You Will Seek Me and You Wil..

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. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is.

He's speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. So Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, you know me and you know where I come from?

But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him.

They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? 32. The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me.

Where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, you will seek me and you will not find me? And where I am, you cannot come.

Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Beloved Church, we've been now in the Gospel according to John in chapter 7 for many months now. So it would be fair to say that we're able to know the context and the setting of this chapter. It should be almost second nature to us.

Our Lord Jesus is still in Jerusalem. He'd come late at the Feast of Booths, and He's now in the precinct, or the temple precinct. And when He enters into Jerusalem, about halfway through the feast, He wastes no time, and He goes into the temple grounds, where there would be a lot of people. It's the Feast of Booths, and if you remember, that is the feast that attracts the most amount of people. And then Jesus begins to teach the crowds, pretty much upon arriving.

Now, the Apostle John had already told us in verses 12 and 13, that even before our Lord Jesus Christ arrives in Jerusalem, that He was spoken of. He was, as you might say, the flavor of the month. The people were discussing among themselves and deliberating, who is this Jesus? And among the lay people there was a lot of opinions who this Jesus is. Some were sympathetic to His cause.

and to the person, whilst others were not as gracious. They were more skeptical about who this Jesus is, claiming He's a deceiver. But as we can see, and as we probably already realize, every time our Lord presented Himself before crowds, there was always a flurry of difference of opinions among the people. However, however, there has always been a consistency among the religious leaders in Jerusalem. You mean that they may have given Jesus an ear in His first advent, when He first came onto the public scene.

They might have been interested in who this Jesus is, and the authority that He speaks with. But it wasn't very long once they started to grasp his teaching, once they began to grasp what he was claiming of himself and his piercing words into their soul, that was it. They made a decision. And that decision was, we don't want this man around us. He's a fraud.

We've decided upon him. We don't care what he says. We've decided he's a fraud, and we need this man eliminated, taken from before us. That was the consistent opinion of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. You see, Jesus posed a threat to them, a threat to what they had worked very, very hard to establish.

They had a little system and Jesus was messing their system. He was undermining their authority and this Jesus needed to go. The religious leaders, the Jews as John calls them, had made a name for themselves among the people. They were the ones who interpreted Torah. They're the ones who taught Torah, taught the Scriptures, and taught people how to apply the Scriptures, how to live in holiness.

They set the standards for religion. Now this Jesus is turning everything they've worked for upside down. But beyond that, Beyond that, beloved, we've seen already as we've journeyed through the gospel according to John, this Jesus has exposed the inner parts of their hearts. He's exposed their hypocrisy. He's uncovered their true selfish motives, and He's revealed their pretense.

The disingenuousness of their hearts. They display holiness. They display piousness. They display as though they are indeed the people of God. But inside, Jesus says, is the stench of death.

No substance. No substance within. Only what they say. Only what people can see on the outside. That's all they were concerned with.

Glossy on the outside, but inside, dead man's bones. This is the religious leaders of the day. These men were exposed by Jesus. He exposed them for who they really were. Cold, legalistic, lifeless, religious men who have an intellectual understanding of God, but no true knowledge.

It was all up here, but it wasn't in here. And therefore, when the incarnate Word of God appears on center stage, they don't recognize Him. He's foreign to their eyes. His teaching is foreign to their ears, because the Word of God does not abide in their hearts. Jesus accused them of that back in chapter 5.

His teaching was foreign to everything they understood Torah to be teaching. They were not His sheep, and therefore they were not familiar with His voice. This is what John is painting for us of the religious leaders of the day. they were not the sheep of Christ. So early on, in the hardness of their unbelieving hearts, they resolved to conspire to take him out, to get rid of him.

And that was the plan. The plan had begun here in chapter 7. We see that they've begun to get the plan rolling in the text that is before us. The hostility was there, They wanted to kill him. We've been told many times that that was the objective.

They wanted Jesus killed. But here we see things actually starting to roll. They're starting to get the plan happening. The ball is beginning to roll. These religious men want Christ out.

But little did they know that they won't be opposing man. They would be opposing God. Because no matter how badly they want Christ eliminated, beloved, If it's not God's will, it won't happen. And there's nothing they can do about it. But beyond this, in the few verses before us, the verses that we'll be meditating upon this evening, from verse 32 through 36, our Lord will speak some of the most chilling words anyone could hear.

I hope you could see that when we read the text. Words that ought to bring terror to one's bones. But these men are so blinded, and their hearts are so calloused, unbelieving, calloused hearts, that they won't even flinch at the words of our Lord, because they don't understand what He says. The words just go straight over their heads. They're in imminent danger, yet they are so completely unaware.

Such is the deception of sin. Let's start at verse 32. Now remember, We've already been told that these Jews were in the temple precinct among all the other locals and pilgrims who have come to journey to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. They were already there. In fact, Jesus picked them out.

And from verse 14 through 24, Jesus has a discussion with these men, if you remember. And if you remember, He rebukes them. And the sting of His scathing rebuke, in verse 19 at least, would be fresh in their minds still. So not only was their resentment increasing and deepening with every word that our Lord uttered from His mouth, but beyond that, these so-called pious men were rubbing shoulders with all the other people in Jerusalem, these bustling people in the temple precinct. The people are everywhere.

