Sermon: Faith Rejected: Crowds

If you would take a copy of God's word this morning, we will turn open to the Gospel of John. That's in the back half of your Bibles in the New Testament. If you want to grab a pew Bible, you can turn right there to page 893. This morning, we're looking at John chapter 7 and verses 37 through 52 this morning. John chapter 7, verses 37 through 52.

And let's pray before we hear God's word read and preached.

Father, we are thankful that you speak into this world, for we would be left in darkness apart from the light that you shine upon our souls. We would be trapped in error and ignorance and folly. If your truth did not come into this world, we would know only death and evil and fallenness, apart from the life and the goodness that you shed abroad in our hearts by your word. We pray this morning it would not be lost on us that we are hearing your

voice from heaven, and that you would indeed call our souls forth. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. John chapter 7, verses 37 through 52. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of

living water.' Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, 'This really is the Prophet.' Others said, 'This is the Christ.' But some said, 'Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David

and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?' So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, 'Why did you not bring him?' The officers answered, 'No one has ever spoken like this man.' The Pharisees answered them, 'Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?

But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.' Nicodemus, who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, 'Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?' They replied, 'Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.'" Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

As I said last week, we have a few weeks before students and the university population comes back and we're a little more full. And so I thought what we would do is these four weeks is spend some time looking at accounts in the Gospel of John where there are personal encounters with Jesus that center around the idea of faith. And last week, we looked at faith by considering the biblical truth of regeneration and its relationship to faith. God

must first, as we discussed last week, he must first work. An individual must be brought from spiritual death to spiritual life in union with Christ by grace through faith in the saving work of Jesus.

And God alone can do that, as we saw last week. So if God must work for there to be saving faith in an individual, some wonder whether the gospel is indeed for every single individual.

Is the good news of the life and the substitutionary death of Jesus, the Christ for sinners, good news meant for all?

Absolutely, categorically, yes.

Every single person who sits in this room this morning needs not only to hear the good news of Christ, but needs to receive the good news of Christ. Every single person that you encounter outside of this room needs to hear the good news of Christ and needs to receive the good news of Christ We're going to see that this morning, that we are to give this good news to all without reserve. There's a free offer of the gospel

for everyone.

We're jumping into the middle of John's gospel, so let me orient us a little bit to the scene that we're entering into here. We're told in the opening verse, verse 37, "On the last day of the feast, the great day." This is the Feast of Tabernacles. This was a week-long celebration where the Jews would come together to celebrate that and give thanksgiving to God for the harvest. They would stay in tabernacles or tents, they would eat, they would

drink, and they would offer thanksgiving. And each day, they would parade from the pools of Siloam where waters were drawn, and they would carry that water to the altar, and they would do a parade around the altar. And on the last day, they would do a parade seven times around that altar, and that water was symbolic of prayers. It was symbolic of prayers for rain, and it also signified the eschatological hope, that end

times hope, that a day would come when salvation would overflow and fill the earth. And it's into this, the spiritual fervor, this water-saturated, eschatological hope-filled atmosphere, that Jesus does the surprising. Verse 37, "Jesus stood up and he cried out in the middle of the celebration." This was no mealy-mouthed statement. Jesus declared like a street evangelist, like a herald, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me," as the scripture said, "out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Three things this morning we see here. First, the personal call, second, the personal promise, and third, the comforting truth. And we're going to spend the vast majority of our time on that first point, the personal call. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." J.C. Ryle wonderfully said, he said, "Happy are those who

know something by experience of spiritual thirst. Till we know that we are lost, we are not in the way to be saved. The very first step toward heaven is to be thoroughly convinced that we deserve hell." Jesus had just preached the Sermon on the Mount. You remember in the Sermon on the Mount when he gets to the Beatitudes at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, he will say, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for

righteousness, for they shall be filled." That there is a thirst. There's a thirst of body and there's a thirst of the soul. All of us know bodily thirst. It must be quenched. It must be satisfied. There's only one answer if you thirst and you decide that you're going to try and alleviate that by picking up a handful of dust and putting it in your mouth, that would be silly. If you said, "I am thirsty, and so let me get rid of this by taking

a nap," or running a mile, or looking through an old photo book, you know that that doesn't work. There's only one answer, liquid, preferably water or Diet Coke.

