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Paul Mahan

The Many Witnesses of Christ

John 5:31-47
Paul Mahan August, 6 2022 Audio
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John

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There shall be showers of blessing even me. Lord, you know, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. If someone
just sang that hymn from the heart, Lord, I hear the showers of blessing
as you let drops fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior. That's a great hymn. John 5,
as said, the Lord is speaking. Verse 16 says the Jews sought
to slay Him. They thought He had broken the
Sabbath. And He's speaking to them, primarily. Okay? He's speaking to them.
And all that He said talked about, You have not the love of God
in you. You have not the Word of God in you. And you don't
receive the witness. But now His disciples were standing
there too. All right? They were standing
there. They were listening. And they
believed everything He said. And here's what I want us to
marvel at, I hope, and pray. That you're one of His disciples.
And you hang on His every word. And you believe His every word.
And while the world does not, you do. I want you to see how
blessed you are. That you have the love of God
in you. If you love Christ, if you love the truth, then the
love of God is in your heart. Salvation. God saved you. He's
spoken to you. You belong to Him. That's what
I want us to marvel at. Because most of this is condemnation
of these people that are hearing Him. Let's begin in verse 23. All men should honor the Son
as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors
not the Father which hath sent him. Brother Head, we honor Christ
just like God does. In fact, we believe He is equal
to God. Do you know how few people believe that? We know He is God. And so we honor Him. That's why
we come here, don't we? We come, don't we now? We really
do. We come here to honor our God and our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's both. Verse 24, Verily,
verily, that means truly, truly, or amen, amen. That's what the
word means. Aren't you blessed by thinking
about that? All the promises of God are in Christ under what?
Yea? That means everything he says
is absolute truth. You can hang your soul on it.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is already passed from death
unto life. I believe. Do you? I really do, don't you? I really
do. Well, he says, we've heard his voice, my sheep
hear my voice, hear his word and believe on him. And he says,
I have everlasting life. He said, there'll be no condemnation.
Didn't it? Where's that found? Romans eight,
verse one. There's no condemnation. He is
already passed from death unto life. He's going to talk about
the resurrection. of the just and the unjust. You know, we've
already been raised. You know that? The first and
second resurrection. We've already been quickened.
If you believe God, if you believe Christ, you've already been quickened,
raised from the dead. Or you wouldn't hear His voice.
Man, I want to see some recognition here. Have you? Do you really
believe Jesus Christ? Do you? You've been raised from
the dead. And you're passed from death
unto life. And you'll never die. Never die. And your death is
going to be better than birth. That's Ecclesiastes 7. Verily, verily, verse 25, truly,
truly, amen, amen. I want to hear some amens. I say unto you, the hour is coming,
and now is. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, Him, and live. Some of you love Ezekiel
16, don't you? Don't you love that? That child
cast out in the field, in filth, dead and dying, loathing, the
loathing of its person and nobody had any pity on him. Why should
they? Look at that, look at that down and out. person, but he
says, I looked on you, I saw you, I came by where you were,
and I said, live. Yeah, I said, live. And he said, I washed you and
clothed you and decked you and covered you and you became beautiful
through my comeliness. You're mine, he said. He went
on to say, you're mine. And she runs off and does this
and that and the other, but no, he goes after her and says, no,
no, no, you're mine. Oh, God's people love sovereign,
electing, saving, keeping grace. Only God's people do. They know
if He didn't choose us, we wouldn't choose Him. They know if He didn't
keep us, we would be forever lost. To the praise of the glory
of His grace. As the Father, verse 26, hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. In him is life. The way, the
truth, and the life. He that hath the Son hath life.
And he's given unto him authority. Execute judgment. I love that
Christ has all authority in heaven and earth. Don't you? I love.
He said, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. John 17, 2, As thou hast given
him power over all, what? flesh. If you really believe that, Him,
that He has all power over all flesh. David said, I will not,
the Lord is my salvation. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Let me say that. I won't need
that. It's true. Amen, amen. Who, what have we need to fear?
