Joh 2:23  Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 
Joh 2:24  But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 
Joh 2:25  And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. 

We get some important insights into the heart and mind of Christ in these passages above, that will be brought out here.

Jesus did not put “trust” or “reliance” in them. He did not leave himself in their hands. He acted cautiously and prudently. The proper time for him to die had not come, and he secured his own safety. The reason why he did not commit himself to them is “that he knew all men.” He knew the “inconstancy” and “fickleness” of the multitude. He knew how easily they might be turned against him by the Jewish leaders, and how unsafe he would be if they should be moved to sedition and tumult.
He knew what was in man - This he did because he had made all Joh_1:3, and because he was God, Joh_1:1. There can be no higher evidence than this that he was omniscient, and was therefore divine. To search the heart is the prerogative of God alone Jer_17:10; and as Jesus knew what was in “these disciples,” and as it is expressly said that he knew what was in man - that is, in “all people” - so it follows that he must be equal with God. As he knows “all,” he is acquainted with the false pretentions and professions of hypocrites. None can deceive him. He also knows the wants and desires of all his real friends. He hears their groans, he sees their sighs, he counts their tears, and in the day of need will come to their relief.  Albert Barnes

Christ being God, knows all that is in man; that there is no good in him naturally, nothing but what comes from his Father, is imparted by himself, or implanted by his Spirit; he knows the wickedness there is in man, that his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and full of all manner of iniquities; he knows in what condition all the and faculties of the souls of men are; what their affections are set upon, on earthly or heavenly things; whether there is any light in their understandings, or not; whether their wills are subdued and resigned to the will of God, or not; whether their minds and consciences are defiled, or their hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience; in short, whether the internal good work of grace is begun upon their souls, or not; and he knows the secret springs of all actions, good and bad; all which prove his true and proper deity, and show him to be a suitable Saviour of sinners, and qualify him to be the Judge of the whole earth. John Gill

Over the years, as I've walked out my own life, these verses has helped me to observe the truth's stated by the men of God above, and agree with the truth of what scripture says of man; there is none that does good; no not one-all have gone astray, all have fallen short. If it wasn't for Jesus, none of us would have a chance, no hope of salvation. The only hope, and truth, is in Christ alone.
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

I've also come to view relations with people as he did, love them, but don't commit myself to them. Love them, and use every opportunity to reveal Jesus to them, and point them to Him; not to myself.
​As John said, I must decrease-He must increase.

Joh 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.

These verses also takes off the burden of trying to please everyone, it's impossible. My focus needs to be on walking with Him, in His righteousness, and seek Him alone.

Lastly, I remember the verses in John ch. 15, where he spoke words of comfort to them just before going to the cross:

Joh 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 
Joh 15:15  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 
Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

In those last hours, knowing the death he was about to face, he spoke these precious words that I know each of them must have held with them in their hearts, the rest of their lives. He called them his friends. There was no greater honor that he could have bestowed on them. In those few words, volumes could be expounded on. They held the weight of his love, his trust, and his commission to them, calling them his chosen servants. With that, he ended it by stamping his authority and power on them-"that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you". My own heart pounds with unspeakable love, for this Savior, God in the flesh.

In closing, where does Jesus stand with you? What does His life, death, and now risen life-mean to you?
Lorna Couillard

Joh 8:56  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 
Joh 8:57  Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 
Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

The text is one of those rare passages in which Jesus Christ appears to stand upon His own dignity, in which the Lowly, the Humble, the Unresisting Son of man asserts His high origin, claiming to be God, for it amounts to no less: God from everlasting. "Before Abraham was, I am."

I. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ. He had a glimpse of that day of the birth of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, as He had a glimpse also of the manner in which Jesus Christ should work out our redemption. He took his son Isaac and offered him up on Mount Moriah—that Isaac so exceedingly dear, of whom it was said, that "in Isaac shall thy seed be called." He offered him up, his one hope of becoming the father of many nations. And that act of Abraham—that act of faith, was counted unto him for righteousness; and he is held up for ever as the father of the faithful. To him, as St. Paul writes, "The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."

