Beginning at verse 22, and John's gospel chapter 10, verse 22, that was the feast of dedication in Jerusalem, it was winter, and Jesus walked in the temple and Solomon's porch, and the Jews surrounded him and said to him, how wrong you keep us in doubt. If you are the Christ, tell us plainly, Jesus entered them, I told you, and you do not believe it. The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my Sheet, as I said to you, my Sheet, hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hands. My father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one, then the Jews took up stones against it, stone him. Jesus answered them, many good works. I have shown you from my father, for which of those works do you stone me? Let us pray. Prattle, God, a willing mind and spirit, to receive thy word of truth, this blessing we are through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. We like the hymn we just sang written for children originally, and not sure in the Sunday evening service in Jerusalem, it would have been requested by these Jews, who now surround the more Jesus. They weren't looking for shepherds. When it says they surrounded him there in Solomon's porch, at the feast of dedication, it's a menacing term that is used, that if they surrounded him to cut him off from his friends and allies, as they made this demand from him. For the fall, feasts of tabernacles, as it is indicated at the beginning of St. John 17, all the material up to this point from St. John 7, 1 and following, including the good shepherd path that he had taught in the autumn, apparently had it beaten on the thinking and the minds of these religious leaders, and so in the winter, late winter, like December, they made this demand. Now tell us exactly what's the problem that they did not understand figures of speech. They had never taken any humanities at the university, and they didn't appreciate parables, analogies, allegories. What is this? The Lord Jesus had told the woman at the well, the woman from the Samaria, very plainly, I am He. The one who is speaking to you. He is the Messiah. Now they would like a word just as clear as that. They had been listening to Him, they had been following Him, badgering Him, really, and there he mad, that he say precisely, exactly, are you, are you not, why are they having trouble with Him? Why do they have to make this demand? What's going on here? We think it's a wonderful teaching. They have Psalm 23 like we do, and here he is telling that he is the good shepherd. Why is that not enough? Well, it is because they have preconceptions, don't they? They have preconceptions, and so they want to know whether or not he fits their program, their preconceptions. They are impatient, they are irritated, they are antagonistic, actually, but they make this demand that Him as we read it in verse 24, if you are the Messiah, now say exactly, yes or no. You see, there is a struggle going on here, even in their own mind, between a conviction that has to be present, they have heard enough, they have seen enough, to know that he has been validated as the Messiah, and yet with those convictions on the one hand, a struggle is against the corruptions of their own preconceptions, which had led to prejudices. We want Messiah to be this, and He doesn't seem to be sitting the scheme. They are ready to finally reject Him, they are just a bit of doubt, yet in their minds, they cannot say absolutely for finished with this man, and thus the demand from Him in plain language. They are preconceptions, you remember, above all else, the Messiah would leave them in governmental bedding against Rome and free them to keep talking about being a shepherd, and keep talking about dying. Aren't you the Messiah? Tell us plainly, is the issue of their comprehension? So they really can't understand it, they don't know the figure to speak, they don't understand literary devices, they don't get it, or is their problem, if He doesn't fit, what they want. So in indulging their prejudices, they are blaming Him for a lack of clarity and plainness of speech. He had been plain, for example in chapter 5 of the same gospel, at verse 43, He says quite plainly, things on 543, I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me, if another comes in His own name, you will receive, possibly, that is because what you want, I don't fit your preconception, and there was growing out of preconception, a prejudice against Him, and there is struggling between what they have seen and what they want, so they demand from Him tell us plainly. Be clear and plain. Now His demeanor with Him is remarkable. I would have thought by this time that the Lord Jesus might be entitled to call down fire from heaven on them, enough of this crowd. He could have done it, but He does a remarkable fitting. He said in wisdom, verse 25, I told you, I told you I'm the Messiah.
