrong. So two or three witnesses Unnecessary. But in this context, this is a misappropriation of the law. These so-called leaders, these so-called religious men who knew the law and knew it well and taught the law, they misappropriated the law. But anyway, they hide behind that technicality.

No two or three witnesses, and therefore we must deny your claims, Jesus. But Jesus saw right through their pretense. He sees through the facade. It's not that they wanted to uphold the law. He knew.

They'd simply hardened their hearts and they'd already made up their mind about him. We don't believe you, Jesus. Your testimony is not true. No surprise, unbelief has been the attitude of the religious believers from almost the beginning. We've seen that.

We've worked our way together through John. So last time we were in this gospel, we considered Jesus' response to these people, His response to their denial, basically them denying the words of Christ in the declaration of truth that day, the words that He is the light of the world. So in a nutshell, even though they demand witnesses, and witnesses could be provided and their demands could be satisfied because later on Jesus says there is another who testifies about me, the Father, Jesus doesn't immediately go there. Why? Because he stands on his own testimony.

He basically insists on his deity. And he declares, even if I stand alone and I'm the only one speaking, then my testimony is true because I know, I know where I've come from and I know where I'm going. You see, to these religious men that stand before our Lord, this 30 something year old carpenter from Nazareth, what's he talking about? How can you be saying that you came from somewhere else? Before you were born, Jesus, is that what you're inferring?

Yeah, that's what he's inferring. He said it over and over again. He's always said to these men that he's from the Father. The Father has sent him. So Jesus is saying, I existed with the Father before I was ever a man.

And when I'm done on this earth, done doing the work of the Father, done doing the work He's given me to fulfill all righteousness, I will return back to Him. Beloved, that's a beautiful truth, and it's the same truth that this book begins with. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So if human witnesses is what they require, and this is what the Pharisees are demanding, Basically Jesus saying, you can't have them. I'm the only one who's ever been there.

I'm the only one qualified to tell you what there is in heaven. No man has ever been where I have been. If you're looking for human witnesses, you won't find them. But of course Jesus knows it's not a matter of witnesses. No amount of witnesses would convince these people of this truth.

The issue is deeper, much deeper, and it's far more serious. As I said earlier, it's a nature problem. Because our Lord then turns and tells them why they are unable to believe his claims. in particular why they're unable to believe that he is the light of the world for those who follow after him will be withdrawn from the darkness into the light and receive the light of life why is it that these people are unable to believe and this is what Jesus says verse 15 you judge according to the flesh these are spiritual truths that Jesus is uttering eternal, spiritual, heavenly truths. In other words, what is required in order to understand the truths coming out of his mouth, you don't have.

Your judgment of me is fleshly. It's worldly. It's carnal. It consists of only what is consistent with your human, sinful nature. And I speak of eternal truths.

You don't have the tools in your toolbox to understand my words. The best you can come up with is superficial, shallow understanding based on your intellect and what your physical eyes can see. And you need a lot more than that. Just like you can't verify, verify with any human witness of where I came from and where I am returning. Something greater than a human witness can testify to that truth.

So too, the only way you can be convinced of my words is if someone, not human, not in the flesh, bears witness to this truth. Something is missing. No matter how smart you are or how smart you think, you're lacking the essential ingredient to understand and believe my words. And that's what Jesus is saying. Despite your prideful hearts, you are needy.

You need something apart from yourselves. Because as it stands, at best your judgments are going to be shallow, and you're unable to discern spiritual matters. And the words I speak are spiritual. And beloved, that gives us a bit of an understanding of the character and the nature of these men before our Lord. And that's why their interpretation of Scripture was so skewed.

We see this so clearly in the New Testament, don't we? Even in just the Gospel according to John, we've seen over again how the religious leaders have a skewed understanding of Scripture. And it's not the first time our Lord rebukes them for their bad judgments, you may remember. He had done so only days earlier, at the same place, in the same feast. If your Bibles, let's flick over one page back to chapter 7.

From verse 14. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So Jesus answered them, My teaching is not mine, but here's who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me? 20. The crowd answered, You have a demon.

Who is seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. You know the work. the invalid man, on the Sabbath. 22.

Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcised a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? 24. Do not judge by appearance. The judge with right or righteous judgment.

You see, these men before our Lord were rebuking Him and they were actually furious to the point of contriving and plotting to kill Him. Why? We're told back in chapter 5 when this miracle happened of Jesus healing the invalid man of some 38 years on the Sabbath day is because of that healing. For them it's okay. Jesus is saying to circumcise a boy who turns eight days old if he turns eight on the Sabbath.

