Knowing and Keeping the Law..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Gospel according to John 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 he is 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 from 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 did you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, you have a demon.

Who is seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well?

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Well, brothers and sisters and friends, we've been in the gospel according to John, the fourth gospel now for a number of weeks. But the last time we were here was about three weeks ago.

So maybe just a quick word of context before we get into the passage that we'll be meditating upon this evening together. Now we know the context. We know that this is around the time of the Feast of Booths, the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. And if you remember, initially we were told that the brothers of Jesus were imploring him to come up with them to this feast. to come with them, because if he was going to make himself known, if his claims were true that he is the Messiah of Israel, he needs to make himself known where it matters.

And where it matters is in Judea, and more in particular, in Jerusalem, especially at this time where the Feast of Booths is going on, and then you have this huge population coming into Jerusalem. It was the most populated out of the three feasts of the Jews, the Feast of Booths. But Jesus says to his brothers that he's not going up at that particular time. Why? Because he is working according to a divine agenda.

The Father has given him what to say and what to do and when to do them. And so Jesus holds back, but he does end up going to Jerusalem, but not for a few days. And when he does come, about halfway through the feast, we're told that Jesus stands in the middle of the temple, possibly the court of the Gentiles, And he begins to preach publicly. He begins to teach the people publicly in that place. And we're told that the reaction of the Jews, and remember in the book, in the Gospel according to John, when we read that word Jews, it's not in particular speaking to all the people of Israel, but rather the religious leaders in particular, the Jewish establishment is in view.

And what was the reaction of the Jews? Well, we're told, they marveled at him. Now we have to be careful because the word marvel in the book of John doesn't always mean positively marvel at him. It's not as though these Jews were favorable towards Christ. They didn't show any affection to him.

Rather, they marveled and the result here in chapter 7 of their marveling was actually the beginning of a smear campaign. They knew and they've tried before to compete with the Lord on teaching on matters of the law and many have tried before and they knew very quickly that they're always going to be ending second best when they take Jesus on. So instead they know that he's too wise, too knowledgeable for them, so instead what they do is they try to discredit our Lord. That's what they try to do. Can't refute Him.

Let's try to discredit Him. Let's try to bring disrepute upon His name. So what do they do? They attack His credentials. And they hope by doing that that they can bring Jesus down amongst the people and maybe the people would look at Jesus in a different light because the people were amazed.

They were certainly amazed at the authority that he spoke in. None of the scribes or the Pharisees spoke with such authority that Jesus spoke with. So this is the way the religious leaders would be able to subdue Jesus. So they thought. So what do they bring up?

Well, they bring up Jesus is not formally educated. They bring up the fact that Jesus is not being trained in one of their authorized religious establishments. He doesn't have. He's never been a student of one of their authorized rabbis. This man is uneducated.

He's unlearned. Why would you speak? Why would you listen to him? Such was their unbelief. They're hoping the people would see Jesus as an ignorant man, a self-proclaimed teacher, unworthy to be followed.

That was their hope. But what comes out of our Lord's mouth next is absolutely incredible. Because verse 16 says, My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. true, I haven't graduated from the Jerusalem School of Theology, that's true, nor have I studied under the tutelage of one of your authorized rabbis, but the words I speak are not mine alone. The words I speak are the word of God.

You see, with that simple declaration, Jesus pushes the Jews into a corner. It becomes very, very serious for these Jewish leaders right now because of what Jesus is saying. Because if Jesus's claims are true, there are massive consequences. If what Jesus is saying is true, then he speaks the words of God, and they carry with them the authority of God. You see, He can no longer be dismissed.

He can't be ignored. A decision needs to be made. Either you believe Jesus, and you believe and submit to His words and His teaching with joy, or you reject Him at your own peril. And in rejecting Him, you'll find you're actually not rejecting man, but you're rejecting God. Because as the author of the fourth gospel says it best in his first epistle in chapter 2, 23, he says, No one who denies the Son has the Father, and whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

So last time we were in this chapter, we considered the words of our Lord to the audience. And he said to them what it actually takes in order to believe in his words. Because he's looking at a sea of unbelief. And Jesus gives them the criteria, if you will, of how one can come to discern whether his words are indeed from God or from himself. He looks straight at the heart of the issue, and then he says, verse 17, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Perhaps thousands are listening at this point. And he claims now that one's heart or the disposition of one's heart towards God is actually the deciding factor to whether you believe Christ, his claims, and his teaching is from God. That's the deciding factor. Where is your heart in the matter? What is your disposition towards God?

