John 7:1-13 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Like in the Gospel of John this morning. We start in John chapter 7 this morning.

[0:15] Last week when we wrapped up John chapter 6, we read some solemn words during that Sunday school session how many of Christ's disciples or followers of that time turned and went back and followed him no more.

[0:39] And that's not exactly where we left off because we also, closing out that chapter, closing out chapter 6, we read the response to Christ when he asked the question, will you go away also?

[0:57] Will you leave as well to the 12 there? And Peter, of course, said, where can we go? Where else could we go? You know, you have the words of eternal life.

[1:09] You've got the key to immortality, basically, what was being gotten out there. And of course, Jesus in rebuttal to that said, have I not chosen you 12?

[1:26] One of you is a devil. And of course, the Bible speaks of John wrote about that being Judas Iscariot. But anyway, that's where we left off last week at the end of John chapter 6.

[1:41] So we'll begin at John chapter 7 and verse 1. It says, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in jewelry because the Jews soft to kill him.

[1:54] Now, the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. And just real quick, the Jews and the jewelry that we're talking about here in verse 1 would be the religious elite, the religious leaders.

[2:11] He wouldn't walk amongst them and their form of jewelry. Now, in verse 2, we see the term the Jews again. The Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

[2:24] This was a Jewish Feast. This was a Jewish Feast ordained and even commanded of God in Leviticus chapter 23.

[2:34] And just on the side note that before I started teaching the sermon on the Mount on Wednesdays, that's actually what I was going to teach was the feasts of the Lord that we find in Leviticus 23. Maybe that's for something further down the line.

[2:48] But you do find that in Leviticus 23. And here we have a timeline between the last Passover that was mentioned in the Gospel of John and this Jews' Feast of Tabernacle.

[3:02] We know because of Leviticus 23 and other scriptures as well found in Deuteronomy and other places that the Passover took place in the first month of the Jewish calendar year.

[3:14] And the Feast of Tabernacles took place in the seventh month in the 15th day of the Jewish calendar year. So between the last Passover, which was just mentioned a couple of chapters before this and now about six months, has come and gone.

[3:31] And y'all are probably just as guilty as I am when reading the scripture. You can blow through five or six chapters in a half an hour, 45 minutes, whatever it is, depending on how many times you might stop to go look other stuff up in scripture.

[3:50] But you don't think about that. You don't think about how much time has elapsed within just a couple of chapters. But like I said, between the last mention of Passover and now would have been about six months time.

[4:05] So we have a timeline there. But it says, now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. What was the Feast of Tabernacles?

[4:15] The Feast of Tabernacles was a time that the Jews memorialized God bringing them up out of Egypt and their wonderings in the wilderness.

[4:25] Some people or some of the Jews called it the Feast of Boots. Some English translations actually have it as the Feast of Tents or the Feast of Dwelling.

[4:36] I've seen that. But basically what it was, it was an eight day celebration where the Jews would gather and they would all live in tents for that eight days.

[4:48] But the thing is, we think of that of what kind of celebration would that be? You'd be leaving your house. But even here in 2023, if we'd done something like that, we'd be leaving our air conditioned house.

[5:02] We'd be leaving our sofa and our recliners, our televisions, and everything behind to go to one specific area and to dwell in a tent for a week.

[5:15] And we think that would be horrible. But you actually read in the Book of Nehemiah where these Jews were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles at one point. And they were praising God because they were doing that.

[5:29] And that makes me think of how they would leave their dwellings. Now granted, they didn't have air conditioning and the luxuries that we have.

[5:39] But they would be leaving their permanent dwellings wherever it was and congregating together and living in tents side by side. And they were praising God because of that.

[5:50] And it irks us to go to church for a few hours a week. Not even to live at the church house, but just to show up for services for a few hours a week.

[6:01] And these people were praising God because they had left their permanent dwellings and went and lived in these tents. So, as I said, that's what the Feast of Tabernacles was.

[6:12] It was a celebration of their wonderings and the wilderness. But not just because God had them going through the wilderness, but because of where God was taking them to.

[6:23] And the very fact that God took care of them while they were in the wilderness by raining down the manna from heaven, by causing the quail to fall on them.