As I said earlier, the population would swell four and five times its normal amount. So there were people everywhere. And these Jerusalem, these leaders were bustling with, on my apologies, were rubbing shoulders with these people. And so they were in the very best position to assess, to assess the reaction of the people, the heart of the people, the thoughts of the people, to hear what they were saying. And as John would say, their mutterings.

And what did they hear? Well, some remained loyal. These people were horrified, we've read already in chapter 7. Some were actually completely horrified at the words of our Lord when he said to their noble religious leaders, you seek to kill me. How dare you, Jesus?

How dare you speak that way of our noble, pious religious leaders, the ones we look up to? These wonderful men who obey God, how dare you? How dare you say, you're demon-possessed? No doubt the religious leaders would have been favorable of that response. Some were loyal.

But others, well, their loyalty may be on the rocks. Firstly, they begin to entertain the idea, maybe, just maybe, the teachers of religion, these men who are teaching us, the Pharisees and some of the Sadducees and the scribes, maybe they've come to believe in this Messiah. But maybe they're holding back and they're not telling us about this. After all, if they despised him so much, why would they allow him to speak so boldly and freely before everyone in the temple precinct? Remember, these people, these leaders, the Jews, had a monopoly of what goes on in the temple.

The Sadducees had a hold of what goes on in the temple. There was no one there that they didn't approve of. And yet these people see Jesus speaking so openly, and they have done nothing about it, and they're thinking maybe they've been convinced that He is indeed Messiah, but they're holding back. And if that's the case, then they're disingenuous. They're dishonest.

They're dishonest. These were the thoughts of the people. Could that even be possible? Are they holding back? And so the religious leaders were beginning to be nervous upon hearing these things going along or spoken about the people.

They no doubt were feeling quite uncomfortable, even insecure with what is being said. Public opinion was starting to sway. The grip of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes that they had over the people in Jerusalem and the lay people who were just listening to what they had to say and obeying. That grip has begun to be loosened. The system they began and they nurtured and they built up over the years is becoming unraveled.

And worst of all, worst of all, they were beginning to hear that some, due to the amazing signs and the power displayed of Jesus Christ, and the power He was performing, and the signs that He was performing before the people, that they began to think themselves that this could be, maybe, this could be the Messiah. Maybe He is the Messiah. And the minds of the leaders would have gone into overdrive at that point. They knew what that would mean. If the people are persuaded that Jesus is the anointed one of God, if the people were persuaded that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, then the religious leaders knew that would abandon them in a heartbeat.

And they would follow after the one who they'd been anticipating for decades. They couldn't let that happen. These proud men were not going to give up. of what they worked so hard for. Because they were jealous men.

They wanted to keep what they thought they had, and they were envious. They wanted what they did not have as well. In fact, that was no secret. In about six months time, when Jesus is handed over to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, he is the one from his own mouth who declares, I know why you brought him here. It's because of your envy.

Matthew 27, 18. Even he realized it. Now, knowing what's at stake, these religious leaders have to do something, and they have to do something fairly quickly, so they hatch a plan. Let's get rid of him. Let's arrest him.

You see, they've tried going toe-to-toe with Christ, but that didn't work. His power is unparalleled. His wisdom, unprecedented. His interpretation and understanding of Scripture is matchless. He made them look bad.

He decimated their arguments in seconds, leaving them absolutely speechless and looking like fools in front of their fans, or so-called fans, the people. Everything they tried backfired, and they had no other option other than to arrest Him and take Him out of the equation. To forcefully remove this Jesus from their presence and the presence of the people. To remove His teaching once and for all. To remove His influence.

In time, Israel, they thought, would forget about Jesus and forget He ever existed. Jesus will become a byword and everything will go back to normal, back to the good old days before he came onto the scene. So they thought. Plans of man. Plans of man.

So verse 32b, the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Simple, but effective, don't you think? Let's arrest Jesus. Sounds like a plan. John tells us that he was the chief priests and the Pharisees, and we know a little bit about these people.

The chief priests were Levite men, and their role and their function was to serve the people in the temple. They were mediators between the people and God. We know that, we've been going through the book of Leviticus. And the Pharisees, we know about the Pharisees also. These were men known as the theologians of the day.

They were the teachers of Israel, the experts in Torah. Highly educated, very highly respected among the people. They were seen to be the most holy, the most pious, and were known to be the teachers of Israel. They were the religious and the political. These men were the religious and the political elites.

These were the heavyweights in Jerusalem, trusted by their countrymen to lead them and to guide them and guide them. In this time, they were beloved heathens. They were considered to be shepherds in Israel. Shepherds. They were meant to lead God's people, teach God's people, feed God's people.

But as we'll see, these shepherds were not worthy of the people's trust. They weren't making straight the path to Yahweh. They were crooked, placing all sorts of legalistic obstacles before the people for their own selfish satisfactions. Because when Christ, the chief shepherd, shows up, rather than to do what John the Baptist did, and you remember John the Baptist, He stepped aside. He likened himself to the best man.

But the best man steps aside when the bridegroom comes. The bridegroom is the one who takes center stage. And you remember the glorious words of John the Baptist. Words that should be your motto and mine. And that is that he must increase and I must decrease.

But that wasn't the motto of these men. Not at all. These so-called shepherds weren't prepared to step aside and give way to the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ. They weren't prepared to do that at all. They wanted to keep their little empire.