Is it one of love? If it's a disposition of love towards God, then you will desire to do the will of God. And if you desire to do the will of God, Jesus says, then you will know. You will know that I am sent by God, and my words and my teaching are His. But if that's not the case, then one's judgment is but superficial.

One proves to be blind, spiritually speaking, and the default position in that case would be one of unbelief. The principle to perceive this truth is now being laid by our Lord, but he won't leave it at that. He won't leave it at that. You see, he's already made an evaluation about these Jews. He can see them, and he knows.

He knows his audience. So now in verses 19 through 24, he'll indict the Jews to a mass scale of unbelief. Unbelief not only in himself and the doctrines he teaches, but unbelief in the God they think they serve. Unbelief in Yahweh. They thought, these men, these religious leaders, they thought that they had admiration for Yahweh.

They thought that they were totally devoted to Yahweh. That's what set them apart. They held His law in the highest regards, as far as they thought anyway. But the shocking reality that our Lord is bringing to them on this day is that they were deluded and deceived. And their influence is deceiving others as well.

Jesus will bring that up later. That's the verdict of our Lord. And what He says is true, and He knows it's true. So in these verses, He'll confront the audience with His verdict. and he'll make the case by turning their attention to the law.

Because if there's one thing, one thing, that Jesus and the religious leaders of the day both agree upon, in theory at least, it's this. The will of God is revealed in his law. He begins with a rhetorical statement, verse 19. Has not Moses given you the law? If our Lord paused even for a moment at this point, even just for a moment, Knowing what these religious leaders, the Jews in this day, knowing a little bit about them, you can just almost imagine what they were thinking.

Almost imagine in their minds, they're probably rubbing their hands thinking, now we're talking, Jesus. Yes, we recognize that we are the people who are the privileged people who are being given the law through Moses. We know that's us. And we know a thing or two about the law. After all, we studied the law.

The law is right up our alley. We are disciples of Moses. They actually say that verbatim in chapter 9. You see, Moses and the law had the central place in these men's religion. It was primary for them.

They prided themselves in being distinguished above others, and that's the way they saw themselves, as distinguished above others. And it was primarily based on their perception or their perceived knowledge of the law. In their minds, that's what set them apart. Their understanding of the law, their knowledge of Yahweh. Everyone knew, even the common folk, they knew that the religious leaders, mainly the scribes and the Pharisees and those in the Sanhedrin, they knew that these were experts and the guardians of the law.

They inexhaustibly studied the law. They committed it to memory and recited it in public. And they taught it to their fellow countrymen in the synagogues and also in the temple. These men, they had a fervent zeal for the law, for God's word. But that zeal was really from a superficial point of view.

They delighted in the law from a superficial point of view. And to add this, we don't have to read very far into the fourth gospels, any one of the four gospels, to come to realize that these Jewish religious men were very zealous to protect the law. So if this uneducated man from Galilee wishes to debate us over the law, bring it on. I think probably some were thinking that way. At least those who hadn't competed with him.

Those who hadn't tried to refute him before. These proud men are thinking, we know what we're talking about. But those who have encountered Jesus, Let's just say they've learned to eat humble pie because there's none like him. There's none like Christ in his knowledge, in his wisdom, in his love, in his grace. And every word that comes out of his mouth is calculated and it's true.

But nonetheless, many of these so-called pious men would consider themselves experts of the law of Moses, and they were actually convinced, even to a point, that they were actually keeping the law to the letter. That's their confidence, that when they read the law, many actually thought they were keeping the law to the letter. And that's not an overstatement, because brothers and sisters, you may remember the words of the Apostle Paul in his pre-converted experience when he was still a Pharisee in the third book of the book of Philippians. You remember what he wrote there? about his pre-converted experience.

Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul. He says, If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and as to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. And here it is, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Blameless. Well-intended maybe, but deceived nonetheless. It's actually possible that religious men actually think that they are blameless according to the law. But if that's the heart of a person, then it's clear that that person is deceived. That that person has a superficial understanding of the law of God.

That person is spiritually blind. That's what the Bible says. In fact, I'm sure if the Apostle Paul was hypothetically to be asked right now, or even after his converted experience, if he was to be asked, Paul, if you met face to face with Christ before you were converted, when you were still a Pharisee, when you uttered those words, I was blameless according to the Lord. If you met with Jesus, In the judgment, what would Christ's response be? I think he'd be the first to say, he would look me straight in the eyes, and he would say, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. That would be the Apostle Paul's response. It's all for good reason that the Apostle considered all his work before he was converted as what? Dung, by comparison to knowing Christ. But the men before our Lord haven't learned that lesson that the Apostle Paul had learned.

