 Verses 25 through 31. If you will please stand with the Bible in your hand as we read God's word together. We're in the Gospel according to John chapter seven versus 25 through 31. Now some of them from Jerusalem said, is this not he whom they seek to kill? But look, he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this man is from. But when the Christ comes, no one knows where he's from. And Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple saying, you both know me and you know where I'm from? And I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know. But I know him, for I am from him and he sent me. Therefore they sought to take him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. And many of the people believed in him and said, when the Christ comes, will he do more signs than these which this man has done? This is the word of God, amen? Amen, let's take a few moments and just pray silently. And again, ask the Lord to bless our time together in his word this morning, let's pray. Father in heaven, God, how good it is to be with your people on the Lord's day, worshiping and praising you, our creator, Almighty God, sovereign over all things. And we praise and worship you and thank you Lord for Christ. Thank you Lord for rescuing us out of bondage to our sin. Thank you Lord for changing our heart or very nature. Thank you for transforming us according to your word and according to the power of your spirit that work within us. Thank you for the fellowship that we have, the love that we have for one another. And thank you Lord for this time together, this morning to worship you as we engage together in your word to learn of you, to see wondrous things from your law, to be transformed by your word. Your word is truth and the power and efficacy of your Holy Spirit at work in our lives. We acknowledge this morning Lord our great need of you. Help us or give us wisdom, strengthen us to take these truths and not be merely hearers of your word but doers, applying the truths that we learn here to our lives that we might live for you more faithfully. And God if there's anyone here not saved, please Lord for your namesake, for your glory, for your everlasting praise and worship, save them. I'd show them their condition outside of Christ, the ignorance that is unbelief and display before them this morning from John chapter seven, the excellencies of the savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. All this we pray for your namesake, for your glory in Jesus' name, amen. Amen be seated. Our sermon title this morning is the ignorance of unbelief, the ignorance of unbelief. And we are in John chapter seven verses 25 here through verse 31. And as we've been working verse by verse by verse through the gospel of John, we've come to this paragraph in John chapter seven. It's really in two parts, we'll get through verse 36 next week. This week we wanna begin with verse 25. And again, we are continuing if you will, our study or our treatise on unbelief. As we walk through John chapter six, now into John chapter seven, we're getting a picture or a portrait of what unbelief looks like, what unbelief is. This morning I want you to see the devastating fruit of ignorance that is unbelief, the ignorance of unbelief. Now as we work through this passage, we're introduced to these various groups that are walking around or following Christ now, and those various groups, various in their thoughts, various in their philosophies, various in their understandings in the word of God, but one thing unifies them all, and that is their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter six, the crowds that followed Christ throughout Galilee have rejected him. Those in Capernaum have rejected him. They went away, walked with him no more. As we come to John chapter seven, now we're back in Jerusalem, even his brothers, those that grew up with him closest to him rejected him, did not believe him. We become familiar now in virtually every chapter of this gospel with the Jews, those in opposition against him, who are always rejecting what they hear, rejecting his preaching and teaching, rejecting him and the claims about himself, they've rejected him and they now seek to kill him. At every turn there are plots and threats against him. In verse 20, we were introduced to the people, now the people coming into the feast from outside, coming into the feast from Galilee, and the people rejecting him. In verse 20, they didn't know about the plots against him, but they accused him of having a demon, right? Those that lived there in the city certainly knew about the plots. They're in communication with the leaders, communication with the authorities all the time. And so they ask in verse 25, is this not he whom they seek to kill? The unifying force behind all of these groups is the fact that they reject the Lord Jesus Christ. So his ministry here so far in chapter six and chapter seven is having an impact. It's causing a stir among the people and virtually no one is left unaffected. It's having an impact, causing a whirlwind of questions, of responses, and opinions, thoughts from the people about who he is and what he's here to do. You think about this now. The most glorious truth that has ever be fallen at the ears of man, taught by the most glorious man to have ever walked the planet, but taught by the greatest teacher who has ever expounded upon the truths of God, God incarnate himself and they reject the Lord. With some it's just a matter of curiosity, curiosity over his works, over his teaching, over his miracles. With some they respond with marvel and amazement at his miracles and at the authority with which he speaks. And still others respond with outright hostility. They hate him and they want to kill him. The academics and the intellectuals are there. The philosophers and the thinkers, right? The movers and the shakers. You have the simple-minded poor coming in from Galilee. Those from out in the sticks. You have the wealthy there. The culture, the so-called sophisticates who live within the city themselves. And then you have the obsessively religious, the religious elite, obsessively religious. They're also there, even his own brothers are there. And what is the unifying factor in all of these varied responses of the Lord Jesus Christ? It is the ignorance of unbelief. The tragic equalizer, among all those outside of Christ, the tragic equalizer is the ignorance of unbelief. Whether you're rich or poor, whether you're black, white, Indian, Hispanic, Haitian or Jew, you're male or female, educated or a school dropout, philosopher, agnostic, atheist or theist, whether you're a sodomite, a heterosexual fornicator, a liar, a thief, a drunkard or a moralist, whether you're a city dweller or a country feller, right? Whether you're obsessively religious or whether you're obscenely sacrilegious, the great unifying factor among all of those outside of Christ is the ignorance of unbelief. The often tragic common ground between all of them is the utter ignorance of unbelief. Is that because people by and large today aren't given enough information about Christ? Is it because people today don't have enough evidence to believe upon Him? Many of you will hear often say, show me yourself. God, if you're real, show me you're real. Has He not demonstrated that clearly? Do we not have enough evidence? Is it because the arguments that have