[6:33] You know, you read in the Old Testament where their garments, their garments did not wax old and their feet didn't get blistered.

[6:44] Their sandals didn't even wear out while they were wandering out there in the wilderness. So God provided for these Jews. And the Feast of Tabernacle was a celebration of God's provision for them as they were going through the wilderness.

[7:00] Verse three, his brethren therefore said unto him, depart hence and go unto Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest, for there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly.

[7:17] If thou do these things, shoot thyself to the world. Now verse three says his brethren therefore, a word therefore puts us back to something that's been said previously, which is the fact that the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was a hand.

[7:33] And this is why his brother said this to him or his brethren. This would have been his half-brothers, and me personally, his half-sisters, probably had something to do with this too.

[7:43] And we learn in verse five, we didn't read that far, but we learn in verse five that neither did his brethren believe on him. I actually preached a message one time out of these first five verses of John chapter seven.

[7:55] And that's a sad statement that his brethren didn't believe on him. But it says his brethren therefore said to him, depart hence and go unto Judea.

[8:07] Now where was he, according to verse one, it says, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. And if you may have taken notice, you may have not, but throughout the Gospel of John, we've seen this flipping back and forth between Galilee and Judea, and back to Galilee and back to Judea, all throughout the Gospel of John.

[8:29] So at this point, he's in Galilee, they say depart hence and go unto Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.

[8:39] Well, this speaks volumes of his brethren, of his half-brothers and half-sisters. What's so sad about this is these would have been the very people that were raised in the same house as Jesus Christ were.

[8:52] They would have been raised by Mary, all of their mother. They would have been raised by Joseph, the father of all of them, except, of course, for Jesus Christ, God being his father, but they would have all been raised around Jesus Christ.

[9:06] Don't you think for one second that Mary did not tell them about the time that the angel came to her and told her that she was gonna give birth to a child, even though that she was a virgin?

[9:16] Don't think for a second that she didn't recite the story of how Joseph was taking her up when the census came to be and that she gave birth to Jesus Christ that night and how the angels came and they proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ and the shepherds came and gathered round.

[9:37] These people, these brethren of Jesus Christ would have been very familiar with that account. And yet, verse five says, his brethren did not believe in him. But it says, depart hence and go to Judea, that thou, disciples also may see the works that thou doest.

[9:54] Folks, if anybody should have been disciples of Christ, it should have been these people because they would have heard the stories from their own mother. And if they wouldn't believe in that, my goodness, what could they believe?

[10:07] That their mother had recited these things to them. But they said that thy disciples may believe you. Now, if you recall, and we brought it up briefly before we got started in chapter seven and in John 6 and verse 66, this is where we find that many of his disciples turned and they went the other way and they followed him no more.

[10:28] It says they went away and they followed him no more. This would have been the disciples, part of the disciples, I should say, that these brethren would have been talking about. They said, well, they left you.

[10:38] But if you go up to Judea, if you go to the capital, if you go to Jerusalem, where this feast of tabernacles is taking place, and you work these signs, you work these miracles in front of them, you do these wondrous things in front of them, hey, maybe they'll hook back up with you, maybe they'll hitch back up to the Jesus train, basically is what these people are getting at.

[11:02] And I'm not saying that to be funny, but to put it in modern day language, that's what these people were getting at. That's what the brethren were getting at here. It says, for there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly.

[11:16] If thou do these things, shoot thyself to the world. Folks, this is the way the world thinks about Jesus Christ. His brethren were the world, and he was showing himself unto them, and they didn't believe.

[11:31] So for them to say this, it was very hypocritical of them to say this, because they would have known about the miracles. They would have witnessed some of the miracles.

[11:45] And they were saying, shoot thyself to the world. Folks, Jesus wasn't here to make a name for himself. He wasn't here to gain popularity. He wasn't, you know, when he was going into towns, he generally didn't send people and send advertising crews to post up billboards and post up posters, and to announce his coming.

[12:05] He just showed up. But these people are saying that if you want to be known, this is the way to go about it. Go up there, while this feast of the Jews, this feast of tabernacles is going on, and you will gain a following.

[12:21] That's exactly what they were saying. Verse five, for neither did his brethren believe him. That's a horribly sad statement that we have here in John chapter seven.