They hadn't received the finger of God, as our brother said earlier, touch their heart and replace the heart of stone into a heart of flesh. They hadn't seen that. They would need to learn that reality if they're going to believe the words of our Savior. Because many in the group that are before our Lord now were considering themselves to actually be righteous according to the law. But Jesus is just about to remove the fog from before their eyes and reveal the reality of this brutal truth about really where they stand before God.

And how he drops a bombshell. He says, has not Moses given you the law? And of course they all would agree with that, and so would Christ. Yet none of you keeps the law. Imagine the shocking look on their faces when Jesus looks them in the eye and says, none of you keep the law.

He says this perhaps before thousands of people who highly esteem these men, people who would respect them and honor them. And Jesus looks at them and says, none of them. An all out indictment of guilt by none. No exceptions. None of them, he says.

Keep the law. To keep the law is to obey the law. None of you, none of you obey the law, is what Jesus is saying. How can our Lord say that in front of everyone? These are religious elites, known to be the most godly and the most pious amongst all the land.

And going by the reaction of the people which we'll look at next week, by God's grace, in verse 20, it seems like the people felt the same way, that they were outraged. How can Jesus make this charge? None of you keep the law. Well, he can make this charge, beloved, hear this, because of who he is. He can make this charge because of who he is.

You see, everyone in Jerusalem that day may have been duped by looking at the outward appearance, but not Jesus. The incarnate Son of God sees into the heart, and based on what He sees, He rejects their religion, and He rejects their claim to be obedient or keepers of the law. It's not what is on the outside that concerns the Lord. That's what is within. It's what's inside that concerns him.

Church, this is a solemn word for all of us. What is on the outside, our actions, the works that we do, must, must, must be consistent with what is on the inside. Otherwise the Lord looks at that and says, I can't accept it. That's lawlessness. I cannot accept it.

I cannot accept it. Because unlike man, our Lord's piercing eyes cut through the shell. He cuts through the outside, through the veneer, and He reveals what's within. He finds what is inside of you and I. He sees what's inside of these men.

Men can't see it, but Jesus can. He can see it all. Because that's what He's concerned with. Unless you're right on the inside, you will never be right on the outside. Never.

This truth is exampled beautifully, I think, in the Old Testament. If you remember, in 1 Samuel, when the prophet Samuel is called by God to go to Bethlehem and to anoint David as king. Do you remember that? He goes in, Samuel obeys, and he finds himself in Bethlehem. He goes to Bethlehem, and he goes to Jesse's house.

Jesse has eight sons, and he sees the first come by, Eliab. And Samuel's impressed. He looks at this man, no doubt grand in features. This guy looks, Eliab looks like he's a kingly person, looks royalty. I'm sure, I'm sure.

He says, surely this is the one that God has chosen. Do you remember what God said to Samuel immediately? This is what he said. Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. Okay?

For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. The Lord looks on the heart. The crowd in chapter 7, they were outraged. They become more outraged at Jesus's accusations against the Jews, as we'll come to see, because they highly respected their Jewish leaders, but that's only because they were looking at appearance.

That's only because they were looking on the outside, something that Jesus will rebuke in verse 24. However, the Son of God sees right through. He sees through these supposedly holy men in Jerusalem. And His gaze x-rays their soul. What does He see, beloved?

What no one else can see. The intent and the motive of their hearts. He sees the reason for their works. The reason they do what they do. And He rejects them.

He rejects their works. He rejects them as lawful men, and he calls them lawless. Lawless. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of our Lord. He sees their selfish toils, their shallow affections, their wicked thoughts, their dishonest motives.

He sees their hunger for self-glory. He sees it all. He sees it all. In his eyes, he sees Everything. In the eyes of others and the crowd around them, they, as I said earlier, see respected men and well-esteemed men.

Men worthy of being followed, worthy of being imitated. That's what the crowd was seeing. But Jesus, He sees in the deepest part of their being. And it's not pretty. None of you keeps the law, He says.

Frauds, charlatans. He sees them all. He sees everything. Is that not the most terrifying thought? Right now, the all-seeing eye of Christ can peer into every one of our souls, and He sees, He sees, do you know what He sees?

Everything. Everything. Nothing remains hidden. He sees everything. Secrets are unmasked.

Every thought revealed. The intentions of our hearts are exposed before Him. All our sins laid bare, beloved, nothing remains hidden before the eyes of Jesus Christ. Nothing. And I don't say this to scare you, brothers and sisters.