been used are just not persuasive enough? When you go to share the gospel with somebody, you just didn't persuade them compellingly enough or convincingly enough? No. The Bible says that their ignorance, their unbelief is willful. It is willful. It's not that they don't know the truth. It's that they suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness. I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. And let's see this broken down for us. Romans chapter one, and look down at verse 18. And here Paul says, beginning in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Listen for a moment, from verse 18. God's wrath is reserved universally. God's wrath reserved universally for all men. All men who simply don't know the truth, all men who've not been introduced to the truth. They haven't heard the truth. No. All men, all men outside of Christ who suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness. In other words, no one escapes. God's wrath universally, universally revealed to all men because all men outside of Christ suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness. It could be better said this way. God's anger, his fury, his wrath over sin is reserved for those all men outside of Christ who labor to willfully ignore the truth of God by holding fast to their sin. How do they labor to suppress it? They hold fast to their sin. Who is it for? For all men outside of Christ, all men do the same thing. Now this certainly means the blaspheming unbeliever, right, the murderers, the rapists, the baby killers. But it also means the moral person, maybe you, the moral person that sits in church who has never been changed, has never had that work of grace done in their heart, has not been transformed through and through by the gospel who has no real affections for Christ. It means those, and it certainly means all of those in wilderness tribes who may not have even seen another person much less a Bible. It means them too. It means all men. It means you. If you've never turned from Christ to put your faith and trust in Him, turned from sin to put your faith and trust in Christ. If you've never turned to Him, it means you. Why? Why is that? Verse 19 says, because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. God has not left us without a witness of himself. Every person has seen it. Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. I watched earlier in the week a documentary on our universe. And to see one, the darkened understanding and feudal speculations of scientists who search for truth in science and will not search for truth in God's word. They suppress the truth in their unrighteousness, but this universe, an amazing display of the glory and power of God. And with every scientific discovery, getting more and more clear, that you cannot have creation without God, the Creator. The men are feudal, ignorant in their unbelief to try to explain Him away. I was looking at the statistics now. Of the improbability of life apart from God, a Creator, so statistically minuscule life is, they have to explain it away with multiple universes now. So the statistics fit. You just cannot explain away God. God's exhortation to us this morning from John chapter seven, verses 25 through 31, is humble yourself to the truth of God. Do not be ignorant in unbelief. Don't be ignorant in unbelief. Humble yourself to the truth of God. I was struck by this observation from Donald Gray Barnhouse this week. Listen to Barnhouse. Will God give man brains to see these things? And will man then fail to exercise his will toward God? The sorrowful answer is that both of these things are true. God will give men brains to see these things and man will reject that out of hand to suppress the truth of God and their unrighteousness. The sorrowful answer is that both of these things are true. God will give a man brains to smelt iron and to make a hammer head and nails. God will grow a tree and give man strength to cut it down and brains to fashion a hammer handle from its wood. And when man has the hammer and the nails, God will put out his hand and let man drive nails through it and place him on a cross in the supreme demonstration that men are without excuse. Lord's exhortation to you this morning. Humble yourself. Do not be ignorant and unbelief. Don't respond as the Pharisees, the chief priests, the scribes, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, the crowd, the Jerusalemites. Don't respond in ignorant unbelief in order to believe on Christ, in order to have life in his name. He must be believing. In order to counter the blind ignorance that accompanies unbelief, you must one, know and believe his word. You must know and believe his word. We'll see that in verses 25 through 27. Do not remain in your ignorance believing the lies of this world. Know God's word. Humble yourself to his word. Jesus said to the Sadducees in Matthew 22, he said, you are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. God has overlooked these times of ignorance but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Two, you must know and believe his identity verses 28 through 29, his incarnation. Many today, many today are on the broad road to destruction worshiping a Christ of their own imagination. Worshiping a Christ that is divided from his word. He told the Jewish opposition in chapter five, you do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe him whom he sent. We find and learn of Christ in his word. We learn of him in his word. We're to believe in him according to his word. Thirdly, you're to know and believe his mission. We'll see that in verses 30 through 31. Because those who are ignorant of God's righteousness they seek to establish their own righteousness and in seeking to establish their own they do not submit to the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ came to draw a people to himself marked off from the world in righteousness and we're to believe that mission. Let's look at point number one. Put away the ignorance of unbelief and know and believe his word. Look at verse 25. Bible says, now some of them from Jerusalem said, is this not he whom they seek to kill? But look verse 26, he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this man is from. But when the Christ comes, no one knows where he's from. You know, it's amazing here the hostility against him. The constant plots and threats that will eventually in murder constantly swirling around him. We're here again. We're in Jerusalem at the temple and this is the Feast of Tabernacles. We're about six months at this point in John chapter seven we're about six months from the next Passover. Which means that as we read here we're reading in the shadow of the cross. The cross is coming. The Lord Jesus Christ headed inexorably toward his hour. We see the rampant unbelief the hostility against him and all the while now it's gonna continue to intensify. And some of them from Jerusalem said, those who dwelt in the city said, is this not he whom they seek to kill? Now remember from verse 20, those who lived outside the city those who were coming into the city for the Feast from Galilee had no idea about these plots that were going on. They hadn't heard the plots and threats against them. So in verse 20, he's like, you have a demon who's trying to kill you? They were incredulous about that so they're gonna quickly find out also. Those that