[12:32] So then Jesus said, unto them my time has not yet come, but your time is all way ready. Now I want to make a distinction right off the bat here that Jesus said his time had not yet come.

[12:47] This is not synonymous with his hour had not yet come. The time of Jesus Christ and the hour of Jesus Christ are two very separate things.

[12:59] The hour that we see mentioned in the scripture several times over is the time of his crucifixion. That's the hour of his death. That's the hour of his humiliation that he took on himself for you and for I, the time of Jesus Christ.

[13:17] Like what we're talking about here, I just got through explaining that his brethren were saying, if you're wanting a name for yourself, if you're wanting people to know who you are, if you're wanting to do these things publicly and be known publicly, then this is the place and this is the way to go about doing it.

[13:34] This is the time that we're talking about. But folks, that ain't why Jesus Christ was here. Jesus Christ was here to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to redeem sinners and to reconcile sinners back unto God, but there is a time coming for Jesus Christ when all the world will know of him and all the world will see him.

[13:55] The Bible says that he'll be coming in the clouds with great glory and all the world will witness this thing and everybody, everybody, every tongue will confess, every knee will bow that Jesus Christ is Lord.

[14:07] There is a time coming for that, but that was not the time here in John chapter seven that we're talking about, nor was it the hour that the scripture talks about.

[14:21] He says, my time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. In other words, you've got time right now. Your time is always ready. You can make a name for yourself right now.

[14:32] You can do these things right now. He said, but my time is not yet come. My time's off in the distant future sometime when every man and every woman and every boy and every girl will know who I am.

[14:46] They says your time is always ready. Your time's right now. In other words, the world cannot hate you, but me it hates because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.

[14:59] The world cannot hate you. And I just got through saying that these people, these brethren back in verse four said, shoot thyself to the world.

[15:09] And I made the statement then, his brethren, his own flesh and blood, his half brothers and half sisters, they were of the world because they did not believe him.

[15:21] And he says here in verse seven, the world cannot hate you. Why? Because they were part of the world. The world generally doesn't hate the world. Now we're talking in the spiritual realm here.

[15:33] We're talking in religious terms. There's hatred all over planet earth right now. There's hatred for, you know, this group hates that group. This sect hates that sect.

[15:45] I understand that, but when you take that up on a spiritual plane, brothers and sisters in Christ should not have hate for one another, but the world hates our guts.

[15:55] And why is that? Why is that? Because our lives that we live, if we're living holy lives like the scripture commands us to, our lives testify against their lives.

[16:06] Our lives are a testimony against the way that they live. Our lives are a testimony of the goodness of God and of the glory of God and of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[16:17] And the world hates the gospel of Jesus Christ. And unfortunately, some of the church world hates the gospel of Jesus Christ because they want their salvation to have something to do with them, something to do with their work, something to do with something that they can do or that they have done.

[16:36] And the gospel, that's not what the gospel is. The gospel is a work that Jesus Christ accomplished when he wrote salvation for fallen mankind on a cross on a hill called Golgotha.

[16:47] That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he was buried and he was resurrected and he now sits forever at the right hand of the Father making intercession and mediation on behalf of those that have repented of their ways and believed his gospel.

[17:02] Hallelujah. Sorry, I didn't mean to preach. The world cannot hate you, but me, it hates us. Why? He tells us why.

[17:12] Because I testify of it. Now notice, he didn't say I testify against it. He said I testify of it. I testify of the world.

[17:22] I testify of their deeds. I testify of their actions. I testify of their thoughts, of their hearts. I testify of those things. I tell the world what the world is in other words.

[17:35] He's not testifying against it. He testifies of it that the works thereof are evil. And folks, that's the only works that the world has.

[17:46] Now, does that mean that born again child of God has no sin, has no evil words, has a perfect life in other words?

[17:57] Absolutely not. Everyone of us have got sin that we need to repent of, but that's the difference between the world and a born again believer in Jesus Christ. The difference is forgiveness.

[18:09] The difference is we've been reconciled to God. The difference is we've repented and we believe, yes, we've still got sin in our lives, but we repent of those sins. The world continues in its sin.