That's not my intention. Because if you are found in Christ, In reverence, this truth should humble us. If you are found in Christ, this should bring awe and wonder to our soul as we think these things, as we think about what is actually inside our souls, even now in our minds, the things we thought about, the things we've done. As we think about these things, it ought to humble us. Beloved brothers and sisters, you ought to bring us to a point where when we think of these things over and over again, we ought to come before Him and think how dreadful the situation would be if we were to stand before Him in judgment without His atonement.

That thought should move us. that thought should invoke within us heartfelt praise and worship to our God. But if there is anyone in this afternoon, in this room, or in the sound of my voice online, who may be listening, who has not placed their hope and trust in this Jesus, if there is any that haven't trusted in the person and the work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, If there's anyone who hasn't believed upon Him and continues to trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins, for life and godliness, to trust in Christ. If there's anyone among us who has not trusted in Jesus, then beloved, these words ought to be terrifying. They ought to bring terror to your bones.

Because before His eyes, not a single sin will remain concealed. Not a sin. You will not get away with a single thought, a single sin, or a single action. He sees it all, and it will all be uncovered one day. All of it will be uncovered one day.

But if that is you today, there's hope. Because you can throw yourself at His feet in faith and repentance. You can trust in Him. Believe upon Him. Take Him at His word.

and receive from Him forgiveness of your sins. Believe that He died on that cross for you, and you will receive forgiveness, and you will receive everlasting life in His resurrected life. If your heart beats, if you have air in your lungs, there is still hope, trust in Jesus. Back to verse 19. So what does our Lord see in the men before him?

That's the question we need to ask. What is he seeing in these religious leaders, these Jews that are before them? Well, he sees lawbreakers, yet none of you keeps the law. Now, I do believe that Jesus has something specific in mind when he says that. But in a sense, we could take a wider view to the meaning of these words by allowing Christ's interaction with the religious leaders in the first century to bear upon the truth of the accusation that Jesus is making.

And there are many examples we can go through in the four Gospels with Jesus's interaction with the religious leaders of the day. There are many. But I'm thinking of Matthew 23 in particular. where Jesus speaks to the elites among him, the Pharisees and the scribes in particular, and he rebukes them with seven woes in this passage. We've come to know the seven woes to the scribes and the Pharisees.

Now we need to get the timing right because that's important. I realize and I submit to you that this won't happen until for another six months. This will happen six months from now, just before the final days of Jesus's crucifixion. However, I want to submit to you that the condition of the heart that Jesus addresses in Matthew 23, that condition that warrants the rebukes that he gives to them in that passage, is not because of a one-off act that they've done. It's rather that their lives were stamped and defined with lawless pretense.

Therefore, I believe what we'll find is the men that stand before Christ are guilty of these things even now. And six of the seven woes in that passage begin with, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. What comes next? Hypocrites. Hypocrites.

You pretenders, you frauds, you phonies, is what Jesus is saying. You put on an appearance for people to applaud you, but you don't have the substance within. It's all just show. You're actors putting on a great show for others. None of it is real.

It's all outward. You're observance of the law. You're the perception of righteousness that others see in you. The perception they look at and they see, well, this person looks holy. He looks pious.

He looks like he's a man of virtue. You're just duping the people because that's just a show, he says. Because the Lord sees the hypocrisy. It's inconsistent with the substance within. It's dishonest.

It's dishonest, and Jesus calls it out. Yet none of you keeps the law, he says. Yes, you observe the external matters of the law, like tithing, right? Tithing, they're herbs, mint, dill, and cumin. But you neglect the weightier matters of the law, such as justice, and mercy, and faithfulness.

You see, taking out garden snips and trimming off 10% of the herbs, it can almost be done without thought, right? But to give justice, to offer mercy, to walk in faithfulness, now all these require the engagement of one's heart. These are priceless lessons that Jesus is teaching these people, and by extension those who are listening. It's not what's on the outside. that is of primary importance, but what is on the inside, it's the heart.

God looks to the heart. That's why the Lord rebukes the men in Matthew 15. Same people, the Pharisees, he rebukes them there and he says, and he quotes Isaiah 29 that's spoken of the leaders of Israel back then, but he then implies it to them. He says, these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And Jesus looks at them and says, this is spoken of you.

He's speaking to the Jewish establishments. It's incredible. Lawbreakers is what Jesus is calling them. Lawbreakers. But why?

Why would such men live in hypocrisy? What is their motivation to live this way? Well, according to Jesus, their motivation for their conduct is the very, very thing that prohibits them from believing in Him. It's interesting. It's self-glory.