They weren't willing to step aside. They weren't willing to give the Messiah his rightful place. No one. No one was going to take away what they worked so hard for under the guise of religion, not even the anointed of God. By the way, the chief priests, who were mostly Sadducees and the Pharisees, and if we know our history, we would know that these two were opposing parties.

There was always continual conflict between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They didn't align, they didn't see eye to eye, and some of that conflict, beloved, was fierce. You can almost say they were enemies. But now they have a common denominator. They both despise Jesus.

And it is really a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So they set aside their differences. Satan unites their hearts with a common cause with a plan to try to get rid of Jesus by arresting him and then we know what comes next because their intent wasn't only to lock him away for a day or two, their intent was to murder him, to kill him, to get him out of the way once and for all. It was a simple plan and it wouldn't be difficult to action you wouldn't think. We know the temple guards were numerous at the time.

We know that. It wouldn't have taken a long time for them to locate the captain of the temple. He's the guy responsible to maintain the peace and order in the temple precinct. His authority was only second to the high priest. And this temple, the old captain of the temple, the captain of the temple, all he needed to do is round up some of his officers, give them the order, and then they would go and execute his command to arrest Jesus and then put him away once and for all.

That was the plan. Simple enough, so they thought. Take notice of what Christ says next. Verse 33. Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, And then, I am going to Him who sent me.

And do you see what He's doing? You have man's plans, and that is the chief priests and the Pharisees who want to lock away Jesus and arrest Him right now. And then you have God's plan, and God's timing, and Christ knows exactly what that is. The chief priests want Him gone right now. Their intent is to kill him and get him out of the equation.

But he's the thing. It's not going to happen right now. Why? Because Jesus says it's not going to happen right now. It's not in God's timing.

It's not God's timing for him to be captured and to be crucified. It's not God's timing. You want me gone, Jesus is saying. But he's saying, I will be with you a little longer. You want me gone, but it's not going to happen.

The officers who would seemingly try to arrest me are only a stone's throw away. Now, they don't want to ride on their hands, of course, but if they time it correctly, in a matter of moments, they'd be able to capture Jesus and then take him away, lock him away. From a practical perspective, there is no reason for that plan to fail. But from a divine perspective, verse 30, his time has not yet come. Beloved, Satan has much power.

Let's not underestimate the power of Satan. He has much power, and he has much influence over his people for evil, even the greatest of evil. But it all takes place under the sovereign hand of God, who is sovereign over every detail over his universe. Satan's leash is only as long as God gives him, and no more. Thus far you go, and no more, God would say.

God is in complete control. He has never lost control, and he never will. Not for a moment will he lose control. Remember that, Christian. That ought to fuel your heart to rest in Christ.

So here Jesus responds calmly. and collectively, you want me gone? Nope, I'm not going anywhere. Not for a little while at least. But I will when I'm, when I'm good and ready.

So I'll be with you a little longer. Sorry to spoil your plans, but you'll have to wait a little bit longer. You see, my father and I are calling the shots, not you. You see that in his words? You want me gone yesterday.

But your plans will fail because you are opposing God. And God is sovereign over all things. I will hand myself over to you willingly. You won't take me by force. I will hand myself.

I laid down my life. I will hand it over. I hand my life over to you willingly. And you will crucify me unjustly on a Roman cross. But when I'm good and ready, and for now that's not the time.

For the time has not yet come. I will be a thorn in your eyes just a little while longer." I love how time and time again Jesus shows that He's in complete control. Don't you love it? The Apostle John, he shows us so many instances of this.

It's just so beautiful. Even against all odds, you just see it. It jumps through the pages that Jesus is in complete control. Beloved, we see this so evidently throughout the pages, but especially in six months' time when Judas betrays Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now you might remember, because only a few weeks ago during the Lord's Supper, I brought up that point.

The officers come to arrest Christ, but instead they fall on the ground before him. It's not until practically Jesus says, okay, okay, now you can take me, that they're able to lay hands on him. He's in complete control. And there's no difference here in John chapter 7. He has the same divine control over the situation.

The officers in the temple are trained men. They outnumber Christ many times over. They've been given authority by their superiors to capture Jesus and to arrest Him. And there's no reason why they would fail in a menial task like that. It's a straightforward mission.

It's simple. Arrest one man. Arrest one man. No reason, beloved, except that time has not yet come. He was going to stay a little while longer, and that's all there is to it.

And he tells these men to their face, by the way, I'm going to remain a little while longer. In a few weeks time, we'll see much of the chief priests or too much of the chief priests and the Pharisees' disappointment. The officers come back empty handed. They were commissioned with a task. But then they come back empty-handed.

And when the indignant religious leaders inquire, why? Why have you come back? Do you know what their response was? Put your eyes down to verse 46. It's beautiful.

Verse 46. The officers answered, No one ever spoke like this man. Are you telling me you defied direct orders from your superiors because you were enamored about how one spoke? Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it.

Beloved, tell me that's not supernatural. Your plan to get rid of me now. But I tell you, I will be with you a little while longer. Beloved of Christ, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Nothing, absolutely nothing can thwart or frustrate the plan of God.

We see here in the timing of Christ's departure, we see this so evident. But the principle applies to all of life. Beloved, this is a reality, a truth that applies to the being of the sovereign God. Nothing will thwart His plan. Nothing.