He has all power. He's the son of man. Why does
he say that? Because he became a man, made of a woman, made
under the law to keep the law for us. But he's God, but he's
man. And he came down here to fulfill
that law as a man. And he did. This is the second
Adam. See, we're in one Adam, or we're
in the second Adam. In Adam, all die. Everybody. In Christ, if you're found in
Christ, you're going to live. We all sinned in Adam. We're
born sinners. We're going to die in sin unless
the second Adam dies for us, crucified in Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The life I now
live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me. The Son of Man became a man for
men. Marvel not at this. Verse 28. The hour is coming. Now, remember, there's people
listening to him that don't believe a word he's saying. And, Brother
Kelly, we believe everything he says. Are you hanging your
soul on everything he says? His disciples on the edge of
their seats. Those Pharisees, I can see them now. Stiff-necked pirate. He ain't
going to convince me of nothing. He says, the hour is coming when
all that are in the graves are going to hear His voice. You
read Revelation 1-7 with me, didn't you? They'll wail because
of Him. Well, the world wails because
of him. It says, hide us from the face
of him, Donald Trump. That's what scripture said. You
know what we're going to say? We're going to shout because
of him. We're going to rejoice because
of him. And we're going to glory and
see his face. Verse 29, and shall come forth
they that have done good under the resurrection of life, they
that have done evil under the resurrection of damnation. In
other words, we're going to be judged by works. You're going to be judged by
your works or Christ's works. Do you understand that? Do you
understand that? If you do, oh my goodness, My
good God, He's given you an understanding, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but by works of righteousness which He has
done. We're going to stand in the judgment because Christ stood
before God and man and said, who convinces me of sin? The
holy and righteous one, the just one. God said, I'm well pleased
for His righteous to say, Well done, My good and faithful servant.
And He says to His people, Behold, My servants. He's come for you,
to keep you, to die for you, to live for you. He's come to
give you His righteousness. That's not a doctrine. That's
a person, He said. He's come to cover you in His
own skin. Like that lamb in the garden
covered Adam and Eve. Do you understand that? Do you
understand your only hope before an all-seeing God who looks on
the heart? And you've broken every law and will continue to
do so. That's your only hope is that
God says, I forgive you for Christ's sake. Do you understand that? Look how blessed you are. They
that have done good. They asked Christ, John 6, well,
turn over there. John 6, verse 28, these Pharisees,
the same ones, they said in verse 28, What shall we do that we
might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. And you know what? If you believe
him, it's counted unto you for righteousness. Do you like that? Abraham did. He was an idolater
for 75 years. An idolater. But God came to
him one day. Abraham, I chose you. I blessed
you. I revealed myself to you. Now,
believe me, Abraham, he said, I do. He said, you're righteous.
He'd never done a righteous thing in his life. The thief on the
cross loved that, didn't he? He'd never done a righteous thing
in his life. His whole life, he was hell-bent,
slapping for leather, they call it. But God. hanging on that cross, who redeemed
him with his own blood. God, yes, God. Looked at him
and said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Why? How? He's sinful, he's wretched. No,
he's covered in the blood. That's the lamb right beside
him. So that's what that means. They
have done evil. Do you want to be judged by God,
by Christ? Christ is the one sitting on
the throne. You know that? You want to be judged by Him,
what you've done? Anybody? He knows you. Or you want to be judged, you
want to be found in Him, covered. Verse 30, I can of my own self
do nothing, but as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is judged. Meaning,
and he already said this, I come, the words I speak are the words
of the Father. I'm sent, he said. And as I hear,
that is the Father that gave him everything. It's just hard
to understand how they're one, but he's talking as he became
a man. And when it talks about Christ
being in submission to meekness and loneliness and giving all
glory and honor to the Father, He did that as a man. Adam was
created to glorify God. And He didn't. And no one does,
by nature. So Christ came as a man, in complete
submission to God, in complete obedience to God, though He is
God. Though he's a son, Hebrews said, learned he obedient by
the things he suffered. He became us, you see. We've
got to be in submission to God and obedience to God. We're poor
children, aren't we? Not him. For everything he did
was for the glory and the honor and submission to God and keeping
God's law. He wrote the law, but he kept
every jot and tittle of it. You understand? And he said,
what we have covenanted to do, and for me to say, that's what
I'm saying, do it. Because, and he said, my judgment
is just, verse 30, because I seek not mine own will, but the will
of the Father which is sent down. What was God's will for him,
cry, when he came? Well, to glorify God. But chiefly,
and the glory of God is in the salvation of sinners. He said, this is the will of
the Father that of those which he has given me, I'd lose nothing. Now at verse 31, he says, if
I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. Over in
chapter 8, he said, though I bear witness of myself, Though I bear
record of myself, my record is true. Are you hearing me? What he's saying is, if I'm the
only witness of me, it's not true. Because out of a mouth
of two or three witnesses, a thing is established. Right? And he's
going to go on to talk about witnesses. And the title of this
is The Many Witnesses of Christ. To Him give all the prophets
witness. There are many witnesses. In
fact, the multitude of heavenly hosts give witness unto Him.
