Jesus’ Opinion

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright today? I trust so. Bless your heart. Just been praying that God would put His truth in my heart and mind and His love in my voice and practicality, some practical handle on the truth to which you may take hold and use it for yourself. I pray that that may be so. Well, let’s use these next few moments for God’s glory as we look into the 12th chapter of John and we continue thinking just for a moment about the times that the Lord Jesus shouted. He shouted, “Do you know me and whence I am? I didn’t come of myself but the one who sent me.” He shouted, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water,” this spake He of the Spirit. He thought it was important to know who he is, he thought it was important to know that if you’re hungry and thirsty for God, you can be filled when you come to Jesus.

He shouted about the power and the importance of the Word of God. After He gave the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, He cried out, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Let him really hear. Let him really pay attention, really pay attention to the importance of the Word of God. That’s what He was saying. Then we come to John 11:43 where our Lord Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, he’d been dead four days, his body had begun to decompose, and they were a little slow to roll away the stone that covered the mouth of the cave in which they had placed Lazarus’ dead body. But Jesus said, “Didn’t I tell you if you’d believe you’d see the glory of God?” And so then they rolled away the stone. And it said Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And Lazarus came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And he didn’t walk out, the power of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ brought him right straight out there. I don’t know if he was horizontal or vertical, I don’t know how that was.

But there he was and on the ground in front of the open grave, still wrapped up with all of those yards and yards of fine linen and spices. Jesus said, “Unwrap him and let him go.” “The day is coming,” the Bible says, “When all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and they that hear shall live.” Jesus shouted about the resurrection. It’s important to know that there is a life after your body dies and that Jesus Christ our living Lord is the master of life and the master of the resurrection and that one of these days those who have died in faith will hear that voice, they’ll be raised from the dead. The Bible says, “incorruptible.” You know, you’re mortal, you’re mortal while you’re still alive, but after you die, you’re corruptible. So, immortality means no death. Incorruptible means no decay. And so you’ll be raised not only immortal but incorruptible. There won’t be any more decay in that resurrection body. Will it be a real body? Of course it will, as real as our Savior who said, “Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.”

The people that argue against the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus willfully overlook His own statement that He was a person with flesh and bones. So it’ll be a real body, it’ll be recognizable, “then shall we know even as also we are known.” I expect to be able to see my angel mother whom I don’t remember physically because she died when I was 16 months old. I know that she prayed for me during those months that she carried me under her heart. She and two other ladies covenanted to pray every day, they tell me, at 10:00 in the morning for the baby that was on the way. I know that she was a jolly person, and full of humor, and all of that. I know that the relatives adored her. One of them wrote afterwards and said, “I never could get enough of Daisy.” But I don’t really know her, but I’ll see her one day. I’ll see my father, who went to join her in 1954, see all these other dear ones, Grandma Nilsen, Bestemor we called her, that’s Norwegian for grandmother, who lived in our home for 21 years and went to be with the Lord just before her 90th birthday; see Grandpa Nilsen who died really as a young man, comparatively, he was 61 or 62, something like that. We’ll see the dear ones. Yup. Yup, we’ll see them.

The resurrection is real. Jesus thought it was important enough to shout about. Have you thought about that for yourself? Maybe. And it said some of the saints chose not to be delivered, read Hebrews 11, “chose not to be delivered that they might gain a better resurrection.” What does that mean? Well, it means that the more you invest your life for Christ here, the better position you’ll have. And I can’t tell you what that may mean, ’cause I haven’t been there yet, when you are raised from the dead and you join your Savior. Yes, my sins are taken care of, thank God He paid for every one of them. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” Now, I’ll not have to face them at the judgement. I’ll not have to face the question of salvation at that judgement when all of the dead stand before God. I’ll be among those who are with the redeemed. Hallelujah. And I trust that may be so as well of you, my dear friend, there listening by your radio.

And think about what your position will be. Think about what your memory will tell you when the resurrection occurs, based, that is, upon what you remember as to how you lived your life here. Something to think about it, isn’t it? Now, if some of you differ with me, don’t bother writing to me, because we’ll be in heaven one day. My father used to tell me, “We’ll be in heaven one day and you’ll know I was right.” [chuckle] No, that’s just how I feel about it. I wanna live now so I’ll be happy when I see Jesus. And the scripture bears that out, “Now, little children, abide in Him that when He shall appear we may have confidence before Him and not be ashamed at His coming.” You understand what I’ve been saying to you? Live now as you will wish you had lived when you see your Savior on resurrection day. Pretty good idea? I think it is.

Well, the Lord Jesus shouted on another occasion, and that is the passage that we had now arrived at in our study of John chapter 12. He cried out, He shouted and said, “He that believeth on me believeth not on me,” only, that is, “But on Him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth Him that sent me. I have come as a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. If any man hear my words and believe not I judge him not for I came not to judge the world but to save the world. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day.” Now, he shouted about this. Why make such a fuss about what he was saying here? Number one, because it’s important to realize that you’re not dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ only as an historical figure, you are dealing with Almighty God and eternal destiny. He said, “If you believe on me you are committing yourself to the Father God who sent Him.”

He said, “If you trust yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ and get acquainted with Him you are also getting acquainted with God the Father. He that seeth me seeth Him that sent me.” He said, “If you trust yourself to the Lord Jesus and let Him lead your life, you are going to be in God’s light with God’s guidance and you won’t abide in darkness.” He said, “If you reject His words that same word that He spoke will judge you on judgement day.” And He said, if you really understand His mission, it is to save. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.” You hear Him saying here, as recorded in John 12:47, “I came not to judge the world but to save the world.” He thought that was important enough to shout about.

You see, preachers, let me say a word to pastors. The whole matter of significant preaching shows up here. If we will give the message with the same emphasis as our Savior gave it, we’ll have a hearing, we’ll be saying something eternally worthwhile, and we’ll be fulfilling the will of God. You have some very deep theological truth in these simple sentences that I have just given you. That if you know the Lord Jesus, you get to know God the Father. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, ‘Show us the Father.'” “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me,” Jesus said. Great, deep truth. He enunciated. He shouted it out. You and I may very well give attention to it, the truth concerning the indwelling Holy Spirit and what His work is. The truth concerning the resurrection and what our Lord plans for us in that great day when all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and they that hear shall live.

The truth concerning how to trust the Lord Jesus and the truth concerning… We haven’t gotten to that yet. The great sacrifice that He made when there on the cross, He cried twice. Once, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And second, just as He dismissed His Spirit, He said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.” He cried out again with a loud voice, “It is finished.” Now, beloved, what Jesus thought was important. You and I had better latch onto, we’d better think about it, we’d better order our lives by it, and we’d better give it to others as we have opportunity. A good idea?

Father God, today, may we emphasize in our lives and in our thinking those things which our Lord Jesus Christ thought were important. I pray in His name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!