He's sovereign over everything. And that's why we can trust in every one of His promises. He has spoken. If He has spoken, He will accomplish. We see that throughout the pages of Scripture, and He will remain faithful until the very end.

Beloved, all powers and all principalities cannot and will not frustrate the plans of God in Christ Jesus. And this is where we take rest, is it not? And this is where we find comfort and rest for our souls. Christian, this is where you should find rest for your soul. It's because all His plans for you in Christ are for His glory, and they're all for your own good.

All of them with no exceptions. Satan will not intercept that which God, the sovereign of the universe, has fashioned for you, brothers and sisters, and fashioned for His glory and for your good, your ultimate good. He will not take that or intercept that and bring it to your demise. It will not happen. God won't allow it to happen.

God is too smart for that. He's too powerful for that to happen. Difficulties and tribulations will come. Don't hear me wrong. And at times we'll even, to our shame, struggle to believe these truths.

We'll struggle to believe in the sovereignty of God. We'll struggle to believe, how is it that what I'm going through is actually for my own good? But beloved, Despite what you and I think, and I've said this over and over again, truth is objective because it's from the being of God. And so God is sovereign, and everything he does is for his glory and for your own good. He can be trusted.

Take heart in that truth. Rest in Jesus Christ. I'll be around a little bit longer, Jesus is saying. But also when the time comes for his departure, his final destination also, is not what these men were actually expecting. Let's read verse 33.

Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer. and then I'm going to be, I'm going to Him who sent me. So what's Jesus saying? Well in hindsight we can look back and we can really see what Jesus meant by those words. We can read the scripture from our perspective and see all that.

So in about six months time he'll accomplish the work that he's been given. He'll finish the work that the Father has given him, the work of redemption, his perfect life, and his substitutionary atoning sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. And when he's on that cross, he'll declare, it is finished. It's done. It's been accomplished.

He'll then be buried. And then he will rise from the death. He will be resurrected to sit at the right hand of the Father. He'll be set back. He'll go back to where he came.

Back at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly abode with the Father in heaven. That's what Jesus is saying here. But even for the Jews, this should have been clear. Jesus has on no less than four times spoken this truth just in this one chapter. He said many times in the gospel so far, but just in this one chapter, He said over and over again, this is where I come from and that's where I'm returning.

He said, I've always, I've been sent. I've been sent by the Father. I've been sent by Him. Verse 16, my teaching is nine, not mine, but him who sent me. Verse 18, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true.

28, but I have not come on my own accord. He who sent me is true and him you do not know. Scathing, scathing for these men. Verse 29, I know him for I come from him and he sent me. Jesus has not been cryptic with these men.

He's not vague with them. His communication is clear with the Jews. He has been sent by the Father. And when all is accomplished, he will return to heaven to be with his Father. The same Father who has heard from heaven declaring, This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And beloved, forevermore he shall be well pleased with the Son. He will return to the glory that he enjoyed from eternity past. That would be my destination, Jesus is saying. It's a far cry from what these men were expecting. You see, the chief priests, as I said earlier, were mainly the Sadducees.

They had the whole of the Sanhedrin, in particular, temple grounds. The Sadducees didn't believe in the afterlife. The plot to arrest Jesus and put him to death, as far as they were concerned, in their own minds and in their own souls, they thought Jesus would be arrested. Once we kill him, his soul will perish. That would be the end of Jesus.

Nope, you're wrong. Jesus is saying, I'm going to go back to the Father. The Pharisees, on the other hand, they did believe in the afterlife. They believed in heaven's reward, and they believed in punishment. They believed in heaven, and they believed in hell.

And as far as they're concerned, you remember the charge against Christ that he is a blasphemer, for he is a man, and he makes himself equal with God. So as far as they're concerned, once they accomplish the plan, arrest Jesus, and then destroy him, this Jesus will be in hell under the wrath of God, because that's where blasphemers belong. And then Jesus says to them, You're wrong too. That's not my final destination. Your assessment of me could not have been so wrong.

You got it wrong. Beloved, we need to learn from this. These men got it wrong and their souls will be damned for all eternity. Jesus says that and we'll get to that in a moment. Getting Jesus wrong will damn your soul for all eternity.

You've got to get this one right. But he doesn't stop there. Clearing up the air in relation to himself, and who he is, and where he's come from, and where he'll go back, is just the beginning. What comes next is far more personal for his audience. And beloved, what comes next is chilling, terrifying truths.

The seriousness of which cannot be overestimated. Verse 34, you will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. How sad. How devastating.

If only these men understood what Jesus was saying. It's almost humorous, but it's not humorous. Hearing these terrifying words uttered from the mouth of Jesus Christ ought to humble any man who hears them. Any woman who hears them, they should be in sackcloth and ashes in humility before God if they hear these words and understand what He is saying. These words should cause a man to tremble.

But these so-called leaders and the Pharisees who were supposedly the theologians, the one who understood the Scriptures and knew God in His commands and the holiness that He requires, that was so blinded in unbelief that the words of Christ, the warning of Christ, simply went right over their heads. They just didn't get it. They just didn't get it. He didn't have the spiritual ears to understand what's happening. Beloved, this is a spiritual battle going on here, and we need to be able to see that.

We can only see what's physical, but what we don't see is the invisible spiritual battle that's going on. And these men were spiritually dead, and they were not able to understand, because Satan has got him around his grip. Listen to verse 35 and 36. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?

