Our Lord’s Defense of Himself

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[Audio begins] We’re turning to John chapter 7 and reading for the Scripture reading verse 14 through verse 24. John chapter 7 verse 14 through verse 24. In the message last week, in which we began the 7th and 8th chapters of the Gospel of John, reference was made to the fact first, that these two chapters belong together and second, that they gather around the ministry of the Lord which had to do with the feast of tabernacles. And we divided up the two chapters very simply according to that, pointing out that in verse 2 of chapter 7 John writes, “Now the Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand.” In other words, that was a section that had to do with things that transpired before the feast. Then in verse 14 through verse 36 we have things that transpired during the feast. Verse 14 begins now about the midst of the feast. And the final part of chapter 7 and chapter 8, have to do with things that occurred on the last day of the feast. Verse 37 says, “In the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying,” so we’re dealing then with a part of the Gospel of John that has to do with things that transpired at the feast of tabernacles.

This division that we’re looking at now, from verse 14 through verse 36, is a division that contains three themes. First of all, our Lord justifies his ministry, that’s what we’ll look at this morning. Following that, he gives a declaration of his origin. And finally, he discusses briefly his departure from this world. So now let’s turn to verse 14 and we read verse 14 through verse 24 in which our Lord provides us with a defense of himself and his ministry,

“Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, (this by the way, more accurately rendered is if any man wills to do his will) he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The people answered”

Now this word in the Authorized Version translated “people” is a word that really means multitude, and you can see from this that there are several groups of people here. There are people, and then there is a multitude, there are Jews, there are disciples. Now this group, the multitude, evidently are those who also had come up to the feast of tabernacles from various parts of the country, and consequently they did not know about the plotting of the Jews against our Lord’s life. That accounts for their answer in verse 20, “The people answered and said, Thou hast a demon: who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel.” Now remember in chapter 5 we had an account of the healing of the impotent man when Jesus was in Jerusalem, and there it was said that he had committed a sin because he had healed someone on the Sabbath day. The man had taken up his bed and had begun to walk and others had seen him. It was contrary to Sabbath tradition to carry one’s bed on the Sabbath day and so consequently he was regarded as having done something that had broken the Law of Moses. Our Lord refers back to that here,

“I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? (literally, a whole man whole) Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

A passage that reminds us of the famous passage in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse 7 when the Lord said unto Samuel as he was making selection of a king, “Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment, Jesus said.

The subject for this morning is “Our Lord’s Defense of Himself.” Except among New Testament scholars, there is very little question concerning the divine claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. One reads the New Testament, notices the things that are said by him, and comes very quickly to the conclusion that the Lord Jesus claimed to be very God of very God, as well as acknowledging and claiming to be very man of very man. And yet at the same time, our Lord had to defend himself constantly. There are many indications that Jesus made divine claims for himself. True, he did not say, “I am God.” But then he said things that are equally as strong, and in fact are much more vivid. He told parables for example, about which there could be no question whatsoever.

For example, in the 12th chapter in the Gospel of Mark, this parable is also recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, he tells the story of, “A certain man who planted a vineyard, who set a hedge about it, who digged a place for the winefat, who built a tower, who let it out to husbandmen, who went into a far country” expecting that they would tend for his vineyard and that he would obtain grapes in due season. When the time came for the grapes to come he sent to the husbandmen who were supposed to be caring for the vineyard a servant in order that he might receive the benefits from his vineyard. They took the servant and beat him and sent him away with nothing. He sent another servant to them, “at him they cast stones, they wounded him in the head, they sent him back shamefully handled” so the Lord said. “And then he sent another; and this one they killed. And man others; beating some and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved,” the owner of the vineyard “sent him also at last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.” Now anyone listening to that particular parable would gather that the Lord Jesus is claiming to be the one beloved Son of the Father. And furthermore, that he claims to be the heir and that all other men who were sent were simply slaves. He stands higher than other men as a son does to a slave, and furthermore is an heir.