You drink. You must drink.

The soul also thirsts.

And many of us seek to satiate the thirst of the soul with things as nonsensical as dirt and old photograph books are for bodily thirsts.

We in this room have done that, every single one of us. We'll run to money, we'll run to sex, we'll run to position, we'll run to success, we'll run to drugs, we'll run to alcohol, we'll run to vacations. The listing's seemingly endless. We'll run to anything and everything and avoid the one needed thing. And maybe that's the greatest sign of the fact that you and I are sinners. Here it is. It's so available. What quenches the soul's thirst

is available,

and yet we'll run to anything but that which satisfies.

Jesus says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."

Come.

Come. It's so simple.

So simple. There's no list that he gives. There's no getting things together, no preparing yourself. It's just come.

It's a personal call to you, to me, to every single person

Simple coming doesn't mean the heart moved itself. As we noted last week, it moves because God has already moved in it. The heart moved in, hears the call to come, and comes. A small child can respond to the invitation to come, and it's a free offer to all. Come to all.

When Arminianism, that doctrinal erring system, appeared in Europe, the Synod of Dort was called, and different theologians and pastors from across Europe met together. That Synod of Dort, we often refer to what came out of it as the five points of Calvinism or TULIP or the doctrines of grace. They were unequivocal in their promotion and their commitment to God's absolute sovereignty in salvation. He must work because it's the heartbeat of the scriptures.

And yet, these same men declared this, quote, "The promise of the gospel, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction," that is, freely,

"to whom God, out of his good pleasure, sends the gospel." It's a free offer for all.

A personal call to all. We hear a similar thing from Jesus in Matthew 11, one of my favorite passages in all of the scriptures, where he says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And there are some who believe that what Jesus is referring to is an acknowledged weariness or an acknowledged guilt for your sin, the heavy burden of it. You're laden with your guilt. You're weary for your sin.

But I don't think that's Jesus' point there. There's a weariness that simply comes with being human. We're racked with the pains and the trials and the tribulations of this fallen world and, yes, sin. And with the death of people around us and with our loved ones and with our own death that is before our eyes. We know it's coming. This is a wearying world.

Job said, "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly up." When Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary," this is a call to all because all are weary. It's not, "Come to me, all you who feel weary." He doesn't do that. He's not saying you must feel to this degree before you come. If that was the case, to what degree? How deep? How much? That man feels his weariness more than this man, so is that man more ready to come to Jesus than that man?

More acceptable?

No. Jesus appeals to everyone because it is true of everyone. All are weary, whether they feel it or not. "Come to me, all you who are weary." And the same is true here. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me." When he says anyone, he's speaking to everyone.

All thirst, whether they realize this thirst or not. His is a free personal call to all. And you'll notice that there are no qualifications except you be thirsty, and you are thirsty. Medieval Roman Catholicism taught that we had to prepare ourselves for receiving the grace of God, and the scriptures know nothing of this preparation. Grace never responds to something respectable in us because we always fall short. Even if we

are weary over our sin, grief-stricken, we fall short. We're never convicted enough. We're never broken enough. We're never weary enough. There was an old controversy in Scottish Presbyterianism called the Marrow Controversy, and there was a book called "The Marrow of Modern Divinity" where there was a legalist in that book that was arguing that a person had to exercise repentance before they could come to Christ.

As if something was needed before. But repentance is impossible apart from coming to Christ. We simply come.

Jesus personally calls you. Come

No other qualification before we come. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me." You're thirsty, come to me. All you who are weary. You're weary, come to me.