What does he mean when he says or by saying, you will seek me and you will not find me and where I am, you cannot come? What were they thinking? It's actually hard to understand, hard to know what they were thinking, to be honest. But perhaps they were thinking, let's put two and two together. Perhaps they've heard about the Galilean ministry of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps they knew what went on up in Galilee, or if you want to say down from Galilee, because everything is down from Jerusalem. Perhaps they were thinking, thousands and thousands, they might have heard the report come back, that thousands upon thousands were following after Christ. He even gathered, amassed a large amount of disciples, we're told, back in chapter 6. But in amount of time, these people began to drop and fall away. And we know by the end of chapter 6 that most of these people had just turned their backs and rejected Christ.

So perhaps they're thinking, well, from thousands, Jesus, you couldn't keep them. They end up rejecting you. You failed in Galilee. And now things aren't looking exactly so good for you here in Jerusalem, are they, Jesus? Sure, you have a few sympathetic followers, some who say that you're a good man.

We were told that earlier in the chapter. Others, enamored with your signs and wonders. But as a whole, you're not really doing that great, are you, Jesus? All things considered, for the most part, Israel has considered you, has rejected you as its Messiah. And the people that count, And they're probably thinking, that's us.

We're the religious leaders. We're the ones who determine what people ought to think about. We are the ones who interpret Torah. And if Messiah comes, the people are waiting for us to say yes or no. As far as those who count are concerned, well, Jesus, we've outright rejected you.

We've rejected you. So if you weren't able to convince Israel of your Messiahship, well, maybe your next option is to go to the dispersed Jews, or even to the Gentiles, the Greeks. Maybe you'll be, or you'll have better luck, abroad. Is that where you're going? Is that why we won't be able to find you, Jesus?

You see, His words just go right over their minds. Instead of them actually seeing the seriousness of what Christ is saying, they're actually mocking Him now. But Jesus is actually speaking some horrifying consequences to these men, to their face, and they're not able to see it because they're too blind. And in the next chapter, in chapter 8, when our Lord says almost identical words to what He's saying here, the Jews also, they get it wrong again. The words go also right over their heads, but this time in chapter 8, their best guess as to why they're not going to be able to see Jesus or to seek after Him but not find Him, their best guess for why that would be is because they claim that Jesus is going to kill Himself, that He's going to commit suicide.

That's what they say. No, the reason why they will seek Him and not find Him is clear. It's because Jesus will be with His Father. He'll be with His Father. And the men in front of Him, in their rejection of Him, have sealed their fate.

He will go to heaven, but heaven will be out of bounds to them because they have rejected the only way to heaven, without Christ. Heaven's doors are sealed shut. Entry is through Christ. He is the door. That's it.

No other way. But what does he mean that you'll seek me, but you will not find me? You see, brothers and sisters, it's most likely that he's speaking here about the resurrection. It's the resurrection that's in view. Because you can be sure, after the resurrection of Christ, when the tomb was empty and the religious leaders had been made aware, you know the plot that they went to, to make sure that that would not happen, because they thought that the disciples would steal the body, and they put soldiers and officers at the at the tomb to make sure that doesn't happen, but when the tomb was found to be empty, you can be sure they would have done a thorough search for Christ or any hint of his body, yet they never again laid eyes upon the incarnate Son of God.

They sought after him, but they could not find him. But also, beloved, I think, I believe that in this passage there's also a spiritual reality to the Lord's words. You see, the Jews have been confronted with our Lord and His teaching and His claims multiple times, over and over again. They've rejected Him over and over again. They've denied His words and said, we don't want to listen to you.

You're a fraud. You're a blasphemer. The day will come when they will seek Messiah for deliverance, salvation, for redemption. But they won't find Him. Why?

Because having rejected Jesus, whatever or wherever they search will be to no avail. No other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4.12. They've made the damning decision.

There is no other Savior. but they have refused to believe in the only Saviour. And now, many await, even now beloved, many await the first advent of Messiah, but they await in vain, because He has already come. They've missed the time of His visitation. And beloved, that means, apart from them looking back and mourning upon the one they have grieved, there is no salvation.

There is none. only awaits is the judgment. That's it. The only thing awaits for those who reject Christ is judgment. Beloved, this is a very scary truth.

Don't think that one can continue to reject Jesus. One can continue to hold out his hand and say, I'm not listening. I'm not going to give you my ear. I'm not going to receive your words. Don't think that one can do that over and over again and reject the gospel over and over again and expect that there won't be serious consequences.

Sin gives birth to sin. Rejecting Christ is sin. Being presented with the gospel and saying, I don't believe, is sin. It's sin. And the heart that rejects Christ over and over again, the heart that rejects the light that God is giving through His Word and the Gospel over and over again, will become hardened and hardened and hardened.

And it's only a matter of time that that heart will become calloused. A type of Romans 1, giving over to a debased mind type of calloused. Oh how foolish it is to harden one's heart against the Son of God. so foolish even to presume that there will be more time. Many people say that, I'm right, I'm young, I'll wait until a later stage, until I'm a bit older, and then I'll take up religion, then I'll take up this Jesus thing, I'll concern myself with what happens in death later.

Some think they have more time. Some think that they've had more opportunity. Surely if I reject him now, it's funny. I should be thinking about it. Yeah, there's something in my mind and my heart that said I should be considering this, but I'm too young.