lived in Jerusalem are those mentioned here. They're in the city, they're in the temple complex, they're interacting with the leaders, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees and they knew about the plot and they're whispering and murmuring amongst themselves about it. In a sense, this act of the Lord Jesus Christ teaching boldly in the temple is creating an intrigue among them. They're waiting to see what's gonna happen. They know there's a plot against him. He comes into Jerusalem, into the temple, boldly teaches, that word boldly, paraisia, it means fearlessly, completely confident at home in the temple preaching without fear of man, without fear of consequence, boldly preaching despite the plots and threats against him. And they're wondering what's going to happen. He'd already defied their leaders by clearing out the temple with his authority, cleared it out of those who exchanged money and bought and sold there. And then he'd already defied their laws by healing a man on the Sabbath, all the while teaching God's truth, which those leaders, those scribes and Pharisees lay aside for their own traditions. He's defying them at every turn with God's truth. He is preaching, teaching with authority that they've never heard before. And again, here he is in the temple teaching boldly and what does it say? It says that their leaders are silent. He speaks boldly, they say nothing to him. Why do the unbelieving, the ignorant unbelieving, why do they respond with such hostility against him? Think about it for a moment. Why do they respond with such hatred, with such animosity, with such anger? And then why does that unbelief spill over into a desire to kill him? Why is it? Because he convicts them as sinners. The truth of God convicts the human of sin, convicts man as a sinner. Jesus said in chapter seven verse seven that the world hates him because he testifies of it that its works are evil. Here in chapter seven, he just exposed them as hypocrites in verse 19 saying that Moses gave them the law and yet none of them keeps the law. Why do people respond with such hostility? Because the word of God exposes them as sinners. Why do people respond with defensiveness? With hard-hearted anger and rebellion because God's word exposes them as a sinner? You bring conviction upon someone who is ignorant and unbelief and you get defensiveness. You get self-justifying, self-willed anger. Think about it, you bring conviction, you bring the word of God to someone who is of understanding. Someone who's in Christ, what do you get? You get humility, you get mourning over sin. You get someone who's responsive, soft to the word of God. You bring that conviction upon someone with understanding and you get bankrupt spirits, poor in spirit, humble hearts. Think about the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple. The Pharisee praying, God, thank you, you've not made me like this guy. And look at all that I do for you. I tithe, I keep the law, and the publican is in the corner of the temple off by himself beating his breasts saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, the word of God convicts and the response is so important. Will you respond to conviction from the word of God in ignorance and unbelief, self-justifying, defensive, angry, hostile, putting it off, trying to block yourself away from it, putting up walls around your heart? Or will you respond in humility, mourning over your sin? If you remember from the Bible, those that heard Peter's sermon at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, Peter preached his glorious sermon, brings conviction on the people and how do they respond to him? The Bible says they were cut to the heart. That's conviction, cut to the heart over their sin. Did they rush at Peter to try and take his life? No, what did they do? They cried out, that's right, men and brethren, what should we do? What should we do? How can we be saved? Look at how we've sinned against God. It's interesting that in Acts chapter seven, Stephen is preaching, preaches a glorious sermon about God, about God's desire to save and their sin. And the word of God brings conviction upon them and how do they react? The Bible says that they were cut to the heart. But rather than crying out, men and brethren, what should we do? They gnashed at him with their teeth, they rushed at him, they stoned him to death, took his life, hostility. But what's the difference? That hostile, depraved, ignorant unbelief. The wickedness of the human heart. We weren't just sickened at the fall, we were devastated at the fall. The human heart is depraved, wicked through and through. And it is self-justifying, it is defensive. You have an enemy in your chest that fights against the truth of God. You have an enemy in your breast that would seek to suppress that truth so that it can have its sin. You have another law in your members that wars against the truth of God. If you, you will go to someone and you bring conviction from the word of God. If someone responds with defensiveness, with hostility, with anger, it's because they, in their ignorant unbelief, are working, laboring feverishly to suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness. All the while you are digging it up again and putting it in their face. Why would they respond with anger? Why would they hate you for it? Because they hate God, they hate his word. They're in ignorant unbelief. It's interesting here that Nicodemus, we saw Nicodemus in his conversation with Christ in John chapter three. Well, here he is again in John chapter seven and we're seeing Nicodemus progressing. We're seeing him progressing. Nicodemus sees all of this as unreasonable. Wait a minute, let's be reasonable here. Why are we gonna kill him? Why are you seeking to kill him? Look at Nicodemus down at verse 50. Verse 50, Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night being one of them said to them, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he's doing? Nicodemus basically says, listen, hold on here for a minute. Let's be reasonable. You have to understand from the word of God that ignorant unbelief defies reason. Ignorant unbelief runs deeper than human reason. It is a force within the person that will overpower human reason, that will overpower your heart's ability to accept truth. Your ignorant unbelief is a force within you that will seek to suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. And look at how they respond to him. Verse 52, they, this is the Jewish opposition, they answered and said to him, are you also from Galilee? Boy, they lash out at Nicodemus, don't they? Why do they lash out? Because of their ignorance and unbelief. They lash out because at the same time, Nicodemus is bringing a little bit of conviction from their own law. Listen, let's hear this man out. Are we gonna convict him before he's had a trial? And the first thing they respond with is, are you out from out in the sticks like he is? Do you not know? And then they say, look at the end of verse 52. Are you also from Galilee? Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. Not enough, it's not enough to suppress the truth and unrighteousness. They have to suppress the truth with a lie. They suppress the truth and their unrighteousness and then they replace the truth of God with the lie and then respond with defensiveness. They'll lash out with anger, with hostility. As the conviction of God dismantles walls erected by a willfully ignorant heart and those who are ignorant and unbelief, they feverishly labor then to put something back in their place, building up defensiveness. That's why they react defensively. That's why they react with hard-hearted rebellion. They answered Nicodemus, are you from Galilee too? Defensiveness, they were condescending, belittling, angry, hostile, they were ignorant and unbelieving. It's often that when you and I, if you're faithful to the Lord and you're witnessing, you're out evangelizing for the Lord, when you bring conviction from the word of God, you're gonna get that same kind of response. The Lord said in John chapter 15, verse 19, yet because you are not of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. The Lord promises the world will hate you just as it hated him. Galatians says, why do you hate me because I tell you the truth? All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Think about it for a moment this morning. Examine yourself according to that truth. We see the response of ignorant unbelief here in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and these Pharisees, the scribes, the Jerusalemites, the people here in Jerusalem at the feast. How do you respond? How do you respond when someone brings conviction over your sin? When the word of God convicts you in your sin? One of two responses. We see both of them here, humbile and hostile. Hostile or humbile. How do you respond under conviction? You instantly go into defense mode. Self-preservation mode, self-justifying mode. You become self-willed, you get angry, you explode. Do you lash out at the other person? You witness to somebody sharing the truth of God with them. As lovingly as you know how to share it and they respond, they're harsh with me. Crammed it down my throat. He knocked on the door high and from cornerstone. How are you? You're going to hell when you die, right? That's the way they characterize it. They lash out other times when you start to feel convicted. Maybe you're under conviction, under the conviction that God's word rightfully brings against our sin and you fall into a pattern of just trying to shake it off, right? You sit under the preaching of God's word, conviction comes and you shake it off. Conviction comes, you shake it off. Does that describe you? You ignore it, you push it aside, you give it no place in your mind or in your heart. In order to have your sin, you suppress the conviction of God in your unrighteousness. Does that describe you? Your human reasoning, self-justifying heart, just take over. They start running the show. You think to yourself, I can get by in this rebellion? I can get by in my, besides I'm a Christian. God's gonna forgive me. And you can get by and get by and get by. You believe that you're safe, that you're in Christ and yet you persist day in and day out in that sin. It's so dangerous, so ensnaring. And it's ensnaring because it's deceiving, so deceptive, the ignorance of unbelief. You may think to yourself, you know conversion really isn't that radical. You suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness and then you replace it with a lie. Conversion doesn't need to change me that way. You put off the conviction, put off the conviction, shake it off, even if you don't see a work of grace in your heart. There's no diligence in your life with the things of God. There's no affections in your heart for Christ. No genuine love for his word, no genuine hatred over sin. But I know I'm a Christian. And how wicked, how deceiving is our own heart, amen? Put aside that ignorance and unbelief and know and believe God's word. You know, if you reject God's truth, if you reject his word, then that leaves you hopelessly grasping for truth from your own human reasoning, from your own imagination, your own thoughts, your own opinions. And that's a hopeless endeavor. Gripping only to foolish and ignorant human speculations. Human speculations that lead further on and on and on to more wickedness, more unbelief. You replace truth with deception. You replace real hope with a mirage. You replace joy with emptiness. Here we see the ignorance of unbelief expressed in the hostility of the Jewish opposition. I want you to see us something else. It's not just expressed in hostility or self-defensiveness or self-justifying behavior. It's also expressed in theological error. It's expressed in error. They are ignorant here in their unbelief. Unbelief has produced the fruit of ignorance and their foolish hearts become darkened. I want you to see this. Look at verse 26. But look, the Bible says he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? Now put yourself in the context. Jesus teaching fearlessly in the temple, in the presence of those that are seeking to kill him. He had crushed their every argument against him, crushed it. He had publicly humiliated them because of their unbelief, because they had rejected the commandments of God, teaching as commandments the doctrines of men. He had caused the people to speculate why their rulers hadn't sought to silence him yet, why they hadn't arrested him yet. They thought to themselves, why can't he be silenced? Why do they just sit there taking it? Do they think that maybe he's the Christ? See how their mind worked? As soon as that thought came to their mind, they dismissed it. They knew that was wrong. They weren't willing to accept it. They suppressed the truth of God in their ignorance, in their unrighteousness. And as soon as that thought entered their mind, they whispered around him, they rejected that thought in favor of their own opinions, and they came up with their own idea, and they believed the lie. As an aside, footnote, Jesus Christ will never be silenced. Lord Jesus Christ will never be silenced. Islam seeks to silence him, he'll not be silenced. Godless liberals seek to silence him, he'll never be silenced. Feminism seeks to silence him, right? He'll never be silenced. The wicked have always sought to silence the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord says Matthew 16, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Lord Jesus Christ will never be silenced. But despite the clear, authoritative teaching here from Jesus, certainly teaching God's word in a way that no one else could, right? Displaying his deity, displaying his omniscience. His teaching was astonishing, it was amazing. Not like their scribes, not like their Pharisees, and yet they dismiss the truth of what he is teaching and they choose to believe a folk story, a bedtime story, a legend. Look at verse 27. However, that word there however, means that as soon as verse 26 was over, they made up their minds about him and the verdict is in, case closed. However, we know, look at the dogmatism. We know where this man is from, but when the Christ comes, no one knows where he's from. One, in verse 27, look at the contempt they have for him again, this man. We've seen that several times, haven't we? This man, this man, this man, it's just disrespectful. It's a disgraceful way, a contemptuous way of addressing the Lord. But look at the second point here from verse 27. Look at the assertion they make despite what God clearly says in his word. What does the Bible teach? Where is the Christ born? That's right, Bethlehem. The Bible clearly says it. The Bible clearly teaches it. In