Come to Christ as Isaiah said, "Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, and without price. Incline your ear and come to me." How do you buy without money? Oh, it's all of grace.

It's grace. You just come.

Let's be careful here, though.

Conviction of sin and a sense of spiritual hunger are not qualifications that entitle us to a welcome from Christ coming. But as one reform theologian said, it is still true at the psychological level, that without some sense of spiritual need, no one will ever come to Christ. It's the sick that seek the great physician, the hungry that seek the bread of life, the weary that seek the strong tower, the guilt-ridden that

seek the cleansing forgiveness of the Savior. Those who come know they need to come. And so I'm telling your soul this morning, it's parched. Your soul is parched. Telling you this morning, you're weary.

We spoke last week about being dead in soul for a reason. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners," Jesus said. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus said. As Dr. Macleod said, the point is not only those who know they are sick may go to the physician, but that only those who know they are sick will go to Him. You this morning have need, so you come.

And nothing more is needed than to come.

Your soul is sick, your spirit is dead, your mind has fallen, you're born in this world thirsty for reconciliation with God, for fulfillment of your God-given purpose, and that parched soul will never find relief in anyone or anything else.

No matter how hard you look. No matter how hard you try.

Every Christian in this room could say something similar to Augustine when he had tried everything.

And he comes to the end and he says, "Oh, God, you have made us for yourself, and the heart is restless until it rests in you." It's an amazing salvation.

What satisfaction, what delight, what rest.

It's something you don't know the extent of when you're coming to Christ. Had no clue the extent of the joy and the rest and the fulfillment and the peace and the love that I would know when I came to Christ. No clue.

And then you're on the inside of it,

and it's a world of splendor.

But you have to come.

This free offer of the gospel, come, is given throughout the scriptures by God to sinners. The apostles carry on Christ's free offer. Peter at Pentecost in Acts two will say, "Repent. Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ." Every one of you, no preparation, just their need for a Savior, and they came. The Apostle Paul to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16 says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." The Philippian jailer

had just simply asked, "What must I do to be saved?" And Paul knew nothing about the man, nothing. And yet he didn't give him any doctrinal discourse, no mini-lecture, no boxes to check, no feelings to feel before he came. He simply tells him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus," this free offer of the gospel. The jailer heard it, he received it, and he came. That's it.

And so I'm going to stop here for a second and say to you, dear Christian,

don't you dare fall into that other great error of hyper-Calvinism.

It is an error from the pit of hell. The people around you, every single one of them, need you to offer the gospel to them freely.

Every single one.

Our Calvinism should make us more ready to share the free offer of the gospel, not more reluctant, because we know the grace it conveys. We know the sovereignty of this God over salvation. We know the gloriousness of the Savior We know how this grace is so sovereign that it can trump all things and all peoples at all times in every place.

You never postpone sharing the gospel thinking, "Well, I will once they've repented, once they change their ways. They must show something before I say, 'Come to Christ.' If they would only..." No, He receives sinners.

He died for sinners. There's no preparatory work, so there's no preparatory reluctance. "If any one thirsts," which all do, "let him come to me and drink." That's a personal call to all.

Our second point and much shorter, the personal promise. The personal promise. Notice that though there is no preparatory work to salvation, there is a condition.

Jesus said, "Whoever believes," that is, if you believe, the promise is yours. It becomes your blessing, if you believe. It's freely offered, but you must believe. How do you come? What does that look like? Come to me is the same call as believe in me. Faith. Jesus said in John 6:47, just the chapter before, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life." He says in John 17, "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus

Christ whom you have sent." We come to Him by believing in Him, and we believe in Him by coming to Him. Faith.

But it's not faith in your own faith, but it's faith fixed on Him. "Whoever believes in me," Jesus said. It's not come to church, it's not come to the waters of baptism, it's not come to holiness. The call of Jesus is, "Come to me."