I've got other things on my mind. I'm working, I'm building a career. There's other things on my mind. So I'm sure more opportunities will come and I'll let it go for now. You don't know that.

You don't know that there's gonna be more time and you don't know that there'll be more opportunity. You don't know that. That's why there's always a desperate urgency when we proclaim the gospel. Is there not? That's why we plead with sinners to repent of their sins and to receive Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins that is found in Him alone.

This is why we plead. Because the opportunities to do so are limited, beloved. Never presume upon the grace of God. Never. Because there can come a time, after hardening one's heart towards Christ and the gospel over and over again, that the heart becomes hardened.

And then maybe one day that person seeks deliverance, or seeks salvation, or seeks redemption. And he won't be found. Jesus is saying to these Jews, here I am. Believe in me before the opportunity is gone. A time will come when you will seek me, but you will not find me.

Heed the warning. Today is the day of salvation. I know some of you at this point in time are probably feeling uncomfortable with what is being said. Because these are hard words to take in. Beloved, I know sometimes we, in our theological understanding, we look at things from God's point of view and we dismiss a lot of what's being said about the urgency of the gospel.

and seeking the Lord whilst he may be found. And today is the day of salvation because we know in our hearts and in our minds the truths of the doctrines of grace. We know they are true. We know of God's elected purposes. We know these things.

Amen. Amen. But let me tell you something. If your theology causes you to undermine any part of God's Word, then there's a major problem with your theology. That's what it comes down to.

There's something seriously wrong with your theology if it undermines what Jesus is saying or what God is saying. Because too often people have faith in their theology, in what they think they know, in a system that they put into their minds, and then they have this she'll be right attitude about everything else. and they presume upon the grace of God. And beloved, we must not do that. We must hold to the whole counsel of God.

We must hold to all that is written, even the difficult truths that we may struggle to contain, or the difficult truths that we may struggle to harmonize in our creaturely minds. Think about it. On one hand, we do believe in the election of some in Christ before the foundations of the world. That is biblical. But we also reason with sinners.

We also plead with sinners to repent and place their trust in Christ, do we not? We know it's by grace alone we enter into the kingdom of God. But we are also told to strive to enter into the narrow gate of the kingdom. Are we not? We ought to have a complete confidence that not one, not even one, of all that the Father has given the Son, who have been elected for the Son, will be lost.

Amen to that. Yet we ought to weep in intercession for the lost. We know, on the one hand, that all Christ's sheep will be preserved by him until the very end. None will be lost. He will raise them up on the last day, on the one hand.

And then we're told to persevere until the end. And only those who stand firm until the end will be saved. On the other hand, beloved, these dual truths that are found abundantly through scripture, we must be comfortable to hold them simultaneously. Because sometimes we seem to want to take things from God's point of view and say, she'll be right. And we undermine that we ought to be completely and totally and fully committed to a life of holiness, looking to Christ and walking according to His ways.

And so too, the warnings ought to be taken seriously. For example, Hebrews, the continual warnings in 3, 6, and 10. Beloved, that's for Christians. You read of that and you say, but that's apostates. Yes, but it's Christians that need to adhere and heed the warnings.

In other words, listen to the warnings, heed the warnings, take them seriously, and don't be like that. Don't be like that. We know, beloved, that even we know ultimately, we know that it is God who enables us not only to heed the warnings, but to obey them. And so when in Scripture we read the terrible warnings and continually rejecting, of continually rejecting the light of Christ and rejecting the gospel, we don't sit back. We don't sit back and say, oh well, these people who have rejected Christ mustn't be elect.

No, no, we don't do that. What we do, our response should be to go and plead with Him. To say, we don't know if they're elect or not. Do they breathe? Is their heart beating?

Yes. Do they have air in their lungs? Yes. Then time is not over, even if they do have a cursed heart. Our prerogative, our joy would be to preach the gospel to them and plead with them to come to Christ.

Come. Come to Christ. Don't presume that there will be time. Don't die in your sins. The message of the gospel is don't die in your sins.

There's an urgency. It's critical urgency that we find throughout the pages of Scripture. And we hold. Hold to the warnings and to those truths, whilst also holding to the sublime truths that are grounded in the heart of God in eternity past that cannot be taken away. Listen to what the scripture says about the urgency of salvation.

Isaiah 55, 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he's near. There's a time where Jesus says, you'll seek me, but you will not find me. For us in 2020, those words about Christ are not so much... well, they're not the physical Christ.

It's not that we're going to go and pursue or seek after Jesus in the physical sense, but the spiritual sense. Call upon Him while He's near, where we're told in the book of Isaiah. He's among you, beloved. He's among you by His Spirit. He's near us in His Word.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. If the Word convicts your heart of sin, don't delay. Act upon it. If you hear His voice today, surrender before Him. Repent, even now, of your sins.

Don't presume on His grace. Don't harden your heart. You don't know how much time you have. There may be a time where you'll seek after Him, but you will not find Him. Not because your repentance is too late.

That's not it. But because of the hardening effect of sin upon your damaged heart. A damaged heart that is unregenerate. Sin has a damaging effect, a callousing effect, a hardening effect upon the heart to the point where any repentance, any salvation, any deliverance is sought in disingenuineness. It's dishonest.