Self-glory. In the words of our Lord in chapter 5, possibly the last time he met with these religious leaders back in chapter 5, he says these words, he says, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Men who seek glory, men who seek glory from other men above the glory of God are always concerned with how they look on the outside. They're always concerned with how their facade is, how their appearance is before others. But on the inside, they're empty of goodness.

On the inside, they're devoid of truth. On the inside, they're devoid of righteousness and devoid of love. Give me glory, they would say. Give me glory! They think day and night, I want glory!

And they might not say it in those words, but their actions speak that all they're concerned with is the applaud of men. The applaud of men. And so what do they do? They surround themselves with other like-minded men, Others who are seeking the same glory as themselves, and they blow wind under each other's sails. That's the environment that they like.

And whilst doing that, they look to others, they look to the meek, and they demand glory back to themselves. Lawbreakers. That's what Jesus calls them, lawbreakers. People like this aren't satisfied with the glory that comes from God. He's not the treasure of their hearts.

He's not the delight for their souls. It's self that I wish to gratify above all else. It's all about self. And that's a very empty and dangerous place to be, beloved. And every one of us is at risk to be there.

Because if a person does not find complete and total satisfaction in God through Christ, the One who satisfies our very deepest longings, if one doesn't find complete satisfaction in Him, and if one doesn't seek His truth and seek His glory as the overarching purpose for his or her life, then something else is taking that spot. The heart doesn't remain empty. Something else is taking that spot. Something else. What takes over?

Well, I'm afraid the heart becomes occupied with lawlessness. It becomes a haven and a breeding ground for sin and unrighteousness, with self in the center. That's what Jesus is charging these men with, lawlessness. None of you, none of you keep the law. Now contrast that with our Lord who deflects all glory.

Every time he says, I speak that which the Father gives me to speak. When he does a miracle, he always gives glory to the Father. He says, I have come to bring glory to my Father. Even here in the chapter, in the verses that we studied a few weeks ago, he says, you will know if it's my word, you will know if I'm speaking on my own accord, on my own authority. If you do the will of the Father, and also you'll know by the way I give glory to the Father, because if he gives the glory to the Father, there is no falseness in him, there is but truth.

There's only truth in him, no falseness, not even a hint of it. That's what he says in verse 18. But that's not the heart of the proud people that stand before our Lord. Whitewashed walls is what our Lord calls them. Beautiful on the outside, they read the scriptures to be heard.

They fast twice a week and they make sure that everyone knows that they're fasting. They don't paint their faces with oil as they should and look revived. They're somber and they look like, oh, we are hungry. We're fasting. We're such pious men.

That's what they're doing. They read the scriptures out loud. They pray long, eloquent prayers in the public space to be seen. But on the inside, beloved, they stink. They stink of a vile stench of decomposing bodies.

That's what Jesus says. Under the skin is corruption and filth, their fakes and counterfeits. And Jesus is calling them out as lawbreakers. What about their zeal, you might ask? What about their zeal?

What's that rooted in? What about all their efforts as guardians of the law and the way they build hedges around the law and hedges around the hedges in order to make sure the law is not broken just like they did with the Sabbath law. You remember that? The Sabbath. And this is what Jesus gets into in a few verses time.

And this is why really they're seeking to kill him. That all started when Jesus healed on the Sabbath. What about that? What about all that effort to make sure that God's law is not broken? Isn't that rooted in some form of goodness?

Beloved, simply possessing the law or even guarding it won't make a person holy any more than being a physical son of Abraham makes you a true child of God. A lesson they'll learn in the next chapter Nor will enforcing the law with all the zeal in the world make a person righteous, because they lacked a proper understanding of the law. And hear this, they lacked the heart to receive it. You see, without a heart engagement, a heart orientated towards God in love, in faith, with godly affection, all one's efforts are meaningless. What use is one's work when the letter of the law is disconnected from the spirit of the law?

Well, we'll see how they did this with the Sabbath next time we're together. But in essence, keeping the law had become all about do's and don'ts. Beloved, I pray that none of us think that way. Do's and don'ts, all about what we do and what we don't do. Of course, one's actions are important, but without the spirit and the heart, The law of God has no bearing on our soul.

Without God's law taking root in our soul, all our actions are meaningless. Proverbs 23, 26, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. Give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. You see, obedience that God approves is not cold, it's not legalistic, it's not lifeless, it's not outward obedience, which is disattached from the heart. That's what Jesus calls lawlessness.

Obedience that God approves of is obedience that comes from faith working through love. Galatians 5. Faith working through love. This is what the Jews were missing. Faith working through love.