But for Jesus to restore an invalid man of almost four decades on the Sabbath is no go. That's a violation of the Sabbath. Perfecting a single body part is okay. But perfecting the whole body is deserving of death as far as they're concerned. How can they not see the folly of their ways, the folly of their judgments?

Beloved, it's because of darkness. Darkness. They're blind. They have no spiritual eyes to see. They cannot see or discern or perceive truth because their eyes are blind to spiritual truths.

What a dangerous thing. What a dangerous thing. Imagine those who teach the scripture who don't have eyes to understand it. What a dangerous thing. So what do they do?

They submit to their own fleshly understanding and their own fleshly interpretation of the law. And Jesus calls them out. He says that's wickedness. Because their minds are familiar with the letter of the law, but their hearts are far removed from the spirit of the law. They have no eyes to see.

Darkness. Blind. and the reason and the reason is given and the reason it was given and Jesus Jesus rebukes them saying do not judge by appearance but judge with right as I said earlier that can be also interpreted righteous judgment okay Jesus maybe the group of men on that day were just naive maybe they weren't Maybe they were inept. Maybe they didn't understand the scripture. Maybe that was the case.

Maybe you got a bad batch of Jews. Did you? No. No, that wasn't it at all. Because even the best of their own was also in that category of unrighteous fleshly judgment.

You may remember who I'm speaking of, Nicodemus, our friend, right? The teacher of Israel, we're told. You remember his response? You remember his response when our Lord said, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God? Nicodemus said this.

How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? You see, this guy would have been the professor of theology of the day. If he's here today, he would be a president of one of the best seminaries. And he couldn't even make righteous judgment of the words of our Lord.

He could only appeal to the flesh. What he can discern with his fallen, sinful human mind. And according to his mind, it's impossible to be born again. How can someone return back into his mother's womb? Darkness, beloved.

No category to interpret properly the words of our Lord because He was yet in spiritual darkness. No light. No spiritual light even to understand the fundamental rudimentary things of faith. So no matter how big one's brain is, no matter how much education and much study Without light from above, the only faculties one has to discern or judge what they see before them is attached to their fallen sinful flesh. Think about that.

Sinful minds, sinful wills, sinful emotions. If that's all one has, and we're told that those who are in the flesh, the natural person, that's all they have to appeal to, then it stands beyond a shadow of a doubt that the judgment of the Son of God and all matters of faith, any spiritual reality that He speaks of, can only also be sinful. No eyes to see the truth. So in a few verses time when Jesus asserts to this man that actually there is another who bears witness of me, the Father. And he's spoken to them about the Father on many occasions.

Do you remember what they say? We read it this evening. Where? Where is your Father? So as to say, bring him along.

Can you vouch for your words? Bring him. Probably thinking, maybe, Joseph, who knows what they had in their mind. But he mentioned the Father over and over again, and they could not put two and two together and understand he's speaking about God Almighty, blind in darkness. But this reality, beloved, is not exclusive to the Pharisees before our Lord.

But as I said from the beginning, it's applicable to all men and women born in Adam, no exceptions. The reason they judge according to the flesh is because they are devoid of the Spirit. So they're spiritually blind. That's what it means to be in darkness. It's moral darkness.

It's depravity. It's unrighteousness. It's lacking the ability to discern the things of God. Matters pertaining to faith, matters pertaining to salvation, matters pertaining to the righteousness of God go straight over the head. Apart from the mercy of God and the light of Christ pervading the darkness in one's soul, and shining spiritual light, beloved, apart from that, the judgment can only be according to the flesh, worldly and sinful.

And so these men deny the Lord. So when they get together and they talk and do the things they do, they see this Jesus, And they hear of his claims and they hear his words and the declarations that he speaks. And he professes of himself to be Messiah. Actually, a little bit later on they'll say, well tell us clearly. Are you or are you not the Messiah Jesus is?

I've already told you. He's already made it clear that He is the Messiah. And the Jews were waiting upon the Messiah for centuries and centuries. This was an eager expectation. They were looking forward to the One who is anointed by God to come and bring in the Messianic Kingdom.

Oh, how glorious this was in their minds and in their hearts. But beloved, every time they opened Scripture, and read about the Messiah to come, the hope of Israel, indeed the hope of the world. What did they see? They saw what the sinful minds wanted them to see. Nothing more and nothing less.