It's not genuine. That's the effect. One theologian said it like this. I love the way he said it. He said, true repentance is never too late.

Here it is. True repentance is never too late, but seldom or rarely is late repentance true. She'll be right. We'll wait. Maybe later.

Maybe later. Maybe later. Maybe later. Now I look and I can't find it. The message of the Bible, the message of the gospel comes with great urgency because every lost opportunity brings one closer to destruction.

Act now. Don't harden your hearts like these Jews. Don't harden your hearts like the Israelites. Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3 and we'll be reading from verse 7 through 11.

This is a parallel passage to Psalm 95. Hebrews chapter three from verse seven. Therefore, beloved in Christ, I want you to hear these words and just meditate upon them. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart.

They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. They are terrifying words. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

You hear that? That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. They're uncomfortable words, but this is the Word of God. If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

Do not continue to reject His truth, because His patience will come to an end. Church, I want us to feel the weight of these words. Take them at face value. Don't presume upon the grace of God. If He is convicting your soul, of any light, act upon it, don't delay.

But this is not only for the unbeliever, if there are any among us, but this is for the believer. If God convicts your soul of sin, do not, do not let it go. Act upon it. Bring it to Christ. Bring it to the one who is faithful and just and is able to forgive you all your sins.

Don't harbour sin. Don't hug sin to your bosom. Don't do that. Don't do that. It's dangerous.

It will bring a hardening effect on you. It will obstruct your relationship and your fellowship with God. It will take away the glory and the savour and the beauty of knowing Christ. Deal with it. If the Spirit is illuminating sin in your heart, any pet sins, deal with it.

Bring it to Christ and lay it down at His feet because He is able to forgive you of those sins. Don't need anything. Don't need anything. Stand in the way of the most glorious thing or most glorious privilege known to mankind. And that is what our brother said earlier on, to know God, for him to dwell among us and for him to bless us as being our God and we being his people.

Is there a greater privilege than to know God? Then why in the world do we allow our fellowship to be obstructed by sin, and sin that has a hardening effect? God forbid, beloved. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 1. Let's read from verse 24 through 28.

Proverbs chapter 1 from 24 through 28. Because I have called and you refused to listen. Have stretched out my hand and no one has eated. Because you have ignored all my counsel and you would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when terror strikes you. When terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, hear this, but I will not answer. That's scary. They will seek me diligently, but will not find me. Just like Esau, who sought repentance with tears but did not find true repentance.

His sexual immoral heart, Hebrews 12 verse 17, remained selfish and corrupt even his repentance was not genuine, even though he sought it with tears. He may have felt sorry, he may have wept, but true repentance was not found for Esau. Verse 29 in Proverbs 1, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their ways and their feel of their own devices, for the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them. Oh, how I pray that none of us in this room, none of us are represented by those words. that none of us are taking lightly the warning of God, or dabbling in sin, or playing with fire, expecting not to get burnt.

Beloved, play with fire and you will get burnt. Fire 101. And if you don't stop, if you don't take God's warning seriously, it will destroy your soul. Do not shrug God off. Don't muffle His voice.

Don't assume there'll be more opportunities. Don't assume that there'll be more time. This may be the last. Cast yourself at the feet of the one who is able to forgive Jesus Christ in repentance, if you haven't already done that, for He is the only Savior. Heed His warnings.

Don't be like those depicted in the passage here in Proverbs chapter 1 from 24 through 32. No, God forbid, may the Lord give us to be like the ones found in verse 33. If you still have your Bibles open, Proverbs 1 verse 33, listen to what it says. But, but, praise God for the but, but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster. Seek the Lord while he may be found.

And then back in chapter 7, John chapter 7, the last clause spoken of Christ is truly terrifying. You'll seek me and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. Where I am, you cannot come. Why?

Why is Jesus saying this to the religious leaders? Well, back in verse 19, he's already established a big point. He's established that they're sinners, remember? That they're lawbreakers. Remember when he said, none of you keep the law?

Sin. Sin is why you cannot come where Jesus is. Sin, undealt with, seals heaven's door shut. Nothing short of perfection can enter into the presence of God. In chapter 8, Jesus adds light to these words.

From verse 21, this is what he says. He says something similar. For he said to them, this is chapter 8, 21. For he said to them again, I am going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.

So the Jew said, will he kill himself? That's what I said earlier. Since he says where I'm going, you cannot come. 23. He said to them, you are from below.

I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24. I told you that you would die in your sins.

For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. You cannot follow me into heaven because you're sinners. That's what Jesus is saying. You can't come to me into the heavenly abode because your sin has not been dealt with. How does he know this?

Well, he knows this because the only remedy for sin is Jesus himself. Believing upon Him, believing upon Him and His finished work, that is the only remedy for sin. The only way humanity can deal with this sin is to believe upon the Son of God. That's it. That's it.

There is no other way. Unless you believe in Me, He says, heaven is out of bounds for you and you will die in your sins. Terrifying words. But thank God there is a contrast to the chilling words that the Lord speaks to the people who have rejected Him, the people who are the religious leaders. There is a contrast.

There is hope for some. And this is glorious. Turn with me to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, and we'll be reading from verse 36. John chapter 13, and we'll be reading from verse 36.