Micah chapter five, 700 years before Christ came, the Bible teaches where he'll be born. It is clear, but they say dogmatically, we know when the Christ comes, no one knows where he's from. There was a Jewish opponent to a second century teacher named Justin Martyr. His name was Trifo. So Trifo and Justin Martyr debated all the time and Trifo said this to Justin about Christ and about this specific prophecy. He said, but Christ, if he has indeed been born and exists anywhere, is unknown. So what he's doing, Trifo is parroting a legend that had already developed in the intertestamental period about the Messiah that would be coming and the people, the Jews, the Jerusalemites, the people believed it. And they believed it despite what God's word says. Trifo says, if he has indeed been born and exists anywhere, he's unknown. He does not even know himself and he has no power until Elijah has come to anoint him and to make him manifest to all. Now where do they think Jesus was from? They thought he was from Nazareth, some of them, from Galilee. You heard the Pharisees, the authorities here, saying that no one, no prophet has ever come out of Galilee. Nothing good has ever come out of Nazareth, certainly not the Messiah. When the Messiah comes, we're not gonna know where he's from because of this error right here. They also had to twist a few Old Testament prophecies about him to get away with it. Malachi chapter three, verse one says, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple. And they took that word suddenly to mean that he was gonna supernaturally appear in the temple all at once before their eyes just magically appear, so to speak. So what have they done here? It's not enough to suppress the truth and unrighteousness. They suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness and then they replace it with the lie. They replace the truth of God with fables. Here's Micah chapter five, verse two. But you, Bethlehem Ephrata, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel who's going forth are from old, from everlasting. You know here, there were those who perfectly understood the truth. Drop down to chapter seven, look at verse 42. Verse 42 says, has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seat of David and from the town of Bethlehem where David was? And so there was a division among the people. Why was there a division? Because some people believe the word of God, other people believe figments of their own imagination. We have the same divisions today, don't we? Why do all the divisions exist? In large part, because people aren't being faithful and precise with the text of scripture. Some believe the word of God and are faithful to the word of God, others believe figments of their own imagination. Look at the Catholic church today. A vast majority of it is made up as they go along. Figments of man's imagination. Making decisions as they go and taking tradition over God's word. Think about Mormonism. Think about the Jehovah's Witnesses. Think about Scientology. It is astounding the myths and fables that our self-justifying hearts are only too ready to believe because we want our sin. Because we want unrighteousness. We're willing to suppress the truth of God. You know, it was certainly obvious to Herod, wasn't it? Because Herod, when Christ was born, sent men to kill all the children under the age of two in what city? The Bethlehem. Herod was an unbeliever. You see here again, the fruit of ignorant unbelief. The ignorant and unbelieving don't just suppress the truth of God. It's not enough. They have to replace the truth of God with their own assertions. We know, they said. We know and they are completely wrong. They say it was such certainty. It's in their mind a fact. Into all those that follow them. It's a fact. It's presented with such certainty. We know, we know that all creation came into existence with a big bang. Were you there? How do you know? That's what happened. 13.7 billion years. How do you know? You don't know that. Wicked imagination of a feeble mind. We know, we know that life evolved from the primordial goo to you by way of the zoo. We know who our ancestors are. You don't. Just a dumb assertion of man's ignorant mind. His foolish heart was darkened. We know that when a man dies that nothing comes next. He just goes into the dirt and that's the end. We know there's a heaven but we know there's no hell. Certainly not going to be a hell. And we know God. God would never send anyone there. We know that homosexuality is that they're born that way. That there's no choice involved. We know, I know. Think about it. I know I'm saved because I said that prayer asking Jesus into my heart and I was sincere when I said it. I know I'm in Christ even though they suppress the truth of God to live in their sin. I know I'm going to heaven because I just rededicated my life for the third time. Not only do they suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness, they create a fable to sit in its place. They create a superstition to believe in. I know it to be true even though it's nowhere in the Bible. That's a frightening thought, isn't it? Have you ever been witnessing to someone? You're talking to them and you come across that. You're standing there and they're trusting their soul to the sincerity that they had when they prayed to accept Christ. They're trusting their eternal soul to something that is nowhere in the Bible. And when you say that to them, do you realize that in the word of God, there's absolutely nothing in the word of God that says that's how you get saved. That prayer, that idea, that thought, that theory, none of that is in Scripture. It is nowhere in there. You can't find it on the pages of Scripture. Never does it say that and yet they want to cling to that thing and grasp that thing as if their life depended on it because in their minds it does. That's the thing in which they have placed their faith and they're trusting in that to get them to heaven. And it is nowhere in God's word. It is a fable. Yo, I know, I know, I know that God has saved me because I feel him. I pray to him, I know, he saved me from an accident once. I know I'm saved. Besides that, I've spoken in tongues. I hear him talk to me, I get words from him. I know I'm saved. Where do they come up with these things, right? They're figments of man's reasoning, figments of man's imagination. I love to pray the rosary, rub those little beads. Just makes me feel so spiritual. Where do they come up with this garbage? If it's not in God's word, you are on damnable grounds. Drop that nonsense. Believe God's word. There is enough truth in the word of God. We will spend our eternity in awe over it. Why believe the lie? Why practice those fables? It is so absurd. Why do people do this? Why do they suck down the lie, hook, lie, and sinker, and believe it, believe that deception all the way to hell when the truth of God is the power of God unto salvation. They'd rather have the lie. Why? Because they want their sin. They want to self-justify themselves. They want to put off the conviction that it comes from God's word. They want to believe that they're a Christian with no change in their heart, no change in their life. They simply want to self-dominate, self-direct, right? They want to live for themselves, direct themselves. They don't want to be under the authority of God, under the authority of someone