Our Lord is a perfect example of this. We're told in the 40th Psalm, which is a messianic psalm, it reads, I delight to do your will, O God. Your law is within my heart. Delight, he says. Delight.

He finds joy. He finds pleasure in doing God's will. The law of God is in his heart. Beloved, the heart is a seed of affection. It's the seed of joy, the seed of love.

And listen to how the incarnate Son of God puts it in John chapter 4. He says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. What does it mean? What does it mean, my food is to do the will of my Father, other than that Jesus finds complete satisfaction, complete joy, complete fulfillment in being obedient to the Father's will? His food is to do the Father's will.

Why? Why does Jesus find full satisfaction? Why would we find full satisfaction in obedience to God? How could that even be possible? Well, we're told in John chapter 14 verse 31, Jesus speaking, Love.

True obedience to God is rooted in love. No wonder the summary of the law of God is, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor. If love is the essence of the law, now bear with me, if love is the essence of the law, then being devoid of love is what? Lawlessness. None of you keep the law.

Lawlessness. And that's what I believe Jesus is accusing these religious leaders of. I believe here in the temple grounds in Jerusalem, Jesus looks at these men and says, you don't keep the law because your hearts are devoid of love. You have loveless hearts. Loveless hearts are lawless hearts.

He's accusing them of being without love, accusing them of hate, hate towards God and hate towards neighbor. And I'll get to why. Verse 9, it has not Moses given you the law, yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? You see, he peers straight into their hearts and he sees, what does he see?

He sees hate. He sees murder. He sees murder. He sees an intent in their heart that is prepared to slay the innocent. Slay the innocent because he is a stumbling block to your religious system.

He sees a prideful heart that is prepared to take one's life to get what he wants. That's what he sees. He doesn't see love. He sees hate. See, the conspiracy to murder begun, as I said earlier, in the Sabbath healing of our Lord.

They're thinking this carpenter from Nazareth is a pain. He's messing our neatly organized religious system that we've worked so many years for, and it seems to be working for us. But then this Jesus came along. He's messing our system up. He's creating rifts between us and the lay people who up until now were head over heels for us.

They loved us. They were doing the things that we wanted them to do, and we loved it because they were giving us the accolades, the praises, and the applause. We loved it. But now with this Jesus and all His teaching, they're starting to ask questions. He speaks with authority.

He explains the scripture. His knowledge surpasses anyone else. His wisdom is like no other. And now they're being deceived by him is the words they use. Jesus, you're messing everything up for us.

We want you out of here. We want you gone. We're prepared to kill you. And Jesus sees right through them. He sees right through them.

Why do you seek to kill me? That's their decision. That's their judgment. No regard for God's law. No regard for justice.

And so Jesus calls them out as murderers. Lawbreakers. Lawbreakers. They haven't committed the crime yet. But beloved, you remember, according to the Sermon on the Mount, a hating heart is a murdering heart.

They've already committed murder in their hearts because they hate Jesus. And no less than three times from this point on in this chapter, we see or we read in the text that they will try to arrest or attempt to arrest Jesus. But the hour of Christ had not yet come, but they want to arrest Him. Why do they want to arrest Him? Well, the obvious conclusion is because they want to kill Him.

They want to manifest their hate, their loveless hearts through the killing of this Jesus. How can that be? How can that be the attitude of such well-versed religious men? How can they have such disregard for the law that they've studied so well, committed to memory, they've memorized, they've taught, they've spent countless hours debating with one another over the law. How could such religious men show such disregard to the law of God?

How can that be, beloved? I mean, thou shalt not murder, it's pretty clear, right? It's a pretty universal language. As I said earlier, simply possessing the scripture, simply memorizing it in your minds, knowing its grammar, knowing the syntax, knowing the structure of the Bible, coming to church, reading your Bibles, giving tracts, preaching the gospel, all these things will not guarantee Holiness. It won't guarantee salvation.

These are good things. They're very good things. Remember what I said earlier, Jesus is not looking at your outward works. He's looking at where they are rooted. Where they are rooted.

And the fact that these men are able to read the scripture and teach the scripture, memorize it, debate it, all these things, the fact that they're able to do all these things, yet still be flippant to the law and be prepared to kill Jesus over their prideful ways because he messes up their system, tells you one thing, that they don't understand the law of God. And they don't understand the law of God because they are spiritually blind. Because they're spiritually blind and that needs to be addressed. It's the spiritual blindness that needs to be addressed before they're able to understand the things of God. Remember a few moments ago when I mentioned the seven woes of the Pharisees in Matthew 23?