Later on in that same gospel, also recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord Jesus in the context of the second coming makes the statement that as far as the second coming is concerned he does not know the precise time of the day that the Lord shall come. He says, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Now if you examine those statements that he makes there very carefully you will that it is a remarkable statement of the preeminence of the Lord Jesus over all other men. He says, “Of that day and hour no man knows.” Jesus is not a man “nor the angels” but the Son, not even the Son, only the Father. So here we have a picture of something like a ladder; on the lower level, on the lower rung man, then angels, then the Son. Someone might say, “But at least he makes himself subordinate to the Father.” Yes he does, for a time, because he was the mediator. And being the mediator, he relinquished the voluntary use of his divine attributes for a time, and did the will of the Father in order to carry out the mediatorial work. But lest there be any question about whether the Son is equal to the Father, later on in that same Matthean gospel, when the disciples are sent out, the Lord Jesus said that they are to go into all the four corners of the earth and they are to baptize men, after teaching them, in the name, singular, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And so the Son is greater than men. He is greater than angels. And he makes it very plain that he stands upon the same plain as the Father. In spite of this, men wonder about the Lord Jesus Christ’s claims for himself. Sometimes modern scholarship will make the claim that Jesus never claimed to be God. Well the facts are quite different.

In Matthew chapter 11 and verse 27 the Lord Jesus said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” This may be the most important Christological passage in the whole of the New Testament, and some of the most amazing of our Lord’s sayings are found right here.

Professor Karl von Hauser, the German professor of church history at the University of Yanna many years ago, and one of the ancestors of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, once said concerning this text that it is a thunder bolt from the Johannine blue. British scholars have said it’s a thunder bolt from the Johannine sky. But notice what Jesus says. He said, “All things are delivered unto to me of my Father. No man knows the Son, but the Father; nor does any man know the Father except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” In other words, the Lord Jesus makes the claim that he alone truly knows the Father. And furthermore, he says that all men who know something of the Father truly are indebted to him, because, “No man knows the Father except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son wills to reveal him.” In other words, you can never know the Father except it should be the direct will of God the Son.

Now it’s amazing in the light of these magnificent sayings that Jesus makes of himself, both directly and indirectly, that he had to defend himself constantly. Down through the years, others taking the place of the Lord Jesus as disciples of him, have had to defend the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now this is one of the defenses that the Lord makes of himself that we are to look at this morning. I guess that if we were looking for some passage in the Gospel of John in which we have an illustration of John 1:11, this would be one of the passages to which we turn. Remember in John chapter 1 and verse 11 it states, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” It was preeminently fulfilled here. We don’t know the outline of our Lord’s teaching that he gave in the city of Jerusalem at the feast of the tabernacles. We do however know its outcome, for later on in this same chapter, when men are sent out after him, they report, “Never man spake like this man.”

One of the things that has always interested me through the years is Bible teaching. And I’ve always been interested in Bible teachers, particularly those of the past that I did not have an opportunity to hear. If I have ever through the course of the years come into contact with someone who heard some well known or outstanding Bible teacher who was someone that I had never heard, it’s always of interest of me to ask them, “What did you think of his teaching and his ministry?” One man, some years ago, who told me that he had heard G. Campbell Morgan interested me and so I asked him, “Well what was your impression of G. Campbell Morgan?” I remember his comment. He thought for a few moments and he said very quietly, “He spoke as one having authority.” Using the words that were used of the multitude after they had heard him give the Sermon on the Mount, “He spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes.” He did not say Rabbi Shemi says this, Rabbi Hilial says this, but he spoke out of an experience of the Lord God that was unique.

Now we read here, later on, that “Never a man spoke like this man.” One of the reasons that we don’t have much interest in Bible teaching today is because we don’t have many Bible teachers who teach something like that. I don’t want to make any indirect claims for doing that either. I remember a story about Billy Sunday, the eccentric evangelist who lived in Winona Lake. Just a few weeks ago I again saw his home there. He used to relate a story about a man who was a well known village atheist who was seen running vigorously to a burning church building intent on helping those who were trying to put out the fire. A neighbor observed him and knowing his atheism said somewhat facetiously, “Well this is something knew for you; I’ve never seen you going to church.” And he said, “Well this is the first time I’ve ever seen a church on fire.” [Laughter] Well perhaps that’s part of the difficulty with us today. We don’t really have individuals who love Bible teaching and who love to teach the Word and the result it we don’t have much interest in the things of the Lord along those lines.

Well, our Lord we read went up to the feast of tabernacles and he began to teach. I say we don’t know precisely what he taught. We know how he defended himself, but we don’t know what he was teaching when he went up and taught in the temple, “the Jews however, marveled and said, How knoweth this man letters never having learned?” Now one might get the wrong impression from the Authorized Version rendering “how knoweth this man letters” as if he really didn’t know the alphabet, but that of course is not what is meant. This term grammata, which is used here, is a term that refers to simple writings, and usually it refers to Scriptural writings and surely in this case must refer to them. Earlier in the Gospel of John, in the 47th verse, Jesus has said, “But if ye believe not Moses’ writings how shall ye believe my words?” “Moses’ writings.” “How knoweth this man writings, never having been taught?” How does he know the Scriptures as he does, he has not, it’s clear, sat at the feet of the rabbis. This is the word that is used of the Apostle Paul when Festus says to him, “All your study is driving you mad Paul.” So, how does this man understand the things that he understands when he has never been taught by our rabbis? Now putting it in modern language it would be, “How is this fellow able to teach and understand the truth of God so well when he doesn’t have a degree from one of our accredited institutions?” Now they spoke it very contemptuously, because that’s the meaning of this expression “this man.” “How knoweth this fellow letters, having never learned?”