The rest of this passage shows that the people, the crowd, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the officers, they are all wrestling with not simply the things that Jesus has done. They're wrestling with the person. Who is Jesus?

Because they've heard what He's said. Come to me. Believe in me. The officers rightly note in verse 46, "No one ever spoke like this man." Indeed, He's not like a prophet. He's not the prophet. What did the prophets do? They always point away from themselves to God. He points to Himself. Believe in me.

He's not just like a good teacher, a good morality lesson giver, like the rich young ruler came to the conclusion of.

He's not that. Rather, Christ points to Himself. "Let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me."

The Pharisees and the chief priests, they thus begin to attack the person of Jesus. How could anything good come from Galilee?

They're haughty. They say in their arrogance, verse 48, "Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in Him?" How foolish you common people are. We're religious experts. Trust the experts. We know the law. You're silly.

This has been said, when one is satisfied with themselves, they see no need for a savior.

But as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 1, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." It's grace in Him.

You get here and you say the crowd, all of those individuals in that crowd, and the scribes and the officers and the Pharisees, they had no barrier to come.

The offer was freely made to them. They heard it as you hear it this morning. Come.

No preparation. No qualification. Nothing but come.

But they, they rejected Him.

It has been said throughout reformed history, none are excluded

Say that again. None are excluded but those who exclude themselves.

And I say you don't have to be that person today. Jesus says you don't have to be that person today.

So let me ask you personally, because it's a personal call.

Every man, woman, boy, girl in this room.

Every eye right here. Have you come?

Have you come to Jesus?

Listen to this promise articulated in Romans 10:9. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." All salvation found in him. He's the alpha and the omega. He's the beginning and the end. He's the very amen of God. Everything found in him. You want him.

This is what your soul longs for. He's truly the savior of the world, and he promises if you come to him, you have him.

Which leads to our final point, the comforting truth.

"Whoever believes in me," he said in verse 38, "out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

And then John gives his own commentary in verse 39. "Now this was said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." The Spirit was active in the world from the very beginning. He's active. He's active at this time, and yet John says he has not yet been given. He's active, but at times what he would do is he would come upon a man, or he would come upon a woman, and

so you see him come upon Bezalel for craftsmanship, or he comes upon Samson for strength, or he comes upon David or Saul as they enter into their kingship, but his presence was temporary.

David could pray in Psalm 51, "Lord, take not your Spirit away from me."

The Christian never has to pray that.

With Christ's ascension to the right hand of the Father, the Father and the Son, now glorified, pour out the Spirit upon the church, and this is not simply more of the Spirit. This is the Spirit inseparably bound with he who died and suffered and was buried and raised on the third day and now sits enthroned above and governs all of heaven and all of Earth. He is united with him, this Christ who reigns. And that spirit, his Spirit, now

abides in the Christian forever.

What we have now in Christ is better. It's more excellent. It's more abounding grace. Here in the Spirit, as we come to Christ, you have that Spirit take up residence in you. He seals to you your salvation, seals to you your enfolding into the very family of God. You are now a son of God. You are a co-heir with Christ. It's sealed to you. You have a down payment of that future eschaton. You have a taste of that which is to come in all of its

consummation one day. That you have peace with God, that you are accepted with God, that you are filled with the very joy of God, that he delights in you, that you are his and he is yours. It's a wellspring within you

forever.

"Lo, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age," Jesus says.

We're his, and he is ours forever.

And here's what is so sad. Every single person in that crowd that day was offered this free gospel with all of its blessings. Could have been theirs if they had just come to Christ.

I pray you have come to Christ.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we are exceedingly thankful for so great a salvation and so great a savior. That we are filled with so great a spirit, the Holy Spirit.

You are a God who has chosen to abide with us now and forevermore.

How it humbles us.

How it encourages us. How it reassures us. How it blesses us. And we say we have no reason to boast, and you have every reason under the sun and above the sun to receive all glory and all praise. It's in the strong name of Jesus we pray. Amen.