The sun, the moon, the stars, everything that's ever created
give witness, bear witness of Him. They all speak of Christ. The prophets bear witness of
Him. The apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, everybody
sent by God bear witness of Him. The whole universe, everything
in it bears witness of who that One that came is. God in the
plan. But he's saying, and so that's
what he's saying. There's another, verse 32, that
bears witness of me. He's speaking of God. And I know
that the witness which He witnesses of me is true. He sent to John. He bears witness unto the truth.
They went to hear John. So many heard John. What did
John preach? Over in John chapter 1, And two,
and three, is the witness of John. It says, He bore witness
of the light. He bore witness. John said, I'm
not the Christ. I told you, I'm not the Christ.
He it is that cometh after me. He was before me. He it is. Father has given all things to
the Son. He it is, John. And one day when he was walking,
Christ came walking, when John was baptizing, John stopped everything. He said,
there he is. Behold the Lamb of God. That's
what this whole Bible speaks of, okay? It's the beginning
in the garden of those two sinners. They needed a lamb slain to cover
their sin. And everything, all the way through
the Scripture, and it gets to Revelation. The whole book of
Revelation is about a lamb on the throne. Victorious. One who
died and saved his people. Beginning with Adam and Eve.
He said, John said, there he is. The Lamb of God. Of whom
the whole book speaks. And they came and heard John,
verse 34, but I received not testimony from man. Chapter 2,
Christ said, it says that he didn't need that any should testify
of him. He doesn't need man to bear witness
to him, does he? No. But these things, verse 34,
I like this. He said, these things I say that
you might be saved. In other words, everything I
say is your salvation. He said you need to be listening. Now this was full of people listening
to him that didn't like what he was saying. But there were
a few chosen, as I said, they loved what he was saying. These
things I say that you might be saved. Over in chapter six, yeah. No, chapter eight. Remember when
he was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood?
And the people, I don't understand that. It's hard. And finally,
many went back and walked no more with him. And he turned
to his disciples and said, there's a door. Will you also go with? And every one of those so-called
people, disciples that left him went back to the world. That's
what they went back to. Or religion, same thing. Will
you also go away? And Simon Peter said, To whom? He said, Thou hast the words
of life. Your words are our life. And Christ said, have not I chosen
you? You believe that because He chose
you, that's why. These things He says might be
saved. Read on, John was a burning,
shining light. And John, he's gone. He said,
I have greater witness than that of John, verse 36, the works
which the Father has given me to finish the same work that
I do. Brothers and sisters, our salvation
It's 100% dependent on Jesus Christ finishing the work. You
understand that? And He came and He said, My meat
and my drink is to do the will of the Father, to finish the
work He gave me to do. What's that? To work out our
salvation. To save us. It's all dependent
on Him. He said, And when He was hanging
on the cross, what did He say? His last word. It's finished. And that's my salvation. He said
that, didn't he? And I believe it. So he said, I'm saved. Amen. Read on. He says, The Father,
verse 37, himself, which hath sent me hath borne witness of
me. Remember when he was baptized of John, says the Holy Spirit,
in the form of a dove, in the likeness of a dove, landed on
his shoulder. Okay? Declared to be the Son
of God by the Spirit of Holiness and by the Resurrection from
the dead. Spirit of God landed on Him because He's the Anointed
One. And then a voice from Heaven. God never spoke out loud. God
never spoke out loud. But He did that day. And He said,
for all to hear, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Do you hear Him? Do you come to Him? Do you worship
Him? I'll hear you when you call.