Arthur Pink said in one of his books, “Education is an altar which is now thronged by a multitude of idolatrous worshipers.” That is true, and that is true in our evangelical circles as well. If we devoted as much time to the mastery of Scripture as we have to the mastery of literature about the Scriptures we would be much better off.

Dr. Chafer, at Dallas Seminary, used to speak about the doctor’s degree along this line. He’d say there were “three kinds of people.” He said there were “those who didn’t need any doctor’s degree, they get along very well without one.” He didn’t say this because this was before the days of Billy Graham, but he’s a good illustration of it. He doesn’t have any degree from any theological seminary, but he manages to get along fairly well. Then Dr. Chafer would say, “There are some men who are helped by a doctor’s degree.” And then with a smile he would say, “There are many who cannot get along without one.” [Laughter] Then he occasionally would say, “You know, I hear that there are some evangelists going about who don’t have a doctor’s degree.” Some of you don’t even understand what he meant by that. [Laughter] Doctor’s degrees were a dime a dozen, there’s hardly a one who doesn’t have one, but knowledge of Scripture how different that is.

Now I don’t want to say anything against sound education, but it’s insufficient. It’s good so far as it goes, but it’s insufficient. The Lord Jesus is the perfect illustration of the fact that the significant thing, the most important thing, the thing that should have our priority, is the knowledge of the Word of God if we are to be an effective minister of its truth.

Billy Sunday, at his ordination, was asked a question which he could not answer. It was a question regarding one of the church fathers. Well Mr. Sunday had been a baseball player and consequently his training was very, very shallow. He didn’t know anything about this church father, and after awhile he replied with a twinkle in his eye, when it was obvious that he was stumped, he said, “Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve never heard of him, he never played on my team.” [Laughter] And they smiled, they gave him some other difficult questions, but finally one of the men said, “Let’s go ahead and recommend this fellow for ordination, he’s already won more souls than the whole bunch of us put together.” “How knoweth this man letters, having never been taught?” why it’s clear if one reads Isaiah chapter 50 how he did know. He knew because he had aloud himself to be taught by the Father, and he was taught the Word of God.

When the apostles began their preaching after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s very interesting to read the accounts in the Book of Acts of the impressions that they made. The writer of the Book of Acts says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men” or better uneducated and untrained men, “they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.” Unlearned, untaught, untrained, but nevertheless they were possessed of a boldness which men recognized as having come ultimately from the Lord Jesus himself. The Apostle Paul who was trained by the rabbis, sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, nevertheless found it important to say to the Galatians that the gospel that he proclaimed was one that he had not learned from men, that he had not been taught, but he had received by divine revelation from the Lord God himself. I like the statement that the psalmist makes in Psalm 119 and verse 99 and verse 100, “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my mediation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” Let us not forget that.

When they looked at the Lord Jesus Christ and observed him they said, “How does this man understand Scriptural learning when he has never been taught?” Well of course they didn’t know, but he had been taught, but his teacher was a better teacher than the teacher by whom we are taught in theological seminaries. He was taught by God the Holy Spirit. Now he makes his reply to that. He says first of all, “My doctrine is not mine, but it belongs to him that sent me.” The Jews had the idea that teaching could come from only two sources; it can either come from the school, and so they would ask, “What rabbi has he studied under?” like we would say today, “Is he a Dallas man, or is he a Trinity man, or is he a Grace man” or in other words, “From what seminary does he come?” or it comes from oneself, but there was another alternative. And the other alternative was that the teaching came from God. Now our teachers could learn a whole lot about by this. How does this man know Scriptural learning, having never learned? “My doctrine is not mine, but it belongs to him that sent me.” It comes from God.

That reminds me of an old story about an individual who was a well known unbeliever. And he attended a service just like this, and in the service he was converted. Word came to the preacher and he was overjoyed. The edge of his joy however, was somewhat dulled when he asked the individual what it was in his sermon that finally came home to him. He said, “Well it wasn’t your sermon it was your text.”