II. Jesus Christ Himself lived before Abraham was born. Whenever God is spoken of as holding communion and as being visible to man, it is in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God, the Son, Jesus Christ. It is He who declares to us the Father. It is He who represents God to us, and is Himself God, even Jesus Christ. This was He who talked with and was called the friend of Abraham. It was He who was the Giver of the Law to Moses, it is He by whose agency the worlds were made, God the Supreme Deity dwelleth in the light which no man can approach: but Jesus Christ who is the image of the Invisible God, hath manifested, made known, declared to us, what God is; how good, how gracious, how ready to forgive, and how rich in mercy to those who call upon Him. It follows, then, that we should honour and worship Him as God, we should draw near with all reverence, with all holiness, with bowed heads and bowed hearts, to present our supplication before Him. (​R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons)

I AM THAT I AM
Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. ​

​Exo 3:13  And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 
Exo 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

The full expression: that is, “I am what I am.” The words express absolute, and therefore unchanging and eternal Being. The name, which Moses was thus commissioned to use, was at once new and old; old in its connection with previous revelations; new in its full interpretation, and in its bearing upon the covenant of which Moses was the destined mediator.

​From John 8:58 we understand that the One speaking to Moses at the burning bush-and during this commission-was Jesus Christ. This is why the people wanted to stone him, when Jesus made this proclamation, they knew he was claiming to be God.

​Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 
Joh 8:59  Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus cemented his victory on the cross, and proclaimed to the disciples, and all who stood by:

​Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 
Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

Jesus received worship- giving more evidence of His deity, that He is God:
​Mat_28:9; Psa_2:12, Psa_45:11; Joh_5:23

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

a. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance: This unusual phrase introduces a statement of special importance. Paul used this phrase 5 times - all in the Pastoral Epistles.

b. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: Jesus came to save sinners, not those living under the illusion of their own righteousness. It is the sick who need a physician (Mar_2:17).

i. Since Jesus came into the world to save sinners, this is the first necessary qualification for being a child of God - being a sinner. Sinners are not disqualified from coming to God, because Jesus came to save them.
ii. We also see the great danger in taking the terms sin and sinner out of our vocabulary. Many preachers deliberately do this today, because they don’t want to offend anyone from the pulpit. But if Jesus came to save sinners, shouldn’t we identify who those sinners are? How else will they come to salvation?
iii. “Even those who recognize that Christ’s work is to save admit that it is more difficult to believe that this salvation belongs to sinners. Our mind is always prone to dwell on our own worthiness and, as soon as our unworthiness becomes apparent, our confidence fails. Thus the more a man feels the burden of his sins, he ought with greater courage to betake himself to Christ, relying on what is here taught, that He came to bring salvation not to the righteous but to sinners.” (Calvin)

b. Of whom I am chief: Paul’s claim to be the chief of sinners was not an expression of some super-pious false humility. He genuinely felt his sins made him more accountable before God than others.

i. Aren’t we all equally sinners? No; “All men are truly sinners, but all men are not equally sinners. They are all in the mire; but they have not all sunk to an equal depth in it.” (Spurgeon)
ii. Paul felt - rightly so - his sins were worse because he was responsible for the death, imprisonment, and suffering of Christians, whom he persecuted before his life was changed by Jesus (Act_8:3; Act_9:1-2, 1Co_15:9, Gal_1:13, Php_3:6).
iii. In Act_26:11, Paul explained to Agrippa what might have been his worst sin: And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. He compelled others to blaspheme Jesus. “This, indeed, was a very horrible part of Saul’s sinfulness. To destroy their bodies was bad enough, but to destroy their souls too-to compel them to blaspheme, to speak evil of that name which they confessed to be their joy and their hope, surely that was the worst form that even persecution could assume. He forced them under torture to abjure the Christ whom their hearts loved. As it were he was not content to kill them, but he must damn them too.” (Spurgeon)
iv. There are worse kinds of sin; sins that harm God’s people are especially bad in God’s eyes. We must soberly consider if we are guilty, now or in the past, of harming God’s people. “[God] remembers jests and scoffs leveled at his little ones, and he bids those who indulge in them to take heed. You had better offend a king than one of the Lord’s little ones.” (Spurgeon)
v. “Despair’s head is cut off and stuck on a pole by the salvation of ‘the chief of sinners.’ No man can now say that he is too great a sinner to be saved, because the chief of sinners was saved eighteen hundred years ago. If the ringleader, the chief of the gang, has been washed in the precious blood, and is now in heaven, why not I? Why not you?” (Spurgeon) (excerpt from David Guzik)
In closing-along with Paul, I will add my amen.
Lorna Couillard

Act 26:1  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself: 
Act 26:2  I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews: 
Act 26:3  Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. 
Act 26:4  My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; 
Act 26:5  Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. 
Act 26:6  And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 
Act 26:7  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. 
Act 26:8  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? 
Act 26:9  I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 
Act 26:10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 
Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. 
Act 26:12  Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 
Act 26:13  At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. 
Act 26:14  And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 
Act 26:15  And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 
Act 26:16  But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; 
Act 26:17  Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, 
Act 26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. 
Act 26:19  Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: 
Act 26:20  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. 
Act 26:21  For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me. 
Act 26:22  Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: 
Act 26:23  That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. 
Act 26:24  And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad. 
Act 26:25  But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. 
Act 26:26  For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. 
Act 26:27  King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. 
Act 26:28  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. 
Act 26:29  And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. 