[18:21] Without the thought of repentance, I promise you when I was lost, the sins that I committed then, I never once thought about repenting. It never crossed my mind. I could have cared less about repentance or having a penitent heart for that matter, but since being saved and the Holy Ghost of God dwelling on the inside, when I sin, that Holy Ghost of God, He will grip my heart and He will show me exactly what I've done.

[18:48] And that drives me to repent to the God that saved my soul. That's the difference between the world and a born again believer. So again, verse seven, the world cannot hate you.

[19:02] Notice he doesn't say it may not hate you or might not hate you. He says it cannot hate you. Because the world in religious terms doesn't hate the world.

[19:13] They're all banded together. It's just like when everybody was congregating together to kill Jesus. My goodness, you see in the Gospel account, you see the Pharisees banding up with the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Sadducees hated each other's guts.

[19:32] And you also saw the Herodians coming in on the picture and they're banding with the Pharisees and the Sadducees to kill Jesus. You see these three people and all three of them hated each other, but they're coming together for one common cause and that was to kill and wipe Jesus Christ off of the earth so that they could continue in their ways and their own thoughts.

[19:55] The Pharisees hated Jesus because Jesus talked about the grace of God and talked against their works and how their works and their ceremonies meant nothing as far as being saved went.

[20:08] The Sadducees hated the Pharisees because, well, one of the main reasons the Sadducees hated the Pharisees is the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection and the Pharisees did. That was one of the biggest problems the Sadducees had with the Pharisees.

[20:22] The Herodians hated both of those sects because the Herodians were all about the Roman government and the Pharisees and the Sadducees hated the Roman government. Well, that messed with the Herodians political agenda so they all hated each other, but they came together for one common cause, to get rid of Jesus Christ and the world does that now.

[20:40] You can have Muslims, you can have Hindus, you can have all kinds of different people that will come together to try to snuff out the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it cannot and will not ever be done.

[20:56] The word of God, according to my Bible, is forever settled in heaven and you can't do anything about that. No group can do anything about that.

[21:08] Verse eight, go ye up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come. So Jesus here in his reply to his brethren, go ye up unto this feast.

[21:23] He commands them to go up to the feast. Go ye up unto the feast. I go not up yet unto this feast and people will shout this, contenders of the Bible, so-called atheists and other people will shout this, very verse and say, Jesus was going against the commandment of God to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles that was given in Leviticus chapter 23.

[21:47] Folks, Jesus went up to the feast. He just didn't go up with his brethren plain and simple. He didn't go against the commandment of God. He tells his brethren, because they're saying go up to the feast, go up there, make yourself publicly known and maybe you'll gain some more disciples that way.

[22:02] Maybe some of those that fell away will come back into line. Go ye up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come. When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.

[22:17] Why were his brethren wanting him to go to the feast and work these miracles? Because we've learned in verse five that they didn't believe in them anyway.

[22:28] So why really and truly were they wanting him to go? They were taunting Jesus for one thing. If you're really who you say you are and all these miracles that you're performing are really of God, if really this and really that, then you need to go do this.

[22:44] They were taunting Jesus in this. It wasn't a genuine invitation for them to go. However, they knew that Jesus Christ had a following.

[22:55] They knew that some people believed in Jesus Christ at this point and they believed, although I'll be at a shallow belief, but they believed that he was the cross.

[23:10] I mean, we read it at the end of John chapter six when Peter's speaking there. So some people believed this and they thought, well, if Jesus goes up and we go up with Jesus and we enter into Jerusalem, we go into the capital of Judea and we go in with him and he gains a name, he gains notoriety, us being his family, we're gonna gain it right along with him and maybe we'll have power, maybe we'll have glory, maybe we'll have the backpats of man.

[23:42] So this was the thought of his brethren in saying those things, but it says when he had said these words under them, he abode still in Galilee, so he stayed behind verse 10, but when his brethren were gone up, then when he also up under the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

[24:03] So again, Jesus Christ sends his brethren on up, again at the end of John chapter two, Jesus knows what's in the heart of man. He didn't need anybody to testify of man because he already knew.