I'll receive you when you come to me. And I'll let you into my kingdom.
That's the one I sent. That's what God sent. And God,
nobody's seen His voice or heard His voice or seen His shape.
Verse 38, but He said to these Pharisees, you have not His Word
abiding in you, for whom He hath sent, ye believe not. Brothers
and sisters, I do. Do you? Do you? Robert, do you? The one that God sent, you believe
Him? It means His Word's abiding in you. His Word. Christ in you. The hope of glory. I've said
this before. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. He that hath the Son hath life. Means he that hath faith
in the Son, that Christ is all to him. All their hope. All their
salvation. Christ is all their wisdom, right?
All their strength, all their... just everything. He's their only
hope. Peace with God, so on. He that
hath the Son hath life. He that hath the need for the
Son. A love for the Son hath life. Okay? He that hath not
the Son hath not life. That's the Word of God. If you open up the heart and
the mind of every true believer, it'll be Christ. You ask them
their hope. You ask any believer their hope,
and they'll give it to you in one word. Christ. Their hope of heaven. What's
your hope of heaven? Christ's that. So we believe. And he says in
verse 39, search the Scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life. They are they which testify of me. These Pharisees, they
loved to search the Scriptures. And people do today. They study,
don't they? They do. I've heard these fellows. They study and they bring out
deep things. But I think it's shallow and I think it's foolishness.
Because there's no Christ in it. If Christ is not in it, they don't know the Scriptures
did it. It's true. Do you understand? We search the Scriptures, don't
we? We do. We've studied 45 books of the
Bible, every verse, some of them more than one, together over
the years. And we're continuing to study.
What do we see in the Scriptures? Christ. The people all over the
world think, well, this is how I'm to live. Well, this is how
I'm to live. Well, yes, but hold on. You do it perfectly. Can you keep it? I was working
on the railroad, and this woman secretary, I went into the office,
and she's reading the Bible. You know, I was really young
at the time, and I asked her, do you understand what you're
reading? She got angry at me, like, what do you mean, do I
understand? Of course I do. Another man said, I don't know
how you know I'm a born-again, tongue-talking, spirit-filled
Christian. Oh, wow. But she said, I know this. You
better keep those Ten Commandments. She said, I know this much. You
better keep those Ten Commandments. You know what? She's right. You better. You want to get to
God? Now you're worse. You better.
And you better do it in thought. You better do it in word. You
better do it in deed. You better do it in motive. Completely
for the glory of God. You better have clean hands,
a pure heart, never lifted up your soul under vanity, or ever
sworn deceitfully. You better be perfect. Leviticus
22, 21, it shall be perfect to be accepted. You better be as
holy as God Himself, as righteous as God Himself. Yeah, you better
keep the Ten Commandments, if that's your hope of heaven. You
better keep every jot and tittle of it. How about you? There's not a jot or a tittle
I haven't broken. How about you? So Christ said, come unto me. I've kept the law. Oh my. The law is written on our hearts.
What does the law do to our hearts? The word of God is in us. What
does the law do to us? He's a schoolmaster. To do what? To bring us to Christ.