And I said six of the seven start the same way. It brings up the word Woe to the scribes and the Pharisees, hypocrites. But the one that doesn't start the same way, listen to how it starts. Woe to you blind guides. Blind guides.

Jesus is addressing their blindness now. He's addressing their spiritual blindness. is calling these religious Jews blind guides. They have the sacred writ, like we said before, but they have spiritual blindness, and because of this spiritual blindness, they read the words, but it means nothing inside, because they can't receive it. Their heart is still stone.

They don't have a malleable soft heart with the love of God. They cannot perceive the things of the Spirit. They cannot understand it. They're blind. The indictment of the Apostle Paul, which the brother Nelson brought up earlier this evening, that indictment that starts from chapter 1 through chapter 3, in particular in chapter 2, sheds some light on this matter.

Because there in chapter 2, towards the latter part of chapter 2, he's speaking to the Jews in particular. And he acknowledges that they claim that they are guides to the blind, the Jews think they are. Well, they have the oracles of God, they have the scripture, the sacred writ, and they see themselves as guides to the blind. And if you remember what Paul says, he says, you say, you teach to not murder, do you murder, you teach not to steal, it goes on and goes through those. And he teaches, he teaches them, he tells them that you are a people who claim to know the law, claim to teach a law, but are you lawbreakers?

Are you yourselves breaking the law? In other words, you have the knowledge. But are you walking in that knowledge? Has that knowledge sunk from your mind and found root into your soul? Has it been soaked up into the soul?

Or is it all just residing up here? Because the Pharisees had very big heads. The religious leaders have very big heads. Beloved brothers and sisters, we could have very big heads. We could be hypocrites.

If we speak not out of experience, if there's no root in here, then what makes us better than the Pharisees? Paul says, no, you break the law. You not only break the law, but the things that you say and the way you live, you dishonor God by breaking the law, and the result is God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. And the inference is you think you lead the blind, but in fact you are blind yourself. And the apostle concludes the chapter by saying that the true child of God is not one who observes the rituals or the rites or the rules outwardly, but the one whose heart has been circumcised.

by the Spirit of God. You see, one can't, unless one can't obey the law of God, unless, unless his heart has been circumcised by God. Now don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong, Our standing before God, our righteousness before God, is not our righteousness. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's His righteousness that robes us in His righteousness.

But I'm saying that, as our brother said earlier, there is something that is called positional sanctification, and there's progressive sanctification. The positional sanctification is the way God looks upon us. He sees Jesus Christ and His work that has been applied to people that love Him by faith. And that is a righteousness that covers us. That is what redeems us.

That is our standing before God. But the position or the progressive sanctification, the holy living, is obedience to God's law. It's to do the things. Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my commands. And the question is, how can one obey the commands of Christ, which is the command of God?

How can one, apart from having a circumcised heart, apart from the finger of God circumcising the heart of a man, one cannot obey God? This is what we're talking about. And brothers and sisters, it's very easy for us to look back at the Pharisees, to look back at the scribes, to look back at the religious leaders of the day and see that they're prideful hearts and lawbreakers, as Jesus says, and to point our finger at them and say, you're murderers. You're the one who murdered our Savior. You're the one who looked down upon them.

And although those facts are true, They did murder our Lord, that's true. But beloved, we have to realize that the indictment of the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 through 3 is a universal indictment. It's not only spoken to the Jews. It's everyone. Jews and Gentiles.

And the indictment is to spiritual blindness and essentially heart devoid of love by all by nature. It's universal. That means every one of us, every son and daughter of Adam, all have sinned. All were at one point guilty of murder in our hearts. All guilty of lovelessness, all guilty of hating hearts.

Our Lord's charge of lawlessness against these Jewish religious leaders in the day really is a picture of the devastating universal condition of every soul without Christ. The details may be different, the context may be different, the culture and the circumstances. Yes, they're different. The people are guilty of putting Jesus on the cross. True.

But in essence, beloved, the heart apart from God is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Whether you're a first century Jew or a 21st century Australian, it matters not. The heart in its original state is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. The natural state of every person's heart is to hate God, not love God. That's the natural state of our hearts.

And the Jews, they manifested that hatred by trying to get rid of Jesus. He was too confronting for their system. He was messing up their little program that they had, the respect of the people. Jesus was messing all this up. So he needs to go.

He needs to die. That was the solution they set upon. But they fail to realize this very important point that Jesus has been making throughout the book of John, and that is, Jesus is not doing these things alone. The words he speaks, the actions he does, the miracles he performs, are all, are all the miracles and the works and the words of the Father that he has given him. He's the Son of God and He does all things by the authority of the Father.