Now He has not told them in the very language they demand, for He knows that they are going to inject their own definition. He has come to be figure shepherd. They want military might. They have their own plans for an independent nation again, and they expect Messiah to endure and empower their plan. And He doesn't do that. But He's wise with them. He's wise in saying, I have told you. I have not told you in the very exact language you are now demanding, but He's tender with them. A tenderness is here on the part of a Savior that should have melted. I see stony spirit. That is remarkable. Do these religious leaders ever come to saving faith in Jesus Christ? There's no record of it. But you and I can infer from the passage that He desires them to be saved. Perhaps you've already heard during Sunday school that I stirred up a few states that I couldn't kill before the benediction at the 18th service. And so I'll stir them up again, eleven o'clock and tell you I can't kill them before the benediction at this service. The desire of God is different from the decree of God. She said in mind, God has no desire that men be lost. But right along with that, growing out of a nation that is benevolent and kind and good and true all together, He does not decree the salvation of all. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He said to the Old Testament, why will you die? Did His spirit write here that it's saying I have told you? Why do you persist in this? Why do you allow your prejudicial spirit to keep you from acknowledging the truth and owning me as Savior shepherds? He's wise and He's won some of them with them. And Peter says that God is not willing for the nation to perish and in the context we would say that is God's desire. But along with it, another passage, God's decree. Now, when you fully understand that, will you call me, even in the middle of the night, that you can cast more light on that for me? How can the finite mind ever fully guess it? So don't ask me at the door, just hurry on to lunch. Now that I've served this bucket of snakes, the God is not willing in His wonderful nature for these men to be lost. And so the Lord Jesus instead of calling down fire from heaven is tender for them. And He said, I have told you I have made it plain and the problem is not clarity and plainness. The problem is your preconceptions and your prejudices. You want me to sit in to your program and empower and I have come not as a military dictator. I have come not as a military revolutionary. I have come as Savior and Shepherds. Will never mind that. They think in their minds. And in His tenderness not only is He wise and the way He answers them so that they cannot inject into the terminology Messiah, their own definition. He's wonderfully went some. I think there's now, if for chance, there's some limitation and you don't guess my words, look at my works. They affirm who I am. And that's always the purpose of miracle. And keep that in mind in this day and age of extraordinary claims. There are always some waiting in the wings to step in. To expose sham. We would not say as Presbyterians that God never uses the miraculous. God is God. But we would know and understand what His pattern is with miracle. With the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, for example, what the norm is. And we understand from Bible truth. Hebrews 2 and I ask you to know that with me. That we base our conviction on Scripture. Not on experience or testimony. You see our own experience. Our own situation can be very unreliable. Do I have preconceptions? I wonder. That need corrected. And that's one of the things I confess. I find that I do. And you find that you do. I'm a Westerner, and I try to lead to centuries to an oriental messiah. And it's hard for me. I like to think of it in terms of the oxidant, not the orient. And I wondered even the first side of dawn today. Lord Jesus, what I have recognized. What I have wanted to squeeze you into my own programs with my preconceptions. Out of which you merge prejudices. Outendery is with us. Do you ever thank him for his long suffering? You need to. And so do I. Very likely the Lord Jesus has forebored with us far more than we know. It took you so long to get it. It took you so long, the surrender. It took you so long to change. And so when you count your blessings. What you thank him for his long suffering and forbearance. And the tender way he deals with us now in this era of great. Desiring the salvation of the lost. And so his demeanor is remarkable. Why, in saying I have told you, win some in referring to his works. And we remember in Hebrews 2, 1, 2, 4, the purpose of miraculous gifts. I read it to make it clear and remind you. Therefore, we must give the more earnest feed to the things we have heard. Less we drift away. For it's the word spoken through angels proved steadfast. And every transgression and disobedience received a job reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great our salvation? Which is the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also bearing witness. Both the signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. What's the purpose? The purpose is the nasa Bible revelation to validate, affirm, confirm the messenger and his message that it is from the Father. And now he says tenderly to these pesky people who are irritatedly, who are missing in spirit. All right, if you don't understand my message, look at the works. Well, they are both miraculous and merciful. I have been merciful with you people. I open blind eyes. I shared electricity. I raised the debt. What's one work that I do for my own reputation and advancement? Not one. All of my works are miraculous and