else. You know, all they have to do is ask, right? We're sitting here in the temple at the feast. All these speculations, this confusion, all this stuff whirling around. You know, it's a tumultuous torrent around the Lord Jesus Christ right now. You know, all someone has to do is ask. You know, Lord, well, they wouldn't say Lord. They wouldn't say, they would say this man, you know, Jesus, there's a lot going on. You know, you're here creating a tumultuous kind of circumstance right now. There's a lot of questions about you, a lot of confusion going around. We've heard your claims. You know, it sounds like you're claiming to be God. Sounds like you're claiming to come from heaven. You said you were the bread of life. That's a statement I don't quite understand. There's a lot of speculation about whether you're the Messiah or not because some people think that the Messiah is gonna come from Bethlehem. A lot of people think that the Messiah, we're not gonna know where he's from. So I just, I wanted to, while you're here, I wanted to ask you, you know, where were you born? It would have been so easy, right? Ask the question. Do a little study. Take a little self initiative. Jesus, what does the Bible say? Like, you know, you say you got this authority and you're teaching like you come from God. How can I line up what you're saying with the word of God so that I know what you're saying like a Berean, right? So that I know what you're saying comes from the word of God. I can test it for myself and understand. You know, can you please, simple, right? Pretty straightforward. You think about Nicodemus in John chapter three. That's basically what he did. He goes to the Lord by night and have a conversation with him because he wants to know. And he gets humbled in the process because what does the word of God bring? It brings conviction over sin. You must be born again. You need to be made over because you're depraved through and through because of the fall. It's gonna bring conviction. But all you gotta do is, you know, the Lord said here before that he who desires to do his will, it's that person that will know whether the truth is from God or not. It's that person that God's truth will be revealed to the one who earnestly desires to seek his will. The problem here is the reason that they're blinded, the reason that they don't have that is because they're not earnestly seeking his truth, earnestly seeking to desire and to do his will. They don't care about that. They're seeking their own will. And so they are ignorant in their unbelief. They're not seeking to know him or to know his word. They didn't know his word and they didn't believe him. They suppressed the truth and they accept that lie in order to placate a guilty conscience, to ease and accusing conscience, to stay in their sin. They comfort themselves with this fable so that they can continue to live the way that they wanna live and they can have their cake and eat it too. They get to go to heaven with their sin. You know, all they had to do was ask, do a little study, do a little reading. You know, talk to people all the time. Maybe you're here today and you're in the same boat that you come week in and week out. You hear the truth of God preached. You hear the truth of God taught. And yet you don't know the truth of God because you don't apply yourself to finding out. You know, these are games we're playing here. This is eternal life. This is your eternal soul. And I am frankly shocked and amazed at how many people, again, the only thing you can think of is ignorant unbelief. How many people will entrust their eternal soul to what someone else says? What someone else thinks? Someone else's opinions. It's like, invest yourself, devote yourself to the word of God. You're eternal. Your soul is eternal. You'll wind up in one of two places. Why will you leave that? You know, I've often thought like witnessing to a Mormon. Why would you entrust your eternal soul to Joseph Smith? Do you know anything about him? A Seventh-day Adventist. Why would you be a part of anything that Ellen G. White is a part of? Why? Why would you trust these men? Why would you trust these with your eternal soul? It is staggering, the ignorant unbelief of a self-justifying heart, a self-justifying man, woman. Staggering. Replace the truth with a lie. Replace the truth with their own opinions. You know, it's amazing. You have a college campus here. While witnessing on the college campus, you'll ask someone, where does truth come from? You know, right? They're evolutionists, evolutionary thinking. They're atheists by and large. And so you talk to them about that. Where does truth come from? Well, what's true for me? It's true for me. What's true for you? It's true for you. All the orbit of our own, really? Really. You're gonna, now, you know, if they believe there's an eternity to someone's soul, you're gonna trust your eternal soul, your eternal soul to figments of your own image. Are you that prideful? That ignorant? That you're just gonna come up with this stuff in your own mind and then believe what you've come up with for the eternity of your eternal soul in all of eternity? It's just crazy, right? It's crazy. When we have in everyone's hands, in everyone's lap, the words of Almighty God who leads us into truth, we have the truth of God. Why suppress that? We should be proclaiming it from the rooftops, right? Why suppress that? Not only that, but that sin you think you love and want and desire, God's gonna change your heart. He's gonna take that desire for that sin right out and He's gonna replace it with hatred. You're gonna hate those things you once loved. God'll do it. You have to put your faith in Him, believe Him, take Him at His word. Here, in John chapter seven, they just dismiss Him. They dismiss Him, they dismiss His teaching. Does this describe you this morning? Are you just gonna dismiss what the Word of God says? You know, think about it. Can you describe what the Christian faith is all about? Could you sit down right now and write out in its glorious facets the gospel? Can you articulate it? Can you discuss those things, spiritual things? Can you talk about what conversion is and from God's word, what it is to look like? Can you explain those truths to yourself, to someone else? Do you see that in your life or do you just sit and remain ignorant and unbelieving? Devote yourself to God's word. You know, here in verses 27 and 28, they actually make two statements that are false. They actually make two statements that are false. The one statement they make that is false is that when the Messiah comes, no one's gonna know where He's from. That's a lie. That's not what the Bible teaches, that's false. But the first statement they make is also false. They claim to know Him and where He is from and that's false, they don't know Him. Point to you on your notes, you have to know Him and believe His identity. Know and believe His identity. First, you're gonna know and believe His word. Secondly, you're gonna know and believe His identity. Verse 28, Jesus, in response here to their lies, their fables, Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple saying, you both know me and you know where I'm from and I have not come of myself but He who sent me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him for I am from Him and He sent me. This statement in verse 28 on the part of the