They did not have the eyes and the spiritual discernment to be able to see what the Lord has actually spoken in His Word about His Son who will come and He'll die on the cross for the sins of His people. They couldn't see it. So they interpreted this Messiah according to their own sinful understanding. And then Messiah does come. And He stands before them.

And He tells them plainly, I am He. And they do not recognize Him. Tell me that's not a tragedy. Tell me that's not a tragedy. No eyes.

No eyes to see. We don't want this Messiah. We don't want this Jesus. We want a warrior general. That's who we want.

That's what the word tells us. A warrior general who will sit on David's throne and rule in reigning righteousness. He'll free us from the Roman rule. We're good. They're bad.

He'll come and reward us. We want that. But we're not interested in this lamb. This lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There's a declaration of John the Baptist.

No interest. Why? Pride. Pride. We don't need a sacrifice.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Declaration of John the Baptist, they all knew this was pointing to the to the lambs of the Old Testament. And what were they used for? Substitutionary blood sacrifice on behalf of the sinner or the worshipper offering the lamb so that he can, our brother said earlier, be what? Forgiven. Forgiven.

We don't need forgiveness. We need our land. We need someone to restore our land. We're a privileged people. Pride.

And pride is the root in the heart of the unregenerated soul. It's self. It seeks after self. And when they read and when they acknowledge what they're reading, all they see is, how can this benefit me? How does it benefit me?

And so the Messiah comes. The only one who's able to forgive their sins. The only ones who can take them from the pile of unworthiness, unrighteousness, evil, depravity, death, darkness, blindness, and the eternal wrath of God upon that unrighteousness, the only one. And they say, we don't want you. We're looking for someone else.

Born into darkness, spiritually blind, And it's the default. I said that earlier. It's the default of every single human being born in Adam. It's not that we're born in light. We're not.

We're born in darkness. It's not that we're born righteous. We're born unrighteous. People are not generally good apart from some bad apples. They are depraved.

The Bible tells us that the heart is desperately wicked and what? Deceitful above all things. born in moral darkness and the inability to perceive the things of the Spirit, the things of life that Jesus speaks of, one cannot see in the darkness. So trying to discern the spiritual matters in the flesh will only result in foolishness, a denial of the testimony of Christ, a denying of his claim, a denying of his word, and the end is, let's kill him. Let's get rid of him.

Let's get rid of Christ. and beloved that's a scary thing to think about because these men were well versed in the scripture they knew their bibles they read them they understood them well but they were still blind they were still in their darkness and that relates that we could read our bibles We can pray, we can evangelize, we can sit under good teaching, we can listen to thousands of sermons. But apart from God intervening and invading our lives, He takes the initiative to bring us from death to darkness, shining the light of Christ. Apart from Him doing the supernatural work in the beginning, we too would remain blind, and the only determinations that we could do, the only judgments that we're capable of are fleshly, worldly, carnal, sinful judgments apart from the grace of God. But I would let Nicodemus be an example to us.

I don't think it'd be a stretch to say that if we sat down and seen how much time this guy spent in religion and studying the scripture, he may actually shame most, if not all, of us. These guys were in the Word. They memorized the whole Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses. He knew it all. He could recite it.

Yet, yet the light of God had not shone into his heart, and therefore he remained in darkness. spiritually blind even to, as I said earlier, the very fundamental things of the faith. And so Jesus says some pretty important words to Nicodemus. Because after he speaks to him about these things, about one needing to be born again, he says, Nicodemus, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit.

It's the spiritual life that is in view the flesh is useless Absolutely Useless To have spiritual life in the soul The spirit needs to give birth to that life in the flesh with our sinful human faculties we all we have is the flesh to deal with and we're unable to do that beloved at the mercy of a good and gracious god that's what it is so why is it then i ask that if that's the case these men were quite confident why is it that one has so much confidence so much faith and assurance in the flesh why is it Again, pride. Because we accomplish some little bits and pieces in this life. Things that we can accomplish in the material, physical world. And we well up with pride and think we can do it. You see, the flesh says, I can do it.

Is that God's law? It's doable. Really? Doable. Remember the words that the Apostle Paul used as far as the law is concerned?

What? It's doable. Flesh says, I can do it. Spirit says, no, it's done for me. You see the difference?

The flesh is proud. The flesh is proud. That's why you have confidence in the flesh. And it's deceptive because one grows and wells up in thinking, I can do more. I can do more.

I'm worth more. I'm worthy of more. Flesh. Flesh. But it's of zero eternal value.