You see, the very words of Jesus is the words of God. The doctrines and the teachings that Jesus was teaching these Jews that they found such great offense in. They weren't offended because of His words. They're offended because of God's words. And God's truth is eternal.

Truth is truth. And supposedly getting rid of Jesus was an attempt to suppress the truth of God, as we saw in Romans chapter 1. But they cannot be successful in this. How come? How come?

Because you cannot get rid of the words of God. You cannot get rid of the teaching of God. You cannot get rid of the law of God. Because God's teaching, God's word, God's description is from the very being of God. It is from the heart of God, and it abides forever.

It abides forever. So the hostility wasn't against man, it was against God. Because whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him, John 5, 23. And from the mouth of our Lord on the night he was betrayed, whoever hates me hates my father also, John 15, 23. And so what was the summary of the law and the prophets again?

To love God and to love neighbor. Clearly these religious men have violated the first one, love for God. We've seen that by their opposing and their hatred and their murderous hearts before towards Jesus. And next week we'll show by God's grace how they violated the law of love thy neighbor as well. In essence, our Lord's charge has not Moses giving you the law, yet none of you keeps the law was absolutely spot on.

The principle laid down in verse 17 for the one to discern whether or not the teachings from God has been proven to be true. Because in the Jews' rejection of Christ, they've shown that they do not desire the will of God. And they're lawbreakers. So if they don't desire the will of God, where does that leave them? And we'll end on this, on these notes.

Where does it leave them? Well, Jesus answers that question in the next chapter in verse 44. "'You are of your father the devil,' he says. And hear this, your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him, Jesus says.

Like father, like son. Jesus is saying your father's a murderer and so are you. They've committed murder already in their hearts, but in six months time they will actually manifest that murder and be guilty of the crime also. when they crucify the Lord of Glory. Thinking about these matters, beloved, ought to humble us.

It ought to bring us to our knees. Because, brothers and sisters, the Bible is clear. There are only two families that exist. The text that we just referred to in Romans 8 proved that. Two families.

You're either sons of God or sons of the devil. That's what Jesus says. That's His own words. They sound offensive, but they're true. And here's why we ought to humble ourselves on our knees before him in worship.

Because the Bible is also clear, we are all born as sons of the devil. We're all born that way. That's our default. That's our default. And that's a terrifying thought.

Now, when we think about it, and we think about the Lord's words to the Jews, and these were words to the Jews, we have to make sure we understand that these words were specifically to the Jews. But in a sense, those words could be directed at us, can they not? None of you keeps the law? Which one of us has kept the law? James says, if you stumble on one point of the law, you're guilty of breaking it all.

And then he goes on to say, why do you seek to kill me? And we know if we have hatred in our hearts, then that's murder in our hearts as well. Because all of us, by nature, are lawbreakers. All of us, by nature, are haters of God. All of us, by nature, have hearts that are constantly suppressing the truth of God.

And by nature, and this is the way we're born, we couldn't stand Jesus or His teaching. And if we could, Then beloved brothers and sisters, apart from the divine intervention of God, we would do the same as what the Jews did. We would be there crying out at the cross, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be on us and on our children. Because the only way we would submit and bend our knee to Jesus, the only way, is if God does a divine work in our souls. And the only way we could ever, ever walk in His law, and according to His precepts, is if He gives us a heart of flesh and throws away that heart of stone.

The only way we can honour Him is through faith, working through love. the love of Jesus Christ. That is the only way. And beloved brothers and sisters, if you are standing or sitting here this evening, and you've come to recognize Jesus in this way, as Lord, as Savior, as Redeemer, as King, as the only one worthy to bend your knee to, if you've come to recognize Him as the Savior of your soul, if you've come to recognize that His work upon that cross 2000 years ago, The shed blood upon that cross has cleansed you from your sin because you placed your trust in Him. If that's you here, then you ought to know that's not your own doing.

That is God who has been at work in your soul. We cannot boast. We have no reason for boasting. God has done a work in your soul. And tell me, how can that not humble us and bring us to our knees in worship and praise and honor to the God of the universe, to the triune God for what he has done in Christ Jesus?

Because beloved brothers and sisters, apart from his work in our hearts, his initiative, it wasn't we that chose him. He chose us. And apart from his initiative, then everything we read about these Jews would be True of us. Let's not look down upon the Jews, the religious leaders. Let's not look down upon those that the Lord had said, none of you keep the law.

Because that, brothers and sisters, would have been us apart from grace. Amazing grace. May His grace never cease to amaze us. Let's pray.