Lord is sarcastic. It's meant to be ironic. If you just flip the page, chapter eight, look down at verse 19. Here the Lord makes a statement that He's often made. They said to Him, where is your Father? Lord Jesus Christ has been talking about God the Father so they ask Him, where's your Father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my Father. If you had known me, you'd have known my Father also. Jesus repeatedly asserts they don't know Him because they don't know God. If they had known God, they would have known Him too. So here, this statement in chapter seven, now verse 28 is ironic. It's a, the way the Greek is structured, you could say it's sort of like this. He cries out, there's emotion here, there's a tone, there's a forcefulness. Certainly here, there's a rebuke. And the Lord says, so you think you know me, do you? You think you know me? You think you know where I'm from? That's the way the Lord is sort of saying this here. It's a rebuke, it's ironic, it's sarcastic. It's a forceful statement. They had no idea where He truly came from and they had no idea about Him. He, in one statement here, exposes their ignorant unbelief. Opposed to the Jews, the Jews quote unquote, they came of their own initiative. They taught of their own initiative. They served as rabbis, as scribes, as Pharisees of their own initiative. As opposed to that, in contrast to that, the Lord Jesus Christ here has been sent. He's on a mission, He's been sent. He's been ordained, He's been apostolent. He's been sent by God. He comes from God. He teaches what God has given Him to teach. And He who sent Him is true. The true and living God. God is the source of truth, God Himself is true. And that truth, they don't know because they suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness. The reason you don't know me, the Lord says, is because you don't know God. Again, they don't earnestly seek His will and so they don't know the truth about Him because they're not earnestly singing His will. Basically, what is important here is not whether or not He's from Nazareth. Even from Bethlehem, although that fulfills Old Testament prophecy, the truth here is that He is from God. That's why you should believe Him. That's why you should follow Him. He is God incarnate. He has come from God, not to do His own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Him. You must know Him and you must know God. Verse 27, he says, all things have been delivered to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Proud to the Lord that He would reveal Christ from His Word. Look back with me very quickly at Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 44. And again, it's not enough here for them to suppress the truth of Christ in their unrighteousness, to suppress who He is from and what He's teaching. It's not enough to suppress that truth. You have to replace that truth with a lie. And here in Isaiah 44, that lie, when you replace Christ with a Christ of your own imagination, when you replace the God of the Bible with a God of your own making, you are an idolater. When you say my God would never send anyone to hell, that's right, maybe your God wouldn't, but your God is not the God of the Bible. You know, my Christ would never speak this way. Well, that may be your Christ, but your Christ is not the Christ of the Bible. And you become an idolater. Look at Isaiah 44, drop down to verse 13. We'll skip some of this. You can read this on your own. Excellent passage on idolatry. Verse 13 says the craftsman stretches out his rule. He marks one out with chalk. He fashions it with a plane. He marks it out with a compass, makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He cuts down cedars for himself, takes the cypress on the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn. He will take some of it and warm himself. Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread. Indeed, he makes a God and worships it. See that? You know, we make a figment of God, an imaginary God in our own minds, and we warm ourselves worshiping that imagination, that imaginary God, right? We ease ourselves. We comfort ourselves with our idolatry. Look at verse 16. He burns half of it in a fire. With this half he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, ah, I'm warm, right? I've seen the fire. And the rest of it, he makes into a God. His carved image. And he falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my God. Like those fables, the rituals of religion, the superstitious little prayers, all those things are man-made devices that someone may comfort themselves by and that he created it themselves. It's not in God's word. God's word doesn't teach it. It was created by man. Man comforts himself by it, believes the lie and goes to hell. It's astounding, the ignorance. And there it is in verse 18. Listen, this is why. They do not know nor understand. They're ignorant. Why are they ignorant? For he, God, has shut their eyes so that they cannot see. And he's shut their hearts so that they cannot understand. And no one considers in his heart nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I've burned half of it in the fire. Yes, I've also baked bread on its coals. I've roasted meat and eaten it. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? And shall I fall down before a block of wood? You know, they create these fables. They don't think to themselves, I did that myself. I made that up. That was made up by some man. This whole doctrine of Mormonism made up by some man. And yet I'm gonna believe it. They don't realize that it's an abomination. It's amazing. He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside. You notice there that it doesn't place the responsibility for having turned aside on God, right? It's his deceived heart that has turned him aside. Now, there is no one, no one. There is no one in hell who is there who had earnestly and diligently sought God with all his heart, desired from the heart to do his will that God blinded and deafened and sent to hell. There's no one in hell like that. When someone earnestly, diligently seeks to do his will, God leads them into truth. You can't blame God for your lot in life. It's your own deceiving and deceived heart. And he cannot deliver his soul, verse 20 says. Nor say is there not a lie in my right hand. You believe these fables, there is a lie in your right hand. No God. Unbelief has produced ignorance. Not a lack of information, not a lack of evidence. It's unbelief that has produced ignorance. You know, I was reading a book several years ago and it was a book giving evidence for Christ. Evidence for why Jesus is God in the flesh. Evidence for why Jesus, why Christianity is true. It was written by a journalist. A journalist from a famous newspaper. This is a famous journalist. And this journalist set out to prove, set out to prove that Christianity was false. He was an atheist, believed that Christianity was a complete sham. And so he did years of research to prove that Christianity was false. He interviews a bunch of people, you know, and writes the results of the interviews and he puts the interviews in this book I read. And lo and behold, when he is confronted with the evidence for Christ, he confronted with a case for Christ, he comes to understand that Christianity is not a farce. There is something to this Christianity. He sits down and he weighs the