It can accomplish nothing for the Spirit. And it can accomplish nothing that pertains into eternity. That is reserved for the things of the Spirit. You know, Jesus actually acknowledged that in the flesh we are actually able to do things. He's given us a mind.

Sinful? Yes. He's given us the ability to learn. He's given us a world and it's quite consistent. It works according to the the law of God.

So it's consistent that we can we can understand patterns. We can understand these things and we can actually accomplish some bits and pieces in this physical material world with the minds and the faculties that God's given us even though they are sinful and totally, totally depraved. We can. Jesus acknowledges that. You remember maybe in Luke chapter 12 our Lord says to the crowd that are listening to him.

He says, you say it once a shower is coming and so it happens and then he says in verse 5 and when you and when you see the south wind blowing you say there will be a scorching heat and it happens you get it right you get it right once and twice and three times and what happens this starts to grow right So you can discern some of the things in this physical world that can be done. God's given us, as I said, faculties, our mind and so forth. But as I said earlier also, you cannot and you're incapable in the flesh to discern matters that are spiritual, that pertain to God and His salvation and His Son and forgiveness and sin. You cannot understand the fullness of those things apart from the special revelation that comes in God's word and a spirit that illuminates that word. But we get confident in the flesh.

And the advertising companies don't help, do they? You can do it. No, we can't. But then Jesus continues in that Luke passage, and this is what he says, You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And then the very next word that comes next from the mouth of our Lord, it says, Why don't you judge for yourself what is right?

Why does he say that? The Messiah is standing before their very eyes. And they cannot see Him. They don't identify Him. They don't recognize Him.

They miss the time of His visitation, Luke tells us a little later in that book. But not only that, beloved, but in the previous chapter we're told, although the Messiah, the righteous one, the one who lives in that perfect category, the righteous and the holy and the one who is without blemish, pure and spotless, the one who lives in that, the only one who lives, God himself. It's a righteousness of God, our brother said it, not of the law, but of God. Christ is the only one who lives in that category. And they look at Christ there in Luke, and they make judgment of him.

And they say, we can discern with this that we have our mind, fallen mind, they don't know that we can discern that your power, and your work is from Beelzebul. That's, that's the judgment. That's, that's their judgment. They attributed the power of God in Christ to the prince of demons. That's their judgment.

You know, in the prologue of John, in the fifth verse, we read these words. The light shines in darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And if you remember, or you won't remember, it was a long time ago, but the other way you can interpret that passage is that the darkness could not comprehend it. Nice way to do that. The light has come into the world and the darkness could not comprehend it.

Why? because they lack the spiritual ability to comprehend who Jesus is. And for these people, they look at him and they say, that power that you use is Satan's power. We're not talking about a two second slice here. We're not talking about a few degrees wrong.

We're talking God and Satan. What you do, we attribute to Satan. That's a big mistake. That's blasphemous. But today, beloved, we still see this play down in our society.

The judging of Christ according to the flesh. But he may have taken a bit more of a subtle approach. Because certainly there are people who are strongly opposed to our Lord. We see them a lot of the times, we may see them online and other places, who just take a stance, a militant stance in their hatred towards Christ and everything he stands for. But within many circles, there is a certain level of tolerance, at least to some degree.

And if we're not careful, those who speak some of these truths, but not all of them, We may end up believing they're one of us, but we need to have our guards on. Because many hold Jesus in high esteem. They declare him to be a great man. You remember in the previous chapter, they said he's a good man. That's what they said.

Many saying he was a good man. He's a moral teacher who taught many good things. He did many signs and wonders. He did lots of acts of kindness. He loved the poor.

He showed acts of benevolence and love towards the people. This Jesus lived a pretty good life, they would say. And he died because he died according to the things he believed in. He died a man with convictions. He's a good man, that's what they would say.

But is that enough? Or is that judging according to the flesh? You see, others might go one step further and they would say he's not only a good man but he was a prophet. Jesus is a prophet sent by God and he spoke the words of God and as one who speaks the word of God he is honoured as a prophet. Is that enough?

Or is that too judging with the flesh? See, a little bit of truth, but not all of it. You see, others yet would go one step further and they would say, He is exalted. He is the highest of all created beings. He's like a God.

Great in all His ways. Why? He's righteous and good. They even believe He died on the cross. They even believe He died on the stake.

Or for the sins of many. And now He is at the right hand of the Father. Although they believe He has a beginning, they say, no, no, no, He has no end. His life will continue through all eternity. Is that enough?