I sometimes have people say to me after I finish, “That was a great sermon.” Well I know better than to believe that. I used to play in golf tournaments. And when I would win a match people would come around and say, “Boy that was great.” When I lost one I couldn’t find my friends. [Laughter] The same thing is true about life. When you do something great, well you’re great. You’re the same fellow, but when you don’t do it nobody pays any attention to you whatsoever. When people come up to me often and say, “That was a great sermon” I frequently reply, “It’s a great text.” And that accounts for great sermons most of the time. Great texts, texts that strike home to people, those are the texts that make for great sermons. Now some preachers like to go and take the great texts and preach only the great texts. Mr. Pryor makes us here in Believers Chapel preach all of the texts; great and not so great. And so we must do that in order to be systematic. Now I’m just kidding, he doesn’t really make us do that at all, but that’s what we try to do. It is the text that’s the important thing, not the preacher, not the way that he says things, it’s the text. It’s the truth, as the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. The Word and the Spirit, these things make for spiritual results.

There’s also a story of an Indian. I like this one too. He was a Christian man. He attended a service in a particular church and the sermon didn’t have very much spiritual good in it at all, but it was very loud. And so someone asked him what he thought of the sermon. He said, “Well, high wind, big thunder, no rain.” [Laughter] If you’d like to hear sermons high wind, big thunder, no rain, turn on the TV, 700 Club, or some of the others who speak over our TV screen constantly, high wind, big thunder, very little rain. There are some exceptions of course, but nevertheless that characterizes so much of the preaching of our time.

Jesus said the reason that men listened to him and they thought that it was the knowledge of Scripture that they were hearing, but he had never been taught, was it wasn’t his own doctrine. It did not come from himself; it came from the one who sent him. It was the Father’s teaching. Now he then gives us an internal test of knowledge, “If any man will do his will,” or “If any man wills to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

This has been misunderstood because in the Authorized Version, for one possible misunderstanding, it almost sounds as if a man should go out and do his will. And then having done his will he will come to know of the doctrine. Now that is not what our Lord is saying. He’s not saying that his can only be learned by those who are expert in theological niceties either. He’s not saying that one must do some ethical work, and having done some ethical work God will then introduce him into the knowledge of the truth. No, no, that’s not what he means at all. Really what he says is, “If any man willeth to do his will.” Stress rests upon “wills” to do his will.

Now if you’ve followed along in the Gospel of John at all you will know that it is impossible for anyone to will to do God’s will apart from a previous work of the Holy Spirit. Professor C. K. Barrett, in a very incisive and correct comment has said, “A free human decision about the claims of Jesus is impossible.” “No man can come to me,” Jesus said. One must be drawn by the Father. One must be given by the Father. How is it possible then for anyone to will to do his will? Well the only way it is possible for anyone to will to do his will is if first God has worked in his will to will to do his will. “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” As Paul says in Romans 8:7-8, a text I’ve quoted now one hundred and three times in this audience, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So that they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” What is the work of God? Well the preceding chapter has said very plainly, the work of God is to believe on him who he has sent. That’s what our Lord means when he says here if any man willeth to do his will. He’s talking about the work of faith, which is something produced in men by the work of God. That’s the internal test.

There is a beautiful story. I think it’s one of the finest of the stories that I’ve seen or read about in a long time, and frankly I had forgotten about it, but some years ago I made reference to this particular story. There were two Roman Catholic missionaries who went to Tibet, a hundred and twenty-five or so years ago. They went there to carry on some evangelistic activity, as they understood evangelistic activity, and they went to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and they set up their shop there. They had a little chapel and they of course took their breviaries, and they had their devotions daily in their little chapel. And they also had in their chapel a colored picture of the cross of Jesus Christ with the Lord Jesus hanging upon the cross. There was a man who had gone there from the province of Yunan in China. He was a physician and he was an individual who happened to wander by the place where they had their little chapel. This man was known in the city of Lhasa as the Chinese hermit. He was only of about thirty years of age. His hair was already white. He spent all of his time visiting the poor, or visiting the sick. And after visiting them he would go home and study, and he would study until late at night. He did not have much relationship with the people of the community other than that. They called him the Chinese hermit. He slept very little. He only ate one meal a day, and the meal that he ate was generally barley meal. The result was that his appearance was thin and emaciated. And it just so happened as they carrying out their little devotions he happened to wander by the chapel, looked in and saw the colored picture of Jesus hanging on the cross.