[24:15] So he sends his brethren on up there, then he goes up in secret, not because Christ was afraid. Now, don't ever, ever, ever, when you see where Jesus Christ makes his way through a crowd and disappears this way or that way or he avoids the crowd, don't you think for a second that Jesus done it because he was fearful of man?

[24:39] Jesus is all powerful and he always has been all powerful. He is not afraid of what man can do to him, nor was he when he roamed this earth, afraid of what man could do unto him.

[24:53] When his brethren were gone up, then he went also up under the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. He went up and he didn't make a big deal of it.

[25:06] He didn't make a procession of it. And if you look back in Jewish history, this is, that's the way that people came in when they would come to celebrate the feast that God commanded of them.

[25:19] When they would come into Jerusalem, they would go wherever to celebrate these feasts, whether it was the feast of unleavened bread, which is ever associated with the feast of Passover, or the feast of tabernacles, or whatever the case was.

[25:32] When they would come into town, they would basically have their own procession. They all traveled in caravans to get to these places, and they would announce their comings into this town.

[25:44] It says Jesus went in secret, not to hide from man, but because Jesus Christ was not here to make a name for himself. He didn't need all the pomp that came with coming into town for a feast.

[25:57] He didn't need all the celebration. He didn't need the people gathered around him saying, I haven't seen you since the Passover. How have you been? Blah, blah, blah.

[26:08] Jesus didn't need that. That's why he went in in secret, because he didn't need it, nor did he want any of that. So he gets into town, verse 11, then the Jews saw him at the feast and said, where is he?

[26:25] Well, folks, this speaks volumes of the Jews. Now, these Jews were talking about, we're back to the religious elite, to the religious leaders that are seeking Jesus here.

[26:36] It speaks volumes of them, but it also speaks volumes of Jesus Christ, because this was the Feast of Tabernacles. This was a command given by God again in the book of Leviticus in chapter 23.

[26:49] Jesus being a Jew, they knew he would be there. They knew that he would follow that commandment of God to go to this feast.

[27:01] It says, then the Jews saw him at the feast and said, where is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him. For some said, he is a good man.

[27:11] Others said, nay, but he deceives the people. How be it no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews? So the Jews saw him and says, and there was much murmuring among the people concerning him, him being Jesus.

[27:27] For some said, he is a good man. Others said, nay, but he deceives the people. And folks, this was the perception of people all throughout the gospel, all throughout the book of Acts.

[27:39] You read when the apostles will go into the cities and the towns and they will preach Jesus Christ. There were all kinds of different opinions of Jesus Christ.

[27:50] And it was that way here. Some said he was a good man. Some say that he was deceiving the people. And folks, the Bible, when it says, and you all have heard me quote at time and time again, when it says, no Gal was found in his mouth over there in Isaiah chapter 53, that's exactly what the Gal that it's talking about there.

[28:09] There was no deception found in his mouth. There was no lying. There was no trying to convince someone. There was none of Jesus trying to convince people that he was who he said he was.

[28:21] Or that he was not for that matter. So when it says there was much murmuring amongst the people concerning him, we know that some said that he was a good man.

[28:33] Jesus Christ was a good man. In fact, he's the only good man that's ever lived on this planet. Some of us may think of our fathers. We might think of our spouses, our husbands, or wives, or whatever the case is.

[28:43] And we might say, and mom was a good woman. We might say, daddy was a good man. But folks, the Bible says none are good. None are good. Even Jesus Christ, when the one came to him and said, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

[29:01] He said, why call us thou me good? There's none good but the Father. There's none good but God. Of course, Jesus Christ, being God, manifesting the flesh would have been referring to himself.

[29:12] But he said, why call us thou me good? There's none good but him. But some people were saying Jesus Christ was a good man. Those people that were saying that, that was a true statement. But it was a whole lot truer than what they even realized that it was.

[29:27] Then other people were saying he's deceiving the people. How could he have been deceiving the people? Folks, we have accounts in the gospel where people, the religious leaders, again, were accusing Jesus Christ of having a demon.

[29:42] When he cast out a demon, he said, he does this by the power of Beelzebub. So there's all kinds of different opinions of Jesus Christ. And to this day, right now in 2023, there's all kinds of different opinions about who Jesus Christ is, why Jesus Christ came, where did Jesus Christ come from?