evidence and he looks at the evidence and he says to himself, you know what? Based on all this information, based on the evidence, I'm a Christian. Is that what conversion looks like? Is that what being born again from being dead in trespasses and sins? Is that what that looks like? That's just believing a logical argument. I remember witnessing to a guy who was in Family Christian Bookstore, was witnessing to a guy who believed that he was saved because he stood in Family Christian Bookstore and he read a couple of pages out of a science book that was talking about creation science. And as he read about creation science, it's really compelling to him. And he realized all these years, all I'd ever believed in, all I ever really knew was secular science and their theories about the creation of the universe and old earth dating and all those kinds of things. I'd never been exposed to creation science. So when I read creation science, it's like, wow, this is believable. I'm a Christian. Is it creation science that converts the soul? Is it that we believe in these logical arguments? No, we must believe him. We believe him. Our faith is in a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who came and died for sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life a ransom for many. The Lord Jesus Christ who is our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ who died to make us justified before a holy God who had rightly condemned us because of our sin. We believe in him. We follow him. We trust him. This is not a myth. This is not a fable. This is a real person. Many just put their trust in anything but him and they do it to have their sin. If you look at the Lord Jesus Christ, we must point three on your notes, know and believe his mission. Know and believe why he came. Lord Jesus Christ didn't come to win an argument with a bunch of Pharisees. Didn't come to prove anything. He is Lord. He is God incarnate. He came with a purpose. He came with a mission. We see that in verse 30 and 31. Verse 30 says, therefore, in light of all this, you know, he responds to them. He says, I know him, God. Jesus says, I'm from him, God sent me and you don't know him. So how do they respond? As those who are in ignorant unbelief, who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness, they respond with hostility, with defensiveness. Therefore, verse 30, they sought to take him. But no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Is his mission, his work, is it in the hands of wicked men? No. Nope. Wicked men don't have anything to say about it. Always in God's hand. Is his labor, his effort, are the results in the hands of those that did not receive him? No, the results of his ministry in the hands of God Almighty who ordains all things that come to pass. He exposes them here as ignorant and unbelieving and they react in hostility. Now they wanna kill him too. It's interesting, the opposite effect appears to happen in verse 31. Many of the people believed in him and said, when the Christ comes, will he do more signs than these which this man has done? Now think about it for a minute. Many came to believe on him. Sounds like those in Jerusalem the first time in John chapter two, right? Many came to believe on him. Why? Because of the miracles that he'd performed. Here, they're sort of enamored with the same thing, aren't they? Will he do more signs than this man? There it is again, right? This man, they're enamored with his miracles. This belief isn't commended as saving. They use that derogatory phrase, this man, that when the Christ comes seems to imply that they really didn't savingly believe it's a logical deduction. It's back to logic. When the Christ comes, is he gonna perform more signs than this guy? Well, we might as well believe him. Look at all the miracles he's performing, right? Exposes them in their ignorance. In all of this, we're to understand, from his mission, God is in charge. He didn't come to win an argument. He didn't come to make a case, so to speak, for the sake of making a case. He came that you might believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name. God is in charge. His plans cannot be thwarted. People cannot prevent them. There is an invincibility to God's decrees. The time for his death was not come yet and the people weren't going to do anything about that to bring that time prematurely. J.C. Ryle said this, and I love this. Christians live in a world where God overrules all times and all events, and where nothing can happen but by God's permission. They may boldly say to every cross, thou couldst have no power against me except that we're given thee from above. In other words, Christian, you are invincible until God is through with you. That should be encouraging. Why did he come? What is his mission? He is the Christ. John 9.39 says, for judgment I've come into this world, that those who do not see may see. Those who know they're blind, they don't see. He wants to ensure that they see. And those who see may be made blind. There are those here who are ignorant in their unbelief, they're blinded. John 12.46, Jesus says I've come as a light into the world that whosoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. John 3.16, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Do you know him? Do you know his word? Do you believe him? Do you believe in him? Believe in his mission? Do you believe what God says about him? Do you believe what he says about God? Do you believe the truth that he preaches and teaches? Do you rejoice in the truth? Do you know and believe why he has come into the world? All of this is a matter of life and death. A matter of the utmost importance, there's nothing more important because God has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has ordained, has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. You know, it's interesting, just like the ignorance of unbelief is the great unifying factor among all those outside of Christ, the great unifying factor among all those in Christ is faith in him. We are unified together in him, whether you're rich or poor, male or female, black, white, Hispanic Haitians you. We're all unified together in Christ, faith in Christ, the great unifying factor. Believe on him. Turn from your sin. Why are we unified in that? Because God in Christ conforms us to himself. He gives us the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, the love of Christ, gives us the spirit of God. We're all of one faith, one spirit, one baptism. It's a glorious truth. Will you believe on him this morning? Your soul depends upon it, amen? Amen, let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for this passage of scripture. Thank you for this truth. Thank you for these examples that we see of ignorant unbelief in God. Please open our eyes, open our deaf ears, soften our hard hearts, protect us, Lord, from being deceived. May you find us faithful to earnestly desire to do his will, Lord, in that we would faithfully seek your truth and not suppress it in our own unrighteousness. God, in all of that, that it would be for your glory. We are in awe, God, of your glorious salvation. All that you've done to redeem wicked sinners to yourself, we praise and worship you for it. In fact, Lord, we will praise and worship you for all of the eternity that you are worthy. We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.