My Time is not Yet Come; But Your Time is Alway Ready
John 7:1-18
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.…


I. GLORIOUS DANGER.

1. Jesus was in extreme peril. The storm, the first mutterings of which had been heard long before seemed now to concentrate its violence upon Him. Derision had become inveterate hatred. The scribes, etc., now longed to kill Him, and were doing all in their power to compass that end. That end was only a matter of time, and the limit was only imposed by Christ Himself.

2. He might have escaped it all, and been the leader and King of the people had He conciliated, compromised, and compounded.

3. But He would not. "He saved others, Himself He cannot save." His danger was glorious, because it arose from a persistent refusal —

(1)  To live any life lower than the highest.

(2)  To accept any modification of the supreme law of righteousness.

(3)  To become anything less than the Saviour of the world.

II. INGLORIOUS SAFETY. His brethren were safe. They might go when and where they liked. They would meet with no exasperated enemies, lint rather with their true relations — unbelievers They were safe because —

1. They were not opposing evil. Their true kinship was with the world, and the world would love and spare its own (John 15:19; cf. 1 John 4:5). They were going with the stream.

2. They were not accomplishing any high mission in life. Having no work of Divine appointment — their "time was alway ready"; they had no "hour," no climax.

III. IN VARYING DEGREES THE CHOICE BETWEEN GLORIOUS DANGER AND INGLORIOUS SAFETY LIES BEFORE EACH ONE OF US, in regard to —

1. Business. Which shall we conform to, the average standard of commercial morality or the highest?

2. Politics. Shall we merely follow the party, or be true to our deepest conviction of rights?

3. Religion. Shall we accept doctrines and creeds that are simply popular, or stand by that which in our heart we feel to be the truth?Conclusion:

1. To live the high life, to be true to conviction, to dare to stand alone — if need be, oppose evil, breast the stream — this is hard, painful, dangerous, but gloriously so.

2. To live the average life, to accept the present condition of things, to conform, to compromise, to go with the tide; this is easy, generally pleasant, profitable, and for awhile safe, but inglorious.

(L. Shackleford.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.

WEB: After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn't walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.




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