Or is that judging according to the flesh? Beloved, all these positions and many more They acknowledge the benevolence and the goodness of Christ, but they do not hold to the totality of what Christ declared of himself are all unrighteous judgments. They are all judgments according to the flesh. Every last one of them. Even if it sounds like they have some truth, he's a good man, he is, but he's the God man.

You can't take that and not the rest. You can sugarcoat all these things as much as you would like, unless you hold the scripture as the infallible, inerrant, God-breathed word. And every word that Jesus spoke in this book is true, and you mean it in here, and you live by it, at least by God's grace. You desire to live by it in the strength that he's given you, then unless that's the case, there is serious, serious concern for the soul. very serious concern for the soul.

Because he claims to be the God man. He claims to have an eternal existence with the Father and face to face relationship from all eternity before time began. He was, as far as you can think, go back to that time. He was. In the beginning, was.

In the beginning, as far as your mind goes back, take your mind as far as you can possibly go back, Jesus was there. And we're told that he was in a relationship, a love relationship with the Father. And in that love relationship, there's a covenant that they made that he would come into this world, that a people would be united unto himself, but it would cost him dearly. He would become a man. What a condescension that he became like a man, a real man with a real soul and a real body, so that he can represent humanity.

And as a man, he lived perfectly, righteous, flawlessly, according to the will of God. That was his food, to do the will of God. And he accomplished it beautifully. He was even obedient to the Father, even unto death, death on the cross. And then on that cross he hung and he said, it is finished.

I've done the work for my people. It is finished. From up the cross they buried him three days later. On the third day he rise up from the dead as the victorious King of Kings, the resurrected Jesus Christ. And now he sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for the saints, for the saints who have by faith being united to him, removed from the kingdom of darkness and united into Christ, the kingdom of the Son.

Do you believe it? Do you believe all of it? Because if there's some details in this book that you might say, bit hard to believe, bit hard to believe, bit hard to believe, then you are judging with unrighteous judgment, a judgment according to the flesh, and Jesus rebukes that. Beloved, it's possible for someone to follow after Christ in the flesh. That's the scary thing.

It won't last. It's not a meaningful love relationship with Christ. They speak of knowledge of Him, but it's not a real knowledge. It may even last weeks, maybe months, even years. One can have that relationship in their own strength, in the flesh, but it won't last.

Because when trials and tribulations come, you're thinking of the parable of the soul, aren't you? And then they fall away. When the deceitfulness of riches or the cares of this world come, then they fall away. Holding on by one's own strength, that is holding on in the flesh, will inevitably lead to failure. True salvation that results in a wholehearted following after Christ as His disciple, as the one who loves Him and seeks to follow after Him, requires, as I said earlier, a divine intervention from the almighty hand of God at first.

He takes the initiative, and He shines the light of Christ, the light of life, into a sin-darkened, depraved soul. And he quickens that soul unto life. And there's spiritual life. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Takes you from a place of darkness and blindness and brings you to a place of light.

Do you believe that? Have you come to believe that truth? The Pharisees didn't, at least these ones. They rejected our Lord because they had no spiritual life and they're only capable of making judgments according to the flesh. But there are others who did the same.

You see, our Lord makes this point to the Galileans back in chapter 6. You might remember there was never a time of popularity in our Lord's earthly ministry as when he was in Galilee. Thousands upon thousands were following him. They were following and tracing every one of his footsteps. They went overseas from one side to the other.

It didn't matter where Jesus was. We're going to follow after this Jesus. They seemed kosher. They seemed like they were honest followers of Christ. It seemed like they were in it for the wrong reasons.

If you were just a follower and people were talking among themselves and marveled at His miracles, we have the Scripture and we know otherwise, because John's given us some hints as to why they're not kosher. But if you were there, these are the same people who declared Jesus to be that prophet, like Moses. The prophet they call him. That's the scripture. These are the same same people who also declared him as their king and were trying to forcefully make him their king.

We want to forcefully make you king because we do think you're the one who brings the messianic kingdom. We believe Jesus you are the messiah you are the rightful king and we want to put you in that we want to put you in that place but then then He begins to teach some hard teachings you may remember. Some difficult things to understand and discern. And then the grumbling. And then the complaining.

And then the desertion. Do you remember what our Lord said when all this was happening? After he said, you need to eat of my body and you need to drink of my flesh. And the spiritual meaning of those words went right over their heads. They were thinking, hold on, you want us to drink your blood?

We Jews, we can't do that. Jesus, what do you mean? They didn't understand it. Why? Because they were in darkness.