To point us to Christ. Oh, it's holy and just and true,
the law is, and we love His law, but we mourn that we can't keep
it, but we rejoice that Christ did, don't we? The world doesn't
know a thing about what I'm saying. All these Holiness people, Pentecostal
Holiness people, Reverend Bell doesn't have a clue. Poor woman. She really is a poor, deluded,
lost, hellbound, false prophet. He's going to stand before God
and say, look at what I have not done and look at what I have
done. Bind her hand and foot. And who am I? Who makes you to
differ, Mary Poppins, from her? God does. And then he said in verse 40,
you will not come to me that you might have life. In John
6, he says, No man can come unto me, lest the Father which hath
sent me draw him. Well, who does the Father draw,
sister? Those he loves. I have loved thee, he said, Brenda,
with an everlasting love, for with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. To where? Christ! You see, Christ! It's like the sun. When you look
at the sun, you see a spot. And everything else, you see
spots. Sunspots, light, the glory of God. You look in the book,
John, don't you see spots? The sign of righteousness with
healing is winning, don't you? Not the world. It's dark. It's
obscure. We see Christ on every page,
don't we? If we don't, we ask Him, show
me. We're so blessed. These words
of condemnation of these Pharisees are words of life to me. You
will not come unto me. Bless God I have. I do. I keep coming. Don't you? To
whom coming? Peter said. To whom coming? You
know, Peter sinned, denied the Lord. Oh, he thought, I'm lost
now. I've denied the Lord. I've reverted
right back to that old man that I was when he found me. How could
I possibly be a disciple of Jesus Christ? And somebody said, there's
Christ on the shore. Who? And he dove out of that
bag. He couldn't get to him fast enough. Why? Because Christ said,
go tell Peter to come to me. No, no. Sin will not have dominion
over him. No. I'll have dominion over him. He's coming to me. He came the
first time. He's going to keep coming. And
I'll never let Him go. He'll keep coming. If He leaves,
He'll come back. Why? Because Christ is His Lord, His
Master. He's bought with a price. He's
not His own. Is that you? Is that your hope?
No matter what you've done or where you've been, the hell hole
you've been in, the pit you've found, has He brought you back? He said in verse 41, I receive
not honor from men. Oh, bless His name. We do. We
have honors. Most men don't. He said, I know you. You have
not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name.
You receive me not. Another come in His own name.
Him will you receive. Isn't that so true? Human beings,
it doesn't matter who it is, how foolish, how ridiculous,
how obviously for money and their own fame that people just fall
over them. And the whole world is going
after these so-called celebrities and stars, and they ain't worth
the rope it takes to hang them. I'm telling the truth. Our Lord said it's not good.
He looked down on it and said it's altogether filthy. Man's in it for his own honor,
his own glory, his own praise, his own lust, his own covetousness.
Nobody by nature is seeking the honor of God and the glory of
God. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. But Christ came. Yes,
He came for the glory and the honor of God. I'm coming in my Father's name. He said in verse 44, How can
you believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not
the honor that cometh from God only? Everybody that seeks the
honor of man They're going to find it. They're going to find
it. Whatever you go after, you can
pretty much obtain it. Yeah, you can. If you seek the
honor of man, that's what you'll get. Oh, but God's people. It's not him that approveth himself
that is accepted, whom God approveth. We want to be accepted in the
blood. We want to be received by God. It doesn't really matter what
the world thinks about us, does it? It really doesn't. Does God accept me? He does in Christ. Don't think,
he said, do not think I will accuse you of the Father as one
that accuses you, even Moses whom you trust. The Word of God.
Had you believed Moses, you would have believed me. He wrote of
me. Moses did. The law, every law
somehow points to Christ in it. of the tabernacle, everything
in it, everything throughout the Old Testament, every piece
of furniture, everything that the high priest did, everything
points to Jesus Christ. And sister, we see that, don't
we? We see those things. Aren't we blessed to see that?
The world's still going through all these motions, ceremonies,
and all that. It's just so much rubbish. And
I believe, and you believe, and we believe, don't we, that Moses
wrote of him. And he said in verse 47, he said,
If you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my word?
Well, I believe, we believe, don't we, we believe that Christ is all. All the law,
all the prophets, all the good news of the gospel, all the revelation,
all there's life. Salvation. Do you? And you heard
his voice. Oh, my. Okay. Brother John, you
come lead us in a hymn, please.
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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