And as they finished, he went up to them without the usual oriental words of complement. He plunged right into what he had upon his mind. He said, “What’s the meaning of that picture?” And that gave the two men an opportunity to explain to him something of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. They talked about his cross, and about the reason for the picture, his hanging upon the cross. They said the man stopped, and he began to look at that picture in their presence and he looked at it for one half an hour without saying a single word. Then they noticed that some tears began to form on his face. And then he fell down upon his knees, he struck the ground three times with his head and he arose crying out, “This is the only Buddha whom men ought to worship.” And with that he turned to the men and he said, “You are my masters, take me as your disciple.” God the Holy Spirit had evidently shined into the heart of this man who evidently had been prepared by the Holy Spirit, and through the simple words of the Catholic missionaries he had come to an understanding of what it meant for someone to die on the cross for human sin.

There’s an external test Jesus says, it’s the glory of God. “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him.” This is a general test of teaching. What is the trend of teaching? Is it behold the church, then it’s hardly likely that it is of the Lord. If it is behold the preacher, it’s hardly likely to be that of the Lord. If it is behold the gifts, the supernatural gifts of he Holy Spirit, like the healers, it’s unlikely that it is the teaching of God. Is it behold Jesus Christ in his crucifixion, ah, that’s the message that the Apostle Paul gave, “I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and this one as crucified.” As the savior for human sinners, that’s what we preach. If that’s characteristic of our ministry it’s much more likely to be ministry that is approved of God.

Now at this point our Lord turns to a brief apology for his actions. The background is the healing of the impotent man, as I mentioned, on the Sabbath day, and the objections that some of the Jewish men had to it. Well here is proof that they are not willing to do his will, “Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you keepeth the law, why go ye about to kill me?” These are the individuals incidentally, who teach and preach that we are not to kill, but they are seeking to kill him. They break the law in circumcision and in plotting against him, he might say. “The people answered and said, Thou hast a demon, who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work and you all marvel.” Now I want to give you a little lesson in theology, for this was a lesson in theology. He didn’t say that, but that’s of course what lies in the background. He said, “You’ve forgotten something about the law that you claim to reverence. Do you not remember that in the law itself it is said that when a person is eight days old and a male, he is to be circumcised even if it is the Sabbath day.” So in the law itself it is written that certain things are more important than the Mosaic Law. Being part of the law, some parts of it are more significant than other parts. And circumcision is to take place even if it’s on the Sabbath day. “Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the Father’s.” It began with Abraham. “And ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?” In other words, if a ceremonial type of the new life in Christ, not in the Decalogue originally, overrode the Decalogue, how much more the actual antitype of the new life in the healing ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ shall override those Mosaic traditions that you think are law.

J. C. Ryle, the British preacher said, “Is it then just and fair to be angry with me because I have done a far greater work to man on the Sabbath than the work of circumcision. I have not wounded his body by circumcision, but I have made him perfectly whole. I’ve not made a purifying work to one particular part of him, but I’ve restored his whole body to health and strength. I’ve not done a work of necessity to one single member only, but a work of necessity and benefit to the whole man.” They’re obviously condemned by their own law. And so Jesus concludes his defense by saying, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” Reminding us of the famous statement in Samuel, as I mentioned in the reading of the Scripture, “The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

Summing it up, what does our Lord say? Well he says it’s necessary for a man to have a willing heart, “If a man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.” The necessity of the willing heart is the important thing. From whence comes a willing heart? A willing heart comes from God. “No man, no man,” he said in chapter 6 and verse 44, “can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.” It is absolutely essential if a man comes to Christ to have a willing heart, but we cannot have of ourselves a willing heart. How do we get a willing heart? We go to God about the willing heart, that’s how.

And so I say to you in this audience, Jesus said, “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” If that brings home to you your lost condition and that you cannot come of yourself, flee to the cross, flee to our Lord, and he gives willing hearts; may God help you to come. Come to Christ. Acknowledge your own inability. Receive the ability from the Lord God. When the Bible says that men are unable to come it means they are unable to come of themselves. Not that they are unable to come with God’s help. God helps those who acknowledge their inability, come for ability; may God help you to come. If you’re here this morning and you’ve never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who died upon that cross for sinners, come to him. You cannot come of yourself; may God speak to your heart.

[Prayer] We are grateful to Thee Lord for this wonderful defense of himself that the Lord Jesus gave. We thank Thee that he needs no defense to our hearts. We thank Thee for the greatness of the Son of God. We thank Thee for the gift of life. And oh Father, if there are some in this audience who have never come, by Thy grace…

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