They didn't have the spiritual light to see. But do you remember what what Jesus said to his disciples when all this was going on and people were just about to desert him and they're grumbling and complaining? Jesus looks to his disciples and he says this, when many of his, we're told John tells us, when many of his disciples heard it they said, this is a hard saying, who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, hear this, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before?

And I want you to hear verse 63 in particular. It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. So if you had to use one word for the flesh in matters pertaining to life eternal, the spiritual things, the things of God, then what would you use? I would use useless.

The flesh is useless. It's useless in matters of faith. It doesn't help. It doesn't help. It's the Spirit who gives life.

It is the Spirit of God who gives life. Jesus said that to Nicodemus. Remember, that which is of flesh gives birth to flesh. That which is Spirit gives birth to Spirit. It's the Spirit of God who gives life.

He reveals the inadequacies of the flesh and he testifies to the one who is fully adequate. The light of life that is Christ. It is the Spirit of God who convicts a person of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. You remember John 16 verse 8. This is the mission of the Holy Spirit in the life of the one.

He opens their eyes to see the sinful state that they're in. The corruption and the depravity, the filth of the sin of the heart. And then he contrasts it with something. He contrasts it with that of the righteousness and the goodness and the beauty of God Himself. And the very righteousness, perfect righteousness that God demands of His creatures.

And the Spirit just brings that and puts it before the eyes of a sinner. And what does the sinner do? His pride melts away. He comes to realize, through the illumination of the Spirit, his sin, her sin, the depravity, the unrighteousness within, the wickedness, that is within and the total absolute offensiveness of our sin before the eyes of a thrice holy God. He convicts of sin.

He convicts of righteousness. He says you're not righteous. You haven't got a chance in and of yourself. to be righteous and to achieve the standard that the Holy God of the universe demands in order to be in His presence. In order to have a real, vibrant, intimate relationship with God, only righteousness can stand before Him.

We learned the lesson in the Old Testament What would happen to any one of those people, even after sacrificing for all their unintentional sins, if they were to walk into the Holy of Holies? What would have happened? What would have happened if Aaron walked into the Holy of Holies, not on the Day of Atonement? Well, we know what happened to his sons. They did walk in the Holy of Holies, but they defiled the Lord by offering strange fire.

sin, righteousness and judgment. You see, the Holy Spirit when He reveals to a man or a woman their sinful state, He also reveals what they deserve. You know, we may have thought of these things in the past. We may have thought about what my sins deserve and all these things before the Lord actually saved us. And we may have even uttered with our words, yeah, our sin deserves help.

We were on the street sometimes. We're giving, we're evangelizing. We ask the question to unregenerate people or nominal Christians. And they would say, when we say, you're a sinner and we establish you're a sinner, what do sins deserve? And I say, help.

Sinners deserve help. But you know, without the Spirit of God, you can utter those words, but you don't feel the weight of those words. Because yes, sinners deserve hell, but you don't feel the weight of what hell is. The eternal wrath of God upon unrighteousness, as we heard, the righteous, just God who cannot look upon sin, all unrighteousness must be recompensed with His judgment to stand under that in the place apart from the holy and good presence of God for all eternity. That's hell.

Now that only comes to mind really in a real spiritual sense when the Spirit of God opens your eyes and you're terrified. You see what you deserve. You see the wickedness of your sin. Brothers and sisters, you know what I'm speaking about. If the Lord has peace your heart with His Spirit, you know what I'm speaking about.

It's the fear of God. The fear of God that we live under every single day when we're confronted with sin and unrighteousness and the depravity of this world and the things that want to lure our hearts, the things of the sinful nature. It's the fear of God because you know how He looks upon sin and unrighteousness. It is terrifying. It is terrifying.

That's hell, spoken of before. But when the Spirit of God comes and He does a work so that your eyes are open, so that no longer do you judge with fleshly judgment, you're able to see. You're able to see your sinfulness, your unrighteousness, and what you deserve. And the Spirit of God then turns you around and says, Christ. And you see Him and you know.

You know He's the only one who can forgive your sins. He's the only one who died upon that cross to shed His precious, perfect, blameless, righteous blood. The blood of God, we're told in Acts chapter 20. He shed that blood and you look at that sacrifice and you say, He did it. He did it for me.

He did it for me. Jesus died on the cross for me. Where are you left? Your heart melts away and you fall on your face and you say, thank you. I never, not for a moment, not for a moment did I understand the wrath.

Not for a moment in my life up until that point could I have known what sort of danger I was in. But now I know. And in Christ is forgiveness. Let's pray.