Crucified With Christ
​Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 
​Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,
​and gave himself for me.
(Excerpt from David Guzik)

​I through the law died to the law that I might live to God: When Paul died to the law, then he could live to God. As long as he still tried to justify himself before God, by all his law-keeping, he was dead. But when he died to the law, then he could live to God.

i. “When a person is a Christian he is above law and sin. When the Law accuses him, and sin wants to drive the wits out of him, a Christians looks to Christ. A Christian is free. He has no master except Christ. A Christian is greater than the whole world.” (Luther)
ii. “We are not to think that the Law is wiped out. It stays. It continues to operate in the wicked. But a Christian is dead to the Law. For example, Christ by His resurrection became free from the grave, and yet the grave remains. Peter was delivered from prison, yet the prison remains. The Law is abolished as far as I am concerned, when it is has driven me into the arms of Christ. Yet the Law continues to exist and to function. But it no longer exists for me.” (Luther)
iii. “Blessed is the person who knows how to use this truth in times of distress. He can talk. He can say: ‘Mr. Law, go ahead and accuse me as much as you like. I know I have committed many sins, and I continue to sin daily. But that does not bother me. You have got to shout louder, Mr. Law. I am deaf, you know. Talk as much as you like, I am dead to you. If you want to talk to me about my sins, go and talk to my flesh. Belabor that, but don’t talk to my conscience. My conscience is a lady and a queen, and has nothing to do with the likes of you, because my conscience lives to Christ under another law, a new and better law, the law of grace.’“ (Luther)

c. I have been crucified with Christ: Again, Paul anticipates a question from those who disagree with him. “Paul, when did you die to the law? You like pretty alive to me!” Paul is happy to answer, “I have been crucified with Christ. You want to know when I died to the law? I died to the law when Jesus died on the cross. He died in my place on the cross, so it is like it was me up on the cross. He died, and I died to the law when He died.”

d. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me: Since we died with Christ on the cross, we have a different life. Our old life, lived under the law, is dead. Now we are alive to Jesus Christ, and Jesus is alive in us (but Christ lives in me).
i. Paul realized that on the cross, a “great exchange” occurred. He gave Jesus his old, try-to-be-right-before-God-by-the-law life, and it was crucified on the cross. Then Jesus gave Paul His life to life - Christ came to live in him. So Paul’s life isn’t his own anymore, it belongs to Jesus Christ! Paul doesn’t own his own life (that life died); he is simply “managing” the new life Jesus gave him.
ii. The life Jesus lives in us is glorious. “Christ is no sheriff. He is ‘the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world.’ (Joh_1:29)” (Luther)

e. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith: Paul can only “manage” the new life Jesus gave him by faith. You can’t live the new life Jesus gives on the foundation of law-keeping. You can only live it by faith.
i. When Paul says I now live in the flesh, he doesn’t mean that he lives a chronically sinful life. “By the term ‘flesh’ Paul does not understand manifest vices. Such sins he usually calls by their proper names, as adultery, fornication, etc. By ‘flesh’ Paul understands what Jesus meant in the third chapter of John, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh’. (Joh_3:6) ‘Flesh’ here means the whole nature of man, inclusive of reason and instincts. ‘This flesh,’ says Paul, ‘is not justified by the works of the law.’“ (Luther)
ii. The point of this verse isn’t the flesh, it is faith. “Faith is not simply a topic about which Paul preached from time to time. Nor is it a virtue which he practised occasionally. It is central in all that he does.” (Morris)
iii. “Faith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you become as it were one person. As such you may boldly say: ‘I am now one with Christ. Therefore Christ’s righteousness, victory, and life are mine.’ On the other hand, Christ may say: ‘I am that big sinner. His sins and death are mine, because he is joined to me, and I to him.’“ (Luther)

f. In the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me: The faith Paul lives by is not faith in himself, faith in the law, or faith in what he can earn or deserve before God. It is faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ - who loved me and gave Himself for me!
i. Before, Paul’s relationship with God was founded on what he could do for God - his faith was in himself. Now, the foundation is what Jesus Christ has done for him - his faith is in Jesus. And Paul found a marvelous person to put his faith in! It is a person who loved him. It is a person who demonstrated that love when He gave Himself for Paul.
ii. What confidence Paul can have in giving his life to, and living His life for, someone who loves him that much! When we realize the great love God has shown for us, it makes everything in the Christian life easier.