merciful. Now for which work would you stone me? Tender, why, when some, demeanor with them? In light of this demand which really is unreasonable and shifts the blame on him where it cannot rest, make it plain and will be laid, no they won't because they know what they want and only that. What's such a danger for you and me too? So we say, Lord Jesus, we don't really understand that and really the problem lies often in, I don't want to do that. And so I say, I don't understand you, Lord Jesus. There are things we'll never understand. Remember, as a new Christian, not too years old in Christ, I was already in Divinity School in Southern California and had one of the great minds of the twentieth century for a course, Carl F. Henry. Do you know the name? Brilliant mind. And some of us who had gone from the college in Chicago to seminary together out there in Southern California had been pretty good students. You could keep our grades up, we made a few honors all along the way, but we all took this course and after about a week, I remember saying to one of my friends, do you understand that? And he looked me in the eye and said, not a word of it. Oh, we felt that way at the end of the semester when the final examination was coming up. Now I'd like to say that we have understood initial light sufficiently that we would come along and understand more of what he was lecturing about. That he understood, but I remind us that he, that great mind for whom a lectureship has just been named at a leading theological seminary in our country among the Baptist. He and I both understood the same amount of light to be saved. I didn't have to make a top grade in that course to be saved. But receiving that initial and simple, different light that even a child can understand, is that not why the Lord Jesus said except you be like little children, you can't be confirmed. Yet receiving that amount of light, as these men were asked to do, they'd received more light, light received, brings more light, light rejected, brings forth light. And they were rejecting what they knew because of their preconceptions about what he would be. And out of the preconceptions, prejudices, but he's wonderfully tender with them. He doesn't want fire from heaven to consume them. He wants them to trust the Savior. But he makes the demarcation here with their demands and his demeanor. He says very clearly in verse 26, you do not believe, not because I'm not clear, and not because you are not intelligent enough, you do not believe because you are not my sheep. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. There are foolishness to him. Spiritual things are discerned spiritually. That was their specific problem, but that kind of problem can recur in our pilgrimage. So that we shift the blades of the Lord Jesus into the Word, because we want him and his Word to fit the way we want to fit. And so we say, Lord Jesus, make it plain, and we really need change your mind and do what I want. You see, they're not trustworthy. They're not willing to be managed. The shepherd always manages sheep. He not only guards them, he guides them. He not only cares for them, he controls them. Well, the apostles have said we have returned to the shepherd and bishop of our souls. They don't really want managed. They're not tractable in the highest sense of that word. Willing to have a shepherd and bishop, and therefore not teachable. They're not teachable because they're not willing to have his management over their lives. And so their minds are dark in Basha. And so our minds never get dark. Goal to the Word. Don't blame the Word. You'll see, if in fact, there is a preconception and prejudice that clouds are reading and receiving. You'll be ever so thankful that he longs for it. I've waited for you to get hold of that. He might say to us, in all of his wisdom and wisdomness. I've told you that before. Now here is another reason to take hold of this and trust me as saved your shepherd. There's a line of demarcation that has to do with receiving light. Not all of it at once. Initially, when we were saved, just enough to know our sin and see of the Savior. Then that light receives more light until we're able to handle the need. Not just the milk. I'm grateful for his patience, and you must be too. Let us understand that we respond to the light because there is a willingness in us to acknowledge it, to accept it, to affirm it. And that willingness is not hampered by prejudices, the message is playing, and powerful. Let us be sure there are no blocks of mind and will. Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world, light of light. Very God, a very God. We have a distinct sense that these menacing Jewish leaders of old knew that they were the light, the Messiah. Oh God, help us to watch for every incursion of preconceptions that bring for prejudices and block additional light or initial light. And as we come to the closing of this meeting, we say to the Lord Jesus, we are thankful indeed for thy long suffering, for thy forebearing of us, continue in mercy to be long suffering with us, making plain the things we are to understand and we pledge ourselves a response to the Word, to be more ready, to be taught, led, controlled by thee. Still we receive the Word of the flattest in Jesus' name. Amen.