Peter asked to receive further clarification from Christ, because he wanted to know and understand, what is this? Jesus, what are you saying? What do you mean when you say, where I go, you cannot come? Because that's what he's been saying previously. So verse 36, Peter wants clarification, and this is the clarification Jesus gives.

Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me. You see, if he ends there, then Peter, a disciple of Christ, a believer, the very one who said of Christ, when Christ said, who do you think I am? He said, you are the son of God, the son of the living, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. This same Peter, if God ends there, if Jesus ends his words there, then he's going to be no better off than the religious leaders in chapter seven.

Am I right? But our Lord continues. Where I am going, you cannot follow me now. Now. But you will follow afterwards.

There's the grace. There's the hope for those who are in Christ. The hope for those who trust in Him. No talk about heaven being permanently closed for Peter. No talk about Peter dying in his sins, beloved, even though he will go on to deny Jesus three times.

What is the difference between Peter and the Jews in the temple. What is the difference? Beloved, it's simple. Peter knows the way. You see, we're talking about who it is that gets into heaven, and Peter knows the way.

The Jewish religious leaders in front of Christ, in John chapter 7, didn't know the way. Peter knows the way. Let me show you how. Verse 4, chapter 14. So flick your eyes over to chapter 14, which comes next.

Jesus is still in the same context. Let's read from verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Remember, Jesus is speaking to his disciples in the upper room discourse here.

Believe also in me. Verse 2. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.

Where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Hear this. Thomas asked and said to him, Lord, We do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?

And then Jesus said to him, I love this. I am. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Beloved.

Do you know the way? Do you know Christ? That's the question that we need to be asking ourselves. Do I know Jesus Christ? Not up here alone, but in here.

Do I know Christ? Have you by faith received Him as Lord and Savior of your soul? Have your sins and unrighteousness been dealt with by the sacrificial sacrifice of the sinless, spotless, perfect Lamb of God? Has His atoning blood covered your sin and taken care of all your iniquities? Do you know Christ?

Do you know the way? Beloved, if you can answer yes, then praise be to God. Heaven is open to you through Christ. Heaven's doors are open. Before they were sealed shut, but now they're open because Christ is the way.

Christ is the door. He's the one who brings you in because you are united in Him. Only He is worthy, but those who are found in Him come to Him and are united in Him and enjoy Him forever. And Jesus can say the words that he said to Peter, he'll say that to you. Where I am going, you cannot come now, but you will follow afterwards.

That's the Christian hope, is it not? That we'll be with Christ forevermore. And who's speaking these words? I'm going to end with this. We're almost done.

Who's speaking these words? God in flesh. That's why he can be trusted. If he were a mere man making these huge high and lofty claims, then the Jews would be justified in their skepticism and their rejection of him. But Jesus never claims to be a mere man, beloved.

He claims to be deity. He claims to be the God-man. Even in our text, my apologies, here in John chapter 7, this is clear. Did you see it when we were reading through those four verses? Did you see how Jesus is saying that, I am the eternal God?

I want to show it to you here. Look back down on verse 34, because we might have missed it. Verse 34, you will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am going, you cannot come. Is that what it says?

Is that what Jesus is saying? Where I am going, you cannot find me? No. No, that's not what Jesus is saying. Listen to what he says.

You will seek me and you will not find me where I am. You cannot come. Am. Present tense. Right now.

Right now, in the context that Jesus is in, in John, in the temple precinct, at the Feast of Booths, here, in the context of John chapter 7, He is in the temple. We know that. And the Jews are with Him. So it's not as though they can't go where He is right now, because they're there. They're not opposed to, they're not forbidden to come into the temple precinct.

And that's true. But is Jesus talking about His human nature here? Or is He talking about His divine nature? Because you see, although Jesus is physically before these people in the temple, he's also the omnipresent God who manifests his glory in an incredible way in the heavenly abode with his Father. And there they cannot come.

Because right now as He speaks, right now as He speaks, in His divine nature, Jesus is ruling and reigning over the whole universe in majesty. Beloved, it's hard for us to grasp with our finite, creaturely mind But beloved, that is the reason why he can be trusted, because he is the all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing God. He never seeks to be God in the incarnation, ever. He simply took upon Himself a human nature. And that's an unbelievable condescension of the incarnation.

Because, beloved, He took upon Himself the human nature, because that would be the only way He can redeem sinners. Human sinners like you and I, He needed to be a representative, both God, eternally, and man, so He would be our mediator before God. And while he was on earth, beloved, accomplishing the work of redemption that the Father had given him, at the same time he was ruling and reigning in majesty in heaven. And he was at the same time ruling over and upholding the whole universe by his power. At the same time!

How do we grasp that? Beloved, we believe it. The Bible says it. But we cannot fully comprehend this amazing reality. How can we comprehend the Godness of God in our creaturely human minds?

We cannot. So what do we do? We love Him. We cast ourselves at His feet and say, Christ, we love you. We worship you.

We want you with all our being. That's how we commit our lives to Christ. Beloved, He is the true treasure of heaven. If you ask yourself why you want to go to heaven, if first on your list is not because Jesus is there, then something's really wrong. Beloved, if you don't love Christ now, if you don't love what Christ has given you to enjoy now, His Church, His Word, His Spirit, then I'd hate to burst your bubble to say you won't enjoy heaven very much either.

Because the treasure of heaven is Jesus. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. He can be trusted. Trust Him.

Trust Him with all your soul. Let's pray.