g. Who loved me: Paul can confidently give himself to Jesus because of the love Jesus has demonstrated in the past. “It is true that he loves us now, but Paul also wrote truly, ‘Who loved me.’ The verb is in the past tense. Jesus loved me upon the cross; loved me in the manger of Bethlehem; loved me or ever the earth was. There never was a time when Jesus did not love his people.” (Spurgeon)
i. Loved . . . gave Himself: The past tense is important. William Newell, in his commentary on Romans, speaks to the importance of the past tense in the word loved. “It is this past tense gospel the devil hates . . . Let a preacher be continually saying, ‘God loves you, Christ loves you,’ and he and his congregation will by and by be losing sight of both their sinnerhood and of the substitutionary atonement of the cross, where the love of God and of Christ was once for all and supremely set forth.”
ii. “Did the Law ever love me? Did the Law ever sacrifice itself for me? Did the Law ever die for me? On the contrary, it accuses me, it frightens me, it drives me crazy. Somebody else saved me from the Law, from sin and death unto eternal life. That Somebody is the Son of God, to whom be praise and glory forever.” (Luther)

h. Gave Himself for me: “For me is very emphatic. It is not enough to regard Christ as having died for the salvation of the world; each man must claim the effect and possession of this grace for himself personally.” (Calvin)
i. “‘Loved me, gave Himself for me.’ He appropriates to himself, as Chrysostom observes, the love which belongs equally to the whole world. For Christ is indeed the personal friend of each man individually; and is as much to him, as if He had died for him alone.” (Lightfoot)
ii. “If any man might have said, ‘The Son of God, whom I have loved, and to whom I have given myself,’ it would have been the apostle . . . but here he thinks not of himself, or of what he had been led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord had done for him.” (Spurgeon)
iii. “Take these blessed words of the apostle, and put them in your mouth, and let them lie there as wafers made with honey, till they melt into your very soul: ‘Who loved me, and gave himself for me.’“ (Spurgeon)
​
​Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

​WALKING IN GOD'S WAYS AND PATHS
"Shew me Thy ways, O Lord; Teach me Thy paths." — Psa_25:4.
"He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." — Mic_4:2

​THERE IS a clear difference between a Way and a Path. The one is filled with the throb and stir of the world's life; the other is comparatively lonely and unfrequented. The roll of vehicles and noisy traffic fills the one, whilst the other is, for the most part, trodden by the individual, being too narrow and quiet for the crowd. It is a great comfort that God has paths as well as ways.
God's Ways are the great principles on which He acts, the mighty thoroughfares of Creation, Providence, Revelation, Human History, and final Judgment. On these His goings-forth have ever been of old, even from everlasting. To know them is the passionate desire of the purest and loftiest natures. Moses prayed: "Shew me now Thy ways, that I may know Thee," and God graciously granted his request, for to Moses He made known His Ways, but to Israel only His Acts. There is need for us all to know God's Ways, especially in this momentous era; because only so can we enter into His rest. In the Old and New Testaments the same warning is repeated: "they shall not enter into My rest, because they have not known My ways" (Psa_95:11; Heb_3:10). We can look out calmly on this troubled world when once we have learnt to know the divine programme of gathering up all things in Christ, who is the Head; when we walk with Him who is the Way to God (Joh_14:6).
The Paths of the Lord may be taken to describe His personal dealings with the individual, who through sickness, or the care of others, or by lonely duty, is isolated from the ordinary worship of the Church, and shut away from fellowship and Christian Ministry. All such may expect and reckon upon the saving help which will come through God's private communications.
God is faithful to the soul that utterly trusts Him. He always comes on time, not a moment before, nor a moment too late. Remember that all His Paths are Mercy and Truth. Dare to believe that He is coming along a secret pathway to bring the assurance of His mercy and grace to help in this time of need.

Stumps
by Peter Fraser