[30:02] I mean, there's all kinds of different opinions of that. Folks, the Jesus Christ that I worship and that we should all worship is the Jesus Christ that is mentioned in the scripture.

[30:13] If there's a Jesus out there and there's hundreds of Jesuses that are brought up the world over, but these Jesuses have worldly things attached to them. They have religious things attached to them.

[30:26] And by religious, I'm talking about people depending on other things. It's Jesus Christ plus water baptism. It's Jesus Christ plus communion every Sunday.

[30:36] It's Jesus Christ plus this and plus that. Folks, it is Jesus Christ plus nothing that earns salvation for mankind. There is nothing to add to Jesus Christ.

[30:48] You cannot dilute what Jesus Christ has done for fallen man with anything, with water or anything else for that matter.

[30:58] So how be it? No man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. So this no man, this would have been, I guess what we would call the peasant Jews, the commoners, the common people, they didn't speak openly of Jesus Christ because of the Jews, because of the religious leaders of that time.

[31:21] Now, we've got just a couple of minutes for him to go stop. Something I neglected to mention earlier, I should have, but I didn't, backing up a few verses.

[31:33] We're not going to read any further in verse 13 this morning, but backing up a few verses. When Jesus Christ tells his brethren to go on up to Judea, go on up there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, he doesn't mention there, I'll be up sometime after work.

[31:53] He doesn't say that to him. He just tells them to go on. And obviously, they did so. And that's sad in and of itself. Now, did they follow the command of Jesus Christ?

[32:04] Yes. Did they follow it for the right reason? No, because we read in verse 5. They didn't believe him. So why would they have believed? Well, he commanded that. We must do it. No, they went.

[32:15] Why? For the same reason that some of the, that a lot of churches are in the shape that they're in, because they have forsook fellowship with Jesus Christ for the religion of the world, for the religion of their own church or their own denomination, for the ceremonies that take place within the walls of the building that they congregate in.

[32:40] But they forsake the fellowship with Jesus Christ. Folks, they didn't go because it was a command of God in the flesh right there in front of them. They didn't go because Jesus Christ said to.

[32:52] They went because that's what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to go up. They were supposed to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, granted, yes, it was a command of God.

[33:03] We've already been over that. Over in the Old Testament, it was a command to celebrate this Feast. But my goodness, to leave Jesus Christ, to go and fulfill a religious obligation.

[33:16] It's like people that go to church. You know, their church, it's the same thing. Every service, you know, they walk in. And it's like that here to an extent. It's like that at every church to an extent.

[33:28] We have our religious motions that we go through. This morning we came in, we had church announcements. We read some scripture. We sang a song. We took up prayer requests.

[33:38] We had prayer. We'd done birthdays. We'd done all that. That's religion right there. That's something that we do. Every Sunday morning is it not. But there are people out there that, because normally on Sunday mornings, we sing one song before Sunday school do we not.

[33:59] What happens if we sing two or three? My goodness, that might send somebody into a tizzy. And there's churches out there, there's congregations, there's individuals right now.

[34:10] They'll go to a service. They'll say, my goodness, I can't believe they went beyond three songs before the preacher got up. They sing four songs. And they'll spend that entire service worried to death because four songs were sung and not just three, where they won't get a thing out of the message because they're worried about their religion was broken because there were four songs sung instead of three.

[34:35] Or because the preacher just had prayer at the pulpit before he started preaching and didn't call everybody to the front, to the altar, to pray. Or vice versa.

[34:46] The preacher usually prays at the pulpit before he preaches. But this time he called everybody to the altar to pray. And there are people out there that will tear them all to pieces.

[34:57] Folks, that is religion. And that's what his brethren did. They gave up fellowship with Jesus Christ to go perform a religious thing.

[35:08] And we look at him and say, shame on them. And we're just as guilty of it if we ain't careful. We are just as guilty. So I don't know why that skipped my mind, but I didn't mean to bring it up when we got to that for those verses.

[35:21] That brings us to the end of Morrell. That brings us as far as I want to go this morning. If anybody got any questions or comments on any of that.

[35:31] All right. God bless you all. I appreciate you.